Category Archives: WIPs

Cast On: Mackenzie 5 Ply

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I had been wishful knitting a sweater for Jellybean. And Jellybean LOVES purple and I just so happen to have a sweater quantity of purple Knit Picks Brava Sport in my stash. I decided to cast on the Mackenzie 5 ply by Rebecca Newman

So I printed and read my pattern. Dutifully cast on after some gauge swatching and promptly knit the first page of instructions. Well….PB is on a sleep jihad much like her brother as an infant. So what little knitting time I get here lately is deeply affected by lack of sleep. I completely buggered the raglan increases. So an evening’s worth of work you see above? Yeah….it needs ripped. Sigh

I’m not too mad because it’s my own bonehead fault. And I know the yarn will stand up to ripping so I guess there’s that!

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Rosewood Sockhead Slouch

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Happy Halloween to everyone!! Before I head of to collect candy with Jellybean at my office I wanted to give you an update on a project seeing a ton of time lately.

PB is now over five months old and growing like a weed. And along with that growth has come sleep regressions and sleep training. This isn’t a parenting blog and I’m not seeking sympathy or advice. I’m simply trying to say that I have a happy healthy baby that is locked in a sleep training battle with me while I try to do the best parenting I know how. Lord knows I would get a stubborn daughter and I’m sure my parents are somewhere laughing at the Karma of it all!

The silver lining? Well, my Rosewood Sockhead Slouch is seeing a lot of action as my bedside knitting in the dark.

I’ve managed to finish the ribbing and work over an inch of stockinette of the hat in just over a week. I switched from US 1s for the ribbing to US2s for the remainder of the hat. I forgot to do this on my Rainbow Pop hat so I’m curious to see what difference it makes.

This has all been leading me to wonder….are vanilla hats my new vanilla socks? I haven’t touched a sock in almost two months now……hmmmm….

Happy Knitting!

Dino Legs

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My Dino Jr now has four legs!

The legs were SUPER easy to knit and I knocked all four out in less than one Netflix show. I did have some laddering between my DPNs because of the small circumference and my tension. I just simply used the extra yarn after seaming to kind of embroider those ladders “closed”. Now no one will ever notice and no fiber fill will peak out.

I did make my hubby laugh. He came upstairs just as I was finishing the sewing of the second leg and started giggling at my knitting.

I’ll leave it it you to figure out why, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Dino Jr Has A Body

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I spent some time cleaning this weekend and I found the Dino I was working on for Jellybean. I had cast on and just worked the head and put it down. That’s just silly! This is a worsted weight toy over not that many stitches. So I buckled down during naps and bedtime and cranked through the entire body. It really didn’t take that long at all and I kinda kicked myself for letting it languish. The hardest part was running out to Joanns for more fiber fill because I was out!

I need to do some massaging to get the stuffing evened out and the body less lumpy. And after that I just have four legs and the scales to knit. Surely by the grace of the baby nap gods I can get those done soon. This definitely needs legs as it kind of looks like a snail now, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Rosewood Sockhead Slouch

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I recently attended a two day conference for work. Thankfully it was a drive home every night kind of thing so I got to be home to be with PB.  This conference was almost exclusively lecture based. So I KNEW I needed knitting. But I didn’t have any autopilot knitting because Rainbow Pop gloves need my eyeballs on them.

So I fished through my tonal sock yarn and pulled out a lovely skein of T & H Fiber Works Heather’s Favorite Sock in the Rosewood color that my mom got at a fiber festival a couple of years ago. Since I hadn’t put away my needles from my Rainbow Pop Sockhead slouch I simply cast on another Sockhead slouch!

Here is my progress by lunch on Day 1….

And here is my progress by the end of day 2…. I got almost of the ribbing done over two days (conference and travel knitting). I got several compliments on my project and a few stares. But my knitting did strike up a conversation with other attendees about Cognitive Anchoring and the benefits of letting people use their hands to be better focused during meetings.

All in all it was a great conference and some great knitting!!

An Almost Finished Rainbow Mitt

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My Rainbow Pop Fingerless Mitts are moving right along.

I’ve made A TON of mistakes because I’m mainly knitting these in the dark after the kiddos go to bed. I have uttered a lot of curse words and mostly gone back and fixed the dropped stitches and wonky yarn bits. But these will be FAR from perfect. My needles are also very sharp and I feel like that is part of my problem too (besides the dark).

I completely just winged this “pattern” and I really hope I can duplicate for the second mitt! The rubber will really hit the road when I cast off the cuff and try these babies on. I have no idea how these will fit other than I know they will fit over my fist.

Happy Knitting!!

Here Comes The Rainbow

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After the Yarn Barf incident and then my finished Rainbow Pop Sockhead Slouch I FINALLY got started on my finger-less mitts to match.

And thank the Yarn Gods, I managed to get a good gauge and have the rainbow blips fall nicely around the mitt on the first try! Now all I have to do is just keep knitting!!!

P.S. the yarn barf cake is now a nicely hand wound ball. I’ll knit this project and then probably re-cake (loosely) for storage.

Happy Knitting!!

Yarn Barf

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I know based on my progress on my Rainbow Pop Sockhead Slouch that I will have enough to A) put in my memory sock yarn blanket and B) make a pair of finger-less mitts. In anticipation of the mitts I pulled some Cascade Heritage Sock in a solid grey from my stash and cast on the first cuff of my vanilla mitt recipe. This way I will have contrasting cuffs and thumbs while also making my rainbow yarn go as far as possible.

But look at this yarn barf hot mess. I was knitting along fine and all of sudden just SOOO many tangles coming from inside the skein. I am eeeking along and steadily untangling as I knit until the cuff is long enough and them I’m breaking the yarn and rewinding this bad boy. Ain’t nobody got time for tangled yarn barf!

Happy Knitting!!

Technology Can Be Cool

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I’m every so close to finishing my Rainbow Pop Sockhead Slouch! I’m at 10 inches and ready to start decreasing. I’ve decided that’s enough slouch for me!

I also recently updated my iPhone to the lastest iOS and I got a new tool downloaded. It’s a measuring ap that uses your camera. So I took it for a spin.

I laid down a traditional tape measure for reference and played with the ap. I did manage to get it to come out to the right answer. But I also got several attempts where it was .5 inches on either side. So it’s close but I wouldn’t use it for anything exacting. I would use it if I was just wanting a ball park and stuck without a tape measure.t

img_5980I’m really happy with how the colors are coming out. I know it will change when I start the crown decreases. For sure there will be some pooling and changes in the color blips. But such is the way of this yarn and I’m at peace with it. I just REALLY want this hat for winter!

Happy Knitting!!

A Block Away

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My Leksak is completely knitted and awaiting a good blocking!

I slept on my wonky button band issue and decided I couldn’t live with it. And I had the yarn to reknit the bands, so why not? So I pulled back the band and re-knit them being careful to count my stitches on each side. And they were equal. Well…..I think I picked up too many stitches on each side. So they now match…but they are kinda huge. But I’m definitely rolling with this one. I’m not doing that a third time! It’s good enough for and it’s good enough for PB, lol.

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As you can also see, I made the sleeves match. I started my round at the back of the sleeves so the job is only visible from the back. I kinda dig it. This baby is now soaking gently and I hope to have it dry for FO photos tomorrow!!

Happy Knitting!