It's Not Even Friday

 But there is a Finished Object to share today.  Musselburgh #5 from deep PYS.

I had a skein of stripe and a skein of the solid and wanted to see what a half and half Musselburgh Hat looked like.  

All along I really thought I would love the stripe as the head part.   As it turned it out, I'm loving the green more.  

A Bit of An Ensemble

 Two of my friends a few years back gave me some Emma's Yarn as presents.  One was her sock yarn, the other a skein of mohair.  Both of them in the Riptide color way.  I kicked around several ideas the last couple of months and settled on a bit of an ensemble.

First up Cooma Cowl, using some of both of the sock and mohair yarn.

I love how the mohair in it makes it puddle when wearing!  Before knitting it, I knew that I would have a lot of the sock yarn left and so I started planning more pieces to go with my cowl.

And of course, it immediately came to my mind to do a musselburgh for myself out of just the sock yarn.  It is going to be one of my vacay projects while sitting around the pool.

The next thought for the rest of the yarn will be mittens, but not until the hat is done and I am still contemplating if there is enough of the mohair to do just the hand part of the mitten with a sock weight rib for cuff.  Plenty of time to think about that later.

This little ensemble just brings me so much Joy to think about.  Are you choosing Joy this Wednesday? I hope so.

Episode 135

 Please hop on over to the PJKnits You Tube channel for the latest episode.  I'm cleaning out my Winter Sweaters and want to tell you about the ones that are going to be donated and why.

You can watch it by clicking here

I've got some finished objects I am sharing as well, and how much JOY my knitting is bringing me!

Aren't We Thankful For Knitting Once Again?!

 It's crazy out there, and I am hoping you dear reader are weathering it with your knitting!

For a few days this week, there has been sunshine and warmer days and impromptu knitting on the porch!

With some finished objects I will share next week on the podcast and next Friday here, but here is a glimpse of just knitting and coffee and letting the world stop for a bit.

I hope your knitting is bringing you some easy moments while we Choose Joy!!

Finally Finished Friday

 There is a few this Friday that I have been saving for Friday Finishes.

First up is a test knit that I started last year for Beth Macdonald Stone, Get Out of the Pool Tee DK Version.  Knit in pieces with the intention to omit pooling in the knit.  This was a fun knit to watch as my yarn colors emerged from the skein.  

I'm not a super fan of sewing up sweaters, and I have to admit, it took me a couple of weeks to actually sit down and do it, but finally I did and it wasn't so bad and now,  I have a new sweater for Summer dresses!

And with jeans or crops, as I discovered this morning for pictures on a real body, not just Miss Manny. 

Second on the list is Twistmas Hat by Espace Tricot.  I used Drops Air from a sweater I knitted a few years back.  The pom came first, I bought it and then went to PYS to see what I could knit a hat out of.  

I have enough Drops still to do some mittens and now that I have worn the hat out in cold this week, so now I am stoked to cast some matching items for my hat.

Last up this week is my Flax sweater, another 2024 WIP that I have been really just knitting on down at my local yarn shop.  Base yarn is some deep stash Sunday Knits yarn that I have had for sometime.  I bought the Suri to go with from my local yarn shop and the two of them together are scrumptious!

A cozy sweater that is going to get a lot of wear around here at Chez PJKnits!

It feels so good to have some 2024 WIPS in my journal checked off!!

 Episode 134 is up on You Tube and you can watch it by clicking here

There are some finishes, some WIPS and hilites of an event I recently attended virtually with Darn.Knit Anyway, Sweater Camp.

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Almost Done

 We had some snow yesterday, and I just couldn't resist going out and having some fun in it with my Flax.

The downside of tossing it in the snow, is that you have to bring it in and can't knit on it right away, cause it is so wet.

But, I had a solution, a nice warm spot where all things go when coming in from the snow.

And today, I purposely tossed into the water to be blocked!

Super excited to have this done and ready to continue on with a new WIP!

There Has Been Some Shopping

 You know one of my intentions for 2025 is to try and (again) use PYS (Penny's Yarn Shop aka Stash) and my library whenever possible.  But, two things-- I love a good knitting book and yarn can be bought if I absolutely cannot find something in PYS that fits the bill.  

Lets just also say, that as I look at new knits for the year, I am leaning quite often to knitting them out of the yarn the designer designed it out of,* which of course, would mean a purchase of yarn and I'm ok with going out of that intention!  Sometimes when I try to hard to use PYS, I settle for a yarn just to use PYS, and then kick myself for not buying.  More about that later.

Lets talk books.  My lys, got Knitting for Olive last week and posted it on Instagram.  This is a book thatI wanted before Christmas, but just couldn't justify buying it.  One of the things I have done in the past, is not give it much thought and bought a knitting book, sight unseen, even though I could have checked all the designs out on Ravelry.  There is just something about a hardcover book in my hands and really looking at it.

On Tuesday, I went to the shop, thumbed through the book quickly and set it aside.  A bit later, I picked it up and really looked at it, making mental note about how many of the patterns in the book, that I potentially would want to knit.  The cost of the book is $32 and so I wanted to equate that to price per pattern.  My take away is that over a period of time, there are at least 6 patterns I would like to knit out of it, and decided it was a good deal.  Now, these are patterns more than likely ones that I am going to actually knit out of Knitting For Olive yarn, *see above.

Stay tuned as I am sure there will be more to show from this book as the year progresses.

I hope you are having a great Super Bowl Sunday, and knitting through the state of our world right now.

Hugs my friends!

I Would Do It Again

 

Sweater Camp, but virtually via Zoom, with Darn Knit. Anyway!  Next week, tune into the podcast, and I will tell you all about it!

I will tell you that I completed my goal for the weekend, finishing the front of my sweater and onto the sleeves!

Stay tuned this week for the 2nd Makers Meetup Announcement with Kendra and I on my PJKnits You Tube Channel!!!

From The Comfort of My Living Room

 I'm doing Darn.Knit.(Anyway) Virtual Sweater Camp starting tomorrow and going through Sunday.  I could have signed up to go in person, but Illinois weather can be finicky, so I decided to try virtual.  I'm looking forward to seeing what it is all about and perhaps next year I'll plan differently.

This week I received the swag bag in the mail.  I can't show it to you until camp starts, but lets just say it has some cool things in it.

During camp and the series of speakers, I've decided to work on my Flax to see if I can get it a bit further along.  I've put a new project keeper in it, so I can see how much I accomplish after the weekend is over.

The progress keeper is from a friend from Hospice, Nena, who made it.  Isn't it just the cutest?!

I'll post again tomorrow, after the first day, stay tuned!  And have a great weekend!!

Tuesday Catchup

Some catch up items this Tuesday.  

The quest for the perfect handknit socks is still on. But, I may be closer to finding the answer.  I knit these advent socks from The Cozy Knitter a few years back.   I wore them most of the day Sunday in my boots, and then popped them on last night when the tootsies got a bit chilly.  

My ahha moment, was that after all of this wearing, they were not loosey goosey on my foot!  I think I might have finally finished the quest.  Just need to find my notes on Ravelry to see what info I have on them and perhaps get another skein of yarn from her to make sure.

This Vertices Unite is like chips!! I can't seem to put it down even though I have some obligation knitting that has been on the needles way too long.

Some fun mail call.  Even though, I got the digital version, I didn't go and look at it, because I do like a hard copy to peruse over my coffee.

 Weather Report from Chez PJKnits-- we are getting closer and closer to the 50s this week!  What?!!  End of January, start of February???  And sunshine!  I'll take it. Catch you on the purl side!

Sittin Here Just Chillin

 No really!  Our coldest day of the Winter season today.  Kids are out of school because of the extreme cold!  There is record breaking snow (as in inches) in the South and Gulf of Mexico, which means Florida, Pensacola and our vacation fave Destin!  What in the world is going on.

With the state of the country again these days and years to come, this is going to be my return motto again this year.

And although, I really try to keep politics and religion out of my Zooms and Podcasts etc, there will be times when I will just shake my head and say what the heck, only if different language to myself.

At least we have our knitting and here is an update on my Vertices Unite, 3rd section, which continues to surprise me as to how much knitting there really is in some of the sections

Hope you are having a good week even if there is snow and frigid temps where there shouldn't be!

Finally Finished Friday

My Advent socks from Woolens and Nosh is this week's finally finished Friday!!  I'll keep you posted when I wear them to let you know how I liked the yarn, the needle size with it and the amount of stitches.

For now, it is just good to have them all finished and two things with last week's Musselburgh Hat from WIPS 2024!!

  

Unite KAL

I cannot believe that I didn't post here about the "Unite" KAL we started here at PJKnits on January 1st?!!

But, we did and I didn't post, so here goes what I should have posted a few weeks back.

The PJKnits Zoom group on Saturday nights decided to do a KAL with the cast on starting 1 pm Central Time via Zoom.  It is labeled the "Unite" KAL because many of us have wanted for sometime to knit the Vertices Unite and thought this would be a good time to start on New Years Day.  Since Stephen West also has the Textures Unite, we decided to open it up to both of these patterns and to go even further, we were totally ok if anyone wanted to go rogue and just join us on New Years Day. 

I chose from PYS a group of yarns that I purchased many years back at Stitches Midwest at the Yarn Culture Booth, a new to me yarn, Rosy Green Wool Cheeky Merino,  These five colors were pretty much hanging on the rack just as they are pictured below.  I had no idea then what they would be, but I figured some sort of shawl, so I bought them.  Since then, they have been hanging out in PYS.  

Technically, they are a little heavier than finger weight, but I decided to use them.  Also, you will notice, there is not a teal or turquoise in the bunch, but I did think when I decided on them for the Vertices Unite that they would all play nice with a fave item of mine, blue jeans.

Cast on began and section one, I have to say, took much longer than I thought it would -  a couple of weeks, but as I knit on it and our zoom got together on the following Saturday, we were assured by another knitter that had already knit it once, that it was the longer section and our feelings were valid.

My first two colors for section one are the two far left ones in the above picture, the first being Deep Ocean, a really dark navy, and the second stripe being Taupe.

Finally, a couple of days ago, I got to move onto section 2.  Originally, it was going to be colors 4 (Air) and 5 (Peony) above, but once I got the first two rows in, I thought it was a little light, so I swapped out the blue for color 3 (Wood). I wasn't sure that I had made the right decision on my yarn choice at this point, but I motored on with more stripes and in the light of day, I like it, I really like it.

You see, I was letting someone else's opinion of the darker taupe (she is not a fan of brown, any brown) to override my judgement on my yarn choices. Knitters Choice.

I am super excited to finish this section to see what the next section entails!!!

And it is not too late to join us if you are interested, we would love to have you join us!!  Details are in the header of the pjknits Ravelry group!!

Teal The Cowls Come Home

 Episode 132 is up on You Tube and there is quite the collection of teal yarns and possible patterns to be knit from them this year.

You can watch it by clicking here

Finally Finished Friday

 I call this Musselburgh #2, but that is only because it was in the car as my ride along project,

The yarn was a gift from my friend Kendra,  a couple of years back when we attended the Mini Meetup, now known as the Makers Meetup that she and I are co-hosting.  It is a new to me yarn from Arkansas Yarn Co, with the colorway being named You Glow Girl, a reference to what it will do under a black light.

 I just realized that this is the first finish of 2025 and a WIP from 2024!  Alrighty then!!  

My Current Obsession Continues

 Or also known as the new sock...but not a sock, but using PYS Sock yarn. 🧶 

The Musselburgh affair continues.  

A Finally Finished Musselburgh coming tomorrow. 

But, in the mean time, I am thinking about doing one with half the stripes and the other half the solid green (lower pic/top).  Which would mean that there would be sufficient for another whole hat in some variety.

And a new cast (lower pic/bottom) on for in the car/contingency knitting out PYS from Stitches West many years ago, that my friend Kendra picked up for me...I'm in love with this and haven't gotten very far at all with it! 

 Best of all, I did not cast on with a pinhole cast on for it, but rather straight cast on and then used the tail to sew up the hole.  It was a bit fiddly still, but did it without any pressure.

We are expecting some more snow next couple of days, so lots of knitting will be going on here at Chez PJKnits, blog at you tomorrow!!

Checking Off My List

 Since the first of the year, I am trying really hard to check things off of my big list of things I want to do.  Anyone else doing that?

First up, since it is just me these days, getting out and putting Christmas decor has been a bit of pain, going into a storage area twice, getting decor out and then putting it back has not been a fun thing. 

 This year, I decided to use a closet area, which meant that all of the yarn  and bags and WIPS needed to come out.  And since the upstairs bathtub is never used, it was a nice holding space for some of the bags.

I'm happy to report all of the Christmas decor that usually was in a storage area, now is in the closet, which means next year, it will be so much easier to pull them out.  

While at it, I have been going through PYS, and those yarns that I know I will never ever have time or inclination to knit are being donated.  (4 bags and the bags went with them.) I'm still totally done touching all of the PYS, but I'm sure there will be more snow days in our future, and I'll tackle some more then.

After the snow last weekend, it is definitely Winter and aren't we lucky we are knitters?!

Stay warm and dry!!

Happy New Year!!

 

And most of ALL - JOY, lots of JOY!