Stay-Put Wrap – finished

It’s official! We’re moving to Cold Country aka Minot, ND! Yes, I did say North Dakota, and yes, contrary to popular opinion, they do have summers up there so hold off those condolences 🙂 because it was our first choice. That said, it gets much colder than any place I’ve ever been and we will be moving in January-February so please do keep your fingers crossed that I don’t turn into an alexsicle.

Anyway, we found out on August 2 and I immediately went to the local yarn shop and picked up this beautiful eggplant-colored heavenly soft merino to make something warm. I finished it today.

Front view:

Side view:

A few notes:

08/02/10
Gauge swatch shows I have more stitches per inch. Turns out the largest size has the right numbers to make the second smallest size so I cast on 68 stitches and go to town.
After 8 rows I rip… because I just realized the wrap direction is wrong for me. I never wear wraps/shawls/ruanas with the long end over my right shoulder. Always over the left.
And so I cast on again, this time making a mirror image (cable at the end of RS rows, not the beginning).

08/06/10
So far so good, easy knitting. The 12-row repeat is an easy daily commitment, doable even after a long hectic shift at work. Today I made another adjustment: not a fan of binding off only to cast on again and then having to pick up the stitches for sleeves, I just used a piece of waste yarn to hold those stitches live.

08/12/10
The “wrap” part of the wrap is done. I blocked it last night, then started on the first sleeve today. It’s slow going because there aren’t quite enough stitches to move easily around the circular needle, and I don’t have a smaller one. I may have to resort to Magic Loop.

08/21/10
The left sleeve is done. I’ll start the other one tomorrow.

08/26/10
The wrap is finished! Ends darned in, the whole thing is ready to be worn.

Closeup of the back view:

All in all, this was an easy project and I love the result. There are people who don’t like to do this much seed stitch but it never bothered me a bit. Seed stitch allows me to settle into a nice rhythm and helps me relax.

You can also see this project on Ravelry.