I stuck to my goal of only knitting on WIPs in October, but my period of self-restraint has ended, and I’m indulging in casting on some new projects. I’m also joining in with the My Sister’s Knitter My Fall KAL. For now I’m keeping it down to 2 new projects, one mindless and one thoughtful.

For the ‘easy’ project I’m knitting a shawl with my Wollelfe gradient yarn. The pattern is called Grady and I love working on this shawl, it’s very rewarding to knit towards a new colour this way. Little fluffy Iva agrees this project is a hit, she certainly likes sitting on it. Oh the challenges of taking knitting pics with a cat around.. I did manage to shoo her off for long enough to take pictures, and she kindly posed with the yarn.

Last week my first ever issue of Pom Pom magazine founds its way to my house. I had to wait until the weekend to find some time to appreciate it fully, but what a great decision getting a subscription to this was. If you haven’t seen the featured patterns yet, do have a look on Ravelry. I feel like knitting all of them, but Cicely is definitely speaking to me the most. Getting some yarn for this has just moved to the top of my birthday wishlist.

The little green gauge swatch still needs a wash and a block, but I’m hoping to cast on the Lorem Ipsum cardigan next week as my more thought requiring project. Giving the unusual warm weather we’re currently experiencing in the Netherlands, this lightweight cropped cardigan felt appropriate. The weather for having heavy warm sweaters in progress on your lap is not quite there yet.

1 year after casting on this scarf I finally finished it. This is the third FO in my quest of finishing poor old and neglected WIPs (first were some vanilla socks and then the Rye mitts) and it feels good to have this done. Mainly because near the end I was bored out of my mind doing the same pattern repeat over and over every day. I guess this is also not so surprising if you know that this scarf ate 6,5 skeins (some 800+ meters). Cables for days, quite literally.

This isn’t a colour I usually find myself knitting with, but I’m happy with it. This way I can pretty much combine it with anything and it goes with all of my coats, so good chances this will get worn all winter round (or at least as soon as it gets cold, it was 21 degrees celsius today, insane for November!). The yarn is a mix of wool and silk and feels just perfect for a comfy scarf like this. Even though it was tempting to make it a lot shorter, I’m happy with this length. I can quite literally mummify myself in cables and we all have these occasional moments in which the urge for cable mummification become overwhelming.

Now even though I was hoping to finish up one more WIP in a row, the urge for new cast ons has just become too overwhelming. So I do plan to still finish my Northmann mittens before the end of the year, but for now they’ll be neglected just a tad bit longer. Everyday I spend more and more time wandering around my stash, squishing yarns, looking at patterns. There’s only so much strength one knitter can muster.

October is tempting for any knitter, so many new pattern releases, an abundance of inspiration and it’s nearly impossible to not catch a serious case of Startitis. I could feel it coming, my fingers were tingling with the urge to cast on. But the thought made me sad as well, because there were some really old WIPs awaiting my attention as well. So I decided that for at least one month, I wouldn’t cast on anything new, and finish my attention on finishing up old stuff. So now I find myself WIP-busting my way through October. Finishing the vanilla self striping socks that were over a year in the making already felt really good, and this is my second finish this month.

Pattern: Rye Mitts by Hanne Katajamäki
Yarn: Malabrigo sock in African Violet

If this shade of purple seems familiar, it’s because this was knit up with leftover yarn from my Blossom cap I knit earlier this year. These mitts were cast on at the end of May and it’s such a quick little knit it’s a mystery why I waited so long to finish mitt number 2. Interestingly though, these couple of months made quite a big difference in my tension, making one mitt a little bigger than the other. No worries though, they fit just fine so I’m not sweating it.

I knew I still had these super cute buttons stowed away especially for these mitts, it just took me an hour sifting through my house to find them. Note to self: find some sort of button organising system that is better than randomly throwing them somewhere.

After finishing these I started focusing all my energy on the Tiller scarf I started in November last year, hoping to finish it before the WIP hits that 1-year mark. I need all the strength I can get to stick to my fantastic WIP-busting resolution, so keep me in your thoughts dear knitters!

I finished not one, but two (!!!) projects during my holiday and I finally got them washed and blocked. First up is my second Pebble Beach shawl. I made the shawlette version for myself a little while back, and when my aunt saw that one she loved it. So I decided to make one for her too as a gift.

Pattern: Pebble Beach Shawl
Yarn: Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply in Blue Lagoon

I went for the medium size, as my aunt said she’d like a nice big version and I think the size worked out really nice. Here’s a pic of the shawlette version stacked on it for scale.

Pretty nice size no? And with this yarn it’ll certainly drape around the shoulders nicely. Once again I’m really pleased with Fyberspates. I tried to find a nice, intense blue colour and this one certainly ticks all the boxes.

It did get a little boring at some point, at least knitting the repetitive part up to the border. So there’ll be no Pebble Beach #3 anytime soon, nevertheless I can really recommend the pattern.

As for the socks, these were over a year in the making. I cast them on as a project to knit on the train, but I guess I rarely ride the train though, hence the long in the making period (I’m full of brilliant plans). Surprisingly, this is my first vanilla pair of socks in my collection. After I learned to knit socks I got bored with vanilla socks after 1 sock, and I immediately moved on to more interesting patterns. But there’s nothing wrong with some simple self striping socks every once in a while. The yarn is Froehlich Wolle Maxi Ringel that I bought in Switzerland last year. Pretty happy they’re finished though, especially because I want to make October a month of finishing up some old WIPs.