Where’d my week go?

Apr18

I’ve missed this. Work has kept me away from my knitting life this week. We organized a big external event with a well-known (in the science world) speaker, and I love the energy and bustle that comes with putting on those events, but it’s pretty much non-stop from the day before to the day after. It was on Tuesday, and today’s the first day that I feel like I can catch my breath. I’ve only been knitting in short bursts here and there, so I have no fun progress photos to share. Still, I wanted to share how pretty spring is in my neck of the woods!

I wish it could stay like this year-round! Plus, I’ll share some dog photos, because they’ve been the other constant this week: I work, I come home and pet dogs, and I sleep!

Jack is doin’ a snooze, Grace is waiting for the squirrel to reappear, and Duncan is basking in the sun. You can tell I’ve been spending a lot of time on our deck!

Hope your week has been a bit less hectic than mine, and that I have knitting photos to share soon!

A sock and a dog

Apr14

I finished the first River Fleet sock that I’m testing and it’s quite lovely. I adore the pattern that looks rather like cables and isn’t cables at all.

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The yarn is Knit Picks Capretta in Vibrant Violet, which is a fantastic color! The yarn is nice too; very soft. And thankfully it also fits nicely!

I’ve got the second sock on the needles and hope to finish it in the next week or so, depending on how obsessed I stay with my new shawl! Well, also depending on whether I get distracted by dogs!

This is Teddy. He showed up outside our yard today, and I spent the morning trying to catch him, then trying to figure out what to do with him. He had no tags and no microchip. How do I know his name then? We went to the animal shelter and they recognized him, said he gets out frequently and apparently it doesn’t concern the owner enough to take the necessary steps to prevent that or make it easy for people to return him. Sigh. Too bad I couldn’t keep him!

New Shawl

Apr13

Thanks for all the feedback on my next shawl choice! I really do love both patterns so it was hard to choose, but I finally decided Delphia was the better pattern for this particular set of skeins. As I was winding the gray/pink skein, there was more pink in it than I originally realized, and I want more contrast when I knit Straight and Arrow. I’m almost through the first big garter stitch section.

fullsizeoutput_208a Soon I’ll start striping in some of the solid pink, and then eventually I’ll get to the big pink lace section. I’m loving the colors in this yarn! (Which is Boca Chica by A Good Yarn, a brand new yarn!) I’m also loving the comfort knitting of squishy garter stitch.

But fans of Straight and Arrow, do not fret, for I have also picked out the yarn I want to use for that pattern, and it was even from stash!

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The only problem with spring knitting is that all I want to make are shawls and lightweight sweaters, and those are bigger projects that take more commitment. I guess that’s what socks are good for, right?

Another Sweater

Apr11

My brain is not done planning sweaters from stash. After pondering two fade sweaters, which are still on my list, I saw all the Knit Picks Palette in my stash and realized I had a sweater’s quantity, if I could just find a way to use three to four colors. Ravelry was a great help, as always, and led me to the Funky Grandpa cardigan which is awesome. And in the projects for that, I found someone who had modified it in a way similar to what I was picturing. I pulled out the yarn and started playing around.

After that, I took my ~~limited~~ non-existent art skills and tried sketching out what I was envisioning. (Warning, the boy legit laughed at me when I showed him.)

I think it’ll work, guys! And since the Palette isn’t the softest yarn, having it be a cardigan is perfect, since it will always be over another layer.

But now I guess I better start doing some swatches if I want to make a sweater. Sigh.

Help me choose!

Apr10

My new review yarn came this week and I’m finally excited about casting on a new project! This is called Boca Chica from A Good Yarn, a yarn store in Sarasota, and I’ve got a super bright pink and a gray/pink variegated. Plus they included a couple of goodies!

Originally I’d planned to knit Delphia, a crescent shaped shawl with a big lace section. But then I remembered Straight and Arrow, which has some really fun striping and chevrons.

Delphia, on the left, is a lot of garter stitch and uses less yarn, so it would be a faster project and I’d have enough yarn left for a second, smaller project. But Straight and Arrow would put every yard to good use, and it’s a slip-stitch pattern so it wouldn’t be that much slower to knit. Help me pick!

1307 Days

Apr7

When I marked my Playful Stripes blanket as finished last night, Ravelry told me it had been 1307 days since I started it. Definitely my longest WIP ever, and I’m SO happy it’s finally done! The extra blue yarn arrived Friday but I didn’t get around to knitting with it until last night, but I got it all knit up that night. Today was my weave-in-ends day, which took about an hour and a half, and to heck with blocking, I’m calling it done!

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What a fun blanket I have for fall now, or even chilly spring evenings, maybe out on the deck! The yarn is Blue Sky Yarns Organic Cotton Worsted and I used eight colors, probably around 1800 yards or so. I’d have to measure my leftovers to be sure and I don’t care to to do that. It’s super soft but it is fuzzing up and pilling a little, so I’ll probably have to shave it periodically. I’m just so relieved to have this project finished.

Now I can focus on the test knit sock until my review yarn shows up. I’m still feeling like more of a monogamous knitter at the moment, no real urge to cast on something new. Which is even more surprising given that I went to a new LYS yesterday! It’s only been open about two weeks so they’re still building their inventory, which may be why the yarn wasn’t really calling to me. It’s a lovely store, full of squishy couches and beautiful furniture like sideboards and cabinets, so I’m confident it will grow up to be a favorite LYS for that area. It’s a little farther away for me so I won’t get there too often. Yesterday I left with only one skein.

Yep, it’s another skein of Manos del Uruguay Alegria in Locura Fluo! I was tempted to buy all three they had but restrained myself. I have no idea what this will be but it’s easily one of my favorite yarns so I’m delighted to have more. Plus I got a cute little pin to add to my collection!

Hope you all had a good weekend too, whether it was productive or lazy!

It can be done

Apr5

Two pairs of socks CAN be made from one skein of sock yarn! Sure, it depends on the skein and yardage and gauge and all that jazz, so let me amend to: I can make two pairs of socks from one skein of Show Me Yarn Bootheel sock yarn, and they’re both for me! I finished my Baby Girl Power Socks last night with a tiny bit of yarn left over.

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I kind of forgot that I did a longer gray toe on the first sock, trying to conserve yarn, so the second sock has the normal amount of gray, starting with the decreases. I would have had enough rainbow yarn on the first sock but oh well, these are for me and I don’t mind a bit that they don’t match exactly.

The yarns for the blanket and the review haven’t arrived yet, so I’m at three WIPs and it feels comfortable. I’m not at work today, taking the mother to an appointment instead, so I’ll have time to make some progress on my test knit socks. Until then, I have time to cuddle with my pups.

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Grace is happy.

Feeling scatter-brained

Apr4

There is a lack of focus in my head today. The last few days, actually. Even though I have very few WIPs on my needles, I feel like it’s all getting away from me. My knitting group at work is crocheting a blanket for the Welcome Blanket Project so I made some squares for that. I have a sock almost done, I just started test-knitting a new sock, and I have some new review yarn coming my way, along with the yarn to finish my blanket. I type that out and it’s like, Well, that’s not that much, Bonny. What’s your problem?? Who even knows. But here’s the yarn I’m using for my test knit:

Isn’t it so bright and awesome?? The socks are for Under the Olive Tree Knits again and there’s another lovely lace pattern. I finished the first pattern repeat last night.

And oh yeah, I have some friends having babies, so I wanted to make a few washcloths to add to baby gifts. A few means six, apparently, three for each baby.

But the washcloths are done, and the second Baby Girl Power sock is almost done, and I finished my squares for the Welcome Blanket, so that means I can focus on the test and review projects. Except I’m going to a new LYS this weekend and will probably fall in love with some other yarn that I’ll want to knit up right away!

Here’s Duncan. He really wanted to learn how to crochet but it didn’t work out.

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Coming out of hibernation

Apr2

Okay, so we met with the architect last night, and walked through the project with him and the contractor, and I’m not currently terrified. I’m a little bit excited even, though it is tempered by the worry of cost. We don’t have a bid yet; that will come after the architect takes all his measurements and draws up the plan. But I like both of them, and more importantly, I trust them to do a good and fair job. So, we’ll figure out the money part and the interrupted routines and all of that as it comes along, but right now, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.

As I’ve worried about this the last couple of weeks, my knitting has taken a strange turn toward Finish-itis. I currently have only three projects on my needles. Even though I have lots of ideas percolating, I’m eager to finish some more WIPs first. In that spirit, I pulled out my oldest WIP over the weekend, my Playful Stripes blanket. This is where I was the last time I shared progress:

I cast on for this baby in September of 2015, and it’s gone in and out of hibernation a couple of times. This is the last time, I swear! I worked on it all of Sunday and thought I was almost two-thirds gone, which is good since I was low on the main color. I knit and knit and knit and realized I wasn’t really two-thirds through and I was going to run out of yarn. ARGH. That’s fine, it’s still available, I could get more. So I went as far as I could before setting it aside.

I was in the middle of the yellow stripe when I started this weekend. Pretty good, no? This is a beast of a blanket, so huge! (Jack included for scale.) I’m not sure why I’m so low on yarn since I had more than the recommended yardage for the larger size, but I also didn’t check gauge because hello, it’s a blanket? Big blankets are fine by me! I’ve ordered more of the blue and as soon as it arrives, this blanket will be my top priority.

Anyone else dealing with Finish-itis lately?

Am I crazy?

Mar30

Yeah, I think I might be a little crazy. After thinking about fade sweaters recently, I was idly going through my stash to think of other yarns that might make good sweaters. And it hit me that I have a large quantity of yarns that all go together beautifully:

Now, maybe you’re thinking, Hm, I think I’ve seen that combination of yarn before! You have! This is the yarn for my Mermaid Shawl, which has been on my needles since September 19.

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And that’s pretty much where I still am. I’m on row 18 of the first color. That’s slow progress for me. I worked on it last weekend and only managed about three rows. I’m not sure I like enormous shawls that start at the outer edge. Each of these rows takes an eternity, and clearly I’m not loving this project or else I’d be itching to work on it.

What if…I frogged it?

Eek! Scary! This mermaid shawl idea has been in my head for ages, but…what if it was a Mermaid Cardigan instead? I think I’d wear it more often, and it would be the same gorgeous fade of colors. I’m thinking something like Gelato, though mine would have to be a little shorter, but I suppose I could find any cardigan pattern I like and make it a fade.

Tell me: Should I frog? And if so, what’s your favorite fingering-weight cardigan pattern?

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