Time For A New Scrap Buster!

Periodically, when I go stash diving, I notice that I've got a lot of little partial balls of leftover yarn.  Not the kind of leftovers where I've got more than half a ball left - those are Leftovers With Potential.  The kind of leftovers that are like 10-20% of the original ball: not enough to really be useful, but too much to toss.  This is when it's time to start a scrap buster project.

 It's time.

I chose the Battenberg Blanket (another free pattern!) for this scrap buster because the squares are fast and easy, I memorized the pattern pretty quickly, and you can make all your multicolored squares first and then go back and join them to the background color at the end.  That way I can arrange the colors any way I want to!  

I'm making it in fingering weight leftovers and once I finish with a color I'm weaving in the ends.  Right now I'm just working in cool colors, but I'll probably add in my warm colored scraps later as well - I think having the background squares makes it possible to combine as many colors as you want!  I don't know if I'll use a creamy white or go with a gray or use something else entirely.  I don't have to figure that out just yet.  This will be an ongoing project and may start and stop periodically, so it won't be all over the blog constantly moving forward.  I'll just show you what's going on when there's actual progress.

Have a great weekend! 

Finished Legwarmers!

I got my Dance Shoe Legwarmers finished this past week!  This was a super fun project, with less thinking than a true pair of socks.  The biggest decision I made was to make them mirror each other, so I could wear them with the leg increases (they're knit from the foot up) on the inside.  I made one other minor change to the pattern and that was to continue the ribbing about an inch past the heel.  I don't plan to wear these with dance shoes and I was afraid the legs might fall down if I didn't have some ribbing there to keep everything in place at my ankles.

The pattern (free!) is Dance Shoe Legwarmers and I knit them in Madelinetosh Twist Light in the Lost in Trees Solid colorway.  This was a fun project that I otherwise probably wouldn't have knit (because living in Texas and it not being the 1980's, legwarmers are just not on my radar).

Legwarmers!

ESK is currently doing a Flash Craft Along for legwarmers.  When they announced it, I decided I wasn't going to do it.  I didn't think I had very much use for them.  I have a pair that I don't wear very much, so I figured I'd just sit this CAL out and do my own thing.

Then someone posted this pattern and I was hooked.  I pretty much keep my toes painted year round, but the actual painting and dry time can get kind of cold in the winter.  These will be perfect!  They're knit in fingering weight yarn so they'll be a weight that's actually useful here.  I'm using Madelinetosh Twist Light in Lost in Trees Solid and I'm seriously thinking I might need a sweater quantity of this.  I think it would make a nice, lightweight cardigan.

Anyway, I've finished the first one (except weaving in the ends) and I'm about to do the heel opening for the second one.  I did continue the ribbing about an inch past the heel opening to keep the leg portion on the leg and not sagging over the heel.  I'm not sure it would have done that, but since I plan to wear these barefoot and not over shoes, it made sense that a little ribbing would be a good idea.  I've got until Monday to finish these and I think I'm going to be fine.

We've got Caleb home for Spring Break this week so I might not be here Thursday.  Hopefully I'll have finished legwarmers to show you next week!

Finished Socks

Apparently, I've needed brainless knitting in my life because I've finished my socks.  These seemed to fly off the needles.  Sometimes you can concentrate on more complex stitch patterns, other times you just need something for your hands to do that leaves your brain out of it.

It's been ages since I knit a sock in a lighter fingering weight yarn and I'd forgotten how nice the finished knitting feels when it's worked at this tighter gauge.  (I used size 0's and 72 stitches around instead of my usual size 1's and 64 stitches.)  This is the Hermione's Favorite Sock pattern, knit in Hedgehog Fibres Sock in the the ESK exclusive color Splash.

I've already started another brainless project - I'll share it with you next week!  I've also started a new spinning project.  It's been past time to get the wheel spinning again.

Have a great weekend!

The Reason I Need Brainless Socks

When I finished my Growing Cardigan, I started another cardigan - The Evening Dew Cardigan.  I'm working on the upper back now, and while the stitch pattern isn't super complex, it does take more mental bandwidth than I have some evenings.  It's knit top down, from the shoulder cast on, but I've got to finish the back and knit the fronts before I can join at the underarms and work back and forth. (Also, I should note that the provisional cast on in the white yarn is the shoulder edge and the working edge is at the top of the picture, so yeah, upside down.  I'll try to do better.)

I'm knitting it in Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light in color 4294 - Turquoise Mix.  I love the Ultra Alpaca line of yarns (except the fingering weight one - fine? sock? - it's splitty and drove me nuts).  I think it's the perfect blend of wool and alpaca: you get the bounce of wool and softness of alpaca and it just feels really good to work with.  This weight is a sport weight - finer than a Dk, but heavier than a fingering weight and the weight of the fabric I'm getting will be perfect for our climate here.  I also like and have used the worsted weight Ultra Alpaca and enjoyed that too.  There's a chunky/bulky weight that I haven't used (because, Texas), but I bet it's great as well.

Have a great weekend!  I know the weather is crazy all over the place so stay safe!

Brainless Socks

I like to have at least one project going that doesn't take very much brain power to knit.  Something where I can let my hands do the thinking.  Hermione's Everyday Socks fit the bill perfectly (and they work well with really busy, multicolored, handdyed yarns).  Apparently, this will be my fifth pair of these, so clearly I like them!

I'm knitting them in Hedgehog Fibres Sock in the Splash colorway.  This was an ESK exclusive from 2018, when the Yarnathon theme was ocean-y.  This yarn is a finer weight fingering so I'm working them on US 0's (2.0 mm) needles.  Since they're on smaller needles, I'm using 72 stitches instead of my usual 64.  The pattern is super easy to adjust since it only has a four stitch repeat.

In non knitting related news, today is Mr. Noodle's third birthday!  Honestly, we weren't sure if he was going to get this far.  We thought he'd accidentally do himself in.  Obviously, we're very happy that he's been unsuccessful with accidentally killing himself, but we keep a close watch on him.  Constantly.  He's a total love machine and is truly sweet, but the crazy streak runs deep.

A Finished Cardigan

I finished my Growing Cardigan over the weekend.  This will be a perfect layering piece for colder weather, but it's supposed to get into the 80's today so I'm not sure if I'll be able to wear it until fall.  

Something about the way the upper body section is designed makes this sit perfectly on the shoulders, which doesn't always happen on cardigans without closures.  The fronts actually go all the way over the top of the shoulders and join the back on the back side of the shoulders (it's kind of hard to explain).  There are short rows involved, but beyond that I have no idea how this works.  You can see the line where the back and fronts join in the photo above.  (I used a two stitch i-cord to match the sleeve and hem bind offs instead of what the pattern called for here.)  It's not the usual sweater construction, but it works really well.

I knit it in Malabrigo Rios in Pines.  I skipped the pockets and intended to make it as long as I could, but then I tried it on and realized the length was perfect right where it was.  I actually ended up frogging a few inches so I could re-knit in ribbing.  This was my first time knitting a pattern by this designer, but I'll definitely be doing more.

A funny story about the color, I was watching the Super Bowl and I kept looking at the Eagles' helmets.  I thought that shade of dark green, with just a bit of blue was so pretty.  My eye kept going to that color throughout the whole game.  Finally in the fourth quarter I realized the helmets were essentially the same color as the sweater I was knitting.  While I was watching the entire game.