Stripe socks

Well it seems I have found my knitting mojo. I am having all of the knitting feelings. I am fighting a consuming case of start all of the things. I want to sort through my stash and pet some yarn. I've been perusing so many patterns. One moment I am looking at shawls, the next is is sweaters, then on to mittens. I have knit several things in my head and they all came out perfectly, if only they were not imaginary. 

But in reality I have knit a few things let me tell you about this little pair. Made from some of my new favorite yarn. Urth Uneek Sock. I may love them partially because I am a phonetic speller and once I realized this company would have upped my 4th grade spelling test by a point if they had been around then. I still have no idea why "of" is not spelled "ove", what about oven people?

I must say I don't love the fact that they number their colorways. It may be easier but I really want to know what "patience sunshine" looks like to someone else. I'm guessing something blue-green with orange-yellow. But that could just be me. 

 

By my own definition these were fun TV knitting time. And that is all that matters. At first they started off a bit baby shower colors, well more of a hip baby shower maybe.

 

But then the green came in and all was right with my knitting universe again. Wait is that brown and gray paired next? It is battle of the neutrals coming down the foot.

This was the first time I knit from the inside of the ball for this yarn and I was not sure I liked the way the colors changed. I might have enjoyed knitting them more if they were opposite. I did think of knitting the second sock in reverse order but my symmetrical side hit me with rolled up newspaper and yelled Bad Knitter! at me so it was not considered very long. I'm not saying others couldn't do it that was, but alas my character flaws would not allow it. 

I was pretty happy when I looked down at them in my Birkies and I could see how pretty they looked on my feet.

Something about the colors changing all the time makes this yarn knit up faster. My January socks were done before mid month. Leaving me with plenty of time to start something else. Oh come on you've been here long enough to know there were three other something elses on my needles this whole time. 

I'm knitting at least three rows on that shawl that will eventually be finished, but man is it a slog. I found two mistakes right next to each other 4 rows back and thought there ain't no way I'm going back to fix them. So I didn't and so far I am fine with that decision. 

Happy Knitting! 

One Step at a time

Since I have been so productive in my knitting lately, I'm dusting off a project that has been in time out for a while. It is not my oldest WIP but I really don't want to talk about that one right now.

I pulled this one out. I'm happy with it so far I guess but it needs to get done. I had a panic moment when I thought I had lost my notes on this, and would not be able to figure out were I was on the pattern. First things first take a picture so at least I can compare to the pictures of finished ones. Looks like I don't have that far to go. (She says before realizing she stopped before the bobble section.)

This pattern gave me an insight on myself. I loathe making one stitch into five stitches then turning it back into one stitch a few rows later. Loathe! I buckled down and finished out clue three and vowed to never knit another bobble again. Yes I had checked the finished ones to make sure this was the last clue with a bobble. I should have named this my Outside my comfort zone shawl.

Mellie decided she could be my bobble knitting support cat. She was thrilled I pulled this out and sat down to knit in the comfy chair. Plus a little Christmas glow is always nice.

Burt punched in as a knitting supervisor on another day. Who doesn't want lap time and Christmas lights?

I have pulled out all the tools on this knit too. I bought these nifty stitch markers at a local wool festival in October because I knew I still needed to knit on this shawl. I've been using my clip on ten row stitch markers on this too. This shawl has so much bling on it during the complicated bits the cats still hear the tinkle of bells.

But I'm not just knitting either. I made some cinnamon rolls and overbaked them.

I tried my hand at making upside-down pineapple cake for the second time. It was good but I don't think I need to bake it again soon. I do feel a nice lemon drizzle pound cake in my future though.  

Sitting next to the cake is another experiment. I fermented garlic in honey. Yeah I know I'm not sure how I feel about it either. I had to burp it once a day for a week. Oh the smell was so strong. It is supposed to be an immunity booster but I've not tried it too much yet. The smell did mellow as the week went on but still, Yowsa!

Mellie forgave the smell and kept on knitting with me. We are slowly making our way through clue 4 then on to clue 5 and finishing. 

I have finished a pair of socks and mittens in the meantime to keep my easy knitting brain calm. This shawl will be a long haul. My friend that suggested this knit along is long past being finished with hers. Heck she even finally blocked it. I'm not jealous at all. I have a clue and a half to go and it will be done by 2024. Mellie says I have to!!

Being busy

The start of a new year! So fresh and inviting. I don't really make resolutions but I do make knitting plans and try new habits. I learned long ago resolutions are like ultimatums you give yourself and I don't respond well to ultimatums. I do however think about things I would like to change and try to move forward with making some changes. 

 

I inherited D's grandmother's recipe box a while ago. And thinking about it I would like to tell a bit about it one day. I pulled it out while organizing the pantry and gave it a look since we have been watching Great British Bake Off again. I found a gem called Matrimonial Cake (date bars), since I had already landed my prince I did not feel the need to make this one, but maybe for our anniversary? 

It was quite fun looking through the box again. So many newspaper clipped recipes and even a clipping of her being the senior citizen of the month. I knew what her priorities were when I found the divider card originally labeled vegetables had been changed to cookies. I mean who needs recipes for veggies you just open a can and heat them up, right? Ah midwest cooking a topic for another day.

D had a migraine flare and I knew that once you give it a day or two it is time to take yourself out for an easy hike and enjoy some fresh air. You just have to enjoy The Sandias whenever you can. 

The new year kicked my knitting into over drive. I think just sitting with yarn and patterns and thinking of what to knit is just the refresh I wanted. I pulled out some of my new beloved striping yarn from Urth and started some socks. It is true for me that self striping yarn knits up quick. I have already finished my January socks! 

And planning pays off too since I finally found my favorite match of colorway name and pattern name socks. Pattern is My Cup of Tea Socks by Robin Lynn and the yarn is named Lemongrass Tea. The pattern is sort of the one I referenced. I /rewrote/reworked it for the stitch count I like and I think I left half of the repeat behind. What I'm knitting doesn't really match the pictures I saw online. They will be fantastic anyways and be truly unique to my foibles. That is what you get when you rewrite something then let it sit for a week or so. You forget the details and why your stitch count is different from what you planned. I am loving them regardless.

I have more knitting to show off but one of the things I would like to do is blog more so I may as well end here.