Let’s Be Honest

It’s late. It’s Wednesday. I failed once again to get good, natural light photos of my WIPs. And I am still feeling the KNIT ALL THE THINGS bug! It is taking a good amount of self control not to walk over to my cabinet, pull out some yarn, wind it, and just cast on to knit. It doesn’t help that my hands have been aching from golf and knitting so I’ve been spending a lot of time on Ravelry and reading up on blogs. My queue has grown (Libby’s Settler Shawl pattern just launched on her blog Truly Myrtle…and I have just the yarn to cast this on, and I’m sure I could come up with some needles…do I really need to justify this????)

And I’m traveling tomorrow to go see my NEW BABY NIECE!!!! She will receive her Midsummer Baby Blanket in person…You know what this means, right? Airplane knitting time! So now I really need to pick out which projects are going with me. Plus I’ll be with my Mom who is the best knitting buddy. So I need to bring projects to just work on. Can’t I just pack up my whole cabinet and bring it? I don’t think I need clothes, I can just pack a whole bag of yarn. That’s not crazy, right?

How about an update?

Truly I’ve only been knitting on these projects:

My Whispers Top is coming along. I know it seems to be going slow, but it is the easiest to do while reading blogs or watching TV or in a group 🙂 I just love the Rowan Fine Art I’m using for this.

These socks are a little tougher…those are on the US Size 0 needles that are only 9 inches long…my hands tend to hurt some when I’m working on these, and passing the yarnover over the 2 stitches makes it a little tight. I’m thinking about ripping back to the ribbing and going 1×1 rib all the way down…or maybe rip it all the way back and work a little 2×2 or 3×1 rib for the cuff. I’m going to keep trying because I love the stranded look that the pattern uses to highlight the yarn (Pagewood Farm Denali Hand-Dyed Sock!!!)

Then there is this awesome hat…the MariGOLD Slouch. Just a fun knit with some cables and worsted weight yarn and US size 8 needles are just flying. I’m in love with it and have a hard time putting it down. I’m still wondering if I should keep this or end up gifting it. I don’t like to just knit stuff and then determine who to give it to, I like to knit with a recipient in mind. We shall see!\

So I totally feel like I should pull out the rest of the goods from my WIP trunk. Maybe these can travel with me on my adventure.

 

Remember the Tumbling Bunny? I do 🙂 Only down side? I don’t know what I did with the pattern and my flight is tomorrow morning at 7:30am…

And there is Jordan’s Cozy Man Scarf…it’s gotten some love over the last few days trying for a little mindless knitting and easy on my hands. I took one photo with the flash and one without. Neither really capture the true colors, but the Mountain Colors Twizzle is magnificent.

And here we are with the Momma Daughter Knitalong. It has been temporarily put on hold since I picked up all the edge stitches. This is because I may be a little further along than my mom. I’m trying to wait so I picked up the Man Scarf and started the socks and and and and keep staring at my yarn cabinet and pairing them up with my Ravelry queue in my mind, over and over.

Oh yeah, then there’s Jabe’s Flurfy Scarf. This hasn’t come out of the bin in a while. Maybe not since the time I met up with a group here in STL. It’s been hibernating.

Finally, the Skinty Stripe Scarf that has also been in hibernation. I worked on it in mid-June for a little road trip to Omaha. I do love it.

So this evidence suggests that I should NOT cast on anything new and just drag most of it on the plane with me so I can have something to fiddle with as I fly. Thoughts?

Have you been bitten by the KNIT ALL THE THINGS bug??

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Linking up with Tami & Nicole.

Cool WIPs :)

Exciting things are happening in my little knitting world. Last night, I ventured out to a knitting Meetup group here in St. Louis. I had a nice time and was able to try out one of the local breweries here called Urban Chesnut. Tasty beer, good food, and great company to knit with. You’ll never believe that I’ve finished 2 projects this week and I’ll post about them on Friday. You can probably guess which ones since they will not be talked about on this WIP post.

Being super pumped about finishing a few things, I did go through my WIP chest and pull out a couple of things to get going on. First up, I picked up my friend’s very late birthday present the Flurfy Scarf.

I tried to do a few more rows while at the knit night, but I have to constantly look down to make sure I’m knitting into the right loop with all the k2tog, yarn over 2 times, and ssks. It’s a little more than half way done.

I also busted the Mother Daughter KAL back out. I was craving a little stockinette 🙂 Just did a few more rows.

I really, really need to pull out my Whispers top. It’s part of the Nice & Knit Summer Sweater KAL…I don’t know if I qualify since I’ve only knit the gauge swatch…But with one of my recent FOs, I now have an open cable big enough to use to cast on this sweater. I need to reevaluate my swatch and make sure it will be ok to cast on…even though we all know that gauge swatches lie!!

Linking up with Tami & Nicole.

v’s & bumps,
Jenna

Stash Dive!!!

Since it is Sunday, Mother’s Day, I am a little late in getting this post out. First though, I’d like to wish my mom and all the moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day 🙂 I am so thankful to have such wonderful moms in my life!

Stash dive you say? Whatever could that be??? Well, it’s a venture into my stash. I know my stash is not as big as some, but I love it. It’s been growing for about 5 years and I do try to venture into the stash before I start a new project to see if I can find something to use first. The problem is my stash is for ME! Whenever I buy yarns that end up in my stash, I buy them because I like them. It’s a very selfish hoard. That may  be more descriptive than “stash.”

So this Sunday I’m going to highlight a solo skein I’ve had for a while: Jade Sapphire’s Lacey Lamb in Doubloon.

It’s a lace weight 100% wool yarn. It has 825 yards or 754 meters. I bought this on a trip to St. Louis visiting family. Of course, I had to slip on over to Knitorious just to check it out. They had such a big selection of all types of beautiful yarns. I have only been once and would love to go back! I bought this skein because of the color and the soft, lofty feeling it has. I love all colors, especially rich ones. I have a hard time choosing a favorite and tend go through color phases. I bought this on a sunny kick. I think I also bought some Berroco Pure Pima for this Awesome Shawl in a Mustard color.

Anyway, the challenge with this lovely Lacey Lamb is what to do with it! So, I turned to Ravelry. Here are my top 5 ideas so far:
1. Knitterjenny’s E t h e r e a l top–I love the light, airiness of this knit. Her post says 1 skein is enough…
2. lismete’s Castello Scarf–The textured pattern on this is wowowowowow! I bet in the Lacey Lamb it’s like a cloud!
3. JuleeQue’s Third Time’s a Charm Stole–The texture on this is gorgeous and I think it would be beautiful in the gold color.
4. yellowbird’s Ready to Go Shawl–The lace pattern is a beautiful texture and it looks easy enough to memorize.
5. Failli’s Bridesmaid Shawl–This looks lovely. I think the stockinette section in this would be a relief to knit after the edging.

In an effort to get this out before the end of the day, I’m going to go ahead and post. On a final note, I’m sure you have yarns in your stash you bought for you. I’m curious what draws you to those yarns? When you choose to buy a skein for you, with no project in mind, what are the factors? Color? Fiber? General Flurfy-ness?

v’s & bumps,

Jenna