Recently in knitting olympics Category
I've joined the Knitting Olympics this year. I didn't join last summer's and I missed it.
I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do but I haven't come up with THE thing yet.
I could focus on my single socks - I have six singles right now. Challenging? Yes. Enjoyable? No. Ok...nix that.
I could pick a sweater's worth of yarn from my stash, but guess what? I don't have many sweater quantities of yarn any more (I've been selling off most of them because I'm not interested in them any more). The few that I do have probably need to go on the selling block too.
It's not speaking to me though.
So, what we get to (yet again) is working some more of the sock yarn stash. Knitting Child's First Sock has reinvigorated my love for Tess yarn. So much so that I want to be able to buy more Tess Sock yarn at MDSW in May.
Yep, I'm fully aware of the nonsense that that statement makes when paired with my "reduce sock yarn stash" goal.
My latest thinking is to get through enough yarn for 2 more pairs of socks during the Knitting Olympics. Leading up to it I may even try to knock out at least 1 of my sock WIPs.
How much sock yarn do I need to knit through to be able to get some more Tess in May? I'm thinking at least 5 pairs of sock yarn - that's over 1 per month. Doable, but not easy. Guess I best get knitting.
Thank you all for the suggestions last Friday! I was shocked at how many of you commented. You brought up a few yarns that were new to me and I'm excited to try them out (Polo and Tahki Willow come to mind).
There is one that I won't be using and that's Calmer. I know it's rather surprising, but Calmer just doesn't knit up well for me. I have bizarre tension problems with it and it makes knitting a real chore. I love the garments I've seen others make, but unfortunately it's not in the cards for me!
I'm such a joiner. I have absolutely no right participating in this challenge given the timing (between work and a project that's a surprise and therefore can't be blogged about). But my ability to be an adult and do the right thing is even weaker.
I can't show you a picture of what I'll be making because I'll also be making up the pattern. Here's the yarn though.
Here's my best stab at a sketch.
It's mostly medium gray with shades of blue, tan and brown. The pullover will have a fair isle band across the chest (above the armholes so the front porch isn't overly accentuated) and the sleeves will be bell-shaped with a band of fair isle somewhere near where the bell shape starts. Below the fair isle band I see a rib or drop stitch to enhance the bell.
This sweater is a challenge in a few ways:
- The gauge is a little smaller (22-24 sts over 4 inches) than I'd like for the time, but 100% alpaca is warm and I didn't want to go larger than that.
- I have to come up with a FI color sequence that I like. I have 8 colors in there so I'm pretty confident I have enough. The surprise knitting project needs to be done beforehand though so I might not be able to figure out the stranded pattern before the start date.
- My stranded knitting skills still need improvement. If I wanted to make it easier on myself I would have picked a resilient yarn with at least some wool in it. But I just didn't like any of the wool options I came across locally and I wasn't about to pick out 9 colors of yarn based on the way it rendered on my laptop monitor.
- I've never steeked but given the placement (above the armholes) I will need to unless I want to do standed purling (I don't). Truth be told I'm not terribly concerned about the steeking part but this could be because -- I repeat -- I've never steeked.
I do have one thing going for me though, and that's the fact that Paul will be out of town 5 of the olympic knitting days. I would have probably spent much of my time on the couch watching the olympics anyway, so this might just help me focus and follow through on a single project.
