The Ripple Bralette – Part 1

As I finished the simple ribbed balaclava, I turned my eyes onto another WIP. I picked up the already half made Ripple Bralette I had left some time ago. But I was unhappy with the yarn I had chosen for the bralette in the first place. It was a green, scratchy feeling fingering weight yarn with no label anywhere to be found. And so the lesson of contentment starts. Do I continue working with yarn that I currently do not like just so I can finish a project? I wrestled with this for a good amount of time. Ultimately, I decided my end goal was to wear this bralette as much as possible. If this was going to be scratchy against my skin, this is not going to make me want to put this on every day. And so the whole bralette was frogged.

Now I sat with a frogged project and was discouraged. How am I in this spot after just starting the new year!? Wasn’t the point of my resolutions to help me not feel this way? Then I realized, I was putting myself in a perfection box of contentment. I am thinking that both the yarn and pattern have to be perfect in order for contentment to be felt. But what if perfection and contentment do not go together?

I weighed the left over Life In the Long Grass Fine Sock I had just used for my simple ribbed balaclava. It was like fate! I had more than enough to make the bralette out of that yarn. And off I started working on the bralette. I made only one adjustment as I went along – instead of a 2.5″ body, I did 2″. But it wasn’t until I had knitted until the same spot were I frogged before, that I realized maybe I should have knitted that extra 1/2 inch into the body after I tried on the bra. Here I sat at another crossroads – do I just finish the project and just be happy with the shorter bralette or do I frog back and add the ½ inch of ribbing? While I was trying to decide this, I had nice “facepalm” moment as I was re-looking at the pattern. I knit the size smaller than I was suppose to! WWWHHHHYYYY!!! So my crossroads decision went right out of the window at this point. 

Then, it suddenly dawned on me, “Gosh, do I have enough yardage in this current skein to knit the size I need?” I quickly frogged the project so fast, felt like deja vu since this was the second day in a row at this point I had frogged this project, and off to the yarn scale I went. Calculated the math and ended up JUST squeaking by the upper limit of yardage needed. Although I feel so lucky I can still use this skein, why does it feel like this bralette is laughing at me after this will now be my 3rd attempt for a rather easy project? At this point, I decided to take break to allow my pondering thoughts to settle from the fury that was going on in my head. Over the course of the next few days, I was able to get back to the same point I was a couple of tries ago. 

2022 – The Year of …

For 2022, I aspire to be content with my knitting. I know what you are thinking, why would she even be knitting if she was not happy? Let me explain. 

For the majority of knitters, we want new needles, yarn, the latest pattern that just came out, a knitting bag, or we no longer enjoy the project we started (even if we are only 3” away from having an entire sweater completed 😂) and abandon it for a new project that excites us. We seek the adrenaline and satisfaction this provides us in the moment. Our eyes get so big dreaming of the possibilities that we forget to enjoy the now. But what would happen if we did not buy anything new, and finished the projects we started (even when we aren’t thrilled in the moment anymore with them) for a whole year?

That is where I believe contentment will be learned – finding the happiness and satisfaction in the progress of it all. If anything the past couple of years has taught me is that I so desperately want to skip the now and plan and dream for the future. I want to escape the present. Perfect example, on our 7 day move to Alaska, often at times, I just so badly wanted to be to the next stop so I could say, we only have however many days left until I do not have to be in this truck anymore. If I am doing that in life, my guess is I am also doing that with my knitting as well. Which is why I have decided to be bold in 2022:

My 2022 Knitting Resolutions

  1. Buy NO new yarn.
  2. Choose projects that will only use up yarn from my current yarn stash.
  3. Knit a pair of socks every month OR knit 12 pairs of socks by December 31, 2022.
  4. Finish all the current WIPs (work-in-progress) or hibernating projects:
    1. Zweig sweater
    2. Lap blanket 
    3. Little linear sweater 
    4. Peep show shawl
    5. First sock KAL
    6. Ripple bralette
    7. Rainbow fingerless mitts
    8. His and hers Christmas socks
    9. 1 Pair of husband socks
    10. 2 Pairs of socks for me that only need heels done
    11. Scrappy knit pillow
    12. Basic balaclava

I tried to set SMART goals but still allow myself the wiggle room for creativity to thrive. What are some of your knitting resolutions for 2022?

Until next time,
Lauren

Happy Belated Winter Solstice

Happy belated Winter Solstice! It has been far too long since I have been to my own blog. Life has gotten in the way. But one of my resolutions for 2022 is to get back to writing about knitting, and let’s be real, my knitting life has taken a back seat burner to the rest of my life. And 2022 is going to be the year I change this.

The sunset on December 21, 2021 (Winter Solstice) at around 2pm in Alaska.

I recently moved to Alaska with my husband. Everywhere you look, nature just takes your breath away. As I write, there is a winter storm baring down on us, with snow flying around like a snow globe (but you can only see this if you turn on the lights outside since it is so dark out  otherwise one could not even tell it is snowing outside 😆 ).

Alaska has taught me so much for the little time I have lived here. But it smacked me in the face with an important reminder, my knitting skills are ever so appreciated here. 😊  In the short time I have been here, I have knitted my husband a double sided hat in fingering weight yarn, myself a quick chunky cabled hat, started a cabled lap blanket, making myself a balaclava (for those -30 F days that I need to venture out into), and slowly working on finishing up pairs of socks I abandoned long ago (which was quite silly  on my part since they only needed the heels to be finished!). Knitting the basics for winter has reinvigorated my love for knitting again. 🧶 I hope you will join me on my journey of living life in Alaska while making knitting a larger role in my life.

Until next time,
Lauren

Shawl #4: The Shawl With No Name

Well, to say it has been awhile is an understatement. Life has been crazy busy. I am making this blog a priority again which means you will get updates on all my current projects. Furthermore, I have been on Instagram a lot watching @WestKnits live videos. He is inspiring me to just roll with the punches and keep doing you. SO … that is what I am going to do with this blog.

© darnknitanyway in slip stitch sequence

My current project is an awesome shawl pattern called The Shawl With No Name by Darn Knit Anyways in Stillwater, Minnesota and is one of the yarn stores I now frequent. What drew me to this pattern was the fact that there are two different versions and it seemed like an easy pattern since there are no other techniques besides garter stitch and slip stitches. I wanted to do a bright colored shawl. It took some time to decide which way I wanted to go with  for colors. I could not decide if I wanted to try doing a neon colorway or stick closer to my normal yarn colors, but make the color combination accent and bring out each other. I ended up going with a dark purple, lime green, and rusty orange colorway.  I chose to do the slip stitch sequence because I liked how it added a finesse to the knitting without a ton of skill or time.

© darnknitanyway in stripe sequence

I do not know about you, but when I have a problem that has developed with my knitting, I tend to get pouty towards the project. I try to fix it, I give it a few days break, then I put it on hold if I still cannot fix it. I had reached this point in the project since I ran out of one of my colors 2 rows shy of finishing with that color! *UUUGGGGHHHH* I thought I would just end that color early and switch to the next color two rows early. Thinking I was pretty clever, I knitted on….until that color started running out too. Seriously, this problem is starting to work more than just my patience.

One of the reasons I will be going back to Darn Knit Anyways is because I brought in the shawl in a frustrated state and they took the time to unravel and help me fix the shawl to be back on track. Frankly, if I had not done this, this shawl would be frogged and who knows how long this would be sitting around in my basement.

I am at least 80% done with the shawl. I love how it looks and feels. I will post an update once I am finished. But, here is a picture of where I am … courtesy of my Instagram.

@ theknittingpharmer

Fixing a Hole While Blocking 

Have you knitted a project that you know was done perfectly then blocked it and all the sudden you have holes!? To your horror, you start googling to find a solution. Yet, no one seems to understand or have a fix to your current panic attack?

how-to-fix-a-hole

Calm down. I have an easy solution to this that does not require any scissors, ripping out your finished project. It requires a blocking mat, pins, your finished knitting project, and a knitting needle of your choice.

Step 1: Block the whole project and make sure to re-wet the project. If it is to large to block the whole project, block half the project where the hole(s) are.

Step 2: Using your knitting needle, spread out the stitches around the hole to tighten the hole us. See video below.

Step 3: Take a damp washcloth and re-wet the blocked project. Allow to throughly dry and then unblock.

This looks like a huge problem, but it has an easy solution. Enjoy your gorgeous projects! 🙂

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