Finish line: Part 1

My Holden Shawlette is finished!

Finished!!

I am so pleased with how this has knitted up and the way that the colours look in the edging.

Pretty edging!

I needn’t have worried about the unevenness of the stitches either, as they all evened out perfectly with blocking.

Despite feeling bored with this project earlier, I really enjoyed finishing it off and I am really chuffed with the result 🙂

Great pattern = Perfect shawl corners

The pattern is well written and includes written directions and charts (I love charts, but they don’t suit everyone, so it’s great to have both options), and the corners of the shawl are well thought out, so the edging pattern doesn’t stop abruptly when it reaches them.

Did I mention how much I love the colours?

If you fancy making a Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes you can download the pattern for free on Ravelry.  There are over 5000 projects for this pattern on Ravelry, so there’s lots of inspiration for different yarns to try.  I used Jillybean Supersock in the ‘Lola’ shade which is 100% BFL and blocks out nicely, but a drapey yarn with silk in would be beautiful.

Once again thank you to Helen and Steve for the gift of this yarn 🙂 I enjoyed knitting it up!

Keeping score

So now for an update on the WIP (works in progress) count!

No. of WIPs before:

Unknown (I’m not going to excavate the whole stash just to find them!), ok so there are about seven that I can think of, but there’s probably more lurking somewhere. 

No. of WIPs now (assuming I really did have 7 to begin with):

5 (I’ve finished another, but more of that next time)

No. of FOs (Finished objects):

2 (including the one I’ve not shown you yet!)

The WIP Amnesty continues……have you finished anything recently?

Lottie x

All photographs Copyright Charlotte Walford 2013

WIP Amnesty: Part 1 – Holden Shawlette

My name is Lottie, and I have too many WIPs (works in progress).

So, in order to encourage myself to get some of them finished (just some, not all, let’s not get too ambitious!), I thought I should share some of them with you.

My trouble is that once I’ve finished working on a design sample, I want to start something new and exciting, which I then don’t get finished before I start on another sample………..and then once I’ve finished that sample, I want to start something new and exciting…….and so on, and so on.

Obviously this cannot continue – I want finished things!  Buying new needles because the size I need are on another project has to stop.

So, WIP no.1:

Holden Shawlette in progress

This is my version of the Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes, knitted in Jillybean Supersock that was given to me for my Birthday a couple of years ago by my bosses Helen and Steve (yes, I have nice bosses who give yarny gifts!) Lucky me!

The yarn is nice, but as you can see from the picture it knits up a bit unevenly on 4mm needles (this needs larger needles so it will drape nicely when I’ve blocked it), but I’m sure it will block out when I’ve finished.

The big problem with this project is I’ve got a bit bored.  There is quite a lot of stocking stitch before you get to the border and although I want to enjoy knitting simple, mindless things where someone else has done all the thinking for me, I find it hard.  I want my knitting to engage me, make me wonder what is coming next and have little landmark bits, so I can say ‘I’ll just do one more pattern repeat’ or ‘I’m going to get that interesting transition to the next stitch pattern done before I stop’ these sort of things motivate me to finish something.  Stocking stitch has none of this, but it still looks better than most stitches do in hand dyed yarns, with the exception of all wavy Old Shale and Feather and Fan type patterns….. and this has both of these things, so it seemed a good choice.

Anyway, as this shawlette has been a WIP since AUGUST(!!) it’s high time I finished it…………

……….and yesterday I did!  It’s all blocked out too 🙂 so next time…….pictures!

What would you hand in to the WIP Amnesty?

Lottie x

Move along please, nothing to see here….

…..well, there are things to see, (and I would love to you to see) but I can’t show you them at the moment!

Marvin has a sweater, but as I decided to make up a fairisle pattern for it, as the sweater in the book was too simple (i.e. perfectly adequate for anyone without a burning and unnecesary desire for fairisle) – and Marvin deserves only the best 😉

Basically I made a small stuffed meerkat an overcomplicated fairisle sweater (sanity anyone?), which turned into an idea for an overall repeating pattern (which I am swatching), I can’t show it to you, because it might become a design.  *sigh*

As for my main project at the moment, that is completely classified, so all I can show you is this:

No peeking!
(Photo copyright Charlotte Walford 2013)

It is in there…….no peeking!

Lottie x

P.S. For those who want to know, the project bag is by the fabulous Nicsknots (how could I resist knitting sheep??)