My second skein of sweater yarn showed up this past week and I wasted NO TIME in working on this puppy. I hand wound the ball because I was at my parents’ house and didn’t have access to my swift.
I also forgot to pack the smaller sized needles that the button band called for. Turns out….I don’t care! I started the band just kept on knitting with the sweater body sized needles. I think I’m 6 or 7 rows into a 12 row button band. Then its just a bath and this baby is done!
Happy Knitting!!
My Baby Vertebrae for PB officially has two sleeves!
I can’t help but keep thinking the speckles of this yarn paired with this pattern are just so sharp looking! And the fabric has quite the soft hand to it even before washing. It’s 100% merino and a nice plump 4-ply DK. I just love it so hard. I have forbade the husband from even THINKING about washing this in fear of felting it. I might even make a dark red HAND WASH ONLY tag and affix to the inside, lol.
I’m very clearly ready for button bands. But guess what guys…I lost at yarn chicken….
All I have left is this TINY ball of yarn and an entire button band to knit on. I broke down and ordered another skein from Apothefaery Fibers in her Etsy shop in this same color. I know the skeins won’t likely match. But I only have the button band left and I’m okay if that color difference shows. I can totally spin that as intentional! Now I just have to sit and wait for the mailman to bring me my pretty!
Happy Knitting!!
The toes are installed on my Accidental Travel socks…squee!!!
I literally cannot put these down. Jellybean hasn’t been very consistent about sleeping and PB is growing like a weed making it not easy to find a comfortable pregnancy position. These socks have been like salve to my soul. Who needs sleep when you can knit pretty yarn?
Today I’m going to cut in the true afterthought heel and try to get them knit up. I do a little bit of my own flavor of afterthought heel that adds the depth I need for my foot/heel. I’ll try to remember to put notes on my Ravelry page on what I do. If I work a heel like a “standard” toe its NO WHERE NEAR deep enough of a pocket to fit my foot.
Happy Knitting
My Accidental Travel Socks have officially reached the toe.
I would like to say that I carefully did math and made sure I had enough tube for both foot and leg. But that would be a bald faced lie. I knit the tube until I couldn’t stand it anymore and then knit up the tandem sock to match. I did measure and the tube is 14 inches so I’m probably okay.
I am pleased at how well the stripes matched up. I did intentionally try to do that but I was worried because the cuffs were slightly different from the beginning. I’m guessing that one sock is every so slightly shorter/longer than the other one because of the different initial yellow stripe difference. But I don’t care….if you are that close to my foot to notice then you deserve a kick to the schnoz. These are sparkly and just my everything right now!
Happy Knitting!!
One project that needs to see more love is the Baby Vertebrae for PB.
I’ve finished the first sleeve and put the needles in for the second sleeve. After this it will literally only need a button band and blocking. I think my mental block on this one is the DPNs. They are not my jam. I have to pay special attention to my tension when changing needles to avoid laddering. (This is totally why I knit my socks on 9 inch circs.) I really want this sweater for PB and it should be just right for fall. And the yarn is divine….I am just struggling with my mojo a little bit.
Oh well, slow and stead will still win the race right?
Happy Knitting!!
I recently cleaned my large knitting tote full of WIPs that lives on the chaos of the “mail table” as we call it in this house. I sorted needles, notions, and yarny bits and bobs back to their rightful places that had collected. I also took some WIPs to the craft room for longer term storage. Call it pre-baby knitting nesting if you will. Really it was a task I had been putting off for too long mostly due to the prolonged morning sickness and just general hair on fire craziness at work.
As a reward for completing a boring but necessary task….I treated myself to pulling my memory blanket from hibernation and adding two new squares!
I added a square of deep royal blue from my Midas Hat and as I talked about I added a stripey square from my Accidental Travel vanilla socks. I found I really missed this project! I think this blanket might be the perfect post-partum maternity leave knitting plan. It’s easy to pick up and put down as well as soothing garter stitch. It allows for some quick mini-victories after completing each square that should be good for a soul that doesn’t have many knitting minutes left in the day. Not to mention it’s just lovely and cheery to look at.
I am preparing myself for the joy and total time-suck that is nursing and caring for a newborn baby. And this go around I will also have an active young-ling that will also need his own attention. Knitting is important to me and I’m not going to give that away. But I am mentally preparing for the (temporary) shift in schedule and priorities. I wasn’t able to do that with Jellybean as I literally had no clue what was coming as a first time parent. I want to be kinder and gentler with myself this go around. My littles will only be small for a short time and I want to soak up every second…no matter how exhausting they are!
Happy Knitting!!
My (accidental) travel socks have been giving me the call of the siren lately. They have been living in my work backpack and I have been pulling them out during my lunch breaks and car riding blocks of time. My work load at my job is totally whack-a-doodle and I have found the need for knitting comfort a lot lately. (Whack-a-doodle being an official accounting term, lol)
I have firmly decided to add contrasting toes and heels in some solid grey that matches nicely. And I am working both socks at the same time. I work a little on one and then some on the other as I feel to keep them roughly the same size. The yarn balls are the same amount by the way, one is center pull and the other pulling from the outside so the stripes match up. Therefore the yarn balls are more/less compact giving the illusion of two different amounts. I’m just going to knit peaceful stockinette until they are long enough or I run out of yarn, whichever comes first.
They only caveat to this plan would be to use the ball (left) that has an un-used center pull portion to add a square to my mitered square blanket before I use up all the yarn. I have been feeling the call of that project as well and I think this cheery skein would be a great addition.
Happy Knitting!!
My Travel Vanilla Socks were very handy at my work conference. (Side note….I saw a fellow attendee doing two handed stranded colorwork with a chart….I was in awe. She was still totally listening and participating. Legitimately awesome.)
I found myself picking them up very often at my conference. So in the span of three days I made the above progress. I’m pretty happy with a good chunk of two socks cranked out.
I also started contemplating how I was going to finish these socks. I don’t normally work cuff down so I don’t have a “favorite” cuff down heel. I recently acquired some plain grey Heritage sock yarn in my stash and I’m considering contrast toes and afterthought heels. So I’m thinking about just cranking these tubes until I get to the length I want and finish toes in grey. I think I’ll just see how my tubes turn out!
Happy Knitting!!
My Baby Vertebrae is crawling along! This is yarn from Winter Woolfest 2018 from Apothefairy Fibers. The speckles are just divine!!
I’m making the 12-18 months size in DK yarn. Babies in my family run big so I thought I’d err on the side of caution. Only one and a half sleeves and a button band to go! I am finding the fabric very pleasing and I often stop to pet the fabric 🙂
Happy Knitting!!
Recently I had the opportunity to travel for work. I was headed to the cold tundra that was Minnesota in February. I attended a three day software conference in a very nice part of St. Paul Minnesota in a fantastic hotel. The week that lead up the conference was incredibly busy and hectic including the last minute cancellation of baby sitting plans. I barely had to time to keep my head above water at work and pack something resembling a suitably filled suitcase. At the last second I grabbed by project bag that held my Down Pour socks I had planned on redoing and dashed to the airport. I knew they had wooden needles from Joanns that I wouldn’t mind losing to a zealous TSA agent. 
Once at the airport and safely through security where my knitting was not deemed a security threat, I pulled out my project and pattern only to find that I needed several stitch markers and they were not in my kit. I had needles, yarn and pattern ONLY. Sigh, so these socks had to become cuff down vanilla socks. Not my favorite…but it was better than than no knitting at all for four days.
I made up for my project D’oh by knitting in the posh hotel wrapped in a plush bathrobe with the remote control all to myself! I have to say is that was pretty much heaven to a pregnant knitter after sitting in ballroom conference chairs for 7 hours!
I’ll try to show my total trip progress if I can grab some updated photos this week. Happy Knitting!!
Michele plays with yarn, food, and music in Portland
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