Turning The Brim

I’ve overcome my dropped stitch problems and busted through the entire brim! My Everyday Slouchy Beanie is soooo soft, I can help but stop and pet the fabric!

This is yarn I picked up from Winter Woolfest 2020 from Apothefaery Fibers. I’m holding brushed Suri alpaca and fingering weight sock yarn to make my fabric. It’s melted butter soft and doesn’t shed like mohair. And the best part is now I’m on to the bigger needles and the at is just FLYING!

Happy Knitting

WIP Wednesday: Prism Break Hat

It’s a dreary Wednesday here in Kansas. Mother Nature cannot pick a lane here lately. I have been able to both let my kids play outside without coats and then two days later sled with them in the front yard. The headaches are real yo!

But I digress, I am knitting on my Prism Break Hat during my many conference calls this week. I’m still in the eternity that is that is the ribbing on the sockhead slouch pattern. I am pretty pleased with my overall stitch count and how the yarn is striping around. It’s not a clean rainbow stripe as the rainbow section is kind of stacking on each other. But it is making a really interesting micro stripe.

This yarn and hat live in my desk at work. Most days I don’t touch it at all…hello end of year and impending financials audit. But it’s there and I know its waiting for me, which is all I really need. At the current pace this hat should be finished by 2022, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Don’t Drink And Seperate

So earlier this week I managed to measure and start to insert needles so I could cut in afterthought cuffs on my Dark Side Vanilla socks. Well yesterday was my birthday and I had a glass or two of some very fine Rose with my dinner. And somehow it seemed like a great idea to then cut my knitting.

I might have made a small miscalculation when deciding the exact middle of my socks. One sock is noticeably shorter than the other. Like by four or five rows. I think my plan is to just add the extra needed rows in cuff portion so that the overall sock length is the same between the two.

One idiosyncrasy I noticed is that the black stripes mostly line up but the color stripes are not even close. Probably because of the way I knit toes from the opposite ends of the stripe sequence. I am the boss of my knitting and I have decided I like all of the above because its quirky like me!

Happy Knitting!!

From Across The Pond

Hi, my name is Rachelle and I’m a sucker for beautiful yarn and the creative people who dye it. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of watching Amy Florence’s Youtube Podcast “Stranded“. I am working my way through her back catalog and I succumbed to the wool fumes. So here is my pretty little skein that made its way to my stash from across the pond.

I bough a skein of her BFL nylon sock base in the Antagonist color to make myself a pair of socks. I haven’t worked much with BFL but word in the Knitti-sphere is that it is very hard wearing. And that intrigues me. And the color is just so gorgeous. It’s a grey base with little speckles and blips of pinks, greens, yellows and all kinds of loveliness.

I’m not sure where this skein will land in my current sock queue but for now I’m just going to pet the pretty and smell the sheepy smell. Maybe I can start a pair that I only work on when I’m binging her back episodes? Hmmmm, I’ll have to think on that!

Happy Knitting!!

MOA Shawl Progress

I made the decision to reboot my MOA shawl after unearthing it from my UFO bin. And I seem to be making good progress on it. I think I’m about to start my last regular body pattern repeat before starting the bind off section.

I’m really finding myself drawn to the yellow and brown combination. The subtle variegation really shows up well in garter, stockinette and the eyelets. Admittedly the eyelets really could benefit from blocking. But that will come in time.

I may be playing a tiny bit of yarn chicken as I have 350 yards of my MJ Yarns Simple Sock and the pattern calls for closer to 400. But I think there are some stockinette sections I can shorten to conserve yarn if I start to run out. Do you think this ball will last me?

Happy Knitting!!

Do You Swapless Swap!

I have a love of all things mini skein. I mean I have not one but two scrap blankets on the go. My Memory blanket which has been around since 2016 and my Northeasterly that I started in February. I quickly understood that I can’t knit fast enough with two small children to generate enough scraps to feed my blankets. And that when I discovered swapless swaps on Ravelry!

I don’t have to make the time to dig up a reciprocal package. I just pay my money and a bag of neatly wound mini skeins from a fabulous dyer shows up at my door. I’m currently stalking all the swaps by YarnMatrix aka RoMillet on Ravelry. I have to limit myself and not go crazy. But I just had to jump on the Leading Man Fiber Arts swap….I mean look at those colors!!

Do you swapless swap?

Knitting Al Fresco

So today’s knitting photo is also courtesy of Easter weekend. My parents have a gorgeous deck on the front of their house. It overlooks a football field (named after my father) and thicket of trees that are just waking up for spring!

I managed to knit a good three inches of foot during our car trip to my parents. And the brisk Kansas breeze and some fresh air really did my soul good while the grandparents chased the babies. The only bummer is that I found a tick crawling on me as they are THICK this year. Ah….country living!

Happy Knitting!!

Close But Not Quite Right

I went stashdiving in my yarn and sadly did not come up with good white/tonal solutions for the sixth color of my Mini Solutions Scarf. On the right is the solid Cascade sock in white. And on the left is some Hue Loco Opal Sock in Cherry Blossum. They both are lovely but just not quite right.

The Opal Sock is nice tonal creamy white but has some subtle pinks and greens mixed in. Not to mention it is 50/50 silk merino and has a lovely sheen to it. That silk will stick out like a sore thumb against the more matte wool of my gradient set. Sigh…back to the drawing board.

I think I need to cull my stash for grey options again….

Happy knitting!!

(Re) Cast On: Mini Solutions Scarf

Next up on my breast pumping/lunch project rotation is my Mini Solutions Scarf. You can remember here that I misread the pattern and had to rip out the whole Christmas Eve cast on progress. So this past week I decided to get back in the saddle.

This little wedge is one 45 minute lunch worth’s of progress. And its WAAAY better looking than my first attempt. And how cute is this subtlety tonal yarn?? Or is variegated? I really stink at deciphering….nonetheless its pretty!

Now I’m cruising through all soothing garter stitch until I run out the first mini ball of yarn. This super tired working momma sure loves her some garter stitch. It keeps my hands busy and my brain pleasantly calm.

Happy Knitting!!

Continued Blanket Obsession

I’ve managed to add eight more squares to my scrap memory blanket over the past few weeks. This has been my reward knitting and mood boost knitting. I am making progress on my WIPs and for each milestone I add a square as a reward.

I’m almost wide enough to cover the top of a full sized bed! Though I have a long way to go in length. But I’m in no rush for this to be done. This project is all about the process for sure!

Happy Knitting!!