WIP Wednesday: Conference Vanilla Socks

I had 32 hours of CPE in the past two weeks at work. For those that don’t know that’s continuing professional education and mine was in governmental finace and financials. Sounds exhilarating right? That’s roughly four days of all day lecture on less than sizzling topics. Needless to say I packed my knitting! I have one FO to share Friday that I managed to finish but I also made good progress on another WIP…

  
These are my conference vanilla socks in Saki Bamboo. This yarn is heavenly! And the stripes make my heart sing. The first sock is done sans the afterthought heel. The second sock represents my progress over 2.5 days of lecture. I finished the foot and roughly half of the leg. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

 Oh how I wish I had discovered knitted socks in college! Oh the pile of knits I could have completed during boring lectures…. With jellybean my knitting time is limited so I definitely relished this time to knit peacefully.

Happy Knitting! 

I’m definitely crazy…

There are six days to jellybean’s first birthday and I’ve decided to knit a toy for his birthday..

 It’s Tony the Toy Box Monster by Rebecca Danger. I pulled some Knit Picks Brava Bulky in pea pod. I didn’t have size 9s so I’m working on size 8s. The fabric is a bit dense but not unworkable. I’m not sure I’ll have enough to do the entire thing in green so I’m considering purple appendages. Fingers crossed I can get it done in time!

Happy knitting!!
  

WIP Wednesday: Flax

I’ve squeezed in some more progress on Jellybean’s Flax sweater from the Tin Can Knits Simple collection.

 
Both sleeves are done and I have one full skein and two tiny partial skeins to finish this sweater. I still think I’m in the territory of yarn chicken but we will see. Fingers crossed! And I really want to finish this before fall gets here. Especially since I still have a Gru scarf to finish and I think jellybean needs a vest for fall as well. So many ideas and so little time…

Happy knitting!!

Stripes Of Fun

I’m addicted!

   

This yarn is dreamy and wonderful! My conference vanilla socks are growing. I did not know what to expect with this yarn as the colors appear to be random. It’s such potato chip knitting as I can’t wait to keep knitting to find out the next color!

 

For those with inquiring minds this is Wisdom Yarn’s Saki Bamboo in crayon box. I’m two inches past the heel and considering starting the ribbing early to negate the “slouch” factor of the bamboo with the pulling in that ribbing gives you. But I just can’t decide. These are the conundrums you have when making up the knitting as you go, lol!

Happy Knitting!

Growing Flax

 A virus has knocked Jellybean and I for a loop. Not to mention the hubby has been out of town for a conference for several days leaving us sickies to our own devices. Needless to say not much knitting got done. I did get some stitches in on my Flax for Jellybean.

 

I felt a game of yarn chicken coming on with only five 50 gram balls. I knit past the sleeve division and finished my second ball of yarn. So instead of finishing the body I started the sleeves. It took less than one ball of yarn to finish one sleeve so I’m hopeful for winning yarn chicken!

This pattern is easy and relaxing to knit. But some days I just can’t do the dark yarn in the evenings so it’s slow going. But the good news is that baby sweaters go zoom!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting and Waiting

  

I behaved yesterday evening. My mother and aunt went in to Joanns for a shopping trip. I waited patiently in the car with my knitting and my coffee. I got a last minute birthday party invite for a beautiful little 1 year old. I think she deserves a tutu!

By the way this project made me feel like a knitter with a capital K! I was able to go to my stash and find both the yarn I needed in coordinating colors, the printed out pattern, and a project bag to fit it in. All in under 10 minutes!  I was even able to cast on right away. Such satisfaction 🎉

Happy Knitting!

More Vanilla Socks

I posted about my Leftover Blackberry socks yesterday. I did manage to complete the first sock and boy it is a shortie! It’s an ankle sock for sure. But it’s got an issue for another blog post. And the second sock is ready for the gusset. Not very conducive to easy knitting without looking or counting. So I dug out new needles and new yarn to start ANOTHER pair of vanillas.

  
The yarn is some Premier Deborah Norville Serenity sock weight in the Picasso marble color way. It’s 50% merino, 25% rayon bamboo, and 25% nylon so I’m hoping for a hard wearing sock. I’m undecided about the bamboo content. I got this yarn for $1 a skein at Joanns on a whim so no harm done if I don’t like it.

This pair is going to be a toe up vanilla with afterthought heel since I have two full skeins. Above is my progress just this morning. Being able to knit makes me both love and hate training, lol.

Happy Knitting!

WIP Wednesday: Leftover Blackberry Socks

After two days of all day training I have made some progress on my Leftover Blackberry sock. I’ve turned the heel and started the leg!

  
I know, I was going to work on my Training Socks but they were just too bulky to tuck into my special yarn pocket. What, you’ve never seen a special yarn pocket?

  
Okay maybe it wasn’t designed for knitting but it’s a small discreet way to hold my yarn and sock without being obvious. And believe me knitting was necessary to stay awake during hours and hours of lecture style “class”.

And we are back at it today….yay?! Maybe I can have finished socks by the weekend?

Happy Knitting!

Training Socks

As a reward for getting my Checkerboard Socks off the needles I pulled yarn from the stash for the next pair. I’m going to be in training and conferences for work on and off for most of August and into September so I need a pair of traveling vanillas.

I pulled the Saki Bamboo (light fingering) from my stash in a nuetral grey with short rainbow striping. I got this as a Mother’s Day yarn splurge back in May. I’ve been dying to knit with this. I’m thinking I’m going to model these after my Maple Vanilla socks and do a 74 or 76 stitch sock on US 0s. Again to ward off mommy brain and forgetting I gathered up yarn, needles, notions and loaded a project bag.

Now to just cast on! Happy Knitting!!

A Question Of Leftovers

I finished my Jacoby mitts and posted yesterday. I only used 40 grams of yarn out of 100 total. That meant I have 60 grams of yummy yarn goodness leftover. I considered making another pair of gloves. But my brain wanted a change up. So I thought why not split the leftovers into two balls and knit two toe-up socks until I run out of yarn. I’m thinking my basic 68 stitch vanilla sock worked from the inside of the ball with afterthought heel worked from the outside of the ball. That way I can finish the heel and maximize my leftovers. And to make sure I’d get a start on this during Jellybean’s nap time I weighed and wound up the leftovers, pulled. the correct needles, and got everything including notions pulled into one project bag.

I have no excuse to start these ASAP right? What do you do with your leftovers?