Inspiration

A few bits of Inspiration from the past weeks...

:: Mama-made pajamas... I'm imagining making several of these tops next fall/winter for baby girl

:: Reasons Why I Hate School... why our homeschool doesn't really look much like real school....

:: An easy to make scrub for that winter skin...

 

:: Ginny's art post provided me with inspiration for our baby girl's room

and a potential source for art prints.

:: Practical ways to establish prayer in your Home

:: A great art supply list (and a giveaway if you get in on it today!)

:: Homemade playdough - I'm planning this for a fun first project in the new house next month.

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny again this week}

I think I'm out of my reading rut now and I have Legend by Marie Lu to thank for it. It has been a really fun read! I'm not done with it quite yet, but it did inspire a few more titles to read after I'm done so I'm well stocked.


Yes, that stripey thing you see is another sock. If you're keeping count with me this is the THIRD one this year and I'm already 1/3 of the way through the foot. It's my "knit a row here and there" project that hangs out in my purse and goes everywhere.


And the lavender? That's the Pearl Shrug that I started around Christmas. It has been in timeout for a few weeks for refusing to cast on properly when it came time for the left side. Now that we've worked out our differences it's back to happy knitting.


Please tell me I'm not the only one to give my knitting time-outs! Sometimes I just need to take a break so I can regain some perspective before tackling a problem. I usually have about three attempts in me before I lock a project away for awhile. A lot of times I can then come back and actually solve the issue (and often wonder why I had that weird problem in the first place...)

Do you give your knitting time-outs?

Finishing

We're packing for real now that the move is getting truly close and I worked last night on packing up my backup stash.

Yeah, you read that right.

Backup stash.

When we picked up and moved within two days in the fall I quickly set myself up with possibilities- three projects that were on the needles but "resting", 2 different lace weights, about 5 fingering weight choices- two sweaters worth of worsted weight yarn... plus all my needles so that I could do whatever I wanted. Plus I acquired baby project yarn once I found out we were having a girl since most of my yarn runs to the red/green/blue range for my boys.

It's quite hefty for not being my main stash, especially with me being the project knitter that I am. I just don't buy yarn if I'm not sure how I'm going to use it, and all of this yarn has a purpose... but the other yarn... the REAL stash is hanging out in the back of my mind, mocking me.

I packed it up in a tote, ready to go when we move, but easy to break into should I run into an urgent knitting need. I'm choosing to see this as an opportunity- an opportunity to get moving on a few projects that have been resting for longer than they should, some for good reasons, others... not so much. I want to get to work on my knitting goals and on all that stash busting/UFO finishing we're doing this year.

Like this cute little thing...

I began knitting it for my niece in April of 2010, for her birthday in September. And then I realized that my guessed-at gauge for a one-year-old was totally not working out and I abandoned it and re-knit the pattern with different yarn so that she still got that lovely sweater.

All that little pink cardi needs is a sleeve and then our sweet baby girl will have her first cardi. Maybe it's a great thing that I abandoned it to re-knit for my niece?

There's an almost done vest that I really love, and a grey pullover that is half a sleeve shy of completion, a few baby hats that just need a little bit of seaming, buttons for a cardigan, a little bit of weaving in ends on this and that.

I have 8 (EIGHT!) projects with needles actually in the project, and at least 4 that just need a bit of finishing. Think that will keep me busy until we move next month? (Besides all the packing, of course!)

FO: Mint Socks

Project: Mint Socks (aka the 2012 Socks)

Pattern: Silver's Sock Class

Yarn: Knitpicks palette

Needles: size 2 DPNs

For: myself (because I knit selfishly in January and February after the Christmas making)

Notes: I cast these on just after the new year, and was determined to finish, because, well, I felt defeated by socks last year and I didn't want to miss my sock goal for a second year in a row. So I spent one whole day on the first sock and then found little bits of time here and there for the second (since whole days of knitting just don't happen that often). I grafted the toe of the second sock last Saturday for a total of 11 days on this knit.


The cuff is a little baggy for my personal taste (and if I would have swatched to check out the fabric type I was getting I would have seen that that would be a problem with this particular yarn on this particular needle size but I'm a notorious non-swatcher on stuff like this), and on the next sock I'm taking time to be sure that the gusset shaping turns out a little more narrow for the foot by decreasing a little more or starting with 60 stitches instead of 64.


I'd guess having around 25 hours in this pair (within an hour or two either way) but I did a lot of "knit for 20 minutes in the car" type knitting on the cuff and gusset so it's hard to really calculate((and I'm just not the kind of knitter to keep track of that sort of thing). It's been about a year since I knit a sock so while I'm familiar with the construction I did have to stop and think and calculate a little bit as I went.


Things I learned: I should have used a smaller needle for these. They turned out fine for size, but this particular yarn would have probably done best with a 0 for a denser fabric (and I know this is not the best yarn for socks, but I'm okay if they don't last that long). You'd think I'd know to swatch by now, but... not so much. Does it help if I promise to swatch for the next pair?


I really tried to figure out why it is that I've stalled out on socks before, and I couldn't really pinpoint that particular problem. Maybe I'm just not ready to knit fancier socks yet and need to spend some hours knitting a few pairs of vanilla ones so that I get to that "plain socks are boring; I need something more interesting than this" place that I've gotten to with other project types.


Overall: Good knit! I think I learned enough about what I want from the sock shaping to get my desired fit on the next pair.

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny again as I do most Wednesdays...}

Sorry for the flash pic, but January sunlight is just not being kind to me this week! 

The mint green socks from last week are complete (more details later in the week), and I'm trying another vanilla pair, this time in worsted weight for a faster knit and thicker sock. I know it's nothing fancy, but I'm going to try the heel a little differently and see if I like the fit better. After this I think I'm going back to a bit of baby knitting, but I've got to take advantage of the sock knitting mojo while I have it, you know?


I'm reading on my kindle again this week- Organized Simplicity. I was just about to buy a copy of this book when I saw it come up for free on kindle and took advantage. (It's no longer free to everyone, but as of this writing it's free for Amazon prime members). I've just started it, but already found a lot to love.


My 4-year-old is responsible for the Knitted Monster book. He's in love with all things Stitch (as in Disney's Lilo and Stitch) so any kind of monster or alien thing is something he equates with stitch. When he saw this book on a highlighted knitting display while at our library the other day he said I *had* to get it for him. He looked through and picked a monster for me to knit on the way home- so maybe a knitted monster will be up next?