Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays, my friends!! I hope you are all well.

What a busy month! I am very pleased to say that I managed to finish everything that I planned on making and baking. And I say these two things every year too: 1. I'm not going to make gifts anymore and 2. I'm going to start making them earlier. haha! The gifts were all well received and that made me feel very good. Makes all that knitting worth it! The two major items I knit:

Mom and Antarktis
Yarn: Knit Picks Hawthorne in Alameda (the pattern calls for just one skein, but since Hawthorne  has 357 yards per skein, I dipped into a second skein...but overall used 418 yards)

This pattern was gifted to me by the so sweet Andi. I really enjoyed knitting this shawl, and would love to knit myself one!  I really love the garter sections paired with lace. And after blocking, the shawl grew and has such a lovely drape!

Aunt Karla and Nurmilintu 
Yarn: Madelinetosh Merino Light in Black Velvet (used about 377 yards)

This is another shawl I would love to knit myself! The lace sections tripped me up at first. This also has garter + lace ...hmm, I see a theme! I really like this shawl!! very pretty



I have been very busy at work. My co-worker has been on vacation since last Monday, until this coming Tuesday, so I have been working full days to cover her. Today was the first day I was able to pleasure knit!! Dani of Little Bobbins blog and podcast started a Christmas Eve Socks KAL and I've been so eager to cast on!! I decided to use Cakewalk Yarns in Peppermint Bark to knit Madeline Gannon's Evergreen Socks. (The designer is also going to have an Evergreen Socks KAL on Instagram if you're interested!)

oh! I finished this little guy:

little cutie :) he went to live with a friend in Canada :)

I also finished the Sugarplum Fairies socks, but I'll post about them next time! My sock total for the year is 24 pairs! Pretty happy about that!


Are you curious about how Berny and Bruce have been doing?? ;) It seemed like after that horrible week of thinking Bruce had feline leukemia and then hearing the good news, everything would be ok. And it is, sort of. Bruce has since met Berny. They are still adjusting to one another, Berny more so than Bruce. When we first met Bruce, he was so quiet and timid, we thought he would get along with Berny perfectly. As he's grown, his personality has emerged and he's one wild kitten! Very extroverted, LOVES stimulation of all kinds, and is incredibly food motivated (he actually gained too much weight and the vet said he was fat!! oh the horror!! We've been feeding him by dispersing his food in a muffin tin and it slows him down. Has worked wonders!). Berny is basically the complete opposite. She's also gotten accustomed to sleeping all day...

I was able to take this picture one day:

If I don't have a chance to write again before 2015, Happy New Year!! Thank you all so very much for reading my blog, it means an incredible amount to me. May the new year bring you happiness, health, and many good times. 

Love,

Jesse 

Bruce!

Hi friends,

I just wanted to post a quick update on Bruce! Thanks for all of your thoughts and well wishes, we received his test results back, and they were negative ! ! ! yahooo!



xx

socks and a shawl

Hello lovely friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent it with our families over two days, ate lots of yummy food, and just felt thankful. Oh, and we also gave our attention to this little monkey:

His name is Bruce and he is the newest member of our family. We adopted him last Saturday because he just melted us. When I picked him up it was instant and nonstop purring ♥ unfortunately, at his vet visit he tested positive for feline leukemia, which he could pass to Berny. I am thankful my bosses are also my vets as I've been able to ask them all my questions. They recommended sending a further blood test out to a lab to double check. Sometimes the in-house snap tests can give false positives. So that is what I'm praying for. The results should be back anytime this week or next...

Anyway. I am trying to stay positive and accept the results whatever they are, but it is hard. I have been pretty depressed about it. Thanks for listening xx


Well, I have been knitting a lot. I've finished some socks:

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Maple Leaves
Needles: 2.25 mm
Pattern: 64 stitch vanilla with Fish Lips Kiss Heel

Yarn: Liberty's Yarn Jabbersocky in Yule
Needles: 2.25 mm
Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder

Pair 22!

This pair was part of a swap with an Instagram friend :) I love knitting socks for friends!

I also love the modified eye of partridge heel! It always looks so pretty.


Um....then I had NO socks on the needles! It was really weird! So I started my Christmas socks:

progress of first sock

but now I'm on the second :)

It's Lynai Yarns in Sugarplum Fairy -- how pretty is this yarn?! It's hard to see, but there are sparkles :) very magical

I cast on 60 stitches and am knitting (of course) a modified eye of partridge heel :) sooo pretty. I am just turning the second heel now. These will definitely be finished before Christmas, so I might cast on another pair of Christmas socks .... :) I have another Christmassy yarn that I'd like to knit.

Oh!

Look at this bag from Dag:

Grinch inside fabric! Too cute, I love it :) And it's holding my Sugarplum Fairies socks of course :)


This weekend I knit all the way to the last lace repeat of Nurmilintu:

This whole time I've been pretty nervous about running out of yarn, but now that I'm at the last section, I am sure I will have enough. I really like this pattern and will knit it again. The first lace section was difficult because I kept getting off count. But by the second lace repeat, it felt much easier and quicker.

I still need total silence for the lace parts though!

Garter squish *lace* garter squish

I'm knitting it in Madelinetosh Merino Light in Black Velvet... so pretty


Those are the projects that I've been working on the most these past few weeks. What have you been up to? I hope everyone has a happy week; stay warm xx

Happy November

November 1st! I always like the first day of a new month. I like the literal turning of the calendar, and the idea of a whole month to look forward to is hopeful. I wish the months wouldn't go by so quickly though!

Let's see... since that last time I blogged, I finished the Patronus socks:

Pattern: Blender Socks by Heather Sebastian 
Yarn: Knit Picks Hawthorne, sampler pack of all the colorways
Needles: 2.25 mm 40" circular (magic loop)

This is my 20th pair this year!!!! I met my goal and will hopefully finish a few more pairs before 2015!

I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel and knit the socks one at a time. I love them!! The colors are amazing and the yarn feels durable yet squishy. For the second sock I only juggled three colors once; I mainly stuck with alternating just two colors and it worked sooo much better. There was less, well, juggling :)

And I have a half-finished object:

Dani of the Little Bobbins podcast started a mitten KAL that I couldn't pass up. The pattern I chose is Just Thumbkin by Diane Lyles. It's a basic mitten pattern that has instructions for three sizes. This is the smallest size, and it's a bit narrow on the hand, even for me. I might have to keep them :)



Progress was made on the following projects:

Fall Socks

Yule Socks for Heather

And Nurmilintu -- I made it past the first lace section! (though it's pretty hard to tell in the photo).

It's been so cold here! The mornings are usually in the low 30s and the highs during the day only reach about 50-60 degrees. Part of me is happy because I've been wearing handknit socks and shawls everyday, but the other part is dreading winter!! I opened my sock drawer and there's a huge gap of missing socks!! (I have about two weeks of unwashed handknit socks waiting for a soak...)

I hope everyone has a fabulous and warm weekend :) x

Hello, hello, hello!!!

Happy Fall!!

Last weekend I had the good fortune to have Friday off and we spent the time out of town. In Spokane, Washington to be exact. It is only about three hours away; far enough to feel like you're getting away but close enough that you're not driving all day! I also like the time change :)

We truly did not do much while in Spokane, which was awesome. On Saturday, we walked around  Riverfront Park. It was so beautiful.

A lot of the attractions were closed for the season, but we were able to take the Sky Ride...a gondola over the falls.

Top left clockwise: 1. Pavilion skeleton 2. LUNCH! 3. Scott on the Sky Ride 4. The view of the falls from the Sky Ride

I was able to knit a lot too :) I brought three projects (because that's what we knitters do...way over pack in case of emergency!) but mainly worked on a new sock that I'm calling Patronus:

and yes, I loved Throne of Glass!

The yarn is Knit Picks Hawthorne and I'm using all of the colorways. When the yarn first came out, I had joined a co-op on Ravelry to receive a small sampling of the colors. It was really difficult to think of a pattern because I wanted to use all of the colorways. The balls are only about 4.5 grams, so just a little shy of what I need for my sock yarn blanket's squares. I decided on Blender Socks by Heather Sebastian. Here is where I'm at on them:

One finished!

It's a really fun knit! Sometimes I use two colors and alternate rows by carrying the unused yarn up, and sometimes I juggle three colors. I think three colors makes a more blended appearance, but it's a pain to keep everything untangled! I admit that the OCD part of me hates this project because the rows are pretty much random. Sometimes I will plan it, like once I knit an inverse set: 1 row C1, 3 rows C2, 2 rows C1, 2 rows C2, 3 rows C1, 1 row C2. But for the most part I just grab a strand and knit it.

I used a Fish Lips Kiss Heel in one solid color.

Even though each yarn is carried up, there are still a lot of ends to weave in! I think there are twenty colorways, so each sock will have ten different colors...and twenty ends. Towards the end I started using a Russian join...I think the second sock will have many more Russian joins! (don't know what I was thinking)


I also finished each sock from last post, Fall and the Crazy Zauberball:

Fall Socks received a FLK heel...

while Crazy Zauberball received an afterthought heel. Now to finish their mates.



and I finished Brie's socks!!

I'm dying to show off the super amazing color, but I'm going to wait until she receives them. The pattern is Faux Cables by Jen Lucas. I've knit them once before, exactly per pattern, but this time I continued the faux cable pattern onto the back of the leg. I thought Brie might like that better.

I think I mentioned last time that Brie and I have been making hand knits for each other. I already received the item she knit me and I absolutely love it!!!

I'm not sure what pattern it is, but it has such amazing texture and patterning! It's been cool enough to wear it already :)


This past week I knit a lot on Nurmilintu by Heidi Alander. I'm using Madelinetosh Merino Light in Black Velvet that I purchased while on summer vacation.

I am just about to start the first lace portion!! And I've ordered some yarn to make one for my mom :)



That is it from me.

Happy Friday!!! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend that includes plenty of knitting x

Jesse 

weekend things

It's so hard to believe that another weekend has passed, and that another month is almost over! We had a few days last week that were in the high 80s-low 90s, and that did not feel very fall-like. But this weekend has been chilly and damp, and with the changing leaves, it's beginning to feel very much like autumn. So much so that I had to cast on some fall socks:

The yarn is from Knit Picks Felici in the colorway Maple Leaves

I wound each skein into pretty little balls that Susan B. Anderson calls Everlasting Gobstopper Yarn Balls. It was fun to do! and I think they look really cute :)


I've knit a lot on Brie's socks. The pattern is Faux Cable Socks by Jen Lucas.

This is our second swap together! I'm keeping the photo in black and white so something will remain a mystery for her (I am really bad at keeping secrets!) :) it's so much fun knitting and putting together a package for a knitting friend! and it's equally fun to wear hand knit items from a friend; I cherish them.


This sock was finished during the weekend:

it's Crazy Zauberball in colorway 1701 Parrot. I decided to use an afterthought heel in order to not disrupt the color flow. My last pair of Crazy Zauberballs has a distinct line where the colors change after the heel, and it kind of drives me nuts! I got the idea from Dani after she knit a pair of Crazy Zauberball socks the same way.

This pair is part of another knitting swap! :)

and probably the most exciting thing that I finished is a super duper old WIP!

Uhhhh, I started it in December 2011... haha!! It's been through at least one house move, saw me graduate from college, and it became insanely jealous when I abandoned it to learn how to knit!

Its purpose was to use up acrylic remnants because I had so. much. acrylic! Picking it up again after years of not crocheting was interesting, but it all came back to me pretty quickly. I am glad the pattern is simple! (it's Lyn's Round Ripple). Ultimately I only added about five rounds before deciding it was finished because I had had enough! I would say it's an oversized lapghan, if such a thing exists :) I am going to gift it to my aunt for Christmas and I think she will like it.

And the rest of the acrylic is going to be donated.



I hope everyone has a great week! x

Socks FO sho!

Happy weekend, friends!

I'm sipping a cup of coffee on the couch while I write this, Scott is playing his new game, Destiny, and Berny is snuggled between us. Today is his birthday! He's planned a game of golf and lunch with his parents, but I think if he could have it his way, he'd continue on playing Destiny all day ;) He is hooked. (I'll join them for lunch but not golf, because I don't play hehe)

I have finished two pairs of socks recently.

Pattern: 64 stitch vanilla pattern with modified Eye of Partridge heel - OAAT
Yarn: Zwerger Garn Opal Hundertwasser in Wintergeist  
Needles: 2.25 mm Hiya Hiya Sharps (looove) 32" circular


I knit on these a lot during our recent vacation, and then they were purse socks after that. I knit the second sock's foot a little longer on accident...it's because I keep changing where I want to start the toe decreases! Sometimes I wait until the sock is past my little toe, sometimes before... inconsistency!

I love Opal!! I've acquired a nice little stash of it and they will all become vanilla socks :)



The second pair I finished just in time for Scott's birthday! I had a heckuva time washing and drying them without him noticing though. I had to be really sneaky :)

Pattern: 72 stitch vanilla pattern with Fish Lips Kiss Heel (toe up!) - TAAT
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Multi Sock in Edgewater
Needles: 2.25 mm Addi Sock Rockets 40" cable


I really, really, really enjoyed knitting with Lorna's Laces! The yarn itself is wonderful, but oh! then the colors!! They kept the interest going :)

That's it from me, I hope you all enjoy your weekend!! x

summertime madness!

Holy moly, friends, I'm still here!!!

 

We got back from vacation mid-August, but getting back into the groove of life was tough! ...I've been meaning to blog for weeks. We spent a little over two weeks camping through the Olympic National Forest, the Oregon coast and Redwoods, and visiting friends and family the entire way. It was a ton of driving but we had such a wonderful time and it really was relaxing. I'll consolidate this post into a Best Of, with lots of photos :)

One of the coolest campsites we stayed at was somewhere south of Tillamook, OR. We pitched the tent under this huge tree:

the tent under the tree

And directly across camp was a waterfall!! It fed into a fast moving stream and was so loud that we didn't hear any other campers. This was one of the rare places that we stayed two nights in because it was so nice. Though, I will not forget that it's also where I peed in the bushes and came out with thorns in my butt! Horrible and embarrassing, it took half a day to realize it wasn't itchy from a rash but because of still embedded, teeny tiny thorns. Scott had to tweeze them out... not one of my finer moments!

Clockwise: 1. I read The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare - it was very good! 2. Our MacGyver "glass" for drinking whiskey because we forgot to pack one (it's the bottom of a beer can) BTW best whiskey ever! 3. Scott's socks have heels 4. car knitting :)

Two places I really enjoyed seeing were Enderts Beach in California and Devil's Punch Bowl in Oregon.

exploring Enderts Beach

Enderts Beach is supposed to be a fantastic place for tide pools. Unfortunately we didn't hit the tide right, but we still walked the beach a little ways and found some cool things.

Clockwise: 1. BEAR PRINTS!!! It was a little freaky to see them but still cool 2. a neat rock 3. another neat rock: I found a heart stone! 4. Scott 5. more little bear paws. It seemed like there was a mama bear with two cubs 6. starfish on the beach

It was about a mile walk down to the beach, with flowers and blackberry bushes lining the sides

The blackberries were everywhere! The morning that we went to Enderts Beach, we had just packed up camp without eating breakfast so the blackberries hit the spot! Until we saw a huge banana slug on the berry bush...and then counted thirty more!!!! If you know me well, you know I hate slugs of all kinds! So it's safe to say that I didn't eat anymore blackberries that day.


The Devil's Punchbowl was really neat! There's a small opening in the rock that you can walk through to reach the inside:

Inside the Punchbowl

Looking into the Punchbowl from another side

Of course, the Redwoods are always stunning:

 We had great luck with the weather, it only rained on us once and the rest of the time it was sunny and warm. The only car trouble we had is still undetermined, but seems to have been a leak in the radiator which was solved by adding more coolant plus a gel that stops up leaks.

The scariest moment of the trip was the last night we camped, in eastern Oregon. We were somewhere between 4000-5000 feet up on a mountain when a storm decided to light up the night. It was close to one a.m. and I woke up to flashes through the tent, then the soft rumbles of thunder. It freaked me out for several reasons. There was lightening but no rain; we had passed through a large portion of forest earlier that day that had been ravaged by fire; I couldn't see the lightening because I was in a tent; and we're on TOP of a mountain in a lightening storm. So I ran to the car. I thought we might be driving for our lives, I was really that terrified. It passed a few hours later and then it poured - which was the first time camping I was ever thankful for rain!


One of the best parts was meeting friends! It was sheer luck that both Vanessa of Lynai Yarns and Scott and I were in Crescent City on the same day. Neither of us live there, she was visiting family and we were passing through to our next destination. It was also perfect timing that led Anna of the willow nest and I to meet! Both ladies have been very good friends to me on Instagram, and I feel like we've known one another for so long! It's sad that we all live so far away from each other, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have met each of them!! We also visited one of Scott's friends, my brother and his wife, and one of my best friends who moved out of state ♥

Haystack Rock

Thanks for reading!! x