A lost blog post?

March 28, 20203 Comments

I wrote this post back on February 29, right before I left for Denver. I appartenly never hit publish, but I hate to lose all this chatter, so here you go!

At this time last week, I had three (knitting) works in progress. Today, I have six. Things just… happened this week. And no, I am in no way thinking about casting on something else. At all.

First things first, the three wips. One is my Sizzle Pop; surprise! I haven’t gotten much done on it. Last week I had just cast on and knit the cuff of a new pair of patterned socks. They’re chugging along, if a bit slowly. I’m enjoying the texture and rhythm though, so I’m not bothered.

And the third is my oldest WIP, which is surprising since it’s a hat. I usually knit hats pretty quickly, but, well, I’ve been distracted. The hat is adorable though and that’s why it’s earned a trip to Denver today. I’m heading out on a work trip and I think it will be my plane knitting in hopes of some serious progress. The hat is Skiff by Jared Flood, I’m knitting it up in Quince & Co. Lark in the Petal colorway.

Something just came over me last weekend and I wanted a bit of floof in my life. I waffled for a quite a while and finally cast on a cowl with a bit of mohair. I’m not too far, but this is Calan Mai by Voolenvine. I couldn’t resist the reference to one of my favorite book series, A Court of Thorns and Roses. I’m knitting it up in yarn from A Homespun House, the mohair is Winter’s Kiss and the other strand is Snowy Woods.

With all the patterning, brioching, and cabling I was doing, I thought it high time that I cast on a pair of vanilla socks. Taking the first cake that caught my eye out of all my caked up sock yarn, I pulled out this old old old skein of Prim from Hey Lady Hey, a now retired yarn dyer.

I’m to the heel flap of the sock but the beady eyed among you may notice that’s a pretty short leg for me. I’m having a hard time pushing through this one and I think I know why. For years now, I have exclusively knit socks on 80/20 merino/nylon yarn. That and stellina yarn have been pretty much it. I shunned 75/25 a long time ago. I had thought maybe I was past that feeling but here we are. I think it just doesn’t do it for me. I do knit 75/25 into other things just fine, but for socks? No, thank you.

I decided to pull out an 80/20 skein to compare. So plump and round! It’s crazy that it makes that much difference but it feels so much better. I’m willing to admit that may be all in my head, but knit what you want, right?

The yarn I cast on is a pretty little self-striping number called Magical Girl, by Gynx Yarns – another retired dyer. These are also going to Denver, gotta have something easy and mindless on a work trip.

So that’s it, all my works in progress. Most are pretty far from the finished object stage, but for some reason I’m already thinking about a few new projects. One is another hat, which is not getting started until Skiff. The other is a brioche and lace shawl that I don’t know if I will have enough willpower to resist after this trip.

I waffle between wanting to clear off all of my needles and wanting to cast on a million things so it’s easy to pick up and just work on anything. Clearly we’re in the cast on a million things phase at the moment. I’m feeling lately like wips are opportunities. I’ve got stockinette socks, patterned socks, cables, brioche, and floof and I dig it.

Happy making!

One month later…

March 28, 20208 Comments

Well, I’d venture to say it’s been a fairly crazy March for us all. Four weeks ago today, I arrived in Denver for my organization’s annual meeting and it was canceled that evening. It’s been crazy with work ever since, and now I’m working from full time with the kids and Kevin all in the house. I know it’s a crazy, scary, uncertain time for many. I’ve been really finding joy and comfort in the simple motion of my hands creating things, so I thought we’d have a little photo montage of the last month.

My only finished object since we last spoke, and I don’t really have a picture of it! I need to attach the pompom and take some real photos, but the knitting on my Skiff is all finished up.

I’ve put a bit of work into these socks but not much. I still don’t have much drive to knit patterned socks, but these are sooo pretty that I really want to finish them. One day. The pattern is Rhinebeck Roomies by Crazy Sock Lady.

My first cast on of the month was the Calan Mai cowl. I completely misread the pattern and had to rip back about 3 inches, but now we’re moving on it.

I finally decided to frog my Prim socks, I spoke about my dislike of the yarn base last post. I dug some trusty 80/20 out of my stash in these fun stripes and they kind of zoomed for a while. This is Gynx Yarn (a retired yarn dyer) in the Magical Girl colorway.

Completely out of character for me, it seemed that two pairs of socks weren’t quite enough so some Christmas socks went on the needles! This is Once Upon A Corgie Handmade in the Marie Cutie base (a squishy corriedale nylon blend) in the Christmas like it’s 1882 colorway.

In this flurry of startitis, I also managed to cast on a sweater! I’m knitting the Rosemont Cardigan in Quince & Co. Lark in the Pea Coat colorway. I’m looking for a cozy go-with-everything cardigan and I think this fits the bill.

And then last weekend, I finally finally finally finished up my Happy Christmas quilt top. I’m so pleased with how it came out! This is a pattern from Maker Valley, and I got the scrappy kit from her as well. This cutie is out getting quilted and I can’t wait to get it finished up.

Once I was in the sewing room, I haven’t been able to leave much. I decided to throw together a cute little mug rug for my #yearofchristams plans and this one came together pretty quickly. It’s a single block from Lori Holt’s granny square inspired quilt pattern. I used random scraps of Lori Holt fabric and I think it’s just precious!

While I was at it in the sewing room yesterday, I finally, months and months later, attached the binding to my Arithmetic quilt. Now I’m ready for my favorite part of quilt making, hand sewing the binding!

Last, but certainly not least, I’ve been rather obsessed with my Granny Stripe blanket. I figured out a few weeks ago that is way wider than I intended. That discouraged me for a while with how long it might take. I had a really inspiring talk with Kevin the other night about the process of my making and now I just can’t stop. I’m really enjoying the rythm and the slow progession.

Well. that’s it in pictures. I’ve been kind of all over the place these days with making all sorts of things — I’ve even picked up my applique a few times! — but I’m letting it take me wherever my heart and hands need to go.

Wherever you are, be well and happy making!

Just a few things.

September 26, 20193 Comments

I don’t feel well, but I’m knitting and making and sharing. So here we go for a very brief share. Happy fall and fall alergies, y’all!

On Saturday, I cast on a new hat for Kevin. I am trying to get into the tradition of making Kevin a hat every fall, so here’s this year’s entry. He picked the pattern and the yarn.

On Saturday night and Sunday morning, I appliquéd the 3rd and 4th (bottom two) blocks for my Granny’s Garden Quilt. I really love the way these are coming out. Applique is pretty fun, but I may need to take a look at my thimble situation.

It really was no time until I finished Kevin’s hat. This is the Chapelfield Hat by Kari-Helene Rane, knit up in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in the Snowbound colorway. I knit the medium size to the pattern exactly. Once it was finished, ends woven in and all, and Kevin tried it on and quietly asked how much trouble it would be to make it just a few rows longer.

Ripping back finished work is never something I relish, but as I told Kevin–my goal is that he wear the hat. If it doesn’t cover his ears like he likes, he won’t wear it, and that’s no fun. So I ripped out back about a fourth of the hat and knit one extra repeat in the first crown shaping section. This added soemthing like a half inch, which was perfect.

And last, but certainly not least, once I was on the Shelter train I didn’t really feel like getting off. I love this yarn. I’ve been wanting to knit a Winter Honey shawl for several years but had just kind of been collecting the yarn for a while. I finally procured my final skein and couldn’t wait another minute. Almost. I decided to swatch for the shawl because I was afraid of the cables making the shawl to tight and small, or of going the other way and having an overly loose fabric. So I swatched.

Well, that was less brief than expected. A wee bit of crafty recap for this Wednesday night and I am back to my new shawl cast on.

Happy making!

Beeswax Hat.

September 22, 20193 Comments

Many moons ago, I saw this hat on The Fat Squirrel podcast. I loved it then and have thought about knitting it many times. I purchased this skein of yarn to try out the color, really thinking it wouldn’t work on me even though I like it.

Looking at the pattern and the yarn, they really seemed to be right for each other, so after I finished my sweater, I thought I’d cast it on. This yarn is Quince and Co. Chickadee in Honey – one of their iconic colorways. I thought, given my recent gold/green/mustard obsession, that I would like it but I didn’t expect to love it like I do.

The pattern is Beeswax Hat by Amy van de Laar. I am obsessed with these cables and this pattern. The way the ribbing works up into the main pattern? Genious. Those decreases? Perfection! The pattern is written for DK and Chickadee is a sport weight, but I didn’t really change anything and it worked up fine. I had 5g of yarn left from one skein.

Yeah, I love this hat.

Happy making!

Maybe I have been knitting.

November 27, 20182 Comments

Last week, I was busy. Work trip right into Thanksgiving. Around here, I call it the gauntlet. Last year on this particular work trip, I got a lot of knitting done. Not so this time.

Things started off pretty well. I had been thinking I’d knit myself a holiday sweater so I cast it on in the airport. I got a few rows in before time to board. I was planning to knit it on the plane, but I was middle seat between two not so teeny dudes. We landed in Atlanta, set up the booth, and I got to my hotel in time to watch some football and finish up a sock.

My days and evenings were quite busy with work, but I managed to get up early enough to have some coffee and knitting time on my Kobuk hat. I really wanted to finish it on the trip.

Finding knitting time was tough, but the wait in the airport and the flight was enough to get the hat finished. I came home, wove in the ends on the hat, upacked and then immediately re-packed my suitcase. We left early in the morning, headed to North Carolina.

I did a little knitting on the car ride down, but I also discovered that I had forgotten Joshua’s medicine. Bit of a logistics mess to get a prescription called in to an out of town pharmacy on the day before Thanksgiving, but we did it.

We wound up renting a house with my brothers and going to my future SIL’s family’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was truly a lovely time. We had so much fun and just being together is always enough to warm my heart. I didn’t do any knitting, but who cares when you’re surrounded by these amazing people.

Over the weekend, I finished my socks, finally got some hat pictures, and slept a lot. Noah and Madelyn stopped through on their way back north, and after getting them on the road I slept a wee bit more. I was tired.

The socks are off the needles and I am one pair closer to my full dozen rainbow socks for the year. This is the November 2017 Rainbow of the Month club colorway from Knitterly Things, called Golden Hour Harvest. I really like how these turned out. My sock mojo is a little low these days, so it’s good to finish up a pair.

And then, there’s the hat.

This is Kobuk, a lovely pattern by Caitlin Hunter. It’s written for a DK weight yarn held together with a strand of mohair lace. For mine, I held fingering weight double with the mohair and it worked quite well. I think it made the bobbles a little bit more fussy, but nothing terrible. The yarn is from Woolberry Fiber Co.: Berry Sock and Berry Mohair, both in the Hayride colorway. I love love love this color. I have been skeptical of how it would look on me, but I think it works. Either way, I’m obsessed.

I love everything about it. The mohair makes it so soft and warm, and the pattern is stunning. The color, well, I can’t get enough.

I really have been feeling like I’m not knitting much at all. Surprising then, that I’ve finished two projects in the last week. I did a little bit of frogging recently and then nothing else was appealing to me last night. So I cast on something new, like you do.