Archive | February 2021

Final FO of February: Madness!

Today is the last day of February and that’s a little bonkers — how did this month go so quickly?? I’ve got one more finished object to share, my Mad Mini Wrap, and there was a bit of madness there at the end!

That final color, the green, was just for the border, and when I got to where the pattern told me to bind off, I still had quite a bit left. I didn’t want the yarn to go to waste so I added a few more rows. Sadly, I misjudged the amount and I was about 3/4 of the way through the bind-off when I admitted to myself that I didn’t have enough yarn and had to unknit the bind-off and the last row. It’s done now, though, blocked and everything. Blocking definitely helped this one get to a wearable length, though it’s still a tad shorter than I usually prefer. The pattern is the Mad Mini Wrap (Rav link) and I used the same yarn, same colors used in the original design, the 5 mini-skein pack of Mad Hatter Sport from Frabjous Fibers in Mice in the Tea. I found the yarn quite delightful, all supple and bouncy, and the colors are gorgeous.

I was hoping I’d get my sock done before the end of the month too, but spent too much time yesterday doing stuff around the house, preparing for some renovations. A necessary evil, I suppose, but today is for fun!

FO Friday: Gray Socks

Feb26

The boy’s gray socks are finally done! I looked back and realized I started them three months ago. And while they are very long, they’re also very simple, just plain ribbing. I think it was the boring gray that made them take so long.

The legs are 10 1/2″ long and I knit to 8″ on the feet before starting the toes, so yeah, these are quite a big bigger than what I make for myself. But he put them on the next day and seems quite pleased with them, so I’d say it was worth it.

I’d have another FO to share, my Mad Mini Wrap, except I tried to use up all the green and lost at yarn chicken. So now I need to undo most of a bind-off and the last row. Darn it all.

The good news is that I’ll definitely get it done by the end of the month, taking me down to three WIPs that I’ll carry into March. That’s not bad at all!

Progress: Mad Mini Wrap

Feb25

The last couple of days have found me back with my Mad Mini Wrap (Rav link), which has been languishing for a little while. I’m enjoying the switch to sport weight yarn — it definitely knits up faster than fingering weight! I finished off the third mini last night and hope to start with the fourth tonight.

It’s kind of a funny little shape that’s growing there. I have no idea if that’s supposed to be happening but I think I like it. The fifth and final color, a lime green, will go along one of the long sides. I knit quite a bit of this while watching I Care A Lot on Netflix. It was creepy and disturbing but also darkly funny and weirdly compelling. Definitely not the wholesome viewing I’ve been looking for the last few months!

I also had a little trip to my LYS on Sunday, for a masked and distanced yarn date with a friend, and I was so overwhelmed with getting a fun adventure that I went a little crazy with my shopping!

The Woolfolk Luft will become a Getting Warmer cowl, and the Ella Rae on the right will become an Op Tiki scarf (Rav link). The two middle skeins, from Old Rusted Chair, just came home with me because they were so beautiful, so they are currently just stash food. And I really really really want to cast on all of this yarn but I’m not because I’m saving my needles and my time for the March Water shawl KAL! Maybe I should get that yarn wound to distract myself from my new pretties.

Happy almost-Friday, friends.

Sock It To Me Monday

Feb22

I’m starting to think ahead to March, when I’ll be casting on a Water shawl (Rav link) in a knit-along with Alissa and a few others here in Blogville. It’s a two-skein shawl that might have a trick or two up its sleeve, so to get it done by the end of March, I know I’ll need to focus on it quite a bit. Though I know I can’t finish all my WIPs before then, I decided I needed to at least finish the boy’s gray socks, which have been lingering for far too long. If I don’t finish them soon, I’m afraid they’ll get lost forever! After working on it most of the weekend, I got all the way past the heel turn.

That’s a very long leg, I’ll have you know! And the foot will be equally long, I believe, or very close. So this week I just need to watch some good TV and movies and zip through this foot. What about you, are you hoping to finish a WIP or two by the end of the month?

FO Friday: Purple Lemonade Socks

Feb19

This might be the fastest pair of socks I have ever knit, and the only reason is because I love the yarn so much. I used my favorite Vanilla Latte sock pattern, so they were simple and easy to knit during work meetings, which might have helped. These took less than a week!

And they are already being put to use! We have sunshine and temps in the upper twenties, so I can wear my handknit socks again. When it was so bitter cold, I had to wear thinner dress socks with thick boot socks over to keep my feet warm. It feels so good to have just one layer of sock again, and to see such cheerful colors. I ended up with a good-sized ball left over, so I’ll knit some socks from the grey skein like this and then do a pair of shorties from the two balls of leftovers. I do love it when a plan comes together.

Happy Friday, friends!

WIP Wednesday: Walls

Feb17

Many moons ago I wound yarn for something like five new projects. Of those, maybe three got cast on at the time. Apparently five is too many for me to deal with at once. So this shawl didn’t get started until a week or so ago, and then I got bored with the garter stitch and set it aside to make all the hats. When I finally picked it up again, I was able to push through to the eyelet section and now I’ve even gotten to the second color!

It is a very subtle gradient, so the color change is hard to see here, especially since I haven’t done a whole lot with the new color. I’m thinking this is going to be one of those projects that I don’t love to knit but will love once it’s done. And getting it done might be hard, since I keep getting distracted. Yesterday was a happy mail day and I got my Capitol Rainbow mini skein set from Marianated Yarns.

But I have to figure out what to make first! Not socks — I already have self-striping ordered from Desert Vista Dyeworks — but maybe a simple cowl? This is why mini skeins are not my favorite things to knit with. I’m also tempted to add in a tiny bit of black, just a thin stripe between each color. What do you think, should I?

Sock It To Me Monday

Feb15

Some socks practically knit themselves, don’t they? Yesterday I decided I needed a third pair of socks on the needles, a more fun pair of socks than my current two, so I wound a most awesome skein of yarn from The Lemonde Shop. I cast on right before my knitters’ Skype call and just kept going after it was over.

I adore this yarn so much and I’m really hoping I can squeak out a pair of shorties too, with contrasting toes. I’m also very glad I have another skein from her in my stash, even if it’s gray with the rainbow instead of purple. This color is called Rainbow Dream and I don’t see it on her site at the moment; fingers crossed she does it again someday.

Like much of the country, we are in the middle of an extreme cold spell. It’s been over a week of single digit and negative temps, with negative wind chills. Like many people I’m sure, I am very tired of it. I am clearly not made to endure long stretches of cold so maybe I will not be moving to northern Colorado after all. Or maybe I would be happier if I weren’t living in a house that could handle these temperatures. Our house is currently 61 degrees inside and the cold water supply pipe to the upstairs bathroom appears to be frozen. Maybe if we didn’t have to demo the falling-down sleeping porch, we could afford to replace windows and break into walls to add insulation or whatever it is the pipes need.

However! There is good news on the horizon: today appears to be the low point, literally and figuratively, and starting tomorrow temperatures will start to creep back up, slowly but surely. And we have given a large deposit to our contractor so that the renovations can start early this spring, and maybe we’ll be able to move out of this money pit eventually after all! Until then, dogs and blankets all around.

Stay warm, friends.

FO Friday: Another Hinterland Hat

Feb12

I just can’t stop making these hats. I have a finished one that I think will be a gift, even if it is a beautiful beautiful purple hat. The red one might also be a gift, since I don’t wear red with my purple hair.

The purple is Malabrigo worsted that I rescued from another project a while back. I think it was another hat that I frogged? I don’t remember, but I’m glad I did because it’s so good for this pattern. And the red is… hmm, it might be from Show Me Yarn? It was already wound and the tag is somewhere still on the shelf in the stash. I’ll find it at some point. Anyway, the red might be my last Hinterland for a while. I think I’m ready to get back to all my WIPs.

Grace is feeling a bit peaky and the dishwasher is broken and the temperatures are going to be in the single digits for another few days, so that’s all super. But let’s look on the bright side: the repairman is coming today and I took Grace to the vet and should get bloodwork results today or tomorrow, and I have flannel sheets and Cuddl Duds. And aside from milk, I don’t know that we need much from the grocery store this weekend, so I might just continue hibernating with knitting and blankets and dogs. I know it’s been pretty cold in a lot of places, so I hope you all are staying warm!

Mistake? What mistake?

Feb9

No, I’m not even talking about yesterday’s mistake! I was working on a cabled hat on Sunday and realized my cables were messed up. Like, four out of five cables around the hat were wrong. Argh, right? How many of you would have frogged back, or gone super crazy and dropped the stitches down to fix the cables?

Yeah, not me. I decided the brim would cover most of the bad cables and just moved on. I am nowhere near advanced enough to want to attempt dropping cables back, and it just wasn’t worth it to frog and reknit. It’s a hat for me, and I know I’m never going to look at at sadly and say, “Ohhh, too bad I messed those cables up.” Especially since it ended up looking darn good!

My cable-novice brain is suggesting that I must have done a back cable as a front, see down there by the brim? But then the rest of the hat is good and it fits well and it will be colorful and cozy… if I ever need to go outside in these crazy single-digit temperatures.

Pattern is Hinterland Hat (Rav link), my new favorite, and yarn is Malabrigo Rios, my old favorite. I don’t think I’m done making these hats. They’re so good. Do you have a hat you knit repeatedly?

Sock It To Me, Monday

Feb8

Oh, Monday. I was on a Zoom call this morning, one where I didn’t have much to contribute, so I had a little bit of sock knitting with me. I’d brought up the second gray sock for the boy and I did three or four rounds before pulling out the first sock to check the cuff length. This is what I found.

It might be hard to tell for sure, but no, those cuffs do not match. My typical cuff is 2×2 rib so apparently when I cast on, I did that without thinking. And without remembering that I’d done 1×1 rib on the first sock! I know what you’re thinking: would the boy care? Would he even notice? The answer to both is probably not, but I frogged and started over anyway. If I’d been further along, I might not have, but I like ribbing, so having to re-knit this isn’t a big hardship.

I do have a positive sock update to share, though. I finally finished the first Sorry Not Sorry sock late last week and cast on the second.

I’m not completely convinced I have enough of my contrast yarn for both a heel and a toe, but I’ll worry about that later. I still have about five inches of ribbing to think about that. I really want to cast on some new socks, though. There’s something about solid-color socks that bores me. I’m ready for some stripes or speckles or something more exciting…like this:

This is Doors of January by Mint Rain Yarns. It’s inspired by The 10,000 Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow and if you haven’t read it, definitely check it out! It was one of the recent books from my book group and it’s unusual and strange and I loved it so much. I ordered the black mini-skein to represent doorways at the heels/toes; it’s not a perfect match for the black in the main yarn but it’ll work. I’m telling myself I need to finish my pink sock before starting this one. I wonder if I’ll make it!