Forsaken Projects

Peacock Plumes Bolero
This has been sitting in plain site in a knitting bag since last June. It's my oldest unfrogged, unfinished project and I want it done. I just don't want to use my allotted knitting time to finish it.

Wonder how long it would take to finish it. It needs sewing together and there's a knit on front border band with a knit tie.

The yarn isn't something I'd use for another project, so frogging isn't a good option. Maybe when it's done I'll be surprised at how much I love wearing it? But I doubt it.

The last post on the bolero is here. It has all the project information.

Chenille
Many hours of knitting went into this sweater back before I decided I don't like the light pink color for me and that garter stitch bottom band looks awful.

I swatched with a garter band and it blocked out OK, but I'm not sure the larger sweater is going to follow suit.

My tentative plans for this sweater are to finish it and send it to Akkol, Kazakakhstan. To do that, it needs to be done by August.

If the bottom band doesn't block out nice, I'll cut it off and knit on some ribbing.

It is not a good thing to grow to dislike a project before even starting the sleeves. There are many other projects in my head I'd rather be knitting. Chenille is not safe from being frogged yet.

The last post on Chenille is here. It has all the project information.

Immediately after posting about how much I didn't like the way this scarf was turning out (you can read it here), I frogged it.


It is now a hat for Akkol, Kazakakhstan. The yarn is happier and I'm happier. I only wish I'd been as decisive in the early stages of the bolero and Chenille.

Pattern: Simple stockinette hat with ribbed fold back rim.

Yarn: Patternworks Bretton. 70% superwash wool, 25% nylon, 5% alpaca knit along with some fingering weight wool/mohair from the stash.

Color: Pink Diamond.

Needles: Addi Turbo #9.

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch.

Peace Fleece Gansey Finished

Last week I finished the Peace Fleece Gansey for some child in Akkol, Kazakakhstan.




It was a fun knit. No seams. Interesting little stitch patterns to keep me going. The excitement of wondering if I was going to run out of yarn.


Pattern: Making it up as I knit using the techniques from Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reinsel, a most excellent tutorial on knitting gansey style sweaters. There are no seams, no sewing, in this sweater.

Yarn: Peace Fleece, heavy, coarse worsted weight 30% mohair, 70% wool. A gift from friend Sherry.

Color: Blueberry Borscht.

Needles: Options #8.

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch, 6 rows/inch.

Since I didn't run out of yarn, I decided to continue the excitement and see if I could get a hat out of the leftovers.

Success! There's no flap to fold up, but this yarn is so heavy and warm it isn't going to stop some child from having warm ears.

Mom's Vest Finished and More Simple Socks

It's finished but unblocked.

If everyone is healthy and the roads aren't slippery, I plan to deliver it Friday, blocked and wearable. There will be pictures of Mom wearing the vest.

I'm hoping to have the matching socks done by Friday as well.

Pattern: Cabled Vest, a Martha Hall design exclusively from Patternworks. Free with Bretton yarn purchase.

Yarn: Patternworks Bretton. 70% superwash wool, 25% nylon, 5% alpaca.

Color: Pink Diamond.

Needles: Addi Turbo #6.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch in pattern.

Modifications:

• Knit in round with purl column fake seam up each side.
  
• Mirrored side cables.
  
• Using moss stitch instead of seed stitch on the side. The moss stitch matches the center of the middle Vs and it doesn't pull up as much as the seed stitch.
  
• Picked up 6 out of every 8 stitches for neck and arm ribbing because that was my gauge ratio.
  
• Purled two rows after neck and sleeve pickup row for a ridge between body and ribbing.

Another pair of socks for the kids in Akkol, Kazakakhstan.

I used an orphan skein of worsted weight wool from my stash and my basic Winging Worsted Weight Socks formula with 42 stitches.

Peace Fleece Gansey Started

This is my birthday gift Peace Fleece from friend Sherry becoming a boys sweater for some child in Akkol, Kazakakhstan.

When Sherry learned I was going to use it to knit for the Akkol kids, she gave me two more skeins bringing the yardage up to 800. I calculated that would be enough for a 30 inch sweater and cast on.

The sweater is knit in the round with no seams, no sewing. Not only does that make me happy, but I think it makes a more rugged garment with less places to fall apart as the sweater is worn and worn and worn.


Peace Fleece is coarse, nubby, and tweedy colorful. Not the type of yarn one would normally pick for a gansey sweater. The gansey stitch patterns are my way of staying interested in the knitting.

Since cables suck up yardage and my yardage is limited, there are no cables. Just knit/purl patterns.


Pattern: Making it up as I knit using the techniques from Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reinsel, a most excellent tutorial on knitting gansey style sweaters.

Yarn: Peace Fleece, heavy, coarse worsted weight 30% mohair, 70% wool. A gift from friend Sherry.

Color: Blueberry Borscht.

Needles: Options #8.

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch, 6 rows/inch.

Snow and Simple Socks

Sunday when I pulled into a parking spot at church, this is what I saw out the windshield and all along the edge of the lot. We have lots of snow and don't want anymore.

We also don't want it to warm up and thaw so fast that things flood, especially our basement.

The weatherpeople (very unpopular people this winter) don't care what we want. We're scheduled to get more snow in the next few days with temperatures in the single digits. Then the weekend is going to bring the tardy January thaw with temps in the 40s.


Lately I've been feeling rather blah, typical for this time of year. I've heard some people call it "cabin fever". I don't mind the cozy in the house part of winter, but walking outside is like being on a hostile planet.

I felt like some mindless knitting, a basic pair of worsted weight wool socks for the older Mittens for Akkol kids.

I have various skeins of wool to make plenty more of these socks, but they make a very uninteresting blogging topic. This pair was knit 40 stitches around on #5 needles. The cuffs and instep are a plain p1,k3 ribbing.