Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Cast On: Kindness Double Brim Hat

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Last week I finished my Kindness Mitts out of my last skein of Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK. And I have about 80 grams of yarn left between my two colors. So I did some pattern searching and I found pattern to start a hat. I am using Staci Perry’s Double Thick Brim Hat.

Now I’m just using this pattern as loose guide. I definitely don’t have enough yarn to knit a double thick brim or to make it exceedingly slouchy. But I like the stitch count and gauge enough I think I can modify it enough for my purposes.

I’ve completed about 3 inches (ish) of ribbing and I’m starting the stockinette portion. The next trick will be to decide how to work in the Salty Tales (grey speckle) color into my hat to maximize my hat size. I am deciding between small stripes to match my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl or one thick band/stripe just to be done faster.

Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: Kindness Mitts

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Here are my Kindness Mitts in all their unblocked glory! 

Pattern: Fingerless Mitts by Cheryl Goyer

Yarn: Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK in Ink

Needles: US 5s

Mods: I didn’t work the full thumb as prescribed in the pattern. I knit until it looked good enough and cast off.

 

 

As predicted the fit is pretty baggy. But they don’t fall off so I’m calling it a win. I used 125 yards or roughly 65 grams of yarn for these two mitts. I knit the first one to pattern measurements and then I knit the second one by counting the rows in the first one. I felt pretty smart doing that. They ended up almost identical!

What I’m really pleased about is that they will smashing with my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl as matching accessories. And I’m currently weighing my leftovers of this last skein of Ink and my Salty Tales to see if I have enough to eeek out a matching hat! Stay tuned….

Happy Knitting!!

Almost Complete Mitts

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My Kindness Mitts are working up in a flash! I have both mitts knit and just waiting for thumbs!

I worked these up on size 5 US short circular needle. They might be a bit baggy on my hands and I could have probably used to reduce my stitch count by about four. But they aren’t fall off loose and should be perfect driving mitts! Now I just need to dig through my messy craft room and find some size 56 dpns!

Happy knitting!!

 

Do You Swapless Swap!

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I have a love of all things mini skein. I mean I have not one but two scrap blankets on the go. My Memory blanket which has been around since 2016 and my Northeasterly that I started in February. I quickly understood that I can’t knit fast enough with two small children to generate enough scraps to feed my blankets. And that when I discovered swapless swaps on Ravelry!

I don’t have to make the time to dig up a reciprocal package. I just pay my money and a bag of neatly wound mini skeins from a fabulous dyer shows up at my door. I’m currently stalking all the swaps by YarnMatrix aka RoMillet on Ravelry. I have to limit myself and not go crazy. But I just had to jump on the Leading Man Fiber Arts swap….I mean look at those colors!!

Do you swapless swap?

A Good Customer Service Experience

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I am a reasonable person and I know that things in life aren’t always perfect. I fell down hard when I saw that not only did Bags by Awesome Grannie have a new extra large project bag but that she was also putting up a coupon for 20% off. I mean…I love her bags…how could I not?

I was so excited when the packed showed up at my door and Jellybean and I tore it open. But I was a little surprised when the fabric was different than I ordered and it was smaller than I expected. I contacted the shop and we quickly ascertained that another person in Kansas with a similar name had ordered that bag and I got it by mistake. Darlene apologized profusely and quickly rectified the situation. She worked up my actual bag in wonderful happy sheep and shipped right up. She also sent me a pre-paid envelope to send back the other bag so it could go to its rightful home.

It was just such a great example of great customer service. She responded promptly and nicely over a very simple easy mistake and I had my product in no time. It’s safe to say she will get more of my money in the future!

Happy Knitting

Cast On: Kindness Mittens

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I finished my shawl last week and this week I have started some matching mitts! I really liked the pattern Fingerless Mitts by Cheryl Goyer that I used with my Free Your Fade leftovers so I decided to repeat it.

I’ve so far cast them on and worked through three inches of ribbing. I’m ready to move into the stockinette portion before the thumb. It’s kind of nice to have a speedy knit on the needles right now! Not to mention this is a nice cool project that doesn’t leave a heap of wool in my lap when its 90 degrees.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Kindness KAL 2019 Shawl

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It’s Friday and I have an FO that has me bursting with happiness. My Kindness KAL 2019 shawl is off the blocking mats ready for a close up!

Pattern: Kindness KAL 2019 shawl by Jaala Spiro

Yarn: Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK in Ink and Salty Tales

Needle: US 7

Mods: Added 12 garter eyelet grows in the final section before the bind off to use up my skein of blue yarn.

It really just looks so good no matter how you twist it! I think it looks gorgeous all laid out. But it also looks amazing wrapped around your neck with all the color and texture changes.

I ended up using basically a full skein of the Ink (blue) and 90% of the Salty Tales (grey speckle). This means this shawl consumed 409 yarns of DK weight yarn and weighs about 215 grams. It will be soooooo warm and smooshy this next winter!

I really gave this shawl a good stretching and my finished dimensions ended up being 41 inches by 56 inches and 23 inches deep at the point. I have a full skein of the Ink leftover and I think I’m going to see what matching accessories I can eek out of that to go with this shawl!

Happy Knitting!!

Neon In The Wild

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It’s that time of year again to drag my happy behind to the doctor and get all the things checked. These appointments are never fun but necessary for good proactive health care. And I have knitting which makes all the waiting bearable. I took my Gonna Need Sunglasses vanilla socks out into the wild!

I managed to turn the heel on the second sock while waiting in all the rooms! And I may have turned a few heads while people took a second to absorb the blinding neon sock in my hands.

I’m pretty happy with sock number two and the color changes are lining up decently well with sock number one. Now I just have a leg to finish and I’ll have another pair of socks to add my drawer for winter!

Happy Knitting!!

Kindness Unblocked

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I WON AT YARN CHICKEN! And here she is….my finished Kindness KAL 2019 shawl in all her unblocked glory!

I squeaked by with just the tiniest bit of blue yarn left without having to break into the second skein. I did have a more substantial ball of the Salty Tales grey color left. I’m using Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK by the way. The blue color is Ink. I even managed to weave in but not trim my ends from all the color changes.

As you read this my shawl has already been soaked and is drying on the blocking mats. Jellybean helped me and we broke out my blocking wires and really gave this shawl a good stretching. In doing this we found ONE dropped stitch. I calmly grabbed my double ended crochet hook and laddered it back up and then secured it with a piece of waste yarn on the wrong side of the work. No one but me will be the wiser!

Humidity has come to Kansas for summer and so I’m not sure how long this puppy will take to dry. Jellybean keeps checking at least every hour to see if it’s done. I think maybe I’ll set a fan on it to speed up the process for both our sakes!

A Game Of Yarn Chicken

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I haven’t wanted to knit on anything else but my Kindness 2019 Shawl from my Mother’s Day cast on. I blew through all the remaining sections and I’m on the last garter eyelets before the garter bind off.

The pattern indicated that you could continue to add eyelets if you had the yarn to do it. So I added 12 extra garter eyelet rows. You can see my remaining yarn above. Did I do the smart thing and weigh my yarn to determine how much each row was consuming so that I could have enough yarn to do the four ridge garter bind off? Nope, I sure did not! I’m just straight playing yarn chicken!

Happy Knitting!!