Category Archives: Knitting

All my knitting adventures

So Close Yet So Far

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I was feeling so accomplished this week. I finished the first of my Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks! I was excited as I had to rip back my first attempt to take out like two inches of extra foot.

And then I had the hubby try it on because he has the same sized feet as my Dad. And holy knitting karma…..they were still long!! And not by a little but a full inch and a half. So I had to cuss under my breath and rip them back again. I did put in a stitch marker where the heel should start while they were on my hubby’s feet.

Thanks to a 7 year old drop off outdoor birthday party, I managed to walk for 50 minutes and re-finish the heel turn. So I am back to a mostly done sock and just need to finish the leg and cuff. The silver lining is that Regia stands up beautifully to knitting and frogging. That also means they should wear well.

I did cast on the toe of the second sock and its on holders until I re-finish this sock. I’m still on track to finish before Christmas. It would just be nice to not have so many “karmic” lessons in this so-called zen knitting, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Egg Yolk Yellow

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My Garter Rainbow wrap is swimming along and I’m officially past halfway! My current color is this very vibrant egg yolk yellow that just feels so happy.

I did pretty well in the green sections and didn’t split my yarns. But man, that light yellow section kicked my rear. The husband and I were binging Ted Lasso and I made SO MANY mistakes. All of last evening I spent my entire knitting time laddering stitches down and back up to correct the missed stitches.

Note to self, don’t knit yarns held double while distracted!

Happy Knitting!!

Sock Recovery

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I have recovered from my sock mistake. My Dad’s 2021 Socks are back on track and I managed to get the heel turned.

I snuck my sock out yesterday morning before work while I sipped some coffee. It was only 5 minutes but it was a glorious 5 minutes. And I only have a tiny ball left to finish off this sock. I thought ahead and split my skein in half so that I can try to avoid yarn chicken. And you know, have to socks roughly the same size!

Happy Knitting!!

I Should Pay More Attention

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My mom brain and my knitting brain had a fight this week. I was happily knitting away on the foot of my Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks and was following my recipe. But my knitting brain kept saying “that’s awfully long and it looks too big” but my mom brain kept measuring it and it was the correct number. Ya’ll gauge matters….

I snuck around and found an old sock that I know fits my dad to compare to my WIP. Sure enough the sock was easily 1-1.5 inches too long. Womp womp.

The good news is that I have frogged it back to where I need to start the gusset heel. I didn’t have the fortitude to actually start the heel as I was a little mad at myself. But the silver lining is that I caught it before I finished the sock and I will end up with a functional pair of socks.

Happy Knitting!!

Socks On The Road

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Fall and harvest are in full swing here in Kansas. We took some family time to hop in the van and take a cruise around. I grabbed my Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks to work on while we jammed out to tunes.

It was fun but boy howdy did we pay for it after! Three out of the four humans in this family had the hugest allergy flareup after breathing in all that “nature” kicked up by the combines. Nothing a little Claritin can’t kick, lol.

And I did manage to get about 2-3 inches of sock worked on! Gotta squeeze that knitting time in when can!

Happy Knitting!!

Yarn Store Haul

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While I was taking spinning lessons I took some stretch breaks to wonder around the yarn store and some goodies might have jumped in my cart 🙂

I snagged three skeins of yarn. From left to right I grabbed two skeins of 3 ply sport in an aqua and light yellow. These are my alma mater colors and I am envisioning some sort of striped or colorwork hat or cowl. And the last skein is a 2 ply DK called “baby blend”. It is superwash merino and faux cashmere. This skein was tooooooo soft to leave in the store. It needs to be a hat for my head!

I also grabbed some fiber to work with given my new spinning skills. The Shepherd’s Mill used to be a spinning mill in addition to a yarn shop so they had a large selection of roving. I grabbed some merino blends in teal, white and purple to play with.

The icing on the cake is that the owner gave me a super cool tote bag from her store as a bonus. It’s going to be the perfect spinning bag to hold my fiber next to my wheel. And it zips closed to keep small fingers out of my stuff!

Happy Spinning!!

Wishful Knitting: Around Every Corner

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I can’t remember where I saw this pattern but I was sucked in HARD by the Around Every Corner shawl pattern by Stephanie Lotven. The original was made in a solid grey with a gradient of reds. (Sorry I printed in grey scale to save ink).

My knitters brain knew I had the PERFECT yarn in my stash for this project. My wishful knitting shawl is going to have a green main color with a flower/tulip like gradient set from Bede Sisters Yarn Co. The solid green is just some Cascade sock yarn I had kicking around in my stash. I just have this mental picture of a garden inspired shawl.

I have the pattern printed and yarn all kitted up in a project bag. But what I don’t have is needles in the right size in the correct length. That and like five other active WIPs, lol. So I’m going to leave this in my project tote as a prize for getting some of my other WIPS off the needles.

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Garter Rainbow Wrap

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I ended up staying home from work this past Monday with back pain. It’s hell getting old and out of shape. So after a trip to the chiropractor I settled myself into bed and spent ALL DAY KNITTING. I don’t appreciate the impetus but I’m not mad at the outcome.

I managed to add three full mini skeins to my Garter Rainbow Wrap. I started the day with teal, added the acid green and finished with the variegated green. When I finish this latest mini I will officially be halfway through my advent minis.

It’s becoming patently clear that I will run out of the white sock yarn. I’m going to dig around in my stash for other white scraps to see how far I can get without ordering yet more yarn, lo. Wish me luck!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks

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My sock needles were empty and my purse lacked travel knitting after I finished my Advent Socks #3 last week. I wanted some instant gratification so I decided to go for some sport weight socks rather than more fingering weight socks.

I pulled some Regia 6-ply from my deep stash in the every helpful color of “6974”. This has been marinating since 2017 and needs to turn into socks for my Dad. He makes a point to rave how warm his feet are when he is hunting in my hand knit socks.

I am doing the “sock recipe” I have for my dad. I cast on 18 stitches with a wedge toe and then increased to 68 stitches on US 2 needles. My dad has a 13 inch foot and I’ll do a toe up gusset heel. I just need to pay attention to when I get to halfway through the skein so I leave enough yarn for the second sock.

Happy Sock Knitting!!

New Yarn, Specific Purpose

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I was tempted by the siren’s call of yarn again. I watching my normal YouTube podcast and just happened to catch the Tommi’s first Moonstone Dyeworks update after her maternity leave. I was powerless to resist a base that I have never tried before: yak sock.

The color is called Hecate and its a wonderful chocolatey brown. The skeins is 100 grams and 437 yards/399.6 meters so that is a pretty good put up. The fiber content is 70% superwash merino, 20% yak and 10% nylon. The yarn feels soft in my hand and I can detect the darker undertones that the yak brings to the blend.

This yarn has a specific purpose (aside from trying a new yarn blend) and that is to join the Musselburgh Hatt by Ysolda Teague. The whole world seems to be making them and LOVING them so I want to see what the fuss is all about.

Happy Knitting!!