Monthly Archives: December 2022

FO Friday: Super Simple Summer Sweater

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My Super Simple Summer Sweater survived surgery and is DONE!

Pattern: Super Simple Summer Sweater by Joji Locatelli (Rav link)

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in the Jupiter colorway

Needles: US 8s, US 6s and US5s

Mods: I made this sweater longer in the body and sleeves. I also knit the back split hem longer than the front split hem.

My kitchener stitch is still slightly visible after blocking but not so much that a muggle will notice. I am VERY happy with the adjustments to this sweater. I feel like it suits my body type much better as a regular sweater and not as a tunic.

This took just over 6 1/2 skeins of the worsted yarn so that is roughly 1,380 yards of yarn. I had two different dye lots but using helical knitting I think they blended nicely. The average eye can see some flashing and striping but it looks intentional so I’m pleased.

Now I just need to plot my next sweater! Happy Knitting!!

Making Candy

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Trying to get into the Christmas spirit and I found some walnuts in my freezer. I have been seeing TikToks about candied nuts and how easy they are. So I gave it a go!

The left shows the walnuts pre-baking and the right is the finished product. They were very simple and I used this recipe.

I can attest that when sprinkled on ice cream they taste JUST like cinnamon toast crunch. I will definitely make these again and possible for holiday cheer around my office this year.

Happy Holidays!!

The Weather Outside is Delightful

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It’s definitely getting colder here in Kansas. I decided to pull out my scrappy memory blanket to work on in between my 2022 Advent Socks. Since the daily stripe on my socks doesn’t take much time I thought this was a perfect companion project.

Based on the project keeper, I have added roughly 16 blocks to this since this past April. The bonus factor is that this keeps my lap quite warm while I am working on it. This piece is large enough to cover me from toes to shoulders. And the multi-colored stained glass look is really making my knitting soul fulfilled!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: 2022 Advent Socks

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I didn’t go full advent calendar this year but I did buy the Cozy Knitter 2022 self-striping sock set. The idea is that there are 24 stripes and you knit one a day starting December first and by Christmas you have finished socks.

I have been keeping up fairly well with the daily knitting as it doesn’t take much time to roughly four or five rows. I haven’t been as good with photographing my progress, but I have these snaps from when I started.

Full disclosure, the skeins did not come with the contrast skein. I dug around in my minis and pulled out one from Leading Man Fiber Arts in the “It’s Cold Outside” colorway. The name made it the perfect match to some Christmas socks. It’s a little darker than the blue in the skein but I like things a little quirky!

Happy Knitting!!

Spinning From The Flurry

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It’s been about one month since I touched my wheel. I decided to get back into the flow over the weekend. I grabbed the small 2 oz custom batt I bought at Fiber Flurry 2022.

This bat is VERY fluffy and VERY sparkly. It sheds more than my daycare providers German Shepherd in the spring. There are only 2 ounces of this fiber so I will just spin the whole thing onto one bobbin and then 2-ply back on itself.

I am a little out of practice so I reasoned that going back to my “default” spin would be a nice warm up to get my fingers back into the groove. Happy Spinning!!

Tunic Surgery

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I took about two re-run episodes Bones to get two sets of size 4 US needles inserted into my Super Simple Summer Sweater project for its “surgery”.

And then during another re-run of NCIS I got the cuts made and un-raveled back to each set of live stitches. It was a little tricky ripping back due to the helical knitting method. But I managed.

Now I need to muster the alone time and mental preparedness to start Kitchener-ing roughly 300+ stitches. I was smart enough to put light bulb stitch markers on each first stitch so I could correctly re-assemble front and back.

Now I need to meditate before undertaking surgery. Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Punch Bug Beanie

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Before I jump into sweater surgery with both feet, I decided to take up something more mindless as a palette cleanser.

This skein of Felici Worsted is the companion skein to my Punch Bug Vanilla Socks. I couldn’t find my US 8 needles and I was impatient so I grabbed 10.5US needles. This meant I needed to take my standard 88 stitch worsted hat down to 80 stiches.

I got the brim cast on and the ribbing established. I can’t decide if I am going to do a standard ribbed brim or a folded ribbed brim for extra cushy factor. I think I will knit a little longer and decide later.

Happy Knitting!!

Sweater Turned Tunic

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Whelp, my Super Simple Summer Sweater is finished….and it turned out to be tunic length after blocking.

I did knit swatches for this project and the yoke fits beautifully. But my swatches weren’t huge so they didn’t account for the stretching that Malabrigo does especially with this much fabric. It’s a lovely tunic, but not what I wanted this project to be….

I also don’t love what it does to the widest party of my body, my hips and back 40. I didn’t insert any waist shaping so it’s all one box. The tunic would be better if it had nipped in at my natural waist.

I wore this around the house and muddled for a bit. I think I am going to insert needles and cut my sweater a bit. Based on measurements, I need to remove about four inches of sweater body. I can then Kitchener Stitch the hem back to the shorter sweater body. Wish me luck!!!

Blanket Scunchie

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Thanks to PB’s makeup gymnastics practices my Chromatic Yarns ZigZag blanket now looks like a scrunchie!

There are over 300 stitches on the needles so it takes me approximately 45 minutes to do the pattern and return row on this zig-zag. Needless to say, this might be an all winter long WIP, lol.

I have roughly 10 rows completed with like a million to go. Happy Knitting!!

Sweater Bouillabaisse and Sweater Drying

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I did in fact stay monogamous over the weekend and I managed to finish up the ribbing on my Super Simple Summer Sweater. Although my sweater is definitely more suited to Winter than Summer, lol.

I used some lanolin bar soap in my (clean) kitchen sink for the bath and I set it to dry in front of a roaring fire to dry. I figure why not multitask?

Man, it feels good to be done with this massive project! Happy Knitting!!