Tag Archives: queue check

Queue Check — February 2016

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Queue Check — February 2016

So since my January Queue Check, I finished Bob’s rollneck sweater and started and finished my black raglan. (I posted a sneak peek by the way.) While both sweaters were drying on my dining table over the weekend, I had this moment of pause and relief and thought, “wow, so all I have on the needles right now are those two hats!” Of course, before the sentence was even complete in my head, I remembered ANNA! The thing about Anna is the stitch pattern is so mesmerizing I fall into a trance and forget I’m even knitting. Then I remembered, uh, I have a couple of other things going as well. Actual current WIP tally, top to bottom:

1) Anna Vest, begun in October and saved for the Anna Vest Knitalong, now going strong. This pic is the back piece, and the two fronts are where they left off after my inset pockets tutorial. By the way, there’s plenty of time to join the knitalong — just tag your posts wherever with #annavestkal. [yarn is Fibre Co. Terra in Coalwood]

2) Grey Sawkill Farm sweater (no pattern), sleeves knitted in November and then set aside to make way for Bob’s sweater and my black quickie. This one will probably get knitted here and there over the course of the next few months, ready to wear by fall. No rush. [yarn is Sawkill Farm from Rhinebeck]

3) Penguono, cast on in January among friends doing the same. Really love this photo, but really not feeling this sweater. I’m not sure what will happen next, but how gorgeous is that Camellia handspun? [a gift from Rebekka]

4) Seathwaite Hat, still waiting for me to sit still during daylight hours and do the brim join round. [yarn is YOTH Father in Saba, a gift from Veronika]

5) 1898 Hat, just waiting for some attention, any attention! [yarn is Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Soot]

I’ll be getting back to both hats soon, because while I don’t really think I’m about to knit 5 more stockinette lopi sweaters, I do think there’s more stockinette in my future (a nice plain cardigan, a simple sleeveless linen something for summer), and the hats will be the much-needed spice in that rather bland knitting diet.

After all the wardrobe planning and the last few makes (both knitted and sewn), I’m feeling for the first time since the purge like I’m able to get dressed in the morning, and for different seasons, and am not in such a panic about filling wardrobe holes. Also feeling more like I have a sense of where my wardrobe is heading for the foreseeable future. So whereas my Queue Check posts have mostly been me obsessing about the five next things I want to make, right now I’m just gazing casually out across the year. And the only thing I’m really feeling particularly driven about is finally casting on that Channel Cardigan I’ve been plotting for two years. If I can decide about yarn, I’ll cast on this spring and work on it in a leisurely fashion, with the anticipation of wearing it, too, this coming fall. Doesn’t that sound lovely?

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: January 2016

Queue Check — January 2016

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Queue Check — January 2016

This whole Queue Check series of posts started rather spontaneously last year, but reading this IG post by Sara yesterday I realized how truly helpful it’s been in keeping me organized and on track and accountable to myself. Not that I’ve finished everything I’ve started, or never ventured off course, but at least there’s a record of it all to refer back to! So here’s where things stand in this first month of the year—

WIPs:
– Bob’s sweater — there’s light at the end of this tunnel; hoping to finish within a week
– Seathwaite Hat — waiting for me to have a quiet daylight moment to do the join round on the brim
– 1898 Hat — waiting for me to finish Seathwaite
– My grey sweater — on hold until after the quickie black raglan

NEXT:
– The quickie black raglan Lettlopi — casting on the instant I finish Bob’s (improvising it)
– The Penguono x Joseph cardigan — delayed by the snowstorm, but it should be cast on this Saturday
– Version 2 of my modified Hemlock Tee in this salt-and-pepper Italian wool
– Blue-and-white stripe cotton tunic — i.e., first of several sleeveless band-collar Gallery Tunics

But wait! You may recall there’s one more WIP on the shelf — the black vest I cast on last fall from my own Anna Vest pattern. I mentioned before I’d love to do this as a (totally casual) knitalong. If I set a date for sometime in mid/late February, how many of you would want to join me? It’s a perfect winter-into-spring garment!

p.s. I’ll be knitting and available to offer advice at Craft South tonight from 5-7. If you’re in the Nashville area, come knit with me!

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: Queue Check Deluxe: Holiday 2015

Queue Check Deluxe: Holiday 2015

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Agenda for my Week of Making

Merry peaceful Christmas to everyone who’s celebrating today, and happy Friday/long weekend to everyone else! I’m still harboring this fantasy of spending the next ten days doing nothing but making. The reality is I have a ton of administrative work to do in the next week that is unavoidable, but I’m setting a goal of working on that for a couple-few hours each morning (starting early), spending the rest of the daylight hours sewing, and then knitting in the evening. Plus there’s today and both weekends, of which I’m giving as much as possible to this project. How much can I actually accomplish in these hours, especially being a slow sewer? I really don’t know. So I’m just setting priorities and low expectations, and will be happy with my accomplishments, whatever they may be!

After getting my WIP mania corralled, along with my wild dreams of all the countless things I’d like to make, narrowing it down to immediate needs and assessing how those factor into my uniform (before branching out from there), I have arrived at an actual list of things to make, with fabric attached and everything! One nice thing about me and this whole wardrobe planning folderol is that I never have to stop and ask myself what my color palette is. It is always the same: blue, black, grey, white, natural, camel. At least that part is easy —

TOP: For the sleeveless Gallery Tunic, I’m starting with two fabrics — natural with a dark blue stripe, and midnight blue with a faint tri-dot pattern. Both are remnants I bought for $5/yard at Imogene+Willie last summer.

MIDDLE: For the modified Scout tee, I’m also starting with two — blue with an off-white stripe (same fabric as my still unhemmed dress) and a black and beige buffalo check, again both from I+W. I really want the Gallery in the blue/white stripe as well, and have plenty of fabric for both, so that could happen.

BOTTOM: For the woven modified Hemlock alt-sweater, I’m going with this salt-and-pepper Italian wool I bought at Drygoods last month. Instead of ribbing for the neckback and sleeves, I’m going to use the wool for everything — gathering the sleeves into a wide cuff and trimming the neck sweatshirt-style, with a strip cut on the bias. Will it work? Dunno, but I’m really excited to try it!

BELOW: And then there’s the knitting. I’m making progress on Bob’s rollneck, and set aside my grey sweater for now, as noted. I’ve ordered the Lettlopi for this little pullover, which should arrive late next week. I truly believe I can knit this sweater in a week — top-down on 10s? cropped? with short sleeves? So depending how far I am on Bob’s when the yarn arrives, I might beg off of it for one little week and see if I can crank out this much-needed pullover for myself.

So that’s my plan! What are you making this weekend?

Queue Check Deluxe: Holiday 2015

Queue Check — November into December 2015

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Queue Check — November into December 2015

When last we spoke of this, in late October, I was setting aside my black Anna vest to work on much-needed pullovers for myself and my beloved husband. I’m sorry to have to admit that the husband’s has gotten short shrift. As noted, I took the Sawkill yarn with me on my Seattle trip last month and managed to knit most of two sleeves and a twisted hem for the body of mine by the time I got home. (Haven’t had a minute for it since.) And I finally got the time and nerve to cast on Bob’s sweater just this week. As much as I want it to be saddle-shouldered and knitted bottom-up, I’m doing it top-down and raglan for the sake of having the best possible chance of getting the fit exactly how he wants it. (It’s been so long since I did a top-down sweater, I had to consult my own top-down tutorial to make sure I remembered how!) This is dull knitting, these two stockinette sweaters, but we’ll both be thrilled to have them if I can just stick it out!

And fortunately, there are Fringe Hatalong hats to break up the monotony. I cast on my Seathwaite at long last — I’m trying it in the new YOTH Father (given to me by Veronika when I was in Seattle) and knitting on 7s, crossing my fingers the fabric and size both turn out ok without a swatch! (So dumb, but sometimes we gamble.) And I’ll have news of the final Hatalong of the year very very soon!

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: October 2015

Queue Check — October 2015

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Queue Check — October 2015

I’m sure you’ve all been on pins and needles wondering what happened — did I finish my Cowichan-ish vest in time to wear it at Rhinebeck? I can’t believe I didn’t say so in my Rhinebeck report, but yes, yes I did. Wellllllll, sorta. The zipper needs a little more attention and I haven’t decided what I’m doing about the armholes yet, so that’s one last detail to be tended to. But I love it, I wore it, so did Amber, and I hope to have pics of it soon, at which point I’ll interview myself for the series. I also finished my gorgeous Laurus that same weekend.

If I could drop everything and cast on anything I wanted right now, hand to heart it would be another Cowichan vest, with another mega zipper. However, there are more pressing matters. For one thing, there’s my Slotober Frock, which I honestly still haven’t made up my mind about, so it’s not looking like it will be finished before Slow Fashion October comes to an end. That’s fine and just, right? Then the thing I cast on after the last Cowichan end was woven in (oh lord, so many ends) was the aforementioned black version of my Anna Vest. I’ll be at Tolt for the anniversary and book launch party on the 7th, and I thought it would be fun to wear my vest from the book, but those six inches of knitting you see up there are all I have, so there’s no way that’s happening. I am crazy about the way the Terra is knitting up in this stitch pattern — an unexpectedly perfect fabric — so while I can’t wait for this to exist, the fact that I won’t have it in time for the big event means the project is downgraded, while these two skip ahead:

1) Bob’s first sweater. How long have I been promising this? Forever. It’ll be knitted in this great deep blue-green O-Wool Balance and it will be a classic rollneck pullover. I’m thinking saddle shouldered, but I’ve not knitted a saddle shoulder before. Research to do.

2) My perfect grey pullover.  We’ve talked about this treasured Sawkill Farm yarn — I just need to make up my mind about the pattern. Do I want to do the Purl Sweatshirt Sweater? Improvise a perfectly basic top-down crewneck (with basted seams, of course)? Or apply aforementioned saddle-shoulder research to my own sweater, too. (I mean, this is pretty perfect, right?)

Decisions, decisions. Thankfully there’s the next Hatalong hat, launching tomorrow, to alleviate all the stockinette stitch in my future.

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: September 2015

Queue Check — September 2015

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Queue Check — September 2015

It’s colorwork season over here, y’all. (And knitalong season, obviously!) I’m finally sailing through my Laurus from the Fringe Hatalong Series — but I flubbed it! I was knitting while socializing the other evening, looked down at one point and realized I had knitted the final colorwork row all wrong. It’s just a few rows of stockinette back, so I’ll rip it soon and finish it up. I forgot how fast a plain ol’ stockinette hat knits up! Even with a few rows of colorwork thrown in.

And of course the big sweater on my needles at the moment is my Cowichan-style Knitalong vest, up top.

Honestly, I was a little perplexed about this vest. I chose grey, black and ivory for the “color” scheme because it’s my failsafe. But as much and as long as I’ve been wanting a Cowichan-style vest, I honestly wasn’t sure how I would wear it. (Which troubles me, given my “don’t make it or buy it until you know how it fits in” rule.) Over the weekend, I was plotting out some sewing projects, sketched a simple top-and-skirt combo for some plaid fabric I’ve been dying to sew up, realized the vest will look amazing with those two pieces — worn in various combinations with other things — and now I can hardly stand the wait. After casting on the ribbing Sunday night, I realized I don’t think I’ve ever been this eager to see a project develop. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take long!

I mentioned last month that I’m not planning a Rhinebeck Sweater, per se — this vest will be my Rhinebeck sweater. But there is one other thing I’d like to have for my Rhinebeck trousseau, which is that Linda scarf I’ve been talking about for months on end. I still want it in what’s left of my stash of camel-colored Shibui Merino Alpaca. So as soon as I finish Laurus, that will be next on the needles. I realize a whole scarf is almost as ambitious as a sweater (coming from one who has never knitted a whole scarf before) and Rhinebeck is only three weeks away — and I have a vest to knit! — but I’m fantasizing about it anyway. No pressure, Karen!

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: August 2015

Queue Check — August 2105

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Queue Check — August 2015

It’s a bit late in the month for my monthly queue assessment, but it’s also crazy to me that in the weeks since my July Queue Check — in the midst of the move and all — I knitted a whole turtleneck sweater that wasn’t even really on my radar at that point. (Which I finally added to Ravelry, by the way.) As promised, I’m working on a second version, with not discontinued yarn, and will be publishing the pattern as soon as I can make that happen. I’m thinking of doing this one as a marl, as seen in that swatch up there. But I want to do one more swatch in another yarn (not marl) before I commit.

The marl swatch is Lark — two crows and an egret — and it seems like Lark might be all I’m knitting with for the foreseeable future. The colorwork swatch, also in Lark, is for this fall’s big Fringe and Friends Knitalong! (And yes, there is a mistake in my swatch.) I’m keeping that a secret a little bit longer, but will tell you for now that it is a bit of a weird choice — in a good way. It does involve OPTIONAL colorwork, is a fantastic first sweater if you’ve not knitted one before, and I have an amazing panel lined up. This one is a much quicker, simpler knit than last year’s Amanda cardigan, but offers lots of great meat for discussion and room for people to get creative and so on. It’s going to be a blast and I can’t wait to tell you more! Just be ready for a really fun knitalong announcement in mid-September. (Here’s one more hint, it has to do with that green sweater I knitted in the spring.) Meanwhile, I’m swatching and deciding about colors. I like this grey/black/ivory combo but what I really want the finished sweater to be is navy and black. I just fear for my eyesight and my sanity if I decide to do that!

I also think I’m giving up on the idea of having a Rhinebeck sweater in my queue. The colorwork sweater will have be my Rhinebeck sweater. And why shouldn’t it? It will be totally worthy.

In addition to the big turtleneck and preparations for the big knitalong, I’m still working on my Hermaness Worsted (in Shelter, which got neglected during the move — no brain for lace — but has progressed quite a bit since this photo) and about to cast on my Laurus (in Lark) (Marsh and Egret). Telling you: it’s a Lark-fest over here right now.

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: July 2015