First new yarn of the decade

I finished the last two pair of patchwork socks.  I am officially over my infatuation with the pattern.  I might do a simplified version of them next time I want to fool around with some of the self striping stash.

I have been mostly burned out on the Dolores kits.  The patterns have been cute but the yarn has frequently been not fun to work with.  I discovered that some of the patterns from discontinued kits are available from WEBS.  I have three of them in my Rav queue.  Don’t tell Dolores.  She really wants wear something besides her holiday sweater.

I managed to make it halfway through January before some new yarn successfully called to me.  The dyer is Yarn Baby and she lives in my old stomping grounds.  The Colorado flag made me a bit homesick.  I got over that fast by remembering the magic word Snow.  Do not like.  I bought it, though.

She had a mystery yarn sale, with odd skeins at a good price.  You could even indicate color likes or dislikes.  I was happy with my mystery skein called Sour.

Knittish New Year

I jumped right into 2020 with my Birdsong sweater.

As soon as the bird part was done, I got bored.  I zipped through a pair of Patchwork socks.  They look odd and are too thick to wear with any of my shoes.  They are also warm, fit well, and are lots of  fun to knit.  I am going to go cast on another pair.

That’s the front of both socks, by the way.  Not exactly obvious, is it?

Obsessions and whims

My latest projects and things I got myself for Christmas were all fairly whimsical.

I caught up on a couple of years of My Favorite Murder podcasts.  The result was a cross stitch picture of the podcast’s tag line.  It also included a purchase of several skeins of yarn from Colorful Eclectic’s Murderino collection.

I am watching a Doctor Who marathon.  The new season starts New Year’s Day after a ridiculously long wait.  I stitched up a TARDIS tissue box cover on plastic canvas.

I love a sock pattern called Patchwork Mix Socken.  The construction is unusual and the yarn used for the design results in a wild pattern.  I went a bit crazy  bought three balls of Opal Hundertwasser so I can make more.

I liked the Smoky Mountains National Park kit I got from Must Stash so much that I ordered the Denali one when it was offered just before Christmas.  

I got a gradient set from Miss Babs that was meant for a shawl pattern.  I have sworn off of shawls so it is a bit concerning that I can’t remember why I bought it.  It turns out that it is perfect for a hat I want to make.  More on my hat obsession later.  I need to get back to the hat:  128 stitches in an I-cord cast on.  Arrrrrgh.

A little bit every day...

...for 24 days.  I am doing two different advent KALs.

Doucet Winter socks uses little bits of leftovers and mini skeins.  The designer says that doucet is Middle English for sweet.

I started a second pattern when I found it on sale.  Walking into Winter is by Sivia Harding.  The KAL is being done by Must Stash.  They make the nicest self-striping yarns.  I am tempted into buying more all the time.  The yarn for the KAL is Hobbit Christmas which I like but I absolutely need to knit up some of what I have.  That’s why I chose Lykke, which might be Danish for happiness.  The pretty stripes do make me happy.

I am working on the second of three ghost sock patterns.  This one is Black Friday.  The KAL had some cool looking yarns from the Lucky Violet Color Co.  I managed to resist somehow and am using something from stash.

I have not been cured of giving in to yarn temptations, though.  I have been listening to podcasts lately.  I have been working my way through My Favorite Murder, a comedy true crime podcast.  I happened upon a yarn dyer who is doing a series of colorways based on some of the podcast’s catchphrases.  She is making a donation for each skein sold to an organization dedicated to reducing the backlog of untested rape kits.  Worthy charitable donation?  Connection to something fun?   It was a no brainer.  Santa is bringing me three skeins for Christmas.

Done, sort of

There are a bunch of completed but not blocked projects piling up around here.

Vacillate is a shawl made from a Doctor Who themed kit.

She Blinded Me With Science is a salute to four female scientists.  That’s DNA’s double helix below the cuff and a jellyfish near the toe.

Jingle All the Way are elf feets with little silver bells.

Barnivore didn’t need blocking, yay!  That’s a cow and a pig in the barn’s mouth/door.

The second of three ghost sock patterns is coming up this weekend.  After that is an advent pair and a 12 days of Christmas pair.  Those will have me knitting a few rows daily for six weeks.  There should  be little chance of boredom or distraction this way.

Until those start, I am working on an embroidery kit.  I stashed it in a knitting basket and forgot about it for months.  

Knit along, along, along...

Just when the works in progress pile started to shrink, I started in on a bunch of KALs.  Five days in a row had new clues appear.

Halloween in Space had two clues, which were enough to finish the socks.  I liked the yarn from Yarn Over New York.  I wasn’t fond of the pattern.  It was well written, but the textured stitches weren’t my favorite.  I would have done it in narrower stripes instead of the clue at a time blocks.  The lesson for me is to not commit to a project using advent-style mystery boxes until all boxes are open.

Griffin is one of a series of three sock patterns from J.L. Fleckenstein.  This one is Halloween theme and uses yarn from ancient stash.

The Great British Baking shawl has begun.  It is fun to see all the color variations, even among the people using the same collection of yarns.

Woolly Wormhead is doing a hat-along.  The first clue is the brim, so there’s not much to see yet.  I suspect that my yarn choice was a bit busy for what is to come.  I wanted to work from stash and there’s usually nothing solid or semisolid there.

Halloween in Space - Day One

The works in progress are beginning to pile up around here:

• National Parks blanket is big enough to require a lot of space when I want to pull it and all the different colors out.  It gets set to one side frequently.  Much of the yarn came from Knitted Wit.
• Vacillate is the Doctor Who shawl I started with some birthday yarn.  It is coming along well.  I am attempting to alternate it with other stuff.
• Astrifiammante is a beaded lace scarf.  The pattern was created in memory of a woman on Ravelry who recently succumbed to cancer.  It is nearly half done.  I also did a pair of Bellybuttonknits socks in her honor.  She did a lot of great lace and sometimes also beaded sock patterns.
  
• Peached are two knitted peaches that need blocking to be finished.
• Jane and Hercule are pairs of socks that require blocking.  Someone has been watching a lot of Agatha Christie and had to do the socks.
• Kodiak Bears are a pair of slippers I whipped up last night.  They require felting, so it might be  some time before that happens.
• Halloween in Space is scheduled to start tomorrow. I cheated and opened the first box now.
  
  The pumpkin lights up and flickers as if it had a candle inside.  Looks like at least one sock toe will be sparkly purple and green.