FO Round Up

Happy Friday!

It’s been a while. The yarn has been flowing though. I’ve had a steady string of finishes. This is the fun of knitting hats. Instant gratification, stashbusting, messing around with patterning and colors. Aside from endless miles of garter stitch, this is where it’s at for me. It’s Happy Place knitting.

There’s a little something for everyone here, slip stitch patterns, short rows, brioche, plain old ribbing, rainbow catepillars , folded brims, and my very favorite school way to start a hat…the double roll brim. That was my go-to hat start for a long time. Everyone did ribbing and I like to be different. Plus, the rolled edge hides your cast-on. If I’m doing a double roll brim, rest assured I’m also doing a lazy cast-on. No neat and tidy long-tail, no well thought alternating cable cast on…just a quick and dirty knit on. Love that!

The two brioche hats started from patterns but it turns out, when it comes to hats, I have opinions. I don’t like being told when to start decreases. I’m more fast and loose than rigid and structured. Also, I have gauge issues. With both of the brioche hats, they would have been far too tall had I knit the crowns as written. It’s always something, ya know?

I could spend time talking about which one is for my nephew or which yarns my Mom dyed for me or even why I wove 15 feet of I-cord through YO holes. But there’s still more FOs to see. I finished another pullover. My second in a row! 2021 is doing weird things to me. Two pullovers in a row is definitely a record for me. Very pleased with my results though.

This is the Earth & Air sweater from James Watts (rav link). I’m not usually the type to knit a sweater shortly after the pattern is released but this one grabbed my attention. I had to do it. The selling factor for me…only 3 balls of yarn required, two worsted weight wool and one skinny mohair (or in my case…alpaca). The relatively low yardage requirement means I can have a sweater quantity AND the most lux hand dyed yarns! WOOOO!

I came in right on track! Only a couple yards of my alpaca skein left at the end. And, this includes adding 4″ extra to the body. If you’re a small person who likes crop tops, as is the trend these days, the yardage is practically nothing. Added bonus: if there’s less yardage, it takes less time to knit too! This was knit on 10 or 10.5 needles. It was a quick knit! You can find all my details here (rav link). I really love the finished sweater. It’s soft and cozy, it’s got lovely drape and texture. The color is perfect, even if it is hard to capture in a photo. I pretty much love everything about this sweater.

But…there’s still more! I finished my ‘Number 10’ shawl. You might remember last year I knit the same shawl but in all green. Loved the pattern then. Still love it now. It’s totally manageable in terms of the intarsia. It’s easy knitting in all garter. It’s great for stashbusting. I’ll definitely knit it again in the future.

This purple delight went off to live with my Mom. I’ve been trying to fill the void with a new sweater cast on but I haven’t found the sweet spot yet. This is the pile I’m playing with…maybe I’ll have progress by next week. After all this finishing, I think I need about 7 new cast ons. If that’s not what the weekend is for, why bother?