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!