New Year, New Knitting

For my first project of the year I cast on an Austin Hoodie.  (It's knit from the bottom up, so what you see in the photo is the hem on the lower edge that I draped over Fifi's neck.)  The EatSleepKnit Yarnathon for 2026 is doing projects with hoods for the first quarter (there's more details at the website and at the Ravelry group, but basically stand alone hoods or balaclavas as well as hooded garments.)  Towards the end of the year I noticed that I have a lot of colorful cardigans and sweaters, but very few in neutral colors.  I had knit an Austin Hoodie years ago, but the yarn I used was itchy on my arms.  It felt fine as I was knitting it, but I tended not to wear the sweater for very long, which was unfortunate because it was really cute.  Fast forward 10+ years, and here we are doing it again!

I'm knitting it in Malabrigo Arroyo in Natural, which is a sportweight yarn.  The pattern is technically written for a fingering weight, but it's knit very loosely.  I checked the projects on Ravelry and there are a number of people who have used sportweight successfully, so I decided to go for it!  I am making a few other changes to the pattern though:

• I'm not knitting the garter stitch front bands as the pattern directs you to do when you knit the body.  The vertical edge of stockinette stitch (the stitch used for most of the body of the sweater) likes to roll to the wrong side.  With the narrow front bands as the pattern is written, this tends to roll them to the inside of the sweater.  I distinctly remember it happening on my sweater and I want my front bands to stay where I put them.  I plan to go back later and pick up stitches around the front and knit a ribbed front band.  This will not roll to the inside, and I can face the front bands with ribbon, which I really think add a lot to the stability of the front edges and they're just super pretty.  I've ordered some ribbon and when it arrives, I'll decide which one to use and I'll know how deep my front bands need to be.  In order to change my front bands like this, I had to adjust my stitch count on the fronts.
• I made the lower hem deeper than the pattern calls for.  I did this on my first Austin Hoodie and it counteracts the tendency of stockinette stitch to roll forwards on the horizontal edge.  Deeper hems just add a bit more weight to keep things where I want them.
• I will not double strand the yarn in the woven section as the pattern calls for.  In a sportweight yarn, I'm pretty sure that would make those sections bulletproof.  I'm actually playing with the idea of skipping the textured stitches all together and just knitting the whole thing in stockinette.  I'll decide that later though.
• Finally, I might add a single button or buttons to the front band.  Since I'll be doing those last, I can decide once I've blocked it and tried it on.

At the moment though, I'm just knitting away on it!  I don't have to make any major decisions yet, so I can just enjoy the process right now! 

Let's Try This Again

I see that I haven't blogged since July of 2025!  I had no idea it had been that long ago!  I vaguely thought my last blog post was sometime this past fall, but apparently not.

I don't think I have it in me to go through absolutely everything I've made since July, but I think in an effort to start somewhere, anywhere, I will quickly sum up last year's makes.

• I crocheted one cardigan.
• I knitted two shawls (Technically one of those was begun in 2024 and finished in 2025, but that meant it was put in the 2025 list of finished things so I'm counting it here.  My list, my rules.) 
• I finished a knitted pullover that was also started in 2024. 
• I knitted nine pairs of socks. 
• I sewed eight tops.
• I sewed two skirts.

Here is a photo of the very last socks I finished this past year, just to make the post a little more interesting:

These are the Hermione's Everyday Sock pattern, knit in Potions and Purls Luna Sock in the Gingerbread Cookie colorway.  If you've never knit this pattern before, I highly recommend it for a simple, easily memorized design, perfect for sock knitting in public or while watching TV.  I've found I need this type of pattern (easy to memorize and knit on autopilot) to watch Texas A&M football and Formula 1 racing. 

We are currently out of season for both sports right now, so while I have a new pair of socks on the needles (I'll show you current projects in future blog posts), I'm mainly focused on finishing some Works in Progress right now.

We'll talk about those later, but I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and new year, and I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging as we move forward! 

Marginalia Socks

I've been working on my third pair of socks from The Handmade Sock Society Season 6, and I'm almost finished with the first one!  These are the Marginalia socks, and I'm knitting them in Dream in Color Smooshy With Cashmere in Rabbit Ears.  These are an all over lace pattern, but its very simple and repetitive. I don't knit very many pairs of socks in cashmere blend yarn because it's more delicate and less abrasion resistant than regular Merino and nylon sock yarn.  On the other hand, they are amazing to sleep in, and since I don't sleep walk they don't wear out as quickly.

In other news, Mr Noodle has realized that Caleb isn't going back to school anytime soon, so he's starting to assert himself.  Caleb has the warmest room in the house, and years ago Mr Noodle decided it was actually his room.  He became our kitten the summer before Caleb went away to college, so as far as Mr Noodle is concerned, Caleb doesn't really live here anyway.  Every time Caleb comes home, Mr Noodle is happy to see him and gives up "his" room so Caleb can use it, but for the last five years, that's just been a week or two at each end of the summer and about a month in December.  Then Caleb goes back, and Mr Noodle moves back into his room.  This is the first summer Caleb has taken the whole summer off and been home in years (the Master's Degree program he's doing doesn't have summer classes).  Mr Noodle wasn't expecting this.  So when Caleb came home he just adjusted as usual, but Caleb has been home for two months now and Mr Noodle has decided he wants his room back.  He's taken to screaming loudly at Caleb (loudly enough that Caleb's gaming friends can hear him through the headset Caleb is wearing), and last night he started stealing Caleb's things.  Anything that is small enough for Mr Noodle to pick up seems to be fair game.  Caleb has another month before he heads back to College Station.  It looks like things will be interesting around here!

Letterpress Socks

I finished my Letterpress Socks.  These are the June socks for The Handmade Sock Society, Season Six, and I wanted to share them before we get the next design tomorrow.  These are knit in Hue Loco's Merino Sock in the Ohana colorway.  I also used a tiny bit of Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in Natural at the very beginning of each sock (details are in the previous post).  Just a note: this photo is probably the most accurate for the yarn color in these socks.  This has been a surprisingly difficult colorway to photograph!

I'm looking forward to seeing the new design tomorrow!  I have five or six skeins of yarn set aside for this series, but I've found that if I try to pick yarn before I see the pattern, I end up changing my mind.  It's just easier to decide once I've seen how intricate or textural a design is.

In other very big news, Caleb was accepted for graduate school!  He'll be starting his MS at Texas A&M this fall!  We're all very excited, and we've already got the A&M t-shirts around here!

Sock Progress!

I'm on track (at this point) to finish the Letterpress Socks before the July pattern is released!  These are the June pattern from The Handmade Sock Society Collection 6.  I'm finishing the second sock now and only have a few more rounds before I start the toe decreases.  The next pattern comes out next Thursday!

These are knit in Hue Loco Merino Sock in Ohana, but I added a little accent stripe at the top of the sock in white.  This was not in the pattern, and I can't take credit for it, because I got the idea from some other people's project, but it was just too cute not to add.  Basically, you work the cast on and the first round (in ribbing in this case) in the accent color.  Then start round two with your main color - but you just knit it (no ribbing).  Continue the ribbing on round three and onwards as necessary.  Working it this way gives you a clean line between the two colors.  The single knit round sinks into the ribbing and isn't visible at all.  I haven't double checked, but I'm remembering this as Elizabeth Zimmermann's Purl When You Can.  It's a great technique to know for color changes on ribbing!

A Little Lace

I finished the garter stitch section of my Londoner Shawl and have started the lace section!  The lace is simple and repetitive which tends to work well with multicolored yarns.  I've found that where the color changes in a yarn might distract from a lace pattern, if the pattern is fairly simple and geometric, you don't lose the stitch pattern like you would in a more complex, non repeating design.  I think our brains can fill in the gaps our eyes see when the colors change, but that's just my theory.

Speaking of colors, I'm still trying to get an accurate photo of the color of this yarn.  It's better in today's photos, but still not perfect.  I find myself stopping mid-row just to stare at the colors of the yarn!

In home news, yesterday I spent the morning vacuuming the house (those of you with Labradors understand the ongoing job that is).  Usually Obi barks at the vacuum cleaner - he's very much one of those dogs who deals with things he doesn't understand by wooooofing at them.  Yesterday, he followed me around almost the whole time squeaking one of his squeaky balls.  Towards the end though, he realized that if he'd put the ball in front of the vacuum cleaner, I would bump the ball and he could chase it.  I think that's better than being barked at the entire time.  It wasn't much quieter!

 

The Handmade Sock Society Season 6: Letterpress

As I mentioned last time, the June sock design - the second of the six - came out last week.  The Letterpress Socks are all about texture - no lace this time!  You're actually looking at the second try on this one, because I didn't like the way the yarn was working with the pattern the first time.  Sometimes that happens, so I frogged what I had and started with another yarn.  This is Merino Sock by Hue Loco in Ohana.  There's kind of a lot going on in the colorway, but I'm happy with how it's knitting up!