WIP Wednesday

It's confession time.

I really like Harry Potter.  No, you don't get it.  I really like Harry Potter.  As in, I like it so much that I joined a group on Ravelry over a month ago where people get sorted into Hogwarts Houses, turn in knitting projects as homework, and compete for a House Cup.  They even have OWLs and Quidditch.  April is a break month, but everything starts back up again in May, so I've been waiting for then to cast on my knitting projects so that they will count for things.

But there's no point in not working on things I had already started.  And it seems a shame to deny myself knitting just because there's a game going on that I can also knit for.

Here's my Vasa, which is still a WIP because it has 50000 ends not woven in.  I was an absolute idiot and for some reason didn't carry the contrast color up the side of my first piece.  But it is blocked, even though that little piece of ribbing doesn't like to stay where he belongs.

I'm still deciding how I feel about the Vasa.  I think it's decently flattering, for a shirt with no shaping whatsoever.  If I do make another one, I am definitely doing it in the round.  I am all about easy finishing.

And what's this over here?  Could it be?  It's Visser's big cousin, Visser 4!  (It's only the second one I've made, but it's the fourth size.)  It's coming along reasonably quickly.  I've already separated the torso into front and back.  I'm working the back right now, because it's just mindless stockinette.

WIP (Almost) Wednesday 1

Apparently it is a tradition among knitting bloggers to post pictures of works in progress (WIPs) on Wednesdays.

Well, I am here to tell you that Wednesdays are terrible days to write blog entries, because I have homework due every Wednesday.  It's due at midnight, which means, guess what I'm doing with my evening up until midnight?  Guess what I say won't happen every week on Wednesday, but totally happens, without fail?

Someday, I won't be trying to work full time and go to school, but until then, here's my WIP Almost Wednesday:

Tosh Merino Light in Antique Lace - a dream!  The name of the sweater is a secret until I publish the pattern because I know there are thousands of you silently reading this blog, waiting to steal it.

This is the very first thing I've knit in lace!  It's a horseshoe lace pattern that's thankfully fairly easy to memorize and also easy to know right away (at the latest, two rows later) if you've made a mistake.  So far, the biggest mistake was not slipping on an sk2p, but I managed to fix it without having to rip it back!  I refuse to learn to crochet, but I do own a crochet hook for these exact situations.

As you can tell, it still needs a good block, ends sewn in, and buttons sewn on.  I blocked a swatch of the lace pattern, and it really opens it up.  The ends also end up looking way less lumpy.

The reason I finally got around to knitting lace was thanks to Eat.Sleep.Knit's "new to you" knit-a-long.  By knitting a project that makes me try something new, I get 1000 yards credited to my yarnathon progress!

The goal is to publish this pattern eventually.  I'm trying to work on a few extra lace details people can add on as they wish and to make the increases more symmetrical.  I learned how to do kfb's and yarn overs on the purl side, too, so I will try that on the next size that I test out.