Motorcycle Life Shawl

Huh, what's this? Oh, that's right! I have a blog, I should actually write to it once in awhile huh? Oops. Time sort of slipped away again.

I've actually been thinking a lot about my blog and how I want to write more but I'm finding as my interests grow and change that there's less to say about knitting and more to say about other subjects so I'm thinking of adding some new content. I'll talk more about that later but let's start with the knitting since that's why my current readers come to the blog (I think).
As I've mentioned several times, I'm in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup and I've really been enjoying it. This term is May, June, July so I started out strong in May turning in two classes and a Detention. For the uninitiated; at the beginning of the month they post prompts for different classes. You can choose to craft to fit a prompt or do your crafting and later find ways to fit it into a prompt. The Detention is a project started before the beginning of the term month that you finish during the month.
I was wanting to knit a new shawl and I had a sort of idea of how I wanted it to look so I looked for patterns a bit but I didn't find anything easily that was the shape I wanted. I wanted it to be very simple too so I didn't really want to buy a pattern. Since I had an idea of the shape I wanted and it was fairly simple, I came up with a plan to see if it would work and cast on. You could call this a swatch since I knit, following my plan for awhile to see if it worked but when I saw that it was, I just kept going. I was also dying to knit something with one of the skeins of yarn I had been getting from the Sparktickes Dyes Gilmore Girls club.

I chose a skein that was a little unusual for me and started knitting. I wanted it to be a nice, drapey gauge so I used a size 6 needle. As I said, I saw I was getting the shape I wanted so I just kept knitting.
Then, I got close to the end of the yarn (20% left by weight, which is pretty common for patterns to tell you to start the edging) and chose a very simple edge.

Just nice, neat triangles. I blocked the shawl and now it's ready to go and I'm very happy with it!

I'm not sure exactly what shape you would call it. Clearly, it's not a triangle, more of an elongated half circle. I tend to call it a swoop, because it's easier to say. Overall I'm super happy with it, although it's still not really my colors so I may have cast on a new one in colors I love so I can give this one away. I may try to gift it to a cousin this weekend at the family reunion I'm attending.
I made up this pattern as I said so there aren't a lot of details about it but I am considering writing it up so others can benefit from my experience. If you'd like to see this written into a pattern, let me know in the comments. Since I made it up and it's so simple, I've just been calling it the Motorcycle Life Shawl after the name of the yarn but if I write it up, I will have to come up with a better name.
Now, on to the not-knitting thing. One of the things that has been taking up a good bit of my time is my planner. If you know me in real life, you know that I don't go anywhere without it. Literally, it is always with me. (Although I don't usually take it to the bathroom.) As I said, it takes up some of my time and interests and I've been thinking about making some notes about planners here since I do get lots of questions about it and why I use it and what I use it for. I know some of my knitter friends won't be interested in planners so I'm thinking of making it a feature on a certain day of the week so you can skip reading that day if you aren't interested. I was thinking Filofax Fridays, although I will talk about more than the filofax brand. To keep them separate, I will probably start using labels on my posts.
I hope this will encourage me to blog more and to have more to say in general and I may even add other features over time.

The Return of Spinning

Um, hello?

I swear I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. As a matter of fact, I find myself doing more with my knitting and spinning now than I was but that means even less time for things like blogging. I've also felt a little bit lost as to what to write about. Several of my projects have been big, big projects that are taking forever to finish. That means less to write about.
I have finished some things of note though.
Today I'd like to discuss some spinning although it isn't Tuesday and is therefore a little out-of-the-box for me to talk spinning. But it's Friday. The Friday before a long weekend no less so I couldn't walk away without posting something.
In December of last year my Gritty Knits Merino of the Month club arrived and I knew it was perfect. Not for me, for my knitting friend Catherine. She had knit a lovely cowl and gifted it to me since it didn't work for her. I had been searching for just the right thing to give back to her in trade. It was a little difficult since Catherine loves subtle, semi-solid colors and I tend to buy bright, multicolored things because they make me happy, even though they drive me crazy trying to find something to knit later.

I knew this was perfect though! It was subtle and green (just like something lovely I had seen her knitting so I knew the color would be right too). I didn't want to rush in without her approval so I took it to knit night and she agreed it would work and that she would love for me to spin it for her so I got it onto the bobbin.
The reason it has taken this long? It was laceweight. Four lovely ounces of laceweight and with my spinning mojo disappearing for great stretches in the winter, it was hard for me to bring myself to work on it. I tried to get a bit done here and there and it slowly started to add up. I got one bobbin finished and I moved on to the second. That of course feels like the home stretch so I worked diligently on it (although still a bit sporadically I'm sorry to say).
I finally finished the spinning, let it rest overnight like a good little spinner. That part is really hard for me. At that point I want yarn! I don't want to wait.
I finally plied. I was hoping it was going to get great yardage for her; we were aiming for somewhere between a laceweight and fingering weight finished yarn. When it took me hours and hours and hours to ply, I figured I had achieved my goal.

Finally, a finished bobbin.

The real test, using something to compare. So far, so good.
The only way to know for sure though is to measure it. So I wound it off onto the niddy noddy.

There it is, a thing of beauty! Yardage-wise, it came up to a true laceweight 830 yards. I'm calling it 800 to take into account any plumping or shrinking during washing and I carefully washed and twacked it so it's ready to go to its new home.
I hope Catherine loves it. I'm a little bit sad to be giving it away but I know she will knit it into something fantastic!

Galapagos

I'm happy to report that if you actually have your wheel out and ready to go, you often will actually spin! Crazy, I know. I've been working pretty diligently on the fiber I'm spinning for my friend Catherine. It's my Gritty Knits Merino of the Month from December 2014 and it's called Fun Fir.
I finished the first half of the fiber and doesn't it look lovely?

It's a great blue-y green and looks more green than these pictures.

It really is lovely but I have some trouble capturing the true color.

I'm spinning it pretty fine to make a two-ply lace to fingering weight for her so I decided since I have finished the first bobbin that I would take a short break and spin something less focused.
I've been wanting to add some yarn to my handspun blanket yarn so I decided to spin what I call a "quick and dirty" two-ply sport weight. I call it that because I basically let the fiber be what it would like and generally come up with a fairly quick two-ply that's about a sport weight. I'm a little out of practice with this method though. Mostly because I haven't been spinning much lately.

I chose another Gritty Knits Merino of the Month. This one from February of 2014 and it's called Galapagos. I liked the variation in the colors and I thought it would be a fun and unique one to add to my blanket squares. I didn't have any specific plans for it so it was a good choice for an easy spin. I split the braid in half and spun the first half straight onto the bobbin.

It took less than 24 hours, I love that. I split the second half of the braid into several pieces to get a fractal yarn because I didn't want the colors to sit together too much. I quickly finished that half as well and plied it up.

I really like the result but I can tell I'm a bit out of practice because it's a bit less yardage than I usually get with this style of spinning. Only 288 yards. Closer to a worsted-weight yarn. But still lovely.

I'm not sure about putting this in my blanket simply because I think there's so much contrast in the skein itself color-wise that it wouldn't contrast enough with the other color I would be using. I may still put it in there (or at least try it) I'm not dead-set against it but in the meantime, I've got a lovely new skein of yarn to play with. It might need to be knit up quickly into something springy.

They Truly Are Cursed

Have you ever had a project that just doesn't seem to want to get made? You work on it and either the progress is so slow or the pattern doesn't work or you have to keep ripping it out. I am in the middle of a project just like that right now.

I went back and looked at my project page to see when it was actually started. December of 2013! Now, I haven't been knitting steadily on it or anything, I've put it down and in time-out several times. The reason? It refuses to get knit of course!
It's the Cursed Cable Mitts and it's a pattern I started only because a friend wanted someone to knit it along with her so she gifted me the pattern right when it came out. I'm not sure that she ever did knit it but I have been trying! They really seem to be cursed though. The yarn I chose is absolutely beautiful Malabrigo Sock yarn and I knit the first one, the right one, with little issues. Although at first I had some trouble reading the cable and easily lost my place, I managed to finish it, do the thumb, weave in the ends and call it done. The real problem came with the left one. First I knit the ribbing on the wrong size needle. Then I knit the ribbing on the correct needle but forgot to change to the next size needle. I had to rip it. Then I started again and I really busted a move. I worked on it wanting to have a finished object. I got really far.

Like I bound it off far. It looks like a lovely, long fingerless mitt right?

Beautiful yarn and once you're done knitting the cable, you decide it looks really good and it was worth it.
Until...


You put it next to the other mitt.

Does anyone see the problem?

It's not just that I did too many repeats or something, I used the wrong size needles for it. I tried to debate with myself about keeping it and not worrying about the difference but I really didn't like the fabric I had. It was too loose and I thought it wouldn't be very warm. The right one was so perfect, how could I leave the left one so not-perfect.
These pictures were actually taken last fall. I put the mitts away and thought about them occassionally and what I should do with them. Then at the beginning of the year when I dug out my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) I found these again. The right one is so lovely and wouldn't it be nice to have them finished. I asked my knitting group what they thought about them. Should I finish it or frog it? It was overwhelmingly voted to finish. So, the other day, I ripped out the left mitt and started again. So far, I've had to rip twice. Yup, it's truly cursed.
First, I was knitting with the curly yarn that had been sitting as the mitt for months, so my gauge was way off. I didn't want to take the time to wash it so I just rewound it and started from the "fresh" end of the yarn. Then, I managed to finish the thumb gusset and realized I hadn't placed the thumb right. I had to rip back. Again.
I think I'm on track for now but I'm warning everyone not to start these mitts. They truly are cursed* and the curse is you will just keep knitting them forever and ever and ever. But you never have lovely mitts.


*Disclaimer: I'm fairly sure the pattern is not actually cursed. It really is lovely and except for the thumb (which I don't care for how it is done) it is well-written and will be absolutely wonderful. Someday. If I ever finish it.

Knitting Huge

I've been feeling a little down about my knitting lately. Nothing has been inspiring me which means I don't even want to knit half the time. This scared me big time. I love knitting, why wouldn't I want to knit?
Well, last month, toward the end of the month I realized I needed to get something done and quickly to get uploaded for HPKCHC as I hadn't turned in anything at all yet. I knit and posted an owl puff.

I couldn't find my felt so I used crocheted circles for the eyes and it's harder than you would think to sew them on while the top part is still open and on the needles so his eyes are a little wonky but it works. He's cute and handspun and lovely anyway. There it was, that little rush of project-finishing. Just what I had been missing.
After I turned him in for a class and was awaiting the approval I realized what was holding me back and keeping my knitting enjoyment level down in the dumps. All of my projects are huge!

My Half Pi Shawl? Huge. Especially now that I'm on the second skein and the rows are so long, I can knit for an hour and make very little progress.
The Exit 0 Shawl? Gargantuan. It's three colors and the rows are the long way so even though it's pretty and simple short rows, each row takes a good, long time so again, you don't feel like you are making any headway at all.
The only other thing I've been knitting? Socks. Which are men's socks so they are huge too! I can see some progress but it's still not a simple, easy project that gets finished with what feels like little effort. That's what I've been missing, and it took a little owl to show me.

I think I will put aside at least one of these larger projects and pick up something smaller that takes much less effort. Just to see some progress and feel a little better about myself and my knitting. Plus, it will get this month's class done.

Sickly Spinning

I've been taken down pretty thoroughly by a terrible cold. Lots of fever and horrible coughing. It just seems to go on and on and on. I'm getting pretty stir-crazy as I haven't left the house since Saturday when I last felt mostly all right. It really knocked me down on Saturday though and I've been mostly resting since.
I did manage to start plying a bobbin of finished singles I found when I dug out my wheel for the first time in almost a month. That was Saturday for the craft day at our church. I dragged myself and my wheel over to the church, but only managed to spend a few hours there before I decided I just couldn't continue and I headed for home. I have spun a bit here and there over the last month but really not much at all. I was glad to get back at it and remember how much I enjoy spinning.
So then to the yarn I made. The finished singles were from some Targhee I got in the Zarzuela Fiber club a few years ago (before she closed up shop). It's called Stained Glass and it really is lovely and deep, all the colors you would find in Stained Glass.

I had known I wanted to keep the colors strong so I spun it all onto one bobbin and left it to rest. I just didn't expect it to get as much rest as it got.
When I took it out, I chain-plied it.

I love the round beauty of a three-ply, either chain-plied or traditional three-plied. I do love how it keeps the colors separate when you chain-ply though. I think overall it's a fairly even skein as well. Not many thin spots or thick spots.

I even dragged myself out of the house into the wind and the fresh snow to take these pictures of it. I just love it and can't wait to figure out what it would like to be. It's about 375 yards so it shouldn't be a problem to have enough to do something lovely.
For now I'd better get back to resting and coughing, as I cannot wait to get out of the house and go to work tomorrow and I should be as rested as I can be before I get back to the grind.

Confessions

Okay, I admit it, I'm a total blog-slacker. It's really tragic too because there could be so many great things that I blog about but I just don't. Maybe part of the problem is that my interests are varied and I need to expand the blog to cover other topics too. Like my organization goals. I am in absolute love with my filofax and could wax poetic about it for hours. Although I still sometimes struggle with juggling work life and home life, it has helped me so much!
Anyway, that's really a topic for another day. I'm here today to talk about knitting. I'm in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) again this term which runs from January to March. Each month, you need to complete at least one class to maintain your "good standing" for sorting priority. Since I love my Ravenclaw tower and want very much to stay in the tower, I do try.
Usually it's pretty easy. I craft what I'd like and use some imaginative story-telling to make it fit one of the prompts. They love imaginative storytelling in that group. Sometimes I read the prompts first and pick something to craft based on one of them. That's what happened this time. The prompt was for a cowl and I was wanting to make a new one.
I had seen a friend's cowl and absolutely loved it. I asked her about it (she's a knitter too! Hi Jessica!) and she let me look at it at one of our knit nights. Then I stalked her Ravelry Projects and found the pattern she had used and the needles. It actually called for Bulky yarn but I had a skein of yarn I had just so happened to purchase from her destash that I was dying to knit immediately.

Three Irish Girls Springvale DK in Nightscapes. It was so colorful and lovely I just couldn't resist. I knew it would be perfect for this cowl. Although it's DK it seemed a bit thicker to me, more like a worsted weight so I chose the needles I thought would work with the yarn, guessed at a cast on number and started knitting. Within 24 hours, it was cast off. It was a really fun weekend project. It looked a little funny before blocking.

It really bunched up. But it blocked beautifully and came up to be just what I wanted.

I can use it as an infinity scarf if I wish or easily loop it twice around my neck for more warmth. I think I could maybe even get it around a third time if I wanted to.

Plus, I love all the colors. It goes with almost everything I own and I love that.
The confession that goes along with this project? I actually turned it in for January's HPKCHC. Oops, I sort of forgot that I was going to write about it. Here it is almost the end of February and I'm just getting to it. See? Total blog-slacker.
Also, I *may* have been stalking people's destash pages to find more yarn and make more of these. I love it and I think about everyone I know would love it too. In different colors of course.

An Actual Finished Object

I've been knitting away and trying to keep from casting on any new things. Since my goal is to finish up more of my UFOs this year, I'm trying to really think ahead and not blindly cast things on just because I randomly feel like something new. To that end I finished up these socks for my dad.

Just your basic ribbed sock in Gritty Knits nom Charred Browns. It's not my usual colors but I really like how it made wonderfully neutral men's socks. Since I met up with my mom for lunch last week, they're with him now and apparently he loves them.
I often worry about knitting gifts with "fancy" yarn like this that requires a little more care but over the last several years he has proven himself more than knit-worthy. Cherishing his handknit socks. He wears them only on Sundays to church (although I'm hoping now that he has several pairs, he might be a little bit less careful and wear them more.)
I've been working away on my Half pi shawl as well, although it isn't really easy to show it off at this point, it's really bunched up on the needles. I did join the second skein yesterday though so I'm happy to say I'm making some good progress on it. I still really like it but I'm starting to wonder why on earth I thought a half pi shawl was a good idea with all that purling back.
I did need to cast on something for HPKCHC this month so I whipped out a quickie project that I'm completely in love with. I'll share it later this week. Stay tuned.

Bribery is Best When Chocolate is Involved

Um, hello? Is anyone still out there? I always say I'm going to make more time for blogging and I've been super terrible at making that time lately. I cannot believe it has been more than a month since I last blogged. Again! Somehow the whole Christmas season got away from me. I didn't even knit that many gifts. A pair of flip-top mittens for our niece (I would show them to you but the horrible cell phone picture I took at midnight when I had finished them the night before they were gifted is really best kept to myself) and a pair of socks for my step-dad. Plus a pair of socks I had knit for my mom months ago. Oh, and the socks?

Yeah, they have some problems. Namely that they are not actually finished and it's well after Christmas now. Thankfully my step-dad was very understanding. I do want to get these out to him as soon as I can though.
The last time I blogged I did promise I would tell you whether I finished my OWL project for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House (HPKCHC) cup Fall term. Well, the truth is; I didn't. Honestly I should have had plenty of time to knit a sweater in 3 months. I've done it faster but with the play and then starting my new job, it got to be about a month where I didn't even knit. That's not entirely true. I did knit but it was about 5 minutes a day and it was all on my Froot Loops sock. That was just all the energy I had for anything. Then the last week or two I really tried to bust a move and get the sweater done. I ended at the deadline; 2 am my time on December 1st right here:

It's very close but it isn't done. I need to crochet around the cuffs and the bottom of the body.

That's supposed to stop the curling.
Then, I'm also supposed to do a collar.

Also, I decided on the evening of the 30th of November, the last night, that I should sew in the zipper with a sewing machine. It was a great time-saver except;

The bottom isn't quite even so that needs to be fixed. I'd really like to have this finished and actually be able to wear it. I think it will be a very useful sweater but I need to take care of these few issues. I just need to suck it up and work on it again. I set it aside after I knew I couldn't finish (about 10 minutes before the deadline) and I haven't touched it since, except to take these pictures.
I am trying to make more time for my knitting since it really helps my sanity but sometimes that means important things like housework get completely neglected. I'm not that sad about that but if someone came to the door right now, I might hide. I do have something lovely and new on the needles though.

I went through all my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and I was so impressed that I only found 15 that I decided this lovely yarn that I got from a friend's destash could be cast on. So, on January 1 as a fresh start to a fresh, new year, I cast this loveliness on. It's Yarn Love in the Charlotte Bronte fingering-weight base and it's called Poppies in Winter. All through December as I was working on my Christmas knitting it was sitting in the corner calling to me to knit with this lovely brightness.

I have two beautiful skeins and it's becoming the most wonderful half-pi shawl.
Occasionally as I do a purl-back row I do wonder why I decided a half-pi was a good idea but it will be lovely.
I do need to do a project, something smaller, for this month for HPKCHC but I am loving working on this shawl so much! I actually had to bribe myself to work on my step-dad's socks this weekend but I want to get them finished so I can get them to him. I'm not sure what the bribe actually is though. Maybe it's to eat one of the tiny bags of Cadbury Mini eggs I got at the store the other day. Yes, it's true I found the first of the Easter candy and bought several teeny single-serve bags of Cadbury Mini eggs. They're so good that I've hidden them from the husband. They may all be for me.

Being Thankful

Winter has officially arrived here. Maybe not according to the calendar but according to the more than a foot of snow and the super cold. I don't enjoy winter. I do however enjoy all the woolies that aren't so crazy when the weather is like it has been. I didn't have a whole lot of knitting time in October due to the play and I didn't seem to find a whole lot in November either, although that was my own fault. I just didn't work on things. Maybe I was feeling a little bored with my projects?
I did manage to finish my Froot Loops socks.

This is Fibernymph Dyeworks Bedazzled sock in the Froot Loops colorway. It's really all the colors of Froot Loops cereal and you can't tell how sparkly they are in any pictures I have taken but I love how sparkly they are. They make me really happy. I managed to get these turned in for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup as a Detention (project started before the month started and finished during the month).
I decided to go small for my class turn in and knit some teeny socks.

I took a picture of them with the Froot Loops socks for scale. I think they're so cute! They're meant to be for a one-year old but I'm not sure that my gauge is good enough. I'll have to find a one-year old to test them on. These haven't been "graded" yet but I'm confident they will be fine. These were turned in for Defense Against the Dark Arts or DADA. The prompt was to use a pattern designed by a House Cup Member. I knit these from the pattern Carmen's First Birthday Socks designed by Barknknit on Ravelry. I really liked the simple pattern and had lots of fun knitting them. This term you got bonus points if you turned in all 3 months of the term for DADA and I did so that will be nice.
I had a pretty good Thanksgiving and Birthday (which is right after Thanksgiving) so I'm trying to focus on the things I'm thankful for and not the things I could be frustrated about (like the weather). Thankful for; Knitting and knitter friends! Spinning, wool, my job, which I'm really enjoying, my family and my furry pets. All of these things make up my wild and crazy life and I wouldn't have it any other way!
Have you started your Christmas knitting yet? It's crunch time!
Next time we can talk about my OWL for Harry Potter House Cup. Whether I made it or not, what I learned and what's next.

Hoping Is Not The Same as Actually Knitting

Normally, I don't like to make posts without photos. I know how much I look forward to blog posts with pictures of what the writer is knitting. I feel bad that this will probably be the only post this week but I wanted to get something up, to get back into the habit of posting regularly. I just have nothing to show from my limited knitting time.
I'm mostly working on my OWL project for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup which is a sweater. I'm woefully behind and it looks the same as it always does. It's the Cambridge Jacket but with some modifications. As of October 31 I should have been 50% through the sweater. I'm nowhere near that far. I'm still working on the back. That means I have to finish the back, knit two sleeves and two fronts. Something is going to have to give if I'm going to get it done in time for the deadline which is at the end of November. (Hint: It will be housework, it's always housework that gets neglected.)
The problem is that my wonderful husband has shared some germs with me. I have a cold and I keep finding myself just sitting and holding my knitting. It seems like it's too much work to actually knit. Then, when I actually feel almost human again and I can sit and knit, our little kitten comes and sits on my lap, the cold weather has been great for encouraging her to do that and I love our little snuggle time but she does not like me to knit. She tries to chew the yarn and the needles and anything else she can reach. That does not work for me so I usually just set it aside for a bit.
The truth is, I need to get in gear, I need to get knitting and get going or I'm not going to make the deadline. Maybe posting this here, publicly admitting how behind I am will get me in gear. Let's hope!

Knitting Cowl

Hello, is this thing on? Wow! I cannot believe it has been more than a month since I've had a blog post up. Things have been crazy here. My husband and I were in a community theater production and with me starting a new job; I now work 4 mornings a week as the secretary at our church, I have found my quiet time very limited. That means all crafting, even knitting sometimes doesn't happen. I know, it scares me too.
I did manage to get a class turned in for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House cup in October, but just one. I knit this lovely Eleanor cowl from some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport I got from my friend Emily's destash. It turned out blue-y purple and wonderful!

It is very difficult to photograph though. I knit this pattern once before from some handspun and at the time I knew I wanted to knit it again and I'm so glad I did. I really enjoyed it.

As you can (hopefully) see from the pictures, I did knit through the back loops on some of the knit stitches so they would stand out from the purl stitches and hold their own in the lace a little bit better.
I loved knitting this and it felt good to have a finished object in just a couple of days of knitting time. I should keep that in mind. I think this cowl will be wonderful to wear on those cold winter evenings when I actually get to sit and knit.
I hope to be back to more regular blogging, especially as the craziness of holiday knitting is coming up fast as well. Thanks for sticking with me, you're always welcome to leave a comment and let me know you're waiting for more posts. Maybe it will get me in gear.

Exit 0

Recently a local friend of mine invited those of us in the local knitgroup to start a KAL. It's for a very interesting shawl called Exit 0. There's an official KAL going on in the designer's group, you can find that here. I dithered back and forth for a bit, trying to decide if I wanted to knit it. I decided to go looking in my stash to see if I had the right yarn before I made any decisions about it. 

At first I was thinking gray, purple and red but I didn't find anything that was working just right so I decided on these three.

As you know (if you ever read this blog) I'm in the Gritty Knits Nom-of-the-month club so I have lots of nom sitting around waiting to be knit into lovely things. These are all from this year's clubs and I love them together!

They're Coelacanth, Megalodon and Mockingbird. They looked great together and as the pattern calls for a dark, a medium and a light, I thought these fit the bill nicely. I decided to go for it and purchased the pattern and knit the swatch. The pattern wasn't actually out yet and I got a planning page but it worked for swatching.

I love it in the swatch. The pattern has been released now and the KAL officially started. I just haven't cast on yet. The problem? You cast on over 300 stitches to begin with. I need to sit down somewhere quiet where I can focus and how often does that happen?
Today is also the last day of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup for September. I have 3 classes turned in so I'm not worried but tomorrow is the official cast on for new projects for October. Maybe I should wait and cast on tomorrow? We'll see. It's not like I plan to knit this whole shawl in October.

The Knits of Camp

I had great fun last weekend camping and the best part about camping with knitters is that they understand the need to get lots of knitting time. We had it planned so one of us was in charge of each meal and that meant that until your meal was up, you could just relax and knit. (Unless you had to walk to the bathroom. We did a fair bit of that too.)

I packed my fingerless mitts but I couldn't find them on Friday after we unloaded so I started a pair out of some handspun I brought along. They were quick, easy and came out great.

I'm considering releasing it as a pattern (free) so shout out in the comments if you'd be interested in seeing it.
Here I am knitting in my mitts.

It was cold, we bundled up.
I also knit a monster chunk. He was dubbed George Fredrick IX and started having adventures. He made friends with a dragonfly.

He even took a selfie.

(Photo Credit on this one to my friend Cathy)

He just loves being outdoors.
I got lots of work done on my first Christmas present this year too! My mom's Simple Skyp socks.

I didn't quite finish them camping though, I had to finish the second toe at home last week.

For something different I continued the Skyp pattern down the heel flap. I don't know that I would do that again, but it was a fun experiment. Now the real question is; should I wash them, or keep the fire scent for my mom at Christmas.