Why yes that is a chicken

I was looking for something new to knit. My shawl bender stalled out in the lace portion of a shawl and I just knit a couple of pairs of socks for a friend. What now?

Burt thought I might have knit him a shark fin... finally. But then I kept on knitting.

I did indeed take a wrong turn in Albuquerque, and produced a square tailfeather. But I realized it and ripped back without issue.

So this is the tailfeathers and sides opened up. What is that called in cooking again Spacacht? Nope I mean spatchcocking. I've never done it but now I've knit it.

I was so excited to have a chicken half done. Looking good clucker.

She looks even better with half a face.

 

Go chickie go!! Knit like the wind.

And just like that I was stuffing a chicken. Isn't she just adorable? I had no idea making a chicken would be so rewarding.

Although she took a wrong turn in Albuquerque too.

Or she just has a lot of questions about the world.

I'm not so sure either.

Socks

As my unfulfilled knitter journey progresses, I took a side trip back down sock lane. I reached out to an Oregon friend that has proven herself knit worthy and asked if she needed another pair of socks.

After stash diving and debating my selection of her favorite color, blue of course. We settled on one I've been carrying around since New York. I think I got it with D in mind but kept passing it over when I realized it was 100% wool and he is too tough on socks to have only wool socks.

Burt approved my work even though she is allergic to my fine felines, he understands approves gifts for friends. 

Soon one sock was done and another was on the needles.

 

And then there were two. I still need to send these off to her but am holding off till the other pair is done. Because sometimes a yarn fails at being a shawl but not at being awesomely obnoxious socks.

I mean come on, these are some lucky socks in the making. I may even claim it would be very difficult to have a bad day while wearing such colorful socks. But hey I just knit them.

Sometimes It Works Sometimes It Don't

My knitting continues its eternal struggle with me as its knitter. It swears gnats have longer attention spans than I do. 

I cast on for a cool mitten for D. I did a simple cuff, then because it is colorwork I stalled out again. I really should love color work more than I do. It is just going round and round like I love but once I introduce my left hand to the concept that it too has to hold and manipulate the yarn all fun goes away. I think it is having to manage floats, tension and tacking down yarns that just sucks the joy out of it. 

My left hand is happily and firmly installed as a knitting needle manager. It does not hold with my new fangled ideas of managing two yarns with two hands. It pushes yarn up the needle and onto the other needle, that is it! No wrapping yarn around it! That is old Righty's job!

  

 Sorry for all the exclamation marks my left hand feels very strongly about colorwork. 

I've been getting over the concept of not mixing brands of yarns. I have a beautiful maple gradient from Huckleberry Knits that I think would make a wonderful shawl. However I have found one skein shawls are too small for my linebacker shoulders. I am short but my shoulders are wide enough to require two skeins. 

I spent some time tossing the stash and found a great blue from Boss Kitty that compliments the colors of the gradient very well.

I cast on a wee swatch to see if I could make it work and it did. I searched my new pattern books and found a good two color shawl that was going to look great. 

I happily cast on and started to knit just to see how it would look. Then as I entered into Ravery I realized I needed twice the amount of gradient. I had been looking at so many patterns that I had not checked all the details. So now I think I will go another route but first maybe finish up something else. 

Because Mellie only has four shawls on her ottoman. Poor princess needs more snuggly shawls from Momma. How is a girl to get any rest with only four shawls to hog snuggle?

Making New Kitty Memories

I don't know why but Google tells me someone is going back and looking a blog posts from years ago. I was curious to see what I was talking about back then and just spent several pleasant minutes reading about some good memories. Well there was a bit of worries in there too. But you know what I noticed. I love the pics of my fine felines.

Mellie finds true joy and peace in my pile of shawls.

She finds no joy in empty food bowls, but she is looking trimmer which Momma finds joy in.

Burt and Mellie remain adorable, as always.

 Look at my half floofed tail!!!!

I caught him in at the end of his zoomies and oh boy was he feeling it that day.

Here's to being able to look back at these and smile one day.

Not Completely Stalled

While I was feeling stalled I pulled out a kit I bought in 2021. 

I didn't love the kits color scheme so I ordered a few other colors. I'm not much a pastel person and have learned to love the entire warm color family.

I started with the cowl and fell in love with the colors and pattern. I always forget how quickly accessories knit with thicker yarn and bigger needles knit up, bam in five days I had a new cowl.

 

OK fine the bag was one of the biggest reasons I got the kit.

There is just something about knitting colorful stripes that suspends time. 

I got sidetracked by a pair of socks for a bit but then the pair of mitts cast themselves onto my needle. I blinked and three days later I was weaving in ends on these lovelies. 

Squishy, toasty finger warmers.

I've been happily drifting along in my knitting. Not stressing about much and dreaming about what I'd like to make. A pretty happy existence indeed.

 

That is That

I finally fluffed out the shawl and did not care for what I saw.  The green and the grey are gorgeous together, but that variegated just left me blah.

 

And there was so much of it. Even though the most used yarn was the grey, the "kid's birthday party at full scream" portion was longer and thinner and went on forever. So I texted a friend and we agreed to go with my gut and frog this thing. The yarn is safely bake in its cake formation, ready to be knit into something else.

Burt and Mellie decided I needed a very full lap and came to comfort me. It is always a little sad when your knitting doesn't work out but it is always better to admit and move on to something else.

 I mean really Momma? What were you thinking?

I knew long ago that it was not going to be great but I was having fun and not hurting anyone. I didn't even cut yarn really and only wove in two ends. In my heart I knew.

Luckily I followed my heart and ordered a couple of books to round out my knitting library. I guess I'm happily in love with Melanie Berg's patterns now. Should take me a while to work through a few of these.

Stalling Out

To fight off my knitting funk I found the brightest yarn in my stash and decided to cast on a three color shawl. The colors don't intermingle in Ashburn too much, so I thought the grey might be a nice break in the shockingly bright colors.

My journey begins with this charming variegated yarn. I mean doesn't it just make you feel happy in the midwinter blahs?

 

Still ever so cheerful.

Wait a minute what is up with this pooling? I mean pooling is always a factor with variegated yarns but come on! This is not cool.

Whew there is a nice snowy tree to calm us. Keep on knitting my friends, we can always rip back if we hate it. Plus the grey textured stitch seems to be working with this.

That is not looking terrible. See how nice the grey calms it down?

See how nice that texture looks in the grey? And I thought it would be lost in the grey.

Now for a taste of the green.

See how that looks good together?

What do you think Mellie?

I think you should knit more without asking me questions. It is your knitting I'm just here for the warm lap.

I am at the bind off stage and I still don't know how I feel about the shawl. I loved knitting on it and will definitely knit another one. But i don't know if I am going to rip back this one or not. I really need to fluff it all out and maybe try it on. I think I just don't like variegated yarns in shawls a whole lot. I do like how the green and grey look together.

Don't mind me while I wander off to knit a sock or ten before I make a decision. Knitting decisions require patience.