Here is a look at what I’ve finished over the last couple of months and what I’m working on in April.
FINISHED
The Salt River Sweater is finished with testing and released! You can see some of the really beautiful test knit sweaters here. I’m always so very grateful to test knitters for their time and work and thoughts on the pattern!
The Lavinia Shawlette is also finished and available! Again a big thank you goes out to the test knitters for this one!
I released the Blue Jean Cowl after reknitting the sample and reworking the pattern. This cowl originally published in I Love Knitting. As soon as the rights reverted back to me, I started working on this one so I’d have a fun cotton cowl to wear during the warmer months.
The Prairie Rose Cowl is in test knitting right now! The pattern one should be ready to release around mid- to late-May. This cowl features basic decreases and yarn overs to evoke the gentle sweep and shape of wild roses on the tallgrass prairies in Middle America. The Prairie Rose Cowl is long for a draped-scarf feel. Perfect for when you want to show off beautiful knits as the temperature rises. The Prairie Rose Cowl is a quick and easy knit. I’m super pleased to collaborate with Elevate Fibers on this project in their new prairie-inspired colorway. Elevate Fibers donates a portion of all revenue to help support our National Parks and Forests. Tallgrass prairies used to cover 170 million acres in North America but today only 4% of the prairies are left and a good chunk of that can be found in the Flint Hills of Kansas at the Konza Prairie Biological Station and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
The test knit for this cabled hat design in 6 sizes is on my schedule to start the week of April 20th. With everything else going on in the world right now I decided to push back the testing. I really love this hat pattern and I’m hoping to get a good group of testers for it! Hat test knits are generally some of the largest test knits I run in terms of numbers of testers (with several testers per size and six sizes the number can get big pretty easily). I hope this test knit gets big since I know I could use the chat in the thread to feel connected to the knitting community. I hope having busy hands and a good group to touch base with in the test knit thread sounds good to others right now too! I knit each of these sample hats on US Size 7 needles in two different shades of blue Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted.
And finally I’ve finished knitting the sample garment of this top down tunic out of Treasure Goddess DK Treasures yarn in the color Ruby Daggers. Next I need to start the process of edits and reworks of the written pattern to get it ready for testing in the summer.
That feels like a whole lot of finished projects!
ON THE NEEDLES
In a reverse of what I normally say here, I have relatively few things on the needles right now. In fact, I only have one that I’m currently working on.
The sample hats for a new cabled hat design. The Baby and Toddler sizes are finished. The Child size is in progress. Sample hats are out of three shades of brown Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. 3 more sample hat sizes to go and then I plan to knit myself final sample that I turn into a messy-bun hat.
Instead of actual projects, here is a picture of some of the yarn that is waiting on me to get my act together, make final design decisions and cast on already. I’ve got oodles and oodles of projects just about ready to start….as soon as I have the mental space for them. Pictured above is yarn that wants to be a cowl, a sweater or a ruana, a shawl and possible a skinny, drape-y scarf.
One reason that I’ve got fewer things on the needles right now is that I’ve been planting seeds like crazy. It feels like something positive to look forward to and I figure if we grow more than we can eat, we can share. Planting a LOT of seeds means that I’ve also been working on getting more “raised beds” ready for them outside. The version of raised beds that seems to work best for me is using plastic bins with drainage holes cut in the bottom. I like the round feed ones best but am trying others that I can free up around the house too. We usually fill them with a mix of soil, compost and manure.
We have some pretty shorter beds too. It turns out they really aren’t tall enough for anything but strawberries or flowers to grow happily (at least the way I garden). So we added some strawberry plants this spring too.
I’ve also been busy spending some quality time with my teenagers. Our in-person school cancelled on March 16th for the rest of the school year (our teacher and district have done an amazing job quickly moving all classes online for the rest of the school year). Add to that our weeks and weeks of self-imposed social distancing and we’ve had lots of free time. We’ve been playing many, many board games (only a few are pictured above), cooking from scratch more with random ingredients between our widely spaced grocery trips, working on class projects and watching movies or shows together. I hope you all are being gentle with yourselves as we all struggle to find the new normal. Please stay healthy and safe!
