autumn fade

How can it be the end of November already!?! It seemed like autumn barely arrived yesterday. We had a very quiet and peaceful Thanksgiving last week. My MIL stopped by for a whirlwind visit on her way to Florida. So we ended up eating Thanksgiving dinner twice (the other dinner was at my brother’s). I also had quite a bit of time to knit since no one trusted me with Turkey duty. Two socks have been cast off since we last spoke. Both have been my constant knitting companions this fall and were joys to knit. The other project finished was a quick Sockhead Hat using a beautiful fall mini’s set from Hue Loco. I am calling it my autumn fade hat. Quite appropriate since we are now heading into the busy holiday season. Time to cast on some festive Christmas socks!

Did you cook for Thanksgiving? Any holiday knitting/crafting plans?

spooky knits

Happy Halloween guys! Any fun plans for the evening? We are doing the usual: handing out candy to the trick or treaters and then going next door to my brother’s annual Halloween/birthday party. The kid decided to be Alvin the Chipmunk this year and the hubby is a chicken. I’m going as my usual angry 90’s grunge teen.

I surprised the kid with a special Halloween hat (although honestly, I plan on “borrowing” it to wear year round!) As you know, he had some strong opinions on the scrappy monster socks that I was knitting for the #monstersockkal2018. The skulls were his idea (colorwork chart from the awesome Alterknit Stitch Dictionary by Andrea Rangel). But I had my heart set on some cute Halloween cats (chart from 150 Scandinavian Motifs by Mary Jane Mucklestone) so we ended up compromising. One for him and one for me :) The yarns are a mix of mini’s from havirland and knitty and color. Both of these talented ladies know their Halloween.

For the hat, I decided to go all out on the spooky factor and used the Cake or Death chart from Alterknit. I don’t usually go for morbid things like the Grim Reaper but I thought this would be right up the kid’s alley. And boy was I right! He loves it and says it’s the coolest thing I ever made him. So a win for this knitting mama!

Now I’m off to decorate the gingerbread haunted house. I hope that you all enjoy a fun and safe night. Will you be dressing up as anything?

sunset highway

As you can see by that big grin on the kid’s face, we had a fabulous time at the seashore. Play Eat Repeat. I even squeezed some knitting in and managed to finish my Sunset Highway. I decided to knit short sleeves in keeping with the whole summertime casual easy breezy theme. I love that the yarn for this tee was all pulled from stash but the control freak knitter in me is not sure about the colors. It all looks okay together but I can’t help enviously drooling over all the pretty Sunsets on instagram and ravelry with their seemingly perfectly curated color choices (who knows maybe most were stash inspirations as well). Does that happen to you sometimes when trying to use your stash? But at least most of the envy is balanced out with the satisfaction of turning perfectly good yarn into a finished object.

summer traditions

yes, I started another blanket...more details coming soon!

It wouldn't truly be summer without our annual seaside holiday. There is something to be said about little traditions that stay with you year after year: eating at our favorite off-the-beaten track food joints, making sand castles and knitting at the same lovely uncrowded stretches of beach, resting our heads at night and waking up to beautiful sunrises from a familiar spot. It's always bittersweet to leave but there's a reassuring knowledge that we will be making the same trek next summer. Is there a summer tradition that you look forward to year after year?

celebrations

It's been a wonderful week of celebrations around here :) My niece graduated from high school. Hard to believe that the tiny screaming baby that I saw come into the world is now the confident and caring young woman smiling before me. I am so proud of her, but a part of me wishes that time wouldn't fly by so fast.

This past Sunday was National Cancer Survivors Day. One of my closest friends and I marked the occasion by taking a river cruise down the Choptank River. We ate a delicious lunch, watched the gorgeous scenery pass by and laughed a lot. It was a beautiful way to celebrate life and friendship.

This Friday is the last day of school for the little guy. It's been a successful school year and I couldn't help but cast on a celebratory sock.

pattern: froot loop

These are going to be my Summer festival socks to usher in the season. With all of the sad events happening right now, it seems even more important to celebrate and be grateful for the joyful moments that life has to offer, both big and small.

whoosh!

And just like that it's another year coming to an end! Can't believe how quickly Christmas came and went. It was a pretty low key affair this year since my MIL decided to spend the holidays at her new house in Florida. I also took a nasty spill at work and threw out my back two days before Christmas. Luckily, all the decorating, baking, shopping and wrapping were done so all that was left was the fun stuff i.e. spending time with the family, watching holiday movies and eating a ton of yummy food. There was also some knitting and ornament making:

mistletoe socks (pattern: hermione's everyday socks)

yarn: knitmona in mistletoe colorway

pattern: mitten garland advent calendar

stitchable mitten ornaments by katrinkles

Wishing that I had a few more days of bed rest but unfortunately it's a crazy busy time of year at work. So heading back to the grind tomorrow morning. I hope that your holiday season has been chock-full of family, love and joy! I will be back soon with an end of the year roundup.

stripe happy

Happy last day of November! We had a lovely Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and yummy food. I had to work for part of the day but came home to a delicious dinner prepared by my sisters-in-law. One of the many blessings in my life is having family who live close by. Especially ones who know how to cook and throw a good party :)

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Only 3 & 1/2 weeks until Christmas! I know that a few of you have been knitting gifts year round. Wish I had the forethought to do that. There are a few gifts in the knitting basket which are underway. Just small things this year: a bunny which is currently on hold until the baby is born in January. The parents are waiting to find out the gender. As soon as that happens, I can outfit the bunny accordingly. Also some fingerless mitts and a cowl which I am still waiting on the yarn for.

And of course, there has been lots of fun Christmas sock knitting going on. Speaking of socks, I've got a backlog of finished ones to show you all. Presenting my Stripy Socks for All Seasons:

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Spring is a plain sock with heel flaps. Fall & Winter are vanilla socks using my new favorite afterthought heel technique without waste yarn. And Summer is a scrappy monster sock with a Strong Heel.

playing catch up

So happy to report that the transition to middle school has been pretty smooth and the little guy loves his new school and teachers. Such a big sigh of relief. I've been hesitant in the past to go into detail about my son's special needs but school & learning has many times been a struggle despite all of our efforts to make it fun and as pressure-free as possible. Transitions are especially stressful but so far so good. Now that we are getting used to the new school routine and schedule, there's a little breathing room to start playing catch up in other areas. Well, what I should really be doing is cleaning/de-cluttering my mess of a house in preparation for a visit from my MIL but where's the fun in that, right? What I want to do is show you my finished Vanilla is the New Black / Skyp socks:

This Strong Heel is such a cool feature of these socks and I absolutely loved knitting it. Very easy & intuitive. But most importantly, they fit great and the socks are so comfortable to wear. Probably the best fitting pair of socks I've made so far. The sunny summery yarn is wsk aspen sock in the flirty owl colorway. It's funny that there is just a little bit of pooling in each sock in the exact same spot, so it was meant to be a design feature ;)

In other sock news, I am currently participating in a monster sock KAL on Instagram. The hashtag is #mskal16 if you want to check out all of the scary monster goodness. I was kind of worried that I wouldn't have enough variety/contrast in my sock yarn scraps to make a decent pair since I've only been knitting socks for less than a year. So after a little bit of brainstorming, I decided to go with alternating stripes of solid/tonals and speckles/variegated yarns. These socks are so addictive and I find myself knitting on them way past my bedtime. However, I am making a conscious effort to stop and weave in the ends as I go along otherwise the final finishing would be truly monstrous :)

I hope that the entry into September has gone smoothly for you as well. Have a great week!

last days of summer

We have been soaking up every last bit of summer these past few weeks. Next Monday is the little guy's first day of middle school, so in between....

visits to the beach

bike rides on the island trail

and local camping trips

....there has been some behind the scenes preparations for what looks to be a fun school year. I love back to school season and all of the excitement that it brings. New beginnings & possibilities. Also, to be honest, a little anxiety. And, thank goodness, always a little mindless knitting  to help with that last bit.

Notice the cute project bag? It's the Rosemary Bag from Della Q and since receiving it to try out, it's accompanied me on all of our end of summer adventures. I love the smooth lightweight fabric, the cute dumpling shape and the just right length of the handles. It even has a handy outer pocket and is the perfect size for my current favorite on-the-go project, socks. I also started a Cancun lacy box top with some sparkly rayon yarn in the stash which matches the pretty colors of the bag. Love when that happens :) The top was an impulsive cast-on but I am really enjoying the simple lace stitches. It will probably be put on hold until next summer though, because with back to school season comes the alluring call of wool. Right now there is an improvised top-down sweater knitalong happening over at Fringe Association which you can follow on Instagram using the hashtag #fringeandfriendskal2016. Lots and lots of lovely ideas and projects. Here's how mine is shaping up so far:

I hope that you are all finding time to enjoy these last few weeks of summer. Hugs go out to those of you who are saying goodbye to your first-time-away-from-home college kids. I can't even imagine! I know that I will be wiping away some tears on Monday and it's just middle school!

vegas

My brother, sister & I surprised my mom with a quick jaunt to Vegas. We ate lots of great food, walked The Strip, shopped and people watched. It definitely is a uniquely surreal place! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the company excellent. I even managed to fit in a little bit of pool-side sock knitting:

I was quite surprised by how enjoyable the trip was since my ideal vacation usually involves lazing around the beach, preferably with an endless supply of fresh squeezed lemonade and knitting at the ready. Now it's onwards to finishing up the school year. Just one more week and our summer vacation will officially start. Can't wait for the more relaxed pace of summer. Looking forward to sleeping in, soft ice cream cones at our favorite stand and beach knitting :)

knitting slowly

This time of year is always so crazy busy. My little guy is finishing up fifth grade and we are busy with field trips, final projects, assemblies and transitioning to middle school. Can't believe how fast the years are flying by. Lately, I've been trying to pause and catch my breath. Also, treasuring this special time in our lives before the complicated teenage years swallow us up ;)

One of the final assignments that we've been looking forward to is Market Day. Now, truthfully, my son is more of the outdoorsy active type, so having the opportunity to craft together is quite a treat for me. We decided on something simple and which used up materials that I already had on hand: assorted colors of embroidery threads, miniature wooden dowels, plastic beads & elastic cord. After a little brainstorming, we came up with Camp Necklaces. I remember making God's Eyes when I was his age during summer camps so it was fun teaching him how to wrap the threads around the sticks.

SpunRightRound colorway Levitate

There has also been some (very slow) knitting happening. I finished my Spring vanilla socks (pictures & post coming soon) and started on a couple of new socks. The first one is a sweet pattern called Wildflowers & Honeycomb. Really enjoying this pattern and yarn combination.

Also decided to play around with designing a pair of summer socks with a new-to-me yarn from Kraemer Yarns called Saucon Sock. It's a neat blend of cotton/acrylic/nylon. Here's a close up of the stitch pattern that I am using:

Can't wait for things to slow down a bit so that I can get my knitting groove back. I'm also very behind on my blog reading/visiting. Hoping to get caught up on that soon too. Have a great rest of the week!

cables & flannels

Happy last day of January! I went through my WIP basket Monday night and discovered that there were not one or even two but five unfinished cowls waiting for attention. It's a good thing that I like to wear cowls with my flannels during wintertime because there will be lots of them coming off the needles in February. First one to be completed is the reversible braided cowl knitted with Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande yarn.

Yes, the yarn is as soft, warm and cozy as it sounds. This pattern is definitely a contender for Christmas gift knitting since it is so fast and easy to make. And who doesn't love squishy cables?

What kinds of projects are multiplying in your basket? The temptation to cast on for another pair of socks is pretty hard to resist (especially when I keep splurging on new sock yarns, patterns & books ... need to stop my bad habit of midnight window shopping ... sometimes I hit the buy button when I'm half asleep LOL) but so far I've been sticking to my finishing goals: knitting on one project at a time until it's done & reserving the evening hours for sock knitting. We'll see how long that lasts! Next up is a new design using just one skein of this luscious yarn:

And in other happy news, my husband & I just celebrated our 20 year anniversary. Feeling so blessed to share my life with such a wonderful partner in crime. We met out of the blue in college (although he has since insisted that he planned the meeting all along) and now I can't imagine my life without his oddball sense of humor and aggravating little quirks. On our first anniversary, he gave me a hickory farms cheese set. And on our 20th I got this:

It's nice to see that he's gotten wiser with age!