[FINISHED] Shell Cottage Socks

As best laid plans are wont to do, my Dotted Rays bind-off didn’t go down the way the pattern said it would and I ended up digging into my stash for a fourth hank of HedgeHog Fibres “Birthday Cake” to finish the i-cord edging. It was a different twist and several years old so not a perfect match, but it got the job done and the only people who will notice are psychopaths and people who read my blog.

Of course, a whole lot of yarn went unused, so I had plenty left over for a full pair of socks (not that I’m complaining). I typically get sick to death of certain colorways by the time I’m done with something, but I think I could have knit with this one forever. It’s stunning.

I didn’t want to make vanilla socks this time and instead opted for an easy pattern repeat designed by Helen Stewart from Curious Handmade. If you haven’t checked out her patterns before, you absolutely should. Each row is written as its own cell as part of a table so you can easily keep track of your progress and your percent complete. I know that the advent of KnitCompanion has made tracking charts much easier, but Helen has saved my butt with her patterns more than a few times now, so I’d highly recommend them.

It also gave me the opportunity to knit the Eye of Partridge heel, which I hadn’t made in a long time. I’d switched to the infamous Fish Lips Kiss heel many moons ago and didn’t start looking back until last summer after realizing a standard slip stitch heel is so much sturdier and long-lasting than so many of the short row heels. So I’m back on the square heel wagon, I guess, and not ashamed.

Project Info

• Pattern: Shell Cottage Socks by Helen Stewart

• Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Twist Sock

• Colorway: Birthday Cake

PS: If you love this design from Helen, then you might want to check out the next issue of Knitability, due to hit the Bakery Bears Patreon before the end of the month!

[FINISHED] Dark Phoenix

If you’ve been following me on Instagram lately (or had access to my craft room to see my full stash), you’ll know that I’m going through a huge minis phase. And by that, I mean I can’t stop buying themed mini skeins from my favorite dyers, despite being at a loss of what to do with them.

Lucky for me, everyone else has been going through a similar phase, probably thanks to a plethora of yarn advent calendars making their ways into the wild; heck, I even bought Halloween and New Year’s themed kits. That means more and more patterns geared toward minis are also crawling out of the woodwork.

So it should come as no surprise that - during another bout of insomnia that resulting in a middle-of-the-night browse through Instagram - I stumbled upon the Blooming Bouganvillea minis from Emma’s Yarn and needed to give them a go. Firstly, because Emma’s Yarn is always because… I mean… look at all the pink.

However, I went through a short-lived phase where I promised myself I wouldn’t buy yarn unless I had a pattern lined up for it (insert maniacal cackling here), so I did a little Ravelry research before pulling the trigger. That’s how I found Dark Phoenix by Tamy Gore, which is a wonderful smaller pieces that mixes garter, basic lace, and single-color brioche, switching your fade colors at the beginning of each section for an effect that’s - as most fades are - chef’s kiss.

This will be a fun fall accessory to bring on our honeymoon (okay, I’m bringing all my knits on our honeymoon, but that’s fine) and will last all through fall, winter, and even early spring. It’s super wearable and simply lovely, so 10/10 would recommend!

Project Details

• Pattern: Dark Phoenix by Tamy Gore

• Yarn: Emma’s Yarn, Practically Perfect Smalls

• Colorway: Blooming Bouganvillea

I’ve got a lot of projects I need to update you about, but I’m feeling so behind with all things work, wedding, and Knitability editing (you’re going to be really happy with the next few issues, though, so it’s worth it)! I might try to take a few minutes here and there to write a few blogs when I need a brain break, as I’m wont to need lately, but I’ve been defaulting to knitting, cross stitching Christmas gifts, and reading my spooky season books lineup that features a lot of Stephen King.

I do have loads of new Halloween yarn, though, and I’m nearly done with a Weekender sweater and matching Jack & Sally socks for Scott and me that we can sport in Asheville. Needless to say, I’ve got a lot on my plate and I’m clearly avoiding it by casting on all the things. More to come soon!

[FINISHED] Cthulhu Cross Stitch

Last Christmas, I gave Scott this Cthulhu cross stitch kit that I purchased from Spot Your Colors on Etsy. It may have taken a full seven months, but I finally sat down this week to wrap up our little green baby.

The hardest part, as with most cross stitch projects, was placing the outline correctly. Once that was down and I was confident everything lined up, it was really just filling the whole thing with green. Although that made for great mindless stitching, it also made for huge boredom, and I feel like I’m at a point with cross stitch where I’m not sure if I want to work on more complicated projects or something more simple. The complicated projects get frustrating because I have to keep stopping and starting all the colors, and the easy projects are - to put it bluntly - boring AF.

I still enjoy stitching, so I guess it’s only a matter of time before I figure out which type of project I prefer and hopefully get fast enough that changing colors frequently doesn’t irritate me. I mean, I don’t really have a choice since I just spent $300+ on a supersized HAED that will take me ten years to stitch, and that’s if I’m lucky.

I have about 40 more cross stitch projects on deck for the rest of the year, including a Stitch People wedding motif that I want to hang up at our reception, so we’ll see how far I get in the next few months. Life has been a little nutty, but in a good way. We’ve got all the boxes from my move in March cleaned out and put away (or shoved into the attic), so we’ve started hosting game nights with our vaccinated friends again and it’s been glorious. I know we’re not out of the woods yet thanks mostly to jackwagons who don’t believe in 20 years of mRNA science, but what little normalcy we’ve returned to has been nice. So with getting out of the house more and switching jobs and just overall trying not to be locked in our house, I have little confidence I’ll be stitching much, but wish me luck!

[FINISHED] Dotted Rays

After what seems like eternity (but was really only four months), I’m proud to announce I’ve finished the slog that was my Dotted Rays shawl.

It doesn’t help that I chose the largest size possible and I’m neither a monogamous knitter nor crafter, but I’m excited with how it turned out (and I’m also excited for it to be done, not gonna lie).

This latest mamma jamma followed us everywhere we went for its lifespan because it was amazing potato chip knitting, perfect for spending long periods of time in the car or at breweries (as we’re wont to do on weekends). I mostly stick to vanilla socks for that purpose, so it’s rare you’ll see my lugging around a massive project bag like I did for this big boy, but it truly was a great portable knit that I can highly recommend for any of your upcoming travels.

What I didn’t like? The literally endless garter stitch. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that football fields of garter stitch can lull me to sleep so it’s easy to lose interest in whatever I’m working on before too long. In this case, however, the short rows held my interest just enough to not give up. The shawl is fairly plain with the exception of those short rows (and the two rows following), so it could have been easy to slip into pure boredom - and honestly, I think I was getting to that point. As with most Stephen West shawls, it was so big that it would take 20-30 minutes to knit 1.5 rows and I was thisclose to losing my mind.

BUT! It turned out so well and is perfect for showing off your favorite speckled yarn. I chose this yarn (Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Birthday Cake) specifically because I loved the multi-colored speckles, so the pattern really allowed the yarn to lean into itself. I’m looking forward to cooler weather because a) climate change is starting to freak me out and the wildfires out west are making our local AQI pretty awful and I feel sick all the time but that’s a tangent we don’t need to get into and b) I’ll be able to wear this with a denim jacket and boots and maybe an appropriately-colored flannel.

Yup, I’m basic, but we knew that.

Project Information:

• Pattern: Dotted Rays

• Designer: Stephen West

• Yarn: Hedgehog FIbres Sock

• Colorway: Birthday Cake

[FINISHED] Leafy Baby Blanket

Two weekends ago, Scott’s mom asked if I’d be interested in knitting a blanket for someone in their family who was having their first baby. I immediately took to Ravelry, found this Leafy Baby Blanket pattern, and took off to Michael’s to find appropriate yarn.

Now, I’m never a huge fan of acrylic, but I tend to use it for blankets because it’s easy to care for. Especially if you’re a new parent, there’s nothing more annoying than having to delicately hand-wash something that’s frequently used just because it contains natural fibers that will felt and shrink at the mere sight of a stain. But I will say that the yarn I used (Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly) was pretty good for an acrylic and softened up a ton after running it through the wash for some light blocking. I might still try to relax the fabric a bit more by taking my steamer to it, but there’s only so much you can do with yarn that doesn’t have any memory.

The pattern is easily adjusted to multiple sizes as long as you can do basic math. For this project, I chose a newborn size because having blankets in a crib with a newborn isn’t just straight-up not recommended, but terrifies the bejeebus out of me, so I figured it can be used in a carrier or stroller instead of being hung on display or stored away until the kid is old enough to cling to it responsibly.

I used two strands of the yarn to encourage drape, which was recommended by the pattern, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fiddle around with using two ends of a ball or yarn or having to lug around two of them. I sucked it up, though, and I’m glad it did, as it drapes beautifully and will look great whether it’s hanging out on the back of a rocking chair or keeping baby warm.

Of course, my least favorite part of making blankets (other than the fact they can be huge and boring) is that the bind off usually ends up being too tight. I made sure to bind off in seed stitch, which helped make it a bit stretchier so the blanket maintains the same width at the top and bottom.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out. It was interesting enough that I didn’t put it down and forget about it after three years, as is my normal process when asked to make a blanket, but easy enough that you could memorize each row without much issues or needing to stare at the pattern.

That said, this project is what made me finally download KnitCompanion, and I’m glad I did. I was able to easily mark off where I was on the chart and I’ve since started using it for non-charted projects and have quickly marked my place without needing to print something out. If you’ve been looking for a project tracker/knitting app that has multiple stitch/row counters and helps you keep your place, then KnitCompanion comes highly recommended by me.

All in all, this puppy took me a week to knit and I’m not mad about it. I needed a break from my Dotted Rays, which is boring me to death with endless rows of garter stitch, so this was a perfect distraction! I may or may not have also been putting off lots of wedding planning because every day, 400 more things pop up and I need a mental vacation!