Category Archives: Knit

Bind Off and Flail!

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I am a bit behind this month on my posting.  But it all goes back to the topic at hand.  I have been pretty good most of the time making monthly goals and getting things I want to do done.  But every now and again the instant I finish a project, my brain spits out an error message and I get stuck in this loop of “what should I do next?!”  Do I focus on catching up a quilt project? Or maybe work on freeing up a knit project?  Or perhaps the cross stitch project?  And that’s precisely what happened after I finished my latest Sock Madness socks.  Which I really love how they came out!

Golden Fleece Feet

I ended up #17 out of 30 to advance to the next round, and then they have given us an optional round pattern which I’ve not started, because I’m hopping around doing all the other bits.

I squeaked in two more of my block a day quilt blocks.  Technically I should be done with the inner medallion of squares, but I’m really behind.  I was going to measure up the backs for both the snowflake and the chess quilt, but I discovered that I am short a few supplies for the back of the snowflake.  So I instead snipped out some of the extra backside fabric from my flake so that when its laid on the batting it won’t look so dark.

 

Since my other Knit ALong group was also doing socks and I felt like I was cheating a bit being in sock madness; I cast on a sock using some worsted superwash I need to use up (its leftovers from Debora) and I did manage to finish my monthly Hobbit progress!  (We are now past the Carrock and moving into Murkwood and spiders!)

And in my midst of not wanting to “fall behind” on my projects I realized that April is the start of the second quarter of the year, so this naturally means I need to work on the second quarter of my tulip cross stitch project.

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Between all this I’ve been trying to keep up on my gardening and housekeeping (hey the linen closet got sorted and refolded!) And I’d like to say that all that stuff was the reason I was a bit later updating the blog.  But in reality, my brain was looking at things that weren’t done and things yet to get done and it felt like this ominous cloud of “Not finished!” “Undone!” “Incomplete!” right up to the point I wrote this post and sorted out photos and realized… progress even when its not a finish on all of these things has been moving right along.

Now… what should I work on today?

Spring Fever or Just Sock Madness?

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Spring is certainly upon us.  I’m celebrating the sprouts and blooms, and as usual, finding even more things to plant. (Trying to catch up with my grandmother, but she has a walled garden and I have elk and deer)

So I confess I don’t feel like I haven’t gotten as many projects ticked over from in-progress to the done pile this month.  I did get my First Round Bracket/Team Sock Madness socks finished in time to go on to the next round.  These certainly fit my spring theme with their bright colors and lace blooms.

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Absolutely positively TSA worthy socks. (Kind of a pity we went electric and so now do more road trips than air trips in that regard.. pretty much the only downside so far)

Here’s the progress status on the WIP pile this month:

  • One more chart done on the Hobbit Scarf (We found the ring!)yyuicx2nqdovgj4-l6ggyh7r34f0ls6egu4o3h68thtjucvkjhb55rhhtnsb5ohooy521-1xrf_uayww6r7uwquei1tjijvkkq4k
  • Got my Sweater body done, next up a pair of sleeves! IMG_20160330_151309
  • Bought the backing for my Knight’s Tour quilt. IMG_20160330_161824

I did take a day for baking after getting my new oven! (Woo!!!) and I’m going to try to squeak in the hand appliqué of my snowflake top before the end of the month, so I can tick that off my monthly goals, but while its been quite a bit of progress, it could use a few more finishes.

The Gothic Easter Bunny and the first mad socks

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I may have mentioned before that I sometimes find thrift yarn shopping a bit fun.  It is probably not super great for my stash and keeping organized.  One of my prior buys had a bit of bulky yarn in it… which isn’t my typical use yarn and so it found itself filed in the same box as some others that might as well be called, “Interesting but, she’s just not that into you”.  Its probably worth noting that my very first knitting project yarn was frogged and currently lives in this box, so its not a case of them being bad yarns per se.

One part of my new years resolution was to sort through this box and Knit It or Quit It.  If the yarns don’t get knit (or at least project ideas picked for them) then its off to someone else.

 

And so with the trepidation of being only relatively certain the unlabeled bulky was wool… I set out to felt my first thing.  Just a simple bowl//basket shape with some beaded fur held double at the edges to start.  Then into the wash on hot with a pair of jeans….

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I call it my Gothic Easter Bunny Basket.  This one came out perfect (in my opinion) so fresh on the heels of my success I tried out a few more felted items using slip stitches and another yarn from the same thrift stash.  And well… here’s the before and after shots.

(Yes it is upside down)

Not quite as sold on how these turned out, debating if I should try felting a bit more, or just give them a nice sweater shave…. Possibly the wool content was a bit more of a blend in these yarns.

There are a bit more of these yarns left, and if I can sort out where to get nice cork clog soles I’d totally want to try to make those.  So back into the puzzle box for you bulky yarns!

I finished my qualifying round of Sock Madness socks. As is traditional when speed knitting.. the first finished photos may suffer from the lighting in the later hours when they were completed. So I took another photo today when there was a bit more sunshine.

Now I am working my way through the mountains and into the goblin kingdom on this months chart of the Hobbit scarf. (Kind of looking forward to finding the ring!)

 

Getting Ready to Go Mad

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Sock Madness is coming up right around the corner and I’m signed up again.  I made it into Round 6 last year.  So in anticipation, I’ve sorted out some yarn options for the Madness and spent a portion of the other day turning hanks into balls.

This year I also decided to put together a few prizes for the Madness, so I put together some notion bags and fabric boxes with working button holes so you can use them like a yarn bowl if that’s your jam.

The bag tutorial can be found here, and the fabric boxes here.  My only alteration was to add working button holes to the boxes instead of just decorative buttons.

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I bought my zippers and buttons at Pacific Fabrics and picked up the rest of their Row by Row kits to make a nice PNW quilt. (Can there be more hours in the day?) That’s what it will eventually look like there on the left.

Sometimes I feel like the quilting side of things tends to fall behind… and if I want to get my goal of seven quilts this year I’m going to have to kick over into quilt-ville after the Madness. Today I put in the first six days of February of my 365 day challenge.

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And before I forget…. I did finish my KAL shawl!  Its the latest in my bird themed ones.  This one is based on the local Stellar’s Jays with their blue and black.

The 32 days of January

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No, that’s not a typo in the title. As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up for a 365 block-a-day quilt.  The designer of which offered two blocks for the first of January, one for the beginners and one for the more advanced.  Well I decided having an extra block might be nice for the grand scheme of things so I made up both.

The Beginner Block
The Advanced Block

So while I am still a couple weeks behind (which considering I didn’t sign up until the 22nd of January is closer to caught up than where I started!), I am now able to show all my January blocks.  These are all finished size 3 inch blocks (so 3.5 inches unfinished)

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As for the knitting front… Its getting closer to time to gear up for Sock Madness, so I’m working my WIP and knocking out my February/March KAL shawl early so I can be prepared to knit all the things!

Here’s a few teasers of knits yet to come!

Gotta have Goals: 2016 Edition

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The past couple years I have done fairly well at setting and keeping my crafting goals.  I don’t always hit the overall for the year goal, but I definitely make forward progress.

Its my first Christmas as an officially married woman and my husband gave me this:

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So let’s tackle that first and say… we are getting a machine suitable for quilting larger projects!  A step up the ladder from my Janome DC2011 which I love.

I have another seven quilts, some started, some planned that I would like to tackle this year.  I have one for a gift (Movie theme), and the guest room (greens and yellows).  I have one to use up my white strip scraps from my snowman, and one to use up general scraps with the latest discovered tiling hexagon.  And I have three that have started, including Knight’s Tour, Wedding Wishes and my now nearly infamously languishing in WIP land, Field of Stars.

The Central Panel of the Chess Quilt
Over 25% done!

On the knitting front, I have more socks (Going to go in for Sock Madness again I think) and some more lace, and trying to find the bottom of that second overflow stash box!

I have some great patterns and yarn combos in my queue.

Remaining Bamboo Skein
Tosh and Chroma in Double Knit

I’d like to get a few more designs out of my head and onto a pattern as well.

And now onto the blog and not so crafty front….

Last year I posted 20 posts, which means a few months I just posted once… so this year I am going to aim for at least twice a month updates.  This may mean a few more works in progress instead of dumps of finished items, but we shall see how it shakes out.

I also want to work on getting my craft space (which also flows a bit into my guest room) a bit more organized and usable. I want to read a few more books, and play a few more games too.

 

2015 Recap

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So its that time of year when I take a moment to see how things went in the past year. And looking back this year its looking pretty good.

In 2014, I didn’t finish any quilts, and I set a goal in 2015 to finish seven. Well, I finished five.

The third Star Trek Quilt!
TA-DA!

I did work a bit on some others and hatched a few more plans for quilts, but this brings my completed total to twelve.

I knit over 14,000 yards and I did indeed focus on my stash, some shawls with beads and on socks. I eliminated one of the three overflow stash boxes entirely!

I knit twice as many socks last year as I had in all my knitting time prior!

It was a beautiful day for a drive. I still have some green toes, but not as much and the socks fit.. which was the most important part.
Spring Flowers for your feet!
Sock one on the right, all size 0 needle, Sock Two starts with a size 1 needle on the leg.
10 days, 2 socks, one at a time.
No officer, a clown did not puke on my feet.

I did a bit more lace work, with over 3000 beads.  This included my wedding shawl in my own dyed yarn and some never wilting hair flowers.

This project has a nice soft drape

And I even designed a bit with two patterns published, my hairpin flowers and one project that needs another run through to refine.

This kitty loves to travel.

So now I’m sitting here feeling like I did SO much last year and wondering just how much I can get done in the coming year.

Presenting some presents

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So a few weeks ago I posted a few teasers about some of my holiday projects.  And now that they are finally in the hands of their new owners… It’s time to give them their due.

First up is a project I mentioned over two years ago when I bought the pattern at the 2014 shop hop. Once the post wedding frenzy had calmed down a bit I realized that holidays were coming a bit sooner than a crafter hopes for, and in sorting out my gifting plans, landed on top with a hope that if I really worked on it, I just might finish in time.

*drumroll*

My redwork winter embroidery quilt!

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My embroidery blocks are stitched onto several white/off white on white/offwhite Prints. Various trees, snowflakes and swirls. The remainders and scraps of which got paired with some red prints in a scrappy sampler style border. You can see pinwheels, churn dash, shoo fly and Dutchman’s puzzle blocks in there.

For the back, I chose to piece in three blocks, including one for my gift tag, that I hope looked a bit like some falling flakes.

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Here’s a few detail shots.  There are also several WIP photos in the WIP gallery. 

The recipient called me up to tell me she cried when she opened it… so time well spent!

Secondly… I finished up my Super Mario QAL quilt without Ben being aware I was working on it since my last post about it.  Got it wrapped and took it with us to open on Christmas Morning.

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I had three more blocks and some custom printed level fabric for the back side.

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He also got a knit lego man and a pair of socks that he picked out the yarn for, and promptly wore on the first day of our return trip home.

Which is probably why I am now double knitting him a lace weight single ply Hobbit scarf.  Which I managed to get through the first chart of 11 (8o our of 810 rows!)

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Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas

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If you’ve followed along (or read back through the years) you probably know that I do my best not to ruin any gift giving surprises.   And I do have a couple projects saved up for later.

Here’s a nice teaser photo of one such all wrapped up

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There is another package roughly similar in size, and a very smooshy green brioche scarf that is currently “Out for Delivery” to my 2015 Secret Santa.

But I am not here just to tease about things to come.  I also wanted to share a bit of silliness that I completed… a light up Christmas Tree Hat:

I added 30 lights (2 sets of battery powered 15 light strands) and a knit star to this pattern.  Now for me… maybe I just have a bit of a smaller head but the actual hat is a wee large and the battery pack is heavy enough to shift it about on my head, but for a holiday road trip to cheer up family… its perfect.  (btw… a giant pillar candle makes a fine head stand in)

In addition to revealing the aforementioned Christmas gifts… I have some things in the queue for these lovelies:

Remaining Bamboo Skein
Tosh and Chroma in Double Knit

 

I just need to finish the housework and the pair of rather simple socks on the needles first!

 

 

Get Wrecked! Wreck Yourself Cowl Pattern

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The Wreck Yourself Cowl pattern is now live on Rav and on the patterns page!  You will also see that I have added the option for you to purchase direct off my site if you aren’t into the Ravelry scene.  (Though as a knitter… its a pretty amazing scene to be in)

And since you may need both patterns to use up that one skein, I’m offering a discount if you buy both the Check Yourself and the Wreck Yourself Cowl patterns.  Just use the coupon code CheckedBeforeWrecked and it will take $2 (USD) off the total.  Its like buy one, get one for half price.  And if that sounds too complex well… just click here and it will do the whole add patterns and coupons directly for you.  Woohoo!

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