This week's WIPs are a bit different than some week's WIPs in that they're not my typical crafting project.
First, a colourwork hat. Which isn't at all out of the ordinary for me, but the "pattern" is definitely not my typical thing.
A bit about what this is. To start, the pattern is more or less based on the
Turn A Square Hat by
Jared Flood, which is sort of my go-to standard hat pattern at this point. It's a great unisex hat with an easy construction (except the
Channel Island cast on, which I find beyond tedious and almost never do), it's basic and easily modified, and it's free. All wins in my book. The yarn is stuff I pulled out of my stash that I've been "saving" for "making random hats"...which is my way of justifying not getting rid of the yarn. Good thing that's finally paying off. The grey colour is most of a ball of
Lion Brand Wool Ease leftover from a Fourth Doctor scarf. The red is
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes left over from a sweater I made my mom a few years ago. None of that is odd.
What's odd is the "pattern", which I keep putting in quotes for a reason. The
Knerdgirl Knits podcast (you hear about them alot around here!) is doing a cool event this year that's a year-long bad-ass women craft along. Four times (two months each) this year, they're doing a set of challenges to celebrate women in STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) fields (of which I am one). This round is the Women in Tech/Education KAL, and one of the challenges is to knit something with a
stochastic pattern generator that Kris (
Geknitics on Ravelry) found. The very complicated explanation that I don't understand behind it can be found
here, but suffice to say that this uses all sorts of computer math formulas and generates random patterns of colourwork depending on a variety of things you input. It basically generates them on the fly and you then knit the block of stitches, hit next, knit the next block of stitches, hit next, etc. I should warn you that I hear the site only works in Firefox (which I happen to use), so visit at your own risk or whatever. It's pretty fun to not know exactly what's coming next or what this is going to look like when it's done, actually. That's not normally at all how I roll, but the way the pattern generator works it's making it very easy.
It's going slowly because it's colourwork and I have to sit at my laptop so I can generate the next steps, but it's a worsted weight hat, so it shouldn't take too much longer. Any rate, I need a project to take to geek knitting night at the LYS tomorrow, so I want it to be at a place where I'm knitting straight red and doing crown decreases by then, otherwise I'll have to bring the laptop with me, which I don't want to do.
Second...a sewing project. I'm making
the top left dress from this Butterick pattern for my first day of grad school classes. It doesn't look like much yet, but I'm hoping if I can squeeze out some time this Saturday before I go on a work trip and then maybe the weekend after I get back, I can make real progress on it. It's allegedly an easy project, and I don't
think it should be too much more work. I just had to stop because I need to think about lining fabric and buy a zipper.
Anyway, just for funsies, here it is in progress!
The long piece is the skirt. The contrast pieces go on the midriff. And the bodice pieces are the things you can sort of see on top. Here's hoping I'll have something more tangible to show you soon!
