Tag Archives: frogging

Tossing The Stash 2026

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I have to admit that I love collecting yarn. And I hold that buying yarn is a completely separate hobby from using it. And I have still been feeling overwhelmed about how much I have and how many places it had scattered in my house. I couldn’t find my favorite sock needles and my WIPs were overflowing.

So I did a big New Year’s round up of everything that I could see or remember from the house and pulled all my yarn storage. It filled my California king sized bed….

I did the stash first and sorted through all the yarns and redid the bin storage. Checked everything for water or bugs and made some decisions to keep or toss. I think I got everything back into (less) stuffed bins and grouped nicely. Not to mention an entire bag of acrylic and novelty yarn from my early days that is going to donate.

I also tossed all my project bags to cull my projects. I frogged or abandoned seven projects and reclaimed like 10 project bags back into my stash. I found so many needles, stitch markers and tape measures and put back into my tool storage. I also consolidated all my WIPs I still love into one large tote bag. I was proud of myself and only pulled yarn for one new project. More on that later…

I really need to get into my laundry room and storage area to clean. I think I am missing one tote of knitting related items that is in a stack somewhere. I also have three totes of kids clothes to sort and just overall reorg the storage area to be more usable. Sigh….so much adulting!

Happy Stashing!!

Damn Twist

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While spectacularly getting my arse handed to me in Uno: No Mercy, I was knitting in my Scandia Hat and realized the damn thing is twisted…..

So I ripped that sucker out and started over. This time with no Uno cards and a glass of wine.

I opted to skip the 2×2 ribbing this time and just do stockinette. I chose solace in the comfy chair with the gas fire place that took longer to figure out that I would like to admit. I am still loving this yarn from my Christmas stocking. It really held up well to knitting and ripping back. The cast on row was a little sticky but came apart fine.

Happy Knitting!!

This Isn’t Going To Work

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Okay, I have to admit defeat. This hat at this gauge and with this yarn….is not going to work. RIP first attempt at my Iris Hat.

I am flat going to run out of yarn on this project. My needles are too small and the stitch count is too high. Not to mention that I can’t get this brim over my head. It’s weirdly to dense and small. All around failure.

I ran over to my LYS, which is closing, and grabbed some US 10s on a 16 inch circular cord so I can frog this hat and restart. I will:

  • Use bigger needles
  • Modify the stitch count down
  • Reduce the height of the folded brim
  • Possibly consider a straight cast off and go for the cat ears look?

Good news, is that I haven’t wasted that much time and this should get up and going quickly again. Thank goodness for bulky yarn. I am not even going to rewind this. I am finding the other end of the yarn and knitting the new hat from the old hat, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Chevrons To The Frog Pond

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This is my Chromatic Yarns Zig Zag Blanket and it hasn’t been touched in MONTHS. I pulled it out and petted it for awhile and decided to rip it out.

It’s not as big as I would have hoped, knitting blankets takes FOREVER, and I think I want to change the color order. So this is getting frogged. I also have been doing some research on Ravelry to find a crochet alternative for this yarn. I still want it to be a blanket…..just not this one.

Happy Frogging!!

Thanks, I Hate It

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I should have listened to my gut. Turns out I HATED how my LSP hat was knitting up. The fabric was dense and not forgiving at all. It was so stiff that it was barely curling. So to the frog pond it went!

The yarn is back to it’s natural state. I was using US 8 needles and I think I would be better suited to go up to US 10s and then reduce down in stitch count. Rough math makes me think I could go down to 80 instead of 88. The hat is basically a swatch so I think I will start with that and see what happens. I can always rip out again!

Happy Knitting!!

Smaller Was Better

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I finished the second and smaller mitt. And as predicted, smaller was better. The 40 stitch mitt was a better fit than the 44 stitch mitt. So I ripped back the bigger one and started it over again. Sometimes, I hate when I am right.

I fortified myself with a strong cup of coffee in my favorite Ted Lasso mug to work the now third mitt. The silver lining? The handspun did rip out fairly well and the re-knitting isn’t terrible. This has alpaca in it so I was worried about felting. So far so good!

Now I just need to finish a third mitt to make a finished pair. Happy Knitting!!

Frog Pond: Punch Bug Beanie

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I pulled up my Ravelry and took inventory of what I had in my projects and queue. It was very indicative of my mental bandwidth. Several projects on the go but nothing that sparked my creativity. So I decided to do some clean up!

I had my Punch Bug Beanie started out of some Knit Picks Felici Worsted in the Punch Bug color. I had started this hat to match my Punch Bug Vanilla Socks. I was using Size 10 needles…..because I don’t know why. But I HATED the fabric it was creating.

So during a spirited game of Trouble with the kiddos, I ripped back the whole hat. I plan to find my US 8 needles and restart this hat. The socks are done and waiting for their sibling. Hoping this swabbing of the deck will help fuel my creativity. Happy Frogging!!

So Close Yet So Far

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I was feeling so accomplished this week. I finished the first of my Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks! I was excited as I had to rip back my first attempt to take out like two inches of extra foot.

And then I had the hubby try it on because he has the same sized feet as my Dad. And holy knitting karma…..they were still long!! And not by a little but a full inch and a half. So I had to cuss under my breath and rip them back again. I did put in a stitch marker where the heel should start while they were on my hubby’s feet.

Thanks to a 7 year old drop off outdoor birthday party, I managed to walk for 50 minutes and re-finish the heel turn. So I am back to a mostly done sock and just need to finish the leg and cuff. The silver lining is that Regia stands up beautifully to knitting and frogging. That also means they should wear well.

I did cast on the toe of the second sock and its on holders until I re-finish this sock. I’m still on track to finish before Christmas. It would just be nice to not have so many “karmic” lessons in this so-called zen knitting, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

I Should Pay More Attention

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My mom brain and my knitting brain had a fight this week. I was happily knitting away on the foot of my Dad’s 2021 Christmas Socks and was following my recipe. But my knitting brain kept saying “that’s awfully long and it looks too big” but my mom brain kept measuring it and it was the correct number. Ya’ll gauge matters….

I snuck around and found an old sock that I know fits my dad to compare to my WIP. Sure enough the sock was easily 1-1.5 inches too long. Womp womp.

The good news is that I have frogged it back to where I need to start the gusset heel. I didn’t have the fortitude to actually start the heel as I was a little mad at myself. But the silver lining is that I caught it before I finished the sock and I will end up with a functional pair of socks.

Happy Knitting!!

Frog-tastic Summer

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I am on a bender….of frogging. I may have been rooting around in my WIP bag and found not one but two advent mini skein projects in hibernation. I spread them out and gave them a good look…..I didn’t want to finish either of them.

First up to frog is my Rainbow Fluff Habitation Throw made with my 2020 Teal Torch Knits advent set. Its a rainbow gradient and I was making a lap blanket with a little suri alpaca thrown in. It’s now back to a bunch of minis. Since I’m all about holding yarns double and marling…..this yarn is now going to be the All My Stitches wrap by Beata Jezek (Rav link). I ordered some plain white Opal Sock yarn to hold with the colors.

Next up in the frog pond…..my Wool and Waves Advent Scarf. This was my 2019 Advent of choice. I clearly made it SUPER far, hahaha. It’s now ripped out and I’m considering making it into the Zest by Josh Ryks-Robinsky (Rav link). I need to get on the interwebs or hit my LYS to find a second yarn to hold double with this set.

I definitely feel like I have a theme to my knitting this year, hats and holding sock yarn double. Both are really helping me use all the wonderful yarn I have stashed for year. Plus I’m getting a lot of cool FOs for next fall.

Happy Knitting!!