How's it going? Hope anyone reading this is doing well. I'm excited to write my very first project update. Right now I've got two projects going:
This pattern is the Off Grid Sweater by Rows. Even though this is technically not my first sweater, I still consider it my first since this one is actually intended for winter wear. I originally started this in October with the intention to finish by Christmas. Unfortunately around mid October my beloved husky who had been by my side since the day of her birth was diagnosed with cancer. She then crossed the rainbow bridge in the beginning of November, so you can imagine I did not feel very much up to knitting for quite a while. I also started over after a month of working on it because at the time I felt like the oversized nature was a bit too oversized for my own taste so I restarted with a tighter gauge. Not something I'm sure I'd do on a second knit of this pattern.
This is a photo from when I split the stitches for the front and back. From the first image you can see that there were quite a lot of tails left after this process. This is because the pattern requires you cut the yarn after each back and forth row. The kind knitters on reddit suggested that they could have all been avoided with steeking. I'm enjoying this pattern very much and definitely see myself knitting it again someday, in which case I think I will indeed try steeking. Anyway, I'm trying not to get too much into what I would do differently right now, I'll leave those reflections for when I finish the whole thing. Still, I am very happy with it so far and even though I probably won't be able to wear it out for a while, I look forward to sporting it once winter rolls back around.
My other WIP is a little tricky to photograph:
This is the Zap Cap by Park Williams.
Let me tell you, the process for this hat has been a veritable comedy of errors. I'm usually very adamant about taking a gauge swatch but I felt confident enough I could make gauge. First mistake. Knitting it went by very quickly and it's quite enjoyable, but once I tried it on...well...
The right thing to do would have been to go up a needle size, but going to the craft store is quite the trip for me right now, so instead I decided to just knit the next size up. On my second attempt, I twisted my stitches about two rows in and didn't notice until many rows later. On the third attempt I thought I had the brilliant idea to shift the stitches on my needles every time they shifted on the pattern and forgot to put a marker for the beginning of the round. When it was time to start shifting the stiches backwards to create the arrow shape this ended up being extremely confusing and the only solution was to start over yet again. I did try it on at this point and it fit exactly how I wanted it, so at the very least going a size up wasn't the worst of all my poor choices with this project. So far everything has gone much more smoothly on this fourth, and hopefully final, attempt. I'm looking forward to the finished project very much!
On a final note, I decided today that it would be better to update a couple times a week instead of every day. I take Wednesdays and Sundays off which means I can make a lot more progress than I do the other days, and I can also spend more time working on this blog. I'm also looking into disqus so I can allow comments on my posts so I can eventually have a back and forth with readers. I also want to add a guestbook (what a throwback!) and start following other fiber arts creators on neocities. Art making is so much more enjoyable with community and that's what I hope to find and build here.
Take care of yourselves and I'll see you on Sunday!