Monthly Archives: April 2021

Cast On: Dad’s Camo Hat

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After finishing the He Will Have His Revenge Hat last week I spent date night and some of the weekend working on my next hat. I pulled the skein of Lanaloft I recently procured from my accidental yarn crawl. My needles were cold and my mojo is still going strong.

As you can tell I made fairly good progress for just a few hours. It’s amazing what a few hours of movie and playground knitting can get done. The ribbing is done and I’m a good chunk of the way up the main body of the hat. This skein is a little shorter in yardage from my last few hats meaning its a little thicker of a worsted. This yarn is also a single so it is working up a little differently than a plied yarn and I kind of like it.

I am at a crossroads to figure out how much more I can knit and still finish the decreases before I run out of yarn. This hat will be for the Christmas box, likely for my Dad since I already gifted the hat I intended for him. He’s got a pretty big noggin so I need a pretty robust hat. Maybe I can sneak a peak at his favorite ball cap or fishing hat?

I predict this will become a FO soon! Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: He Will Have His Revenge Hat

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I have another hat that fairly FLEW off my needles. My He Will Have His Revenge Hat is complete and tucked away in the Christmas gift pile.

Pattern: None, just a basic beanie I unvented using 88 stitch cast on

Yarn: Leading Men Fiber Arts Box Office base in He Will Have His Revent

Needles: US 8s

Mods: none really I just knit a basic beanie I have memorized.

I was really pleased with how the decreases spiraled and came in on themselves. Also a fantastic happenstance is how the speckles never really pooled or flashed…even as I decreased.

I will definitely work with this yarn again. Those guys at LMFA realy know their color theory and the base itself feels great in my hands as I knit. This was a skein of yarn I picked up at a trunk show they did in Kansas City before the world shut down. It has a unique place in my heart.

This beanie ended up being pretty slouchy/massively tall. In my estimation this will make it even warmer when you double over the brim. And the recipient can choose their level of slouch or not slouch. I ended up using about 3/4 of the skein or 166 yarns/76 grams. So I have a little nugget to add to my leftover pile.

And my hat mojo is going strong so I’m already plotting my next hat cast on!

Happy Knitting!!

Whoops…Might Be Over Spun

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Hello, I am a new spinner and my yarn certainly shows!

I wound off my Tequila Sunrise chain ply skein and boy howdy is it over spun. After consulting some spinning books and the interwebs I am going to do two things. First, run this back through my wheel to relax some of over spinning. And second, wash this bad boy after that and give it a thorough whacking.

I will still probably end up with a twisty ropey yarn. But hey, this is how I learn. Maybe I’ll knit some extra thick trivets for my kitchen? I have zero idea at this point about how thick this yarn is or what my yardage will be. That is a question for another day!

Happy Spinning!!

Goal Achieved

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I set some private goals for myself early in 2021. I needed to get past the fog of 2020 and feel like I was moving towards getting some positive things done. One of those larger goals was to actually do something with all the photos and scrapbook pages I made on my phone.

I had one year, 2017, completely done and half of 2018 printed. But I was woefully behind after that. I had a mix of finished pages hanging out on my google drive and many many pages left to do on my almost out of memory iPhone. So I worked on weekly goals that started to stack up and as of April I am all DONE! By the grace of some babysitting, shutterfly free coupons and 60% off online scrapbook supplies.

These are four years of memories of my littles and life events. It was bittersweet to work back through these. But I’m happy I did. It gave me a little perspective of how my kids have grown and what we have managed to accomplish, even if its just feeding and clothing ourselves on a regular basis.

These projects are important to me. Even now Jellybean is old enough to enjoy flipping through pictures and remembering some our shenanigans. I know my books will get thinner as they get older but I will never not regret having these captured. But I don’t think I will let four years build up again…shoo boy that was both a time and monetary investment that would be better served to spread out!

Happy Memories!!

Attempting To Chain Ply

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Here I am jumping both feet in to my first ever attempt at chain ply. I have my Tequila Sunrise Singles all rested up and in my homemade lazy kate (aka box with knitting needle poked through). And I clearly have no idea what I’m doing…but that is what the internet is for!

I watched roughly 10 videos on chain plying a three ply and just jumped right in. I started with my all yellow singles and moved to the orange/yellow next and finally added the pink. My hands understood the motion pretty well but my feet wanted to add a lot of twist. This may end up being a very ropey yarn. But my brain was happy being challenged with new movements and new skills.

For now, I have the finished yarn resting on a bobbin and when I have the gumption, I will wash and whack it to se what I ended up with.

Happy Spinning!

I Have A WIP Problem

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Spring has sprung and I have been cleaning organizing. I got my to bedroom and discovered I might have a WIP problem…..

In this pile are two blankets (long term), enough yarn for three shawls, three pairs of socks, several random cakes of yarn for hats one glove project….oh and a knitted knocker.

I think I need to dust some of these off and either Finish or Frog. But not today George, lol. I think I’ll just knit in another room…

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: 2020 Advent Socks

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I have another pair of socks for my sock drawer! The 2020 Advent Socks are done and ready for my feet.

Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock “recipe” with a gusset heel

Needles: US 1s

Yarn: AGirlAndHerWool 2020 Christmas Advent Calendar (minis #1 through #8)

These socks are just so cheery and happy. It felt satisfying to actually use up the mini skeins from my advent calendar instead of hoarding them. I will admit the socks are a tad bit big or maybe have less ease that I would normally want. I could have probably done with 64 stitches instead of 68 for the foot and heel sections. But 68 feels good in the leg.

The socks ended up decently tall and the BFL content feels soft but hardy on my feet. I ended up using roughly 360 yards of yarn to finish these socks so that puts these on par with the amount I use from a normal skein.

Finishing these socks inspired me to clean my sock drawer. I pulled out six pairs of socks that I have knit that have shrank in washing (or my feet grew during pregnancy) and no longer fit super well. I gave all six pairs to my sister who wears a size 7 shoe compared to my size 9.5. She was super grateful and I’m hoping those socks get some wear instead of hanging out sadly in my drawer.

Happy Knitting!!

All The Tequila Sunrise Singles

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The spring sunshine and warmer temperatures has brought my family outside more. I have been making myself bring my spindle spinning outside to finish off my Tequila Sunrise Singles.

Turns out when you work on something, it gets done! I have managed to spin up ALL the pink singles. You can tell that this braid of fiber had more pink than yellow or orange. I’m okay with that. I really really want to try and chain ply this yarn. This will truly push my spinning skills. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This started as 4 ounces of Corriedale roving from BlueBerryChick etsy shop. It was from the Down Cellar Studio’s 2020 Splash Pad Party KAL. Feels good to get this fiber worked up before the next one starts, lol.

Happy Spinning!