Postage Valentine's Day Cards

 I am really enjoying the Waffle Flower postage dies, stencils, and stamps.  They seem to be releasing different versions seasonally.

I used the Rose Stencil set and the Love stamps for several Valentines Day cards.







Currently

Current View

Current Bullet Journal Palette

Current knitting
Notice how the color is changing? Cool


Reflecting Pool Scarf

 


Another finished scarf.  This one was knit with Malabrigo Rios Yarn in the color Reflecting Pool.  I'm not sure where I bought it. It's very nice! I used about 1.5 skeins.

The needle size was US 7, and it is knit in the Yarn Harlot's one row pattern (cast on a multiple of four +2, knit two, knit one through back loop, purl and repeat until there are two stitches left - knit those.

I finished in January of 2024.  It was mainly knit in movies because it's an easy pattern to knit in the dark. I'm not sure when I started it, but it was after the Quince scarf, which was after the stacking, not stacking cowl.  

Here's the weird thing.  I have two more skeins of this yarn.  Did I buy it twice? I think I must have.  What will I do with the other two skeins?  I don't need another scarf made out of this yarn, as much as I like it.

Another post about this scarf

On my needles

 In this post, I talked about yarn I have that is "in the wings," waiting to be knitted.  This was one of them:


It's Roll the Dice yarn from Sin City  Yarns.  I'm knitting a cowl that the yarn store suggested (free pattern). You cast on 103 stitches on a 24 inch needle (size 7 for me), and then knit 4 and purl 4, repeatedly.  


I'm not sure if you can see it in the image, but the stitch pattern creates diagonal ridges of yarn that swirl around the cowl - cool.  Also, can you see in the first image that the yarn is lighter toward the middle and gets darker on the outside?  The cowl is following that color pattern.

It takes more concentration that I anticipated, but I do like it, and am enjoying the knitting.  I'm anxious to see it when it is finished.

Quince Scarf


How about another finished object.  This one was in a drawer, completely knitted, without the end woven in.  I mean, who does that?  Me, apparently.

This scarf is knit with this yarn.   It's Quince & Company's Osprey yarn.  It's a heavy (aran) weight wool, and the color is Aleutian.  I bought it at Kanawha City Yarn Company.

I knit the scarf with either US size 8 or 9 needles.  My notes say it is knit with the Yarn Harlot's one row "pattern," but it looks like farrow rib to me, so I'm not sure.  

How long did it take me to knit it?  Well, at the end of 2021, the yarn was still wound, and I hadn't started.  Even though I'm counting it as a finished object in 2024 since that is when I wove in the ends, I don't know when I finished the body of the knitting.

Really, I need to keep better notes.

It is soft and squishy, and I like it. 

Blue Striped Socks


I seem to be a finishing mood, picking up projects and completing them. At least one of them, so far. But I have more plans.

I finished a pair of socks this weekend. The yarn is Berroco Sox, color 1477. (Kingston). The color doesn't seem to be on the Berroco web page, and it's no wonder.  These have been on needles forever. Today I found a note about these socks that I made on February 1, 2014, so I've been knitting them since before then.

The socks are knit with the Yarn Harlot's vanilla sock yarn pattern from Knitting Rules.  I knit them with a pair of Signature Needle Arts double pointed needles, sized 1.  A side note - I'm not sure I've ever mentioned this, but I have two pairs of double pointed needled from this company (which is now closing).  They were very expensive, and feel wonderfully luxurious, but I don't like to knit with them.  I prefer my wooden needles.  

The yarn is self striping, and I find that very fun and amusing, as the stripes appear as I knit regular stockinette.  

I have no idea when I started these socks (other than it was before 2014).  I know I did a lot of work on the second sock in early 2020, because I posted pictures in my Instagram account.  Apparently, I can't knit socks during a pandemic, because I think they languished on the needles until I picked them up this weekend with on the toe (and a little of the foot) to knit. 

The problem is that I didn't make any notes about the numbers I used when knitting.  I ended up with not only fraternal socks (the stripes do not match up), but also socks of two different sizes.  I used two different numbers of stitches to start the socks.  By a lot. 


See the difference in width?  Oh, well.  They still work as socks, and are warm.  The toes are kind of pointy, though.  Poor things.


Sock Christmas Ornaments

 When we were in Las Vegas last fall, we made a stop at Sin City Knit Shop.  It's a great shop - I recommend it.   I bought this yarn:


It's from Socker Mom Fibers (I had already wound two of the tiny skeins).  Each one was about 5 grams of yarn or 27 yards, I think (or close to that).  The pattern is also from Socker Mom, and it is for tiny Christmas tree ornaments shaped like socks.  They had a little tree decorated with them.  They also had a kit for a garland made of tiny socks.  Adorable. 


I loved the yarn.  It was slightly overdyed, so there was a variation in color.  In the image, you can see it best in the green.  I knit the socks with size 0 needles.  Tiny.  The hanger is created with a crochet chain stitch - hook size D.  

I ran out of the house on the way to leave for the weekend with the yarn, pattern, and needles, but no other notions.  I had to go to a craft store and pick up darning needles and a crochet hook to finish the socks as they flew off the knitting needles.  Not at all prepared. 

As you can tell, I knit them on the road - we took a weekend trip right before New Year's Eve.  They knit up SO FAST.  Well, compared to a normal sized sock, anyway.

The pattern was clear. It used what it called a shadow heel (which I've never heard of). The shadow heel used stitches called TWK (twin knit stitch) and TWP (twin pearl stitches).  I did have an issue with these stitches - maybe it was the yarn or the needles, but there was some splitting of the yarn.  Also, it was sometimes difficult to figure out (for me) how to create the stitch in the leg of the stitch directly below.  Lots of transferring of stitches from one needle to the other.  It did result in socks, though.



The kit was designed to knit three socks, I think, but after I finished one of each color, it seemed like there was enough yarn to go again, so I did.  Six stock ornaments altogether. 


And the leftover blue yarn?


I had more yarn leftover of the other colors, but not much of the red and green. Still - good use of yarn! And fun knitting. 



Yarn-in-waiting

 In the spirit of keeping a better record of the yarn I purchased (and have not yet used)....

This pink and black yarn is from Fibre Space, a lovely yarn store in Alexandria, Virginia.  The yarn is from Neighborhood Fiber Company - it is Studio Worsted in the colorway Dupont Circle.  Charmingly, their yarn colors are named after area neighborhoods.  This scarf from 2012, was knit with colorway Georgetown.

While I was at Fibre Space, I also purchased these scissors.  After my purchase, the store clerks helpfully wound my yarn while Steve and I sat outside in their lovely green space.  The packaged everything in the canvas bag under the scissors.  Visit this store if you get a chance.  Love it.

I purchased this yarn at Sin City Yarn Shop in Henderson (or Las Vegas), Nevada in 2022.  No, I haven't made anything with it yet.  The company is Sin City Yarn and Roll the Dice is the name of the yarn.  As far as I can see, there isn't a colorway on the tag.  Pretty, isn't it?

So, that was my 2022 yarn purchase from our visit with Josh.  We also went to Henderson (which is right next to Las Vegas) in 2023, and I purchased this:

This is Socker Mom Fibers Ornament Set (I also bought a pattern).  It contains four 5 gram skeins of yarn in red, green, blue, and cream.  In my next post, I'll show you what I've made with it. It's lovely, soft yarn - superwash merino with 25% nylon.

One last yarn purchase.  This is black wool and a rainbow roving that I purchased (online - this is not souvenir yarn) to make thrummed mittens.  Notice I wrote "to make."  This is how the wool looked yesterday, and continues to look. It's lovely, but I haven't knit with it yet.  I follow the Yarn Harlot on Patreon - which I very much enjoy.  She did a knit along for these thrummed mittens.  It sounded like fun, so I ordered the yarn from River City Yarns in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  (Note that River City Yarns is no longer selling yarn - looks like great classes, though).  The black Yarn is River City Yarns Epic yarn.  I purchased the roving from River City Yarns, but it is from Fleeceartist.com . It is Merino Silver in the colorway Hibiscus.  Their yarns look wonderful (as a browse the site) - seems like a great place to purchase yarn (not just roving).  Will I ever knit the thrummed mittens?  I don't know. 

By the way, if you want to know what thrumming is, it is apparently a Canadian thing.  You can learn more here.