#knitting progress

Progress on my Marella vest

Pattern: Marella by Audrey Borrego designs on Ravelry

Midway through the week I finished the entire back piece and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting! It was nice and cosy having such a big rectangle on my lap while knitting - its the perfect weather for thick cosy knitted items. My cat has alternated between napping on my shoulder while I knit or taking personal offence at the yarn and trying to chew it. Bless.

I'm cracking on with the front panels - I decided to knit them in parallel rather than one piece at a time and I have the fun of little tiny pink bows periodically! Aim for this week is to finish the front.

There was a point about 4 rounds into the body after the hem (which I ended up leaving at an inch and a half; it looks good at that length) where I realized I hadn't read the pattern quite right (to be fair, I was trying to read the pattern while taking back to back calls, being interrupted by coworkers with questions they should have known the answers to, and trying to drown out loud conversations; that is not a good time to knit unfamiliar patterns). I should have repeated the chart twice, but I'd only knitted it once. I debated ripping back to the hem, but decided that since it was only a 17-stitch chart and I was only four rounds in when I realized it, it wasn't worth undoing all that work. It's a little noticeable, but not enough to bother me. Once it's done I really don't think anyone will notice at all unless they're looking closely; it's at the bottom and such a small part overall.

This probably won't be enough to teach me to read patterns better. I'm pretty sure I've made other mistakes reading patterns that should have taught me and clearly the lesson didn't stick. At least it'll stick for the rest of the vest, I hope.

I still don't feel too good today. It's just general fatigue and queasiness, which I think has a lot to do with the stupid time change. It gets harder and harder every year. (Plus there's additional stress, between my grandmother's worsening dementia and physical health, my mother's worsening mental health--which gets taken out on me the most--and work getting busier with the warmer weather. And of course the general dumpster fire that is America right now.)

The time for my yearly physical is coming up so I'll probably have a talk with my doctor and see if she has any recommendations to help with...any of it. Honestly, I think if I could just address the fatigue a lot of other things would get better. The fatigue is pretty much always there and now it's worse because the time change screwed with my sleep schedule. Again.

Whining aside, I'm happy with how the sweater vest hem is looking so far. The pattern has me doing twisted 1x1 ribbing and I have to say, I really like it. It's not as loose as a regular 1x1 rib and just feels so much neater and more uniform. I may even add another half inch and make the hem two inches, instead. That might be pushing it with how much yarn I have, but I think it's worth the risk. Worst case, I think I can get away with using a coordinating color in fingering weight yarn for the arm holes and neck. (Or I may just have to order another hank of the yarn, which would allow me to add another inch or two to the length. It's just barely long enough for my tastes, and if I could add length, I would...)

I know I'm trying to destash, but if I'm going through this much trouble to knit a sweater vest out of lace weight yarn, I should make sure it's something I'm happy with. Next paycheck I'll see about getting another hank. If it's available, I'll get it and add the extra length (beyond the additional half inch I've decided I'm definitely adding to the hem), and if not then I'll just make do with what I have. I have a light blue lace-weight that I could double up for the arm holes/neck, and a couple of fingering-weight yarns in blues, purples, and greens that would probably work, too.

The pattern says every extra inch added uses about 60 yards of yarn, so I'd have just enough to add that half inch (hopefully) without having to play yarn chicken at the end.

I've also made a little bit of progress on the arm warmers, but mostly in weaving a bunch of ends in. I'm trying to do it every few color changes to keep it manageable. It definitely helps. And so far I'm pretty happy with how these are coming out.

Making progress on the first of the Coworker Christmas Gifts! These are the Ratjetoe arm warmers, which are going to help use up scrap yarn. I'm not using quite the same colors as the original pattern, just what I have that looks good together.

I really like the pattern so far (I did use 2.75 mm needles instead of 3 mm like the pattern called for, based on my experience with the yarn when I used it for the sweater. I think it was a good choice here. I don't think these would fit my chubby arms comfortably but they'll fit my coworker. She's skin and bones. If I ever make them for myself I'd use the 3 mm needles) and it's giving me a tiny bit of practice with stranded knitting without being an entire sweater's worth.

I've also been trying to find projects to use up some of my more expensive yarn that's not just socks. At least 3 of the yarns will have to be socks since that's all I have enough for and finding more of that yarn would impossible, or next to. Or I could make a hat. I don't wear a lot of hats, but it might be nice to have one I made myself.

A couple of my yarns are lace weight, too, and I really don't know what I'm going to do with those since there's not much yarn. Except for one, which I'd grabbed two hanks of for some mysterious reason (I think I was thinking it would be enough for a sweater. It is not, not at my size. I should have checked before ordering). But there's actually enough of this one yarn, held together, to make a sweater vest.

Since I've been wanting to start adding sweater vests to my wardrobe, this is perfect! I fully expect this one to take me a while, given that the yarn will come out to barely fingering weight held together, but at least I won't have to do sleeves.

I've also started thinking about what to make for each of my coworkers for Christmas. There's eight of them, plus a coworker who moved to a different department last year and I want to include her because we're still friends. (That's one of the things I love most about my job, aside from being able to do crafty things: I get along well with everyone in my department and consider most of them friends.)

There are just so many choices even narrowing it down to making smaller things like arm-warmers, mittens, and hats. Maybe even socks, I dunno. I know I'm going to want to use easy-to-care-for yarn for most of them, so that will narrow things down to patterns calling for dk or heavier yarn, since most of my thinner yarn requires a little more care than "toss in the washer and dryer".