This regia hand-dyed sock wip has been in the time-out pile (as its only resident) for over a year and a half. Now that I've finished my last sock project, this might be the time to give this one another chance and see it through to finish.
I have some frustration to look forward too with this stupid yarn, but the final result is guaranteed to be absolutely beautiful. So here goes.
So Lassie is finally finished! It was actually finished months ago, but I took my sweet time to get around to posting about it. This pair needed some time to be off the needles, but it turned out alright.
pattern : Lassie by Jennifer Beever
yarn : Patons North America Kroy Socks in Flax
needle : US 1 [2.25mm]
size : 9.5
Solids were definitely the right choice for a project with a pattern that's this busy. I'm glad I went for the Kroy SockFX in Flax.
It took a sock project to be a little more certain of it but, yeah. I'm probably not a lace knitter. Cables though? That's a kind of work that feels like it really pays off in the end, and with notably less fuss when it comes to blocking (I'm not even speaking as someone who had to deal with something like a wedding shawl either, just a mostly-stockinette sock)!
A NaKniSweMo project is underway currently, I'll post a little about it soon.
The Lass socks are still happening. I thiiink I might not be much of a lace person right now, as I'm a little too nonchalant to make sure the pattern's made as intended. It's just too comforting a think to know that the sock will still be perfectly wearable, even if a yarn-over is off by a couple stitches, or some diamonds don't line up perfectly.
Blanket update! GD's been growing quite a bit! They're at 30cm now (about 12in). I've run out of worsted yarn, so the smaller quantities of fingering weight have been held double for some of the more recent stripes. I've been making a lot of works for shop for the sole purpose of using the leftover yarn in the blanket, so many things are in stock and ready to ship when ordered!
If you have any yarn scraps (anywhere between 1-25m) sitting around your home that you want to get rid of, don’t hesitate to let me know! I’d be happy to repay the cost of postage to you as thanks. At the rate I’m knitting regular projects with my tiny stash, this blanket might not be done for another...decade, so I’d love to help take care of your yarn stash too! Acrylics are preferred but I won’t say no to animal fibers or wool-blends. GD’s already a healthy mix of both so I won’t mind at all. Just no cotton please!
Speaking of stash yarn, I went out and bought a pair of skeins for my first shawl pattern. I’ve been thinking a lot about which yarn to use for a shawl I intend to wear often, and while the fine wools at our LYS’s would be a joy to knit, dryer-ability would have to be the key for me. Heartland seemed like the best bet for now. I’m planning to use the Stingray pattern by Evan Plevinski. This pattern's been sitting in my queue for months now and am excited to start on this once Lassie’s finished (let’s just disregard the existence of my Regia Handpainted sock for now…I'm still trying to forgive its frustrating splitty yarn after all this time).
So this concludes my personal knitting update for now. It has really been one hell of a stashbusting month for me. I’ve been piling up some charity knits from the more obnoxious looking yarns people have been donating to me over time, expect a update about those once I’ve successfully eliminated that stash.
Yep, still stash-busting that inherited yarn. On Friday, I decided to finally learn to crochet something more than a simple slip-stitch border. I learned about single crochet by name, took to Youtube, and got right to it. After figuring out single crochet I wondered if there was such a thing as double crochet and repeated the process with another skein of my ugliest yarn. Come this afternoon, I'm well on my way to completing a big ol' crocheted circle/hexagon. Thanks Youtube! And thanks most of all to the kind crafters who took the time to make such clear instructional videos!
These massive swatches (well the rectangular ones anyway) measure something like 15" across each side, which happens to be great for a shelter cat or small dog. The lovely Rokoknits commented on my post about this on Instagram suggesting I look into a local shelter that would appreciate this donation, and I think it's just what I'll do. Thankfully cats don't really care about what color their blankies are so I'll have no qualms about donating such garish colors.
What you see here is my stash of 'free' yarn--that is, yarn that isn't attached to a project or plan of any kind.Those tinier wads of yarn on the very left are all cottons, which i'll go ahead and make into a washcloth for personal use. The bright pink cake at the top was given to me without a label so I'm unsure of what exactly it is. It might be Lion Brand sock-ease? If I don't suck it up and make some plain stockinette socks, they might just end up being crocheted held double in another little cat blanket or something.
It's really pleasing for me to have a system put together to handle the yarn stash. The once untouchable pastel acrylics are going to a good cause, the cottons will soon go to good use around the house, and any scraps left over from shop or personal projects will be food for GD.
The fantastic and creative Marie of Frogged Designs made it very easy to choose what to do with my sock-yarn scraps, so I'm just letting that small stash grow for my very own Operation: Sock Yarn. STASH-BUSTING! ~ For those who are curious: I used this tutorial by theknitwitch to learn single crochet, and this tutorial by Andrea Lemire to learn double. This page on The Purl Bee helped me figure out circular crochet, so I recommend it.