Just rolling with the stitches...

 Just rolling with the stitches...

It's been all about enjoying getting lost in a lovely big wrap full of squishy garter stitch and pretty lace this week past!

Last weeks post was unfortunately a few days delayed due to a slight technical error on my part I'm afraid, so my apologies for that.
I had written the post in advance as I knew my hubby had a leave day on the Friday, which is when I usually post, and so I was intending to have it all written on the Thursday and set to schedule the release of it on the Friday, while I could be enjoying a long weekend with the family without reaching for my laptop...But, seems I messed up a little on that, and I realised on the Saturday that in fact it had not published successfully and it had been left to appear that I had just skipped posting.
So please do check out last weeks post (which was then posted on the Saturday) if you had expected it on the Friday and then just assumed I skipped a week, as it is there and should have been there on time if only I was technically inept! 😕😒

Other than that, the week has flown by in a flurry of soft draping floofy stitches that make up my current design WIP. I had a very solid idea of this design before I started and it's been in my thoughts for a long time, but it got off to slightly shaky start stitch choice wise, which threw me a bit, especially as I had had such a concrete plan for this design, never imagining I would need to veer from it, but veer from it I did.
I am a bit stubborn about having to do that, I have had images of this wrap billowing in the breeze somewhere, against the design scape in my mind that it feels just wrong not to see it come into realization exactly as it was formed there, but it turned out the yarn which I was very happy with in itself and did not wish to substitute just wasn't working for me with one of the design elements I had planned. 
As I said, I find this a little testing, as I can become quite married to the early design notions I'm set on for the piece in question, and abandoning them always leaves me with a feeling that this piece will now not hold the same magic for me it once did...Which is silly of me really as you can often fall in love all over again with it by adapting as you knit and coming up with alternative plans that can end up feeling just as lovely and special and this wrap has been a learning curve on that for me, and I'm pleased to say I have learnt to love this design as I have gone along and now I think it's my new design fave (until the next one, obviously!) 😉 ...

Designs in Progress...

The Whimsical (or whimsy) Lane Wrap, has been through a bit of a journey, as I have explained above, but I'm really happy with where this wrap and I have ended up together.
So, in opting to leave out part of the sequences I had planned, I basically had to simplify the design, going for the less is more. With a little juggling here and there to balance for what I had left out, I have been left with a nicely consistent, balanced enjoyable knit, which I have thoroughly enjoyed and I know I will love to wear, equal paths squishy comforting garter stripes and fairly simple engaging pretty lace. 

I am currently just past the halfway point and it should be smooth sailing now until I begin to decreases down to the final few stitches. The chart left to work has been created ready for me to work through when the time comes, (drawn up in reverse of the chart for the first half as I do love symmetry and want the chart to be just as pretty and recognisable when hanging on both sides of the wearers body)...
All the what should be when and where planning has all been gateposted from the first half of the wrap that is already draping off my needles...So now just a leisurely pleasurable amble down the lane until this is ready for a nice soak.

That's going to be a very pretty bowl of wet yarny stitches goodness!It's all cosy softness, it's been a truly comforting gentle piece to be working on. And in it's muted somewhat nature leaning shades, it whispers of Summer afternoons, meadows and all of the goodness that nature can wrap around our souls, which I feel will be wrapped around me when I wear it, which I imagine will be alot as I love big wide rectangular wraps for their versatility. This bias knit rectangular wrap sample I have worked up using the simply gorgeous floofy wonder that is 'Keld Fingering', a 90% Superwash extrafine merino / 10% linen blend by Eden Cottage Yarns, (@edencottageyarns), in the Barn Door, Hyssop and Linen colorways, (click on the links to see the details). I can't say enough in praise of this lovely yarn!

Tests in Progress...

Still in a quiet period for testing, as the current piece that is in the works is the 'Sanctuary Shawl' which is going to be a long leisurely pick it up when you can test knit over the Summer, to be ready in time for the Autumn, when we want to reach for a nice cozy shawl to snuggle up in, so it's going to have a distinctly slow and relaxed tone to the test itself...Nothing worse than  those test moments when it's boiling hot but I have to make the deadline for finishing this shawl even though I'm not really up to it, so I wanted something a lot easier for my wonderful testers to work to over those warmer days of memory making Summer moments, and this way also provides my lovely test knitters some wiggle room on being able to fit in the best time for them, between now and then, to work on it, without clashing with Summer commitments, spending the meantime to decide on their colocombinationsons for the shawl, all part of the pleasure for a lot of us knitters - and a happy test knit makes all the difference!
For now, this is what we have coming together so far...

Sanctuary Shawl Test -

The early stages of a shawl, knit by Moogle on Ravelry

The promise of new beginnings, by Vrazz on Ravelry

Until next time! …