fair isle

I pulled out all my active WIPs the other day as part of an effort to clean, organize, take stock, and wow are there a lot. I’m still trying to figure out when I cast all of these on, and when I knit on them, because knitting time has been scarce the past few months (that whole graduating thing really got in the way.) But anyway there are a lot.

1.

The Not Quite Argyle Sweater is still on the needles. I’m past the waist decreases, into the bust increases, and it’s getting to be time to figure out the armhole and neckline shaping. I’m thinking set in sleeves, with a V neck, but I very well might change my mind.

I also finally knit the turned hem, and now just need to sew it in (the red dots are just the waste yarn from the provisional cast on) I think one or two strands of embroidery floss will be the easiest way keep the seam secure yet invisible.

Knit out of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk, knit on 3.00mm and 2.75mm needles for the body and hem respectively.

2.

I haven’t shown this since I cast it on in January, but now it’s a huge blob of yellow yarn and blue beads, instead of the little blob it was then. Same pattern as Ponycorns and Rainbow Fragments, knit out of Madeline Tosh Prairie in Chamomile, with a bead placed on every-single-yarn-over (all 8,888 of them.)

3.

Ghosts & Mirrors is slowly crawling along. I haven’t been working on it quite regularly enough to memorize the stitch pattern, but maybe I’ll watch a movie and work on it tonight or tomorrow evening. Out of Bittersweet Woolery’s lace weight, same stitch pattern as Mirror World.

4.

The first new shawl of the summer. A striped circular one, with an easy to memorize stitch pattern. The orange is Madelinetosh lace in ‘citrus’ while the gold is Sweet Georgia in their merino silk lace color ‘dutch’ on US 3/3.25 mm needles. This is the first time I’ve worked with Sweet Georgia, and it’s really shiny (due to the silk), I’m not sure how I’d feel about it on it’s own, but the Tosh Lace does a lot to keep the shiny under control. The color combination actually remind me a lot of the colors I used in the Malus domestica (the apple tree) sample (which I just realized I never blogged about, oops!), only brighter, more summery, and less fall shades.

I’ll take better pictures once I get some more knitting done and can spread it out on the needles a little easier.

5.

The second new shawl of the summer has been getting most of my attention lately. It’s a simple pattern, with sections of garter stitch interspersed with sections of patterning. Knit on US 8s/5.00mm needles, out of Tosh Merino Light in ‘composition book grey.’ In this picture I’m partway into the first pattern section (if you look closely you can see the pattern starting to form), but since I took the photo I’ve gotten to the second pattern section, so it’s even more scrunched up on the needles. Maybe when I get to the end of this ball I’ll thread the piece onto waste yarn, spread it out, and take some better photos.

6.

This is the original swatch for Zodiac le Plume, that I’ve picked up and started working on again. It’s going very slowly. One row here, half a row there, so expect to see this project come and go progressing only tiny amounts each time. Of course the fact that its on US 1/2.5 mm needles certainly isn’t helping progress.

7.

For spinning I’ve got two things going at the moment. First the braid of polwarth I got at Rhinebeck, from Happy Hands Yarns, in ‘landslide.’ I’m fractal spinning it into a lace weight that will probably turn into a shawl sometime in the future.

This is half the fiber all prepped and ready to go. I love how the spots of color are mixing and blending into the black and brown background.

8.

Second, the singles of the Fibernymph Dye Works BFL, colorway “Incarnation, the lighter” braid are done, and are waiting for me to decide how to ply them.

I was originally going to do a lace weight gradient 2ply by splitting the colors apart, plying them against themselves, and somehow blending them in between. But I’ve been going through my stash and realizing exactly how much lace weight I have, so I’m thinking about three plying all the colors together for a three ply barber-pole, or maybe Navajo plying to keep the gradient but have a thicker yarn. Either way, I’m not sure. (You can see the blue-purple better at the bottom of this post.) If you’ve got an opinion let me know.

On the plus side, if I finish all this up I’ll be all set for The KnitGirllls Stash Dash this year, and mostly caught up on this years 12 Shawls in 2012 challenge, but we’ll see how those go.