A few works-in-progress

I've realized recently that I had fallen into the habit of only posting projects when they are finished instead of sharing a bit of the process like I used to do. So, I am posting a few works-in-progress to get back into a better habit. After all, when I read everyone else's blogs, I really enjoy watching a project develop!

I've mentioned a shawl a few times, but I don't think I have ever posted any photos or other information, so, rather than continuing to be cryptic, here it is so far:

 

This is the Percy Shawl by Sanne Kalkman, and it is being knit in Zephyr Laceweight for the Bearspaw Ladies Legacy Charity Dinner & Silent Auction benefiting the Wellspring centre in Calgary. I'm adding some beads for a bit of twinkle, and am looking forward to seeing it blocked. In the meantime, however, Chart B is a little tricky. It's going well enough now, (11 rows to go!), but as it is charted in both directions, and it is not as simple to memorize or indeed feel confident as to my place in the pattern without doing lots of counting and re-counting, it is taking some time, and even more time when I have a few mistakes to fix. I'm really looking forward to starting Chart C, which is charted on one side only, and it is very clear what it should look like, and so it will be easier to keep track of where I am at any given moment.

Back to the mittens that I had been fulling last week:

These are done save for the embroidery. My daughter told me not to bother with the embroidery though, so maybe they are finished. It's hard to say. This rather surprises me, as she was excited about the embroidery before, though it is possible that having finished mittens is all the more exciting. They're meant to be the Rosesaum Mittens by Nancy Bush and Jane Fournier though, only they can't be Rosesaum without roses, really, so I do hope to work the embroidery on these some day after all. They're staying in the Works-in-Progress category in my mind.


I made the size as written, omitting the ribbed cuffs, and instead using blanket stitch to create loops to pick up and knit into ribbed cuffs with some acrylic that my daughter favours against the sensitive skin at her wrists.

Two wash cycles brought them down to the right size for my five-year-old. These really are the same size; it’s just a camera angle thing that is making the one on the left look smaller in the photo.

And, as we can't have new mittens without a new hat, I'm learning the double-knitting technique to make a reversible hat. I do hope it works out, as it's rather a pain-in-the-neck (though I expect, like most things, it will get easier with practice). Here's one of the earflaps, with a photo for each side:

Just in case anyone thought I had forgotten to work on my husband's cardigan:

 

It may not look like much progress compared to my May WIPs post, but really, it has come along a bit. The last photo was the first sleeve (now finished), and this is the second sleeve (nearly finished). This is the sweater that I worked out that pocket swatch for, and as soon as I finish up that Percy shawl, I can retrieve the needles needed for the sweater ribbing.

I think my husband will be perfectly happy to have me spend the afternoon shawl-knitting if it will get him his sweater sooner!