One Last Stripe

I am getting SOOOO close to the end of my Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket. I only have one stripe and the bind off to go!

The last stripe is blue and I have almost a full ball to do it. I will certainly have leftovers and I have a small ball of grey and tiny ball of red left as well. My brain is thinking old school tassels on each of the points of the chevrons? Maybe not the most practical for a baby but would use up the last of yarn and give this piece a vintage feel.

I guess I could always add them and take them off later? Thoughts?

A Well Traveled Hat

My Four Seasons hat was very well traveled during my recent birthday trip to Portland.  This is where my hat started at 6 am at the Kansas City Airport. The terminal was shockingly busy for such an early Saturday morning. But based on overheard conversations, a TON of people were headed to Mexican resorts to escape the impending arctic blast.

I only knit on this hat while on modes of transportation during my trip. And by Monday morning when I boarded my flight it looked like this. (I also treated myself to a Mimosa to cap off a wonderful weekend. It wasn’t the greatest I’ve ever had but it felt decadent to do while traveling without the fam.)

And this last photo is brought to you by the KCI airport bathroom. I literally bound off the top of the hat while we were taxiing to our gate. The gentleman seated next to me complimented me on finishing so quickly. I think I earned some bonus points with him because I had asked him if my knitting would bother him  during the flight. He nicely told me it would not so he earned some good karma points in my book as well.

It’s a good thing this was done. It was 18 degrees with a feels like temperature of 9 degrees. I literally wore this out of the airport and all the way to my car….ends hanging out and all! It was perfection!

I’m going to drop this hat into a nice Eucalan bath and hope to have some non bathroom selfie FO pictures later this week. Happy knitting!!

P.S. My shirt says “I run on Caffiene, Wine and Bad Words”. I got a few chuckles from fellow passengers during my travels.

Crazy Orange

Jellybean needed to blow off some steam the other day so I took him for a post school trip to Skyzone. He got 60 minutes of literally bouncing off the walls and I got to sit and knit where my project matched the landscape, lol.

I had one other mom ask me what I was knitting. I gladly obliged and told her about my project. I even told her she got bonus points for knowing it was knitting! I’m still plugging away at the brim of my Four Seasons Hat. I am not aiming for any particular length or measurement. Just knitting until it looks good and then I’ll start the main body. Nothing super scientific as this is just my purse/zen project.

See you guys tomorrow with something extra cool!

A Present for My Eyes

My mother is amazing at a lot of things. And shopping for a bargain is one of her most finely honed skills. She was in Joanns with some quilting friends and spied an Ottlite in the clearance section. This is a RARE occurance and she was intrigued. She asked an associate and they told her it was a old “design” that they were told to clearance because a new appearance/look was coming in. So she got a CRAZY good deal on this light and presented it to me for my birthday.

I decided to put it to good use weaving in the ends on my Dark Side Vanilla socks last night. I just plugged it in next to the couch and went to work! My 35 year old eyes LOVED it. It was so easy to see the dark colors and catch the purl ridges. I may never be able to go back to regular light. I might have hugged my mother extra hard for this one!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting In The Wild

Jellybean was due for his semi annual dental cleaning and he CRUSHED it. I was so proud of him because he did the x-rays, cleaning and exam like a big ole brave kid. I managed to sit quietly in the corner and knit on my sock. The dentist was duly impressed with both Jellybean’s performance and my sock knitting.

I finished the last two rows of the cuff and cranked out ten or twelve rows of the first heels on my Dark Side Vanilla socks. Current me was very grateful that past me inserted those needles and cut the work apart so it was ready to go!

Thank goodness for purse knitting!!

First Fire

Kansas has seemed to skip fall and go straight into winter. We had snow on Halloween for Pete’s sake! I batted my eyelashes at my husband and last night he built a fire for me. My house is chaotic and messy but the kids are asleep and I have knitting and a mesmerizing fire.

I worked on the cuffs to the Dark Side vanilla socks that I separated the other day. Nothing too exciting, just good solid progress on a very meditative project. I even inserted the needles for the first heel so it would be ready and waiting after the second cuff.

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!!

Finding The Middle

I decided to go ahead and add in the cuffs to my Dark Side Vanilla Socks even if I’m not sure when I will add the heels for my friend. From toe to toe I have 22 inches of sock tube. The plan is to find and pick up rows of stitches on either side of 11 inches and then cut the tube apart. The fund part is that the 11 inch mark falls in one of the black stripes….yay.

I managed to get the first side picked up. And then I had to take a break for my eyes sake. It was kind of terrible and made my eyes strain quite a bit. As I trudge closer to 35, tomorrow is my birthday, I find that I need better and better light to see the darker yarns.

But these socks are so worth it! Happy Knitting!!

Almost Finished Shorties

My Cheery Vanilla socks are literally one evening away from being done. I pulled these out to work on after they went to Moms and Martinis with me. They had a slight lemon scent from the lemon drop martini I had, whoops!

I had finished the stockinette portion of the leg for the second sock at the bar. I pulled it out last night and didn’t find any dropped stitches so I’m call that a win. I then started but didn’t quite finish the ribbing of the second sock. I think I need another round and then bind off.

Of course after this comes the cut in (true) afterthought heel. If the tiny human and husband human grant me a little grace tonight I might be able to finish these!

Happy Knitting!!

Trying and Thinking

I have been giving my Autumn League Pullover a little more love lately. It really is so close to done that it seems ridiculous to let it languish. I plowed through several more inches of stockinette body and decided to slip it on my try it on tubing.

I have a tank on underneath but it is fitting well across the bust. But it is getting a bit tight over the tummy area. it may not look like it in the photo with the cord and stockinette rolling up. I am considering adding some waist increases to account for my belly and hips. I want this sweater to be a comfy and lounge piece. I feel like being tight across my waist is just going to make me not want to wear it.

I don’t think I need a ton of extra stitches, maybe just three or four sets of two stitch increases on each side? I need to math the gauge a little bit. The other part that I am considering is to work the hem as a split hem instead of a band. The split will help the fit as well me thinks…

Happy Knitting!!