WIKN

Yes yes it's been a few days since I last posted. I know. No real excuse except every time I sit down to write a post, I get distracted by all my lovely scrapbooking supplies staring me in the face at my desk. Those lovelies seem to win out every time during the past couple of weeks. I think I am just too excited to have my stuff out again and can't help myself.

So, while I have been scrapbooking this winter weather blues that I seem to have away, there has also been some stuff going on with the knitting needles too.

Today I thought I would catch everyone up with "What I Am Knitting Now".

My scrap yarn blankie had a good presence in my knitting life during the end of January. I did manage to finish knitting up the half row of squares needed to complete the row. I even got as far as picking out the yarns for each of the squares for the next row.

Sadly, I did not knit any squares during the month on February. So I am going to try to complete two rows for the month of March.

After I finished my Inlay socks, I picked up with the TTL Mystery Sock 2015 and managed to knock out sock number one the other week. I didn't let too much time pass before I started sock number two either.

The color of this yarn is much darker than what you see in the picture. I was in a hurry to snap a progress pic to try to get the real color. I am absolutely loving knitting with this yarn. I won it over at Ellen's blog last summer, right before we left for Europe. When I came home three weeks later, this lovely squishiness was a pleasant surprise in my mailbox amongst all the bills.

Recently I casted on for Color Affection using these three beauties from Madeline Tosh Sock.

After casting on three time, I finally got my first row of increases to the way I liked it and am now almost ready to join in the middle color. I am excited to see this get done. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I have a few more projects that I am dying to start. But I am going to be good and keep my needles busy with these projects right now. I really need to finish these socks so I can start my next pair for the Sock Sampler KAL that I participate in on Ravelry. The only good thing about the KAL is that we have two months to finish the project.

So that's all I've got for now. Short and simple.

Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful long holiday weekend! For it being a long weekend it sure did seen to go by so fast.

My long weekend started a little early on Friday with early dismissal from my job. Too bad it was raining, windy and freezing cold. 

Saturday wasn't much better. The rain continued and it still felt like winter had returned. Oh yeah, by the way, part of upstate New York, close to VT border, received 3 feet of snow! It IS summer, isn't it?

I spent a good part of my day knitting and reading. My fingers were itching to knit on my Sock Yarn Blankie. During knitting breaks, I engrossed myself with a book my sister recommended to me that I am having a very hard time putting down. Thanks sis!

Sunday redeemed itself some. The rain left and was replaced with some sun. There was still a chill in the air with the wind that stayed with us. It was nice to finally get outside and enjoy the weekend just a tad. My honey and I spent a couple hours out on our favorite running trails. 

I took advantage of the sunny day to finally try my new Oakley running sunglasses. They survived my 9 mile run and I LOVE them! I also sported a new BAMR headband. It stayed put just like it's supposed to!

Monday was the best day of the whole weekend! It was sunny and the temps got warmer as the day progressed. Manny and I finally went and saw Star Trek Into Darkness movie. I really was excited to see it and was not disappointed. We ended our weekend with a little stroll through Astoria Park. It was perfect!

So tell me, how did you spend your holiday weekend?

Unfinished Knits of Years Past

I used to be an avid knitter back in 2007 and 2008. Then in 2009 I was laid off from my job of 10.5 years and my knitting mojo was replaced with stress and anxiety of being unemployed, trying to find a new job in a terrible economic time and living off off my teeny tiny unemployment check for an entire year.

Things turned around for me in 2010. I finally found an awesome job, unfortunately for my health and mind, it was working the overnight shift. My life (mind, body and spirit) did not return to the state it was in my pre-unemployment days. I struggled for a year and a half to live a "normal life." Everything in my life suffered. I couldn't even bring myself to get excited about much of anything during that time.

I was very blessed to have received a new position within my current place of employment in July of 2011. While it took awhile for my life to feel normal again, I did manage to find the enjoyment in partaking in some of my favorite past-times again. Albeit, I haven't resumed my hobbies with the passion I had a few years ago, but I do get excited looking through knitting or quilting books these days. My heart is there again and I can not wait to work on my projects.

So one of my goals for this year is to finish at least (3) unfinished knitting projects. I decided to go through my Ravelry queue to see what I have going on in my knitting life. I did not include and items that I am going to frog and I already know there is a project on my needles that I started last year in November that never made it into my project page. So I have a total of 11 projects on the needles and here are the 10 I have Ravelry projects created for them in the order I casted-on for them:

1. 16 Zipped Jacket - I started this sweater as a Christmas present for a friend. I have the body front and back done. I have 1 sleeve almost to completion. I know I stopped this project when I became worried about my gauge being off for the sleeve. I was debating frogging the sleeve and starting over or keep going and hope it wasn't too long for the recipient.

2. Bella's Mittens - I have only 1 mitten almost done. What you see in the picture below is exactly how it looks today. The mittens themselves are super fast to knit, but I got hung up on knitting that thumb. I hate picking up stitches and I believe my intention was to knit the other mitten and then do the thumbs last.

3. Sock Yarn Blanket - This is an on-going project that will take me years to finish, but it still belongs in the UFO category. I still work on it from time to time and I love that a few of my fellow knitting buddies resupply me with their own sock yarn scraps for me to add to the blanket. It truly is a friendship blanket.

4. Texturized Tweed Coat - Believe it or not, but this sweater jacket is almost done. I picked this knit back up in 2011 with the intention, and renewed vigor, to get it done, especially since it was going to be my Rhinebeck sweater in November. Where I got stuck with this knit is on the collar part of the jacket. The instructions in the book are really confusing so I turned to the designers website where she listed more clear instructions. The problem for me is that even the newer instructions aren't clear to me and I started the collar, but put it to the side when I felt the collar wasn't turning out the way it was suppose to be.

5. Chinook Shawl - I actually was having a lot of fun knitting this shawl. I believe I have only 1 or 2 more colors to work into it. I do not know why I stopped working on it.

6. Vagabond Fingerless Mitts - First I must say I LOVE these mitts. This was my third foray into stranded knitting and my dear friend designed these awesome mitts. Sso while I wasn't excited about attempting stranded knitting again, these mitts were calling my name. What you see in the picture is exactly where I left them. Again I have 1 mitt almost finished except for the thumb. Picking up stitches for thumbs seem to be an issue for me.

7. Bacon Socks (Vanilla Toe-up pattern) - I bought this yarn at Rhinebeck one year after seeing a friend of mine knit the yarn up in her own sock. I love that it looks like bacon and couldn't wait to knit up a pair of socks with it. I have only knit 1 sock and have actually bound it off twice. The first time was way too tight and the second time I went up a needle size and it was still kinda tight. This yarn does not have much stretch in it. I think I got discouraged and put the sock to the side.  

8. Effortless Cardigan - The only thing left to finish on this cardigan are the sleeves and one of the front bands. I knew I wanted to knit the sleeves on double pointed needles (not all that great at magic loop method) and needed to order them. It also bothers me a bit that the skeins are drastically different in color tones.

9. Some Cloudy Day Leg Warmers -  When I visited my sister in Myrtle Beach last July, I splurged on the Sublime yarn to make these leg warmers. My sister and I started knitting them together and while she has finished hers, I have 1 completely done and am only a few inches away from finishing the second. Should be real easy to finish.

10. TTL Mystery Sock 2012 - I participated in the TTL Mystery Sock in 2010 and loved the socks when I was complete. I started this sock when the KAL started in 2012 (even though I didn't note the start date below), but of course I got sidetracked and didn't finish with the group. I of course now know what the completed sock looks like and I think it is truly beautiful. I have completed the first sock down the start of the heel flap and haven't gone any further. I hesitate to finish the sock for a couple of reasons. One of them being I am not sure the sock is totally me and these socks take some effort to knit. I do not want to finish them and never wear them. So I have gone back and forth a few times in my head thinking of whether or not I want to frog them.

11. Back Bay - This is another pattern from TTL and I loved it when I first saw it. I had the perfect yarn in my stash and couldn't wait to cast on for it last November, especially when I learned that a couple of my fellow Rhinebecker's were knitting them at the same time. I think I only have about 3-5 inches complete and what I think slowed me down on it is that you have to carefully follow the chart, which includes cables. It's not a complicated pattern at all. It just that it's not something I can knit with any distractions (i.e., tv, music, having a conversation, etc.). I do intend on finishing this knit though because it will be perfect to wrap myself up in during the winter months.

I don't know if this is a complete list of unfinished knits, but it is one that I will be working through this year. I'll be posting updates on my progress with them through the year, in addition to any knew items I may knit. However, before I can tackle these UFO's, I must finish the items I am currently knitting as Christmas 2012 presents. Since Christmas has passed, I will share with you all what I made on my next knitting update post.

Until then tell me what crafty projects you are currently working on right now? Any knitting UFO's from year's past you want to move to the FO list?

When All Else Fails

My knitting has been off and on these days. I find myself knitting with gusto and can't stop at times and then not even wanting to pick up the needles for weeks on end at other times. There are a multitude of reasons for this but last weekend I decided I had to sit down with some sort of knitting to feel grounded. So in my mind when all else fails, you go with comfort knitting.

For me my comfort knitting has been my Sock Yarn Blankie. I love it because with every square you get to knit with a new yarn. I find the various colors can be really mood uplifting. The blankie has been exactly what I've been needing and this past week it has seen great progress.

It's been awhile since I've given an update on the ol' blog about it. I think the last time I posted about it I didn't even give real stats on it. I know I just posted this...

...and today it looks like this...

You can tell between the two pics, even with them being from different angles, that a nice amount has been added. The first picture there are just over 11 rows completed and right now I have 15 rows done. I believe I've added just over two rows during the past week. The blanket measures to 21.5 inches and there are a total of 293 squares done.

I'm definitely going to be needing more sock yarn scraps soon. All my loot is now compressed into a one gallon Ziplock bag and the variety of color choices to spread out are dwindling. I have some sock yarn projects in mind. I'm currently halfway done with my Bacon Socks and am planning a colorwork hat soon.

Still Here

I know it's been some time since I last posted. What could my excuse be? Well I was furiously knitting on a couple of projects ever since my sister visited in October. I think I got caught up in it all. Then I put myself on the Knitting DL at the beginning of November which lasted around 2.5 weeks. Between the combination of typing 12.5 hours a day at work and then knitting like a mad woman, my carpel tunnel symptoms flared. I went to the doctor and have done what I could to make things better. It was hard to put my knitting aside, but I did it. When I picked things back up, I stuck with working on "light" projects like my sock yarn blankie. I'm all better know and moderating my knitting time so the pain in my joints stay away. No more marathon knitting days for me.

Back in October I participated in the Through The Loops Mystery Sock. I have never done one of these before. I was hesitant at first when Kim mentioned it to me. I mulled it over for a bit. I was afraid of not liking the sock once it was done since I didn't know what the pattern looked like. So after looking at the 2009 pattern, I decided I liked it and plunged forward with the mystery challenge. I'm very happy I did because I love it! I managed to finish both socks by the end of October.

Pattern: TTL Mystery Sock 2010 (Rav link)
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Fannie's Fingering (Colorway - Plums & Pinks)
Started: October 3, 2010
Finished: October 30, 2010

Next up is the project that put me on the DL. I started the Texturized Tweed Jacket by Stefanie Japel on October 18. After 2 false starts (knitter error both times), the third time seemed to be the charm. You really have to interpret the pattern to get things right.

So once things got rolling, I could stop! In 2 weeks time I got to the point in the picture. I had really wanted to finish this for Thanksgiving but of course that couldn't happen. Maybe New Year's. I haven't picked this back up yet. So we'll see.

Sock Yarn Blankie hasn't made an appearance here for a bit. I snapped a quick photo of it a week or so ago when I had it all spread out on the floor to pick out some yarn for more squares. I actually have 12.5 rows completed now. I'm also getting to the point where I need to knit up more sock yarn so I have it for the blanket.

Finally, I am attending a knitting Holiday party this Saturday with Shameka. I had joined this knitting group a couple years ago but had never attended any get togethers. When the email came out for the party I noticed it was being held in the afternoon. This was perfect for me and I immediately asked Miss. Shameka if she was going. It was one of those, "I'll go if you go" type of things. So her and I have a date.

One of the cool things about the party is the mystery gift exchange. The rules are simple: you must knit or crochet the item yourself and the yarn must come from your stash. Not difficult. After batting a couple projects back and forth, I decided on the Slouched Tuva Hat. I had the perfect single skein of DK yarn sitting in my stash bin. Within a week I was all done. Hope the recipient likes it!

Pattern: Slouched Tuva Hat
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss DK (Colorway Doe)
Started & Finished: November 2010 (Can't remember the exact dates)
Mods: I left out some of the repeats because I was afraid of running out of yarn before it was finished. So instead of this hat having slouch, it is fitted. It comes down over my ears so hopefully it will fit someone else.

160

As promised, this post is all about what's happening with the Sock Yarn Blankie. The title of this post tells you that I have reached 160 completed squares on the blanket. There are a total of 8 rows completely done and 4 squares done into row 9. It seems my obsession with this blanket has taken over again. It's the only thing I have been working on since I finished my knee highs.

I placed the blanket on my bed, instead of having it blend into my black carpet, to try and give you a better idea of what it looks like. I don't have a wide angle lens on my camera so the first picture is taken from a distance.

These 3 pictures give you a close-up of all the squares...

I thought I would place the blanket across my queen size bed to give some perspective on the width of the blanket. As you can see, the blanket curls just over each edge of the bed. I think the width is perfect. Now if I can just get some length on this baby.

I'm having lunch with Yarnyoldkim next Friday and I can't wait to show the blanket to her. I started creating squares with the butt load of yarn scraps she ever so kindly gave me. It's truly become a Frienship Blanket.

FO Friday

One would have thought that I would have blogged about finishing my first pair of knee highs as soon as they were done. But no. For some reason I have waited almost two weeks to share them with you. So here is what I am now calling Night & Day...

Did you by any chance figure out why I am calling them Night & Day by looking at the picture? Yes, I have socks that are in the same color family but one is light and the other is dark. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed that they are opposite in light values. When I picked out this yarn I was totally in love with the deep autumnal colors and I thought the whole skein would contain those deep colors. But alas that wasn't too be. I have found out from my sis that her skein of yarn is the same way. So we have concluded that this is just the way the Dyer chooses to dye her yarns.

What can I say I love about this yarn? This was my first time ever to knit with a Creatively Dyed yarn and I must say it was very nice to knit. It stitches up beautifully and feels great on your skin. I also love the generous amount of yarn that comes on each skein - over 500 yards. Even after knitting a pair of knee highs I still had a nice amount left over to put towards my Sock Yarn Blankie. Would I buy it again this year at Rhinebeck? Yes, but I will look more closely at the coloring to ensure I get light and dark colors that I like.

Here are the FO stats:

Pattern: On-Your-Toes Socks by Ann Budd (Interweave Knits Mag. Summer '07)
Yarn: Creatively Dyed - Calypso; Colorway: Blocks
Needles: Knit Picks Fixed Circs. - Sizes 1.5 and 2
Started: August 5, 2010
Finished: August 29, 2010

After I finished the knee highs I did cast on for my next pair of socks. I got as far as the cuff and 1 round of the leg before I put them to the side for knitting on this...

I'll have a blankie update in my next post.

99 Squares

When I went to Myrtle Beach at the beginning of July, Sock Yarn Blankie made it into the suitcase. I was fortunate to be able to add squares from sock yarn scraps my sister and mom had. I have five completed rows done. 99 Squares total.

Since I've been home from that trip, I haven't knitted on Blankie at all. I reached a point where I needed to knit up some more of my sock yarn so I could get a little more variety in adding new squares. I was asked how I chose my yarns for each square. Do I just reach in the bag and pick one or do I have a *planned* approach. While I would love to be able to just close my eyes and grab a yarn, my mind has a hard time letting that happen. So without putting too much pressure, or restriction on myself, I decided I'm just trying to space out the yarns that I have A LOT of when adding squares.

So since my scraps were dwindling in the variety department, I decided I needed to start a new pair of socks while away before progressing further on the blanket. I am pleased to say that I am just about done with that pair I started two and half weeks ago. You'll get to see them in the next post. I also have the next pair ready to get on the needles. My plan is to always have a sock going. I'd also like to try and knit up as much of my sock yarn before Rhinebeck in October.

When I came home from Myrtle Beach I had a lovely package in the mail from my dear friend Yarny Old Kim. I want to thank her again because it was truly an awesome package of her own sock yarn scraps for my Blankie. Just look at all the awesomeness!

My Sock Yarn Blankie is now a *Friendship Blanket*! I love the idea of having yarn from my friends and family incorporated into the blanket. I can't wait to start adding all this yumminess into the blanket!

67 Squares

In addition to being busy knitting on the sock yarn blankie, I've also been busy making up little mini skeins for my sister of the yarn I have. I found I needed about 7.5 yards of sock yarn to make one square. So to make the skeins I measured out anywhere from 7.5 to 8 yards. For some of the yarns I had a huge amount leftover so I weighed out 5 grams which will yield several squares for sure. As you can see below, I have 17 sock yarns. That's a good many pair of socks. Plus, there are some socks I don't even have any scraps from.

So far I have finished 67 squares on the blanket. There are three rows completed and the fourth is a quarter done. After tackling all the loose ends from the first and second rows, I've been weaving in the ends as I add a new square. That way there is only 2 ends to weave at a time and they really doesn't take long at all to weave in and snip.

Here it is in all it's close-up glory:

I'm starting to run out of scraps which contribute to the ability to spread out some of the same colors. I'll work with what I got and then it's off to knit more socks!

Sunday Adventure & Knitting

I will warn you that this is an extremely picture heavy post. Was very hard to narrow down the pictures to share. So with that said....

Manny and I decided to go out on one of our little adventures this past Sunday. We took the top off the Jeep and headed out to Greenport, Long Island. The day couldn't have been more perfect!

Greenport, LI:

(We had the most delicious meal here while looking out into the harbor)

(A close-up of what we think is a Seagull sculpture)

(Our bellies were full and I in a new hat)

Orient Point:

(Catching a Ferry coming into dock)

(Catching Manny skipping stones in the ocean)

Vineyard Hopping:

Lenz (Stop #1)


Pellegrini (Stop #2)



Finally, just so there is some knitting content, a picture of the Sock Yarn Blankie.

Good progress has been made. I have been picking up stitches between 2 blocks to create the second row of blocks. I currently have only 5 more blocks to attach to complete the first row. After that I will pick up half the stitches on each end (cast on for the remaining half of the block) and the second row will be done. I spent my dinner break last night weaving in yarn ends. I think this will be the only way to keep my sanity. Weave in as I go.