The Honeybee Cardigan

Finally finished, and so lovely -- the lace really opened up with blocking (as is to be expected) and the weight of the Socks That Rock mediumweight makes it hang beautifully. The ribby nature of the lace makes it a bit clingy in all the right places, which is helped along by the inch of negative ease I knit it with. The yarn is also so round and bouncy that it gives great stitch definition. I think you've probably seen enough gratuitous closeups in previous posts, though, so I won't indulge myself with more of them.


I started this one in October and worked at it in fits and spurts, mostly at our group knit nights, so I'm sure it could have been done much faster, had I tried. Sometimes a slow project with no deadline can be so relaxing, though. (Case in point: the insane Ingalls hexagon quilt that I have puttered away on for a year or two and probably still will for several more.) The pattern itself was pretty straightforward, save when I got to the sleeve/body decreases, where I had to improvise the decreases amongst the ever-changing stitch counts of the lace. It went pretty well, and I don't think would be very noticeable if I didn't mention it. The only other change I made was to make the sleeves a bit shorter than recommended. I like them this length, and would even go another half inch shorter if I knew then what I know now (i.e. that they would lengthen a bit more in blocking.)

In any case, I have finished it and this leaves me with no big projects on the needles, and a world of possible options from my queue. *Rubs hands together* Where shall we go, next?

Buttons for the Bees

Since I am nearly at the finish line on the Honeybee Cardigan -- only the buttonbands and i-cord collar are left to knit -- I took a little trip to the fabric store yesterday to pick out some buttons. They are white, and a little bit shiny, and have flowers on them for the enjoyment of all the honeybees in the lace. I am pretty happy with them, but how they will look on the finished project remains to be seen.
I tried the cardigan on, after finishing the shoulder seams, and I think this one is going to be a winner, once it's finished and blocked. A few more days and I will post some photos, so we can all bask in the glory.

The Way it is Progressing

Just in case you were worried that the Honeybee Cardigan was in hibernation...


It's been slowly ticking along -- not because it is overly complicated or difficult, but because I've been distracting myself with starting and/or finishing up several other projects along the way. When I sit down with this one, I prefer to do a whole repeat of the lace (six looong rows) all at once; that whole repeat takes a couple of hours, so you can imagine that I don't sit down with this one as often as some of the other projects I've had going on.

I am well into the yoke part of the pattern, and although it's my first time knitting a set-in sleeve all in one piece with the body (rather than knitting them all as separate pieces and sewing them together at the end) I am finding it fairly straightforward. I'm even looking forward to trying this sort of thing with some other projects I have queued up for the future.

Miles and miles of lace. Mmm... I can't wait until it's blocked.

And Then There Was One

Here is the second-to-last block for Lizard Ridge:

I am three-quarters of the way through the very last block, and have already ordered the yarn for seaming and edging. Care to guess what colour it will be?

I have also made some good progress on the Honeybee Cardi; it is now all in one piece and I am slowly moving up the yoke. Very happy with how it looks, so far. Soon, I'll get to pick out some buttons for a finishing touch.

Lastly, I am partway through the heel flap of the first Vampire Boyfriend sock, and am feeling good about how they are humming along.

Gosh, I feel so productive, all of a sudden.

Spoiler Alert

I have, of course, cast on a new pair of socks. These ones are the final pair from the Blue Moon 2009 Rockin' Sock Club. The colourway is nice and black, with some barely-there colour variegation in purples and greens and yellow. The design has lace and ribbing, although I realize you can't really see it well in that colour.


I realized that last time I flashed you my sweet new stitch markers, I didn't let you know that they are from Sunneshine on etsy -- she does not only great stitch markers, but also row counters, for those of us who do complicated lace and cables and want an easy way to remember what row we're on. I highly recommend them (and her.)

In other news, I have gotten a few lace repeats done on the Honeybee Cardigan, but have only been working on it at the pub (where one patron this week initially suggested we must be knitting because we're trying to get off drugs, and then followed up with "are youse mental?" Fortunately he had a lovely Irish brogue and bought us beers to apologize for his impertinence, which ultimately only led to us being unable to execute our complicated knitting.)

I have also made a bit of progress on the endless body of the black yoke sweater. It is, despite all appearances, coming along.

I've started thinking seriously about finishing the Lizard Ridge blankie, since it's been lingering far too long, and it would be nice to complete it before starting another big project, since Rose-Kim Knits has put the idea in my head of joining Ravelry's 10 shawls in 2010 group... Although I need ten more shawls like I need a hole in the head.

Mostly I'm just happy that I'm not stressing out over finishing a bunch of holiday gift projects, like so many other bloggers out there. So much nicer to put my feet up and relax and work on more projects for selfish little me.

Limbo

I am in a strange state, right now, where I feel like I'm making no progress with all the various things I've been working on. I've been reading the same books for ages, and working on the same projects. In fact, it might be the sheer number of them that is keeping me from getting anywhere with any in particular.


Take my knitting, for example. I am still working on the leg of the second Knetted sock, as you can see on bottom left. I have doubled the amount of completed ribbing for the Honeybee Cardigan but still haven't quite felt motivated to start the more-complicated lace pattern. The best progress I've made is on the little stripey mohair scarf -- that piece you see is the second half of the scarf, for the record. The two halves get grafted together in the middle when the knitting is done, to allow the lace at either end to be identical.

Then there's the sleeves for the black yoke pullover. They are truly the black hole of my knitting. Not only have I been working on them forever, but now, as I finally near the underarm seam (the point where I can put them aside on stitch holders until I knit the body of the sweater and then join everything together) they are somehow making no progress at all. I tried them on a few nights ago, and decided they were about 10 rows from the underarm. No matter how many times I knit 5 rows and try it on again, they are always 10 rows from the underarm. They are defying the laws of physics. Maybe just 5 more rows will do it...

Startitis

I finished the hat a few days ago, but don't have a photo of it, yet. In lieu of that, here is some proof that I finally cast on a cardigan the other night. You may recognize the colour and know that it is the beginnings of the Honeybee Cardigan that I swatched quite a while back.

I also cast on a pair of socks yesterday (the latest from Cat Bordhi and the Rockin Sock Club.) Four projects on the needles: twice what I would normally have, and a definite symptom of Startitis.

Sneak Peeks and Swatches

As I mentioned before, I decided to make a pair of socks with the leftover yarn from my Damson. I found this pair over at Knitspot and when I pictured it in this lovely shade of yarn, it looked to me like a row of tumbling pomegranates. Since pomegranates are one of the symbols of the season, I thought it might be nice to knit them up in time for Samhain.

This is the Lichen yarn from madelinetosh that I purchased at Sock Summit. The pattern is a lovely lace mobius wrap, which you can see looks quite stunning in this colourway. Unfortunately I am running out of yarn at an astonishing pace, and I don't want this to turn into another Damson. I have a feeling this one might make its way into the frog pond and be re-made into something else. A shame, since the stitch pattern has been a real pain, and I wish I'd have something to show for my perseverance.

This is an adorable little swatch for the Honeybee Cardigan, out of Socks That Rock Mediumweight in a lovely light blue-green called Nyame. I have high hopes for this one, once I figure out how to size it for myself -- that's where the swatch comes in. This cardi will get properly started once I figure out what to do with the lace mobius wrap situation.

There is also a yoke sweater on the horizon, which I did a swatch for last night but subsequently ripped out after measuring it. It was only boring stockingette, nothing terribly interesting, although the sweater itself should be pretty great when it's done.