What happened to November?

Well, I got really, really, really busy with several projects: knitting, sewing, refinishing and reupholstering a desk chair, sewing, knitting, sewing, knitting, and getting ready for a new addition to our home.

I finished (finally) the November socks for my daughter. These socks seemed to take forever. I put them on hold while I was helping my sister recover from surgery, then one of her precious greyhounds got involved, our two closest grandkids moved to Michigan, my birthday happened, and the list could go on and on. Here are the socks in all their glory.

I love the colors and it’s really hard to capture how pretty they really are. The honeycomb pattern was fairly easy but I did have to concentrate on those rows.

My sister gave me some fabric with a plate and silverware design so I made six placemats for my daughter.

These two chairs have been sitting in my basement since I rescued them from iPad aunt’s garage in 2015. I stripped one chair, refinished it, and put on new upholstery suede fabric. I took lots of pictures during the process but I’ll just show you the before and after. If you really want to see all the work-in-progress pictures, let me know and I’ll try to make some sense of them for you. Personally the before and after pictures should be enough. I plan to redo the other chair but that will have to wait till next spring as I have to do some of the work outside.

This quick sewing project took about an hour or two. I made mesh laundry bags to send with all of the socks I made with the hand-dyed yarn we dyed in June.

The Karate Kid’s socks were next on the project list and I finished them in record time (for me at least). I used this Syncopation Sock pattern that I’ve used before. The pattern is written for toe-up socks but I made these from the top down. I love the colors and wish I could keep them for myself! They deserve a post of their own so I’ll just show the finished project for now.

All of the socks I knit for my three grands and my daughter along with the mesh bags and placemats will be boxed up and sent to Colorado ASAP.

Another quick and easy sewing project was this leash. The fabric is a heavy brushed cotton that looks like a patchwork quilt. I had everything in my sewing stash so, in less than 30 minutes, it was done.

I just started this sweater (I’m just using one color) the other day and have a deadline of December 16 to get it off the needles…

…because we are getting ready for a new addition to our family.

A female miniature schnauzer puppy! No pictures of her right now but I will soon. Very soon! For the next several days puppy-proofing the house will be our #1 priority!

0-Finish in 2 hours

Mr. Aitch and I don’t have “real” tv. We watch shows on Amazon Prime, Brit Box, Peacock, and a few other apps.

Monday evening I started and finished another scrubbie in less than two hours while watching some shows. It would have taken less time if I didn’t have to change colors partway in the row.

Scrubbie in Scrubby Sparkle.  Blueberry and avacado.

Red Heart Scrubby Sparkle in Blueberry and Avacado.

My second FO (finished object) in 2022. The first is half of a pair of socks that I didn’t have time (aka I forgot) to photograph.

I also have the second sock of the above-mentioned pair on my needles and just started the heel flap. More FOs and WIPs coming up soon!

Any FOs to report? Or WIPs? Or just thinking-of-casting-ons?

Patti

May update

May marked my 11th year of blogging. It just seems like yesterday when I published my first post. I need to do some housekeeping and clean up some of the headings and pictures.

Well, the Bamboo socks are finished. I l-o-v-e them.

These are my first ever toe-up socks. I started to knit a different pattern and after the first several rows, I realized that I didn’t like it so chucked that pattern and found this bamboo sock that was also a toe-up sock.

There are pros and cons to toe-up vs. top-down socks.

Toe-up Pros: No picking up stitches at the gusset.

Toe-up Cons: Starting the toe. Loosely binding off. Plus it is new to me.

Top-down Pros: Easy to cast on. Familiar to me

Top-down Cons: Picking up stitches for the gusset. Kitchener stitch for the toes.

I’m not sold on the toe-up construction but I’m willing to give it another try. The cast-on for the toe was a killer so if you have any suggestions or techniques to help, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Details: Needle size US #1. Used 68 grams of hand-dyed yarn. Bamboo Sock pattern.

Since my sock needles were empty, I decided to knit a pair of shorties with some ribbing around the arch. I have a pair of commercial socks with ribbing around the foot. They really support the arch and make my feet feel good.

I’m making this up as I go so once finished, I’ll decide whether or not to knit the second one or rip out this one.I’m carrying the pink up the ribbing section so I can rejoin that color for the rest of the sock.

The last update for May (and I don’t remember if I did this in May or April) is a sewing project. Our front porch furniture needed new cushion covers. I made these covers in 2014 and the fabric faded and just would’t get clean. The print was large and busy.

I tried to order some new fabric in June of 2020 but with all the craziness happening in the world, my order was cancelled in August and wasn’t available anymore. Mr. Aitch suggested a solid red. I like the color but the fabric is slippery and was very difficult to sew. However, I think it will hold the color and clean up well. And the hummingbirds like the color, too.

Oh, one more thing… Brood X cicadas arrived about 10 days ago. We’ll be listening to their lovely (?) mating song for about another month. Then we won’t see nor hear them again for 17 years. This one is sitting on my giant-leaf hosta and is about 1.5 inches long with red eyes.

More next week…

Patti

Curling mist

Helen Stewart’s Handmade Sock Society season 4 got underway earlier this month.  The first sock pattern, Curling Mist, was a joy to knit with an all-around texture.

(c) Helen Stewart

Knit Picks Hawthorne Multi yarn in the Cully colorway (color discontinued) is a soft green with hints of blue.yarn colorwayI pretty much followed the pattern except for the heel flap.  I have two favorite patterns that I like to use: the Slip-stitch heel flap and the Eye of Partridge heel flap.  I decided on the slip-stitch one as it would flow better from the ribbed pattern into the heel flap.

Helen suggested in her pattern to reverse the cabling from leaning to the right to the left for the second sock so they would be mirror images.  So I did that as well.

The socks fit my feet perfectly.

Isn’t it funny that you can look and look and look at something and not see a missed stitch until you have a picture of it?

And with that missed cable crossing (oops) I will keep these for myself.

Do you have works-in-progress or finished anything lately?

Patti