Easy Blocking

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I made it! My Easy Goes It shawl is blocking!

I chickened out at 7 grams left and bound off. You can see my pattern additions along the right side of the photo. I did 14 or so garter bumps then two a single repeat of eyelets before binding off. I am supremely happy. And I even busted out my blocking wires and gave this puppy a good stretch! My inside curve needs work as it has a few scalloping bits. But a mother of two young children can not afford to be too fussy.

I’m hoping to grab some FO photos tonight if this thing is dry! Yay for Kansas summer heat!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: PB’s Sporty Cardigan

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The time is drawing near that I have to return to work. My maternity leave has seemed to just fly right by! Well, I have prepped my office with all the items I think I will need. But there is one situation I need to address….my office is freezing and PB is terribly temperature sensitive.

Solution…..cast on a cardigan! I pulled a Frabjous Fibers Messenger Kit in the #13 colorway. I picked this sport weight kit on a deal at a LYS closing. I did some Ravelry sleuthing and found the Sporty Cardigan for Boys and Girls by Cecilie Clark. I wound the yarn and got to work. This yarn kit was perfect because it has two difference coordinating colors in the same base.

After some napping and knitting I am working on the garter stitch yoke. I’m working the 6 month size. But at the exponential rate at which PB is growing…I might need a bigger one. If I manage my yarn carefully (and maybe pull some different sport contrast from my stash)….I may be able to knit a second sweater in the 12 month size for when she grows out of this one. These colors are just going to look so cute on PB!!

Now, shhhhhh I have more knitting to squeeze in during nap!

Happy Knitting!!

Easy Goes It…Plus Some

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The middle of last week I reached the end of the pattern instructions for my Easy Goes It shawl. I still had a ton of yarn left as the put up on my skein was bigger than the pattern called for yarn. (And I was even using a size 7 US needle instead of the pattern recommended US 6 to make my gauge bigger.)  What is a knitter to do? I didn’t want to bind off and leave so much unused.

Well, I put on my big girl undies and decided to extend the pattern. I am going to work another garter section and weigh my yarn as I go. When I get down to a few grams left I think I will add a short eyelet section before binding off in the pattern recommended manner. I will save just a teeny bit of yarn for my scrap blanket but otherwise I plan to play yarn chicken as best I can. This singles yarn is too yummy to sit in my leftovers.

I’m a few garter bumps in and my yarn is shrinking. I think a good nap knitting session today and post-bedtime session tonight should see me to the rest of my yarn….fingers crossed.

Happy Knitting!!

Big Bang Update

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My Big Bang Vanilla Sock has been growing quietly in the dark.

This is my post-bedtime knitting in the dark while the temperamental PB sleeps in the bassinet next to me. She still has finely tuned baby radar and can tell when she’s alone in the bedroom. Instead of feeling frustrated I take this as an opportunity to knit or honestly….go to sleep too. Babies are exhausting.

This TurtlePurl yarn has an interesting striping sequence. It’s two different two color stripe blocks each separated by a single red stripe. The colors emerge and are a complete surprise to me when I get this out in the daylight. I bought this yarn for the cute name and to be truthful, wasn’t entirely sold on the colors after I started knitting. But they are growing on me.

I have a TON of yarn in this sock set. I’m going to see how long I can stand knitting a plain tube. I am shooting for tall socks but I don’t think I will use up all the yarn. I don’t want to have to figure in calf shaping or too many increases over my standard mid-calf sock recipe. Time will tell!

Happy Knitting!!

A Little Mermaid

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One last post to show off my cute baby knits. I snagged these the same day as my blackberry cocoon photos. But as you can see she was quickly becoming less and less enchanted with being mommy’s photo subject, lol.

She really doesn’t like hats….

My project page can be found here on Ravelry, although it’s pretty sparse. This is a cocoon I designed myself waaaaay back in the day. Obviously before I learned that seed stitch is the devil and doesn’t really look that much like mermaid scales, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

My Sweet BlackBerry

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PB is growing like a weed these days. I did finally manage to snag some more knitting FO pictures before she grew completely out of them!

She was protesting this photo shoot by sticking her legs straight out and locking them. But hey….at least she wasn’t crying!

If you are interested in the project details, you can find my notes and page here on Ravelry. (This is a super old project.)

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Thotful Spot Hat

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I have a new hat for winter! The Thotful Spot Hat is officially finished, washed, blocked and photographed!! Truth be told…all but the photographs have been done for quite a awhile. I honestly forgot about this finish until I excavated my office and found the FO still in it’s project bag. And it’s worth noting, Jellybean insisted I use his purple patio chair as the backdrop because “duh mom”. And those were his exact words….smh….

Pattern: Thotful Spot Hat by Sarah Schira (Imagined Landscapes)

Yarn: Potion Yarns (Temptress base) in the Walk on the Left Side color

Needles: US 4s and 5s

I used roughly 79 grams or 183 yards of yarn for the medium size in the pattern.

This pattern is extremely well written and super simple yet chic for my sleep deprived brain. I especially liked the unique ribbing that Sarah included. The neutral white base with the pops of color should blend well with my wardrobe and winter coats. And the DK weight yarn has a nice heft to the fabric so it should be nice and toasty.

I didn’t follow the decreases *exactly* to pattern due to my lack of careful reading. But I think they turned out quite nicely and no one will ever notice. And now that I think about it…I am pretty sure I forgot to switch my needles from the 4s to the 5s after the ribbing….whoops. Oh well! This was my second ever DK weight hat….I think I need to knit more of these, it works up so easily and fast!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Big Bang Vanilla Socks

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My needles felt very naked after I finished the Electric Mayhem socks. And I totally NEEDED another self-striping project. My brain was just craving that popcorn knitting of “just one more stripe” type of project.

So I pulled some Turtlepurl Yarns Striped Turtle toes yarn from my stash in the Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock colorway. That is a reference to one of my favorite shows, the Big Bang Theory. And the dyer had already split the 100 grams into two matching 50 gram skeins. I got this wound up and cast on my usual 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock on US 1 needles. I plan to knit tubes again and add afterthought heels later. Based on the yarn….I’m thinking solid red heels. But I’ll see how the tubes turn out first.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Electric Mayhem Socks

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My nighttime bedside knitting has proved very fruitful! My Electric Mayhem Socks are in the finished pile!

Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock with afterthought heel

Yarn: KnitCircus Greatest of East in Electric Mayhem colorway and some generic black sock yarn from Joann’s for the heel.

Needles: US 1 nine inch circular

I managed to use up almost every inch of the 75 grams of this gradient set. I have a tiny ball of the yellow left to save for repairs if needed in the future!

This self-striping gradient was SUPER addictive. Even in the dark I couldn’t see the colors shifting and it was always really cool to see what had appeared when I looked in the morning. The yarn is also substantial and yet soft. I would totally knit this base again!

My one possible hiccup was the heels. They heels were worked on separate occasions (in the light) and I took notes. But they are completely obvious they are two different sized heels! One is larger than the other. It doesn’t appear based on a cursory wearing that it affects the fit. But I should get a better idea when they get a full work out in the fall. I have a bunch left of the black yarn. It wouldn’t be terrible if I had to pull out and re-knit the smaller heel. I guess that’s the bonus of afterthought heels right?

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Easy Goes It

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After my successful Antarktis finish, I really felt the need to fill the shawl sized hole in my knitting life. I did some queue searching and stash diving in my “golden skeins” and came up with a single skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co Rustic Fingering in the Easterwood color. I picked up this skein during my trip to Minnesota last February and it has been popping into my brain every since I brought it home.

This is a singles yarn in 100% merino. So perfect for a shawl and the subtle variegation to the blue would really shine in a single color shawl. I settled on Easy Goes it by Finincky Creations. I thought the name and the garter stitch based construction were just kismet. Easy is about all I am capable of right now, lol.

Thanks to some Grandparent babysitting I managed to get cast on and work the first section of garter and start the second section that incorporates more pattern like stitches. the bag is a Suburban Stitcher bag and I hope to finish this shawl in time to enter it into the PALKAL run by the Actually Knitting podcast. We shall see….there are a lot of baby growth spurts ahead. And I’m not counting my knitting time before it hatches so to speak.

The yarn is lovely but it’s been a long time since I worked with a singles yarn. I do with my needles were slightly more pointy but not too pointy. I’m using bamboo needles from Joann’s because that is what I had on hand. And they are perfectly serviceable, I just wish the tips were just a little bit better to make the knitting faster.

Happy Knitting!!