Catching Up

Before I can delve into my plans for 2012, I have a bit to catch up on.  As Oranje waited for a photo shoot for most of December, I finished my fifth WIP.

Pattern: Angostura from Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Ravelry Red

The vest came out quite nicely.  It looked teeny when I finished it, but it blocked out to about the right size, albeit a rather fitted one.  I've knit many of Ysolda's patterns, and I'm always impressed with the little details. For this pattern, the armhole and neck i-cord edging is fantastic.  The edges look so clean and neat without needing to pick up stitches or create a crochet edge.  The back cable, however, is still my favorite part of the pattern, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

The only annoying thing?  Those light spots in the yarn.  I alternated skeins to spread out the color variation, but those flecks of pink still bug me a bit.  Not too much though, and Malabrigo Rios?  Overall it's pretty heavenly.

Once Angostura was out of the way, I turned my attention to the Chelsea skirt, which only needed the lace hem and new buttons, and the elaborately cabled Vivian sweater, which needed most of 2 sleeves and the entire top yoke.  Both projects were packed up for the trip to Connecticut for the holidays.  Within a day, I decided I hated the yarn I was using for the lace hem for the skirt, so that project was relegated back to the knitting bag until I could get home and find different yarn.  Then I moved on to Vivian and within a few rows on the first sleeve, I finally admitted to myself that I hated the shape. I started a new sleeve but was frustrated, tucked that project away too, and spent the rest of the trip knitting a cowl (I may have been determined to spend most my time on WIPs, but I'm still smart enough to bring a back up project.  Or two).  

After returning home, I spent the few days before New Year's Eve knitting the Chelsea lace hem with different yarn. After running 18 miles the morning of December 31, instead of heading to my bedroom for a well-deserved nap, I dragged my tired body over to the almost-finished skirt and settled in to sew on the lace hem.  I finished the sewing, weaved in my ends, tried on the finished skirt, and with a satisfied smile crossed the sixth WIP off the list before the end of 2011 deadline.

A few days into the new year, I realized that I had sewn the lace with the wrong side facing out.  And with that, I decided that rushing to finish a project just to accomplish an arbitrary knitting deadline is kind of stupid.