Tag Archives: green

FO Friday: In The Light

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I had the pleasure of attending a virtual professional women’s conference this week. It was 7 hours on zoom learning lots of cool things. But the upside of the virtual conference is that I got to knit all day. I decided to challenge myself to finish my In The Light. And you know what? It worked!

Pattern: In the Light by Casey Day-Crosier (Rav Link)

Needles: US 9s

Yarn: Cloudlover Fiber SW Merino Sock in the Mag Mel and Mojito colorways and One Twisted Tree Prime Fingering in the Forest Floor colorway

Mods; I added tassels to use up more of my skeins of yarn

I am super please with this project and how well all the yarns played together. The two Cloudlover skeins I used at the beginning and end were HIGHLY variagated and you know what? Holding them double really helped blend the yarn. The One Twisted Tree was more of a speckled tonal and gave a nice blend to the middle.

This patterns is addictive and uses SO MUCH SOCK YARN! With the modified tassles I used approximately 1,077 yards of yarn and most of each skein. I had the most left of the middle Forest Floor color. Now this is the simple version and it does use less yarn than the fringed version. I’m okay with that I like the simple elegance of this version.

I’m already itching to cast on a third In The Light in some lights/pinks. I can’t help myself when a pattern is this good and burns through so much sock yarn. Not to mention its helping me with those pesky “pretty” skeins of variegated yarn that I can’t help buying but never know what to do with.

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Dad’s Camo Hat

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My Dad’s Camo Hat is done, blocked and ready to be tucked away for Christmas 2021! Worsted weight decreases really truly go ZOOM and I was done before I know it. I even had time to wash and set this hat out last night to block and dry before I headed to bed.

Pattern: My own beanie “recipe” worked with 80 stitches

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lanaloft Worsted in Chameleon Green colorway

Needles: US 8s

I used roughly 131 yards or 120 meters of yarn to finish this hat. So just shy of a full skein. The whole thing weighs 82 grams.

The yarn is a single and was quite nice to work with. At my gauge and needle size I ended up with a pretty nicely dense fabric. This hat should be wind proof. The finished fabric is not exactly merino soft but its not 100% rustic either. It is somewhere in the middle.

I’m really happy with this hat and I feel quite accomplished to be already building my Christmas stash. That isn’t my primary intention, I’m just following where my knitting mojo is leading me.

Happy Knitting!!

Into The Bath

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My Weekender is 99.9% complete and getting its bath now. I had some false starts and ripping back on the first sleeve to get a fit I liked. But once I had my plan settled I quite literally zoomed through the second sleeve. It was so much easier to just count my rows and know exactly what I was doing next.

Now you might notice I said 99.9% done and keen eyes will see some blue tape and needles in the photo. I finished the knitting of the sleeves but I very purposefully didn’t bind off. This yarn is Malabrigo Rios, which is a superwash yarn. Odds are that this garment is going to GROW depending on how I block it. So to keep my cords and needles nice I used some painters tape to just keep them just above the water line.

After its bath my intent is to pull this sleeves as wide as I can in the upper arms to see if I can buy myself just a teensy bit more ease. But the fabric is going to want to stretch lengthwise regardless. I left the sleeves live just in case I need to rip back and shorten the sleeves if they come out ridiculously long.

I’m hoping that all these precautions will keep my knitting karma in check, the sleeves will turn out fine and I’ll just be able to do the tubular bind off once the sweater is dry. Fingers crossed!!

Happy Knitting!!

A Body Complete

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I did it! I finished the body of my Weekender!!

The short rows were easier than I thought and I did manage to do each side the same. The ribbing was a bit of a challenge as I had an extra stitch on one side and one short on the other. I just fudged it to make it work. And bonus, I was able to try this one!

As suspected, the sweater is not exceedingly oversized on me. It still has positive ease but it’s not exactly boxy on me as it is in the pattern. But the length is nice and I’m glad I added the 2-3 extra inches in the body.

I finished the body and I have two 100 gram skeins left for each sleeve. So I have more than enough yarn to knit each sleeve and I won’t have to alternate skeins. I measured the armhole and my arms will fit through but they don’t have a ton of ease either. I think I will have to call an audible and knit my own sleeves. I will not have a lot of space in the upper arms to do the decreases the pattern calls for. I think my plan is just to knit a tube to my elbow and then try it on. I will just crunch the numbers and plan out my decreases from elbow to wrist.

I’m getting so antsy to finish this! I can’t wait to wash and see how the final garment is going to come out. I am also seriously considering casting on a second one in the next size up right after I finish this one! Am I crazy?

Weekending Short Rows

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I’m inching every closer to finishing my Weekender Sweater. I had split for the armholes and knit up both sides in the plain section. I’m finding it helpful to knit the sections in one after another. Meaning I knit up the front until I got the right height and then I counted my rows and knit up the back to same measurement.

The next step in this project is to knit a series of short rows before the final ribbing that will create the boat neck collar. I think I will like ways knit those in a similar fashion. I hope these will mean I can keep them symmetrical and therefore matching.

I’m keen to get this knit up and bound off so I can try the sweater on. I am thinking its not going to have as much ease as the pattern suggests. That is what I get for not swatching but I do believe blocking will add some because the Malabrigo is superwash. And for my body shape it is not always a bad thing not to have a huge amount of ease and be a little closer fitting. I just need to knit faster so I can find out!

Happy Knitting!

Let’s Helix This Thing

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My Weekender is joined in the round! I flew through the first hem like it was nothing. And then it took me a day or so to power up enough for the second tubular cast on for the back hem. But I managed quite nicely and have the whole project joined in the round.

My next new challenge is to use helical knitting to alternate my hand dyed skeins. This is my first go at it and I’m interested to see how managing the yarn cakes will go. I used a single skein to knit my ribbing because honestly I didn’t have the brain space to alternate while knitting flat and absolutely no one would notice if I had or hadn’t. I have markers in for the center front and center back slipped stitch detail.

I’m knitting the 48.5 inch bust sweater for roughly 4-5 inches of positive ease. Which is less than the pattern calls for but as I’m more average size than most knitting models I don’t want something so baggy that it will make me look bigger than I actually am.

I also would like to note that I have not gauge swatched either. I am going to gamble on this one because it’s an over sized sweater anyway and I hope to be able to block it a little either way if needed. Surely this will end in disaster but I’m doing it anyway!

Cast On: The Weekender

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Okay, here is my second birthday day cast on. I finally cast on the Malabrigo Rios in the Fresco y Seco color that I wound up in my last winding frenzy. I cast on the Weekender by Drea Renee Knits aka Andrea Mowry.

This sweater had a split hem and the front and back is cast on separately. I started the front hem and you guys….I learned the Tubular Cast On. It did take me a lot longer to slow down and learn this. I watched at least three YouTube videos and painstakingly did the first set-up TWICE.

It’s definitely not perfect but I can see how it makes a nice clean edge that seems to come out of now where. I’m hopeful that my second hem is a little neater. I need to work on keeping my gauge consistent across and slipping the correct stitches.

I’m excited to get this sweater going in the round so I can have a nice zen project that can just work endlessly in circles. Happy Knitting!!

World Wide Knit in Public Day 2019 (And A Little Stash Enhancement)

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I decided to participate in World Wide Knit in Public day on June 8th. I passed PB and Jellybean on to my husband and was like “peace out I’m going to the yarn store!” and ran away.  It was a wonderful couple of hours. I managed to sit and knit for a bit in the mall courtyard outside the shop but I neglected to take photos. But I did snag a photo of some sweet ice cream treats the yarn store owner was passing out to knitters.

Well I’m not sure if it was the chocolate high or the yarn fumes wafting out of the yarn store, but they were have a sale and I fell down in the Malabrigo section. I’ve been toying with the idea of knitting a worsted boxy to use a nicer sweatshirt in the fall and winter. Like a socially acceptable blanket I could wear and be comfortable and stylish. Jellybean always likes when I wear green so I bought six skeins of worsted to knit a boxy.

I got the Fresco y Seco color and its wonderfully tonally green and bits of yellow. Now I fully understand I’m going to have to alternate skeins to prevent pooling and lines where I would change skeins. I’m thinking about trying helical knitting that seems to everywhere on the podcast and inter webs here lately.

I have like four projects that I need to finish before I let myself cast this on. So this is almost like Wishful Knitting but here’s hoping it is at least near in the future!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Henry’s Hat (modified)

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I finished the second attempt at Henry’s Hat! Jellybean was super excited to have TWO hats even though I took the second back from him, lol.


For this version I extended the stockinette portion by 8 rows or roughly an inch. I also extended the front flap by the same amount to keep thing proportional.


This hat used 50 grams of the Berroco Vintage 100 gram skein. So you could squeak two hats out of one skein if needed. 


The patten is well written and SO CUTE. Especially when paired with the book. I can’t wait for Jellybean to unwrap this at Christmas!!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Henry’s Hat

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I finished Henry’s Hat for Jellybeans Christmas present. (Well except for the buttons)

I worked the 6-8 size as written. I knew as I was knitting that the hat looked shallow. But I kept deluding myself that it would be okay. The circumference is spot on but he is yanking it down to cover his ears. It’s an easy enough solution… I can reknit the hat as I have plenty of yarn. I only used about 100 yards of a 250 yard skein. And so I can just extend the stockinette portion above the brim another inch or inch and a half. 

Either way Jellybean loved the hat and wore it ALL DAY at daycare even though it’s 90 degrees or more in Kansas right now. At least I know he likes my knits!

Happy Knitting!