Weekly WIP #4

Yep, I’ve been missing you guys!! I journeyed to Louisiana for a quick Thanksgiving weekend. Jordan and I had the most wonderful time. I was able to spend time with my adorable niece Payton and of course her parents, my Brother & Rachel, and my Mom.

She’s the cutest!! Still has those gorgeous blue eyes…one of the blessings my brother inherited 🙂

So I’ve been clicking away on an oldie-but-goodie that has been languishing on my needles for far too long, The Skinty Stripe Scarf.

I was supposed to finish this a while ago…I talked about it when I first started my blog even! There was UFO Wars that was supposed to motivate me. However, nothing has inspired me as much as finishing all other projects for people other than myself EXCEPT for this one thing!

That’s why this week I’m exclusively focusing on this scarf. Giving it a good effort, undivided attention, resisting the urge to cast on a second sock to the Bootstrap Socks or to cast on a hat for Payton using this Squirrel Chart or even just putting any sort of row on any of my WIPs…

Linking with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm & Craft On.

❤
Jenna

The Wool Keeps Me Warm

The end of a beautiful year is upon us. In 2014, I had some wonderful adventures. I started a blog! I didn’t realize how awesome it would be to dive into the knitting blogosphere! I’ve read some awesome blogs (hop over to my Blogs I Read page for more…in fact I have a few to add) and had the opportunity to connect with some great people through the internet. I’ve been inspired to tackle all the knits. I’ve been encouraged when things aren’t quite going the way I want. And I’ve felt a huge sense of belonging to such a fantastic group of people. I knit my first garment(s)! Earlier this year, I blindly knit a top as a shop sample for McNeedles. I followed the directions and knit stockinette for miles. My only complaint? I couldn’t try it on because it was the smallest size! After I finished that bad boy up, I came across several posts on blogs talking about a “Summer Sweater Knit-Along.” I had to play along! I bought yarn, swatched, and then it hibernated. I was inundated with trying to finish baby blankets and didn’t even cast on the crazy “summer sweater” until August? Not to mention I didn’t finish those million rounds of stockinette until October. But I love my Whispers top and look forward to wearing it more in the spring! I moved to an awesome city! St. Louis has been magnificent! We are closer to family and have gotten to go to some awesome Cardinals baseball games and drink some of the tastiest beer. I was blessed with a new niece! My brother graduated college! And I’ve knitted my fingers off! I think I’ve finished like 35 projects this year! I’ve managed to whittle down my current WIPs to 8 and I’m nearly done with the Array Cowl. I can say that I’m incredibly grateful for such an awesome year and I’m definitely looking forward to the new year! I’ve got some fun new things I want to talk about in the upcoming year and maybe a few changes to the look of the blog. So Happy New Year to you and yours!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Linking with Tammy for her Stitch Along Wednesday & Ginny for Yarn Along & Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

The Mad Rush

Hi there, broken record here…you know, the one that seems to keep saying the same thing over and over again? Yep, that’s me. I am still here. My life has been a little hectic with the holidays. We were hosts to my in-laws for the last week. It was great 🙂 I had a blast cooking for everyone, there was an epic game of dominoes (that is still unfinished!), and so much wonderful time spent with family.

But onto the knitting.

I don’t know what it is about the new year, but I’ve been feeling the desire to clear up my needles. I have so many things I want to start knitting, but it is hard for me to pull out the ball winder and swift to start some new project when I see the pile of WIPs both in real life and on my Rav page.

In good news, I did finish up the Settler Shawl in my Two Grey Dogs yarn. It is luscious! Only slight frustration I had was that I ran out of yarn during the last pattern repeat! Good news? I only had about 2 more rows of garter stitch and the bind off to complete when I scoured my bag-o-ends. I found some shiny, happy pima cotton in the perfect yellow from a wrap I knit myself a couple years ago.

Maybe the cotton will give the edge of the shawl a little weight. I guess it will all come out in the wash.

I also dug out this little bunny that has been hibernating for entirely too long. I finished it up. And it’s super cute!

Only complaint? I chose to do this in a cotton-acrylic blend, it’s worsted weight and I was knitting on US size 3 needles for a super tight fabric so the stuffing wouldn’t show through. It was a bit torturous on my hands but thankfully I didn’t have much left. And the yarn used for the rainbow “socks” was a wool blend and was nice and springy.

I’m surveying what I’ve got left and seeing what I can finish by Friday so I can start a sweater for me in the new year 🙂

Does the rapid approach of the new year make you want to finish all the things??

 

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Still Knitting…

I know it has been a day or two, maybe a week. I went on an epic journey, consisting of a drive lasting a total of 28 hours and taking approximately 3 days. My amazing grandmother, Freddie, joined me for a good portion of the adventure to go see my brother, Jacob (adorable baby niece Payton’s dad) graduate from college! So so so proud!!

Jacob & Freddie 🙂

Jacob and the most beautiful little lady in the world 🙂

It was so nice to be with family so close to the holidays. Sadly, I won’t be making that trip again for the holiday, but we will be celebrating here in St. Louis.

Don’t worry, I’ve been knitting and finishing things!!

First up, my mom sewed the buttons on that darling sweater. I asked her to help me since they are placed a little close to the mouth of the baby wearing it and I wasn’t going to be the reason for my dear niece to eat a cherry button.

 

It’s officially finished and it fits!!

Second up, I finished the Black Hat turned Balaclava…

Only I’m not sure the recipient would use it. Bah!

I also finished up the Tweedy Honeycomb Toque for my brother-in-law’s girlfriend, Shayna. I know I was uncertain about it as it was coming along, but I LOVE IT!!!

The pompom just makes it! It’s definitely loosening up…I was very concerned initially because my floats were a wee bit tight.

I’ve put a few things in hibernation.

Array Cowl

Skinty Stripe Scarf

Technicolor Socks

Never fear, I am still working on my #MEalong (from A Playful Day) Settler Shawl by Libby from Truly Myrtle…Woah! Talk about link-tastic 🙂 I wanted to participate in the #Grinchalong with the Knitmore Girls, but I was also technically knitting gift :(, but they may or may not have necessarily been for Christmas. Oh well, missed that boat.

Anyway, I’m absolutely loving the way this thing is working up! I just got to the cool border stitches and I just feel so cool knitting it! And the colors. And the yarn. And. And. And!

It’s for me. 🙂

I will try to keep this little corner updated, but I’m not making any promises. With short day light and lots of family time, I will probably spend more time unplugged than usual 🙂

Until next time! Happy Knitting!

v’s & bumps, (or knits & purls)

Jenna

 

Must. Weigh. Yarn!

So the predicament I’m in with my socks. Thanks to all those wonderful bloggers and podcasters out there who whip up socks like its goin out of style, I have been really looking forward to finishing up and wearing my Technicolor Socks.

Enter the predicament.

I want the cuffs to be nice and long and I want minimal leftover yarn. And I want the socks to fit. So I’m not sure how much longer I can continue with the cuffs before turning the heel and have enough yarn to do the foot the correct length.

I’ve got 450 yards of yarn and I split the yarn into two (seemingly) equal balls when I frogged these the first time. The problem here is that they are seemingly equal. I don’t have a scale and couldn’t weigh them. And I don’t feel comfortable taking these into a LYS since I bought the yarn on a trip to Tucson a few years ago. I did buy the Karbonz needles at a store here. Maybe that counts??

I’m hoping that determining the weight of the socks knit so far and the remaining yarn will help me determine how much longer I can make my cuff before turning the heel and working the foot. Do any of you have an idea about how to determine this based on the weight??

Until I weigh the yarn, I guess these will have to hibernate. Does this give me freedom to cast on another pair?

I’ve got some 6-ply Regia Adventure or some Indulgence 6-ply that would be beautiful on some US size 2’s…

What would you do?

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

I Swear I Swore Off Gift Knitting…

How come even when I have this whole idea about gift knitting that has been in place for several knitting years I have somehow managed to rack up at least 4 gifts I want to finish in the next few weeks????

After my first Christmas as a knitter and the crazy notion that I could knit everyone something then, and failing miserably at that challenge…so much so that 5 years later, I STILL have yarn and projects queued up from that holiday, I made the pledge that I would not knit for the holidays. Instead, knitworthy folks would receive birthday presents. Even those time lines would stretch out, I would present people with their gifts days, weeks, and months late.

So instead of following my own rule of no holiday knitting, I have been  swept up in the gift knitting that seem to be sweeping blogs and podcasts and all the knitting groups I knit with. And let’s face it, every time I come across a pattern I think would be perfect for someone, I queue it and if I’m feeling particularly weak, I pull yarn out of my stash to cast on…and if I don’t have the yarn, I go to the store. I know.

It’s a good thing I’m not on a yarn diet. And I’m relatively weak willed when it comes to yarn and knitting and gifts for people who I think would love them.

So let this serve as a reality check. I CAN’T CAST ANYTHING ELSE ON!!! At least until I finish something. Anything. Let’s check in. Here are the gifts I began…

A hat for my brother-in-law’s girlfriend. We were talking over Thanksgiving while I was knitting on the next project and I offered to knit up something he had in mind. After a little pattern searching I came across the Tweedy Honeycomb Toque by Kent Turman. It’s free on Rav and I figured I could tweak it by adding an additional color into the “comb” part.

 

I’m using some Berroco Vintage Chunky and I’m stranding the colors behind…only problem is that its a little tight and the second color is really, really popping forward. I was hoping it would have fallen back more. And I probably should have made a better effort to keep my floats loose. I’ve already ripped once, I may have to do it again…here’s a link to my Rav page.

Next up the the black hat for my other brother-in-law I told you guys about last week, the Jacques Cousteau Hat. Well, I did a little ripping there and rethinking. While I don’t want to change the rib or the hat decreases, I wanted the piece to be more versatile. Enter this version of a Balaclava by Jacki Kelly and I tweaked my original.

It’s ready for the bind off for the eye slit. This thing is not too far from being finished. I’m using Universal Yarn’s Deluxe DK Superwash in Ebony. It’s not as pure a black as I’ve seen, but the details do disappear when in the wrong light.

I’ve also got two other projects that I started a while ago and want to finish those up. Like the Array Cowl I started. I ran into a road block with this project. It was about a week ago. And I was knitting away and I kept hearing a creaking sound. I check the joins in my interchangable needles, everything was still screwed in tight. Then, “pop” the cable popped out of the join. I need to send them in 😦

So I bought some more needles and got it switched over. Its just a little tedious with all the slipped stitches but it is nice and mindless and I love the colors!

Another project that I’ve had on the needles for far too long is a scarf for my sister-in-law.

This was featured in a few early blog posts as the Skinty Stripe Scarf. It’s Purl Soho’s Diagonal Pinstripe Scarf. I saw this featured on their blog and new it would be perfect for my sister-in-law. Only hang up? It’s laceweight yarn on US Size 3 needles.

But I did finish up some baby socks to go with Payton’s Wee Envelope Sweater. I knit these in one day!!

That hasn’t totally stopped me from working on things for myself…like my Settler Shawl…

And there is the predicament of these socks. I’ll tell you about later this week…

And I may be pondering casting on a Rikke hat for myself out of some lovely Malabrigo Rios and my Turia Sweater…I even wound the yarn because I have zero self-control. I can at least take a little comfort in at least not casting on yet. That’s not to say that I don’t have needles and patterns at the ready.

Don’t worry, I’m not just thinking about me for future knits, I have yarn to make Payton another sweater and my other niece Nora has requested a scarf in her “colors.” How can I say no?

Plus I’m thinking about frogging a few things.

Bah! Humbug!

(not really, I love the holidays!!)

What about you? Have you given in to the gift knitting bug??

v’s & bumps,

Jenna