Here’s the latest on what’s in progress. I can’t show you everything, because the gifty crafting has begun. Only 56 days left til Christmas, you know. (I know, I was shocked too – it’s only Halloween!)
As soon as I finished the cozy autumn colored sweater, I needed another one. Right now. Immediately. And in purple. Don’t ask me why, though I seem to be in a purplish phase lately. I’m sure it will pass, though hopefully not before I finish this sweater.
The pattern is (very appropriately) named Carrie by Josée Paquin. (No, I didn’t make that up. She really did name it Carrie. And of course I have to knit it. I mean, she even spelled it correctly.) It is knit top down, with the cowl collar first then on to the raglan shaping. What you see in the photo there is the 10.5″ of cowl collar. The body of the sweater has a super easy purl diamond pattern that makes it a much more interesting and sophisticated item to knit and wear.
I am also knitting the Lestrange Cloak by Catherine Salter Bayar. This is a lightweight lace cardigan/coat that I’m working up in a variegated grey and black fingering weight merino. It just looks like a lot of wadded up lace right now, but trust me the stitch pattern is lovely.
I have shortened the body by one lace repeat, so that it will fall at mid-hip instead of mid-thigh, and am in the process of dividing for the fronts/back at the sleeves. This one has been languishing in the project bag, since more exciting things have come along. I keep carrying it around hoping that I will pull it out to knit a row or two instead of dropping it completely. It’s not a difficult knit, and it would be perfect for wearing right now, but I’m just not inspired at the moment. It’s not you, it’s me.
Some crafty creativity has been going on as well. I felt inspired to get out my stitch pattern books and cook up a simple lace scarf/shawl. This is my quickie swatch. The finished item will be four of the fern pattern repeats in width, instead of two.
Again with the purple. I found two skeins of fingering weight merino/cashmere/nylon at my local yarn shop and well, you know what happened next. I think the pattern suits the yarn nicely.
For my last show and tell, I just want to say that Pinterest is sometimes a very bad thing for productivity. I was wandering around there one lazy weekend morning and saw these super crafty people making rugs out of doily patterns. And well…I fell down that particular rabbit hole too. I do love some great crochet.
This is a spectacular example of gauge in action. Doilies you know are done in very thin yarn on very small hooks. But upsize that to very thick yarn on large hooks and you get a quick custom made cushy rug that is just the right size and look for your space. I left the crochet hook in that photo so you can get a sense of the scale. At this point it’s about halfway done. It’s going to be the perfect size for my foyer. Except that this little diversion is eating into the sanctioned project time. Ooops!
What are you working on?