Making it Monday

There is still a lot of snow on the ground. Flurries and rain made me wonder how the Carpenter’s song would go if they could sing it today. The snow was melting at one point. While enjoying a video chat with friends I took this one through the front picture window.

A few minutes ago I heard something hitting the window. I didn’t know if it was rain or snow. I went to the storm door and saw drops on the window. I reached out to touch the droplets. They were frozen. It makes the window look like bathroom glass. Kind of cool. We are expecting about four inches of snow tonight. Makes me want to pull out the Christmas lights and start singing carols!

So what am I making? More socks! I am nearly finished with my daughter’s first sock. I just need to bind off. I’ll probably do that tomorrow. It’s the one on the right. The other one is at the point of the heel. The hardest part of the sock is the ribbing. I am doing this part with four purls, four true-knit stitches. The rest of the sock is the flat knit-stitch.

As you can see I am making these on the KB His and Hers looms. I now have two sets of the same size so I can keep the pair of sock as close to the same size as possible.

And here are the boyfriend’s socks started on the His looms. I am going to take the stitches off the bigger purple loom, upper left, and put them on the empty smaller one. These two looms have the same amount of pegs. I like the smaller set better as they are more comfortable for my hands.

 

Oh, I worked on the soft hat, too.

This may be close to being done.

I have other projects but my hands seem most attracted to these WIPs.

Sad Sunday

I love it when family and friends come to visit. I absolutely turn to jello and can’t find my keys to the new-to-me car I’m so sad.

Pixabay.com

Then I spend the ride home thinking about the good feelings of no bra, no shoes, and sweatpants. And fish and chips. And a wonderful newish car. I look at it and even though I am comfortable and self-soothed, and Kali snuggles, I miss the daylights out of my family and friends. Even the recommended Daylight Savings Time nap didn’t take away that sad.

Back to life as we know it. Watching Doc Martin season 9 while knitting and snuggles. I am feeling grateful for all the love, happiness, and health that surrounds me. I wish it for all of you, too!

Finished Friday

Hat number two with same Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn. Soft Pink, Orchid, and black. It is a soft yarn. But I don’t think that it is a good sock or slipper yarn as it isn’t very stretchy. Because of that, I chose to use the e-wrap knit stitch. The brim was a garter stitch which is one row of knit, one row of purl. The rest just the e-wrap mentioned before. I made this one the same KB white loom, 72 pegs, fine-gauge that I used for the hat just before this one. I’ve started another with the black yarn hoping to make a hat for a little boy. I hope I can finish by tomorrow.

I haven’t decided whether or not to make pom-poms those the girly hats look like they might be even cuter with them. I’m not a fan of pom-poms but I love making them on the little tools for them.

I get to see the family tomorrow! I can hardly wait! Snow is expected so praying for a safe drive.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Keep safe and healthy!

Not Quite Finished

By the end of the night, I will have finished this next hat. But I don’t have time to blog and knit to get the job on either properly. So here it is on the loom.

I do wish the pretty colors showed up better. They are all shiny. That is lavender, black, and pink. I’ll describe the process and name the yarn tomorrow. I need to get it done.

I hope you are all having a great Thursday!

Tuesday’s Ta Da

Finished. A convertible hat. Hehe.

 

Caron, Simply Soft, Soft Pink, Orchid, Black. on the KB Fine Gauge, 72 peg loom. The white one. The brim is four by four, rib stitch. The rest is e-wrapped. The camera on my phone just doesn’t pick up the pretty pastel colors. This one is a gift for a friend.

 

Making Monday

This sad first sock should be on Finished Friday, but unfortunately, there wasn’t any more of the white wool. The thin red wool is still a large cake so, I guess I will have to frog this soft sock and find another way to use the white. Maybe smaller socks? I tend to think a child might have problems with the wool. So even making a hat might be a bad thing. Maybe just a toy? Either way, this one has had its chance in the sun and will go back to being a yarn cake. By the way, this one was made on the 24-peg, blue, Knifty Knitter.  It was an experiment of the toe up on a wider gauge loom. It was a fast project so I’m sorry I couldn’t go further.

You have seen sock number one of this pair and the second sock is just ankle and cuff away from making the pair.

This is the metal-pegged loom. I think it is KB. It is not as comfortable to hold or keep my tension even. But I think the pair will be comfortable as house slippers. It is just acrylic yarn so not inherently warm. I love the toe-up, Kitchener cast-on. The rest is flat-knit if tension allows or u-wrap or even e-wrap at times as the tension was hard to maintain. Kitchener cast-on is harder on this rectangle loom. It may be one I use less and less often.

***

This is my favorite project. Look! My daughter’s first sock is nearly finished. Just the cuff to finish. What is slowing me down on it is that I am doing a four-by-four purl/knit ribbing stitch using ‘true’ knit stitch. It is very like the purl stitch and more time-consuming. Those purple looms hold the toe-starts to my daughter’s boyfriend’s socks. By knitting two at a time I can keep the lengths the same. I need to order yet another set of the His/Hers KB sock looms as the first one I start her sock on broke. So I transferred the project to the new loom and will order the next set at payday. So I will only be doing one at a time for her socks. It’ll work just not as timely. Looking at the purple looms, isn’t it cool how each skein of yarn starts exactly the same. Each toe starts with red. Because the orange loom is smaller and was my first, I will have to skip the red parts of the next skein to keep her socks even. It is truly an amazing thing to watch as I work! I wish I had been a part of the people who invented this kind of yarn. It is magical! By the way, I love the texture of this yarn, too. It is so soft and being wool will be warm in the colder winters up here or on camping trips.

***

Yes, another sock. This is the cuff of a sock. I am trying to learn to needle knit on circular needles. This pair of needles are bamboo. It makes it harder to lose a stitch. The yarn is kind of like T-shirt material as it has no fibers that can be frayed or separated. I figured it would help me see my mistakes more clearly.

***

Yep, another sock. This one will be for a child.

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One more:

One of my favorite looms, CinDWood, 56, 1/4 inch gauge. This is donated wool. I know it works up into a nice sock and I have plenty.

***

I’m still working on two hats. I find the bigger looms are not as much fun or as easy on my hands as the smaller looms for socks and toys.

Both hats are on KB smaller gauge looms. The one on the left is soft pastels with black. The one on the right is red and white, I think that is HomeSpun. The one on the right is gifted to me yarn so should go to a loved one. The one on the right is donated and so should be for charity. Both should make cozy head warmers.

I think that’s it. I usually keep each project in its own zip-lock baggie. But I do keep them all where I can see and grab the one my hands feel drawn to.

As spring is working its way into our area I probably will have to slow it all down for more outdoor activities. Or find ways to take a project with me to sit and enjoy the sun while knitting, drawing, writing, or reading. Those are all good rewards for a nice walk, don’t you think? How do you do the balance?

The Story of a Sock or Four

So this sock is on its third remake because the loom had a broken peg. I had Gorilla Glued it but yesterday, as I was finishing the ankle part and heading for the cuff it broke again.

 

Ugh! See the broken peg attached by a rubber band to the loom?

Yeah, I can’t toss something if I think I might be able to use it again sometime. But I did order a new KB His and Hers set. Trouble is, even though I ordered off the last order this set of looms is smaller. The same amount of pegs, but I think the pegs are slightly closer.

 

And then I had to move all the stitches on the broken loom onto the new equivalent loom. I used the circular knitting needles to capture the loops and then move them to the new loom.

 

These are ChiaoGoo Red Lace 47 inch Stainless Steel Size 1.5. They did an excellent job for me. I can’t wait to try and make sock on them.

So my daughter’s first sock is nearly finished. I suppose I could give it to her and she can take turns on which foot she’ll keep warm that day? Kidding!  But those purple looms are for her boyfriend. Can you see the difference between the purple on the lower left and the bigger purple above? They are supposed to be the same size. If they turn out to be too different in size I will make the decision of which loom I’ll make the second one on.

Oh, and that sock with the mermaids on it? That is on my foot. Those were a gift from my friend. They are so fun I thought the girls wanted to be a part of the sock party. Okay, back to knitting.

Scrappy Dolls

So I had a lot of yarn in little bits. I thought, ‘Hmmm, maybe I can make some scrappy socks. But I made oopsies and needed to tink. That didn’t work out right. So I left these two-toned tube socks in their project bag until I felt like dealing with them. Suddenly it came to me that they would make sock dolls.

The other bright idea that has to do with socks is, I wondered if the Kitchener cast-on could be used to make hats without a bump or knot on the top. So, here is the result of that cast-on on the small Knifty Knitter (blue, 24 pegs):

It is a little bumpy on what would be near the big toe and the little toe, like a dimple or pimple? But it does seem smoother than the normal doll head or hat. Then I thought well, I have enough yarn to make a doll, upside down. Usually, using LoomAHat’s Tiny Doll pattern, you knit from the legs up. With the head done I decided to finish with the legs. It worked!

I like how the combinations of yarns gave an interesting pantsuit for this guy.

My sock babies turned out like this:

It makes it look like they are in cocoons with their arms out of the binding.

Just because they begged for a selfie together:

It looks like the little ones are falling asleep while the bigger kid is in charge. Or is that just me and my crazy imagination?

 

Yay! Finished Friday

I love baby socks! They are so fast!

Okay. the stats: These are made on the KB 24 peg, 3/4 gauge.

I have the markers set up for the heel. Oh, and yes, a couple of those pegs are bent forward. I need to run the loom under warm water and see if I can fix those. The loom got caught under the rocker recliner when I wasn’t looking. Oops! But they didn’t cause too much of a problem even as is.

Draw-string Cast-on to make the toe. Knit ten rows. I used the flat-knit stitch. Then between the first peg and the twelfth peg, I did the Russian short rows (heel). Eight rows of flat-knit stitch for the ankle. Then a two-by-two e-wrap/purl cuff for eight rows. Just the regular bind of, the one that you wrap two, knit first two. Then bring second loop to the first loop. knit bottom over top. Move that loop to the number two spot. That is now the number one peg. E-wrap number two. knit over. Move number two to number one. knit bottom over top. Repeat to end wrap last. knit over. Cut end (about two inches) pull through the loop. Hide ends. Voila!

 

Throwing it Thursday

Well, I thought I had something to say I finished. But obviously, I made the one on the loom too long.

Had to frog.

At least it is a small infant size, it shouldn’t take long to remake it. Maybe you’ll see the pair again on

Finished Friday!

😅