Revisiting the Old

After completing the Antarktis shawl, I decided it was high time I revisited some of my old unfinished knits.

I didn't want to dig through all my bags (yes plural) containing all the UFO's, so I just grabbed for the first little project bag on top. Fortunately for me, it contained a sock, Yes!!! My thoughts were, "I can finish this one quickly!"

After completing my first two pairs of socks within the first 2 months of this year, I had immediately started the TTL Mystery Sock 2015, which isn't a mystery anymore as the last clue came out in, ohhhh February!

I first mentioned the sock here at the end of January and revisited my progress here in March. You can even see in the March post that I had casted on for Mr. Second Sock!

Then we totally went off the grid with these babies! MIA. Send out a search party ASAP!

While I knew there was no way I would be completing these socks during the actual knit along, I had hoped they would of been done back in April.

I had been cruising towards completedville very nicely until I hit a little snag. It was a second sock issue. I completely messed up the leg chart and had to rip back. When I made the mistake my focus was elsewhere and I didn't realize it until the next time I sat down to knit.

I only had to rip back 8 rows of 64 stitches each. Really it wasn't that much. I could of completed that in a short amount of time. However, for whatever reason, I didn't.

So let's fast forward 4 months shall we?

Today Mr. Second Sock looks a little like this...

I worked on this over a 2 day period during my lunch breaks. First knitting session was to rip it and the second was to put back what I ripped.

Now I am thinking of when I can realistically finish it. After consulting the calendar, counting days, taking my other crafty adventures into consideration, looking at the full moon, I am reaching for completion on or before, September 15th.

While giving myself a little over 3 weeks is a wee bit generous for my knitting speed, I'd rather put a little extra time in there so I don't put a huge amount of pressure on myself to get it done in a short period of time. There is nothing worse than doing that to yourself and then not succeeding. Knitting depressionville is where I would be headed!

So that's it! I am throwing down the gauntlet. I'm going to get 'em done!

FO Chronicles: Antarktis

I knew for my Summer Swap package I wanted to knit a simple, one skein shawl for my partner. I had the perfect skein of sock yarn in hand, but needed to find the perfect pattern for it.

After much Ravelry research, I decided to knit Antarktis. I chose this pattern because not only would it be a quick knit, but it would surely be great for someone that may not like lace shawls. As this was going in my swap package, I wanted to make sure it would be something that would be used.

After several false starts...

...this was number three,  I finally managed to really get past my prior issues and move forward with the shawl.

It took me only a couple weeks of inconsistent knitting to complete it after that.

Finding time to wet block it was another story. But I managed:

It's not pretty and I can tell my blocking techniques are rusty, but I am really happy with how it turned out in the end.

While I have seen some shawls on Ravelry that blocked out rather large (they used the same yarn and amount as I did), mine turned out to be more of a small shawlette. It's still pretty, useable and I am happy to have another finished knit for the year.

FO Details

Pattern: Antarktis by Janina Kallio
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn (Impressionist Sky); 1 skein
Needles: US Size 5
Started: May 30, 2015
Finished: July 6, 2015

Now I am in the process of analyzing all the projects I have currently on my needles. I definitely need to get more off, before I put more on!

Tell me, what is on your needles right now? Anything you really want to finish that's been hanging around a tad too long?

WWKIP Day

Since I took the past couple of months off from blogging, there were a few items from that time period away that I really wanted to share with you. My last couple of posts have been just that. First my wedding, then my knitting swap partner experience, but now I want to add another one, WWKIP day!

Every year this day comes and goes without me remembering. I always hear the chatter leading up to the day, but then I forget all about it until after the fact.

Well this year was different. My dear sweet friend reminded me of it by asking me to come and hang out with all the other knitters in Bryant Park. I remembered my goal of wanting new crafty friends, so I didn't hesitate to say yes.

On June 13, I arrived to Bryant Park promptly at 2:30pm and received a text from my dear sweet friend basically letting me know she was going to be late. Oh boo!

After walking around and snapping some pictures:

I set about my quest of trying to find her knitting friends while seeing if I could find the one person I was to know. Let me tell you, I circled the huge group of knitters like I was a starving piranha trying to find a face I recognized. I can only hope everyone was so absorbed with their knitting and socializing to have not noticed me at all!

After 15 minutes of circling and not seeing the one person I should know, I gave up and found a bench on the outside of the group festivities while I waited for my dear sweet friend to arrive. I must tell you I felt like a school kid that wasn't allowed in the cool kids group to play. I quickly got over myself and set about to my own knitting.

After my dear sweet friend's arrival, she promptly found her knitting buddies (minus the one I was supposed to know as she didn't come after all) and we squeezed into the group to sit down for an afternoon of fun filled knitting!

There was lots of chatter, tons of "ooo's" and "ahh's" during the parade of knits, some singing entertainment and of course big smiles all around.

The project I brought with me was the Antarktis Shawl that I had previously been having issues with, which included starting, ripping out, starting again, ripping out again.

While I was in seclusion waiting for my dear sweet friend to arrive, I managed to start the shawl again and I meticulously wrote down the stitch count after every row as I went. I finally experienced sweet, sweet victory as I managed to to get the correct stitch count at the end of the first pattern section. On all of my earlier attempts I always had one stitch too many.

By the end of the event I had progressed nicely into the second pattern section.

Guess I just needed to be surrounded by lots of positive knitting vibes to move past my knitter problems!

While the day was incredibly hot, I enjoyed myself tremendously. I look forward to attending again next year for sure! Thanks to my dear sweet friend for thinking of me!

With Love from Abroad

At the beginning of this year I made a list of goals. One of those goals was to make new crafty friends. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to go about this, as I am not one to go out and do new things by myself, but I was determined to come up with a few ideas.

Idea #1: Join a local knit group. There is a group that meets just up the street from my house once a month. I am a member of their group on Ravelry. I've stalked the message boards, but have yet to attend a knit night. To this day, I still haven't. Think I have a fear thing going on of not being accepted into a group of people that have been getting together forever. This fear is probably stemming from the last time I went to a knitting group meetup and left with a sour taste in my mouth.

Idea #2: Join a knitting swap group. Years ago I participated in one of those secret partner swaps and at the end of the year you revealed yourself to your partner. To this day I am still friends with the person who spoiled me. Sadly we don't live in the same state, but I am blessed for our friendship.

Idea numero uno scares me, idea numero dos does not!

I began to scour the Ravelry groups in search of the perfect swap group for me. I declared the "Swap for All Seasons 2015" group to be my winner. I even decided to swap with someone from another country. I know the shipping is more expensive, but I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to make a new friend from afar.

During the year you will swap a total of four packages, one for each season, with your partner. As per my request, I was matched with a lovely fellow knitter from Germany. So far we've exchanged two packages. Each package has been wonderful and so thoughtfully put together.

I was truly spoiled upon receiving the Spring package back in April. I received a beautiful knitted scarf, skein of yarn, a fantastic book of knitting patterns, adorable hand sewn Easter eggs, little package tags made in Germany and some AH-MAZ-ING chocolate bars!

I was continued to be spoiled when I received the Summer package in July. Inside was a knitted summer vest, several skeins of cotton yarn in three different colors, a travel notions case with a few little items inside, a cute little pouch with a heart trinket box inside, several tea sample in a variety and more amazing chocolate!

I can't believe we are two packages down with our Fall swap package just around the corner. I have truly enjoyed putting my packages together for my partner, but am really excited to put together the Fall and Winter packages.

So, while I've gained a new friend from very afar, I know I haven't gained any new local crafty friends yet. However, the year is only half over. Maybe I'll be brave one week and attempt the knit night. Who knows?!?!

Tell me, have you ever participated in a crafty swap? Did you love it, hate it, want to do it again?

Just Call Me Mrs. and Playing Catch-Up

After taking some time off from the blogging world, I am ready to make a come back! So what have I been up to since we last talked?

Let's see I believe I alluded to a big announcement? Yes, yes...

On May 20th my honey and I got engaged...

And on June 2nd we became husband and wife!!!

So many people were surprised to hear we were getting married so soon after getting engaged, but in reality we had been planning on the wedding date since the beginning of May! I know that isn't necessarily a long time, but it was perfect for what we had planned.

Tuesday, June 2nd marked the 6th anniversary of our very first date, which also happened to be on a Tuesday, so we thought it was perfectly romantic to get married on that day. We planned our ceremony for City Hall. We grabbed our witnesses and had the perfect day ever!

We were surprised with a gift of a professional photographer and let me tell you, all I could think about was how the rainy, humid weather had destroyed my hair. Our photographer must have some mad magical photography skills because amazingly I love almost every single picture he took.

I am so excited to print them and get them into a wedding album!

The past two months have really been about enjoying being married, becoming Godparents and just focusing on things that make me happy. I've been scrapbooking like a crazy fool, managed to complete a knit and even took a mini trip to visit my family.

I've also been contemplating changing the name of my blog, as I am not Deborah K anymore, and starting a new blog solely dedicated to my scrapbooking and leaving this blog as my lifestyle/knitting blog.

I know blogs should be focused on one thing and I started this blog many years ago as a knitting/craft blog. Then over time it evolved more into my "Let's Get Healthy" blog as I put so much focus into losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle. Now it's become more of a mish mosh of what is happening in my life at that particular moment in time.

I don't think I can juggle three blogs in total 1) scrapbooking, 2) knitting and 3) healthy living while working a full-time job. So my thoughts are to start a new scrapbooking blog and use this blog to focus on my knitting while interjecting posts on my life from time to time.

I truly have missed blogging on regular basis and the reasons as to why I haven't been doing that regularly, I am hoping to fix in the near future, so blogging will be a much easier process for me.

I have lots of ideas running around my head at the moment. Just need to get my plan of action in place. In the meantime, I leave you with a few of my favorite professional wedding photographs:

I am so happy we went up the Brooklyn Bridge, despite the rain. It made the best pictures and I will never forget walking up the bridge in my 4 inch high heels!