That Was Unforseen

February was a heck of a month.

Remember how I popped in to show you I'd started the knotworks on my Countess Cathleen cloak?

Yeah, I jumped the starting whistle a wee bit. Turns out, I didn't have enough wool to finish the knotworks where I'd positioned them. And the cloak wasn't where I'd hoped it would be lengthwise either, so...

I frogged back to the row before I started the knotworks (again), started knitting again, adding to the background. And very quietly ordered 4 more hanks of wool.

(Aside: I ordered the wool at 3:45am on a Thursday. Around 8 hours later I had an email saying my order was at the post office, and it was ready for pickup at my local post office on Monday. I can't tell you how absolutely blown away by the service from Cast On! Cast Off! in Triton🔗 (link to their website; they have 5 exclusive colorways of Briggs & Little Heritage!) Of course, it helps they and I are on the same island. But seriously I wasn't even expecting my order to be into the mail that quickly!)

With the new hanks in hand, and a lovely (insert eyeroll here) snow storm happening outside, I charted out the knotworks, and the bottom borders (with transitions for all 3 sizes!).  Happy dance! 

I'm only 3 rows from the (please let this be the final) knotwork starts :) Granted, the rows are over 600 stitches in length so it's taking a bit to get them done. But once the knotworks are started my progress will pick up.

I'm an odd creature in that easy knitting, like say stockinette in the round, takes me foreeeeeevvvveeerrr. But stick a complex cable or lace pattern in the midst of it and I'll have it done lickety split! If you're at all familiar with online knitting magazine, Knitty🔗 (link to the wonderful webzine), and their delightful rating system, I have a tanktop from one of the previous iterations of their shop that says "piquant" on it for a reason. My former knit night pals can laughingly tell you about the time we held a knit-a-long for the Pinwheel sweater (was on the now defunct Elann.com), and everyone finished, except me because I got bored of all the stockinette in the round and started other projects instead of finishing it *insert cry-laughing emoji here*. I digress.

Speaking of snow, that dump we got in February melted down fairly quickly. And then we received another 54cm (roughly 21 inches) this past Thursday through Saturday morning. Guess who tried to shovel out the household for the second time in around 3 weeks. And guess who is hurting a lot, and unable to sleep despite the taking of medications meant to calm muscles and pain signals. Someone writing a blogpost much earlier than she normally does, perchance? See, I figured you'd put the clues together ;)

My recent internet rabbithole has been looking for sources of large quantities of 6/0 beads for Cherish the Ladies, and a few other designs that aren't quite far enough along to put on my cast-on list just yet. Admittedly, I don't have yarn for any of them. Kind of slows things down a bit lol. And yes, other designers probably have yarn before they start a design. Seems logical, right? While I routinely employ logic in all kinds of situations, designing isn't always one of them. We've established I do things my own way, even when it makes no logical sense, right? Oh good. I was afraid no one noticed ;)

The furry members of the household have figured out I'm awake, so I must give them attention. You'd think no one ever pets Jakey and Silver by how they get on...

That reminds me! You need to see the photo of Jakey from Saturday night. I had the cloak out to knit some after the hockey game, and... well see for yourself:

The furry nephew wasn't pleased that I asked him to get off my cloak. And with that expression on his floofy little face, I decided to work on something else completely. He's a benevolent little tyrant of two things: 100% wool (in hanks, balls or already knit up), and my lap if one of his sisters gets up with me. Sil has learned to sit on the arm of the couch next to me to avoid him pushing her off my lap. He's quite the character, our Jakey.

Well, fiber friends, I think I've been at this long enough *yawn*. Maybe I can get a bit of sleep in, on this rainy Tuesday morning. I hope your projects are all coming along nicely. Pop a comment below to let me know what your current project(s) is/are.

Yours in yarn, and an ever stiffening back,

Síle

Underestimating

Happily, I've been getting some design work done the last bit. And I'm oh so close to having my next pattern with my techeditor! 

But first I've got to get it cast-off and blocked. You wouldn't think casting off would be an issue, but when you're doing a bit of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants designing it really can turn out to be a thing.

I'm at work on a shawl I'm calling "Hap-Hazard", and it's one I've worked on, off and on, for nearing 6 years. I knit the original in an acrylic yarn and wanted to see if it was better in a blockable fiber. That plan took a small detour as I worked on other items. Finally I was able to acquire 5 hanks of my go-to wool from Briggs & Little, Heritage, and get to work. I don't work on only one thing at a time though so the shawl got put aside more than a few times.

This spring I've needed that comforting knitting though, so Hap-Hazard has been added back into my rotation of in progress projects. And it's nearly done. I posted a photo to my Instagram today showing just the small ball of wool and some of the stitches on the circular needle. Here's the photo:

(And before anyone asks, the stitch marker is by a clay artist in St. John's who sells them as Dawn's Creations; website: Dawn's Creations. I bought a set of her Jellybean Row Houses from Cast On Cast Off (lys in St. John's; website: Cast On Cast Off); this is the green one. I like green and purple together. You've seen my Rínce Fada scarf, right? Sorry for the tangent lol)

So I got the photo posted and returned to the cast off. I hadn't gotten too far when I realized that I was going to lose at yarn chicken by a large margin. sigh I did the only thing I could: removed the shawl from the needle and frogged back 4 rounds of lace knitting, tinked another as I replaced the stitches on the needle, and now I'm in the process of tinking the last round. My pattern has a 6 round repeat. More than enough wool to cast off properly now!

When I started working on this pattern, I had 3 charts adding up to 144 rounds of the border. I knit 70 when I realized that 1) it was going to be far bigger than I thought, and 2) I didn't have enough yarn to get much finished beyond the 70 rounds. Oops! Time to cast off! And then the aforementioned yarn chicken occurred. 1075 yds/ 5 hanks of my chosen wool seemed like the right amount to get for this design. Next time I go for the even half dozen! An extra hank of worsted weight is always handy for a hat or a pair of mittens. And then I don't need frog/tink more than normal! 

I've adjusted the charts and the written instructions already so once it's blocked and final measurements are added to the pattern, and photos are taken, I'll get the pattern off to be techedited and figure out how to run the test knit once it's done there. If anyone has any tips on holding testknits off-Rav, I'd love to hear them! I'm looking into YarnPond as a possibility but I'm open to anything except R*velry (for obvious reasons, like not being able to use it very long myself), and via email. I used to hold them over email but found it difficult for my testers to share with each other. That was a benefit of my R*velry group; everyone could see how each other's project was turning out, and could ask questions that were seen by everyone participating. Much more fun! Leave me a comment if you've had success with a certain platform or if you've participated in a testknit with another designer that you enjoyed where it was run. 

In Jakey news, the floofy boy is happy and healthy. The fur isn't quite fully grown in on his tail, but you'd never guess all the troubles he had these last few months. You can still use code Jakey to get 25% off any of my patterns (tab at the top of this blog), with monies after fees going to the remaining bill. Thank you to everyone who has bought patterns this spring! 

I think that's all the news around here for now.

Yours in yarn and chart revisions,

Síle