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!

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...

WIP's

My last post was so long with all the FO's and UFO's! I was planning to sit down and write for about 30 minutes, and it turned out to be 2 hours. I'm going to finish up with my WIP's now.

I just finished knitting this first project last night, as the little people were watching Cars 3 before bedtime. It is technically a UFO now, but I'll show it, since when I started this set of posts it was still a WIP.

This is a lovely shawl I saw on the Grocery Girls podcast from waaaay back when, and I had the pattern in my library on Ravelry because it's free. I ordered the yarn last winter, and didn't have a purpose for it (except socks--it's called Tough Love Sock), but I thought it was too pretty for socks. When it came in, I thought it would make a lovely shawl, so I matched them up, and I think it's beautiful. The pattern is called Kvothe and since it's a smaller shawl with tons of repeats, I think you could use any lower weight of yarn (fingering, sport, dk) and just stop when you think it's big enough. I don't want it any longer lengthwise, but I would like it to be a bit deeper/wider. I really enjoyed the drop stitch rows, and it was pretty easy to memorize and knit without looking after a while. Needs end woven in and blocking.

Kvothe in Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock; size 4 needles

An Etsy custom order came in a week or so ago, and I was asked to make a Gimli (from Lord of the Rings) helmet and beard for an 18-month-old for Halloween. I'm almost done with it (I need to mail it off tomorrow to arrive by her deadline) and I've had a lot of fun figuring out how to make it look the way I want. I took my viking hat pattern and made the child size, and instead of the bobbles and such at the bottom, changed colors and made 2 rounds of DC in the front loop. I sewed the brim up and made ridges in the same color and sewed those over the existing ridges on the hat. Then I made a double-thick shield for the front and sewed it on. I am making a little beard with lots of braids, only much shorter than normal. I don't know how well the toddler will wear it, but I'm sure it'll be cute for a couple of photos.

Gimli hat in ILTY leftovers

Another huge project I got some work done on lately is my Bento Box quilt, by Staci Perry of Very Pink Knits. I've talked about her tutorials before, and maybe even this project before, but I am done with the bulk of the knitting now. I saw her youtube video over this blanket last summer during the Mandala yarn craze, and I thought it would look great in the gradient yarn. Instead of using 3 different colors for the body, I chose Wood Nymph and a Yarn Bee cream in DK weight. I started on it last summer, got a few squares in (it takes 16), and put it away to work on the beach blanket. I took it back out and worked on it intermittently for a while, until I was sure I had all 16 squares done. Turns out, I only had 14 finished, so I had to complete 2 more. That bummed me out for a month or two, so I put it away again. I finally got it back out, and now I can lay everything out. I'm sure I'll find 2 squares squirreled away somewhere soon. I love the way it turned out. I still have so.many.ends. to weave in, and so much sewing to do, but the body is finished. I'll have to wait until after Christmas, so I can take a week or two to sew everything into strips, and then I'll add the dark purple-ish border. Then I'll sew the strips together, then I'll throw a party, because this project has been many months in the making!

Bento box quilt in Mandala Wood Nymph and Yarn Bee cream; size 6 needles

I must really like blankets. When I bought all the Mandala yarn, I had the quilt above in mind, as well as a Sophie's Universe blanket. I saw many examples of these crocheted in different colors, and I thought the way the Mandala gradients work, it would be neat to make 4 of them with different colors in the center, and gradiating out. I only worked 2 sections of 1 of the squares, but I think I'm going to crochet all 4 centers, and then do one section at a time on all 4. Some of the parts are a little tricky, and I would rather do them in succession instead of having to figure them out 4 separate times. I have to pay close attention on this one, so I have shelved it until probably summer time. I've got many projects in mind before I complete it, and I'm happy to do one small section at a time. I'm only going to work the first 7 sections or so of the huge blanket, as I want this to fit on a bed. I should have enough yarn to make each chunk square, and then I have extra to crochet them all together, like 4 granny squares. No sewing here! This is the Genie colorway, which I have tons of, because I have a garment or 2 in mind for it as well.

Sophie's Universe in Mandala Genie; size E hook

I would love to include in this post a little bit of my Dream Knitting, but I can't add any more labels. I like for my posts to be searchable, so I can look for certain projects or posts by keyword, but Blogger limits me to 20, and as you can see from the cloud --------> I have so many to choose from, and am adding new ones all the time. I would love to make my posts searchable by name brand, by pattern, by type of project (garments, scarves, hats, blankets, etc.), by holidays, and all sorts of other things, but I'm limited. So I'll cut this one short so I can have 20 more labels for my queue. Until next time, happy crafting!

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!