Second page of stocking done

In the weekend I finished page 2 (of 3), this is the progress as of Wednesday night. The obvious line on the snowman's body shows where the page ended.

How is it Wednesday again already?

This week I would like to introduce my cardigan WIP. Pattern is Woodstove Season, by Alicia Plummer. Yarn is a wool/hemp blend that I got from the mill in Milton a year ago. It feels a little harsh, but not actually scratchy -I'm assuming that is the hemp making itself known, and I hope it will soften in time. Even if it doesn't it will be fine, as I'm intending this to be a loose cardigan to throw on for around home and going to the playground.

I am finding the knitting to be a little bit of a slog already, I think because the hemp means the yarn has a bit less give than wool, and is less flexible. I hope I will get used to it because I don't really want to end up giving up on it. I am using 4mm needles, which is giving me a slightly smaller stitch gauge than the pattern says, but the row gauge is good. I'm compensating by making the next size up, which I think should turn out about right. (I have checked the numbers, and they look pretty good).

(Apologies for the terrible photo, today has been miserable and our indoor lighting is somewhat suboptimal.)

I am nearly halfway through the yoke increases, so I think this will take a long time to finish. Maybe I will aim for next winter...

WIP Wednesday, stocking again

I feel like I've definitely made some progress from two weeks ago, I don't think I would have realised how much without this record!

WIP Wednesday, mitten edition

The weather is definitely cooling down here, and I only have one pair of small mittens for two little boys. Clearly this won't work, so last week I started on another pair. The pattern is The Stay Put Mini Mitts by Jennifer Alexander, size 3-4. Yarn is Schoeller + Stahl Limbo, a superwash wool. I am using 3.25mm needles, which is smaller than what the pattern calls for, but is giving me a nice dense mitten.

I have actually finished the thumb now, next photos will probably be of the pair though.

I started these on Saturday, and would probably be further along by now, but for the last 4 days we have all been working through various stages of a stomach bug. Everyone appears to be on the mend now, The Changeling is the last to be laid low and I think the fact that he is still breastfed has helped a lot. He does have some pretty nasty nappy rash at the moment, but we have the medications and routine sorted from when he had issues before so fingers crossed that he will bounce back pretty quickly.

WIP Wednesday

For ages I have seen people posting works in progress on Wednesdays, and thought it seemed like a nice idea. But by the time I would take a photo, extract it from the camera, and formulate a post it would almost certainly not be Wednesday, and absolutely not the one on which the photo was taken.

Just this last weekend I decided I wanted to track progress on the Christmas stocking, I remembered the WIP Wednesday concept, and realised that I have a smartphone with a passable camera at the moment. I've only been using this phone for 3 months so far, I work these things out eventually.

I will aim to post a single WIP photo every week, which means I will by cycling through projects, depending on whim. To kick it all off, here is the current state of the stocking. Apologies for the sidewaysness!