Category Archives: WIPs

Cast On: Dinosaur Jr.

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After dreaming of sweater for Jellybean yesterday I also decided he needed a new stuffy. He sleeps with the monkey I made him almost every night these days. And surely Monkey would like to have a friend?!

So I pulled the remaining Plymouth Encore Worsted left from the monkey and found I had enough yarn for a Dinosaur patter in my queue but only if I reversed the colors. So Dinosaur Jr by Katie Boyette hit my needles. I have only started the head portion but I’m hoping some good evening knitting will see this project chug forward in no time!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Leksak

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I had finished PB’s Second Sporty Cardigan and I couldn’t stand the thought of not knitting cute baby girl sweaters. So I did some Ravelry searching and stash diving to find a good match.

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I found Leksak by Yarn-Madness. It’s a top down raglan style tunic (or pullover if you prefer) made for DK yarn. It has an interesting button band construction I found intriguing and I had two colors of Berroco Comfort DK languishing in my stash. Comfort DK is a 50/50 acrylic and nylon blend so very washable and very durable. And I like the idea of a tunic for my sweet PB. And I am for SURE making the open front construction versus the pullover closed construction. (P.S. Leksak is Swedish for “toy” and I am of Swedish decent so I that kinda hooked me as well.)

The colors are a minty green and bright blue I originally got for making hats. While not a a pairing I would normally make I think they actually work well now that I can see them knit up together. I will be playing a small bit of yarn chicken on this project but I think with some strategic order of operations and yarn management I can make it work.

Happy Knitting!!

(Re)Cast On: Rainbow Pop Sockhead Slouch

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I had previously regaled you with the tale of many cast-ons and frogging of a Sockhead Slouch. I think I had “swatched” enough to be satisfied with a gauge and stitch count for the project and then I realized that the 2018 Pigskin Party KAL was starting September 6th. So I frogged what I had and waited to cast on my final iteration of the hat until it counted for the KAL. And then I knit like the wind!

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I’ve cruised through four inches of 1×1 rib and I’m into the stockinette section. I’m pretty pleased with how the color is dispersing. It’s almost a tad bit striped but it is definitely not pooling or flashing so I’m happy.

This project has been promoted to primary purse and bedside table knitting. Just soothing round and round and round knit stitches with no brain space required. I could go for a good movie so I could make some serious progress on this puppy!

I have one niggling thought….do I knit a slightly less slouchy hat and save yarn for some matching fingerless mitts??

Happy Knitting!!

 

Choosing Buttons

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I raided (with permission) my mom’s button stash in my sewing room for buttons for PB’s second sporty cardigan.

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I came out with two nice grey/black neutral options. My mom suggested putting them in the button holes to really get a feel for what they would look like. She’s pretty smart you know. The ones on the left have a nice two toned look that I dig. But the ones on the right have a little bit of smoothness and sheen. I’m letting myself sleep on it but I’m kinda leaning towards the ones on the left.

What do you think?

Whoosh Went The Sleeves

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I have been binge watching old 90s and 2000s television cop shows after the kids go to bed. And thanks to Psych and Diagnosis Murder I managed to knit the crap out of some sleeves!

I weighed my remaining yarn after finishing the button bands on PB’s second sporty cardigan. And I KNEW I didn’t have enough to make decent sleeves. So I considered my options and I decided to extend the garter ridges from the yoke into the sleeves. Then I took the remainder of my two colors and split them into two even sets by weight. One for each sleeve.

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I was kinda tired and just winging it. After six garter ridges with associated decreases I thought it looked good (and I was tired of purling, to be honest). This was of course not having any idea how far my striped colors would get me. So I knit the two colors until I ran out of each color. What resulted….well, elbow length sleeves at best.

I thought about ripping back and adding more garter ridges to make full sleeves but I honestly didn’t want to think about burning precious knitting time redoing it. This sweater will look perfectly adorable over long sleeves peaking out or just as elbow length sleeves. Kids get sleeves really grubby anyway…I’m just saving myself laundry duty!

Happy Knitting!!

Then Come The Button Bands

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In pretty quick succession I managed to add the button bands to PB’s second sporty cardigan.

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I was eminently pleased to finish both bands with a decent amount of the lighter color left. As a knitter I am still working on making my button bands better and perfect my picked up stitches. This sweater may not be my best outing. But it’s done and they match and PB will never ever notice.

Plus I’m kinda hoping blocking does me some good with this 1×1 rib by evening it out and stretching it so the sweater doesn’t pull in. I know from the first sweater that I have a decent shot at this. For this second sweater I made more button holes and put them closer together. I’m hoping this makes for more customization in this sweater on a growing wiggling baby.

The only thing is that that my top two button holes aren’t as evenly spaced as the rest. I’m going to call this an unintentional design feature and roll with it, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

 

Body Work Done

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PB’s second Sporty Cardigan is complete down through the body and bottom ribbed band.

I think the stripes turned out very nicely. I carried the yarn up one side of the sweater so I didn’t have that many ends left hanging out. And I’m happy but not over confident with the amount of yarn I have left over. We will have to see how the button bands go….

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Easy Peasy Triangular Scarf

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Good Wednesday morning, I wanted to pop in and show you my Easy Peasy Triangular Scarf progress.

Knitting with the ramen yarn is still kinda kooky but I don’t mind it. And I have the pattern in my head now. I just have one stitch marker to remind me to work the faux icord edge thingy.

And with the growth I’m really starting to see the yarn colors start to play. I have progressed through the primarily pink and I’m getting oranges and purples popping in and out. The best part of this project is that Jellybean likes to sit with me and I let him help pull the yarn out of the sock blank. Very slowly and carefully of course! It delights him to no end that he can just go ‘riiiiiippp’ and mommy has yarn to knit with. This project will have good memories for sure!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Rainbow Sockhead Slouch

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I’ve been procrastinating on casting on my next “easy bedtime” knitting project. The Big Bang Vanilla Socks have been done for awhile and I knew exactly what I wanted it next…a Sockhead Slouch from my Lemonade Shop Stormy Day yarn. Why  the procrastination? Well, I have this vision for the fabric that I know I want my hat to have. I want the rainbow blips of color to distribute without stacking, pooling or flashing.

I finally decided to take the plunge…I did some Ravelry research on this pattern and this yarn to get a feel for what happens at different stitch counts and gauges. I decided to cast on the pattern recommended 144 stitches on US 1 needles. This was the result…

It was very clear even at this short amount of knitting that I was going to get total pooling. So I ripped it out and tried 144 stitches on US 2 needles….

This attempt was better and I made the pooling stop.  But now the color blips were stacking and making sort of flashing stripes. While this is a totally cool effect…it’s not what I wanted deep in my knitterly heart. So once again I ripped the whole thing out. For the third attempt I used 164 stitches on US 2 needles.

Much better!! The colors are still touching a bit but for the most part are randomizing and dispersing nicely around the hat. It’s not 100% what I was looking for but its really close. And given how much knitting time I get and how many brain cells I have left after two kids…..its close enough for now.

The caveat….I have no clue how this will fit! I am just working to get a fabric I like. The Sockhead Slouch is an easy pattern and I plan to knit several inches of hat and then try on the ribbing portion to see how things go. Fingers crossed….worst case scenario is that I rip out again and start over. Darn, more time time knitting this beautiful yarn!

P.S. This Lemonade Shop yarn really stood up to ripping and re-knitting!!

Happy Knitting!!

Stripes For PB’s Sporty Cardigan #2

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My second Sporty Cardigan is moving slowly along. I’m working my way down the body working in two row stripes.

I am kind of digging how tonal the yarn looks within each stripe color. I didn’t get to see while I was knitting the first Sporty Cardigan.

I may very well be playing Yarn Chicken with this sweater. I’m too scared to weigh my remaining yarn or even measure the body of this sweater. Honestly…I have no clue where I am at in this sweater, I just keep knitting neat little stripes. I’m torn between just knitting until I run out and figure it out then. Or, doing some measuring and math to figure out if I need to dig out more coordinating sport weight yarn.

Maybe PB just needs a short sleeve cardigan??? Or I need to put my big girl panties on and just be a good knitter and figure this out.

Happy Knitting!!