Snow Plowed

Hey.... weren't you grinding away at the knitting and promising progress?  Yes.  Yes I was.  But then the snow in the mountains was apparently "epic" so we got sidetracked with a last minute ski trip....

(It WAS good snow... and good skiing.. and I'm pretty sure nothing can compete with those views!)

The good news is, despite this little longer than planned blog break, I DO have progress to show you!  A third heart blanket it in the "finished pile" now!

Pattern: Baby Heart Blanket by Deborah O'Leary
Yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in "white" and "pastel pink"
Needles: US 9
Notes:  I decided to do all hearts this time and I really like how it turned out.  I. STILL. HAVE. MORE. of this stuff.  I'm not sure it's enough for an entire blanket but I'll try and use that up at some point this year.  Feels good to at least be CLOSE to a finish line on these giant balls of yarn.  I will say this... those balls have yardage for DAYS.

I also managed to hone in on some sock progress and have even started #2!

AND... the great news is that the weather is warming up... meaning the snow in the mountains isn't all that great anymore.  Less time devoted to skiing means MORE time devoted to knitting... so things are looking up!  Either way there should be more to show and say soon!  Stay tuned!

☘ Top 'O the Knitting Day to Yah... ☘

I'm not all that Irish.  Can you tell?

In honor of Saint Patrick's day, I made some rainbow cookies.  (Totally unrelated to knitting but it's crafty and I'm proud of these so I have to show 'em off somewhere!)

March has moved along quickly, and so have my projects.  While I'm not done, I certainly can see some progress being made.

The blanket is creeeeeeeeping towards the finish line.

 I've sort of reached that "meh" point where I don't really want to be knitting on it anymore.  I'm hoping to just go all out this weekend and get it off the needles so my brain can do something new.

The sock is still delighting me enormously.

I love the colors (and the pattern for that matter) and they just make me happy to work on.  I've been purposefully getting to Parker's school early just so I have more time to knit on them.  I'd really love to have these finished up by the end of March just to feel like I've gotten some things done.

I'm still considering the sweater.  I still love it- but I need to make sure I'm ready to make a commitment to a sweater.  With spring around the corner my brain tends to start looking fondly at smaller/less warm things and a sweater feels like a big warm thing to be sitting on my lap.  I have also found out that one of the Kindergarten teachers is pregnant and so I think I will squeak out a little teddy bear hat and boots for her, because it's too cute not to share.

Progress has been slower than I've liked, but we find ourselves very busy over here at "Chez Nennie".  There are solar systems to build....

And big ski trips and achievements to be had.

(My kid, skiing blue and BLACK runs this last weekend!  So proud!)

Ski season is going to start winding down here... and hopefully I'll find a little more time for "knitting season" again.  In the mean time, I'll just keep grinding out what I can and that will get me to the finish line eventually.

Have a happy St. Pat's everyone!

In the Swing of Things

New projects seem to have kicked my "must knit everything" mojo back into high gear- because I have been on FIRE this week!

Firstly, I am loving my Vanilla bean sock a lot.  The colors are so cheerful and happy and I take it everywhere with me, adding (sometimes) just one more row, but I'm so excited to see how it's looking I don't want to put it down.

I'm also deep into my acrylic blanket and even further along now than the picture shows.

It feels good to get some progress on this... although I'm already worried that it's actually going to be MORE than four blankets worth of acrylic in these balls.  There is so much still to knit!  If you are looking for AMPLE yardage... Pound of Love will not let you down!

And because it feels too normal to be well under way on these projects but I'm already day dreaming about what's next... and then THIS lovely sweater....

popped up in my Pinterest feed and I was DONE.  I want to make this SO BAD.  Some Ravelry sleuthing (and asking for some help in the forums- {god Ravelry is such an invaluable resource}) I had a name.  I'm sitting on my "itchy" fingers for a week to see if I still feel super keen on this project.  If in a week I'm in "LOVE" still... I'm going to buy the yarn and knit it up.  (I don't have a good DK weight... booo.)

It feels good to be back into the knitting and seeing progress move along.  I missed the routine of it and the cathartic feel of knitting stitch after stitch.  I'm looking forward to all the progress I hope to keep making in March!

New Month! New Projects!

While it was fun to work off a different knitting theme each day for February, it's also good to stretch the old fingers and get back into more traditional blogging.  (There is a March challenge on Instagram but I have opted out of participating in favor of more traditional blogging and to give my non-knitting instagram followers a little break from the "ALL THE KNITTING" posts.)

Great news people- there is SO MUCH to tell you!  Let's get started with FINISHED THINGS!

Pattern: Zig and Zag Sock Yarn Pram and Baby Blanket by Debbie Orr
Yarns: SO many leftovers from other projects... remember this?

Needles: US 3
Notes: Listen up people... I made changes.  I opted to cast on 220 stitches with a smaller needle size than the pattern calls for.  I also added 6 stitches on each side for a border.  I did 16 rows for the major color repeats and only 8 rows for the cream sections.

This blanket ate up a large amount of that leftover stash that I had wanted it to... so YAY.  It's more of a "car seat" size but it's soft and pretty and some little one will love it.  I will admit that the inconsistent cream colors (I changed to whatever I had without minding to blend it), does bug me a bit.  BUT, not enough to say I couldn't ever gift the pattern... I accept it for what it was, a way to bust out a bunch of stash and produce something pretty.

Getting that OFF the needles... made way for another project to be added back in.  Say hello to yet ANOTHER Heart Baby Blanket variation blanket.

I HAD to get that giant "Pound of {never-ending} Love" stuff out of my stash and since these knit up fast I'm hoping to crank out TWO of these this month.  Then I see a generous donation of 4 blankets heading over to WCOBB.

As if I wasn't feeling awesome enough with getting that off the needles I also manged to get the travel socks off the needles too!

Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl McPhee (this is my "go-to" plain sock pattern)
Yarn: OnLine Supersocke 100 Wellness Color colorway 1322
Needles: Good Ole 2.25 mm
Notes: Not much to say except that this pattern never fails me.  I will admit I don't like the blurry stripes this yarn produced... but it's nice to have it knit up and out of the stash pile.  I may donate these also.

As usual, I took great care in lining up the stripes and I have never regretted that decision.

This meant ANOTHER new project to cast on for travelling to and from various activities and holidays.  I knew it was time to get one of those planned Felici socks out of my stash... so I cast on a really pretty Vanilla Bean Sock in "Jellybean" colorway and I literally LOVE the colors so much these socks will be for me!  (Oh god, just adding that link up there made me look at the website and I want to buy "soft serve" so badly... NO.  NO. NO NO NO NO NO.... yes?  GAH it's on SALE TOO... GAH this is hard.  MiL I need intervention!)

AND... as if two projects with two NEW projects on the needles to talk about wasn't exciting enough... I also cranked out another dishcloth to stash down on that stash!

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth by Peaches and Cream Design Team
Yarn: Various Cottons I've had kicking around forever
Needles: US 7
Notes: Nothing other than to say GOD I LOVE how this turned out.  The colors are so cheerful and happy and make me think of Easter and spring!  BRING. ON. SPRING!

I can't stress enough how helpful it was to review my stash in January.  I've managed to really work on knitting things out of it and it feels good to be whittling away at it.  I need to make it a yearly tradition... it really helps the focus stay on working on what I have.