Lots of blankets

Welcome back, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I honestly don't remember what I was working on last time, so this will be a general update. I did finish the hot pink socks and give them to their recipient. I'm not sure of the reaction though, but I think they went over well. Along that same vein, I started a pair of socks for my boyfriend, G. He has size 13 feet, but since I'm working them from the toe up I tried them on him, and they were a little big. So I will know next time to make them less than half an inch shorter than what I made them this time. I'm making them out of Lang yarns Jawoll Color Aktion, in the color 132.0372 (what an inspiring name). So in hindsight, while this was an excellent color, I should have made the toes and heels in a complimentary color, because they are just above the ankle, and I have run out of yarn. So what happened, was I was knitting along, and realized I would run out of yarn, so I went back to the yarn store, and the yarn has been discontinued. So you know what they did? They looked up in the computer who else had bought that exact same yarn and contacted them to see if they would be willing to sell me the rest. They found someone, and she agreed. So she brought in her skein, and I'm going to pay for part of whatever yarn she chooses to replace it. How cool is that? So the day has been saved, and the socks will be finished by the next time I see G. I am making two at a time toe up, using the same lace pattern that was in the Gridelin, because I thought it looked masculine, and not really like lace. I think the same basic pattern was used in the froot loop socks from Knitty, but I'm not entirely sure.

Speaking of Curls by Hunter Hammersen, I am making another one. This one is Janthine, and I'm making it out of Cascade Heritage Silk Prints. I'm not sure of the color name off the top of my head. It's going along fine, but the lace pattern is not nearly as intuitive as the Gridelin, so I am still working from the chart and using a sticky post-it note to mark my progress so I can sit it down and pick it up whenever I feel like. I'm not entirely happy with this color, because in the skein and wound up it looked like there would be a lot more lilac, and now that it's knitting up it's turning out to be much more variegated. My plan is to finish knitting it, and then overdye it with purple to even out the colors and make them all get along better. Not that they don't get along right now, it's just not what I was expecting.

And then there is my 3-in-1 sweater that I have been working on off and on for about 5 months. I hit a snag, because I tried to do the yoke decreases, but it ended up too shallow. So now I redid the math and have it where I just need to look at the pattern and figure out how to do the multiple layer look on the top, so it is in timeout until I have enough brainspace to look at it. I just started school again this week, so that is taking up most of my brain power (I despise college algebra, just in case any one is wondering).

Since I have stalled out on this sweater, I have been brainstorming other sweaters, and I have decided that I want to make a sweater (or two) that will feature my handspun. I am thinking about Tenney Park by Elizabeth Morrison. I think that I could do the entrelac front panel in handspun, and then have the rest of the sweater in Cascade 220. I think that that would be a really cute sweater. So I got some different braids, and am experimenting to see what would make an awesome yarn. I am planning on putting a gradient, and then two handpainted braids together to make a significant quantity of three ply that I could use as the center panel. So here is the first ply. It's done spinning, and I wound it off onto a tube to await plying.

Then my cousin is pregnant, and I wanted to make her a special baby blanket. So I got ten skeins of Dreambaby DK by Plymouth yarns, and am making a Walt Painted Chevron blanket. It's a free pattern on Ravelry, and I think it's turning out nice. I put in like a million stitch markers so I can keep track of the chevron points and so I don't have to continuously count out every single row. It's going much faster since I put the stitch markers in.

In addition to that baby blanket I am also making two others for Project Linus. One is a Corner-to-Corner throw, and then the other is an improvised knit log cabin. I think that they are both turning out quite nicely.

Other than that I am focusing on school. I also started volunteering at the library genealogy center, typing in names from old obituaries. It's about as interesting as it sounds.