Blogtober 2021 : Day 20

There are no prizes for guessing what the weather has been like in Winwick today.  Even the dog said, “Aw Mum, it’s a bit wet!” and we didn’t stay out too long.  It’s been literally coming down in sheets for most of the day (our poor postie looked like he’d been swimming), and any plans I might have had for going out in the garden were firmly shelved.  Never mind wellies, I’d have needed a wetsuit!

Instead, I decided to dig out my WIPs (work in progress) to see what was in the baskets.

There’s no naming and shaming going on here – I’m not in the least bit embarrassed at having so many projects unfinished as I know I will go back to them and they’ll either get finished or pulled out.  I must say that up until now, I’ve resisted frogging (because pulling out your work sounds a bit like a frog … rip it, rip it ) because I have expected that eventually I’ll go back to finish everything, but today I have a different view.

I decided a good many years ago that life is too short to struggle on to the end of a book you’re not enjoying, and I’m ready now to apply that principle to what’s in these bags.  There’s a reason why the projects in there are unfinished and I think it’s time I was honest with myself about whether they ever really will get finished at all.

Do you want to have a look with me?

OK, first up is this one.  It’s a Dorset Horn no-nylon yarn which has been indigo-dyed.  I was given it as a gift a long time ago now (I’m not even sure if the dyer is still trading!) and I had a couple of goes at knitting it up into a pattern but it didn’t seem to like any of them.

In the end I tried them as plain TAAT (two at a time socks) but even that wasn’t comfortable to knit and I swapped back to a short circular – you can see how far I got with a single sock.  I’m not entirely sure what to do with this – the dye has faded in places and comes off in my hands so I’m not quite sure how they’re going to wash and whether they will retain any colour, although the yarn knits up more like 6ply than 4ply so they would be a good thick pair if I ever got them finished.  Pure Dorset Horn is quite rustic to knit with and the yarn doesn’t fly around the needles … they might make a good Emergency Sock, perhaps – and having wound the yarn into two balls I don’t really know what else I would do with it!

I was very pleased to find my Herdy tape measure, though, along with a handful of stitch markers (including my gold sheep which is a favourite and I thought I’d lost) and the pink flower yarn cutter which was a surprisingly useful magazine gift.  That was definitely worth the effort of looking the bag!

Stay or go verdict …. ooh, not sure!

 

Next … the previous Emergency Sock to the one I’m knitting now – it’s my Neat Ripple Sock in WYS Blue Lagoon.  Now this sock has been on the needles for a ridiculously long time – I think I started knitting it when Blue Lagoon was newly released and I don’t want to think about how many years ago that was!

Those blues look lovely, don’t they?  I brought this sock in from the car because I needed to try it on before starting the toes, and then I needed the circular needle which is why it’s on stitch holders, but I should really get it finished and the second sock too.  I do like this pattern and the sock very much.

Stay or go verdict … definitely stay!

 

Now this one is a different story, and one which I think has an ending that I have been avoiding.  The yarn is from Wool is the Answer in the shade Blueberry Mash and I started knitting these socks on holiday in August 2017.  I love the yarn, I thought the pattern (Angee by Cookie A) was great, but for some reason, I’ve fallen out of love with it.  It’s quite a busy pattern and the yarn is pretty busy too and I haven’t really had the urge to finish them even though I’m half-way down the second sock now.  You can see when I last looked at them – on holiday in 2018!  I’ve even managed to lose the copy of the pattern with all my notes on it so I don’t know where I’m up to on the chart … I think that speaks volumes, doesn’t it?!

As much as it pains me as there have been hours of work in these socks, I think I’m going to pull them out and reknit them as something else.  I’m thinking the yarn would look good in a helical knit like these socks – I do like the way this yarn knits up as it is, but I love the effect you get with helical knitting and I think that because the yarn colours have so much to say for themselves, they would look striking with another colour too.  Ooh … but the thought of pulling it all out …

Stay or go verdict … reluctantly go.

 

Here’s another sock and a half – but this pair is definitely staying!  This is the prototype of my Falling Hues pattern for my Autumn Leaves yarn; the pattern was ready in my head before the yarn was ready to knit with so I decided to get on with it and see how it worked out.  Then, of course, the Seasons yarns arrived one after the other and these socks got put away in a project bag.

The yarn is one that I had had in my stash for a while, a gift from New Zealand, and I’m not sure if you can see the label but the yarn contains possum fleece.  You don’t get that in British yarn!  It’s lovely and soft and I love the pattern – these need to come back out into the light and finished!

Stay or go verdict … definitely stay!

 

Another single sock, this time in no-nylon Castlemilk Moorit and Blue-face Leicester from Dodgson Wood.  This project is so old that Dodgson Wood have rebranded!  It’s a DK yarn and I’ve used my Easy Colourwork Socks pattern – but of course the adjusted pattern (the original is designed for 4ply) and any notes I might have made are not with the sock so I think that probably explains why it got left. Also, the contrasting colours aren’t really very noticeable in most lights (this actually isn’t a bad photo) so I think that will have contributed as well.

To keep or not to keep?  Well, I don’t know what else I would do with the yarn and DK socks are pretty quick to knit up so I think I will keep it and make an effort to match the second sock.  It might make another good Emergency Sock once the colourwork is done.

Stay or go verdict … stay.

 

Oh my life, I’m getting right to the bottom of my pile now!  This is another ancient WIP; I don’t think that Victoria at Eden Cottage Yarns sells whatever this sock yarn was any more as I’m pretty certain it was just labelled “sock yarn” and I bought it at the first ever Yarndale festival in 2013.  It was an early design attempt and I can’t tell you why I didn’t finish it.

You can see all my lifelines running through the pattern!   There’s no limit to how many of them you can have and the yarn is quite dark to knit in what was quite a complicated lacy pattern so that’s probably why I stopped.  This is another one that I’m not quite sure what to do with, although I am veering more towards letting it go.  I can use the pattern for another design another day.

Stay or go verdict … probably go.

 

And here’s the last one (well, not quite but I’m ignoring the jumper that’s on my needles).  This is a set of mini-skeins gifted to me by Claire from Cookston Crafts at Yarndale in 2018 which I decided to start knitting into my Thoughtful Cowl pattern in March 2019.  Why has it taken me so long to finish it?  I’m not sure, really.  I think it’s because I couldn’t quite decide how best to place the colours so there was a fair bit of ripping out and then other projects got in the way.  I do want to finish this, though, because I like it very much!

Not much more to be said, really!

Stay or go verdict … stay!

 

And there we have it.  Definitely one project to be frogged and re-knitted, and now that I’ve written about it, I’m quite excited about the idea of that.  I think that the Blueberry Mash yarn is going to be my next Emergency Sock, and I will see if I can finish at least one of the Neat Ripple socks before the end of the year.

Now that sounds like progress to me!  What’s your WIP situation like?

 

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