No knitting content today. I’m off to run around with my tiny goblins and let them eat WAAAY to much candy. Just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a joyous Halloween and that you have more treats than tricks!
Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com
My mojo (in general for life) has been a little low lately I decided I needed a morale boosting project. So what would be better than a quick win using one of my sock snakes? I pulled the Knit Picks Felici snake in the Dark Side colorway and paired it up with some Cascade Heritage from my stash.
I managed to get the needles inserted and the waste yarn pulled off. I have both 50 gram skeins cranked next to each other with waste yarn in the middle. I think I plan to put a toe at each end of each 50 gram snake. Then I will find the middle and split the tube in half. I can knit two cuffs and then based on the size figure out where I need to place an afterthought heel. I will probably end up with a set of shorties socks. But I am okay with that, I need more of those for my sock drawer! Plus if the plan works then I can do the same to the second 50 gram skein and have a second whole pair of socks!
Happy Knitting!!
I decided that my finished Modified Barley needed a pom. It had nothing to do with the fact this project is for a knit-a-long where the yardage in the project earns me imaginary points for a chance to win real prizes. I took Jellybean and PB to Joanns and we bought pom pom makers, four different sizes so that we can pom pom our hearts out.
Jellybean and I sat down one evening and worked through our first pom pom. Honestly it was challenging and I got frustrated because I was learning and the instructions were lacking in my opinion. Jellybean actually took the whole process in stride and told me “it’s okay if we make mistakes”. And in the end we made a serviceable pom pom.
I’m not sure how I feel about it on the hat. It’s maybe not big enough? I’m going to let this marinate for a bit. But the good news is that the pom used almost every last yard of yarn and I got more points for my KAL, lol. Because that’s what matters….
Happy Knitting!!
Everyone needs a tribe (or three). One of the tribes I have really gotten a lot of support and companionship from here lately is a group of moms I have met in and around my community. We are all working moms and try to get together for lunch once a month on a Friday. There are lawyers, bankers, advertising execs, sales managers and accountants so we aren’t always successful but at least two people manage to show up every month.
I decided that wasn’t enough, so quarterly we also meet up at a local restaurant for “Moms and Martinis” after we all put our kids to bed (or leave them with their respective fathers and smile all the way down the driveway).
I pulled out my Cheery Vanilla socks and knit a few rounds as I sipped my beer and the subsequent Lemon Drop Martini. None of the other Moms are especially fibery but they like me and don’t bat an eye at my knitting. I got to laugh, knit and drink with some fantastic ladies. I cannot wait for January to roll around for the next one!!
Do you have a tribe?
As promised I snagged some better FO photos off of my parents front deck. They still have a ton of green foliage that isn’t long for this world but it sure made a pretty backdrop! This is my finished (and still not blocked) Modified Barley.
Pattern: (Heavily Modified) Barley by Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash Hand Dyed in the Lipstick colorway
Needles: US 6 and US 8
Modification: A TON! I took the stitch count for the adult medium and knit the hat without the garter panel. And for length I knit until it looked good enough and just started decreasing.
I am pretty happy with the finished size because it will surely grow with blocking as superwash yarn is want to do. I can wear the hat slouchy or fold the brim up and have a more traditional beanie fit. I only used about 172 yards or 79 grams of yarn to make this hat. I have a decent sized ball left, maybe enough for a pom pom?
This is definitely going into the gift bin for Christmas. It was such a quick knit that it makes me wonder why I don’t knit in worsted weight yarn all the time! And I highly recommend the Tin Can Knits patterns for excellent size inclusive and schematics for sizing.
Happy Knitting!
I have been giving my Autumn League Pullover a little more love lately. It really is so close to done that it seems ridiculous to let it languish. I plowed through several more inches of stockinette body and decided to slip it on my try it on tubing.
I have a tank on underneath but it is fitting well across the bust. But it is getting a bit tight over the tummy area. it may not look like it in the photo with the cord and stockinette rolling up. I am considering adding some waist increases to account for my belly and hips. I want this sweater to be a comfy and lounge piece. I feel like being tight across my waist is just going to make me not want to wear it.
I don’t think I need a ton of extra stitches, maybe just three or four sets of two stitch increases on each side? I need to math the gauge a little bit. The other part that I am considering is to work the hem as a split hem instead of a band. The split will help the fit as well me thinks…
Happy Knitting!!
When I digging around in my yarn stash the other day I came across something unexpected and yet spectacular. I found three skeins of DK weight superwash yarn all from the same indie dyer. I had picked these up at different times from her over the past year when I had the money saved up around the time of her updates.
The dyer is Moonstone Dyeworks out of Acadia California and she has an amazing podcast that enables me all the time. I realized that the skeins really blended and coordinated quite well as I stared at them in my drawer. Almost, dare I say, a really fantastic fade? From left to right they are Falling, Hard Cider and Wild Honey.
I did some pattern searching on Ravelry and found that I might be able to eek out a Party Top by AbbyeKnits in my size. I would JUST have enough yarn if I managed my fade very precisely. This is a cropped sweater and I’m not sure I’ll like it but I can’t put it out of my head. I can just feel this pattern wanting to jump on my needles. I even went so far to research the pattern comments on Ravelry and found a knitter who made a similar faded option in a bigger size than I.
I literally have two other sweaters quantities wound up and ready to jump on my needles for a Weekender and a Radiate. Why am I so drawn to this when I haven’t even cast on either of those sweaters? My wishful knitting is just on overdrive lately!!
What is a knitter to do!?
It’s fall in Kansas and finally starting to actually feel like it. On a recent trip to my hometown area we went to the local orchard/farm for their fall festivities. It was a bit nippy in the morning so we all pulled on the woolies.
I was wearing my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl and Jellybean took my Kindness Double Cuff Hat because he was “too cold”. They only lasted about 45 minutes before the sun made it too warm but it sure felt nice to be cozy for a bit!
We had a BLAST at the Depot Market. We ran the corn maze, the hay bale maze, picked out pumpkins to carve, rode the hay rack ride, ate homemade ice cream, drank apple cider slushes and pretended to drive an antique truck. We barely made it home for lunch before the grandparents and the tiny humans needed a nap!
It feeds my soul to get out of the city once in awhile and plant my feet in some real dirt. The air may be filled with allergens but it sure smells good on a fall morning. And pumpkins as far as the eye can see doesn’t hurt either!
By the grace of a three hour car trip with the hubby driving and a minivan with a DVD player….I have a finished hat! (It really did take me all of 2.5 hours to do crown decreases because the tiny humans kept demanding snacks, toys and other nonsense.) This is my Modified Barley I started for conference knitting last week. I took the tiny humans to see the grandparents and to attend my hometown Fall Fest. It worked out well for my knitting.
This blurry awkward car selfie is the best I have right now. I finished the decreases and it promptly got sorted to the bottom of my knitting bag. I’ll see if I can dig out some better FO photos this week.
I did snag a pretty awesome sunset knitting photo. I was working the last few decrease rounds as we rode off into the sunset. It’s fall harvest in Kansas so the air is full of dust and dirt. Makes it REAL hard on the allergies but the most gorgeous yellow and orange displays of mother nature.
Happy Knitting!!
I reached the next checkpoint in my Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket. I finished up the stripes and got into the solid red chunk that will be in the middle. I’m feeling pretty proud considering I had knit a partial blanket that was too small, ripped that back and started again, just to get back to the point I was at when I pulled it all back.
This bright pop of red is just SOOOO much and I love it. It really livens up the neutral quality of navy and black.
The semi-bad part is that I’m now solid on red section island. No stripe changes to keep my interest, its all just knitting until I run out of red yarn. We shall see how well this goes…..
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