I haven’t decided for sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I have a perfectly lovely yarn store less than 10 minutes from work. Maybe it’s both. Today it was a good thing, as I needed a bit of yarn therapy. Spoiler: I found it.
Both are sock yarns, one by Mudpunch and the other from Goosey Fibers. I’m totally casting on the Mudpunch self-striping tonight!
With only three WIPs on my needles, I decided yesterday that it was time to cast on for something new. My WIPs are easy, mindless projects, so I wanted something a little more involved. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
In my queue, I found the June Lake sleeveless top pattern, and I had two new skeins of pretty yarn that would work well. Since the body of the sweater is knit in the round, I knew I should swatch in the round. But I didn’t want to swatch on my 16″ circular needles, so I thought DPNs would be fine. My first swatch had too many stitches per inch. My second swatch, with the next size up needles, had too many stitches per inch. My third swatch, up one more size, was too loosey-goosey for any kind of top I’d want to wear.
I liked the fabric of the first swatch the best. Dang it, that meant it was time for math to determine which size I should knit with my gauge. Gauge math is the WORST for me. It took some time, and a lot of notes, and a lot of calculations, but I figured out I needed to go up two sizes. Before I cast on, though, for some reason I decided I wanted to double-check my gauge on the recommended needles, and without much thought, decided I needed to check it on circular needles.
Yes, apparently I do have some self-preservation instincts after all. Because this gauge swatch was different than the one with DPNs, and this gauge swatch indicated that my gauge matched the designer’s and I could pick the correct size after all! So all my swatching and calculating and teeth-gnashing could have been prevented, and if I had done my swatch correctly the first time around, I would have saved a lot of time.
Alas.
Still, the good news was that I was free to cast on, and I did and I’m enjoying my new little WIP.
It’s knit from the bottom up with an interesting band along the bottom, which is done in two pieces and then joined in the round for the body. I love this stitch pattern! And today is quiet and rainy and gray and I think I might spend the day with my knitting and my puppers. Happy Sunday, friends.
p.s. The pretty yarn is Pixie Sock from Supernatural Yarns in the Hogsmeade colorway!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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??
I finished a sock yesterday, so that’s something. I also had a visit to the MinuteClinic yesterday for a clogged ear, and then last night our upstairs A/C decided it was going to die. Right in the middle of a Midwest summer, sure, no problem. I mean, June is kind of trying to kick my ass, but so far I’m holding up better than I was a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, yeah, sock.
This is The Loopy Blue sock, because the yarn is Loopy Ewe Seasonings Series that the husband and girl brought home for me in May. It had the mini-skein of the solid blue and at first I wasn’t sure the two worked together but now I see that they’re perfect! And the yarn is great too; it feels sturdy and crisp, which I’ve come to appreciate in my socks. Yes, my foot is really that long. I would show you, except remember the Midwest summer I mentioned? No way a wool sock is going anywhere near my foot right now. We’re all just relaxing, trying to beat the heat!
Happy Tuesday, friends!
My break from my Fade led me back to sock knitting, which has become the best kind of knitting when nothing else will do. It’s good for when you’re visiting someone who’s unwell, and it’s good for when you’re tracking a tornado that might or might not be coming right your way. Unfortunately, that means this sock has grown a lot this week. When I picked it up on Sunday, I had just the cuff knit.
I made it past the gusset decreases today so I expect to have it done by the end of the week, barring any surprises.
Last night, the girl surprised me by doing some cleaning and cooking a bona fide feast for us. She made carnitas tacos (even deboned and cut up the pork shoulder herself!), lime/cilantro rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo. She also cut up limes to squeeze over everything, and it was all sooo delicious! It really helped brighten a day that desperately needed brightening. I also got to see the boy’s excitement over his first car!
It’s a 1963 Mercury Comet Custom, and he is seriously in love. It needs some work but runs well, and he and his dad can’t wait to start fixing it up. And even though I’m afraid it’ll be a little bit of a money pit, I have to admit it’s a pretty sweet car.
Hope the storms missed the rest of you last night too!
Last night I pulled out my naughty shawl, the one that had the stitch count issues the other day. I counted my stitches, all 383 of them, and realized that I was only off by one stitch at that point. I spread out the lace as best I could on the cord, and the lace pattern looked okay, not all wonky, so I decided it would be fine to continue on and not frog back to before all the craziness started. I got about six rows done by 9 pm, and I really wanted to finish since I only had six rows left before the bind off, but with each row almost 400 stitches, it wasn’t gonna happen. But it should be done and blocking by end of day Sunday!
I’ve been making sock progress too, during my lunch breaks at work. This is my Pickle Juice/Belle Star sock, and I’m past the gusset now.
It’s a good thing this shawl is almost done, because I have five skeins on the way for the commissioned shawl for my work friend, so I’ll be able to switch my focus to that. But there’s also a little short-sleeved sweater I want to knit, and I have a second sock in my WIPs, and my Changing Staircases shawl, plus this sock and its mate. Clearly I need more knitting time in my life!
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.
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!
bonnyknits 