Sock It To Me Monday

mildlygranola, , 4 Comments

I have to be honest: I think it would be really cool if I could knit a pair of socks a week and share them with you every Monday, only because I like saying Sock It To Me.

I finished my Rainbow Dashing socks. I love how they turned out. Yarn Geek Fibers is wonderful, and I highly recommend you check her out. She goes to a lot of fiber festivals around the Mid-West, so if you are regionally local you might be able to find her in person. Her skeins are 110 g instead of 100 g, which I really like because I like tall socks. I also like bonus socks, and in this case I have enough leftover to make Audrey a pair of Rose City Rollers.

I hope all of your projects are making progress. I also hope you will find a way to use the phrase “sock it to me” in conversation sometime this week. I also hope I’m not the only one who used to watch Laugh In on Nick at Night.

BINGO!

mildlygranola, , 11 Comments

I love BINGO. I love spending time with friends. I love slushy boozy punch. Yesterday all of those things converged at the best party I’ve been to in years.

I played BINGO. I drank punch. I ate the most delicious monster cookies I’ve ever had. I caught up with friends I hadn’t seen in months.

John was one of the first winners and picked the Miss Babs yarn pictured above (Yummy 2-ply in the Mad Hatter Colorway) as his prize. I was not subtle about how important it was for him to pick that prize if he were to win a BINGO before me. He’s a good husband.

I won a small travel coffee mug, which is the perfect size for the limited amount of coffee I can drink in a day (no caffeine after 10 am, no more than 2 cups or I can’t sleep).

My friend says she is going to throw another BINGO party this fall. I can’t wait.

What is the best party you have ever been to?

skinnytaste Week 20

mildlygranola3 Comments

It has been beautiful here this week. It’s starting to feel like summer. We were able to eat outside after grilling, something it has been too cold to do until now. For the BBQ I made Instant Pot Brown Sugar Baked Beans.

These beans were really easy. The hardest thing to do when making these was chopping an onion. The flavor was close to canned baked beans, but they are much lower in sugar. I loved them. I’ll be making them again, opting to use all great northern beans instead of a mix of three kinds of beans; I liked the variety, but John wants them to look more like baked beans (he’s 40 going on 4).

If you like baked beans you should make these. The recipe also has directions for a crock pot, which I might do if we go to a potluck. I’m now going to go heat up some leftover beans. Yum.

I’m a Sucker for Seersucker

mildlygranola9 Comments

After I finished my project bags I was ready to tackle a bigger sewing project. I bought some seersucker for another Fen Dress soon after I made the first one, and I decided it was time to put it to use.

I like the dress, but I don’t like that I have to wear a slip with it. I don’t own a slip. Well, that’s not true. I didn’t own a slip until I MacGyvered one this afternoon. I had an old layering tank top and a quarter yard of knit fabric. I did some serger magic and created a slip. The slip is fine (even though it looks a bit like a dress a Kardashian would wear), but I think it will be too warm for seersucker. I am now going to look for a slip pattern (if you have a suggestion, please send it my way)

I have the fabric for a t shirt and a pair of pants in my stash. I’m hoping to finish another sewing project next week, but that will involve taping a pattern together so it might not happen.

What are you working on this weekend?

WIP Wednesday

mildlygranola, , 6 Comments

I haven’t spent much time knitting this week, but I do have a bit of progress to show.

My socks continue to plug along. I should finish the gusset tomorrow (I’ll have a half hour of swim lesson knitting time to focus on the sock). If I put my mind to it I should be able to finish these by next Wednesday. The weather is beautiful here, so if I remember to throw my knitting in the stroller I will probably get some park knitting done this week.

I’ve been working on my Northeasterly a fair amount this week. I wanted to get the first stripe to 60 inches (I plan to make this a sixty inch square blanket) because I wanted to have an easy visual to check the size. I really like how this blanket it turning out. I’ll probably need to take a break from it before too long so I can knit something with worsted weight yarn to create some scraps. I love how cozy this blanket is, it will be perfect to snuggle under and watch movies in winter (whenever I finish it).

I think I might cast on a fun project to take my mind off of the shawl kerfuffle. We shall see.

Tension Headache

mildlygranola, 7 Comments

I decided to take a break from knitting because of the shawl that shall not be named. I worked up two medium size Christmas themed project bags. I’m going to keep one and give one to a friend who knits a lot of presents for Christmas.

This project gave me fits. I could not get my tension right. My friend even came over to help. I tried 10 different tensions on my machine and kept ending up with thread barf on the bottom of my work.

After days of fighting tension she suggested I try a different thread. It was instantly better. I think it is the sewing equivalent of the help desk telling you to turn it off and turn it back on again. I won’t be trying to work with cotton thread again any time soon.

In the end I have two project bags that are OK to look at from a distance.

Now that I have my tension issues figured out I’m ready to get back to sewing. I cut out a new dress and hope to have it done in time to wear to the BINGO party I’m going to on Saturday afternoon (there will be boozy punch, a cheese ball, and prizes….I can’t wait).

I hope you are having better luck with your crafts than I am this week.