WIP Wednesday 2 | Through The Yarny Curtain

WIP Wednesday: May 20, 2015

I’m working on three big yardage projects right now, and it feels like I’m making progress on all of them. I love that feeling!

Super Secret Shawl

I’ve finished a total of 9 or 10 repeats of the pattern.

Clapotis

I wanted to finish this project before I went to India, but I ran out of yarn. After I got back from India, I ripped back all the way through my last straight section and put the project back onto the needles. This week I started knitting the decrease section again.

Cat Bed

Pepper spends her nights in my office, to keep her away from the other cats. She’s fragile, they are bigger than her, and I’m afraid they might accidentally hurt her. Her arthritis is bad enough that I don’t think she can get down the steps into the garage to get to the litter box. I’ve left one bottom shelf of my bookcase empty because she likes to sleep in there. I decided to make a felted sleeping pad for that space, to make it a more enticing sleeping spot. I cast on about twice the width of the space and will knit about twice the length. Since it’s just garter stitch, it is going fast. I just cast on last Saturday night and I expect to be done knitting through 500 yards of yarn by tomorrow!

WIP Wednesday: May 6, 2015

It’s been another busy week of crafting! Spending the entire weekend doing demos helped in that regard. I worked slower than usual, since I was chatting with Festival attendees and regularly leaving my work aside to show an interested person how to weave on the floor loom, but I was there for so many hours that I got a lot done despite the frequent interruptions.

Super Secret Shawl

I only got 1/2 of a repeat done this week. I will be bringing this project with me as travel knitting next week, and expect to get a great deal more finished.

Cormo Spinning

I spent most of Saturday spinning. Three hours at my weekly spinning group followed by 5 hours spinning at the Festival of the Arts was enough time to spin at least half of the bobbin that is on my wheel (2.5 to 3 ounces).

Woven Doctor Who Scarf

On Saturday night, I tied this scarf on to my rigid heddle loom. This evening I finished weaving it and it is currently soaking for wet finishing.

WIP Wednesday: April 29, 2015

I’m home from India, but continuing to work on the same two projects! I’m also starting to work on the TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level 1.

Super Secret Shawl

I’ve now completed 3 repeats of the pattern.

Splash Socks

I hoped to finish these while traveling, but while in India I spent most of my knitting time on the shawl, leaving these socks for the flights. The trip home involved 20+ hours actually on planes, with little to no time on layovers. I dozed off and on throughout the trip home, leaving less time for knitting than I had planned. Still, I got 5 stripes done on the trip home. Since I hadn’t brought appropriate waste yarn to mark the heels, I just kept knitting. I’m going to steek for heels — the first time I’ve ever done that!

TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level 1

I purchased the Master Hand Knitting Level 1 at the end of February and blogged about it in mid-March. When I discovered that we were going to India, I decided I wouldn’t work on the program until I returned. However, before we left, I did make myself a detailed checklist, breaking down each step of the project. Now that I’m back from the trip, I want to focus on finishing Level 1. I have an extremely ambitious goal: mail off the Level 1 binder by the first week of June. The reason for this ambitious goal is that I will be attending the TKGA Conference in San Diego July 21-26. If I can get Level 1 mailed off by the first week in June, it’s possible (though tight) that I might get the reviewed binder back before I go to the conference. Since I’m attending the Master’s Day program on July 21 and taking a workshop with Arenda Holladay, I’ll have the opportunity to ask any questions I have regarding necessary corrections for Level 1.

My personal approach to Level 1 is to research all the questions relevant to a swatch and write draft answers prior to knitting the swatch. Then I knit and block the swatch and edit the answer based on the experience of knitting and blocking. Yesterday, I did the research for the blocking report and wrote a draft that includes all the information other than how I blocked the swatches. Today I did the research for the first question and wrote a draft answer. As I write, I am compiling the References sheet that is one component of the binder. Every time I use a new source, I add it to the References section immediately. I expect to take significant time to edit the written work after all the swatching is complete. Proceeding in the manner I described makes that easier because I won’t have to switch back and forth between writing and editing. Switching back and forth slows me down considerably!

My single biggest worry about the swatches is that there will be cat hair all over them. The directions specifically say that the swatches should be free of pet hair. This seems like an impossible standard in my house. We’ve got three very cuddly cats in varying colors that mean no matter what you are wearing, the cat hair stands out from a mile away. Since we got back from India, they are even more cuddly than usual. They were well cared for while we were away, but they obviously missed us!

WIP Wednesday: April 22, 2015

I’ve continued working on both of the projects that I posted last week.

Super Secret Shawl

This project is my focus when I’m stationary and have excellent lighting conditions. I haven’t had much time this week that met both of these conditions! I’ve finished 1.65 pattern repeats and the full shawl will have 20 repeats, so I’m not quite 10% done with it!

Splash Socks

I only worked on this project while I was on the move. It’s super portable and it’s at the point where I just have to knit, knit, knit for miles. I’ve finished 4 stripes this week.

WIP Wednesday: April 15, 2015

Seems like just yesterday that I wrote a WIP Wednesday post! I’ve been working on two projects and making decent progress on both of them.

Splash Socks

Since last week, I finished the toes and I’ve knit about half of the foot.

Super Secret Shawl

I finished the swatch, and love how it looks!

I did a little math to figure out the best shawl dimensions for the amount of yarn I have and cast on. I knit a 5 row garter stitch edge, then started the pattern repeat. There’s 26 rows in a repeat. I’ve knit 17 rows of the first repeat. It’s not a difficult knit, but I have to have excellent lighting when knitting. The yarn is not very dark — the color on my screen seems like an accurate representation — but in low light conditions, the yarn reads as a darker, navy color and it is difficult to see.