Monthly Archives: July 2022

FO Friday: Connections Beanie (Light)

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As predicted my Connections Beanie (Light) quite literally fell off my needles. I even managed to wash and dry the beanie to even out the stitches!

Pattern: Connections Beanie (Light) – Ravelry link

Yarn: The Shepherd’s Mill 3 ply Sport in yellow and blue

Needles: US 4 and 5s

Mods: none

The slip stitch colorwork was a dream and I finished in one night. The decreases caused me a little more grief. I ended up with more stiches than I was supposed to in one of the sections. In my true fashion, I just fudged some extra decreases and made it work. You literally cannot tell!

I have quite a bit of yarn leftover so my plan is to cast on the second version in the pattern, the dark version. I just have to hype myself up for the 20 rounds of special ribbing first…

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!

Emergency Thor Cast On

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The hubs and Jellybean convinced me to see Thor: Love and Thunder on a whim this week. I like the Marvel movies so I was in, I just had one problem….I had no dark knitting! My Victorian Mauve Vanilla Socks were at the heel turn and not appropriate for movie knitting.

So I grabbed a skein of self striping from my stash and hand wound up the skein. I FEVERISHLY got the toe cast on and the increases on the needles with three minutes to spare before leaving for the show.

What you see is exactly one Marvel movie’s worth of vanilla knitting. This yarn is really interesting. The colorway is called UniZerbraCorn prototype from KirbyWirby. It has a warm colored rainbow variegated stripe, followed by a black/white zebra section that then is followed by the cool side of the rainbow.

It is fascinating to watch how this variegation inside the stipes works up. It pools in some areas and stripes in others. This dyer is a sneaky genius!

Happy Knitting!!

I Can Smell The Heel Coming

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My first Victorian Mauve Vanilla Sock is sneaking up on the heel!

I decided to live dangerously so I started and worked the gusset increases without stitch markers. I made a few oops but I managed to spot and fix them. Right now I am done with increases and ready to turn the heel and decrease to the leg.

This is not mindless knitting as it requires counting and paying attention. Need to find some kid free time to focus on the next steps. Happy Knitting!!

More Sweater Progress

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My Catbells Cardigan has grown again. I think I am on my third ball of yarn? But I still have a LOT of body to go. I have two full balls left and I might be cutting the yardage close….

This yarn is worsted weight and therefore the whole project is getting quite heavy. I work an hour or so that gets me several repeats and I have to put the project down as my hands and shoulders feel the weight.

Just need to keep cranking towards 21 total inches of sweater body. Happy Knitting!!

Can’t Put It Down

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My Connections Beanie is absolutely cruising along. I am working on reading the chart and not using the written directions. It is taking my brain a minute to click in but I’m getting there.

The main body of this hat is worked on a larger needle than the brim. I actually remembered to switch! I am also being careful to not pull the slipped stitches too hard to keep the overall tension the same.

I am finding that I don’t want to put this project down. ‘Just one more chart row’ has run through my mind many times. I have hopes that this hat will be done quickly….

Happy Knitting!!

Starting A Solid

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The sun is shining, my children are away for the weekend and my wheel was empty. So of course I needed a new spin!

I pulled eight ounces of blue BFL roving from my stash and started on the wheel. This fiber was vacuum packed and a little felted. So I am having to work a little harder to predraft this fiber to get it to spin nicely.

But for now I leave you all as I plan to spin while the shade and my iced coffee last. Happy Spinning!!

An Ocean Gradient

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My BFL gradient is washed and fully dry. This turned out to be one very happy skein!

This is 100% Blue faced Leicester long wool that I spun from one end of the gradient to the other. Then I chain plied the singles into a three ply to preserve the gradient. The finished skein ended up being 138 grams and roughly 166 yards. I calculated 9 wraps per inch on average so this is a worsted weight yarn with thicker and thinner spot throughout.

This handspun is superbly handsome all skeined up. I have zero ideas or plans on what to do with this skein so into the precious handspun stash it goes. Happy Spinning!!

At The Patterned Section!

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I have powered through all the 1×1 ribbing and the setup for the main body of the Connections Beanie!

I thought this would be my first time working colorwork….it’s not. I got out the chart and this is just slipped stiches so its more mosaic than anything. Oh well, it will still be pretty! I am working the larger of the Connections Beanie.

I am not super great at reading charts so I am very glad there are really good pattern photos so I can tell if I’m staying on track, lol. Happy Knitting!!

Singles To A 3-ply

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My blue BFL gradient spinning is ALL DONE. The singles are shown on the left and I ended with the deepest, most navy of the five colors.

I ignored my children and responsibilities for roughly an hour and a half so I could chain ply the results. The singles had rested about three days before plying. The process had a few hiccups and breaks but I managed a pretty decent finished bobbin.

I am going to let that sit for at least a day and then I’ll give the skein a wash and a whack. So excited to get this off the bobbin so I can see how the gradient turned out! Happy Spinning!!

Cherry Harvest!

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My family’s cherry tree did SUPER well this year. The cousins had their fill of eating off the tree, my dad got two full pies and I ended up with a gallon of fresh ripe fruit. They are just soooo pretty!

I don’t really have the time to make pie or jam right this minute so I decided to wash, pit and measure out the fruit so that I can deposit all this into the freezer for another day.

Each bag contains 4 cups (and a little) of pitted fruit. I may make one pie and one batch of jam? For now these can cool their heels in the freezer until I have the time and brain space to deal with this.

Happy Summer!!