Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

World Wide Knit in Public Day 2019 (And A Little Stash Enhancement)

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I decided to participate in World Wide Knit in Public day on June 8th. I passed PB and Jellybean on to my husband and was like “peace out I’m going to the yarn store!” and ran away.  It was a wonderful couple of hours. I managed to sit and knit for a bit in the mall courtyard outside the shop but I neglected to take photos. But I did snag a photo of some sweet ice cream treats the yarn store owner was passing out to knitters.

Well I’m not sure if it was the chocolate high or the yarn fumes wafting out of the yarn store, but they were have a sale and I fell down in the Malabrigo section. I’ve been toying with the idea of knitting a worsted boxy to use a nicer sweatshirt in the fall and winter. Like a socially acceptable blanket I could wear and be comfortable and stylish. Jellybean always likes when I wear green so I bought six skeins of worsted to knit a boxy.

I got the Fresco y Seco color and its wonderfully tonally green and bits of yellow. Now I fully understand I’m going to have to alternate skeins to prevent pooling and lines where I would change skeins. I’m thinking about trying helical knitting that seems to everywhere on the podcast and inter webs here lately.

I have like four projects that I need to finish before I let myself cast this on. So this is almost like Wishful Knitting but here’s hoping it is at least near in the future!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks

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Ready for those sunglasses? Because here comes my finished Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks!

Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock recipe

Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Flourmania color in 7188

Needles: US 1.5s

Mods: None

I’m just so beyond thrilled with how well the two socks match. I don’t get hung up on them matching mind you as I like my socks to fit not match. But it is a nice happy occurrence when the do. A keen eye will notice that the cuffs are slightly different. I got a little excited to have a FO and started the ribbing earlier in the green on the second sock. I have tried both socks on and love to report they fit quite nicely. The foots may be one or two rows too long but not near enough to bother me or prevent me from wearing them. I’m a mom of two littles and thus I have become a lot less particular about my items as long as they are done and don’t look shabby.

I am now for sure going to turn my attention to my Dad’s Christmas present socks and get some decent progress on those done. But after that….I may have to turn my attention to my sock tubes that I recently procured and knock out some more FOs! I’m becoming quite the FO addict lately!

Happy Knitting!!

MOA Shawl Progress

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I made the decision to reboot my MOA shawl after unearthing it from my UFO bin. And I seem to be making good progress on it. I think I’m about to start my last regular body pattern repeat before starting the bind off section.

I’m really finding myself drawn to the yellow and brown combination. The subtle variegation really shows up well in garter, stockinette and the eyelets. Admittedly the eyelets really could benefit from blocking. But that will come in time.

I may be playing a tiny bit of yarn chicken as I have 350 yards of my MJ Yarns Simple Sock and the pattern calls for closer to 400. But I think there are some stockinette sections I can shorten to conserve yarn if I start to run out. Do you think this ball will last me?

Happy Knitting!!

Sock Snakes

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I was enabled once again by social media. Many moons ago I saw a post from an Indie Dyer called Mint Rain Yarns. I’ve knit her yarn and loved it. But she also has listed in her Etsy shop a listing for machine knit socks and sock tubes. This idea had been kicking around in my brain for months and I finally bit the bullet. I sent 300 grams of light fingering weight yarn to her from my stash with the plan to make them into tubes that I could add heels, toes and cuffs for some quick socks.

My sister is not a “stuff” kind of person and is hard to shop for. But living in Colorado she does appreciate hand knits to keep her warm. My trouble is that given that I have two tiny human to keep alive and a paycheck I’d like to keep….my knitting time is small. And I’m constantly torn between knitting for myself and knitting for recipients. So I see this as a win win. I get the tubes knit and ready to go and I can still crank out a hand knit pair of socks without chewing up days or weeks of knitting time.

I sent her some Knit Pics Felici in the Dark Side colorway. Each 50 gram skein was cranked on its own with waste yarn in between. And this tube and all the other tubes are 72 stitches which is the stitch count I like my light fingering yarn worked up at. (Time will tell if the fit works out in the end…fingers crossed!)

Next up was more Felici in the Soft Serve colorway. Again in a 72 stitch count.

And finally I had some lolodidit yarn in the Hippo for Christmas colorway. This tube will probably be for me and likely the first up to be turned into socks.

I plan to experiment with these tubes to see what I can make out of them to maximize the yarn. I secretly hope I can get two pairs out of each colorway. Knowing that the second pair may very well be shorties. All in all, this Etsy vendor was prompt and her tubes came back to me in excellent shape and tension. If this works out as well as I hope…I may be ordering more snakes in the future!

Happy Knitting!!

MOA Shawl Rebooted

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I had one project that made it through the Finish or Frog It round last week. And that was my MOA shawl. Those long time readers may or may not remember that I cast this one in November of 2017 and then it got cast carelessly aside so that I could pursue Pigskin Party glory. (Note: I won nothing in that particular KAL that year!)

I so hastily set this project aside that I left in the MIDDLE OF A ROW! I quite literally never let myself do that. But apparently it was a thing for me in 2017. But past Rachelle was kind to current Rachelle and I had been making tic marks on a printed pattern that I left in the project bag. I quickly ascertained what row I should be on and knit the rest of the tow. But seriously guys….I had like 25/26 stitches left in 2017…why didn’t I finish that???

Nevertheless, I shall persist. This is quite possibly going to be my lunchtime/conference call knitting this month. I’d really like to see if I can turn this into a FO and be ready for fall. These nice golden brown neutral colors should be a nice addition to my wardrobe. Presumably this is why I bought this yarn, lol

Happy Knitting!!

Coordinating Accessories

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My Kindness accessories are complete! Below you can see my Kindness KAL 2019 Shawl, my Kindness Mitts and my Kindness Double Brim Hat.  These beauties used three golden skeins of Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK from my stash.

This all started with my Mothers Day Cast on and I was addicted I couldn’t stop knitting this yarn! Now they all just need to be washed and tucked away for the 100+ degree Kansas summers and wait patiently for Fall.

Don’t you just love when a plan comes together! Plus they make my eyes look blue, lol. Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Kindness Double Brim Hat

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My Kindness Double Brim Hat is complete! And I won at yarn chicken!!

My Aunt Barb happened to be around when I finished it and she helped me snap some photos. Now she is probably one of the last people in the United States to have not used a smart phone. So our photos were….interesting. But we did manage the above photo. My hat is a decent size that fits comfortably around with just a touch of slouch.

Pattern: (Heavily Modified Version of) Double Thick Cuff Hat by Staci Perry

Yarn: Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK in Ink and Salty Tales

Needles: US 6s

Mods: I did not work the double cuff and I knit the hat portion according to how much yarn I had. I really just used this wonderful pattern for stitch counts and crown decreases

This hat consumed about 150 yards of DK weight yarn. And I only had the tiniest balls of yarn left above. Not too shabby if you ask me! I might tuck these away for potential knit repairs….or I may let Jellybean  have them for his “crafts”. All in all I’m super pleased to have used these golden skeins of Hedgehog fibers to make some super special accessories for me!

I had Aunt Barb take some photos of the complete set and I’ll share those next week! Happy Knitting!!

Finish or Frog It Time

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Y’all….it is Stash Dash season. I won’t regurgitate the whole stash dash conversation, just go look it up at the KnitGirllls. I normally don’t participate because I really like to knit whatever feeds my mojo and not for arbitrary yardage goals. But I have been encouraged by all the recent projects flying off my needles that has really left me wanting to finish things. This led to digging around in the depths of my craft room I unearthed four long languishing WIPS. So lets play a round of finish it or frog it shall we?

Working clockwise from we have:

I was brutally honest with myself and frogged three of the four. Any guesses? Well I’ll keep this short and tell you I kept the MOA shawl in the variegated brown tones. This means I have new WIP to work on and I have freed up three sets of needles and three projects bags. I feel so much lighter and excited to find better projects for all that yarn.

Although….the Alpaca/Merino mix yarn just didn’t get my motor running anymore. I might be looking for it to find a good home somewhere else. Do you ever fall out of love with a skein of yarn?

Happy Knitting!!

 

How Tall Should A Hat Be?

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Well, I finally settled on a plan for my Kindness Double Brim Hat. I went with coordinating two row stripes to match the Kindness KAL 2019 shawl. I put in six Salty Tales stripes before I decided it looked good enough. I have a tiny ball of yarn left but I think I’ll save that in case I need it to close up the hat.

What I really need to decide is how tall to make the hat! I have a pretty small ball of the Ink (blue) color left. And I am balancing between making a well fitting hat and playing yarn chicken again. I mean I could be bothered to get my scale out and weigh my yarn and track how much yarn each row is consuming. But that seems like a lot of work and I am trying to get this knit done after kiddos bedtimes. My brain is mush at that point!

I think I’ll knit another couple of straight rows and then start decreasing. I can always fudge a few extra decreases here and there if I start running out of yarn right? The husband said I should just quite and make it a messy bun hat. That would be genius but I don’t have enough hair for a messy bun!

Happy Knitting!!

Neon Finish Line

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I had some Grandparent babysitting time here recently and that let me power through the leg of my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks. I think I’m ready to start the cuff ribbing!

I’m super happy to see that the color progressions are lining up so well between sock number and sock number two. Though no matter what I try on my camera these puppies just GLOW in photos. My mom commented that they looked like really big socks. And I retorted….well I have really big feet!

I think another inch or so of ribbing and I will be done with another pair of socks for my drawer! I can’t hardly wait. And then I really should be a good kid and go back and put some effort into my Dad’s 2019 Christmas socks. They have been kind of languishing lately, whoops!

Happy Knitting