Swimming in a sea of unfinished projects - what to knit for spring (a lot of free pattern inspiration)

Last Monday I showed you the shiny side of crafting. I presented myself well behaved in proper clothes which I made for my garment-collection. Lovely sweaters and skirts in spring inspired colours, showcasing yellow, lilac, and green. But my dear readers, this is only one truth… Because behind the light there is darkness, and the flashy surface arises from chaotic depths. Today I will grant you a glimpse into the hidden corners of my soul and you will see me rolling around happily in a sea of unfinished cardigans and sweaters. And there are a lot of unfinished projects. A lot. A lot more than I will admit or show (there are more hidden in the sleeping room – perhaps I will reveal them in another post)

The upside of my huge number of unfinished projects is, that most are wearable with my new clothes from the before mentioned collection.

Let’s start with the confession – I will begin with the nearly finished and end with a just started project.

The blue cardigan is an old friend. You have seen it multiple times as I want to write down the pattern for publishing and it is still not finished: the buttons must be sewn on. Every time I want to get it done some knitting jumps into my hands and I am immediately distracted all buttons forgotten. The pattern is a self-drafted bottom-up cardigan with bell sleeves. To be honest, my fingers are itching to re-knit it again in beige yarn for summer.

Second project is the lavender wrap cardigan where I had to re-knit the hem. This cardigan is nearly finished only some rows of the second sleeve are missing and this no longer poses a problem as I found more of this yarn in a box.

For the third cardigan the blame goes entirely to @blezyn I have nothing to do with it… Naturally, I am joking and its exactly the other way round. I saw a wonderful stripe crochet cardigan on @blezyn and knew I must crochet it too. Which I did. I used a pattern by Katie Jones Knit which is free but written completely incomprehensible. Thankfully I found four videos which explain the jacket step by step. So far, I have finished both parts of the hexagon jacket and I now need to widen the back and front with some rows. The sleeves with a lovely fan/shell pattern are next and then the dreaded sewing of yarn-ends.

Next one: the stripey sweater, also familiar. The sweater has two brutal tasks still open: first sewing in the millions of yarn-ends and second the collar which I never have knitted before. With the latter I got one step ahead as I found a simple explanation for a collar knitted in garter stitch. I guess I will try this out… someday :-DDDD

The grey beast is the next. This cardigan is knit in moss stitch (or pearl stitch not sure about the English nomenclature) which I find hugely uncomfortable for my fingers. I am not very motivated to go on as I overdid the boxiness meaning it is much too wide. For now, the sweater must wait for a second sleeve and for me to sew it together and to secure the yarn ends.

And tada… I cast on another striped sweater. Clever or? Before I finished the first one or had a clue how to make the collar for the first one. Now I have two unfinished striped sweaters which await collar knitting (and in case of this lighter one also the sleeve knitting).

And as if I did not have enough projects open, I thought why not cast on another lavender cardigan which will fit so nicely into my collection? Thought and done. I used the pattern Ramona light from Elizabeth Smith which I made some years ago and which I wear fairly often. As so often I completely ignored yarn recommendation and gauge and calculated weirdly concluding that size 2 in my much thicker yarn will fit.
For your (and mine) suspension: In only three rows I will separate the sleeves from the body and will know if the cardigan fits. We will see next week :-DDDD

But what is one lavender project when you can have more. Remember the lavender wrap from above, the one where I thought to not have enough yarn? I have a box full of it. An old eBay found of pure wool which now shows to be very brittle and prone to rip. What better idea then to cast on another project with it. This time a crochet cardigan which will have peplum.

And because it will get summer now (allegedly) I stored away all shawls. But the weather is unreliable and cold, so why not knit a triangle shawl? Yes, why not…? Perhaps I will have it ready for next year’s heatwave :-D If you live in colder climate or are nearing winter you may want to investigate the free pattern from Loop London. It’s an easy pattern in garter stitch with cute tassels.

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I kind of hear you alternating between laughing and crying and believe me you do this rightfully. I have no clue what happened in the last weeks that I started so many projects (to be fair I had a lot of headaches – medication is not as nice as I thought, leads to less intense headaches but more frequent). Actually I should create four more paintings till beginning of Juni, and another exhibition which will be end of May is still not finished…. Ahhhhhhhh… so stressful, better I sit down and knit some more :-D

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Thank you @crosheille for initiating and @marblely and @kattycrochet for hosting the #needleworkmonday and the community builder team @lauramica and @romeskie I am so glad to be part of. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric, and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.

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Read more about my art und upcoming exhibitions on neumannsalva or buy some of my digital artworks on NFT showroom.

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