Yarn Buying is a Whole Different Hobby

 Okay...I admit it that I have been on a yarn buying spree.   Etsy gets me into lots of trouble.  

Etsy is where many yarn dyers sell their yarn.   The colors grab me....and I end up overdoing it.

Hawpatch Yarns has rich and deep colors.    The picture below, of my score, does not really do the colors justice.

There will be socks....and at least one hat from this batch.

The last time I was at beWoolen, I was resting on the settee in the yarn store which is very close to the display of their house yarn Pigments.  Towards the bottom there was a pinkish skein that glowed.   The name of the color is Rhubarb Pie.  It came home with me and is becoming socks.

Plain socks are a palate cleanser after more complicated projects....and I am enjoying this quiet knit.

Knitting....and what I have been doing...

 Life has gotten in the way of talking about knitting with myself here.

Now, I am retired.   All the time is mine.

My latest obsession is yarn from independent dyers.    Fiber MacGyver has a real gift with color.  Yesterday I finished a pair of socks from her assigned pooling collection.  I was so curious to see how this:

KALEIDOSCOPE EYES Merino Cashmere Assigned Pooling

would knit into socks.    Yesterday, I finished the pair and gave it to Fritz.    The colors glow - the picture above does not do the yarn justice.

The picture of the socks is tweaked a bit to give a better idea of the beauty of this yarn.    The yarn itself is soft.  The one flaw is that I had to pay a bit of attention to make sure I was not splitting yarn as I knit.  Not much of a flaw.  There are two more skeins of this yarn here...in different colors.  One is for me and one is for a gift for a knitting buddy.

Fritz saw a hat on Ravelry for which the pattern was no longer available.  He really liked the fox motif more than the motifs in other patterns.   Always up for a challenge, I did what I could to copy it.   After playing with charts for a bit, this is the result.   I learned a lot while I did this.   Fritz is happy with it...but there are things I would change if I did it again.    This is a one and done so I did not write up the pattern.

My knitting adventures are a great way to spend my days.   There are so many great patterns, so many great yarns, and now time to enjoy both!

Elephant Sanctuary Hat

 

Elephant Sanctuary Hat

This hat is a really fun knit.   It is made from Knitpicks Stroll Dogwood Heather and Knitpicks Stroll Bare Glimmer.

My great-niece Emily loves sparkles.   Her grandmother told me that, when Emily put on the hat, she had to find a mirror and leaned in close to see the sparkles.  

While I have been knitting a lot, I have been keeping a very low profile and not posting what I have been up to.....

While I have been knitting, I have not been doing much exciting

 Like everyone else is experiencing, this year has been a challenge on many fronts.   

At the moment I am doing comfort knitting.   My friend Fritz bought a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot a while ago.  He has not gotten around to knitting it so I am taking over the project.   I had forgotten just

Yarn bowls can used to hold yarn and not stuff. 

how lovely this yarn is to work with.   Mountain Colors does make wonderful yarns and Bearfoot never disappoints.  Sadly, it seems to have gone out of production.

Other than fixing a few dropped stitches, this has been a lovely knit.  This a a  reminder of how meditative knitting can be.   When I am stressed out I can pick this up and find peace.  

Earlier this year, I did an hat for my Minion obsessed grand nephew.   Trying to do this using intarsia was a special bit of hell.  HELL.  Doing the hat stranded was not a picnic either.  If I did not adore Owen, I would have buried this project the the depths of the yarn closet.  I did finish it...and Owen loves it.

My sister, his grandmother, told me he insists on wearing it even on very ward days.  

Does that make it worth the agony.  Oh yes it does!

Owen's sister Emily will be a year old next weekend.   Hard to believe that is already upon us.  

Some years ago I had used a yarn that knit into a stripe and flower pattern for someone else's newborn.  Helen loved it.   I had more of that yarn and saved it...until Emily was on her way.

Last summer I got that going.  To make the pattern work out as I wanted it to, I did the sweater top down.   I had enough yarn to make it possible to piece together the yarn so that the body stripes fand the sleeve stripes looked nice together.   There were a lot of ends to tie in.  Worth it.

I can't find a picture of it and have not gotten a picture of Emily wearing the sweater.

Last March, I misplaced a project.  I looked for it at the office..and at home.  Multiple times.  Finally, I searched the internet for more sock yarn.  The yarn knit into wide bands of red and white.  I was able to find some similar yarn....and do the socks.   A month or so later, I was digging through project bags and felt something stuffed in the back.  The rogue project bag return.  Now Fritz has two pairs of socks that are similar...the different reds make them different enough.

Last January I went to BeWoolen for the first time. The BeWoolen folks are lovely to work with.   They welcome knitters and even figured out (I have been there twice since) for knitters to gather together in a COVID safe way.   The store is candy for the eyes.   My visits there remind me of what a total joy it is to spend time in a yarn store.   Yes, I did spend a lot of money on yarn.

Now I am plotting my 2021 yarn adventures....stay tuned.

A Tale of 3.75 Socks

Right after Christmas, I started a pair of red and white striped socks my friend Fritz wanted.   The first sock sped along.  When it was finished, I tucked the sock in my project bag assigned to that pair of socks.

I started the second sock and was carrying the project to and from work when COVID struck.    

When I left the office for a few days mid-March, I had no idea that I would be working from home the following Monday and that I still would be now.    Simran dropped off the sock in progress.  She had looked for the project bag.  Nowhere in sight.  Kara looked for the project bag.  Nowhere in sight.  I biked over when the weather was good enough.  I looked.  I looked in ALL of my hiding places.  Nowhere in sight.  BAD WORD!

I took the 3/4 done sock off the needles and stuffed it in a drawer.

The hunt began for more red and white striped Regia.   It took a while.  I finally located what must have been the last two skeins in the world.  Success!

The reds were very different.  While I had expected that, I was still a little disappointed.   This Regia was very splitty and not much fun to work.   I had to pick back a lot when I noticed stitches that were not quite right.

Last night, I kitchenered the second two.

Sigh of relief!

Naked No More

This weekend, I finished the clothing for Rory's bunny....and she is now dressed and not lounging about in lingerie.....

The Bunny Dressed

The clothes for the bunny are not hard to make but are very time consuming.  Originally, I had thought that I would make the bunny a wardrobe.  Time went quickly and I am content with one outfit.

Rory will be three this fall.   That meant I had to be really careful about buttons (can't use them) and snaps (really shouldn't use them).   As I was knitting away on the clothing I thought about what to do.

Sewing the clothes on to the body.....not a good option.  Risk a snap?  Her little fingers might not be able to work a snap yet.  My final solution was not to put a button on the cardigan and to crochet ties so that the dress can be closed with a small bow.

Will I make more clothes?  Yes...and eventually another creature to wear them.

Want to spend an afternoon looking at really cute projects?  Look at the Little Cotton Rabbits on Pinterest....the folks who have designed the clothing have created dresses that make the fingers itch to make one...no matter how much time it takes!

Knitting, Knitting, Knitting

This summer has been a hugely productive and sometimes very frustrating knitting fiesta.

A little guy needed a dinosaur.   I auditioned two patterns....one was too fussy...the other was the
pattern from hell.  I learned a lot trying to make the hellish pattern work.  I also learned it is okay to through a project in the trash.  Rebecca Danger saved me......Basil the Brontosaurus is now done.

One the the techniques I have wanted to learn for a long time is doing intarsia in the round.  One of the Boost Your Knitting tutorials was truly wonderful.  I used it, not to make the socks which will (later) be for me, but to make a superman hat for my friend Corey that is much more in keeping with the vision I had when I made his hat last year.



Because I like to plan, I used Knitbird to make the superman symbol graph that would work the best look for this project. Next, I did the math and laid out, using Photoshop, what I wanted the had to look like. This was great for trying to position the symbol and for deciding if I wanted a pop of red. This is where I started.....
It was great as I could toggle the red line on and off and decide on whether is was a good idea....and if it was...how wide should the line be?   The sketch shows what I decided to do.

The yarn I choose was a Cascade fingering weight wool.  While the yarn could split a bit, it knits up beautifully.    I am really happy with the finished product.

My hemming could use a bit of work, but I am generally happy with the results:

The Front

The back with the intarsia in the round area highlighted.

Will I try intarsia in the round again.  Yes....because it lets me do things I want to do....and I want to get better at it.

More critters are on the needles....I will say that after a few more, I will take a loooooooooooooooong break from doing animals.