More WIP Work

 Hi all -

It's hard to believe Christmas is just a little over a week away! We got a foot of snow last weekend, so it's a white Christmas for us! It really is so beautiful! I've got all of my Christmas knitting done, so I've been finishing up some old WIPs (Works In Progress) before starting some new things. I'm never short on projects!

The first old project I finished is my Prismatic Poncho designed by Rachel Raden:

Prismatic Poncho - front

Prismatic Poncho - back

This was an old Jimmy Beans Wool Knitting Club project from 2019. It was a lot of knitting so I would work on it for a while, then put it aside to work on other projects. It is simply made as two large rectangles that are connected along the back half of one long side. My corners on the rectangles aren't square because I didn't use a loose enough tension on the edge stitches, but it still all works. I think this will be wonderful on cold winter evenings when I'm using a blanket but I still want to do some kind of handwork. I can cover my shoulders with the poncho for added warmth without hindering my arms at all.

The other WIP I finished are my Kickshaws designed by Shanel Wu:

Kickshaws

Kickshaws in use

These were another Jimmy Beans Wool Knit Club project from 2019. I put these aside at the time because I didn't understand the directions after knitting the soles. The second part of the pattern was called "right insole" and you started by picking up 3 stitches from one of the short ends of the sole. Since I couldn't picture where on the slipper we were working, I couldn't figure out the proper 3 stitches to pick up. So I put them away for another time. Well, I picked them back up and tried a few things until I figured out that these instructions were for the "right side" of the slipper and we were starting at the toe and only working half of the toe stitches because of the stitches going along the center top. Once I figured this out, it was easy to finish the slippers! They fit my feet perfectly so I think they'll be a welcome addition to my winter home footwear.

Finally, I took the yarn left over from my Arabica Cowl and made a Robusta Hat designed by yellowcosmo:

Robusta Hat

Robusta Hat - pattern close-up

This yarn was from a kit that I bought from Jimmy Beans Wool several years ago. The kit was for either the Arabica Cowl (crochet) or the Robusta Hat and Cowl combination (knit). I decided to make the Arabica Cowl to practice my crochet, but ended up with a lot of yarn left over so decided to make the Robusta Hat with that. The Robusta Hat has a really cool slip stitch pattern on the body. I really like how it turned out -- the picture doesn't do it justice! I wasn't sure if the quantity I had of each yarn would be enough, but I figured that I would make it work. As I got into the knitting, I also decided to do an extra repeat of the pattern using the red/tan color combination because the hat was going to be a little short for my taste. I had to use some of the shorter scraps, but I was able to get almost all of the hat finished with the colors as specified in the pattern. I just ran out of the tan yarn as I neared the top of the hat, so I switched back to the red yarn at the very top. I thought that made the color change look intentional since it matched the brim color. I ended up using absolutely all of the red and tan yarns and have about 25 yards of the gray yarn leftover. Pretty good use of the yarn! I really like this hat and will be keeping it for myself. And I'll probably add a faux-fur pom-pom since I think it's screaming for one.

That's it for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!!

Nancy