Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Big Bang Update

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My Big Bang Vanilla Sock has been growing quietly in the dark.

This is my post-bedtime knitting in the dark while the temperamental PB sleeps in the bassinet next to me. She still has finely tuned baby radar and can tell when she’s alone in the bedroom. Instead of feeling frustrated I take this as an opportunity to knit or honestly….go to sleep too. Babies are exhausting.

This TurtlePurl yarn has an interesting striping sequence. It’s two different two color stripe blocks each separated by a single red stripe. The colors emerge and are a complete surprise to me when I get this out in the daylight. I bought this yarn for the cute name and to be truthful, wasn’t entirely sold on the colors after I started knitting. But they are growing on me.

I have a TON of yarn in this sock set. I’m going to see how long I can stand knitting a plain tube. I am shooting for tall socks but I don’t think I will use up all the yarn. I don’t want to have to figure in calf shaping or too many increases over my standard mid-calf sock recipe. Time will tell!

Happy Knitting!!

A Little Mermaid

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One last post to show off my cute baby knits. I snagged these the same day as my blackberry cocoon photos. But as you can see she was quickly becoming less and less enchanted with being mommy’s photo subject, lol.

She really doesn’t like hats….

My project page can be found here on Ravelry, although it’s pretty sparse. This is a cocoon I designed myself waaaaay back in the day. Obviously before I learned that seed stitch is the devil and doesn’t really look that much like mermaid scales, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

My Sweet BlackBerry

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PB is growing like a weed these days. I did finally manage to snag some more knitting FO pictures before she grew completely out of them!

She was protesting this photo shoot by sticking her legs straight out and locking them. But hey….at least she wasn’t crying!

If you are interested in the project details, you can find my notes and page here on Ravelry. (This is a super old project.)

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Thotful Spot Hat

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I have a new hat for winter! The Thotful Spot Hat is officially finished, washed, blocked and photographed!! Truth be told…all but the photographs have been done for quite a awhile. I honestly forgot about this finish until I excavated my office and found the FO still in it’s project bag. And it’s worth noting, Jellybean insisted I use his purple patio chair as the backdrop because “duh mom”. And those were his exact words….smh….

Pattern: Thotful Spot Hat by Sarah Schira (Imagined Landscapes)

Yarn: Potion Yarns (Temptress base) in the Walk on the Left Side color

Needles: US 4s and 5s

I used roughly 79 grams or 183 yards of yarn for the medium size in the pattern.

This pattern is extremely well written and super simple yet chic for my sleep deprived brain. I especially liked the unique ribbing that Sarah included. The neutral white base with the pops of color should blend well with my wardrobe and winter coats. And the DK weight yarn has a nice heft to the fabric so it should be nice and toasty.

I didn’t follow the decreases *exactly* to pattern due to my lack of careful reading. But I think they turned out quite nicely and no one will ever notice. And now that I think about it…I am pretty sure I forgot to switch my needles from the 4s to the 5s after the ribbing….whoops. Oh well! This was my second ever DK weight hat….I think I need to knit more of these, it works up so easily and fast!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Big Bang Vanilla Socks

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My needles felt very naked after I finished the Electric Mayhem socks. And I totally NEEDED another self-striping project. My brain was just craving that popcorn knitting of “just one more stripe” type of project.

So I pulled some Turtlepurl Yarns Striped Turtle toes yarn from my stash in the Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock colorway. That is a reference to one of my favorite shows, the Big Bang Theory. And the dyer had already split the 100 grams into two matching 50 gram skeins. I got this wound up and cast on my usual 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock on US 1 needles. I plan to knit tubes again and add afterthought heels later. Based on the yarn….I’m thinking solid red heels. But I’ll see how the tubes turn out first.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Electric Mayhem Socks

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My nighttime bedside knitting has proved very fruitful! My Electric Mayhem Socks are in the finished pile!

Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock with afterthought heel

Yarn: KnitCircus Greatest of East in Electric Mayhem colorway and some generic black sock yarn from Joann’s for the heel.

Needles: US 1 nine inch circular

I managed to use up almost every inch of the 75 grams of this gradient set. I have a tiny ball of the yellow left to save for repairs if needed in the future!

This self-striping gradient was SUPER addictive. Even in the dark I couldn’t see the colors shifting and it was always really cool to see what had appeared when I looked in the morning. The yarn is also substantial and yet soft. I would totally knit this base again!

My one possible hiccup was the heels. They heels were worked on separate occasions (in the light) and I took notes. But they are completely obvious they are two different sized heels! One is larger than the other. It doesn’t appear based on a cursory wearing that it affects the fit. But I should get a better idea when they get a full work out in the fall. I have a bunch left of the black yarn. It wouldn’t be terrible if I had to pull out and re-knit the smaller heel. I guess that’s the bonus of afterthought heels right?

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Easy Goes It

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After my successful Antarktis finish, I really felt the need to fill the shawl sized hole in my knitting life. I did some queue searching and stash diving in my “golden skeins” and came up with a single skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co Rustic Fingering in the Easterwood color. I picked up this skein during my trip to Minnesota last February and it has been popping into my brain every since I brought it home.

This is a singles yarn in 100% merino. So perfect for a shawl and the subtle variegation to the blue would really shine in a single color shawl. I settled on Easy Goes it by Finincky Creations. I thought the name and the garter stitch based construction were just kismet. Easy is about all I am capable of right now, lol.

Thanks to some Grandparent babysitting I managed to get cast on and work the first section of garter and start the second section that incorporates more pattern like stitches. the bag is a Suburban Stitcher bag and I hope to finish this shawl in time to enter it into the PALKAL run by the Actually Knitting podcast. We shall see….there are a lot of baby growth spurts ahead. And I’m not counting my knitting time before it hatches so to speak.

The yarn is lovely but it’s been a long time since I worked with a singles yarn. I do with my needles were slightly more pointy but not too pointy. I’m using bamboo needles from Joann’s because that is what I had on hand. And they are perfectly serviceable, I just wish the tips were just a little bit better to make the knitting faster.

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Thotful Spot Hat

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The knitting and napping method worked so swell the other day that I tried it again on my Thotful Spot hat!

I’m past the brim and well into the stockinette section. I just need to hit the magic number of 7 inches of work and I can start decreasing for the crown! This project has moved into the “bedside table” slot now that it’s stockinette in the round (in addition to nap-time knitting). But will have to be demoted after I get to the decreases. Double pointed needles plus counting stitches for decreases do not mix with almost complete darkness.

Happy Knitting!!

My Little Strawberry

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PB has turned out to be very very very temperature sensitive. As in she hates air conditioning and LOVES the Kansas summer heat. Lets just say Mommy has been sweaty and baby has been happy as we have wiled away the hours in the shade of the garage on the driveway.

This meant I have been pawing through my hand knits bin to look for warm snugly things to keep her happy without the rest of us melting while indoors. I found a strawberry cocoon I knit so long ago that it’s not even in my Ravelry projects! I mean it was so early in my knitting career that I knit both items flat and seamed! Oh, how young and naive I was….

This was the best photo I managed to get…and she was rooting around for some milk. Needless to say about 12 seconds later this photo session dissolved into baby screams demanding boob. I will try again another day when shes happy and fed…. before she is too big. (I also have blackberry cocoon I knit from the same pattern that also needs photos!)

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting and Napping

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My Electric Mayhem socks are all done except the heels! Thus they have moved from nighttime bedside knitting to full on daylight knitting. As brave as I am….I’m not going to knit fingering weight sock yarn in black in the dark, lol

PB has been on hand for the heels. These heels were ready about the same time the 4 week growth spurt hit. So PB has needed a little extra attention and tummy to tummy time from mommy. Luckily I have found a relatively comfortable and ergonomic position to knit while snuggling a baby.

We both stayed warm and cozy listening to music or podcasts while the heels grew and grew.

And sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the baby snuggles before they are gone!

Happy Knitting!!