A Perfect Project

Hello! I'm excited to share an update and photos of the project I'm working on right now. I have knitted so many projects in my "knitting lifetime". According to Ravelry, I have 328 projects but I'm sure I have even more that I don't log. Over the years (15, I think) I have learned a lot about myself as a knitter. Sometimes what I enjoy knitting isn't something I enjoy wearing...think odd shaped shawls. Love knitting them, rarely wear them. Sweaters? Yes please. Love knitting them and wearing them. BUT they take a lot of yarn and that usually means lots of $$$. Hats, ok...I'll knit them but don't love them. Wear them? Yes. Socks? Nope. Hate knitting them. Love wearing them but not worth it for me to knit them anymore. Chunky yarn? Nope. Hurts my hands. But I'll make a fun quick hat with it.

Then it's about the actual pattern and the knitting. I get bored easily when I knit. I can knit for hours and hours if I'm interested. Garter stitch for miles or stockinette forever makes me knit a few rows and want to put it down. Fair isle? I can knit forever. Ribbing or texture is even better. Following a chart? Yup. That's my jam. I LOVE a pattern that has constant changes that keep me engaged. 

I was shocked when a fiber friend gifted me her Chelsea Yarns Advent from 2022. She said the colors just weren't her and the yarn was just sitting in a bag. She knew I would love the colors and enjoy knitting with the beautiful yarn. I was overwhelmed with her generosity! I knew I would have to knit something special with the yarn. A pattern that had to check off all the boxes. I knew I would have to keep it to a scarf, cowl, shawl, something not too huge that could utilize the mini skeins. After searching Ravelry for a while I stumbled upon the Tasting Menu wrap. It was Mystery Knit Along from early 2020. It had something different every few rows, would only use up 9 or 10 of the mini skeins and I had the perfect solid in my stash. 

Basically, it's a perfect project! Keeps me interested, going to love wearing it and beautiful yarn. Here's an update of where I started and where I am....

The designer has you pick out certain colors and put them in groups of three. 

The top three are used in the "V" part, the groups on the sides will be the other parts of the scarf. The solid cream yarn is used throughout. 

You have to assign them numbers. I kept them all in individual bags to keep everything strait.

It starts with a garter stitch tab and triangle design.

Then you put half of the triangle on scrap yarn and start the one side. I LOVE all the different sections. Sometimes it's ribbing, lace, garter, mini baubles. So much to keep you engaged.

The colors are set up do create a pretty fade. I'm in love with it.

I am on the last section of the side and then I'll pick up the other side of the triangle and work on the other side. It's going to block beautifully and be a pretty scarf for cool days.

My Weekender Sweater

 I had been eyeing up this sweater for a few years. It's been on my long list of what to knit and it finally made its way on my needles. I LOVE it! This is the Weekender Sweater by Andrea Mowry.

I've made many of her patterns and she is a wonderful designer. I love her patterns, knitting them, wearing them, all of it. This sweater feels like a big, comfy, squishy, knitted sweatshirt. It's a boxy style (aka hides all the stomach stuff!!!). I knit this one up very quickly. I think I knit it in a month. 

My only changes were to knit a size 5 body but switch so size 4 for the arms. I also didn't do the tubular cast on. I used long tail. I didn't do the tubular bind off on the sleeves. But other than that, followed it exactly.

I also read this book while I was knitting. I loved the book. What a great, fun, mystery story. I can see it as a great movie. I hope someone makes it into one! 

Anaashah Sweater

 After a year on the needles, my Anaasha sweater is finally done! 

It was a labor of love, knitted over many, many hours watching baseball games, and I'm so happy to be wearing it. All the details can be found on my Ravelry page here.

"Mom's Best Friend"

The saying goes, a dog is "man's best friend". I'm redoing that phrase. This Buddy is "Mom's best friend". This goofy guy is so sweet. I love spending time walking him, exploring the farm together, taking walks to Spring Lake, hanging out on the couch, his company while I work from home, he really is the best puppy for me. I know he loves everyone else in my house...BUT he's a mama's boy right now and I don't hate that! I've been working on my Jupiter Crop sweater here and there and finished up the body this week. I need to buy more yarn for the sleeves. So it's on hold for now. But I'm really enjoying knitting it. I knitted more length in the body then the pattern called for but I left it a little shorter than I usually do. I want to wear it over a dress with tights or leggings. I just have to find a dress that will look cute under it! 

I celebrated my 7th anniversary at my job yesterday. I remember being so nervous to go back to working in an office after being home as a freelancer for so many years. It was hard in the beginning but it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I love my company and the people I work with. I have a boss that's one in a million and she has become a close friend. My husband and I went out last night for a drink and my favorite pizza to celebrate at my favorite local place, Massuto's. Can't beat it!

This weekend will be filled with sports....it's playoff season and it's exhausting! If they win, we keep going...........this mom is ready to be done. BUT I'll be cheering them on during the games. The competitor in me is still deep inside! I just want to eat dinner as a family again.....!!!!

I'm getting ready to cast on a few things for the farm and then two sweaters for myself. I'm hoping to get some knitting done at the games this weekend. Hope you're all enjoying your November so far!

Bloom Booties

How cute are these??!!! Ah! I love them.

I knit them up to sell in the Coop. Super cute and easy to knit.

Pattern: Bloom Booties

Designer: By Annie Claire (my favorite!)

I love knitting baby things for the store. I purchased her entire "Little One" eBook

because I liked all of the patterns. And it's nice to support a favorite designer.

I used Cascade Lana D'Oro yarn. It's a mix of alpaca and wool.

Yarn Along

This is my second Trellis Shawl designed by Annie Rowden.

It will be a gift for Carol, our marketing department admin at work. She is retiring August 6. I can't believe it! She's so good at her job. It's going to be hard without her. She always comments on my knitting and admires it so I thought it would be a nice gift for her. 

My friend, Seashore Sharon dropped off this book for me to read. She always gives me the best books!!! Always a good romantic and steamy book!

Week 10 of Quarantine

Here we go into week 10 of quarantine. We've all settled into this new life pretty well. The longer I've been working at home is going to make it a little harder to go back to the 40 hour out of the house work week! I have enjoyed the slower pace in the morning and at night. Days are jam packed with work, school work, household things, walking the dog, etc. So the daytime flies by usually.

There are zoom calls for work and school, conference calls for me, high school kids work, and last week were AP Exams online for my oldest. 

Just thought it would be fun to share some photos from our weekend. 

I made gyros on Friday night. The kit is found in the frozen section of Aldi. It comes with the meat, pitas and sauce. You have to thaw it overnight and then I added lettuce, tomatoes and red onions. They were quick  and delicious. The house smelled like Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival!

We are enjoying the fire pit Dalton made for Mother's Day. We all joined around for the whole night, making s'mores and hanging out.

Liz and I filmed a quick podcast. We have all stayed distant from each other and only going to the grocery store when needed. Restrictions lifted a bit around here on Friday so we got together. We put a few feet between us as you can see. It was nice to be side by side again!

After a nice weather day, I joined a Zoom with podcaster, Chevy Rell. It was a beautiful sunset.

I casted on a cute little bonnet to sell in the coop. 

This is the bonnet. I finished it in the morning drinking my coffee.

Here is a link to the pattern page.

I made another batch of sourdough soft pretzels. These are soooo good! Half were cinnamon and sugar and the others were salt. Here is the link to the recipe. I was able to get some yeast at the store so I can get back to baking things that require yeast! Who knew this would be an issue in 2020???

My girl, Miss Claire is broody once again. Every spring. This girl wants to be a mama!

I need to keep an eye on her and make sure she gets up to eat and drink. 

I casted on another Anker's Bonnet Sunday night. I love knitting this hat!

I'm going to make the baby version of the sweater that I made a few weeks ago.

I'm enjoying mindless knits lately. 

Here we go into week 10....hope you're all healthy and safe.

Happily Knitting

My knitting has shifted a bit. I used to knit a lot of things to sell in the coop in the past. It always helped me with Christmas shopping money. Over the past few years of working full-time, I found less time to spend knitting for the store. Well....times have changed and I am finding more moments in my day for a row here, a row there. 

I love sweater knitting the most (duh) so I thought it would be fun to knit up some baby sweaters that I could sell in the Coop this fall and winter.

Here is the first. It's much cuter in person! It was hard to photograph.

It is a free pattern called, French Macaroon

Very easy knit. Took a bit of seaming to put it together, but I don't mind seaming.

My friend reached out to me yesterday to see if I had any baby knits. Her friend had a baby boy that morning and I suggested this sweater. It's perfect for her and she's picking it up today :)

I had this cute little sailboat button in my stash. I think it's perfect.

I miss my Tuesday night band nights. A LOT. Lucky for me, this past Tuesday night was beautiful and we all hung outside on the porch. I started another little sweater. I've made these before.

To be honest, the pattern is not written well. It's all over the place and if you are not an advanced knitter, it's very easy to get confused. Which is a shame because it's not a hard knit at all. But it's so easy to get confused when reading the pattern.

Anyway, it's called Granny's Favourite. It knits up so cute.

Took a walk to the mailbox today and the sky reminded me of Andy's wallpaper in Toy Story.

Pretty day today.

What are you knitting? Do you have a favorite baby knit?

What I'm Knitting

A few weeks ago I posted an inspirational posts with knitting ideas. You can read more of that here. One of the ideas was the Autumn Leaves.  I bought the pattern and I've been knitting some up.

Using left over balls of yarn, they are the perfect quick and easy knit.

I have them hanging up on my fireplace for now. As I knit more, I'll make a garland that can be used every year.

Pattern: Autumn Leaves

I have also been knitting away on my Zweig sweater. I am loving this knit. I have quickly become a Caitlin Hunter fan. I loved knitting her Sunset Highway and this sweater is proving to be the same for me. I'm using o-wool fingering in the Meadow Violet for the main color and the lace section is from Dancing Leaf Farm that I purchased at Rhinebeck. I wasn't sure about knitting the cable X pattern in the body. I don't like using a cable needle. It slows me down and I don't like the interruption in my knitting. But, the pattern has a link to a video that shows how to cable without a needle and I'm doing that. IT's easy peasy! So yes, my Zweig will have the X pattern.

I have also been knitting a few things for the farm. I'll have to take pictures of them!

Some cute little hats. Next up are Christmas gifts. I better get cracking!

Have a wonderful weekend and happy knitting!