Nangou Needs Blocking

The knitting of my Nangou is done!!


Here she is in all her unblocked glory! After a good spa day I’ll tuck in the ends just in time to take better photos and put this away for summer. 

The bind off took an entire evening! But I’m just so pleased with this. I love the colors and the squishy garter stitch. I can’t wait to see it blocked and finished!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Antimuon Vanilla Socks

With my Nangou almost done I started scheming for my next project. (Let’s forget the box of WIPs hibernating in the basement and the two pair of socks I already have on the needles.) I dug through my stash with glee and pulled a shiny skein of self striping.


For my last birthday my husband got me some String Theory Colorworks in the Entanglement base in the Antimuon color. This is a fingering to light fingering sock yarn. And the best part was this is sold in two matching half skeins. All I had to do was wind them up!

I will have to pull out a little of the skein on the right to make sure I start with the same color as the one on the left. My needles and notions are tucked in the bag just waiting for me to start. 😃

Happy Knitting!

WIP Wednesday: Nangou

My Nangou is in the final stretch!


I’ve completed all the contrast stripes and now working the final MC section. I have exactly six pattern repeats and bind off to go! The rows are getting very long. I can barely get two full repeats in on an evening. So progress feels like it is slow.

But I’m itching to get this done. Why? I’m not sure because it’s 90 degrees outside. I just want to squee over the precious when it’s done!

Happy Knitting!!

Washerwoman 

Summer in Kansas has arrived. The humidity is here to stay and the temps are climbing into the nineties.  So I begrudgingly tackled Mt. Woolen and started washing all the pretties for packing until Fall.


Socks, shawls, scarves, and hats. I haven’t tackled the sweaters yet. Four loads of hand wash was enough for one weekend.


Took my whole clothesline in the basement! Happy Knitting!!

Conference Call Knitting

I haven’t mentioned my Strands of Drunken Watermelon socks in awhile. Well, they have been living in my office desk at work. I have had a spate of webinars and conference calls lately so they have seen a little growth.


I’m pleased with the pattern and it’s use of slipped stitches. It’s blending the highly variagated yarn so nicely!


I do need to take care to make sure I know what row of the four row repeat I’m on. I’ve had to tink back a time or two….

Slowly but surely these will grow! Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Nangou Shawl

I’m three contrast stripes in! My Nangou is growing despite being close to 300 stitches per row.


I have to finish the current MC section then add another CC section and then finally add the last MC section and bind off. Between the pleasing colors and the rhythm of garter I’m fairly dedicated to this project. I’ve been rewatching The West Wing along with listening to the West Wing Weekly podcast and this project is a great match to Knitflixing.

I have enough yarn to add more sections and I’m torn. The pattern schematic tells me this is going to be 70 inches wide. Well….I didn’t check gauge so I’m not sure if I’m going to be ahead or behind of that. I want something big and squishy this leading me to adding another section. But I’m also ready to finish this and admire the finished pretty. I guess time will tell what I decide when I get closer to the end, lol.

Happy Knitting!

Family Reunions and Knitting

Hurrah! I come triumphant and exhausted from a family reunion. There were lots of hugs and lots of knitting! My Dad’s socks are almost done!


I turned the heel and started up the leg! I know for sure I didn’t count extremely well while conversating because I had to fudge the final couple of rounds of the heel turn before continuing in the round. Shhh….no one will tell!

For now I’m now I’m going to attempt to dig out of the major sleep deprivation of a long wonderful weekend…


(My grandma and I ❤️)

Happy Knitting!!

Halfway There, Thank You Sport Weight Yarn

I can’t help but love how fast big yarn on big needles flies by! Relatively speaking that is….this is only sport weight yarn on US 2s…

The first sock is done and used about 73 grams of my 150 gram skein. This is just the toe up vanilla sock pattern that I devised that works for both my dad and hubby. The second sock is under way and for sure won’t be an identical twin. But I’m more concerned with yarn maximization than aesthetics.

This Regia yarn has a good tooth to it so I’m hoping it wears well. The gusset heel fit nicely on my hubby’s foot when I made him test it. I can’t wait to cross this off my gift list!

Happy Knitting!!

Shawl Redemption

My shawl has been redeemed! I pulled the needles and frogged the first attempt. And so over the long weekend I forged ahead. I managed to complete the first four sections!

There is an orange locking stitch marker to tell me the “right side”. But now that I have the contrast rows added it’s fairly obvious on its own. But I’m going to take all the help I can get!

Truth time…I still think I have mistakes in here. My stitch counts were NEVER right at the end of a section. So I just fudged it and moved on. It’s garter…..no one will know. I’m just so over the moon with my color choices that I’m having a hard time putting it down!

Happy Knitting!!

Shawl Frustration 

Okay so Jellybean and I cast on my shawl for Mother’s Day, remember? Well, I am working through the first section which is 14 repeats of a four row pattern. Simple right?

Wrong…..


The shawl is asymmetrical and should be growing faster on one side than the other. Well between some glasses of wine while Knitting and having to put this project down multiple times to deal with toddler bedtime meltdowns…..I’ve totally punted this. Like a lot. The only answer is to rip it back and start again.

I think for attempt number two I’m going to attach a removable stitch marker to the side of the shawl that row one needs to be started on AND put a row counter on my needles to help me keep track where I am in the repeat. It’s just so hard for me to “read” the garter stitch when there isn’t much fabric yet. It really shouldn’t be this hard. Sigh….to the frog pond I go…

Happy Knitting!