Needlework Tuesday - Sick, Knitting, and Flood

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

My husband was kind enough to share his cold with me, so this week I've spent a lot of time knitting and not much else. I was able to finish one project, make good progress on another, as well as start a new one!

First up, the finished one. The Hidden Gusset fingerless mitts are done. After having a stitch count issues with the first one, the second one knit up quickly without a hitch. My notes and stitch counts from the first one were very helpful and saved tons of time. Here they are:

I'm blown away that they almost match despite no winding off yarn or planning on my part. Even the thumbs match the hand part. Woohoo! Now that I'm familiar with the pattern and know where the tricky parts are, I'd love to make another pair with a solid colour yarn or at least one that has very subtle colour changes.

Next up, a new project from last week, the Handmaiden's Bias Shawl. This one is a very simple pattern...only two repeating rows.
Row 1: K
Row 2: K1 *yo K2tog, repeat from * to end.

How simple is that! It's knit with two yarns (silk boucle and fine mohair) held together. I'm still not loving the boucle, but I'm getting used to it. Even though the pattern is simple, I managed to screw it up a few times. I probably missed a yo or K2tog. We had a couple of nice days and I was knitting outside for a bit to enjoy the sunshine. Lots of distractions out there. Anyway, I managed to catch it but not before screwing up the edge in one spot. I thought I might do more harm than good by frogging back, so I did a quick fix and moved on. I don't think anyone, but me, will notice.  Since I'm pretty close to done, I'll post a photo next time.

Finally, I was able to start the summer top I've been eyeing for awhile. It's from Shibui and is called Interval. The majority of the top is knit in reverse stocking stitch. I'm taking bets on how long it'll take for someone to ask me if I'm wearing my top inside out. It appears that I'll be learning a few new skills with this project, starting with the German Twisted Cast-on. The pattern designer kindly pointed to a YouTube video, which was extremely helpful, with one exception. She compared this cast-on to long tail cast-on, which I'd heard of, even looked up once, but never learned how to do. I got the hang of it pretty quickly and was able to knit quite a bit of the back this week. Here's a shot of the yarn and a little snippet of the side and bottom edge:

My knitting isn't quite as tidy as I'd hoped it would be. It's just stocking stitch after all, so I'm not sure why it's uneven and wonky-looking.  I'm using metal needles and the cotton yarn is slipping a little, so perhaps that's it.

This coming week, I'm going to finish the shawl (hopefully) and continue to work on my summer top. I might start another smallish project to knit if I get bored of all of the stocking stitch in the top, but I'm not sure what that's going to be yet. Stay tuned....

In other news, we've been hearing reports of a potential flood again this year. The last big one was 2014. However, we also had water in our backyard in 2015. Because there are so many factors involved, we aren't sure yet how much water we'll get or how long it'll stick around. From here forward, I'll post updates and pictures in separate posts.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.