Category Archives: Finished Objects

Babies Babies Babies

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I have a several babies making their appearance this year in my circle of friends. And I’ve developed a reputation for gifting hand knits. Not that I don’t love knitting for wee ones but my limited craft time makes it hard to want to work on obligation knitting. But my newfound crochet skills have given me an easy out!

I have worked another crochet baby blanket in half double crochets in Bernat Baby Blanket in the color little roses. I used two skeins this time for a bigger blanket. I’m quite pleased and it’s getting easier to handle the hook. I think the variagated yarn really lends itself to hiding my another status as well! Not to mention I knocked this out in two evenings. 

  
You can find my Rav notes here for yarn and project details.

Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: Not Quite Tube Socks

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I have been collecting sock leftovers in a nice neat bag and in my 2016 Wishlist I wanted to knit Jellybean some tube socks. I have been mulling using Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls Genevieve’s Tube Socks. I had the yarn and the needles and took off. I pulled the Saki Bamboo from my  Conference Vanilla Socks in crayon box. I had 20 grams left and divided it in half.

  
At first blush they look fine…

  
They are waaaay to short! My baby had big feet and these “socks” are only 6 inches long. They don’t even cover his heels! The width is fine but they need to be twice as long. In other words I need at least 40 grams of sock yarn leftovers.

Oh well, we’ve repurposed them as gloves!

  
Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: Heritage Vanilla Socks

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The Heritage Vanilla Socks for the hubby are done! They weren’t without their trials but for heavens sake they are finished!  Pattern: A 72 stitch toe up vanilla sock with 60% afterthought heel

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage Prints

Needles: Size 2 US 9″ circulars

Size: US Mens  Size 12 shoe (give or take)

I managed to snap a few photos last night while the hubby was playing video games. (Sorry for the lighting…best I could do). They fit okay. Due to some epic memory loss and lack of note taking…one sock is has an 11 inch sole and the other 10 1/2 inch sole. I can totally tell the difference and my husband says one is tighter than the other. He won’t let me fix it. And I’ve decided to let him have them as is. I’m considering it an experiment to see which level of snugness her prefers.

This was a single skein of 100 gram yarn. I knit the first sock until my skein weighed 50 grams and then bound off. Reason would dictate that I was at half my yarn, right? Wrong…I knit the second sock to the same measurements as the first (save the 1/2 I missed in the foot) and I still have 34 grams of yarn left in the skein!! Now it’s possible the skein was a bit heavier than 100 grams as I didn’t weight it before I started. But still 34 grams seems a bit excessive to have left over after two almost identical socks…

I’m going to ball up the remainder and save in case the husband decides he would like them taller. I can just undo the cuff bind on and keep knitting. For now…these are done!

Happy Knitting!

My 2015 Mileage

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I’m an accountant by trade and I love me some spreadsheets. So of course I have a knitting spreadsheet. I’ve blogged about it before. Below is a screenshot from my 2015 Ravelry projects tab.

This year I completed 35 projects for a total 13,112 yards of yarn. So basically I knit 7.45 miles of yarn. Not to shabby for having a wee one making my life crazy. But I also consider the flip side of my knitting. I added 12,064 yards or roughly 6.85 miles of yarn to my stash through stash acquisition and enhancement. The good news is I knit more than I added! I came out on the net out side of 1,047 feet or just over half of a mile! This is the first year in a long time I ended in a net out position.

Fingers crossed for the same luck in 2016!

Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: Flying North Socks

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I’m chalking up some more points for the 2015 Pigskin Party KAL! The   Flying North Socks are done! I actually managed to squeak this in on December 31st for my final project of 2015.

  
I’m rubbish at photographing these. The dark neutral color is hard to capture and it’s just too close to my carpet, lol. But trust me it’s very lovely in person!

   
 
Pattern: Flying North Sock by Maria Montzka

Yarn: Plucky Feet in Medieval (Won in the 2014 #sockswithsarah KAL)

Needles: US 1s

Size: 70 stitches total

Mods: none 

  
These are just so squishy and amazing. Their is subtle color variation in the yarn. The points that line up make my OCD heart sing. I cannot wait to wear these! And now I need to start another pair of socks while the needles are still warm!!

Happy Knitting 

Color Fasting

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I’ve been on something of sock binge lately. And I’m using some lovely brilliant colors from a variety of dyers and brands. I’ve also been catching up on my Podcasts and due to some epic coincidental timing I’ve been hearing about fading and loss of color on sock yarn. Luckily the Knitmore Girls have a solution….a citric acid soak to set the dye/color! They do a lovely job explaining so I won’t bother repeating what they so eloquently wrote, just follow the hyperlink above.

But I will show you some photos of my supplies and process! I found this huge container of Citric Acid at the local Natural Grocer for something like $13. That works out to $0.02 per gram. This should last me for a TON of socks since you only have to do this process once per pair of socks.

 (Checkerboard Socks with yarn from Across the Yarniverse)
 (Neon Vanilla Socks in Flourmania)
 (Modified Sand Dune Socks in KnitCircus gradient)

These puppies are drying as we speak and now I won’t feel so jumpy about washing them when they come up in sock wearing rotation! I will say I didn’t notice any fading in my socks before this and I didn’t have any excess dye wash out during the process. I just would rather be safe than sorry!

Happy Knitting!

A Finished Snugbug

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This sweater has been done for a bit but I haven’t had a chance to blog about it. Jellybean’s Snugbug is ready for winter!

  
Pattern: Snugbug by Taiga Hilliard Designs

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Bulky in Red

Needles: 8 US

Size: 12-24 months

Mods: none 

   
 
Jellybean approves and even helps put it on before car rides! This was a crazy fast knit and only took about four evenings. I did get some laddering on the arms with the double pointeds that was disappointing. But Jellybean doesn’t seem to mind. I’ve got a ton of Brava bulky in my stash so Jellybean will probably get another possibly in navy. 

Another FO: Wool Free Vanilla Socks

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The FO’s are are going to be coming hard and fast this week. I feel like i’m finishing right and left these days. Of course that is what happens when you have a million things on the needles at once and the attention span of a squirrel. Eventually you get a lot done!

Today’s winner…..my Wool Free Vanilla Socks

Pattern: My own vanilla 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock with 50% afterthought heel

Yarn:  Premier Yarns Wool Free Sock Stripes

Needles: US 1s

I had an utter failure in checking the dye lots at the time of purchase. I guess I was high on yarn fumes and the call of the clearance bin was too much. I’m in love with the brighter sock and not as in love with the duller sock. But the bright side is that my Aunt saw these being knit and remarked on how much she loved them. I guess a certain someone is going to get an extra special birthday present!

Now I need to grab more sock yarn to fill my needles….I need another pair of auto pilot knitting vanilla socks!

Happy Knitting!!

Winning at Sweater Knitting

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My fingers have done the flying and thanks to a few late nights and an early Christmas trip to the inlaws the sweater of doom is done!

It still needs a good blocking to the collar and sides to smooth things out but it’s DONE!

Pattern:  Cuff to Cuff Sweater by Julie Farmer

Yarn: Berroco Vintage (456 grams or 996 yards)

Size: It’s been so long and I’ve lost my notes that I’m not sure

The best part? I finished this before the WIP interception deadline in the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party 2015. I’m pretty happy with the overall project but I’m not 100% happy with my seaming. You can see that left is worse than the right in the photo above. I had trouble matching up my bars when doing my mattress stitch late at night.

But for now I’m going to wrap up in this cozy knit and count my 25 interception points!!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Mini Thermal Vest

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I felt inspired by the Down Cellar Studio Pigskin Party 2015 and the WIP interception for November/December and I really got my butt in gear on Jellybean’s Mini Thermal Vest. And now it’s done!

 (Front) 
 (Back) 
Pattern: Mini Thermal Vest by Clair Russell

Size: Large (12-24 mo)

Needles: US 9

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Worsted in black 

I caught a sinus infection and was home from work on Monday and just flew through the rest of this project. I used a little over three skeins of yarn or 230.3 yards (153 grams) of yarn. So I earned  17 points for yardage and 25 points for the WIP interception contest for a whopping 42 points total! I’m not growing to win on total points but it’s nice to see them stack up.

I haven’t tried this on Jellybean yet but it’s washed and blocked. I think this may get wrapped up for under the Christmas tree!

Happy Knitting!