Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Westport Decision Point

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I have reached the end of the pattern instructions for my Westport Blanket. I have completed the pattern recommended number of repeats. But I still have a yarn left and I really want this blanket to consume as much as possible. I’m at a decision point.

I know, roughly, how much yarn each of the stockinette block and garter rows repeat consumes. And I have one full and one partial skein left that I can hold together. I *Think* I have enough yarn for two or three more repeats and then the garter border and bindoff.

My only concern that is if I add too much more length that the blanket will become more of weirdly shaped rectangle and less of a usable blanket. This fabric texture and gauge has some good stretch to be able to shape it. But the high acrylic content tells me that it might not hold a blocking very well. I need some time to muddle on this one…but I REALLY want this off my needles soon!

Happy Knitting!!

Yarn On The Go

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I have been trying to put more “go” in my life and get off my tush and walk. I work in the heart of downtown Topeka and therefore have access to lots of cool places to to walk. Today my Dad’s Christmas Socks and I took a walk to the Capital building.

The project bag that these socks live in is NOT acceptable for walk knitting. It kept twirling and twisting up the yarn so that I would have to stop and unspin my bag. The bag (not pictured) is a drawstring bag by 19 Stitches. And it’s a wonderful bag for holding a project, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not great for walking.

As for the sock, I’m almost to the place where I need to weigh the yarn ball to see if I am close to 50%. I need to make sure I leave enough yarn for a cuff and a heel on sock number one and enough yarn for a complete sock number two. But i’m struggling to remember to do this in the evening after the end of what have been very long days lately.

Happy Knitting!

Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties

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I’m halfway through my Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties. The first pair for my sister is done!

I made the choice to rip both the tubes back a bit and re-knit the toes back down with the self-striping yarn. I then used some Acorn Willow merino nylon sock yarn I got at Woolfest 2019 for speckled heels and cuffs. I think this random mini looks really fantastic with these pastel stripes.

I used Cheree of KirbyWirby’s tutorial for a true cut in afterthought heel. I did a pretty good job of preventing a hole at the corner and matching the gauge of the sock tube. My notes on the number of rounds and decreases that work for me are on my Ravelry project page.

I’ll gift these to my sister when I see her in July. And next up I have two tiny tubes left that I am going to try and eek out a second set of shorties for myself!

Happy knitting!!

Socks On Vacation

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I lost my every loving mind and decided it was a good idea to load up my small children, husband and mother and take a weekend vacation. Jellybean had one wish….to sleep in a hotel. So we planned a simple weekend where my mom could attend a quilt show and the rest of us could play at Science City in Union Station in Kansas City and then we would all have a nice stay in a hotel.

Y’all, it was chaos and no one got any sleep in an unfamiliar place. But all reports say that everyone had a good time. PB up and finally decided to fully commit to walking! We had two adjoining rooms with the second having a balcony. After a FULL day running around Saturday I snuck out on to the patio with Dad’s 2019 Christmas Socks and put on a few rounds after the kids went to sleep.

The Kansas humidity made the wool a little sticky in my hands. But you can’t argue with the sunset view!

Happy Knitting!!

Westport Halfway!

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A very dear and lovely cousin informed us that the baby she and her husband are expecting will be boy arriving in October. And my knitter brain went DING! The Westport Blanket I started earlier this year will make the perfect baby boy gift. A knitter has got to love when you already have a project started and you find the most perfect home for it. So I picked this project back up and have started really working through it. I’m six pattern repeats in and I just started my second skeins.

I am holding Knit Picks Mighty Stitch held double to achieve bulky yarn gauge. I have used two skeins already, attached two more with a third pair waiting in the wings. The last pair aren’t two equal full skeins. I broke into one skein to knit a swatch I have lost to the ether somewhere. So I know I’ll have enough yarn to finish the blanket but I really want to use all the yarn up. So I may have to do a little pattern modification and re-calculation when I get to the end of the instructions and I still have yarn left. We shall see!

Happy Knitting!!

Speckled Heels

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I finished both toes on my Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks and cut in the first heel. I’m pretty pleased with my contrasting mini choice. It’s speckled but yet blends nicely with the stripe colors of the Felici

I have a BIG long tube where two 50 gram skeins of this Felici yarn were cranked together. I chose to put a toe at either end. And then I measured from the toe the appropriate length and cut in a true afterthought heel. I have a “recipe” I use to make the afterthought heel a little larger than the often used Knit One Round then Decrease Next Round method. My notes are in Ravelry project page for those interested. But my recipe allows room for my sister and I’s large heel and high instep.

I’m starting the second heel now. And I have a TON of sock tube in the middle. Once both heels are installed I may do some creative measuring to see if I make two pairs of shorties from one snake with utilizing more coordinating mini skeins.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: MOA Shawl

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Drum roll please, my MOA shawl is blocked and ready for her close up!

Pattern: MOA (Mother-of-All) Shawl by Nick Davis

Yarn: MJ Yarns Simple Sock in the Mice and Men color

Needles: US 7

Mods: Had to alter the bind off to avoid yarn chicken. I worked rows 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 19 and 20. And I made it with less than 3 yards!

This yarn base is made with 75% Corriedale Yarn and 25% nylon. It’s definitely not a merino like soft yarn. It has some tooth to it and I wouldn’t necessarily want a full sweater of this next to my skin…personally. But this yarn is a light fingering and just blocks and drapes BEAUTIFULLY.

Above is a close up of my modified bind off to account for that fact that I didn’t have the full 440 yards of yarn the pattern requests. Based on weight I had about 350 yards of yarn and I put all but 3 yard of that into this shawl. But I think modifications work and it really blends with the overall aesthetic of the shawl.

This really did block out bigger like I had hoped. As I talked about earlier I’m finding the one skein shawls, especially those triangle shaped, to be harder to style, wear and keep on all day long.  I’m finding my taste shifting to toward two and three skein projects these days. But I started this in 2017 before I made that pivot so I’m going to give myself a little grace here.

I’m glad to finish a long languishing WIP and get a new shawl for my drawer. The pattern was easy and intuitive and I may well consider making it again but next time with two skeins worth of yarn instead of one and really go big with it. Now on to my next knitting adventure!

Happy Knitting

Cast On: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

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My sister has a June birthday and for the past couple of years I have made an effort to make her hand knit socks. She’s very knit-worthy as she lives in Colorado where it’s cold and she takes very good care of woolly items. But this year life with two kids just didn’t get me to a place where I could knit for other people. I really just wanted to take my time and knit for me as a self care theme.

But I talked previously about getting some sock snakes cranked by the dyer of MintRain yarns. So I cut off the first Felici snake in the Soft Serve color and pulled a mini from my scrap blanket stash and went to town. I was excited to see how this would work and if I liked it.

For the toes I decided instead of using the contrasting mini, I just pulled back the sock snake a couple of stripes and then re-knit down decreasing for a toe. I personally like hte idea of less ends woven in near my toe region. I’m not super fussy about the feel of it but I like the idea of continuous yarn being stronger in a high wear area of the sock.

I obviously did not get these done in time for her birthday but I hope to have the pair done before she visits in July. Fingers crossed!

Blocking MOA

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My MOA shawl is finished and drying nicely on my alphabet blocking mats. Note: These were a good idea pre-kids. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep their mitts off of the pieces when they are holding knitwear. But I digress!

As predicted I ended up playing yarn chicken and had to drastically alter the bind off section. I need to move my notes from the paper in my project bag and get them up on Ravelry. Theoretically it could help someone else…and make it less likely I will remember months or years down the road. And when I blocked it I used my blocking wires and really stretched this as much as possible to make the shawl as big as possible. I’m finding that one skein shawlettes, while beautiful, are just too small to style and keep on during the day.

I did find a SINGLE dropped stitch in my work AGAIN. That happened on my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl, grr. But I laddered it back to a good place and then use some waste yarn to secure it in place. It’s somewhere in the photo above but even I can’t see it anymore when I look at the right side of the work. I can’t wait for this to be dry and get some FO photos!

Happy Knitting!!

From Across The Pond

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Hi, my name is Rachelle and I’m a sucker for beautiful yarn and the creative people who dye it. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of watching Amy Florence’s Youtube Podcast “Stranded“. I am working my way through her back catalog and I succumbed to the wool fumes. So here is my pretty little skein that made its way to my stash from across the pond.

I bough a skein of her BFL nylon sock base in the Antagonist color to make myself a pair of socks. I haven’t worked much with BFL but word in the Knitti-sphere is that it is very hard wearing. And that intrigues me. And the color is just so gorgeous. It’s a grey base with little speckles and blips of pinks, greens, yellows and all kinds of loveliness.

I’m not sure where this skein will land in my current sock queue but for now I’m just going to pet the pretty and smell the sheepy smell. Maybe I can start a pair that I only work on when I’m binging her back episodes? Hmmmm, I’ll have to think on that!

Happy Knitting!!