knitting – Page 2

Knitting lately

March 30, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’m trapped, still, in this desire to want to knit everything for everyone… and having no time. So I’ve spent a lot of time bouncing between projects and not really finishing anything. I really should focus on finishing something, but the precious little knitting time I do get is just more enjoyable when I get to spend it knitting something that excites me at that given moment. Which means I’ve got a sock project or two lingering, some pussy hats I was asked to make (but told “no rush” which has guaranteed me to work on them when I need something mindless), this cardigan in progress, and I cast on a baby sweater for the latest addition to the family. And I’m still tempted to cast on for something like a lace shawl, even though I know that would be a total disaster trying to a. keep my pattern pages from getting thrown around the house by the kid and b. having enough focus in the first place to even read a complicated chart of lace.

I have 11 work days until my vacation time kicks in. 11 work days until I can take a much needed break when I need it to spend my day at home – alone – to knit and craft and focus on some essential self care. I think my very first day I take might just be spent watching Poldark and spinning on my wheel, which is much harder to spend time doing than knitting that can be picked up at any given moment for a row here and there. I have some gorgeous fiber I picked up from CreatedByElsieB that is calling my name (though, as usual, I have zero idea what I’ll make with the finished product – assuming I ever get around to knitting it in the first place).

Knitting notes: Pattern is “Elaine’s Blouse” but I’ve modified it to not include the weird ribbing around the waist – I liked it at first but the more I looked at it the more weird it seemed. Yarn is some Queensland Kathmandu I purchased a few years ago after a lovely knitting friend, Julie, passed away and the knitting group sold a lot of her very large stash to put money toward her kids’ college funds. I’m not 100% positive that I have enough yarn, but my hopes are at the very least I can get away with 3/4 sleeves to make it all work.

Stockings for a friend

January 30, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Back in November/December I was bored and not feeling a lot of knitting projects and a friend casually mentioned wanting knit Christmas stockings. After some back-and-forth on what she wanted in particular, with a pretty vague “I just want something simple” request, I ended up designing my own. Worsted yarn on size 6 needles (probably could/should have gone down a size) and a few attempts to design my own snowflake chart and letters and… well, here it is. If I end up making this pattern again I might change up a few things – needle size, being one, but overall I’m pretty pleased with myself on these.

They will end up lined, as I’ve learned with the knit ones I made for our family that presents stretch them out and snag the yarn a bit. Plus they need a tab sewn in to hang them with.

New year, new finished knits

January 3, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

fightin-words slippers

The upside to all this time off from the holidays has meant lots of extra knitting time I otherwise never get. I’m a little worried by how spoiled I’m becoming about it – next week we go back to Real Life, which means back to our normal schedules and normal stresses and, sadly, back to less knitting time.

First up, we have some mitts. The husband’s job has a fundraiser auction each year, and the theme the last few years has been Super Heroes. I’ve wanted to make a pair for the auction for a while now but baby knits took up most of my time, so I made a point to cast these on and get them done while I was in a lull of knitting before I jump head-first back into kid knits. Yarn is Knit Picks Palette, and the size I made was the larger one (given that I don’t know who will be receiving these, I opted for the larger size to fit a man’s hands – I might have enough yarn to knit a second set in opposite coloring for a woman, though, so that may be next year’s project).

Second, some slipper socks in gorgeous Madelintosh tosh chunky (color is Robin Red Breast). I knit these for the very sweet woman who spent the last few years coming to visit my grandfather every day. She’d take him out to eat, take him shopping, and when he could still get around they’d even go dancing together. ♥ With death in families there’s always drama that pops up, and this sweet lady has been severely under-appreciated for all that she did. I wanted to do something nice for her, and since handmade gifts are how I show my love, I decided to order this gorgeous yarn and make her some slippers to help keep her feet warm this winter. I can’t wait to pop them in the mail tomorrow and surprise her!

Next up… toddler sweaters. All from the stash, thankfully. 2016 is going to be the Year of the Stash. For real. Please stop laughing. I really mean it! Ok, well, maybe most of the year? If I actually make a good dent in my stash I’m totally okay to buy yarn come November’s yarn sales, right? Maybe I should just make a goal… say, if I get through 3,500 yards of yarn? My total 2015 numbers with destashing and then my new purchases ended up with a total overall of about 3,200 yards out, so if I can get through 3,500 that puts me over 2015 AND makes a large dent in the stash, yes?

Atwood, finished.

January 2, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

atwood-finished1

Well, it’s done! It was all finished before the end of December, so it still counts as a holiday gift. All in all, knitting a sweater for the husband wasn’t a horrible undertaking, but in the future I’ll definitely choose my patterns a bit differently. Preferably the top-down variety that requires less seaming, plus the benefit of being able to have him try it on. The sleeves are a tad long, you see. But it’s done and waiting for him to wear it (at which point I’ll try to get a proper in-action photo – the lighting today really is pretty horrible so I had to make do with close by windows). I picked up buttons for it from Knitting Temptations, where I originally told myself I was going in for buttons only and then came home with 3 skeins of yarn plus buttons. Oops. I really am trying to go “cold sheep” (meaning no new yarn purchases) this year so at least those 3 came in on NYE?

So close

December 19, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

knitting dye-runoff

After a long, emotionally exhausting week I can officially say that we are near the end of the husband’s Christmas sweater. I spent several hours on the road, going back and forth between home and the funeral home, and managed to get the bulk of the 2nd sleeve knit (don’t worry, the husband was driving). And then, yesterday, I spent the majority of my day standing and knitting in an attempt to finish the last portion. Because, of course, you can’t sit down and knit with a toddler – there’s apparently some unwritten rule in toddlerdom that if mama sits down that’s your sign to pester her. (Seriously, I’m kneeling at the computer right now rather than sitting in the chair because as soon as I do that his independent play is over.)

This morning I set about to washing each of the pieces and blocking them in hopes that I can spend Sunday stitching it all together and Monday-Wednesday working like crazy on the collar and button band to have it done in time for Friday. I’m not impressed with the amount of dye runoff that came out of the individual pieces. The yarn was the basic Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, so it wasn’t like I spent a ton of money on the yarn (wasn’t my choice, however – I offered to knit it in nicer wool but husband is cheap and insisted the cheaper yarn would be fine). I laid towels down on my bed to keep it from getting stained as well. Oh well. Next time I’ll persuade him to go with a nicer yarn. Either that, or I’ll just pick it out myself and not tell him what I bought or how much it cost.