Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

Flats Hat Decreases

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My Flats Hat is ready for decreases!

The family sat down and watched RedOne since we missed it in December and I cruised through the body of the hat. The move is great and seeing a jacked Santa was something else! This yarn is Littlewolfknits yarn in the Opti base called “Flats or Drums”. I picked flats because those are the superior wings IMO.

I managed to get my DPNs installed before my eyes started crossing and it was time to go to bed. I should be able to wrap this up in the next couple of days. And bonus for me, it will earn me extra points in the Pigskin Party KAL for an exclusive sponsor product.

Happy Knitting!!

2024: A Year in Stats

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Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

I sat down and updated my Ravelry account to wrap up my 2024 items and I decided to crunch some stats on what I did last year.

  • I finished 51 projects that totaled 13,962 yards of yarn used up
  • I purchased 84.5 skeins of yarn that totaled 16,566 yards of yarn brought in
  • I made 41 completed hats that represented the bulk of my knitting this year
  • I purchased 10 new bats or braids of fiber this year
  • I finished 5 skeins of handspun
    • Tallied a total of 1,429 points for the 2024 Pigksin Party KAL
    • Attended three in person knitting events or retreats

So all in all, a very productive year for me. I really felt my knitting mojo coming back after I changed my work situation. I did bring in more yarn that I used up but only by 2,600 yards so that isn’t so bad. I’m really showing my inner accountant with this post, lol.

I don’t really feel like setting any goals for 2025 and letting the fiber guide me! Happy New Year!!

Cast On: 2024 Advent Socks Take Two

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I have been watching The Cozy Knitter make her advent socks and she does this cool feature of adding blips of the contrast yarn as she changes stripes. I have always meant to try it but then the holidays hit and I can only manage stockinette. After finishing a vanilla version, I am committing to trying this out!

I had to dig through my scraps to find some toe yarn. It’s a light grey from Red Door Fibers and should blend well with this mix of colors. I then used the scraps of the white contrast yarn from The Cozy Knitter to start my blips every 4th st.

This is my normal recipe for a 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock. I will do afterthought heels and this time inside a stripe to not mess up my colorwork. I am trying to work hard to make my floats stretchy and not pull them tight. It would be nice if these socks fits at the end!

So far I am happy with the look of these and I am learning a lot about managing the white yarn to avoid 1,000 ends on the inside. Should be interesting!!

Happy Knitting!!

Turning My Flats Brim

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Thanks to a holiday dinner at GGs and some family chit chatting….I knit enough to turn the brim on my Flats Hat.

My little cousins were mesmerized at how much fabric I could make during one family party. They tried to convince me that this was orange enough to be a hunting hat, lol. I know I need to make more ribbed brims for my hat collection, but it is just so much faster to work stockinette in infinity.

This hat has a deadline to score some extra points in the Pigskin Party KAL. This yarn from thelittlewolfknits earns me sponsor points! These hats really don’t take much time if I can force myself to be monogamous…but that has been a problem lately as I want to cast on all the things!

Happy Knitting!!

Christmas Tidings

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Santa was very kind to me! He left four new skeins of yarn and a bottle of wine in my stocking.

There is one skein of KnitCircus trampoline in the purple to yellow fade, one small skein of Greatest of Ease in the light blue speckle, half skein of the Daring base in the red color and finally a full skein of Divine DK in the grey. I love that they do mystery boxes so its a surprise!

My parents got me a knitting backpack to help me lug around my 1,000 WIPS and my kiddos got me a new set of mermaid themed crochet hooks with soft grips. All in all…I had a pretty good haul! The wine may or may not already be gone…..

Happy Knitting!!

Finished: 2024 Advent Socks

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All tucked in cozy over here in the new year with some glamour shots of my 2024 Advent Socks!

Pattern: My own “recipe” for 68 stitch toe up vanilla socks and afterthought heel

Needles: US 1s

Yarn: 2024 24 stripe advent skein from The Cozy Knitter with her Bliss base

I decided to finish these socks with the striping yarn and not the white. I decided to use that partial mini skein I had left for another project/plan. The finished length is more than an ankle sock but less than mid calf. All in all I think I used 270 yards of yarn combined and I have a full set of the 24 stripes left.

I did insert an afterthought heel and I tweak this to fit my large foot. I add extra plain rows at the beginning of the sock and taper down to add depth for me. It’s not fool proof but the socks don’t get sucked into my shoes.

This color set wasn’t my favorite of her past advent skeins but I still love the finished socks. I wasn’t sure why we progressed to the lighter colors and then back to saturated colors?

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Chiefs Touchdown Beanie

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I have officially wound up the hat kit I purchased from TreasureGoddess yarns. I am going to start my Chiefs Beanie and really lean in to doing actual colorwork.

This is a great yarn dyer but I still took the precaution of pre-washing the red yarn and doing a citric acid soak on the red yarn. I would hat to ruin my FO with bleeding dye. Great news, I didn’t see a drop of dye come out in either back it took!

This hat does work at a smaller gauge that I have historically been doing. I am torn between a swatch or just starting the brim and using that to gauge. Knowing myself, it will probably be door #2.

I have the needles prepped and a project bag lined up. I just need to start! Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Flats Hat

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After finishing the Fairy Tale Beanie, I decided to get yarn right back on my needles to kick off 2025. I pulled the worsted skein called “Flats for Drums” from Thelittlewolfknits haul.

Back to my comfort zone of my basic beanie recipe with 88 sts on US 8 needles. I named this hat the Flats Hat as I prefer my chicken wings to be flats and not drums. I thought that was cute, lol. I also totally picked a project bag that fit in with the yarn color scheme. I couldn’t help myself.

I need to also finish this hat by the Superbowl as this is a sponsor product for the KAL. I think this will become my purse and work knitting for my month of upcoming meetings!

Happy Knitting!!

Finished: Fairy Tale Beanie

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Happy New Year’s Eve! I decided to cap off the 2024 year with a finished object. I present to you my finished Fairy Tale Beanie.

Pattern: Bluestem Beanie by Rebekah Lil

Needles: US 7 and US 8s

Yarn: Potions Yarn Dryad DK in Fairy Tale and Stranded Dyeworks Mohair in Patisserie

I love how this hat turned out so soft and so pink. There ended up a fair bit of flashing in this hat with the rusts and golds. The finished hat ended up using 363 yards of yarn. Magically I still have ball of the mohair left even after TWO hats. Laceweight really does give you the bang for the buck!

My hat needles are empty and I need to get some new mindless knitting on the needles! Happy Knitting!!

2024 Advent Heels

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I did a fairly decent job of keeping up with my advent socks. I managed to get to Day 21 and fully installed heels by Christmas.

I have day 22-24 stripes left to work and I think I will cap this sock off with working ribbing in the striping yarn. I do have some of the white left but I think I have plan for that…..

I’m excited to get these off the needles and I am confident I will start the second repeat of this yarn on another pair of socks. This yarn is too good to waste and knitting those little bits every day is such a hit of dopamine.

Happy Knitting!!