Sunday Shawls

Remember almost 3 weeks ago when I posted about the shawls I was dying to start?

Well I did.

And I’m in love. It seems a little crazy to keep knitting all this neckwear, but when it’s the perfect project for a single skein or maybe two lovelies worked together it’s hard to resist…especially when it will be worn and shown off!

I keep thinking how lovely it will be to have these finished. How snuggly they will be. How warm. How beautiful the colors will be…

I started the Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West using some leftover gray from my 3 Color Cashmere Cowl (that I’m still weaving ends in on, very, very slowly) and some very peaceful looking Mini Mochi I received in a yarn swap last summer/fall.

The pattern is very intuitive, building the crescent shape upon itself. I love crescent shaped shawls. I feel like they are so easy to wear wrapped around shoulders or tied up like a scarf around my  neck. Sometimes I feel a little self-conscious when I wear them around my neck because the half circle can sort of look like you’re wearing a bib. Not trying to be a baby 🙂

I powered through the solid section to reach the stripes because I wanted to see the Mini Mochi stripe up. Only problem is when I got there, I felt satisfied enough to put it down and start this.

It’s “Passe-Partout” in the lovely Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend…remember the gold & dove gray. I also wanted to power through the first two sections of this shawl to see how the colors would really work together.

I’m so pleased with how they look together. Now I just want to work on this so I can wear it. I love golden yellows. I feel like its such a wonderful color all year round. In winter, it brightens up the day without being too loud. In fall, it’s the color of falling leaves. In summer, its the color of evening sunsets. In spring, its the deep color of blooming flowers.

 Who would have thought golden yellow was so versatile.

I’ve also got one other shawl on the needles…and it’s been there for quite a while. It’s my Cerise Curl.

I was initially so in love. The yarn with the purple, brown and sparkles. Yes, sparkles. I’m not usually a sparkly girl, hardly wear make-up or high heels, but a little sparkle in my yarn…why not!

I did struggle with the pattern in the beginning. It wasn’t quite as intuitive as the first Curl (Caesious) I made from Hunter Hammersen’s book. But it was gorgeous and open. I am sure I will love the way it blocks out and I love all the different ways to wear the Curls. I just need to power through. I only have like 15 grams of yarn left. Each row takes around 1.5 grams, maybe more…I should be able to knock it out.

Just thought I’d share some shawls I’m working on…they are great distraction from going into my stash every 5 minutes to start something new…I’m dying to cast on a sweater, rip out Turia, buy some forest green yarn and make SOMETHING (I’m super drawn to this color right now and just want to wear it)…so I thought shawls would be a good distraction.

How terrible that each time I approach my yarn cabinet, I have to think, “No Sudden Movements! Back Away Slowly Before Anything Else Gets Cast On!!” I guess it’s the arrival of September and the promise of autumn.

❤
Jenna

Made it to Monday

So we made it to Monday, again. I’ve started a new job at a law office as a docket clerk. My days are filled with giant files and computer screens so the last thing I want to do is really come home and soak up more of the computer screen.

Instead I have been knitting. A. Lot. I’ve been giving a good effort at Stash Dash…I keep hearing the Knitmore Girls & the Prairie Girls talk about it. I love to listen to audio podcasts while I drive to and from work. It’s better than the radio with the same old songs and there is only so many times I can listen to the same depressing news on NPR.

So how about a look at my knits…

I’ve officially frogged the “Colour Change Scarf.”  The more I looked at it and the more I worked on it, the less I liked it. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for a friend…now it’s at least 2 years over due and it was looking less like what I initially had in mind. Now I’ve got 4 full balls of Silky Alpaca Lace…what to do with this goodness?

There is also all these bags that have been sitting by me on the couch for at least 48 hours. I keep bopping between bags, moving needles, notions, patterns around…it’s really a form of procrastination. But at least I am putting my hands on the projects.

I pick one up. Knit a few stitches. Get distracted by another pattern. Mostly I want to finish things, but I can’t decide which one I want to finish first so I keep picking up different things. It’s hard to see the progress, but my attention span is short. I don’t have too much left on this one…

Maybe I’ll focus and free up some needles. And the Curls book. So I can start another one. Since I fell off that KAL after my Caesious…but Cerise is lovely, especially in the Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Glitter Sock 🙂

How is your summer knitting coming? Are you procrastinating? Or do you genuinely have project ADD?

❤
Jenna

 

 

 

Freshly Finished Friday #7

Welcome to a link-up party for your Friday Finished Object posts! In an effort to connect everyone who creates and blogs about it here on the web, I thought providing a place to link up and share your freshly finished creations would be a great way to see what everyone is working on. Please feel free to share ANY of your finished crafty pursuits from knitting and crocheting to sewing and scrapbooking.

So I have been wanting to write for a few days but things have been hectic around here! I’ve been so lucky to spend some quality time with my husband and I’ve been subbing at school and playing volleyball! But I have been knitting…

This is Sam’s Man Scarf!!! The pictures are not the best since I’ve been missing my daylight window, but you get the picture 🙂 I used some Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in Brown held double with Claudia Handpaints Addiction in River Bank Grass. The effect is simply lovely. It’s a pretty heavy scarf since it’s like 6 feet long and alpaca! I used Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s One Row Handspun Scarf pattern. I love it and I hope that Sam will too. I’ve just got to get it in the mail.

 

I finished my first Curl!!! Caesious! Once again, a terrible picture, but I love it!! I have to block it and put the ends in, but it’s sooooooo squishy!! I can’t wait to wear it. I would use more exclamation points but I don’t want to overwhelm you guys. I figured that since I slacked last couple weeks without a finished object I could overwhelm you with two!

In a little more exciting news….

I started my Turia sweater. FINALLY! I’ll keep you updated.

To join in the fun, click the link up below to see all the others participating in a Freshly Finished Friday! It will take you away from this page, but don’t worry, you will always be able to find your way back. It’s especially helpful if the linked up blog has a link back here. Please add your specific blog post link and remember to link back here in your blog so we can all be connected 🙂

 

I can’t wait to see what everyone has finished up this week!!!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Staring at the Screen

That’s what I find myself doing these days when I sit down to write a post. I don’t want to force this, but lately I’m not feeling like I have much to share. I have found having a blog this past 9 months to be very helpful in connecting me with other knitters. I like to think that someone out there is reading along and if they are sharing a similar experience maybe they find support while tackling some fiddly bit in a pattern or maybe just a laugh at my nutty reasoning.

I find that being away from this has resulted in me creeping back into my shell a bit. I had made a fine place in that shell when I moved the first time to Louisville and reaching out here has meant the world to me. I’d like to come back here and continue sharing what my needles click away on. I did just finish catching up on my super back logged blog roll!!

So without further ado, enter a few day late, dollar short-style Monday Musings (Yes, I’m aware it’s Tuesday).

I’ve been knitting furiously on several WIPs that are holding on to needles I want to liberate. Selfishly, I started my first Curl, Caesious, using the needles I bought/set-aside/picked-out for my Turia sweater and has thus prevented me from starting said sweater. This could be good since I have a few things I would really love to complete before starting a sweater project.

But I’m super excited to start Turia! It’s been in my queue and on my knitting must-knit list for at least 4 years now. I first eyed it in McNeedles when I was working there in the summer of 2011. They had a shop sample, but I was still not a super serious knitter (read as willing to spend $$ on a sweater quantity of yarn) so I lusted after it. I picked out the yarn almost weekly and before I moved to Memphis to take a job teaching, I did buy the pattern booklet for Turia.

I didn’t buy the yarn. Even though I could have gotten a nice discount buying it while I worked at the shop. Like a woman-obsessed-but-in-denial, I would check every yarn shop I entered from that point forward to see if they had enough of the Berroco Linsey. I resisted, insisting that amount of money was not meant to be a sweater.

Then I went to Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago in 2013. Reasonable amounts of money to spend on yarn was suddenly put in perspective…and as luck would have it:

Early last year while visiting McNeedles, they had a giant sale and the yarn, Berroco’s Linsey was marked down and screaming at me to just go on a buy it already!! So I did and I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to cast on.

I thought I would have managed it by now and even wound it all up back in November.

All that stands between me and knitting this sweater is less than 20 grams of Lorna’s Laces Sport being knit into my Caesious…let’s see if I can’t get this beast tackled and unleash the sweater!!!!

Maybe Wednesday. Wednesday seems like a good day to start new things 🙂

Until then,

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Effort Part 1…

As mentioned on last Friday’s post, I have not been able to really sit down and connect here since the previous week. I think partly because I was busy subbing for a few days and I was also busy getting my cover letter and resume together. With many of the private schools here expecting contracts to be returned this month, several openings have been popping up. Since I hadn’t even looked at my resume or cover letter since we moved to St. Louis in July, I thought I should shore it up before I sent it out. Needless to say, preparing to seriously start my job search (again!) definitely took over much of my free time.

Anyway, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting. In fact, I’ve taken what little time to myself I’ve had this week and spent it knitting, not blogging or reading blogs or perusing Ravelry, just knitting. I even picked up Audible again to listen to some real books while I knit…if you consider Game of Thrones a real book 🙂 I’m counting it since it is a published piece that’s been edited unlike so many of the wonderful blogs I read and podcasts I listen to.

Mostly I’ve been knitting on my first Curl, Caesious, that I’d like to have finished by February 15th when the next KAL is supposed to launch in Hunter Hammersen’s Violently Domestic Ravelry group.

I’ve started the second ball of yarn. I was knitting on this between classes while I was subbing and ran out so I had to hand wind the ball. It’s not perfect, but it serves it’s purpose. It’s Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in the Montrose coloway. The pictures are a little dark.

The second thing I really have been working on is the Man Scarf for my friend Sam. He’s coming to visit next weekend and wouldn’t it just be lovely if I were finished by then???

On a side note, I ordered and received a kitchen scale so I could weigh my yarn and make my life glamorous like all the other famous knitters out there. As a test and since I’m not quite ready to tackle the Technicolor Socks (snoozing since before Christmas) I decided I’d weigh the yarn for Sam’s scarf to determine if I’d have enough for the length I wanted. Mostly I was concerned about the Ultra Alpaca Fine I have in brown since I only had 433 yards and I have 3 skeins of the Claudia Hand Paint totaling 525 yards. I weighed the ball I had left of the brown and had 1.75 ounces or EXACTLY half of the ball left. I held up the scarf next to my husband’s completed one and realized I’m not even to the halfway point so there’s no way I’d have enough to finish the scarf 😦

I did marinate on this information for about 5 days. I went through the thought of ripping out what I’d already completed so I could make it skinnier and therefore get more length out of the scarf using the yarn I had, but Sam wanted his scarf wider than Jordan’s and Sam is taller than Jordan so I couldn’t sacrifice the length…obviously I only had one choice!! A trip to Knitorious and I only walked out with the yarn I needed.

Yes, I’ll take a pat on the back for that one! Wish me great knitting speed 🙂

Until next time!

v’s & bumps!

Jenna

Freshly Finished Friday #5

 

Welcome to a new link-up party for your Friday Finished Object posts! In an effort to connect everyone who creates and blogs about it here on the web, I thought providing a place to link up and share your freshly finished creations would be a great way to see what everyone is working on. Please feel free to share ANY of your finished crafty pursuits from knitting and crocheting to sewing and scrapbooking.

So I dropped the ball this week on blogging and finishing!! Not to worry, I have still been knitting away! Mostly on my Caesious from Curls by Hunter Hammersen. I’m using Lorna’s Laces Sport in the Montrose colorway. Sorry, no good pictures of it, maybe I’ll get on on Instagram later today!

To join in the fun, click the link up below to see all the others participating in a Freshly Finished Friday! It will take you away from this page, but don’t worry, you will always be able to find your way back. It’s especially helpful if the linked up blog has a link back here. Please add your specific blog post link and remember to link back here in your blog so we can all be connected 🙂

 

I’ll see what I can do about getting back on the blog wagon next week 🙂

Until then,

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Terribly Troublesome Tuesday

My day began pretty early for a day off. Our sectional we ordered the weekend after Thanksgiving was delivered this morning at 7:00AM. I got the call yesterday that they would be here between 7-10AM, and I figured we probably see them somewhere around 10 or 11. WRONG!! At 6:40 I got a call from the delivery guys saying they were 20 minutes away. My husband and I sprung into the action, moving our futon to another room so we would have space. I even vacuumed 🙂

 

It looks fantastic!! Except…

They couldn’t get the end-piece which is a chaise (sp?) up the stairs and around the corner 😦 So we are going to have to pay a “re-stocking” fee but they will at least exchange it for a different piece that will fit. Hopefully it doesn’t take as long to get that one in, but who knows since we wanted a custom fabric that would hold up to the cats.

On a happier note, I did celebrate my birthday on Sunday, January 11. I had a wonderful time in Memphis, spending it with my husband and some friends. And what’s a birthday without a little funfetti cake?

I also wanted to give you guys a little update on the charity hats I knit. They needed buttons for the band. I found these cute little yellow flowers at Michael’s and sewed them on during the drive to Memphis.

 

Last thought for today is about the Love Your Library challenge going on with Emily at Snapdragon Crafts. I’ve been gearing up to tackle Curls by Hunter Hammersen for this challenge. I was trying to wait until the 15th when the start of her KAL in the Violently Domestic group, then I checked in over there yesterday and it’s already started!! Ah well. Plus they are also doing an informal KAL in the Prairie Girls Knit & Spin group too! I wound the yarn, I’ve got the needles (I think) picked out and I just need to start!!

Then, I was looking around on boards and going with the theme of a KAL and using my library, I found the First Quarter KAL over in the Laura Nelkin group. I was really excited about Laura’s designs after I took her class at Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago this year. I bought her book, Knockout Knits and she signed it 🙂 So I’ll be starting the Prolix Mitts in some lovely Noro Silk Garden Lite I found in  my stash.

Last but certainly not least going with the theme, once again 🙂 is to fit my Squishy Socks in with a heel from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture. My husband got me this book for Christmas and every time I pick it up just to browse, I’m intrigued and inspired by all the great info Lara has in the book. I’m not sure which heel I will use yet, but I’m almost to that point so I guess I need to decide!! Plus this can count towards Operation Sock Drawer hosted by the Knitmore Girls & inspired by Susan B. Anderson’s sock drawer picture.

 

Anyway, all in all, not a bad Tuesday, just one with some fun challenges at an early hour. The best part? There is plenty of room on this couch for me, the kitties and the knitting 🙂

If you’d like to learn more about the Love Your Library challenge, (<– click the link) head over to Snapdragon Crafts and read about what Emily has been up to 🙂

Until next time,

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

It’s Already January

I have no idea where the time went. I feel like I was just having a swim at the neighborhood pool and that has been almost 4 months ago! Like I said last post, I’ve been zooming around the knitting blogosphere and I have been inundated with posts of reflection on last year and posts of hope for the year to come. I’ve also said in a previous post, back in the fall, that my time of renewal seems to happen in the fall. I guess being a student for so many years and then a teacher really did make August feel like the start of a new journey every time.

You should also know that I’ve read more goals and resolution type posts than I can count. It’s got me thinking. I’m not usually one for resolutions because I tend to only last about a week. But I am also usually very affected by the world around me.

Yes, I meant to say affected. I am a people pleaser by nature and can often find myself moved by the words, thoughts, and actions of other people. Not to say I am a doormat or a sponge, but I tend to be very empathetic to people and their life stories and situations. All of this self-diagnosis to tell you that You, the blogging community, has spoken and I have been swayed into thinking about some resolutions or goals or inspirations or what-have-you for 2015.

First, you may have already noticed, but I’m going to be changing things around here some on the blog. By reading so many wonderful sites and really starting to find my voice here, I find that I want my page to be a bit more reflective of me and a little less generic. In the last two months, I have really started to analyze the way I present my thoughts here. Initially when I started this journey, I wasn’t quite sure where to start and so I set up some general daily guidelines to help get me going. I’ve fallen away from these somewhat, but I think for the better. I still get into the WIP Wednesday posts, but that’s about it. I’m trying to be more authentic.

In the complete and utter opposite direction is the next change I’d like to implement here. From perusing so many sites, I have noticed a lack of a Friday Finished Objects link up. I think this is due to my own narrow scope of the blogs I follow coupled with my newness to the community. I then came across this post by Tammy on her blog. She writes:
“So, when Tami (of Tami’s Amis) stopped posting WIP Wednesday and FO Friday in September, many of us were at a loss.  So I figured I’d do a link party and then Chrisknits also was doing one (and I found another one)…and we decided to split it…I’d do Wednesday and she’d do Fridays…well there has not been much interest….I did get in touch with Tami and tell her we were doing them and she said she didn’t know when she would ever get back to them and kind of gave her blessing…”

The FO Friday post has been discontinued and I volunteered to host a link up party here. In the interest of keeping it fun and fitting in with my style, I’ve given it a new little title: Fresh Off The Needles. I’m working on a cute little graphic/header and the first one should go live on Friday, January 9th.

I was really hoping to figure out a way to post the links with thumbnails directly into the post, but the widget isn’t supported on my free wordpress site. Maybe upgrading to a paid for web name is in my future, but we shall see. I hope you will join us with whatever projects are Fresh Off The Needles and over at Life and Yarn or Yarn and Life for Tammy’s Stitch-Along Wednesday posts.

Next challenge is to partake in the Love Your Library Challenge hosted by Emily at Snapdragon Crafts. This year, I’d like to make just as much of an effort to knit the patterns I already have with the yarn I already have…it’s a stash extravaganza. I also like the idea of focusing on one book or collection of books. I’m planning to tackle Hunter Hammersen’s Curls (there’s a KAL in Hunter’s group and Susie of the Prairie Girls and Sarah of In A Sknit are knitting their way through the book too!).

First up, Caesious in some lovely Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in the Montrose colorway.

Ok and my last yarn-y, new year thing: KNIT. FROM. STASH. EXCLUSIVELY. (unless people start having babies and I don’t have the right yarn to make their bundle of joy something perfectly snuggly). Had to build in that little disclaimer 🙂

So, here is to changes in the new year and going on an epic yarn diet!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna