The Button Box Throw

Last November I started knitting the Button Box Throw.  It was part of the Knitvent 2026 collection (but it's now available by itself), and I thought it would be great for using up leftover sock yarns.  It was!  I grabbed a few of my blue green multicolored leftovers and figured out a kind of fade and got started.  I also decided to make the eyelet sections in white.   The pattern itself has directions for color changes and is built around the idea of using a set of advent mini skeins.  Obviously, my scraps didn't work out into perfectly portioned amounts, so I just knit through the fade with each color until I ran out.  I dropped a white eyelet section at the same spacing as the pattern, but otherwise I just kept on with the colors.  

Once I figured out my plan, the actual knitting was easy and didn't require a lot of brain bandwidth.  It was an excellent project to pick up and put down, perfect for working through the holidays, and it did eat up some stash.  The finished throw is a smallish blanket (32 inches square), that has no definite plan, but it's very soft and lightweight (being entirely made of fingering weight yarns).  As I was finishing it, I realized I wanted to keep working through some more sock leftovers, so I've pulled some more yarns, and chosen another center out pattern.  This second one is crochet and I'll show you next week!

Finished!

I finished my Austin Hoodie, and got the ribbon sewn on!  This is the Austin Hoodie pattern, which is written for fingering weight yarn knit at a very loose gauge.  I used Malabrigo Arroyo in Natural, a sportweight yarn (slightly heavier than fingering weight) and I'm really happy with the feel of the fabric.  

I also reversed the ribbing at the top of the sweater so there would be more knit stitches than purl stitches showing.  You still get the vertical lines of the ribbing, but it seems a little softer to me visually.

Finally, I wanted to reinforce the front edges with ribbon because front edges go through a lot on a cardigan.  I wasn't sure what ribbon I wanted to use and I lost track of how many I tried (let's just say that I've got more of a ribbon stash now than I did when I started), so instead of knitting the front bands on as I knit the sweater (which is what the pattern calls for), I decided to add them later in the traditional way.  Once I finally picked a ribbon, I knew how wide to make them.  The ribbon is from Kafka, a German company that makes gorgeous ribbons.  I found it from a place on Etsy.  It wasn't cheap, but it was what I wanted and since it will show in the hood and occasionally at the front, I wanted to be happy with it.

This pattern is knit from the bottom up, and for some reason that always seems to take forever, but I got it finished in time to submit to Eat.Sleep.Knit for the first quarter Craft-A-Long.  Next quarter, I will be doing a top down sweater, but I'll give you all the details later. 

One Down, the Second Started

I've finished my first Broken Rope Sock (AKA Racing Socks for watching F1).  I've started the second sock, but there's a bit of an issue.  A normal racing season begins in early March and ends in early December.  The month of August is taken off as a midseason break, but throughout the season there are occasional one or two weekends off.  Partly these are logistical because the season is all over the world and shipping takes time, and partly this is for the sanity of those who are part of this circus.  24 races a year, in every corner of the globe, has got to be exhausting.

I had planned to just knit socks through the 2026 season, ignoring the weekends off, just making sure that I had socks to knit on Qualifying and Race days.  However, due to the situation in the Middle East, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix have been canceled.  I completely understand the reasoning behind this and I think it was probably the right call (not that anyone really cares what the Pink Lemon thinks).  What this means though is that we have the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend at Suzuka, and then nothing until the first weekend in May for the Miami Grand Prix.  There's no racing at all in April.

So, are these Racing Socks?  If I set them aside for a month and didn't mess with them, they could be, but I don't plan to do that.  I plan to keep them for knitting when I need a small, portable project, but I feel like they won't be racing socks anymore.  I feel like they just became socks.  Not that that's a bad thing, to be just socks.  Most socks go through their entire existence just being socks, but these socks were cast on with the promise of being something more.  It's tough being a sock sometimes!

Racing Socks

I've made it past the heel flap and heel turn, and I've begun the foot of my first 2026 racing socks!  (These are socks I knit while watching F1 racing, the pattern is Broken Rope from Summer Lee in her Hello Sailor Sock collection.)  I would have been farther but I made an error on the leg and ended up undoing about 20 rounds of work.  It's a simple stitch pattern, but when you make a mistake, that simple stitch pattern makes it glaringly obvious.  Once I redid the leg and knit the heel flap, I messed up the heel turn (I've only done hundreds of those in my lifetime), and had to redo that.  I blame the good racing action!  There's no racing this weekend, so I plan to try to finish my Austin Hoodie. 

We Have Sleeves!

I've finished the sleeves on my Austin Hoodie and have begun the actual hood!  I have a little over two weeks to finish this sweater and submit it for the Happily Ever Hooded CAL at the end of the month.  I'm hoping the hood moves along pretty quickly, and I'm planning to start weaving in ends sooner, rather than later.

Next quarter's CAL is Circular Yokes (details are at the link above).  I've got a few possibilities, but I haven't settled on any one project yet.  I have started putting serious thought into it though, while trying to stay focused on my hoodie.  I'll be sure to let you know when I do make up my mind.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

Still Life With Sock and Dog Toy

This is my racing sock - as in, I knit it during Formula 1 practice, qualifying, racing.  It's a simple sock that I don't have to look at while I knit it, but it gives my hands something to fidget with as I watch Kimi Antonelli wreck his car at the end of Practice 3, less than three hours from Qualifying. (So as not to leave you on a cliff hanger, I will tell you that he was fine, and they not only got his car put back together for Qualifying, but he qualified in P2, and went on to finish the race in second place!) 

The sock pattern is Broken Rope from the Hello Sailor Sock set by Summer Lee.  I worked a slight variation of the Gym Sock Stripe pattern - mainly, I added a third stripe and I only changed colors on odd numbered rounds so that there wouldn't be purl bumps showing.  The yarn is Potions and Purls Luna sock in Keeper of My Heart.  The accent color was included with the skein for cuffs/heels/toes/whatever.  I have used it for the stripes, and will probably also use it for the toe.

The dog toy is one of Obi's favorites - it's a Holee Roller.  Our house is covered in them in various sizes.  The smallest size is a great ball for fetch because he can breathe through it when he's running around like a lunatic, and the largest size is great for tug of war, general chewing, and sometimes it serves as a dog pillow.  Our first Holee Roller lasted nine months, with much of that being through his puppy teeth/furry land shark stage, and we were so impressed we've just kept ordering them for him.  The oldest one we currently have is over two years old.  No affiliation with the company, but just a very happy dog mom.

Progress!

It's sleeve time!  My goal was to be finished with the body of my Austin Hoodie by the end of February, but I was actually able to get started on my first sleeve!  I'm currently farther along, but our mornings have been cloudy which makes it hard to get good photos.  

I hope to finish the first sleeve soon and be finished with my second sleeve next week.  Then it's just the hood and front edgings.  I still haven't decided what I'll use to face the front edgings, but if I can get all the knitting finished by the end of March, I can submit it for the Hoodie CAL.  Facings can be finished later if I need to.

I'm knitting exclusively on this right now, but I'll be starting a pair of socks later this week.  It's finally Race Week - Formula 1's 2026 season kicks off in Australia this week, and I've learned (the hard way), that I need an autopilot type of sock to work on during Qualifying and the Grand Prix.  Without knitting, I'm just a mess, and anything that requires thought is going to be frogged to correct mistakes.  The yarn and pattern are chosen.  I'll show them to you later this week!