Finally Finished Friday

This is the second of Stealth Baby Projects that is finally finished.  The theme for this knit was the Caterpillar.

This particular project had some fits and start.  I knit my original pattern all the way to the end.  The whole time I am knitting it, I was not loving it.  I knit the yarn doubled on a fairly big needle and there was a lot of joins of colors that just were not fun.

Nope, I did not rip it out, I just tossed the pattern and the whole project in the garbage, and still had plenty of yarn left to figure out an alternative.  I did have to buy an extra skein or two, but the leftovers can easily be used for something else.  The yarn was Hikoo's Simpliworsted.

I used the yarn as a single thread and used Knitspot's Barrel o' Monkey pattern for the cocoon.  Her pattern has it all in stockinette, but I decided to use all of my original colors and add some purl rows as was my original intention, but otherwise keeping to the pattern for the cocoon.

The pattern includes a hat pattern, but I wanted to use a lighter weight yarn for the hat, so instead I chose to use the Simple Baby Cap 1 by Susan B. Anderson out of her Itty Bitty Hat book.  I chose Hikoo Simplicity, a DK weight in red for the cap and opted out of putting any eyes or antenna on the top.

I am super pleased with the final ensemble.  I wasn't so sure, but now with it all laid out, I am pretty happy about it.

I am onto one more theme knit for the baby, but first going to take a few days and knit a bit for me!

Happy Friday!!

A Signature Color?

 So a couple of un planned things happened this past weekend, in the color department.  No, really, it just happened.

First on Saturday, while trying to watch the Cardinal game, I noticed that my nail polish, the yarn for slanket I am knitting and my bag all matched.  Dead on my fave colors.

Then on Sunday, albeit it a little cool, while knitting on the porch, I noticed that my tennies, my bag, the rug and my cup all had a similar vibe going on.  So, I popped it all down on he porch and took a photo.

I guess you can call these my signature colors for the Summer.  Loving it!!

Episode 57 A New Sweater Season

 is up on You Tube and you can find it by clicking here

Finally Finished Friday

 This ensemble for Baby Boy H is so stinking cute!  I am doing several themes for the little guy who will be with us in July.

The blanket pattern is Sproglet Easy Baby Elephant Blanket and the yarn is Universal's Uptown Worsted.

I have knit a version of the blanket before and love the way the rows are set up that you can easily knit without a chart, just following the written row instructions.

The pattern can also be easily adapted to do as many elephants as you want across and as many rows of them as you want.  

My past baby blankets have been from Cascade Pacific, but the last one I did seem to pill a lot, so this time I have switched to Universal's version of a washable yarn that is anti-pilling, something I was pleased to see and hope that it holds up to it's advertising.

For special babies, aka my grandchildren, I love to knit blankets that have these  motifs on them. It is so much fun to watch the motifs grow into a design.

And a blanket for Hospice Veterans round this Friday out.

Have a great weekend!!

A Swatch Cap

 The next installment of my EZ and PJ challenge for myself from Knitting Workshop was a swatch cap.

The real purpose of the swatch cap is to use it, as the name implies, as a swatch.  When finished, then I have a cap (which this one fits me nicely) for walking later this year and so that I can  use the same yarn for an EPS sweater that I would like to knit as part of my EZ and PJ quest.

I will admit here that my color work is definitely something that needs a lot of work.  I readily admit that and acknowledge that it is my hope over the course of the rest of the year to perfect it. I am pretty stubborn that I have tried knitting with two hands, knitting with one hand and both yarns in the right hand ala Meg who does it in the left hand and with a flick of the finger has the alternate yarn ready for the stitch, but the method that works the best for me, and causes me to least likely throw it across the room, is to knit with one yarn at a time in right hand, dropping and picking up and on and on.

Yes, it is a bit slower, but for me, it helps me to keep my tension a little looser than the other methods.  And tension is where I need the most work.  

For my cap sample, I did not employ any of the many techniques out there taming the jog in color, as is evident of my finished hat, rather I just knit it.

My hat still needs to be blocked, something I am off to do after this posting.  I am hopeful that with blocking, the shaping of the top will come to less of a point than mine, shown in the above picture.  

But from the top, I do like the way EZ has us shaping the hat.

The interesting thing about this first knit in the Knitting Workshop Book and Video, is that right after you finish the hat, EZ is ready for you to move on quickly to knitting a sweater, she believes anyone is up to the task right away.  Isn't that a lovely thought for new Knitters?!  One of my favorite things EZ has said and I think Knitters, new and old can benefit from it "You don't know, what you know." In other words, just do it, right?!

Ok, so Winter is temporarily hit us here in Central Illinois.  

And I have noodled on a few sweaters recently that I might have wanted to cast on for one more sweater for this what is supposed to be transitional sweater times.

But, I decided to do the grown up thing and pull out a WIP from last Summer and knit on it.  Sugar Maple out of  Concentric yarn.  I blogged about it last year and I have some nice new polish to wear with it, along with a jacket and a wrap that would easily make this a transitional ensemble if I needed.

Sometimes, it is the responsible grown up thing to do.

Long Time Coming

 Earlier this year, I promised some pictures of my Storm Mountain on a body.  I finally got around to it on Thursday, when the sun was perfect for pictures outside.

This cascading front can be worn so many different ways.

And the sweater is definitely okay to wear as a transitional Spring sweater during these cool Spring days.

Then, I'll bring it back out this Fall and wear it all the way through Winter!

Finally Finished Friday - The V-Back Tee

 Another transitional sweater this week is finished for the #topthis2021kal I am hosting over on Instagram and the PJKnits Raverly group if you are interested in joining in.

The pattern can be worn two ways, scoop neck in the front.

Or the V in the front.

The pattern actually calls for fading 3-5 yarns, but I chose to let the Three Irish Girls yarn do it's own thing.

I added 3/4 sleeves and quite a bit of length to mine along with a longer rib on the bottom.  Initially, it was a short rib, but was very prone to curling so I opted for a longer rib too.

I made quite a few mods and they can all be found on my Ravelry page, pennyj

Hope you are knitting some transitional sweaters to add to your sweater wardrobe.  Share with us if you are, we would love to see them!

Super Simple Summer Sweater

 I bought this yarn last year from Espace Tricot in Canada.  I wanted to knit one of these sweaters out of the actual yarn the designer, Joji Locatelli designed it out of.

I decided to go with the reddish orange and cream as I saw it on Instagram done in the same color ways.

At the time I bought it, I thought it might double as a Summer Sweater for around the 4th of July.

Wrong!  It really is more of a transitional Spring Sweater or even early Fall sweater to wear.

If you are interested in my modifications of the sweater, be sure and check out the podcast coming the first of next week on You Tube, PJKnits or hop on over to my project page on Ravelry, pennyj to see all the mods.

This one is a winner for me!

Top This 2021!

It's A New Week, But, Wait

Today is blocking day, but first a bit of catchup from this weekend.

Sunday was a chilly and rainy day, which meant another square in my scrappy blanket.  It also felt like a bourbon kind of day both in the candle that I was burning along with the color of the block.

I worked on the sleeves on my Super Simple Summer Sweater while watching my Cardinals lose games.

And I pulled out a quilting project from probably at least 25 years ago.  Some of the fabric was a bit discolored, but I made do with what I had to make this table topper.  

And probably 10 years ago, while visiting a friend in Texas, I bought a package of squares, so I thought I would put them together for a small baby quilt for our second grandson to come later this Summer.

I used to quilt a lot and managed a  quilt shop more than 25 years ago, before going to the College for my last career.  After having all that time past, I feel like such a newbie to quilting, but super excited to add this craft back into my repertoire of crafts.

Spring Week

 Our weather is ever changing here in Central Illinois, so I thought I would share with you the last couple of days of weather and knitting.

I pulled out a WIP the other day, the Shadow Shawl, to work on when I just wanted to knit on a shawl.  The yarn is birthday yarn from 2016 from my friend Becky. (Yes, I keep track of birthday yarn, when I received it and who gave it to me)

The daffodils are starting to stand up.

I still need to clean their bed up of the leaves.

I think I may want to go out and clip a few for a vase inside so we can enjoy them.

The wind came through Thursday.

And brought down a carpet of tulip tree blooms.

I sat out yesterday among them and had my coffee.  It wasn't as warm as it has been, but it felt good just to be there.

The peonies have grown while I watched them.  Last Sunday, they were barely peaking out.

We have several of these bushes in front of our porch.  Wish I knew what they were??

And today, the weather is rain all day.  I like rainy Saturdays, so I am going to sit and knit, drink a cuppa, watch the Cardinals play, hopefully, and work on my last Spring Transitional Sweater for the #tothis2021kal.  I am hoping to finish the Super Simple Summer Sweater this weekend, so I can add it to the blocking pile of knits.

Have a great weekend!!

Top This 2021 KAL - 2nd Season - Transitional Sweaters

One of my transitional sweaters is finished.  It just needs a bit of a soak and block and then it will be ready for the cooler temps coming up.  

The V-Back Tee by Jamie Hoffman has a few modifications from the original pattern, and I will show them on my project page soon on Ravelry and here on the blog once the final product is ready.  Super Simple Summer Sweater is yet to be finished, but I've been punishing my hands a bit the last couple of days, on a couple of baby things I am trying to finish, so it will have to wait a couple of days.

But, in the meantime, I have been doing some thinking about possible next sweaters to cast on.

It may be a moot  point, since I have told myself that I cannot cast on a new one until the Super Simple Summer Sweater is finished.  

Stay tuned to see which of me prevails.