Category: Blog

What do you get when you mix a little bit of leftover sock yarn, size 1 dpn sock needles, a funky monkey pattern, and a few extra hours?

A little sock yarn monkey.
I’ve been wanting to make this pattern for a long time but just haven’t gotten around to it. Yesterday afternoon I was kinda “trapped” in my room, waiting for the freshly cleaned carpets in the house to dry, so it was just easier for me to stay in my room and knit. My current project was downstairs, so I decided to work on this monkey instead.

This was such a fun little clever knit that only required minimal seaming. The legs, tail and mouth were all worked on the body using waste yarn holders that you then unpick to work those sections after working the main body. You can get the pattern for the Funky Sock Monkey here.

I’m finally making socks. At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to try and use up my whole sock yarn stash. Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing much sock knitting. For my birthday my friends gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble, so I got this book:

Toe-Up Socks for Every Body.

I’ve only ever made socks from the cuff down, and I’ve been wanting to try the toe-up technique. So I gave it a try:
I really like making socks this way so far. And the benefit of doing them toe-up is that if you have two balls of yarn, you can use all of the yarn possible without having to guess how much is enough to finish the sock. The leg ends up being the last part you knit, so you can keep knitting til it’s the length you want or you run out of yarn.

So Summer of Socks, here I come.

I know so many pregnant women right now. It’s crazy…last year was the year of weddings, so this year has been the year of babies. Funny how that happens…

I’m working on two baby blankets right now, one knit and one crochet. Obviously, I can’t say anymore about them since they aren’t finished and therefore, haven’t reached their intended recipients. But I can say that they are both very cute and I’m enjoying the patterns and yarns (like I had any doubt that a baby blanket I make wouldn’t be cute?).

I can, however, post about these blankets I made at the beginning of the year for my pastor’s family. They just added a third baby girl to their bunch, so I decided that instead of just making one baby blanket, I’d make one for all three girls. I’ve become really fond lately of “sibling” gifts because 1) it’s special for the other siblings who aren’t receiving any gifts at the birth of a new brother/sister, and 2) it’s a great way to use up extra stash yarn and try patterns I’ve been wanting to try.
I knit the baby’s blanket using Lion Brand One Pound in a soft pink color and did a border in Vanna’s Baby in a bright pink color. I like the contrast of the two pinks for this blanket and also how the brighter pink made it look more modern than just a traditional “baby pink.”
For the older girls, I used the same pattern (“wattle stitch” in crochet), but different colors. I don’t know them that well, so I let mom pick which blanket went to which girl.
After I gave them all the blankets, I heard that the older girls carried them around for a couple days. So cute! And I love seeing that the mom uses the baby’s blanket as a stroller blanket all the time. Every time I see them at church, I see my blanket displayed on the top of the stroller.

It’s always rewarding to see that the recipient isn’t afraid to use my handmade gift.

I bought some yarn yesterday on clearance to make a sweater. I was not planning to buy this yarn, nor to make this sweater that I picked out. It’s also an unusual color for me to pick out for myself; it’s called “paprika” and resembles the color of my Mango Snapple Shawl (which might explain why I picked the yarn since that’s my favorite shawl ever). But I think what’s most unusual about me making this sweater is the fact that summer’s footsteps can be heard louder and louder every day. It’s supposed to be spring, and instead it’s 80 degrees. And I’m making a sweater that I won’t be able to wear for another 7ish months.

The seasons and I are not compatible here in Arizona.

I know, it’s hard to believe, but not everyone in the world is a knitter. And not everyone who reads my blog is a knitter either. Like my dad.

So my dad came home from work today and the first thing he asked me was “what is that ‘thing’ you posted about on your blog? I don’t know what it is…” Ha ha ha! I’m usually fairly good at explaining the things I make, but I totally forgot to do that on the post about my “Pretty Thing.”

It’s a cowl.

Now that may not help much for someone who is not a knitter, nor lives in a cold climate where you might encounter such an item. So a definition. A cowl is a neckwarmer. It’s a scarf without being a scarf. It’s a tube of knitting you wear around your neck to keep you warm. Most people wear them with their coats to keep their necks warm, or if you don’t live in a cold place (like me) you can wear it on its own with a pretty pin or something. Sometimes a cowl is long enough to go all the way over your head like a hood. Sometimes they are just pretty, like Pretty Thing. For some reason, even though cowls have been around for a long time, they are really REALLY popular this winter, especially with knitters. Of course it’s popular with knitters because it has the benefit of a scarf without the time-consuming knitting of a scarf.

The things you can learn when you hang out with a knitter.

(I’m knitting mittens. Do you know what that is? Probably not if you live in Arizona…)

My second Ravelympics finisher was this:

Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

I used a little over half a skein of Knitpicks Imagination Hand-paint Sock yarn in color “Looking Glass.” I love how this turned out, and luckily it’s been raining every weekend here, so that means I’ve been able to wear my pretty lace things on Sundays to church. This Pretty Thing made it’s debut last Sunday, complete with a skeleton key pin (“Looking glass,” key, get the picture?). It was perfect timing for the new version of “Alice in Wonderland” that came out this week. My mom and I went to the midnight showing, and I enjoyed the movie immensely. Perhaps I’ll wear my Pretty Thing when I go see it a second time…

PS>This project finally used some sock yarn stash that I’ve been trying to (unsuccessfully) use up this year. Unfortunately it didn’t even use the whole skein.

Here is my first finisher for this year’s Ravelympics:
My beautiful Ene Shawl is finally finished. It only took me two days to do the last half of the shawl. Even though I’ve been technically working on this since October, it only took about a week’s worth of knitting to complete. After a rough start and running out of yarn, I finally finished it and I will be able to wear it hopefully this weekend.

Before blocking:

During blocking:

Close-up details:
I love this pattern and I love how it turned out. I had just enough of the multi-colored Noro yarn to do the bottom border, and after ordering two additional skeins, I had more than enough to finish the main body of the shawl. I did, however, start the pattern with fewer stitches, so I did fewer chart repeats. After blocking, the shawl still ended up being larger than I expected, but just the right size for me.
More lace knitting to come.

Winter Olympics start today, so that can only mean one thing: Ravelympics start today too! Remember the Summer Olympics in 2008 when I did Ravelympics: here and here and here? Well, it’s that time again.
I’m on Team Stashdown again, and I created this avatar for our team to show our coolness. It’s fun to see a bunch of different people all sporting our same team logo. Good times.

This year I’ve decided to focus on lace. I was going to try to do just one large project, but I’ve decided to instead finish a lace WIP (the Ene Shawlette) and then make 3 other smaller lace projects (Citron, Springtime Bandit, and Pretty Thing) in the 17 days. Since the weather here is quickly moving from “it’s almost cold enough to be called winter” to “it’s too hot to be called spring, but it’s not hot enough to be summer yet,” it makes more sense to make smaller shawls that I can wear right now, rather than a big one I won’t be able to wear until November or December (boo).

Now I just have to wait till 7pm tonight to pull out the Ene Shawl and officially start.

That’s right, I’ve “crossed” over….to cross-stitch. Actually, I learned to cross-stitch when I was about ten years old, which was the craft that eventually led to my learning to crochet two years later. I kinda gave up on cross-stitch because I got tired of having to change the thread so often. But I decided to overcome my frustration with this little trait of that particular craft when I got the opportunity to test “stitch” this pattern: “Cute is Always in Season” from Mochimochi Land.
I had forgotten how long cross-stitch takes (it’ll probably be awhile before I make another one). This project took me about a month and a half to complete, working on it for several hours a day. This is the largest cross-stitch I have ever made, and I’m quite proud of this piece. My favorites are the owl (Oct), the rabbit (May), and the squirrel (Nov). The pattern was great and it’s for sale over in the Mochimochi Land shop. Thanks, Anna, for giving me the opportunity to test this pattern.