Saturday, February 21, 2015

Germinate WIP

Hi friends!

I'm sorry for missing last weekend's post. It was Valentine's Day (Happy Valentine's Day!!) and the weekend passed way too quickly! Scott and I went out to a movie, the first one in a long time, so that was kind of special. We saw Kingsman and it was highly entertaining. I recommend it if you like spy movies, Colin Firth, and a little cheese :) We also had frozen yogurt ♥ and made dinner.

Scott's gift to me was a gift certificate to a day spa and salon! He thought I might like to try a gel manicure, because I've mentioned it before. Well, I had them done this week, and I absolutely love them!! My biggest problems with nail polish are that it takes forever to dry, it chips much too easily, and it only looks good for a few days. That's too much effort for me! The gel manicure took about one hour from start to finish, and that included cleaning up my cuticles and shaping my nails...which took some time because I don't do much for my hands beside moisturize. My nails were instantly dry thanks to light curing, and they're so shiny!! (seriously, I still can't get over how shiny they are!) It's been three days since the mani and they still look perfect. This is going to be a bad obsession :)

Ok, knitting. I cast on a new shawl:

Germinate....LOVING this knit!!! @havirland it appears I'm subconsciously wishing for Halloween too! #iloveagoodwip


The pattern is Germinate by Kristen Kapur. It was originally a mystery KAL in 2013 and I fell in love as more Germinates popped up in my Instagram feed. I love the lace and stripes, and the zillions of possible color combos. My sweet friend Denica gifted me the pattern and it's taken me a long to decide on my color scheme. I really wanted to use stash yarn, but most of my fingering weight is heavily variegated or self-striping. In the end I only purchased one skein (orange) and used two from stash :) Green and purple are both Knit Picks Stroll Tonals and orange is Ella Rae Lace Merino.

When I was at the LYS I saw some beautiful sport weight (Frog Tree Pediboo), which would have made the ultimate squooshy shawl, but it would have cost over $80 for all the yardage. I almost justified it because my birthday is coming up, but I think in the end, I would have felt crummy for breaking my self-imposed-not-strictly-enforced yarn diet. And you know what? I feel great with my colors and am really glad I didn't splurge on yarn :)


I also cast on a new pair of socks:

Untitled

The yarn is Crazy Zauberball from my dear friend, Dag! I love this purple colorway! This is my third pair of socks on the needles.... I just needed a vanilla one to take on errands! And it's shown me that I really do knit a lot while on the go, because I'm already on the heel (and I knit a seven inch leg). I tried knitting and reading a "real" book...it was hard! No matter what I do, the book won't stay open. If you're interested, I'm reading The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. It is really kooky. Which is just up my alley :) The book jumps in time from current day, back to periods in the main character's life. It builds his character, but really, I think a lot of it should have been edited out. I think the present day storyline is funny enough to have held the book. We'll see how it evolves, I'm about halfway through.

If you've seen my Rav page for these socks, you'll see that I've named them All About that Space socks. That came from a really funny parody of Megan Trainor's song, All About that Bass.





hehe :)

That's about it from me. This kitten cracks me up:

Untitled

He is so content laying in sun rays. But he totally zones out when he lays there!


I hope everybody has a fabulous weekend! Stay warm!!
Jesse




Sunday, February 8, 2015

a post in which I get all the knits

Peppermint Trees
Happy Weekend, friends! It has been a good weekend for recharge and knitting.

I finished the Evergreen socks:



Pattern: Evergreen Socks by Madeline Gannon
Yarn: Cakewalk Yarns Footsie in Peppermint Bark, which is sadly discontinued
Needles: 2.25 mm
Modifications: I added a little length between finishing the chart and starting the heel, only because I like longer socks!
This is my second finished pair this year! I am aiming for 18 pairs.


Peppermint Trees
modified eye of partridge heel

Peppermint Trees


The pattern is very well written and includes both charts and written instructions for the lace trees, making it an excellent pattern for knitters new to lace and/or charts. I remember the first time I knit from a chart, I also used the written directions to double check that I was reading the chart keys correctly. It was very helpful and gave me confidence in chart reading (when I got it right, ha!)

Cakewalk Yarns is such a pleasure to knit with. It is sad the dyer is no longer dyeing yarn, but there are hundreds of indie dyers producing yarn everyday that deserve their work to be celebrated too.


I also finished a hat! For me!

February Hat


Pattern: Brier Toque by Cecily Glowik MacDonald
Yarn: Liberty's Yarn Sockingbird (also another discontinued yarn) in Montol
Needles: US 2.5 for brim and US 5 for body
Feb 1-Feb 7

I've owned this book for at least two years, I enthusiastically marked patterns I must knit, and yet this is the first hat I've knit from it. Story of my life! All of the patterns in Weekend Hats are beautiful and I'd really love to knit more of them...maybe even one a month??


It needs a good blocking but my February hat is finished! Pattern is Brier Toque. #mskstashdownkal


This hat is my first entry for My Sister's Knitter Stash Down KAL! Yahoo!! It feels awesome to have used stash and also knit myself a hat that I love.

It's a beautifully mindless knit. I cast on February 1st and finished last night. At one point when I had knit about three inches and was b o r e d  to  d e a t h of the vanillaness of it and wondering what the heck I got myself into, I opened a book. Sometimes vanilla knitting and watching tv is honestly not stimulating enough and I will get tired of knitting. But there's something different about reading and knitting that makes me want to knit and read and knit and read forever.


 February Hat

I knit to the pattern, so the hat is ten inches from cast on edge to start of decreases. It does make for a long hat. Several Ravelers noted in their project pages that they just knit to eight inches. I might do the same when I knit this toque again. The pattern calls for Crazy Zauberball, and I'd really love to have a Crazy Zauberball hat :)


I cast on my Valentine's Day/Birthday socks!


XO / birthday socks

The pattern is Allons-y!!! by Jennifer Thomassian and yarn is by The Little Mount Yarn Co in Chocolate Covered Cherry.

I loooooooove these socks.


XO / birthday socks


I've knit almost exclusively on this sock and the February hat this week. Scott's socks have the beginning of a heel flap but it's almost impossible to pick them up when I have this lovely pink one on the needles too. It's like choosing between a bag of Skittles and boiled Swiss Chard... Duh.


It rained all week but today the sun is out!! I am going to take a walk while I can :) I hope everybody has a beautiful Sunday and a fabulous week xx