Sew I See!

If you've been reading along, you know that I recently washed and blocked (for the first time) an Advent scarf I knitted three years ago.  If I remember correctly, I finished the knitting not too long after the holiday season, but I then took a long, long time to decide how to finish it-- then even longer to finally wash it!  (I hope to be a little faster with this year's Advent scarf!) My blocking job is far from perfect.  This is partly due to the challenges of blocking a loop scarf, but probably owes more to the fact that I was in a hurry to just be done and test the softness of the yarn.  (Uncertainty over whether I'd actually ever wear such an itchy yarn as a scarf made me unwilling to spend too much time fussing over it.) My knitting isn't perfect, either.  The grafting is kind of ugly, to be honest, but that's fairly easily hidden.  I'm more distracted by the "rowing out" in the reverse stockinette background around the sections of cables.  ...

Well, I washed and blocked the 2015 Advent Scarf. (I also blocked a couple of small cable swatches knitted from the same yarn, mentioned briefly at the end of this post .  Basically, they're an excuse to try out cable patterns just for the fun of it, and I have nebulous plans to frame them for my craft room.) As soon as the washed yarn was dry, I tested it against my neck.  Tentatively... Cautiously... Reluctantly... ...Ick, it still itches!  (~scratch shudder scratch~) Not exactly surprising, but disappointing.  That yarn would probably be ok for certain hat patterns, if the wearer is used to rustic, scratchy wool-- and it would definitely be fine for anything that won't be lying next to bare skin-- but while it's possible to wear the scarf I've already knitted, it's not the most pleasant texture to have draped against your neck (and possibly face).  It just... prickles.  Life's too short to waste on knitting a scarf I might not ever want to wear....

I have an update on the yarn I'll use for the 2018 Advent Scarf project, but that'll wait for another blog post.  This time, I'm here to share a couple of progress photos of a couple of WIPs (and to complain a little about something). First, there's the "Sitka Spruce" hat.  As expected, it looked a little shallow/short for a beret, so I've followed the example of many other knitters before me and added in an extra half of a repeat (so it has 1.5 repeats, total).  I'm just a few rounds short of finishing that, then it'll be time for the decrease, and hats usually fly off the needles, at that point. Hats don't usually take this long, but I've taken my time on this one.  I'm not a speedy knitter at the best of times, and these twisted stitches have slowed me even further-- plus I've been working on another project or two, so there have been some long breaks. Incidentally, I noticed when skimming my project notes for the 2015 Adve...

A few years ago, I participated in Tricia Weatherston's advent scarf for 2015-- the " Cables and Lace Advent Scarf ".  (The pattern is not currently available, unfortunately.) Much to my shame, I still haven't finished that project! (!!!)  I think I did all the knitting, but I'm not sure if I ever bound off... I know I was debating whether or not to make it a loop, but I can't recall if I ever decided and bound off!  One thing I do know is that it still needs blocking.  Maybe I'll do that in the next couple of weeks... In any case, even though I haven't done all the finishing, even after all this time, I really enjoyed the process of knitting that scarf, and so when the designer's advent scarf for this year popped up in my Ravelry pattern suggestions, I gave it a closer look. The last two years' advent scarves have been in styles/techniques that I either didn't feel up to trying (stranded colorwork) or wasn't really interested in ...