Is This a Year of Knitting for Me?

If you take a look at the projects that I currently have on the needles, it looks like it is a year of knitting for me. I haven’t done this much in the last 18 years. It is mostly sample knitting in my knitting bag, but at the moment it’s all “just because” knitting. Let’s get to the details.

Sweater Knitting

I shared with you in my last post that I am making Miss BB in some stash yarn. I like using natural colored yarn every now and then. I also like working with non-superwash wool for outerwear. It has a nice woolly feel and smell. I also appreciate the structure of a seamed garment. The knitting is easier on my hands because it is made in pieces which means that you don’t have the full weight of the garment as it gets nearer to completion.

I finished the back piece and have washed and blocked it. I prefer to do this as I go so that I can get straight to the seaming once all the pieces are done. Another advantage is that I don’t have to have the whole thing in my project bag when I am traveling, like I am right now. I left the finished back at home. More on that later in the post.

I have completed about half of the left front of the cardigan. It is going rather quickly when you consider my limitations on knitting time each day.

Sock and Other Knitting

I am normally project monogamous, but I am breaking that practice just because I feel like it. I have cast on for a pair of socks, plus I have two other small projects that I will cast on this week.

On the left is the start of my Mingling Daisies Socks in my Classic Merino Bamboo in Midnight Blue. I enjoyed making the Mingling Daisies Shawl, so I hope these will be fun to make and wear. I have never made a pair of socks for myself from this base, and I am interested to try the results. I often am asked by customers how they wear for socks and now I will be able to answer more accurately. I am using this color for the whole sock instead of the three colors Stephen uses for his sample. I don’t care for changing colors in socks because one color means only two ends to weave in. :-)

The middle yarn is going to be the other Year of Socks 2024 May release, Lazy Daisy Socks. I neglected to mention above that the Mingling Daisies Socks were also from the May release. I am having a lot of fun doing these this year. I haven’t made a few of them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get to them at some point. The yarn I have wound is some stash yarn I bought from Webs in 2010. It is Kollage Yarns Sock-a-licious in Stormy.

My final soon to be project is Veritas Shawl. There is a story for how this got into my queue. I was at the Midwest Fiber Festival a couple of weeks ago. A fellow vendor friend who has her first grandchild on the way, saw that I had a retired baby sweater sample for sale. She asked if I wanted to do a trade for it since she is short on knitting time. I agreed and the yarn on the right was what I chose from her booth.

The yarn is a very lovely hand dyed dyed skein of Leading Men Fiber Arts Monologue. I am linking to Ravelry because it is a discontinued yarn. I did a pattern search on Ravelry for something to make with this one skein since I didn’t want to make socks with a single ply yarn. I found the above shawl, which I am very excited to begin. I think this will be a nice scarf type shawl and I love the color!

Travels

So, as I mentioned above I am on the road this weekend. I drove to Beloit, Wisconsin on Wednesday and stopped for the night. On Thursday I completed my drive to Hudson, Wisconsin which is just a couple of miles from the Minnesota state line. Here is a view from my hotel room window at the Wisconsin country-side. That’s my rig in the parking lot. :-)

I am going to be setting up the booth later today at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival. I really like doing this show. It’s a bit of a haul to get here, but it is always worth the trip. I first discovered it 13 years ago, in 2011.

I love the atmosphere of the festival. There’s always a nice turn out of fiber enthusiasts but it’s not overwhelming. There are lots of great fiber vendors, food vendors, and live music. Sometimes the weather can be a bit cool, to me anyway, coming from the south, but this year looks to be in the low 70’s and 80’s. That’s pretty warm in my experience. I am also glad that the rain, which had been forecast for today, seems gone and set up should be much more pleasant.

I will close this post for now since it’s getting close to the time that I need to head out for the days work. Thanks for reading!