July was a crazy busy month for me, but today signals not only the end of the month but also, hopefully, the end of the busy-ness. I do like being busy—having things to occupy my mind during the days is much preferable to having nothing to do. But this was that bad form of busy where there are no breaks and try as you might you can’t really seem to get ahead, and some days even on top of, the problems. But I always knew that the end of July would signify the end of the crazy times, so hopefully the next four months will be relatively peaceful and happily productive.
Most recently in knitting news, I cast on Friday night for a project for the Ravellenics Games. I wasn’t originally planning to participate, as I’ve already got two projects on the needles, but I was feeling a little jealous of everyone on Twitter talking about their projects, so I said what the heck? I knew I needed something that would be relatively easy and obviously fast, and I’d recently won Hilary Smith Callis’s Pontos Cardigan as a reward from a Ravelry group knitalong. Pontos is a lovely, versatile cardigan worked in bulky weight yarn and a super simple lace pattern (how simple? I was knitting in the car in the dark on the way back from Richard III for a bit). As an additional bonus to it’s simplicity, it’s worked bottom up in one piece, then sleeves are joined for a raglan decrease. SO SIMPLE. I’m using Beaverslide Dry Goods’ McTaggert Tweeds and Heathers in the Big Sky Blue colorway—I’m not entirely sure how this got into my stash, but it’s been there for a few years and I’ve been searching for the perfect project for this. I am loving the way it’s knitting up in Pontos. This swatch photo shoes the color the best.
The fabric is delightfully squishy and blocks out nicely when it’s washed. The yarn is a bit twiggy, but not too bad and I just pull out little bits of vegetal matter from time to time. This shows my progress as of yesterday morning—I’d finished the bottom of the cardigan and the pocket backings on Sunday evening (this is my first project with POCKETS).
In the meantime, I opted to forge ahead on my Folded sweater and just start the waist-shaping decreases where I was, rather than ripping back (which I was strongly considering the last time I talked about this sweater). My new plan is to press on from where I am now and evaluate the length of the body when the sweater is finished. Maybe it will end up a lovely length for a tunic. Maybe I’ll pull some length from the bottom of the cardigan (which may happen anyway, as I’m considering swapping out the ribbed hem for a folded hem, but I’m going to wait to see how the hem blocks out; right now it’s rolling like crazy). I’ve finished the decreases and will likely start the increases very soon. Here, have a boring picture of a boring sweater body.
The scarf is going swimmingly which is why I’m not agonizing over the fact that I have three projects on the needles and two of them have deadlines. I turned the scarf and started working back to the cast-on edge not too long ago. I’m at least a foot and a half of the way up the back. Perhaps my imagination is responsible, but this scarf seems to be going so much faster now that I can see the finish line. I opted to not work the sides together as I knit, as that was not creating the beautiful edge I wanted, so I’m mattress stitching the sides every few days and that’s working much better.
As for my no-yarn-buying goal, I did exceptionally well this month and only picked up one skein of yarn in a cheap destash, though I was extremely tempted.
Sadly, there was no yarn coming into my house in any form, as I still haven’t received the yarn from the sock club that I joined in May. The first shipment was supposed to be sent out around the end of June, but Life happened to the dyer and that date was pushed back to the end of July. I understand that Life happens when you least expect it, but I’m quite frustrated as I love this dyer’s colors in general—I have a few skeins that I purchased via her shop in the past, but never as part of a club. Before anyone asks, I’m not going to name the dyer here. If I felt she was deliberately attempting to withhold the yarn that I had paid for, I would have no problem calling her out (after attempting to speak with her privately), but I don’t think that’s the case in this situation. Hopefully, though, I’ll have some good news to share on that front soon.
July also saw the creation of Threadpanda’s Facebook page! Please like that page if you haven’t already. I try to post small things there that don’t make it to the blog, to keep it interesting, and I’ve got some plans in mind for some other interactivity over there, while making sure to not spam your Friends feed with unnecessary drivel.
Love the new cardigan! Good luck finishing in time.
Thank you! I’m not quite going to make it—there was an issue—but it will be finished rather soon!
Bravo to you for forging ahead. You are a better person than I. Or should I say you are not as lazy as me. 🙂 Hope everything gets works out with your sock club. That is a bit of a bummer!
Well, the forging ahead is because I’m lazy and didn’t want to rip. 🙂