Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Mackenzie Sleeves

Posted on by
4

I am working PB’s Mackenzie 5-ply on US 5 needles. And I also need small circumference US 5 needles for my Northeasterly blanket. So I may have had to procure some nine inch circular in US 5. Luckily, Chia Goo has my back and my needles arrived toot suite.

I secured the body the best I could and started sleeve number one. There are *almost* too many stitches for the nine inch circ and I need to watch stitches falling off when I put this back in the bag. But I like the fact that I’m not getting the ladders I tend to have when I work on DPNs. I’ve completed the first decrease section and now it’s straight knitting for 10 inches of sleeves. So here’s hoping I don’t get slogged down on sleeve island!

Bonus feature? I can’t start my blanket until I finish the sleeves. So talk about motivating factors!

Happy Knitting!!

That Niggling Feeling

Posted on by
8

I’d like to think I’m a pretty good knitter. But mom brain and sleep deprivation on are real things. I cast on my Christmas Eve cast on and merrily knit along. Isn’t the yarn pretty?

I had this niggling feeling that this shawl was turning into a funny shape. It was getting very wide very fast. But I kept knitting anyway trying to see if I could finish the first mini. Well I stopped and actually re-read the pattern. I missed ONE SMALL TINY DIRECTION for the end of the right side row. One solitary K2tog that makes a HUGE difference.

So this whole tiny shawl is headed to the frog pond. The yarn is cashmere based so I don’t mind working again with it. And Jellybean really really likes helping me frog things. He thinks its soooo cool to watch the stitches come out. I just feel like a little silly for not being able to follow what is super simple directions. Oh well, at least I listened to my inner knitter before this go to much farther!

Happy Knitting!!

Checking Fit

Posted on by
6

After three days of some pretty monogamous sweater knitting I have a good jump on my Charlotte Winter. I thought it would be a great idea to check the fit before I got too much farther.

I really think it’s not too bad! I mean the bottom is still bunched up on needles. But the yoke fits nicely and there is not too much ease in the armpits that I can tell so far. And it should button nicely.

Not to mention the color work turned out pretty spiffy! I think I may pause on the body and work the sleeves to maximize yarn usage. I don’t think I’m going to run out but I may want to lengthen the body if I have enough yarn. Plus turning the sleeves might be easier without a fully body of bulky sweater weighing me down.

I’m torn between working on this sweater and finishing PB’s sweater. Both are kind of ready for sleeve island. It’s kind of a toss up, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Charlotte Winter Progress Day Three

Posted on by
8

I managed to squeeze in a third day’s worth of knitting over my Christmas vacation. On Day three I managed to finish the raglan, separate for sleeves and start the body with A-line shaping.

Given my post baby #2 enhanced waste line I opted for an a-line shape to provide better coverage for the back 40. I think at this point I have used two full balls of the grey yarn and starting the third. I have six total. And I haven’t slipped this one to check fit either.

Here is a gratuitous shot of car knitting in my new favorite pajama leggings. It was a bright and cold trip home from Christmas with snoozing dogs and babies in the back. A pretty darn good trip except for the PB had a blow out in her car seat in the last 5 min of the drive. I think she just wanted to give me a belated Christmas present, lol.

Happy Knitting!

Charlotte Winter Sweater Progress Day Two

Posted on by
4

My Charlotte Winter was my Christmas vacation progress. I seized the opportunity of grandparent and auntie baby sitting time to see how far I could knit on a bulky sweater project.

Here is my Day Two progress:

img_7847

I managed to complete all the garter ridge stripes and I’m finishing the raglan increases. It’s getting to be a lot of stitches on the needles at this point.  But man it was nice to have some soothing garter stitches to watch my kids play and catch up on some Christmas movies.

I did take some time here to bury some of the ends for the color changes in the yoke. I didn’t trim them because I want to block them first. But it really helped to make this project less messy and more manageable. I have one more day’s worth of progress to show you before I had to go back to real life.

Happy Knitting!!

Even Medical Professionals Craft

Posted on by
9

The germs continue in this house. I guess that’s what we get for having two kids in daycare plus working in germy offices during cold and flu season.  I took my knitting with me to visit an urgent care clinic. And guess what? My physician was a crafter!

img_8137

She spotted my knitting and correctly identified it as socks (my second Helping Hippo Socks)! Turns out she crochets and we swapped crafting stories as she did my exam. Turns out we are all just fighting an upper respiratory virus and it just has to run its course with fluids and rest. But oy vey….so much coughing in my house right now!

Happy Knitting and stay well my friends!

Cast On: Charlotte Winter

Posted on by
1

Over the Christmas Holiday we spent several days at my parents house and off of work. Hooray! For this I had a goal, I wanted to work on something for myself in the day leading up to Christmas. I had my birthday yarn all wound up and waiting. And I had also swatched and done my sweater math for the Charlotte Winter. THIS was going to be my “my parents can babysit so I can breathe and knit a bit” project.

This was the first day’s progress. Gotta love bulky weight yarn and big needles right? I worked out my color work plan started cruising through the raglan increases. I had a bit of trouble keeping track of right side and wrong side since I wanted the “wrong” side of the garter ridges to show. And I may have made a few mistakes but garter stitch is very forgiving and no one will ever know.

Stay tuned for more progress tomorrow!

Happy Knitting

A Helping Hippo HO

Posted on by
5

My first Helping Hippo Vanilla sock is done!

The hubby and I got some rare baby sitting coverage over the holidays and managed to sneak out to a movie. We got to see Bumblebee. Not a franchise I am super invested in but I found the film delightful. I liked the strong female lead. And the icing on the cake was I managed to work my last set of increases and the cuff ribbing in the dark. I only dropped a stitch once.

 

 

I added a total of 8 stitches to the leg total as I went up. I just worked them kind of willy nilly but as evenly as I could eyeball. It does help the fit but as you can see I still have a TON of negative ease in my leg. I mean the sock fits but it’s stretched pretty darn tight. Now I like negative ease so that my socks don’t fall down but this might be borderline.

I’m happy enough with the sock to make the second one match. But I may have to amend my vanilla sock recipe at least in the leg to reflect my post baby #2 calves. Maybe on my next pair?

For now it’s NYE and almost everyone in our house has a cold. So I think we are going to have soup for dinner and have a countdown at 7 pm and just go the heck to bed. Happy New Year to you all!!

Planning Northeasterly

Posted on by
12

I have gone completely bananas. There is just no other explanation for what I did. I went and lost what little I had left of a brain and ordered a cone of yarn….A CONE! It’s a million miles of fingering weight un-dyed yarn. All because I needed to start another scrap blanket.

I have been seeing and hearing about Northeasterly by Melissa Alexander-Loomis all over blogs and vlogs and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I almost started right off with my scraps from my mitered square memory blanket. But the pattern is written for DK and Fingering. You can achieve DK weight by holding two fingering weight yarns together. And my brain went “Oh…let’s do a marl!” and off I went to find some white un-dyed yarn. I snagged a cone of Franklin’s Natural sock yarn from Webs that was on sale so that I can hold doubled with my scraps. I will get a lovely marled yarn look and make all the crazy scraps look a little more cohesive.

When will I have time to start this? Who knows! But I have the yarn kitted up in a project bag with the pattern. I’m hoping to dig out some US 5 needs on the shortest cord I can find in my stash. I really don’t want to work on straight needles or managed a bunch of extra cord for not that many stitches. Maybe this will make a great new start for the 2019 new year?

Happy Knitting!!

Chugging Along

Posted on by
4

Jellybean’s sweater now has a decent amount of body knit up. (And a nice collection of yellow lab dog hair…)

I still have a ways to go as the body needs to have 20 inches. I may have 10 or 11 inches done. I measured but for the life of me I can’t remember what the number is, I just know it wasn’t 20. This project has been a nice meditative knit for what little TV watching I get these days. Just round and round with a little interest of garter bands on each side “seam”. Jellybean has really enjoyed watching this grow though he hasn’t seem interested in helping with any stitches. Such is the proclivities of a 4 year old.

Happy knitting!!