Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Half Of An Antagonist Sock

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Welcome to Friday everyone! May it be as happy and peaceful as possible during this time period as possible. I am excited this Friday because I have a HO (half finished object)!! I finished the first Antagonist Sock.

I am really pleased with this project so far. I didn’t have a super concrete plan in mind so I just kind of worked the leg until I was bored and then I started the ribbing. Turns out I made a “just a little bit higher than shorties” sock. It is not low rise at all but fits nicely at the base of my ankle. The fabric feels good on my foot and the whole sock fits nicely. I am definitely moving on to getting sock number two on my needles. The little speckles and pops of color are really making my soul happy.

In these photos you might notice a new tool. I was completely surprised by the husband with a present for no reason surprise. He found some metal sock blockers on the interwebs and got them for me. They are PERFECT my large lady sized feet. He definitely earned some husband points on this one. I really like a great knitting tool!

Happy Knitting!!

Learning To Drop Spindle

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I might need to send Etsy a thank you after this self isolation period. I think I have been coping pretty well with not over eating or being overly sedentary but I have been kind of soothing my fears and anxiety with small business online shopping. I was disappointed about missing Knitting in the Heartland back in April whereI was supposed to take a drop spindle class. So I grabbed life by the bootstraps and ordered a drop spindle I knew nothing about on Etsy. When it got here, I just fired up YouTube and started watching lessons….

I watched about 40 minutes of tutorials and just got myself started. I pulled some mystery wool roving from my inherited spinning stash and go to learning. I am using the “park and draft” method of drop spindling on a top whorl spindle. I have no idea how many ounces my spindle is. It’s nice and heavy and seems to making yarn quite nicely.

Drafting has been a steep learning curve. I am working on a long draw method that focuses on getting a thin line of fiber without breaking it. I am still working on this skill. My wool was in roving form and I’m peeling off strips and spinning from those. The fiber is not the nicest but it’s working fine for this beginner.

My yarn is definitely thick and thin in nature. I’m working on not over twisting and getting consistent drafting. I’m not sure I’m succeeding but I am sure having fun! I have about an ounce of this mystery fiber so it shouldn’t take me that long to spin up. I’m really interested to see what comes our of this? I am definitely spinning a singles yarn as I have zero brain space to ply this small amount of fiber.

Happy Spinning!

Adding To Weekender

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I’ve been quietly working away on my Weekender Sweater. And as of last night I hit the pattern mentioned 15 inches of body knitting. I’m using helical knitting and I’m pleased with how the skeins are working out color wise.

Now here’s the deal, I have a friend from college theater group who also knits and she knit the Weekender last year. She did not add any length and regrets it. I want a big cozy sweater and I feel like my waistline post two babies and how tall my torso is……that 15 inches is not sufficient. I need to add some undetermined amount of body length.

My project has been made even cheerier by the unicorn stitch marker ala Hannah of the Corner of Craft. I have knit maybe three to three and half inches of body since I last blogged about this. I’m going to move my marker and keep knitting the body.

I hope to actually be allowed to see my Mom soon and have her help me measure my torso. I’d like to get an idea for my length from underarm to torso so that I can do some maths to figure out an optimal body length using the pattern schematic. And also to make sure I’ll have enough yarn to make decent sleeves, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

The Third Block

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I did manage to get my skein of Apothefaery Fibers suri alpaca in Snowdrift skeined up with no major issues. I need to pay homage to the knitting gods for giving me good luck with floofy yarn….before I am struck down with tangled yarn.

I have also officially ran out of of the last the original skein of suri alpaca and now just added the snowdrift skein. The plus side of floofy yarn is that I can spit splice EXTREMELY easily! You really can see the first two of the three color blocks. I am intrigued to see how the third lines out.

My next decision point is to decide how slouchy to make this hat? I have a recipient in mind and she hard gorgeous natural big beautiful hair so I need to noodle through how to best fit for that. In the meantime…..lots of glorious round and round stockinette to soothe my trouble away.

What is soothing your troubles these days?

Yarn Mystery Box

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I have been listening to the Nomad Yarns podcast for a couple of years now. It is a married couple who ran a yarn shop turned into yarn truck as well as dye independent label yarn. They have small children and pretty much speak my life. In this time of cancelled events and social distancing they advertised mystery boxes. You pick your price level and give them some suggestions of colors, weights of yarn, etc and they put together a surprise.

You guys….this was so worth it! It was a happy mail day indeed. My box was bursting at the seams and full of goodies!

I received two skeins of West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK in a nice blue, a skein of Nomad Yarn Twisted Branch sock yarn, a custom needle gauge, two mini skeins of Nomad Yarns Pallete, a set of Carbonyz Size 2 double pointed needles, a set of Knitters Pride stitch markers, and some waste yarn.

I loved everything in my box and it was neat to not know what I was getting. I have zero idea what to do with any of this and my stash is already at SABLE but this was a good investment. I supported a small business and I got to have the joy of new to me goodies.

Would you every order a mystery box?

An Antagonist Heel

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And just like that, I have a heel in my Antagonist socks!

I worked the toe up gusset heel ala Wendy D Johnson and I’m started up the leg. I haven’t decided what kind length of socks these want to grow up to be. I really do need more shorties in my drawer but this is really nice auto pilot knitting. I may not be ready to start the toe of the second sock….

I think I will sleep on it for a couple of days. Happy Knitting!!

More Floof

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I have been steadily cranking on my Fluffy Sockhead Hat made my Apothefaery Fibers and I very quickly realized I was going to run out of suri alpaca. I had some funds laying around that I had earmarked for the (cancelled) Knitting in the Heartland Event. So I decided to get more suri alpaca and support an indie dyer at the same time.

I hit up Apothefaery Luxury fibers and added four skeins to my cart.

I purchased two skeins of Snowdrift (white) and two skeins of Sterling Silver (grey) thinking that this will be nice solid colors to have in my stash to work up with the perfect future project, no matter the other yarn color. In the meantime I am going to skein up one of the snowdrift skeins and add to my aforementioned Fluffy Sockhead hat. It will be lighter than the original suri alpaca skein but will end up adding a third color block section to the hat.

I’m just going to consider it an unintentional design feature! Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Antagonist Socks

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Thanks to many (read: MANY) conference calls and video meetings I have made pretty good progress on my Antagonist Socks! The toe increases are done and the foot is one inch shy of starting the heel.

I’m really enjoying the yarn! There are flecks and pops of mossy green, burnt orange and a some other colors I can’t quite describe that keep me interested. The finished fabric is not merino soft but feels like imagined the BFL content would turn out. It is still soft but feels firm like it won’t pill or wear as easily.

I’m pretty sure I am going to do a toe up gusset heel by Wendy D Johnson for these socks. I have that almost memorized and it fits my foot quite nicely. My next hurdle will be to see if I can turn the heel while knitting out of video call frame….

Stay tuned and happy knitting!!

Cast On: Fluffy Sockhead Slouch

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After last week’s less than spectacular execution of the Everyday Slouchy Beanie I decided to get right back on the horse. I had more than half the sock yarn plus the coordinating mini. but I have less than half of the suri alpaca laceweight. So I’m taking a gamble on another hat…

I used the coordinating (and darker) mini and cast on the brim. I upped my stitch count and left the needles the same so as to avoid my previous situation. I worked the brim for as long as I thought looked good and then added the main yarn for the body of hat. I think it’s almost fade mixed color block kind of strategy.

This is a very stretchy hat at this gauge and stitch count. So there’s no way this hat will be too small, in fact it might almost to big! D’oh!! But I have a coworker who might need a pandemic pick me up and she has glorious natural big hair that a large hat would be well suited for.

I am starting to play yarn chicken with the suri alpaca and I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish the hat. But I think I may use some of my other suri/silk yarn in my stash to continue the hat in a third fade color at the top. I might marinate on this one for a day or two.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Everyday (Not So) Slouchy Beanie

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I have another FO this week! My Everyday Slouchy Beanie is complete and I’m now re-naming it Everyday (not so) Slouchy Beanie because gauge matters, for real.

Pattern: Everyday Sloubhy Beanie by Dragon Hoard Designs

Yarn: Apothefaery Fabrications Middle of the Road Sock and Halo Brushed Suri Alpaca

Needles: US 1 and US 4

Mods: Because of my gauge issues, I didn’t knit the full slouch so I could save some yarn for a second hat.

This hat fits my kids SUPER well. I can get it on my head but it’s REALLY tight. I blindly followed the pattern and made the medium size without checking gauge. Silver lining, the hat is very very warm. I’m not sure I’m going to trust my children with a hat made with indie dyed yarn. But I’m not sure I’m going to wear this either. So I am going to let this FO marinate in my cedar chest for the summer to see how I feel about it later.

The yarn is delightful! You can see the halo of the suri alpaca and the colors are very rich. I might have been drowning my canceled fiber show blue by popping over to Apothefaery Fabrications to buy more of her Halo Brushed Suri in some neutral colors. I want to try some more projects with this yarn!

Happy Knitting!!