FO Friday

If my blog has been lagging at least my knitting and picture taking have not. Ok fine at least they have not been lagging quite as much as blogging. I wish I could be more like my friend Adriene and come up with beautiful and thought provoking posts, but I am still plain spoken me and that is OK. At least I knit beautiful things.

Today's post is brought to you by my past knitting FOs. FO is shorthand for Finished Object, for you random non knitters out there. 

Honestly I have been knitting and even taking pictures. At least when I remember to gather it up and have the Ipad in hand. Sometimes it is a long time before the picture makes it here. I am changing up my blog a bit and keeping more notes and pictures here. I miss blogging and this is one way of getting a bit of my mojo back.

First up my Zombie Mittens. These sassy mittens were knit out of Dragonfly Fibers Damsel yarn in the Zombie Apocalypse colorway. And I still have half a skein of this bright yarn leftover to knit something else or more mittens since you know I have lost entire mittens before. I bought the yarn at Rhinebeck back in the day. Shh Rhinebeck was virtual this year, I "attended" another Rhinebeck this year. Those yarnie pictures are coming later. I may have to go take them after this post. 

Back to the knitting stats, I used 3.25 mm needles to get a reasonably tight gauge without making them stiff enough to be weapons. I'm pretty happy with them and they definitely make cold steering wheels and overcast weather look better. Started November 1 2019, finished November 23 2019. Not a bad turnaround time when I can't even say monogamous knitting without giggling. I wonder how many things I was working on at the same time?

Now these lovelies started out as Christmas yarn from the hubby and were knit during my ankle recovery. I put the first one to good use while I was still in the splint and boot.

This yarn is Blazing Fibers Fingering Yak Blend in the Crystal Coma colorway. The yak makes them so warm and plush. I thought maybe socks were not the thing to knit but hey why not? I am the boss of my knitting. I get to do what I like. I started knitting these January 5 2020 and finished April 4 2020. Initially I did not like the way the colors were pooling so I ripped back and used my 2.25 cubic needles that seem to give me slightly different gauge which is just enough to make me like the pooling. Love the muted colors.

I love eye catching socks and these are my newest favorites. Knitted Wit Victory Sock in the Unbowed colorway. This was one of my last purchases from The Knitting Bee in Portland. Knit June 14 2020 to August 21 2020. Plain old socks to show off that lovely colorway, bold and beautiful. Plus they coordinate with my basket. 

 Boy I did not realize how far I have fallen off the blogging train. I just went back to link some of the FO's to work in progress posts and I could not find any. Life gets in the way and it is better to live it than record it but I like doing both so why not? I'm off to take more pictures and may even get next Friday's post ready too, since I have pictures.

Happy knitting everyone!

Mittens before snow

I must apologize to the northeast US. I think my knitting may have caused snowpocalypse, because I have been knitting up a storm. (It is OK you can tell me, I already know my knitting does not cause weather fronts to converge.)

So that is the really long way to tell you I have finished my driving mittens.  I remembered to catch a quick photo of each of them, but quick photos never seem to capture the magic. 

 

 They're nice and light, made of fingering weight yarn. I can hold my keys and feel the steering wheel. I don't feel like I am overwhelmed like some mittens can feel.

But the down side is that they are not super warm. I would not want to go on a long hike with these alone. But again they were never intended for that use.

I used Ann Budd's The Knitter's handy book of patterns to make them. The yarn is Ball and Skein Sophia, a lovely soft yarn with a touch of cashmere. I enjoyed knitting with it immensely. I made a long  four inch cuff intending to tuck it under my coat cuff, but I like them turned down into a double cuff too.

So now what about that sweater I was going to make. Hmm this is prime sweater knitting weather going on. Oh and look the yarn is green too.

Don't mind me I just be swatching a bit. Oh wait can I count my Rhinebeck sweater as a working swatch? Ann Budd and I will be off in a corner running the numbers from her Top Down Sweaters book. Well she is here in spirit anyways.

Don't worry my train travel thoughts are still chugging along too. I've run some numbers on flying vs railing and it has dispelled some guilt that I want to tell you about but that is all another post or two.

New sock Friday on a Saturday and mittens too!

I wore my newest lovelies to take lunch to the Hubby at work, yesterday. I think I've used up all my random day off chips so he will not have lunch to look forward to for a bit. We had a nice time and I even got to come home with half of a Fritos bag. Those chips are a little slice of heaven on earth, an unhealthy slice but tasty nonetheless.

Back to the socks, this is another one of my plain stockinette socks that really shows off the coloring of the yarn. I do believe that this yarn was from my first ever trip to Rhinebeck, ahh the memories. I was just a new knitter then and had only two or three hand knit socks to my name back then. (I have quite a few more than that now, you've seen many of them here.)

This is Socks that Rock medium weight yarn in the colorway Rare Gems. So now these little gems are mine! I don't think they will see much action this summer though, it is a fairly substantial yarn more suited to keeping out the cold rather than enjoying the summer heat.

Speaking of inappropriate things to wear in the summer. I finally managed to wrangle a picture of my mittens from this last winter. These fit fine until you pair them with a winter coat, then they are a tad too long due to the cuff of the coat wanting to sit where the cuff of the mitten wants to sit. It is a bit of wintertime sibling rivalry, I can almost hear them shoving each other and saying You move over, No you move over! 

I have not yet had to threaten to pull the car over if they can not figure out how to get along, yet. My mittens were hard to photograph because they stayed in the car once winter turned to spring and summer. I think they liked riding around with the windows down and the music playing. Alas now they're sitting on the desk next to the computer with nothing to do. Bummer mittens this is your life in the summertime.