The Return of the Queen

Whew, three years! I can't believe what all has happened in the last three years. First of all, the world shut down and everyone lost their minds for a good long while. Many of them have drank the Kool-Aid and won't come back from that choice, but I feel like most people are coming out of the fog and realizing just how screwed-up everything was, and continues to be. I won't get political here, but I'm looking at life through a very different lens since all that happened.

Let's see...personally, we've had some big changes. Hubby and I have celebrated our 10th anniversary and my 40th birthday, we moved (twice) to be closer to his aging parents, and we've found a fantastic new church in our new town. We've taken up gardening and many aspects of living self-sufficiently, including making many of our own foods and raising chickens! They are precious and so dumb, but we love them. I can't wait to get a few more.

As far as my own interests go, I've been making so many different things. Here are a few of the more fun items I've made over the last couple years:

I love knitting for the ease of it, but I am getting back into crochet this year. I really enjoyed making the doll above (I actually made two with several costume changes!) and I have plans to make a few more stuffed animals before my boys get too big. 

Some of my goals for this new year are to finish all the projects I have knit over the last couple years. I'm great at knitting, but I am not so good at the weaving ends and blocking. I have an entire sweater that needs ends woven and blocked, as well as several shawls. 

I purchased a huge amount (44 skeins!) of HeatWave yarn a couple of winters ago at a major discount and have made and plan to make a hat, cowl and mittens for homeless folks here in town every month. I have several of the mittens knitted but they need ends woven as well. I'm also making dishcloths again for family, friends, and our new church family. I have at least 3 blankets that need worked on and finished. The Ugly Square is coming along nicely as I finish other projects. I may be at a stopping point some time this year, and will add a nice solid border. I am considering this the year I get things finished! Then, I might consider casting on one item at a time, until it's done! Or, at least only one of each type of project...a sweater, socks, a hat, a shawl... It's fun to think about!

Some other new skills I'm looking to start this year are rigid heddle loom weaving, drop-spindle spinning, dyeing fiber with home-grown natural dyes, soap-making, cheese-making, playing electric bass for church, and sewing some of my own clothes! I've got the loom set out and I need to go work on my sourdough right now, so I'll let this be it for today. Hopefully it won't be three years before I'm back again! Ha! Thanks for sticking through it and reading to the end. Now get out there and make something!

Cranking out some projects!

While I don't feel like I've knit a whole lot of interesting things so far this year, I have made a lot of things. My goal was to make a couple of sweaters, 52 hats for charity, and 12 pairs of socks, and so far, I'm right on track for the hats, I'm ahead on the socks, and I'm already nearly done with the 2nd sweater! I've got to find some more projects...

I'll start with hats. As I mentioned in my last post, I'd like to knit or crochet 52 hats this year for my Grandma's church's charity. I have never made anything for something like this, and I felt that if I have the time and resources to make myself so many beautiful things, I can make some for others. I have quite a bit of random colors of worsted and DK weight yarn, leftovers from past projects and skeins Grandma let me pick out of her huge stash. Most of it is acrylic, and all of it is too much to just cannibalize for the Ugly Square. So I am going to use up what I can to make hats this year. Much of it is pinks and purples, or baby yarn, and at this time, with 3 little boys and a nephew, I just don't have much use for those things. And much of it is very old (30+ years on some of it!) and scratchy, and I don't think I would enjoy making things with it, let alone wearing it. Grandma uses whatever she wants with her projects, so I figured I could too.

It is the 3rd week of February, and I am up to 8 completed hats. I showed 3 last time. I have a couple more Chiefs colored ones, and the others are combinations of pretty variegated yarns I have had.

I have been using the same pattern for each one, now that I have it memorized, and it was from a Red Heart label. I haven't been religiously working on these every week, but I am keeping up and catching up when I need to. I am making the "adult size" on the pattern, but I think my gauge must be pretty tight, because I can't wear these hats. I could wear the first hat. I don't know what I've changed. They at least fit the boys. Grandma tells me that she made 150 hats last year, and nearly as many twiddle muffs. I will stick to my 52...

Part of the reason I haven't been making hats every week is because I am participating in the Grocery Girls Podcast sock bash. I have planned out my entire year in yarn and patterns so I can complete a pair of socks each month (WIP's don't count) that fits the theme. At the end of the year, I would like to enter for their grand prize, which might be something really cool, and there are decent odds of winning if you complete all 12. I have on my calendar (yes, I am like that) for the first 2 weeks every month to work on socks, so I can complete them early and get them posted in time. For February, the theme is cables:

The yarn is Opal, and when it was in the ball I wasn't too keen on knitting it. I bought it to add some different colors to my sock yarn scrap blanket, but it didn't look like anything I normally wear. Once I caked it up, though, I started to see how beautiful it is. My hubby even said if I wanted to knit him a pair out of that yarn he would love them! We'll see...

I knit the Felia socks, but I started them toe-up. I am self-conscious about knitting cuff-down socks with my big giant feet. I just don't want to run out of yarn right before the toe and have to find something else that matches. I messed up the chart a little by looking at it upside-down (you can see the bottom is different than the top in the upper photo), so I wish I had done a better job on that, but I think they turned out neat. I was in a rush to finish them, since February is a shorter month and I had other goals in mind, so when the cable pattern took too long for me, I did the chart once and finished it. I wore them yesterday, and I really like just the detail on the top of the foot. No one knows it's there but me, unless I am home with my shoes off.

I over-estimated how much yarn it would take for the KirbyWirby Afterthought Heel and the cuff, so the leg is a little short and I have a LOT left over for my blanket. I love the little cables in the ribbing, and these socks don't fall down like most of my others, so I may keep the length. Love the heel! It makes so much sense. I posted about it on my Ravelry projects here.


Once I finished the socks, I started on Grandma's sweater. I showed a photo of the hot pink sweater I'm making for my Grandma, out of yarn she was donated. I quickly finished the front that was pictured and started on another project, then the 1st rolled around and I wanted to work on my cabled socks. Once I finished those socks, I jumped right in on the back of the sweater, which is identical. I am about at the same place as the photo, so I won't include one this time. I plan to finish it this weekend and do all the finishing work next week, unless I don't have time to finish the other project I'm working on, in which case I'll save it for next month. I showed it to her today, and she loved it. She even liked the reverse side, so I told her she can wear it however she wants!

The last project I'm working on right now is another pair of socks. I don't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but I sing with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus under a fantastic and charismatic director. I take my knitting to nearly every rehearsal, and when I was working on the black and neon socks last month, he walked by and said that his 1 pair of hand-knitted socks were his favorite, then jokingly told me he's a size 8 1/2. I told him my feet were size 10 1/2, and he said that it's basically the same size in socks. So I thought, I'm knitting myself 12 pairs of socks (give or take 1 or 2--my hubby has some queued up too), and I hardly even wear socks. This man wears socks every day of his life (I've maybe seen him in sandals once in 6 years), so surely I can knit him a pair. I went out and bought a beautiful pair of balls of Patons Kroy yarn from Hobby Lobby the next day, and I'm working on toe-up Vanilla Latte socks for him. I am hoping to have them done by Thursday (6 more days) so I can enter them for February's sock bash. I *love* the yarn colors! They started with navy in the toe, then teal with navy flecks, then burgundy, and light blue with teal and purple flecks. I don't have a photo of them yet, but I'm getting ready to start the heel, so I will have them done for my next post. I can't wait to see his face when I give them to him! He even mentioned it to me again this week, as I was working on my Felia socks before rehearsal. I told him I already bought yarn, but I don't think he heard me as someone else started talking to him. They are flying off the needles, being mostly stockinette.

Next month, along with my socks, hats, and finishing up Grandma's sweater, I'm taking part in my very first mystery knit along! It is a sport weight cowl, and I immediately knew exactly what I wanted to use. I have some Road to China Light that I bought on destash last summer that didn't have a designated project, so it is my new cowl! I wound it up the other night, and now I can't stop touching it! I am going to enjoy the heck out of knitting and then wearing this puppy. They release a clue a week for 4 weeks, so hopefully between making socks, hats, and taking care of little people I might be able to keep up. I'm so excited! I've been wanting to do a MKAL for a few months, and it seems like spring is the time for them. I can't wait to see what it looks like.

Finally, I have a photo of a FO in the wild. I love this outfit today, and my favorite shawl is one of the best parts of it!

New Year, New Goals

It’s been a little while, and I still haven’t gotten around to making my post about all the projects I finished in the last year. I will have to do that in another post, so I can sort everything a little better.

So far for 2019, I have completed an entire sweater, a pair of socks, and 3 hats! I’m pretty impressed with myself, and pleased with how the projects are turning out. One of the podcasts I watch was running a “Knit your behind off” sweater KAL from January 1 through 31, so I gave myself the deadline of 2 weeks, and made it! I knit an entire worsted weight, size 2X sweater for myself in only 11 days! I had it washed and blocked and was wearing it before my deadline. I couldn’t believe how quickly it went.

I knit the Weekender by Andrea Mowry. I bought the yarn for this sweater back in August, after the same podcast ladies were talking about it in detail, so I thought it would be a good one to try for myself. I used cheap(er) wool from JoAnn’s, Paton’s Classic Wool Worsted in a gray color. It was really the only one they had 8 skeins of the same dye lot that day, or else I would probably have picked a different color. I started on the sweater and knit about 2/3 of one ball the first couple of days, and thought I might be cutting it close on the yardage, so I bought 1 more skein, from a different dye lot. I added a couple of inches to the body (I have a long torso and didn’t want my belly to show), and I worked the stitch count for the 3X sleeves, since my arms were larger than the 2X schematic.

The sweater turned out huge, and I didn’t even use a full 7 skeins! I don’t know how my gauge got so far off. I did actually swatch (I didn’t want to knit for hours on a sweater and not have it fit!), but somehow my gauge was a little bigger, and I didn’t use nearly as much yarn as I should have. The sweater is supposed to have quite a bit of positive ease, but mine has so much. It is very slouchy, and I don’t think I’ll be wearing it out as much as I would like. I do wear it all the time at home, though. It is incredibly warm! I went out in 20 degree weather the other night, and didn’t realize I wasn’t wearing my coat until we left the venue after the sun went down! It fits like a very oversized sweatshirt, which is nice, because none of mine really fit anymore. I’m just proud to have something that I made to wear. If I end up losing some weight, I might even steek it under the arms to make it a little less boxy, but I’m not worried about it right now. I don’t mind the scratchiness of the less expensive wool, and I’m planning another sweater in the same wool later. I even took back the 2 skeins and exchanged them for two of the other colors I would like. I posted more details about the sweater here.

So, I get to check “make a sweater for myself” off the list, finally! I’m so happy. I have yarn to make several more, of varying weights: 4 fingering weight, 1 sport, 3 DK weight, 3 more worsted. I would like to lose weight before I make something more fitted for myself, but for the first project, I’m okay with this boxy one. I wouldn’t even mind knitting another Weekender in the future. It was a very enjoyable knit. Maybe I’ll buy some softer, more colorful yarn next time.

The sweater was all I knit for the first 2 weeks of 2019. I have set a new goal for myself to knit 52 hats for charity this year. My Grandma has been doing this for years, along with several ladies from her church. I would love to start creating for other people as well, as I’ve never done anything like that. I did look into the NICU octopus project, but their guidelines are so stringent, I didn’t see myself being successful at that. So I am going to make at least 52 hats, one per week, to donate to Grandma’s church’s clothes closet. Since I only worked on the sweater the first 2 weeks, I had some catching up to do. I pulled out some Red Heart from my stash (this is also going to be a great stashbuster for me!), and on the label was a neat crochet pattern. I have been knitting so much lately, I was relieved to find something to crochet, for once. I crocheted that hat in 2 hours! One hat down, 51 to go!

I had some red and yellow in a bag from last Christmas (2017) from an abandoned project, so I planned to make a couple of Chiefs hats, since they were doing so well in the post-season. Then, I saw that one of the podcasts was having a colorwork KAL, so I found a nice pattern that I could knit and enter another hat. This one took a little longer, but turned out nice as well.

My third hat for the year is also colorwork, but it is crocheted instead of knitted. I have never done anything like this with crochet, and it was a little more work than I bargained for. The yarn kept getting so twisted up, it took a lot longer because I had to keep untwisting it. I thought it would make an adult size hat, but this one barely fits my 2-year-old. Someone will be able to wear it, though. More stashbusting!

My last finished project this year is a pair of socks!! I feel like a knitting machine. I have never completed a pair of socks so quickly, not even the size 6 short summer socks I made for my sister-in-law. The Grocery Girls podcast is running a monthly "sock bash" where each month has a different theme. They have posted all the themes for the year, so I carefully planned out every pair of socks I am making this year to hopefully match the themes, as well as take care of some of my own desires. I have been collecting sock yarn for over a year now, and I figured it was time to start doing something with it. I have enough yarn to make at least 16 pair, and I thought a pair a month would be good, plus all of my other dream projects.

January's theme was "local to me" and I just happened to have 1 skein of yarn from a dyer a few towns over. I purchased it when I was on my way home from a volleyball tournament in the same town this fall, and I didn't plan to do anything with it right away. I bought it because I didn't have anything like it in my stash, and I was collecting bright colors to add some variety to my sock yarn blanket.Since it was the only yarn I had that would fit the theme, I went ahead and added it to the queue (after my sweater, of course!). I was hoping that I could complete the sweater in 2 weeks, and then spend the other 2 weeks of the month on the socks, but the socks only took me 8 days to finish! I posted about them here.

I love these socks more than I probably should, and even my hubby is super impressed with how neat the colors play together. I used the Blueberry Waffles pattern, with Sockmatician's Toe-up Recipe. I made a similar pair last year, but I made these a little shorter in the foot and the leg, so maybe they'll wear a little more snugly. I wore the other pair today, though, and they are really nice, if not a little baggy!

I started 2 other projects that I will be working on over the next few months. Well, one is an ongoing project that will probably never be "finished"--a cozy memories sock yarn blanket that I have tons of fingering weight yarn to add to. I have been buying mini skeins and random bright colors with the intention of making it more diverse. I like blues and purples and teals, so that's what I pick out. So I have been purchasing bright neon yarns, oranges, yellows, reds, and bright greens to give my blanket some variety. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I only have 3 tiny squares done. I hope to add a square a day once I finish my next project. They are about 2-3" square, so I will need lots and lots of them to make it at all usable. And I need to weave in ends as I go. Like every other day! I hate weaving ends...

The last project I am currently working on is a sweater I mentioned, for my Grandma. Someone donated a lot of yarn to her knitting group for the charity hats and twiddle muffs, and there was an unopened package of this cotton yarn in the mix. It was enough for a small sweater, not my size, so I asked Grandma to pick out a pattern from a few I had researched. She chose this one, made with the same yarn, so I knew it would look good.

So far, it is coming right along. It is about half and half knit and purl, and I feel like I purl so slowly. I knit continental, and the way I hold my yarn (the same way Grandma taught me, and how I hold it to crochet) makes it difficult to purl the way I've seen some other continental knitters do. I am exploring ways to make it faster or easier, but this sweater is a size small, it is an interesting yet very memorizable pattern, and it's worsted weight, so it is going very quickly. I just started on the front sleeves this evening, and I just started it Wednesday.

I guess I also started on a shawl the other day as well. I couldn't work on my socks during the last Chiefs' game because I knew I would be so tense it would throw my tension off, so I started a new project. I got this yarn from Grandma last year, as it was a donation to her that she said she wouldn't use. It's a beautiful fingering weight merino/mohair/nylon blend, and I only have 1 extra-large skein of it, so I decided to make a Spindrift shawl. I wanted to learn a new way to purl, and since this is in stockinette (knit one side, purl the other), I decided to try to knit the whole piece with the yarn in my right hand and "flick" it. I made it about 8 stitches before I gave up. I need to have lots of time to practice, and to be able to go slow, and not be worried about my home team not going to the Super Bowl again. I might work on this some more once I finish Grandma's sweater.

The only other thing I need to do right away is make another hat. I still have lots of the red and yellow Red Heart, so I might make another ombre knit hat, or I might try a different colorwork pattern. Once the colorwork KAL is over, I will be exclusively crocheting hats unless I find a ridiculously easy and fast knit pattern. Crocheting them is so much faster...

I will try to catch up with last year's projects in the near future. There were far too many projects finished between my last post and the end of the year to include them all in this post, but I'll try to get a post up soon of them. And the boys' newly decorated rooms. Sheesh, it's a lot to keep up with. Wish me luck.

Happy crafting and happy New Year!

Dream knitting...

Okay, now to show off the fun stuff. I mentioned in my last post how I don't like that this server limits the number of labels I can add, so I can't make my posts as easy to search as I'd like. I'm sure I could get some fancy website that allows me to put as many as I want, but honestly, as sporadically (I'm being honest, right?) as I update, I don't want to hassle with it. If I would just post more often, instead of once every 6 months, I could use them the way I'd like, for individual projects, instead of doing a massive post with 20 different projects. Anyway, I digress...

This post is to share some of what I would like to do next, and what I'd like to do it with. I may have to break this up too, as it's getting late and I have a long list.

First up, I'm going to be making Christmas gifts. I am giving a dish cloth (or 2) to all of my kids' teachers, Bible study leaders, our neighbors, the mail lady; all those people you wish you had gotten something to show them you appreciate them, but maybe waited too late. I think a handmade dish cloth and a wooden spoon and maybe even a jar of yummy jam and a nice note is a great gift for someone you don't know terribly well, but want to acknowledge. I have plenty of cotton yarn, since Michael's had a sale recently and I stocked up.

Michael's sale haul

All the cotton

I just ordered some beautiful yarn from Lolodidit that is going to be a Christmas gift. It's in a tonal pinky-burgundy, and it'll become a lovely Gable cap. I can't wait to see this one completed.

Since I crocheted Bl'aig a stingray for his new room, I'm planning to make a Roxie the Hippo for L'aig's room and a super-cute stuffed train for Blessing's room. I'll be using existing Red Heart yarns for each of these. The idea is to have them complete before Christmas.


Speaking of Christmas, I sing with the local symphony chorus, which is pretty amazing and led by a world-renowned Grammy Award-winning choral director. Each holiday season, we put on an amazing weekend of Handel's Messiah, and then the following weekend, we perform a Christmas Festival, which is usually a blend of beautiful seasonal carols as well as traditional secular favorites, like Sleigh Ride, a Santa sing-along, and fun Christmas standards. For the less-formal fun second act, the Chorus is allowed to wear whatever crazy Christmas headgear they like along with their uniform, so last year I knitted (the week of!) a green and red striped Santa hat. I will have to dig out a photo of it. Many of the singers had different accessories for each of 7 performances, so I decided to try to have a little variety this year. I found some really great patterns on Ravelry, now I just have to find time to make them. I'd like to try for 4 new hats, as I won't be singing in all the performances this year.

More gift knits this year: the thrummed mittens I shared about back in March will be a companion set for my hubby and me. I will probably give him the purple ones, as that is his favorite color. Oh well... Also, more Christmas ball ornaments to come. I plan to make those for the immediate family each year, changing the number and the pattern each year. I might even do different colors eventually.

Last, but not least (at least for the knits with a deadline), is a sweater for my Grandma. Grandma is the one that taught me how to crochet so many years ago. She knits, she hand-quilts, she sews, she bakes, she cans sweet pickles, makes the best chicken & noodles I've ever had, and as a 3-time cancer survivor, she is an inspiration to me. At 89 (she just celebrated another birthday last week!), she has crocheted over 150 hats for charity and over 100 double-layered twiddle muffs for Alzheimer's patients, in one year.

People have heard about her endeavor and have started donating yarn, and some of it is quite nice! We visit her every week, and nearly every time, she tells me to go through her yarn pile and pick out anything I like. I have picked up several skeins of sock yarn (she only like working with DK and worsted acrylic and cotton) and eyelash yarns from her, as well as a few random discontinued skeins of varying wools. Someone donated a brand new sweater's quantity of Classic Elite Provence cotton in a lovely pink shade, so I asked Grandma if she was going to use it. She said she had no idea what to do with it (it's DK weight), so I asked if she wanted to pick out a sweater for me to make for her with it. She picked out this beautiful textured sweater, so I will start on it shortly after Christmas. I told Grandma I'd try to have it finished by Mothers' Day for her.

Those are my immediate pieces. I'm sure I will end up making others before it's all said and done. I might have another Etsy order sneak in there, or a Christmas gift or something. I also need to finish up the blankets I started, make my other Christmas ideas, do some sewing, and get ready to homeschool my twins next year. I think that should be enough for a while.

This will probably be the last of my frantic, must-post-while-I'm-in-the-mood phase. I'll post some photos of the boys' rooms soon, but other than that, it'll be slow and steady on these big projects. Thanks for sticking with me and reading all this. Until next time...

FO's, UFO's & WIP's

For those of you new to the knitting/crocheting world (as I was unaware of until I started watching podcasts), the title of this post stands for Finished Objects (FO's), Unfinished Objects (UFO's), and Works In Progress (WIP's). I figured it would be best if I posted my progress on the projects listed, instead of just waiting for them to be complete, as that may be a while yet for some. And, in my Etsy shop, I tell viewers to check out my blog to see what I'm currently working on, not what I finished 6 months ago and just haven't updated for a really long time.

FO's:

Finnja shawl in Malabrigo Rios

Beautiful cable detail

Harlow hat in Brooklyn Tweed Loft and sock yarn from Grandma

Inside-out

These items have all been washed and blocked, and have all the ends woven in. Basically, they are ready to wear. I'll start with the shawl.

I don't recall which podcast I heard about this shawl from, or maybe it was the designer, and I just loved the shawl in her patterns, but I fell in love with the large cables and the vertical lines. I went to my local yarn store and picked out not just one yarn to make it, but two. I'm so glad I did. I made the first with this Malabrigo in a very tonal dark gray, and the next one I make (I will be making it again!) will be in Cascade 220 in a dark blue. I love how soft this yarn is, and it was very fun to knit. I enjoyed it a lot, which may not always be said of shawls.

The next item is a new(-ish) hat pattern from Andrea Mowry called Harlow. I was going to try to finish it in 4 days like her KAL just after she published the pattern, but that was about the time I decided I didn't have to complete every KAL and just knit the things I want in my own time. It is knit in brioche stitch in the round, which are 2 things I'd never done before. I didn't think it was that difficult, as she posted great video tutorials online, and I love the effect of the variegated yarn on the inside, and the fact that it is reversible. I might make this again in lighter colors next time. It blocked a little larger than I would like, but my husband should be able to wear it, no problem.

I have another FO, but I took its photo with a couple of UFO's that are similar, so I will talk about it when I get there. I love washing my yarns in Eucalan Jasmine wool wash. It was a little overpowering at first, but now that they have sat in a bag in the closet for a few months, it is subtle and very nice.

UFO's:

#29 or 30; haven't counted for a while...

Stingray with Red Heart leftovers

Patons Wool Roving

(Un)Felted Moccasins in Fisherman's Wool

Knit Picks March Evergreen socks in Lolodidit Hippo for Christmas and Lucky mini

Blueberry Waffles sock toe-up with Sockmatician's recipe in Cloudborn

Gridiron Hat in Berroco Ultra Chunky Alpaca

Shower loofah in cotton

Lizard shawl in Mandala Warlock?

Helgoland shawl in Yarn Bee Tricycle Time, Airplane, and teal

I am considering UFO's to be anything where the knitting/crocheting is complete, but the ends are not woven in or there is other finishing work to be completed. As we all know how much I love sewing, there are quite a few of these...

The top photo is one of many dish cloths that still need ends woven in. I have done an i-cord loop at the top corner of all of them, but they just need to be knotted and woven in to be done. I'm making many more of these for Christmas this year, so I'll try to get them all done in one fell swoop.

The next photo is another Christmas gift, for my little Bl'aig. He has an under the sea room, which I'll try to post photos of soon, and so I asked him to pick from a few patterns I have available, and he liked the Manta Ray. There was a pretty cool hammerhead shark too, but he has a huge stuffed shark we found, so I thought another sea creature would be neat. I doubled every dimension in the pattern because I wanted something he could hug, not an amigurumi sized animal. It just needs some large safety eyes and a little pink tongue, and stuffing and sewing ends. One Christmas gift done! I'm making stuffed animals for all the boys this year, more on that later...

The Patons Wool Roving was on clearance (most of it) from JoAnn's, so I thought it would make nice wool dryer balls. They are supposedly going to cut drying time nearly in half, and they make your clothes fluffy without damaging them, and they're pretty colors. I need to wash them so they will felt together, instead of unraveling in the dryer. One or more of them, I discovered too late, is made from a wool/acrylic blend (Bernat Roving), so that will probably be a bust, but the others should work out well.

Speaking of felting, I started this project over a year ago, and just haven't gotten around to completing it. I saw The Yarn Hoarder's podcast over these felted slippers last year, and fell in love with them. I loved them so much, I decided to immediately go out and buy enough yarn to make them for all of the family. Fourteen people!! I was nuts. My hubby talked some sense into me, and told me to just make one pair and see how they went. I started on one, finally finished knitting it, sewed it together, then took over a year to even start the next one. I took almost all the yarn back to the store. All but enough for my slippers. So I finally finished the second one, although I don't think I made them the exact same size. I couldn't remember which size I made the original, so we'll see how they felt up. When I felt them. It'll be before Christmas, because I want to wear them this year, and I need to felt the dryer balls at the same time. I'm a little scared that they will not fit, but I won't know until I try. I have huge feet, so if they don't fit me, I can shrink them for someone else in the family...

Speaking of huge feet, I got to make myself 2 pair of socks earlier this year. I wanted to make some Christmas socks using my Lolodidit Hippo for Christmas, but I didn't want to make boring vanilla socks. I found this lacy pattern for free from Knit Picks (it comes in a set of 12 toe-up socks, one for each month!) with neat evergreen trees, so I thought that would be a nice pair. The pattern was pretty easy to memorize after the first couple of X's, but I had to look at each row for the trees. I like how they turned out, the yarn was so soft and beautiful, but they don't fit exactly like I hoped. They are a little tight, as the stitch count was lower than I'm used to, but with the lace chart, I wasn't sure how to adjust. I have a large (arthritic) ankle that swells often, so it is hard to get them over that. I can endure it for one day a year, though.

Next up are my Blueberry Waffle socks. As I mentioned, I have huge feet, so I want to make sure I have enough yarn to finish the length of my socks. This pattern is written for top-down socks, so I started them toe-up. I heard about Sockmatician's Toe-up sock recipe, so I combined these 2 to make this pair. I like the colors, I like the heel, I just wish I had made the foot a little shorter. These seemed to take forever, as I was trying to make them one at a time on my 9" circular needle. Once I switched to magic loop after the heel, they went much faster. I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the 9" circulars. I need to try them with a plain vanilla sock, instead of a patterned one. I think that might help. The Christmas socks seemed to fly off the needles, they went so quickly. I knit them magic loop the whole way. I was happy to have them done.

These Gridiron hats are all done, and one is even blocked! The red one is ready to wear, and this yarn blocked gives such nice stitch definition, even for being bulky. This is the yarn I let Blessing pick out at the Yarn Barn in Kansas, when I bought all kinds of beautiful new-to-me yarns and fibers this spring. I like the way they turned out, they went fast, and they should fit the boys for several winters. And they're so soft! Alpaca blend, I love it! More Christmas presents!

Next is a little test that I made, also in the hopes of making for Christmas. It is a little cotton loofah (I don't remember where the pattern came from), but I think I'll just buy them for $1 from Dollar Tree, instead of going to all the work to make one. It was a nice idea, just not for me.

Next up is a little something I made last year, but still need to block. I was inspired from a lady in the Mandala yarn Facebook group, and I had the same yarn, but it didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped. Still needs blocking. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, maybe that will change a bit once it's blocked. It is acrylic, though, so I'm not sure how much it will stretch. Anyway, it's lightweight and pretty for fall. Maybe next fall...

Last for the UFO's is this amazingly soft number. I spent what felt like months working on this shawl (so many repeats of the big section of color), as it was hard for me to memorize at first, and it was tricky if I messed up. If I were to make this over again, I would definitely run proactive lifelines, as there were 1 or two places where I had to tink back and didn't get it right. This is the gorgeous Helgoland shawl by Melanie Berg. I saw this on the Grocery Girls podcast, and it was lovely then, and still is. It is humongous. It took most of 3 skeins of yarn, big skeins of Yarn Bee (the same as what I used on the boys' sweaters), and it is so soft. I love the colors together, although if I knit it in wool, I think I would use 3 solid colors. It just needs ends woven in, and a light blocking. I don't want it to grow any more, it's already huge. I bought 4 of her patterns, as there was a discount, so I'm looking forward to trying out more of them in the future.

That's it for the UFO's. Wow, this is a long post. I think I'll leave WIP's for the next post. Maybe next week some time. Goodness, 3 posts in 2 weeks? It must be Christmas. Anyway, I have to get some sleep before work tomorrow (I am reffing a big volleyball tournament), so I should wrap this up. Have fun making!

A few new projects

It has been over 6 months since I wrote, again. I promise, I don't do this on purpose. I would just rather spend any time I have to myself creating, instead of writing. I have had a little more time to get other projects done lately as well, now that my older boys are in preschool and my youngest is big enough for Mothers' Day Out. It's only a couple of hours a week, but it's so nice to be able to be out and see the people, or get outdoor projects done during daylight and not have to worry about entertaining 3 little people at the same time.

In the 6 months since I last updated, we have had a flurry of activity around our house. We had a tree cut down in the front yard that was dead. We didn't want to pay for it to be ground (it would have been an arm and a leg), so we left a waist-high stump. My hubby added some mulch and stones around it last year, so we wanted to keep something there. I hope to plant some phlox and sweet potato vines around it/on it next year to make it look nice.

We also had an ordeal with our furnace flu, and ended up paying a pretty penny to get new duct work and flashing done there. I had to call the gas company twice and was afraid of the house exploding, but luckily it all worked out. We are up to code and haven't had any issues since.

My hubby's economical car's a/c blew up at the beginning of the summer, and with it just being a couple of weeks in, instead of paying more than the car was worth to fix it, we opted to buy a newer used car from my in-laws. This depleted our savings significantly, but we're steadily building it back up.

My clothes dryer stopped working on the 4th of July with a wet load in it, and a wet load in the washer, so we ordered a brand new one to be delivered a few days later. I bought that dryer 2nd hand over 10 years ago, so we felt it was okay to replace after many loads of faithful service.

We decided the boys each needed their own rooms, since the twins have basically shared a bed since birth. Our house has 2 bedrooms on the main floor and a 3rd in the basement, which we had to strip the carpet out of last summer when the basement flooded while we were on vacation. With 3 little boys, we always assumed the twins would be fine sharing a room downstairs (once they're a little older) and the baby would take the other upstairs room. This was all fine until the twins started getting upset at each other for every little thing, so we decided it best to try to split them up. Our utility room downstairs is larger than we probably need (we don't need to have it full of stuff, that's for sure!), so I thought it would be cool to have one of the boys move in the far end and partition it off.

We spent nearly all of July and most of August figuring out, painting, collecting items, and decorating the spaces to entice the little people to want to spend time in their new rooms. We moved them in a week before my goal, Blessing's birthday, and they were thrilled. It doesn't always work out the way we planned, but I think we are all much happier now that everyone has his own space. I will try to post a tour of the spaces after this week, which is jam-packed with projects while my hubby is on vacation.

Somehow, with all these unexpected expenses, you would think I wouldn't have had a dime left to buy yarn, but somehow I managed to do just that. I have been making Etsy orders, teaching lessons, and saving my fun money each month to buy more yarn and pretty patterns off Ravelry. I have been so busy trying to stay caught up that I've only finished a few projects this year, but the ones I have finished have been mostly big projects. Many of them have ends to weave in and need to be blocked, so I don't have official finished photos yet, but I will list the ones I do have photos of here:

Knit 29 dishcloths (not all are pictured here...)

 

Knit Cascade Heritage striped teal socks for hubby

Crochet brown beard for Etsy
Knit Gruffalo for Blessing's birthday

Oh help! Oh no! It's a Gruffalo!

Purple prickles!

Crochet viking hat w/ beard for Etsy x 2

I have a huge queue to complete before the end of the year (hopefully), so I will wrap up with a great big end-of-the-year post again this year to show them all. Some of them are gifts, so I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I reread several of my "recent" posts and noticed how I kept saying I didn't need more yarn. Well, I bought tons more yarn. I still have yarn coming that I ordered this weekend. I don't know if I'll be done buying yarn now (I should be), but I'm not going to make any more promises like that. If I buy yarn, I buy yarn. I'm not going to feel bad about it. My grandma keeps giving me donated yarn every time I visit her, so that's not helping with my goals, and pretty yarn keeps popping up on podcasts and sales, so I will not feel guilty for getting something beautiful that I like and will use to make myself a nice piece, or a gift for someone I love. That is all I'll say about that.

I'd like for it to not be six months before my next update, but it may be a month or more, with Christmas gifts, being in the middle of volleyball season (I referee), and the twins' birthday coming. I have many cool ideas to share with you, but they'll have to wait, because it's late and I have lots to accomplish this week. I'll try to take pics of the boys' rooms as I complete them over the next couple of weeks, so I can put in a tour of all the neat touches we did.

Until next time, have fun and be crafty!

Branching out

Sorry to have been so long in writing. As you’ll see, I’ve been quite busy with my craft projects lately, and decided to be creating instead of writing about what I’m creating. I would like to blog more often and make my posts shorter, so I’ll try to get caught up as of today and hopefully be able to keep up better after that. As I stated in my last post, this has truly been the “Year of Buying,” and now I need to be proactive in my making so that none of my fun and beautiful projects gets lost in the mix.

To start, I’m enamored with knit-alongs right now, so I am actively participating in several this year. The one that started it all was the Yarnhoarder (Amber Lindemann on Ravelry) podcast, as she is doing a year-long dishcloth challenge.

I had a decent amount of solid-colored cotton in my stash from projects over the years, so I thought it would be fun to use that up. I probably had enough to make a few, but I went to Hobby Lobby and found some of their beautiful variegated I Love This Cotton and bought a few colors of that. I also went to JoAnn and found some great prices on colorful variegated balls. I almost bought a whole cone (14 oz. or so) of Lily Sugar ‘n Cream in Christmas colors, but I found individual red, white, and green colors in the inexpensive cotton that I will try first. I might end up buying the cone anyway, as I really want some Christmas towels and dishcloths for my kitchen.

Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton

More I Love This Cotton

Premier Home from JoAnn

I have knitted several (my goal is one a week) and am on track for the year, but I don’t have ends woven in on most of them, so I will post a photo of them as I complete them. I am able to get 3-4 from each set of colors, so I think I will gift them as sets for Mothers’ Day, Christmas, etc. I considered using different stitches for each one, but found the Gramma’s Favorite pattern to be pretty easy and mindless, for when I’m watching a show or need to put it down to help little people at a moment’s notice. I’ve paired together almost all of my cotton yarns, so when I finish a batch, I just need to reach in my bag and pick the next set and get started.

Pairings of different colors of cotton yarn

My first finished dishcloth, in linen stitch

I had the tiniest ball of cotton left from making kitchen towels, hot pads, and dish cloths years ago, so I used that and this pattern to make a cover for my cast iron skillet. It works great!

I’ve started watching other podcasts, namely Hey Sister and Grocery Girls, and they both like to do knit-alongs as well. The Grocery Girls were doing a shawl knit-along for the Joji Locatelli shawls with their names, and I thought the Jodi shawl looked easy, interesting, and different than anything I’ve done, so I completed it with 3 days left in the knit-along. I spent about 5 days completing it (except for the ends—so many ends!) and used stash yarn from last summer to complete it. I enjoyed it so much, after I get this one blocked, I might even make it again in another fun Mandala yarn. I already bought the pattern, and I have plenty of yarn, so I might as well. I’ve never knit a lace chart before, and once I figured it out, this one was very easy to memorize and work up.

Nearly every podcast I have seen is doing a sock knit-along. YarnGasm, Grocery Girls, and Yarnhoarder are all doing one, and YarnGasm is initiating a pair a month knit-along (KAL), called Box o’ Sox. I definitely have enough yarn to knit 12 pairs this year, although I don’t know if I’ll have the time. I have been working on my first pair (I’m a little behind due to the shawl, dishcloths, and blankets I did earlier this year), and have made great progress, just this week. I’m almost ready to turn the heels, and the rest is just knit in a crazy spiral until the ribbed cuff. They are boring vanilla socks for my hubby, but I bought some beautiful Cascade Heritage Prints sock yarn, which is making it much more interesting. I’m trying the Fish Lips Kiss heel, and have the cardboard cutouts for both his foot and mine. I'll post a photo when they're finished.

I have bought quite a bit of sock yarn this year, trying to get to the 12 pair in fingering weight (required for Box o’ Sox entries), but I also have some merino wool left over from Blessing’s sweater, Fishermen’s Wool left over from my cousin’s sweater, and some sport weight that I bought when I first started knitting and had no idea what I was buying.

Sport weight yarn for a hat and fingerless mitts

The thing that set me off on my next adventure was a prize that I won from Amber for all my sweaters last year! I submitted my 5 sweaters in her Rhinebeck sweater KAL, and she drew my number for a prize around Christmas, so I won a beautiful skein of Fire Opal Fibers fingering weight variegated yarn, and the day it arrived in the mail, I knew I needed to find something to go with it. It is too pretty for socks! So I went to the local yarn shop and found 2 skeins that match it perfectly. Now all I need is the perfect pattern, which I think I’ve found. I already bought it, when it was first released and on sale, and it looks interesting and beautiful. I’m excited to try it with my new yarns!

Cascade Silk (gray); Fire Opal Fibers (variegated); Cascade Heritage (purple)

I also decided that, like the wonderful podcasters, I deserved to try some beautiful hand-dyed indie yarns, so I have purchased several skeins recently from Hedgehog Fibres, Sweet Georgia yarns, and Lolodidit. They are all sock weight, but I don’t know if I’ll make socks or a sock weight hat out of them. I know the lolodidit yarns will be socks. I bought a matching mini skein to make heels with, that matches both skeins. One skein will be my Christmas socks this year (I plan to have them completed around Thanksgiving), and the other is sparkly! The Sweet Georgia is so pretty, and colors I wouldn’t normally have bought for myself, but if they’re in a sock, it won’t matter what I’m wearing with them too much. The Hedgehog Fibres is probably going to be a hat, but I don’t know for sure. It’ll make beautiful socks too.

Hedgehog Fibres (left); Sweet Georgia (right)

Lolodidit: Hippo for Christmas, Lucky mini, What I Want (sparkle!)

I am itching to knit myself a sweater, and one of the Hey Sister podcasts highlighted this beautiful Malabrigo Rios yarn in a deep red, perfect for fall. I have a top that I think looks very good on me in a similar color, so I thought that a sweater made out of this would be perfect. I bought 8 skeins on sale, and I finally found the perfect pattern, based closely on a sweater I have that I absolutely love, which I have outgrown. I am hoping I can knit it in a smaller size, but I have enough yarn to make the largest size. I would love to make a matching hat or fingerless mitts out of any leftovers.

Malabrigo Rios in Cumparsita

I follow Madeline Tosh on instagram, and a couple of weeks ago, she was posting some of her new colors. This one caught my eye, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I immediately added it to my cart, then proceeded to look and wait for several more days before I finally bought it. I also found a sale on some Tosh Mohair yarn, and it was less expensive than some of the other yarns, so I bought a sweater’s quantity of it and am planning to knit this cardigan this fall. The mini skein is just a beautiful color I couldn’t justify buying a whole skein of, but loved.

Last but not least, I was looking into Brooklyn Tweed, per the Hey Sister podcast’s recommendation. I found that a yarn store about an hour away carries it, so instead of ordering it and possibly not liking it, I drove out there this week to feel it and see it in person. The owner was a very sweet lady and was very gracious about the raucous 3 little people I trapped in a car for an hour and dragged around a yarn store.

Let me start by saying Brooklyn Tweed is not at all what I expected. I have felt worsted wool before (Fishermen’s Wool is a perfect example), but this yarn felt light as air. I literally felt like I was holding nothing when I picked up a full skein of it. It is not as soft as I had hoped, but the lightness of it makes up for that. I was originally looking for a purplish color (seems to be my color lately), but after seeing it in person, I fell in love with two darker colors, and with the help of my little people, I picked this darker color that I will definitely be making a hat with. I can’t wait to try it on, it’ll be so light! The process is called woolen spun, which means that it has more loft to it, and stays warmer.

After finding the Brooklyn Tweed, I asked her what the softest yarn she’s ever worked with was, and she pointed me in the direction of this a.m.a.z.i.n.g. yarn. It is truly the softest fiber I’ve ever touched. It’s called Road to China from the Fibre Co. and it’s made from alpaca, silk, camel, and cashmere, and I believe it was spun by angels. I can’t even begin to describe how much I enjoy it. I bought 5 different colors (and would have bought more!) but I thought I should be able to make a shawl with that much and wear it close to my face all the time. I think I will take my time knitting this and will wear it every chance I have. It is just gorgeous! It will also be the most expensive article of clothing I own...

Blessing kept picking up green skeins of yarn, so I looked for some more affordable yarn to make him a hat with, and I found this chunky soft alpaca in green, red, and blue. I figured I could either make all 3 boys hats, or make sweaters for the Chipmunks! It is soft as well, although nothing will ever compare to the Road to China yarn.

While I was there, I figured I would ask her about every interesting project I could think of, and one that has been on my mind for a while is thrummed mittens. I need roving (unspun wool) and worsted wool, so I asked her to direct me. I found a beautiful purple (again!) and green, and found coordinating Cascade 220 worsted heathers to knit with. I thought all of these colors would go together great, and my hubby is probably going to claim the purple pair, but I’ll put some accent colors with the green in as well, so they look like a set.

I needed to spend a certain amount to get a discount on my purchase, and I was very close, so I decided to either buy another sweater’s quantity and make it to the highest level, or just get a couple more skeins and make something smaller, so I went to the clearance section and picked out some beautiful lavender (of course) cashmere. I don’t know what I’ll make with it yet (maybe a cowl, since I’ll be wearing the world’s softest shawl all the time!), but it is very soft as well. I felt very preppy buying cashmere, something I never would have dreamed of when I started knitting.

One of the most fun things I bought recently is a set of cotton yarns from Hobby Lobby to make a sock monkey. I love making stuffed animals for my kids, and they love carting them around, and the idea of a sock monkey intrigues me. It has a pattern on the label, so all I need to do is knit the socks and go from there.

I bought a kit from Craftsy around this time last year (along with many other yarns) for a crochet bear, and finally got around to making it over Christmas. I had most of the pieces complete and just needed to stuff and sew it, so of course I procrastinated on all that. I did finally bite the bullet, and I’m so pleased with the results. It is soft, snuggly, and just the right size for my little Blessing to cart around on his shoulder. Instead of crocheting the little sweater, I decided it was faster to knit and be done with it. I should still pick up some stitches around the bottom and knit some ribbing, but it works the way it is. I also want to redo the muzzle, as the ends are poking out already, but it is functional and the little people aren’t complaining. Seeing how they treat their stuffed animals makes me want to knit them more, and in fact, besides the sock monkey, I have a few other animals in the queue for them.

A few days late for Christmas this past year, I finished a knitted Christmas ball for our tree. I then completed one for this year (I knit the year on each one), and started on gifts for family. I hope to make them for all the family every year. They're very easy and fun, and quick! I will use up the colors I have and maybe do green or blue or other colors in subsequent years.

I also had an opportunity to gift a set that I made several years ago with some beautiful acrylic yarn I liked. I made the scarf, loved the colors, made a matching hat, and had enough of the yarn to make something else, but not enough to finish it. I ordered an additional skein from someone on Etsy, and was able to finish the fingerless gloves. I gave this set to my aunt for her birthday in January, and she has told me so many times how much she loves wearing them all! I was glad to find a good home for something that I wasn't sure I needed to keep. 

I think that covers all of my recent purchases. I have so much to work on and so much in my possession right now. I am pretty sure I have enough yarn to last me at least the next 2 years, so I made a vow to my hubby that I would not buy more yarn for 2 more years, unless it is for a specific event or Etsy orders.

Speaking of Etsy, I also made a Viking hat and beard this month. I will be posting more updates about my shop in the coming months, so be on the lookout! A couple of changes and a special are coming up!

That is a lot of yarn, a lot of yarn photos, and very little knitting/crocheting to show, but thank you for reading to here if you have. I have three other projects on hiatus right now, 2 blankets and a set of slippers that I might talk about occasionally, but there is not a lot to speak of right now on them. I will post more often, as I am all caught up now and just need to update with new projects and progress on the ones mentioned above.

Until then, happy crafting!