2023: Feb Review and Almost FOs

FEBRUARY REVIEW

WOW, Another month “gone”. Time flies!! Welcome Spring, my favorite time of year. I adore when the trees start budding and the bulbs pop through the ground and bloom. But first, a quick review of what projects started February and what projects finished.

STARTING OFF – 3 Project On Needles

I started the month with a pair of vanilla socks, a pair of colorwork socks that are a carryover project from 2022, and a my Sea Glass Tee.

ENDING – 3 Project On Needles

The vanilla socks and the carryover colorwork socks are still on their needles. The Sea Glass Tee got finished so the Deschain sweater got cast-on.

STASH MANAGEMENT – 250g Out

I ended up with 40g in but does that really count? I didn’t ask for the yarn. I did a yarn swap with a fellow Ravelry knitter and she include 2 mini skeins as a thank you. So I have successfully resisted yarn purchasing in 2023! Before I toot my horn though, I am going to a Miss Babs trunk show with my Naples knitting friends in March and I know I’ll buy some yarn so that has fueled my resistance. I finished my Sea Glass Tee so that was ~250g out. Yea!!

DESCHAIN – Almost FO

Well, I’ve seamed the pieces together. On the positive side, I’m learning. 🙂 I am not particularly happy with the seam made by the mattress stitch for joining the front and back pieces. The thick seam runs atop my shoulder from the neck down the arm. If it bothers me too much, I’ll remove the seam by picking out the cast-on stitches that need to be seamed to create live stitches that can then be kitchenered. If I knit this pattern again, I will use a combination of a provisional cast-on for those stitches that need to be kitchenered together and a regular cast-on for those stitches that make the neck opening. I also now know to knit the first 6″ of the front and back panels and then join them in the round and avoid needing to do side seaming as well. I definitely will avoid seamed sweaters in the future.

I’m nearly done as my daughter likes it as a tee so I don’t need to knit the sleeves. The pattern only calls for one repeat of the hem but I’m going to knit a second repeat before binding off. While it is cropped, the yarn is linen/cotten so it will likely grow a little. Any other changes will wait until she can try it on in a few weeks. I’m thinking about picking up stitches on the sleeves and then doing one repeat of the hem pattern.

VANILLA SOCKS – Almost FO

I have completed the legs on the socks and have started the ribbed cuffs. These will be finished today or tomorrow, definitely in time to gift at the beginning of April.

COLORWORK SOCKS

I was playing around with stripes for these socks. Not sure I like the stripe pattern I “created”. The yarn is white with bright rainbow speckles. I decided to purl all speckle stitches to create a random textured pattern. I think I will incorporate purl stitches into the next stripe so that it also “puffy”. Then the stripes will alternate between “flat” colorwork and “puffy” colorwork. This is a case where knitting one at a time is good in case I decide I don’t like my “puffy” colorwork stripes and rip the sock back to the first stripe.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Deschain and vanilla socks should be off the needles in the next day or two. I really want to knit another Sea Glass Tee/Sweater but I’m going to resist until I have my daughter try mine on to see if she a) likes it, b) needs size modifications, and c) wants a tee or sweater length sleeves. Also, I want to knit an alternating single row of stripe with the Sea Glass pattern but the colored yarn I want to use is back in Ohio so I have to wait until next month to start it. Next in my queue is to knit the Buttercup Tee by Heidi Kirrmeier. That will get cast-on this week.

I think I’m going to knit myself a pair of shortie socks with the yarn leftover from the vanilla sock above. By using contrast yarn for the toes, heels, and cuffs I should have enough for a pair of shorties.

That’s it for the week. Hope your year is going well and you had a great week of crafting.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. You can find more detailed information about my projects on my project pages in Ravelry (MaureenHD).  I’ve been knitting for six years.

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