Projects on the needles are falling by the wayside in my mad dash for store credit. I literally cannot say no to store credit projects, it’s a kind of sacrilege. I find myself stockpiling credit and yarn for personal projects, with no real time to knit them as I am madly knitting to amass more store credit. It’s an ugly cycle that I am not alone to find myself in.
I recently completed the Bison Shawlette from Luxury One Skein Wonders with Jade Sapphire’s Silk Cashmere in Caribbean Mist, the result of which is hanging in the store window. I had to crack into the second skein, regardless of the required yardage, so I have the majority of it left over staring at me, begging for a tiny shawl of my very own (maybe a bandwagon Ishbel?).
I’m currently spinning my wheels on the Essential Lace Tank from Lace Style. I love the look of this garment, but I have some beef with this pattern. Primarily, I really hate knitting in pieces and seaming lace. Secondly, I had a horrifyingly fiddly experience with the decrease section. Originally, my difficulty began with trying to sub the yarn, because the gauge is given as double stranded lace in pattern. I tried single stranding a linen/cotton dk yarn, as others had attempted, and the fit was terrible. I was supremely off gauge in the garment measurements despite the sts-per-inch gauge being right on. Ugh. I’m beginning again with Classic Elite’s Silky Alpaca Lace which I’m excited about, but it’s taking longer than hoped for…or the time allotted by the store in which to finish. Shhhh…
I’ve further dug myself into a yarn-hole by agreeing to knit garments for the Valley Yarns line, and our prolific designer Kirsten Hipsky. So, now I have a sweater for her thrown in my to-do pile...wow, just typing all of these out makes me realize how legitimate the stress of these projects is beginning to be!
The only store project I’ve actually been able to finish since I’ve taken all this on is the minuscule, although adorable, tomato for the store’s group project from Amigurumi Knits. (To be fair I did knit two, so that does count for something I suppose). I knit these in Valley Yarns Stockbridge and they were a very quick knit. I was pleasantly surprised, although I love the results much more than the process.
Although my other projects have languished I have to admit that I did crank out some birthday mitts for KT, which I worked on at Stitches South. I used the pattern Merletto Mitts and knit them with Dream in Color Smooshy in an acid yellow/pea green color (spring tickle) that seems to attract only KT. They look really sharp in this yarn, I’m actually very impressed with it and plan to use it again in the future. I altered the number of stitches on the stockinette side to 20 from 29 and used dpns rather than two circulars, which simply works better for me …and KT’s wee-baby-tiny hands.
Hopefully more progress will develop on this WIP debacle. More to update on that battleground later..
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