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