Somehow tomorrow is 2019 — which means the start of the Steekalong — so I’m here today to confess about the knitting projects that were spontaneously started and not finished this month. While Bob’s vest parts were blocking, and again when it was awaiting seaming and I had a flight to catch, I unintentionally cast on two more black stockinette projects. So this is also known as The Tale of the Black Blobs.
The first (upper one) is the evolution of the idea of knitting another dickey in the black Wookfolk Luft. Rather than simply knitting Grete again, I got inspired by the Flying Solo, plus a simple funnel shaped stockinette cowl I made and gave away the first year I was knitting, plus my neverending thoughts about dickey possibilities. And what I originally cast on has grown and changed and seems not done changing yet, so I’m not sure where it will wind up. Maybe it will be a garment before I’m done! But wow this yarn. I wasn’t sure I would like it and I don’t — I love it.
I took the first 8″ of it with me on my flight to Palm Springs for my birthday, only to realize I had brought everything but the yarn. Fortunately, I had brought a back-up knit: a Carbeth Cardigan to cast on. My hope, honestly, was that the cowl-dickey-whatever project would occupy me for the trip and I’d have packed the back-up unnecessarily. But as soon as I sat down on the plane, I discovered my mistake. So really, I had no choice!
If you’ve been reading, you know how much I’ve been debating with myself about the color and yarn for the Carbeth. I so loved Shannon’s off-black one, but I have a cropped black cardigan (but I’m forever on the fence about that one) and it would be so gorgeous in the toffee OUR Yarn, but then would I hate myself for not making it black? And if I made it black, what yarn? There’s the OUR Yarn in black, but for this particular garment, I wanted it less black. One night it struck me that I could hold something together with it, and that in fact I had enough black Pebble left from my striped sweater to do the job. So I knit a swatch and it’s lovely. The Pebble lends a bit of lightness and heatheriness, and I matched row gauge and am only slightly off on stitch gauge. So whether it’s defensible or not, it is now on my needles.
I’d hoped to finish one or both of them before the year came to a close, but my workload has not allowed for it — not to mention the difficulty of limited late night knitting time with three black stockinette projects to choose from! Needless to say, my Sólbein will not be black.
(Fringe Town Bag and Lykke needles from Fringe Supply Co.)
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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: November 2018
Last summer, agains all common sense principles, I made Carbeth. I generally avoid raglans because it accentuates my ovely large bust; I rarely make anything at that large gauge and hate knitting with needles larger than size 7 or 8. Never the less, it called to me, and my compromise was to knit it with dark, natural colored Eco Wool, on sale at the time. The sweater literally cost me $34 to make and was done in less than a month, finishing when it was 90 outdoors. Now it is deep midwinter in MN, and it is definitely the sweater I wear the most. Under a light weight down jacket, it is seriously warm. On its own, it is the perfect weight for a jacket substitute when it is around 50. I put it on in the morning to wear till the house warms up; it just traveled with me to California where it was cooler than usual and I wore it every day. It is definitely worth finishing quickly!
Happy New Year
If you’re enjoying it, no need for the projects to be “defensible”, right?
Happy 2019!
I try not to make things without knowing they’ll be useful and worn, but if this one doesn’t wind up working for me, I’m sure I can find it a home!
Black is my favorite color. That said, out of about 30 years of serious knitting, I have two black sweaters. It’s just too hard to see!
I love that everything you have cast on is black. Wouldn’t do for me, though. I was discussing with a colleague at work many months ago how some people think in very “black and white” ways (a thing is right or it is wrong and that’s an end to it), but that others like me see all the shades of grey in between. Well, a while later she brought this up in context of something we were chatting about, and then she looked at herself and at me and we both laughed – sure enough, she was clothed head to foot in black whilst I had on burgundy trousers, a long shirt with a cream background and a riot of exotic pink flowers, topped off with my hand-knitted cerise cardigan which sports an asymmetric design with bobbles on one side of the front and a ruffle on the other!
Laughing at the inadvertently casting on. I was so excited when the holiday knitting was mostly done that I cast on a shawl and a cowl, both gray. The sweater that wasn’t done by Christmas is brown, and there is a navy and purple shawl on the needles that requires great concentration. All dark and gloomy. I should cast on something cheerful….