I am happily on my holiday vacation from work this week. I’ll be off through New Years and cannot be happier about getting more free time to craft and work on everything I barely have time for during my “normal” life. So far on vacation, I have finished two pairs of socks and one sweater. The time off isn’t over yet, although I’ve officially finished everything I wanted to before the end of the year. It means that I get to plan new projects to start in the new year, which will probably come in a separate post sometime in the next few weeks.
Total: 6 WIPs (6 active – that’s right)
Knitting: 5 projects – 2 Socks, 2 Sweaters, 1 blanket
Spinning: 1 project
Finished: 3 projects
2019 Total Finished (Goal- 30): 29 (note on this later)
December DVD
Pattern: Oh Hello Sock (52 stitches) with a Fish Lips Kiss heel
Yarn: Desert Vista Dyeworks / ZomPiglet / Vista (sock)
Needles: Size 0
Gauge: 32 st per 4 in
Cast on: 12/9/2019
Cast off goal: 12/31/2019
Cast off date: 12/29/2019
Wow, I actually finished all 12 months of this knit along. I’m really happy and proud of this accomplishment, but I’m also not really surprised. I am great with routine and schedules and so having this monthly deadline worked well for me. I really didn’t have too much sock mojo this year and so I’m happy this pushed me to complete 12 pairs. I did finish 8 for me, 1 for my mom and 3 for my husband. He now has a good set of socks in his drawer, which seems to make both of us happy.
Well, back to the socks at hand. I do plan on a longer post dedicated to this project so I’ll keep it short. Thanks Desert Vista Dyeworks for the fun knit along and 12 new pairs of socks!
Earnest Cardigan
Pattern: Earnest / Joji Locatelli
Yarn: agirlandherwool / Rose Tea / Sock
Needles: Size 3
Gauge: 24 st per 4 in on size 4 needles.
Cast on: 10/30/2019
Cast off goal: 12/31/2019
Cast off date: 12/28/2019 (although ends are not woven in and it’s not blocked yet)
I finished this sweater!!! I seriously thought this was going to take way too long and I wouldn’t finish it before the end of the year. Somehow, the body went faster than the sleeves did, although I am on vacation now and was very committed to just working through it. Again, I’ll do a longer post on this project now that it’s finished. I will say that pre-blocking, it does fit well, is so soft and comfortable and I will be able to wear this a lot. I think it’ll work well with jeans casually or dressed up for work. I might even be crazy enough to say this, but I could even see a scenario where I knit this again. Look out for a more detailed post sometime in the next few days.
Pavement Sweater
Pattern: Pavement / Veera Valimaki
Yarn: Once Upon a Corgi / Rodney / Aeron (tweed)
Needles: Size 5 (body) and Size 1 (neckline)
Gauge: 20 st per 4 in on size 6 needle
Cast on: 10/23/2019
Cast off goal: None
I’ll make this one quick. I’ve gone to a few movies and continue to work through the body. I have a few inches left before the bottom hem. You can see how long it is in the first photo at the top of this post.
Gnome Zombie Socks
Pattern: No pattern (52 stitches) with a Fish Lips Kiss heel
Yarn: Gnome Acres / Zombies in Pajamas / Bungalow Gnome (BFL sock)
Valley Yarns / Seagull / Huntington
Needles: Size 0 dpns
Gauge: 34 st per 4 in (pre wash)
Cast on: 7/20/2019
Cast off goal: 12/31/2019
Cast off date: 12/29/2019
After I finished my Earnest Cardigan and DVD socks, I planned to finish these socks before the end of the year so that I could reach my goal of 30 projects. I will be at 30 projects because I knit swatches for the shop and when I close that out for the year, I will count it as the 30th project. Anyway, last night, I knit the heel of sock number 2 and this morning I was able to knit up the 2nd leg and cuff. I have no clue how that knit so fast but maybe after knitting so many pairs two at a time, knitting just one goes pretty quickly. In any case, I finished that sock (plain stockinette) very quickly and now I have another finished pair for the end of the year. I will post a longer post about this project too.
Northeasterly and Spinning
Both of these projects are long term, but they are being worked on! My northeasterly had its 5 colors added to it this month. I spun only a handful of times because the holidays were busy, but I’ll get back to my 3 days per week soon.
What’s next? – Holiday knitting plans
This is a copy of what I posted in my last WIP post.
1. Finish DVD Socks – done
2. Finish Gnome Zombie socks – done
3. Finish Earnest (hahahahahaha) – done. Who’s laughing now!
4. Start my scrappy crochet blanket and rip out the Cozy Memories. See my first post. – Currently sitting next to me waiting to go as soon as I post this.
Shop – The shop is returning to its normal shipping schedule. Ready to ship orders will ship the next business day. Look for more ready to ship updates and quantities coming in the new year. Feel free to reach out with color, quantity and base requests. I have some fun ideas ready to show you. Custom orders ship in 1-3 business days.
Thanks for checking in! Did you get some time off to craft?