The recap to end all recaps… because well it’s 2019…

Hi friends!

It has been quite a long time since I have written! It was be a big understatement if I also never said that the last few months have been busy…. And I mean BUSY. For the sake of my sanity and health I decided to not write at all in the last few months as to relieve a bit of my own workload and stress. Even my knitting has taken a bit of a backseat to the holiday season! I hope to be able to give my readers a little more attention in this New Year; or at least establish a more consistent writing/ posting pattern.

There is so much I want to share with you on what I have been doing the last few months of 2018;  and all the plans I have set in motion for 2019!  So please, don’t leave me yet!  More articles to come in the next few weeks….

 

Happy New Year to all….

 

XOXO

Christine

WEEKLY ROUNDUP; episode 6

It’s been a while; and I’m late! It’s Saturday night right now and we have had a family full day of brunch and a zoo trip, laughs and non stop running around (baby girl seriously tried to introduce herself to every other kid at the zoo today…🤦🏼‍♀️). In other words… it was a perfectly exhausting day.

In my knitting world I have some very exciting news…. PENGUONO IS FINISHED! I love it, it’s beautiful and strangely I already want to make another even though I have a million other items I also want to make….

Now not a lot of photos as of yet but hope to get a few more to share soon. For now enjoy…

Now some house keeping…. life has picked up for us recently and I’m finding that even though I have time to knit I can’t get that little extra time to do a weekly roundup of my knitting progress…. so I will be moving to MONTHLY roundups. This will allow me the chance to give you a well rounded, well written roundup and then allow for little mini posts throughout the weeks between.

So this weeks post is just for “show”… hoping to give a more proper individual posting for my finished Penguono!

Best,

Christine

WEEKLY ROUNDUP; episode 5

The first few times I have done these weekly roundups I have been adamant about writing THROUGHOUT the week and doing a final check before publishing.  This week however has been messy.  My full time job has kept me on my toes as we are heading into crunch-time; and though with my little family I have been given set working hours the days leave me with so much stress I am completely mentally drained when I leave and don’t want to think about writing.  And after there is baby to put to bed and the constant of keeping up with anything home related.  Top it off that for the last week and a half I have been prepping for her first birthday party.   This momma is EXHAUSTED!  All that being said I have squeezed (literally) as much knitting as possible into this crazy schedule of mine because DEADLINES!  So here I am, less than a day before posting, writing up a nice long and lengthy weekly roundup!  Here we goooo!!

I am happy to announce that I have finished the Popcorn Vest and Bonnet; and at just under a week before I need to have baby girl unwrap for her birthday!  Let me just say I am so crazy happy with the results… honestly my best knitted set yet.  Considering how many times I have actually knit this pair, I have made minor revisions each time which have either made the knitting more seamless, literally and figuratively.

This time around instead of BO then sewing together the shoulder seams, then later picking up the back neck for the rib trim; I chose to keep the stitches live.  This way I was able to kitchener the shoulders then easily use the live back neck stitches to seamlessly join with the rib trim.  For some this may seem like a little more work and maybe it was; however one thing I am still mastering as a knitter is picking up stitches, and picking them up evenly and beautifully.  This change allowed me to up the quality of the vest itself; no more worrying if I picked up enough stitches evenly or consistently- they were already live for my working!

I also slipped all edge stitches, giving me nice clean edges to work with at the front edge and armholes.  While I may not have picked up as many stitches as the pattern states, I know that what I did pick up and cast on will be sufficient enough for my daughter to wear.

Pattern:Popcorn Vest & Bonnet by Studio Misha & Puff

Yarn:Sawkill Farms Worsted; Undyed Wool (Romney, Icelandic, Finn, Texel mix) from 2015 knit with Alchemy Yarns of Transformation Haiku in Fieldstone + rib trim in Sawkill Farms Worsted; Undyed Wool from 2016 ***

Last weekend I allowed myself the luxury of finishing up the underarms on my Penguono and ohhh I have a knitted thing that looks like a sweater!  It is so exciting!  I still have the neck and bottom bands to do which I keep changing my mind on what yarn I would like to use…I have been determined to not buy any yarns to complete this but am contemplating getting a single skein of Purl Soho Flax Down. This is the yarn I chose to use for the main back panel and something tells me it would be nice to have it repeat but I think I will still try to use what I have.

Project/ Designer:Penguono by Steven West

Yarn:  Purl Soho Flax Down in Kettle Black + The Fibre Co Cumbria Fingering in Scafell Pike & Dodd Wood + Lake yarns Alturas in Shell Seeker + OWool Local in Gray Birch + Skeinny Dipping Fingering and Skeinny Dipping DK in Cease and Desist + Baa Ram Ewe Titus in Coal

Until next time….

XO.

WEEKLY ROUNDUP; episode 4

So this week I have been focused very closely on making sure I finish my baby girls popcorn vest and bonnet in time for her birthday.  That is fast approaching so I don’t have the luxury of taking my time!  It was a bit of a last-minute decision as I am starting these pieces with a little over 3 weeks before her birthday…. yikes!  To see my initial post on these pieces take a look at A little detour….  Progress is going well and the vest (minus ribbing) will be done by the time this post is up.  The bonnet is a very quick knit and I should have it done in under a week.  The ribbing for the vest (and the little bit on the bonnet) won’t take long either but picking up the appropriate amount of stitches is the bit that takes the longest and is the most frustrating part of the process for me.

Pattern:Popcorn Vest & Bonnet by Studio Misha & Puff

Yarn:Sawkill Farms Worsted; Undyed Wool (Romney, Icelandic, Finn, Texel mix) from 2015 knit with Alchemy Yarns of Transformation Haiku in Fieldstone + rib trim in Sawkill Farms Worsted; Undyed Wool from 2016 ***

When I am not working on my popcorn pieces (baby girl is SMART so I work on something else when shes awake and around) I’ve continued progress on my Penguono.  I am now complete with BOTH sleeves and need to finish up  the underarms, collar and bottom band.  Somewhere in the back of my mind the hope is to also have this finished in time for baby girls birthday (or at least her party) for me to wear.  That however is wishful thinking but I will still try!

Project/ Designer:Penguono by Steven West

Yarn:  Purl Soho Flax Down in Kettle Black + The Fibre Co Cumbria Fingering in Scafell Pike & Dodd Wood + Lake yarns Alturas in Shell Seeker + OWool Local in Gray Birch + Skeinny Dipping Fingering and Skeinny Dipping DK in Cease and Desist + Baa Ram Ewe Titus in Coal

Beyond these two knits I am anxious to get back to work on my two other projects, the Masala Shawl and baby test knit.  But one stitch as a time…..

XO,

Christine

WEEKLY ROUNDUP; episode 3

It has been a little bit since I’ve last written!  In the last two weeks I have had stitches flying off my needles then grounded to a halt when I contracted the flu.  Thankfully it was a mild case (get that flu shot then take care of yourself!) and once I was feeling up to it used my self imposed quarantine to do some serious knitting and guilty pleasure show binge watching.  Unfortunately I have gotten sucked into that inevitable knitters problem where you have cast on a new exciting project and everything else just gets thrown to the side… oops.  Most of my knitting time over the last two weeks was spent on my Penguono as it became really clear that it was a fast- and I mean FAST- knit.  The welts were complete over a weekend (and then some) while Sunday afternoon and evening were spent completing the left back panel & color scheming. The beginning of last week saw the completion of the right welts THEN a re-visit to the left back panel as I began to question the yarn choices…which lead to me redoing the left back!  Its a section that doesn’t take too long so not much time was lost.  My sick time allowed me to finish out the side panels along with the entire right side.

Unfortunately, I suffered from an infection only a few days following my flu recovering and was knocked on my a** AGAIN for a whirlwind of a miserable day.  I got absolutely no knitting done but once I was placed on the necessary meds to recover I used the weekend after to relax and do a little knitting with baby girl.  This time allowed me to finish up the front panels and now I am down to one sleeve, underarms, collar and bottom band!

Project/ Designer:Penguono by Steven West

Yarn:  Purl Soho Flax Down in Kettle Black + The Fibre Co Cumbria Fingering in Scafell Pike & Dodd Wood + Lake yarns Alturas in Shell Seeker + OWool Local in Gray Birch + Skeinny Dipping Fingering and Skeinny Dipping DK in Cease and Desist + Baa Ram Ewe Titus in Coal + various remnants (details to be added later as I get to them…)

My test knit is still on hold (sorry baby sweater) as I still need to buy another set of needles….

The Masala shawl got all of 1-2 rows done… only 17 rounds left to go!

I have a feeling it wont take me too long before this sweater is actually finished!

Until next week…

XO

Christine