Slow Sunday Stitching

I’ve finished the Open Skies sweater, although it still needs the ends sewn in and blocking. The i-cord bind off on the bottom of the sweater is curling a bit. I hope blocking will fix that. I wasn’t able to do as much lace on the bottom of the sweater as the pattern called for since I ran out of yarn and there is no more of it  to be had in our area. It’s a good length as it is even without the extra inch or two of lace at the bottom. Here’s the front,



 the  back,



and a close up of the lace detail on the sleeve.

 I haven’t got any  further yarn wound up so I’m doing an almost instant gratification thing of making socks for our grand daughter. She saw me give a pair to her mom and requested some of her own. I’ve done a pair of red ones for her, but gave them to her before getting a picture. I started this one last evening and got  this far in a couple of hours.



Self striping yarn is fun.
We picked up a couple  of flats of pansies yesterday from the garden centre and it’s a lovely afternoon, so I think I’m going to spend a little time digging in the dirt getting some of them into pots. I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

What’s a girl to do while staying home, not going anywhere or even venturing outside because it’s too cold and damp....... knit of course. Consequently I’ve gotten lots done on my Open Skies sweater. Here’s the front.



And the back.



 I love the lace and moss stitch on the back. It’s one of the things that attracted me to this particular pattern.

My new yarns arrived this week and with the exception of one skein, they all work together. I now have four blues that work together.
And three yellows that work together. Three skeins will do a sweater so I’m good with that. And I think I may have a little bit of yarn left from another project that might work with the yellows to stretch it a bit further. Of course, the other option, now that I have the yarns in my possession to see the colours would be to order one that I know would go. I’ll decide later.
In the meantime, I’ll post this, link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then go get some lunch,

Slow Sunday Stitching

As life goes slowly forward while we all keep our distance from one another in order to keep each other safe, those of us with stitching hobbies are keeping ourselves happily occupied.

I finished my Loeanneth sweater last week.



 It has yet to get all the ends sewn in. I am saving that chore for when I can be outside in the warm sunshine. In the meantime I wound up the new yarn that I bought last week and started a new sweater. This one is called Open Skies. The pattern so far has been enough of a challenge that it requires concentration, which is good thing as it keeps my brain focused on something other than what is going on in the world around us. The neck line had a different stitch to it. Most ribbed necks are a knit 2 purl 2 stitch. This one was a knit 4 through the back loop then purl 4. Knitting through the back loop on freshly cast on stitches is not for the faint of heart.



 But it resulted in a very pretty ribbing. There is lace at the front and back of the neckline, which is also very pretty.



Like most people who are avid stitchers of any kind, I am always thinking at least one or two projects ahead of the one I am currently working on. Back at the beginning of the year I took advantage of a discontinued colours sale of Mad Tosh Vintage sock yarns at Eat Sleep Knit. This was before our dollar tanked in comparison to the US dollar. I had in mind to make some more fade type sweaters, so I ordered single skeins of yarn in colours that I thought would work together. One of the sets works quite well going from light to darks with shades of pinks and greys.



But this second  set does not work together well at all. And of course I can't have yarn sitting here that I can’t use because the colours don’t work together, can I? Go ahead, agree with me please......  thank you! So on Friday I went searching for a local store that carries this particular brand of yarn. None in our area carry it.  So I then went searching for a Canadian online store that carries it. I found one in Toronto called Eweknit that had a really good selection of this brand of yarn. I’ve ordered 4 colours that I hope will work with the yarns I already have. Two of the new ones are blue based and the other are yellow based. I will know more when they arrive.

So now that I’ve rambled on long enough, I think I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and check out what all the other slow stitchers are up to.