I love the comments that I'm getting for the giveaway! I knew this would be fun, I'm going to pick a winner next Friday, so you've got until then to submit a comment and be elligible to win.
I'm making some serious progress on my Girasole blanket. I tried to get a shot of it today to prove it, but it's grown so large, I've got 640 stitches on my needles, and I wasn't able to get a photo of it looking like anything other then a big beige blob. This blanket has somehow turned into a race. I'm determined to see how fast I can knit it. I'm not sure why, maybe because my last two blankets took years, or maybe because I just love it, or maybe because I can't really see how beautiful it is until I've cast off and can really stretch it out and admire the lace. Either way, I'm predicting I'll have this finished in a month, start to finish. That gives me until July 11th, just under 3 more weeks, piece of cake!
I've been thinking a lot about my knitting lately. That's no surprise really, I think about knitting pretty much all the time. Mostly about what to cast on next, I'm a list person, I just write things down and then look forward to crossing them off. But now I'm not only thinking about my next projects, but also my past projects, both successful and not. Today's post is part 1, where I'll discuss successful past projects and thoughts on future projects that are inspired by them.
I knit this little mountain sweater (I think it's for a 12 month old) for my god daughter about 3 years ago. She looked adorable in it, I loved knitting it, and I still love this pattern.
I still love the design of this thing. At the time that I was knitting it I had dreams of someday knitting myself a mountain range sweater, I was looking through my Ravelry projects and saw this picture and was reminded of how much I still want one in my size! (This sweater zips up the back, apparently it makes it easier for parents to dress their kids, mine would not zip up the back, it would make it impossible for me to get dressed by myself and would therefor be really weird.) So, this sweater is on my mind, cute no?
Next up we have the striped sweater that I cut up to make Stella's sweater.
I still love this, I'm ticked that I was so stupid and totally disregarded my gauge. I told you about that right? I swatched, got a gauge of 5 stitches to an inch, then promptly did all my calculations and cast on based on a gauge of 4.5 stitches to an inch. I really don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just really excited to get started and didn't take the time to think, then I steeked it and made it unsalvageable, then it became a dog sweater. Hopefully version 2.0 will be in the works soon, I want to wear this sweater!
This picture really takes me back!
This is the first sweater I knit for Chris years ago. Before I knew anything about good yarns, and I'm sorry to say, this was knit out of Red Heart, Walmart, super cheap yarn. At the time I was not very confident in my knitting abilities and wouldn't have risked spending much money on yarn for a sweater, so Red Heart seemed like the perfect solution, which was probably a good thing seeing as how this sweater required quite a bit of surgery to make it fit. It would have been a real waste of good yarn. Chris told me exactly what her wanted and this was it. Of course, now the sweater is stretching and pilling and is pretty much unwearable. I told Chris it was time for me to knit him a new sweater, whatever he wanted, he wants exactly the same thing! But this time in a better yarn. I'm thinking Cascade Eco Wool, I'm loving it right now and know that it will make a great fall jacket/sweater. Ceej is Chris's nickname. Everyone calls him that, I think that this time around I may try to do the writing in handspun, or at least in my hand dyed yarn. This is a high contender for my next project.Lastly, this is the first successful sweater I ever knit. I wore it for years, it somehow ended up fitting perfectly. I accidentally made it with super cute 3/4 length sleeves and great stand up turtleneck that eventually slouched over the years. It's probably my most worn knit.
But now it's dead. So I've got to replace it with a newer, better version of the perfect turtleneck sweater. Honestly, this sweater was full of so many accidents and mistakes that somehow resulted in the perfect sweater that I don't think I could ever repeat it exactly. But hopefully I'll come close.
Of course I've got tons of other projects on my mind, but these are the ones that have been lingering for a while and feel more like unfinished projects rather then un-started projects because they're based on existing things. I may never get around to getting them all done, but now that I've made a list, hopefully I'll be more inclined.
Next up will be my reflection on perfect projects that unfortunately went wrong... can they be saved?