Christmas Tidings

Santa was very kind to me! He left four new skeins of yarn and a bottle of wine in my stocking.

There is one skein of KnitCircus trampoline in the purple to yellow fade, one small skein of Greatest of Ease in the light blue speckle, half skein of the Daring base in the red color and finally a full skein of Divine DK in the grey. I love that they do mystery boxes so its a surprise!

My parents got me a knitting backpack to help me lug around my 1,000 WIPS and my kiddos got me a new set of mermaid themed crochet hooks with soft grips. All in all…I had a pretty good haul! The wine may or may not already be gone…..

Happy Knitting!!

Finished: 2024 Advent Socks

All tucked in cozy over here in the new year with some glamour shots of my 2024 Advent Socks!

Pattern: My own “recipe” for 68 stitch toe up vanilla socks and afterthought heel

Needles: US 1s

Yarn: 2024 24 stripe advent skein from The Cozy Knitter with her Bliss base

I decided to finish these socks with the striping yarn and not the white. I decided to use that partial mini skein I had left for another project/plan. The finished length is more than an ankle sock but less than mid calf. All in all I think I used 270 yards of yarn combined and I have a full set of the 24 stripes left.

I did insert an afterthought heel and I tweak this to fit my large foot. I add extra plain rows at the beginning of the sock and taper down to add depth for me. It’s not fool proof but the socks don’t get sucked into my shoes.

This color set wasn’t my favorite of her past advent skeins but I still love the finished socks. I wasn’t sure why we progressed to the lighter colors and then back to saturated colors?

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Chiefs Touchdown Beanie

I have officially wound up the hat kit I purchased from TreasureGoddess yarns. I am going to start my Chiefs Beanie and really lean in to doing actual colorwork.

This is a great yarn dyer but I still took the precaution of pre-washing the red yarn and doing a citric acid soak on the red yarn. I would hat to ruin my FO with bleeding dye. Great news, I didn’t see a drop of dye come out in either back it took!

This hat does work at a smaller gauge that I have historically been doing. I am torn between a swatch or just starting the brim and using that to gauge. Knowing myself, it will probably be door #2.

I have the needles prepped and a project bag lined up. I just need to start! Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Flats Hat

After finishing the Fairy Tale Beanie, I decided to get yarn right back on my needles to kick off 2025. I pulled the worsted skein called “Flats for Drums” from Thelittlewolfknits haul.

Back to my comfort zone of my basic beanie recipe with 88 sts on US 8 needles. I named this hat the Flats Hat as I prefer my chicken wings to be flats and not drums. I thought that was cute, lol. I also totally picked a project bag that fit in with the yarn color scheme. I couldn’t help myself.

I need to also finish this hat by the Superbowl as this is a sponsor product for the KAL. I think this will become my purse and work knitting for my month of upcoming meetings!

Happy Knitting!!

Finished: Fairy Tale Beanie

Happy New Year’s Eve! I decided to cap off the 2024 year with a finished object. I present to you my finished Fairy Tale Beanie.

Pattern: Bluestem Beanie by Rebekah Lil

Needles: US 7 and US 8s

Yarn: Potions Yarn Dryad DK in Fairy Tale and Stranded Dyeworks Mohair in Patisserie

I love how this hat turned out so soft and so pink. There ended up a fair bit of flashing in this hat with the rusts and golds. The finished hat ended up using 363 yards of yarn. Magically I still have ball of the mohair left even after TWO hats. Laceweight really does give you the bang for the buck!

My hat needles are empty and I need to get some new mindless knitting on the needles! Happy Knitting!!

2024 Advent Heels

I did a fairly decent job of keeping up with my advent socks. I managed to get to Day 21 and fully installed heels by Christmas.

I have day 22-24 stripes left to work and I think I will cap this sock off with working ribbing in the striping yarn. I do have some of the white left but I think I have plan for that…..

I’m excited to get these off the needles and I am confident I will start the second repeat of this yarn on another pair of socks. This yarn is too good to waste and knitting those little bits every day is such a hit of dopamine.

Happy Knitting!!

Little Wolf Knits Haul

Back in November I won a prize from the 2024 Pigskin Party KAL and that was a gift card from thelittlewolfknits online yarn store.

I ordered this in early December and it arrived just in time for year end hat knitting. I grabbed a Pigskin Party KAL special color way in worsted (orange), some nuetral mohair silk to hold in my hats and then another (teal) worsted skein for PB inspired hat.

This is a new to me dyer and she was delightful during the order process. I am excited to see how her yarn feels. I need to get this orange one started soon as it will earn me bonus points in the KAL!

Happy Knitting!!

Black Friday Buys

I was enticed on Black Friday into the TreasureGoddess Yarn sale. I made quite the haul and then saved and wrapped up for my Christmas gift.

I bought the Touchdown Beanie kit with Chiefs colors. This is a DK had that comes with colorwork instructions. I need to pre-wash and make sure the red is color set so I don’t get any bleeding. But I am very excited about this hat. (The instructions also have a Swiftie version but I think I will make the Chiefs one).

I also grabbed two “color your own” little project bags. I got buterflies and yarn/wine with a set of sharpies. I think this will be my art project to work on while the kids color on their new art books from Christmas.

I also got some treats tucked in for the sale and that was the gold tote bag and a few stitch markers. I am excited to get working on all of these!

Cast On: Meaningful Handspun Hat

Santa comes tonight and I’m in need of plain autopilot knitting. I gifted almost ALL of the hats I knit this year and it felt so good. And now I have a little urge to refill that bin!

So I decided to grab a skein from my bag of hat yarn and start. This one is a little special as it’s handspun. This was my Deep & Meaningful 2ply from this summer. It’s heavy DK to worsted and it should make a lovely squishy hat.

I am working on my US 10.5 needles and 72 stitches. Totally have not swatched and not sure this gauge will work. And I can always rip out and start over. And I may find that I don’t have enough yardage as well. I really feel like living dangerously at the end of 2024!

Happy Knitting!!

Fairy Tale Decreases

Plodding along has it benefits. My Fairy Tale beanie is sliding into the holidays and into the decreases!

I put my big girl pants on and counted my pattern repeats. I decided to do 8 full repeats before the deceases to add some extra height to the finished hat. There is enough hat now to see that DK cashmere yarn is flashing/pooling a little bit. The yellow bits looks a bit like a lightning bolt to me and I kinda like it.

Now I need to dig out stitch markers so I can set up the decrease section….and then you know…..actual knit them!

Happy Knitting!!