Tag Archives: WIP

Knitting At The Farmers Market

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Wednesday is Farmers Market day in downtown Topeka. It is a small but mighty affair every week. My favorite is the fresh baked bread you can find. But that kind of negates the health benefits of walking, lol. But I digress!

Today’s yarn on the go is brought to you by my Cheery Vanilla socks and their project bag that is much more suited for walking. This time I opted for a zippered sock bag with a fixed wrist strap. It still flopped around while I walked but none of the pesky twisting. I walked roughly 35 minutes and completed two stripes.

Now I also managed to snag a fresh tomato for BLT sandwiches. Because bacon is awesome, obviously.

Happy Knitting!!

Westport Decision Point

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I have reached the end of the pattern instructions for my Westport Blanket. I have completed the pattern recommended number of repeats. But I still have a yarn left and I really want this blanket to consume as much as possible. I’m at a decision point.

I know, roughly, how much yarn each of the stockinette block and garter rows repeat consumes. And I have one full and one partial skein left that I can hold together. I *Think* I have enough yarn for two or three more repeats and then the garter border and bindoff.

My only concern that is if I add too much more length that the blanket will become more of weirdly shaped rectangle and less of a usable blanket. This fabric texture and gauge has some good stretch to be able to shape it. But the high acrylic content tells me that it might not hold a blocking very well. I need some time to muddle on this one…but I REALLY want this off my needles soon!

Happy Knitting!!

Yarn On The Go

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I have been trying to put more “go” in my life and get off my tush and walk. I work in the heart of downtown Topeka and therefore have access to lots of cool places to to walk. Today my Dad’s Christmas Socks and I took a walk to the Capital building.

The project bag that these socks live in is NOT acceptable for walk knitting. It kept twirling and twisting up the yarn so that I would have to stop and unspin my bag. The bag (not pictured) is a drawstring bag by 19 Stitches. And it’s a wonderful bag for holding a project, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not great for walking.

As for the sock, I’m almost to the place where I need to weigh the yarn ball to see if I am close to 50%. I need to make sure I leave enough yarn for a cuff and a heel on sock number one and enough yarn for a complete sock number two. But i’m struggling to remember to do this in the evening after the end of what have been very long days lately.

Happy Knitting!

Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties

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I’m halfway through my Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties. The first pair for my sister is done!

I made the choice to rip both the tubes back a bit and re-knit the toes back down with the self-striping yarn. I then used some Acorn Willow merino nylon sock yarn I got at Woolfest 2019 for speckled heels and cuffs. I think this random mini looks really fantastic with these pastel stripes.

I used Cheree of KirbyWirby’s tutorial for a true cut in afterthought heel. I did a pretty good job of preventing a hole at the corner and matching the gauge of the sock tube. My notes on the number of rounds and decreases that work for me are on my Ravelry project page.

I’ll gift these to my sister when I see her in July. And next up I have two tiny tubes left that I am going to try and eek out a second set of shorties for myself!

Happy knitting!!

Socks On Vacation

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I lost my every loving mind and decided it was a good idea to load up my small children, husband and mother and take a weekend vacation. Jellybean had one wish….to sleep in a hotel. So we planned a simple weekend where my mom could attend a quilt show and the rest of us could play at Science City in Union Station in Kansas City and then we would all have a nice stay in a hotel.

Y’all, it was chaos and no one got any sleep in an unfamiliar place. But all reports say that everyone had a good time. PB up and finally decided to fully commit to walking! We had two adjoining rooms with the second having a balcony. After a FULL day running around Saturday I snuck out on to the patio with Dad’s 2019 Christmas Socks and put on a few rounds after the kids went to sleep.

The Kansas humidity made the wool a little sticky in my hands. But you can’t argue with the sunset view!

Happy Knitting!!

Westport Halfway!

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A very dear and lovely cousin informed us that the baby she and her husband are expecting will be boy arriving in October. And my knitter brain went DING! The Westport Blanket I started earlier this year will make the perfect baby boy gift. A knitter has got to love when you already have a project started and you find the most perfect home for it. So I picked this project back up and have started really working through it. I’m six pattern repeats in and I just started my second skeins.

I am holding Knit Picks Mighty Stitch held double to achieve bulky yarn gauge. I have used two skeins already, attached two more with a third pair waiting in the wings. The last pair aren’t two equal full skeins. I broke into one skein to knit a swatch I have lost to the ether somewhere. So I know I’ll have enough yarn to finish the blanket but I really want to use all the yarn up. So I may have to do a little pattern modification and re-calculation when I get to the end of the instructions and I still have yarn left. We shall see!

Happy Knitting!!

Speckled Heels

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I finished both toes on my Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks and cut in the first heel. I’m pretty pleased with my contrasting mini choice. It’s speckled but yet blends nicely with the stripe colors of the Felici

I have a BIG long tube where two 50 gram skeins of this Felici yarn were cranked together. I chose to put a toe at either end. And then I measured from the toe the appropriate length and cut in a true afterthought heel. I have a “recipe” I use to make the afterthought heel a little larger than the often used Knit One Round then Decrease Next Round method. My notes are in Ravelry project page for those interested. But my recipe allows room for my sister and I’s large heel and high instep.

I’m starting the second heel now. And I have a TON of sock tube in the middle. Once both heels are installed I may do some creative measuring to see if I make two pairs of shorties from one snake with utilizing more coordinating mini skeins.

Happy Knitting!!

Blocking MOA

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My MOA shawl is finished and drying nicely on my alphabet blocking mats. Note: These were a good idea pre-kids. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep their mitts off of the pieces when they are holding knitwear. But I digress!

As predicted I ended up playing yarn chicken and had to drastically alter the bind off section. I need to move my notes from the paper in my project bag and get them up on Ravelry. Theoretically it could help someone else…and make it less likely I will remember months or years down the road. And when I blocked it I used my blocking wires and really stretched this as much as possible to make the shawl as big as possible. I’m finding that one skein shawlettes, while beautiful, are just too small to style and keep on during the day.

I did find a SINGLE dropped stitch in my work AGAIN. That happened on my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl, grr. But I laddered it back to a good place and then use some waste yarn to secure it in place. It’s somewhere in the photo above but even I can’t see it anymore when I look at the right side of the work. I can’t wait for this to be dry and get some FO photos!

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!!

Sock Snakes

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I was enabled once again by social media. Many moons ago I saw a post from an Indie Dyer called Mint Rain Yarns. I’ve knit her yarn and loved it. But she also has listed in her Etsy shop a listing for machine knit socks and sock tubes. This idea had been kicking around in my brain for months and I finally bit the bullet. I sent 300 grams of light fingering weight yarn to her from my stash with the plan to make them into tubes that I could add heels, toes and cuffs for some quick socks.

My sister is not a “stuff” kind of person and is hard to shop for. But living in Colorado she does appreciate hand knits to keep her warm. My trouble is that given that I have two tiny human to keep alive and a paycheck I’d like to keep….my knitting time is small. And I’m constantly torn between knitting for myself and knitting for recipients. So I see this as a win win. I get the tubes knit and ready to go and I can still crank out a hand knit pair of socks without chewing up days or weeks of knitting time.

I sent her some Knit Pics Felici in the Dark Side colorway. Each 50 gram skein was cranked on its own with waste yarn in between. And this tube and all the other tubes are 72 stitches which is the stitch count I like my light fingering yarn worked up at. (Time will tell if the fit works out in the end…fingers crossed!)

Next up was more Felici in the Soft Serve colorway. Again in a 72 stitch count.

And finally I had some lolodidit yarn in the Hippo for Christmas colorway. This tube will probably be for me and likely the first up to be turned into socks.

I plan to experiment with these tubes to see what I can make out of them to maximize the yarn. I secretly hope I can get two pairs out of each colorway. Knowing that the second pair may very well be shorties. All in all, this Etsy vendor was prompt and her tubes came back to me in excellent shape and tension. If this works out as well as I hope…I may be ordering more snakes in the future!

Happy Knitting!!