Monthly Archives: October 2018

WIP Wednesday: Rosewood Sockhead Slouch

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Happy Halloween to everyone!! Before I head of to collect candy with Jellybean at my office I wanted to give you an update on a project seeing a ton of time lately.

PB is now over five months old and growing like a weed. And along with that growth has come sleep regressions and sleep training. This isn’t a parenting blog and I’m not seeking sympathy or advice. I’m simply trying to say that I have a happy healthy baby that is locked in a sleep training battle with me while I try to do the best parenting I know how. Lord knows I would get a stubborn daughter and I’m sure my parents are somewhere laughing at the Karma of it all!

The silver lining? Well, my Rosewood Sockhead Slouch is seeing a lot of action as my bedside knitting in the dark.

I’ve managed to finish the ribbing and work over an inch of stockinette of the hat in just over a week. I switched from US 1s for the ribbing to US2s for the remainder of the hat. I forgot to do this on my Rainbow Pop hat so I’m curious to see what difference it makes.

This has all been leading me to wonder….are vanilla hats my new vanilla socks? I haven’t touched a sock in almost two months now……hmmmm….

Happy Knitting!

Dino Legs

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My Dino Jr now has four legs!

The legs were SUPER easy to knit and I knocked all four out in less than one Netflix show. I did have some laddering between my DPNs because of the small circumference and my tension. I just simply used the extra yarn after seaming to kind of embroider those ladders “closed”. Now no one will ever notice and no fiber fill will peak out.

I did make my hubby laugh. He came upstairs just as I was finishing the sewing of the second leg and started giggling at my knitting.

I’ll leave it it you to figure out why, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Dino Jr Has A Body

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I spent some time cleaning this weekend and I found the Dino I was working on for Jellybean. I had cast on and just worked the head and put it down. That’s just silly! This is a worsted weight toy over not that many stitches. So I buckled down during naps and bedtime and cranked through the entire body. It really didn’t take that long at all and I kinda kicked myself for letting it languish. The hardest part was running out to Joanns for more fiber fill because I was out!

I need to do some massaging to get the stuffing evened out and the body less lumpy. And after that I just have four legs and the scales to knit. Surely by the grace of the baby nap gods I can get those done soon. This definitely needs legs as it kind of looks like a snail now, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Things Only A Knitter Sees

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At my recent conference there was also a vendor fair in between the sessions. Lots of brochures and candy and a TON of trinkets. I don’t like to add clutter to my house and besides a cute thing to take home to Jellybean I didn’t plan on grabbing anything. But a few things peaked my interest. My knitter brain got very excited about the items below…

How great would the two little notebooks be for tucking into a project bag to help keep notes on patterns or mark your place? Nice post it notes and flags in all the colors! And the big book would be a great place to tuck a pattern and keep it nice and not crumpled on the bottom of a bag.

Did I need more crap? Nope! But did I score some cool things for my project bags….you bet!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Rosewood Sockhead Slouch

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I recently attended a two day conference for work. Thankfully it was a drive home every night kind of thing so I got to be home to be with PB.  This conference was almost exclusively lecture based. So I KNEW I needed knitting. But I didn’t have any autopilot knitting because Rainbow Pop gloves need my eyeballs on them.

So I fished through my tonal sock yarn and pulled out a lovely skein of T & H Fiber Works Heather’s Favorite Sock in the Rosewood color that my mom got at a fiber festival a couple of years ago. Since I hadn’t put away my needles from my Rainbow Pop Sockhead slouch I simply cast on another Sockhead slouch!

Here is my progress by lunch on Day 1….

And here is my progress by the end of day 2…. I got almost of the ribbing done over two days (conference and travel knitting). I got several compliments on my project and a few stares. But my knitting did strike up a conversation with other attendees about Cognitive Anchoring and the benefits of letting people use their hands to be better focused during meetings.

All in all it was a great conference and some great knitting!!

Weight Loss Motivation

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I alluded some mini skein madness in my post about my scrappy memory blanket. Well I have been working steadily on my both my health and fitness after PB. I mean breastfeeding can only burn so many calories and I have added more to my physique with two children than I would like. I am still working on a fitness routine that works as a mom of two very high needs children. But I have been doing much better on both the quality and quantity of food that I’m consuming.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not here to preach or tell anyone how or when they should lose weight or what they should eat. I know my body and it’s chemistry and where I am most happiest at. And I think everyone should live where they are most happiest. I just know I could be living a better life. That being said, as a mom sometimes you tend to put yourself last. And that’s TOTALLY me, so queue some motivation for this momma.

I saw Row One yarn minis on the Grocery Girls podcast. And I thought to myself, if can make some monthly goals and health habits then I am going to sign up for a month. And I hit my targets and got a lovely package that contained Squishy sock yarn from McMullin Fiber Co.

I set some more goals and more healthy habits for month two and you guys….the yarn was an excellent carrot. So after I hit my marks, I let my subscription roll and I got a second reward. This time it was some Matte Sock from Lichen and Lace.

I’m feeling healthier and more able to keep up with the demands of a working mother of two. AND I get to add some squishy bits of yarn to my memory blanket! I am guessing I will have some months where it’s not as good and I will probably keep my “motivation” fresh. I really just want to be as healthy as I can to be the best mom and wife.

Fingers crossed for month three!!

P.S. what I’m not spending on soda and junky fast food lunches in a month more than paid for my yarn subscription. It was humbling and eye opening…..

 

Pigskin Party Frog It Challenge

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Every year I participate in the Down Cellar Studio’s football KAL, the Pigskin Party KAL. In addition to knitting items for points the KAL also includes things called “interceptions” or side challenges. In October they had a Frog It Interception. And I had just the thing to participate with. This is my Stockinette Shrug I made back in 2012. It was my first “real” sweater and made from some Berroco Vintage DK. I never wore it after I took FO photos. It’s too big, not flattering at all, and not easy to style.

So I took this pile of wrinkly sweater….

And turned it into this….

I lost a little bit of yarn cutting into the bind off and dealing with where the ends were woven in. And I haven’t weighed this yarn yet to see what I have left. But it should be a little over three skeins of DK. The next step for this will be to wind them in to hanks and give them a good wash and whack to relax the yarn.

I have no designs on what I will use this yarn for next. But for now I’m happy to have an unhappy FO returned to the state of happy yarn. Not to mention earning a few points for the KAL!

Happy Knitting!!

An Almost Finished Rainbow Mitt

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My Rainbow Pop Fingerless Mitts are moving right along.

I’ve made A TON of mistakes because I’m mainly knitting these in the dark after the kiddos go to bed. I have uttered a lot of curse words and mostly gone back and fixed the dropped stitches and wonky yarn bits. But these will be FAR from perfect. My needles are also very sharp and I feel like that is part of my problem too (besides the dark).

I completely just winged this “pattern” and I really hope I can duplicate for the second mitt! The rubber will really hit the road when I cast off the cuff and try these babies on. I have no idea how these will fit other than I know they will fit over my fist.

Happy Knitting!!

A Little Blanket Knitting

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I loved the Lemonade Shop’s Stormy Day yarn so much that I couldn’t wait to add it to my memory blanket. I wanted to make sure I got my square done before I got started on the Rainbow mitts too.

I haven’t touched this in awhile and I kind of forgot how beautiful this blanket is. I have an itch to work on this, but it won’t earn me any points in the football KAL I’m playing in so I have kind of let it sit in my bag.

My better angels may win out and this may see some action this fall. Especially after I show you some mini madness I have earned. But that needs to be it’s own post. For now I’m going to pet my pretty blanket and snuggle under it.

Happy Knitting!!