Where are they now?

I think it’s about time I do an update on my knitting WIPs. With the weather getting really cold, I found myself reaching more into my knitting again. And there have been some new projects that haven’t even made an appearance on this blog. So lets take a look, shall we?

Melon shawl

Last we saw her, she was just starting out, at the beginning of Project Spectrum’s yellow pink and green months. Puts me to shame, really, two months have passed and I’m not even halfway with her yet. Not that it’s overly complicated or anything. In fact the pattern is quite easy to memorise, manageable enough for knitting in front of the TV. I just get distracted easily… (you’ll see). I know the lace doesn’t look like much here, crumpled up like this, so here’s a close up of it stretched out.

Serrano

Speaking of Project Spectrum, the theme colours now are red, black and metallics. So it’s probably a good time to dig up my black Serrano cardi in progress and dust her off. (The pattern is from here.)

I started this so long ago it’s embarassing. When I last left her, I have just finished one sleeve (I decided to start with sleeves first), and now I’ll get on to the second sleeve. Why not work on the body now, I hear you ask? Well, because the needles that I need (80 cm/32″ 2.5mm circulars) are being used for something else (see below projects). Turns out I really really like my 2.5mm Addi Turbo needles. Perhaps I should get my needles to multi task like this 😉 Hmm, might be too complicated perhaps, with two socks involved.

Stripey socks

I bought a skein of Heirloom Jigsaw sock yarn from Tapestry Craft because I was taken by this colourway (it’s #54, the pink/white striping). It’s not as soft as STR, but it’s okay, and the striping is keeping me interested. I’m just making a plain stockinette socks, cuff down, but with short row heels for a change. I started knitting this with DPNs, but I had unsightly ladders problem. So I thought I’d try out magic looping. I have tried magic looping only once before (it was for making this baby hat) when I was still new to knitting, and it wasn’t a very good experience. On hindsight, it was probably because I wasn’t using the right needles. The cord of the needles that I used back then wasn’t very flexible at all and I couldn’t get an even tension. For this sock I used my Addi Turbos (yep, that 2.5mm one) and it worked like a charm. No ladders at all! The flexible cord of the Addi Turbos really made a difference. And magic looping turns out to be simple too! There’s an excellent video tutorial here that explains the method very well.

So I’ve got one sock down, but I’m knitting another sock first before returning to knit its mate…

Jaywalkers

A lot of people have been through the Jaywalker craze. I love the look of the zigzag-y stripes and I wanted to make my own too, except that I didn’t have a suitable yarn. Now I do.

This is Jaywalkers in STR lightweight, G-Rocks colourway. As I knit this I can’t help thinking that it would’ve been such a great yarn to use for the previous Project Spectrum colours (yellow, pink and green, all in one!) I’m making my jaywalkers with picot trim instead of the ribbing, inspired by Anna’s jaywalkers.

And yep, I’m using the 2.5mm Addi Turbos for this sock, for magic-looping. I really like magic-looping now, I think it might just become my method of choice for sock knitting.

And that pretty much brings us up to date with the state of my knitting WIPs!