September 2021 – Knitting Is So Fun

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.

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 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.