under attack

pattern: Mercury socks yarn: hue loco glitz sock in the eskimo colorway

First for the good news: I finished a pair of socks and I love them to bits! The pattern (handpaint highlights socks ) plays so well with the pretty colors of this highly variegated yarn by phydeaux designs. Definitely plan on repeating this pattern with other colorfully fun sock yarn in the stash.

Now for the not so good news: my sock wips appeared to have mysteriously multiplied overnight. I am not quite sure how this happened. {cue music for the Twilight Zone} Maybe some unknown law of quantum physics is at play. Or there could be the existence of an alternate universe where knitting projects self-propagate and then travel through the space-time continuum to land in our wips basket. A nefarious plot by elves and fairies? Regardless of how they came to be, I now have to accept their existence and come up with a plan of attack:

*take a much needed seaside vacation
*bring only sock wips
*do nothing but knit (and eat)
*resist casting on any new socks (at least until a few of these are off the needles)

*find fellowship and support from others who are in the same boat #knitwipkal

Sounds pretty simple right? Wish me luck!

down to the wire

#bangoutacarbeth

#fringeandfriendslogalong

You guys! I can’t help but give myself a little pat on the back for finishing not one but two knitalong projects by today’s deadline. Even the ends are woven in! Super happy with how they both turned out too. Carbeth gave me a little bit of a scare when I first cast it off because instead of the intended positive ease, the sweater pretty much hugged me like a sausage casing. But through the magical powers of blocking, it ended up being okay. I’m pretty happy with the fit and the marled fade makes me smile. It’s a great way to use up those colorful single skeins that we all have lying around.

Another technique to play with stash yarn is logcabin knitting. It’s just the most fun! I am so glad that I didn’t give up on these logcabin socks during the bumpy design process. I wrote down the steps to make them and just have to translate my messy notes into a free pattern for anyone interested in knitting a pair.

If you get a chance, please check out the hashtags for both knitalongs on instagram. There are so many cool projects in both. I am totally adding the Carbeth Cardigan to my future sweater list and the inventiveness of the knitters in the logalong feed just blows me away!

february knitalongs

I can’t believe how quickly this month has flown by! Has it for you? Definitely unusual for February but I have no complaints. The faster winter speeds by the better. This month has been filled with lots of fun knitalongs which are terrific motivators for getting projects off the needles, don’t you think? Here’s a quick rundown of the ones I am currently participating in:

The above pair of socks were for the little bobbins Christmas Eve cast on and also the Box O’ Sox kal. I love how comfy they turned out to be. The pattern is Emily’s Favorite Socks and the pretty yarn is from A Homespun House in the cozy nights colorway.


Still working on my logcabin socks for the Fringe and Friends Logalong. I decided to go with a darker color scheme for this one. It’s taking a little bit longer since I am trying to write down the steps as I knit.


Next up is a pair of Valentine’s Day socks for the hearts and heels kal hosted by the happy knitting podcast. The yarn is Paintbox Socks in the passion colorway. How was your Valentine’s Day? My husband and I usually give each other cards and some candy to celebrate the day. Nothing too fancy. This year’s treats are Japanese strawberry KitKats my fave!

Last but not least is the project that has been my main knitting entertainment this month. It’s the Carbeth pullover by Kate Davies knitted for the fast and furious annual bang out a sweater kal hosted by Kay & Ann of Mason-Dixon Knitting. I will post more pics next week after it’s washed and blocked.

I hope that you are having a fun month of knitting and creating. Are you joining in on any knitalongs or craftalongs this month/season/year?

fringe and friends logalong

One of the highlights of my knitting year is participating in the Fringe and Friends KAL that is hosted by Karen Templer on her Fringe Association blog. The last three years have all been garment based but this year I was excited to see just a general technique as a prompt for the KAL: log cabins. Leaving the theme so wide opened to other crafts has been fun & inspiring. Check out the Instagram feed (#fringeandfriendslogalong) to see cool projects ranging from garments to accessories to housewares to lots of squishy blankets. The blankets in particular were tempting me but I already have five (yikes!) on the needles/hook at the moment therefore a smaller project seemed like a smarter plan. Since socks are my next favorite project to knit on, I was excited to try to improvise a pair using the log cabin technique. Everything started out fine and I was completely smitten with how lovely indie dyed yarns combined with log cabin knitting. But then the creative thought/planning process kinda froze up on me and I ended up staring at the above rectangle for weeks. The hubby thought I was crazy because I kept pulling it out and swearing at it. I finally forced myself to just try out a few ideas even if it meant a lot of ripping out. And eventually something clicked:

Eureka! I have a sock!

attack of the knitting zombies! (Speckle & Pop! Spoiler Alert)

Yesterday my husband showed off a video clip that he had secretly recorded of me as I was obsessively knitting on my Speckle & Pop! Westknits Mystery Shawl KAL. It was pretty hilarious to watch myself mumbling and cursing....there might even have been some cackling as I was knitting my way through a particularly tough section. He claims that he deleted the video but I suspect that it still exists somewhere in the netherworld. So if you come across a short movie titled “Attack of the Knitting Zombies”, you’ll know who the star is :)

And here is some progress pics of my current obsession:

I look forward to Stephen West’s Mystery Shawl KAL every year and this one has been particularly fun & challenging. I got off to a slow start due to some yarn indecision but it is going pretty smoothly at the moment. Although I just started clue 3 and it looks to be a doozy. Which means more material for my budding filmmaker!

catching up

Exploration Station 

Madewell 

Sorry for the radio silence but things became crazy busy once August hit. My mom was here visiting from Vietnam which is always so fun. I miss her already. And then back to school happened and we are still adjusting to the change in schedule. Having to wake up super early is probably the hardest thing for us to get used to. Especially when I stay up way past my bedtime knitting. There has been a lot of that going on lately. I have been trying to finish up some lingering WIPs which is such a great feeling. But there are some new cast-ons as well so it all balances out in the end. I finally started a new sweater, my first for the year. I am making surprisingly fast progress on it, considering that it is knitted with fingering weight yarn. The color fading definitely helps to make the knitting more fun and compelling. I am also looking forward to the Speckle & Pop! Westknits Mystery Shawl KAL starting this Friday. Just need to finalize my yarn choice. I can't wait to catch up and see what you all are knitting & making! Are you giving into the urge to cast-on all the shiny new Fall things?

building blocks (westknits mystery shawl kal 2016)

There was quite a bit of controversy in the mkal forum with this shawl. Some knitters did not care for the construction, a few were in an uproar when two color brioche was included in one of the clues, others didn't like the final shape. Guess I'm easy to please because I enjoyed the entire process of knitting my building blocks shawl. I loved seeing how the different colors interacted with each other depending on their placement and the stitch patterns involved. We were essentially blending the colors like paints on a palette. It was also really cool learning how to increase and decrease in two color brioche. Stephen had these funny but very clear and informative videos on the special techniques used in each clue. I especially loved the brioche knitting one and can't wait to knit one of his brioche designs. The final shawl shape is pretty versatile (I made the small size). I like to wear mine either draped over the shoulders with the long ends hanging in front or wrapped cowl-like around the neck. The bat wing shape is admittedly not to everyone's taste (I personally prefer a more curved & rounded shawl). But it's good fun to step outside of my comfort zone every once in awhile.

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!

freckles & butterflies

sock school goodies from little skein in the big wool

Wish we had this kind of summer school when I was a kid! For this KAL, I wanted to challenge myself by attempting my first pair of toe-up socks. There were some frustrations right out of the gate with learning how to cast-on for the toe. I don't recommend trying out a new knitting technique while on the beach with the sun beating down on you. But the light bulb finally clicked on. Judy's Magic Cast-on is truly magical! I caught myself stopping to admire the neat looking toe all while knitting the first of the pair. The fun speckled yarn is two sisters big sky base in the Pippi's Freckles colorway. The contrasting toes & afterthought heels were knitted with some stroll brights (pickle juice, pucker, hot tamale & razzleberry) that were in the stash. For the stitch pattern, I went with the same one that I used in my bowknot tabi socks. It's interesting how this pattern looks slightly different knitted in the opposite direction. More butterfly-like. I'm glad that I gave toe-up socks a try even though it felt a little strange to be knitting everything in reverse. And most importantly, I love wearing my mismatched Pippi socks:

geek/smooth operator hybrid

One of the many things that I love about knitting socks is how easy it is to combine elements of different patterns together. For this pair, I incorporated the simple slip stitch chart from Geek with the afterthought heels and toes from Smooth Operator. I love how these turned out! The slip stitch pattern kept the knitting interesting and works really well with self striping yarn (these were knit with knitpicks Felici in the Nassau colorway). This was my first time knitting top-down afterthought heels and I was impressed with how clearly the Smooth Operator pattern presented the various steps needed for creating this type of heel. There is currently a KAL going on for the Smooth Operator Socks (#SOSkal) which you can read more about here.

Next up is a hybrid of one of my favorite sock patterns (Simple Skyp Socks) and Vanilla is the new Black which features a new-to-me Strong heel:

This sock knitting adventure continues to be such fun :) What types of projects are you currently enamored with?

stopover

2 weeks from cast on to bind off! Talk about fast. And totally unplanned for. The fun idea to #BangOutASweater was the brainchild of Kay & Ann from the always witty Mason-Dixon Knitting blog. The beautifully written pattern is from the ever stylish Mary Jane Mucklestone. I mainly posted about my progress on Instagram, where you can also see lots of inspiring Stopovers-in-progress as well as #bangfinishers (gosh how did we ever live without hashtags?!?). The yarn is lettlopi & all three of the main colors (oatmeal, brown & rose) are from deep stash. It has been many years since I have knitted with lettlopi. I had forgotten how beautiful and unusual a yarn it is. Rustic but blooms like a flower after blocking. Warm but light as air. This was my first time knitting a lopapeysa and I highly recommend Stopover for Icelandic sweater newbies like me. Very clear instructions and easy colorwork. I also love how Mary Jane included waist shaping so that the sweater has a very modern look to it. She also went rogue with the gauge which she explains here. I can't wait to try this same easy gauge technique on Dalur. Another 2 week sweater perhaps? I could easily get addicted to that!

I couldn't decide on a single pop color so I used three!

here's looking at you 2015

Although I thoroughly enjoy the excitement, togetherness and fun that surrounds Christmas, it's the quietness and peace of the week after that is my favorite part of the holidays. The guests are gone, the house is still relatively clean and the fridge is full of yummy leftovers. There's nothing too pressing that needs to be done. I love having the time to reflect on the year just past and to set some goals for the new year ahead.

The overriding theme for 2015 was knitalongs. Such a surprise to see that I had participated in ten KAL's! I guess my inner social butterfly was waiting until this year to find its wings and fly :)

Also taking note of the fact that there were a lot fewer finished objects this year than in previous years. However, I can honestly say that I love every single thing that came off the needles. Both the process of making them and the items themselves gave comfort/pleasure/peace in a year that saw many personal challenges.

For 2016, I intend to keep things pretty simple: continue to whittle down the stash, knit garments that can be easily incorporated into my everyday wardrobe, dust off the oh-so-rusty crochet skills, knit down the WIP pile that's been slowly growing over the past few months:

.... and most importantly, have FUN!

Wishing you all a happy, creative, healthy and peaceful New Year! Thank you for all of your kindness and friendship!

fun-proofing

The 2015 Fringe and Friends Knitalong is currently underway and the theme for this year is Cowichan-inspired knits. The chosen pattern is the Geometric Cowichan-styled Vest from the Japanese yarn and pattern company Pierrot. It looks to be a fun but daunting knit for many reasons, so a little pre-project planning was called for in order to make the process more enjoyable. Here's what I came up with so far:

=> Since the pattern is written in the Japanese-style, with the instructions mainly consisting of a page of schematics & several charts which outline the pattern stitch by stitch, a way to keep track of the charts is a must. Dusting off the magnetic chart-keeper that I had bought years ago and never used plus some highlighter tape.

=> The vest is knitted at a super-bulky gauge so I am using three strands of a worsted weight yarn held together. I decided to ball up the yarn ahead of time instead of pulling from three skeins while knitting. Boy, has this made a huge difference! Now the project is more portable and there are less skeins to manage at once (and less tangles).

=> Also trying my hand at catching floats every other stitch. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if the project was knitted in the round instead of flat. But since I am not very familiar with how to do this on the purl rows, I ended up making a cheat sheet of instructions after viewing these helpful series of videos by Andrea Rangel on Instagram. I had to adapt the instructions from two-handed stranded knitting to how I knit colorwork (both yarns carried in the right-hand).

Do you fun-proof your more complicated projects too? What kinds of things do you do? Oh, almost forgot the most important tip: take lots of tea/chocolate breaks :)