Tag Archives: fo sightings

The WIPs of the Week that became FOs

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The WIPs of the Week that became FOs

I was really hoping to show you my finished Top-Down Knitalong sweater this week, but I haven’t had a chance to seam it yet! Regardless, I thought it would be fun to follow up on the WIP of the Week winners that were featured here along the way, since many of those WIPs are now garments.

There were 7 weeks but 9 winners, since I picked two twice. Two of the winners’ sweaters were finished by the time they were featured, Paige from Week 6 and Orlane from Week 7. Three have yet to post FO photos, so you can see the most recent images from Beth @beththais (from Week 2), Ashley @callistoknits (Week 1) and Kelsey @kelseyknits (Week 7). But what about those other four? Such brilliance:

TOP: Week 5 was Brigit @thewoolwitch frogging her completed mega-cardigan to try to get a better overall fit — and she nailed it! So worth the effort. (And look, I think she’s wearing it with a L’Arbre Hat!)
(WIP of the Week post / Ravelry project page)

MIDDLE LEFT: Week 4 had two winners, the first of which was Ding @halfcrystalline experimenting and tweaking her stockinette pullover with cables along the raglans and sides, which turned out beautifully!
(WIP of the Week post / Ravelry project page)

MIDDLE RIGHT: also in Week 4 was Sari @sari_n_ with one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the event, her gorgeous ivory boatneck pullover with cables on the front and back.
(WIP of the Week post / Ravelry project page)

BOTTOM: Week 3 was Jess @jess_b_daniels frogging an underwhelming sweater for her beloved, Jenn, to make something custom. The finished henley is fantastic and well-loved by both parties!
(WIP of the Week post / Ravelry project page)

It’s really thrilling and stunning for me that all of these very different sweaters (and countless more on the #fringeandfriendsKAL2016 feed and on Ravelry!) came from my Improv pattern/tutorial. I’ll be back with my FO soon, to be followed by Jen’s!

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PREVIOUSLY in Top-Down Knitalong: Panel FO No.2: Brandi Harper

FO Sightings: Sina’s socks

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FO Sightings: Sina's socks

When I first saw these socks in @threehazels’ Instagram feed I got instant heart eyes, but the more she tells me about them, the more amazed I am. Three Hazels is a young German woman named Sina, living in Sweden, and her socks were inspired by the Perianth Mittens pattern by Barbara Gregory. But Sina wanted the flowers on her feet. Like most devout sock knitters, Sina knows her preferred stitch count and heel method (“I like [the short-row heel] the most when knitting the heel in a different colour”) and can cast on with abandon. I assumed she borrowed Gregory’s colorwork charts and reworked them to fit neatly into her counts, but no: “At first I wrote down a chart containing all the different flowers, rows and stitches for the top part of the sock, but with getting  more comfortable with the patterns I started to place the flowers randomly.” That is crazy impressive, and the socks are beautiful. The yarn is a local Swedish wool, making them all the more special.

For more from Sina, check out @threehazels on Instagram, and she’s also vowed to post more about knitting and other subjects on her blog.

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Fringe Supply Co. Field BagIMPORTANT UNRELATED SHOP NOTE: I previously announced that the final batch of army green Field Bags were earmarked for Stitches West. Unfortunately, I’ve had to cancel my trip and won’t be making an appearance in the YOTH booth at that event after all. ***So the last of the army green bags will be listed in the webshop in February instead.*** I’ll announce a specific date and time for that once the bags are finished and in hand. (Grey will be back in the shop tonight or tomorrow morning!) I’m super sorry to miss everyone who I’ll now be missing at West, but we will still be at Stitches South here in Nashville at the end of March, so put that on your calendars!

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Photos by @threehazels, used with permission

FO Sightings: Lori’s generous hats

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FO Sightings: Lori's generous hats

Sorry for my scarcity last week — it was a total rollercoaster of a week, with our house falling through twice before a deal was finally struck. We closed unexpectedly late Thursday afternoon and are suddenly moving tomorrow (yoiks!), after packing and working with the painter all weekend, so it’s been quite a time. But one of the highlights of last week was the appearance in my Instagram feed of these hats by Lori Graham, aka Lori Times Five aka @loritimesfive. The solid ones on the right in the upper photo are Hipster by Tin Can Knits, and they look marvelous, but the ribbed and striped ones are variations on my Stadium Hat (free pattern), and it makes me so happy to see them piling up like that. If you follow Lori, you know her husband is a sea kayaking guide in Southern California, and apparently his coworkers were envious of his handknit hats. Being a knitter of the most generous sort, Lori was happy to oblige. :) Thanks for the vicarious grins, Lori!

In addition to final moving preparations, I’m headed to the factory this afternoon to see how they’re doing on the project bags. Such a week! I promise more news on that once I’ve seen them.

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PREVIOUSLY in FO Sightings: Woolenflower’s Faroese dream

FO Sightings: Woollenflower’s Faroese dream

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FO Sightings: Woollenflower's Faroese dream shawl

I know it’s only been two days since I publicly swore off shawl knitting, but there is one looming temptation. Remember a few months ago when I kicked off that #vitalknits hashtag? The lovely Julia Billings, aka @woollenflower (who you should totally follow if you don’t already), posted the shot above of her incredible Faroese-style shawl and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. (Here it is on Ravelry.) This is my idea of The Perfect Shawl: massive and enveloping, yet light; garter stitch interrupted by a spare, geometric lace design; and the perfect amount and length of fringe. Turns out it’s from a pattern quite straightforwardly called Faroese Lace Pattern Shawl, found in an out-of-print book. Jules tells me it was one of the first books she read when she was a new knitter and that the traditionally written pattern was beyond her skills at the time. She set it aside until she was ready, a few years ago now, and she wears this shawl more than anything else she’s made. Understandably. It may be out of print, but the good news is Jules is writing her own Faroese-style pattern inspired by this beauty — so watch for more news of that soon.

By the way, this reminds me quite a bit of Handepande’s incredible shawl that I blogged about forever ago and have longed for every day since. Apparently when it comes to shawls, I have a type.

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PREVIOUSLY in FO Sightings: Sumiko’s steeked Sundottir

 

FO Sightings: Sumiko’s steeked Sundottir

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FO Sightings: Sumiko's steeked Sundottir

There is so much potential for wizardry in knitting, but one of my favorite tricks will always be the simple — if seemingly perilous! — act of steeking a pullover into a cardigan. Maybe you just prefer knitting in the round and thus would rather knit that way and cut open the front. Or maybe, like Sumiko here, you can’t find a colorwork cardigan pattern that lights you up, so you pick a pullover you love — in this case Dianna Walla’s Sundottir pattern — and off you go! I first saw this one on @ashmhiggs’ Instagram feed (the photo in the lower left above) and it turns out Sumiko kept a delightful page of notes at Ravelry, along with a whole pile of progress shots. (Which is where I also learned that she used my new favorite trick of knitting the sleeve caps from provisionally cast-on stitches and then knitting downward from there.) I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that it’s knitted in Clara Yarn. Such a gorgeous sweater!

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PREVIOUSLY in FO Sightings: Skiff hats of the #fringeandfriendsknitalong

FO Sightings: Skiff hats of the #fringeandfriendsknitalong

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FO Sightings: Skiff hats of the #fringeandfriendsknitalong

While the #fringeandfriendsknitalong has been open to any fisherman-cabled object of a knitter’s choosing, there are clearly way more Amanda cardigans being knitted than anything else, followed by Ondawa and Bellows, it seems. But in the accessory department, the clear favorite has been Jared Flood’s Skiff, published just as the knitalong was kicking off. And of course they came together way faster than the sweaters. I wanted to take a minute to pay them tribute:

+ WorthingGirl on Ravelry, knitted in Fibre Company Acadia

+ lmscott from Ravelry / @lianneknits on Instagram, knitted in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter

+ waldorfmanufaktur / @waldorfmanufaktur, knitted in Fibre Company Organik

+ DanaRae19 from Ravelry, knitted in Berroco Ultra Alpaca (she’s also completed a White Pine cardigan; so good)

+ @recklessglue, knitted in … unknown

+ QuiltedTortoise / @thequiltedtortoise, knitted in Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted

+ tumblingblocks / @tumblingblocks, knitted in Madelinetosh Tosh DK

+ @kimberley.buergel, knitted in Camellia Fiber Company Merino Aran

And now I want to knit this hat! Huge apologies if I missed any finished Skiff pics in rounding these up.

Also, @fancyjaime is the first of our Panel to finish her Amanda — the knitting, at least. She posted a pic from LAX, unblocked and no buttons yet, and I can’t wait to see it all finished up.

I promise next week we’ll talk about seaming.

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: Amanda neck shaping: Kate reworks the crewneck
PREVIOUSLY in FO Sightings: Junko’s patchwork shawl

FO Sightings: Junko’s patchwork shawl

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FO Sightings: Junko's patchwork shawl

Ran across this lovely Japanese knitter the other day, Junko, and can’t stop thinking about this shawl from her feed. (Here’s another shot of it.) It’s a totally delightful patchwork quilt of granny squares and garter stitch squares — such a perfect combo. As so many of you recently noted, making little squares and such is the perfect warm-weather way to knit, and a wrap is more achievable (at least for me!) than a whole blanket. Not to mention a great stash-buster …

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