A Finished Two-fer | Bradway and Portis.

That's right, y'all - I have not one but two finished projects to share today. Because it's finally cool enough to wear wool and long pants and long sleeves outside. and I was able to get Katie (a huge thank you as always!) to take photos.

I did think about saving one for later (because whoa, I've got 30 blog posts in a row to fill up next month), but it's a lot more fun to share them both now (and I could use a short break from knitting baby hats and watching Call the Midwife).

First up is Bradway. I started this way back in August mostly because I had nearly a full skein of Shelter leftover from the baby blanket and I didn't want to waste it (so buying five more skeins made perfect sense, right?!) In any event, the knitting was a lot of fun and went as fast as you might expect on size 8 needles. This is the project that watched the Little League World Series and sat through a few knitting classes. I finished the knitting and bound off on September 1st. and then waited for a reason to weave in the ends and block it.

That reason finally arrived last week and about 20 minutes later* it was on the blocking board.

...but then it got hot again. until today. It was a really nice layer.

What made the project so much fun to knit was the changing colors and stitch patterns.  I think it's going to be a fun piece to wear, too. I should note that the pattern was perfect - not single issue - so I could focus my attention on those fun parts.

Next up is Portis.

This project had it's time-out at the beginning. I was gung-ho to get started, but then got side-tracked to finish the Blue Blanket. Once I started knitting on this one in earnest, it went fast. I finished the big stockinette tube in about two weeks (while watching nearly all of Inspector Morse).  My first steek was surprisingly easy (maybe three hours from beginning to end).

then a three-needle bind off, an i-cord neck, 3" of 2x2 ribbing

and a few more ends* (along with the last season of Mad Men)... and done.

I'm super happy with the finished piece.

This time I didn't quite knit it as written and I've suggested a few changes for my students - those notes are documented on my Ravelry project page.

But I did knit the piece to the schematic measurements and that seems perfect. Note that it's a smidge bigger than the Churchmouse Easy Folded Poncho.

So yay! for cooler temperatures. October 21 seems like a perfectly fine date to start wearing long pants, long sleeves...and wool!

*Weaving in ends with Shelter and Loft is a piece of cake. When wet-blocked, they grab on like nobody's business so the ends hold firm with minimal effort. They're also spit-splice-able, so there aren't as many ends. But as others have commented, those traits make them not-so-great for seaming.(of course neither of these projects required that.)