Year of Project 2022: Week 47

If you’d like to see more details on my Desert Mandala x-stitch, you can visit my FO Friday post here. Otherwise, read on for what I’ve been up to this week.

I have finished sock #1 of my Vintage Fairy Lights pair. Pattern is by Helen Stewart and I’m working mine up using a skein of Spun Right Round’s Classic Sock in the Hocus Pocus colorway. I love how this color is knitting up and those pops of lime green really glow!

I also cast on a sweater project. I haven’t knit a garment in a while and since it’s turned sweater weather, I’ve been antsy to get one on the needles. This is Ririko’s Evening Dew Cardigan. It’s an open front, drop-shouldered, boxy fit cardigan knit with a strand of fingering weight yarn and a strand of laceweight mohair/silk held together. I’m using KidMoh Silk from Swoon Fibers in the Field Blooms colorway and Ex Libris Anais base in the Mrs. Dalloway color. The construction on this one is interesting. You start with a provisional cast-on, knit the back past the armhole openings, then pick up stitches along the provisional cast-on and knit the two fronts to the same part. You then join the body and work back and forth. There is an overall pinecone pattern to provide a bit of texture.

I also have 2 finished projects this week. The first is the Musselburgh hat, designed by Ysolda Teague. This is a double-thickness hat you can knit in any yarn weight – without swatching! Oodles of knitters have made a version and there’s good reason because it’s a great pattern and uses up an entire single skein of fingering weight yarn. (Although you could also knit it with two half-skeins and have two hats in one since it’s completely reversible.) I knit mine in McMullin Fiber Co’s Posh Sock in the “Gentle Anne” colorway from their Bronte Hallow’s Eve box. It is so soft (the blend has cashmere in it) and VERY warm. I put it to the test with an early-morning dog walk this weekend when it was well below freezing here.

I also finished the Compass Cowl. This design by Tin Can Knits is a great way to use up oddments of fingering weight yarn. I used up 4 colors of Marie Wallin’s British Breeds base to knit my version. I had received these in a tasting box last year and had been unsure what to make with them as each 25-g ball only had 93 yards. I think they worked up beautifully in this cowl and in fact, my husband liked it so much, he claimed it to take on his photography weekend outdoors the last two days and pronounced it “perfect”. The colors I had on hand were Raw, Woad, Evergreen and Lime Flower. The pattern is very versatile; you could use all scrappy bits, or even use two half-skeins to do a 2-color version. I think it’d also be suitable for a fairly new colorwork knitters as there aren’t any particularly long floats and the repeats are easy to keep track of.

For handspun, I finished up the next color in the Hilltop Cloud Fibre gradient pack I’m spinning. This blend of wool and silk in the Moon River colorway fades from a dark gray with purple undertones to a light mauve. I’m just over the halfway mark of the 250 or so grams I have of this set. I’m spinning this up as a 2-ply fingering weight that will likely get put to use as a shawl at some point.

Last but not least, I have a small finish to share with stitching. I finally put the December wool applique piece together so it’s ready for the season. This is a kit that finishes to a small size “mug rug”. It’s big enough to put a mug or larger candle on but I will probably use it just for decoration on the side table I use for seasonal decor things. I’m way behind on my planned 3 of these for the year, but happy I at least have one finished.

Have a good week YOP’ers. I’ll be taking next weekend off to spend some time visiting with family before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US so will check in with you after that!