On the Needles – Friday, November 7, 2014

As usual – there are lots of things on the needles – too many things.   But I’m plugging along, switching back and forth on various projects. And today I hope to make some good progress on this sweater.  (Yes I have the day ahead of me to knit or sew or whatever — took a day off of work so THREE DAY WEEKEND!)  Thought about doing some cleaning first thing this a.m. but – no- it’s a “vacation” day and I just can’t be “working” on a vacation day. 🙂

These are the fronts of my CustomFit Featherweight KAL sweater.  I’ve done some changing from the original Featherweight pattern since I don’t want the fronts to hang open quilt as bit so hopefully I’ve figured all that out.  It won’t end up looking like the original Featherweight sweater since that was cropped at the waist – a style I can’t wear.  So this one is longer and the fronts will not gap open as much (or so I think). LOL

Anyway I love the way this yarn knits – a nice drape to it  and this color Blood Orange, is pretty true in this photo.  It’s not red – it’s more rust but sort of a red toned rust – whatever it is – it’s pretty.  The back to this sweater is already done and blocked even.

I also have been working on the Bamboo Pop top I started quite a while ago.

  The front is nearly done.  A few more rows on the one shoulder to add but I wanted to  cast on the sleeves one day so I had some “bus knitting” so put the shoulder on a holder to finish later so I could swipe the needles.  The sleeves to this are cast on – I’m doing both at the same time – and I nearly have the seed stitch trim at the hem of the sleeves finished.   The lace pattern is from Pine Forest Baby Blanket and I’m a little concerned that my gauge got looser on the lace (I seem to have that problem with lace) but will have to wait and see – I think I should have put a smaller panel of the lace down the front to help combat that but it’s been dragged here and there so things may “shrink” a bit when blocked.

I need to finish one of these because I have the swatch all finished for a lovely new V-necked pullover with a bit of drape and I so want to get started on it.  I keep wrapping the swatch around my wrist thinking how lovely it will look in a sweater (okay – maybe a bit obsessive about how much I love the look and feel of that yarn).   Then again – the blue sweater is a summer sweater so why finish it now?? (Yes I’m trying to convince my self to start the other sweater.  🙂

Not pictured – a cowl I’m nearly ready to cast off – just a few more rows.  The scarf I still need to add the fringe to so I can count it as complete, my Wiggle Wrap, that I recently pulled back out to work, and some mittens — those are all the things currently strewn around my living room or in the “currently working on basket”  and opposed to the “out of sight out of  mind – knitting in progress” basket.

So time to stop puttering and get this vacation day fun started.  First and foremost — no one brought me breakfast this morning!! Who was in charge of that??? It’s now 10:45 a.m…….. I’m waiting!……

Well friend Judy sort of brought me breakfast. 🙂  Look at these jars of yummy homemade goodness that survived the postal system and arrived at my door earlier this week. What a great surprise.

 Chocolate Raspberry Jam (raspberry anything is my most favorite thing in the world); Prickly Pear Jelly (I’m anxious to try that) and Prickly Pear Syrup (I will admit I  just stuck my finger in the syrup this a.m. and that is delicious!!!   But the only true way to test a good jam or jelly is on biscuits so I’ll just have to make them myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Needles Friday – August 15, 2014

 Here’s my Zigzagatory Camp oopy project — it’s hard to tell but it’s folded in half and on the left side you can see the circular needle.  I just have from the needle down to the tip of the back half left to knew.

Here it is all opened out – not a great photo but I love the way it pooled on each end when I was increasing and decreasing to a certain number of stitches.  Plus where the larger pooling area on the right side is, that’s where I started a second  ball of yarn so that changed how things were sort of striping.  I like it.  Hopefully I’ll get it finished off this weekend.

On the Needles Friday, July 25, 2014

Well – not on the needles yet – but the new yarn I chose for my Camp Loopy 3 project has arrived.   Those who know me well know I don’t like pink.  I don’t wear it, I don’t quilt with it (except for Komen quilts) and I don’t knit with it  unless it’s for someone else.  My one exception is certain shades of pink with chocolatey browns.    The pink shades I this one are more brown pink and I really love them, especially when you throw in that green.  Can’t wait to see what this looks like caked (but I’m too lazy tonight to pull out the yarn swift) and knit.  The pattern I chose, Zigzagatry, is made in a longer color change yarn so has blocks of color.  It will be interesting to see if this pools, is more evenly variegated, or how it knits out.

 

I’ve  been knitting on my Customfit KAL sweater – inches of boring stockinette on the back but I’m getting closer to that neckline bind off.  I’ve been saving that one to work on at night and have been taking my Wiggle wrap along on the bus ride this week to work on.  I’m going to love this when it’s done but I’ve got a way to go and may need to get another ball of each color to get the length I want but will wait and see since I’ve got a while before I have to worry about that.

My vacation has officially started.  A friend took me out for a several days early birthday dinner, and gave me some great birthday presents – a book to read that I had been looking at last time we were in the bookstore (so I can sit out on the patio tomorrow morning, feet propped up in the other chair sippin’ coffee and read my book — okay except I believe Mother Nature has other plans and will be raining on my parade patio) and along with the book, she knows I love the horror/psychological thriller  movies (the ones she’s too scared to watch) so she got one that looks sufficiently scary on the front cover that she herself would never consider watching.  LOL  That will be my entertainment tonight I think – to see how well she picked. 😉  I’m hoping to get the back of my sweater done up to where I can bind of the neck tonight.

 

 

On the Needles Friday, April 18, 2014

  On the needles right now – my pullover sweater which is about six or seven or eight inches long now – somewhere in there.  And on Wednesday I also cast on another Quaker Yarn Stretcher shawl with the handspun yarn I recently bought.  Too bad it’s meant for a gift – it would have looked pretty nice with my sweater. 🙂

I only had to work half a day today so am trying to decide whether to sew or knit – maybe I’ll do a bit of both this afternoon.  I want to get the button bands and neck trim put on my Cardipalooza sweater.

 

Also, I received some fun little goodies I had ordered from an Etsy shop.

Aren’t these the cutest little stitch markers.  They are made of glass.

I’ve also been eyeing up yet another pattern on Ravelry but I WILL NOT CAST IT ON YET!  at least not until the Quaker Yarn Stretcher is finished and they are a pretty quick knit – I can old off  that long……

 

On the Needles Friday – 2/4/14

  Happy Valentine’s Day!

What’s on my needles tonight you ask?  Golden Shore Ledges.   Back is done, front is done, and these are the sleeves I’m plodding along on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These sleeves are taking forever – well not really but I’m already getting anxious to start my stripey sweater but in the meantime, I decided to join in a sweater knit along which required a yarn purchase since I have very little yarn in sweater quantities.  So once again I’ll be adding to my stash totals rather than decreasing them (another reason I need to get this Shore Ledges done -in addition to wanting to wear it – add some stash used to that tally! LOL  On my list of things to do tomorrow — block my Greta vest so I can wear it finally.  If I’m lazy and do nothing else – that’s one thing I will get done.   Now if I were only a short, skinny person with short arms, this sweater knitting would go soooo much faster (and cost much less) but time to go get comfy and continue knitting on those sleeves.

 

On the Needles Friday – Nov. 22, 2013

It’s been a busy knitting week of finishes.  I posted earlier this week the Pothos socks I finished, the drop stitch scarf is off the needles and will hopefully get blocked this weekend.  And here’s a photo of the Ruffled Scarf.  It of course doesn’t look like much hanging on that door knob. 🙂

I’m trying to decide if I want to steam block the ruffled edge a bit – that should relax it so it’s not quite so kinky.  But it’s just long enough that it goes around your neck and can be held in place with a fancy pin and a little bit of the ends hanging down.  It will be a little spark of color for a plain sweater.  I may just leave it all kinky and wild looking.

My mohair/silk “Fluff” scarf is coming along slowly but surely.  It’s no real conducive to “bus ride knitting.”

Now that its dark when I go to and from work – the lights in the bus that are on are dull and a weird color and trying to see that skinny yarn can be a bit tricky and I keep catching part of the stitch below so this will probably be  a stay at home project.

 

So, had to find something else to knit on the bus yesterday and pulled another lonely sock out of the sock basket.  I had just cast on and knit a row or two of the second sock when it got put in away.  So a little more progress has been made on these Basket Weave Rib socks – which gives them a little texture.  The foot on these looks really wide but that’s just because I stopped the pattern stitch and didn’t continue it down the top of the foot – but then again, they are sort of wide cause I have a wide foot.

 

And I did indeed find another scarf I had started – Just Enough Ruffle – so I’m hoping to get that one finished soon since I really love the color of the yarn its in.  So time to go get snuggled in for the evening to knit.  I was surprised to walk out to snow this morning  – most of which went away during the day despite the really cold wind.  But temps are supposed to drop so don’t think I’ll stick my head out the door this weekend at all!

 

Check out the other On the Needles posts at Judy’s!

On The Needles Friday October 11, 2013

Yesterday’s blog post shows the latest thing off my needles — my Loopy Ewe 4th quarter challenge project.  I’m still working on the Porthos socks but I think I’m just about ready to start the heel — have to compare it to the first sock and then need to pull out the instructions since I know it’s different from my normal heel.    I also updated my Sticks ‘n Strings page recently and added a couple other projects I recently blocked.  And tonight remembered to update the yardage knit year to date — 13,075 yards.  That’s knit to date for only finished projects.  There’s much more on the needles in various stages but I don’t add it to the total until it’s been blocked and ends buried and is ready to wear.

I also stated a pair of mittens, then ripped them out after the cuff was done because I didn’t like the pattern. LOL  Some yarns get more mileage out of them than others.

And I finished stitching  the toe closed and burying ends on this pair last night.  And then picked another lone sock out of the sock basket and cast on and just knit a row or two to get that second sock started.  That pair I’m very afraid I’m going to run out of yarn on but I always think that and have been lucky.  We’ll see if that luck continues.

UFO Finish 13 – Smooshy with Cashmere Camp Loopy 2012 Color

 

On the Needles Friday – October 4, 2013

There’s been three projects I’ve sort of  been hopping back and forth on this week – not that I’ve had a huge amount of time to work on any of them.  It’s been another very busy exhausting week.  I fell asleep knitting one night while watching tv and was so tired I decided it must be late and I must go to bed.  (Late for me is after 11:30 p.m. since I am usually up till about then).  I crawled in bed, hit the alarm clock to turn it on and it was only 9:30 pm! LOL  I fell asleep anyway but then work up from 3:30 on about every half hour.  I so hate that when it happens.

Anyway — I did not make a lot of knitting progress this week — unless you consider the ESK yarn package and  the Box of Fun – both which arrived this week –  to be “knitting progress”  — heck I do! Especially since  (1) I had loopy dollars (shopper reward dollars) waiting to be spent that I’ve been saving for a while and (2) I was close enough to the next reward level that now I have more loopy dollars waiting for my next shopping fun AND I earned a reward package — one of the things in it was  ….

 a loopy cup – it looks more hot pink on my monitor but of course it  is Loopy Ewe red.

So my Loopy 4th quarter project, Gray Haven, is coming along nicely.  it moves along pretty quickly if you actually find time to knit on it.    I pinned it out a bit on the ironing  board to try to show the lacy pattern.  It will be pretty.

And then there are socks  – the pair I work on while riding the bus and the pair I’ve started at home which are for the ESK Sock-a-long.

 

I need to go pull my Dreambird out and get to work on more of its feathers too because once I’ve finished it, I think I’ve found my next big project- by the same designer as Dreambird called Art Deco.  I love it!

On the Needles September 6, 2013

 Dreambird is coming along nicely.  I’m just finishing feather number 15.  I just love working on this project. I was flipping through some catalogs last night thinking…hmmm I should look for a new blouse that I can wear with this! LOL 

 

 

As part of my Sept-Oct Socktoberfest challenge, I’ve been working this week during my bus rides to and from work on the first pair of socks that needed finishing.

When I picked it up last weekend, I hadn’t quite finished the decreases from the heel gusset down to the finished foot width.   But as you see progress has been made since then.  What is really funny is this sock was one I had started in connection with Judy’s sock pooling challenge.  It wasn’t really pooling so I set these aside and worked on a different pooling one.  This sock, unlike the first one – sort of has rows of peachy/white and then the brown tones.  The other one looks more mixed together – or maybe I just notice the striped look more I the photo than looking at the real sock.  But anyway – look at the top of the foot — a whole big pooling puddle of peachiness.

 

 

Earlier this week I came across a link for flexible blocking wires.  So now I’m anxiously awaiting them to arrive to try them out.  I’d be really happy if I don’t have to practice self-acupuncture any more which is what happens with the straight blocking wires.  By the time I get a shawl all blocked, I’ve poked and poked and scratched myself numerous times.   And a very good excuse not to block the shawl I was going to do — I need to save it to test the wires with right?

Of course I found that link while surfing on Ravelry.  More patterns have been added to my library to go back and look at again when I’m ready to start a new project – which is just about all the time whether or not the other ones are done.  My latest obsessions are with these patterns:

• Cicada Shawl  I love the lace on this – and somehow the timing seems right as I have the window open and the loud buzzing of cicadas is a constant sound right now.
• Begonia Swirl     I think it’s just gorgeous and the green one with white edging is simply stunning.
• Antartkis I like the simplicity of this one
• 100 Diamonds – so light and airy looking – it’s just so lovely
• Ruffled scarf — this one I have what I think is a perfect yarn for and may have to cast it on (which will definitely take a while!)

But – since I’ve got the day off  I need to get busy and quit surfing Ravelry and ordering yarn (yes, I had to take a break from writing this blog post to place an order at The Loopy Ewe for yarn for the 100 Diamonds shawl – I almost ordered the exact same color it is shown in, but decided to go for something else although that purpley blue is a gorgeous color).

I was busy earlier – made a trip to the grocery store (lack of soda and coffee here – couldn’t survive the day without that), picked up everything to make my favorite chicken Chablis except when I got home realized I forgot the swiss cheese!! Drat!  Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to make it since I’ll be out and about tomorrow and can pick up the cheese.  But it’s a perfect day weatherwise out there so I may just take my coffee out to the patio and knit for a while out there.  Low 70s, sunny, no breeze and no humidity — it doesn’t get much better than that!

Speaking of tomorrow — it’s Wisconsin Quilt Expo time so I’ll be headed with a friend for breakfast tomorrow morning and then on to the quilt show for some quilty inspiration.    I didn’t make it to the show last year so am really looking forward to it.  And in addition to the quilts — well of course vendors  – to see what’s new!  LOL

Okay – enough rambling – time to refill the coffee cup  and decide what to do next.

 

 

 

On The Needles – Friday, August 23, 2013

 On the Needles  this Friday — well it’s a smorgasbord depending on which knitting basket or bag you look in.

 

Here’s Dreambird – I was working on the fourth feather last night but I kept falling asleep and recounting the same row many times that I finally wised up and went to bed!

 

Then there’s my latest Wingspan – #3.  This has been my “bus knitting” for the latter part of the week.

 

I had to switch to Wingspan after I got to the end on my That Nice Stitch cowl.  I want to block it before I kitchner stitch the ends together so plan to get that done this weekend along with blocking my Quaker Yarn Stretcher which I finished earlier in the week.

Many things going on and off those needles lately.  Camp Loopy is always such good knitting inspiration — you see all the projects others are making, add them to your list of things you want to make, so right after Camp, when I’ve been power knitting for three months, it seems to carry over and many things get done started — done is a whole different issue.

Tonight will be spent working on Dreambird and tomorrow there definitely needs to be some chores done and I’m suffering quilting withdrawal so yes, after planning on doing it for the past two weekends I think I’m FINALLY going to get a chance to cut into those lovely batik fabrics.

Don’t forget to check out what others have on their needles this Friday at Patchworktimes.com.