2023: Wk of 5/21-27; Ranunculus FO, Sea Glass Tee Cast-on, and Other Knitting News

RANUNCULUS FO

Final photo of this project. Very happy with how it turned out and that this pinkish yarn is now in a project that I’ll wear more often. Not thrilled with how mohair sheds but it’s kinda fun to be a “fluff ball”.

“SEA GLASS” TEE CAST-ON

Tee FO means it’s time to cast-on the next tee. I have so many I want to knit!! Sea Glass Tee won. I am using the Sea Glass Tee pattern but this time I’m switching between light and dark yarn every other row instead of every other stitch. The intent is so that the tee isn’t double thick as it is when you have to carry the yarn for every other stitch. I am using Figment by Deep Dyed Yarn in the Danger Danger colorway. I bought it at the local wool festival a year and a half ago. It’s a colorful variegated yarn with a metalic thread. I’ll use it for the dark color changing yarn. I’m using Berroco Quinoa in the Basmati colorway as the light color. It doesn’t change color but has an interesting texture. Too early to be sure but I think the alternating rows are working as I had hoped.

STITCH MARKER/PROGRESS KEEPER ACQUISTION

Big splurge! I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some charms for a summer theme. Note the flower charms hanging from the stitch markers on my Sea Glass Tee. I had gotten those honeycomb stitch markers a while ago and never used them since they weren’t colorful. Now with the flower charms hanging from them, I’m loving them for this tee. Also, the honey bee progress keeper. It’s my goal to have seasonal stitch markers and progress keepers.

YARN OUT

I’m happy to share that this has been a very good year so far for Yarn Out. I was surprised to realize that I’ve had at least an FO every month and a tee FO every month except January. My yarn out has actually been twice that of my yarn acquisitions. This is good because my local yarn dying friend just announced yesterday that she will be doing an advent calendar this year afterall!!! (I had reached out to her a month or so ago and she said it wouldn’t be till 2024.) Thankfully I never ordered the advent calendars I was eyeing. I will definitely order hers. This will be in addition to the stitch marker/progress keeper advent calendar I bought. Now the question is, do I delay again the I yarn advent calendar I bought last year and not open it until 2024?? Three advent calendars does seem a bit excessive. But hey, they make cute Christmas decorations for our Florida condo rental. Since I do love my stash yarns, it’s been easy to focus on projects that use the yarns already in my stash. It is kinda my goal to reduce my “yarn wall” although I just love looking at all my colorful yarns on display along the kitchen counter that separates the kitchen for the living area.

“WINTER” COLORWORK SOCK

Got the heels done on both socks and working my way down the foot. Loving the self striping yarn I’m using (Lollipop Yarns) although there isn’t enough to finish the foot. I have another ball of leftover sock yarn that I’ll use to finish. I used Natalie Sheldon’s Advent Sock 2019 for the stripe patterns.

HEALTH UPDATE

Hubby and I are both recovered from Covid and back to our normal activities. Well, with the exception of acknowledging our age limitations for some household chores. For the first time we hired someone to power wash our wooden deck and pergola. Hubby tried climbing a ladder to power wash the overhead beams and quickly realized it was no longer a good idea for him. We did do the restaining of the wood ourselves. The person that did the power washing also does grass mowing so we are hiring him to cut the 1/4 mile (400m) of driveway we maintain (it’s a shared driveway so neighbors cut the parts that are by their property). It is very uneven ground and even with a “self propelled” lawn mower, it is getting too much for me. We will still cut the flatter lawn that surrounds our house.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a Ravelry YOP post. A fun group of bloggers that post once a week on our yearly crafting plan. Sticking to the plan is not required. 😉

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2023: Wk of 5/7-13; Hat FO, Ranunculus Progress, and Yarn Box Reveal

RANUNCULUS UPDATE

This is supposed to be a summery tee even though I’m using mohair. I think I’m going to make it very short sleeved to minimize the mohair on my arms. I’ll just do a few rows of ribbed cuff with the collar yarn and then bindoff. The body length will be determined by using up all the yarn. I went up a needle size on the body after I split for the sleeves as I want it to have more ease than my previous Ranunculus.

STUDENT HAT

This has been a fun “fill-in” project for car or “waiting” knitting. I liked this pattern as basic but more interesting than ribbed. I have enough yarn to knit a second with the yarn. I’m going to switch to a colorful rainbowish yarn next just for variety. I will definitely keep a hat on needles for when I need some easy knitting.

SOJOURN SCARF

Had two sessions of social knitting this week so the sojourn scarf was perfect. It was fun to share with fellow knitters the soft yarn while working on an easy to carry and easy to knit project. Scarves are definitely not my favorite project to knit so I’ll be glad when I finish this.

MOTHER’S DAY YARN ACQUISITION

Here’s what was in the Mother’s Day Box I wasn’t able to resist. The good news is that the “trial purchase” worked. It was a good reminder that “mystery” purchases can often be disappointing. Black, grey, and brown is not a yarn I would have purchased. I think I can successfully resist buying another advent calendar when I already have one.

I also received the yarn I ordered to knit some orange and blue themed socks. I’m much happier with this purchase since it wasn’t a mystery. This will go on needles as soon as I finish the Sojourn scarf.

For the mothers and those who mother in the group, I hope you have a relaxing, wonderful day. For those who have suffered loss, I wish you peace. I cannot image what this day is like for my sister-in-law surviving her first Mother’s Day after the death of her son.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week of crafting. This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required.

2023; Wk of 4/30-5/6; Ranunculus Cast-on and More Yarn

RANUNCULUS CAST-ON

Got to cast-on my next Ranunculus. I definitely love the yarn that I frogged and am using for the body. Think I’ll be happy with the yarn I’m using for the collar, cuffs, and hem. Certainly consistent with the pinks and purples in the body yarn but we will see if I like the slightly darker color versus the lighter body yarn. The body yarn has 5% stellina which gives the sweater a very slight silver sparkle. I think this is going to be another fun top to wear.

OTHER KNITTING UPDATES

Not much else to report on my other knitting projects. I did take a day to rip out the bind-off and last 4 rows of my Promenade Blouse because the stockinette kept curling even after blocking. I reknit the last 4 rows as garter and redid the i-cord bindoff. Now it doesn’t curl and I’m very happy with the sweater. The Sojourn scarf and the student hat got a little attention but not enough to warrant pictures.

IN OTHER NEWS – LIMITS OF AGING

Why do we have to hurt ourselves before recognizing the changes in our capabilities as we age? Hubby sent me to the store to buy 2cu ft bags of potting soil as they are cheaper than buying 2 1cu ft bags. They were so heavy!! Instead of recognizing they were too heavy for me, I draped them over the edge of my cart so I wouldn’t have to lift them out of the cart. That was good but unfortunately the bags weren’t balanced so the cart fell over landing on my foot. Good news, I didn’t broke any bones and ice fixed me up pretty quickly. I was back to normal activities in a day. In the future, I will only buy the smaller bags.

MORE YARN ACQUISION

Good grief. Besides the Mother’s Day Yarn box I ordered last week, I ended up ordering some FCC (Futbol Club Cincinnati) themed sock yarn from Grocery Girls Frankie Grey Fiber this week. While Jodi created the yarn for her NHL Edmonton Oilers hockey team, the orange and blue are also the colors of my local MLS soccer team. I would love to have a pair of handmade socks to go with the team jerseys and jackets I wear when attending games. So I splurged after hearing Jodi talk about the yarn on the Grocery Girl podcast. Sadly, Canadian shipping is slow and costly. On the other hand, I have plenty of projects already on needles so I’m not in a hurry for the yarn to arrive.

You just have to laugh at yourself sometimes. The first two months of the year I managed to not buy yarn. Now it’s three months in a row where I’ve added to my stash with must haves. Might as well buy that advent calendar since I’ve already been “bad” this month. Trilogy yarns just released their advent calendar preorder with a 15% off code. Oh, and I still need that purple mohair!! Happy shopping! Then I’ll be good until the wool festival in September where it is literally my job to support local vendors, right!?

Best wishes to all who are trying to resist adding to their stash. This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required.

2023: Wk of 4/23-29; Promenade Blouse Almost FO and Other Knitting News

PROMENADE BLOUSE

This sweater puts me in the spirit of the Red Hat Society – “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple, with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.” This bright, happy top definitely fits me at this stage of life. Here it is blocked so I could check the fit and see how close it was to be finished. I added 2 more blue stripes to the body and bound off in blue with an i-cord bindoff. The sleeves will get one more stripe of 2 rows of yellow, 2 of orange, and 2 of blue before using the confetti yarn for the i-cord bindoff. Yes, yarn chicken makes you do strange things. I stuck with solid blue as the final stripe on the body as I decided I didn’t want a “bright” stripe as the final stripe across my hips. 😉

I really do love this pattern so I will definitely knit a second one this fall with my autumn themed mini skeins. I will knit that one with more ease to give it an even more different “look” than this one.

STUDENT HAT

I cast on a child’s hat this week to have some “social” knitting in addition to my Sojourn Scarf. My youngest will be teaching 4th grade math in a VERY depressed school district this fall. I plan to knit some hats, cowls, and mitts for him to have available for students. Unfortunately I realized today that it’s going to be WAY too big so I’ll frog and cast-on fewer stitches. Quick knit. 🙂

SOJOURN SCARF

Not a lot done on this scarf since I focused on finishing the Promenade Blouse. The yarn is sooo soft. It does make it a bit hard to knit but it will have wonderful drape and feel great against my neck.

STITCH GOALS

As I predicted, this month saw a drop in the amount of stitches I knit. But I’ll never complain about getting a weekend visit from my daughter followed by a weekend visit from my niece, sister, and brother-in-law plus a family gathering of my husband’s side, some card game nights with my son and his girlfriend, and finally a weekend with my stepdaughter’s family and my only granddaughter. April was definitely Family month. May will certainly have less out of town visitors and visits.

YARN ACQUISITION

This is my story and I’m sticking to it. Not my fault. 😉 Someone, who shall remain nameless, pointed me in the direction of Southern Skeins for a yarn advent calendar. I’ve had the tab open on my computer for weeks as I contemplate ordering the yarn only version. Then this week I get the newsletter that the Mystery Mother’s Day Box is available. A good way to check out the yarn without investing the cost of the whole advent calendar “she thought”. A price point that makes it relatively “cheap” “she thought”. Makes up for not participating in Local Yarn Shop Day “she thought”. (wrong – I’ll still visit my LYS to get purple mohair to make the Abydos!! with purple stash yarn) So I caved. No idea what I’m getting. I’ll share after it arrives and I open on Mother’s Day.

I hope you had a great week of crafting. This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required.

2023: Wk of 4/16-22; WIP Updates

PROMENADE BLOUSE

Oh goodness, I just can’t resist this project so it got most of my knitting attention. The colorful top just makes me smile. Plus I can wear it as soon as I finish it. I’ve separated for the sleeves and I’m working on the body. I clearly did not read the yarn requirements correctly. I will run out of the “confetti yarn”. Fortunately I have enough left to match the body stripes to the sleeve stripes. Also fortunately I have some solid yellow, orange, and blue from an argyle sock project I never finished that I could use for the remaining stripes. They are fingering weight so I’ll have to hold them double. I think the solid color stripes will make a nice finish to the confetti pops of color on the upper portion. If not, I’ll have to reach out to the dyer to see if she plans to dye more. It was on clearance so maybe not. She still has one skein of fingering weight so again I could hold it double. I think the double strands of solid color will be preferable to the double strands of confetti colors. It does fit and blocking will help. I think I will go up a size for the next one since it’s intended for autumn and therefore I will probably wear a shirt like this one under it.

SOJOURN SCARF

I’ve made a little progress on my patternless scarf. It’s a bit wider than I intended but I think it will be fine. You can see I’ve added a YO “lace” row every 20 rows just to break up the very basic purl row pattern. This should be pretty paired with black or brown sweaters that I tend to wear in the fall. Not as motivated to knit this project since I won’t wear it till late fall. But it’s a good “travel” project. I took it to the soccer game last night to knit on while I waited for traffic to clear.

COLORWORK SOCKS

Really didn’t do much. I need to catch the second sock up to the first before starting any new stripes.

ADVENT CALENDARS

Arg!!!! LDSVenus posted about a stitch marker/progress keeper advent calendar. I had been strongly considering one this year. AdoreKnit offers many versions plus 25% off if ordered before 5/15. I could not resist getting cute progress keepers. I did resist the versions with stitch markers since I already have plenty of those. So I will have at least one yarn advent calendar and a progress keeper advent calendar for 2023. I’m really lusting over the Yarn Only version of Southern Skeins advent calendar. I am worried the color palette will be too similar the one I already have for 2023 and I already have too many minis. Resistance is futile, especially when they offer versions that don’t include all the bells and whistles that I don’t want making the price point more reasonable.

Hope you had a great week. This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required.

2023: Wk of 4/9-15; FOs Mean Cast-ons

SOCK FOs

I finished my Vivaldi Spring socks which used up all my leftover yarn from the socks I knit for my daughter’s friend. They will get mailed down to my daughter for her to wear. Sadly this uses up the yarn from a local dyer that no longer dyes yarn. I also finished my Fixation socks. I’m not a pink girl but I think I will enjoy wearing these with some of my dark red t-shirts.

Now the only socks I have on my needles are my “winter” colorwork socks. I enjoy this project even though I haven’t worked on it much since I cast-on the socks last fall. Now that the other socks are done, these colorwork ones will get more attention.

CAST-ONS

I did cast-on two projects this week. For a “small” project that is good for social knitting sessions, I cast-on the Miss Babs cashmere yarn, Sojourn, I got last month during the Miss Babs trunk show in Florida to knit a scarf. The yarn is indeed amazing soft and thus a dream to knit. I am truly “winging it” versus having a pattern to follow. I’m not a garter stitch fan so I couldn’t get excited about purchasing the Sophie Scarf pattern. Instead I used Stephen West’s instructions to start the Spiraling Cables Shawl although I’m only using one yarn, not alternating between MC and CC yarns. I used his pattern because I like the i-cord edges. I’m following his 4 row pattern so that there is a purl row every 4th row which I like better than garter. I will make it a thin scarf like the Sophie. I’ll increase stitches until it’s ~4″ wide. I have no idea if I’ll ever wear this scarf as I don’t wear scarves but oh well.

I also got to cast-on my first Promenade Blouse. I’m very excited to work this pattern. I’m hoping I like it as I already plan to knit a second using mini skeins and mohair. I love knitting the pops of color in this rainbow yarn.

I love all three projects that currently are on my needles. Usually I focus on one project at a time so I can get the item done. But with all 3 being so fun, I may just have to plan to knit a little on each every day. Both the cashmere scarf and the Promenade Blouse are very simple so they don’t need much concentration. They both are easy to pick up and put down projects. This set of projects can be worked on a little bit each day versus needing to “get in the groove”. (Hopefully there will be enough progress each week to make it worth taking a picture.)

ACQUISITION?

This doesn’t count in my “yarn in” for the year as this week I frogged a one skein shrug I knit 3 years ago. I loved the yarn but not the shrug. At the time I didn’t know what to do with one skein of yarn. Now I know I can knit a Ranunculus. I have a grey mini that I can use for the collar and cuffs although I may look for a cream mini instead. I also plan to combine the yarn with white mohair which will extend the yarn and make it enough for me. Having this in the wings will motivate me to get the Promenade Blouse done. So far I simply rewound the yarn into a cake. But I may put it back into a hank so that I can soak it to get the kinks out. Certainly that’s what the “experts” recommend.

Hope you had a good week of crafting. We are slowly settling back into Cincinnati living. Lots of doctor’s appointments, family time, and restarting activities. Life is good.

This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required.

2023:Wk of 3/19-25; WIP Updates

BUTTERCUP TEE

I’m very pleased with how this tee is turning out. The fit is going to be great. It is using up a lot of yarn so I may actually need more than I have with me to finish it off. I want it to be a tunic length so it needs to extend past my bottom. Fortunately a have more skeins at home back in Ohio. About 6″ below the armpit, I went up a needle size to provide a little more ease. I actually did wet blocked what I had knit after a few inches just to be sure I couldn’t see a line when I went up a needle size. I plan to decrease stitches as I create the sleeve cuff to create a bit of a puff sleeve. The tee will be a bit thick due to the aran weight yarn. The drape would be better with the DK weight yarn called for but I’m glad I was able to use up some stash yarn.

VIVALDI SPRING SOCKS

I’ve made some progress on my Vivaldi Spring socks. Just a couple more stripes and it will be time to knit the heels in the orange contrast yarn. Looks like I don’t have much yarn to knit the leg even of a shortie socks. Fortunately I have a grey mini with me to “extend” the leg.

FIXATION VANILLA SOCKS

I’ve started the second sock so that I have something to knit on my last few days of walking and knitting. The first sock is almost ready for the heel so it’s time to catch the second sock up.

HEADING HOME

We are down to our last few days in Florida. If I get some of the above projects finished this week I may “have” to cast-on the Sophie scarf for car knitting. But it’s likely I’ll be doing most of the driving. The highways will likely be clogged as many snowbirds go back north on the first of April. The activities at the condo complex pretty much grind to a halt by the mid April since more than half of the residents are snowbirds. I already have some coffee dates set up with some knitting friends once I get back to Ohio. I’m also looking forward to getting to sit with my kitty while I knit. I know my stepson has taken good care of her but I’m looking forward to her curling up beside me on the couch.

Hope you had a good week crafting.

This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required. 🤣

2023: Wk of 3/12-18; Yarn Store Visit and WIP Updates

TRUNK SHOW MEANS YARN ACQUISION

Some knitters that I meet with weekly while in Naples made a road trip yesterday to visit A Good Yarn, a yarn shop in Sarasota FL for a trunk show of Miss Babs yarns. It was fun to have a “girls trip” to shop for yarn and enjoy lunch together at a French cafe. We got to meet Miss Babs and definitely bought a lot of yarn. I did pretty good on my haul. Only 4 skeins. 3 skeins of mohair to go with yarn already in my stash to make projects I already had in mind (Promenade Blouse, Lace & Fade Boxy, Ranunculus). The “slurge” was a skein of cashmere/silk that I will use to knit the Sophie Scarf.

BUTTERCUP TEE

HahHa. Not surprisingly I didn’t do either thing I thought I would last week with this tee. The neck was indeed too big to just add a few garter rows so I frogged it. I was only 5 days into the project so not a lot of lost time.

Instead of moving to a pattern designed for my yarn I decided to give the Buttercup Tee one more go. This time I reduced the cast-on from 58 stitches to 38 stitches to match the reduction in the lace panel I did last time by eliminating one pattern repeat due to the thick yarn. This means I’m really winging it when it comes to how often to do raglan increases. I’ve measured the desired sleeve width and back/front widths so that I can make increases to get the needed measurements before splitting for sleeves. I do like the yarn and the colorway. (Butter Ball – not sure I like being a Butterball. I think Sweet Corn would be slightly more appealing.) It will be a wonderful summer top if I can figure out the sizing.

SOCKS GOT MINIMAL ATTENTION THIS WEEK

I do love the fall colorway of my Vivaldi Spring socks so I’m tickled I’m ending up with a pair of shorties from it. To prevent one sock syndrome, I force myself to knit both toes, then both feet, followed by both heels, both legs, and finally both cuffs. No finish a sock and start all over again with the second one hoping they match. Not much to see this week so I’m not going to post a picture. Similarly the Fixation socks got a little attention this week but not enough to justify photo.

FINISHING UP

Sadly our friends from Cincinnati just called to say they were headed back to Cininnati after driving all the way to Atlanta yesterday. They were supposed to join us here in Naples, FL for a week but the hubby experienced a medical issue last night. Nothing life threatening but best to go home for medical attention as needed. We head north on the 31st. I’m looking forward to spending an evening with my son and his wife in Gainesville, FL before heading to Charleston, SC to spend an evening with my daughter and her husband. Plus I’m already making plans to connect with knitting friends back in Cincinnati in April.

Hope you have had a good week and have fun things to look forward to in the coming week.

This has been a Ravelry Year of Projects post. Bloggers are encouraged to share their fiber plans for the year and then post weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is not required. 😉

2023: Wk of 3/5-11; New Cast-Ons

I finished the Deschain sweater this week. I did decide to add a few garter rows to create a cuff on the sleeves. I think the neck looks fine as is so I’m not picking up stitches and creating a collar as the pattern calls for. I also finished the vanilla socks. I’m ready for the trip to Charleston at the end of the month. I can have my daughter try on the Deschain and the Sea Glass Tee. She can keep them if she likes them and I’ll knit new ones for me. Or I can keep them and knit new ones for her based on modifications she would like. The socks are ready to gift to her friend.

BUTTERCUP TEE

I cast-on Heidi Kirrmaier’s Buttercup Tee. I’m loving this yellow Rowan Tweed yarn. The silk/cotton yarn is perfect for a spring project. It’s a bit thick since it is aran weight yarn so my gauge is way off. I’m following the instructions for the smallest size but I think it’s still too big. The neck opening is way larger than I planned. I’m going to knit it till I separate for sleeves and knit some of the body so I can try it on. I’ll probably pick-up stitches around the neck and add extra rows of garter. Then if I still don’t like it, I’ll frog it and knit a pattern designed for aran weight yarn.

NEW SOCKS

Since I finished the vanilla socks this week, I needed a new pair cast-on for walks and social knitting. The Buttercup Tee is not a good project for walking knitting and needs too much concentration at this point thus is not good for social knitting sessions. I’m tired of knitting only vanilla so I’m finally knitting one of the “seasons” from the Vivaldi Sock Pattern. This has been in my queue for over a year. The sock actually incorporates 4 patterns, one for each season. I found from a previous multiple pattern sock I knit that I prefer using just one pattern on a sock. Plus this will be a shortie sock so definitely not enough rows for 4 patterns. I’m using up the leftover yarn from the vanilla socks I just made. I’ll be playing yarn chicken.

Even though the pattern is fairly simple, it’s not really a good “walking” project. I had some Fixation yarn here in Florida so I cast-on a vanilla sock. The Fixation yarn is perfect for walking knitting since it’s DK and the cotton yarn does better than wool in Florida’s humidity. I don’t love the colorway, Holidaze, so the socks will be for me. The “Christmas colors” are very muted. The colorway reminds me more of pink and red carnations or wild roses. I have a fun red “I knit so I don’t kill people” t-shirt which will pair nicely with the socks.

That’s it on the knitting front. It has been a wonderful week here in Florida. I’ve enjoyed knitting on the lanai and sipping coffee. We are winding down and trying to clear out the frig and freezer as we prepare to return to Ohio. Seems like the time went fast but then all time seems to zip by quickly. We have finalized all paperwork for our rental next winter so we have that to look forward to. Fortunately we also have lots to look forward to once we get back to Cincinnati as well.

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). YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. You can find more detailed information about my projects on my project pages in Ravelry (MaureenHD).  I’ve been knitting for six years.

2023: Feb Review and Almost FOs

FEBRUARY REVIEW

WOW, Another month “gone”. Time flies!! Welcome Spring, my favorite time of year. I adore when the trees start budding and the bulbs pop through the ground and bloom. But first, a quick review of what projects started February and what projects finished.

STARTING OFF – 3 Project On Needles

I started the month with a pair of vanilla socks, a pair of colorwork socks that are a carryover project from 2022, and a my Sea Glass Tee.

ENDING – 3 Project On Needles

The vanilla socks and the carryover colorwork socks are still on their needles. The Sea Glass Tee got finished so the Deschain sweater got cast-on.

STASH MANAGEMENT – 250g Out

I ended up with 40g in but does that really count? I didn’t ask for the yarn. I did a yarn swap with a fellow Ravelry knitter and she include 2 mini skeins as a thank you. So I have successfully resisted yarn purchasing in 2023! Before I toot my horn though, I am going to a Miss Babs trunk show with my Naples knitting friends in March and I know I’ll buy some yarn so that has fueled my resistance. I finished my Sea Glass Tee so that was ~250g out. Yea!!

DESCHAIN – Almost FO

Well, I’ve seamed the pieces together. On the positive side, I’m learning. 🙂 I am not particularly happy with the seam made by the mattress stitch for joining the front and back pieces. The thick seam runs atop my shoulder from the neck down the arm. If it bothers me too much, I’ll remove the seam by picking out the cast-on stitches that need to be seamed to create live stitches that can then be kitchenered. If I knit this pattern again, I will use a combination of a provisional cast-on for those stitches that need to be kitchenered together and a regular cast-on for those stitches that make the neck opening. I also now know to knit the first 6″ of the front and back panels and then join them in the round and avoid needing to do side seaming as well. I definitely will avoid seamed sweaters in the future.

I’m nearly done as my daughter likes it as a tee so I don’t need to knit the sleeves. The pattern only calls for one repeat of the hem but I’m going to knit a second repeat before binding off. While it is cropped, the yarn is linen/cotten so it will likely grow a little. Any other changes will wait until she can try it on in a few weeks. I’m thinking about picking up stitches on the sleeves and then doing one repeat of the hem pattern.

VANILLA SOCKS – Almost FO

I have completed the legs on the socks and have started the ribbed cuffs. These will be finished today or tomorrow, definitely in time to gift at the beginning of April.

COLORWORK SOCKS

I was playing around with stripes for these socks. Not sure I like the stripe pattern I “created”. The yarn is white with bright rainbow speckles. I decided to purl all speckle stitches to create a random textured pattern. I think I will incorporate purl stitches into the next stripe so that it also “puffy”. Then the stripes will alternate between “flat” colorwork and “puffy” colorwork. This is a case where knitting one at a time is good in case I decide I don’t like my “puffy” colorwork stripes and rip the sock back to the first stripe.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Deschain and vanilla socks should be off the needles in the next day or two. I really want to knit another Sea Glass Tee/Sweater but I’m going to resist until I have my daughter try mine on to see if she a) likes it, b) needs size modifications, and c) wants a tee or sweater length sleeves. Also, I want to knit an alternating single row of stripe with the Sea Glass pattern but the colored yarn I want to use is back in Ohio so I have to wait until next month to start it. Next in my queue is to knit the Buttercup Tee by Heidi Kirrmeier. That will get cast-on this week.

I think I’m going to knit myself a pair of shortie socks with the yarn leftover from the vanilla sock above. By using contrast yarn for the toes, heels, and cuffs I should have enough for a pair of shorties.

That’s it for the week. Hope your year is going well and you had a great 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). YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. You can find more detailed information about my projects on my project pages in Ravelry (MaureenHD).  I’ve been knitting for six years.