Currently on my needles

So what do I have currently on my needles?  I showed my project bags a few days ago, but didn't really mention what was in them, so here goes and hopefully in the next few weeks you will start to see my finishes.

Main project:  Mitch's hat, the Basic Bulky Manly Man Hat by Julie Laffoon.  This is a freebie pattern on Ravelry.  I'm using Loops and Threads Charisma in a dark grey color and a size 10 (6mm) circular needle. Love this yarn and hubby was very happy with the softness when he put on my messed up version last night.  I figured out what I did wrong though, I somehow missed the directions on how to do the decreases correctly and was just doing the SSK, and not the K2tog as well, so my decrease took a lot of rows and looked funny.  Not the pattern's fault, but the pattern reader, lol!  I took out the decrease rows and I am currently working on doing this correctly.  Hope to have this off the needles tonight.

KALs:

First up is my first mystery KAL, Follow Your Arrow 2 by Ysolda Teague.  I've finished the first clue, I think (I went with 1A).  It's my first shawl and lace-type-work along with my first mkal.  Clue 2 was given yesterday and I hope to start on it tomorrow.  No pics for this one either.  I'm using a pretty yarn that is a lighter baby blanket yarn that is really pretty.  I think it will make a nice shawl.  I am hoping to get to my LYS and get some other yarn to make an anti-shawl of this using the clues I didn't choose.

I am also working on GAP-tastic Cowl by Jen Geigley KAL in the Beginner's KAL forum on Ravelry.  This is the KAL for January and I have it on the needles and hope to finish before the end of the month.  I am using two colors of Caron Simply Soft knitted together, the hot pink and black and I have already worn two outfits this month that I had wished this was done.  Here is a pic of it on the needles, I have done one row besides the cast-on, but it's my in-the car project and my next main project.

Some other things I have started:

A second Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth by Traditional Design.  This one is done in I Love This Cotton Denims Ombre.  It's an easy project and once the GAP-tastic cowl becomes my main project, this will be my travel project.  It's also a great project to work on while participating in a family game of monopoly.

Slipper Socks by Lorna Miser. I'm making these in I Love this Yarn Sport Weight in Baby Blue.  This yarn is easy to work with and soft.  I have started the ribbing and can't wait to get back to it.

 

Socks for Him by Jodi Lewanda is my first official sock weight yarn project.  I'm not crazy about the yarn I've chosen.  I thought it would be soft, but it's scratchy (Kroy wool sock yarn).  It was the perfect color for the husband but I'm thinking I'm going back to a wool-free blend in manly colors.  Really I can't wait to tackle some of my fun colors of sock yarn, but really want to make his first.

There will be more to come, but these I have at least cast on. I have a beret and wristlets for me and some socks for me as well kitted and ready to be cast on so stay tuned.

What do you have on your needles?  Are you doing any KALs?  Let me know, I love to see and hear about what others are working on.

Dishcloths

Dishcloths are the staple of a new knitter.  I actually started with a  dishcloth, but my first finished project was boot cuffs.  But soon after I frogged my first dishcloth and started on one I found in Creative Knitting.  It was easy enough and I was pleased with the result. I can't remember nor can I find the tag for the cotton I used for this one, but I bought it at my sort-of--LYS, The Salty Sheep.  If I ever find the other skein of cotton I bought I can let you know what brand it was.  But no matter, I think it came out pretty good.  I messed up and frogged a few times and there is even a row or two that is wrong in the dishcloth, but I will enjoy using it. I love the texture and the yarn is so soft.

Next up I tried Grandmother's Favorite Washcloth.  This one is super easy to work up and now that I have finished 3 different dishcloths, I'm currently working on another one of these.  The first was made with Lily Sugar 'n Cream Cotton.  The new one is made with I Love This Cotton in the Denims Ombre colorway.

As far as different dishcloths go, my final one I have tried recently is The Almost Lost Washcloth.  This one was a lot of fun but did require some concentration to get the rows right.  But in the end I really enjoyed it and will make more of them.  This one was made in the Denims Ombre colorway of I Love This Cotton (and I do love this yarn).

What's your favorite dishcloth/washcloth pattern? I plan to keep making them as a car/pick up in a hurry project and make enough I can get rid of the awful looking ones we have.  And I have a lot of cotton, some was given to me and some I bought.

Kitting up Projects

We had my 14-year-old son's birthday party a month late (he had the flu on his birthday and it's so close to Christmas) over the weekend.  We had two boys spend the night and then my husband took them shooting on Saturday.  They were supposed to go to a range, but it was so busy they went to my FIL's girlfriend's farm and had a blast.  One of the boys said it was the best birthday party he had been to.  Awww...

So I mentioned this because in the middle of all this I had the house to myself (youngest was upstairs playing Xbox) and I was able to kit up a bunch of projects.

I got out several bags that are really too small to be my purse, but I love Vera Bradley purses so I kept them.  Voila perfect project bags!  I also got out yarn, looked around Ravelry and planned out several projects.  Below you can see the before and the after.

I kitted up the Almost Lost Washcloth (which is now finished), a hat made of Rios Primavera Malabrigo for my husband, socks for my husband, slipper socks for me, a hat and wristlets for me and Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL by Ysolda.  This was all on Saturday.

Yesterday I had the day off and I started several of these projects getting them cast on and a few rows done.  I have had a blast and now I can grab one of these bags and go to work on any project.  Another bonus, I cleaned off some bookshelves to make room for my project bags. Yesterday I also kitted up a few others and placed some empty bags on my shelves.  This will be so nice when we are watching Breaking Bad in the evenings, I can just grab the project I feel like working on and go to work.

How do you kit up projects or do you kit up projects?  Any suggestions for yarn organization and project organization?  I'm always looking for suggestions and if you have pics of your stash or your craft room, please share!

 before

after

First Knitting Project

As I mentioned, I took the beginner's knitting class at my kind-of-LYS, The Salty Sheep.  I call it "kind of" because I actually a have to drive about 30 minutes from work or almost an hour from home to get there.  But it is well-worth it!  So I took the class in December, starting working on a simple knit-purl dishcloth in some lovely cotton yarn I bought in the shop.  However I let it fall to the wayside in finishing up crochet gifts, getting the flu and celebrating Christmas.

So when a friend of mine suggested we take a Cabled Boot Cuff class this past weekend, I jumped at the chance.  I faithfully got out my dishcloth and did some practicing, but secretly wondered if I was in over my head to take this class with so little experience.  Well class day came and I learned I was doing my knitting and purling wrong. But the owner was so patient with me, even when I completely screwed up my count at one point.  So then I get to the cableing.  Okay if you haven't done it, learn it, it is so simple.  It looks beautiful and complex but it is not.  I am in love.  So I took my project (that was mostly redone before the cabling by Ms. Peggy) home.  And I worked on it Saturday night and Sunday and I finished the first one.  I was honestly in love at that moment.  My bind off was a little wonky, but it was a learning experience and I didn't mind since I could put that end down in my boot.

Sunday-Tuesday I worked on the second cuff.  Through two playoff games, some podcast episodes and finishing up the TV show Revolution (short but excellent) I worked on these cuffs.  I had a few hitches with the start, but once I figured out how to connect the cast-ons together on the 3 DPNs, I had it.  I won't say it went perfectly, but I was able to fix anything that was messed up. My counting went much better this time and by Tuesday evening I was finished with the set.  And I have to say after finishing these, I felt I was ready to take on the world.  Which that feeling resulted in me signing up for Ysolda Teague's Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL.  Crazy, I might be, but I plan to have fun on my journey to insanity :)  And now I can't wait until Monday to see the first clue.  The LYS owner is the one who told my friend and I about this and how much fun she had last year, so I had to join this year!  Stay tuned for how that is going (but no pics, I don't want to spoil it).

So,  here you go, my first knitting project:

Boot cuff pattern by LYS owner, Ms. Peggy. 
Yarn: Malabrigio Rios 122 Niebla (worsted weight 100% superwash merino).  I love this color, it is amazing. 
Started January 10, 2015
Finished: January 13, 2015

New Blog and a Purpose

Hi, my name is Crystal as you might have guessed from the blog name :)  I'm a Mom of two boys, currently 14 and 9 (or 9 1/2 as he says), we're in the picture above.  My oldest is now 3" taller than me and I'm 5'6".  I've been married to my husband for 17 years and we are also owned by 2 cats (Nala and Rafiki) and a dog (Chewbacca or Chewy for short - we obviously got him during the boys' star wars phase).  I also work as a research tech in marine science.


When I'm not a Mom, Wife or worker-bee, I love to crochet and knit.  I started crocheting November of 2013, was self-taught.  But I wanted to knit.  Somehow I couldn't learn this on my own so I finally took a beginner's knit class at my somewhat LYS, The Salty Sheep in December.  However I didn't pick it back up due to holiday craziness until I was about to take a second class on making cabled boot cuffs last Saturday.  I learned that I had forgotten how to knit and purl, lol!  However the LYS owner is very patient and by the end of the class time I was about 1/3 through the first book cuff which I finished up the next day. I then finished the second boot cuff this past Tuesday.  I then frogged my dishcloth from the first class and have redone it.  I should finish that this afternoon.

And in this week I have found I am completely addicted to knitting.  I cannot get enough.  I listen to podcasts while driving and knitting (not at the same time, the driving and knitting).  I peruse Pinterest, Ravelry and Instagram.  I look for new-to-me blogs.  And when I am home, I knit.  I love the repetitive ease and I also like learning new things.

I have bought more yarn (like I didn't have enough from my crochet days) and several different knitting needles.  I'm waiting on a full set to arrive in a few weeks, but I did get some basics.

I plan on kitting up several things this weekend and knitting Monday (a day off for me) all day.  No kids and husband may or may not be working.  If he's not he'll be happily playing Xbox and I can knit the day away.  Tomorrow will be broken up, we have a birthday get-together (1-month late) for my oldest at my FIL's and I'll go to that, but probably with my knitting in a bag.

Oh I did my first knitting in public while at a restaurant for lunch with my husband.  I asked him first of course, but I find it easy to knit and listen as long as I'm not counting when casting on!

So that's a lot about me and my knitting fetish.  I plan to use this blog to document my knitting adventures.  I'll suggest patterns, blogs, podcasts and yarns as I find them.  I'm a newbie, but I am falling quickly in love with all things knitting.  Oh and I'm starting the Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL starting Monday the 19th with Ysolda.  I cannot wait.  This may be a little challenging for a newbie, but I am looking forward to it!

So if you are reading, please introduce yourself.  If you have suggestions of blogs to read, please do that.  I'm still looking around for more to read and absorb about this wonderful hobby.

Bloglovin place holder post

Follow my blog with Bloglovin