Just Jot January–Jade, Finished Friday

Per Linda:

Today’s is the 17th prompt for Just Jot it January 2020, and it’s brought to us by MB. Thank you so much, MB! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while you’re there!.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 17th, 2020, is “jade.” Use the word “jade” any way you’d like. Have fun!

The only thing that I can come up with for the prompt word ‘Jade’ is actually how jaded I feel about what is going on in the world and how divided we all are and how we all seem to get stuck in kindergarten name-calling.  And the flippancy of talking-points, cliches of oneliners that seem to prove one-up-manship. My biggest gripe lately is, “Getting ahead of your skies.” Really? Because cart before the horse is cliche? Okay, we don’t use horses and carts as much anymore. But I can’t imagine what happens if a person gets ahead of their skies!

Anyway, these oneliners are used as power points. Whichever side says the best one wins. Pow! Take that? Talking is cliche. Liking each other is soft. And if you listen to all of this a lot you start thinking about pre-school or kindergarten. I start yelling at my TV: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What you say is what you are! Yeah. Jaded.

What isn’t jade is the latest slipper sock. Soft Red comfort. I feel better talking about this sweetie anyway:

Blue, 24-peg Knifty Knitter loom. Folded up cuff in e-wrap. Mostly flat-knit stitch. I tried to do toe-up but the Kitchener cast-on doesn’t work very well with this home-spun type yarn. By the way, the color is much redder than the picture shows. I’ll probably finish the second sock tomorrow as it works up very fast.

One-Liner Wednesday, Just Jotted Basket-weave Hat

And Done!

 

 

This one took a bit of time. It was made on the KB, orange, 80 pegs, small-gauge, round loom. One-by-one ribbing and four knit, four purl, four rows. then the next four rows opposite.  The crown flat-knit stitch. I love this soft yarn. I bought this for a Christmas gift. Red Heart Soft 4oz. Jeweltone. I have enough left over to make another hat, I think. I may just make one for me–or another friend.

Both prompts by Linda G Hill

Made it Monday

Well, I picked up this cute little loom on Wish. It was cheap so I thought it would be fun to try. That and it was cheap!

 

Cute, huh? I put it on the keyboard so that you could see how small it is. There was a learning curve. I may have ripped out one nearly whole sock and reknitted, then frogged again. Ugh! I don’t blame the cute little loom. I blame the soft wonderful yarn that separated sometimes and caused little fuzzballs.

Then the worst thing! Right at the toe of the second sock, I ran out of the gray yarn. Ugh, again! But I found this red homespun type yarn that was as soft as the gray yarn. I couldn’t find anything that l matched so I figured a contrast might pull it off. The gray was yarn from my daughter and the socks are for my son. I think he likes them. And they fit!

If he were a little kid that red toe could differentiate right and left foot. But a grown man in his forties. I’ve got nothing. He said thank you. I shouldn’t have. “Mom, you already made me a hat.” I hope he likes them. He did like the first one and said it was soft and would be nice to wear in the evening while watching TV. So he’ll be comfortable and no one will see the red toe and make fun of him. It’s a possibility. Hey, look at that! I was able to use the prompt for Just Jot It January! Oh, and he did take them with a smile. There’s that!

Happy Birthday, Number One Son

So I knew the birthday was coming. But I only started making his hat yesterday morning. It turned out cool, and very warm.

The brim was a fold-over so double warmth. It was a mix of wool and I think the Homespun. It was all flat-knit stitch. BUT the green (32 pegs) Knifty Knitter is too small for a lot of adults. It was tight on me and fit like a little clown hat on my son’s head.

So I started again with the bigger loom (yellow-41 peg).

In a way, I like this one better. It is reversible. The only difference between the sides is one brim is e-wrapped. the other side is purled. Then folded up. The rest of the hat is a garter stitch until the crown. Then one-row u-stitch and the last flat wrapped. The garter stitch makes the head part very stretchy. It seems to fit my son better with the purl side inside. It’s been a long time since I made anything in a day. I prefer the fine-gauge looms which take longer but make a nicer fabric. I think he liked his hat.

Then with the same colors, I decided to try to make socks. Not sure they are going to be big-wide-enough. But if so they will go to my charity, Hat Huggers. This is with the donated yarn, as were the hats for my son. But the nice part is that I will claim it and make something from my own yarns to make up for it. My color yarns were too girly for an adult male. Anyway, when the socks are done I will share the results.

I want to make a proclamation. No more birthdays any time near or after Christmas. Or at the end of a month (paycheck)! I know it won’t change anything but maybe the universe is listening? That is not to say, Universe, that I don’t want the people attached to these birthdays, rather, maybe we can change when we celebrate? At least, should I get the chance for a do-over, I might do a better job of planning. I know… Keep wishing! Happy birthday, son.

Review: Round Loom Knitting in 10 Easy Lessons: 30 Stylish Projects by Nicole F Cox

Round Loom Knitting in 10 Easy Lessons: 30 Stylish Projects by Nicole F Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a gift from my daughter. At first, I thought it was going to be too easy. I’ve been loom-knitting for a couple of years now. And though I didn’t read the book word for word I did enough examining the patterns and instructions to know that this would be a great book for beginners. But there are lots of more advanced patterns. Many I have bookmarked to try later.

I highly recommend this book for anyone into loom knitting or thinking about getting into it.

View all my reviews

Magical Yarn

My daughter sent me a package of yarn, a book about knitting socks and a Kindle book about loom knitting. Oh, yeah, two footprints. Hers and her boyfriend’s. I was ecstatic! I love knitting (Loom) socks! And this yarn is super magical. It appears gray with bits of blues and reds. But look at what happens as it is knitted. Oh, and the thought that I have made my daughter toes one more time isn’t lost on me. Smile. Sigh!

Stripes of magical yarn!

(Thank you, daughter, I love you!)

Another Sh-h-h But Finished! Yay!

I love this sort of scrappy hat. The colors called to me and I just knitted them in.

Oh, the yarn is just acrylic. I had very little turquoise so I used it sparingly. This is knitted on the white KB (72 peg) fine gauge.  One-by-one brim. then according to the tension, I used the flat-knit, u-knit, or e-wrap. I used the Russian join to change colors. It turned out kind of small for my head but I think it will fit a friend. Sh-h-h! (Sorry for blurry or dark pictures. I blame the photographer-me.)

What I’m Doing

Just change that to knitting/loom knitting. And don’t you feel like throwing things at the TV when this interrupts the flow? I gotta lay down in the middle of a count to pick up both remotes cause it is never the right one first. Then I have to go back and figure out what I was doing. Usually, that means I have to tink back a stitch or two. If only Netflix could see how counterproductive this is! Oh, and if I am using it to help me sleep, this wakes me back up. Can we sue for our own sanity? Please!

And back to the loom. See ya all soon!

Sh-h-h Elves Be Busy

Another sock.

Is it really a cowl for a small elephant?

Jeweltones?

But it is soft!

Soon this will make a pair.

Finished Friday

I don’t know if this yarn is Mohair? It is very soft. (No label) The hat turned out too small for me, so would be great for a person with a smaller head. I made it on the KB small gauge 80 pegs. This one:

I can’t wait to do another hat on this loom. It is just right for adults. Since I use the flat knit stitch, it is slightly tighter. But that’s okay. Not everyone has a big head like mine! Oh, and that is two-by-two ribbing.

 

Just a note for posterity: Today this is outside. So glad I am inside.