100 Days of Making: Day 21

#day21 of #100daysofmaking: All I had time to do today was pick up stitches on my Baby Vertebrae. Not a lot of making today. By the way, picking up stitches takes a really long time- it took a whole episode of Game of Thrones to get all the way around the edges of the cardi.

100 Days of Making: Day 20

#day20 of #100daysofmaking: I have two sleeves! Now for the body ribbing. Right now it looks a bit wonky and the sleeves still look huge, I hope the ribbing smoothes things out.

100 Days of Making: Day 19

#day19 of #100daysofmaking: Geez. Only 19 days in? Y'all are gonna get tired of seeing my same projects over and over for 100 days. I mean, I have a lot of projects on the needles but still, I've already repeated several. Anywhoot, I'm finishing the first sleeve on the Baby Vertebrae by Kelly Brooker (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-vertebrae) in @vividyarnstudio Candy Hearts Merino tencel. One more sleeve and the ribbing around the body. The sleeves were quite huge, I can put it all the way up on my arm. For a 12-18 month size. And it's working up bigger than one of my daughter's 18 month sweaters. Oh well, I'm not starting over, it will just be for next year. Or the year after that. Or for me. I did decreases on the sleeve which I marked a la @cuteknitter so I can keep track of what I did to repeat on sleeve two.

100 Days of Making: Day 18

#day18 of #100daysofmaking: I have a zillion things on the needles and I'm working on them today, but I don't want to. Im itching to cast on something new. I pulled this out of stash, it's Sweet Georgia from 2012 sock club in April, Pineapple Express colorway. I really loved this club even though I think I've only used one of the skeins. I still have a couple more that are so beautiful. I wanted to make some more leg warmers for my son. I may wind it today but I can't cast it on until I either free up some size 1 needles or buy more. I foresee a part 2 to this post involving a Knit Picks order.

100 Days of Making: Day 17

#day17 of #100daysofmaking: Back to my Manzanita Cowl by Kay Hopkins (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/manzanita-scarf-and-cowl) in Sweet Georgia merino silk fine in Midnight Garden. I still don't love either the pattern or the yarn. I finally have a good rhythm going with the pattern that I've memorized, even after not working on it for several days. I think I would like it better if the yarn wasn't so slippery on the metal needles - that silk content is super slidey! And the color. Still not my fav. And I feel like I haven't made any progress on it, which I really haven't since I ripped out half of it a while back. But I'm determined to make something with this gifted yarn because even though I don't prefer the colors, it is gorgeous (and very expensive!) yarn. So I will press on. #knittersdoweirdthings

100 Days of Making: Day 16

#day16 of #100daysofmaking: I finished Will's leg warmers! Steve made a face at them. What does he know about knit fashion for infants. Anyhow, they are just for naptime during the summer when he's wearing shorts so his legs don't get cold and no one will see that he's trying to bring 80's Fame fashion back. @hauteknityarn in Oil Slick.

100 Days of Making: Day 15

#day15 of #100daysofmaking: Yes, that is my daughter trying to steal my new stash of Must Stash yarn. I love this @muststashsheep yarn, it's gorgeous and so many stripes - plus you don't have throw internet elbows just to get some. She does sell out, but not in mere seconds like some highly sought after yarns. She had listings for a few days. I do not know how well it knits up because I can't bear to break any of my precious stash open despite the fact the I know now that it's not impossible to get more. These skeins are Everything Is Awesome and 10 Days of Fiesta. They are OCD skeins, so are two matched skeins so socks will stripe the same. Which means they are definitely destined for socks. For myself. And no one else.

Addendum to day 14

An edged flannel receiving blanket in my favorite new edging pattern - I copied it from a blanket given to me for my daughter from a friend of my mother in law, it washes well and is pretty enough for girls but plain enough for boys. I used to get very fancy with these edges but I found that they shrink up when washed and dried (which for baby blankets is essential that you be able to do) and then all your hard work is hidden. Also when trying to swaddle the baby in them, a wide edging or big floppy motifs will get all up in their face and be in the way, so small and simple is best.

I actually wrote down what I did this time so I will publish the pattern soon. I need to proof read it first, it's been such a long time since I've done a lot of crochet that I don't really remember how pattern terminology is written so I need to go read a bunch of patterns so I can see how I need to write mine, haha. 

100 Days of Knitting: Day 14

#day14 of #100daysofmaking: The crochet edging is done! Ends woven in and everything! And it only took me 3 days! This is why I love crochet. I mean, I know it was just an edging, but still. Faster than knitting.

100 Days of Making: Day 13

#day13 of #100daysofmaking: I dug up a very old project today, it's a pair of socks in a handspun yarn (no, I don't spin, I do not need a wheel/spindle/fiber stash too, I got it on etsy). It's a beautiful spin and I would have bought more from her and did request some specific colors but never heard back. The pattern is Generic Toe Up Socks by Annie Bruno (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/generic-toe-up-socks) and I'm past the heel turn on the first sock. I started these in 2012, and despite that being excessively old, it is not the oldest pair of unfinished socks I have on the needles. 😳

... With my son participating in the #operationsockdrawer spirit by taste testing shoes one might want to accessorize with hand knit socks.

100 Days of Making: Day 12

#day12 of #100daysofmaking: I put a few rows on my Opal sock today, mostly worked on the edges blanket but wanted to see these beautiful colors since I haven't worked on it in a while. It's in the Opal Potpourri series, Paradies colorway 8841. I really have a hard time not buying every single new Opal and Regia series that comes out every few months and I have about a dozen in older series favorited on Etsy and EBay. I won't tell you which ones so you won't snipe them 😜

The pattern is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vanilla-socks-toe-up--afterthought-heel by Carle' Dehning. I'm not sure that I like how wide and shallow the toe is, next time I would do a smaller number of cast on stitches but I don't want to rip out now. I chose this sock because the afterthought heel looked like it would be easy to modify the stitch count on since a 56 stitch sock is what fits me but most socks are written for 64 stitches and I don't have the skill or understanding to change the heel turn directions.

100 Days of Making: Day 11

#day11 of #100daysofmaking: Today's project isn't knitting, it's crochet! My first fiber love. I've been making these edged flannel receiving blankets since about 2001 for the millions of babies around me. I don't know how many of them get used, but they are just so pretty as a gift and I love giving hand made gifts. Back in the day, I could edge a blanket in two evenings but with children, it takes several days to complete one. I order these pre hemstitched flannel blankets on hemstitcher.com - they have hundreds of adorable prints and the prices are the best of the hemstitched sites I have seen. It's nice to have the holes prepunched for you - you can punch them yourself with the crochet hook but I found I was punching unevenly and it drove me nuts. Go look at this site! They have baby, junior and lap sized blankets in one or double thickness (I always get single thickness for the South where it's never super cold, plus single thickness is better for swaddling). They also have bibs, burps and hankies too.

Despite the fact that I am working on the Baby Vertebrae in Vivid Yarn Studios yarn for Amy's baby to be, I am going to two showers for her and will visit her in the hospital and want a handmade gift for each occasion so I decided to do this blanket for her first shower, the sweater for her second and a hat for the hospital. I am pretty sure I have a problem - with both casting on too many projects as well as an overgifter disease.


Sent from my iPhone

100 Days of Making: Day 10

#day10 of #100daysofmaking: So I didn't actually knit anything with this, I only worked some more on my Baby Vertebrae in @vividyarnstudio Candy Hearts, but LOOKLOOKLOOK!! More @muststashsheep yarn!! I am now the proud owner of TWO skeins of MustStash yarn in two different variants of the Dark Side of the Moon colorway, this is the extended play version that was apparently made famous (again) by the Yarn Harlot. She showed it to an astronaut or something? I dunno, I don't read her blog though I know I should, she sounds awesome.

100 Days of Making : Day 9

#day9 of #100daysofmaking: Very little progress on my Baby Vertebrae was made despite this being my day off. I discovered that it takes me 8 minutes to do one row while also wiping Emma's face, hands, bib and the table, getting her more yogurt, grabbing the knitting away from Will who was trying to pull it off the needles, then stopping Will from playing with the outlet and then getting back to finishing the row.

100 Days of Making: Day 8

#day8 of #100daysofmaking: This is my latest project. I decided to start a Baby Vertebrae that I need to finish in the next couple of weeks, and of course the best choice for a quickly needed knit is sock yarn. What's wrong with me. I did look for the thickest sock yarn I had in pretty colors. And then of course when I was winding this @vividyarnstudio merino tencel in Candy Hearts, with my two helpers, I got it into a terrible snarl in the last 30 or 40 yards. My swift is on the small side and when I get a larger skein, the last few rounds want to fall right off the swift and get all tangled. This is just how my week has been going, though... The washer is broken, hubby is out of town and then tonight after the kids baths, the cold tap on the tub breaks so now I can't even take a shower until I hunt down some vise grips to redneck jerry rig the faucet. Sigh sigh sigh.

I did untangle all of the snarl and finished winding though, the tencel blend made the yarn slippery enough that it was much easier to untangle than other yarns. I'm glad I am using this for a non sock project as I'm not sure this would make great socks, it's kind of inelastic. I didn't realize what the fiver blend was when I bought it, I just loved the colorway so much and had been stalking Julia's etsy shop for this color so when it popped up, I grabbed it without looking closely at the yarn itself. I will get another skein eventually in a better sock fiber blend so I can have some gorgeous socks in this color. I also did start the Baby Certevrae and it looks beautiful. I did a 12 month size on size 4 needles, because I knit tight and that's what I had. Size 12 month even though my coworkers baby will be born in June because her last baby grew quickly and I didn't want too small of a size. Too big is better, you can always just roll up the sleeves.

100 Days of Making: Day 7

#day7 of #100daysofmaking: the treadmill knitting edition. Started the second leg warmer for Will in @hauteknityarn BFL sock, Oil Slick colorway.

100 Days of Making: Day 6

#day6 of my #100daysofmaking or rather, my #100daysofripping. Sigh. If you peer closely, you can see that at some point, I messed up my stitch count and the lace is offset and also wider? I was missing a stitch or two at the end when I went back and checked the pattern but somehow it looks like I had more stitches despite having less. I'm talented. I'm still conflicted over this project, I don't love the colors in the yarn but I'm liking the pattern better, so I decided to rip back to the first mistake I made in the lace just a few rows in, despite having a good 8 inches done. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Manzanita Cowl by Kay Hopkins in Sweet Georgia merino silk fine, midnight garden colorway.

100 Days of Making: Day 5

#day5 of my #100daysofmaking: back to my Honey Cowl by Antonia Shankland in MadTosh DK, Mansfield's Garden Party colorway. I'm almost done with one leg warmer for Will, just lacking the cuff but I needed something bright, pretty and different tonight after a long day at work. How can you be in a bad mood with this in your hands? Even the snot my kids smeared on it as they climbed over me didn't ruin the peace of mind this knit gives me.

100 Days of Making: Day 4

#day4 of my #100daysofmaking or should I say my #100daysofripping. I got several inches into a leg warmer in @hauteknityarn BFL sock in Oil Slick when I noticed it seemed a bit wide. I compared it to a pair I'm knitting for Emma and it is way huge. So I ripped back to the ribbing and started again with a tighter gauge. I had been working sort of loosely because the yarn felt finer than some sock yarns but now I think it feels about normal. This is what I get when I cast something on late in the evening. My judgment is suspect after 5:00.

100 Days of Making: Day 3

#day3 of #100daysofmaking: I cast on something new. I know I haven't bound off any projects this week but I DID have some empty needles, so that's pretty much the same thing. Anyhow, today I decided that I needed leg warmers for my son asap, it's getting warmer and he's starting to wear shorts - I have lots of hand knit leg warmers that I put on Emma during nap so her legs don't get cold when wearing shorts or dresses. I'm too lazy to put a whole other outfit on her and it's a great way to use my pretty sock yarns. But I haven't made any for Will yet, so I have to remedy that!

Haute Knit Yarn in BFL sock, Oil Slick colorway.


Sent from my iPhone

100 Days of Making: Day 2

Day 2 of #100daysofmaking: I put several rows on my Dangling Conversation in Misti Alpaca in Pico. I love the tiny rainbows that develop on my needles as I knit.

100 days of making: Day 1

Last night I saw people posting about #100daysofmaking project, doing something creative or new every day for 100 days. I know I already knit a lot but not every day, there are many days in the week that I don't have time to pick it up at all. But I have so many things I want to finish or start, so I am going to do this as a way to motivate myself to do even just a tiny bit every day. Yesterday I only got two rows on my #profusionkal cowl while lying in bed but it's a start. #day1

Profusion Cowl by Karen MaCall in MadTosh Sock in Baltic, Medieval and third color to be Coquette.

Why didn't the text for my sock pictures send!?

Dunno, but here's the deets about the previous posts sock pics.

I finished half of a project and was so excited I decided I should commemorate the occasion with a blog post. I bought this yarn from Wool Sundae on Etsy, I copied Brianne from the Knitworthy video podcast with the exact colorway she was knitting a sock in. It's the Sundae Sock base in Dark Side of the Rainbow. The pattern is Scylla Sock by Fiona Bennett and it only took me 2.5 months for one sock! Considering I have three unfinished socks on the needles currently from mumblemumble years ago, this is lightning speed. I wanted a slip stitch pattern because Brianne's slip stitch sock looked so beautiful but she said the pattern had issues so I looked for another.

I like the pattern, it's not complicated and I love the way the heel looks but boy it sure is hard to take a picture of your own heel. One bit of advice, I normally knit a 56 stitch sock because I have crazy narrow feet. This was a 64 (I think) stitch sock and since I'm not good at altering patterns I just went ahead and followed it - it fits fine because all the slipped stitches cinched the sock in. So if you have a normal width foot, you might want to increase he stitch count by a bit. Maybe not a lot because I do knit tightly and that may account for some of that.

Btw, sorry for not linking anything, I am posting from emails because it's easy and I'm lazy. If I get super excited, I may go back and link junk.

Lightning strikes when I post twice in a week!

Once every two years

It's totally normal to only post every 48 months, right? Well don't tell me if it's not acceptable because I won't be able to handle it. There's no way I can catch up on two years worth of knitting so I'll just post what I made recently.

Miss Babs Yowza is awesome! I wanted to make the Oriental Lily dress by George Hallam and picked the Perfectly Wreckless colorway which is just breathtakingly gorgeous. I wanted a contrast color in blue that I could make a boy sweater with the left overs and emailed to ask what colors would match the colors in Perfectly Wreckless. They responded back (yay customer service!) that Indigo Bunting would match best. The dress worked up super fast and I had a ton left over. I had made short sleeves because I was afraid of running out of yarn, I need not have worried as I had enough yarn to make a matching hat and scarf, ha! The dress is big enough to fit again next year, it's really a bit big this year but oh well.

With the left over blue (lots of "leftover" as I only used a small amount for the contrast obi and cuffs), I made the Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates in the 12 month size. It ended up a great size though I had hoped it would fit two years in a row, no luck there I think. With decreasing cables, shawl collar shaping and sleeve attachment, it was probably more than my poor depleted brain was really up for but I did manage to complete it. And still had enough yarn left for a hat and trim for the scarf.

The hats are both made from the Earflap Hat pattern on Petite Purls but without earflaps, instead a garter ridge border. I think I made the 17.75" size for both. And I accomplished my goal of using almost every bit of Yowza, just a tiny little bit left!! The scarf was just a garter border and stockinette with a garter edge and a couple rows of garter every 10 rows to help decrease the rolling that happens with stockinette.

Babies everywhere!

I made these for Amy R at work who had her baby girl in January. She is crazy about owls so I made up a pattern for the edging with little owls and leaves.  I will one day post those on my pattern page, given I cam still find where I wrote it down!
The hat turned out super cute and soft. I made it from Nobo Panda Space which was a wal-mart brand yarn that they carried for about five minutes.
Crochet Warmers set

Clapotis

This is the clapotis that I finally had to make. I used Noro silk garden which was a yarn I bought in Cleveland visiting my bestie, Sam, and I made this scarf for Sam. The color changes turned out awesome in this scarf but dropping the stitches turned out to be a mild pain in the butt since Noro is a single ply rather sticky yarn. It wasn't impossible and I would still probably do it again. But correctly. If you are observant, you will notice where I got cocky and thought I knew how to finish up the decreases. But I forgot the dropped stitches. Sam will probably never notice but I know and now everyone who reads this blog will too, haha.

Knitty Calapotis pattern
Noro Silk Garen Sock at Jimmy Beans Wool

A little catching up to do

I thought I should actually post something on my poor neglected blog. And what's cuter than a picture of a baby! This is one of the candy corn hats that I love to crochet because they work up super fast and are uber adorable. I  made this one for Amy J at work who had her son in October of last year. Such a cutie.

Candy Corn hat pattern

Oops, more yarn

Did I mention that along with the Green Line DK that I ordered for my sweater, a couple balls of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock fell into my cart too?

http://www.JimmyBeansWool.com/knitting/yarn/LornasLaces/ShepherdSock.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=22531

In colors Funky Stripe that will hopefully look good with this pattern:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/not-a-drop

Sweater saga: Begin!

So I've been wanting to make a knitted sweater for... Well, a long time. And mostly I'm lazy and know that it will take me forever but I'm also partly scared of the difficulty level and the cost of the yarn. I don't really think the knitting will be hard, I pretty much have the hang of most knitting techniques except for colorwork, but I do know the construction will be difficult. I'm not a sewer, so the seaming and general putting together directions will be challenging for me. I find picking up stitches to be hard, trying to figure out how many stitches will cover without puckering, but also make them neat and even. But no excuses. I just have to try because I'll never get good at it if I only listen to podcasters talk about their sweater making but never so it myself.

So what got me going finally was a sale! The www.jimmybeanswool.com email showed that the Lorna's Laces Green Line DK http://www.JimmyBeansWool.com/knitting/yarn/LornasLaces/GreenLineDK.asp?showLarge=true&specPCVID=23576 was on sale for $7.50 and though there aren't many colors left, there were plenty in a great smokey violet color, Blackberry. I have a jacket in a similar color that I am wearing out. So that would make a sweaters worth around $83 and that sounded affordable. I know I could get Cascade 220 for less but I don't love the feel of 220 and reviews of Green Line said it was soft and nice to work with. They also said it bleeds badly so I may wash it before winding it, we'll see.

So knowing what yarn I was going to get I searched Ravelry for DK sweaters, I wanted something fairly popular so there were notes and reviews and people I could tap if I had trouble with mine and the one I liked the most was the Kingscot cardigan http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/index.php/component/content/article/60-winter-2008-patterns/135-kingscot-by-norah-gaughan- by Nora Gaughan on Twist Collective. It's worked in pieces and seamed, which will be good experience for me. I do want to do a top down raglan with minimal seaming but maybe for the next sweater I do. After picking out Kingscot, I realized the Green Line worsted was also on sale and would actually be a but cheaper but I couldn't find a worsted sweater pattern that I really loved. The Kingscot will be perfect because there is some cabling and patterning on the back for interest so it's not just miles of stockinette that might be a bit boring.

So the yarn is ordered and is on it's way, I'm crossing my fingers that the bleeding isn't too bad though some said it was literally rubbing off on their fingers while they worked with it.

Maybe I should finish my two shawls I'm working on before starting this sweater.

Yarrrrrrrrr!! N!!!!!

So I made a recent trip to the Cleve to visit my good friend and guess what I found! Yep! Yar!N!

We stumbled across a street festival in an area of town called Tremont and while there, and while eating ice cream, we found yarn graffiti! How exciting! My first encounter!

Sock yarnage.

So the socks I made for Elle turned out pretty cute, as evidenced by these very good shots that Steve got with his much better than mine camera, but I didn't finish them fast enough. I mailed them to my sister and she informed me that she loved them... but they were already too small for Elle!  Boo.

So I started something else for Elle - some little leg warmers. I know she won't need them till the winter, hopefully they will still fit her once cold weather comes around. They are turning out cute. Great mindless knit, mostly just knit knit knit in the round. Using some more Premier sock yarn in Paprika and this baby leggings pattern. I will get on another pair of socks after I finish these leg warmers.

Tiny toes

These tiny socks are so fast to make! I would be almost done with them except I wanted to be sure they wouldn't be way too big (or small) for Elle so I asked my sister to measure her foot and am waiting on her to email me back with measurements. I had some trouble at first with the increases and keeping the sides seams tight and had large holes at the side joins so I frogged after about 20 rounds and started over.

Perfectionism is painful.

Uh oh. More yarn. More projects.

So after I bought all that great sock yarn at Stitches South and told my sister how I was so excited about making socks, she requested that I make some socks for my niece, Elle. I like to be able to make things people actually ask for, though I don't always come through, as evidence by my half done hat that Suzy asked me to make since Sydney had outgrown her other gay baby devil hat.

So anyhow, I didn't want to use my super expensive super awesome new sock yarn for baby sock since, well, it's for meeeeeeee! Well also it's just not economical, they will take so little yarn and then the rest of the ball will be useless for other projects! So obviously, I need more yarn. To Hobby Lobby I went! Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight. Superwash merino, bamboo and nylon. Feels pretty nice and decent colorways. Totally don't need another project started but have cast on Preemie Socks.

Also bought a bunch of scrapbooking stuff to make a book for my mom for mother's day. As if I need another hobby/project.