Tag Archives: sock yarn

The Third Block

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I did manage to get my skein of Apothefaery Fibers suri alpaca in Snowdrift skeined up with no major issues. I need to pay homage to the knitting gods for giving me good luck with floofy yarn….before I am struck down with tangled yarn.

I have also officially ran out of of the last the original skein of suri alpaca and now just added the snowdrift skein. The plus side of floofy yarn is that I can spit splice EXTREMELY easily! You really can see the first two of the three color blocks. I am intrigued to see how the third lines out.

My next decision point is to decide how slouchy to make this hat? I have a recipient in mind and she hard gorgeous natural big beautiful hair so I need to noodle through how to best fit for that. In the meantime…..lots of glorious round and round stockinette to soothe my trouble away.

What is soothing your troubles these days?

Cast On: Fluffy Sockhead Slouch

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After last week’s less than spectacular execution of the Everyday Slouchy Beanie I decided to get right back on the horse. I had more than half the sock yarn plus the coordinating mini. but I have less than half of the suri alpaca laceweight. So I’m taking a gamble on another hat…

I used the coordinating (and darker) mini and cast on the brim. I upped my stitch count and left the needles the same so as to avoid my previous situation. I worked the brim for as long as I thought looked good and then added the main yarn for the body of hat. I think it’s almost fade mixed color block kind of strategy.

This is a very stretchy hat at this gauge and stitch count. So there’s no way this hat will be too small, in fact it might almost to big! D’oh!! But I have a coworker who might need a pandemic pick me up and she has glorious natural big hair that a large hat would be well suited for.

I am starting to play yarn chicken with the suri alpaca and I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish the hat. But I think I may use some of my other suri/silk yarn in my stash to continue the hat in a third fade color at the top. I might marinate on this one for a day or two.

Happy Knitting!!

Prism Progress

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Hallelujah…I have finally reached the recommended four inches of 2×2 ribbing for my Prism Break Hat!

I’m loosely following the Sockhead Slouch by Kelly McClure. This has been my go-to conference call and zoom meeting knitting. I find that I can keep easy knitting in my lap and knit while I listen and it’s impossible for anyone to tell.

I’m just now starting the plain stockinette part of the hat. So just a ton of round and round for miles. And I’m not mad about it. It’s the perfect easy knitting in a fun yarn to make this time and please a little easier to handle.

What is making your life happy?

Canadian Stash Enhancement

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This week’s self care is brought to you by Canada! I opened the Gauge Dyeworks newsletter at the exact right time for a shop update and the wrong time where I was feeling down about the state of the world.

This is the classic merino twist sock yarn in a self striping set of greens. The official name is Colour Study: Green. It’s 443 yards and 115 grams of the plumpest most glorious sock yarn ever. I have been letting this yarn sit out on my work at home desk so I can admire and pet before I add it to my stash.

Has the current state of affairs led you to pad your stash or use your stash? I’m somewhere in between the two….

Happy Knitting

Turning The Brim

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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?