Oh blog, I am sorry I have abandoned you yet again. I had thought
that the Christmas knitting would spur me into doing lots of
knitting-related posts, but actually it threw me into a bit of panic in
trying to finish everything off.
I did mostly pick easy, small, instant gratification patterns, as usual, to make my life easier. But some unknown force made me pick Damson as a gift for my mom. I wanted to make her something nice, and I had always fancied it as a project, plus I was very keen to make something with the super expensive Malabrigo sock yarn. And I swear there were comments on Ravelry saying that it was a fast knit. So what could possibly go wrong?
It all started out well, casting on just 3 stitches. Yes, 3 stitches! The yarn was soft and scrumptious, I whizzed through the first 10 rows of the garter edge. I was happy. But the garter edge involves increasing with yarn overs, so with every row, my progress was slowing down. By the end of week one, I had to force myself to knit 3 rows a day (66 rows of garter stitch in total!) to make sure that the shawl was done on time.
And then the scallop lace pattern began. A bit of counting, a bit of thinking, I was starting to get into it again. However, about 8 rows in I realise I have made a mistake. I continue, telling myself I can live with it. But I can't, so rip back to the end of the garter stitch and start again. At this point I am really starting to worry about whether this is going to be done on time. I give myself the goal of 5 rows a day. I make another few mistakes but I soldier on. The yarns overs means that the stitches are continuing to multiply like crazy. By the end, it takes me an hour to bind off, and I have skipped about 4 rows to make sure I have enough yarn.
Ok so I am a bit of a drama queen, and I am making this sound much worse than it actually was. And the end product is absolutely beautiful, and super soft with the beautiful yarn. Three weeks, however, is far too long for a gift, so unless you have loads and loads of time, I would strongly advise against it! I just really hope that my mom loves it as much as I do now that I have seen the finished product.
In other news, I did do some more knitting, but it has been so long since I finished these that I can't even remember the details, so writing a whole blog post about them seems a little pointless.
The first is the Holland cowl, made using the last of the James C. Brett Chunky with merino. My bind-off was a little tight despite using a larger needle, so the fit is a little awkward, but pretty all the same.
And the second, not a Christmas present but a baby shower one, are the two-needle cable booties, which I have made many times before but never added on Ravelry. So this is more of a reminder for my for the next time I need to make booties.
I did mostly pick easy, small, instant gratification patterns, as usual, to make my life easier. But some unknown force made me pick Damson as a gift for my mom. I wanted to make her something nice, and I had always fancied it as a project, plus I was very keen to make something with the super expensive Malabrigo sock yarn. And I swear there were comments on Ravelry saying that it was a fast knit. So what could possibly go wrong?
It all started out well, casting on just 3 stitches. Yes, 3 stitches! The yarn was soft and scrumptious, I whizzed through the first 10 rows of the garter edge. I was happy. But the garter edge involves increasing with yarn overs, so with every row, my progress was slowing down. By the end of week one, I had to force myself to knit 3 rows a day (66 rows of garter stitch in total!) to make sure that the shawl was done on time.
And then the scallop lace pattern began. A bit of counting, a bit of thinking, I was starting to get into it again. However, about 8 rows in I realise I have made a mistake. I continue, telling myself I can live with it. But I can't, so rip back to the end of the garter stitch and start again. At this point I am really starting to worry about whether this is going to be done on time. I give myself the goal of 5 rows a day. I make another few mistakes but I soldier on. The yarns overs means that the stitches are continuing to multiply like crazy. By the end, it takes me an hour to bind off, and I have skipped about 4 rows to make sure I have enough yarn.
Ok so I am a bit of a drama queen, and I am making this sound much worse than it actually was. And the end product is absolutely beautiful, and super soft with the beautiful yarn. Three weeks, however, is far too long for a gift, so unless you have loads and loads of time, I would strongly advise against it! I just really hope that my mom loves it as much as I do now that I have seen the finished product.
 |
| Full wing-span. Blocking not 100% successful as there is some curling, but perhaps some ironing will sort this out. |
 |
| As a shawlette |
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| As a scarf |
In other news, I did do some more knitting, but it has been so long since I finished these that I can't even remember the details, so writing a whole blog post about them seems a little pointless.
The first is the Holland cowl, made using the last of the James C. Brett Chunky with merino. My bind-off was a little tight despite using a larger needle, so the fit is a little awkward, but pretty all the same.
And the second, not a Christmas present but a baby shower one, are the two-needle cable booties, which I have made many times before but never added on Ravelry. So this is more of a reminder for my for the next time I need to make booties.
