Catching Up: The Second Half of 2022

Knitting

Pyramis

I stitched this out of a merino/bamboo blend from Knit Picks because I wanted something with lots of drape — and I love the way it turned out.

Celestarium

I’ve had the Celestarium shawl on my list for at least ten years, recently stumbled across this delightful gradient from Knit Circus, and knew I’d found my yarn for this project.

Tweedy Kia Socks

I haven’t knit socks in a while! I needed something portable for a crafternoon, so I started another pair of Kia socks in some leftover navy tweed.

Garter Snake Mitts & Losing-At-Yarn-Chicken Hat

I waited a while to make something with these two yarns because I wanted to use up every yard of it — and turns out I sure did. These are the Garter Snake Mitts from Lavanya Patricella, and I attempted twice to make the matching hat but lost at yarn chicken twice! So I switched to a smaller hat pattern and finally succeeded.

Llawenydd

No pictures of this one (yet) because it was another spectacular loss at yarn chicken and I haven’t decided quite how to finish it. I cast on two extra repeats to make it a bigger shawl and then absolutely, very clearly ran out of yarn before all the decreases were done and had to cast off early. I think I’ll sew it together into a permanent-cowl after I block it.

Hats for Everyone!

Halfway through November, I remembered that I told my niblings and my father that I would make them hats, so I made three in a row. Lucky for me, they were all a hit.

Fingerless Mittens for Everyone!

I knit a coworker a pair of fingerless mittens out of my own handspun as a prize for a work contest I held, and I also knit my mom a pair of these Belyse fingerless mittens. It’s been a very Ysolda-pattern last few months of the year!

Spinning

Red-Brown Rambouillet

I got this fiber on a trip to the Artful Ewe in Port Gamble with a friend and her parents, and am really happy with the yarn I made. I used this to make my dad’s hat (see above).

Red and Grey Rambouillet

This is fiber from Koomasee and another attempt at a 3-ply — I’ll say successful, because I wanted it to be a little moodier than a 2-ply and I feel like that’s exactly what I got.

Chain-Plied Dirt and Sky

My first chain ply! This is Polwarth/Silk from Three Waters Farm and it spun up so beautifully — and now I’m a little obsessed with chain plying.

Green-Blue Rambouillet

Another braid from Koomasee, I spun this one on my EEW Nano while on a family vacation and they had a ton of fun watching me each morning.

Colorful Koomasee

Hmm, do you think I like fiber from Koomasee? This was a lovely spin.

Goth Rainbow

For this one, I used some mixed BFL from Alexandra the Art of Yarn that I got at Fiber Fusion. I did a fractal spin and my little goth heart is so happy.

Hot Pink Gradient

Another chain ply — when I saw this BFL from Caroline Dick Designs, I knew I wanted to keep the colors close together. I think this one will turn into a cowl.

Good Vibes

I got this when I backed Fully Spun’s kickstarter, and while I’m not typically a yellow person, I really like the way the colors spun up here.

Combo BFL

My first 4-ply!! This was a combo spin from Caroline Dick Designs, and I wanted to keep the colors distinct but also together, the same way the braid was. I really love the way it came out, but might not do too many 4-plies in the future.

Rocks and Sand

More fiber from Three Waters Farm, this time Rambouillet — also chain plied.

Golden Wensleydale

This was one of the first braids I got from Koomasee, and I finally decided I wanted to chain-ply it too.

Stitching

Benevolent Gay Goddess

This was a kit I picked up from Junebug and Darlin, and I stitched it when I felt like a quicker project than my Eternal Cryptid Stitchalong!

The Eternal Cryptid Stitchalong

I didn’t make much progress on this, but I’ll get there eventually!

Catching Up: The First Half of 2022

Knitting

All of the Lights

I LOVE this cardigan. It was fairly complex knit and had a lot of pieces I hadn’t done before (mostly pockets!), but I wore this very often after I finished it and now that it’s getting colder, I’m excited to start wearing it again.

Epernay

Another “I LOVE THIS” make — I snagged some Corrie Confetti from La Bien Aimée (grey + rainbow = everything I ever wanted), saw this sweater when it launched, and immediately knew that the two needed to go together. I didn’t get to wear this one as often before it got too warm, but again, I’m glad we’re getting closer to sweater weather.

The Pandemic Shawl

Back in March 2020, I started this shawl using lace weight yarn on teeny tiny needles because I tried tons of variations and this was my favorite. Well, two years later, I finally finished it! It came out exactly the way I wanted it to, and is absolutely worth the time spent — but boy am I never going to knit something this big on needles this small ever again.

Yet Another Musselburgh…

…this time in Valkyrie Fibers’ self-striping in Imladris, which is just the best combination of colors.

Larinda

This yarn+project combo had been on my mind for a while, and I finally got around to making it. I loved the original color of Larinda when Jen at Webster Street Knittery launched the pattern, and I may have one or two two-skein sets of toffee-colored yarn, so the hardest decision was choosing which toffee-colored yarn I should use. This perfect gingerbread color from Little Skein won, and like I already said, it’s perfect.

Brioche Tiles

Continuing my “Let’s knit with Little Skein yarn that I already have a project in mind for”, I pulled out another yarn combo I’d been saving and knit this brioche beauty. It’s exactly the low-contrast that I wanted.

My Brother’s Forth

Ysolda’s swatchless hats are pretty much my go-to when I need a hat, and I finally branched out with a not-Musselburgh for my brother, out of handspun from fiber he bought me with a note that said “make me something out of this”.

Spinning

I spun a LOT the first six months of the year, folks, so these will probably be a bit brief.

Iris

As discussed above, this was a request from my brother — some Polwarth from Created by Elsie B.

Koomasee OOAK Falkland

Every time I start a spin with fiber from Koomasee, I think “I will like this an ordinary amount” and every single time, I am enamored with it the entire time.

Koomasee Dusty Rose

Another Koomasee, also Falkland, also a joy to spin.

Moody Three-Ply

Something different! This is fiber from Caroline Dick Designs, and it was my first attempt at a three-ply, which I think succeeded admirably. The third ply makes it even moodier than I think a two-ply would have, which I really like.

A Frabjous Spin

This is an older braid I had, some BFL from Frabjous Fibers.

Lavanda

Merino from Malabrigo, that I spun up to eventually pair with the leftover Iris to make a shawl…someday.

Green-Grey Masham

Another braid from Caroline Dick, although I’m not sure I like spinning with Masham that much.

Blue Polwarth/Silk

This was a braid I got about a year ago when a friend and I took a trip to Port Gamble and I stopped by the Artful Ewe. As always, Polwarth is one of my favorite fibers to spin.

Alpaca/Silk

The first of a batch I got from Fiber Fusion NW - this is from Alexandra the Art of Yarn and turned out soooo soft. Definitely making something that sits close to the skin with this.

Mixed BFL

Another from Fiber Fusion NW, but this time from Island Fibers. I love the way the singles spun up marled and the extra-marled they got when plying.

Stitching

Summer Birb

I’ve got all four of these kits from Junebug and Darlin and stitched up this Summer Birb at the beginning of summer (which reminds me I should stitch up the fall version now that it’s officially Fall!)

Rainbow Linen Outfit

I haven’t sewn in a while, but I did make this matching outfit out of rainbow linen that I bought at JoAnn two years ago. The top is a Wiksten Shift Top, and the skirt is the Gypsum skirt, both patterns I’ve made before. I love how this turned out and I love wearing them both together and separately.

Catching Up: The Rest of 2021

Oh, hey there. It’s only been a month or so, right? Definitely still 2021. September…2021. That’s definitely right. Right? Anyway. Here are some things I’ve been working on for the last few months.

Knitting

‘Onipa’a by Leila Raven

I made this using yarn from Ocean By the Sea and it’s so soft and glowing and feels like I’m wrapped in a cocoon.

Truly Textural by Lesley Anne Robinson

Another project with my own handspun! This is handspun from Hipstrings via my brother, and I paired it with this great toffee color from La Bien Aimée x Mondim.

Hats for Friends

I have knit many Musselburghs, and two of them are for friends of mine who moved to Vermont. The first (left) uses self-striping from Valkyrie Fibers in Appa, and the second (right) is Mongolian Cashmere from ULA + LIA.

Classic Cozy Raglan (Light) by Jessie Maed Designs

This was a knitalong that a friend hosted while very kindly discussing fit adjustments and math with a bunch of us, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. This is the most delightful mermaid colorway from Serendipitous Wool.

Baby Cardigans

A childhood friend of mine had twins, and you know I love (almost) any excuse to knit small things, so of course I had to find some scraps and knit her two baby cardigans.

Left: Petit Peridot by Tricot Design MCL, right: Pinson by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne

Nourish

This is another from Little Skein Anne’s Beatrix Box (pattern by Dawn Landix), and I fell in love with this colorway and this pattern.

Spinning

Woodland Owls Like Toffee

This was a “Giant Spin” (aka 200g) using one braid of Woodland Owls by Elsie B and one braid of Toffee, both Rambouillet. I still haven’t decided what to make with it, but I really love the way the colors came together.

Blue Raspberry

Another Elsie B braid, this time Falkland Merino & Rose, and it was super soft and dreamy to spin up.

Color Wheel

It’s an Elsie B bonanza for 2021, I suppose, since this is another one of hers! (or: I ordered them all at the same time and then just pulled from the top of the pile, which happens a lot). I didn’t have a color-plan for this one — I just split it into halves and halves again and halves again, so I’m curious to see how it knits up vs. how it looks in the skein.

Stitching

Wildflower Bouquet

This was a Crafter’s Box collaboration with Junebug and Darlin and I, as usual, love all of Zoe’s patterns so of course I had to get this one too. Before this, I was a little intimidated by backstitching and considered it a necessary evil (like weaving in ends), but this backstitching was really enjoyable.

Read Romance

A smaller project (also Junebug and Darlin, obviously) that I will definitely need to make multiples of in different colors.

Stockings

I moved into a bigger place and decided to make myself a stocking to hang by the fireplace I now have. While I was at it, I made a couple of stockings for my friend and her cat, and even tried my hand at quilting names! They turned out legible, which was pretty much my only goal.

Aaaand that’s it for 2021, folks! I’ll be back, later, with some projects from 2022.

March & April Roundup

Yes, I realize we’re halfway through May, but it’s a good thing I do what I want!

March

I finally finished my Frog & Toad (presents for a friend’s little one!) and am just so enamored with how they turned out. I had to slow this one down a lot because it turns out knitting DK weight yarn on sock needles is super hard on the wrists! But maybe someday I’ll make a pair for myself. I think my favorite part of this combo is Frog’s sweater, and I will probably (definitely) make more.

I started playing with different colors in my spinning — I bought a few different colors of Malabrigo Nube on sale, and had fun thinking about what to do with them. I ended up doing four combinations, two each with matching bases, and maybe someday I’ll take a picture of all four, but here’s the first two, which I call “pink ‘n’ purple” (left) and “Razzleberry Pie” (right).

I knit a Sizzle Pop with two skeins of me-dyed indigo yarn, something that’s been in my queue for a while. This pattern was super easy to follow and was almost memorizable once I got into the swing of it. I’m already planning one or two more in different color combinations!

I cross-stitched this Spring Bird from Junebug and Darlin, and I can’t wait for the others to complete my set.

I also started my long-awaited project using the Avatar mini-skeins from Valkyrie Fibers, using a Mongolian yarn as the contrast, and settled on the Painting Honeycombs shawl. Not only does the color contrast, but the texture does too, and this is definitely one of my favorite makes in a while — I’m very happy with the combination of everything.

April

I knit up the most recent Beatrix Box from Little Skein in the Big Wool, the Agaric Shawl by knitboop. This was a totally addicting knit for me and I love love the color combination I picked. It hasn’t been blocked yet because, well, life happens, but I’ll get it done eventually.

I tried my hand at one million French knots in this stitch up of Junebug and Darlin’s Amethyst Floral kit (will I ever cross stitch something that Zoe didn’t design? Maybe, but not anytime soon). Very enjoyable, excellent colors, and now I just have to find a place in my shrinking wall space to hang it.

This one also isn’t going to have many pictures, but I knit a Plover cardigan by Jacqueline Cieslak using (what else?!) more yarn from Little Skein — this time, her Sugar Maple colorway from last year’s Rhinebeck. Folks, it is perfect and I should definitely block it soon, but it’s also not going to be super useful until fall, so I suppose I have some time.

January & February Roundup

It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of February!

January

One of my first projects was knitting my first handspun-by-me project, a pair of convertible mittens. I tried to do these two-at-a-time at first, but I ended up ripping one out and just knitting one after the other — and I think the colors turned out better this way. I love the way they match but also don’t match, and the way this yarn plied up into that slow color change that I love so much.

I also spun my first project on my new Kromski Minstrel, using some Malabrigo Nube. I have many more colors of Nube in my growing fiber stash, so you’ll see lots more coming up, too.

I finally finished (1.5 years later) my tweedy, cabley, wonderful sweater out of the most perfect pumpkin orange from the Farmer’s Daughter Fibers. Do I have pictures of this one yet? Nope, in fact I haven’t even blocked it yet, because no one can tell on Zoom that the bottom edge of this sweater is kind of squirrely. For those of you keeping track, this was the sweater I had to put on hold when my wrist started acting up, and I finally decided that I could handle picking it back up, slowly — and I could. I probably won’t ever knit another seed stitch sweater, though!

And I also made a Bubble Cowl out of a combination of Canon Hand Dyes (peacock gradient minis), Local Color Farm and Fiber Finnsheep, and Magpie Fibers. I love the way the texture of the yarn combines with the texture of the stitches, and this cowl is sooo warm and cozy.

February

One of my February spins used some Hipstrings that my brother bought me for Christmas, and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out. I’m not sure what I’m going to make out of it yet or whether I’ll combine it with something else, but this was a really fun spin and I find that I really enjoy spinning on a treadle machine, because it uses both my hands AND my feet.

A friend of mine posted a Musselburgh hat she had made, and I immediately knew I needed to make one, so I pulled out a skein of La Bien Aimée (that some friends brought back for me from France!) and knit this very strange-looking tube that morphed into a very nice-looking and comfortable hat.

I also spun up some more Malabrigo, this time combining two different colorways into what I’m calling Razzleberry Pie (thanks to a name from a friend who talked me through color choices). I’m currently spinning the rest of the purple to ply with a much brighter pink, and then I’ll experiment with my remainders to see what I can turn those into.

And lastly, I’m almost done knitting a Sizzle Pop out of yarn I indigo-dyed myself. This pattern is really intuitive and is definitely not as intimidating as it looked to start with, and I already know I’m going to make more of these. I love the subtle difference between the two blue shades.

I haven’t really sewn anything since I forced myself to make masks in March or April of last year, but I have been thinking (just thinking!) about pulling out some of my quilt pieces, or finally getting back to some garment sewing. We’ll see.

Time Doesn't Matter, Knitting Does

Well, it has been an amount of time (is this what I write every time I get around to writing a new blog post? Probably). I was thinking this morning about how, once I’ve missed a month of blogging, it’s so much easier to miss the next month, and then the next, and so on. In my defense, we had an election, some extra weird holidays, an insurrection, and a new president between now and the last time I posted. Also, I don’t write blog posts for you! (no offense. I write them for me.) I do enjoy a vaguely time-bound summary of activities that’s worded in ways other people might understand, though, and this helps me do that, so I’m going to catch up — probably in stages.

October

I enjoyed knitting the Sharon Show so much that I went straight into knitting the Secret Handshake. Have I blocked it since finishing it, now four months later? No. Did I still enjoy knitting this one? Absolutely.

October’s socks were the Asali Socks, by Dawn Landix, a pattern I knew I would love. I missed up one (1) row, but no one will notice but me so it doesn’t matter, and they’re so waffly and comfortable.

I also cross-stitched a mini Vintage Cabin by Junebug and Darlin. Did it take me another 4-6 weeks to do the backstitching? You bet it did. Did I put it in a frame and hang it on my wall immediately after finishing the backstitching? Yes I did.

November

I knit a Bandit sweater by Jacqueline Cieslak! I blocked it pretty much immediately, and then it waited for buttons for three months. Of course I still wore it — no one on Zoom knows that I didn’t trim my ends and that those things that might have been buttons were actually stitch markers — but I haven’t officially taken official photos for the official Instagram yet. I used some stash Madelinetosh that I already had but I also still preordered some of that Sugar Maple colorway from Little Skein in the Big Wool, because I have capital-P Plans to make a Plover Cardigan, so it’ll still be a Little Skein / Jacqueline Cieslak collab, just a little different.

My November socks were these excellent slippers, which I have probably worn the most out of all the socks I made this year — mostly because it’s still winter and my toes get cold.

I also spun yarn! I couldn’t resist getting this Extremely Fall Braid from Knitcraft & Knittery, and I spun it up pretty immediately. I also (spoiler alert) knit my very first project from my handspun out of this, and I love it.

December

I finished my twelfth pair of socks, one per month, for the entire year. This month I made up my own pattern again, and I’m pretty happy with the result. I am not holding myself to one-pair-of-socks-a-month in 2021 because I don’t feel like it, but I’ll probably knit a few pairs here and there.

I knit my brother a hat, once I remembered to ask him if he wanted one! I used a pattern I’ve knit before — Andrea Mowry’s Harlow Hat — and also managed to use leftover yarn, which means I can reward myself with buying more yarn, right? …right?

And I picked back up where I left on my Seven Wonders pullover, which I finished in January. I stopped knitting it near the end of 2019 because my wrist started bothering me (seed stitch is not my friend), and I very carefully decided it was time to keep going on this one. Sleeve Island with seed stitch and wonky wrists is rough, y’all.

The other thing I did in December was beat my all-time-high books-read-in-a-year-since-I-started-keeping-track record, which had been set at 104 in the year 2010. 2020’s count came in just over the top at 105, and I focused a little more on reading once I figured out I could actually beat that record. Do I remember everything I read? Absolutely not, my brain is too busy just trying to survive a global pandemic. But did I enjoy reading that many books, most of them lighthearted and relatively conflict-free, usually in bed? Yes I absolutely did. I haven’t set a specific goal for 2021 yet, but I’m not planning on beating that record anytime soon. 2021 is (maybe) for digging in to much meatier books, that take me weeks instead of days to finish.

I have more updates, especially spinning updates, but I’ll write about those later. Thanks for sticking around, friends.

September Roundup

Well, time continues to be a strange beast, but I’m somewhat reassured by having written a blog for August already, so I suppose it hasn’t been as long (and somehow still short) as I thought.

I spent most of the month finishing up my Sharon Show shawl, which I’m really pleased with and which was a really consistent bright point in my knitting. It was my first mystery knitalong, and while I usually opt out of MKALs because what if I don’t like how it turns out?, I’m super happy I made this one. It felt like I could just knit forever, and it was the perfect combination of mindless-yet-interesting-enough knitting.

I also knit my September Sock Squad socks, which I made up as I went along, and which I am very pleased with.

And at the beginning of the month, I also knit a Wave of Change Jacket by Denise Bayron using Earl Grey Fiber Co. As usual, I have not even blocked it yet, but someday I’ll get around to it and when that happens I will definitely post pictures.

I also spun up more Neighborhood Fiber Co and am absolutely, totally smitten with it. Still learning how to spin consistently, but this is so soft and the colors are so good, and I can’t wait to figure out what I’m going to make with it.

And…that’s all, folks. It’s been a weird month. It’s probably going to get weirder.

July & August Roundups (Rounds up?)

I realized I never posted about my July projects because I got distracted by Ravelry’s shenanigans and time continues to be a black hole with no end, so here’s my summary of my last couple months of crafting.

July

I cross-stitched this Books Sweet Books from Junebug and Darlin for a friend’s birthday. It was really fun, and I love taking pictures of the backs of my cross-stitch too. I recently bought her Maker kit but am very intimidated by it, so I haven’t started any cross-stitch projects since I finished this one, although I finally soaked and framed my Be Bold project.

For July’s socks, I made the Red Robin Socks by Helen Stewart/Curious Handmade.

I also test-knit the delightful Audacity Shawl from Transmutation Knits out of this silk-linen-alpaca blend that is just dreamy. Liam’s patterns are always really satisfying to make and have such great stories behind them, and this one was no exception.

August

I started my first mystery knit-a-long, The Sharon Show by Casapinka (er, I mean, by Sharon, of course). I’m trying to knit more from my stash, so for this one I went stash diving and came up with a pretty good combo. For a first-time MKAL, it’s been very enjoyable, even though I haven’t been participating online and am just knitting along quietly by myself.

For August’s socks, I didn’t use my FDF yarn (yet!), because I really wanted to knit up this self-striping rainbow yarn from Valkyrie Fibers. Like I said on Instagram, I’m not always a self-striping person but I might just be a convert for Lauren’s colors. I made this one up myself by cobbling together a bunch of different patterns that I liked.

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I also spun up this Wensleydale/Lincoln blend and plied it together. I had some left over after plying, so I used up the remainder of a previous spin for a little contrast skein. I think I can squeeze a pair of socks out of these, so it’s going into my eternal knitting queue.

Other than that, the world is still very weird and mostly terrible. I’m still trying to find joy in smaller things and not let myself get overwhelmed. I’m still trying to make a difference, one day at a time.

April, May, June...

Time is no longer real, and now the year is half over and I haven’t kept track of anything here in three months!

I’ve been working from home since the end of February, and I’m extremely privileged to be able to do so. It’s been a quiet few months because I haven’t been going anywhere, but it’s also been an intense few months because of everything that’s been going on. I didn’t get that boost of productivity that some of the internet seemed to get at the beginning of the quarantine, but I have been plugging away at a few projects.

A caveat: I am still linking to Ravelry projects and users, though I’m aware of the accessibility issues with Ravelry’s new interface. If you have trouble with the new site, please be careful when clicking these links. Until a suitable replacement is made, I will still be using Ravelry for some things, though I’m transitioning other bits away. Stay turned for a deeper dive into what I’m working on for that.

April

I’ve kept up knitting one pair of socks per month from my Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Sock Squad yarn. April’s was a delightful bright yellow that I’ve been wearing when I need cheering up, or when the mornings are chilly.

I finished my Lizzie Shawl by Susanne Sommer and love, love, love the way the colors work together. I used a kit from TréLiz in colors Sealskin and Careless Whisper.

I started working on the teeniest tiniest project I have ever made (and probably will ever make): a shawl using laceweight yarn on size 00 (1.75 mm) needles. I swatched many different things before finally settling on a heavily modified Peach Tree Shawl by Sylvia McFadden — heavily modified because Sylvia’s pattern uses DK yarn! It may take me an entire year to finish, but in the end I think it’s going to work out really well.

I didn’t sew much in April — I made a couple of masks, but everything else felt like too much.

May

I got a little bit of my sewing mojo back in May — I pieced together some Ace & Jig scraps that I had lying around the house. I’d like to make a quilt and once I pieced together what I had, I did some quick math and figured out that I needed a few more scraps to make something lap-sized, so now I have a lot of half-square triangles waiting for more A&J scraps to turn into a larger quilt.

It was #MeMadeMay and I had a very low-key celebration of occasionally wearing clothes I made, and mostly continuing to wear comfortable lounge clothes.

I finished another Junebug and Darlin cross stitch, and despite my best intentions it’s still sitting on the TV table waiting for me to soak it and stretch it out.

My May Sock Squad socks were this lovely tweedy purple, and I picked this pattern (Astrantia by Helen Stewart) because it had enough interest at the beginning but then turned into plain vanilla once you got past the heel.

I kept working on my teeny tiny Peach Trees shawl — so much so that when I switched back to sock needles (a very small US 1.5 / 2.5 mm) I was shocked by how big they felt in my hands.

And I also bought an Electric Eel Wheel Nano, a small portable spinning wheel. I noticed a few people post about it on Instagram, and it was at a size- and price-point that I was comfortable with, and friends — I love it. I spun up the rest of my practice roving, immediately ordered more from a local farm, and then quickly ordered even more fiber, this time from Neighborhood Fiber Co. Now I just have to balance my spinning with my yarn stash, which keeps growing even though I tell myself I have enough yarn.

June

I spun up this braid of Polwarth from Neighborhood Fiber Co. and then plied it, and I am in love with the colors it made. The Nano wheel has small bobbins, so I wound up with several small skeins (40g or less), which is fine for a beginner (that’s me), but I can also see myself wanting to be able to spin more on a bigger bobbin. But the whole point of buying the Nano was to try a small electric spinning wheel, and by that criteria, I’ve been extremely successful.

June’s Sock Squad socks were the Lyne socks by Dawn Henderson, who writes such gorgeous patterns. I love these shortie socks and may just make lots of shortie socks for the rest of the year, but we’ll see where the wind takes me on that front.

I kept knitting my teeny tiny Peach Trees, and I also started a test knit for Transmutation Knits using this soft and shiny purple Linen-Alpaca blend.

Phew! Are you tired? Because I’m tired. And I haven’t even talked about the important stuff like the momentum in the Black Lives Matter movement and how the pandemic has laid bare the hideousness of capitalism and the way I see crafting as inextricably linked to our liberation. I’m not as good at writing about that stuff anymore, but I’m working on it.

March Roundup

Well, what a weird month March has been, huh? I have been working remotely the entire month — first because I caught a cold from my mom during my visit to Colorado, and then because the whole country has been slowly shutting down to contain COVID-19, starting with Seattle. Somehow the month has whizzed by as I’ve adjusted to sleeping in later (!), getting into a work-from-home groove, and trying to decide if upping my coffee intake has been a good idea or a great idea.

In terms of projects: I hemmed and put buttons on my black wool Estuary skirt and wore it exactly one time before social distancing kicked in. I finished my Brontë Sister Shawl, I knit my March Sock Squad Socks, and I (finally) started my Lizzie Shawl, which I may or may not finish later today.

I love the way my Brontë Sister Shawl by Lindsey Fowler turned out. I used three of Junkyarn’s Little Women colors: Marmee, Beth, and Louisa.

March Socks: Brioche Toe-Up Socks by Lavanya Patricella. As I said on Instagram, I’m really glad I didn’t have to knit these on the bus, because two-at-a-time two-color brioche socks are not for the faint of heart. Luckily I just knit these on my couch, where I could untangle the yarn after each row to my heart’s content.

I’m very close to being done with my Lizzie Shawl by Susanne Sommer, using a kit I preordered from TréLiz in October. I have one pattern repeat left and then the giant icord bind-off, so if I don’t finish it tonight I’m betting I’ll get to it tomorrow. I am so in love with the way these two colors knit up together, and this yarn is a dream.

I’ve also been learning how to spin! I bought a drop spindle and some roving and am slowly getting used to the way fiber feels and how it spins up. It’ll definitely take me a while to improve, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is how learning something new works.

Outfits: I’m going to be honest here, there were about three days this month where I put on “real” clothes, although one of them was the day I wore my new Estuary Skirt.

Up next: I need to pick a pattern for my April socks. I might start on my Indira using Ocean By The Sea’s yarn, I might (slowly) pick back up where I left off on my Seven Wonders sweater, or I might finally knit the Ursa Sweater I’ve been planning with a delightful colorway from Earl Grey Fiber Company.

February Roundup

February was a relatively unsurprising month, and went so much faster than January. I made great progress on my Brontë Sister Shawl, I almost finished knitting that bulky weight scarf for my coworker, and I knit my February Sock Squad socks. I also sewed most of my black wool Estuary Skirt (!) and just have the buttons and the bottom hem left.

February Socks: Winter Rose Socks by Helen Stewart. This month’s yarn was a merino/cashmere mix, and I wanted something delicate but cozy to go along with it. My new bar for sock knitting patterns is “can I memorize it fast enough to knit on the bus?” and the answer to this one was absolutely yes, I can.

Outfits, there were 14 days where I wore at least one thing I made. Most popular: my Dusk Light Shawl, my Trelawney Scarf, my Rose Cardigan, and my clay Estuary Skirt. I’ve also been wearing my knitted socks more, but I don’t keep track of those in the same way.

Up next: This morning I started on my March Sock Squad Socks — I’m making a three-color Brioche Toe-Up Socks by Lavanya Patricella. It’s possible that I’ll finish my Bronte Sisters Shawl this month, or I may start on something else on my list. It’s interesting how I used to be such a project monogamist but am really leaning in to having several projects on my needles to switch things up.

January Roundup

I don’t know about you, but January felt like an eternity, and I’m so glad it’s over. February isn’t much better weather-wise in Seattle, but at least it’s not January, and I get to visit my nephews at the end of the month. This month, I finally finished the top ribbing on a pair of socks that I’d started in October but had to pause for a month or so while waiting for my wrist to be less mad at me, I knit a pair of socks out of my Farmer’s Daughter Fibers January Sock Squad, and I finished my Dusk Light shawl by Sylvia McFadden. I didn’t sew anything, which feels appropriate for how January felt.

Dusk Light: Used two skeins of Arby’s by Valkyrie Fibers in the most luminous, amazing purple. In the days since I blocked it, I’ve worn it about 90% of the time.

Kia Socks by Dawn Henderson: Used Grab the Bull By The Horns by the Farmer’s Daughter Fibers sock squad for January. 10/10 for both yarn and pattern.

For outfits, there were 13 days I wore at least one thing I made myself. I’m figuring out how I want to do this section, but I do want to keep better track of how and when I wear my me-mades, and in what types of outfits. For now, it may just be a monthly number.

As for new projects, I started a Brontë Sisters Shawl using three of Junkyarn’s Little Women colors, and I finally started a bulky cowl I promised my coworker I’d make her. Today I’ll probably cast on my February socks so that I can get started on them on the bus tomorrow.