WiP Wednesday

So, I’m going to cheat a bit and show you a FO this Wednesday.

That’s right, I finished my Master Knitter Level 3 hat!!  Yipee!!  Here it is:

It blocked out just how I wanted it to – I wanted a more droopy version of a beret – a slouchy hat.  And I wanted an intricate twined effect in the crown with the cables.  That crown took me hours and hours getting just right in the swatch/charting phase – but that made it so satisfying to knit and see that it was doing just what I wanted!!

I knew I wanted a sideways knit brim, and a nice braided cable there with a button, so that’s where the design started.  It really just flowed from there.  There were certain requirements I had to meet for the program – and hopefully I’ve met them – we’ll see when I finally submit my notebook.  I really don’t want to have to knit another one of these!!

Pattern: My own design (one requirement for the Master Knitter program)
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in colorway ‘Cloud’
Needles: US 6
Started: (designing) May 7th, (knitting) June 25th.
Finished: August 20th.

So, since I finished my hat, I’ve finally started swatching for my sweater!  I only have one test motif done, I’m tweaking the color progression and design a bit for the second pass on the cardinals.

I really want to get it to where I don’t have long floats in the back, but I’m not sure if that’s going to be possible with the motifs I want.  It’ll take some time and effort, but that’s one of the parts of the process I actually enjoy!!

I’m hoping to make good progress on my sweater so that I have something on the needles in time for the TKGA conference in October.  I’m participating in “On Your Way to the Master’s Day’, and it’d be nice to have part of the sweater done to be looked at for feedback by the committee members.  We’ll see how it goes…

Stop by Tami’s Amis for more WiP Wednesday posts!