This WIP Wednesday, I have more than a few projects on the go.
Typical. There are now only 4 more days until Christmas and I still have not one, not two, but three projects to finish before the big day! Oh well, in a worst case scenario, the giftee will end up with a fully wrapped half finished project that I will happily continue to knit as the holidays come to a close.
My priority at the moment is finishing the beautiful Rift sweater that I started almost two weeks ago. It’s the perfect combination of mindless knitting and attention to detail.
My main concern is getting the sweater to fit properly. This poses a problem when it’s a gift, and you can’t exactly hold it up to the person you’ll be gifting it too and say, ‘does this fit?’. Ah, the risky business of holiday knitting.
I’m also working on my first ever ‘test knit’. For those of you who haven’t heard of this before, a ‘test knit’ is exactly how it sounds. A knitwear designer sends out a call to all knitters interested in testing out a new pattern before it’s officially released. In return for testing the pattern and giving feedback, the knitter gets a copy of the final official pattern for free! Seeing as I was planning on knitting some socks for Christmas anyways, I decided to test knit Allison of Kniterations soon to be released Morganite sock pattern.
I had knit a few socks before, and was feeling fairly confident that this would be a breeze to knit! But without even realizing it, I ended up learning an entirely new sock heel technique: the short row heel.
Now, for all you non-knitters out there, you might want to skip this next part. It’s about to get a little bit technical.
You see, in all the socks I had knitted before, quite a few included the w&t (wrap and turn), when knitting the heel, which I had assumed was the very definition of ‘short rows’. I was blissfully unaware that the real short row heel technique involves no picking up stitches or increasing or decreasing! Once I had grasped the full concept, I was over-the-top amazed (something that only knitters will understand). I mean, look at this! Both the toe and the heel are knit exactly the same way. Allison also included in her pattern the perfect tutorial for those of you wanting to learn the short row heel technique. I have a feeling that this might soon become my go-to technique for knitting socks in the future.
For my third project I’ve decided to knit up another pair of Diyi mittens, now available to download for free on Ravelry! As I’m continuing to discover, the world of knitwear design is a never ending learning curve. Gauge and wool type have an enormous impact on the look of the final product. Part of the reason I decided to release my first pattern for free is because I realize there may be certain errors and ‘newbie mistakes’ that a more experienced knitwear designer would notice right away. I would love to hear your feedback on the pattern, and please share your progress on Instagram using #diyimittens!
My goal for next year is to release even more beautiful patterns, so if you’d like to receive special discounts in the future, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.
Happy holidays everyone!
What are your last minute knitting projects to finish for the holidays and knitting goals for 2017?
