WIP Wednesday: 43/52

October 31, 2018 mildlygranolaHalloween7 Comments

Happy Halloween! It’s spooky how much knitting I’ve completed this week.

I blocked my Zadie Sweater. The bottom is rolling a bit. As I was knitting it I thought there wasn’t enough garter to keep it from rolling. I was right. I should have listened to my gut and adjusted the pattern. Other than that, I like the sweater a lot. It’s cozy and casual. I will wear it a lot.I finished the gusset on the first sock of my current sock project. These are slow going, but when I actually pick them up to work on them they go fast. Funny how that works.The project that I can’t stop working on this week is Nightshift by Andrea Mowry. I find mosaic color work addictive. Most of the yarn I’m using is leftover from Mary-Claire’s Scrap Yarn Shawl Knock Off. As I knit the shawl I’m thinking about her, which makes knitting it even more delightful. I’m suffering from the delusion that often comes with shawls that grow wider as you knit them – I think I’ll be able to finish this in a week. I know that is unlikely, but I can dream.

In non-knitting news, last night was Beggar’s Night in Des Moines. Des Moines has a weird tradition where kids trick or treat the night before Halloween. I did not grow up with the tradition and find it annoying, because it makes Halloween a bit of a let down for the kids. Stupid tradition or not, the kids were excited to trick or treat. I hope you get a spooky amount of knitting done this week too!

Uh Oh

October 30, 2018 mildlygranolahat, Knitting10 Comments

I accidentally felted one of my favorite hats. It must have been under of my sweatshirt when I picked it up and put it in the laundry. I didn’t notice it until I was folding the laundry. It still fits, it just looks weird. It is not the cool, slouchy hat it once was.

Have you ever accidentally felted your knitting?

Audrey’s Birthday Party

October 30, 2018 mildlygranola3 Comments

On Saturday we celebrated Audrey’s birthday again. This time we celebrated with family over brunch. We have parties for Audrey and Elliot at my sister’s house, as she has a nice entertaining space and we live in a glorified tiny home.

I keep the food simple for birthday parties – fruit, frozen cinnamon rolls, and egg bakes. I don’t keep the cake simple. I make whatever cake the kids pick.

Audrey picked a pretzel cake from the cover of Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson. It was delicious. It was a triple layer chocolate cake with peanut butter butter cream. There were pretzels and chopped chocolate between the layers. It was topped with chopped chocolate and peanuts. Pretzels adorned the sides. Audrey helped me decorate the cake. She was very focused.

She was excited to blow out the candles.She thought the cake was delicious. John and I agreed.

After presents we headed home in time for naps. I love that about brunch.

Please note that my sister not only lets us use her house, she also made Audrey’s hat and shirt. Audrey wears her party hat to every party she goes to. It gets a lot of use, as it should.

New Hats

October 28, 2018October 28, 2018 mildlygranolacraft, hat, knit, Knitting4 Comments

I finished the Little Boxes hats for Audrey and Elliot yesterday. They both love having a hat that matches Daddy’s.

I didn’t adapt the pattern much. I did not adjust the number of cast on stitches. The hat is stretch enough it works in the adult size, and this way they will be able to wear them for several years. I reduced the number of pattern repeats by 1/3.

I hope that there isn’t much need for warm wool hats for another month, but it is the end of October and this is Iowa, so we will probably need them before too long.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. I’m now off to watch football and drink tea and knit obsessively.

WIP Wednesday: 42/52

October 24, 2018 mildlygranolaknit, Knitting, WIP3 Comments

Happy Wednesday! It has been a busy week for me, made worse by my obsession with finishing my sweater. All I’ve wanted to do is work on the sweater. Not because I love knitting it, but because I just wanted to be done.

Thankfully my obsession paid off, as I finished my sweater yesterday. The Yarn Blabber is right, when you are monogamous with a project it really flies. The sweater is badly in need of a good blocking, but I can tell it is going to be a nice wardrobe addition. I’ll post better pictures after blocking. As you can tell I was so excited I didn’t even get out of my bunnies riding bikes pajamas to take the photos (I’m super fancy).

I started working on a new hat for the kids once I was done with the sweater. I’m making both kids Little Boxes Beanies to match John’s. Elliot insists on wearing his “Daddy hat” all summer, so I wanted to make him a hat like Daddy’s for winter. I have enough yarn to make two kids hats, so I’m just going to make two to avoid any potential fighting (trust me, it’s easier that way). I hope to finish both of the hats this week, as when I’m finished with them I can cast on a new shawl for myself.

After I finish the hats it is back to having socks as a travel project. I turned the heel on my first Up All Night sock earlier this week, so I am making some progress on them. I fear I might be a bit burnt out on socks at the moment.

Do you ever need a break from knitting your favorite thing to knit?