Category Archives: WIPs

Shouldn’t A DK Hat Go Faster?

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Shouldn’t a DK hat go faster? Oh yeah….you have to actually work on it for it grow! This project (Mood Indigo Sockhead Slouch) has been living in my purse and it has wracked up a ton of travel mileage. But now I have put this into my breast pumping/lunch project rotation. And thanks to that I’ve added a little over an inch. Only six more inches of stockinette to go!!

If you have eagle eyes you can spot arandom Dex hair that is ever present on myself and all my things. I’ve become mostly blind to them now!

Happy Knitting!

Cast On: Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks

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I have a serious case of Cast On-itis and I’ve held it in check to try to finish Jellybeans sweater. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on that project so I indulged myself.

My lunches at work involve quality time with my constant companion aka my breast pump. So I spend about 45 minutes sitting. Turns out that if I eat before I pump then that time span is just enough time to start a toe up sock toe. This is some Regia Fluormania that has been in my stash for awhile. Between the obnoxious color and the fact I didn’t have to wind it made this the perfect yarn choice! My sock needles were cold…..what’s a girl to do!? CAST ON ALL THE SOCKS!!!This will be my bedtime knitting as the Mood Indigo currently resides in my purse. I really should finish the soon too….

Happy Knitting!

Continued Blanket Obsession

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I’ve managed to add eight more squares to my scrap memory blanket over the past few weeks. This has been my reward knitting and mood boost knitting. I am making progress on my WIPs and for each milestone I add a square as a reward.

I’m almost wide enough to cover the top of a full sized bed! Though I have a long way to go in length. But I’m in no rush for this to be done. This project is all about the process for sure!

Happy Knitting!!

A More Tapered Sleeve

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I managed to rip out re-knit the sleeve to Jellybean’s Mackenzie 5-ply sweater. It’s still a little huge in the sleeve cap area because there were only so many ways to deal with the number of stitches I started with that helped make sure the chest circumference worked.

I took out 20 stitches in total over about 6 or 7 inches of work. I tried to help myself for sleeve number two by putting a locking stitch marker on each decrease. My hope is then to knit a row by row copy of the first sleeve when I do number two.

The garter section after the ribbed section creates a little bit of bell effect. I’m not sure I’m totally sold on it. So I didn’t weave in the ends in case I want to pull it out and just do ribbing. I REALLY need Jellybean to slip his arm in before I start the second sleeve. Because if it’s still comically large then I will probably rip it out again. But four year olds have their own agenda…so not sure when I will convince him. Sigh

P.S. If these mods work I plan to put them on my Ravelry project page in case they help others.

Happy Knitting!!

Past The Ribbing

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This hat might just have to be all renamed my “Continuing Professional Education hat” instead of my Mood Indigo Hat, lol. I have FOUR HOUR governmental accounting standards update webinar this past week. It was about as scintillating as watching paint dry but I had to stay away to answer the polling questions.

And after finishing my Helping Hippos Vanilla Socks, this has become my purse knitting until I have time to cast on a new pair of socks. I’m pretty pleased wit the hat so far. I powered through 5 inches of ribbing without pooling and some nice subtle striping.

I switched from a US 2 needle to a US 3 needle. Which is nice because the US 2s were poking holes in my tender little fingers. Boy howdy do those small needles sizes get pointy!

Happy Knitting!!

Sleeve Proportions

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Another WIP that saw some decent progress during the trip to my parents. I packed Jellybean’s Mackenzie 5-ply sweater and finished one sleeve. The new short circular needle was just the trick to reduce laddering and make the sleeve zoom.

Except for one thing that didn’t occur to me until I was completely done with sleeve number one. IT’S HUGE!! I mean like completely and totally ginormous.

That’s my adult 34 year old hand sticking out the end of my 4 year old’s sweater. I had Jellybean slip this on as well. The length was bang on and the fit in the sleeve cap was nice….the rest of the sleeve was just ludicrous.

I sat patiently in the winter sunlight and put my needle back in just past the sleeve cap where the arm started and RIIIIIPPPED back a whole sleeve. Based on some fussing around when Jellybean was wearing this I need to reduce the stitch count by about 1/3 to just under 1/2 over the course of the arm.

My plan is to get some locking stitch markers, work out the number of decreases against the finished length that works on Jellybean and just taper the snot out of this puppy. Using the locking stitch markers as a guide to help me re-create what I did on the second sleeve. I don’t know if this is a pattern feature or problem. I am making the 7 year old sized pattern to fit my larger than average 4 year old. But these sleeves had 70+ stitches….that seems excessive for even a 7 year old!

This will need a tiny time out so I can pout before picking this back up again. The silver lining? With all the extra decreases I won’t have to work as many stitches this time and it should go faster!

Happy Knitting!!

This Might Be Insane

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I’m INSANELY close to finishing my Helping Hippos Vanilla Socks. And last weekend we spent some time at my parent’s house….which meant BABYSITTING! I’m also trying to up my daily step count for health initiative at work. So I decided to see if I could multitask!

I did managed to stay upright and add some decent leg length to my sock. Lots of people walk and knit, so why would a treadmill be different. Now, I don’t know that I would do this all the time as this particular treadmill is a little finicky. But it was an excellent use of my time on a cold winter morning when neither PB or Jellybean were glued to my hip.

What is the best thing you have ever multi-tasked while knitting??

More Conference Knitting

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A couple of weeks ago I attended another professional development conference. (If you haven’t figured it out I have to rack up a ton of CPE hours for my professional certifications each and every year.) This conference was held in a lovely event center that even had a good mother’s room for breastfeeding moms! But the topics weren’t exactly targeted towards this municipal governmental employee. And I was still fighting a terrible cough from the upper respiratory bug that went around my house.

So basically I was bored and miserable. Thank goodness I packed knitting!! I pulled my Mood Indigo sockhead slouch hat out because it was the easiest no-look auto pilot knitting I could lay my hands on. I added maybe 2.5 inches to the brim? This is a DK weight modification to the traditional sock weight sockhead slouch. I probably could have/should have gotten farther but I even had trouble concentrating on ribbing.

But progress is progress! I think I have roughly another inch to go and then it’s stockinette for days! I’m really liking how the colors are spreading out and almost striping? And the cashmere content in the yarn doesn’t hurt either. It’s just about the right kind of meditative knit!

Happy Knitting!!

Carrot Knitting

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At the moment within easy walking distance I have one adult sweater, one child sweater, a frogged shawl, a really close to be done pair of socks, a DK hat and the yarn to start another scrap blanket. I really could focus and finish the socks and child’s sweater soooo easily but my mojo for them isn’t there. All I REALLY want to knit right now is my memory blanket.

I finished the column I had started this summer. My blanket is now 13 squares wide by 11 rows long. It’s a nice one person lap blanket size now. I think I want to add two more columns in width and see how happy I am with that size. This for whatever reason has been balm for my tired mom soul that has battled pink eye, cold viruses, and rotovirus all since Christmas. It’s just so pretty and I love adding more and more color.

My knitter brain wants to clean up my WIP pile and have those FOs in my hot little hands. But my tired mom soul just can’t quite manage that, especially when she tells me to go to sleep at 8:30 pm right after the kids. I may make a deal with myself….knit on my WIPs for 30 min and then 30 mins on my blanket. Just to make my two halves happy. I mean a little carrot knitting didn’t hurt anyone right?

P.S. What you can’t see? I took this to work for a TWO HOUR long webex meeting and wove in all my ends. The back of this thing is pristine!

Happy Knitting!!

Mackenzie Sleeves

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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!!