Travel Knitting

Recently I had the opportunity to travel for work. I was headed to the cold tundra that was Minnesota in February. I attended a three day software conference in a very nice part of St. Paul Minnesota in a fantastic hotel. The week that lead up the conference was incredibly busy and hectic including the last minute cancellation of baby sitting plans. I barely had to time to keep my head above water at work and pack something resembling a suitably filled suitcase. At the last second I grabbed by project bag that held my Down Pour socks I had planned on redoing and dashed to the airport. I knew they had wooden needles from Joanns that I wouldn’t mind losing to a zealous TSA agent. 

Once at the airport and safely through security where my knitting was not deemed a security threat, I pulled out my project and pattern only to find that I needed several stitch markers and they were not in my kit. I had needles, yarn and pattern ONLY. Sigh, so these socks had to become cuff down vanilla socks. Not my favorite…but it was better than than no knitting at all for four days.

I made up for my project D’oh by knitting in the posh hotel wrapped in a plush bathrobe with the remote control all to myself! I have to say is that was pretty much heaven to a pregnant knitter after sitting in ballroom conference chairs for 7 hours!

I’ll try to show my total trip progress if I can grab some updated photos this week. Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Midas Hat

Happy Wednesday to all! I bring tidings of joy and a hat update. My Midas hat has grown quite a bit since I last posted about it.

Turns out you CAN knit most of the body of a hat during a movie. Jellybean had a playdate and the hubby took me to Bad Mom’s Christmas at the $2 theater (which is now closer to $3.50). Simple stockinette round and round in the dark while laughing my butt off at inappropriate jokes and innuendo.

I have already set up for the decreases! I really think I can finish this one this week!

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Neon Jungle Cowl

My Neon Jungle has grown. I’m cooling off in the color progression!

We had another super cold snap turned 50+ degree melt turned cold snap again. This means I have had some time to knit by the fire. I do admit that I have made some silly mistakes in this super easy pattern. But the texture and lovely color changes hid it well!

Happy Knitting!!

Neon Jungle Update

My Neon Jungle has been my nighttime/bedtime knitting. And the rainbow has been surprisingly motivating despite pretty pronounced evening nausea.

I’m all the way through the warm colors: Red, Pink, Orange, and Yellow. And i’m just starting into the green transition. This piece will definitely be served well by a good blocking. And I’ve found a couple places where I got off patter a bit but noone but I will ever notice. This object *might* end up in the gift pile for next Christmas….time will tell. I’m not sure I’m in love with it yet. But it’s still a fulfilling and fun knit.

Happy Knitting!!

Midas Hat Update

My Midas Hat has a brim! I was selected for the core team of an software implementation project at work. So this week I had two loooong days cooped up in conference room talking expectations, timelines and assigning project duties. The Deputy Director of IT is a knitter and therefore understands the need to knit to save one sanity.

I managed to plow through the 30 rows of inner and outer brim and connect in the round! The yarn is just so stunning. It’s not quite as purple as it shows in the photo, it’s definitely deep royal blue. The needles are some cheap bamboo Clovers. The tips are showing their age and I swear I got a splinter the other day. This might be the last project these needles see. But for now it’s just straight knitting until I reach nine inches (or desired length) of hat. This project has been living in my backpack and has been great to pull out when I need to keep my hands busy.

Happy knitting!!

Cast On: Neon Jungle

My morning sickness has not abated but it has eased some. And while Jellybean is still on a sleep jihad….my knitting mojo has returned some. Right now I need brain soothing easy knitting that is easy to pick up and put down.

I pulled one the last projects I kitted up for the 2017 Pigskin Party and got going on my Neon Jungle Cowl. This yarn has vexed me a bit as this is the third project I have tried it with. It knits up very nicely and the colors are lovely but something has just been not right up to this point.

I think this project might just be it. The pattern is a simple two row repeat and so far the gradient changes are showing off nicely. I’ll reserve final judgement until I get to the orange to yellow change as that will be the most vivid. But so far I am happy. And this rainbow has been a cheery change to the dreary cold winter.

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Daunt Cowl (#3)

My Daunt Cowl feels like it’s really picking up steam!!

Last I posted I was finishing the purples. Well, over the Christmas holiday weekend I plowed through the blues and greens. And then before New Years I worked through yellows. I am finding the shrinking yarn ball more of a motivation than the stripes. Which I think is a weird twist to this project. Usually it’s the color change that pulls at me.

I only have 4-5 colors left and I really want this cowl to be finished! Boy howdy is it cold here in Kansas!

Brrrr…..and Happy Knitting!!

Monkey or Platypus?

I started Jellybean’s Monkey this week and I zoomed through the body and the mouth.

I’m not the best with large DPNs but I think for my second toy this is pretty good. I’m working on size 7 US with worsted we got yarn. I don’t have any laddering yet and the fabric is dense enough the stuffing stays on the inside. A win for me at least.

The mouth without the ears makes this look like a platypus to me. Am I crazy?

Happy Knitting!!

A Monkey With No Name

Last night Jellybean was enthralled with playing games with his father. So I snuck away to this…

The Grocery Girls latest podcast and….

Starting Jellybean’s toy monkey while snuggling up with my fur baby. The pattern named him Gilbert but I think I’ll let Jellybean name him officially. So right now he is “TBD” the monkey, lol.

Happy Knitting!!