Crafting in the time of Corona

Hi guys!
Have you been keeping busy during the Great Pause? 
We've been doing your basic quarantine routine; lots of exercise, puzzles, experimental cooking and trying not to drive each other completely crazy. (We might not be entirely succeeding on that last one.) 

When I'm not cleaning up after experimental recipes or trying to keep up with mountains of laundry (seriously, where does it all come from?) I've been working on a few knitting projects. 

First off, I just finished Alex's Little Wave Cardigan. I think I'm putting off blocking it because I'm worried it's gonna be the wrong size! If so I'm going to double the width of the collar/button band then all will be well. Here's a sneak peek, I will have blocked and modeled photos very soon. My finished pics will most likely be missing buttons since I plan on hand dyeing this before it is truly finished. 

I'm also doing some alteration work on my The Lookout Dog Sweater. The body of the sweater fit the intended doggo perfectly but the leg bands turned out a little too long and were tripping him up. I'm fixing this by replacing the leg cuffs with an I cord bind off. 

I recently fell prey to a yarn sale and purchased these beautiful sock skeins. All of these are from Black Trillium Fibers which, unfortunately just went out of business. 

This gorgeous shade is called Dark Horse and I'm planning to test him out on a simple ribbed sock pattern I've been designing. I'm trying to figure out my favorite toe up cast on to get started, I'm thinking Jeny's magic cast on technique but I'm open to suggestions. 

I've still got this beautiful shawl on the needles but I've back burnered it until I can finish my commission work. I'm hoping to have more time to spend on it soon. 

I've also finally thrown in the towel on the Silk Road Socks (Mood) by Hunter Hammerson. I'd been working on these on and off for about 5 months and I just couldn't do it any longer! This pattern was not a good friend to me. The tight cable work around the cuff slowly fades into longer cables further down the foot, which look very pretty, but make the socks get wider and wider until (for me) they were clown like around the toes. To remedy this I took out the longer cables on the foot portion and kept the entire sock in small cables to maintain the width, unfortunately when I got to the stockinette toe and heel they were bulbous! To remedy this I made the toe and heels tightly ribbed. At this point they were so tightly ribbed and structurally sound that they looked like casts. Yesterday I had enough with them and with a little coaxing from Alex, I made them disappear. Why create art that doesn't bring you joy!? 

RIP incredibly frustrating and unfulfilling socks. 

I've decided my next big project is going to be a super simple garment, something that will take me less than 6 months (knock on wood.) I've been Ravelry stalking The York Sweater and the Effortless Cardigan among other things. I need some mindless knitting in these times of uncertainty! 

Let me know if you have suggestions for simple Worsted Weight sweater patterns that you really enjoyed. Also let me know in the comments what you've been working on lately! Have you been meticulously reorganizing your yarn and your Ravelry library like I have? 

I'll check in again soon with finished sweater pictures and more updates from lock down.

Thanks for reading!
-Ashley ​