Blue period

These are my current WIPs. Apparently I'm in my blue period? (To be fair I love blue and use it a lot, but didn't realize until now that all my WIPs were similarly dark blue.)

In the pile is a Puerperium baby cardigan in navy blue and pink-purple cotton, Pecan Crush cardigan in my reclaimed BFL/Alpaca yarn from my last post, and Torrent socks in lovely Scottish hand-dyed yarn I've had in my stash since moving to Scotland in the first place. (Stash-match FTW!)

Three WIPs makes me a little antsy, but I am enjoying them all. I'll finish the baby knit soon enough which will bring me down to two long-haul projects, though don't be surprised if I immediately cast-on another tiny quick baby project!

Do you have colour themes in your knitting without even realizing it?

Unmaking

The last few days I've been working on some long overdue frogging.



That blue blob was the entire body portion of a Cria cardigan. It was supposed to be half my entry to the Outfit Along of 2015, run by Untangling Knots. Despite attempting to pay attention to measurements and gauge, I neglected to notice that the sleeves were way too big until after I'd finished the body. Since This sweater is a top-down, seamless-set-in-sleeves type deal, once I'd finished the body there was no easy way to go back and fix the sleeve caps. If I'd been going for SUPER POOFY sleeves I would have just kept going, but that's not what I wanted for this cardigan. So I shoved it in a corner for months while I worked on other things, unable to bear the prospect of unraveling all my work.

I dug it out again in the spirit of sustainability. Though I'm not officially stashing down this year, I would like to be more mindful of my yarn purchases and more mindful of choosing and using the yarn I already have. That means frogging projects that aren't going anywhere and finding a new use for the yarn. Once repurposed, this yarn will become something else - reused, returned to circulation, not abandoned to dust / dark closet corners.

My first act of making in the Maker's Year is unmaking.

This post is part of The Maker's Year hosted by A Playful Day.

In related news, I've joined Twitter. (The last one to do so, ever?) You can find me @goodenoughmakes. It's still a bit bare bones over there, but I'll come up with something to put there soon.

Baby FOs: Gidday and Zigging

Time for an FO round-up! First, the last FO of 2015.



Pattern: Gidday Baby by Georgie Hallam

Yarn: Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK

Mods: Added more button holes, attempted to close YOs in yoke with knitting through back loop, though some of them still show.

Notes: Super cute, super quick knit. I enjoyed making this. I made the 3 month size, with an awareness that babies (like bigger folk) don't necessarily comply with size standards, so I hope it fits at some point in a relevant season. Cotton yarn was my choice because this baby is due in spring... but spring in a place that doesn't get particularly warm, so cardigans are useful year-round. And, surprise surprise: it's teal. My husband teases me about my love for teal and when he saw this he joked that this baby is going to be dressed exactly like me. So I told him I'd make something green and black to match him.

This next one is green on green, though. First FO of 2016!



Pattern: Zigging by Sarah Ronchetti

Yarn: Easyknits Deeply Wicked and Old Maiden Aunt Merino Superwash 4 ply

Mods: Big ol' pom-pom!



Notes: Not much to say about this one. Pretty quick, and got me back into the rhythm of colourwork since I haven't done any in a while. I have some colourwork things for myself I want to make soon, so I had better start them before my hands forget how to hold one colour in each hand.

2016 Crafting Goals

I'd like to say that 2016 is the year I'll get back into blogging in a committed way, or the year I try National Sweater Knitting Month again, or something of the sort. However for a number of reasons I think this year is going to be chaotic and I don't want to over commit myself and then feel bad later. It may be I'll have loads of extra knitting time, but it's also likely I will be sleep-deprived and never have any time to myself. There is a lot of unpredictability in one small package heading my way in early May and I'm not sure how anyone in my household is going to cope with it. (This is me announcing my pregnancy, btw. Open-fronted cardigans FTW!)

Me last week at 22 weeks

I’m going to set a few hopefully achievable goals nonetheless.

1. Knit one sweater for myself
I'm already finding it easy to focus entirely on baby knits - So small! So quick! So cute! I want to make sure I take time to make something for myself, even if it is only one thing.

2. Knit socks for my mom
She's due a handknitted gift this year and she requested socks, so socks it is. I think I can manage a pair of socks before the end of the year, but I guess we'll see!

3. Sew something wearable (for myself or for the baby)
I have attempted to sew a few wearables so far in my short sewing career and none have turned out to be particularly useful to me for various reasons. I like to change that this year and maybe even sew something for the baby.

So, there are my goals for 2016. Notice how I didn't say stash down...

2015 knitting recap

Here's what I made in 2015 - a paltry 9 finished objects! I think I finish fewer things every year. Ah well, it's not about quantity, right? I had a lot going on this year that curtailed my knitting output. Knittingwise, I attempted several sweaters that I abandoned in various states of non-completion... I have some frogging to do, but maybe this year that yarn will become something! Still, I'm pleased with the things I made this year.



Top row: Gidday Baby by Georgie Hallam, Arya Mitts by Patti Waters, Cinnamon Stone Shawl by Verybusymonkey

Second Row: Itaca by Stephen West, Varia by Alex Tinsley, Raiun by Kirsten Johnstone

Third row: Fleegle heel socks, Tauriel socks by Josiah Bain, Luna Viridis by Hilary Smith Callis.

Apparently this was the year I focused on accessories, even though as I said above I attempted a few sweaters. The cardigan I did manage to finish, Raiun, is my favourite FO of the year. I wear it all the time - it is an excellent transitional weather piece in this land of unpredictable temperatures. Plus, I'm really getting into open-fronted cardigans (more on this later.)

I had made myself some goals for 2015, so let's see how I managed.

2015 goals
1. Stash down, with a few exceptions.

Exception 1: I will buy yarn to make a Pomegranate sweater. Bought yarn, decided to make Even Flow instead due to newfound love of open-fronted cardigans, abandoned because I think the pattern needs a smooth semi-solid yarn instead.

Exception 2: I will buy yarn at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and/or the yarn crawl, should anything unmissable jump out at me. But I will show restraint! Restraint at EYF? Debatable. haha. I came home with 4 more skeins of hand-dyed sock yarn which I needed like a hole in the head. But they are so pretty and I love them.

Exception 3: I will buy yarn to make gifts if I don't have anything appropriate in my stash. Bought yarn for Itaca, Varia, and Gidday - over third of my projects were apparently gifts this year, since the Fleegle Heel socks were also a gift though made from stash.

In the end stashing down didn't really happen because my exceptions were not very restrictive. I didn't keep a good tally of yardage in/out, but here it is roughly.

Projects knit from stash: 6 (5 one-skein sock yarn projects and one sweater quantity)
Projects cast-on immediately with 2015 yarn purchases: 3 multi-skein projects
Skeins bought with no project in mind: 4 sock yarn, 1 SQ for Pomegranate that turned out not to be for that and is languishing in the frog pond, 4 extra skeins of yarn I intended for Gidday but didn't like the colour combinations so put on hold for something else.

So I didn't quite break even this year. I did knit from stash more than I realised, and I stuck to my non-restrictive rules, so not a total failure. But not really a resounding success either. Ah well!

2. Finish allocating yarn to patterns in my Stash Match project, including my sweater-quantities. Haha FAIL. I did two Stash Match posts this year: Sock Yarn and Laceweight. This leaves me three more to do. I valiantly tried to decide on my alapca stash projects in December but could not come to a final decision, so expect a post on this some time in 2016. I am also debating destashing some of the other two categories to make space in my house because I can't see myself ever using some of this yarn.

So that was 2015! I'm due a real FO post on the Gidday cardigan, plus I have the first FO of 2016 to share, and some news on WIPs. Plus some goals for 2016. Yikes. Hope your 2015 was delightful and productive in crafty and non-crafty ways!

FO: Arya Mitts

Oh hello! I didn't realize it had been several months since I showed any knitting progress. I have been doing some knitting behind the scenes, but it has been slow going - didn't feel like taking progress photos of another few centimetres of twisted stitch cable every week. And I abandoned a cardigan I was working on in a fit of annoyance. That probably deserves a post of its own if I can be bothered to take it out of the corner I've shoved it in. Anyway, I did finally finish something!



Pattern: Arya Mitts by Patti Waters

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock



Mods: Changed the stitch count because as written with my gauge the circumference was massive. I didn't do any wrist shaping out of laziness, so these are just a long tube - but the stitch pattern is very stretchy, so I don't miss the shaping. I made the thumbs longer than written.

These took ages because I didn't focus on them, but ultimately I enjoyed knitting them. The cable pattern was intuitive once I got into it, and it certainly kept my interest. The yarn is so pretty - and a surprisingly good fit for these cables. (Photos don't show the pops of purple and green running through very well, but they are awesome.)



I'm very pleased with these. Unfortunately I seem to have lost my slouchy green fingerless mitts from last year, so these ones are now going to fill a gap in my collection. (The gap being "long fingerless mitts that aren't bright pink." I still wear the pink ones with love, but since I wear almost exclusively green/turquoise/blue when it comes to outerwear, they don't really fit my accidental colourscheme.) Plus, another tick off my stash match list! Woohoo. Speaking of which, I'm due another post on that once I can figure out what to do with all my miscellaneous light weight alpaca yarn. It's on the list.

New WIP: Arya mitts

I've made a start on the Arya Mitts by Patti Waters. This is another project towards my Stash Match.



I'm glad that I'm finally using this yarn because it is beautiful. This yarn was a gift in a swap from several years ago. It's Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. Very pretty in the skein, but as I was winding it I fell in love with the colours even more. It's subtly variegated in blues, greens, and purples - I thought it might be too busy for this cable pattern at first, but I think it will work okay. The twisted-stitch cables are surprisingly intuitive!

FO: Cinnamon Stone Shawl

The greenest shawl ever is finished.



Pattern: Cinnamon Stone Shawl by Verybusymonkey



Yarn: Old Maiden Aunt Merino Superwash 4-Ply in Emerald City colourway

Notes:

Before I start criticizing the pattern, I want to say that it is beautiful and I love the result with some reservations. I think it is very worth knitting if you like the look of it, but be prepared to deal with some issues. The first half of the shawl went smoothly and was very enjoyable, but my troubles began once I hit chart 3.

First, the pattern along the bottom edge follows three charts - my first thought was to tape the charts together to form one seamless huge chart. But alas! The charts are different sizes, so the rows do not line up. If I had been more committed, I would have done some print sizing experimentation, but I just lived with it. It slowed me down and caused me to grumble a bit, but oh well.



Second, there are some errors in the pattern(or maybe the pattern is totally fine and I'm just losing my mind - always possible). Other ravelers also ran into trouble where I did, which makes me think the pattern is to blame rather than my pattern-reading skills. Frustrating, but these things happen. Thank goodness for Ravelry. Anyway, I followed some very helpful notes to fix the problems - I've linked to them in my Rav notes here.

I'm not entirely happy with the lace at the bottom edge - I feel like the fact that it is reverse stockinette makes the YOs look messy and undefined. I much prefer the way the middle section looks with extra knit stitches thrown in for contrast and to define the lace a bit more. Does that make sense? It's still pretty, but not as crisp as the rest of it.



My final small disappointment is that the way I prefer to wear shawlettes doesn't show off the gloriousness of this lace pattern. Sigh. (This is my own issue, not a fault of the pattern, though the pattern schematic is a bit misleading when it comes to shawl shape. Or maybe I just blocked it wrong?) I think this would look fabulous worn over the shoulders with the lace flowing down the back... like my picture on the chair above. I tend to wear things bandit-style, however; this particular arrangement crumples up the lace in this case. (I have made plenty of triangle and crescent-shaped shawls that do not do this, so it's not a function of shape so much as lace placement, I think.) It's fine, though - even if the lace gets crumpled when I wear it, it's still totally the greenest thing I own. GREEN FTW.

The only mod I made was to forgo the picot bind-off in favour of a standard stretchy bind-off.

Altogether mixed results, but I'll wear it with love this autumn/winter. And the yarn is still my favourite.

Moar swaps

This has been the summer of swaps. In addition to the sock/shawl swap, I also took part in a more standard gift swap. I sent fun things to someone, and a third person sent fun things to me - it was the standard secret kind of swap where nobody knew who would be sending them stuff. As it turns out, Erin sent me a delightful package of wonderfulness. It's fun to get post!

Local was the theme of this package. Erin lives in NYC and is originally from Savannah - so she packed it full of things from both places.



Let's talk about that gradient. It's handspun and it is rustic and beautiful. I can't decide what to make with it - maybe the Moab Shawl by Verybusymonkey, or something similar.

Also included in the package were fancy flavoured sugars, exciting chocolate (goat, sheep AND cow milk varieties), honey soap, and blueberry jam. Particularly of note is the jam, produced by Anarchy in a Jar. Here's something you might not know about me: for the last 13 years (apparently), whenever I talk / think about jam this old Weebl and Bob video comes to mind. (Now you know!) Anyway, this anarchic jam is only going to reinforce the association I have between jam and revolt. (Plus it is delicious.)

Thanks, Erin! I'm truly spoiled.

Sock/Shawl Swap, part 2

Last post I showed you the shawl I made for the socks/shawls swap. Here are the socks I got in return!



They are the Pandora's Box Socks. The picture fails to capture the beautiful bright purple undertones to the yarn. They are so soft!

Kristi, my talented swap partner, used a Fish Lips Kiss heel - I've never tried this heel, but I definitely will in the future. Standard short row heels never fit me very well, so I stick with heel flaps. But this heel fits me really well, even though it resembles a short row heel.



Colours are all wrong in this picture, but there is the pretty cuff detail.



She also sent me some goodies, including tea towel and hand made buttons. Can we talk about how awesome these buttons are? They are copper with enamel, and she made them herself. I am so impressed. For now they are living in my button stash looking pretty, but soon I'll come up with a project for them.

Thanks again, Kristi! It's been a pleasure swapping with you.

FO: stripey shawl

I made a thing, but not for me. It was for another socks/shawl swap, and it was a lot of fun. Last year I made someone else socks in exchange for a shawl; this year I am bored of making socks, so I made someone else a shawl to swap for socks.



Pattern: Itaca by Stephen West

Yarn: Ito Kinu



Notes:

I didn't add the shells / beads on the bind-off edge, but otherwise followed the pattern as written. The yarn is 100% tussah silk, and I really enjoyed working with it. It has a pleasant nubbly texture and a pretty depth of colour, in an almost tweed-y way.

I'm hesitant to commit to using it again, however; upon blocking, the shawl acquired a really strong musty smell. I'm told this sometimes happens to silk, though this definitely wasn't the 'fishy' smell that also sometimes happens with silk. Anyway, I managed to get the smell out, I think. I tried many things, but what seemed to work in the end was washing in regular laundry detergent (by hand) and rinsing in citric acid. Then hanging it outdoors for a few days. So, although I like the yarn, I have my reservations about it. Hopefully I just got a bad batch.

Next up, I'll show you what I received in return!

Linking up with FO Friday.

WIP: Greenest Shawl

I've made some progress on my Cinnamon Stone shawl. The rows definitely feel long now, and it no longer seems to fly by. I'm still excited to see the pattern coming through, though!



Plus, I've reached the stage where the lace pattern for each row is on 3 separate charts. Definitely not television knitting, this! I haven't done anything with such an involved chart in a while, but it is going well. Luckily, the wrong-side rows have no lace, so my brain gets a bit of a rest then.

What are you working on? See some other WIPs at Stitch-Along Wednesday.

Yarn dyeing with onion skins

Since my experiment with tea-dyed yarn a few years ago, I've been curious about what else I can use to dye yarn. A member of my knitting group suggested onion skins, so I started looking into it. Upon finding out that onion skins can dye without a mordant, I set out to give it a try.

It took me several months to collect enough onion skins - I didn't have a precise amount I was aiming for, but I'd read that more is better. We tend to use yellow/brown onions, so those are the skins I saved. I collected them until I was fed up. I didn't weigh them, so I can't say how much I actually had in the end. Just call it a shedload.

To prepare the dye solution, I tried to shove all skins into my too-small pot, let them simmer for about an hour, and then strained the skins out. Boiled onion skins smell pretty terrible, FYI. I was surprised at how red the dye solution was.

I let the solution cool a little while I soaked my yarn. Since I am technically on stash down I couldn't buy any new yarn, so I used some undyed 4-ply alpaca that I had in my stash. Then I put the yarn in the pot and started simmering it again. The picture above shows the colour once I had put my yarn in - the yarn started taking up colour really quickly.

After simmering it for about 45 minutes, I was sick of the boiled onion skin fumes, so I turned it off and let it cool. There was still plenty of colour in the dye bath, though it was a bit lighter than at the beginning. If I was dedicated, I probably could have saved the rest of the dye and used it again on something else. Or maybe I could have used fewer onion skins to begin with.

Picture above is what I ended up with.

Oh hey, it's brown! Surprise, surprise.

When I washed the yarn it lost a bit of colour, but not too much - the water became tinged yellow. It looked much more orange/red when wet, but it dried to be a light orange-y brown. My first thought when I looked at it dry was that it was exactly like my tea-dyed yarn. Upon comparing the two, however, I see that they are quite different.

See my tea-dyed sock with my onion-dyed yarn below. The sock is darker and less red/orange, though it does have reddish undertones that don't come through well in the photo.

Tea sock with Onion yarn. A Study in Contrasts.

My problem now is what to knit with this yarn! It's a delightfully soft, delicate 100% alpaca 4-ply. Not suitable for socks - really, it would be best around the neck! It's not a colour I like to wear near my face, though. It may have to wait for a contrasting skein of alpaca to join my stash (next year, perhaps?) and become something striped to mediate the orange-y brown-ness of it. Any ideas?

I didn't follow any particular tutorials to the letter, but here are a few links that helped me figure it all out:
Ways of the Whorl
It's a Stitch Up
Lion Brand
Folk Fibers

Altogether it was a fun experiment. Maybe I'll try red onion skins some time!

FO: Varia

A few weeks ago I started and finished a project without it making an appearance on the internet.

Yeah, it was quick! I love an instant gratification project every now and then.



Pattern: Varia by Alex Tinsley

Yarn: Jamieson and Smith 2 ply Jumper Weight (held double).

Notes: No mods, super quick, very enjoyable. J&S is maaaaybe not the best yarn for slouchiness, at least not at this gauge, since it is quite sturdy. But it is certainly the best yarn for colourwork.



My grandma requested another hat, and as I have already made her two Coronets, I wanted to try something different this time. When pressed, her brief was "something with various shades of blue." So here we are! In the shop, the middle shade looked more blue than teal - but as it turns out, the world is conspiring to make me buy teal yarn even when I don't realise I'm doing it. I'm onto you...

Linking up with FO Friday a day late here.

WIP Wednesday: Cinnamon Stone Shawl

The boringness of my stockinette cardigan was getting me down, so I started something new. (As one does.)



This is the Cinnamon Stone Shawl by Verybusymonkey. I'm happy to say that this is something from my Stash Match Project that I started last year - sometimes I can stay on track!

The yarn is Old Maiden Aunt Superwash Merino 4 ply (aka my favourite yarn), in the Emerald City colourway. Cameras can't handle how green this yarn is, so I oversaturated the colour in an attempt to bring out the awesome greenness. It doesn't quite capture it, still. It is so green. It glows!

I'm at the stage where the rows are still short enough that they fly by, and I love watching the lace pattern develop.

Linking up with Stitch Along Wednesday

Outfit Along update

There are only a few days left in the official Outfit Along, and as expected I'm not going to finish my sweater on time. But it's cool - I got my skirt done!


Modeled shots to follow at some point. I swear I ironed it, but the hanger makes it bunch up more than it should.

The pattern is the Alder Skirt by Imagine Gnats. This is the first time in my adult life that I've made a garment from a pattern. I had a few false starts and my cutting/sewing accuracy could be better, but oh well.

Problem the First:

The first time I sewed it all together the pockets gaped horribly. I have a suspicion that the pockets are suppose to gape a bit in View A, but it is hard to tell how much since most of the pictures of that view include hands in the pockets. In all likelihood, slight errors in cutting and matching made mine even worse. I decided I didn't want balloon pockets, so I had to undo the side seams and move things around until they didn't gape so much.

Problem the Second:

When putting the elastic in for the waist, it seemed like I wouldn't be able to put it on over my hips. This was made worse by the rejigging I had to do for the pockets. I contemplated trying to install a zipper, but decided that might be too much for my tiny brain to handle at this stage. In the end, I can juuuust barely get it over my hips, so it's fine. I can always fall back on putting it over my head.

Here it is with my Cria cardigan in progress:



(strange shoulder lumps are from the skirt hanger)

I'm at the endless stockinette body stage, and it seems like it will last forever. Ah well - it'll be worth it in the end!

Yarn bowl!

Oh HAI blogosphere. I've been crafting, just not keeping up with pictures and writing about it. Never mind. I wanted to show off something I made a little while ago that is yarn-related, but not made of yarn.

I took a pottery class for 6 weeks ending last month, and it was incredibly fun. In my youth I did pottery for a few years at the local community centre, and I loved it - so when I found out there was a class on in my neighbourhood I was excited to try it again. And I still love it, and I'm anxious for the next session to start up! I kind of love the unpredictability of it - I'm sure some people plan well and create things according to their plans, but I found it kind of freeing not to. Especially with glazing - it was kind of fun not knowing exactly how the glazes would interact with each other and how it would all turn out. I made a bunch of things, including some wonky wheel-thrown bowls, and a few flower pots, but the thing I'm most proud of is my yarn bowl.



Yeah, it's teal. So sue me. (The glaze is a not-opaque blue-y green plus a thin layer of blue glaze, over top of a turquoise slip. It was kind of an experiment, but I love the colours that came through.)



And it works! I've been using it with my current project, as shown above - the Cria Cardigan - and it has kept my yarn contained nicely while looking awesome on my coffee table.

I'll be back with more soon: a knitted FO, plus an Outfit-Along update.

Outfit Along: getting started!

The Outfit Along hosted by Untangling Knots and Lladybird started at the beginning of the month, and I somewhat impulsively decided to participate. I'm going to make a skirt rather than the official dress pattern, and I'm making a different cardigan as well. This will be a chance for me to try sewing a garment from an actual pattern, as well as work through some stash yarn I've been meaning to use for a long time.

Here are my materials:



The fabric is more turquoise than it appears. I will be sewing the Alder Skirt - it has an elastic waist so I don't have to attempt zipper installation on a garment this time. (Though now that I've made a few project bags with zippers they are less scary than before). It also has pockets! Pockets are awesome. If all goes well, this will be extremely wearable. I'm excited.

The yarn is Double Kiss, an alpaca-wool blend. I will be knitting Cria by Ysolda Teague - another eminently wearable design that I've had queued for years and years.

I have been a bit concerned about the two together, wondering if the fabric is too summery to go with the cardigan. Alpaca and wool are quite warm, after all. I already decided against some other fabric in my stash that was an even more summery print, but I think this will work for autumnal wear. To be honest, I might also find myself wearing alpaca in the summer given Edinburgh's famously crap summers...

FO: Raiun Cardigan

This week has been a week of finishing. It's awesome when long-haul projects that I thought would never end suddenly come together and I remember why I chose to make them in the first place.



Yes, I AM pleased with myself! Haha.

Pattern: Raiun by Kirsten Johnstone

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4-ply



Notes and Mods:

I am very happy with this. Having never worked with a wool-cotton blend before, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to work with. Given the dubious status of summer in my city, I'm sure this will get a lot of wear.

My only real mod was adding ribbing to the bottom hem, since I don't trust any pattern that tells me stockinette hems don't roll if you block them enough. I've been down that road before! The only thing I'm not super pleased about is the fact that the collar rolls inward a bit. Not a huge problem, but I can see myself getting annoyed in the future if I end up tugging at it a lot.



I love the ribbing pattern on the back - I guess it is the whole point of the sweater. It gives the illusion of shaping, which helps on an drapey open-fronted cardigan, and it also kind of looks like wings. Success!

WIP Wednesday: breaking my own rules

First, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who found me via the Love Your Blog challenge and stayed to take a look. It's crazy how many blogs I've added to my blogroll just from Monday's festivities - I'm looking forward to finding even more fun reads over the coming weeks!

Second, I have a newish WIP that is breaking all the rules.

I'm making some plain socks using a Fleegle Heel, as a gift.



The yarn is Fyberspates Sheila's Sock, and it's not electric blue like it appears - more periwinkles and purples.



Rules broken:

No Vanilla Socks

This isn't a hard and fast rule, but I have so many non-vanilla sock patterns in my queue/favourites that I never have any desire to make plain ones. Unless they are stripey. But these are going really quickly, so maybe these will change my mind about vanilla socks. Also I might try something fun and fancy at the cuff, but I haven't decided what yet.

Deviating from the Stash Match project

I gave myself plenty of scope for changing my mind when I started the stash match project, so it's really fine. This is the first major change I've made, though, so it feels a bit rebellious. The yarn is just a perfect colour for the intended recipient, and I'm still feeling a bit burnt out on cables from my last socks, so I currently have no desire to make the project I originally allocated the yarn for, as gorgeous as it is. There will be other yarns and I may yet come back to it.

Using my "too pretty for socks" yarn, for socks

I have all my digits crossed that it will be okay, since these are meant to be bed socks, and the yarn is technically superwash. somehow knitting gift socks out of obscenely pretty yarn seems more justifiable to me. I know this is irrational, since I should totally use the best for myself, and I can't know if the gift recipient is going to take care of the socks lovingly... but there it is.



So there it is. Do you have any knitting rules, and do you like to break them?

Linking up with Stitch Along Wednesday this week.