Monthly Archives: April 2016

FO Friday: Mandrake Vanilla Socks

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Happy Friday to all! I have a finished cheerful pair of springtime socks to share today!

  
Pattern: Toe Up Vanilla socks with afterthought heel over 68 stitches

Yarn: String Theory Colorworks Continuum in the Mandrake color way

Needles: US 1

  
These were part of my 2016 sock yarn experiment. I really enjoyed this yarn. The colors really popped and the fiber content of merino/cashmere/nylon was just buttery under my fingers! I will totally use this yarn again. And best of all…my stripes match!! I got a little off on the second heel but it’s still very close.

  
My only disappointment was that my afterthought heel was a bit snug. I worked it over 60% of the stitches but it still feels small. We will see how they wear. For now they are going into the drawer for next fall.

Happy Knitting!!

I Love Little Old Man Sweaters

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I’ve been surrounded by pregnant ladies of late with large percentage having boys. Not that I’m partial but I adore tiny male humans in tiny old man sweaters.

Some friends of my husband are having a boy so I pulled out a favorite sweater pattern….Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down

This pattern is easy and adorable. And at worsted weight it practically flies off the needles. I’m already at the sleeves. I’m using some yarn I bought on my 2015 yarn crawl, Uptown Worsted in Navy. It’s 100% acrylic and first time mom friendly. It has a soft feel but knits nicely. Pretty darn happy with it for it being acrylic.

This pattern runs small so I made the 6-12 month size just to be safe. I also plan to “finish” this one wit grosgrain ribbon on the button bands. It’s definitely time to step up my finishing game!

Happy Knitting!!

Sock Whoopsie

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I was cruising along on my Beach Glass Vanilla Socks when that all too familiar niggle started in my brain. The whispers were swirling “this is too big” “this is too wide” “this will never fit”.

So I compared it to my finished Mandrake sock and measured with a tape measure just to be sure. And what do you know…I’m like 6-8 stitches too wide for my foot.
  So this happened…

I frogged back to the toe and I’m starting over. Based on that this yarn is sport weight I’m going to work on a 62 stitch foot and an 64 stitch leg. I really like working with the yarn. It will be interesting to see how the pooling changes between the counts and especially how it looks from my first attempt.

Happy Knitting!

Preparing For The Holidays

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I’m really trying to get ahead of Christmas and birthdays this year. (My mother and sister have birthdays right around fathers day in June). I was really caught off guard last holiday season and it was not very fun. I felt like I really didn’t think about the meaning behind each gift.

This year is different. I have been hearing about Henry’s Hat by Joanna and Eric Johnson on literally all the podcasts. I just knew Jellybean needed this for Christmas. And thanks to Amazon it’s already landed on my doorstep. For sure Jellybean will get a matching hat to go with this book. Anything beyond that is still up in the air

Happy Knitting!

Talking To Muggles

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I have a department wide staff meeting twice a month on Fridays. At our last meeting our director got up and shared about his volunteering and coaching youth basketball. It was really heart warming and neat to see behind the suit. He wants to have some time at every meeting to learn more about each other. He asked for volunteers and you guys you could have heard crickets! So being the proper outgoing theater girl I volunteered.

What’s a girl to talk about? Knitting and yarn of course!! So I did up a short 10 minute presentation about knitting with an awareness I was talking to Muggles. I focused on the health benefits and crazy fun that comes with knitting. I even let them pet a few of my pretties!


I got a really positive response and a few knitting requests, lol. (Which I politely deflected!) All in all it went well and was really fun!

FO Friday: Dad’s Lap Blanket

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Well the blanket for Dad is done. And all I can say is….meh…

  I definitely screwed up somewhere. I crocheted on this almost exclusively at night after Jellybean went to sleep. Sometimes in the dark. And boy did I pay for that. The cast on side of the blanket has at least 12-14 more stitches than the bind off side. My fingers just can read/feel crochet the same as knitting. And I know I missed some stitch placement. Le sigh….
 It’s still beautiful and my Dad will never care. (P.S. he will definitely be able to tell because when you fold it its patently obvious its not square.) For now this is “done” and gone into hiding/hibernation. I did consider un-picking the cast on edge and ripping back to where I realized I was getting smaller and crochet back the other direction. Being as this is crochet I think it would work. But I’ve already wove in ends so I could have a couple tricky places given that. For now…I’m just done with this and it needs to think about what it did!

Zoom Zoom

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My Mandrake socks are zooming!

 

I’ve had a bit of project ADD of late so a lot of things are getting a little progress. But these have been my purse knitting so they have gotten more than their fair share. Thanks to addicting strips of String Theory Colorworks yarn and a vanilla patter these are flying. I’m almost ready to establish the ribbing at the top of sock number two. After that all that is left is the afterthought heel. I’ll be sad and happy when these are done because they are so cheerful and the cashmere content is sooooo yummy under my fingers.

But one thing I find myself thinking about is the afterthought heel. I’m not finding it as comfortable as I used to. Well at least compared to the last couple socks that had toe up gusset heels. I already do an afterthought heel over 60% of the total stitches and it fits. It can feel a bit tight and not as form fitting as the gusset. Maybe my sock preferences are changing?

Happy Knitting!

WIP Wednesday: Zigzagular Socks

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I finally had the guts to start working the chart for the Zigzagular Socks. I did half of the chart back here and did the second half this week.

I could use some working keeping consistent tension when my cables are moving. You can see above that I’m already getting better. I’m still a cable knoobie but it’s very neat to watch them wave back and forth. And being new to this I still need some quiet to work on these to make sure I’m going the right directions. So this project is relegated to after Jellybean goes to bed. Progress on these might be slow…

Happy Knitting!

Mitre Progress

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Germs are once again invading our home. This time it’s a stomach bug, blargh. I guess this is what you get once you have a child that touches/licks/eats everything in sight. We are on the mend but during the worst of it I managed some knitting while holding a sick little Jellybean.

I was unhappy with my first attempt at the mitered square for my Cousins Mitered Square blanket. My travails are logged here. I went down to size US 5 needles and got to work. I also used a firm cast one (long tail cast on) to start the first square. I am much happier the fabric is firmer and squishy. I also knit the first stitch when I remembered. There are few stitches I slipped due to muscle memory and good TV. But those I can hide with the next square. I also did some YouTube research on picking up the bumps. Not to shabby if I do say so myself!

 Now I’ve only like 16 more squares to go….

Happy Knitting!

Enabled: Knitmore Girl Style

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I was minding my own business on the evening of April 1st when Jasmine of the Knitmore Girls Podcast hardcore enabled me with a FB post from Erin Lane Bags. As a not so April fools joke the ladies at Erin Lane Bags had an April Fools 50% off sale….no joke! I’m a weak weak knitter so I hoped on and couldn’t believe my eyes. So two sock bags made it into my cart and then into my mailbox. 

  I was feeling guilty about all the knitting related shopping I have done this year but my mom piped up and said she thought they were beautiful and she would pay for them for a Mothers Day gift. I get something pretty and she doesn’t have to shop. I love that my mom is also an enabler!