I said I needed a break from socks. I didn’t listen to myself.
Last weekend I caught up with my friend Jess. We decided during our Green Bay sock knitting adventures that we were going to start doing a small striped sock club of sorts. We take turns buying the yarn for the other person. When I met her for a walk she gave me the yarn she picked out. She picked it up in Berkeley when she was in California for work. The yarn is not superwash and it’s 100% wool. It’s wooly and I love it. I couldn’t wait to get started, so I cast on a vanilla sock to use as my park knitting project.
Last month when I went crazy at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival I bought a project bag, even though I have about 19,000 project bags around my house. I decided that I should justify buying the bag by continually having a project that uses yarn I purchased at the festival on the needles. I won’t rush through these projects, but they will be at the ready. As an added bonus, if I finish knitting all of the yarn I bought this year by the time the festival starts next year I can totally justify getting even more beautiful yarn.
Because I can be a little obsessive about things, I have decided that my current project will be knit only when watching the Tour de France. John and I spend hours and hours watching the Tour each July. I thought it would be fun to see how that watching correlates to knitting productivity. I’m making another pair of Rose City Rollers, as I’m using a 65 g skein. I wanted a project that I could knit even when there is an exciting mountain stage to pull all of my focus.
The yarn I’m using is a farm yarn from the festival. It’s a 65% Cormo/20% mohair/15% Tencel blend. I love the bright pink. Sadly John has to work tonight deploying code, so I won’t get to work on these until tomorrow night.
I was planning on picking up my shawl again this week, but instead I decided to make Elliot a hat. It is the middle of summer, so obviously I need to make a new winter hat for the three-year-old with so many hand me downs I don’t have the space to store them all. Last December John and I spent the day in Winterset, and while there I picked up some camel yarn for Elliot. Elliot loves camels. He sleeps with two camels every night. I felt a camel hat was in order. The yarn is Viking of Norway Camel (78% camel/22% nylon). The yarn is soft and looks very much like camel fur (skin? hide? I’m not sure what the right term is here. If you are a camelid expert please help me out in the comments).
I’m using the Tyson hat pattern in the child size. I’m contemplating adding camels to the hat using the chart from Bedouin using purls instead of a contrasting yarn. It all depends on how motivated I am this evening. Feel free to weigh in with your opinion.
I am only interested in knitting small projects at the moment. I would like to knit another sweater, but I don’t want to deal with a big project in the heat. Do you knit large projects all year long?
mildlygranola 
A camel yarn hat for a boy who loves camels is a necessity no matter how many hats he has:)
The socks (and yarn) are lovely.
There is no rhyme or reason to my knitting. I have been thinking about knitting a sweater but it’s more yardage than I can handle during Camp Loopy so I’ve put it off until fall. I have the yarn. I just have to decide on a pattern:)
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Just finished one sweater tonight and have one more seam to go on a second! I also have 2 lacewight shawls and I think 3 pairs of socks going right now, lol. It all depends on my mood what I knit on at any given moment!
Do the camels! He will love it!
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Camels have hair…rather than fur. They have guard hairs and then the undercoat. I just knit a shawl that’s a blend of baby camel and silk (homespun) and I am now spinning some more in a different colour. It likely won’t be great if it rains, but it will be super warm and soft.
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Thank you! Camel is so lovely to work with, I like knowing more about it.
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I love your little sock club idea! That’s so fun, to have someone else pick out yarn for you! And camel yarn intrigues me–what does it feel like? I imagine it being kind of like alpaca maybe?
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The sock club is a lot of fun. I loved the surprise of being handed the yarn she picked out. Camel yarn is soft like alpaca, but not so poofy (at least what I’m working with). Knit up it reminds me of chenille, but that is probably the 22% nylon. I want to work with it again.
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Oooh I love the idea of textured camels! I am not sweater knitting right now but I don’t think it has anything to do with the heat.
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I am starting to think my lack of sweater knitting has more to do with laziness than the heat.
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That is a lot of knitting!
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I’ve been getting a lot of park knitting done.
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You have some great projects on the go now! Love both your pairs of sock – such beautiful yarn 🙂 And that is very great camel-y yarn! Texture camels would look really neat – what a neat idea for a kid who loves camels. I am with you on the small or light projects. Summer is no time for big hot sweaters or blankets all over your lap. Hats and socks – that’s the ticket for sure!
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I can’t stop knitting hats and socks. It’s like they are the only things I know how to knit.
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It’ll change when it gets cooler out 🙂
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I love the idea of a friend knit exchange, if only I had one that lived close!
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I have three sweaters and a vest on the go, but I’ve thought about small projects, too. I think I’ll try the Rose City Rollers. I have the pattern.
I really like woolly socks, too. I DO like the yarn for your socks.
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