WIP Wednesday: Purple Magic Socks

One of my crafting goals for 2014 is to make 12 pairs of socks. That’s just one pair a month. Easy. I wanted to do that last year but then for whatever reason, hardly made any socks. I’ve missed sock knitting. The first pair of the year is an easy pair. For Christmas I got a skein of self-striping sport weight sock yarn from my aunt.

I’m actually farther than the picture shows as I took this a few days ago. The first sock is now completely done and I’m working on the second. There is no pattern to them – just plain knit socks.

2014

I always seem to have these big goals for a new year and then forget about them a few months in. This year, I didn’t want to do that. I decided that this year I only really wanted to have two goals:

1. Be happy.
2. Cosplay.

Goal 1 is self explanatory. As far as goal 2 goes, cosplay is one of the things I’ve always wanted to do but for one reason or another it’s fallen short. A lot of it has to do with my lack of ability in sewing but I’m working on that. The other thing is that I hate the idea of cosplaying alone. I mean, who wants to wonder around a convention in a cosplay alone? I don’t. But at the same time, all my friends who cosplay don’t live here. One day I’ll go to a Florida con where they are.

I do have plenty of sub-goals for my crafting and other things. One such sub-goal is blogging more. I enjoy talking about my crafting but then I’ll get lazy or whatever and stop for months. Just twice a week. That’s all I have to do. Ideally I’d love to have a FO every friday but I know that won’t always happen. A lot of the crafting I’ll be doing this year will end up being for my etsy store. I have a lot of yarn I don’t want anymore and rather than try to get even pennies for it, I’m going to turn it into items worn to keep warm or accessories like bags and then sell them on etsy. There’s nothing wrong with the yarn – its just not what I want for me. I know how much yarn I started 2014 with and it’s more than I want to admit. At the end of each month I’m going to keep track of how much I’ve used up that month and how much I’ve bought, if any. For me, 2014 is the year of stashdown. Let’s see if I can keep to it.

Fall Leaves Fleece Blanket

Working at Joanns is great for many things, among them is seeing what fabrics we have and when things are on sale. I tend to mostly pay attention to the fleece and flannel. One such fleeces was a beautiful leaf print that screamed autumn which is my absolute favorite time of the year. My wonderful and sweet mother got both the leaf print and a solid orange for me while Joanns was having a 50% off fleece sale.

 

It took me far less time to do the blanket than I remembered them taking. In less than 2 hours, I had a new blanket! I think next I want to make myself a winter one. It’d be nice to have a couple seasonal blankets.

FO Friday: Granny Square Basket

The yarn has been taking over my desk for some time now. I decided awhile ago that I would make a basket to keep on my desk for the yarn and WIPs that I’m currently working on. It took me awhile to make but when it was done, I was very happy to see it was bigger than I thought it would be.

All the basket is really just five granny squares, one for each side and one on the bottom. And yes, you can see my favorite elf amigurumi in the corner. :3

FO Friday: Seraphim Shawl

As it is now friday and I’m actually remembering my knitting blog, I’m going to go ahead and post this at 3am. The last post I made was a WIP Wednesday about my shawl, Seraphim. Well, it’s done. It’s been done. It took some time to get the pretty outside pictures I wanted but I have them!

There is a park near where my brother and I live that we sometimes go take walks. It’s really pretty and has a bunch of neat paths through green areas, perfect for writing inspiration.

I’m so glad this shawl is done. It took me exactly a year and a month. Most of that though, was Seraphim sitting on the back burner while I worked on other projects. It is also my first big shawl done in lace weight.

Pattern: Seraphim Shawl 
Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Raspberry
Needles: 3.25mm

 

WIP Wednesday: Seraphim Shawl

Recently I’ve taken Seraphim out of hibernation to work on again and finish this time. I’ve finished a total of three bigger shawls, although Laminaria is probably somewhere between shawlette and shawl. Seraphim has finally reach that point where the rows are super long so it takes awhile for one row to get done. It is nice to have that purl row to have a break from the lace.

 

And a close up of the lace beginning to take form:

I started Seraphim back in July of 2012. Its been over a year now. My goal for finishing it is the end of August. If I do 2-3 rows per day, I should be able to reach my goal with ease.

FO Friday: Mistborn Socks

While one of my best friends was on vacation and thus, not online much, I wanted to knit socks and couldn’t think of a pattern that was perfect for the only sock yarn I’d packed. One of my other best friends came up with the perfect combination and we decided to surprise Rae (the best friend who was on vacation) because we knew she’d squee.

Pattern: Nain
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Thunderhead
Needles: 2mm
Mods: I did 10 rows of ribbing instead of 8 and two full repeats instead of the 1.5 the pattern called for. I’m glad I did because it came out to the perfect length I wanted it.

The main inspiration behind the combo was Mistborn and the swirling mists that come out at night. If you haven’t read the trilogy, go do so now. It is amazing.

FO Friday: Norwegian Rose Socks

They’re finally done! Actually they’ve been done for awhile. I’ve been meaning to make this pattern for a long time, I just never actually did it. It also took me two tries to make a pair of fair isle socks that could go over my heel. They’re still pretty tight too. Maybe the next time I do a pair of full fair isle socks, I’ll go up another size.

Pattern: Norwegian Rose Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in Natural and Blue Topaz
Needles: 2mm and 2.75mm

All in all, I’m really happy with the way they turned out.

Birthday comes early~

My birthday is Monday and I wasn’t looking forward to it this year because I figured I’d be spending it without anyone to hang out with. Plans are in the works for me to go spend several weeks with my brother. And a super happy thing came in the mail today, from two of my best friends.

Trindle~ I’d been wanting one after hearing Rae and Cotton talk about them. I just wasn’t going to get one yet. Now I don’t have to because they got me one for my birthday. :3 You can look at the different trindles in Trindleman’s etsy shop here. 

Tour de Sock: Stage Two, Day Two

It is time for stage two! I’m absolutely loving how the designer combined both colorwork and cables. I didn’t get much knitting done on stage two yesterday because we had company that I needed to entertain. I also didn’t pick the best color for a main color – dark green. I can see to knit with it at night but its harder to knit than a lighter color.

Stage Two – Chicane Socks

Unfortunately, I’ve discovered just how difficult it is to knit colorwork 2aat. I managed it though. However, I can’t do the cables 2aat. There are several rows where stitches need to be moved around and it it just easier if I knit them separately. 

It’s hard to tell that the yarn is a dark green/silver pair instead of black/white pair. If I ever do this pair again, I’m thinking of making them like this. It’s a neat way to do it. I just didn’t have enough silver left to be able to do that. The picture was taken before I gave up and put one sock onto dpns.