Scrap Yarn Sock Advent Calendar 2.0

One thing I learned from the previous Scrap Yarn Sock Advent Calendar was not to mix stockinette sections with stranded knitting, because one thing I don't quite have a handle on yet is gauge in stranded socks. So, this time I went exclusively with tried and true stockinette. I also stuck to just Wollmeise Pure and Twin to keep the look as consistent as you can with random colors and changing stripe width. Still, the end result isn't something that exactly soothes my soul; the legs are relatively harmonious, but the feet are... not. Still, I think this time I got a pair that I actually can wear, since at least the fit is right. And it was fun to take part in the KAL organized by the Missä neuloimme kerran bloggers, whom I thank for coming up with yet another creative way to use up yarn scraps!

The Ravelry project page

A Very Cloudy Nuvem

Since my second Nuvem turned into my favorite shawl to wear, it wasn't a hard decision to cast on a third one. And while knitting it I also broke the recond previously held by my second Nuvem: the WIP that was worked on the longest and yet finished. I'm generally not the kind of person who casts on a project and still feels like finishing it a year later; those projects usually end up in the frog pond. However, while there were numerous periods of time when I lost interest in my third Nuvem, I was pretty sure all this time I would eventually finish it. It was something that was comfortable to return to even after a long break, and I knew I would like the finished product.

As the last time, I replaced the ruffled edging with 2 x 2 ribbing. The yarn is Wollmeise Lacegarn as usual, this time in one of my favorite Wollmeise colorways, Wolke. I also used slightly larger needles than before, for a looser gauge and large size, and I can see and feel the difference. Part of the reason might be I've put my second Nuvem through a tumble dryer and I may not remember what it looked like before (it did not felt, just shrank slightly, which was my intention after it had stretched out a bit in use).

This is definitely going to be an everyday shawl. Based on my previous experience, Wollmeise Lacegarn wears amazingly well; after my previous Nuvem has been through the washer a few times (on wool cycle) and the dryer once (also on wool cycle) and still looks as good as new, I'm convinced about the quality of the yarn.

The Ravelry project page

Squircle 2.0

During his workshop in Finland Stephen West mentioned, possibly jokingly, that he doesn't knit socks for himself because his feet are so big, but that if someone wishes to knit him a pair of socks he can give his address to send them to. I figured I'm not intimidated by large feet, so I asked him for his foot measurements. I ended up knitting the biggest socks I've ever made. There aren't many sock patterns that come in his size, so I had to calculate the stitch counts to fit his foot as instructed in the Squircle pattern. We still don't know if they actually fit him right, but we should find out in a week or two when the socks reach him.

The Ravelry project page

Der Doodler

The 2015 Westknits Mystery Shawl KAL is officially my favorite mystery KAL to date. The Doodler was fun and exciting to knit, and it sneakily made even a knitted-on edging enjoyable by placing it in the middle instead of the end, so that I didn't even realize what I was doing until I was well into it.

I'm also quite satisfied I managed to utilize stash from two or three years ago, including the Schwefel (which is not sure if it's a green or a yellow) which had not inspired me until I saw it next to the Mont Blanc and decided they were destined to be together. The Petit Poison Nr. 5 dark, on the other hand, is a long-term favorite Wollmeise colorway.

I'm very happy with the finished product, and this one I'm definitely keeping to myself. It's something I will be taking to my next Westknits class or get-together if I ever attend another one.

The Ravelry project page

Berry Patch

I'm glad I agreed when Lisa of maliha designs asked me to test knit her new Berry Patch pattern, because it was a joy to do! A lot of comfort knitting in garter stitch, with some slip stitch sections for variety. I'm not 100 % sure if my choice of colors was right for this pattern, because I now think some brighter colors might have worked better for a berry themed shawl, but otherwise I'm happy with the finished product. The test version of the pattern was already so well written that I can definitely recommend it just based on that!

The Ravelry project page

Wollmeise Fall Sale

Despite the fact that I'm not exactly short on yarn, a couple of months ago I decided I wanted to go to the Wollmeise fall sale, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to travel. I'd visited the brick & mortar shop a couple of a years ago, but never a special sale. In general, I try to avoid stores during their busiest sales, because I don't enjoy shopping in a crowd, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone for a moment.



For practical reasons it was most convinient for me to head to the sale on its first day. Luckily I wasn't aware that apparently the first day is usually the busiest! When I got there on Monday just a few minutes after the sale had started, it was already full on. The first few hours were so busy it made browsing slightly difficult, and moving between the shelves was at times impossible. By the afternoon it had cleared up a little bit, and it was more comfortable to shop. I ended up staying for almost five hours, by which time I felt I had found the yarn I wanted, and had had time to think which yarn made sense to buy and which didn't.



I was a bit surprised that, of Twin and Pure, there were quite a bit more multicolored than semisolid skeins available, and apparently, as the sale week goes on, the portion of multicolored yarn grows even bigger. The best part about being at the sale, versus online shopping, was getting a chance to see all the interesting variations of the colorways. There were so many different versions of some colors available that I could have spent hours just comparing them, had I had the space and energy to take the time to do that. However, at some point I just had to decide that the shopping was done. But I will almost certainly do this again in the future!

Ysolda & Stephen Finland Tour

The local yarn stores TitiTyy and Kerä decided to combine their resources and organize an Ysolda & Stephen Finland Tour, bringing them both to Jyväskylä and Tampere to give classes and offer Finnish knitters a chance to meet some international knitting designers. As soon as I heard this is happening, I decided this cannot be missed! I've been a fan of both of them for years, and of the classes available, I picked Ysolda's Beyond the Raglan and Stephen's Color Play the Westknits Way classes. In hindsight, I wish I had picked a few more of them, but initially I just wanted to make sure I get to take part in at least one class by each.



On Wednesday October 21st I arrived at Kerä in Tampere for Ysolda's Beyond the Raglan class. It was apparent she's a genius at knitting design, which wasn't news to me, because I've thought that way ever since I first knit Rose Red back in 2009. And while I've knit relatively few sweaters and cardigans, I've knit her Cria pattern twice, because it has, by far, the best fit of any garment I've knit. She gives  a lot of thought to how knitted items fit the human body. Her class inspired me to get back to sweater knitting again. Which also makes me realize my stash isn't really built for sweater knitting, which, naturally, means I need to buy some more yarn!



On Thursday October 22nd it was time to meet Stephen. Based on my online experience of him, I knew to expect a ball of energy, but I still didn't know exactly what I was going to get into! His class was all about the joy of knitting, and I can't remember having spent a more entertaining set of three hours any time recently. He's such an artist and a personality, and has something nice to say to everyone. One of those people who light up the room. It's hard to imagine him doing anything else, because he's such a perfect fit for his current job, a knitting icon.



For some reason I hadn't brought along any of my Westknits finished items, so for this photo I borrowed one of Stephen's samples, which is why I'm wearing a bit of peach. I believe this is his Jag in Garter Stitch, which I now absolutely have to knit for myself (in non-peach colors).

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

It appears a sure way to get me to knit a mystery sock is to put beads in it.  Also, a moderately complicated pattern is more appealing if you receive it in four or five parts instead of all at once.

I wanted to use the Cookie A Sock Club yarn from June, because I love the color. The green seed beads go with it nicely, although they are kind of hard to see from afar. I used a 0.6 mm crochet hook to place the beads. As usual, the beads were not uniform in size, and the hook and yarn would not fit through some of them, but luckily the majority of them worked. I do prefer the 8/0 as opposed to 6/0 beads on socks.

Ravelry project page

Strawberry Ishbel

My first knitting project out of self-spun yarn (but not my first Ishbel). I wanted to go for a well-tested pattern, and something where I didn't have to fear running out of yarn. This is a slightly modified version of the small size, with some added rows both in the stockinette and lace sections. It's pretty obvious in the finished product that the yarn has some uniformity issues, but I think it just adds character. Out of the thousands of Ishbels knitted, this one is almost certainly unique! It's too scratchy to be used as a scarf, but I'm OK with its only purpose being looking pretty.

Ravelry project page

Tangerine Skarabäus

After I'd put away the loom for a while because my interest in weaving had waned, I saw photos of striped and pooled woven scarves, and felt I had to try making one myself. I used Wollmeise Pure in the Skarabäus colorway as the multicolored yarn, and Küken as the solid. Skarabäus is a pretty "mild" colorway when it comes to multicolors, and the color changes don't stand out as much as with some of my previous pooling scarves, but overall I like the striped look. It makes the scarf look longer and gives it visual structure. I think my future pooling scarves are now going be more or less striped. I have some ideas for using two different multicolored yarns on the same scarf for a stripy effect.

I didn't know until recently that the name of the colorway Skarabäus refers to a beetle, scarab. Now I like the colorway even slightly more than before because of that.

The Ravelry project page

Strawberry Pie

The first handspun skein of yarn that I'm actually happy with it! We're also approaching the kind of thickness of yarn that I can imagine doing something with. It's about 310 meters out of 116 grams of fiber, which sounds thicker than it looks, probably due to the density of it.

There was a lot of progress made during the several days of spinning and then plying this yarn, and the first ply was overspun in places, with more unevenness in thickness than the second ply. I quite like the color, although I can't wait to spin some gradient or other multicolored yarns.

I'm planning on using this either on a cowl or a small shawl. I plan on spinning some more 2-ply yarn for a pair of colorwork mittens, but I also can't wait to try navajo plying in the near future.

The Ravelry project page

Apollonia

I'm a bit behind of my intended schedule for the 26 Pair Plunge, but here is my pair #2. From Cookie A's Sock Club, I found one of the June patterns appealing. However, I often don't feel like using the club yarn for that particular month's patterns, because I have this silly desire to not knit the exact same thing as many other people. I chose Wollmeise Twin in the Tutu medium colorway, because I felt pink was missing from my current everyday sock collection, and because I've really been warming up to Twin recently. I do love the club yarn, also, and I plan on either knitting another pair of socks with it, or using it on a non-sock project, since it's exactly my kind of a color.

The Ravelry project page

Second Try At Spinning

My second spinning wheel project is a bit closer to what I envisioned making, but it still turned out way thicker than I expected. It's shocking how thin one ply needs to be if you want to end up with two or three-ply fingering weight yarn. While I was spinning this, I was convinced the 100 grams of fiber would turn into at least 400, but probably 500 or 600 meters of yarn. The reality: 227 meters.

I did feel my worsted spinning technique was more polished than it was at first, although there still was a fair amount of accidental thick-and-thin spinning going on. It also seems like this turned into a reasonably balanced yarn. I'm not so crazy about the colors; I think it would have looked nicer with less mixing, but I didn't have the capacity to worry about exact color sequences just yet. The single plies and the yarn out of Shetland Humbug felt fairly coarse at first, but washing really softened it up. The yarn is also surprisingly lofty, so I think I did an OK job not overspinning it.

The Ravelry project page

First Spinning Wheel Project

It was inevitable that sooner or later I would start spinning yarn. The idea has been brewing for years, and in 2009 I briefly tried spinning some yarn on a spindle. Then I accidentally stumbled upon a new Finnish book about spinning while browsing the craft section at a book store, Kehrääjän käsikirja by Tuulia Salmela. That was the final push I needed. I dug up my spindles and bought some fiber.

I meant to keep practicing on the spindle a bit longer, but then the spinning wheel I ordered arrived faster than expected, and of course I couldn't not try using it. I did not have a chance to try out different wheels to see which one I'd like the best, but I knew it should be a model that's easily moved and stored, because I don't have the space for a dedicated spinning area in my apartment. The Ashford Joy 2 was available via a Finnish online shop, so I quickly decided on that. I picked it up from the post office on Friday and set it up right away.

While my first spinning project didn't turn out exactly as I visioned, the problem was mostly with my inexperience and not with the wheel. I found the wheel easy to set up and work with. I just wasn't sure which spinning ratio to go with, since I had no experience on how all the factors would affect the outcome. I was aiming for a worsted spun yarn, but my technique wasn't exactly polished at that point. My inexperience also shows in how uneven the yarn turned out, but I suppose that's to be expected from a first spinning project. My second project that I'm now in the middle of is turning out a lot more even, and more the thickness I intended.

So, there is now going to be a fiber stash in addition to the yarn stash, which is already getting to the point I can't store it in a way it's not obvious I have a problem. My current fiber stash is a moderate one week's supply, but I have a feeling it's going to grow exponentially from here.

The spinning project on Ravelry

Neat Ripple

For years the only use I had for a crochet hook was picking up dropped stitches in my knitting. However, making a blanket with a crochet hook sounds more appealing than having that amount of fabric on my knitting needles, or alternatively knitting smaller pieces and then never getting around to seaming them together.

I did not plan the colors beforehand. Instead, I picked the next color based on how well it went with the previous one. Additionally, I never repeated the same color sequences, and tried to keep stripes of the same color at some somewhat even intervals. The yarns are mostly fingering weight, as is about 80-90% of my stash, with some sport weight thrown in. What kept the project interesting was seeing how the colors turned out. There are sequences I like better than others, but I do like the whole nevertheless.

Project page on Ravelry

Crenate

My first pair for the 26 Pair Plunge is Crenate, a very enjoyable pattern from Rachel Coopey. I love how the pattern builds up, and I really adore what it does around the back of the heel. The extended ribbing in the back keeps the sock in place, but the lace lower in the leg adds some party to the back! They also fit great.

I felt it was time for some turquoise socks, considering it's one of my favorite colors. It also happens to be the most difficult color to reproduce correctly in photos. I used Wollmeise Twin in the Türkis colorway. For a long time I had an aversion to Twin, while my Pure stash is, umm, extensive. However, I'm warming up to it, which naturally means I'll have to have all my favorite Wollmeise colorways in this base, as well.

Ravelry project page

Tubularity & Wichtelwalzer

There's been some crafting going on, but not a lot of finishing lately. The woven scarf out of Wollmeise in Wichtelwalzer and some solid colors was started in January, then I kind of lost my weaving obsession. I eventually finished the weaving a few months ago, but couldn't bring myself to twist the fringe. Until yesterday, when the desire to get rid of a nagging WIP grew bigger than the aversion to get back to working on something you lost your mojo on.

Tubularity hadn't reached UFO status yet, but was at the risk of getting there. I decided to leave it short, so instead of the option of wrapping it lengthwise it can be used only in the tube form. I no longer like the colors I chose, and most likely this will get no use from me.  I knew this by the time I was knitting the last section, but I still wanted the closure of finishing it.

Wicthelwalzer and Tubularity on Ravelry.

Socks!

Not one but two pairs of socks for the March 2015 Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge. The first pair was the month's mystery by Adrienne Fong, and the second the math inspired Squircle by General Hogbuffer. The mystery pattern was enjoyable and I like the finished socks, complete with the deliberate holes in the heel and toe (there was an option to make the toes more durable, but I decided to go all out with the lace). The Squircle was more straight-forward but with an unusual construction. It was fun to knit, too. I might reknit the pattern, with 60 stitches instead of 64, in the future.

Links to Mystery Socks and Squircle

Silk Road

The first pattern in the Kitman Figueroa shawl club was Silk Road. Inspired by some other knitters' use of beads on this shawl I decided to use 8/0 beads to cover up the yarn overs in the narrow columns that run through the pattern. The combination of fingering weight yarn and small beads did not lend itself to using a crochet hook, so I ended up using a piece of jewelry wire (in the same way some knitters use dental floss) to slip the beads on. About 15% of the beads, which turned out to have somewhat nonuniform hole sizes, refused to fit on the stitches, but luckily most of them worked out. I was somewhat relieved at the end of the shawl that the bead fitting was over. For the yarn I used Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga, which is a lovely yarn choice for soft and drapy shawls, but, unfortunately, discontinued. I have a decent stash of it left, though, so I will be using it for as long as it lasts.

The Ravelry project

Peachy Keen

This year I'll try to be more active in Cookie A's Sock Club; I think last year I knit only one club pattern to completion. Of the February club package I like both sock patterns, and both cookie recipes also look attractive. The club yarn this time wasn't really for me, since for some unexplained reason I'm not fond of salmon pink, so for the first sock pattern I used Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga in the Orange Tip Butterfly colorway, which I think can be considered somewhat peachy. I love the tapering off of the pattern on top of foot, and how the gusset decreases are built into that. This was a gratifyingly fast pattern to knit. I did adjust the stitch count for the plain part of the foot down to 62, because I had a feeling 66 stitches in stockinette would be too loose. The fit is now perfect!

Link to Ravelry project

Follow Your Arrow 2

I can't resist taking part in mystery shawl KALs, but often in my desire to get an interesting looking shawl I end up choosing color combinations that I don't actually want to wear, even though they are fun to knit. So, this time, with Ysolda's Follow Your Arrow 2 mystery KAL, I went with a boring yarn choice, all in one color. Not that the colorway itself is boring; Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga! in the Blue Lobster colorway is one of my favorite colorways ever, even if hard to photograph. My shawl doesn't look as exciting as many of the more colorful ones people have knit in this KAL, but this is definitely a shawl I will actually wear.

I chose clue options based on what appealed to me the most, without looking at spoiler pictures. I changed my mind about the last clue; I started with 5A, but the knitted-on edging (never my favorite) was going slowly, and when I peeked at spoiler pictures and saw that I actually preferred the look of 5B, I frogged what I'd knit of the clue and started over with the other option. I think clues 4B and 5B in particular look beautiful together.

For blocking I used wires for the very first time, and was quite impressed by how practical they are.

Link to Ravelry project

DyakCraft Northern Light Needles: First Impressions

DyakCraft started recently offering Northern Light needles again, and I decided to give them a go. I'd had two set of the previous version of Northern Lights, but back then they didn't grow on me.

This time they are, for now, only available in the silver color. Personally, I don't miss the other color options, because I find myself preferring needle colors that don't clash with the yarn, so that means silver with metal needles, and Chestnut with wooden ones (Darn Pretty). They are available both in the 3.5" and 5" tip lengths, and only as interchangeables, just like before. I only have the 5" version, since that's the length I use whenever possible with their other needles, as well. Hats are pretty much the only thing I prefer working with 3.5" tips, otherwise it's the 5" length, Magic Looped when necessary. With the way I hold the needles, the longer length just feels more pleasant to work with, even though my hands are relatively small.

These needles are very grabby at first. After using them for a little while, some of the grabbiness wears off, but they are still stickier than any other metal needles I've worked with (and there have been a few; I'm not exactly monogamous when it comes to knitting needles, I get around). This can be an advantage, like when working with slippery lace yarn. The needles are also lightweight, so they are great for the kind of patterns where you might be afraid of dropping stitches, like when working cables when you have to let go off a needle regularly. Due to the grabbiness and light weight, these needles stay put. Even though I generally prefer slippery needles, the Northern Lights are growing on me. The swishing sound they make when sliding against each other apparently bothers some people, but, personally, I love it. The tips are also surprisingly pointy; in the second photo you can compare them to regular wooden tips (on top), lace wooden tips (second from top) and Heavy Metal tips (bottom).

For now, at least, these needles are only available in full sets of US sizes 3-10, and 3.25-6.00 metric. They overlap slightly with Heavy Metals, which are my go-to interchangeables for the smaller sizes. Between Heavy Metals and Northern Lights, you're pretty much covered for the metal needle sizes you might need. Based on statistics from my Ravelry projects, I never go below size 2.00 mm, and rarely above 4.50 mm, so the larger sizes don't get a lot of use, but occasionally I use them for something like casting on, so I still like to have some larger needles, just in case.

I'm a long-time fan of DyakCraft needles, and I definitely recommend the Northern Lights. Their shipping times are also a lot more reasonable than the pretty out-of-control waiting times for the popular wooden needles; these shipped in a few weeks.

One Shade of Grey

I'd probably not recommend using alpaca as warp in your first weaving project. It keeps stretching out of shape, and therefore isn't the easiest or most enjoyable warp material, although it's manageable. I anxiously wanted to get this done so it'd be over with and I could return to something I actually enjoy weaving. Even though weaving projects usually lose length due to the way a woven fabric is formed, I think this one actually grew in size. In any case, I quite like the finished product, it's so fluffy and lightweight. So far I haven't done anything to the fringe, but I don't think the yarn ends are going to withstand a lot of abrasion, so I'll probably have to do something about that.

Project link on Ravelry

Libelle

I'm now officially addicted to weaving pooling scarves. It's just that it's a perfect way to use up multi-colored yarns, which are difficult to knit with. Here I combined a multi-colored Wollmeise Pure with a bluish grey Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga. The neutral grey tones down the brightness of the Libelle a little bit without affecting the hue itself. I'm quite pleased with the result.

A woven item feels quite different from an item knit with the same yarn. The woven fabric is thinner, less squishy and not very elastic. The scarf doesn't feel as warm against the skin, but on the other hand it seems like it's more windproof. The lack of elasticity has its pros and cons; the scarf won't stretch out of shape, but it can feel a bit tight around your neck, depending on how you wear it. I think I'll like woven scarves in the fall and spring, when I don't want them making me hot while looking good.

Project on Ravelry

Raku-Regenbogen

I'm a lot happier with my second weaving project than the first one! I think I've now found the perfect way to use multi-colored yarn: pooled weaving. Wollmeise Pure in Raku-Regenbogen for the warp and some black Versuchskaninchen as weft formed a happy marriage, where the solid-colored black gives a dark twist to the colorful Raku. The selvedges and picks per inch are a lot more consistent now that I learned with my first weaving project how to control them. For the pooling effect on the warp, the warp length has to be a multiple of the skein length, and the turns at the ends of the warp have to be in a middle of a color section. For this scarf, I made the warp three times the length of the loop of the skein. With Raku-Regenbogen, or at least with this particular skein, the color segments were long, which is probably a bit more forgiving to some slight irregularities in the lining up of the colors than short segments would be. If you use just one warping peg, like I did, the length of the warp threads varies a bit, because the distance from the peg is not exactly the same to the center and the edges of the warp, and there the color segments don't line up perfectly throughout. But it may not even be necessary to line them just right; I think a certain amount of randomness can look good, too. It's safe to say there will be more pooling scarves in my near future!

Project on Ravelry

Weaving: First Impressions

For years I've thought I'd like to learn to weave one day, but the idea of setting up the loom inherited from my maternal grandmother (an heirloom?) has felt overwhelming. Then I've been eyeing the simpler and more portable looms I've seen people mention online, not quite sure what the differences are to the more traditional types of looms, and what one can make with them. At the beginning of this year I finally made the decision that now is the time. I'd been starting to feel somehow bored or unchallenged by knitting, and felt I was ready to learn a new craft.

I learned that there is a Finnish reseller to Ashford Knitters Looms, so I placed an order on one. Having read about other people's experiences, I knew I'd need more reeds than the default one that comes with the loom, so immediately I also placed an order for a set of extra reeds. I couldn't find a Finnish reseller for the accessories, so I randomly picked a German online store. It took about a week for both of those orders to arrive, time which I spent looking for information that would come in handy once I finally had the loom.

Having read tips for newbies and following the instructions that came with the loom, setting it up for my first weave wasn't too difficult, although I felt some details were glossed over in the official instructions. Since the extra reeds arrived slightly later than the loom, I used the 7.5 dpi reed and some sport weight yarn for my first warping. I was able to get a relatively good tension while solo warping. My first weaving turned out a bit better than I'd expected, and it was a good learning experience. My picks per inch didn't exactly turn consistent, but I learned how to control it. The selvedges turned out a bit neater than I expected from a first weaving project, but particularly the right side has some irregularities. The scarf also turned out way too short to be practical, but since I didn't really expect to get anything useful out of my first weaving, it's OK. I'm now looking forward to trying out various things with this loom, and I'm also excited about being able to make a dent into my stash by weaving, although I've read warnings that eventually weaving just makes you buy more, different types of yarn, so the stashbusting this loom is marketed for may turn against itself.

Mrs. Jekyll & Little Hyde

I love how light-weight this double hat turned out when knit in the lace-weight Pigeonroof Studios Cassiopeia Lace Singles I've had marinating in my stash for a while. The yarn is so soft, shiny, and beautifully drapy. Knitting the hat was otherwise fun, but the part where you leave half the stitches on another needle for the lining to be worked later was a bit awkward. If I knit this again, I'm going to use something other than a needle to hold those stitches, because manoeuvring the piece with the other circular needle hanging in there was not very elegant. But I love the double-layered fabric, with the contrasting color peeking through the lace.

Ravelry project

Simple Garter Stitch Slippers

A fast project to make me feel like I've already accomplished something this year, the Simple Garter Stitch Slippers aren't my most polished work. I love the simple construction, but the heels turned out a bit pointy, and I'm not entirely happy with my crochet seams and edgings. I tried to get a bit of a gradient effect by changing one of the two yarns held double, while the other yarn was a grey and black multi-colored one, but it isn't obvious. I plan on knitting more of these, but trying to avoid the things I dislike about this pair. I'll either use a doubled or thicker yarn for the crochet parts, and try to round up the heel a bit.

Project on Ravelry

The Curse of The Knitted-On Edging

It's rare that I have a WIP almost a year old, because usually by that time I've either finished the project or deemed it hopeless and frogged it. The rare WIP is a Quill that I cast on last February. I like it too much and have spent too much time on it to give up, but it has one of those things that I loathe knitting: a knitted-on edging. Were it an edging knitted in the round, I would have finished this project long before it came that UFO that, at the back of my mind, makes me feel guilty every time I cast on a new project instead of finishing an old one. I don't like unfinished business, which is why 95% of the time, if I don't feel like knitting something, I frog it, because I know it'll never become anything else than a burden on my conscience. But I feel all hope is not lost, even though thinking of the seemingly never-ending edging makes me shudder.