January and the Crazy Cast on Crusade

So as part of my Shop the Stash challenge for 2010 I'm giving myself, or taking part in some little themes for each month, you know to kind of make it a bit more exciting, jazz it up and well, I dunno, it seems like some sort of crazy fun!


January was crazy cast on month, which meant I was allowed to cast on as many projects as I liked,  with nary a care for others that hadn't been finished or even how many I had piling up. It was all about guilt free casting on as the mood struck. There was even some talk in some ranks about casting on every day in January, pure and utter crazy talk for sure!!!


At month's end, I had cast on a total of nine projects. Four of those were finished, three oh so close to being finished, and two sort of just fluffing along nicely.  I was  a little surprised at my scant casting ons to be honest, I thought I would have cast on more but January has been a busy month and despite that I did somehow manage to knit over 1700 yards of yarn. That seems like a hell of a lot to me!


So here's the first cast on for the month (the others are my own designs so shall have their own posts;))


Pattern: Whirligig Shrug by Stephanie Japel
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Tea Rose (seconds) one skein
Needle size: 4mm
Size: 24 months

I just adore this yarn. I bought it as a second which means the colour isn’t completely solid, so it has a lovely semi-solid tone to it.

I wanted this knit to be a simple mindless New Years Day knit, so I cast on with no thought or regards for reading through the pattern first or casting a critical eye over it. Given the finished measurements, I initially cast on for 12-18 month size as Lily only has a chest measurement of 21 inches. As I was knitting it dawned on me that a back of 56 stitches does not equate to 11 inches with a tension of 22/4”, it would come out at 10 inches. So I decided recklessly to work extra increases to get to the 24 month size back of 60 stitches. (which by my equations equates to a 11 inch back not a 12 1/2 inch back) This did mean that cable section wasn’t quite right under the arms, so promise not to look there.

I also worked a little bit extra length in the frill to account for Lily’s age (5 in March) and managed to get all this out of the one ball of Cotton Fleece.

I adore the look of this shrug, and Lily is totally enamoured with it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stay on. It keeps falling off her shoulders and I feel like a fusspot mum constantly fixing it. I probably need to do something about tightening the edging to help with this problem but at the moment I can’t be bothered.

I might still do another one but perhaps with more negative ease, perhaps the 3 or 6 month to cast on.

February's challenge?


Well, I'm thinking about "knitting the ones I love" to coincide with Valentine's Day. Knitting some of that hoarded yarn that seems too good to actually knit.  I shall confess to a little headstart here as I started a shawl the other night in Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk, mmmm.