XO socks

Hi friends! This weekend has been perfect for recuperation, there has been lots of knitting (crochet too, eek!) and reading. Today was especially cozy for staying indoors because it rained and was cloudy.

This morning I finished a pair of socks that have been on the needles since February.

Pattern: Allons-y!! by Jennifer Thomassian
Yarn: The Little Mount Yarn Co in Chocolate Covered Cherry
Needles: 2.25 mm

I follow Madeline of The Little Mount Yarn Co on Instagram, and when she posted a photo of this yarn I snatched it right away! The yarn is gorgeous and was so nice to knit with!!

The pattern is by another Instagram friend, Jennifer. The X O pattern might be a little lost in the yarn, and it especially doesn't photograph well, but I love the pairing! I love that this pair of socks reminds me of two crafty and inspiring friends :)

I cast on two new pairs, one I will share next time because I'm not very far along yet! A photo of the yarn though:

A Fine Fish Yarns

and the second pair:

Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks by Sandy Turner
Yarn: Knit and Fiber Creation in colorway Stanley Shunpike (!!!!!)
Needles: 2.25 mm

This yarn came with a small skein of gray for contrast heels and toes, which I love. I have been seeing a lot of knitters creating contrast heels and I just love it! These pairs by Andi (she also convinced me to cast on a pair of Blueberry Waffles after a recent post) and Dani, in particular!


Alright... I've done something recently that I haven't done in years.

Crochet.

And it's all Dani's fault!!! I mean, just look at her project page.

The pattern is Weekender Blanket by Sandra Paul. The designer used DK weight, but Dani is using sock scraps so I had to, too :)  I love these teeny hexis!!! Utterly addictive. And they join as you go, which is such a time saver.



I hope everybody has a fabulous week!!

Good morning!

Hi friends! I hope you all are having fantastic spring weather! We've been celebrating the season by planting flowers (marigolds, zinnias, gladiolas) and hiking. Maybe it was too early for this area to plant seeds directly outside, but it feels like this weather will last forever!

I finished two pairs of socks recently. The first pair:

Pattern: Basic 64 stitch vanilla pattern with modified eye of partridge heel
Yarn: Gnome Acres in colorway Camping with Hippos
Needles: 2.25 mm

This pair was incredibly enjoyable because the colors are so fun.

The second pair was just as fun to knit.

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina
Yarn: Regia and scrap Crazy Zauberball (for contrast cuff, heel, toe)
Needles: 2.5 mm for the leg and heel, 2.25 mm for the foot and toe

This pair is crazy!! In the last post I mentioned how I didn't realize I had two different colorways, and therefore two different stripe patterns!

This is a great pattern and I will knit another pair. If you haven't knit this pattern and are considering it, keep in mind that it makes a tight fabric. I went up one needle size than what I normally knit socks on.


Those were pairs six and seven for the year. My goal is eighteen pairs and I think I should be able to reach it without too much trouble :)


I cast on Meagheen Ryan's Tax Day Mystery Anklet on April 15 because I felt it was the perfect treat for having taxes filed. And also because it's a mystery anklet... cute!! I finished the cuff and heel, and am just starting the patterning of the foot. They are going slower than I'd thought; I think it's the needles. The only 2.00 mm I have are Addi Lace needles, and there's something about brass needles I don't like...I'm going to pick up different 2.00 mm needles, and next time I'll share a photo of my anklets! Hopefully they'll be farther along by then.


Last week I found a Montana Brewery Passport at a local book store, and we received our first stamp this weekend:

After we hiked, we stopped in Lolo for a beer :) it's funny, the brewery was built about a year ago at the base of the hill Scott grew up on! Missoula has quite a few breweries, we've been to most of them already, but it will be fun to go back and have our passport stamped. And it will be fun to take day trips to out-of-town breweries. What we really need now is an Oregon brewery passport...I think we've visited just as many in Oregon as we have here! (we're planning a trip there for September, eek!!!)


I hope everybody has a fabulous week! I just realized it's already Wednesday, holy smokes...

xx

catch up!!!

Oh my.

Holy Toledo.

I am so sorry for being absent for so long! It wasn't intentional, but life just got busy.

And also partly, I usually don't feel like blogging if I don't have nice photos to share. We've been having very typical spring weather; one day it's 60 degrees and sunny, and the next brings clouds and wind! I just wasn't in the photographing mood. But this weekend I've consciously been thinking about this post, and I snatched the opportunity this evening to photograph some finished socks.

First up, Scott has another pair for his little sock collection.

Yarn: Knit Picks Hawthorne in Mt. Tabor

Pattern: Thuja by Bobby Ziegler

Needles: 2.25 mm

Even Scott's socks receive a modified Eye of Partridge heel :)

The second pair I finished:

a pretty pair of Crazy Zauberball socks for me!

Yarn: Crazy Zauberball

Pattern: just a simple 64 stitch vanilla

Needles: 2.25 mm

My friend, Dag, sent me this ball of yarn that she purchased in Germany! I know you can purchase Crazy Zauberball here, but it seems way more special that it was actually bought there, like local yarn :)

And just recently, I finished this pair for March:

Yarn: Zwerger Garn Opal

Pattern: simple 64 stitch vanilla

Needles: 2.25 mm

This pair totally knit itself!! Of course, it didn't hurt that I was also reading Harry Potter while knitting them!

And the socks in progress:

This is my first pair of Jaywalkers! (Pattern by Grumperina) I am loooooooooving this pattern with self-striping yarn! So much fun! I am also using contrasting yarn for cuff, heel, and toe. BUT look how teeny the stripes are in the second sock! I bought this yarn from a friend's destash, and one ball was a partial and didn't have a ball band. I assumed they were exactly the same yarn because the colors are the same. I would never have thought a yarn company would make two different sized stripe sequences, but that's what it looks like happened. So crazy, huh? But I really like them and will keep going. ....... ok..... the teeny tiny stripes kind of drive me nuts, mainly because they are only TWO rows wide!! It makes me manic! As a pair, I think they will be really cool though.


And the second pair on the needles:

My first Gnome Acres skein! The colorway is called Camping with Hippos, hehe! I really like how it's pooling. These colors just make me really happy :) (they're a bit more vibrant in person)

All of these socks were/are knit from "old" stash! I'm trying to knit 2500 yards from stash for My Sister's Knitter Stash Down KAL. The main rule is that the yarn has to have been stashed prior to 2015. So some of this yarn was purchased towards the end of 2014, but some of it has been in my stash for a few years. It always feels fantastic to knit with old stash, to remember why you loved it enough to buy it. Right now, I've knit 1180 yards for the KAL. If I don't make it, that's ok :)


I've been meaning to post the books I've read so far! I just remembered because I'm currently listening to As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride. Anyone obsessed with the Princess Bride should definitely check out this book! It's mainly narrated by Cary Elwes (swoon) and many more who were involved speak also. It's just.... so good. I love behind-the-scenes and trivia about productions though. I mean, I watched all appendices multiplemultiplemultiple times of the Lord of the Rings films.

So, books. I will make another 2015 tab at the top of this blog (I did that one year) and list all of the books, but here are some of my favorites so far:

• Yes, Please - Amy Poehler. This was an audio book; it was fabulous listening to her!
• Stardust and The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman. You can never ever go wrong with Neil Gaiman; both audio books
• The Silver Star - Jeannette Walls. I didn't expect to like this one so much, but I really adore it
• The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins. READ this one!!! the hype is real
• To All the Boys I Loved Before - Jenny Han. A really, really sweet YA book
• Rules of Prey - John Sandford. Scary thriller! I couldn't put it down

What are your favorite books read in 2015 so far? I would love to know.

 

ok!! That's all from me for now! Thank you so so much for reading. It does mean a lot to me. I hope everybody has a wonderful fabulous spectacular week!!! xx

socks and KALs

Hi friends! I hope everybody has been enjoying their weekend so far. Thank you for your reading recommendations in last post! I might be out of my reading slump! I finished Stardust and am close to finishing The Night Circus. And I have several other books lined up :) I also read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell -- which I think everyone has read but me, and I am still obsessed with it. Going to start Fan Girl soon :)

I made a bit of progress on Scott's socks:
 

I am not in love with these socks. I am not wild about the pooling. I am not crazy about the color. But the more I knit, the more I kind of like them. This is about five and a half inches, and I am not ripping it out! The pattern is Thuja and the yarn is Knit Picks Hawthorne in Mount Tabor colorway.

This is my first two at a time pair in a long time. Every once in awhile I stop and think, wow, this is taking forever! But then I look at the socks and I remember there are two, and then it feels fast :)

These are my first entry for My Sister's Knitter Stash Down KAL! It's not the oldest yarn I have but it counts! This is going to sound ridiculous, but my goal for this stash down KAL is to knit 2500 yards !!! It would feel good to knit that much stash yarn.

These Evergreen socks are getting so close! Just a few more inches before I start toe decreases. I'm going to try and finish them during the Superbowl tomorrow! Gah, I hope it's a good game and not like last year! I'll be cheering with Melissa and the Seahawks!!! woooo!


My February socks are planned. I received this super pretty skein from The Little Mount Yarn Co this week and it's having a hard time staying skeined:

The pattern I'll use is Allons-y!!! by Jennifer Thomassian because it has x and o cables. I have no idea what/who/where allons-y is, except that it's Dr. Who related ! Please don't hold that against me!!

I also chose yarn for My Personal Mystery Sock Yarn Club 2015!

I went through my stash and pulled out skeins that I really want to knit this year. One was gifted to me. Two of them I won in contests! One started out as a shawl but was frogged later. My stash got a little out of control during 2014, where I was buying yarn left and right without any reason except that it was pretty and I loved it. Which is a good excuse!! But it left me with a lot of lovely yarn that have no project plans. They are all special, and all of them deserve to be knit up.

Like, can you believe this skein is still not socks???

It's going to be knit up while I finish rereading the HP series. Last year I left off on book five (is he even in that one??)


I'm still planning on knitting other sock yarn (obviously...I just bought Valentine yarn, bwahah). But it's my goal that each of these skeins be knit by the end of 2015!

That's it for me! Hopefully next time I'll have some finished socks to show! Happy weekend! xx

Hiking and Mrs. Weasley

Hi friends! I wanted to share a few photos from our hike this weekend, and some new photos of Mrs. Weasley's blanket!

We drove down the Bitterroot on Sunday morning and hiked Bear Creek. It's an easy hike that follows alongside the creek.

 

We hiked it once before a few years ago. During that time, it started pouring as soon as we reached the falls. We wouldn't have been worried but we each had a camera (I can't remember if we had brought rain jackets). So we sped down the trail to the car, about 1.5 miles, taking cover under large pines every once in awhile. At one point I skinned my knee on a tree that had fallen over the path and by the time we were back at the trail head, we were soaked!

Thankfully, it was nothing but sunshine when we hiked this past weekend :)

I took a photo with my camera's self-timer and it worked great except I didn't see that little plant in front of the lens. Photo bombed!

And now, progress on Mrs. Weasley's blanket:

Today I seamed two quadrants together. I had to YouTube how to seam (!!) and I found a superb video:




It really did make an invisible seam, which is important for me because my seaming yarn was a different color.

My invisible seam!!!:

I love love love this blanket ♥