YOP Update - Mittens, Pokemon and Corn

This week has me getting no where fast on my Year Of Projects list, but my knitting inspiration is running at high speeds!  Yup, that's right, nothing has been started, knitted on or finished from my planned year list of knitting projects.  Instead, I am being inspired by Kate Davies Seven Skeins club yet again this week.  My friend's "Baffie" slipper socks are now completely done (blocked too!) and all ready for their trip to Washington DC. 

While they were drying on the blocking mat, I launched right into another of the club's patterns (they are available to everyone come January 1st on Ravelry) called Kokkeluri - a stranded pair of mittens with a flower design on the back and a twill pattern on the palm side.  The flower reminded me so much of sunflowers that I had to knit them in yellow.  Kate's 7 skeins of Buachaille yarn does not include a yellow so I used her natural grey called "Haar" for the background and purchased some Jamieson's Double Knitting in the Scotch Broom colorway for the flower line drawing.  My goal is for the mittens to match my Michele hat that I knit a while back whose matching double knitted mittens are languishing in my WIP basket.  The double knitting was just getting too tedious and boring to knit, but these Kokkeluri mittens - they just beckon you to keep going.  The only sad thing about these lovely mittens is they are a little short for my long fingers.  The pattern talks about blocking them "vigorously"by pulling them down over the tall end of a sock blocker, so I am putting my trust in those directions that in the end the mittens will emerge the right size for me.

Even though I'm getting better at stranded knitting through these projects, it still is a bit tiring for me.  Thus, for something completely different, I started on a project for my son.  He is back into loving Pokemon again and requested some Pokemon mittens.  Here is what I came up with using this hat pattern as a jumping off point.  They are pretty straightforward with changing colored yarn and a bit of duplicate stitching being the only oddities.  The mitten came out a bit long and slim looking, but it fit my son just fine (me too actually.  He's only 9 and our hands are almost the same size! Sigh.)  Now, I just need to make the second one, which I think will be pretty quick, so I can get back to finishing my own mittens.  Although, I do think I may surprise him with a matching hat as I have plenty of yarn left over.  We'll see...

This week I am leaving you with a photo from today of my husband and son who attended the Sever's Annual Corn Maze.  It is a humongous maze cut out of a corn field with a different design each year.  This year it was a firefighting truck.  It was their first time going and boy did they have fun!  Pig races, a large bouncy play area (think bouncy castle without the top and make it the size of a baseball field), zip lines, giant slide, petting zoo, you name it. They also have a corn pit you can dig, play or in my son's case bury yourself in.  Yup, my guess is this is on the Fall "to do" list for next year.

If you want to visit the other Year of Projects, or YOP for short, participants you can head on over to Ravelry and find them here.  Have a great week everyone!

YOP Update - Inspiration Strikes!

 

In last week's post I was rather down and out and had been for quite a while, but oddly enough soon there after a turn around occurred.  I cast on for yet another project (I think my current WIP count is 14 - yikes!) trying to bring back a spark of excitement to my knitting.  This has been my tactic all month, but this particular time it actually worked! Yes, inspiration has struck!  I started on the ever popular Baa-ble hat pattern which Donna Smith wrote for Shetland Wool Week 2015.  I loved it the moment I saw it, but I didn't really need another hat thus I let the pattern languish in my favorites section on Ravelry.  Then, early this Autumn I realized I had two of the four colors of Jamieson's Shetland Heather Aran I needed and on a quick search through Ravelry stashes I found the other two colors.  I purchased them thinking it will be a fun project to start someday, maybe after Christmas. 

Now, I'm not sure why I pulled out this pattern and started, but I am so glad that I did.  It was as if the hat knit itself it went by so fast.  After finishing the hat I really wanted mittens (I love matchy matchy sets of things) and upon weighing out my leftover yarn I thought I'd have enough.  So, I plunged right into to knitting mittens following Donna's chart and making up the general pattern as I went along.  The coolest thing happened - I had just, and I mean just enough yarn to finish with a scant 3 grams of blue Highland Mist leftover.  I simply love it when that happens!

I now have this lovely new hat and mitten set and all that is lacking is a scarf or cowl.  Well, I was pulling out the yarn I purchased from Kate Davies Seven Skeins Club (another attempt at bringing on some inspiration as the yarn come with 7 corresponding patterns) and what do you know?  The green and cream skeins match the green and cream colored yarn used in my hat and mittens.   Can we say new project?  Yes, we can!  I started Kate Davies Cochal honeycombed cowl pattern yesterday and am hoping to finish today.  We'll have to see though, as the house and laundry are in a bit of a state since my knitting has taken over again.  Maybe I'll achieve balance one day ;)

My Year of Projects list is growing instead of getting smaller, but I am just too pleased to be inspired again to mind much.  If you want to see the other YOP participants you can find them here.  Have a great, and hopefully, inspiring week everyone!

YOP Update - Stages

 

I've been unsettled this past month with my knitting and blogging.  You may have noticed an absence here as I've let my twice weekly blog schedule slide.  I derail from projects very easily.  Usually all it takes is missing the deadline for a single blog post or setting down a knitting project for another.  But, under the general malaise the cause I believe was the knitting retreat I attended.  It was a wonderful experience to be sure, but while I tweak my knitting style to be more efficient, knitting seems a bit more like work than fun.  Knitting is simply harder right now as I try to lose old habits and gain new ones.  I think that along with having a lot of obligation knitting (2 scarves, 1 sweater, mittens, and a vest.  How did I ever think my gift knitting was almost done?) hanging over my head has really dampened my knitting mojo if you will.  

I managed to push through on a project, steadily work on another (slowly) and of course add yet another project.  The finished project is the hat Tensfield by Martina Behm.  It was knit from some yarn I won in a giveaway and is destined for my friend Amy's charity which provides hats and shawls for those undergoing chemo therapy here in the Twin Cities Area.  The hat is all garter stitch with clever short rows to give it it's form.  Being densely knit made the going slow, but the end result is very pleasing and hopefully very warm.

Next up is a scarf for a friend of a friend which is my slow and steady project.  it has become my morning ritual to sip my tea (Irish Breakfast with cream and maple syrup - sooooo good) while knitting a few rows.  The pattern is His (Birthday) Scarf by Monika Steinbauer and it's putting my new Norwegian purl to the test.  It's going to be tight to get a 60 inch scarf out of my 5 skeins, but hopefully the yarn will relax some in blocking. That is when I finally get to the blocking stage.  Sigh.

On to the new shall we?  Yes, let's!  You may remember the yellow yarn I was knitting a poncho out of - Purl Soho Flax Down?  Well, it shed quite badly which I thought would continue to annoy me in a poncho, but wouldn't be so bad in a cowl.  So, I frogged the Hugo poncho, sold all but one skein of the yarn (the skein from frogging), then paired it with a leftover skein of Tilli Tomas Raw Silk to get the yarn up to a bulky weight and voila we have the beginnings of an Arika Cowl by Jane Richmond.  It's hopefully going to be a quick project being knit with US 10 1/2 needles and only using about 200 yards.  We'll see if I get distracted yet again...

Lastly, I thought I'd leave you with a few pics of my son Sam and the Mighty Mississippi River.  We went on a home school field trip riverboat ride last week on a beautiful, albeit very cold, Autumn day.  We caught the paddle boat at Harriet Island in Saint Paul and took a leisurely 1 1/2 hour trip down to Historic Fort Snelling and back again.  We met some new people, learned a bit about the river as well as river boats and had a good time all around.  

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

YOP Update - Back and Forth

 

 

Hi everyone.  Well, it's been another week of bopping around like a ping pong ball from project to project.  Recently, I won a skein of yarn from the Great Outdoors KAL hosted by Knitting Butterflies and it arrived in the post this week.  It's very lovely and dyed by a fellow Minnesotan, but not quite my colors so I decided to knit it into a hat to donate for my friend Amy's Charity Group.  The yarn is a soft and squishy superwash merino so very well suited to a Chemo hat.  I choose a Martina Behm hat pattern that I've knit before that's garter stitch based to help me practice my new picking technique.

Speaking of new techniques, I also learned a trick at my retreat to do away with the ladders I get when I knit socks with double pointed needles.  You simply wrap or pick the yarn up having it cross over your needle in the opposite direction.  Normally I pick the yarn up from below to cross over ontop the needle.  So instead, on that first stitch of each needle I pick up the yarn from above to cross over going downwards.  This helps because it makes a shorter length of yarn in the stitch.  Does that make sense?  It also puts that first stitch on the needle twisted so you need to knit that stitch through the back loop to correct it's position.  As you can see I am only slightly into this sock so I can't say for certain how its working yet, but I'm excited to hopefully solve this long standing problem of mine.  

But, since socks are not on my year of projects list I felt I should get back to one of those projects and picked up the Dudester Scarf again.  This knitting project is the bane of my existence.  The pattern is super duper simple and yet I find myself making mistakes and having to perpetually tink back and re-knit.  I'm not sure what the hang up is but after an hour or so of frustration I decided to cast on for another project.  You see I have yet another scarf to knit for Christmas for yet another of my friend Anna's friends (as an aside don't ever make knitting commitments to others while under the influence of alcohol.  You feel good and magnanimous and forget that scarves aren't like cowls and take forever to knit.)  I was going to knit this pattern, but in the essence of time I chose this simpler one instead.  I'm knitting it with Zealana's Kauri worsted weight yarn and I really like the look; the possum hair makes a beautiful halo.  But, after purchasing this yarn it dawned on me that they kill the possums to get their hair and even though they are an incredible pest problem in New Zealand it does bother me so as I probably will not buy this yarn again. 

That's my knitting progress for this week.  I'm hoping the next one will have more focus and maybe a completed object - ah time will tell.  If you want to check out the other Year of Project participants you can find them here.  I'll leave you this week with a photo of my son and husband at the MN Renaissance Festival.  We're waiting for the jousting to begin and Sam is showing off his purchase of a dragon that can wrap around your neck or wrist to keep you company.  It was a wonderful day.

Retreat

Retreat.  I took a couple.  A retreat from blogging for a week and I attended a knitting retreat as well.  The blogging retreat was out of frustration with lack of progress and general trouble I'm having with my current knitting projects.  Not voicing them out loud I hoped would make them go away, but alas they are still here.  So, not a fun retreat; more of the duck and cover kind.  Now, the knitting retreat, well, that on the other hand was absolutely, positively FABULOUS!  It was with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee the Yarn Harlot herself and wow, I learned more in those couple of days than I've learned in the past 7 years of knitting.  Really.  The woman is a positive font of knitting knowledge.  Her classes were Knit Smart, Knitting for Speed and Efficiency and Grok the Sock.  If you ever get the chance to take one I highly recommend it.  They will rock your knitting world.

The first night was the lecture style class entitled Knit Smart.  Stephanie gave us the general history of knitting and clued us in to all sorts of tips and tricks.  By far my favorite is the tip that you only have breasts on the front of your body.  Sounds silly, but she says you should measure your front chest from the middle of your side, across your breasts, to the middle of your other side then double that number.  This is the size you should knit for the "front" of your sweater.  Then do the same measurement across your back and double it.  This is the size you should knit for the "back" of your sweater.  Knit either the front or back sized sleeves - whichever is more accurate for your measurements.  Seriously this tip bowled me over.  So very simple and logical, but yet I've never heard it or read it anywhere before.

The whole next day was dedicated to her class titled Knitting for Speed and Efficiency.  We learned the 3 basic styles of knitting:  picking, throwing, and lever knitting.  You may have read in this post that I knit kinda strange.  Well, I found out I'm really a picker who is making it harder than it should be and my purl stitch is just wicked crazy.  Now, I'm picking without all the extra movements, albeit very slowly, and have learned the Norwegian Purl stitch.  I feel like a new knitter!  The lever knitting was by far the trickiest to learn, but is also considered the fastest knitting style.  It originates in the Shetland Isles.  Basically, you keep one long needle stationary either with a knitting belt or part of your body (like your armpit) and then you work the second needle with your left hand while carrying your yarn in your right hand.  I'm very, very slow currently, but I am quite enamored with it.  So much so that I ordered a belt and 40 cm long dpns from Scotland (you can't find them is the US, or at least I couldn't) to really dive into this technique.  

The last class Grok the Sock took place Sunday morning   It was a class on everything you need to know about the construction of knitting a sock without a pattern.  We made wee little socks (that were supposed to fit a baby although, as you can see mine came out much too small for that at a gauge of 10 stitches/inch!) to solidify the concepts as we knit them.  I have been a toe-up advocate, but after learning more about heel construction I might start knitting cuff-down again.  

Well folks that's it.  This was supposed to be a Year of Projects update, but since I have no noticeable progress on any of my many knitting projects to show you I updated you on my learning instead. I'm even thinking of starting over on a few projects and beginning again using these new techniques learned over the weekend.  Really my brain is still spinning trying to assimilate it all.  If you want to check out the other YOP participants check them out here.  Have a great week everyone!

Lessons, Goodies and Progress

 

Hello everyone!  Yes, I am in good spirits after a lovely trip to WI for the Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend.  We arrived in Jefferson on cool and breezy Thursday night to set up camp.  I needed to make an early start the next morning for the class I was attending.  It was a class on Natural Dyeing where we dyed skeins of yarn, then saddening those dyes with iron and finally over-dyeing with indigo.  I've taken a natural dyeing class before through Community Education, and done some natural dyeing on my own, but there is always more to learn and I definitely picked up some new knowledge this past weekend.  We used cochineal (bugs), madder (roots), logwood (tree), osage orange (tree) and pomegranate (plant) as our dyes. Each class member dyed 3 skeins in each of the colors, then we kept one skein "as is", re-dyed another in the same pot, but with added iron which "saddens" the color by graying and darkening it.  Then we took our last skein and over-dyed the original color with indigo.  The results I think are quite stunning in shade and variety.  The pomegranate (bottom three skeins) was a bit boring on it's own, but over-dyed with indigo it makes a lovely sage green.  This class really showed me the infinite possibilities available using only alum, cream of tartar, and iron as your mordants.  True, you can get even a wider array using copper, chrome and tin mordants, but these are dangerous to use for the dyer as well as the environment.  I'm really excited to get started on some more dyeing now that I'm home and already have some black walnuts lined up with which to begin.

The other great part about the Festival, besides all their Wonder of Wool classes, is the Marketplace of all things woolly or wool animal related  There was yarn and fiber in every imaginable shade, tools to create with fiber as well as tools for removing fiber, books, dyes, soaps, cheeses, meats, baskets, wool pillows, wool blankets and comforters and the most beautiful hooked wool rugs.  Really the rug hooking work was stunning and I was sorely tempted to give it a go, but resisted as I do not need another hobby.  With all the goodies available you'd think I'd come home with an armload of stuff, but I managed to only purchase a few things.  Soap was actually on my list to purchase thus I was happy when I found Maple Hill Farm's sheep milk soaps.  They only use essential oils which is a must for my husband who is very sensitive to scents and fragrances.  I chose unscented, lavender and peppermint to take home.  While I love handmade soap I hate paying for shipping soap as it's heavy and therefore expensive so buying it in person is my only option.  I'm hoping these three last until the next market I visit.  Since I was so excited to start dyeing I was very excited to find these 2 undyed skeins from Sheepish Creations.  The first is a BFL/Nylon tweed sock yarn which I'm planning to dye with indigo and the second is an incredibly soft (like dipping your hand in a vat of melted butter soft) single ply of a merino/silk blend which will be dyed with black walnuts for a rich brown.  At the end of my visit to the Marketplace I finally braved the beauty of the Fiber Optic booth and chose a Paintbox Gradient in the Copper to Verdigris colorway to take home.  It consists of 15 mini skeins of 30 yards each and will most likely become a shawl. 

With all that was going on while at the Festival and then while visiting Madison I got very little knitting done.  Oddly, I went for a project that I had not been planning on knitting the Dudester Scarf for my friend Anna's friend.  It's a super easy 4 line pattern, but I kept managing to still make mistakes and did quite a bit of tinking back.  It's knit in Kollage Yarns Scrumptious which is 70% angora and 30% silk.  Kinda an odd choice for a man's scarf, but he's Filipino like my husband who is super sensitive to wool,  so I thought a super soft yarn might be a good choice for him too.  We'll see what he thinks come Christmastime.  The scarf is a project on my Year of Projects list so there's a bit of headway there.  No finished objects to share with you, but I'm hoping to get something done by next week.  I won't even try to predict what it will be as I seem to change my mind all too often.  If you want to see the other YOP participants you can check them out here.  That about wraps it up for me.  Have a great week everyone!

All Together Now

Ping pong comes to mind when I think about how my knitting went this week.  First, I knit on my poncho, then my turtleneck sweater, then a random scarf, then thoughts about starting up some socks and last knitting my mom's sweater.  By finally focusing on a project I managed to make some visible progress.  My mom's Blaithin now has both sleeves attached to the body and lays waiting for the colorwork yoke section to commence.  Whew!  The plain stockinette section is complete at last.  I'm excited to start on the colorwork and use a few tips I have learned since knitting my mom's last Blaithin sweater whose stranded knitting was rather tight.  The tips I'm gong to try are as follows:  knit the piece inside out, go up a needle size and stretch out the stitches in between changing colors.  Now that I know what to look for I think I can catch early if I'm getting the right tension in the strands and make adjustments accordingly (at least I hope so.)  Do any of you more experienced with stranded knitting have any other advice?  Above you can see the colors I will be using:  apple green for the flower stems, bright teal and the main body color for the flower petals and dark navy for the background. 

This was also a week with a few new purchases.  Seems funny to buy things before going to a Wool Festival, but each of the above items was love at first sight, which doesn't happen that often for me.  The sock yarn is a rich mix of navy blues from Leading Man Fiber Arts called Dames at Sea.  This will be the first skein of immensely practical sock yarn that I've ever bought.  Usually, I get sucked in by fabulous color combinations that don't exactly combine with my wardrobe.  Next, are some stitch markers made by Lantern Moon (who also made the flower stitch markers seen in the first photo) of little crocheted squirrels and acorns.  I like soft stitch markers for my main beginning of row marker and these were too cute to pass up.  Last, is my favorite of the three.  A Star Trek large wedge project bag.  It has the original Enterprise on one side and the Next Generation Enterprise on the other.  I've been a Star Trek fan since I was four watching the original show with my Dad and older brother.  We even had dolls of all the main characters and the Enterprise Bridge to reenact the show as well as acting out our own stories.  So, I completely flipped when I saw this on Stitched by Jeesalu's website and had to get it. 

That about wraps up this week's Year of Projects Update.  With both my turtleneck sweater and my mom's Blaithin on the list I'm feeling pretty good about myself even if I did start out rather scattered brained.  Check out the other YOP contributors by clicking here.  Have a awesome week everyone! 

Finished!

The shawl is done!  It's not quite as big as I wanted, but frankly I was so tired of knitting all those SSKs in the fourth section of the pattern that I wrapped it up early.  Thus, I did not do the 2 extra repeats I was planning on for that section and knit the ribbing about 3 rows shorter than listed.  My only mod was doing an extra repeat of the 1st section when I was bold and bright with excitement (and the rows being much shorter I'm sure had nothing to do with it.)  The photos above are of it fresh off the needles; now it's having it's bath while I write this post, and as soon as I'm done here I'm off to block it.  I am curious to see how this 50/50 cotton/wool yarn will bloom.  My hope is it will fluff up a bit, but we'll see.  The wing span measures out at 80 inches by 30 inches deep.  The castoff method I employed was one I got from this book called Sarah's Favorite Bind Off for 2 x 2 Rib.  It adds a backward loop every 4 stitches, but is otherwise a standard bind off.  I thought it would give a clean look, but still be stretchy.  In actuality it has the clean look, and while it is stretchier than a traditional bind off it's still a bit on the firm side for my taste.   Of course there is no way I'm undoing the original 381 stitches, not to mention all those added backward loop stitches, so it will have to do.  All in all I really like the look and I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out it when the weather cools off again.  Because, in true Minnesota fashion the weather has changed abruptly again and is headed for the high 80's.  Oddly enough this unpredictable constantly changing weather is one of the things I love most about living here.  Don't like the weather today?  Wait until tomorrow it'll change.

I do have Fall weather on my mind these days so I cast on for this poncho.  Now, you may be asking what happened to this poncho?  Well, the yarn was bugging me so much it was really taking the fun out of knitting it and as you all know life is too short to knit with yarn you don't like.  So, the poncho was frogged, the yarn rewound and put up on my Stash "will trade or sell" page on Ravelry.  Hopefully, it will find a new home with someone who loves it.  Anyway, the new poncho I'm going to knit using this yarn from my stash, paired with this yarn I just purchased.  It's a bit of a bold mix, but I wear navy blue like most people wear black and my thought was the blue would help tie it into my wardrobe better.  My current plan is to simply colorblock the poncho with yellow on top and blue on the bottom.  This would make it very easy to use up all my yarn, but I am toying with the idea of a few stripes to blend the transition a bit.  Any thoughts?

Thus, we end the week with Year of Projects list - 0, and Random Patterns and Projects - 2.  Ah well, there is lots of the year left to get those on the list done.  Right? To view other Year of Projects contributors check them all out here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Distractions, the Good Kind

Hmm...you might have noticed the above photo is of a completely different project than my mother's sweater.  Well, you'd be right.  I got tired of the stockinette, even though I am only 1 sleeve away from the color work, and cast on for a unplanned for shiny new project.  It's the Campside Shawl by Alicia Plummer.  I've looked at it many times before, but thought I didn't have the right yarn for it in my stash.  You see my stash is pretty much made up of yarn already earmarked for certain projects with only a few odd ball skeins, which often makes it hard for me to imagine using the yarn for something else.  The weather here has turned unseasonably cool and I find myself wanting a warm, yet still summery shawl, which got me to thinking that a cotton/wool blended yarn would be the perfect choice and I actually have such a yarn tucked away.  It's Chesapeake by Classic Elite Yarns in the caramel colorway.  Even though it's sold as a worsted weight I would classify it more as a DK, making it a perfect choice for this shawl pattern.  A match was made and a new project cast on!

Campside only requires just under 800 yards to make, and I have about 1400 yards of this yarn so I am attempting to make the shawl bigger to use up more yarn, and because I want a shawl I can really wrap myself up in.  The pattern consists of yarnover holes that get progressively closer together as the shawl gets bigger until it pretty much makes a lacy lattice pattern.  Then it is finished off by a ribbed border.  The shawl is constructed in 5 sections and I am modifying it by increasing in the first section by 1 extra repeat, the fourth by 2 extra repeats and lastly the 5th by making the ribbing longer than specified.  Making modifications is pretty new to me and it is a little tricky to figure out where in the chart to start the next section, but this has been made easier by a fellow Raveler who drew up line by line written instructions that include stitch counts for every line.  So, I have been able to find my stitch count when starting a new section and begin there, repeating as necessary.  I'm really enjoying the pattern and am already through the first and second sections and just started on the third last night.

There is one other reason I want to knit this shawl - I want it to wear to a knitting retreat I'm going to at the end of September.  It's my first knitting retreat and I'm really, really excited about it.  It's only a hour and a half drive away in Downsville, WI and was actually affordable.  Have you ever noticed that many knitting retreats are quite costly due to location, teachers and whatnot?  This one is run by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who I simply love, and focuses on knitting smart, speed and efficiency and sock construction.   Of course wearing knit wear to a knitting retreat makes perfect sense right?  Well, most of my knits are for cold winter wear and I have very few items for the coolish yet still warm weather of an early Midwestern Fall.  So, I'm bringing a couple of socks, my color affection shawl, my marin shawl and hopefully this Campside shawl for walks in the surrounding woods.

Well, I'll be adding one more item to the list this week instead of crossing one off.  Ah, maybe nect week it'll go the other way.  If you want to visit the other Year of Project contributors check here.  Wishing you all a great week!

YOP Update - The Scots Won!

 

 

My debate with myself as to which cardigan to cast on last week, the one for myself or the one for my mother, was a tricky one, but I decided to go with casting on Kate Davies Blaithin for my mother's Christmas gift.  The Scots won out!  I say this because Kate Davies is Scots as well as my mother so they make a good pair I think. What tipped me to that verdict?  Well, I have been really digging the idea of getting all my gift knitting done by Fall and then having uninterrupted selfish knitting time all Winter.  So, onward with the gift knitting!  You can see my progress on Blaithin in the first picture.  I finished the pockets and am onto the boring stockinette section.  It's a cardigan that's knit in the round and then steeked up the middle which is marked by my little flower stitch holders.  The yarn I'm using is Jamieson's discontinued Soft Shetland some of which was leftover from a previous sweater of mine and the rest I purchased from another Raveler.  All have been in my stash for about 2 years.  Thus, it will be really nice to finally get this stash yarn knit up and the sweater in use.

Because I am on the boring stockinette section of the sweater I find myself wandering over to Ravelry often to give myself little breaks from the monotony.  Maybe that, coupled with looking through my stash, is the reason I cast on for something completely unplanned for - a poncho.  Growing up in the seventies my mom and I had matching ponchos that she knit us and I really loved mine.  It was for mainly wearing outside as it was pretty thick and came down to my wrists , but this model is knit in sport weight yarn and is shorter making it more of an inside garment.  I think it will be a chic way to dress up my boring turtlenecks this coming winter.  The yarn I'm using is one I purchased online here and sadly it was rather a disappointment.  It was purchased it in a effort to buy more environmentally responsible locally sourced yarn.  And it fit the bill being 100 percent alpaca grown and processed in the US then dyed with marigold flowers that were grown on the same farm as the alpacas.  The color is fantastic, but the yarn is a bit rough and has lots of neps that I have to keep picking out.  Also, it was also supposed to be DK weight not sport. Well, I probably should have returned it, but I just didn't have the heart to do so.  This poncho I think will be the best use for this yarn since it's not next to the skin and the alpaca's natural drape will only add to the style.  Since the size I am knitting takes about 1000 yards it will be some time before I see the results.  

The last photo is of some yarn I purchased yesterday with my son for a pair of felted slippers.  He actually asked me to knit him something!!!  This is very thrilling for me.  You see, a couple of years back he told me he didn't want me to ever knit him anything and said he hated sweaters (proving this point by wearing only short sleeved t-shirts all winter long - brrr!) as well as hand knit hats and mittens.  Oh, the knitter in me was very sad that day.  So, of course I have to jump right on this project when he asked.  He wants simple navy blue slippers like the ones my husband and I have which I knit from this pattern.  The only twist is he wants a Minecraft pixelated squid face on them.  If you've heard of Minecraft (which is a video game) you might have heard of iBallistic Squid who is a Youtuber Minecraft personality.  I'm going to create the squid face out of colored wool felt sheets which I'll cut into squares and then stitch onto the tops of the slippers.  Sam's feet are as big as mine so he is out of children's footwear sizing and all the fun slippers they make for kids.  And, being only just 9, he is still very much a kid and wants something fun to wear on his feet.  I'm really hoping I can make these slippers to his liking and then maybe, just maybe, he'll ask me to knit him something else.  Ah, a mother can dream...

With these unplanned for projects popping up I think I will make an "Additions" section to my Year of Projects list.  That way I can still see my original intent at the end of the year and can better gauge my progress.  To check out other YOP participants check here.  Enjoy these last couple weeks of summer everyone!

YOP Updare - Christmas is Coming

Yes, I said "Christmas is Coming" or at least you'd think so at the rate I'm knitting gifts.  The fact that they are smaller projects that finish quicker I'm sure has nothing to do with it.  So, on to those gifts.  I jumped right into making a matching hat for my mothers felted mittens that I mentioned in my previous post.  It came out rather well I think even though the pattern calls for a yarn with drape, a quality which my sheepy sticky Shetland yarn definitely does not possess.  The striped brim, that I lined with angora yarn, ended up being a bit over three inches in order to fully cover my ears and is quite snug, then the body of the hat is loose and pulled down in the back.  My mom, most days, wears her hair in a ponytail so having this looser shape accommodates that hair style.  Sadly, I still have leftover yarn, but it's a small enough amount to relegate to the scrap bin.  As an aside, I really wish Ravelry had a "scrap" category for the stash section.  That way you would still have the yarn info. if you ever figured out a pattern to use up all your scraps, and it would free up your active stash yarn list to only full skeins.  Maybe someday...

With the mittens and matching hat now completed, I moved on to knitting another gift, but this time for my husband.  It's a pair of wool socks knit out of DK weight sock yarn from ONline.  It all started last year really when I knit his younger brother a pair of socks with this yarn using up a skein and a half for the pair.  Which left me with, you guessed it, a half of skein leftover - what to do?  Because of course, I had to do something I couldn't just let it lie.  Well, then I got to figuring all I needed to use up this yarn was to purchase another skein of it to knit a second pair of men's wool socks.  And, since my husband admired the first pair it seemed obvious that he should be the recipient.  Knitting a big pair of men's socks could be quite a challenge, but knitting up this pattern in DK weight yarn on US size 3 needles has been a breeze.  They are knitting up so fast I am already done with the first sock and I only started them 2 days ago, which makes me a very happy camper.  The fact that at this rate I will still be able to count them for Stash Dash makes me happy too.

Finishing all these gifts rather quickly, has me thinking about how I downgraded my mom to mittens (and now a hat too) for her Christmas gift.  She'll enjoy them and get a lot of use out of them I'm sure, but she really does need another sweater as many of hers are getting too worn to wear out and about.  So, I will give her these gifts for her birthday in October instead, and I'm going to try and challenge myself to knit her a sweater for Christmas.  I think why I was so quick to cut her sweater from my YOP list was I didn't want to knit the pattern I chose.  Instead of the Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern I originally planned on I am going to knit her another Kate Davies Blaithin.  This is a good switch for many reasons:  the yarn I earmarked for her sweater is enough to knit Kate's pattern, I really enjoyed knitting the 1st one I knit her, she loves the A-line styling, I think I can do a much better job on the stranded knitting section this time around (last time I knit it a bit tight and had to block real aggressively to get it to shape) and lastly I'll be using more of Jamieson's Soft Shetland yarn which can take the hard wear my mother puts her sweaters through.  Enough said.

Here's an update to the list as it now stands:

Baby:

Elijah the Elephant by Ysolda Teague Finished 7/29/15

Baby Surprise Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman Finished 7/27/15

Garter Ear Flap Hat by Purl Soho (Knit Sweet and Simple Baby Hat) instead Finished 7/28/15

Cowls and Scarves:

Classic Cowl by Purl Soho knit in handspun  Finished 7/6/15

Dudester Scarf by Jana Pihota 

Dryad by Jared Flood

For the Home:

Sock Yarn Braided Rug by Martha Lazar

My Oluffa Doorstop by Lucinda Guy

Cozy Coasters by Joelle Hoverson

Hot Out of the Oven Set by Knit Picks Design Team  (making the square pads) Finished 7/25/15

Out of the Frying Pan by Amy E. Anderson  Finished 7/18/15

Socks:

Taylor's Orange Toe Up Socks by Jasmyn Cunningham

Sweaters and Vests:

Blaithin by Kate Davies

Ground by Veera Valimaki

Glen Moir Vest by Luise O'Neill 

White Russian by Thea Colman

Tops:

Astonish Top by Katy Banks 

Jordan by Wendy Bernard

Mittens and Gloves:

Connnectivity Gloves by Mari Chiba

Nordic Mittens by Beth Brown-Reinsel

Double Knit Mittens by Sue Hedgecock

Felted Mittens by Joan Sheridan Finished 8/4/15

Hats:

Michele by Sarah Punderson Finished 8/6/15

A Family Tam by Beth Brown-Reinsel

Thanks for checking in.  To see other Year of Project participants check here.
Have a great week everyone!