Tag Archive | crafts

FO Friday: Socks

Jul10

I have two Finished Objects to share today — technically four, actually — because I finished two pairs of socks today!

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One the left are Vanilla Latte socks in Orange Jellyfish Dream yarn, color Intergalactic Planetary. And the right are obviously my Christmas in July socks, also in the Vanilla Latte pattern, with West Yorkshire Spinners’ Fairy Lights. Both pairs are slightly mis-matched in size but not enough to bother me, certainly not right now. But now I’m out of socks to knit and it’s also only July 10 so I cast on the second sock of a pair of Christmas socks I started last December. These are all stockinette so it should be a speedy project.

While knitting, I’ve recently binged Pick of the Litter, Little Voice, and Lenox Hill. And I’ve read and loved The Authenticity Project, Friends & Strangers, and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. What are you streaming lately that you love?

I almost forgot!

Jul9
Note: I am trying to use non-Ravelry links whenever possible. All Rav links will be noted.

Last month, I wrote about some Nature Spun Worsted that I reviewed for Brown Sheep Co. and one of the projects I made with it were fingerless gloves for a nephew. I chose the Maize Mitts from TinCanKnits and did the child size, since the nephew is 7, and it came out looking TINY. I didn’t want to knit a second mitt if it wasn’t going to fit, so I took it with me to a little birthday party we had and asked him to try it on. He loved it, said it was perfect, and I said I’d make a second, thinking it could wait until winter and his birthday or Christmas. Well, a couple of weeks later, we had another birthday party, and he asked if I’d brought his gloves. Friends, be glad you didn’t see the look on his face when I said I hadn’t made the second one yet. I felt like a terrible aunt and promised I’d have it done before the next birthday. Yesterday it hit me: we are celebrating a birthday on Saturday. I NEEDED to have two fingerless gloves for him. All other knitting was promptly set aside. Thank goodness he has small hands!

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I can see, and you can probably see too, that these two gloves are not precisely the same size. I don’t know why that is, and honestly I don’t really give a damn, because I’m pretty sure the nephew will NOT see that detail. And as snug as the first glove was, I’m also pretty sure he’ll outgrow these quickly and I’ll be making another pair around Christmastime anyway. There are some people for whom I will knit anything, and this nephew is definitely one of them. (I mean, honestly, pretty much any of my family and close friends fall into this category. I just like knitting for people who appreciate it.)

Now that that’s done, I’m returning to my safety knitting of Christmas socks and the emPower People purple cowl. Today’s not a great day so far: I didn’t sleep well last night, I’ve got anxiety bubbling up inside, and seeing anything on the news just makes things worse today. I was going to exercise but needed a second cup of tea to help wake myself up and now my timing is off, because I actually have something scheduled today: my knitting group has our virtual meeting at noon and I’d really like to have a shower before that happens. I do have something to look forward to: I’m seeing a friend tonight, one I haven’t seen in almost four months. (Wait, four? *counts on fingers* good grief it really has been that long!) There will be masks and distancing and as many precautions as we can take, but I have begun to miss seeing the people I love in person and really need a win. So, happy Thursday, friends. Take care of yourself.

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emPower People

Jul8

There’s a new initiative I found on Instagram called emPower People. The website describes it as a “craftivism project aimed at uniting crafters of all mediums to engage people across communities to spark conversation, engagement and action in the political process to uphold social justice and human rights.” Right now they are encouraging people to make a purple bandana/cowl that you can wear when you attend gatherings, protest, march, and vote. There are free patterns to knit, crochet, or sew that you can download directly from the website. The project was founded by four crafters, with several others contributing. I chose to participate with the free knit pattern designed by Casapinka. Luckily, I had plenty of purple yarn to choose from, including the perfect Priestess DK weight from Ritual Dyes in a color called Belladonna.

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This is a simple, soothing pattern with lots of garter stitch and I expect it will fly off my needles. So far it’s even better than socks!

 

Sock It To Me Monday

Jul6

Apparently it was a three-day weekend for a lot of people, but it didn’t feel much different for me. The husband spent his extra day off in his workshop, and I puttered around making masks and knitting. We’ve seen family pretty recently and didn’t have any plans for gatherings, so it was a very quiet holiday, and I’m okay with that. I finished one Christmas in July sock and am ready to start the gusset on the second now.

96A4CCDF-2D55-49A3-9289-23F7B1586ED4I also did another fast project, a drawer liner out of leftover sock yarn. I’d made a little one before, for my Kaweco pens, but this is a full-sized version for the drawer. It has the purl ridges to keep pens separate, but I’m going to make one more that’s all stockinette. They’re fast and fun and I love using up the sock yarn.

Happy Monday, friends. Here’s hoping we can all find a bit of happy this week.

FO: Olive Pink shawl

Jun29

Yes, it’s Monday and that’s supposed to be sock day here in Blogville, but weird monogamous knitter me doesn’t have any sock progress to share. I finished my Olive Pink shawl on Saturday morning, blocked it that day, and yesterday took it out for a photo shoot. It was a challenge because it is so BIG.

4B30C783-12CA-4886-821F-C4A75A6725A6This isn’t even the whole thing. From tip to tip, this baby is over eight feet long. I have no idea how that happened, except, you know, gauge. If you don’t count the angled ends, it’s about 70″ long, which is much closer to the pattern’s 73″ length. Also, I used less of Color B and more of Color C than the pattern said I would, and again, no idea. Whatever. That’s kind of what I love about this pattern: it works really well with “whatever”. I made some mistakes? Whatever. I added an extra two rows to that section? Whatever. I did the final border wrong for the first two rows? Whatever. It’s all good!

F380335C-1B98-4D4E-9A7D-013983651758_1_201_aBecause it doesn’t really matter! There are so many patterns and textures and colors that no one knows what it’s “supposed” to look like, and no one is going to look closely to try to find mistakes. And if anyone where to do that, that would be weird and I don’t really care what they think anyway.

This was a fun pattern to knit, at least for the first 75% of it. By section 16, I was getting a little tired of it, but it was fun to use so many colors and stitches. The yarn is SoLo from LoloDidIt and I really like it. It’s 100% and has a little bit of a halo, which was only a problem when I was knitting with two colors and the yarns would get wound around each other and stick together. But it’s super soft, doesn’t bleed, and blocks out beautifully.

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The original pattern was a collaboration between Casapinka and Lolabean Yarn Co. and you can find it here on Ravelry. Note: I do have Classic Ravelry turned on. (Side note: I’d had NuRav on since they switched and it didn’t bother me, though Rav’s reaction, or lack thereof, to all the issues others were having bothered me a lot. This morning I turned on Classic Rav before adding the link here, and it was like a sigh of relief. I hadn’t realized how much I preferred the look of the original!)

With this done, I’m off to finish an almost-complete cowl now. Hope you’re all staying mostly well and happy!

WIP Wednesday: Olive Pink

Jun24

I recently read that one of the things that comes up a lot in discussions of managing mental health is having a sense of accomplishment or achievement. That really resonated with me, and explained why I needed to jump into a big painting project right after I was furloughed. At the time, I was feeling kind of lost and aimless, and finishing something as obvious as painting a room was exactly what I needed. After I moved on from painting, I switched to finishing knitting projects. First it was my Penny sweater, then my Pride socks. I knit on them almost exclusively, maybe obsessively, until they were done and I could check them off. Now my focus has switched to my Olive Pink shawl and I’m determined to finish this darn thing.

CFF628CF-7A6D-4A15-8B8C-00D727A55380 It’s something like 20 sections and I’m on section 15b and OMG I’m ready to get to the next section. The first 12 sections were great, changing colors and stitches so often that I wanted to keep knitting to see what was next. But sections 13-15 are much the same, all with the pink, and I’m tired of that. As cool as it looks, I need a new texture! I’m hoping I can power through this section today and get to something different. And when it’s all done, who wants to weave in all the ends for me?

Penny FO: Pretty in Pink

Jun23

Some colors are almost impossible to photograph well, unless you’ve got a lot more photography experience and knowledge than I do, I guess! I’ve tried a few different times, places, and lighting scenarios to get photos of my finished Penny sweater and the vivid pink (Malabrigo in Fucsia) just resists all my attempts to show the true color. So this is what you get, and at least you’ll be able to see the pretty lace!

AE4102DB-5D28-4EEC-AB73-54ACEB7A72AB_1_201_aThis experience taught me a couple of things. One: that shit does NOT always block out. The ladders on my first sleeve are still there. Whatever. And two: Malabrigo Arroyo, or maybe all superwash, grows A LOT in the bath. I knit this according to the pattern specifications and it was kind of huge when I first got it out of the water. I had to squish it back into a more normal size and it still seems very long. But it fits pretty well and that’s the important part!

The neckline is a bit lower than I expected, but it doesn’t bother me much since I’ll be wearing this over something else anyway. And I really like the lace detail down the middle of the sleeves.

7CC2305B-D6D8-44B0-8FCA-2C51F1E593D9_1_201_aI don’t know why but I didn’t enjoy knitting this one very much. Part of it was my confusion when it was time to join the body and sleeves for the yoke, and I felt like the instructions for the decreases could have been clearer. But I have to admit the final product is lovely, and I bet I’ll enjoy wearing it!

Sock it to me Monday

Jun22

My Pride socks are done. I used the Heel Toe Do Si Do pattern and while I like how it looks very much, I had to have the pattern handy the whole time and I missed having mindless socks.

The yarn is MollyGirl’s Glamour Lite in Born This Way, and has a little sparkle thread which is quite delightful. No word yet on how they’ll feel to wear; I’ll let you know when it’s not in the 80s with high humidity. For now I’m back to knitting on my vanilla socks, at least until next month when I start my Christmas in July socks. Happy Monday, friends.

New project

Jun19

I cast on a new cowl yesterday. Yes, I know I said I was going to work on my current WIPs. And I kind of am! I pulled out a cowl that had been snoozing for quite a while. It was a worsted weight bandana-style cowl in some yummy Frosting Worsted by Delicious Yarns. I pulled the pattern up and remembered why it had been snoozing: the pattern had a couple of errors. They weren’t huge, but they were in two rows, it was a paid pattern, and I’d messaged the designer, and she’d said she was going to update the pattern within a week. That was three months ago. Again, they weren’t huge errors and I could have kept going by marking the pattern where the errors were, but when I pay $6 for a pattern and the designer is aware of errors and doesn’t fix them, well. I get annoyed and I’m not going to knit that pattern. So there! It got frogged and rewound and I cast on for the Lydian cowl.

A947612E-B6D3-4B7D-AD9A-5DA6923F1451_1_201_aI did try yesterday to get photos of my new sweater, but man, that pink is hard to photograph. I’m going to try again today since it’s overcast. Happy Friday, friends, and Happy Juneteenth.

Back to socks

Jun18

I told myself that when my Penny sweater was done, I was going to get back to painting. I have one stairwell left that needs fresh paint before I feel like I can pack away the painting supplies. But then yesterday I finished my sweater. Wove in the 2457 ends and blocked it and everything. It’s drying, so I’ll share photos soon. Anyway, I finished it and remembered what I’d told myself and I didn’t like what Past Bonny had said. Apparently I’m not ready to get back to painting. Instead I’m going back to my Pride Socks.

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I pulled them out of my bag and discovered I’d been knitting too long on the leg and it was a good 1 1/2″ longer than the first sock. That’s too much of a difference for me, so I had to do a bit of frogging, but now they’re back on track and I’ve got the heel ready to go. This might be the start of a round of Finish-itis. I think I’m ready to work down my six WIPs!