Tag Archives: WIP

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!!

MOA Shawl Rebooted

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I had one project that made it through the Finish or Frog It round last week. And that was my MOA shawl. Those long time readers may or may not remember that I cast this one in November of 2017 and then it got cast carelessly aside so that I could pursue Pigskin Party glory. (Note: I won nothing in that particular KAL that year!)

I so hastily set this project aside that I left in the MIDDLE OF A ROW! I quite literally never let myself do that. But apparently it was a thing for me in 2017. But past Rachelle was kind to current Rachelle and I had been making tic marks on a printed pattern that I left in the project bag. I quickly ascertained what row I should be on and knit the rest of the tow. But seriously guys….I had like 25/26 stitches left in 2017…why didn’t I finish that???

Nevertheless, I shall persist. This is quite possibly going to be my lunchtime/conference call knitting this month. I’d really like to see if I can turn this into a FO and be ready for fall. These nice golden brown neutral colors should be a nice addition to my wardrobe. Presumably this is why I bought this yarn, lol

Happy Knitting!!

Finish or Frog It Time

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Y’all….it is Stash Dash season. I won’t regurgitate the whole stash dash conversation, just go look it up at the KnitGirllls. I normally don’t participate because I really like to knit whatever feeds my mojo and not for arbitrary yardage goals. But I have been encouraged by all the recent projects flying off my needles that has really left me wanting to finish things. This led to digging around in the depths of my craft room I unearthed four long languishing WIPS. So lets play a round of finish it or frog it shall we?

Working clockwise from we have:

I was brutally honest with myself and frogged three of the four. Any guesses? Well I’ll keep this short and tell you I kept the MOA shawl in the variegated brown tones. This means I have new WIP to work on and I have freed up three sets of needles and three projects bags. I feel so much lighter and excited to find better projects for all that yarn.

Although….the Alpaca/Merino mix yarn just didn’t get my motor running anymore. I might be looking for it to find a good home somewhere else. Do you ever fall out of love with a skein of yarn?

Happy Knitting!!

 

Neon Finish Line

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I had some Grandparent babysitting time here recently and that let me power through the leg of my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks. I think I’m ready to start the cuff ribbing!

I’m super happy to see that the color progressions are lining up so well between sock number and sock number two. Though no matter what I try on my camera these puppies just GLOW in photos. My mom commented that they looked like really big socks. And I retorted….well I have really big feet!

I think another inch or so of ribbing and I will be done with another pair of socks for my drawer! I can’t hardly wait. And then I really should be a good kid and go back and put some effort into my Dad’s 2019 Christmas socks. They have been kind of languishing lately, whoops!

Happy Knitting

Cast On: Kindness Double Brim Hat

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Last week I finished my Kindness Mitts out of my last skein of Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK. And I have about 80 grams of yarn left between my two colors. So I did some pattern searching and I found pattern to start a hat. I am using Staci Perry’s Double Thick Brim Hat.

Now I’m just using this pattern as loose guide. I definitely don’t have enough yarn to knit a double thick brim or to make it exceedingly slouchy. But I like the stitch count and gauge enough I think I can modify it enough for my purposes.

I’ve completed about 3 inches (ish) of ribbing and I’m starting the stockinette portion. The next trick will be to decide how to work in the Salty Tales (grey speckle) color into my hat to maximize my hat size. I am deciding between small stripes to match my Kindness KAL 2019 shawl or one thick band/stripe just to be done faster.

Happy Knitting!

Almost Complete Mitts

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My Kindness Mitts are working up in a flash! I have both mitts knit and just waiting for thumbs!

I worked these up on size 5 US short circular needle. They might be a bit baggy on my hands and I could have probably used to reduce my stitch count by about four. But they aren’t fall off loose and should be perfect driving mitts! Now I just need to dig through my messy craft room and find some size 56 dpns!

Happy knitting!!

 

Cast On: Kindness Mittens

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I finished my shawl last week and this week I have started some matching mitts! I really liked the pattern Fingerless Mitts by Cheryl Goyer that I used with my Free Your Fade leftovers so I decided to repeat it.

I’ve so far cast them on and worked through three inches of ribbing. I’m ready to move into the stockinette portion before the thumb. It’s kind of nice to have a speedy knit on the needles right now! Not to mention this is a nice cool project that doesn’t leave a heap of wool in my lap when its 90 degrees.

Happy Knitting!!

Neon In The Wild

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It’s that time of year again to drag my happy behind to the doctor and get all the things checked. These appointments are never fun but necessary for good proactive health care. And I have knitting which makes all the waiting bearable. I took my Gonna Need Sunglasses vanilla socks out into the wild!

I managed to turn the heel on the second sock while waiting in all the rooms! And I may have turned a few heads while people took a second to absorb the blinding neon sock in my hands.

I’m pretty happy with sock number two and the color changes are lining up decently well with sock number one. Now I just have a leg to finish and I’ll have another pair of socks to add my drawer for winter!

Happy Knitting!!

Kindness Unblocked

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I WON AT YARN CHICKEN! And here she is….my finished Kindness KAL 2019 shawl in all her unblocked glory!

I squeaked by with just the tiniest bit of blue yarn left without having to break into the second skein. I did have a more substantial ball of the Salty Tales grey color left. I’m using Hedgehog Fibers Merino DK by the way. The blue color is Ink. I even managed to weave in but not trim my ends from all the color changes.

As you read this my shawl has already been soaked and is drying on the blocking mats. Jellybean helped me and we broke out my blocking wires and really gave this shawl a good stretching. In doing this we found ONE dropped stitch. I calmly grabbed my double ended crochet hook and laddered it back up and then secured it with a piece of waste yarn on the wrong side of the work. No one but me will be the wiser!

Humidity has come to Kansas for summer and so I’m not sure how long this puppy will take to dry. Jellybean keeps checking at least every hour to see if it’s done. I think maybe I’ll set a fan on it to speed up the process for both our sakes!

A Game Of Yarn Chicken

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I haven’t wanted to knit on anything else but my Kindness 2019 Shawl from my Mother’s Day cast on. I blew through all the remaining sections and I’m on the last garter eyelets before the garter bind off.

The pattern indicated that you could continue to add eyelets if you had the yarn to do it. So I added 12 extra garter eyelet rows. You can see my remaining yarn above. Did I do the smart thing and weigh my yarn to determine how much each row was consuming so that I could have enough yarn to do the four ridge garter bind off? Nope, I sure did not! I’m just straight playing yarn chicken!

Happy Knitting!!