A Tale of Two Jojis

I'm in over my head as usual, with projects, and I have way too many going on, but I thought I'd highlight two of them since they're quite popular, or at least the community aspect of them. Both are patterns by Joji Locatelli, a phenomenal designer with an eye for delicate details and interesting construction (hence the way the Starting Point wrap comes together!).

Starting Point wrap

I couldn't go ANYwhere (on Instagram at least) without seeing posts about this wrap! So I decided to join in the MKAL and thought I'd work on it whilst in Canada, as the clue release period overlapped with my trip.
Well that was clearly my first mistake, though there have been LOADS to follow - k2tog instead of ssk; wrong colour for the section; missing rows; and at one point I even managed to leave out a row and switch the right side to the wrong side of the entire piece (thankfully it's worked mostly completely reversible). As much as I've loved seeing the whole thing come together, I've found parts of it really tedious which is why it's taken me forever to finish (on my timescale at least). I like the effect of the stripes, even if I found them really dull; knowing I had to repeat them was a bit daunting, and that's probably at least a little bit of where all these mistakes come from! I definitely don't think this project was a good fit for me but now that I'm almost done, I'm really looking forward to blocking it and then using it all the time - it's SweetGeorgia Cashluxe Fine and Manos del Uruguay Alegria so it's incredibly silky and soft. As some sort of punishment, I'm already considering doing another one but NOT making mistakes...will I actually follow through? Stay tuned.

Japan Sleeves pullover
Thankfully I've barely gotten going on this one so there are fewer mistakes to report, haha. I'm doing this one as part of the fall KAL that Joji hosts every year, and I've got another one lined up - Fading Lines, a cardigan - but I'm TRYING not to start every project at once. This pullover starts with two lace panels, the tops of the sleeves, and then you pick up stitches from there (and cast on in between for the neck) before working the body in top-down fashion. I'm using some of my LottieKnits stash finally, after debating how to incorporate three gorgeous colourways together, and I sure hope I can pull it off without running out of yarn! I guess we'll see, haha.
I tried to pick up the stitches before my little holiday last week, and was eight stitches short on the first lace strip so unravelled it. And then tried again. And again. And AGAIN. And finally I gave up once I got 121 stitches (four short), and just kept that as my number and adjusted all the other counts in the pattern for it. I'm now into the body and row after row of stockinette and I would ordinarily be tired of it but the striping makes these two colours absolutely GLOW and I love them so much that I will stripe all day every day until my tension finger falls off. SO. I am loving it.

Once I can finally muster myself to finish my Starting Point, I can finally start on my Fading Lines cardi, yet another Joji pattern, and decide whether I can do another Starting Point...but properly this time, and with the attention that's clearly due such a detailed pattern. No phoning that one in! And the massive number of absolutely gorgeous FOs (check out the gallery here) just gives me needs. Beautiful shawl needs.