Monthly Archives: December 2018

A Helping Hippo HO

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My first Helping Hippo Vanilla sock is done!

The hubby and I got some rare baby sitting coverage over the holidays and managed to sneak out to a movie. We got to see Bumblebee. Not a franchise I am super invested in but I found the film delightful. I liked the strong female lead. And the icing on the cake was I managed to work my last set of increases and the cuff ribbing in the dark. I only dropped a stitch once.

 

 

I added a total of 8 stitches to the leg total as I went up. I just worked them kind of willy nilly but as evenly as I could eyeball. It does help the fit but as you can see I still have a TON of negative ease in my leg. I mean the sock fits but it’s stretched pretty darn tight. Now I like negative ease so that my socks don’t fall down but this might be borderline.

I’m happy enough with the sock to make the second one match. But I may have to amend my vanilla sock recipe at least in the leg to reflect my post baby #2 calves. Maybe on my next pair?

For now it’s NYE and almost everyone in our house has a cold. So I think we are going to have soup for dinner and have a countdown at 7 pm and just go the heck to bed. Happy New Year to you all!!

Planning Northeasterly

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I have gone completely bananas. There is just no other explanation for what I did. I went and lost what little I had left of a brain and ordered a cone of yarn….A CONE! It’s a million miles of fingering weight un-dyed yarn. All because I needed to start another scrap blanket.

I have been seeing and hearing about Northeasterly by Melissa Alexander-Loomis all over blogs and vlogs and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I almost started right off with my scraps from my mitered square memory blanket. But the pattern is written for DK and Fingering. You can achieve DK weight by holding two fingering weight yarns together. And my brain went “Oh…let’s do a marl!” and off I went to find some white un-dyed yarn. I snagged a cone of Franklin’s Natural sock yarn from Webs that was on sale so that I can hold doubled with my scraps. I will get a lovely marled yarn look and make all the crazy scraps look a little more cohesive.

When will I have time to start this? Who knows! But I have the yarn kitted up in a project bag with the pattern. I’m hoping to dig out some US 5 needs on the shortest cord I can find in my stash. I really don’t want to work on straight needles or managed a bunch of extra cord for not that many stitches. Maybe this will make a great new start for the 2019 new year?

Happy Knitting!!

Chugging Along

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Jellybean’s sweater now has a decent amount of body knit up. (And a nice collection of yellow lab dog hair…)

I still have a ways to go as the body needs to have 20 inches. I may have 10 or 11 inches done. I measured but for the life of me I can’t remember what the number is, I just know it wasn’t 20. This project has been a nice meditative knit for what little TV watching I get these days. Just round and round with a little interest of garter bands on each side “seam”. Jellybean has really enjoyed watching this grow though he hasn’t seem interested in helping with any stitches. Such is the proclivities of a 4 year old.

Happy knitting!!

Houston We Have Sleeve Separation

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Oh thank the knitting gods and goddesses…Jellybean’s sweater is finally divided for sleeves and cruising in the round!

By the time I got to the last raglan rows I was really having to work move all those stitches around my needles. There were a TON! The only slightly upsetting thing is that my gauge changed from working back and forth to in the rounds and there is a line I can see in the finished fabric. No one will ever notice but me….but it still makes me sigh every once in awhile.

But I have successfully divided and have…gulp, 20 inches of body to go. I think I might need a couple of good movies in order to crank this one out! I”m back to work today but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is ready to rock in the new year!

Happy Knitting!!

Christmas Eve Cast On

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As the mom in this house I am pretty much in charge of Christmas. The presents, the schedule, the food and the holiday cheer. It’s been a little rougher this year with stress at work and then not sleeping a whole lot because my kids are anti-sleep. But this year I NAILED one thing….the Christmas eve boxes.

The hubby is getting new fleece pants and a bottle of whisky. Jellybean is getting new jammies, a book and his knit Dinosaur. PB is getting new jammies and a teething book. And me…..well just look at this glory!

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New fair isle pajama leggings (paired with nursing tank I already own), some liquid holiday cheer and MY CHRISTMAS EVE CAST ON! I pulled my Treasure Goddess Super Toes Cashmere sock gradient set and some Cascade Heritage sock to make the Mini Solutions scarf by Kelene Kinnersly. I am in love because A) CASHMERE and B) squishy garter stitch that requires very little brain involvement. I cannot wait for tonight to bust open this box and get to knitting!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Grinching

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Jellybean is OBSESSED with Grinches this year. To the point that he dressed as the Grinch for Halloween and PB was Max the dog. Add this to my desire to have rolled sugar cookies at Christmas meant we made frosted Grinch cookies!

The Santa hats were harder than I thought they were going to be…

And we attemped hair and beards. Professional cookie makers…..we are not!

Some cookies are more grinch-y than others. But they are all tasty and wonderfully festive. Now we are ready with cookies for Santa…Bring on Christmas!!

Cast On: Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch

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With my Hippo socks staying in my purse these days I needed some simple stockinette in the dark knitting for my bedroom. A while back I picked up some elusive Voolenvine DK in a destash score.  The cashmere and muted colors were too good to wait so I decided this needed to be a hat. I decided on another sockhead slouch for the knitting in the dark factor. I managed to get started on the ribbing. I thought my tool tin was especially apt for this project!

I’m working the sockhead slouch pattern but as it’s written for fingering weight I am following the mods made by Yarn Hoarder aka Amberlindemann on her ravelry page. So far it is really looking promising!

The yarn is kind of pooling and striping ever so slightly. But I’m not very far in so I will just have to wait and see what this works up like. No matter what it will be butter soft and wonderfully snugly hat!

Happy Knitting!!

Twinning Heels

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My purse knitting has been fruitful! My Helping Hippos Vanilla socks both have heels now! These have seen many a waiting room and lots of windshield time.

Pssst….don’t worry the sock feet are the same number of rows. I just managed to snap a picture from some weird angle that makes one look bigger than the other. I guess perspective is a b*tch, lol.

Now I just need to cruise up the legs and finish the cuffs. I gotta love me some auto pilot stockinette in the round. It is my happy place lately.

Happy Knitting!!

Finally In The Round

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My Jellybean has been PATIENTLY waiting for his sweater. It’s a sport weight top-down raglan cardigan in his absolute favorite purple. But I have had trouble mustering the mojo to work on it.

I had trouble getting it cast on and it took two tries. I was making good progress until the rows were getting really really long. And the work is really bunched up on the cord of my needles. And I have been to busy (read: lazy) to get a longer cord from downstairs. I am ALMOST at the sleeve divide and thank god have gotten this thing to the point it’s in the round. So yay, no more purling!!

I really do love this pattern so far. The only thing I’m not wild about is the button holes. But I’ll reserve judgement until the buttons are installed. Either way Jellybean is really anxious to be able to wear this thing so I need to get to knitting faster!

Happy knitting!!