Kninja Knitter

The weather has definitely warmed up here this week, and the forecast looks pretty good for the near future, too. This will be my first summer in about twenty years that I should be comfortable at home, having a new air conditioning system installed last fall! Of course, I’ve never been one to let the heat stop my knitting adventures…but I won’t have to spend evenings at Panera or a friend’s house to do it.

While the Splash Pad Party has been canceled this year, there are other events happening. In particular, I’m jumping in to Summer Sock Camp, hosted by YouTube/Ravelry’s Crazy Sock Lady, Kay Litton. And speaking of socks, I had a nice exchange at a church social event this week. A young man correctly identified my project as “knitting a sock.” Brilliant! Then a fellow knitter recalled that I have often knit socks two at a time (2AAT) in the past. It’s been ages since I did that since it requires prepping the yarn more than I usually do now with 100g skeins.

That being said, I did buy a two 50g skein set in London! So yesterday I wound them up and cast on a pair on one needle (magic loop). Now I have three SIP (sock in progress) projects on the needles.

I still haven’t blocked the rainbow shawl yet, but here’s a preliminary FO picture:

Socks in progress are:

The last pair I’m modifying to knit toe-up so that I can be sure to maximize my yarn usage. The first pair above should use up at least 95% of the skein based on how I knit the first sock. Knowing what the full colorway looks like makes a huge difference. For the Austin socks, I should be in a very similar situation. And while I previously had distinctive gauge differences at the start, that’s not an issue with 2AAT socks, thankfully.

Having finished a shawl at the beginning of last week, I didn’t really wait long before casting on another. This was my Club Lola project from January. I’m not really a fan of either of the yarns included, so the FO will be donated once it’s finished. But this is a great opportunity to get a feel for the design so maybe I’ll knit another one (or more) later using the yarn of my choice.

Laura is also hosting a KAL to knit shortie socks from her pattern collection. I’m waiting until the first London socks are done so I can use that needle.

I made further progress on the blue blanket, but it’s slow going. I knit a couple rows a day when I think about it. At least I made it to the second half of the first pattern repeat. As written, there are ten repeats of the full 24-row pattern. My earliest target would be to finish it before the Pigskin Party starts in September, but that’s not a firm deadline.

One more new project this week is an itty bitty one. I started knitting up a yarn cozy using the leftovers from the rainbow shawl. This is my first attempt using my Chiao Goo interchangeable set which is all itty bitty! I’ve used a 9-inch circular needle once before but not for an extended period of time. I’d like to improve my technique with the small circumference work since it has advantages over magic loop (dropping stitches at the turns when knitting in the dark), but it requires a different configuration for my hands.

My last project that saw some love this week is my Bling Tee. I’ve got about two more inches to knit before joining the sleeves to the body and then starting the beaded yoke. I’m working with three skeins of the hand-dyed yarn so that there’s no obvious difference in the color. Once I get to the beaded section, though, I might have to cut one of the yarns. Time to review the chart again, I suppose. When I knit the Bling Tank, I didn’t alternate because the front and back are separated by side panels. Any variation wouldn’t be detectable due to the construction. The tee is knit up in the round though, so it’s very different.

My church choir has concluded the weeknight rehearsals until after Labor Day. My community choir has three more rehearsals (including tonight) until our big performance in June, then we’ll be off until resuming in September. I’m looking forward to having more dedicated knitting time over the summer. This past week I did skip some outside events in favor of sitting on the couch and making progress on my projects, lol.

The only knitting-inhibited event I will not surrender is time with my grandson! I’ve tried knitting a couple times with him around, but it’s risky. Until he’s older and can understand the “rules” about Grandma’s knitting, I’m just accepting that it’s “knitless” time. This week we watched a fair chunk of the Queen Rock Montreal concert event on DisneyPlus. Z danced several times, and he stared for a while at Brian May’s guitar playing or Freddie at the piano.

This week I will be taking him for a portrait session (16 months old!) and I’m dog sitting for a friend over the holiday weekend, so we get to hang out with a real-live Bluey dog. 😍 Their first meeting was a good one, so the overnight visit should be fine.

Also this week, in addition to blocking the shawl (it’s soaking right now), I want to finish the second DVD sock so I can be sure my deadline work is done. It’d be great to also get the other second sock finished so I can prep for

Yarn is coming this week for the June Camp Loopy as well, another KAL I generally enjoy. I made a snap decision on the yarn and now I have to be sure I have the best project selected for it. Because Camp Loopy has yardage requirements, I have to be conscientious about my yarn usage plan. More on that next week as we get closer to June.

Last week I had swatches for two sweaters, and I’ve got more sweater ideas brewing. I think I need to get into the spreadsheet nitty gritty so I can figure out the timelines for those sweaters. Otherwise I’ll run out of year and still have lots of yarn to use, lol. The goal of a net loss in overall yarn stash is definitely important to me. That may impact my spinning planning, too, though I haven’t thought about spinning in almost a year. Have I mentioned I have a grandson who gets into things? 😂😂😂

Knit on. 🧶