I envisioned myself being very diligent about these posts and making one after every month of knitting, but of course, that didn’t happen, and I could probably lay the blame on the quarantine, the world falling to pieces, and general malaise, but it just… you know, seems like business as usual for me. Which is to say, it takes me a while to get around to things. Which, if you’ve been around for long enough, you well know.
(The other things I’ve said are true, of course.)
But anyway, I present to you, in late April, the latter half of my January knits. Deeply uninteresting stuff (in my opinion), just because I’ve started and finished so many other projects, but still, boring though it may be, it’s still nice to kind of look back on progressions and notes and stuff. I can’t believe I cast on so many projects without knowing what I’m doing. I can’t believe I still do that. Alas.
WE ARE KNITTERS: WAK x OLIVA LOUIS SWEATER
Yep, I knit and finished a hecking! Sweater! It’s a funny, chunky one that’s got a super cropped torso and loooooong arms. At this point, I didn’t particularly think about making alterations to the pattern based on my own measurements. I was just trying to follow the pattern… which I ended up not being able to do, lol. It was very late when I realised that I had been doing a moss stitch instead of a rib stitch, and so that it is why it looks like that, lol. Still, it’s a very easy and satisfying project to do and make. Imagine! A jumper at the end of it.
It’s one of the things I wear outside that people have commented on, mostly asking if I’d made it. It is absurdly chunky and unwieldy, but very, very warm and in a nice colour (Ochre).
WE ARE KNITTERS: AVANTO BEANIE
The first of many hats! This was knitted in WAK’s Petite Wool in — are you ready? — #Skylovers. Not a huge fan of the name, and the photo doesn’t do it justice but, it’s a lovely mix of peachy strands and light grey. The beanie is knit with a ribbed sort of hem/brim (which I had gotten a handle on, midway through) and the rest is done in moss stitch, which is probably my favourite sort of textured stitching, I think. This is also probably my favourite beanie shape so far. The droopy, loose shape suits me the most, and I say this as someone who has trouble getting along with hats.
SCARF FOR DANIELLA
This is just a made-up scarf (as in, I didn’t use a pattern) and served as a very nice sort of stitch practice for me. I mostly used the leftover Crazy Sexy Wool (in Purple Haze, which they don’t seem to carry on their website anymore) from the blanket in the last post, and Heal the Wool in Autumn Brown, both by Wool and the Gang.
While making this project, I very quickly learned about yarn weights and gauges and stuff, cos I tried to be clever and knit a bit in a much lighter one and ended up with such a hole-y two or so rows that I filled in with WATG Jersey Be Good (True Blue) and Mixtape Yarn (Margaux Red).
WE ARE KNITTERS: BALTIC SNOOD
This is another snood or cowl or whatever you want to call it. Pretty standard garter stitch all throughout, but the wool. So good. It’s called The Wave Wool, and I love it. If I wasn’t already swimming in wool at the moment, I’d probably get a few more skeins of this. Look at how it makes the whole thing less boring! Just by being itself. Such a great colourway, too.
WOOL AND THE GANG: SWEETY GIGI BRA
This is actually a lie, because I have yet to do the straps, but it is more or less done. It’s very cute. I want to keep making these things, and will likely do so. I’ve also been making some crop tops for the summer. I am of the opinion that they are, also, very cute.
At this point of my knitting journey (as in, back in January lol), I think it’s easy to see that I’d only dipped my toes into the obsessive world of knitting and yarn. I’ve gone way, way past WAK and WATG, which are great places to shop and start with, don’t get me wrong. But, I’ve gone down a(nother) rabbit hole that I’m not sure I can come back from. We’ll see.
It’s been working out at the moment as I’m currently in quarantine and unable to make it to my studio. I’m starting on my fifth week of being mostly inside. My flatmate and I are too worried to go out for walks (apart from weekly trips to the nearest Co-op; sometimes not even once during the week). It seems like a longer time than it actually is.
Several days ago, I read that Wuhan had lifted its lockdown 76 days after declaring it (23 January). I know people like to talk you down off your loopy ledge, saying that quarantine will probably be over before you know it, but at this point, I’m honestly not holding my breath. I kind of feel like the world will be on lockdown — or some form of it — until the fourth quarter of 2020. And I feel like that’s being generous with my projections, to be honest with you.
My approach to things has always been to expect the worst — or, expect something worse, at least — so I get pleasantly surprised by the end, instead of being horribly disappointed. But, I suppose, at this point, no matter when the lockdowns end, it’s just going to be bad.
Didn’t mean to end a knitting post on such a bleak note. Truth be told, I’m held together by a lot of knitting stitches and sourdough monitoring and the fact that Laura hasn’t seen most of the MCU. It’s a fucking privilege, for sure. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am doing as well as I am doing, though I know that’s not a helpful attitude to have.
Positivity sometimes feels a little cloying. Sentimentality is such a frivolous thing to hold on to. There is nothing much I can do to help, and all the things I’ve been doing to help myself haven’t been working so well. I don’t want to give up on myself before I’ve actually really, really, really tried everything I can to “prove” that I should be where I am. I’m already the kind of person who shoots herself in the foot, but this whole thing has thrown a wrench and a half in what I felt like were well-formulated plans. (They’re not.) I wish I were a stronger and braver person than I am.