Monday FO Post: Last One For 2022

I hope all of you have had a good weekend, and for anyone in the U.S. who is enjoying a Monday holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I hope you have a wonderful day today.

Today I'm sharing the very last FO of 2022. You may recall the only other photo I showed was when I started the ribbing, back in November:

I've been hoping to get a modeled shot, and maybe someday I will, but in the meantime, I wanted to show you my last FO of the year.

Project: Toque for Tim

Pattern: Antler Toque by Tin Can Knits

Yarn: Plucky Knitter Trusty Worsted, colorway Be Steel My Heart

Needles: US size 6 and 8

Modifications: None

Notes: This was a wonderful, fun pattern to knit - and it's also a free one! I had a couple of questions at the start, and contacted Tin Can Knits, and they responded immediately, which only raises them higher in my estimation.

I decided I wanted to knit a cabled hat for The Tim as a Christmas gift, and when I was searching around for patterns, I remembered that I'd always wanted to try this one. Even better - I felt 99.99999% certain that I had enough yarn left over from my Steel Doodles sweater that I wouldn't even need to buy any yarn! (As it turned out, I had enough plus some still left, which really made me happy.) 

The pattern is extremely clear with what to do, and has both written instructions and a chart. I love knitting cables, and after about two repeats, I had the pattern in my brain, so I could knit without constantly referring back to it. And of course, the yarn is yummy and super soft, so the whole experience was enjoyable.

Plus, I got to learn something new - I'd never done cable decreases and they were necessary for the top of the hat. Again, the instructions in the pattern were so clear, it wasn't hard at all, and please look again at the photo above to see how nice the top of the hat looks. 😊

Best of all, The Tim loves his new hat, and says it's not just cushy and soft, but really cozy and warm. He's worn it nearly every day since he opened it, except for the stupidly warm days we've had. And that makes my heart very happy.

Overall, it was a good gifting season for me; I finished everything on time, I enjoyed knitting each thing, and all of them were very enthusiastically received. As a knitter, you really can't ask for much more than that.

FOs of 2022 : Work Life

I thought I would show you the FOs I have from 2022 that are samples for Loop, since they are still things that *I* knit!

First up: The Worsted Watch Cap (Loop store pattern)

This is a basic hat pattern, and can be made in various sizes and weights. This particular one is the Adult Large size, knit with Big Bad Wool Weepaca in the colorway Gray Wolf. Sooooo soft!

Next: All-Ways Hat, by Jared Flood. 

This is the hat that in my opinion, for all intents and purposes, is the Musselburgh hat (I think that pattern is a lot more straightforward to read and knit also, but that's just me maybe ...)

Anyway, this is knit in Brooklyn Tweed Tones Light Yarn, in the Zest Overtone and Zest Undertone.

Here we have the Puff Cowl (another shop pattern):

This was knit in Rowan Brushed Fleece, in the Hush colorway. Another soft finish, but this one is hard to tink back if you make a mistake, since the yarn kind of melds together once you make a stitch. (This colorway is a lovely light purple, even though it looks gray in photo. That is my poor photographic skill, I'm afraid.)

Next, the Salut Cheri Beret, by Sari Nordlund (a free pattern on her website):

For this, the yarn used is Berrocco Mochi, in the Garnet Colorway. This pattern was quick and easy to follow, though it's only written for one size, which was too small for my [admittedly] big head. But it does make a lovely beret, and the yarn is luscious and comes in many really pretty colors.

Lastly, the Seed Stitch Scarf (no "official" pattern):

This was made with Malabrigo Noventa yarn, in the Sea Horse colorway. Noventa is advertised as Super Bulky, but it seems more like maybe regular bulky, but that's not up to me. Anyhow, this is knit on size US 10 needles, and involves casting on 17 stitches, slipping the first stitch and knitting the last stitch on each row, and doing K1, P1 each row to create seed stitch. This yarn is pretty, but it's really hard to use, as it really easily twists on itself while you are knitting.

It was really fun to get to try yarns that I might never try on my own for whatever reason, and to be introduced to them. It's also fun when customers come in and want to see something knit in a certain yarn, or a certain type of pattern, and mine is one of the samples!

The Loop patterns are usually free with the purchase of the yarn. If you want to "be in the know," as it were, you can always sign up for the shop's newsletter/e-mail list by sending an e-mail to knit@loopyarn.com and asking to be signed up. Usually that's where things show up, as far as new patterns, yarns, etc.**

So those were my "work" FOs for the year - not bad for someone who just started working there at the end of July 2022, and is not the world's fastest knitter. 😊

**I'm not encouraging this or pushing as part of my job, I just know that over the years that I've been on the newsletter list (long before I ever thought of working there!), a lot of good patterns have been added to my collection.

FO Post: Amanda's Christmas Gift

Hello all! I hope your week has been going well. My work week is over, and I'm glad for that. Today is my niece Amanda's birthday, so I thought I'd (finally) do an FO post for her Christmas gift.

You may remember it all started here:

And then I started, only after I'd made progress, realizing that I had inadvertently switched the colors; but I kept going, because Amanda's favorite color is pink, so it all works out. 😊

Project: Amanda Needs A Martini

Pattern: Martini Party Shawlette, by Erika Flory (Rav link)

Yarn: Plucky Feet, by the Plucky Knitter. Pink colorway is Cosmo, green colorway is Appletini.

Needles: US size 5

Modifications: Only swapping the colors inadvertently!

Blocking with Pat's hat

 

Folded and ready to go!

Notes: I've had this yarn and pattern for years, as part of a kit that came in a subscription to some club or another that I no longer remember. But I remember that when I got it and saw the names of the pattern and the yarns, I thought it would be perfect for Amanda, who is a martini lover. And finally this year, I got to knitting it.

The yarn is lovely to work with - no splitting, no tangles, and very soft. The pattern is really well-written, and fun to knit once you get the hang of it. 

I was so pleased that I finished it in mid-November, in plenty of time to send for Christmas. Did I remember to take an FO photo? Why no! This of course I only realized once it was in the mail. Sigh.

So I asked Amanda to take a photo of it for me once she said the package was opened. So yes, it's a bit wrinkled because it was folded in the package for a while, but here it is in completed form:

Christmas morning, we got this photo with a text that said, "We love our Christmas gifts!"

It doesn't get much better than that when you give knitted gifts. ❤

I think you could do a lot with this pattern, as far as color combinations, and you of course could also make it larger; but I like the small cozy size of it, and think it would be comfy on its own or under a coat/jacket.

So it's all good - and as an extra bonus, it was in my stash, so I was able to reduce the size of that - win-win!

P.S. Never fear - I also sent Amanda a birthday gift. December birthdays always get a separate birthday gift from me, because that is how I think it should be.

Monday FO Post: Vampires Don't Know Football

Hello - I hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was a mix of good and bad, but it was good overall so no complaints. Except that it's too warm for November, and I am not happy about that. But there's also nothing I can do about it, so I'm trying to think of other things.

I don't know if I posted much about the socks I was making as an anniversary present for The Tim. But I know I mentioned them at least a couple of times. Well, they have been finished, gifted, and worn, so a post about them is well overdue.

Project: Vampires Don't Know Football

Pattern: I did an adaptation of my own pattern called First Down Socks, available under the "Free Patterns" tab of this blog. Since I had to change the number of stitches between repeats, I decided to use the colorway name to pay with the title of the project.

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici in the colorway Vampire Vibes.

Needles: US size 1

Modifications: The pattern recipe on my blog says to knit 9 stitches, and purl one stitch. That's for my size, which has a 60 stitch cast-on. Since I use a 64- stitch cast on for The Tim's socks, I knit 7 stitches and then purled one stitch all the way around.

These were fun to knit, as are most self-striping yarns, because you look forward to the next color stripe. And they would have been finished well ahead of the deadline (October 28) but for a few things that got in the way - so I finished them on October 25, which was great because I felt like I still had some breathing room.

The Tim had a dentist appointment the Monday after our anniversary, and wore his socks to the appointment. Apparently he showed them to the dentist and the dental assistants and told them I had knit them. I had a dentist appointment late last week, and the dentist and all the staff had to tell me about how they thought it was so amazing how I knit those socks, and how did I figure it all out, etc. I had to laugh, because as all of you know, with self-striping yarn, the colors happen on their own, unless you are good at manipulating them. So I was both flattered and amused. And it's really nice that The Tim likes his knitted gifts so much. 😊

So now, of the three gifts I was knitting, two have been completed. I have about 25 rows left on the shawlette I'm making for my niece Amanda, so hopefully I can show that to you before too long. I'm really motivated to finish because I am so close to the end, but also because I have told myself I can't start anything new, or pick up any other wips until that one is ready to be gifted.

Here's hoping this week will treat all of us well. Take care, and remember to VOTE tomorrow if you have not done so already!

Friday FO Post: A Longish-Ago Finish

Yes, I'm bookending my week of posts with another FO - don't get used to it, though, because this is for a project finished a while back that I was never able to get good "modeled" shots of, but wanted to write about before putting it away for the winter.

You may remember seeing this:

Well, though it challenged me at the beginning, I did in fact finish it!

Project: Light Purple Thea Top

Pattern: THEA Top by Susanne Muller

Yarn: Sandnes Garn Line, in the colorway Light Purple

Needles: US size 4 & 6

Modifications: At the end, when it was time to do the ribbing around the bottom, neckline, and armholes, I did one round of plain knit, then the ribbing. I also did 7 rounds of ribbing, because I thought it looked better that way.

(This is as close to a photo of me wearing it as we'll get right now. As I recall, I had really dirty hair when taking this photo, so decided it would be a torso shot ... 😊)

Notes: This was a challenge, but once I figured out what was happening, it was a fairly quick and easy knit. I had never made anything with this kind of construction before, so it took a bit of effort to wrap my mind around the instructions in the pattern. But the project did provide me with my first [kinda] successful provisional crochet cast on, so that was a boost.

It's kind of wrinkled in the photo above, because it has been folded and in the closet, but this gives you an idea of how the finished item looks; and in the photo below, you can see the "possible" light purple shade of the yarn - but to be honest, it is really hard to tell there is any purple at all. Maybe if my skin was darker, it would show up more. Oh well, I still really like it.

Anyway, I would recommend this pattern because it doesn't take long to knit once you understand all of the moving parts. I started this around the middle of June this past summer, and was finished around the end of August. It only took me that long because I worked on other things in the interim, and had a bout of "who wants to knit at all" for a couple of weeks.

I'm hoping next summer to get a "real" photo of how it looks being worn, but this will be it for now. 

The yarn used, which is a linen/cotton blend, is very nice, very soft to work with, and comes in a variety of colors. If I do ever make this again, I'll choose something with more of a color pop. But I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this top when the weather is too hot to breathe.

Alfie thought about sitting on it, but decided it wasn't worth making the effort. Shortly after this he left the room altogether, as if to say, "If I'm not the main focus of this photo session, why am I even hanging around???"

Here's hoping you have a good weekend, I'll see you next week.

Monday FO Post: One Gift Finished!

Hello and Happy Monday when the Philadelphia Phillies are the National League Champions!!!!! 

Yesterday, I was at work until 4 p.m., and the game had started shortly after 2:30 p.m., so I got to see a good bit of it, and most importantly - THE BEST PART! So exciting, especially since it's been a long time coming, and as usual, the Phillies were the underdogs. (The Tim: I'm so glad they won, but now that means you will have new obnoxious nicknames for the other team, after I just got used the ones you had for the Padres. [Yes, his life is so difficult.])

Anyway, GO PHILS!!!!

Now, to the real reason for this post. I finally have completed a knitting project to show you - plus, it's a Christmas gift, so I'm well ahead of time having it ready to go.

Project: Preller Needs a Musselburgh

Pattern: Musselburgh, by Ysolda Teague

Yarns: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply in the colorway Hope (striped yarn); and, Loop Sprig in the colorway Admiral (navy)

Needles: US size 3

Modifications: None

Notes: You may recall that I made one of these hats last year for a Christmas gift for Greg, husband of my niece La Liz. When I was showing it to my niece Amanda and her husband Pat, he said, "That is so cool - I want one!" Well, at the time, it was about 2 weeks before Christmas, so there was no way that was happening for last year. But I stored away the request for this year. 

Since I have been trying really hard to knit from my stash, I started by looking to see what I already had that might work for at least part of the hat. I knew I wanted to make a half-and-half type, to make it a different hat, depending on how it is worn. I found about half of a skein of the West Yorkshire Spinners yarn that I had used for a pair of socks, but I couldn't find something I liked well enough to contrast with it.

So I took the leftover skein with me to work at Loop one day to find something that I liked as the second color, and decided on the navy blue because I liked the contrast of it.

I made the Adult Large size, and although the beginning is fiddly to cast on, once you get going, it's pretty mindless and goes quickly. It's a good project if you want to watch TV because once you get past the increases at the top, it's just a whole lot o' knitting until you are ready to do the decreases!

So yes, I did buy a new skein of yarn, but a) I used half of it already, b) it will be a good contrast color for lots of other projects, and c) I used my employee discount, so it wasn't as expensive as it could have been ... 😀

Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it turned out - I think I did an even better job on this one than the first one I made, which makes sense because like most things, the more you do it, the better the result. I would recommend this pattern because it's a lot of bang for your buck, as they say. Particularly when you use two different yarns, and as a result, have 4 different ways to wear one hat.

Plus, it's Koodle approved.

'Nuff said, right?

FO Post: Well That Took a Long Time!

I just looked on my Ravelry page, and apparently I started knitting my Easter socks on March 25, 2022.  I finished them this past Sunday, May 22, so ... it was a while

This was the yarn caked up - it came in two separate skeins, which I will admit that I like, because then I can knit a cuff, and then another cuff; a leg and then another leg; and on through the pair.  So that when I finish one toe, I only have the toe of the second sock to do!

Project:  Hoppity Socks

Pattern:  My own stitch pattern, on a plain vanilla sock

Yarn:  Timber Yarns Twin Sock, in the colorway Eggsquisite

Needles:  US size 1

Notes:  I was really excited to start this pair, figuring if I started in late March, I would easily have them ready for Easter.  And things moved along well, to a certain point.

Cuff, heel, and the start of the foot on Sock #1 - meaning that Sock #2 was finished to the end of the heel.  I used the Shadow Wrap Heel, shown in this video from Earthtones Girl.  I've made one other pair with this heel, and wanted to try it again.

Anyway, the pattern on the leg portion is one I made up, and I decided since it was scattered onto the leg of the sock, it reminded me of little bunnies jumping around, hippity hoppity, hence the name of this project.  (If anyone would like to know the stitch pattern, please say so, and I'll write it up and share it.)

Then I ran out of knitting mojo.  So the socks sat in the project bag for quite a while.  Weeks, actually.  I made a bit of progress on them over one evening, but that was it.  And then this past weekend, I decided that I was going to finish them, no matter what.  The good thing is, that I did finish them, and I have to say that I could feel a little bit of my desire to knit things return, so I'm glad I picked them up again.

They don't quite match, which doesn't bother me at all, and I love how happy and cheerful they are!  Nothing about knitting this pair of socks was hard - they only took so long to complete because of operator neglect.  😊

Right now, we're heading into warmer weather, so they may not be worn anytime soon, but I'm happy knowing that when I'm ready for them, they'll be ready for me!

FO Post: This Should Have Been One Thing, But It's Another ...

I don't remember if I posted many photos here of this FO when it was a WIP, but I know I posted a few on Instagram.  Yes, I could look through previous posts, but let's just move on, shall we?

Project:  Christmas Waltz Socks

Pattern: Plain old vanilla sock pattern that I have memorized at this point.

Yarn:  Lollipop Yarn Traditional Sock, in the Christmas Waltz colorway

Needles:  US size 0 (body of sock) and size 1 (cuffs, heels, toes)

Notes:  I started these for myself at the end of November 2021, because I had all of my other gift knitting and projects finished.  Every year I think I'll knit myself some Christmas socks during Christmastime, and every year something interferes.  But not this time!

The first sock zoomed right along, and before I knew it, was finished.  I did start the second sock right away, and the cuff and leg took no time at all.

But here is where the second sock became The Sock of Distractions.  The sock set came with a skein of the main color, and a mini-skein of the burgundy shade for heels, toes, etc.  I was knitting along on sock #2, and suddenly was close to running out of yarn - what???  Then I realized that I was nearly to the toe of the sock, but had failed to switch back to the main yarn.  Ugh.  So I ripped back to where the heel ended, and re-did the gusset and foot.  I am 99% sure it's because I was knitting away, watching movies and/or Vlogmas podcasts, and didn't pay attention.  No big deal, though, I got it ripped out and fixed and was on my merry way.

By New Year's Eve, I had only the toe of the second sock left to complete, so I was really pleased that I would not only have a pair of socks done, but I would complete my last project of 2021 on the last day of the year.

Not so fast, silly!

I was watching a movie with The Tim, knitting away on the toe, and looked down only to realize that I had messed up the counting, and the toe was just a plain old huge mess.  Sigh.  So I ripped it out, and as much as I wanted to finish it that day, decided to leave it until the next day, since I was annoyed with myself, which never ends well when I am trying to knit, especially when I'm trying to fix a mistake.

And that, my friends, is how my Christmas socks that were supposed to be my last FO of 2021 became my first FO of 2022!  I finished them during the day on New Year's Day, and I just love them.  I love the colorway, I love how the speckles on the light yarn remind me of holly berries, and I love that I finished a pair of Christmas socks for me during Christmastime!  

Even if I did get waylaid by my distracted brain.  

This was my first time using Lollipop Yarn, and I really enjoyed working with it.  It's nice and soft, but also feels very wooly and cozy.  

And through no real effort on my part, the striped part pretty much matches when you hold them up together - now *that's* a Christmas miracle!  😉