Monthly Archives: April 2017

FO Friday: Baby Sophisticate #8

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I have another Christmas knit in the bag! My 8th Baby Sophisticate has buttons and is blocked.

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Cherub Aran in Navy (I used just a few yards shy of one full skein of this yarn)

Needles: US 7s

Mods: None

I’m especially proud of the buttons. They are shanked buttons with little sneakers. I found them at the quilt shop I took my mom and aunt to.

This wasn’t my best button band ever. I’m not sure I got the ratio of picked up stitches right. But for a baby knit that is just going to get chewed and puked on….it’s good enough. No one will notice but me. To be honest I’m just glad this is done and I can move on to other things. I seem to be suffering from a bit of the knitting fever, lol.

Happy Knitting!

Project Planning

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Mothers Day is right around the corner! While at the Mid-Plains Fiber Fair I picked up yarn for a specific project….my mothers day cast one!

Ravelry got me the other day. I saw the Nangou shawl by Melanie Berg and fell HARD. It’s a two color shawl worked mostly in garter. I needed at least 520 yards of main color and 100 yards of contrast. And I boy did I find what I needed! I have 800+ yards of the Hansen Hand Dyes and the normal 400 yard skein of the T&H Fiber Works.

I’m stupidly excited for Mother’s Day to get here so I can cast this on. I’ve already loaded the project bag with the yarn, pattern and needles. I still have to cake the yarn but I’m going to pet the pretties for just a little while longer before I do that.

Does anyone else do a Mother’s Day Cast On out there?

 

Cutting In The Heels

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I finally worked up the courage to cut the afterthought heels on my sister’s Christmas Socks! (I was at my parents house with the toddler distracted and using Mom’s Ott light.)

I started by watching KirbyWirby’s YouTube tutorial and with my blank canvas of a sock.


Then I threaded my needles in at the correct measurement and stitch count.


Then I held my breath and……cut my knitting! And ever so carefully pulled out those stitches.


Doesn’t look half bad! I managed to cut and get needles in both socks. I only dropped one stitch and just caught it with a removable stitch marker for now. I didn’t have the time to start actually knitting the heels. So I just slipped on a WIP cozy and put them in my knitting bag for later. At least the stressful part is done!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting In Public

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Yesterday I talked about my festival adventures. Well, after dragging my momma and auntie around the festival I took them to a quilt shop to support their craft addictions. They browsed fabric and notions while I knit in a easy chair!


My sisters second Christmas socks saw some good progress! And no one batted an eye at my podcast listening and knitting in public. I love being around crafty people!

Happy Knitting!!

Festival Adventure!

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I heard about the Mid-Plains Fiber Fair on the Prairie Girls Knit and Spin podcast awhile back. It was held in York Nebraska, which is a not so bad drive from my parents house.

So I left Jellybean with Grandpa and I loaded up the car with my mom and aunt and headed out!


It was a beautiful day and we arrived in short order!


It was the first year and relatively small but well organized and very nicely laid out. There was a ton of raw fiber and a lot of alpaca yarn. Neither of those things are my sweet spot but I found a couple of gems to come home with.

I got a shirt from KnitBaahPurl. It’s complexly adorable.


Then I was on the hunt for yarn for an upcoming shawl. I found the main color at Hansen Hand Dyes. It’s their Mega Merino skein of 820 yards of SW Merino in Boys Don’t Cry.


And the contrast color at T&H Fiber Works. It’s their Heather’s Favorite sock in Blue Suede Shoes.


Lastly I picked up some new buttons for my knitting bag 😍


I also pointed out some items to my mother who might have done some Christmas shopping!

The festival was fun ans I’ll definitely go back. It was especially fun to spend the day with my mom and Aunt!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Nicole’s Christmas Socks Take Two

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I am still working on the first pair but I’m on hold because of not having the foot trace for the afterthought heels. So I started her second pair. 


More Felici from deep stash and following the same recipe as before for a toe up vanilla sock. This was yarn I got from a destash so the dye lots don’t match. The first sock has me a bit worried because the stripe transitions aren’t as crisp as I normally see in Felici. At least in the lighter shades. My sister won’t mind or honestly know the difference so I’m just going to keep knitting!

Happy Knitting!

All But The Heels

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My sister’s Christmas socks are really really close!


I have the tubes done and the remaining sock yarn stuffed in there (so I don’t lose it 😃)! I am going to see my parents soon so I hope I have time to get her foot trace. Then all I have to do is whip out two afterthought heels!

I am for sure going to insert lifelines through the stitches before I start snipping. Then I can insert the dpns into the stitches using the lifeline after the opening is created. I’ve done some googling and I feel like this is going to reduce my anxiety level. Stay tuned…..

Feeling Scrappy

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My sock yarn memory blanket is officially square (ish) again.


I even spent an entire Jellybean nap and wove in more ends. I think I deserve a chocolate for that! This has just been very potato chippy for me lately. 

I think, purely arbitrarily, that I’m going to add another column instead of another row right now. I love this blanket so much that I don’t even care that it’s 70 degrees and I roast working on it. It’s my current zen knitting and I can’t put it down. Much to the suffering of my other WIPs!

Happy Knitting!

Motivation

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Let me preface this blog post with….I’m not a bullet journal person. But I do see the merit in some of the philosophies. Here of late I have felt stagnant with both my knitting and healthy habits. I also know that I’m a visual person and I like things to be on paper. I managed to snag some Shutterfly coupons and get a snazzy lined 5 by 8 spiral bound notebook. So I decided to create a journal of sorts!

I created a page to see how much I actually knit. Having a full time job and tiny tyrannical toddler makes it feel like I never get to knit. Every day that I touch a project earns a colored in square. I’m interested to see what the colors show…

I also started a “rainbow” chart to show how many days I hit my health goals for the day. This one is calendared for each day of April. I’m hoping to see more colors than blanks…fingers crossed!

This may or may not stick with me. But heck….why not try?