Buried in WIPs, Liesl, and Ishbel Shawl

Ever get the feeling like you’re buried in WIPs?

Buried in my WIPs

I had that feeling this weekend when I realized all the projects I have on the needles right now. Currently I have (in no particular order):

– Starlight sweater
– Liesl sweater
– Socks
– Toe-up stripey socks
– Nanner socks
– Button-Up Neck Warmer
– Ishbel shawl
– Secret Garden shawl
– Malabrigo scarf

That’s NINE projects in the works! 3 pairs of socks, 2 sweaters, 2 shawls, a neck warmer and a scarf. The Malabrigo scarf is a long term project. It’s a garter stitch scarf that I work on whenever I feel like it. Just something to work on when I just want to knit without thinking. The Nanner socks are likely to get frogged as I’ve lost all desire to finish them, but I’m letting them hang around to see if the desire to knit them comes back. The rest, I’m pretty actively working on. After realizing how many projects I had going on I’m feeling a bit like I’ve got too much, so I’ve moved a few things into “hibernating” status until other things get finished.

Starlight, stripey socks, Nanner socks, and the Malabrigo scarf are all hibernating until I get it’s equal done. Liesl gets finished and I’ll start back on Starlight. Socks get finished and I’ll go back to stripey socks or Nanner socks. Button-Up Neck Warmer gets finished and Malabrigo scarf gets worked on. There are very few times that I felt like I had a lot of things on the needles and needed a plan to get it back under control. I think that I’d like to keep my amount of projects down to three. A number that wouldn’t bother me, make me feel like I have too much going on, and enough variety to always have something I want to work on. That’s just me, though. Everyone is different and you might be someone who likes to work on one thing at a time or 10 things at a time. As long as you’re happy doing what you’re doing, that’s the most important thing! 🙂

Even though I had 7 projects on the needles, I started 2 new ones last week. I mentioned in my last post that I started Liesl and it’s moving right along. I’m probably about halfway done with the body and have already split off the sleeves. This has turned out to be a pretty quick knit after a rocky start that involved a lot of frogging. I didn’t like the neckline the way I initially worked it, so I ripped it out and did the lower neckline (did the high neckline when I first started) and I like it a lot better.

Liesl Progress

The other project I started last week was Ishbel. I started this on Friday. I think I might have been in a “I’m bored with these projects, I need something new!” mood last week. This is a pretty easy knit so far. Great for watching TV or knitting in the car (or while going through Costco while your significant other pushes the cart). I’m really loving the yarn!

Ishbel Shawl in The Yarn Bearer’s Uber Sock “Blood & Gore” colorway (Sock Club shipment)

Karen decided to do this shawl, too, since she recently ripped out a sock and wanted something else to do with it besides another sock. She was having a little trouble getting started and I was having a difficult time trying to explain it in words, so I did up a little diagram in MS Paint to help her out. I remember the first time I did a shawl in this manner, it took me a few hours to figure it out back when I really didn’t know any knitters yet. Some things are just difficult to visualize! I thought this might help others, so I’ll share it here. (Please excuse my not-so-great MS Paint skills.)

The shawl starts out by casting on 3 stitches, knitting a few rows in garter stitch, then picking up stitches along the side edge and cast on edge. I’ve seen a number of shawls start this way. Can you visualize how that should look? I sure couldn’t the first time I tried and I kept thinking I was going something wrong. Here’s what you’ll be doing, in graphics:

This is what it will look like when you’re ready to pick up the stitches on the side edge and cast on edge.

Hopefully that helps if you ever need to start a project in this manner. 🙂