February 2021 – Knitting Is So Fun

2/12ths Update (Feb) and Knitting Planners/Journals??

February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

SECOND FO of 2021!!!

FINALLY finished my “non” shellseeker sweater. Definitely like it MUCH better with narrower stripes. Glad to finally have it off my needles. I have now finished both 2020 carryover WIPS. Looking forward to my next sweater project. But first, I have to get back to my daughter’s top so that I can get it finished by the end of March when we pass through her home on our way back north to Ohio.

SAMPLE SOCK 🙂

I did get my sample sock yarn from A Girl And Her Wool Wednesday. This is my first time to be a sample knitter. I only have to knit one sock in a vanilla pattern and it’s only a 56 stitch circumference so it’s going quite quickly. I have till the end of March but I suspect I will get it done in the next few days. The yarn is Terra Cotta Sunset with a tonal grey yarn for the contrast toe/heel/cuff. I like the pop of teal and brick colors in the Terra Cotta main yarn.

KNITTING JOURNAL

I’ve enjoyed being part of this group for many reasons. One is learning how others set up a plan and then track it. I historically have simply done a “Year At A Glance” type excel spreadsheet shown in my intro photo. Each column is an entire month but it keeps the year to a reasonable size display of the year. A list of my planned projects is along the y-axis. Then I highlight the months (x-axis) that I expect to work on each project. This lets me roughly see if I have too many or too few projects planned for some months. A goal for this year is to track how well I actually start and finish projects versus my original time estimates.

But this is feeling very blunt to me. I really like a more traditional calendar where I can see on a daily basis what I’m working on versus a monthly basis. I tend to like digital records instead of real paper. Thus a friend sent me a “teacher’s calendar” that was developed on google sheets. It can be purchased at here. I’ve modified it of course to fit my needs instead of a teachers. I’ve even changed some of the graphics to better match my personality. Currently if a project is a WIP it shows up everyday, even if I don’t knit on it. This helps keep my WIPs front and center. I may change to only putting what project(s) I knit. Have to see. Since it’s google sheets I put how many stitches I knit each day on the calendar. I used conditional formatting so that if it’s less than 1000 stitches (my goal) it shows up with a red numbers and pink background. I also keep track of my monthly average of stitches per day. I can link the pages so that the previous months average are also displayed. I’ve also linked my list of goals from month to month so that if a goal is completed in January it shows as completed in February, March, etc. My “Year At A Glance” is still captured in the Start tab.

I still wonder if I’d like a paper journal. A Girl And Her Wool has created an interesting set of stickers to help make a planner. So maybe that will be something I try in 2022 – paper versus digital. I like that digital allows me to add or subtract lines as I need them. I tend to feel boxed in by paper since it really does have size limitations. My current digital calendar can only handle 4 WIPS but I can easily add rows so that more WIPS can be displayed. A journal would be more of a project scrapbook I think than an actual calendar. I need a calendar to make me feel I’m in control of my knitting. Ha Ha – famous last words I think.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on planning techniques that work for you.

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 every 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 10th year although I’m in my first in the group.

Big Week in 2021 YOP Update

February 21, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Knitting Plan, Knitting tools, Project Bags, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

This has been a week of lots of small things. First off – my first FO!!!!! Gee, only took 6 weeks into 2021 to finally get a FO! It turned out to be finishing a 2020 carryover WIP. But I’m still taking the win. I had a pair of vanilla socks with Fixation yarn on my needles as my “brain dead” project. I love the colors in the yarn – purple, lavender, bright orange, and pale orange.

Part of my motivation to finish the socks was I needed the excess yarn to darn a pair of Fixation footies that had developed a hole in the heel. They are also brightly colored so the patch “kinda” matches. I don’t care since the patch is on the bottom and they are for me. So this week was accomplishing a new “technique” – darning. I actually did two darning techniques. For my freshly finished socks, I reenforced the heel bottom by using duplicate stitches. For my pair that already had a hole, I used the patch technique. Both methods are shown on The Woolery site. https://woolery.com/blog/how-to-darn-socks-3-ways/

A second technique I started this week was colorwork. Yes, I’ve been knitting for 4+ years and still hadn’t tried colorwork beyond the stripes in my sweater. As discussed in previous blogs, on my plan for this year is a pair of “advent” socks. The plan is to make a stripe or two of colorwork each month so that the socks are finished by advent come December. I had made the cuff but had put aside the socks until I realized I was “behind”. Oh goodness. Now I get it. Colorwork is indeed fun!! In only 10-11 rows you have a pattern come alive. I am loving my stripes so far. The next stripe will be red background with pink poinsettias. It took till the 3rd stripe to start getting the hang of keep the pattern yarn in my left hand and the background yarn in my right hand. I know that fit can be an issue with colorwork socks so here’s hoping I’ll be able to get them on. I think I’m going to keep the leg fairly short to help with getting them on. If they don’t fit they will be Christmas decorations in my knitting nook.

And yes, I was back to buying a knitting need. I like colorful but clear plastic bags for my accessory bags and project-in-waiting bags. For accessory bags, I want to be able to see what’s inside without having to dump out the bag or rout around. For project bags, I want to be reminded visually what yarn I have waiting to be knit. I had a set of small cosmetic bags I bought probably 2 years ago but the zipper broke off again this week. Plus the bags didn’t close all the way so some small items could fall out of my accessory bag. I ordered some new ones that zipped close completely. I would have liked to get the slightly larger size but they weren’t available in the multiple colors (I didn’t want 5 blue ones). The size is perfectly fine for my accessory bag which was the original purpose. They are also fine for sock projects-in-waiting. One is even perfect for all the small balls of yarn generated by ripping out my striped sweater. We will see how they wear but they weren’t expensive and the colors are fun.

Finally, I’m getting soooo close on finishing my “non” shellseeker sweater. I’m sure it will be an FO by next week’s update. The body is completely done. I have about 5 more stripes to knit on the sleeves before binding off.

Then it will be back to knitting on my daughter’s Bisquit top. I did wet block what I had knit on her top and indeed the gauge does not match the wet block gauge of my swatch. So I’m going to go down a needle size for the remainder of the body and hope the top lace panel isn’t too wide for her shoulders.

2021 YOP Progress

February 14, 2021February 14, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn

Not a lot happening this week so this post will be fairly short. It was a pretty monogamous knitting week. I focused on my daughter’s top. Sadly, I’m not liking the lace yoke that much. Guess we will see when it’s done and blocked if I like it better. If she doesn’t like it, I will rip out the lace top part and create a new lace pattern. I really like the lace pattern of my Eyelet to Eyelet top. I am not a fan of purls so I’m thinking that’s what I don’t like about this pattern’s lace.

As a matter of fact, I was so faithful to knitting this top that my right elbow started to hurt. I knit English style. So today I went back to knitting my “Halloween” socks. Since they are simple “vanilla” socks, I can knit Continental. I call them my “Halloween” socks because the yarn is stripes of dark purple, lavendar, bright orange, and light orange. I’m only going to make them ankle length instead of my the more “full” crew length. This will give me leftover yarn to create a reenforced heel and yarn to use in as a patch for some other fixation yarn socks that have worn through the heels. It will be my first time to darn socks. Yea, a new skill for 2021!!

Last Sunday, before the Super Bowl game, I participated in a Zoom call put on by WEBS with the owner of Hedgehog fibers. It was so interesting! And I do adore her yarn. I wish they had recorded it as I’d love to watch it again.

I hope everyone has a nice Valentine’s Day with their sweetie. My husband is “treating” me to pizza and beer -because we have coupons for a free cheese pizza and and a free beer – always the big spender. Actually he has already made me chocolate covered strawberries and hazelnut biscotti!! He couldn’t wait until tomorrow so I’ve gotten to taste both already. They are delicious!! I’m giving him socks, and not even ones I knit.

Sample Knitting and Project Updates

February 7, 2021February 7, 2021 by knittingissofun, posted in Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

SAMPLE KNITTING

I’m so excited!!! I am going to be knitting a sample for A Girl And Her Wool. So this will be new for me. I only have to knit one sock since it’s to be a sample to show off her yarn. This works for me. I think I might not like knitting a bigger project and then having to give it back to her. At least this is a good place to start. I will be “paid” with a gift card to use to buy her yarns. I’m fine with that. So this wasn’t on my 2021 knitting plan but I’m happy to add it!

PROJECT UPDATES

My nonshellseeker sweater is coming along. I’ve split the front and back like I wanted. I’m happy with the length so I’ll go back and knit the hem on the front side in white. I need to finish the dark grey stripe on the back side and I plan to make the back a little longer so I’ll knit some of the white stripe before knitting the white hem. Then it’s the sleeves and it will be finished!! Much happier with narrower stripes.

My daughter’s top Bisquit (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bisquit-2) is coming along. Oops – I knit the front lace a little longer than the back but I’m thinking I can just reduce the number of stockinette rows on the front side. With the Super Bowl today, that will be tomorrow’s project to figure out how to reconcile the front and back. 🙂

No new knitting purchases this week although I did have to buy some glass plates. There was a big wind storm a few days ago that blew over my plant stand on the patio. Unfortunately I had used glass plates to catch any draining water from the pots. What a mess!! So I had to buy some replacement plates. They aren’t an exact match but hopefully the condo owner won’t mind. And yes, I also bought plastic catch trays for under the plants.

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 every week. The objective is to keep track of progress on any fiber crafts with maximum flexibility: post, don’t post, follow your list, change it – so really it is just an opportunity to get to know of more blogs and activities of those who share a passion for anything fiber crafts.