Knitting!!!!!

Wait, what?!?!  Knitting content on a blog named "Prairie Girl Knits"?   What is this sorcery???

It's been so long since I've been able to show off a finished knitting project here on the blog and today I have two!

The first I want to show off is The Golden Hours Shawl from Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits.  I started this shawl back in the deep dark days of January.  Of course I was thinking a worsted weight shawl would fly off the needles and I'd be cozy warm in no time for the rest of winter.  I was excited to start and chugged along at a good pace at the start, but then, as seems to be par for the course lately, I found it to be a struggle to keep going. I wanted the shawl but the knitting took significantly longer than anticipated.  Once thing I did do was to weave in the ends as I went so it wouldn't be such a daunting task upon completion of the knitting and boy was I glad when I finished the cast off to only have a few ends left to go.

I actually finished this shawl mid-April on the drive into the city for the little boys skills camp morning put on by the Blue Bombers.  The boys had to be on the field at 8:30am, there was still snow on the edges of the field and a crisp breeze was making the 0 C temps feel even colder.  I was ever so glad to be able to throw my shawl on as an extra layer of warmth while I watched from the stands.

... and then it took me more than a month to actually block it.

Despite my struggles, The Golden Hours is a straight forward, easy to knit pattern.  I chose to use stash yarns for mine and I love how it came together. The teal blue came from my Mom actually, left over from a sweater she knit a few years ago (that also came home with me!).  The purple was a random skein I'd picked up at the LYS at some point and the light blue/green was very old stash from about ten or more years ago.

My other newly finished project is the Dubois hat by Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots.

This one I started in February as soon as the pattern was released.  Being a hat I honestly assumed it would take me no more than a week to knit.  I wildly underestimated how long it would take, and had to completely rip it out and start again a month ago because between my lagging knitting mojo, my inability to focus and a pattern that had a few different cables going on left me thoroughly lost where I was and a with a whole lot of mistakes.

I felt pretty discouraged that I had to rip it out, but once I got going again it went much easier.  Still slow going, but at least with no confusion and the cables seemed a lot more intuitive the second time. I cast this one off on Saturday evening and set it to blocking first thing on Sunday morning! (having, of course, learned my lesson with the shawl blocking procrastination! LOL) I'm going to really love the warmth of my Dubois and it'll be so nice to have a fresh new hat to make life more bearable when the temperatures plummet again next winter!

I'm going to continue to try and knit regularly.  My favourite "along"  the Untangling Knots Outfit Along, has been announced recently and will start June 1st.  Instead of having an "official" set of patterns - although we were always welcome to choose our own anyway - this year's OAL theme is Works in Progress.  I don't have any sewing WIPs, but I have my Populuxe Cardigan that just needs sleeves and my Mary Mead Cardigan that is part way through the body.  Both cardigans were started during previous Untangling Knots knit alongs over the past year so I'm hoping to finish both during the OAL.  I'm not sure what the sewing component will be yet, but likely a dress of some sort.

Here's hoping for more frequent wooly posts in the future months to come.  I'm really hoping that these two finished projects will really kick start my mojo back to where it once was.  Maybe I'll even start spinning again one of these days...

2018 Outfit Along

I can't believe that I actually managed to get my outfit done in time for the 2018 Outfit Along done.  I was sure that this year was going to be a bust, but by some sort of OAL miracle, I finished up the morning of the final day!

For those of you that may not know what the Outfit Along is, it is an annual event taking place on Ravelry in the Untangling Knots group.  Knitwear designer Andi Satterlund and Lauren of the famed Lladybird co-host the "along".  The goal is to knit a piece and sew a piece so that you end up with a complete outfit at the end of the two months.  There are official patterns each year, but participants are free to choose whichever patterns they want.  The outfit along is truly my very favourite "along" and I look forward to it every year.

This year's official patterns were the Waters Tee by Andi and the Lander Pants by True Bias and I decided to both.  Waters is a very simple top down knit tee that has a scoop back and almost boat neck front. I'm sure that the Lander Pants need no introduction.  I may, in fact, be the last person in the world to sew them up.  They've been out for ages now and are a high waisted, button fly, wide legged pant with three different length options.

While the Waters was a super simple pattern it took me what felt like forever to knit.  I think the combination of miles of stockinette stitch on tiny needles and fingering yarn slowed me down.  Combine that with my distinct lack of knitting mojo and I really didn't think I'd get finished within the two months of the challenge.  In fact had I not had a sudden short-lived burst of motivation in the last two weeks of the Outfit Along, I can guarantee that my top would not have been finished in time. (the mojo has once again disappeared, and I'm struggling to pick up my needles for any reason right now).  The Lander Pants sat waiting because to be honest the thought of having to go through the fitting of pants was really not what one could call enticing.  Pants.  Ugh...

Everyone has what seems to be some serious Lander love going on.  I definitely did not.  In fact I dubbed my the "No Love Landers" and thought I'd never wear them.  However, now that they're done and I have had some distance from sewing them, it turns out I'm wearing them quite a bit.  Fitting quickly became a nightmare - I clearly have no clue what size I really am when it comes to pants, because I am fairly certain I started out two sizes too big.  Of course I followed the steps according to the instructions which meant all the fancy bits like top stitching and the buttonholes and bar tacks for the fly were already done before I sewed up the side seams only to have the shorts fall straight off when I tried them on.  I was pretty peeved with myself for the rookie mistake and was determined I was going to get them to at least sort of passably fit before throwing my hands up in defeat and wasting all the effort of my top stitching not too mention my fabric.  I took a good inch and a half beyond the already allowed 1" side seam at the hips, about another 3/4" at the waist on either side, then took in the back center seam tapering from the original seam to a decrease of an 1 1/4" at centre back.  Then I shaved off a good 5/8" from the height in the back.  I still need to wear a belt with them or they're not staying up, but given how often I've worn them this week, maybe they deserve some love after all.

Waters is pretty good fit wise.  As it turns out I like to wear it backwards favouring the scoop neck in the front rather than the back.  Its kind of nice to choose whichever way I feel like wearing it depending on my mood.  I think I could have done with a few less waist decreases and a bit more length, but at the point I cast off I was just  happy to have it done on time.  I can live with the not re-doing the waist decreases, but I may at some point down the road add a bit of length to my tee to make it more comfortable for me.  It's not enough to keep me from wearing it  so we'll see.  I'd have to actually find my knitting mojo first.

The Selfish Sweater Knit Along

I'm back today with my Anouk Cardigan that I knit for the Untangling Knots "Selfish Sweater KAL" that runs through until this Sunday.

Knitting at a hockey tourney -
I thought I'd get lots done during the six game/eight hour day,
but alas eventually my fingers got too frozen to knit.  

Like many of Andi Satterlund's designs, Anouk is a sweet cropped cardi.  It features full length long sleeves and an squishy garter stitch band on the body and sleeves as well as for the button band along with a garter stitch motif at the back neckline and around the waist.  It's an easy knit - so don't judge it on the fact it took me ages to get done (I started way back on Boxing Day!).

I had knit the body of Anouk very quickly, then realized as I was finishing up the diamond motif at the waist I had mucked up the motif at the neckline.  After humming and hawing and trying to convince myself to just leave it, call it a design feature and move on, I ripped it all out and re-started. I knew that even if not one other single person on earth noticed the mistake, I would know it was there and would, as a result, never wear the cardigan.  And who wants to go to all the trouble of knitting something that's never going to see the light of day? Not me!!

Re-knitting it seemed to take a very long time.  I think once you're knitting something the second time around the motivation gets lost a bit and the enthusiasm lags.  Once the body was finally done I tackled the sleeves.  Full length sleeves.  I hate knitting sleeves.  If the body took a long time to knit the sleeves seemed unbearably longer.  I almost packed the whole thing in at one point.  I was just tired of knitting it.  Not the pattern's fault - just me.  I wasn't in love with the wool I was using - an old de-stash purchase I'd made a couple of years ago of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash and I think that made it worse.

Late night knitting, wondering if I'll ever finish it.

I'm glad I didn't give up though.  I'm pretty happy with the end result.  Still not loving the Lamb's Pride, but it's slowly growing on me.  I don't currently really have any dresses to wear with the cardi - I'm in the process of rectifying that but it's not been without it's challenges as well... More on that another day.

Button, button, who's got the button?  My Anouk cardi! That's who!!
The most boring buttons on the face of the earth,
but they were the only ones remotely suitable at Fabricland.

There's not much else I can say about this cardigan - I think I'm still feeling a bit grouchy towards it for taking so long to be knit to be honest.  I had envisioned having it done in no time especially given the mindless stockinette and garter stitch.  To tell you the truth though?  I personally think lace is quicker to knit.  It keeps you on your toes, keeps you interested and just seems to move along much faster.

Now I'm off to wield my mighty stitch ripper and do battle with my Emery Dress I'm currently trying to make.

Penelope

Well, talk about getting things done just under the wire!  I finally sewed the last two buttons on my new cardi and blocked it.  The knit along ends tomorrow!   Phew.  Made it!

The cardigan in question is Penelope, another great design from Andi Satterlund, that was the project for the Untangling Knots Group fall knit along.  It is, like all of Andi's patterns, an easy to knit pattern.  I imagined I would have finished it a couple of weeks ago, because it is very simple and straight forward.  It is a full length cardi, so I anticipated a bit more time on the needles, than a cropped cardi would take, but I didn't imagine it would take more than a month.

I didn't have any crazy issues with it, like I did with my Sunshower cardi I knit in the summer - I don't know if you remember my adventures that led me completely astray multiple times (ahem.  all user error, of course, the pattern is great).  I had no problems except much to my dismay, my knitting mojo seemed to get up and leave this fall.

I have no idea where it's gone.   (If you spot it somewhere along your travels could you please send it back to me?  I've got loads of projects lined up to do for the holidays and no "Umph" to get them done.  Or really started for that matter.)

Where oh where has my mojo gone?  Oh where oh where could it be?????

Anyways, all that being said, I did finish on time for the KAL deadline, and I did end up with a cardi that I really love.  I knit this one straight from the pattern with no modifications what so ever and the fit is perfect for what I wanted!

This one is knit in some stash yarn I had.  Sirdar's Country Style DK - a wool/acrylic blend was used for the contrast and Universal Yarns Dolce Merino, which is a merino/microfibre blend for the main colour.   I'm hoping that the Dolce Merino holds up alright.  It seems like it could have a tendency towards pilling.  Both yarns are super soft though and well, stash yarns fit the budget quite nicely of course!

I think the only thing that my Penelope is missing is a new skirt to go with it!  I'll have to think on that.  Oh.  And a new pair of shoes.  (Those will definitely have to wait though.  LOL).