Knitting Is So Fun

YOP Wk of 10/17-23: WIPs Update

Sailormoon Update

I did finish the lace bottom but I still need to pick up the stitches for the sleeves so I didn’t get as much done this week as I had hoped. Where does the time go??? Some of the delay was I didn’t like the way the lace looked so I blocked it to be sure it was okay. I am happy with it after blocking. Today I’ll be picking up the sleeve stitches. I’m not real happy with where I picked up stitches on the back to start the striping but I’m hoping blocking will help. At least I’ve learned about being more consistent when picking up stitches in the future. I know my daughter won’t mind.

Cozy FO and Cast-ons

Finished the second cozy. Longer than I intended but it did use up all the yarn. Looks better than the old sock my hubby was using. I’ve cast-on two more which should use up my stock of scrap Fixation yarn.

Advent 2019 Socks

Got the heels in my Advent 2019 socks. Now to the mindless knitting of the foot and toe. Not enough progress for a photo. I dropped from a US 4 needle for the colorwork leg to a US 2 for the heel. I’m still worried that the fabric is not as tight as I like for socks so I’m going to drop to a US 1 for the foot. I’m also probably going to reenforce the heels by duplicate stitching.

Baby News

Granddaughter made an early entrance to the world. She was due Oct 28 but decided to arrive the 19th. Sophia and her mom are doing just great. We hope to get in a visit the end of next month before we head to Florida for the winter.

Autumn Update

Turns out I speculated correctly…. the warm fall we have had will reduce our normal fall color display. Not going to be a pretty year for pictures although the yellows are coming through. The temperatures are indeed falling. Hubby is ready to go to Florida NOW. I will definitely get a chance to wear my sweaters for the next five weeks.

This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts. YOP is in it’s 11th year. It’s my second in the group.

YOP Wk of 10/10-16: WIP Updates and Mail

October 17, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

Sailormoon Update

I did indeed finish the body striping and I’ve also completed 2 sets of the bottom lace. The pattern only calls for 2 sets but I did 3 on my Sailormoon and I prefer the 3 sets. This week will be sleeve island. End of October finish looking good!!

Advent 2019 Sock Update

Uhh, turns out that my ivy stripe from last week was still wrong as the berry row was incorrect. So tinked back a 3rd time and reknit it. I think I’m finally done with it. This week I got the purple stripe completed and will be starting the heels. I’m using leftover self striping sock for the heel and foot as I plan to wear the socks so a) I don’t need the bulk of colorwork stripes in my shoes and b) who is going to see colorwork on the foot since I’ll be wearing shoes. I’ve dropped down from US 4 needles for the colorwork to US 2 for a better fitting foot.

You Got Mail

This week’s mail brought me the Christmas sock yarn and a bamboo based sock yarn I ordered. Mary Maxim offered me free shipping and at $7 a skein, how could I resist?! Turns out I’m doing better than I thought on my Yarn In/Yarn Out. Even with this purchase I still have more yarn going out of my stash. And I haven’t added the Sailormoon or Advent 2019 socks I’m currently about to finish to my “yarn out” tally. So I’m looking good for meeting my goal of more yarn out than in. I’m optimistic that I’ll meet it in 2022 as well.

Autumn Is Here

Well, a cold front finally came through Friday night and lowered the temperature to more normal fall weather. It is so nice to be able to wear my sweaters before we head to the summer temperatures in SW Florida. I had to bundle up to watch FCC lose their home match. Ironically the trees still haven’t really taken on their fall colors by now. Guess the unusually warm weather kept the leaves green. Although sometimes the fall isn’t very pretty here with the leaves going from green to brown. I’m hoping we get some reds, oranges, and yellows in the coming week. We always joke that Cincinnati actually only has two seasons, winter and summer. It seems like we frequently stay cold in the spring and then shot up to summer temperatures and likewise stay warm in the fall before dropping down to winter temperatures. Wishing everyone a great week.

YOP Wk 10/3-9; WIPs Progress

October 10, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

Sailormoon Continues to Grow

My second Sailormoon sweater continues to grow. I’ve made good progress on the body. Only 2 more sets of stripes before I start the lace bottom. Maybe today while watching football!!?? It is such a pleasure to knit. I will definitely get it done this month!

Advent 2019 Socks – Or how many mistakes can you make in one stripe!

I added 2 more stripes to my Advent 2019 socks. I’m not knitting them in the order of the pattern but picking and choosing stripes that I like. I basically knit the holly stripe twice. Mistake #1 – got cocky and thought I knew the pattern. Uh no, not always 3 green stitches followed by 2 white. Frog two rows. Mistake #2 – happily finished stripe when, huh – why does my ivy look like propeller blades instead of ivy?? Seems I turned the pattern upside down halfway through knitting it!! Frogged back to the red berries and reknit the upper leaves. The gold centers of poinsettia stripe didn’t show up well so I’m going to duplicate stitch them. Two more stripes and then time for the heel.

Tumbler Cozies

I continue to make slow progress on my second tumbler cozy. No rush on this project. Berroco Fixation yarn is perfect for these cozies, 98% cotton and 2% spandex.

Autumn ’21 Update

Continues to be summerlike in SW Ohio. We are 5C/10F above normal and will be for the next week. Great for hubby’s bladder pain issues. Not much color change in the trees although lots more leaves on the driveway!! I’ve already cleared the leaves earlier this week too! Got to have a lovely get together with my dad and brother’s family at a nano brewery where they all live. Roasted pumpkin porter – YUM!! It was so nice to enjoy being together. Wishing you a wonderful autumn week.

YOP – Wk of 9/26 – 10/2

October 3, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Knitting tools, Notions, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

Sailormoon Update

This week I was able to complete the yoke and combine the front and back. Now it’s 12″ of stockinette (Continental) striping before making the lace bottom panel and sleeves. Looking good to be done by Thanksgiving. Maybe I can get another top/sweater in before the end of the year??!!

Does anyone else have trouble with their swatch matching their garment gauge?? Really drives me nuts!! Turns out my garment is a good 10% tighter than my swatch predicted! Sure hope it still fits my daughter. Oh, and in case you are interested …. I sent my frustration/question to Andrea Mowry this week and guess what question got picked to be answered in this week’s podcast (#30)?? Yep – that’s mine at 9:11 with the 28 stitches instead of 25.5 predicted by my swatch. Maybe the problem is this pattern has both flat and in the round and I only swatched in the round. But her suggestion to block it now is probably worth doing.

Advent Sock 2019

Making these colorwork stripes is so fun. This is going to be a crazy pair of socks as I plan to use leftover Christmas sock yarns for the feet. But I will have fun wearing them.

This Week’s Mail

The spending seems to never end but that’s my fault. I ordered more wipeable project bag tags from Katrinkles. That gives me 6 which would definitely be my limit of projects on needles. But this will let me put my winter projects into bags for taking to Florida since I won’t have my “yarn wall”. I also ordered her wipeable stitch markers. That will let me leave “notes” to myself or mark special stitches such as psso. By the way, I hate her silver chains so I went on Amazon and got myself 100 colorful chains for $7. Let me know if you need chains. 🙂

Planning Ahead – 2022 Anyone??

My brother kids me about my need to plan ahead – really, who doesn’t plan holiday family gatherings 4+ months ahead?? So it should come as no surprise that I have already started my 2022 Knitting Plan and Knitting Goals. Not really hard since part of my monthly digital Knitting Plan/Calendar includes an area to record future project and goal ideas. I already own the yarn for every project (well, I’ve committed to but haven’t bought the Christmas sock yarn) so in theory I shouldn’t buy ANY yarn in 2022. Yeah, that’s not happening.

FALL

I’ll end with a photo of fall here along our driveway. The leaves are turning yellow and the driveway is filling up with fallen leaves. Another week or two and it will be golden yellow with reds and oranges. (Our driveway is 1 km long so I get a nice walk in just picking up the mail everyday). Wishing everyone a great week and “see” you next Sunday.

YOP – Wk 9/19-25: Fiber Artist Supply Co Ball Winder Review and Updates

September 26, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Knitting tools, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

Fiber Artist Supply Co Ball Winder Review

Got to use my new ball winder this week!! I love it! Much better than my Loops & Threads cheap one from Michaels. Makes beautiful cakes and the yarn doesn’t end up winding on the rod both above or below the cake like my cheap one. Now the only issue is my umbrella swift. I’m having to rewind the cake a second time. This is what Very Pink Knits recommends as a general rule. Note: she uses an umbrella swift. My initial cake is much tighter then when I used my friend’s tabletop swift and ball winder hence I believe it’s the swift. My swift is pretty so I think I’ll stick with it since my knitting wall is now in our living room. I’ll just plan to wind balls twice so that the yarn isn’t wound too tight.

Sailormoon #2

The Sailormoon for my daughter is coming along. I just adore the yarn and the colors. I have enough of the Cinnamon colorway to make another sweater if I combine it with another contrast skein, which I have in my stash. Now I need to find a pattern that uses 3 skeins of MC and 1 skein of CC. Course I could always do a 3 row/1 row stripe. This sweater is also helping on one of my 2021 knitting goals – knit something with Continental. I am doing all the knit stitches in Continental but I’m still doing the purls with English. I think this is actually helping keep my tension even. Only the yoke is knit flat so once I join the body it will be all Continental knit stitches.

Advent 2019 Socks

Got both cuffs done for my Advent 2019 socks. Now to start the fun stuff – the colorwork stripes. Hope to have a stripe or two to share next week since the Sailormoon will still get the majority of attention.

Oops, I Did It Again

You would think I know by now that all stockinette curls. So I’m going to have to pullout the cast-on and add a few rows of garter so that my tumbler cozy doesn’t roll. This project is letting me work on another goal…not looking at every stitch as I knit it since it’s simple stockinette.

It’s beautiful fall here. I know for many of you blue skies is not unusual, but for the midwest of the USA, our winters are GRAY!!! I’ve been informed by my son’s girlfriend that while Alaska has very short days in the winter, what little time the sun is out in the winter, the sky is blue. So fall is just a wonderful time of year. The temperature is perfect (70s F/low 20s C), low humidity. Trees have started to turn but full color is about 2 weeks away. Hope you are enjoying your fall.

YOP Wk of 9/12-18: Wool Festival Purchases, an FO, and New WIPs

September 19, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Knitting Shows, Knitting tools, Notions, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, wool festival, Yarn

Wool Gathering – Yellow Springs, OH

It was soooo nice to get to attend a yarn festival again. Not that I have much experience. My first was this one 2 years ago. I can’t afford to attend very many – too much temptation. More than the Vogue Live Marketplace I visited once when it was in Columbus, OH, a festival like this really makes you feel you are helping small businesses. The festival is held at a family run dairy instead of a downtown hotel like the Vogue Live Events. Can you tell I’m not a fan of Vogue Live and have no intention of attending another one??

That means 462 grams of yarn got added to my stash. Not looking good for ending the year with a net minus in my stash. And it’s not even like it’s email alerts to sales that are my downfall. It was a knitting friend letting me know a yarn I like was on 50% sale at a LYS, a yarn swap with my knitting friends, and this festival for the most part. Hmmm, I need to add to my knitting tracking calendar where I bought/got the yarn if I ever really want to get a handle on decreasing my stash.

I went to the festival knowing of 4 venders I wanted to buy from and indeed I bought from all four. Deep Dyed Yarns out of Nicholasville, KY makes the most vibrant yarns with a glittery metallic thread woven through. One skein, Starry Night, I’m splitting with a friend. While one skein is called Black Hills, it’s perfect as a Halloween sock yarn – again with glittery thread. The third is just gorgeous fallish colors.

Redbird Yarn Studio from Columbus, OH had a much more limited supply of yarn this year although she promised to have more Christmas colorways on her website in October. So I left the Christmas skein for another customer and bought a skein with beautiful browns, golds/oranges, and grey which I think my son will like with a bright orange contrast for the toes/heels. Indeed she was almost sold out of self striping yarns by lunchtime Saturday.

I have several project bags from Twisted Yarn and Fibers. She has the cutest fabrics!! I managed to resist buying more bags but did find a circular needle holder that I want for transporting my circular needles and cords to Florida in a few months.

I did end up buying the ball winder that I’ve had my eye on for 2 years. I can’t wait to wind the remaining skeins I need for Sara’s Sailormoon and to split the skein of Starry Night I just bought.

The final purchase was a cute t-shirt that is embroidered instead of printed. I love the reddish color of the t-shirt and the saying fits me well (my son loved it).

Swirl E Socks Got Finished!!

I did get my Redbird Harvest yarn socks finished in time to wear and show the shop owner. I got several compliments on the Swirl E pattern as well as the beautiful striped yarn.

NEW WIPs

Finished FO means it’s time for casting on!!! I cast-on for the third time my Advent 2019 colorwork socks. I had finished one cuff before I realized I should have gone down a needle size. So since it was only the cuff I frogged it and am now half way through the first cuff.

We have a bunch of thermal tumblers which are perfect for summer and Florida. They do get hot in the heat so I’ve been saying it would be easy for me to knit cozies for them. Well, I finally have gotten started on one. It’s the perfect project to take to the soccer game for before, halftime, and after game knitting since it’s straight stockinette. My leftover Fixation yarn is perfect for making cozies since it’s cotton and spandex.

I did get the swatch for Sara’s Sailormoon blocked so I’m ready to start her sweater. My priority for the coming weeks will be her sweater and the Advent 2019 socks. That’s a lot of happy knitting.

YOP: Wk of 9/5-11; Frogging and Socks

September 12, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Brioche, Knitting, Knitting Shows, Knitting tools, Notions, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

Sailormoon Redo

Thankful the light bulb finally went off before I went much further on my daughter’s Sailormoon sweater. I wasn’t sure she would like the hot pink speckles so I sent her a picture of the stripes. Indeed she admitted she probably wouldn’t wear the sweater a lot because of them. So I frogged her sweater and I’m restarting with some Madelinetosh Light in Cinnamon Dolce and Silver Lining that I had in my stash for a sweater for me. She loves the new colors.

I will use the blue and hot pink speckled yarn for a sweater for me. I’m really loving Joji Locatelli’s Newspaper brioche sweater. This will definitely be on my 2022 plan.

Swirl E Socks

I’m in the home stretch on my Swirl E socks as I’ve completed the foot and heels and just have to do the legs. While I still want them to be short, I’ve learned I need to make the leg a bit longer if I want the stripes to show above my sneakers.

I want to have them done by Saturday so I can wear them to the Wool Festival and show them off to the vender that I bought the yarn from 2 years ago (Redbird Yarn Studio). She has been “missing in action” the past year due to “life stuff” so I’m thrilled that she did not give up on yarn making.

New Row Counters

I love the row counters from Twice Sheared Sheep and I already have several (uhh 4 to be exact). I have wanted both a shorter counter for things like 4 row sock patterns and a counter set for flat work (one counter is only odd numbers – usually the pattern rows – and the other is only even numbers – usually the purl row). Dawn offered a sale last weekend so I finally bought them. I was so close to free shipping that adding the cute (honeycomb, carbon ring if you are a chemist like me) markers in essence only cost me $3. I love using those cheap 7 day pill holders for my knitting notions. This one only holds row counters. I have others to hold my multiple sizes and colors of 0-ring stitch markers.

Looking Forward

The coming week is exciting. I will have yarn to share next week as I will attend the Wool Gathering festival next Saturday. I already have three venders that I’m committed to buying some skeins of yarn. I have too many sweater projects waiting for me to knit them so I’ll be buying fun sock yarns. I have plenty of people that will be happy with a sock gift as well as socks for me. I will also likely be buying a high end ball winder as I wasted an evening winding a ball on my cheap plastic one. I usually visit my friend that owns the expensive one but I thought “I only need to wind one ball to restart the Sailormoon sweater”. A whole evening spent just getting one ball wound!! Grrr. But it’s a lot of money to spend when my friend is only too happy to let me come over to wind yarn.

I hope you have an exciting week coming up as well.

YOP: Wk 8/29-9/4; August goals and WIP updates

September 5, 2021September 6, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Patterns, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

Knitting Related Goals

This year in addition to project goals I have knitting related goals. This came from Curious Handmade with her 20 for 2020 that she reapplied to 2021. I didn’t necessarily set a number I wanted to hit but did liked the idea of some nonproject specific goals related to knitting. This year I set a goal of knitting an average of 1000 stitches per day and having more yarn go out than come in. I didn’t start the yarn in/out until later in the year so it doesn’t include some of my earlier FOs. But I’m trying to develop the habit of recording how much yarn I buy and how much goes out in FOs each month so that next year will be a better tracking year.

So for August 1:

averaged 1990 stitches per day, my best month yet!!

had 120 grams of yarn come in but 352 grams of yarn go out for a decrease in yarn of 232 grams!!!

YEA!!! I do plan to put more effort into setting challenging but reasonable knitting related goals when I do my 2022 plan.

Harvest Socks

I am loving the yarn and the pattern for my fall themed socks. The pattern is free on Ravelry, Swirl E Socks. I like some texture to my hand knitted socks. Vanilla socks are what I can buy at the store but I appreciate that Vanilla are relaxing knits for many. I’m anxious to get these done so I can get back to working on my advent colorwork socks.

Sailormoon Sweater

I’m enjoying knitting this sweater a second time. The yarn is so soft and I love the colors. Since my daughter is thinner than I am, I’m getting to knit a smaller size which helps make it go faster too! Sadly it’s taking a bit of a break as I wait for her to confirm her chest measurement so that the top isn’t too tight. I’m at the point of splitting for the front so I need to know if I should split or knit some more rows. This sweater is unusual construction as it basically starts at the bottom of the yoke on the back, knits up to the neck, then splits to make the right and left sides of the front V neck before joining in the round to knit the body. If she doesn’t get back to me in the next few days, I’m just going to hope the size is right and start back on it.

Stash Storage

In anticipation of the Wool Festival in two weeks where I know I’ll be buying more yarn, I needed to add storage space to my wall of yarn. Fortunately I found one more wooden wine box to add to my wall. (My husband is happy to look for wine that comes in wooden cases for future yarn storage.) Now I have dividers waiting to be filled with single skeins of sock yarn. I plan to mainly buy sock yarns as I already have too many sweater projects waiting to be knit (sweater projects are in the clear bags, sock yarns are in the dividers). I just love my wall of yarn and wood.

YOP: Wk of 8/22-28 FO, New Beginnings, and Artwork

August 29, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

Heldig Tank – FO!!!!

I did indeed complete Caitlyn’s tank top. Fortunately there are still plenty of hot days left in August and September for her to get to wear it this year. My oldest stepson’s wife saw the picture I posted on Facebook and has requested a tank top as well! I’m happy to knit one for her and I already have yarn that I can use. But it will be the end of the year/early next year before I work on it as I already have two projects I want to do next.

New WIPs

With socks finished last week and the top finished this week, I got to cast-on a new sock project and a new sweater project. I shared the yarn’s I planned for these projects 2 weeks ago when I wound the yarn into cakes. I just love the colors so I’m enjoying both projects. The socks are for me. I am trying the Swirl E pattern although with the pattern reversed since I knit toe up. I think the colors are just gorgeous. So far I’m just swatching the yarn to make a repeat of the Sailormoon sweater. This one is for my daughter. The yarn is so soft!! What a delight it is going to be to knit with it. I need to get it done by Thanksgiving which should be very doable.

I am thankful that I have several people that want hand knitted garments. Hubby is still waiting on his sweater.

Out and About

This week was quite the social week. I finally got to see my brother and father in person after almost 2 years (Christmas ’19). My niece was in country (from Austria – she studied abroad and decided to stay) so it was great to catch up with her. We met at a local brewery that also serves great BBQ. A friend invited me to a talk on Cincinnati cuisine which was very fun. A nasty cold kept me from being able to join a group of knitters on Friday morning but a trip to the doctor to confirm it wasn’t Covid and the antibiotics prescribed put me back right pretty quickly. Saturday morning was my usual group of weekly knitters over coffee.

New/Old Artwork

Saturday night was getting to see old friends that we haven’t seen in probably 25 years. They live in Michigan. Tat is an artist and painted all the paintings hanging in my house (besides the kid’s school pictures displayed on the bedroom hallway walls). She did a set of season’s paintings 25 years ago and it turns out 2 of my kids want them after I take up residence on the dirt side of the grass. So I commissioned a second set of paintings which I will now hang and let age. The plan is for each kid to get 2 of the original paintings and 2 of the new paintings. I think she did an amazing job of replicating them from photos I took with my phone camera. She will return in 6 months to varnish the new ones and then I can get them framed.

As you can see I like abstract art. Here are the other two paintings of hers that hang in our house.

While it was great to see everyone this past week, I am looking forward to a quiet week this coming week.

YOP: Wk of 8/15-21; Nerd & Knitting Updates

August 22, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Knitting tools, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

NERD ALERT

Ok, I confess. I’m a spreadsheet nerd. After seeing Tasha’s post about her etsy shop that does custom t-shirts, I ordered one I REALLY wanted printed; “Knitting – I Have a Spreadsheet For That”. I was inspired by Kath of Backstage Knits blog last weekend on her stitch tracking with excel. She was the one that inspired me to track stitches in addition to projects. My knitting almost exclusively with fingering weight yarn puts me at a disadvantage for completing FOs so stitch count is a better measure for me. My knitting calendar is excel based. I use Ravelry for my “knitting journal” where I record gauge/yarn used/pattern notes/etc. Digital works best for me so that I can continually modify it. In this case I’ve added a line under the month title that lets me know how many stitches I’ve knit for the month so far. To the left I have a running total of the cumulative stitches for the year. Kath’s goal is a million stitches. I’m no where near her pace.

Then I added an “Analysis” tab following the Dec tab. There I have graphs of my stitches by the day of the week for each month as well as a graph of total stitches by month. Not much to be gleened other than there is no pattern for day of the week I tend to knit more or less. Not surprisingly May and June are my lowest stitch count months due to increased lawn and garden care. August is looking like a big month thanks to working on Caitlyn’s tank top.

Heldig Tank Update

Well, I ended up blocking Caitlyn’s tank top to give it it’s best chance to fit. It does fit ok. I’m going to finish it although I’m not as pleased with how it looks as other tops I’ve made. The ribbing is not neat rows. I’m hoping washing and wearing will help get rid of the wonkiness. It should be an FO next week. Probably won’t knit this pattern again. Too many others to try. I still have a top worth of the Daisy yarn in a reddish coral color that I plan to knit up for me.

Christmas Socks FO!!!!

James’ Christmas socks got extra attention as I took a break from working on Caitlyn’s top this past week. They are done!!! Turns out my son likes them too. Fortunately I have enough leftover to make another pair anklet length, especially if I use contrast toes. Another project to add to my plan!