Category Archives: Knitting

03

May. ’21

Monday of week 19, 2021

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

How I did last week –

Blooming Bouquets #2 Cheerful

  1. For my cross stitch – Blooming Bouquets #2: Cheerful – I stitched 4 times last week and below is a picture of where I left off.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater. – DONE
  3. Gardening – Plant the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂 – I did get a number of these planted but I still have a few more to plant. We got hit with a brief heat wave and my seedlings wilted by the end of each day of heat. I had to water twice a day to keep them going and it looks like they will be fine.
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – DONE
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on this and I’m still working on it.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A – worked on this a bit more and I’m still working on it.
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue – NOT done

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week I’m working on my Dragonfly piece.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks.
  3. Gardening – finish planting the seedlings I have. I will be making my bi-weekly trip to Sego Nursery, my local garden nursery that I love to go to and check out what they have. I’m looking for nasturtiums, more basil, more mint, and whatever else I find.
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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26

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 18, 2021

auditioning fabric for the border

how I did last week –

  1. Cross stitch on Titania – I only stitched on her once.
  2. Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week. – I skipped my bullet journal last week so I’m not sure how well I did. I believe I knit probably 3 times last week and for my Weasley Sweater I’m about 1/4 of the way through. It’s almost 1/3 of the quarter so I’m a little behind schedule.
  3. Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week. – I planted one of the seedlings. I’ve got pole beans and something else to plant. I just can’t decide where to put them. I will need to determine that this week though.
  4. Quilting –
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – not done
    2. wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt – done
    3. Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces – done
    4. Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on. It’s not done but it’s in progress
    5. Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A. – yes. I did this. It’s not finished but I’m working on it.

this week –

  1. For my cross stitch – I’m switching projects. More on this another time. But my tiny decisions app picked “bountiful blossoms”.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater.
  3. Gardening – Plan the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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19

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 17, 2021

auditioning fabric for the border

  1. I really want to cross stitch on Gamer! – Done I tried to cross stitch every day but I couldn’t do it. But I did a bit, and that’s all that matters.
  2. continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus – Again, I did a bit most mornings and days.
  3. for gardening – done. every day, I go out about 10am as my morning break. I water the plants, check on them and take care of anything that needs to be taken care.
  4. For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. – done.
    1. Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. – done
    2. Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars – done and grassy creek. – not done.

So I got a lot of a little bit done last week. and I keep working on it.

This week –

  1. Cross stitch on Titania
  2. Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week.
  3. Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week.
  4. Quilting –
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top
    2. wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt
    3. Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces
    4. Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue
    5. Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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12

Apr. ’21

Monday of week 16, 2021

Another tough work week passed but I did get a lot of my to do’s done from last week. First and foremost, I finished the cushion project! Yay! I posted pictures on yesterday’s Sunday Stash post. But here you go again

I am regularly knitting on my morning socks and I’ve almost knit daily on my Weasley Sweater. I was able to spend some time Thursday with my knit group and got to my Tranquil Shawl and my advent blanket. Progress has been made!

In regards to my gardening, I made it to Green Thumb nursery and bought soil for my gardening project that I mentioned last week.

I planted a strawberry tower. I originally planned to put strawberries in every pot but decided to plant some seeds in some of them. I’ll plant chives, onions, basil, parsley because that’s what I have seeds of. I also did all my normal gardening chores – fed the worms, turned the compost, put together the new compost bin! and planted all the seedlings I had to be planted. All in all, my gardening work is getting there.

For quilting, I was able to baste my orange quilt. I applique’d the center star and now all I need is to add a border. I searched my fabric stash and nothing went right with this so I plan to make a trip to my LQS, Quilt Emporium, to pick something out. I didn’t touch grassy creek or dancing with the stars. I did do some hand work and finished the first little bit of embroidery on Simple Days.

So now what’s next? This upcoming week, here are my goals –

  1. I really want to cross stitch on Gamer!
  2. continue knitting daily on my morning socks and weasley sweater.. and anything else I’m able to knit is bonus
  3. for gardening – keep watering it, Saturday garden work: feed the worms, turn the compost, empty the kitchen bin into the compost and wash it. repot some of the plants that I potted before, plant some seeds. Put the mulch where I want it to go.
  4. For quilting: start quilting my orange quilt top. Go to the quilt shop and pick fabric for the border of my Jan Krentz quilt. Reacquaint myself with dancing with the stars and grassy creek.

Wish me luck! It’s a short list this week as I’m being realistic and motivated.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

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26

Jan. ’21

Morning sock knitting

Just wanted to post an update on my current morning sock knitting and the progress I’m making.

Here’s a link to this project on Ravelry. You’ll find more details there but the yarn is Zauberball and the pattern is Taffy Toes by Tabetha Hedrick. This is one that I kitted up a long time ago. I have no idea when. I know I didn’t kit it up for last year so it might have been in 2018 when I put this together. Who knows…

Anyway, I don’t like the yarn. Nothing wrong with Zauberball. It’s all personal preference. It’s single ply and a little inconsistent. Some parts are thicker than other parts. But the color is knitting up amazing and I love the rainbow. I haven’t done cuff down in a long while as I prefer toe up but the pattern is written cuff down and I didn’t have the brain power to switch it. So I stuck with what was written.

I usually knit 15 min/day but the pattern is not too complex and I’m allowing myself 4 rounds per day which is a bit more than 15 minutes. I don’t really keep track unless I’ve got a meeting to attend so I am enjoying my morning knit. I’ve got about 20 more rounds to do before I start the heel which will make the leg a bit longer. It’s currently way longer than I normally knit the leg but I want the full rainbow to be visible so I’m okay with it.

~ Knit on my friends

Melanie

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19

Jan. ’21

2021 Knitting Plans

Morning Sock Knitting. I will continue to knit socks every morning. This is part of my morning ritual and I enjoy it.

My Weasley Sweater – Finally! it’s my turn to knit my Weasley Sweater. I admit I wasn’t looking forward to knitting this. But I am using a different yarn, Manos del Uruguay, and it’s so luscious! But I didn’t like how Ricky’s sweater came out. I followed the pattern exactly and what I found was that the sweater to pattern was cutest on my daughter Kayla as that was a small size. But as I went up sizes first for Jacob and then Ricky, the sweater didn’t come out right. Now for Jacob I admit I made many errors on his. But when I did Ricky’s I was certain that I didn’t make any errors and it came out weird. It works but it wouldn’t be something he or I would ever wear out in public. So I wasn’t looking forward to doing mine. I even considered doing a different sweater and then just sticking an M on it to call it Weasley. But I felt like that was cheating. What I ended up deciding to do was to take this opportunity to start learning how to customize sweaters according to my size. So that’s what I’m going to do. Now I’m excited to about this project again.

24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean- This is the shawl I started last December (2019) with my Advent Calendar I purchased from Jimmy Bean. It’s not done yet but I’m very close. Based on what I have left to do, I imagine this will be done in February. I love this shawl and this is my priority project right now.

Jimmy Bean Advent Calendar Shawl – 2019 Status as of 12/20/2020

Water Lily

Water Lily Back 12/20/2020
Water Lily Front 12/20/2020

Beanie for Kayla – My plan for 2020 was to alternate every row to finish off a skein of yarn with a new skein of yarn. But I totally forgot about this project. I have the yarn in my bin waiting for me to work on this project. And it’s not high on my list for 2021.

Tranquil Mist – started when I finished the Mix Wave cowl twice before this one. The first yarn was a bit variegated but a teal/black and it didn’t look nice with the lace. So I ripped it back and started again with a new yarn. The second yarn was a silk and was so thin it didn’t look right. I got to chart 2 and then messed up. Finally I just ripped it all back and started again with a third yarn. I am loving how this is coming together now.

Tranquil Mist Finished Chart 1 2-3 rows into Chart 2 12/20/2020

Future knitting

Once the Advent Shawl is done I plan to start the Orient Express. And as I finish projects here is what I will work on in this order:

A blue hat that I started in 2020 and still need to complete. It is almost done.

Soldotna

Selbu Mittens

Purple Sweater that I have the yarn for but not a patter

Another Shawl

Hat #150 // Kayla’s Beanie…

Anyway, my plan is that every time I finish something is to start another something.

~Happy Knitting!

~Melanie

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22

Sep. ’20

Finished knitting projects

Every morning I knit a bit on my sock. The current one I’m working on, as detailed on this post,  is a lot of purling. And I was doing the toes (I knit socks two at a time on magic loop) and it just messed up my thumb and wrist. I probably do not purl correctly. But regardless, as a result it’s been tender and I am restricting my sock knitting (or purling at this point) to 1-2 rows a day. During the weekdays I do 1 row but over the weekend I do 2 rows because I have the time to do it slowly and not hurt myself.  I hope this will be okay with my recovery without having to completely stop knitting (purling) on it.

Every evening I work on my husband’s Weasley sweater. My goal for Q3 (which ends at the end of this month) is to finish the sleeves. I had about 20 rows of sleeve to do when I had hubby try it on. The sleeves seemed long. Now, I think that it might be the way he tried it on and the fact that none of the seams have been done but I have a feeling, he may want it longer once we’ve got it all put together nicely.  So, I started the cuff now and when I get the cuff to the length I want the sleeves to be, I plan to put them on cables and not bind off.  I will finish up the rest of the sweater in Q4 and then when everything else is done, we’ll do a try on and see how those sleeves are. By not binding off, I’ll be able to knit more cuff or tink back the cuff, knit more sleeve and then put the cuff back on depending on how much more I have to knit, if any.

I usually get to everything else on Thursday’s during our knit night on zoom.  Over the last few months I finished this cowl.

Mix Wave Cowl
9/12/2020

And last week I finished this pair of socks. All I needed to do was take a picture of it. The picture doesn’t sow the pattern very well but neither does the yarn. I love these kinds of yarn and my stash is filled with speckled, variegated, striped yarn that just do not show off cables or lace very well.  Of course, I love to knit socks with cables and lace so… they don’t go well together.

Dragon Pox
Designer: Knotty Gnome
Finished, 9/4/2020

On my sock knitting post, I wrote about pulling out my sock knitting books and knitting socks from those patterns once I finish the 5 kitted up projects that waiting patiently for their turns.  The problem is that my stash is what it is and the socks I want to knit are what they are and I have decided that I will need to appropriate my yarn to more suitable projects.  And since I do not need more socks and I do not want to buy more yarn, I am not planning to knit socks out of one of my books at this point.  I am thinking of knitting hats or mittens or shawls.  I will pull out my yarn as we get closer to year end to evaluate what I’ve got and what I want to do with it and then kit them up so that I will have my plan ready to go once my sock kits are finally finished up.

Happy knitting, friends!

~Melanie

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10

Sep. ’20

My Sock Knitting in 2020

New sock for September
Geeky Girls Knit
5th podiversary

Last week, I finished my most recent socks. The ends have not yet been woven in and I have not yet taken a picture so that will have to wait for another day.  But I picked my new sock project and got it started.  As it’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned here what I do, I’ll go into detail as to what I’ve done.  For the last 2-3 years, around October or November I sit down and pull all the sock patterns and single skein sock yarn, match them up together and kit them up.  The very first year, I pulled all my knit picks Felici. I was part of Knitting Expat’s Sock Clubs (she had 2 that year). So it was easy, every month she had a new sock pattern and I would pick one of my knit picks felici yarn and start knitting.  I still have Felici yarn in my stash. Then that October/November, I printed all my sock patterns that I hadn’t knitted, chose yarn to go with the pattern and stuck them in a project bag with a number.  That first year, I had 15.  At that point I had been purchasing or getting free downloads of sock patterns I loved and I wanted to knit them. It was a shame to keep them in my Ravelry library and never actually knit them. So I made my own little club.  Every month, I would ask Siri to pick a number from 1-15 and I would knit whatever it chose. I do not remember how many socks I knitted that year. While part of the Knitting Expat sock club, I challenged myself to knit each pair within the month so that I could stay on track with each pattern as they were released.  Most of the time I was able to stay on track. Every once in awhile I slipped.  But as long as I knit a few rows (at least 5 sometimes more) every day, then I was able to get the pair done each month.  When I started my own mini club I tried to stay within the monthly challenge. This ended fairly quickly mainly because I now have a ton of socks and not enough drawer space. I even sent a lot with my daughter when she went away to college.  Anyway, I don’t need 12 socks every year so I do not push myself to knit a pair a month.  I think 6 weeks is a good time frame. Any longer and I get bored.  At the end of that first year, I think I had 5 projects remaining from the 15.  Then last November I did the same thing, I still had the 5 projects from the previous year and somehow I had more patterns.  So I kitted up more and I started 2020 with 13 kitted sock projects.  Now I have 5 in my project bin. So I’ve got the 1 I started for September, the 1 I still have to weave the ends in so I must have finished 6. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take pictures of all of them and post it.  I will try to do that one of these days.

I’m currently formulating my plan for next year but I do not have as many sock patterns to knit in Ravelry like I’ve had in the past.  My LYS closed this year and I helped buy all their remaining sock books.  I am thinking about picking one of those books and working my way through it and I’ll probably do that until I’ve gone through all the books.  I’ll let you know what I end up deciding. The end of 2020 can’t come soon enough. I’m done with it. I’m hoping for a better end to the year along with a great 2021.

The socks I started last week are from the Geeky Girls Knit podcast. I haven’t watched it in awhile so I’m out of date with them. But when I was watching, they were a mother-daughter team. They were based in Edinburgh when I started watching them but then moved to the Pacific North West.  It’s been a few years since I got this kit and it was sitting waiting for me to get to it.  One of the reasons why I love doing my socks this way is because it means that I will knit the things I want to knit, even when I forget about it.

~Happy knitting to my knitter friends out there.

Melanie

 

 

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11

Aug. ’20

Finished Socks 2020

Here are some of the finished socks I’ve completed.
I do not think I’ve posted them yet so it’s not legit until it’s posted. 🙂

 

This was a sock blank. And it was the part left over after I’d already knitted a pair of socks before. I can’t remember when – probably a year or two ago.  So these have been in my stash waiting. And I knit and knit and knit in the round knitting what we call vanilla socks.

I was knitting the second sock of this pair:

This also came from a sock blank. If you do not know what a sock blank is, it’s yarn already knitted up into a rectangle. The dyer goes in and dyes it and it’s very pretty. You do not know how it will knit up because they colors get all jumbled together.  I normally knit both socks (of a pair) at the same time, but with a sock blank you can’t do that.  So I had knit the first of the honey bee sock some time ago. It was a bit difficult for me so when it came time to do the second pair I decided I needed a break.  When I picked it up, I need to knit a second sock at the same time since I was used to doing two at a time. I knit the blue/green sock blank at the same time. For the blue/green one, I just knit it into a tube until I knit all of that yarn.  When I finished, I cut it in half.  I used a contrasting yarn to do the toes (except the first one), heels and cuff.  I used the afterthought heel method I think, for those how know, using the kirby worby technique.  I may be getting the words wrong.  I do not like doing the afterthought heel method but I like being able to knit knit knit and then putting a heel in afterwards. Especially if you don’t know if this is going to be for me or someone else.  It’s also helpful to keep the yarn going and picking where to put the heel in, which is most helpful when you are knitting stripes.

And in June, I finished these socks:

Spattergroit
Designer: Knotty Gnome
Yarn: Cascade 220
6/2020

Spattergroit
Designer: Knotty Gnome
Yarn: Cascade 220
6/2020

I knit these two up, two at a time.  I did about 2-3 rows a day except weekends.  I love how these came out.

~keep on knitting!

Melanie

 

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29

Jun. ’20

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater, Q2 Update

My goal for Q2 was to finish the front side and I’ve done it.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
The front side –
6/29/2020

Last quarter’s goal was to finish the back side.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
The backside –
4/21/2020

3rd Quarter’s goal is to put the front and back together and do the sleeves.

4th Quarter’s goal is to put it all together, the collar, and weave in all the ends.  I’m on track to getting this sweater finished by 12/25.  Then it can join the rest of the Weasley Sweater family and I can start on mine. 🙂

Kayla and Jacob in their Weasley’s
12/2019

~Always,

Melanie

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