Friday, February 28, 2014

FO Friday 172

Hi everyone! I hope your week was great. I was super busy after coming back from Stitches. In the last 48 hours, I dyed over 100 skeins of yarn, almost knit the whole body of my Owl sweater (I have an inch and a half left to go!), shipped out many orders and am preparing for March's subscription shipments. Phew! Pretty crazy.

Due to the craziness, I don't have an FO, but I HOPE to have one next week. This weekend we plan to do nothing, which sounds so amazing I can't even explain to you. A big storm is supposed to hit So Cal today, and rain through Monday which is amazing since we haven't had much, if any, rain since November. We've had huge drought warnings. I'll happily sit home, knit, watch hockey, movies and read. Sounds prefect, right?

I hope you have a great weekend! I'll hopefully get to my Stitches blog post this weekend and later today I'll be posting the March colorway, Sweet Clover Candy!

Share Your FOs!



Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday 183

Hi everyone! I'm home safely from Stitches West and had a great time! I got to meet so many amazing people that I've talked to forever, including Stacey from FreshStitches! Hi Stacey! :) I'll try and write a recap post and also show off my yarn haul this week, but I'm trying to get a wholesale order out the door so I can't make promises. I hope you had a great weekend as well!


I decided not to show my Sock Yarn blanket this week since I started a new project yesterday (Tuesday) and since I'm making it with Stitches West yarn, it is perfect. You'll see enough of the blanket coming up, since I'm crazy addicted to working on it.



This may look like a hat, but it is actually a sweater! The picture is deceiving because it's out of thick chunky weight yarn and US 10 needles. Before I learned how to knit, I first saw the Owls sweater by Kate Davies and knew I had to learn how to make it. Several years later, here I am finally getting around to it! The picture makes the yarn look black, or very dark gray, but it actually has a green tint to it. It's Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Chunky in colorway Edgewood. The amazing thing about this yarn is that each skein is 300 yds, so I need less than two skeins to make the full sweater. Due to that, I'm being brave and not switching between skeins. I'm sure they will look different, but I'm hoping I can use the first skein for the body, up until I split off the front and back, then use the second skein to knit the sleeves and yoke. Maybe that way it will look intentional. I just couldn't imagine carrying around two skeins of 300 yds each of chunky weight yarn. The ball is the size of my head and I actually had to ball about half of it by hand because my ball winder couldn't handle it. As you can see, I've gotten pretty far and have probably only knit on it for a few hours. It's amazing how fast Chunky yarn works up!

Anyway, that's it for me today. I hope you all have a great rest of the week. We're supposed to FINALLY get some rain here in San Diego (or actually the whole state for that matter) and I can't wait. I plan to stay home this weekend and knit while watching movies!

I'll see you Friday!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Friday, February 21, 2014

FO Friday 171

Happy Friday everyone! I'm at Stitches West today, and am writing this a few days early. I hope you have a great weekend and I'll "see" you all next week!

Share your FOs!



Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Work in progress 182





Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good week. I've been super busy this week, as Stitches is this weekend.  I'm not a vendor, but since I won't be working Thursday and Friday, I have extra on my plate at the start of the week.

Speaking of Stitches, I'll try and schedule a FO Friday post before I leave so you guys can still post your links. I should be posting a lot of pictures to my Instagram account, @candyskein, if you're interested in following.




This week I haven't had too much knitting time, so I just worked on my Sock Yarn Blanket. It's actually getting quite big considering I only started it 13 days ago. It's a great addicting project that uses up yarn I never thought I would use. Unfortunately, it's also caused me to buy yarn. I'll be looking for mini skeins at Stitches for it, as I plan not to buy too much full skein yarn. If you're looking for a fun project that's pretty portable (you can make single squares and connect them later on, or do little blocks of squares and connect them later), look no further. The only problem is you have to be pretty patient because it takes a LOT of sock yarn to finish this thing. I plan to work on it quite some time.


That's it for me today.  I hope you have a great rest of the week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!




Friday, February 14, 2014

FO Friday 170



Happy Friday and happy Valentine's Day! I am so glad the week is over. It's weirdly been a hard one to get through and I'm happy to get some R&R this weekend.

As I showed you over the past few weeks, I was working on a stranded hat pattern, From Norway with Love. What a perfect project to finish the day before Valentine's Day! It's like I planned it (trust me, I didn't). I'd highly recommend it and it is a free pattern on Ravelry. I'd definitely make it again. I will say, it is a little tight through the first two row of hearts. I'm not sure if it's because I was getting used to using two colors and knit tighter, or just due to the floats. I used Blue Sky Alpaca Sport, which I bought on our trip in 2010 (I believe) up the California coast where we stopped at many yarn shops and tiki bars. Some of you who have been around here that long may remember that! Needless to say, it's been in my stash a LONG time, so I'm glad I was able to use it and for something so fun.





Since it is tight just at the bottom (but not the ribbing), I wanted to stretch out the last two row of hearts, so I put it over an upside down pot from my kitchen. It totally seemed to help. It's still a little snug, but won't keep me from wearing it. I hope to get a picture of me wearing it this weekend when I have someone to take the picture of me. I finished it when it was dark, so will get a better FO picture of it, too.


I also wanted to let you know, Candy Skein is having a Valentine's sale now through 11:59pm PT today. Just enter code CANDYHEARTS during the checkout process at Candyskein.com to receive 15% off your entire order.

That's it for me today. I hope you all have a great and safe holiday weekend (happy President's Day in the US too!)

Share your FOs!


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday 181

 Hi everyone! I hope your week is going like you want it to. Since I last "talked" to you last week, I have been knitting crazy. Funny enough, it's not exactly from what you'd think.



You see, I'm addicted to my new project that I started last week, the Sock Yarn Blanket. Insane, right? I started this last Wednesday night, so it hasn't even been a week. Not only have I made these squares you see, I have also made two more not pictured, as I made them after I took this (and I wove in the ends).






I can't remember if I've shared this hat yet, but it's the From Norway with Love. I've been wanting to knit this hat since I started knitting and never got around to it. I've had this yarn in my stash for several years, when I bought it on vacation in northern California. It's Blue Sky Sport 100% alpaca. So far this is a very fun knit.

That's it for me today. I hope you all have a great rest of your week.



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Friday, February 7, 2014

FO Friday 169




Happy Friday! Man am I glad it's the end of the week!! Weeks seem long when my husband takes the early train in the morning and the late train at night. I'm super excited for the weekend because we're going to go see The Lego Movie on Saturday and then go hang out at our favorite local bar/supper club. We hope to do a little more gardening on Sunday if the weather holds out, as it's been raining on and off for a few days. Not the best weather for yarn drying, that's for sure.

Speaking of yarn, I will have all subscription yarn to the post office by Monday! I was hoping to start shipping tomorrow, but due to the weather, it's drying slower than normal. We normally get spoiled with low humidity and warm weather here in San Diego.



I finished my sock on Wednesday night, but decided not to show it until I have the pair complete. Then it will be a true FO. Instead, I decided to share the squares I made for my sock yarn blanket. The color is washed out a bit, as I took this at night with my Ott lite blaring down on them. The bottom one is made from Candy Skein Yummy fingering monthly colorway from June '12, Lemongrass Sour, one of my favorite past monthly colorways. The middle one is Candy Skein Yummy fingering in Pink Bubblegum (it's more of a hot pink than it looks here) and the right one, I'm sure you recognize, is January '14 colorway, Confetti Cupcake.

I decided to use size US 2 DPNs, which I'm borrowing from my friend Regina. I hope to get my own pair at Stitches West coming up. I am doing each square with 41 stitches and I like the size. I first started with 31 and they were WAY too small. Cute, but the thought of making a whole blanket with them was daunting. As it is, it's pretty daunting. HA! This will be a very long term project, that's for sure. I love how you just pick up stitches to join the squares together. It's so clean and fast.

That's it for me today! I hope you all have a great weekend.

Share your FOs!



Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday 180



Hi everyone! I hope your week is going well. I've had a nice week of packing orders and waiting for a large yarn order to arrive. It finally did yesterday, so I got right to work on the monthly subscription orders I still have to dye/ship out for February. Sorry for the delay, if you're one of the people who hasn't received theirs yet, but my yarn was held up due to weather. I hope to have all February yarn shipped by Monday.

Due to the delay, I have had time to knit which is nice! This weekend I didn't get much time, as we went to the zoo, bowling and did a ton of yard work this weekend. However, I now go to a knit group Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so it gives me time to semi-focus. To be honest, I don't get much knitting actually done in knit groups, but it's great for the social aspect of my life. Working by myself (most days) from home can get a little lonely. Thank god for Netflix and podcasters.






This is the sock I started with the February colorway, Broken Heart Tart, which is available on the website. I love love love how it's knitting up. I'm using the Waffle House stitch pattern, but converted it to cuff down and also did a Eye of the Partridge heel. I'm knitting them on size US 1, because I think I'm knitting a little looser than I have before and I usually knit socks on US 1.5. We'll see how these fit.  I'm actually a little further than it looks here, as this was the beginning of yesterday and I worked on them throughout the day. I'm about a 1/4 of an inch away from the toe. Woohoo! I plan to cast on the second one right away so I don't have serious one sock syndrome.



Since I'm pretty much insane (head meet desk), I decided I needed to start a sock blanket, where you knit hundreds of mitered squares with sock yarn and connect them as you go. Oy! What am I thinking? I think I'm just tired of seeing so many scraps of sock yarn sitting around my house. However, this will only make them even more unusable as I don't think I want two squares to look alike. We'll see. I may change my tune quickly. If you are interested in swapping sock yarn bits, PM me on Ravelry (hpseeker4 is my username). If I get enough people interested, maybe we can organize a swap. I have tons of Candy Skein extras, as well as other yarn companies (mostly indie dyers).


That's it for me today. I hope you all have a great rest of your week and I'll see you here on Friday, with hopefully a finished Waffle House sock (but not the pair unfortunately).



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!