Tag Archives: frogging

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!!

Well…..Shoot

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So my Volcano Trail hit a speed bump. I had grossly misinterpreted the pattern and had my color changes ALLLLL wrong. So I had to pull back a full section of my cowl….sigh

Basically I jumped right to adding the third color (green) instead of slowing fading through the pink where you hold it double with itself. It wasn’t too bad to get back on the needles because with I just fed my needle through the top loops of the garter bumps and I then I was free to pull out the work above it. I did have to fix about 1/3 of the stitches where I accidently got down a row.

My brain had been looking at the green and it did look quite jarring. I MUCH prefer the slow pink fade that I have now. It’s a lot more subtle and beautiful. I have been making this my go-to after the kids go to bed knitting. It’s great tired mommy brain knitting while I binge my latest show.

Happy Knitting!!

Well Shoot….

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Some days I sure am pretty….

I was minding my own business and hibernating in my craft room/guest room working on my memory blanket. I had added an ENTIRE square using scraps from Stranded Dyeworks BFL Sock in the Antagonist colorway when I saw it. I had added the square from the wrong dang side.

If you look carefully at the grey border you can see the purl bumps where I changed colors. And those should be on the other side of the blanket, sigh. So off to the frog pond that square went.

It might have been a useful accident as I think I have a different scrap/color that I want to place there instead of the dark grey. I have a dark red and light pink combo that would look better there anyway. But I am still mad at myself for making such a bonehead move and wasting all that prime knitting time.

Happy Knitting!!

Falling Out Of Love and Frogging

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I did some soul searching this past weekend and decided to frog my One Perfect Skein Shawl.

It’s been almost a year and I haven’t worked on this since I cast it on last Mother’s Day. It’s a lovely skein of yarn and a really cool pattern. I just wasn’t feeling it. No sense in taking up needles or a project bag for something I don’t want to finish.

So this lovely gradient yarn is going back in the stash to marinate some more. Perhaps it doesn’t want to be shawl….maybe a long rectangular wrap or scarf? I’ll let the yarn gods speak to me…

Happy Knitting!!

Ripping Back

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My Double Vanilla Socks having been sitting in timeout for….awhile. The foot just kept looking super skinny compared to what my normal socks come out to. So I pulled a finished sock from my drawer and held them up together. And my instincts were correct….this sock is too skinny. So to the frog pond it went.

I didn’t go crazy, I only ripped back to the toe. I think I am going to only add 4 stitches to the total sock. That equates to two more increase rows before proceeding with the foot again. I think I will just be happier with a bigger sock.

My interest in this project has been rejuvenated since I made the decision to make them bigger. Sometimes my sub conscious is better at knitting than I am, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Redoing PB’s Blanket

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After finishing that blue baby blanket last week I got itch to pick up PB’s Baby Blanket. I tried continuing to crochet but I ultimately decided I hated smaller crochet hook and the gauge I was getting. So I ripped it out.

Then I got a wild hair to re-cast it on and started just a simple knit garter stitch baby blanket. I sat one evening and worked back to where I had used all the yarn I had pulled out. It is a lot stitches bunched up on a needle and doesn’t look like much.

What I can’t decide is if I like this any better! Chenille yarn is super hard to knit with as it is very grabby and hard to get any needle that is not super sharp into the stitch. I really prefer to crochet with chenille but hated my first attempt. But I’m determined to use this yarn. I have two big cakes of this Caron cake yarn of it that I would like out of my stash!

I may move this project to time out until I can figure out what I want to do next. In the times that are 2020 I really find that I can’t work on a project that doesn’t excite me. Or at the very least I can’t touch projects that make me grumpy. In the meantime I have a different crochet blanket floating around in my head. What is this craziness!? Where is all this crochet mojo coming from?

Happy Crocheting

Frogging My Party Top

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I’m calling it….I’m frogging the TINY neck band for my Party Top. And this isn’t an April fools joke.

I just can’t pick this up to knit on it so there’s no sense in just letting it sit. I have had this on the needles since November…that is just too long. I still love this yarn and want it to turn it into something (its Moonstone Dyeworks DK in three coordinating colors). I also still want to make this top…but I think I have yarn in my stash that would be better suited to it.

I have found some clarity in my knitting lately and I feel in a much better place to “finish” or “frog” it. I want to work on things I will wear and want. No sense in forcing a project just because it is sitting there.

I am thinking a nice big squishy shawl would be great for this yarn. Maybe with these colors striped or faded? Time to dig into Ravelry!!

Happy Knitting!!

Frog It: Everyday Shawl

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It’s time for more violins. I am recognizing a pattern in my knitting luck here lately. The Everyday shawl I cast on this week is headed to the frog pond. But let me explain.

I’m still at that weird thong looking stage of this shawl but I did work through multiple sections before confirming my decision to frog. Let me preface with this by saying, this pattern is well written and explains everything you need to know. And I think it was handling the variegated nature of the yarn beautifully.I as the knitter just can’t get my shawl to do what its supposed to do.

Without giving away the secret sauce, I keep messing up the increases at the edges and I never end up with the right stitch counts. So I found myself not wanting to pick up this project and kinda hating it. Life is to short to knit things that make you unhappy. I still want to knit this pattern some day but right now my sleep deprived-mom of two kids-with a full time job brain just can’t handle this. This yarn deserves better.

Tomorrow I will cast on the third attempt to make this yarn a shawl! Stay tuned….

Dad’s Socks Go To The Frog Pond

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I need to start playing sad violin right about now. I was so excited to have finished the first sock of my dad’s Christmas present. My husband made a comment that the sock looked extra huge. So when my dad was helping with my floor I had him try it on.

You guys it sagged EVERYWHERE. It was loose on the leg, the heel and the foot! I had no choice but to resign it to the frog pond. I realistically need to take out eight stitches from the stitch count. And it’s my own fault. I was knitting DK weight yarn using a sport weight sock stitch count. (Read: too many stitches for that thick of yarn.)

So during a Netflix re-watch of a favorite episode of NCIS I turned the above sock int these….two balls of ramen. One sock ball and one heel ball because I cut in an afterthought heel. Sigh….

I still want these for his Christmas so I need to get back on them. But I may need a mourning period first…

Happy Knitting!!

Finish or Frog It Time

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Y’all….it is Stash Dash season. I won’t regurgitate the whole stash dash conversation, just go look it up at the KnitGirllls. I normally don’t participate because I really like to knit whatever feeds my mojo and not for arbitrary yardage goals. But I have been encouraged by all the recent projects flying off my needles that has really left me wanting to finish things. This led to digging around in the depths of my craft room I unearthed four long languishing WIPS. So lets play a round of finish it or frog it shall we?

Working clockwise from we have:

I was brutally honest with myself and frogged three of the four. Any guesses? Well I’ll keep this short and tell you I kept the MOA shawl in the variegated brown tones. This means I have new WIP to work on and I have freed up three sets of needles and three projects bags. I feel so much lighter and excited to find better projects for all that yarn.

Although….the Alpaca/Merino mix yarn just didn’t get my motor running anymore. I might be looking for it to find a good home somewhere else. Do you ever fall out of love with a skein of yarn?

Happy Knitting!!