New Project, New Book

It’s Wednesday again, time for WIP Wednesday & Yarn Along! I finished up my Stripe Study (yay!) so you’ll have to wait until Friday for that report. I have other secret projects I’m working on and in the “downtime” until the next Camp Loopy project starts (tomorrow! I have to get my yarn wound!) I decided to start a new project: socks for Lorelai. She has been showing a greater interest in the things I have knit and has asked for a few amigurumi things here and there. I uncovered a lone skein of Knit Picks Stroll in the stash the other day while looking for something else. She seemed interested in the socks at first, but when I put the WIP on her to see how tall she wanted the socks she told me she wanted knee socks (I don’t have enough of this yarn!) and then that she didn’t want socks. Sigh. I’m deciding to keep on and knit these up for her anyway, and I have been looking for ideas for knee-high socks. Isn’t the project bag great? It’s my new Piddleloop bag, it’s so cute and roomy! I love how the triangle shape sits too, and even DH noticed it yesterday.

Reading wise, I’ve been a bit disappointed with the e-book selection via my library – there are a lot of classics (which I should read, but I’m just not feeling), a lot of trashy romance novels (meh), a lot of chick-lit (not interested). I have holds on several items, but it’s probably going to be a while. I took a gamble and found The Anatomist’s Apprentice while I was randomly browsing.  We’ll see how it goes.

Monday Listicle: Life with Kids

I haven’t done a listicle in a while, but I could not resist the prompt for today. When I started blogging I think most of the posts featured Jackson, my first “kid”, in some way or another. It still happens now that I might meet someone who reads this blog and they know Jackson! Then the lorax and the little nutmeg arrived, and they have dominated the blog among the knitting for a while.  Lately it has gotten harder to get decent photos – someone is always moving or, moving to see how the photo came out! Instagram is great for sharing a lot of these quick snaps, so many on my listicle come from there. All were taken with my phone.  I really need to charge up my big camera and just get back to it. Anyway, here’s today’s listicle:

10 PHOTOS OF LIFE WITH KIDS

Fussing

 

Nose to nose.

 

Lining up the crews.

 

Buckle Up

 

Someone was playing with my phone.

 

Alseep in the car. Rare.

 

Happy.

 

Ice Cream Cones!

 

Bubble!

 

Buddies.

 

 

Random 5 Friday

I don’t have any FO’s to share, but wanted to blog something, so I went looking for ideas and found Random 5 Friday. That works!
1.  “Yunchtime, mommy?” asks this kiddo.  Everyday when we get home after dropping his sister off at camp.  9:15am, looking for “Yunch” after eating a decent breakfast.  Maybe it’s a growth spurt?

2. I love how there are mini versions of candies lately – especially the mini reeses peanut butter cups (no wrappers!). I found mini Starbursts last night – but why do they only come in pinks, orange and yellow? No red or green? Interesting.

3. Friends of mine alerted me to a candy change. In Skittles, the green was lime and it was good.  The new green is Green Apple, which has an odd aftertaste.  I did a side by side taste test, because skittles is not my usual go-to candy, but I should know these things.

4. I have a new project bag from Piddeloop and I am trying to decide what will be the first project for it to hold.

 

5. I’m absolutely loving the weather yesterday and today.  I don’t care that it’s raining and grey.  Yesterday it was like I went to sleep in summer and woke up in fall – cool, breezy. Last night i slept under the covers! Crazy.  I’m sure it will heat up again but it is so nice to not have the A/C on!

Almost at the End!

I am so close to being in the final stretch of my Stripe Study shawl -colored stripe #12 to go, then on to the last grey section! I even dreamt about this shawl last night, that was a first. Garter stitch is just so soothing. The rows are getting longer, so it feels like it is taking forever, but I do love that I can mostly work on this in an auto-pilot mode.  Auto-pilot of one version or another. If you follow me on instagram, you have seen my mistake – somehow I switched and purled a row or two because I have a very small wedge of stockinette! Design feature anyone? Oh well.

I’m almost to the end of “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake”.  This book is unsettling to me and I am having trouble figuring out why. I heard from 2 people (who I often look to for book recommendations and trust their opinions on such things) that they either a) didn’t like this book or b) wanted to know what I thought because this book didn’t do it for them.  Without spoiling anything, I think I can say – the part with Joe and the chair? What’s up with that? I feel like I’m missing a big chunk of this story, like there were parts edited out or just not included? Maybe it will all come together in the last section.

I have also been working on a crochet project (the star shaped item above) and have run out of yarn! Briefly I considered substituting yarn, but that would mean starting over. Not a big deal to do that of course, but I like the yarn I’m using now – it matched the rest of the project (which is under wraps for now). Luckily, Ravelry to the rescue, I found one skein in the exact dye lot (!!!) and a kind knitter responded to my request quite quickly! I have decided to rip out my “Vanilla with Rainbow Sprinkles” socks that I started (basic vanilla toe up socks). I knit past the toe and they were just looking big to me. I measured them up to the other socks I recently finished and they are wider too. I should pull out the sock books I have and read up on this toe-up business – I saw online in two different places that the toe only needs to be increased to the point where it will cover 4 of your toes, because there will be some give width-wise. Have you heard that? So, I’ll rip them out and start over. I may end up with two at a time, top down because that’s what I know by heart. I am on the hunt for a good toe-up pattern for stripey yarns – let me know in the comments if you’ve got a good one queued!

 

Socks and a Rattle – FO Friday!

When I think of the projects I have to share this week I mostly think, FINALLY – it’s about time! My Jelly Bean socks, were started in August 2012 as part of a KAL! The delay in finishing these is due purely to my own distractions. The yarn is Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art – Forest in Grape Swirl. I really wish we weren’t in a heat wave because I am so antsy to wear them, they feel that good! The Jelly Bean pattern has a few features I am looking forward to doing again – garter stitch heel and toe and a ribbed sole.

The Monster Rattle was started months ago (I intended on making these for Nate, but yeah – he’s almost 2!). I finally finished one up to give to my newest cousin before he gets too big for a silly rattle. I used random bits of cotton from the stash for fun colors, and the pattern has lots of inspiration for customizing as you see fit.

Take a blog break and see what others have finished this week!

WIP & Yarn Along

How are you holding up in the heat? I am thankful to have the air conditioner on, but I do wish it wasn’t running full all the time. I hate to sweat, so I’m a bit more crabby lately.  Last week (or maybe the week before) I tried a “Homemade Slushee” recipe I found on Pinterest – it’s amazing! If you have an ice cream maker (and you like slushee type treats) give it a try! My knitting has been moving along even quite nicely. I think I have 9 stripes on my Stripe Study shawl done and I still love this project and love the colors.  I also fired up my kindle again and have downloaded “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” from the library. Hope you are able to find ways to stay cool and beat the heat!

Lots to Share!

I’m very excited to link up with WIP Wednesday & Yarn Along this week, look at that pile! Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, is very good and I am half-way through it. I want to read Gone Girl, but currently the library has it on a 7 day loan status, something I may have been able to do before kids (and knitting). I expect that I will pick up Dark Places next; I do like a series. I was given a Zoom Loom for my birthday from the gals with whom I work and I have been having fun playing with it a bit. The blue square is a Schaefer cotton and the pinky-green is a berroco (I think).  This is going to be a lot of fun and if nothing else will ensure I have coasters! The key really is to be relaxed when first winding the yarn before you begin weaving. I have rediscovered my love of socks and pulled out my Jelly Beans (started last summer!) that had a second sock started and I’ll be ready to do that heel tonight / tomorrow. The rainbow / white stripey socks are my first two-at-a-time toe-up socks and first time with a self-striping yarn; it’s rainbow brite and I love them! For this first time around I am using a Vanilla socks pattern. Also in the pile is my Stripe Study Shawl, project #2 for Camp Loopy. For this round at “camp” we’ve been assigned to a Treehouse (last month we were assigned a mountain for hiking) – I tossed my receipt when the yarn arrived and didn’t think to look at the bottom! Oops. Stripe Study is very relaxing project that seems to move through the repeats quickly and I don’t mind the garter stitch. Squishy goodness.  I love how Kauni changes colors – the skein I have goes between green, purples and blues.  Love love love these projects!

FO Friday – Summertime Socks

It’s Friday but it feels like a Saturday. Fourth of July in the middle of the week throws me for a loop, on top of my husband having Wednesday and today off. It was a nice day and I meant to catch up on my WIP wednesday / Yarn Along, but it just didn’t happen.  Not much knitting happened yesterday at all! I started reading “Where’d You Go Bernadette” and was able to finish it – it was an interesting and engaging story that I devoured between naptime, time outside and then a bit at night. Thanks to Jessie for the recommendation! I can’t remember the last time I was so into a book, this was a nice change of pace.  I did finish (on Sunday) my Camp Loopy Project #1 – my Summertime Socks! The yarn, Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in “Summertime“, is so much more vivid than I could capture in my photo. These will be so cheery when the grey days of winter return.  I wrote before how I tried to do these 2-at-a-time. I was able to work the cuff that way and a portion of the leg, but I could not keep the leg patterning straight (you can see that one leg has a bit of criss-cross going on instead of the sprial), so I put each on its own needle and finished them Magic Loop style. I have not given up on the 2-at-a-time idea – I have stashed some self-striping yarn that will probably work better for that. The pattern, Deux Tourbillions, is from the Indie Socks book that has been on the shelf for a while. I enjoyed knitting these and I really feel like my sock mojo was reignited, so yay! Have a great weekend!

there and back again

And there goes June. This weekend was very busy, but in the best possible way: with family and yarn! My brother (the guy on the right), who has been in Chile for the last 2 years, is home for just about a month. My parents and brother (the one in the middle) went there this spring to visit, and we have been able to g-chat, but it just isn’t the same as being in the same room!

 

 

After being fueled by a home-cooked breakfast from mom (what’s better than that?!) the Lorax and I took a ride up to Putney, Vermont to visit the Green Mountain Spinnery.  I do work with them and it was overdue that I see the mill for myself. It’s pretty incredible – the space is amazing – smaller than you think (and yet still, bigger somehow – they do have a lot of yarn there!). The machines are all right there and there is fluff everywhere. We took the grand tour and spent some time chatting. I managed to not take a single picture! You are better off to click on over to the Spinnery website and see their virtual tour – seriously, they aren’t hiding anything in those photos! The only thing hard to capture in the photos is that the wool, as it goes from fluff to stuff, is that this is not a big factory / push a button and out pops yarn. There are people touching your yarn every step of the way. Very hands-on.  I was very project specific and have stocked up for winter hats for each of the kids, boot socks for Dan, a hat pattern for me and sock yarn for me. This picture of the Lorax is the only one I took! I used this as my entry into the photo contest in the Stitched by JessaLu ravelry group – and guess what? I won! Thank you random number generator! I adore my Stitched by JessaLu bags and it seems I’m collecting them now!