Weekly WIP #3 & a Quick Question…

So I like the little blurb about a WIP I’m dragging around with me until it’s finished. It brings a little focus to my world…keeps me from flinging myself head first into all the projects I want to cast on in favor of clearing off some needles, freeing up a few project bags, and ending up with a slowly expanding knitted wardrobe…except somehow all the little things I cast on are for other people. 🙂

I’ve been ticking away on the Who? hat for my niece Nora. I’m using Berroco Vintage in the lovely purple.

  
Those are some fun beads I found at Michaels. I wanted each owl-cable to have eyes because owls need eyes and I didn’t want to spend a thousand hours sewing on 16 eyes, so I hunted down some beads that look like eyes and slipped them onto stitches. A little tricksy but worth the discomfort on one row over sewing them all on individually.

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm Craft On, Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along, Tammy at Yarn & Life for Stitch Along Wednesday and Beth at iknead2knit for Whatcha Workin On.

Onto the question I mentioned…I’ve been slacking a bit on the Freshly Finished Friday posts. Mostly I don’t have anything finished to show off and it seems not many other bloggers do either. Perhaps it would be better to save it for a monthly post or do away with it all together? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments 🙂

Until next time.

❤
Jenna

Praying for those who are affected by the tragedies all over the world, specifically in Beirut & Paris, by those who have chosen to turn away from God.

Hat Distractions…

Oh My Goodness…I’m still going on the sweater, but I keep getting swept up into hats.

Tiny hats. Medium hats. No large hats, but large shawls.

All of these things go quickly and are nice little fixes to my “WANT TO FINISH” all the knits all the time.

So I’ve put some rows on my Passe-Partout out of Manos Silk Blend. What a lovely single ply yarn…the pattern is the perfect mix of texture & stockinette. Keeps me interested, shows off the yarn and on size 9s…it’s flying! Maybe I can buckle down here shortly and end up with something perfectly snuggly before the weather gets snowy.

The tiny hat I started and completed on Saturday. I wanted to start it for a Gateway Knitters meeting I attended. The group has been working on baby knits for Nurses for Newborns…of course I’m behind the happenings since I haven’t been to a meeting since spring, but I wanted to try and contribute. I didn’t finish the Barley at the meeting but I was at the place to start the decreases by the end of the meeting. I wrapped it up waiting on dinner at my niece, Nora’s house. She’s 5 and loves to “help” me knit. We did a bit together, and I had her thread the last stitches thru with the darning needle. Then she wanted to sew…I guess I need to come up with some sewing cards for her…hello Christmas present idea!!

So of course, she wanted one too! I started another Barley right then…but it’s looking small. And I’m not so sure I will have enough yarn to finish her size. This one may become another charity knit.

I can’t leave my darling Nora with cold ears so I dug out some lovely Berroco Vintage in this sweet purple to start, what I thought was another Barley. As I got going, I realized I am not so sure I want to make another one just yet…that got me thinking about what to do. I tinkered with color work or a swirly pattern, then I came across the Who? pattern by Sara Amoroso. The tiny owl cable would be so cute…now I need to find buttons/beads for eyes.

That’s what my needles are busy with as I take a “short” break from Turia…don’t worry I’m not ready to give her up. I can’t want to! I want to wear it!

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm & Craft On and Ginny at Small Things at Yarn Along and Beth at iknead2knit for Whatcha Working On Wednesday and Tammy at Life & Yarn for Stitch Along Wednesday. Click on over and see what everyone is working on 🙂

❤
Jenna

Along for the Yarn

 

It’s been a day or two since I’ve connected here. I’ve been knee-deep in preparing a 7th grade math lesson for a job interview this week. Prayers, good vibes, and crossed fingers are all welcome 🙂

On to the yarn!

I’ve been working almost exclusively on my Cerise Curl, trying to finish by today for the KAL…obviously I didn’t quite make it. I’ve also been working on my Technicolor Socks. Just decreasing on the gusset. It’s taking a while because I’m using US size 0s and after picking up gusset stitches, I had 98 stitches on the needles and need to get down to 72.

I’m still reading some. I finished A Severe Mercy. A wonderfully moving story about loving a partner and loving God. Beautiful. I picked up Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light. I did not realize how little I actually knew about Mother Teresa and her amazing life.

Linking up with these wonderful communities:
Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along
Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm & Craft On
Tammy at Life & Yarn for Stitch Along
Beth at iknead2knit for Whatcha Workin’ On

❤

Jenna

 

Yarn Along

An online “yarnie” community I love being a part of is created by Ginny of the Small Things blog. Each Wednesday she invites everyone to share what they are working on and what they are reading on her Yarn Along link up post. She’s recently expanded to include those on Instagram using the #yarnalong .

I love being able to post my little button there and then visit all the wonderful people out there who have also linked up. I get so many new ideas for projects to start. I even make notes about what books people are reading and what they say about them when I’m ready to pick up a book again.

Until recently, I haven’t really been reading many books. I spent my time reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and the occasional audiobook (Game of Thrones is sooooo long). I was talking with my husband the other day and expressing some frustration over not knowing more about “things.” These “things” were money/investing & Catholicism. The money “thing” is something I feel I should know about because I am an adult. The Catholicism “thing” is something I feel I should know about because my husband is Catholic and it’s something I want to understand and one day, find my way towards.

Jordan suggested I read up on these things in my free time. So that meant cutting back a bit on reading blogs but I think it will be for the good of my brain and my relationship and my adulthood in the long run.

I am still working on my Cerise Curl. I realized the deadline for the little KAL running in Hunter Hammersen’s Ravelry group (Violently Domestic) ends April 15 for this one, not to mention another was started on March 15, totally missed that. I’m finally feeling the rhythm with the pattern, but I have to watch what I’m doing most of the time. I also started reading A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. It’s about a couple’s journey to finding God. It’s been beautiful and thought provoking so far. I think I read about this book on Ginny’s blog? I also read Mark Shea’s This is My Body: An Evangelical Discovers the Real Presence. This got the ball rolling around in my mind.

Anyway, here’s to a lovely Wednesday and hoping you are all finding yourselves well.

Here’s the link to this week’s:
Yarn Along post with Ginny.
Keep Calm & Craft On post with Nicole.
Stitch Along post with Tammy.
Whatcha Workin’ On post with Beth.

❤

Jenna

Running Behind

Technically, I’m not really behind on anything except maybe housework and reading my blog roll. It’s funny how just taking a few weekend trips really racks up the backlog on those two things!

But I have made some progress on my Squishy Socks.

They are coming right along. I’m knitting just the basic sock pattern from a Paton’s book using some Regia Adventure 6-ply on US size 2 needles. I have had a few little snags…like when I started my toe decreases too soon because I really want to wear them!! Just a little ripping back and I’m back to knitting the foot a little longer.

And my first Curl from Hunter Hammersen’s new book.

It’s Caesious. I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport. It’s 100% Merino in the Montrose colorway. I picked it up back in December when I was visiting Louisiana for my brother’s graduation. I love the colors, a grayish blue, almost cornflower blue, a light brown and a springy yellow. I love how it is growing so quickly and I don’t have to count! Yahoo!! And it means I’m Loving my Library 🙂

Last project getting some love is this Manly Scarf for my friend Sam.

A moment of confession: You haven’t seen this yet, mostly because I’m a little embarrassed I bought yarn for this after the new year. Let me justify. After our fist trip to Memphis for my birthday, my husband’s friend Sam admired my husband’s Cozy Warm Man scarf I finished for him back in October. He was saying just how much he would love to have one so I had to make him one. I’m using some Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in a dark brown held with some Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Addiction in the River Bank Grass green colorway on US size 7. And technically I didn’t buy the yarn, my husband did 🙂

Linking up with some great people:
Emily for Love Your Library
Tammy for her Stitch Along Wednesday
Ginny for Yarn Along
Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On
iknead2knit’s Whatcha Workin’ On Wednesday

See you again soon!!

v’s & bumps,

Jenna

Crazy Sock Knitting

Since it’s Wednesday, I thought I’d share one of the things I’ve been diligently stitching on every day, my Squishy Socks. I’m using the Schachenmayr Regia Adventure Color 6 ply on some US 2 (3.00mm) Addi Sock Rockets. I’m working off of the Paton’s Basic Sock pattern from a booklet I bought a few years ago (loving my library). If you think back to maybe a few posts ago, they looked like this:

They may have even looked a little longer. I posted some of their progress over on Instagram (@hardknitlife) and I really love how they are coming along and I love that I was working them two-at-a-time style.

Confession: While I have worked 4 of my 6 completed socks two-at-a-time, I have never done so ON THE SAME NEEDLES! Previously I have used either two sets of double-pointed needles or two sets of two circular needles.

Well this time, I braved sticking them on the same two circulars and everything was buzzing along just fine. I knit the leg. I knit the heel flap.

 

I “turned” the heel. I even picked up my gusset stitches. Here is where the tricky part began. I fiddled a bit with the craziness of all those stitches on the two circulars, but I just couldn’t figure out how I was going to actually KNIT! So I wandered over to my bag-o-needles and pulled out some double points. Luck must have really been on my side because I found two sets!!

Doing what any sensible knitter would do, I used them both and transferred each sock to it’s new needle home. I started knitting on the left one (using bamboo needles) and thought that they felt a little smaller than my Sock Rockets. I picked up the right sock (using metal needles) and thought the same thing. So I pulled out the packaging of all three and noticed while each set of needle is labeled as a US 2, the Sock Rockets are 3.00mm while both sets of my DPNs are 2.75mm.

Oh well. I guess that will make for a nice firm fabric in the heel!

You may find yourself wondering where all those other planned WIPs are. Don’t worry, they are still floating around in their little bags, just waiting to be worked on. I have just been feeling the sock mojo lately and I was amused by my adventures using double points. Aren’t they just lovely?

A contributing factor to wanting to work on socks? Knitting Sarah just finished up her year long KAL last week called Socks with Sarah. I didn’t come across the knit-along until maybe November, but I really love that it’s main goal is to promote daily sock knitting. How many socks could you knit in a year if you did a little each day? Even though the KAL is over, Sarah is still keeping the group open on her Ravelry group. I know I set forth some goals a few weeks ago and I’d like to add daily sock stitching to it. Maybe this is just the kick start I need to get my sock drawer into shape!

Linking up with some great people:
Emily for Love Your Library
Tammy for her Stitch Along Wednesday
Ginny for Yarn Along
Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On
iknead2knit’s Whatcha Workin’ On Wednesday

Until Friday 🙂

v’s & bumps,

Jenna