Tag Archives: sock knitting

Sunday Stash Report – Week 11, 2021

Back for the orange top 3/14/2021

Happy Pi Day!

My main goal for quilting was to get the back ready for my Orange quilt top. I did it!

Orange Quilt Top Quilt #2 – to be quilted 3/7/2021

I showed this last week and it doesn’t hurt to show it again. I also made a disclaimer. I didn’t piece this top together. I bought it at one of the August treasure hunts my guild does every year (except 2020). It goes to show you never know what you’ll find and what other people may buy/sell. I bought it with the intention to practice my FMQ and I think I’ve had it for 4 years now. A lot has changed in 4 years. But it’s out of my bucket and on the to be quilted stage.

I’m counting the fabric I used for the backing but cannot count the fabric used for the top. I estimate it to be about 3.5 yards. I used stash which is perfect. I pulled a bunch of yellows and oranges out and put them together and started with the yards or so of the lighter yellow. I loved the dark orange and paired it with the yellow batik. Last, the flowery orange and yellow fabric on the left really pulled it all together.

Next week, my goal for this quilt is to prep the batting.

Earlier today, I took a cushion workshop with Becky McDaniel. This first class was really a paper piecing class. I’m the tech person for my guild and was the moderator for the workshop. It was really difficult to both moderate and participate. But it’s done. we have to get all the pieces, pieced, and quilted by our next class in 2 weeks so I’ll be very busy doing that.

I haven’t bought more fabric. Not for want of trying – I just didn’t have the time to head to my LQS this week.

Go to more stash reports at QuiltPaintCreate who hosts the Sunday Stash.

The fabric stash:  

  • Used since last time: 3.5 yards
  • Used year to date: 14.5 yards
  • Added since last time: 0 yards
  • Added year to Date: 20 yards
  • Net added for 2021: 5.5 yards

For yarn:

I finished knitting my morning socks. I talked at length about them here and you can find more details on ravelry here. Note – you’ll need a Ravelry account to access the site.

Taffy Toes Sock 3/14/2021

I picked up another sock project but it was already started. According to the ravelry page I have for this project, I started it 12/23/2017. It must have been my Christmas Cast on that year. I knit a handful of rows and then put it aside. It’s out now and I’m finishing the ribbing.

The yarn stash:

  • Used since last time: 1 skeins (Taffy Toes sock)
  • Used year to date: 9 skeins
  • Added since last time: 0 skeins
  • Added year to date: 6 skeins
  • Net used for 2021: 3 skeins

~Happy Sunday!

~happy crafting!

~Have a quilty week!

Melanie

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

Update on my current socks

Geeky Girls Knit 5th podiversary Current Status 11/17/2020

I’ve not been very good taking progress pictures and posting them anywhere, here Instagram, Facebook… So here you are. It’s been about 2.5 months since I started which is a really long time for me. Mentally, I’m already done with the project.

What you can’t see in the picture is that the heel is already done and I’m working on the leg. I realized that I can finish this now because I’m not one for a long leg and in fact, really like shorties instead. So, I’m finishing up the pattern and will start on the cuff shortly. I think I’ve got 4 rows or so left in the patter. I am very close to a finish.

You might be able to tell some weirdness in the toe area. The original pattern has you purling and purling and purling but after a weekend of purling the toes my hand/thumb/wrist were in so much pain I couldn’t knit for 2 weeks. I decided to turn the toes inside out and just purl where I needed to in the front to keep the pattern but then knit the back side.

~ Knit on my friends

Melanie

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

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

 

 

Knitting Update, Week 15, 2018

 

  • My April Socks

Nestled Socks
Knitting Expat
Cosy Sock Club
4/12/2018

  • Kayla’s Weasley Sweater

Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
4/12/18

 

  • Land of Sweets Cowl
    4/12/2018

~Happy Knitting!

~Melanie

 

Knitting Update, Week 14, 2018

My March socks:

Derive Socks
Knitting Expat
Wanderlust Sock Club
March, 2018

  • Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
  • Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
    3/31/18

Scrappy Vanilla Socks #1
Twisted Owl minis
Row One, 10/2017
3/31/18

~Happy Knitting!

~Melanie

 

Knitting Update, Week 12, 2018

My March socks:

Derive Socks
Knitting Expat
Wanderlust Sock Club
March 17, 2018

I still have a few pattern repeats to complete on the foot before I can start the toe.  MyPOA for this week is to finish these socks this week and as long as I keep working on these every day that should happen.

  • Kayla’s Weasley Sweater

Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
3/17/18

As you know from my POA post, I finished the cuffs.  Yay!  I am loving this sweater and I can’t wait to be finished.  I plan to mattress stitch the sleeves and sides together and then finish up the neck part.  Depending on how the neck part goes, I’m hoping this will be finished this week? Okay, maybe that’s dreaming so it will probably be more like a couple of weeks.

  • Land of Sweets Cowl

Land of Sweets Cowl
3/17/2018

I haven’t made as much progress on my cowl as I’d like but a bit of progress is better than none at all.  🙂

~Happy Knitting!

~Melanie

 

Knitting Update, Week 10, 2018

Here’s an update on my current set of priority knitting projects. Last month, I finished 2 projects on my knitting priority list.

My February socks:

Warm and Snug Socks
Knitting Expat
Cosy Sock Club
February, 2018

and my Martine Hat:

Martine Hat
2/14/2018

I have 3 priority projects that I work on each day and I think 3 projects is a good number for me.  I can generally do a little bit every day on each project.  I know if I was monogamous I would get a lot done on one project and do it faster but I get bored working that long on one project.  So I get a bit done on each and I don’t get bored.  Right now those projects are:

  • March Socks

Derive Socks
Knitting Expat
Wanderlust Sock Club
March, 2018

  • Kayla’s Weasley Sweater

Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
2/28/18

  • Land of Sweets Cowl

Land of Sweets Cowl
2/28/2018

I have prioritized 3 projects to work on each day because I have a lot of knitting WIPs and I want to get them done. I’m not very good at working on one project at a time so I try to do a little bit every day on 3 main projects.  The socks is my number one project as I’m part of a KAL (Knit A Long) and need to get the pairs of socks done within the month to enter it in a drawing.  But like I said I don’t have the wherewithal to work on just the socks so I know where I should be at each week of the month in order for me to be finished by month end.  The sweater doesn’t have a deadline but I want to get it done as I’m going to be making a Weasley sweater for each of us (my family).  I have this insane idea of taking our holiday pictures in our Weasley sweaters.  I think it will be so cute and the hubby is willing to go along with it.  I do not think that I’ll get it done for this Christmas but I’m hoping that it will be done in the next few Christmas’.  Anyway, so I need to keep working a bit on these each day and one day they will be done.  The cowl is the same in that I do not have a deadline other than I want to get it done and pushing it to #3 on my priority list means that it will get worked on regularly and it will be done one day soon.

~Happy Knitting!

~Melanie

 

Knitting roll call, 1/30/18

I take these pics on Saturday as it takes a bit of time to gather everything up and do it.  Then I post them on Instagram Saturday morning (assuming I can do it on Saturday morning).  So if you follow me on Instagram (@thousandneedles) you may have already seen these.  But for those of you who follow me on the blog, I do not want to leave you out so… here is all the knitting I’m working on in one place:

First, I’ve got 2 finished objects:

  1. Resfeber Socks from Knitting Expat.

Resfeber Socks
Knitting Expat
Wanderlust Sock Club
January, 2018

2. Christmas Socks – the Mercury pattern.

Christmas Socks
finished
1/27/2018

3. Vanilla socks – using the minis from my Row One subscription from October, 2017. Yarn is Twisted Owl Fiber Studios.

Scrappy Vanilla Socks
Twisted Owl minis
Row One, 10/2017
1/30/2018

I got the bulk of these done while at Road2CA. It was such easy knitting and I had a lot of time while I attended various lectures.  I finished the heel flap but couldn’t remember how to do the turn so I started scrappy vanilla socks #2.  I didn’t get much done on these… but now I’ve got easy knitting ready to take with me wherever I go.

Scrappy Vanilla Socks 2
Twisted Owl minis
Row One, 10/2017
1/30/2018

4. Kayla’s Weasley Sweater – Even though this is down the list a bit, it’s actually one of the items I work on every day.  It’s a priority project!  I’ve picked up stiches on both sleeves and I’m working on both concurrently.

Kayla’s Weasley Sweater
1/30/18

5. Martine Hat

Martine Hat
1/30/2018

6. Land of Sweets Cowl

Land of Sweets Cowl
1/30/2018

7. Fairyhill Shawl

Fairyhill Shawl
1/16/2018

8. Stormy Affair Poncho

Stormy Affair Poncho
1/30/2018

9. Cozy Memories Blanket

Cozy Memories Blanket
1/30/2018

10. Other socks on the needles… I always have socks going on at various stages.  Resfeber was my priority sock as it’s part of a KAL (knit-a-long) and now that I’m finished with that and the Christmas socks, which was my second priority sock.  The new priority sock is Spattergroit.  It will be my priority sock until 2/1 when the next sock comes out in the Sock Collection by Mina Phillips (the Knitting Expat).  I can’t remember the collection’s name at the moment.  She’s got two going and I can only remember the Wander Lust Sock Collection which is the one that Resfeber is part of.

Spattergroit Socks
1/30/2018

Dragon Pox is next.  I just finished the ribbing so it’s no longer my easy on the go knitting (scrappy vanila sock #2 took it’s place).  This is going to sit on the shelf a bit until I’m ready to tackle the pattern.

DragonPox Socks
1/30/2018

And third, is my Praire Socks.  I only casted this on because my girlfriend and I were supposed to go to knit night at a particular yarn shop that we hadn’t gone to knit night before.  We’ve purchased yarn there before but never actually went to a knit night.  So, I had to cake up yarn I had purchased and cast on a new sock so that I would be knitting on something purchased at the shop.  I know I didn’t have to do this but it makes me feel better to do this.  At least until I get to know the other knitters.  🙂 Anyway, our plans got cancelled and now this is sitting and waiting for the time we actually go to knit night at this shop.

Prairie Socks
1/30/2018