FO's and WIPs*

Woah. A month. That was a little bit longer absence than I was planning. But I have to tell you- June was absolutely CHAOS. With our house still being rennovated it was hard to do anything. Then, the day after the renno's were done we packed our bags and went to Italy for two weeks- and well, I didn't feel right announcing that on the blog so unfortunately regular posting here just kind of went sideways.

The good news is that I'm still a knitter- and now that my house is back in a state of where I can function, I anticipate this to be a very progress focused summer! So let's just dive right in and I will tell you what exactly is going on! (Brace yourselves, this is going to be long!)

First up- Some finished stuff to show you!

You may remember before I left I mentioned that I had finished the Pointelle socks but was unable to block them. My very sweet MiL stepped in and saved the day, and kindly finished them for me! (Now I need to figure out a way to get her to weave in my ends ;-0)

Pattern: Pointelle by Cookie A from her "Knit, Sock, Love" book.

Yarn: Madelintosh Tosh Sock in "Window Pane"

Needles: US 1.5 dpn's

Thoughts: This pattern was actually a pretty easy pattern to knit once you got into it. Don't let the charts scare you! The only thing I wish was that I went up to a US size 2 since the cuff is a little tight. I need to remember with Cookie socks, I tend to knit them fairly tightly and need to allow for that. I should also note that the Madelintosh was pretty swoon worthy to knit with- it just jumped around my needles so gracefully!

I also completed the easy peasy rainbow socks while on my trip to Italy!

Pattern: A Sock Recipe: A Good Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee from "Knitting Rules"

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in "Rainbow"

Needles: US 1.5

Reading: (I've really lost track of what I have and haven't read in all this) "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin and "The Chosen One" by Carol Lynch Williams. The Chosen One was especially fantastic and a great audio read- I highly recommend!

Thoughts: I love self striping yarn, that's no secret. This Knit Picks stuff is AWESOME. I would absolutely knit with it again. I did take special care to ensure the stripes were all the same size, which means I actually added more ends to weave (I apparently like pain) by cutting in longer sections after the heel, where the stripes tend to get smaller with the added number of stitches to decrease, but it was well worth the effort. I am very pleased with these!

I hope my sister likes 'em as much as I do- they're for her!

I even managed to squeeze out a June hat when I got home so that I'd stay on track for my one hat a month commitment!

That's not all! I also have stuff that I'm working on again too! (It's amazing how quickly your desire to knit returns when your house isn't in a mass state of chaos!) Yesterday I picked up something I had begun back in May, but just couldn't seem to wrap my head around it with everything going on.

It's the Welsh Blanket by Debbie Bliss- and I had originally intended to knit this as my Stampede submission this year, but I just couldn't get on it and get it done. I'm actually pretty meloncholy that I don't I have any entries in Stampede this year, but I've really struggled getting projects done this year and I just couldn't get something I deemed worthy to enter.

That leads me into telling you about another work in progress I have going on right now. I apologize blog land but I haven't been entirely honest with you. Yes- my mojo died this spring- but for good reason. Instead of coming home and knitting like a demon after work and enjoying my time, I was coming home and sleeping. A LOT. That's because I was making this....

... and that made me tired and just sucked the motivation out of me. Yup! I'm pregnant! Now that the announcement is official and I am well into my 2nd trimester (21 weeks this week, over half way) and not needing long naps to function, I'm finding the mojo is BACK and the desire to knit this little bambino something is great! I'm due on November 9th, (MiL's birthday- look how well I planned that!?!) and aside from the all encompassing sleepiness, I've felt really good. (No morning sickness... feel free to send me hate mail!)

So yes- there's a LOT going on here these days. I will hopefully post some renno "after" photos here in a while, but for now- just know I'm back... I'm knitting and there shouldn't be any more long blog pauses like that for awhile!

I will be back... SOON!

*For those of your unfamiliar with the "knitting community vernacular a FO= Finished Object and WIP= Work in Progress*