Year of Projects: Back to School

I've been struggling with what to do with my Allegoro and at this point I feel like chucking it!

I didn't have enough brown yarn to do 1x1 rib on the bottom so decided to make it like the neckband which is 1 purl row then bind off only it won't lay flat and it flares out a bit.

You'd think I would have learned my lesson with the bottom, but I went ahead and did the neckband like the bottom and surprise surprise it won't lay flat either. I'm hoping it will block out but I have my doubts. . .

Since I do have white yarn left, I decided to rip the bottom back and add the 1x1 rib border like the pattern said to do in the first place. Since I'd bound off I couldn't get the stitches to unravel, so I've had to undo 1 stitch at a time. It's very slow and painful. After working on it for several hours on Saturday, I'd only gotten about half of them back on. 

I did try it on after the bottom was done and it looks baggy and sloppy on me so I'm not sure how often I'll even wear this thing but I figure I should at least see what it looks like with the ribbing on the bottom. 

Meanwhile, I drug out another quilt UFO because it has a "fall/back to school" look to it. I've had the fabric for a few years but just hadn't gotten around to working on it. It's a wall hanging from a Better Homes and Gardens calendar from 2006 and it uses 18 different fabrics! Thankfully I made fairly good notes on which were to be used in which blocks when I bought them but it still took a while for me to sort them out. I went through and numbered them which is what I should have done in the first place. . .

I got the center star and hourglass blocks cut out:

Year of Projects: Finish Line

Cue the national anthem and the raising of the flag: I finished my Ravellenics Project and am waiting to be called to the podium! Admittedly it wasn't a very challenging project, but since I spent last week with my family, which included my 6 year old niece, I wanted something easy to work on.

 

I also finished the body of my Allegoro so now all that's left are the sleeves and neckband so I should have YoP FO #2 soon!

Year of Projects: False Starts

Opening Ceremonies started at 4pm in my area so I CO for my Ravellenic Swap Hat after I got home from work ~5pm. I was going to a friend's house that evening to watch the Ceremonies so I wanted to have the rib pattern established by the time I got there because I knew I'd be distracted. 

While I was working on the first row, my husband had a flat tire on his way home so called several times and I made a mistake but didn't catch it until I got to the party. I had to unknit the first row but eventually I did get back on track. 

Then when I was about to start the stockinette section, I realized that the hat was going to be ~2" too small! I have no idea why since I did make a swatch.... I did another small swatch then went up a needle size and added 8 more stitches and it looks like it will fit now. I'm just about to start the decreases so barring any more disasters I should be able to finish it before the end of the Olympics.

I started a swatch for Alexandria with seed stitch borders and am happy with the look so will knit a bit more on the swatch to make sure I have the right gauge then will cast on again. . . My husband started calling this project Alexandria the 5th since I've had to start it so many times. . .

While I was home visiting my parents last week, my mom gave me some yarn that a friend of hers bought in Nova Scotia. Her friend doesn't knit anymore and my mom didn't have a need for it so she passed it on to me.

Since my husband has been helpful with my knitting projects I'm going to make him a sweater with the yarn on the left and one for me with the yarn on the right :)