It’s been a while since I’ve flogged, and this is because… I went to Japan! My first-ever trip overseas, and it was amazing. Until the end, that is, when ZipAir canceled our flight and abandoned everyone at the airport at 9 p.m. and we spent the next 35 hours trying to get home. Never again.

Anyway, while on the trip, I made a lot of progress on my Pure Comfort Cardigan. When I first finished the main cardigan, I thought I was mostly done, and that the collar would be just the last touch on it.

Hahahahaha! It’s an entire freaking attached scarf, basically, so it’s been taking me forever. I have about eight inches to go, so I’m almost there, but wow, it’s been so much work.

I did a lot while on the trip, but then at some point my son sat on my WIP and snapped my poor Knitter’s Pride needle, and I had to shift to my WIP of the Classic, a sweater I also took with me. (Yes, I realize how ridiculous it is that I took along two partial sweaters and balls of yarn too.)

I finished the raglan increases and separated the sleeves, and now I’m doing five bazillion stockinette stitches. I started a sleeve for when I get bored with the body, but that’s slow going too. I’m pretty happy with it, though! Plus I’m finally using up this Fluffy Day yarn.

Pretty happy with how long the neck is. I’ve found lately that I really like longer ribbed ends, so I’m probably going to implement longer ribbing in whatever I do going forward. I really don’t like the short ribbed sleeves I have on a cardigan I finished and a sweater sleeve I did. (going to extend that one)

A Finished Object!

I was digging around in one of my WIP bins and found a hat that was about 2.5 inches of ribbing. Somehow, I found the motivation to finish the ribbing, then that got me going on the cables, and then by some miracle I found myself finishing it up.

It’s made with bulky acrylic yarn from one of the very first Annie’s Kits I received in their Hook & Needle Club, Family Slippers, which I thought were terrible, so I never made them. I used the gray and beige yarn to make my very first hat ages ago, so this yarn was weeping with neglect for a long time.

The pattern was for worsted yarn, but since I was using bulky and had less yardage, I didn’t do as many cable repeats, and I made two of the small cable twists at the top. I was very pleased with myself for finishing this, but I was even happier when I offered it to my teenage son and… he took it! I count it as a big win to have made something my son is willing to wear. I didn’t tell him, but it made my day.

Test Knitting

A couple of weeks back, I found Yarn Pond, and I signed up, since I want to learn about the design process behind the scenes, and I figure a good way to start is by being a test knitter. I got accepted into an easy shawl test, which I’m almost halfway through.

Then I got into a DK sweater test almost a week after I applied, after I’d used the first skein I was going to use in the shawl. So now I’m waiting on an order from Hobbii before I can get started on that one. I don’t know if I can finish, but we’ll see. It’ll be marled, so essentially DK weight, so that’s quite a lot of knitting to try to finish by the end of the month.

Overall, it’s kinda shocking how much work test knitting is with so little compensation (usually just a free copy of the pattern you tested; you don’t even get free yarn), but I suppose if you just knit for fun, it’s a way to try new things and use your stash.