Thick yarn on big needles really makes a project fly by! I have completed most of the body of my Emotional Support Chicken.
My crochet join of the tail region could use some work but it’s secure and I can always add more rows to cover. I am working with uneven handspun so it doesn’t hide my sins as easily as a commercial yarn.
Next up I need to start and shape the head. And see if I have any polyfill in my crafting stash. I don’t make a ton of toys so it’s not a guarantee…
I am finally getting my Emotional Support Chicken on the needles. I have a whole bag of crunchy woolly and rough handspun that will be great for this type of project.
I chose not to swatch as I am not aiming for a specific size of finished toy. I am just making sure that I have a tight gauge to keep the stuffing on the inside. I chose US 7s and this handspun is worsted to bulky weight.
This is a lot of my early handspun that is pretty thick and thin. The dark brown is unknown wool and the lighter is romney. We will see how this knits up. I still need to track down some yellow and red accent for the beak and comb.
The sleeves of Autumn Gold are complete and happily matching.
I ended the second sleeves with just one tiny nub of yarn left from the skein. Both sleeves knit nicely from one skein of yarn. I will have more than enough to finish this sweater based on what I have caked up.
Now I am just on the forever knitting of the body and adding the ribbed side details. So I have to pay attention on every other round. I wonder how many times I will get that wrong?
It’s been a hot minute since I last touched my Conference 2025 Hat. I had some downtime getting my windshield repaired so I got the brim folded and attached.
It feels like riding a bike as I have been on a sweater kick lately and returning to my hat knitting. I have zero plans for this hat, just a slow and steady knit that runs around with me in my work bag.
A few more inches of hat body and I will be ready for decreases! Happy Hat Knitting!!
My knitting plans are absolutely out of sync with my actual time available to knit. I have now a fourth sweater that I am putting in my wishful knitting category.
This time it is the Cozy Classic Raglan by Jessie Maed Designs. I have five skeins of a grey tweed DK from my a 2020 virtual yarn retreat that I went to. And DK has been my preferred yarn weight for finished garments as I am warm but not to warm. And I have not yet developed the mental stamina to do a fingering weight sweater.
I have this yarn wound, pattern printed and bag ready to go. I just need to swatch to chose final needle size. One downside of all this fit of creativity is that most of these sweater need US 7 or US 8 needles and I only have one interchangeable set and not a lot of singular fixed needles in this size.
I am torn between sourcing some additional in this size and just waiting for those needles to come open. I want to keep the mojo going but don’t want to amass too many needles, lol.
I have so many wishful knitting projects here and here and here. That I decided to break out my ball winder and swift to do some serious winding. I don’t normally cake my yarn and tend to hand wind my yarn.
So after several hours and more tangles that I like….I wound three sweaters worth of yarn and got caked up. I do have another sweater lot that the skein is too large for my swift and I will definitely have to hand wind those.
This swift is handmade by a family member and it works great. But an umbrella swift would be more beneficial. I am considering put one of those on my wish list. And my bigger wish list is a craft room where I could have all my tools set up and I don’t have to put them away after each use 🙂
I didn’t just come home from SSK with market purchases and yarn shop hop goodies, I also won two door prizes!
First up is a lady bug handmade pouch. This would work equally well as a needle/notions pouch or for a pencil case. I might ask if PB wants to use this one? She used to have a thing for Ladybug and Cat Noir cartoon.
Next up are three skeins of sock yarn in coordinating colors. All three are from different dyers but are merino or merino/nylon mixes. The pink is Yarn Cafe Creations, The green is an indie Dyer out of Alaska and the green/pink mix is Unique Sheep sock yarn. I have left these bundled together and I might consider a wrap or faded cropped sweater? I need to marinate more on that….
Duke is doing his best to derail my Autumn Gold Sweater. It’s a good thing he is super cute and very cuddly.
I was in a place where I needed more “autopilot” knitting and that is NOT this sweater body that has a section with moving increases and decreases. So I broke out the short circulars and started one of the sleeves. This is all stockinette and easy symmetric decreases that a can be counted. I made great progress on the first sleeve in my meeting!
I will probably wrap up this sleeve and go ahead and complete the second one while I am at it. That way I have a better shot at the sleeves matching and being the same length. I can count rows and make the second one identical.
I am really liking this project and the speed at which it is going. Remind me of that when I get back to working the body that has a pattern!
I am home and unpacked all my treasures from SSK. I was more restrained this year than last year. I had specific things in mind for my purchases. For bags, I grabbed two Fat Squirrel bags as her updates are NUTS. Then for yarn, I grabbed one skein of purple Another Crafty girl worsted for a hat for Jellybean. Then four skeins of DK from Apothefaery Fibers for a Rock It Tee. I unexpectedly found some hand dyed fat quarters for my mom for Christmas. Then I grabbed some yarn ear rings and some stich markers to replace those lost to the couch. Next up was some Miss Babs DK in a neutral grey and the SSK show color. I refilled my Tuft Woolens by some perfume, balm and two new chapsticks. AND the best one ever, a myster bag of yarn in DK weight for my Christmas stocking 🙂
After all those yarn fumes, I stepped outside and found a wee sheep in the wild. Attendees left these all over the campus and it was so cute to find them!
I made some slow and steady progress on the Bibliophile 2 sweater. I am through the back and forth process that has a ton of purls.
This construction is intriguing as the back and forth is what is what is making the ‘short rows’ that build up the back of the neck. Where I joined and the work is very skinny will be the front neck. I am not sure I have ever built one this way, so I’m interested to see how this works out
Next up for this project, I am in for inches and inches of raglan increases. But at least I will be in the round! Happy Knitting!!