Monday, June 10, 2019

Busy little bees

Ideally, I would have posted the last few months, at least monthly. I feel like I haven't really completed enough items but I've got tons of pieces that I've been working on. I guess I'll just share those with you here.

First of all, in my last post, I mentioned the beautiful socks I was knitting for my choir director. I did finish them in time for the end of February and they turned out great! I gave them to my friend and he was so appreciative. He gave me two hugs! (He's a very nice flamboyant man, so no worries.) I liked them so much, I went out and bought myself the same yarns.






March's socks were some that I was very much looking forward to knitting, as they were my Christmas gift (the yarn, anyway). I wanted to knit some fun socks for when I referee volleyball in the fall, and I have to wear boring old black socks. I thought it would be fun to do neon heels, toes, and cuffs, since no one would see them under my pant legs and with my shoes on, so I found a neat pattern and ordered some yarn. I got the black from Knit Picks (Stroll yarn) and the bright colors are not only neon, but black-light reactive! I found them on this amazing shop on Etsy. I want to buy a full skein of it, but it's coming from the U.K. and I need to justify the shipping. Alice, the shop owner, is very generous. She sent me a DK set of minis instead of fingering, and instead of paying shipping to return them, she let me keep them! This is not the last of this yarn! I also have enough for my blanket. The pattern is called Candyman and I think they turned out just perfect.


I'll just keep going with socks while I'm on a roll. April's socks were another pair I was looking forward to. I love the Coffee Talk socks from one of the Grocery Girls. I've been wanting to make a pair for a while. I bought this yarn around Christmas last year as well, from lolodidit, when I bought the yarn for my mom's birthday hat. I don't think I got a photo of the hat up here yet. I have one somewhere. The socks are sparkle, but they weren't that soft. I'm not in love with sparkle yarn, although I have more for July from lolodidit.

I am not a fan of cuff-down socks, and this just reminded me why. I have really big feet and after I knit the cuff and leg for ages, I didn’t have any of the hard stuff done, and I couldn’t try them on until they were about 80% done to make sure they were going to fit. I love the pattern, the striping and the reverse stockinette, but next time I will knit these toe-up. They are still waiting to be blocked, so I still don't have a great photo of them. 


I just had to share these photos. My little Blessing insisted on wearing these socks as soon as I had them off the needles. He would not take them off! So cute.




May socks were some quick and easy striped socks for my hubby, using Knit Picks Felici. I have heard great things about this yarn, and while I wanted to try it, I didn't have the budget to spend a lot. I bought this yarn on clearance and wasn't wild about it. The yarn itself is very soft, but the colors just aren't me. My hubby likes them, so they are for him. The stripes are a little flip-flopped, which is fine, and they happened to work out to be within a row of the color changes.

I worked on these during our looooong drive to the Grand Canyon, but the snow (yes, in late May!) was so beautiful, I didn't get a lot of knitting done on them. Toe-up, afterthought heel, taat. I used a pattern, but did not like the fiddly-ness of the cables after the third or fourth repeat. I asked my hubby if he minded that there were only a few cables and he honestly did not even notice.


June's socks are another pair I'm really looking forward to having. The pattern is by Joji Locatelli and it's beautiful. I have some yarn I've been holding on to for years and they are supposed to be fraternal twins, so I am flip-flopping the colors on the 2nd sock. It's been a long time since I've knit just one sock at a time, so I wanted to knit the 2nd one right away, so I don't procrastinate. I'm so close to finishing, and the first sock fits so great!


I guess that's all the socks I've made this year so far. I'm still going strong on the 12 pair goal, although I've fallen behind on my hats. I'm up to 14 now, but I should be at 20-something by this week. I've got to play catch-up this summer in between all my socks and other projects.

Another FO is my Grandma's sweater. I wanted it done before Mothers' Day, which it was. I finished the front and back in March, but I didn't sew it together and knit the sleeve ribbing until the weekend before. At least I got it done. It turned out cute and she loved it. It fit like a glove, and it's very stretchy, so it will fit if she loses weight or gains.



I love the look of the ribbing around the waist, which would be very flattering for boxy shapes. It was quick and easy, but I don't know if I would ever knit it again.

I fell in love with a shawl as soon as I saw it. The colors are what drew me, and it was an obsession for a short time. I bought the pattern and found yarn in my stash that I thought would make a good fade. I settled on these 5, which is going to make this thing massive!






I started with the light yellow and went to the left. It was a sparkle yarn and used all but about 5g. I'm on the third color, and it's like knitting 3 pairs of socks! It is on hold until I finish these current socks and get caught up on hats, and then I'm all over it. It is much larger than this photo by now, but this shows the detail well.


I also participated in the Mystery Knit-a-Long that I mentioned in the last post, and it turned out so beautiful. I *love* how it feels, but I haven't worn it yet. It still needs to be blocked. I had fun waiting each week to find out what each clue would look like.


I also had an order for a baby viking hat and baby beard from my Etsy shop. It used up some of my excess beard yarn and got me some more yarn funds.





I've been wanting to make a colorwork sweater for a while. I know I need to get some practice with making my floats loose enough, so I pulled out this cowl I've had yarn for for a while. I love the little sheep and alpacas! It turned out pretty well, but tons of ends to weave in, and it still is a little tight in parts. I have enough yarn leftover to make something else, whether it be little mitts for one of the boys or something else fun.





As I mentioned above, we went on a trip to the southwest U.S., so I knew we *should* have warm weather. I wanted to make a new swimsuit cover-up for my new swimsuit, and I had some Mandala yarn that I hadn't slated for anything else. I found a great easy pattern that would use up two skeins, which are all I had of that color, which is called Chimera.


The last big project I've started recently was another knit-a-long, for a sweater. I watched a podcast with the pattern author and was riveted. I need another sweater quantity like a hole in my head, but I just wanted to be able to knit the pattern for all the amazing tips. I am convinced that I need to do as many of Patty Lyons' classes as possible, as well as take her course on Bluprint, "Improve Your Knitting."

The current (well, was current) project is the Roselle Tee, which is a short-sleeve tee with a bit of lace on the torso and the sleeves. It is cute, and will be my first summery project. I started it, but made a few mistakes. I also wanted to watch her class and do a good job of knitting well. I am also in the process of losing weight, so I don't want to spend weeks knitting (and purling) a sweater that won't fit great by the time I get it done. I've bought the navy to start with, but I also bought a very pretty teal green.




I really hate ripping things out, especially since half of it is purling, but I already made mistakes, and I think I'll be able to knit a smaller size if I wait.

Well, that does it for all my projects. You're all caught up now. I hope to make several hats over the the summer to stay on track, keep going on all my socks, and finish a couple more shawls this summer, and then start on Christmas gift knitting. Homeschool will start within that time as well, so we'll see how that affects my knitting time. Until next time, keep on crafting!