SOS {summer of stash}

Gosh it’s been awhile! How has your May been? I can’t believe that the end of school is coming up soon. In just a few more weeks the kid will be graduating from junior high. Right now we are busy with field trips & other end of school celebrations, plus transition meetings for high school. High school!!! I am so not ready!!! Can’t wait until summer vacation starts & we can sleep in a little. I love the slower pace of summertime here on the island.

I have already started making some fun knitting plans for the summer. This year has seen a major focus on using up the stash. I’ve been knitting up a storm on the garment front but will wait to share that with you on the next post. Today I want to talk about my newest obsession: shortie socks! They are such great projects for leftover partial skeins of fingering weight yarn. All of the following were knit on 2.25mm needles & 64 stitches:

Design line by Arne & Carlos :: summer night

The above pair was my first attempt. I wasn’t sure how long to knit the cuff/leg so I went with 10 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 10 rounds of stockinette before knitting the fish lips kiss heel. Not bad for the first go round.

West Yorkshire Spinners :: peacock

I decided to increase the cuff length on the next pair: 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 10 rounds of stockinette. Better fit but still not perfect.

Knitpicks Felici :: jamboree

Third time’s the charm! 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 15 rounds of stockinette. The fit is just the way I like it. Now that I’ve hit on my perfect shortie formula, there’s a bunch of colorful felici sock yarn in the stash just waiting to be cast on!

Before I sign off today, I want to thank you for visiting! I really appreciate the fact that you take time out of your busy lives to read my oftentimes jumbled ramblings. Have a wonderful start to your summer!

march finishes

Hooray I actually finished a sweater!!! So incredibly excited to cast off my Edith Cardigan while it is still chilly enough to wear. Good thing that it is extremely cozy because every year when the calendar turns to March, the hubby dials down the heat to sub-zero temps. But this year I will not engage in thermostat battles :)  I love how warm & woolly this cardigan is. It was my first time knitting a dropped shoulder construction and I was a little concerned with how the finished sweater would look since I usually wear raglan sweaters. Really pleased with the relaxed fit. It was a very well written pattern and would make a great first sweater project. I am debating on whether or not to add in the big patch pockets. Maybe at some point down the line but for now, I want to finish up my Weekender and cast on for some Easter socks. Here’s the pair I made for St. Patrick’s Day:

These were fun fun fun to knit! The yarn is from Desert Vista Dyeworks in the Zombody go bragh colorway. Those green stripes have me looking forward to some fun Spring knitting. What’s currently on your knitting needles? Anything on the radar for Spring?

winter woolens

conversation hearts :: king cole zig zag :: pinks

winter’s day charade :: coopknits socks yeah! :: danburite 

spring stripes vanilla latte :: must stash yarns :: theory 

Well guys, I’m officially hitting the reset button on this year since it feels like hibernation season is almost over. It’s been a rather tough winter healthwise but we are all finally on the mend. Even my laptop got sick. But today the sun is shining brightly and I finally figured out how to blog from my phone using a new to me app for blogger so now I can share all of the winter woolens completed so far.

Of course there are plenty of socks! January’s pair was inspired by the cold winter walks that were taken when we couldn’t stand to be inside all day long. After knitting with greys and blues, the next pair was a wish for Spring. Nothing makes me happier than fun colorful stripes combined with speckles. February’s was Valentines Day themed.

It’s funny how seasonal my sock knitting is. I love choosing yarns and patterns that celebrate the different holidays that are sprinkled throughout the year. So with that in mind, I decided to start a holiday sox box. The goal is to have fun knitting socks for all of my favorite holidays throughout the year with the bonus of having finished socks to wear next year when those holidays roll around again. Feel free to join in :)

I hope that you are all staying healthy and having fun with your knitting & crafting!

blogmas 2018 :: festive socks

Hello friends! It’s been a whirlwind of a holiday season! I just have a few more presents to wrap and some cookies to bake for the cookie decorating party this evening. Can’t wait to put my feet up later tonight and start a new project for the little bobbins Christmas Eve cast on. Are you joining in? I’m still not sure what yarn or pattern I will be using but it most definitely will be a sock :) The festive sock knitting mojo has been strong this season and I managed to finish last year’s Christmas socks (yarn=turtle purl, pattern=mistletoe kisses) as well as a fun stripey one (yarn=Must Stash Yarn in the bumbles bounce colorway). I am also trying to squeeze in one more pair before Christmas morning arrives (yarn=rellana flotte socke in the Christmas colorway).

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate. Otherwise enjoy this beautiful time of the year with lots of your favorite cozy things!

blogmas 2018 :: bright new knits

A couple of cozy projects to brighten these short days of winter. The yarn is from Must Stash Yarn in the Bumbles Bounce colorway. The pattern for the blanket is Northeasterly and it is so fun & easy. I can’t wait to start on the second column and see it grow. The kid and I are having a Friday night holiday movie marathon (hubby is on a work trip to Texas). Just watched Rudolph and Charlie Brown. Next up is my pick: Little Women. The kid will probably doze off after fifteen minutes whereby I can switch to Love Actually :) Have a wonderful weekend!

color therapy

Oh November why do you have to be so moody and changeable? Sunny blue cold grey dark rainy all in one day....it’s enough to drive a knitter to wanting to cast on all the shiny things. Lucky for me I have a stash full of colorful yarns to chase away the seasonal blues. There’s even a few bright and cheerful wips hanging around requiring just a little attention before they are finished and ready to comfort with their cozy warmth, like these socks that were cast on a few months ago:



I am calling these my Sunbeams Socks because the combination of yarn (SpunRightRound in the shock star colorway) and the fun stitch pattern (from Japanese Stitches Unraveled) creates a fabric with tiny little sunbeams dancing all across it. Pure yarny happiness.



I also pulled out some pretty autumnal mini’s from hueloco for a faded Sockhead Hat:



And of course, the ultimate in woolly color therapy, blankets:



I hope that you are finding comfort in your knitting and crafting as the busy holiday season approaches.

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?

this and that

Wouldn’t it be lovely to start the new year with an empty wips basket? I am trying to get at least all of my lingering socks finished by then. The above pair was a fun knit. The yarn is Felici in the Spring Blooms colorway and the pattern is a free one on Ravelry called the ifthen socks. It is a simple and lovely pattern for self-striping yarns. I modified the pattern slightly by omitting the eyelets for the back of the leg.



I celebrated a birthday a few weeks ago! It was a wonderful day filled with all of my favorite things: family, food, knitting and yarny presents (of course!)



I had the hubby buy me an extra special present from MustStash yarns. Aren’t the colors gorgeous!?! Can’t wait to dive into these as a special reward for getting the sock wips finished.



We are finally experiencing proper autumn weather with the temps dropping into the 50’s. It’s been lovely getting to bundle up in handknit sweaters and socks again. Not to mention putting all of my favorite cold weather dishes back into the dinner rotation: chili’s, stews, soups and casseroles. It’s been fun choosing a different casserole to cook every Wednesday, with the added bonus of having plenty of leftovers for the following day’s lunch. My favorite recipes are the simple ones that instruct you to dump everything but the kitchen sink into your largest casserole dish, sprinkle in a ton of shredded cheese and bake for 30 minutes. It’s the comfort food of my childhood since my mom learned how to cook “American food” from old church recipe books :)

What are you guys whipping up lately? Any favorite fall dishes or casserole suggestions?

knitting the season

Hi guys! Are you falling for all the Fall knits right now? There are SO MANY sweaters that I want to start and it’s making me kinda paralyzed with indecision. So I decided to play it safe and pick a project that has been on my wishlist for a few years now: Edith, a cozy oversized wooly cardigan by Pam Allen. This is pretty much a product knit since the actual knitting is very simple. Lots of stockinette. In boring beige. Makes for good movie night knitting though (side note: I recently watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and thoroughly enjoyed it! The series is one of my YA faves so I was gearing myself up for disappointment. Happy to say that it exceeded all of my expectations. The actors that played Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky had the best on-screen chemistry. And I loved all the scenes with the sisters together).

Ok, back to the knitting. It’s the start of Soctober and I am looking forward to lots and lots of sock knitting. Finally finished my Mind The Gap socks which the hubby is wishing was his, poor chap. So I ordered more yarn from Trailing Clouds to knit him his very own. I also have two new socks on the needles: a plain ol’ one out of a new-to-me commercial sock yarn from Germany called Comfort Sockenwolle. Plus my first Must Stash Yarn socks in the Pumpkin Spice Latte colorway. Both are fulfilling all of my autumn knit cravings for the moment. Speaking of cravings, I recently raided Trader Joe’s of all of their seasonal Fall goodies.

What are your current Fall cravings? Watched anything good lately? Have a fun knitty week!

plain ol’ socks

paintbox yarns fair isle :: storybook colorway

regia 4-fadig :: color 07200

We are finished with the second full week of school and I am happy to report that things are going pretty well. One thing that has helped tremendously is giving ourselves plenty of time to get ready in the morning by waking up a little earlier. My husband is an early bird who wakes up at 5am every morning to meditate, do yoga exercises and go kayaking before he has to start work. Me? I’m definitely a night owl and find early mornings quite painful. But not having to rush before getting the kid to school is a good thing for both him and me so I’m willing to wake up with the early birds, at least on school days. An added perk is having some extra time to relax and knit before seeing the kid off. My project of choice for early mornings is plain ol’ socks since they can be knit even while half asleep. It has taken a couple of years but I have finally come up with a recipe that fits great and is fun & relaxing to knit.

For my plain ol’ socks, I cast on 56 stitches with 2.5mm needles using the German Twisted/Old Norwegian cast on or 64 stitches using 2.25mm....it depends on the yarn. I like a pretty tight gauge for my socks, about 9 stitches per inch. Then I knit 2x2 rib for 20 rows. I knit the cuff + leg for about 5.5 to 6 inches before starting the Fish Lips Kiss heel which is my absolute favorite heel as far as fit goes. Also love how quick & easy it is to knit. I knit the foot for about 7.5 inches before starting the toe. My favorite new toe is similar to the umbrella toe by Kay Jones which can be found in her Drippity Drop Socks pattern except that I forgo the Kitchener stitches at the very end and just fasten off the few remaining stitches. Much simpler and neater for me and the resulting fit is perfect for my toes. And that’s all there is to it! Here’s an action shot:



Are you an early bird or night owl? What is your favorite easy knitting project?

hello september

Hi friends! Today was the first day of school for the kid. It’s been a fun and relaxing summer but I think that we were both ready for school to start again. He’s excited to be in eighth grade this year and I am hoping that the transition from vacation mode to school will be a smooth one.

We had a long holiday weekend here in the States and I spent it chilling out at home with my two guys. We were basically couch potatoes all weekend. I treated myself to three new cast ons. The first one will be a pair of scrappy Halloween socks for the #monstersockkal2018 on instagram.



This is actually my second attempt because the first one was judged not spooky enough by the kid. Who knew that he had such strong opinions on Halloween monster socks?!? Where were the zombies, blood & guts he asked. Well, his ideal Halloween would be more along the lines of the Exorcist while mine would be Jasper the Ghost. So in the end we compromised and went with skulls & crossbones.





I also started a new blanket for the Harry Potter Blanket KAL hosted by Adelaide Cottage and the Knitting Broomstick. The pattern is the Giant Square Scrap Blanket and it’s a fun one. I am currently knitting with a gorgeous mini-skein set by Adelaide Cottage inspired by the colors of the HP books. Don’t you think that she did such an awesome job interpreting the covers? Looking forward to listening to the books & watching the movies while working on the blanket. It’s a yearlong KAL so there’s plenty of time to join in. This will be my sixth blanket on the go but that’s ok. Blankets make such comforting and cozy knitting.



And lastly...more socks! It’s been a while since my last pair of Felici socks and I was drawn to this pretty colorway. The pattern (ifthen socks) works so well with self-striping yarn. Even though the colors totally scream Spring, I am enjoying knitting on them nonetheless. In fact, all of my current wips are bringing me so much joy. I hope that your projects are doing the same for you! What are you knitting on right now?

sock school 2018

pattern {mercury socks} yarn {hue loco glitz} color {eskimo}

We are trying to get outside as much as possible in order to enjoy these last few weeks of summer. Honestly, if it was up to me, I would rather be inside with the AC on full blast and knitting away on all my sock wips. So it’s a good thing that the kid is in charge and dragging me out of my nest to enjoy/whimper in the hot, humid, changeable weather. It’s been a mix of bright blue skies and brief summer thunderstorms lately.

As far as the knitting goes, this week has been dedicated to finishing up some more wips. Trying my darndest to get all the summer socks projects off the needles before Fall Castonitis hits (yes that’s a real thing!). My first priority was finishing the Mercury Socks for Sock School 2018. Gosh, what a fun enjoyable pattern. Surprisingly so because lace knitting isn’t something that I normally gravitate towards. But the stitch pattern was extremely simple and meditative. Also loved knitting with the sparkly glitz yarn from Hue Loco. This cheerful pair will be going into my Christmas box o’sox.

Are you looking forward to Fall Castonitis as well?

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!

socks galore

February: paintbox yarns, passion fair isle colorway

March: twizzler socks, West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4-ply, mojito 

Hi friends! Just wanted to check in with you all and give you a quick sock update before I head off to visit Vietnam for a couple of weeks. I am flying solo on this trip so there will be a lot of travel knitting and reading to look forward to (over 20 hours of flight time). I am horrible at dealing with jetlag. Any tips? I know that staying hydrated is a must. I will also try to eat according to my destination time. But sleep is always an issue for me on planes. I have tried noise-cancelling headphones, sleep masks, travel pillows and melatonin. Nothing seems to work and Benadryl makes me extremely groggy for a long time which defeats the purpose of taking it. My husband suggested fasting during my flight but I don’t think I can go that long without eating. So I will probably end up watching all the movies, knitting on my socks and pigging out :) Speaking of socks, April is looking like a fun knitting month full of socks. I will be participating in the Coffee & Craft Podcast’s Sock Sprint that Bernadette is hosting. It is a challenge to see how many pairs of socks we can finish in a month. The hard part is trying to figure out which yarns to bring with me.

I will be flying out on Sunday so wishing you a wonderful Easter if you observe it. Have a lovely start to April!

snow day

Late season snow days are one of those rare treasures that come along once in a blue moon here in Maryland. So when presented with an unexpected day free of school or work, we can’t help but savor every minute. There’s a plate full of freshly baked molasses gingerbread cookies ready to eat with hot chocolate and a pot of beef stew simmering on the stove. I am indulging in a lazy day of knitting, reading and podcast listening. I dug out all of my blankets and worked on a bit of each because all too soon, the seasons will be changing. But for right now, watching the snow fall outside while layers of cozy wooly blankets cover my lap, Spring seems so far away. And that’s surprisingly okay.