2022: Wk of 10/30 – 11/5; Hubby Sweater Update and another Charlie Harper Bag

HUBBY’S SWEATER UPDATE

Finished the body and now I’m knitting the sleeves. I forgot with bottom up that the sleeves are knit separately. I’ve never knit the cuffs first. Since I also knit socks toe up, this whole starting with ribbing from the cast-on was wonky for me. But it’s done and now it’s off to the races. Even knitting two sleeves at a time, each row is only a third of the number of stitches that the body had. This will definitely be my last bottom up sweater. I hate that I have to guess what stripe to start with to achieve the desired length. Yes I’ve measured the target garment and thus in theory the sleeve should be 17″ long. But I know only too well that estimated doesn’t equal target. Ripping out the cuff and adding a stripe doesn’t really work since the stockinette stitches would be in the wrong direction. Fingers crossed I’ve estimated correctly.

FINAL PHOTO – CHRISTMAS STOCKING

This time I mean it, last photo. I made an i-cord for the stocking hanger and duplicate stitched my granddaughter’s name. May I say how much I HATE duplicate stitch. Not a labor of love, just labor!! Used leftover bed sheet material from my Covid masking making days for the stocking lining. But it’s done and winging it’s way to Indiana. My stepdaughter has already requested stockings for her and her hubby. Something to put on next year’s knitting plan.

PROJECT BAG #2

Since I had to get out my sewing machine to make the lining for the Christmas stocking, I decided to sew the second project bag out of the Charlie Harper cardinal fabric I had. It was already cut and the interface fused to the fabric so it was a very quick sewing project. I do love these tiny bags which are perfect for a pair of socks. I may add a long strap to one bag so that I can wear it for my Florida “walking while knitting”. I already have nylon bags for this but the fabric is just so cute! Cardinals are year round birds here in Ohio. They give our dreary winters a spark of color.

NOVEMBER HAPPENINGS

I’m excited that my daughter and son-in-law will be back in Cincinnati this coming week to attend one of her high school friend’s wedding. A much happier reason for a hometown visit. It’s so weird that I’m seeing her 3 times in 4 weeks as we will stop for a day’s rest on our drive to Florida the end of the month. Normally I only get to see her twice a year; on our drive down to Florida and our drive back to Ohio. This year it’s 5 visits!! Not complaining. We will have a preholiday get together with my husband’s side Friday night and with my side on Sunday.

Hope your November is off to a wonderful start. The leaves have fallen off the trees here in Ohio. Everything looks like winter outside which fits with our coming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Weird this year is that even most of the oak trees dropped their leaves. Maybe the drought fall we had?? We are having very unusually warm temperatures (after an unusually cold October). The air temperature feels like early summer. I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt! We cut the grass one last time. Hubby is enjoying this warm weather before heading south.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) 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 started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

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2022: Wk of 9/25 – 10/1; Autumn Socks FO & Charlie Harper Project Bag

SEPTEMBER REVIEW

I just missed my stitch goal of knitting 1800 stitches per day in September although I’m still meeting that goal on a yearly basis. I am not surprised since I had 3 travel days where I wasn’t able to knit much. Turns out the months with week long wedding celebrations resulted in missing my stitches knit goal. I’m okay with that. 🙂 I started 3 projects and finished one although I’m tempted to count my autumn socks since they were so close to finished.

ALWAYS SOMETHING!!!

This has been a rough week. After returning from our Outer Banks/Delaware trip, we discovered we have a leak somewhere in our water system. We collect rain water from our roof which is stored in a cistern under our front yarn. So far we have confirmed the leak isn’t a sink/toilet. We are trying to determine if the cistern has developed a leak or the pipe from the cistern to the house. I suspect the recent concrete work my husband insisted on has caused the crack and leak.😖 Then the driveway repair this past week has been slow and resulted in accidentally cutting our internet/cable so I’m currently sitting at Starbucks as I write this using the free wifi. I’m getting my steps in since it’s 1/3 mile to the street where we have to park our car.👟

Hurricane Ian did damage the roof of our oldest son’s home in North Port, FL. He also lost the fence at his home. I believe our grandson’s home in North Port has serious water damage. Fortunately our son’s home in Gainesville, FL was unaffected as was our daughter’s home in Charleston, SC when Ian came ashore a second time. We are very fortunate that the condo we have rented for this winter made it through without a scratch. Some of the trees got blown over in the condo complex but the complex seems to have survived the hurricane well.

AUTUMN SOCKS FO

Got my autumn socks off the needles in time to wear with my autumn cowl this fall!! It will be fun to wear these in support of the Cincinnati Bengals football team as well as fall in general. I think it is interesting how at 68 stitches the orange pooled while at 64 stitches the orange striped. So I have pooled orange on the foot and stripes on the leg. I like it that way.

Now I have to focus on finishing the baby blanket and get back to knitting my hubby’s sweater. Then I can start thinking about casting on another pair of socks. Maybe Christmas colorwork socks!?

CHARLIE HARPER PROJECT BAG

I did end up making a project bag with the Charlie Harper fabric. I LOVE IT!! It is quite small; perfect for a pair of socks, especially if using 9″ circulars and 50g or less yarn balls. It’s only 7″ wide at the top and 4″x3″ at the bottom. It’s about 9″ tall. I have enough to make a second sock size bag. Charlie Harper was a Cincinnati based American artist well known for his stylized animal illustrations. I picked up the soccer ball charm at Michaels to use as a zipper pull.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a year of projects (YOP12) 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 started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 9/4-10; Cast-ons!!!

SOCK CAST-ONS

Between finishing my Autumn cowl and my Dragonfly socks recently, it was time to cast-on more projects. With a week of beach knitting coming up, socks were a logical choice. Both are going to be vanilla socks. The first pair is going to use the leftover variegated yarn (Deep Dyed Yarns) from my Autumn cowl. I think a plain pattern is called for to let the yarn itself shine. Plus the matching cowl is mainly vanilla stockinette. I may do a stripe of the pumpkin colorwork on the leg portion. The second pair is more of my beloved Fixation DK yarn which is great for knitting while walking. Since the bride and her maid of honor (her sister) are VERY health/exercise conscience, there will be a 5K as part of the wedding festivities. Plus my husband and I enjoy starting our mornings at the beach with an hour walk.

HUBBY’S SWEATER CAST-ON

Ugh! The reason I hate swatching is that it takes me so long!! 5000+ stitches takes a lot of time. I’ve used this yarn before and have swatched but unfortunately that didn’t help. I started swatching with a size 8 based on my previous swatch but I’ll be knitting Continental since it’s all stockinette. I ended up with a size 5 and still didn’t match gauge. I’m just going to knit a size smaller. I like the fabric and I’m already worried I’ll be playing yarn chicken so I don’t want to go to a smaller needle size. I’ll check my gauge as I knit and adjust accordingly. It will be easy to add stitches if needed. The swatch did allow me to try out different stripe patterns so my hubby could pick – alternating stripes of light grey, dark grey, white, and red or split up the red stripe so that there is a small stripe of red between each stripe of light grey, dark grey, and white. He chose the small stripe of red between each stripe. I totally agree. I’m using Berroco Summer Silk, one of my favorite yarns.

This is my first bottom up sweater. I will do my best to never knit another one!!! I have ripped it out already because I find it nearly impossible to keep from twisting the 250 stitches as I try to knit the first few rows! I did learn a new cast on technique since I needed a stretchy cast on. I used Tillybuddy’s cast on. I have also reviewed jogless striping videos. Fingers crossed I am successful on the second attempt or hubby has already agreed I will switch to a top down crew neck pullover despite his preference for a V-neck.

PROJECT BAG

With all the new cast-ons, I needed a new small(er) project bag. The fat square material I had bought over a year ago limited how tall I could make the bag. This one “is fine” but I’d probably prefer not as wide. I will do that with the next bag I make. I can get away with a small bag on my sock projects. This bag could hold 2 skeins and a small notions pouch. It’s actually a good choice for colorwork socks where I need multiple balls of yarn. One of my goals for the year was to make a project bag with some fabric inspired by local artist Charlie Harper. I didn’t use that fabric since I’m out of practice making project bags. I’m glad I didn’t use it since I would indeed make the next project bag different. I’m going to consider this new bag as meeting my 2022 goal of making a project bag even if it isn’t the Charlie Harper fabric.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a year of projects (YOP12) 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 started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wks of May 15-28; FO and Wedding

Turns out I got VERY little knitting done over the past two weeks. I even got the toes started on a second pair of socks before we left for the wedding week as I really thought I’d finish the pair I already had on needles and would need the second pair to fill my time. Plus I brought the yarn and needles to start a top. Sadly I did end up doing all of the driving to and from Charleston so that was 2 days of no knitting. I did get the heels done on the socks I already had going. Hopefully I will get them finished this week. I just love Lollipop Yarns self striping yarns so I’m looking forward to wearing them.

BABY BLANKET FO!!!

The baby blanket is now finished. I will be mailing it to my neice.

I do love the bright colors of 100% acrylic but can’t imagine wearing it. I need to find a way to let my daughter-in-law know that I would prefer other types of yarn for Christmas. I already have plenty of acrylic yarn for future baby blankets.

BRIOCHE CLASS

Uh, nothing to see here. Hopefully this week I’ll get back to working on my swatches and seeing if I can fix mistakes. That is definitely a skill I’ll need before starting a brioche sweater.

WEDDING

Instead of knitting, the past two weeks were filled with picking people up and taking them back to the airport, wedding festivities and socializing. I can’t complain. Hubby did a fantastic job with the beach houses he rented for our week stay. We had an amazing view right on the ocean and our 3 bedroom unit was the meeting place for evening dinners for our “kids” and friends. The wedding was perfect. It was outdoor with the reception under a huge white tent. Afternoon thunderstorms had me in a panic. Rain on your wedding day is supposed to be good luck so apparently they are going to have fantastic luck!! But the skies cleared and everything was perfect by the time of the wedding ceremony and reception. It all went off flawlessly and most important my daughter and her husband had a wonderful time at their wedding.

Oceanview from Condo

Thunderstorms!!!

ExchangingVows

Entering the reception tent

Tom and I love to dance

HOME AGAIN

I’m happy to be back home and back to my kitty and knitting. So far I have managed to resist “sales” of yarn but I did acquire 2 more “walking” project bags. These are extremely lightweight nylon bags with a cross body strap that is perfect for carrying a sock project while taking my daily walk in Florida. I only had one bag and could not find any more with my internet searching. I wanted another in case I lost the only one I have. I contacted the yarn store where I orginally bought the bags years ago. Bless it if the owner didn’t find them!! Now I have blue, green and purple bags. They will be perfect for sock projects to take on my schooner trip in July. Lightweight and taking up very little space.

“Walking” Project Bags

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.

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.

2022: Wk of Feb 27 – Mar 5; Cast-ons and Winning Ways Continue

PODCAST GIVEAWAYS

I shared 2 weeks ago that I had won a giveaway from a podcast, MC Knitting Adventures. The really cute project bag arrived this week. I would call it a 2 skein sized bag. Bigger than a sock project bag but smaller than an adult sweater project bag. I’m going to use it for a baby sweater project.

Seems my winning ways are continuing. This past week I won another project bag from a podcast, Frivolous and Frugal!!! This time for my Stephen West shawl I just finished. I’m very excited because the bag is combination cute fabric and clear plastic. I love being able to see what’s inside. I use clear cosmetic bags as my notions bags so I can see exactly where everything is. I use clear pill containers for my stitch markers so again I can see what markers are in what portion. I use clear zippered bags to hold my yarn in my “yarn wall” so I can see all the pretty yarns I own. I like that the project bag will show off the pretty yarn inside.

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket??!!

BABY SWEATER TEST KNIT

My good luck just keeps on. An opportunity to test knit a baby sweater for Anne B Hanssen popped up in my Facebook feed. Knitting a baby sweater is on my goals for this year. I thought the pattern was cute and since I’ve been “gifted” quite a few skeins of baby yarn here in Florida I “applied” to test knit. I’m very excited that I got selected to knit a 9 month size. My granddaughter is currently wearing 6-9 months so it’s perfect timing. This will be a bit stressful as it has to be finished by the end of the month but since it’s small, I should be able to do it.

TEST KNIT VS TECH EDIT

Ironically I had just watched Andrea Mowry’s “I’ll Knit If I Want To Episode 50th” this week and it included her thoughts on tech editing vs test knitting vs sample knitting. I thought it was great. I think too many new designers “abuse” their test knitters by expecting them to be free tech editors. I agree with Andrea that if you find more than 1 or 2 errors or poorly written instructions, the pattern is not ready to be test knit. Guess I’ll get to see how it goes with Anne Hanssen. Test knitters are already finding a lot of errors in her pattern. I had to print out the pattern versus use Knit Companion so I could make all the corrections. I’m sure glad there are plenty of knitters ahead of me finding these errors.

FOs and Cast-ons

I did finish both pairs of socks this week. So techincally I have completed a pair of socks for February and for March, My goal of a pair of socks per month is looking good!! My Starry Night socks were a bit of an experiment as I knit 64 stitches instead of my usual 68 stitches (US 0 needle). Turns out 64 is too tight for my foot. I can wear them but prefer the 68 size. I was worried that I had made the foot to long but that fortunately wasn’t the case. I’m going to see if they fit my daughter better as I believe she has a narrower foot. If not, I can wear them but in the future I’ll go back to 68 stitches. I also did ribbing on the arch for a tighter fit. Again I don’t think I’ll do that again.

Fixation and Deep Dyed Yarn Socks

So I got to cast-on a new pair of socks!! I brought some fun yarn that I really want to knit but it seemed silly to create more “scrap” yarn as I know I don’t need all 100g to make a pair of shortie socks. So I decided to cast-on the leftover rainbow speckle yarn and it’s lime green and orange minis for toes and heels. The contrast toe is a bit long but I want to use up all the yarn. I have found that I can use fingering weight yarn for “walking” socks as long as it’s light colored so I can see it (I do have to wear my reading glasses). The Starry Night socks just had too much dark blue to knit while walking. The Swirl E pattern is very simple and I love it with this yarn.

AlwaysBeKind yarn in Swirl E Pattern

Secondly, I cast-on the baby sweater test knit which will dominate most of my knitting this month. I did swatch and found I could not get gauge with the yellow DK baby yarn I had intended to use. Going down a needle size made it hard to knit and no way did I want to knit something while fighting the yarn the whole way. Fortunately I had also been gifted some Sport weight baby yarn (the yarn weight called for in the pattern). It’s actually much nicer yarn as it is wool and 12% cashmere instead of acrylic. But it is dark grey, not exactly a spring color. I’ll just have to get cute spring buttons and maybe add some duplicate stitch. The yarn has a tight twist which will really help show off the lace pattern. I had to go up a needle size to get gauge but what a surprise – after knitting a few rows of the sweater I thought it looked a little big. I checked the circumference of the sweater and found the sweater was knitting up larger than it was supposed to be. So I’ve dropped down a needle size. I’m not supposed to share photos until the pattern releases but at this point there’s not much to see so I will.

Swatch

Anne Hanssen Baby Sweater and New Project Bag

GIFT YARN FINDS A HOME

Thank you for all the suggestions on what to do with my unwanted “gift” yarn. A suggestion to look on Facebook for a local “Buy Nothing” group was a huge success. Had no idea there would be so much interest in free yarn. I was able to get rid of all the yarn I didn’t want in less than a day. I think hubby was disappointed I gave so much away but I still have PLENTY to make at least four summer tops plus LOTS of baby yarn in addition to a sweater’s worth of wool tweed a Cincinnati friend wants. I also kept some dark charcoal alpaca yarn as my stepdaughter wants me to make the Stephen West Spiraling Cables shawl for her. I have plenty of the autumn colored yarn but will do the cables in dark charcoal instead of tan like mine.

What I Kept

It was a great week!! Hope yours was great as well.

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.

Year of Projects – Wk 7/11-17

Another FO – Anklets

I did finish my Fixation anklets this week. They are very summery so I like them. The yarn is cotton so they are very comfortable to wear.

“Duck” Fixation Socks

New Knitting

I haven’t done a lot of knitting this week. Not too surprised as I needed to catch up a bit following vacation. I started a pair of Christmas socks 3 times but I kept dropping a stitch or make a mistake so I end up starting over again. Hopefully this 3rd time is the charm. I am going back to my preferred method of 2 at a time magic loop. I really didn’t like 9″ circulars. But I still want to try 9″ when I knit my colorwork Advent sock. The experiment was a mixed bag in my little knitting group. Some liked 9″, some are returning to magic loop.

I have started my son’s girlfriend’s top. It’s the Heldig tank. I have to concentrate, at least in this beginning knitting until I get the two hems joined in the round. Then it will be lots of stockinette knitting. I’m not really sure if I like the needle size I’m using and not sure of the fit. I’ll knit a few inches to make sure the weave isn’t too open and make sure it fits her hips. Then I should be able to relax into knitting it.

New Project Bag

One of my knitting friends made all of us this cute sock bag. We are all participating in The Crazy Sock Lady’s summer sock camp KAL. She wanted to make a project bag for herself but since she had so much material, she made a bag for all 5 of us!! It’s so cute and the perfect size for a sock project.

Sock Size Project Bag

Poems of Color

I was intrigued about Bohus knitting after watching the latest Fruity Knitting episode. The book from 1995 is no longer printed ($125 on Amazon) but I was able to get a copy from the library. I’d love to make this sweater.

Knitting in the Bogus Tradition

Not a lot to share this week. It’s nice to be home again even if it means more errands and housework to do instead of knitting. It was nice to join my local knitting friends for coffee again. I will be knitting at a local micro brewery with another friend this afternoon. A great week!!

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 11th year. I’m in my second in the group.

Week 9: New Knitting “Toy” and Project Updates

FO??? – Sample Knit Sock

I finished my sample knit sock. Knitting a sample knit wasn’t on my original plan but I was happy to accept the opportunity. I finished the sock in one week which is a first for me. I was monogamous as I wanted to return the sock as soon as possible even though I had till the end of March as my deadline. It was just a plain vanilla pattern so it was easy to knit. But it means I should be able to knit a pair of socks in two weeks instead of the usual month it takes me to get a pair done. Usually I’m also knitting a sweater at the same time I’m knitting the socks so that I can have some variety in my knitting. I’m hoping I’ll get another opportunity to knit more sample socks.

Sample Knit – A Girl And Her Wool

I’m back to knitting on my daughter’s Bisquit top. I weighed how many grams of yarn it takes to make one row (1.5g) to make sure I know how many rows I can make with the yarn I have left. I would prefer to reduce the number of stockinette rows if I need to instead of the bottom lace. I did cast on another pair of Fixation yarn socks. These are not on my 2021 plan but are just to have a small project that I can easily carry with me.

Bisquit Top

New Project Tote – Clear

I’ve written before how I like to use clear bags for my “projects in waiting” and accessory bags. So I was thinking that I might enjoy having a clear tote to carry around my WIP project(s) and accessory bags when I get together for “knit sessions”. My WIPs are kept in cute fabric project bags. I often carry a sock project and a sweater project when I get together with other knitters so that I can switch projects if I develop a problem or need a simpler project while talking. I have been using quilted totes which I like very much but does lead to “digging around” to find my accessory bag, sock ruler, etc. I’m hoping the clear tote makes it easier to find the item I’m looking for. The clear tote was not expensive so if I don’t end up liking it I didn’t waste much money. Plus I could use it for attending professional sports matches. I have a season ticket to our MLS (soccer) team and clear totes are requested for security reasons.

Clear Knitting Tote

It was cloudy and cool here in SW Florida today so I got to wear my new “non” shellseeker sweater this evening. I know I’ll have plenty of opportunities to wear it once we get back to Cincinnati in a few weeks. I’m anxious to get back to Cincinnati so I can sign up for the Covid vaccine. I am so looking forward to getting together again with my knitting friends at our local coffee shop once we all have our vaccines.

That’s it for this week. Probably going to be a broken record each week as I focus on getting my daughter’s top finished.

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

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.

1st FO of 2021

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/

Patch Darning

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.

2021 Advent Sock

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.

Accessories and Project bags

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.

“Non” shellseeker sweater

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.

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.

#31. Clear Project Storage Bags

 

I love my “cubbies” for storing my yarn stash.  I love seeing all the colors and thinking about the projects I plan to make.  This works great for one skein projects.  But I’m finding that I’m now buying project quantities of yarn for projects I don’t plan to knit for months or even a year from now.  I wanted a way to keep the yarn together until I’m ready to knit the project.

I realized that those zippered bags that sheet sets come in would be perfect!!  Unfortunately I only had one and an appeal to family and friends didn’t result in any more.  Thankfully I found some on Amazon.  The large ones are fine for my 6+ skein sweater projects.  I put a post-it note with the yarn to remind me the planned pattern until I print out the pattern.  The smaller ones are good for my 4 skein summer top.  I even used one for a three skein shawl project although the bag is too big.  I folded the bottom to make it smaller.

As the picture shows, my wall is pretty full of cubbies and plastic project storage bags.  I am running out of space so I better get knitting!!