That muddy-brown raglan: An 'Ugly Duckling' kind of a tale...

I've got another FO to show you! It's the Easy Raglan V-Neck by Stefanie Japel, knitted in my not-so-loved brown GGH Savanna.

I didn't have particularly high hopes for this project, mainly because I didn't love the yarn. It seemed drab and, with its mottled brown colour, kind of ... messy-looking? Since it is a soft yarn, though, I thought that perhaps with the adorable Stefanie Japel v-neck pattern it might make a good home / allotment jumper that would keep me warm and cozy, even if it was never going to look very stylish. 

Half-way through I started to panic that I wouldn't have enough yarn, so I decided to add some orange half-sleeves to make sure I didn't run out. To create a more coherent overall look I added the stripes at the bottom of the body and reversed them at the bottom of the sleeves. I initially just added a thin crochet border to the v-neck edge, but because my gauge had been slightly off the neck came out a bit large and the thin orange band didn't look right so I ripped it out and added a ribbed edge.

You know, I'm actually really really pleased with how this jumper has turned out:

In fact, I think I kind of love it!

It fits so well, and it's so very comfy and you know what - I think, if you squint a bit, it's downright stylish! Who knew the drab brown GGH Savanna had such untapped potential!

Since I said I would, and also because it's so snuggly and warm and it was a cold day, I did wear it to the allotment last weekend, and I have also been wearing it quite a bit at home because it keeps me warm when I'm working in my office, but I'm planning to wear this jumper A LOT, and I'm so happy with how it's turned out, I don't think I'll have any qualms about wearing it 'in public'. 

My photographer, as has been so often the case recently, is boy#1 (aka The Bean). He's actually started to direct me on where he wants me to stand and how he wants me to pose and look. Clearly he is taking his new job very seriously! ;)

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WIP Wednesday Update...

... and boy do I have WIPs! I've gone a bit WIP-crazy over here, starting new projects, knitting a bit, then reverting back to older WIPs, then flitting back to the newer ones. Occasionally I finish something, like the handspun hat for boy#3, but mostly I'm starting things. At this rate it'll be months before any of them are finished because that would require me to, you know, not start new projects but actually stick with what I've got for a while. 

That said, it's fun, this Starteritis, and since all the yarn is coming from stash it gives me a huge sense of satisfaction - all those different wooly treasures are finally finding projects that suit them!

My needles for Owls arrived the other day, so I'm back on track. I am a little worried about the thickness of the yarn. The first ball of yarn seems, to me, to have a different thickness to the rest of the pack, meaning that what initially looked like something between aran and bulky now looks much more like a normal aran-weight yarn... Since this project calls for bulky to achieve the density of fabric that will make the owls look good this is obviously not such a good development. I'm continuing on for now, but I am a bit concerned... :/

The brown v-neck raglan on the other hand has been an unexpected delight.



Look how far I've come! (sorry about the Skylander who snuck into the picture. He was on the table when I took the pictures but since he matches the orange yarn so well he was permitted to stay).



I've really enjoyed knitting with this yarn - it's as soft as it is indifferent in looks, lol. Since all of you seemed to agree that I should go with orange for the contrasting yarn that's exactly what I did. I've finished the body and have started the first sleeve.

I've also done a swatch for yet another cardigan. It's Amy Christoffer's Acer Cardigan.



I'm knitting it with Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere in black. I cast on for the swatch yesterday, using 4 mm needles, and hit gauge immediately. OK, the swatch is perhaps 2 mm out, but I'll take that! ;)  It feels curious to knit with the cotton cashmere - it behaves so differently to the wool that I normally knit with, but I like the evenness and drape of the fabric and I think the cables of the cardigan will add some interest to the plain black, while the black will give this project quite a classic, classy look. I'm hoping that keeping it neutral will ensure that it'll be versatile - the kind of cardigan you can wear with a dress or a skirt, to work, or with a pair of jeans when taking the kids to the park. 

And finally, what am I reading right now - D and I finished The Luminaries a few days ago, and rooting around for a new book to tackle I became intrigued with a very different kind of novel. It's To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris. It's so unlike The Luminaries that when we started reading it it took us a while to leave the world of the 19th century New Zealand gold rush behind and shift our attention to 21st century New York! The two novels are so unlike that in fact, the only thing they appear to have in common is that they were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which isn't entirely incidental - every year D gives me the Booker Prize shortlist for Christmas. :)

This is the blurb from Amazon:

"Paul O'Rourke - dentist extraordinaire, reluctant New Yorker, avowed atheist, disaffected Red Sox fan, and a connoisseur of the afternoon mochaccino - is a man out of touch with modern life. While his dental practice occupies his days, his nights are filled with darker thoughts, as he alternately marvels at and rails against the optimism of the rest of humanity.

So it goes, until someone begins to impersonate Paul online. What began as an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something far more soul-frightening: the possibility that the virtual 'Paul' might be a better version of the man in the flesh . . ."

The reviews on Amazon are pretty mixed. I only skimmed them because I don't want to spoil the plot, but I can see where both sides are coming from. It's such an unusual read, it could go either way... 

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Stitch Along Wednesday

WIP Wednesday and A Year of Projects Update...

It's time for another WIP update - how quickly time passes. So much to do, so little time!

I've been busy this week. Term is about to start and everyone is trying to squeeze one last meeting in before teaching starts. Add to that the usual prep work that precedes teaching and there's just not been enough time in the day! 

That said, I have been knitting. Although I've toted my knitting everywhere it's usually been an evening activity, but even so I have managed to make inroads into both Owls and the V-neck. I'm kind of enjoying them both - what one project has in looks (I love the way Owls knits up) the other has in softness (that GGH might not look like much but it's buttery soft - the oatmeal wool I'm using for Owls isn't!). 

Owls is a very quick knit - if you want to finish a project quickly then 6 mm needles really are the way forward. I've managed to damage my needles, though - they weren't very good quality to start with, and the plastic of the cable is cracking where it's joint to the bamboo of the needles. I'll have to buy some new ones - that'll slow me down a bit...

Good thing then that I have the V-Neck Raglan to knit while I'm waiting for my needle replacement. I love the top-down raglan construction, so clever, and you can even try it on as you go along. Good job I did too, because that way I realised that I needed a bit more room under the arms and was able to make three more stitches as I joined the sides to start knitting in the round. It fits much more comfortably now. 

I think I might be a tad short on wool though because I suspect that some of those balls of GGH weren't complete. I'm planning on 2-coloured sleeves to make sure. I'll knit brown until about t-shirt length (from the top), then continue on in an accent colour. To tie it in more I'll add a row of that colour around the neck and possibly also do a couple of thin stripes at the bottom of the jumper... That ways I won't have to worry all the time that I might run out of yarn, and it might also break up the unrelenting brown-ness of this jumper a bit. I'm thinking of either some orange or some muted turquoise from stash... What do you think?

I think I'm at about the same stage with both projects, even though one is from the bottom up and the other from the top down - both are at around waist-height right now. :)

As for reading - not much time for that this week I'm afraid. I'm currently finishing up The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, though, which D and I have been reading together at night. 

This is the blurb from Amazon: 

"It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is full of narrative, linguistic and psychological pleasures, and has a fiendishly clever and original structuring device. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement and will confirm for critics and readers that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament."

It's a strange kind of novel, beautifully written, and observant, with lovely character portrayals and capturing that strange frontier feel of the New Zealand goldfields in a way that brings it alive,  but also at times quite convoluted and ponderous. I have enjoyed it but it's not as gripping as many other books I've read. We have around 50 pages left, so things are now coming to a head and many of the  backstories are revealed, and we are picking up our pace a bit as we become more curious if all those mysteries will be explained or not. 

And last but not least, I thought it was time I consulted my A Year of Projects list once more. This is how things look at the moment:

On the needles:

Owls

Easy Raglan V-Neck

On the List: 

Shalom cardi (Yarn: Olive wool/cashmere blend)

Liesl (Yarn: orange and yellow handspun)

Dietrich (Yarn: sock-weight feltable yarn from stash)

Sideways Grande Cloche (Yarn: Single skein purple Cascade)

 Mermaid gloves

Flat Circle Pillow

Attic 24 Mandalas

Hitofude

pot holders (Hilde's Hot Pads, or or the Blue & White Pot Holders, or the Flower Pot Holders)

Cable Cushion (Cable & Twist cushion, Super Chunky Rope Cable Cushion,  or Super Chunky Basketweave Cushion)

Finished Projects

Purple Ink Flare

Pink Socks

Tea Leaves

Socks for boys

Bulky Moebius Cowl

Granny Square Blanket

Scheepjes Mystery Crochet Blanket

Lombard Street Socks

The Garter Yoke Cardi

Green Ink Flare

Granny Square Cushion

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Stitch Along Wednesday

The closet of unfinished and abandoned WIPs...

Don't we all have one? Some bag, basket, cupboard, box or drawer where these unloved, forgotten and neglected projects linger? 

Well, mine are in canvas bags, in my office. 

I don't tend to look at them much. It's too depressing. And kind of stressful too, because I feel so guilty about them, just lying there and gathering dust (and possibly moths...).

I'm determined to get rid of some of them this year, though, so I thought I'd round them all up.

First up is Cozy. I actually really like this scarf, and I'm sure I'd wear it if it was ever finished. Unfortunately at the time I didn't buy nearly enough yarn. 

You can see here how far I, well, didn't get... I still have 3 or 4 balls of the cotton blend that I used for this lying around, but with the size of this scarf that's not going to get me very far. It might double the length of the scarf, but since I'd only done about a quarter of it that's still only half-way. :(

This was one of my earliest projects so I really struggled with the lace pattern and put a lot of effort into it at the time. I think knowing that this predates the kids, and getting married, and everything, plus the effort I put into it has so far prevented me from frogging it, but since there is really no way of finishing it the frogging is kind of inevitable.

Next up, my 'felted tote'. Years and years ago I bought some 100% wool yarn on ebay. It was old yarn and not particularly inspiring in its colour or in the way it felt, and eventually I decided that I was going to make a felted bag with it. I used three strands together and very big needles and started knitting a simple rectangle that I would then make into a simple rectangular bag with a flap to close it and a broad strap. The construction would be similar to Satchel, although not quite, because I'm not following any pattern and was just planning on felting the pieces and then cutting and sewing them together with mattress stitch. So once I used up all the yarn the idea was that it would go off into the washing machine, to re-emerge as a sturdy and thick piece of fabric that can be assembled into a sturdy and useful bag for all my papers, and other stuff. Good idea, no? 

Well, that was years ago. YEARS. I knitted quite a bit of it, but as you can see I still have some yarn left. Maybe I'll finish it this year? 

And last but not least, the Easy Raglan V-Neck. This is actually also on the list for Year of Projects, although I've never dared show the WIP itself. I actually really love this pattern and I think I'd get a lot of wear from a simple v-neck jumper like that. What I don't love so much is that GGH Savanna that I'm using for it. The problem is pretty much everything about it - the colour is sort of off-putting, and dirty-looking, and it seems to attract dust and fluff like a magnet, making it really scruffy-looking. I also don't like how the whole thing knits up in a kind of fuzzy way. Add to that that I must have started some other project with it at some point (I have forgotten or repressed what project that might have been), because all those balls are hand-wound and the yarn clearly looks used, so I very much doubt anyone would want it if I offered it around, even if anyone could make friends with the muddy colour... So yeah, you may gather - I'm not a huge fan of this yarn. This means that I cast on for this jumper a few years ago and then just stuck it in a canvas bag and forgot all about it. I'm determined to finish it this year, though, because I think this may actually make a wearable item - maybe not particularly stylish, but warm, and good enough to wear around the house, or for country walks in the winter. 

Second picture is merely so you can enjoy a close-up of how messy this yarn looks. :)