FO: Some Cloudy Day Legwarmers

It seems like forever since I have shown a completed knitted project. Well it's probably because one hasn't appeared here since June when I last showed off my finished "Iced Eucalyptus Beret".

While I have been knitting, it seems things are taking longer than they should to be completed. In my last post I did mention that I finished one of those "On The Needles For Forever" projects and promised to share all the details. I was waiting to share in hopes of obtaining a better picture, maybe a modeled one, but realized that with the way life is right now, we'd probably be waiting for a very long time.

Without further delay, I present an FO.

Pattern: Some Cloudy Day Legwarmers by Tiny Owl Knits (Link to Free Pattern)
Yarn: Sublime Yarns Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK
Needles: Size 5 Double Pointed Needles
Started: July 15, 2012
Finished: November 22, 2014

I had bought this gorgeous yarn during a visit to my sister when she still lived in Myrtle Beach. I fell in love with the squishy softness and color instantly. Sadly, this yarn is discontinued today.

I started this knit while I was still visiting the beach and within a week had the first legwarmer completed. Within a day of finishing the first one, I had cast on for the second. I didn't want to have a case of the "Second Sock Syndrome". Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. For whatever reason, the second legwarmer was put to the side and was not to be picked up again until this past November.

Anyhoo, the important thing to focus on today, is that they are finally finished. I really did enjoy knitting them. The pattern is easily memorized once you complete a few pattern repeats. They also knit very quickly. The only modification I made was to knit the cuff to 3 inches instead of the called for 2.5 inches. I love that they go over the knee. While knitting them in this DK yarn, they turned out a bit thicker and wouldn't necessarily fit down inside my knee boots as I had originally thought they would. Nonetheless, these turned out wonderful and will be worn a lot during the upcoming winter months.

Conquering the WIPS

Last Friday as I was coming down with a nasty cold, I had the overwhelming desire to go through my knitting WIPs and decide what I could conquer. I know getting sick doesn't equate with conquering lists of things to do, but for some reason this kind of list helped me through my somewhat miserable weekend and yes, with the exception of going food shopping, I spent my entire weekend in my sweats on the couch knitting. Get rid of the nasty cold and it equals a perfect weekend!

I wrote a post back in June where I last talked about my big list of WIPS. You can read it here and this was a shot of my Ravelry In Progress page at the time.

I am proud to say that #1, #2 and #3 on this list moved to the FO section sometime between June and September. #7, TTL Mystery Sock 2012 was frogged.

As of Friday my In Progress Page looksed like this:

At a quick glance you can see that there have been some new projects (three to be exact) started while 10 of the original WIPS are still on the list.

After some pondering and pulling projects out of their sleepy hidey holes, I decided upon three projects in the current list to focus my sick energy on over the weekend. My Glazed Carrot Mod Podge sweater was not on that list. My purpose was to focus on older projects.

So what projects made the cut?

#1 - Some Cloudy Day legwarmers
I remember buying the yarn for this project with my sister when she still lived in Myrtle Beach. I remember rushing home and we both casted on for these legwarmers at the same time. I even bought double pointed needles so I could start them. I remember I had finished one leg warmer in less than a week. I remember casting on for the second leg and getting it almost to the finish line. I remember putting it aside, but I can't remember why.

This project made the cut for this past weekends list simply because I was thhhhhiiiiiissssss close to having it finished.

I will tell you now that as of Saturday afternoon this project became an FO. I will also tell you that even though I was really close to completing the project, it wasn't without knitting drama.

Let's just say I knitted 14 pattern rows and then when I started the cuff, realized I had 61 stitches instead of 60. After analyzing my knitting, I noticed where the extra stitch came from and that was 15 rows back. I'm pointing to the little bugger right here:

The mistake happened the last time I worked on these babies. It must of been fate for me to have made that mistake way back then because after I frogged back to the mistake on Saturday, I relooked at my pattern notes to compare the number of pattern repeats between #1 and #2 that I needed to complete before the cuff, and realized that I only needed to knit 7 rows and not the 14 that I originally did before I noticed the mistake. I am so glad I realized this mistake, because I guarantee I wouldn't of noticed it until after I bound off and snipped the yarn. Then I would of been in knitting tears.

I'll do a follow-up post soon showing the completed project with all the project details I like to include.

#2 - Mystik Spiral Socks
While this isn't one of the "older" WIPs, it was one that I felt needed my attention if it was ever going to be finished. If you remember, I started, and could of had these socks finished, while I was on my European Backpacking Adventure this summer, but on my last day abroad, I realized I missed 11 rows on sock number two, after I had already bound off and snipped the yarn. This post shows you what the pair looked like when I discovered the issue.

To fix the problem, I needed to decide if I was going to just remove the cuff, add the 11 rows and call it finished or if I was going to frog the sock from the cuff all the way down to the ankle and add the 11 rows where they belonged in the pattern.

This is what I decided:

After I frogged down to the ankle, found where I was in the pattern, I added the 11 rows that were missing and put the project aside for another day. My goal was to decide what I wanted to do with the sock and take action towards getting it closer to the FO list. Goal accomplished.

#3 - Back Bay wrap
As you can see above I started this wrap in November of 2011. Eeek! When I last worked on it, and I can't remember when that was it's been that long, probably when I first started the dang thing, I had completed two pattern repeats. That's 20 rows per repeat, so a total of 40 rows plus the setup rounds had been done. By Saturday evening, I had added another 20 or so rows:

I worked on it again all day Sunday and Monday (because I was home sick) and as of right now it looks like this:

I'd say that's some good progress. We have a total of six 20 row pattern repeats done. I believe that the pattern calls for a total of 20 pattern repeats, so I am not close to being done, but definitely heading towards it.

After putting my Glazed Carrot Mod Podge sweater aside for the weekend, I did end my Monday evening with completing sleeve #1. I plan on casting on for #2 this week, but don't anticipate completing the sweater by months end.

I think I kind of liked splitting my attention between a few different projects this past weekend. I really want to get a few more WIPs off the above list by the end of the year.

So, as I look toward my long four day weekend thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, my goals are to finish the Mystik Spiral Socks and the second sleeve of the sweater. After that, we'll see where we go.

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?

It Is A Craft Blog Too

I know there hasn't been much craftiness going on around here lately on the ol' blog. My life has been consumed with running and training. They say when you train for a marathon it's like a second job. I agreed with that back in 2006 and confirmed it again this year.

In a couple of weeks the marathon will be over and life will be somewhat back to normal. I'll have more time/energy to devote to my other loves. There will be more sewing and knitting happening around here (for those who come for the running, I will still be posting about that too). I have many projects that need to be finished and am working on a master plan to get them done.

So here's what's been happening in the craft department during the past few months:

1) Last winter I showcased my first ever quilt here on the blog. I mentioned it here and here. This is what the finished top looked like:

The question is, "Did I ever finish it?" By the end of the last class in December, I had the top and back layers completely sewn together and all layers had been pin basted together in anticipation of quilting. In January I did start the actual quilting process. I managed to quilt two of the blocks before I put the quilt in a timeout. Why did I do that? Because I currently live in a basement apartment with little space and terrible lighting. To accomplish what I had done, I had every light on in the apartment along with an Ott light and I still had difficulty seeing the dark fabric. My honey came home one afternoon to me practically in tears because I was so frustrated. So sadly my beautiful quilt has been put away until we move to the upstairs apartment where there are lots of windows and lighting.

2) I started a second quilt and first blogged about it here. I mentioned at the time that a co-worker commissioned me to make a baby sized quilt for her and this is what the fabric looked like:

Progress has been made on the quilt. I was given the challenge of incorporating a few personal memento's into the quilt. I decided to do a total of 9 (12x12) blocks, with 4 of them containing the personal items.

Here are what the blocks look like:

Fabric from a doggie sweater. I decided to use the fabric to make little doggie prints.

These appliques came from a leather doggie jacket. I added a couple strips of the leather for accent since I could not incorporate the whole jacket.

This is from a doggie harness. I still have the clasps and am thinking of hand sewing them on the block so the doggie will have something to chew on besides the quilt.

The doggie's name. I might embroider some elements on this block.

This is the center block of the quilt.

There are 4 of these blocks to put in each corner of the quilt.

As of right now, all blocks have been sized and I have machine appliqued all the personal item blocks, except for the one with the name. I have sewn the first two rows of blocks together and will complete the third after I finish the name block. As soon as that is done everything will really come together quickly.

3) Finally there was some knitting over the summer. I visited my sister in Myrtle Beach in early July since she was going to be moving to Georgia in August. We couldn't help ourselves from visiting one of the local knit shops one last time.

Of course I found some yarn that I loved and had the perfect project already in mind. Four skeins of Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK hopped in my arms and wanted to grow up to be "Some Cloudy Day" Legwarmers (Ravelry Link).

By the time I left my sister at the beach, I was only a few rows from finishing the first legwarmer. Within a couple days it was complete.

Legwarmer #2 is on the needles, but hasn't seen any action since casting on. If I had planned on making it to Rhinebeck this year, I would have made sure that it got done. Now that it's the perfect weather to wear them here in the city, I will be picking them back up after the marathon. I only need a week or so to finish it.

So that's all the craftiness I have been up to lately, or not. I did purchase some yummy fabric while in Myrtle Beach for a couple new quilts that I will have to share with you soon.

Until then, tell me what are on y'alls knitting needles and/or sewing machines?

*Note: I want y'all to know that I am now responding to everyone's comments within the comments section. I find it much easier to respond to everyone this way. So please make sure to check back to see my response. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I do love hearing from everyone!