Tag: work in progress

Super Secret Summer Sew

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As you may have heard, this summer has not been what any of us expected. When last we spoke, I was deep into a sock fog and I’ll admit my knitting mojo has not come out of that haze yet.

One thing has happened as expected, Astra’s summer visit out of town. A few months ago, I saw a pattern on sewing blog that I just knew had to be made for Astra – but she’s probably the hardest to make a secret make for. The boys are easy, mostly because they sleep in, but my little early-riser is tougher. Enter the super secret summer sew: The Minecraft Quilt!

I gathered up the fabric and got started about a week after Astra left. The pattern is less of a pattern and more of a tutorial/guide from the Seriously… I think it needs stitches blog. I started with Steve and progressed on through. I made the face blocks in batches, cutting out 3 blocks at a time and chain piecing my little heart out.

It took me about a week to cut and piece all 20 face blocks. I did have a bit of advice from Joshua for a few modifications. Block 17 became Diamond Steve and block 18 subbed in the chicken. All in all I enjoyed the process quite a bit.

I knew I wanted to do the Ender Dragon for the back so I checked all my measurements when I was trying to decide on sashing and border widths. Turned out, unless the sashing was bizzarely wide – that dragon would be wider than the front of the quilt. And so I did what any normal quilter would do… I made more blocks for the front.

I decided we’d do her name down the side to widen it out a bit. Next came the dragon. Much like eating the proverbial elephant, the dragon came one bite at a time. The tutorial broke it down into three sections, with 10-15ish blocks in each section. I think the whole dragon alone was something like a 12 hour project. For reference he finished at 70″ wide and 27.5″ tall.

I finished this guy up last Sunday, and from there it was just sashing and borders for the front and a whole lot more purple for the back. In the middle of the week I picked up my new sewing machine and that made the final bit of the process fly. I’ve packed it all up and sent it off to be quilted. When I get it back, I’ll just need to spend a few nights hand sewing the binding before tucking it away for Christmas.

The top finished at 74″ x 80.5″ – a really generous throw. I used the recommended Moda Fabrics fat quarter bundle with a few scraps from my stash thrown in. I also purchased additional black, light, medium, and dark grey, and a ton of purple – all from Moda as well. The fat quarter bundle isn’t available any more but the list is provided here – I didn’t use all of the colors. I also used less than a half yard extra of the greys, an additional 3.75 yards black and about 5 yards total of purple.

Overall, I enjoyed the process and I’m super proud of how it came out and that I finished it and shipped it out before Astra’s home. I do have to say though, it was way out of my usual wheelhouse and I am beyond ready to get back to the pretty, floral lights and brights that I usually sew with. That was a lot of solid purple and black!

Happy {super secret} making!

Comfort food.

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I’m not going to dwell on world events today, suffice it to say that 2020 is not how any of us expected. I’m a cheerful introvert at the best of times, but I’ve been feeling quite withdrawn from everything over the last few months. I stopped writing here, I stopped posting on social media, and I nearly stopped knitting.

The only crafty pursuit I’ve been up to at all is sock knitting, and I’ve not even picked it up on some days. I do have a bit to catch up on with you here, as it’s been two entire months, but for weeks it has been socks and socks only. Here goes nothing, the last two months:

I finished my mini Happy Christmas Tree Quilt. This guy and the full sized one are sitting around here now, all quilted, binding attached — sometime I’ll get around to sewing the binding down on both of them.

Vanilla socks — “Electric Feel” by A Homespun House

Don’t look now, but this was another patterned sock finish! The pattern is Rhinebeck Roomies by the Crazy Sock Lady. I used Skein Yarn in the Early Morning Mist colorway.

Vanilla Socks — “Where does the good go?” by StressKnits

Joshua turned 15 in the midst of all of the quiet stay-at-home time, but we had a nice day. He had a mask wearing walk with a friend, we hung out and listened to records while I baked his cake (see below), and we just had a generally lovely day.

Ok, friends. This is hands down the best strawberry cake I’ve ever had. The recipe is pretty amazing. We enjoyed cake for breakfast for a couple of days after this and I’m not even a little sorry.

Yep, your eyes do not decieve you! Another patterned sock, another design by the Crazy Sock Lady! This is Heel Toe Do Si Do in Peachy Keen by The Cozy Knitter.

I cast on this cuff, started a pattern, messed it up, and started another pair of socks. Now that I’m almost done with those, I think I’ll come back to these. I actually think I might switch gears and knit this pair vanilla and cast on another pair of Rainbow Connection socks in something else for my pattern fix. This yarn is “Whale Belly” by A Homespun House.

Last but not least, the aforementioned other pair of socks. These have been surprisingly enjoyeable. This another pair of what I deem workhorse socks, turns out they’re awfully nice when you’re at the house all the time. This is yarn is ONline Supersocke 4-fach Neon Color in color 1721. This is some deep stash, so it’s nice to finally knit it up.

That gets us up-to-date. Thankfully, I’m feeling the funk fade a bit over the last few days. I’ve got a secret project for Astra for Christmas that I want to start and I’ve got 3!! quilts to finish (4 if you count the tree skirt). Other than that, I’m not minding the sock train one bit. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again — I’ll always come back to socks, my very own crafty comfort food.

I hope you are safe and well.

Happy making!

Like a variety show.

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I’ve honestly been a bit all over the place. Something about being at home all the time has me flitting from project ot project, craft to craft. I am managing to finish some and have only started a few, so I suppose I’m keeping some level of balance.

After finishing up my Happy Christmas quilt top, I was in a bit of a mood for something quick and easy. Enter Fat Quarter Pile Up:

This was a fun little quilt pattern is by Knot & Thread Design and I used a fat quarter bundle that was curated by one of my fave’s Maker Valley. I barely had to think about this one and it came together in a little under 4 hours. It finishes at a really generous 57″ by 70″ and uses 12 fat quarters with extremely little waste. I’m goign to use some random stash yardage for the backing and call this one a day.

After this lighting fast start and finish, I made the mistake decision to list out all of my current WIPs. It’s not a short list, so I was looking to cross some things off. My Magical Girl socks were an easy target as they were close-ish to done. I also pulled out my little matchbox quilt since it only needed to be quilted and bound. I tried out hand quilting and really love the texture it delivered.

Once that little guy was hanging up in my sewing room, I started looking around at what else to work on and I landed on my applique. I’ve had quite the hand sewing mojo lately so I went with it.

Blocks 5-8 of my Granny’s Garden Quilt are now done. I also traced all the shapes out for the rest of the quilt, but that’s not very exciting to look at. Once those were done, I turned my hand to sewing the binding on my Arithmetic Quilt.

I started this quilt way back over my birthday weekend last summer. I don’t know what takes me so long to finish quilts, but I finally got around to binding this one. It’s so big and fresh and bright! I love it.

The pattern is by Jeni Baker and I used all fabrics from the Daisy Chain collection by Annabel Wrigley. I sent this one off to be quilted by Nicole of Kwilt It! – she did an excellent job and I already have two more pieces with her to be quilted. This quilt finished at 74″ x 80″ – I made twin size with 4″ squares. I highly recommend this pattern! A super fun finish.

Other than that, I made a mask for my weekly grocery trip — I used the Missouir Star Quilt Company tutorial, it was incredibly easy!

I’m still plugging away at my second pair of Christmas socks this year. I’m hoping to finish these soon — and by soon, I’m hoping for today — they’ve been on the needles for quite a while.

Looking now, that may be a tall order for today, I’m only just started the decreases! Well, we’ll see I suppose. Finally, I started a new quilt. I’ll talk more about this one soon — it certainly deserves it’s own post. Suffice it to day, my Norah Quilt has begun.

That’s been pretty much it around here. I’ve been working, playing with makeup, watching movies with the kids, and making up a storm. All in all, we are well and I hope you are too.

Happy making!

A lost blog post?

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I wrote this post back on February 29, right before I left for Denver. I appartenly never hit publish, but I hate to lose all this chatter, so here you go!

At this time last week, I had three (knitting) works in progress. Today, I have six. Things just… happened this week. And no, I am in no way thinking about casting on something else. At all.

First things first, the three wips. One is my Sizzle Pop; surprise! I haven’t gotten much done on it. Last week I had just cast on and knit the cuff of a new pair of patterned socks. They’re chugging along, if a bit slowly. I’m enjoying the texture and rhythm though, so I’m not bothered.

And the third is my oldest WIP, which is surprising since it’s a hat. I usually knit hats pretty quickly, but, well, I’ve been distracted. The hat is adorable though and that’s why it’s earned a trip to Denver today. I’m heading out on a work trip and I think it will be my plane knitting in hopes of some serious progress. The hat is Skiff by Jared Flood, I’m knitting it up in Quince & Co. Lark in the Petal colorway.

Something just came over me last weekend and I wanted a bit of floof in my life. I waffled for a quite a while and finally cast on a cowl with a bit of mohair. I’m not too far, but this is Calan Mai by Voolenvine. I couldn’t resist the reference to one of my favorite book series, A Court of Thorns and Roses. I’m knitting it up in yarn from A Homespun House, the mohair is Winter’s Kiss and the other strand is Snowy Woods.

With all the patterning, brioching, and cabling I was doing, I thought it high time that I cast on a pair of vanilla socks. Taking the first cake that caught my eye out of all my caked up sock yarn, I pulled out this old old old skein of Prim from Hey Lady Hey, a now retired yarn dyer.

I’m to the heel flap of the sock but the beady eyed among you may notice that’s a pretty short leg for me. I’m having a hard time pushing through this one and I think I know why. For years now, I have exclusively knit socks on 80/20 merino/nylon yarn. That and stellina yarn have been pretty much it. I shunned 75/25 a long time ago. I had thought maybe I was past that feeling but here we are. I think it just doesn’t do it for me. I do knit 75/25 into other things just fine, but for socks? No, thank you.

I decided to pull out an 80/20 skein to compare. So plump and round! It’s crazy that it makes that much difference but it feels so much better. I’m willing to admit that may be all in my head, but knit what you want, right?

The yarn I cast on is a pretty little self-striping number called Magical Girl, by Gynx Yarns – another retired dyer. These are also going to Denver, gotta have something easy and mindless on a work trip.

So that’s it, all my works in progress. Most are pretty far from the finished object stage, but for some reason I’m already thinking about a few new projects. One is another hat, which is not getting started until Skiff. The other is a brioche and lace shawl that I don’t know if I will have enough willpower to resist after this trip.

I waffle between wanting to clear off all of my needles and wanting to cast on a million things so it’s easy to pick up and just work on anything. Clearly we’re in the cast on a million things phase at the moment. I’m feeling lately like wips are opportunities. I’ve got stockinette socks, patterned socks, cables, brioche, and floof and I dig it.

Happy making!

Once you get through the ribbing.

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I’ve often felt that once I get through the ribbing of a sock, it’s practically done. The rest it just seems to fly by. I don’t hate ribbing, but I don’t really love it so it is always nice to get through it on anything. I’ve recently realized that brioche feels a whole like ribbing: yarn forward, yarn back and all that jazz.

So, once I finished Marley, I looked around at my WIPs and realized I had created a little slice of ribbing hell. My first order of business was to finish up my other brioche project, Gully.

This is a pattern by Jared Flood, knit in Brooklyn Tweed Vale in the Cobbler colorway. I love the finished object, but knitting laceweight brioche flat is a bit of a slog. The texture of the yarn is a dream for the squishy brioche though so it was definitely worth it.

Once I finished the cowl, I was really down to it on ribbing. Two second socks to start and a massive hat brim to finish. I set myself a goal to finish all the ribbing on one big Sunday rib-a-thon.

It took me a hot minute, but I got it done. From there, it’s always so easy to pick up the socks and knit on them throughout the week. I woke up last Saturday and assesed my sock situation.

With last weekend being a long one for us here in the states, I set myself a new goal of finishing both pairs over that weekend. I’m not really sure how but I finished them both that day!

I just love love love this pair. I knew after seeing this yarn that I’d have to knit it up, being the avid rainbow lover that I am. Add to that the Beatles reference in the name and I was a goner. This is All Together Now, from Gauge Dye Works.

The other pair are knit out of Patons Kroy in the Mexicala Stripes colorway. I don’t love the pattern but they’re a bright and cheerful pair of socks. I knit these to have another pair of hardwearing utility socks and that’s just what they are.

Once I finished those socks, I realized I was in danger of getting to the end of February without finishing a Christmas project. I thought that if I started a pair of socks, I could likely finish them over the next couple of weeks. And so I cast on another pair of socks last Sunday, intending to at least get through the ribbing.

By the time I went to bed that night, I had knit most of the darned sock already. This sweet yarn is from A Homespun House, in the Whobilation colorway. Not wanting to burn out, I decided to cast on a new large project. I spent a great deal of time playing in my stash, scrolling throuh Ravelry and Instagram.

I finally decided on a pattern I’ve had in my libary for quite a while and with some help from Kevin, chose a yarn pairing that is a bit out of my usual comfort zone.

I started Sizzle Pop, a shawl pattern by Lesley Anne Robinson. I know, I know, it’s brioche. I just can’t seem to stop myself. I’m using Mood Ring by Hey Sister Yarn Co. for the background (grey) and Tough Titty by Stitch Together Studio for th emain color (pink).

I am really enjoying this one, but it does require quite a bit of focus and pattern reading. So that pushed me back into the arms of the Christmas socks and before I knew it, I found myself kitchenering up the second sock last night.

Who knew I had this much sock mojo left? Finishing three pairs of socks in a week had me looking at my stash yet again this morning. One thing that bugs me is all the caked up yarn I’ve got hanging around from projects that stalled out for various reasons. I’d like to get it all knit up, but that’s a big undertaking. So I pulled out a subset: sock yarn:

That’s 10 skeins of sock yarn that were caked up for various projects (mostly not socks) and then abandoned for some reason or another. I’m going to make these my next 10 pairs of socks, excluding Christmas socks. I already got started, casting on the cuff of the first pair:

The yarn is from Skein, in the Early Morning Mist colorway. I originally cast this on for a Spindrift shawl over Christmas a few years ago. I never picked it up again and frogged it last year during my WIP Wipeout. The catch with this pair of socks is that I’m (gasp!) using a pattern. The whole thing will essentially be ribbed. Who am I?

I might need to go cast on something garter just for a bit of sanity, but who knows. Maybe I don’t dislike ribbing as much as I thought.

Happy making!

(Mostly) Never before seen WIPS!

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Well, now that it’s been three weeks I suppose we’re do for a bit of an update. I’ve been all over the place. Between the new sewing room, kicking off the year of Christmas, and a healthy audiobook obsession – I’m been doing quite a bit of making.

I am reasonably confident that the only active WIP that has even made a blog appearance is my Happy Christmas Quilt, so let’s do a montage. The current state of affairs of my crafting is as follows:

I cast these socks on over our holiday trip. My goal was a pair of utility socks, I love Patons Kroy yarn for hard wearing socks. I’m not in love with the color combination (Mexicali Stripes), but the socks will do their job.

I made Kevin a pair of pijama pants last year out of this flannel and he asked if I had enough left over to make him a pillow for the couch. I barely did, but I think it turned out cute.

I finally started these gorgeous socks this month. This is Gauge Dyeworks in the colorway All Together Now. I had some yarn management woes and a great deal of indecision with what color I wanted to start with, but they are kniting up quite nicely. This yarn is a plump dream to knit with, by the way.

I finished all the blocks for my Happy Christmas Quilt and here it is all laid out. I’ve since sewn all the rows up and just need to sew them together. For the beady eyed among you, yes, I fixed the mistake in the border before sewing. Thank goodness! I am in love with this one.

I made the top for a tree skirt, too. I’ve been talking about making a tree skirt for years and have, unsurprisingly, put off purchasing one because of that. So we have gone without a tree skirt for a long time. No more! This is a jelly roll pattern, which I thought would make it very easy, but the bias seams got me in the worst way. That was tough.

Since I started my year of Christmas with a quilt and a tree skirt that may as well be a full quilt, I thought it would be nice to get a bit of instant gratification. Enter the mug rug. I love making mug rugs and micro minis. They’re like snack sized quilts. This one included a paper pieced tree, which was a new skill to me. It was pretty easy and quite fun. I love the result! This is a free pattern from ThreadBare Creations and I used scraps from the Happy Christmas quilt and a bit of random stash.

The mug rug is my first project and the January entry in my year of Christmas. I think we’re off to a good start!

In the last few weeks, I’ve been obsessed with a couple of audiobook triologies. Nothing makes me quite so dedicated to a long knitting project as something compelling to listen to. Enter Marley. I cast it on in October, but hadn’t made much progress until about 10 days ago. Now I’m now only a few rows until the finish.

I’m still only halfway through the current amazing trilogy, so I decided to start another long project. This is not my first try at crochet, but it’s definitely the farthest I’ve ever come. I’m really enjoying the rhythym of it.

So that’s it. Quite a bit of variety these days. I’ve got some non-holiday ideas for the sewing room, we’ll see when I get to them. I’m also hoping I’ll be back very soon with a finished shawl and maybe even a finished quilt top.

Happy making!

Happy, uh, Christmas?

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It is the new year and that means new projects, new ideas, and the same old me. Turning over the calendar always gets ideas sparking for me. Part of that is the general sense of new and fresh that surrounds the start of a new year. The other part is returning from our holiday trip. I don’t typically knit much and it’s usually socks, so the last few years I’ve been dying to start something new and big once I get home.

This year, I had my mind on holiday projects. Every year, I want to make something a bit Christmas-y but by the time my mind heads that way, it’s December and I default to socks. Now, don’t get me wrong, this has resulted in some awfully pretty pairs of Christmas socks. Did I mention I finished my latest pair?

This is CindyLou by Junkyarn. I love these. My dad called me CindyLou when I was little and this color just gives me the warm fuzzies. I cast these on as a bit of a holiday knit and finished them up this week. Anyway, pretty, speckly socks aside, I’d like to make more holiday makes. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do much serious holiday crafting in December, so why not spread the love around?

That’s right, this year, I’m making Christmas all year long! Christmas knitting, Christmas sewing, Christmas quilting, maybe even some general Christmas crafting?!? I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, so I was able to hit up some holiday sales and bump up my Christmas stash in general. I’ve amassed some fabric and yarn for this endeavor:

On the list is a quilt, a tree skirt, socks, a holiday sweater (I’m looking at you, Julgran), mini quilts, scrappy little items, and maybe even a holiday outfit! I’m going to try to finish one Christmas item per month. Slow and steady with time to make other things throughout the year.

In classic style, I just couldn’t wait to get started. My first official start of 2020 is a Christmas quilt! Who cares if it’s January? I’m hoping to knock out this big old beast early so it can get quilted and finished. I’ve started the Happy Christmas Quilt by Holly Lesué of Maker Valley. I had a kit for it from Maker Valley and so I thought I’d get started cutting it out last night. It took no time!

Since that was so fast, I thought I’d go ahead and do a wee bit of sewing. You know, just to start. Before I knew it, I had all the green HSTs sewn and the presents and star done!

Sorry for the horrid lighting, but I was pretty excited at midnight last night. I can’t wait to get some more done on this fun quilt. I think this is a pretty good start to a year of Christmas making.

I just love the thought of pulling out handmade holiday items year after year, but they have to get made sometime. 2020 is the year for me: a whole year of Christmas.

Happy {holiday} making!

The final score: WIP Wipeout 2019

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Way back in June, I took a long hard look at all of my works in progress. I pulled them all out, posted them on the blog, and challenged myself to finish them off by the end of the year. Well, friends, the end of the year is here. How’d I do?

Completely, totally, all finished:

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Jelly Roll Twist Quilt

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Dresden Mini #1

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Layer Cake Pop Quilt

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Lumen

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Quilted Notions Pouch

Overdyed Mathilde

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Dresden Mini #2

4-Patch Hearts Mini Quilt

Rose City Rollers

Ugly Christmas Sweater Socks

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No Frills Sweater

Circular Sock Machine Socks #2

Circular Sock Machine Socks #3

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Divi Divi Shawlette – after a coffee incident on a plane, this baby got frogged

Kinda finished:  (Off my mental list, but something still needs to be done with them in the physical world, i.e. these need to be frogged)

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Dammejaka Lopa – The verdict is in, we’re going to frog this one. It’s way too big for me and I even sent it to a knitty friend and it wasn’t right for her either. I don’t know if I’ll knit the same thing with the same colors, but I do need to reclaim the yarn.

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Circular Sock Machine Socks #4 – The orange/yellow/black/green tube is very, very wonky. Not sure what happened, but I’m going to try to reclaim the yarn.

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Swirl Dress – This version is just going to have to be scrapped. I’m going to toile the bodice but haven’t. I had thought I could salvage this version, but I don’t think that will work. The fabric can be used for something else, but probably not just to redo this dress.

Axed projects – yep, I still didn’t frog this yarn. One day, probably.

Unfinished, not touched, not no how, not no way:

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Julgran – To be quite honest, I have not been taking great care of myself and the result of that is a definite lack of enthusiasm for knitting a fitted sweater.

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Beauty School Top – ditto to the Julgran. The yarn is frogged and ready to go, but I haven’t cast it back on for the same reason.

Ok, so all in total, thats 14 out of 20 finished. If I were in school, I’d be passing, but barely. Add in the “not frogged” items and that get’s me up to a respectable 18 of 20. Not too shabby. I also started 16 new projects and finished 9 of them. That makes my net progress for the second half of the year 27/36 = 75%. Not too shabby.

I listened to a podcast recently about embracing your WIPs as creative opportunities. One thing I learned over the course of this challenge is that starting something new can be daunting. I don’t love the mental clutter of having tons of stuff hanging around, but it’s also fun to be able to pick among things to work on. As they say, balance is key.

With that, we’ll wrap up the year. Happy New Year’s Eve to you all!  I can’t wait to see what creativity blossoms in 2020.

Happy making!

After the thrill is gone.

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Sometimes it feels so good to really get so into a knit that you can’t think about anything else. You just want to get back to it, just one more row, one more repeat. That’s how I felt about Winter Honey. I just could not stop knitting it.

And once I started really obsessively working on this shawl, in no time it was finished. This is Winter Honey by Andrea Mowry. I knit it in the called-for yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, in the Hayloft colorway.

Now, I like to finish things. Really, I do. I love the feeling of binding off those last few stitches, weaving in the ends, pulling it off the blocking mats. But to be honest, I was a little sad when this one came to an end.

The thought of an all over (seriously) cabled shawl was a bit daunting, but the rhythm of this shawl was so enjoyable. This may be my favorite process knit to date.  That’s to say nothing about how much I love this big squishy, cozy, piece. It feels like a sheepy hug.

Once I finished this shawl, I dove right in to two new projects. One, Hawksbill, I thought was going to get me back in that must-knit groove. I cast it on and got the sleeves separated last weekend and then… well, I just kind of petered out. I’ve knit on it a bit here and there, but really it’s a DK weight sweater and should be going pretty quick.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like this yarn–Cozy Color Works merino DK in Rag Doll–and I think it’s going to be a lovely addition to my wardrobe. It’s just not calling to me. With Hawksbill firmly on the needles, I cast on something small, thinking I needed a bit of texture in my life.

This is Gully by Jared Flood. It’s a brioche cowl, knit flat and then seemed. I’ll be honest, the texture of the brioche and the yarn–Brooklyn Tweed Vale in the Cobbler colorway- is heaven. It really is beautiful. But laceweight brioche does not exactly fly off the needles. I also found a mistake last night, and being a fairly novice brioche knitter, I just ripped back to before the mistake. So there’s that.

I feel like I’m just in a weird place right now. I think I would be fine if I hadn’t just come off of such a fantastic process knit. It makes other things seem a bit dull in comparison. Maybe I’ll start something new to continue this cast-on party I seem to have started. I’ve still got holiday makes on the brain, so that’s another creative avenue I can try.

In the meantime, I’ll just bask in the afterglow of my new shawl. Maybe I should knit another one…

Happy making!

Can’t put it down.

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As I mentioned when last we spoke, I cast on a new shawl. I have honestly not thought about much else since. Well, that’s not completely true. I’ve though about a lot of things, but I haven’t knit much else.

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of joining a friend for the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival. We had, quite honestly, the best time. It was a great festival, lots of variety and lovely vendors and wasn’t too crowded. The lunch lines were it bit much in the hot sun, but the brisket was worth it. We topped the day off with an iced coffee before heading home. I picked up a beautiful fair-trade basket, several projects worth of yarn, and the cutest sheep mug I’ve ever seen.

As you will see, the cats are big fans of the basket. All of the yarn is from dyers I hadn’t ever heard of, which is very exciting. I’ll talk about each yarn as I knit it. I got home from the festival and settled in for our d&d game and got right back to my shawl. That honeycomb cable stitch is addictive.

I usually try my best to knit cables without a cable needle when it’s a 1×1 or 2×2 cross like this. I learned the trick when I knit my Zweig pullover. I still feel like my cables on that are a bit sloppy, so I’ve tried other methods since. I have finally found the trick! It’s the method used in the Beeswax hat pattern and is outlined on this website. I promise this will have you flying through 1×1 cables!

One of my purchases at the festival was yarn for a DK weight t-shirt. One of the first booths we stopped at had a gorgeous sample knit up and at the end of the day, I still couldn’t stop thinking about it. On Sunday I took my only break from the shawl to date, and swatched for the sweater.

I had thought that I would cast it on this week, but nothing has been able to tear me away from the shawl. I only have a few rows and the bind-off left and I am finishing it tonight! The border is 2×2 cables which slow me down a bit, but with I’m still plowing ahead with no cable needle. The contrast between the body and the border cables is spot on though, I just can’t stop squishing it.

Another obligatory cat+basket picture, every time I get it out, they are all over it!

Once this baby is off the needles, I am committed to at least starting one holiday gift. I also want to get that sweater on the needles and maybe cast on a new cowl… My hands have been busy with only one thing, but mind has been wandering to a million other makes! Perhaps a bit of startitis is warranted this weekend.

Happy making!