Saturday Night Snuggles

I’m *fingers crossed* down to my last row of jellybean’s blanket!! Then it gets a good soak and blocking to flatten out those hexigons!. I have yarn left over so in considering a single crochet or some other basic edging to go around the outside to give it a more polished look?

In the mean time my snuggle bunny and I have some knitting to do!!

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Who needs socks when you have a fur blanket!? Lol

Happy Knitting!!

Sweater For Fall

I’m less than two months away from Jellybean’s arrival and I find that pregnancy has fired up my urge “KNIT ALL THE THINGS”. I’m almost done with Jellybean’s blanket. Only one more row to go and then a simple crochet edging and it’s done!!

Yeah yeah…I have two pairs of socks on the needles for #sockswithsarah. And I haven’t really touched them except for a stitch here and there. I’ve been really busy nesting in my nursery, cooking tomato sauce, making apple jelly, and having some alone time with the hubby before Jellybean gets here.

I perused my Ravelry cue looking for an easy to wear open front sweater. Something I can throw over a long sleeve tee in winter or tank in the spring! And I found the Cuff to Cuff Sweater by Julie Farmer.

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(Photo: © Coats & Clark)

I love this sweater for so many reason not least of it will be forgiving to my post baby body as I adapt to being a mom, lol. This sweater was Knit ‘n Style in 2012 and I’ve had my eye on it since. I have some smushy Berroco Vintage in a lovely teal/blue color burning a whole in my stash. I picked up a sweaters worth at a LYS closeout sale last year for a steal.

Any change to get this done before Jellybean…who knows? I’m not stressing about it. Everything will get done eventually. Just need to take good pattern notes along the way in case it takes a longer than expected time out!

One downside to this project….the yarn is not caked. Sigh, time to break out the yarn swift and ball winder. So much winding to do before I can put yarn on needles!!!

Hustle and Bustle

Greetings from the great steamy state of Kansas. Mother Nature has ratcheted up the temps in the last two weeks along with with the humidity! This combined with week 31 of pregnancy has tested my ability to do most everything. But I digress….

I’m still making progress on jellybean’s blanket…

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I’m in the fourth or fifth row? Nearing the end where I must decide on an edging techniques. Only 60 some days to jellybean’s arrival!!!

My schedule is packed for the next month or so. Four small baby showers, 8 gallon bags of tomatoes to can, baby room decor to complete, apples to pick, gobs of doctors appointments, and finally one last hurrah of a barbecue at our house before Jellybean takes over.

I may be insane but I promise to keep you updated!!

Happy Thursday!!

On Being Inside Out

In my last few #sockswithsarah sock updates I’ve had a few curious questions about the fact that my socks are knitting inside out. And I would I would share why. Two things:

1: I like working in what I think of “modified magic loop”. In other words I have two dpns that I use like two circulars or one extra long circular. I then have a third needle to work the active yarn. And normally the socks are right side out and the active stitches to be knit would be on the needle closest to my body.

2: I have very long fingers. And now I have developed pregnancy induced carpal tunnel in my hands/wrists. I couldn’t stand to work very long on my socks.

My local yarn shop owner overheard my problem awhile back. She had a nifty suggestion….turn the darned thing inside out!  

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This allows the active stitches to be knit to be on the back needle. I’m still knitting…no purling. But the slight difference in distance allows my hands to relax more and my fingers to be less cramped. I’ve had almost zero carpal tunnel since switching styles. And when I’m done….I just have to turn the socks inside out 🙂

Not sure if this makes sense. Not sure if it’s a knitting thing or just something weird that works for me. But I had enough comments I wanted to share with the world. Sorry if the photo doesn’t help me elaborate the point….I’m about to turn the heel after completing the gussets.

Has anyone else every done something a little different to solve a knitting problem?

Sprout…..Take Three

Some of you may remember my Sprout cardigan frustration and attempted fix. I cast on an astronomical number of stitches around the edge of my cardigan and worked several rounds. I won’t say how many Netflix shows this took. But alas it wasn’t to be, the whole thing looked awful. Too many stitches around the collar and lapels and not enough length added at the bottom…

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So what you see above is take three! I frogged my last attempt and picked up solely along the bottom. I’m now working back and forth in garter to add length. Because this project is a mix of garter and stockinette anyway this should just blend in. Fingers crossed!

I don’t want to give up on this project as I find myself attached to this sweater. I want to wear the darn thing!! I’ll keep you posted 🙂

Happy knitting!

Now The Gussets

I’ve reached the gussets of my toe-up vanilla socks!20140706-160805-58085026.jpgI’m still working a basic sock with gusset heal over 64 stitches. I’ve had a bit of a problem with laddering in between my needles. I need to concentrate and pull my stitches tightly when switching needles. If I get distracted by a show or conversation I find my tension slips and I get ladders. Not that anyone will ever notice but me. Still terribly annoying…

I do love these lovely green colors. The short stripes keep me knitting along and moving from color to color. I’ve quite enjoyed the #sockswithsarah KAL this year. Have you checked it out?

 

Sprout Repair

Thank you all for your suggestions last week in my Sprout dilemma. I have decided to attempt some additional alterations to make this sweater workable for me.20140706-160618-57978781.jpgMy solution: pick up all the stitches around the outside and knit additional garter stitch border to continue the garter stitch that runs along the lapels. That’s a LOT of freaking stitches. It took three of my cables from my Knit Picks nickel interchangeable set…

It took me 20 plus minutes to work around the circumference. And I’ll add a few stitches at each corner to “smooth” out the edging as I turn the two corners. But I think is going to take an few Netflix episodes to get to a satisfactory “fix” lol.

I’ll keep you posted…happy knitting!

 

WIP Wednesday: New Vanilla Socks

Here is my new #sockswithsarah KAL project. My sock prowess is in it’s infancy so I’m sticking with self striping yarn and basic toe up vanilla sock. Sorry for the inside out pictures. I just prefer to knit socks this way. 🙂20140629-121944-44384373.jpg

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Pattern: Toe Up Sock with Gusset Heal

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Acquarium

Needles: US 0s

Size: 68 stitch sock.

I’m on my way to filling up my sock drawer. And hopefully socks are something I can keep knitting after jellybean gets here. At least when he/she gets a little older and my post zombie haze subsides, lol. Now if I can just get more consistent on my laddering problem…

Happy Knitting!

Conundrum in Length

Well….the seaming is done. And for the record I’m not happy…20140629-115105-42665355.jpg

 

Despite checking gauge at the beginning of the project and following the pattern to the letter….this sweater is FAR too short. It falls just above my natural waist and no where near my hips where I would like. Harumph…

I have two options:

A) Gift this to my sister who has a much shorter torso but the same bust measurement.

B) Add more garter rib around the bottom to extend the length….

Thoughts from the blogosphere?