Not Quite A Full Foot

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10

I have been pretty diligent about getting off my rear end for lunch and walking. Aside from feeling less stressed and hitting my step goal most days. I’ve been adding more stripes to my Cheery Vanilla Socks.

It’s hard to see from this angle but I have about 5.5 inches of foot complete. I have a 9 inch foot so I like to get to 7 inches (or just shy of) before I add waste yarn for a forethought afterthought heel. Based on how much I get knit…I think I have three more walks and I’ll be at the heel!

Happy Friday to all and keep on Knitting!!

I Can’t Even

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You guys….I CAN’T EVEN! I’m in full geek out mode. One of my favorite YouTube podcasts, Knitting Vicariously, highlighted one of my FOs on her show!! I was minding my own business one Sunday evening and I got an email saying Caroline aka Dunderknit had ear burned me in a Raverly post. Lo and behold she had linked to me in her show notes!

She liked my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl (and she doesn’t normally like shawls) and highlighted it from her actual knits thread on Ravelry. It’s probably a crazy thing to get excited by as I normally don’t care what people think of my knits but I was really really excited to have someone else love this as much as I do.

To me this was the equivalent of having the Yarn Harlot compliment you on your tension or yarn choice. I geeked out hard and both my parents and husband kind of patted me on the head and told me good job. But I know you guys would understand my squee reaction!

Now I just need to come down off my cloud and get back to knitting!!

 

Round and Round

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I have been in need of some zen knitting lately with stress and extra work of remodeling my kitchen and office flooring. And my Worsted Boxy has fit the bill!

After reading some other project notes, I decided to double the ribbing from four to eight rows. This was theoretically to prevent flipping of the hem. As I’m knitting I’m still getting a lot roll and flip. But I’ll withhold judgement until it’s blocked.

I’m about halfway through my first skein and I’m thus far with the fabric I’m making. This has been the only project I have been able to pick up and work on after I’m exhausted from flooring. And boy howdy does 200+ stitches take a LONG time to work a round. With luck I may have this knit by fall?

Happy knitting!!

Project Of A Different Kind

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For about a year and a half now, my kitchen floor has needed some serious TLC. The tile was beautiful but multiple attempts at re-laying and re-grouting just didn’t’ work. The backing board was too water damaged and tile and grout were constantly coming loose. I just felt my kitchen and office were GROSS all the time.

Last fall, via my cousin’s lumberyard, we purchased some tile-ish looking waterproof laminate to replace the floor. And this summer finally came a time where I had the vacation time and my dad was available to help me. We ripped the tile, pulled backing board and million staples, scraped glue and mastic until we had blisters and then snapped together the new floor. All in all it took two and a half solid days of work. But oh my, I couldn’t be more pleased!

I am already in love with cooking on the new floor and being able to sweep and mop knowing I’m actually getting stuff clean. And I hope and pray that is the last time I have to deal with this silly floor!

Now back to knitting tomorrow!

Cast On: Worsted Boxy

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I consistently find myself late to any and all knitting trends. I mean I knit my first fade only this year and how long has that been around? I have been finding myself attracted to some boxy garments lately. I have been working on my post-PB baby weight loss and I find myself comfortable and pleased with a skinny pant, boxy shirt or sweater and a cute pair of shoes look.

So I decided to try knitting Worsted Boxy by Joji Locatelli in some Berroco Vintage from DEEP DEEP stash. My line of thinking is:

  • This yarn has tried to be several things and it has never quite worked. So why not a comfy sweatshirt style neutral color garment?
  • I’ll get this sweater quantity out of my stash for good if I finish this
  • A worsted sweater should go faster than the fingering weight boxy
  • If I finish it and it look hideous or the color doesn’t favor me…I’ll find it a good home somewhere!

I’m knitting the medium size in the pattern. It won’t give me quite the full ease that Joji calls for but enough ease that it fit loosely but still be flattering. I have managed to cast on the 200+ stitches WITHOUT TWISTING and I have started the ribbing. Based on reading other notes I think I’m going to double the ribbing called for in the pattern to prevent the hem from rolling. Wish me luck!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

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5

It’s full on summer here in Kansas so seems like a perfect time to get my Soft Serve Sock Snake socks completely off my needles!

I managed to get two pair of ankle socks out of two 50 gram skeins of Knit Picks Felici (with the help of some contrasting heel/toe/cuff yarn) in the soft serve color way. The snake tubes were cranked over 72 stitches. The top  pair is for my sister’s birthday and they fully coordinating. I had to get a little more creative and go sort of franken-sock with the second pair.

My leftover tubes weren’t equal so I had to use scraps to extend the toe of one sock. And then I didn’t have enough speckled contrast yarn to do more than the cuffs. So I pulled out some Cascade Heritage sock yarn to do the toes and heels. I think this makes them superbly unique and a great addition to my sock drawer.

With the socks tubes I finished two pairs of socks in like two weeks with only half-monogamously working on them. You certainly can’t beat that!

Happy knitting!!

A Heel For Dad

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I made really good progress on Dad’s socks while on vacation. I finished a good chunk of the leg and weighed my skein. I was already dangerously close to using 50% of the skein and I hadn’t put in the afterthought heel yet!

So in an effort to stave off knitting disaster I split the skein in half by weight and looked at my remaining ball for sock number one. It was tiny! So I broke the yarn and inserted the heel. I managed to finish the heel but I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to do a decently tall cuff.

I did a quick Ravely search of my stash and found a single skein of Berroco Vintage DK in my stash that would be about right. It was plain black and coordinately decently with this stripe colors. And it has a relatively close fiber content so the washing instructions would be the same. I am still periodically holding this sock up against previously knit socks that I know fit my dad. And this sock matches the measurements but it still looks to my eye to be crazy big.

Dad will be here for a visit in a few days. I might break down and have him try this first sock on to see if it fits before I start the second sock. I risk having to re-knit the first sock but that is better than wasting a whole skein of perfectly good sock yarn that won’t get worn!

Happy Knitting!!

Self Care And Socks

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My four year old Jellybean is testing my limits with all he’s got. Bedtime has turned into a huge ordeal. I know this is part of his growing up and learning to question the world and push boundaries. But ooof, it’s exhausting and consumes almost all my patience. So last night after a 55 minute bedtime battle I settled in for some self care.

I poured myself a low carb beer, turned on the Wet Coast Wools podcast and worked on the toe of my Soft Serve Sock Snake socks. As far as self care goes I feel like this was the better option than the large bowl of ice cream I really wanted. Though my sock toe might be a little wonkier than if I had skipped the beer, lol.

Happy Knitting and take care of yourself!

Happy Anniversary to Me

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As of June 30th, the husband and I have been married 12 years. We’ve added two dogs and two kiddos over those many years and boy are we exhausted! I’ve said this before (with all due respect and love) that my  husband is a terrible gift picker outer. So these days I keep a google doc where I link to things I would like to have. He then only has to click and purchase from a list of things hes certain I want. It has served us both well.

This year he picked out some wonderful things from Tuft. He chose a sock soap, bath bar and some hand balm. I think the sock soap is just natural scent, the body bar is honey scented and the hand balm is definitely blueberry lemonade. They are all heavenly and this is my first Tuft experience and I’m not disappointed so far!

And he managed to throw in some yarn from String Theory Colorworks. This is Stark Effect on their Inertia base (80/20 blend of merino and nylon). It’s crazy rainbow bright and should make some brilliant socks.

P.S. Don’t worry I didn’t forget the hubby. He is getting his car professionally detailed to rid it of kid crumbs, dog hair and about 7 years of Kansas mud and dust!

Happy knitting!!

Cast On: Vamping

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I have had this pack of mini skeins in my stash for awhile now and it keeps popping up in my mind. It’s some Frabjous Fibers and Wonderland yarns Cheshire Cat in the Mad Tea Party colorway. There are five mini skeins in a rainbow-ish kind of fade. I picked this pack up at a yarn store closing and I have been hoarding it. Well, last week I got a yarn newsletter that highlighted the Vamping pattern from Jennifer Dassau. And I rushed to my stash to grab my yarn and needles..

I was so lost in the wool fumes that I hand wound the first mini and cast on right then and there. It was like 9:45 pm and my brain was a little foggy so the cast on took three attempts. But I think I’m on track now….I hope….

Happy Knitting!!