I had a blast with #sockswithsarah last year with KnittingSarah so I decided to play along with her #todayonmyneedles project.
Nothing fancy today, just getting ready for my first afterthought heel!
Notice the photobomb from Chloe, lol.
Happy Knitting!
I have a thriving baby, a career, loving family, and a pretty amazing husband. I just don’t knit as much anymore as the aforementioned things are taking a bit more time. I don’t mind, to all things there is a season. I’ll soon enough have more knitting time and miss these previous days.
That being said, I still have some knitting goals for 2015:
1: Ravel all my projects
2: Keep better track of my yarn in versus yarn out (I heart spreadsheets)
3: Make at least two pairs of socks for my loving husband
4: Knit a winter sweater for Jellybean (12-18 months size)
5: Finish all my 2014 carryover projects
6: Find a space for and use my cedar chest
There you are, nothing drastic but rather logical and reasonable goals for a knitting mommy and wife.
Do you set goals?
Some recent windshield time coupled with lots of Grandparents time for Jellybean has meant I’ve gotten some knitting done!
My Very Berry Socks are moving along swimmingly. I’m loosely following the DVD – Simple Toe Up Sock pattern. I’ve reached the after thought heel on sock #1 and very close on sock #2. You may notice that I’m knitting two at a time. For Christmas I got a second 8″ sock circular. And I’m in love!
One thing about these socks….the skeins are different dye lots I picked up from another knitters destash. So I purposely started them at different color stripes. They are almost mirror images of each other. I hope this will help hide the fact the colors don’t match exactly. Fingers crossed….
Yesterday I talked about my spendy yarn purchase for Christmas. I’ll freely admit that this has caused a bit of guilt (along with my Knit Picks Cyber Monday spree).
So during one of jellybean’s naps I tore through my stash. It is fairly busting at the seams in my storage drawers. I have more than I could ever need. So I’m paying it forward!
I went drawer by drawer and did a long hard look at what I would use and what I never will. I’ve come up with a large-ish bag of acrylics and cottons that just aren’t my aesthetic or fiber of choice anymore. There are several nursing homes nearby that take craft donations for residents who can’t afford supplies. I also went through my needles and pulled the duplicates and triplicates to donate as well. I made the activities directors day when I walked in. And it made me feel a bit good as well.
I feel a bit more in control of my yarn and storage space. Not to mention this perfectly good yarn will actually be put to good use! I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything. It’s not like I saved the world. But if I brought some peace to my space and a smile to a lonely heart….that’s a damn good day!
Happy Knitting!
My favorite Aunt did something wonderful this year. Instead of trying to find something I didn’t already have and would love for Christmas, she did something genius. She wrote a letter and tucked in some cash, with one rule. Rule: Spend it on something personal and luxurious! It was something she had always wanted to do and would have loved herself at my stage of life.
I knew right away it would be yarn. And deep down in my knitters soul I knew what I wanted….beautiful gradient sock yarn. I’ve been honing my sock skills this past year. And I’ve always wanted badly to work with gradient color. I went to my favorite Etsy store for gradients: Knitcircus Yarns! I’ve drooled over their yarn forever but couldn’t justify spending that on myself.
I chose carefully…Over The Rainbow custom gradient matching sock yarn. My little knitter hands CANNOT wait to get my hands on this. I had a mini panic attack as this is the most I’ve ever paid for yarn. But I’m worth it…I hope!
Stay tuned and I’ll hope to do something very magical with it. Happy knitting to all!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. I’ve never posted this before but I enjoyed reading others..so here goes nothing!
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
I finally wrangled Jellybean (thankfully in a happy mood) and took some FO photos for some of my finished baby knits!
First up, my Rolled Cuff Baby Booties! These used a minuscule 43 yards of yarn, weight a measly 22 grams, and took just a couple of hours. They fit perfectly on his one to two month old feet. They are tad bit small on this three month old feet.
Next up the Candy Corn baby booties and hat! To be honest these booties are just weirdly shaped and never really fit his feet well. The hat though….just perfect. It’s just more adorable than I can imagine. We get tons of compliments when we wear this hat out and about. My Ravelry details are here.
Lastly is the Garter Ear Flap Hat by Purl Soho. This one had some issues and all totally my fault. I had size problems with the first one I knit. The second attempt honestly languished on the needles. I just lost the mojo to work on this one. So I stuffed this hat into my purse over Christmas and got it done! Sad news….Jellybean has almost outgrown this size now, lol. My original one actually fits better now. Not to mention I messed up one of the pattern rounds on this second attempt. Oh well….it’s cute and will keep him warm at least once or twice. My Ravelry notes on this one are here for those interested.
Yes….he’s figured out how to stick out his baby tongue. And enjoys doing so profusely!
Happy Knitting to all of you from Jellybean and I!
My mother works part time in an antique store and I have put her on the hunt for a cedar chest over the last year. One FINALLY came through the store. It’s small-ish but in very good shape. It just needs a good polish on the outside. I’m not sure where it’s going to live in our home but for now it’s in the basement. (Sorry for the crappy photos…winter time in a not well lit basement. Well you get the point)
This knitters heart is happy. I have a great place to stash my finished woolen items and woolly yarn! Hopefully this means no more dreaded moth damage…
How do you protect your precious items?
After I cast off the last pair of vanilla socks I had the itch to cast on another pair. I dug around in my stash for some more Knit Picks Felici self-striping yarn and came up with two skeins of Mixed Berry. Then I hunted through my Rav queue and found DVD – Simple Toe Up Socks .
So onto the needles they went. I quickly realized I need to change the pattern….
The toe increases at 2 stitches per round just don’t cut it for my man-like toes. So to the frog pond I went. I used a 4 stitch increase per round and got this…
Much better! I’m working both socks at once, just on separate sets of circulars. So I actually have two toes made. On to the foot sections I go. This pattern uses an afterthought heel and I’m excited to learn this method!
Ps. Happy New Year to all 😉
I was weak and couldn’t resist the Knit Picks Cyber Monday sale. Here is proof of my shame weakness great deals…
I managed to grab some Knit Picks Biggo in a neutral color for a baby blanket. I also chose several skeins of Shine Worsted, Comfy Sport, Cotlin, and some Stroll Fingering. While putting this away I realized I have more yarn than I could ever knit but these were such great sale deals I just couldn’t pass it up. I’m hoping some of these skeins will turn into some sweaters and accessories for Jellybean…time will tell!
Did you hit up any Cyber Monday sales?
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