On the WIP Side – 6.10.2020

As always, I hope you are still all staying safe, happy and sane. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope it brings you some joy during this tumultuous time. Definitely check out my YouTube channel to see any projects “in person.”

Total: 6 WIPs (2 active)
Knitting: 4 projects -1 sweater, 1 shawl, 1 pair of socks and 1 blanket
Crochet: 1 project – 1 blanket
Spinning: 1 project
Finished: 1 project
2020 Total Finished: 14

Painting Bricks Shawl – DONE!
Pattern: Painting Bricks / Stephen West
Yarn: agirlandherwool / Sock base / Neon Unicorn gradient and Denim
Needles: Size 4 Needles
Gauge: IDK
Cast on: 4/25/2020
Cast off goal: 6/7/2020
Cast off date: 6/8/2020

I finished the Painting Bricks shawl! The behemoth is complete. You’ll get to read all about it this Friday in my FO Friday post. I was mostly finished with it when I posted last week, so this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but I am happy to have it done. As expected, it is enormous. I chose to do the i-cord bind off instead of a normal one, which I finished up last night!

Drachenfels Shawl
Pattern: Drachenfels / Melanie Berg
Yarn: Suburban Stitcher / Single Sock / Darkest Hour, Clementine and Sweet Adeline
Needles: Size 4 Needles
Gauge: IDK
Cast on: 3/18/2020
Cast off goal: None

I have not made any progress on this during the week mostly because I was sharing the needles between this and the Painting Bricks shawl. Whenever I would pull out this project, I also needed to bring out the other project. I was so focused on finishing the painting bricks shawl that I would then end up just working on it instead. I’m definitely ready and focused on this one and want to finish it soon. I’m working on a sweater now, which you’ll see later in this post, that will eventually become stockinette for a while, so that will become my next reading project. The goal is to finish this before I get to that point of the sweater.

Magnolia Socks
Pattern: Magnolia Socks / Helen Stewart
Yarn: agirlandherwool / BFL sock base / Golden Hour
Needles: Size 0 Needles
Gauge: IDK
Cast on: 5/26/2020
Cast off goal: None

These have certainly become a grab and go project. I can’t lie, that’s how socks go. I did pick them up and work on them for quite a while during the Sunday sit and stitch that I attend. It was actually easier to work on than the icord bind off would have been on my shawl. I don’t have to look down as much for most rows of this sock and it just makes virtually chatting that much easier. At this point, I am at the heel. In fact, I knit one row of the heel (who does that?) and plan to finish that soon. I’m going to be focused on the sweater (next item) as well. These will continue to be a good grab and go project.

Altheda Sweater
Pattern: Altheda / Jennifer Steingass
Yarn: Rauma Finull PT 2
Needles: Size 1 Needles (neckline), Size 2 Needles (Body) and Size 3 Needles (colorwork)
Gauge: This is actually a funny story
Cast on: 6/9/2020
Cast off goal: None

During my cast on party, I cast on a sweater to have ready for when I needed it. I have to say, I have loved the effects of this cast on party. The Magnolia socks were also a result of it. Not sure what I mean, head over to my YouTube channel to watch the video (linked on the ‘cast on party’ at the beginning of this paragraph). I sat and chatted while casting on various projects to have ready to go.

I finished my Painting Bricks shawl Monday night and having a sweater already to go where I don’t need to find needles, swatch, figure out the sizing, cast on and do the beginning rows is amazing. The hard part of starting a new project is done with and I get to have the fun part of working on a fresh project. It’s really fun.

I’m going to be knitting the Altheda sweater, which is a colorwork yoke sweater. I originally bought this yarn for another sweater, but I could not get gauge. While this is a fingering weight yarn, it knits up like DK for me and so I am going to be knitting a pattern in that gauge instead. The pattern only calls for one contrast color, but I’m going to break it up into the 3 that I had ready to go for the project.

If you’ve never knit with this yarn, a lot of people rave about it. It’s a non-superwash yarn, but it is soft and comfy in my opinion. It’s definitely softer than Jamieson and Smith (again, in my opinion) and so I can totally see this being my go to colorwork yarn. I will definitely keep you updated on this as I work on the project more and even as I wear it. I’m just a few rows in (which you can see in the first photo of this post), so I’m no expert yet.

You’ll see more pics of this in the weeks to come and you can always follow me on instagram as agirlandhewrool for more regular updates.

Other
1. Spinning – Did not spin
2. Northeasterly – No progress.

Inactive
1. Neat Ripple – This is on hold until I finish up the charity items with the colors that I have used so far.

What’s Next?
I’m about to pick up my Altheda sweater, as I have mentioned. I also have plans to pick up a charity project as well as a pair of tube socks for my niece. Her birthday is later this month and she has been asking for socks for a while. I’ve never done tube socks, but I think it’ll go quick!

Shop
There are multiple advent calendar options in the shop in addition to a few 8 Nights of Hanukkah options. I also released some fun new summer colorways, so definitely go check those out.

As always, I have pairings already set up that you can order at a discount and not worry about deciding which colorways go together.

New products are coming soon, so stay tuned!

Check out the shop here. There are some great kits for shawls and socks along with good pairings for sweaters. Let me know if you need help with some color selections.