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!!

Snow Pretty

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We are gearing up for another round of winter weather this weekend. But I thought I would show you some of the beauty from the last snow storm. This one was pretty mild in my area and fell mostly over night.

It was a nice wet soft snow that literally blanketed everything in sight!

But yet didn’t make travel too terribly bad. The streets cleaned up nicely.

But best of all, it was perfect snowman snow for Jellybean and the hubby! Jellybean says his name is “Snowy”, lol

Happy Winter to everyone!!

Preparation

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I have been itching to work on my memory sock yarn blanket. And it’s been pulling all of my knitting focus. But close on its heels is my Northeasterly blanket. I have scraps, needles, pattern and my coned yarn to hold doubled all kitted up in a bag. And after a helpful comment on this blog about coned yarn….I decided to wind off a skein of the white yarn and wash it.

This being for two reasons, one to wash off the spinning grease that is used to manufacture coned yarn and two to see if the yarn blooms and shrinks up. I wouldn’t want wonky fabric after spending so much time knitting a blanket for Pete’s sake! So I stole some quiet time while PB was napping and while hubby and Jellybean were out building a snowman last weekend. I had yarn and a podcast….it was heaven!

I wound off yarn until I felt like I had a decent amount and tied off a skein. Don’t mind the dog hair, it’s just considered extra fiber content in this house. (Dex is blowing his coat yet again and I’m now vacuuming almost daily and still can’t keep up!)

The skein has since had a bath and is drying (slowing) in the laundry room. When sufficiently dry I will wind it into a cake to be ready for blanket knitting! Jellybean seemed keen to work my yarn swift and sad I finished my skein without him. So as a mommy and me project we might make a second skein to wash one of these evenings. We will see if his interest abides ninja figures and magnetic tile building.

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!!

Wishful Knitting: Late To The Fade

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One of my purchases from Winter Woolfest 2019 is already hopping into my knitting queue. The Fade has been around for what seems like forever now and just about every knitter has faded something. I’m not generally a bandwagon knitter and take awhile to come around to a trend. But I have been feeling the pull of Free Your Fade from Andrea Mowry. This is more my speed as it’s only three skeins so not as large of a time commitment as some of the others. I just don’t get enough knitting time to spend months and months on the same thing. I would explode. Plus this shawl comes in Fingering and DK. And I just so happen to have a pretty neat fade in some Sport weight yarn.

From left to right is my One Twisted Tree Lavish sport in the chaotic neutral, followed by the Leon Alexander DK in the Oh La La color and lastly some Anzula Ava sport in the Raspberry color. I think these make a nice shift with a tonal solid on either side with a speckle in the middle. No clue when I will get to this one but I have the pattern purchases and yarn all kitted up together just waiting for the Perfect cast on day.

Happy Knitting

Winter Woolfest 2019

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The Christmas season is over and it’s back to real life. And that real life has involved a lot of germs and coughing around here. So I made sure to take some time away from nursemaid duties and re-charge my batteries a bit. I made a trip over to Wamego, KS for Winter Woolfest 2019!

First I’ll flash all the goodies I found with my Christmas cash. I focused my monies on independent dyers and especially those I haven’t seen before. I grabbed a Little Lamb children’s book with pattern from Melissa Dallke. And four 20 gram mini skeins from her Acorn Willow yarn line for my scrappy blankets. Then I snagged a speckled DK yarn from Leon Alexander in glorious shades of purple. Next up is a dark grey and rainbow-y skein of sock yarn from the Wichita Woolery. It’s called Prism Break and it should micro stripe if I get the gauge right. Finally I finished up at a LYS booth that had several indie dyers. I gravitated to the speckles again. I picked up some Super Sock 4ply from Twisted Owl Fiber Studio in the Razz-ma-tazz color. I listen to their podcast, the Worsted Knitting Podcast when the occasionally drop episode and it’s hilarious. And lastly I picked up some Pebble Sock from Black Trillium Fibers in the Happy Fun Times color. I didn’t go overboard and I was very pleased with my purchases.

It was a beautiful sunny and weirdly warm January day here in Kansas. The attendees were slightly sweltering in their knitwear this year!

This year’s theme was Classic Rock N Roll. It wasn’t quite as cool as last year’s female super hero theme but still adorable.

And this festival has really grown. This place was PACKED by 11 am after the doors opened at 10 am. It was honestly hard to move around and get into most of the booths. This kinda triggers some anxiety in me and was my least favorite part.

P.S. This Wamego is kind of Wizard of Oz themed because they have the Wizard of Oz museum. And the whole town has kind of rolled with it. They have a tulip themed Toto that made me smile!

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!!

That Niggling Feeling

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I’d like to think I’m a pretty good knitter. But mom brain and sleep deprivation on are real things. I cast on my Christmas Eve cast on and merrily knit along. Isn’t the yarn pretty?

I had this niggling feeling that this shawl was turning into a funny shape. It was getting very wide very fast. But I kept knitting anyway trying to see if I could finish the first mini. Well I stopped and actually re-read the pattern. I missed ONE SMALL TINY DIRECTION for the end of the right side row. One solitary K2tog that makes a HUGE difference.

So this whole tiny shawl is headed to the frog pond. The yarn is cashmere based so I don’t mind working again with it. And Jellybean really really likes helping me frog things. He thinks its soooo cool to watch the stitches come out. I just feel like a little silly for not being able to follow what is super simple directions. Oh well, at least I listened to my inner knitter before this go to much farther!

Happy Knitting!!

Checking Fit

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After three days of some pretty monogamous sweater knitting I have a good jump on my Charlotte Winter. I thought it would be a great idea to check the fit before I got too much farther.

I really think it’s not too bad! I mean the bottom is still bunched up on needles. But the yoke fits nicely and there is not too much ease in the armpits that I can tell so far. And it should button nicely.

Not to mention the color work turned out pretty spiffy! I think I may pause on the body and work the sleeves to maximize yarn usage. I don’t think I’m going to run out but I may want to lengthen the body if I have enough yarn. Plus turning the sleeves might be easier without a fully body of bulky sweater weighing me down.

I’m torn between working on this sweater and finishing PB’s sweater. Both are kind of ready for sleeve island. It’s kind of a toss up, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Charlotte Winter Progress Day Three

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I managed to squeeze in a third day’s worth of knitting over my Christmas vacation. On Day three I managed to finish the raglan, separate for sleeves and start the body with A-line shaping.

Given my post baby #2 enhanced waste line I opted for an a-line shape to provide better coverage for the back 40. I think at this point I have used two full balls of the grey yarn and starting the third. I have six total. And I haven’t slipped this one to check fit either.

Here is a gratuitous shot of car knitting in my new favorite pajama leggings. It was a bright and cold trip home from Christmas with snoozing dogs and babies in the back. A pretty darn good trip except for the PB had a blow out in her car seat in the last 5 min of the drive. I think she just wanted to give me a belated Christmas present, lol.

Happy Knitting!