Week #20 – Sweater, Socks, and YARN!!

Sailormoon is FO!!!!

I finished my Sailormoon this week and I love it. Really, really happy with the modifications I made and I will repeat them on my daughter’s sweater. I am learning that I don’t like as much ease as I keep knitting because I’m afraid the sweater will be too tight. But I really need to try going down a size so the sweaters/tops aren’t so baggy.

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New WIP – Advent Sock Attempt #2

Since I finished my sweater, it means I can start a project right?? Throw in that my local knitting friends have been discussing 9″ circulars for sock knitting versus magic loop (for 2 at a time sock knitting). So we all decided to cast on a sock with a 9″ circular this weekend to see with we think. Since the advent socks are colorwork, there are some advantages to knitting it kinda one at a time so I’m not juggling 4 balls of yarn. So I cast on my second attempt for an advent sock using a 3.5mm (US 4) needle. Recall the 2.75 mm (US 2) needle ended up with the socks being too tight. I have to admit using the 9″ is much easier that I thought it would be when I was just handling the needle without yarn. I was afraid I’d be fighting the needles as being too restrictive as I knit. Knitting also goes faster since I’m not constantly repositioning the socks on the magic loop. Now this is cuff down whereas I usually knit toe up. So we will see how I feel about the needles as I get to the heel and the toe. I need to watch The Crazy Sock Lady’s videos on using a 9″ circular to make socks. But I like them well enough that I’ve ordered the second needle so that I can “kinda” do 2 at a time. I’ll do cuff on sock A and then cuff on sock B. I’ll continue back and forth for each stripe.

9″ circular

Sock WIPS

I got a little work down on my Sunset anklets – one heel done. This will be my focus in the coming week as I really want to finish the 2 sock (anklet) WIPs I have before casting on my next top/sweater.

Yarn Swap

My local weekly knitting friends decided to do a yarn swap today. While I still liked all my yarns I realized that I had about 4 sweater/tops in reddish pink to deep red. I didn’t need that many tops. So I gave away 4 skeins to one friend. Then I had some Summer Silk yarn, that I love, to make a top for about 3 years. It keeps falling to “next year’. So I gave that away to another friend. Finally the skein that I got in my advent calendar, which I didn’t like, went in the Goodwill pile. But I picked up yarn so it was pretty yarn stash neutral. I ended up with a top quantity to replace one of the top quantities I gave away!! Then I got sock yarn in my son’s college school colors. Ironically I took a skein of Madelinetosh speckled yarn only to find I already had one at home. But I’m thrilled as I had paired it with some gorgeous solid and now I can really feel free to make another striped sweater. My son’s girlfriend wore a shrug I had made and liked it so I picked up a skein with turquoise, that she likes, so I can make her this simple shrug. Then I just love orange so I picked up a skein. Still have to figure out what to do with it. Till then I’ll just enjoy looking at it.

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May Yarn Swap

Yarn Sale – Who Can Resist??!!

I was trying to be good. Then a friend texted that a LYS was having 50% off Daisy yarn – a yarn I LOVE. It’s the yarn I made my daughter’s tan tulip top out of last summer and my Seeing Eyelet to Eyelet top I made for me in winter 2020. It’s Linen, Silk, and Hemp. So bought 2 top quantities!!! Uhh, one in that deep red that I said I already had too many projects in and one in bright pink for my son’s girlfriend. I haven’t made her any tops/sweaters yet. Although she is the recipient of the advent mitts I recently made.

50% Off

Tracking Update

I have decided to add yarn purchases and usage to my knitting plan tracking. I’m really happy with my digital calendar tracking. Since it’s excel based, I can track how many stitches I knit each day and what WIPs I worked on that day. I list all WIPs each day so all started projects are always in front of me. I maintain a list of my knitting related goals (such as trying a new technique, etc.), a list of project/goals for next year, my average daily knitted stitches for each month, and now the grams of yarn obtained and used during the month.

Digital Knitting Planner

All in all a pretty great week. Hope yours was too.

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.