Monthly Archives: July 2019

(Re) Cast On: Dad’s 2019 Christmas Socks

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I put my big girl pants on and re-cast on my Dad’s christmas socks. This time I’m working a 64 stitch count sock.

The yarn is standing up well to re-knitting as I can barely even tell it has been kinked up. I’m finished with the toe increases and ready to zoom through the foot. I am still kicking myself that I have to re-knit this. Always listen to that voice that keeps telling you that something is off with your knitting, sigh….

I am slightly cheered by the fact I’m using my 19 stitches project bag. This project bag has been floating around in my purse for weeks and really has stood up well to a lot of abuse. I like that in a project bag!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Everyday Shawl

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I have been sitting on a pack of Wonderland Yarns Cheshire Cat mini and tried to make then into a Vamping Shawl. That turned out to not be a great match of pattern and yarn. So after frogging I did some Ravelry searches and came up with Everyday Sahwl by Jenny Faifel. It was a little challenging to find a shawl that fit my yardage that wasn’t all over complicated lace and will suit this variegated yarn. My mom brain has NO space for lace nonsense right now. This shawl looks amazing! It’s alternating sections of stockinette and reverse stockinette so really soothing and easy on my grey matter.

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This is an asymmetrical triangle shawl that will make a nice large shawl that should be very wearable. And I think the pattern should be able to handle the variegated nature of the yarn. It will be interesting to see how the yarn transitions as I add the other minis.

I may or may not have cast this project on at 9 pm at night. Which soothed my soul, but I had to cast this on, rip it back and re-cast on to feel like I was understanding what I should be doing. My stitch counts were all off on the first go round. I’m 100% sure it was (tired) user error. But the good new is the 2-ply yarn structure didn’t seem to suffer from the ripping and re-knitting!

Happy Knitting!!

Dad’s Socks Go To The Frog Pond

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I need to start playing sad violin right about now. I was so excited to have finished the first sock of my dad’s Christmas present. My husband made a comment that the sock looked extra huge. So when my dad was helping with my floor I had him try it on.

You guys it sagged EVERYWHERE. It was loose on the leg, the heel and the foot! I had no choice but to resign it to the frog pond. I realistically need to take out eight stitches from the stitch count. And it’s my own fault. I was knitting DK weight yarn using a sport weight sock stitch count. (Read: too many stitches for that thick of yarn.)

So during a Netflix re-watch of a favorite episode of NCIS I turned the above sock int these….two balls of ramen. One sock ball and one heel ball because I cut in an afterthought heel. Sigh….

I still want these for his Christmas so I need to get back on them. But I may need a mourning period first…

Happy Knitting!!

Not Quite A Full Foot

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I have been pretty diligent about getting off my rear end for lunch and walking. Aside from feeling less stressed and hitting my step goal most days. I’ve been adding more stripes to my Cheery Vanilla Socks.

It’s hard to see from this angle but I have about 5.5 inches of foot complete. I have a 9 inch foot so I like to get to 7 inches (or just shy of) before I add waste yarn for a forethought afterthought heel. Based on how much I get knit…I think I have three more walks and I’ll be at the heel!

Happy Friday to all and keep on Knitting!!

I Can’t Even

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You guys….I CAN’T EVEN! I’m in full geek out mode. One of my favorite YouTube podcasts, Knitting Vicariously, highlighted one of my FOs on her show!! I was minding my own business one Sunday evening and I got an email saying Caroline aka Dunderknit had ear burned me in a Raverly post. Lo and behold she had linked to me in her show notes!

She liked my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl (and she doesn’t normally like shawls) and highlighted it from her actual knits thread on Ravelry. It’s probably a crazy thing to get excited by as I normally don’t care what people think of my knits but I was really really excited to have someone else love this as much as I do.

To me this was the equivalent of having the Yarn Harlot compliment you on your tension or yarn choice. I geeked out hard and both my parents and husband kind of patted me on the head and told me good job. But I know you guys would understand my squee reaction!

Now I just need to come down off my cloud and get back to knitting!!

 

Round and Round

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I have been in need of some zen knitting lately with stress and extra work of remodeling my kitchen and office flooring. And my Worsted Boxy has fit the bill!

After reading some other project notes, I decided to double the ribbing from four to eight rows. This was theoretically to prevent flipping of the hem. As I’m knitting I’m still getting a lot roll and flip. But I’ll withhold judgement until it’s blocked.

I’m about halfway through my first skein and I’m thus far with the fabric I’m making. This has been the only project I have been able to pick up and work on after I’m exhausted from flooring. And boy howdy does 200+ stitches take a LONG time to work a round. With luck I may have this knit by fall?

Happy knitting!!

Project Of A Different Kind

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For about a year and a half now, my kitchen floor has needed some serious TLC. The tile was beautiful but multiple attempts at re-laying and re-grouting just didn’t’ work. The backing board was too water damaged and tile and grout were constantly coming loose. I just felt my kitchen and office were GROSS all the time.

Last fall, via my cousin’s lumberyard, we purchased some tile-ish looking waterproof laminate to replace the floor. And this summer finally came a time where I had the vacation time and my dad was available to help me. We ripped the tile, pulled backing board and million staples, scraped glue and mastic until we had blisters and then snapped together the new floor. All in all it took two and a half solid days of work. But oh my, I couldn’t be more pleased!

I am already in love with cooking on the new floor and being able to sweep and mop knowing I’m actually getting stuff clean. And I hope and pray that is the last time I have to deal with this silly floor!

Now back to knitting tomorrow!

Cast On: Worsted Boxy

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I consistently find myself late to any and all knitting trends. I mean I knit my first fade only this year and how long has that been around? I have been finding myself attracted to some boxy garments lately. I have been working on my post-PB baby weight loss and I find myself comfortable and pleased with a skinny pant, boxy shirt or sweater and a cute pair of shoes look.

So I decided to try knitting Worsted Boxy by Joji Locatelli in some Berroco Vintage from DEEP DEEP stash. My line of thinking is:

  • This yarn has tried to be several things and it has never quite worked. So why not a comfy sweatshirt style neutral color garment?
  • I’ll get this sweater quantity out of my stash for good if I finish this
  • A worsted sweater should go faster than the fingering weight boxy
  • If I finish it and it look hideous or the color doesn’t favor me…I’ll find it a good home somewhere!

I’m knitting the medium size in the pattern. It won’t give me quite the full ease that Joji calls for but enough ease that it fit loosely but still be flattering. I have managed to cast on the 200+ stitches WITHOUT TWISTING and I have started the ribbing. Based on reading other notes I think I’m going to double the ribbing called for in the pattern to prevent the hem from rolling. Wish me luck!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

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It’s full on summer here in Kansas so seems like a perfect time to get my Soft Serve Sock Snake socks completely off my needles!

I managed to get two pair of ankle socks out of two 50 gram skeins of Knit Picks Felici (with the help of some contrasting heel/toe/cuff yarn) in the soft serve color way. The snake tubes were cranked over 72 stitches. The top  pair is for my sister’s birthday and they fully coordinating. I had to get a little more creative and go sort of franken-sock with the second pair.

My leftover tubes weren’t equal so I had to use scraps to extend the toe of one sock. And then I didn’t have enough speckled contrast yarn to do more than the cuffs. So I pulled out some Cascade Heritage sock yarn to do the toes and heels. I think this makes them superbly unique and a great addition to my sock drawer.

With the socks tubes I finished two pairs of socks in like two weeks with only half-monogamously working on them. You certainly can’t beat that!

Happy knitting!!

A Heel For Dad

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I made really good progress on Dad’s socks while on vacation. I finished a good chunk of the leg and weighed my skein. I was already dangerously close to using 50% of the skein and I hadn’t put in the afterthought heel yet!

So in an effort to stave off knitting disaster I split the skein in half by weight and looked at my remaining ball for sock number one. It was tiny! So I broke the yarn and inserted the heel. I managed to finish the heel but I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to do a decently tall cuff.

I did a quick Ravely search of my stash and found a single skein of Berroco Vintage DK in my stash that would be about right. It was plain black and coordinately decently with this stripe colors. And it has a relatively close fiber content so the washing instructions would be the same. I am still periodically holding this sock up against previously knit socks that I know fit my dad. And this sock matches the measurements but it still looks to my eye to be crazy big.

Dad will be here for a visit in a few days. I might break down and have him try this first sock on to see if it fits before I start the second sock. I risk having to re-knit the first sock but that is better than wasting a whole skein of perfectly good sock yarn that won’t get worn!

Happy Knitting!!