Archive | July 2019

There is knitting happening

I have gotten a lot of sock knitting done in the last couple of days. Thanks to a careless, speeding, idiot driver, we are currently a one-car couple. Everyone but the car is fine, thank goodness, but since the idiot did not have a current insurance policy, it’s all being covered by our policy, so we’re trying to save a little bit of money by carpooling for now rather than renting a car. Especially since we’ll have to rent a vehicle soon to take the girl’s belongings to college. (My car Edward just won’t hold as many boxes as the smushed car would have, alas.) Anyway, like I said, I am grateful that we are all unhurt and we have good insurance that will help us get it all sorted out. Eventually. Until then, I am knitting in the car while the husband drives me to and from work!

I’m loving these Apothefaery socks and who knows, by the end of the week, I might have a completed sock!

I also have a completed shawl as of last night. I bound off my Imagine When shawl and used up almost all the skein, hooray. Unless something else unexpected comes up, (and considering how the rest of this summer has gone, it might) I should have it blocked by the end of the weekend and have pretty photos to share soon! Until then, here are cute dogs.

Duncan & Grace love each other!

I hope your week is going better than mine, and that you are also getting lots of knitting done!

FO: Bobble Hat

Jul28

For all my talk yesterday about selfish knitting and making what I want to make, I spent my knitting time yesterday and this morning making a bobble hat. I’ve made maybe eight or ten of these already, for my former co-workers. They’re meant to represent the pombe yeast tetrads that they study in their research lab, and even though I’ve left that team, my former boss still asks me to make a hat for each new member. As annoying as I find bobbles to be, I’m happy to do it because A) I adore her and B) I love it when people ASK for handknit items. I had the yarn in my stash and I hadn’t made a hat in ages, so it was kind of a nice treat.

It’s based on this pattern but I made modifications to make an adult size and to adjust the placement of the bobbles, so you can see the details on the Ravelry project page. And now it’s done and I can go back to my previously scheduled fun knitting! Happy Sunday!

A Tale of Two Socks

Jul27

I always have a sock on my needles. Ever since I started sock knitting two years ago, I have at least one sock going. They’re great travel knitting, they’re useful, they’re small, I don’t need a pattern for my favorites, and I get to use fun sock yarn. But I’ve discovered that the yarn is a key part of this equation. Maybe not surprising to you — I mean, yarn is one of the best parts of this knitting obsession, right? — but it always surprises me. I have this sock I’ve been working on for a while. I don’t even know how long because I didn’t start a project in Ravelry, but maybe a couple of months? And this is what I have so far:

It’s not very much, given my usual sock-knitting rate. And I realized it’s because I don’t love the yarn. It’s a Zauberball and while I think the colors are fun, I don’t like how it feels. It’s a rougher yarn than I prefer, and I’m afraid it will be scratchy on my feet. (Yes, I know feet aren’t as sensitive as necks or foreheads or arms, but believe me, I’ve had some problem socks.) The girl has asked for a reprieve from new socks for a while. Who else would want possibly itchy purple-ish socks? I don’t know. So while I’m tempted to frog, I’ve set them aside into hibernation and last night I cast on a new, fun sock.

Much better: fun colors and SOFT yarn! This is Apothefaery Fabrications Middle of the Road Sock yarn that I got at my LYS and it’s going to be Beautiful Socks. Yes, capitals!

I just need my knitting to get back to bringing me comfort again. I’ve struggled with my knitting mojo this summer, my everything mojo if I’m being honest, and I need my knitting to be where I succeed and do what feels good for me. After the big Fade project and then the dog sweater test knit, I need selfish knitting. And not even just knitting for me; I need knitting that is driven by my creativity and my inspiration and my ideas. I have one more review project on my needles that’s almost done, and after that I might take a little break. We’ll see. There’s been a lot on my mind this summer and I’m looking ahead to taking the girl back to college and our looming house renovation project, so I might not have the mental energy for much more than comfort knitting.

A Dog Sweater

Jul24

I made a sweater. For my dog. I never thought I would be the type of person to dress up my dog, let alone to make a sweater for my dog, but there you have it. Really, the only reason I did it is because I was asked to test knit a pattern, and they wanted people with bigger dogs and they’ve seen my Instagram and I definitely fit the bill. It was a complicated pattern with a lot of math but the actual knitting went quickly and soon Jack had a handsome sweater.

As you can see, there’s a lot of fabric bunched up in front, so either my measurements were off or my knitting was off. I don’t even know. And it’s fine, it goes on and comes off and he was very patient with me during the entire ordeal.

Every time I had to measure him, he dutifully got up and stood still, for a short time anyway. When I had to try it on him, he let me manhandle him to get it on. I also tried it on Duncan, our big horse of a dog to see if it would fit him as well.

It looked better on Jack. And I have to confess, I found him quite enchanting in the sweater and for a brief moment thought I would make another one in hopes of getting a better fit.

Then I woke up the next day and had come to my senses. Jack is fine with one sweater!

Interlude Project

Jul11

Sometimes when I have several big projects on my needles, I need to cleanse my palate with a smaller project that I can get done in a few days. Sunday I cast on a new Bandana Cowl with yarn from the stash. It got off to a rough start, though, and I was afraid I’d chosen poorly.

First, I was trying to adapt a pattern meant for bulky yarn to aran weight, so I was using notes from another knitter. The first needles were too big, though, so I frogged and started over with a smaller size. I liked it enough, until I got a few rows in and saw a dropped stitch way down at the beginning. I didn’t like it enough to keep going, so I frogged again and cast on with size 8 needles, and this time it worked. Except I did drop a stitch again and had to ladder it up about five rows.

It wasn’t my favorite yarn; it was a little nubby, and thick & thin in places. It’s Skacel Urban Silk, which is 80/20 silk and cotton. It’s definitely soft, and has the lovely drape of silk, but something about it just didn’t thrill me, so I’m glad I made this with someone else in mind. Now let’s just hope she likes it!

It’s definitely smaller and more snug than the original was intended, but it fits me well and should be perfect for the recipient. And it got two skeins of yarn out of my stash!

Feeding the stash

Jul9

Do you like yarn? I like yarn. I like my current stash, I like yarn in stores, and I especially like new yarn that arrives in the mail after I’ve had a bad day. Yesterday I had TWO packages waiting for me when I got home. The first had these goodies from Izzy Knits:

Isn’t that logo the cutest?? For some crazy reason, I agreed to test knit a pattern for a dog sweater. Yes, a sweater for one of my dogs. A sweater he will very likely not want to wear longer than two minutes, and that I’ll have to protect from the other dog chewing on it. Still, he will be very handsome during those two minutes.

The second package was yarn from an Instagram/Etsy destash. There are no tags so I have no idea who made what, and I don’t care a bit. Because OMG look at my pretties:

They’re all fingering weight except that one bright pink variegated skein, which I think is worsted and will become an awesome cowl. The others will feed the stash for now. That neon yellow is the softest; I think it must have some cashmere in it. No idea what to do with it, since I can’t/don’t wear that color, but maybe mixed in with something else, it’ll work out.

Today we’re finally getting someone to look at our broken AC again, after a week of a warm, humid upstairs. Here’s hoping I go home to a cool(er) house! At least I know I’ll go home to dogs, and that’s pretty good.

Happy Tuesday, friends! Hope it’s a good one!

The Loopy Blue Socks

Jul6

My socks are done! I needed mindless knitting while I watched Rafa at Wimbledon today and my sock fit the bill perfectly. All the ends have been woven in and they’re ready to be tucked away for fall.

fullsizeoutput_21b5 The yarn is from The Loopy Ewe Seasonings Series in the color Kara’s Hanauama, and I loved knitting with it. It feels tightly plied, nice and sturdy, and the coordinating mini-skein was perfect for the main color.

fullsizeoutput_21b4 These socks took me exactly a month to make, and I used exactly half of the main color, so I’m totally going to make a pair of shorties from the rest. And now I’m left with four shawls in my WIPs. I’m thinking I need to add some variety in there! More socks??

All the Shawls

Jul4

Well, it didn’t take me long to accrue a nice collection of WIPs! Somehow I’ve ended up with four shawls on my needles, all fingering weight one-skein projects. That really is my favorite type of project, apart from socks, of course. My newest shawl is using Joji Locatelli’s pattern Imagine When and a gorgeous new skein of Manos del Uruguay. It’s a new yarn called Alma and my color is called Resistance.

I cast on two days ago and I’m ready to start section four of six. Of course, the last three sections are quite a bit bigger than the first three, but still, it’s going quickly. And darned if I’m not starting to like short rows! They’re not as fiddly as they used to be, and the wedges they can create are super fun.

The picots on the side are fun too! I like doing picots better this way than in a picot bindoff for sure. This is shaping up to be an addictive knit!

A Summer KAL

Jul3

Ever since I finished my Fade shawl, I’ve had a marvelous time knitting on other things. I’ve got a pair of socks almost done, I made some progress on my Pride shawl, and I’ve cast on two new shawls. One of them is a fun summer KAL for Under the Olive Tree Knits, a one-skein shawl pattern named the Sun Glitter Shawl. I picked out some new-ish yarn from my stash, Less Traveled Concorde in Lagoon, and have been loving this pattern!

It’s going smoothly and quickly and I think blocking is going to make a huge difference, opening up the mesh triangles a lot. You need around 400 yards of fingering weight, and the pattern is free through August, so check it out if you want to play along!