Iceland Sweater And First Woven Scarf

I think it is a tradition for me to finish a sweater just in time for the hot weather. I attached the last button on the last day of sweater weather we are going to have for awhile.

Pattern: Iceland from Rowan 42; Yarn: Naturally Harmony 10 Ply in color 803

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out though. I made quite a few modifications to transform the sweater being shaped like an oversized bag to something a bit more flattering. Most of the modifications I made had to do with the ribbed body portion of the sweater; I added length and shaping. The details are more in depth on my ravelry page.

I'm also pleased to say that I have managed to complete goal #4 of this year's goal list: knitting sweater out of stash. 

I also finished my first woven project: a scarf!

Pattern: Made up by yours truly; Yarn: Little Wool Company 4-Ply 100% Pure Wool in White, Oatmeal, and Silver

Connor immediately swooped in and claimed it as his. I suppose that is fair; I claimed his first knitted scarf.

I'm really pleased to have finally finished some big projects.... but I'm already looking at what I can weave and knit next. I think it might be time to give the ole' stash a good tossing (like a salad, not to the garbage... as I explained to Connor) and see what treasures I might turn up.

Has anyone else finished something that has been on your list for a long time? And how many of you have given (or thought about giving) your stash a good tossing?

Sock, Sock, Sweater

The weather has just turned warm, which means the two new pairs of socks I finished will have to wait to be enjoyed. Luckily I have my socks out on display, so I can enjoy looking at them while I wait to wear them. 

The first pair is my Hieroglyphic Socks. I started these in September and have been working on them on and off until now. They required quite a bit of attention when I started, but I found that once I got my rhythm, I could knit them at knit night or while semi-distracted. They never quite got to car-knitting level, though. I didn't like putting them down mid-round.

I did make some edits to the pattern. I didn't care for the recommended heel, so I put a heel flap in. And rather than leave it plain blue, I took a page from Stickfia's book and kept the stripes going. I did find that the golden stripe on either edge of the sock got a little gappy, so I sewed through the blue loops on the heel flap and anchored them with duplicate stitching to the blue stripes on the gusset. I was pleased to find that it worked just like I had hoped.

I'm also quite happy with my replacement rainbow socks. It sort of looks like a trick of the camera, but the sock on the left is the old, washed out sock. The one on the right is the new one.

I had hoped to finish while it was still raining, but wasn't quite able to make it. I thought it would be delightful to wear rainbows in the rain. Honestly, I would have been happy wearing rainbows in the sun, but I'm not so happy sweating in rainbows.

Now that both pairs of socks are entirely off my plate, I have been devoting all my knitting time to my Iceland sweater. I'm not quite done with the first sleeve, but I'm getting there. The recommended sizing would have the sweater fall off of my shoulders, so I am entirely ignoring the recommended sleeve/body width and am blocking my progress after every 20 rows or so to make it match my own measurements instead.

So far, so good. The pattern is pretty intuitive and has paired well with Netflix watching. Speaking of which, I have been watching Greenleaf. Or, I should say, Connor and I have been watching Greenleaf. After watching a few episodes by myself and talking about it, Connor thought he would watch an episode with me. We are both sucked in and now I need to find a different show to watch when he isn't around. 

Has anyone else got a show that has just sucked them in? I'd love to hear some recommendations.