more random things

Think I'll take a jaunt to the post office today.

These awesome shoes are a gift to myself! I saw them and when they went on sale during Black Friday, I grabbed them! 

I wear them in the house for now to stretch them out a bit and to get used to wearing them. I also need to get stronger laces. The ribbon laces are very pretty but not practical for actual laces...

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Dec 8, 2016 at 12:43pm PST

Hexipuffs and beanie ornament. Day 10's yarn. #opaladventcalendar2016

A photo posted by Debbie T (@moodybq) on Dec 12, 2016 at 2:21pm PST

I am still working my way through the Opal sock yarn Advent Calendar. I love seeing each day will produce another little mini skein of sock yarn. I'm trying to keep up with knitting a couple of hexipuffs from each one and it's a challenge but I'm getting more hexipuffs this way for my seat cushions. 

Also, I'm knitting ornaments  from them like little hats, and hopefully socks and sweaters. My plan is to have an ornament for my family members. I better get going!

Vlogging

My version of vlogging is just highlighting or showing what I want. Basically it's just another form of expression for me. Definitely nothing groundbreaking but it's fun for me. Just like photos are memories, so are videos. 

I'm Back

Sorry for being out of it but I'm back and focusing on some projects.

There are so many things I want to do and not enough time or I need time to prepare/plan/execute but I will get to them.




I can't remember if I posted my small lap blanket knit from scraps. I used the seemless neverending supply of worsted weight yarn to knit a colorful blanket. Well, this blanket attracts the cats like catnip and to be honest, it's fine with me since I wanted them to have their own blanket so they hopefully leave my nice squish blanket alone (it's wrapped up away from the cats).

So I just put the blanket on top of a beach towel, tucked the ends underneath forming a cat bed. They love it! Phil is the usual occupant of the bed but I do see Shadow on it a couple of times. 




Above is proof that Shadow still exists. That mangled knit ball has been a fave of the cats since we adopted them. I keep patching it up and they keep tearing away at it.






Here is the entire blanket minus cats. The pattern is called Chasing Rainbows on Ravelry and it's free. My version is definitely scrappy and random. The original version has stripes about 8 rounds each but I just kept knitting and adding yarn when I ran out. A wonderful stash & scrap buster.

Speaking of stash, I was searching in my vast yarn cupboard/closet looking for another project and I was sort of stunned (for a second) at my worsted weight stash. Um, I think it'll be year of the hat and blankets this year if my wrist holds up. 

Yarn and Cats

A deadly combo to have so much yarn and 2 playful cats in the house but for the most part, there hasn't been any horrible tragedies.

Sometimes I find a random ball of yarn undone and tangled but I think I can limit that to about 5 incidents in the year we've had our cats.

They did do me a favor this week by picking the most ugly yarn that I recycled from a sweater I found in some thrift store years ago and left it on the stairs. Okay, I wasn't planning to knit with it anyway since it was rough, scratchy and would fall apart at the slightest tug so I knit a ball with a tail and used that old crappy yarn as the stuffing. Everybody wins!!

I fired up the camera and came up with photos!!




Shadow in a rare moment of being in the sunlight and still. He has some type of injury in his back legs that flared up this week so he is on house arrest. Hopefully the rest will fix it and he can stay healthy otherwise he needs to see the vet again.






Phil is his usual self. 

Okay, so back to yarn. My mind hasn't been keeping up with the calendar because all of a sudden, a couple of family members are expecting babies. At least I have this spidey sense with my cousin and I texted her if she was having a shower since this is her 2nd baby. She texted back yes, told me the date and the invites are sent out. That day I got my invitation! Freaky, huh? So they live in Arizona and don't need any handknit baby clothes or hats so I try to knit other things like plushies. I knit her a catepiller along with The Hungry Caterpiller book and over the years she has kept the other animals I've knitted her (way before she had babies). A bunny, an armadillo and little cute monsters.

This time I am knitting a sock monkey since it is the Year of the Monkey. I'm about halfway done.




It's looking really cute so far...

And then I began thinking, well I better knit the older brother something to ease the transition of having another little person to their household.

Since he is almost 2 years old, he needs a bigger plush so I found a free pattern called Big Snowy Owl using super bulky yarn. As usual, my wrists started complaining and I realized I would not have enough yarn to finish the actual size. I was using scraps and leftovers so I improvised a little and made the owl smaller. This is probably about 1/2 the size it was supposed to be but still fairly large. It's taller than a 16.9 oz water bottle and it came out so much cuter than I thought it would be. 




I'm planning to knit another one probably using worsted weight yarn for our niece who is expecting a girl in June and both family members are having their showers in April. Eeeek, I've got to get a move on then...

Free Pattern: Boho Hobo Infinity Scarf

Boho Hobo

How this pattern was discovered... I was stashbusting my leftover balls of yarn knitting a length-wise scarf, I would trim the ends off from the fringe and add those bits to my gallon sized Ziploc bag, I think have trimmings and pieces starting to almost the beginning of my yarn addiction.

I began thinking, what can I do with these little random lengths of yarn? And the Boho Hobo was born!! I began knotting the strands together, mixing colors and weights at will. Everything was included, fingering, DK, sport, worsted and bulky. Nothing was left behind even the crazy novelty yarn I had no clue how to use.

I cast on and in the beginning, it didn't look like much but I persevered. As I was knitting, I'm thinking someone must think this is nice, right? This entire week, I bring my mom to the infusion center for her IV iron therapy. The nurse on Monday sees me knitting on this unknown entity, asks what I'm knitting. I say, I think it may be a scarf but I don't have enough yarn scraps so probably a cowl. The nurse replies, It's pretty.

Aha moment!

I keep knitting until I run out of scraps and then began to make more to add on. The length I stopped at was about 44 inches. Bind off and mattress stitch the ends together and wow! I can't believe how cute it looks.

I am now in the process of cutting up my leftover yarn balls into smaller pieces so I can knit another one.

So if anyone is interested in making their own Boho Hobo, I am posting my notes although it's not set in stone...do whatever you like!

Boho Hobo Infinity Scarf: 

Ingredients: lots of yarn scraps knotted together (this can take the longest so don't be afraid to ask family and friends with finger dexterity to help).

Needles: US size 8 (I knit loosely). Choose a size to get the fabric and drape you desire. 

Gauge: not necessary

Cast on desired # of stitches. I choose 28 stitches which gave me about 6 inches width. 

For each row, slip the 1st stitch purlwise, knit to end of row. Knit all rows to get garter stitch which will be reversible and let the knots fall where they may on either side of fabric. Sometimes the knots will get caught on the loops but just work them through gently.

Continue knitting until desired length. Mine was 44 inches, the length is entirely up to you and/or recipients preference.

Bind off and stitch the ends together. 

Feel free to knit and sell your Boho Hobo but please link back to this pattern please. Also if you knit your own, please leave a comment or photo! :)

Start of project

Endless possibilities

My ball of knots

Yarny bits

A quick peek at what I've accomplished in the art of knitting.....


A new pair of socks. Blenders which has to be my all time favorite leftover/monster/vanilla socks. I love knitting patterns of all sorts/styles but these seem to fit and appeal to me the best. Plus all those socks I knit I may have given away; I have their sweet sweet leftovers to make some truly epic/wild/subtle socks. I obviously don't take the time to match them up because I'm lazy/fly by the seat of my pants/unique kind of gal.




And the extra extra bits of leftovers is being knit into hexipuffs for either a blanket/seat cushion depending on how tired/bored I get. Each hexipuff tells a story of my knitting history. I actually remember most of the socks/project I used each yarn for too. See? Nice to know my memory still works for this.

Dust Bunnies

A little cute project for leftover yarn. Originally written for sock yarn which would make these super little, I started with some bulky yarn and I liked how they came out.

I think I might knit some up (gotta start now) as little student gifts at the end of the year.




I have lots of yarn...

Week at a Glance

Here is our week in review....

Monday at the beach.
















Just a hour outside to get the kids moving and in the sunshine. Gorgeous day but it was really windy/chilly toward the water. The kids were totally happy digging in the sand with their buckets.

I got my yarn shipment....A very pretty yarn in forest greens that I will promptly cast on once I finish a pair of socks on the needles.



Oh, look! I just finished these this morning. A nice lace pattern called On-Hold socks. Easy pattern and I finally got to use this pretty plum yarn. I do love the dark colors but it does get harder to see/knit at night. I either need to get better lighting or lighter yarn. :)





The lace pattern reminds me of ram horns although a person on Ravelry compared them to Fallopian tubes/uterus. Ha, I can totally see that too.

Off to wind my new yarn and get ready for my hockey date night with my one & only cheeseboy! :)

Prize

I won a prize! I knit these socks because I want to & enjoy a challenge so SKA really supports & encourages sock knitters. The group offers prizes if a knitter finishes a pair that meet the criteria but there are a lot of members so usually I don't expect to win plus the prizes are totally random.

I think for the month of November, there were over 350 finishers and about 14 prizes so I was totally shocked that I won. I won once before about 2 years ago but not all the socks I've knitted were eligible so you get the idea. :)

So here is my lovely yarn.

Colorway: Bayberry which is a coral/orange.

There are so many independent dyers out there and I really like to support them if I can and it's great that Lisa Souza is located in California. :)  Here is her linky link.

I will have to finish up my other projects so I can try this out. So excited...

Holiday Knits Blowout!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!! :)

We had a wonderful time with family and friends with a minor Christmas present crisis (not ours) that I had to help do really last second shopping for a friend. Reminder: dont let this happen EVER AGAIN!!! You know who you are and I fufilled my friend duty. If it occurs again, call someone else. :) Seriously...

Okay, my knitting pile turned out great just because I went through past knits that I originally intended for myself and they just sat in the drawer after being used once or twice. So I thought I'd add those unused items and see if my family would like them. Boy, they sure did. We followed the same outline as our gift exchange with the 2 steals but that lead to some feelings being slightly hurt so we shall eliminate the stealing part next time which won't happen for a while because those items knitted were accumulated over a period of a few years of knitting!!

One of the knitted items was my latest finished project, Staccato socks. It was part of my Ravelry SKA December challenge to use leftovers. Over about 6+ years of knitting socks, I have plenty of leftovers. I've made more socks, scarves and a baby blanket and still have plenty of leftovers.

I loved this pattern except the heel portion which totally confused me so I had to modify it to a gusset heel and the mix of colors came out great. :) The other bothersome part is the pattern doesn't have much give or stretch to it so I couldn't even try the sock on my foot as I knit. That's not usually a good sign. But I knit on because I was determined and figured the socks will find their owner.

I was right and my niece K fell in love with them. I warned her that they were small but she got her feet in them and proclaimed them hers!! Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of the knitted items with their new recipients because of poor lighting.



I do have a project set up (in my mind) so I need to start working on it so I don't forget. Happy Knitting!! :)

8-Square socks

I said it before and I'll say it again...Ravelry is a wonderful site. My creativity is challenged and the possibilities are endless!!

I remember those knitted slipper socks with the pom pom at the toes that elderly friends of my mom knit for us and I don't particularly care for that style. With the sudden cold spell my feet want to have something toasty and while I have lots of knitted socks, I don't want to wear them around on the tile etc and wear them out. Duh! I could really use some slippers.

So off I went to search Ravelry and I found this pattern. 8-sqare socks. I can use up various worsted weight yarn I've collected over the years too.



This pattern is adjustable to fit the wearer and the trickiest part is seaming it together correctly. I made a mistake and had to undo the seam which is a PITA so I suggest pinning it all together then seam. It's trippy how this strip of knitted squares will transform into a slipper but it does!!





Aren't these cute?? Joshua saw them and immediately wanted some...I think I can use sock yarn doubled up to get worsted weight so I will try that for Josh's pair.

Armadillo

I decided to start knitting these armadillos again. So here is the latest one.







Trying to use up my yarn stash so that's the reason for its unusual color scheme. ;)

Just in Time for Fall

The heatwave is over (for now, I hope) and it's back to a much more pleasant temperature. The cooler temps have gotten me happy in getting back to knitting.

Kat requested some legwarmers for her dad who suffers from cold feet/legs so I decided to knit some in worsted weight that knits up quickly. These are seriously cute and I've never been into the whole legwarmer trend but I can see the appeal especially in colder climates. I wore these for a brief time to take some quick photos with my point n shoot because I can't locate my tripod (uff). The pics aren't the best but they'll do to give you an idea of how they look and how versatile they are. I seriously want some now and will have to start charging commission for these and other items. Must keep the yarn supply going and all...

Tucked into some mid calf boots. Can fold the cuff over too for a different look.

I love how I can wear them with any footwear or alone and still have toasty legs. I used a variety of wool yarn to keep it interesting but with my biggish calves I'd steer clear of the striping effect even though I love stripes. :) Plus I made them bigger than the pattern just because this is for a 6'2" man with man legs and the ribbing is stretchy and comfortable. :)

Looks good with any boots!

So happy and warm.



I think $15/pair is reasonable for some handknit wooly legwarmers...

1st Pair of 2012

Yay for the new year!! And a new pair of socks to boot! :) It was a first ofor me to knit a pair of sportweight yarn socks which is a heavier/thicker yarn but it sure knits up fast. I used some STR (Socks that Rock) club yarn from January 2011 (almost a year ago) that came in 2 colors for a pair of colorwork socks. I liked the patterns but that type of socks would be too warm/dense for our mild weather here so the yarn sat in its yarn bin.

I used the pattern Van Dyke socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up. That's a cool thing to knit from the toe up so if there are possible yarn shortage issues, the feet will be knit first then you can knit the leg as long as your yarn lasts.



This particular yarn wouldn't be able to get a regular calf type sock so they became short  ankle socks. These are so cute. I wore them all day yesterday and the thicker yarn was really cushy and comfy. Even though the weather has been warming up lately, my feet were cold so the socks came in handy. :)





I used the gusset heel per the pattern which is a nice and tidy heel that doesn't add any extra bulkiness. I ran out to get take out for dinner and the socks were comfortable inside my Chucks. :)

Now I have the other sportweight club yarn waiting to become another pair of socks soon...

Yarn Break

Time for a yarn break to show off my new acquisitions. I didn't go crazy with the purchases but like I said previously, I bought yarn that I have never used before.



I've used Noro before but not the Kuryeon which is a worsted weight. I want to try to make another Vortex hat with this yarn so it might actually fit my largish head.

I tried to pick contrasting colors.

I've seen this yarn online but this is the first time to see it in person.
It is wound on a spool with 2 strands of yarn to knit 2 at a time socks and they will be identical. Genius!! I don't get freaked out if my socks aren't identical but this will be a change for me. :)

The colors range from bright pink to purple and blue.

Jitterbug in a coral orange.

Shades of violet.

I was gathering  clothes for another load of laundry this morning and when I picked a pair of Hector's shorts, I heard coins jingling. So I dug those out but these are cargo shorts with tons of pockets.  Next I hear a crunchy noise...what is that? I dig into a pocket empty. It took me a couple of tries to get the correct pocket and guess what I found?





Sporks!! Not just sporks but foldable sporks. :)