Month: January 2019
WIP Wednesday: Polar Vortex Edition
Happy Wednesday! It’s cold here. 
Wrigley had her surgery yesterday and can’t be off leash until she heals. Luckily she hasn’t been licking her incisions, so we haven’t had to put her in a cone. Thank you for keeping her in your thoughts. We will hear back in a week or two with the results of the tumors. 
With the cold and the dog I’ve managed to be somewhat productive this week. I finished Mary-Claire’s socks. 
I’m about 1/4 of the way through the lace on the Hoarfrost Shawl. I’ll know in about 10 more rows if I’ll have enough yarn left for the shawl or I’ll need to rip out an old scarf knit with the same yarn.
I hope you are staying warm and getting knitting done.
skinnytaste Week 4 and other ramblings
This week it was easy to pick what to try from skinnytaste. We all have colds, so chicken noodle soup was an obvious choice. This recipe has instantpot and stove top directions, and I decided to make it on the stove.
Oh my goodness this was delicious and perfect. I will be making this again. I will probably double it in the future, as it is only 4 servings and I wish we had leftovers. 
It is really cold here, so we’ve been staying inside. This was our second day of the kids being stuck at home, and they were getting stir crazy. I was able to buy 45 minutes of quiet by giving them trays of rice krispies and trucks.
It was totally worth the mess.
I was able to escape the house for a bit this afternoon to run to the gym and the library. All of the books I had on hold came in at once. I hate it when that happens. I might have to take a break from my current book to get through all of these.
In exciting knitting news, I was looking for a pair of mittens and discovered my thrummed mittens and BFL Gretel Tam. I was sure I lost them when I was out and about running errands, but it turns out they just fell behind the winter gear bin I threw them in.
In scary news, Wrigley has surgery on Tuesday to remove a cancerous tumor. We don’t have a lot of information about her prognosis and won’t until the surgery and detailed biopsy are done. She’s a great dog and I’m trying not to think about what this probably means for her future. 
Have a great weekend. If it’s cold where you are, I hope you stay home and bake something, drink hot chocolate, and knit while watching mindless television.
Sock Help
I’m only a couple of inches into my second sock, but I’m already thinking about my next pair. I’m going to do a short sock pattern, probably Day Off Socks or Rose City Rollers. I’ll be using one skein of koigu yarn, which won’t be enough for both socks. I’ll be doing the heels and toes in a contrasting color.
I’m not sure which color to use, so I would love your help choosing. Please let me know in the comments if you think the heels and toes should be light or dark. 
Have you made short socks? Do you have a pattern you would recommend?
WIP Wednesday
Happy Wednesday! We are recovering from our second snowstorm of the week. The kids and I were up in Cedar Falls earlier this week. We woke up there this morning to about six inches of snow. Luckily the roads cleared up and we were able to get home.
I have been making steady progress on my projects. I’m on the leg of the second sock. These will be going to my sister Mary-Claire in Chicago. There are only a few people who appreciate hand knit socks enough for me to knit them a pair, she is one of them.
I made a lot of progress on the shawl this week, but decided not to bother with a picture because it looks the same. I just started the lace portion, and I can’t wait to see how it looks once I’ve knit more than one row.
I’m itching to cast on a sweater, so that might happen next week. At some point I’m going to go back to my hibernating projects, but this week is not the week.
There is a rash of cast-on-itis going around the knitting blogger community. Be careful, it is highly contagious and you might find yourself starting yet another project.
Yarn Box
Yesterday I headed up to Ankeny to enjoy some family craft time. One of my cousins from NW Iowa was in town visiting another cousin, so my sister and I joined them for an afternoon of fiber art. We drank tea, ate freezer bars (a treat so delicious I have had the recipe for years but have never trusted myself to make, as I would eat the entire pan), and watched Zac Efron musicals (totally appropriate for a group of women in their 40s, right?).
Before heading down to Ankeny, my cousin Annie asked if I would be interested in any of the fingering weight yarn her friend gave her. After confirming that it was wool, not acrylic, I said I would take any she would be willing to part with. I said this because yarn that is given to me doesn’t count in my yarn diet, I knit a lot of socks, I can always use yarn for my scrap blanket, and I’m so incredibly cheap I’ll never say no to free yarn (unless it’s acrylic, because that’s not my jam).
What awaited me when I arrived was not a few skeins of sock yarn. It was a giant box of yarn.
In the box there was 600g of Plymouth Select worsted weight yarn. There is enough to make Elliot the Gus Sweater in the 12 year size or a large shawl for me. I don’t love the color, so this might sit in my stash for years. I’m OK with that, as it will eventually leave.
The box also included 160 g of red fingering weight yarn. I really like the color and the yarn. I’m thinking this could be a shawl.
There was 375 g of tweed fingering weight yarn. This yarn is beautiful, and I’m looking forward to working with it. I’m thinking maybe a shawl or a cardigan for Audrey.
The final surprise was 1320 g of super bulky yarn. If my calculations are correct I have enough to make myself a cardigan. I’m thinking Shawl Collar Cardigan #6501. I plan on skipping the texture and going for stockinette on the body instead. This color might be awful on me, and if it is it will give me the chance to experiment with dying a completed garment.
Do you get excited about free yarn too? Do you have any suggestions for what to make with the red and tweed yarn?
mildlygranola 