Just under the wire, I fulfilled one last knitting-related goal for 2015- to learn to darn my handknit socks.
These 5 pairs will be back in regular rotation!
They’ve needed darning for sooooo long! They’re mostly from early-ish in my sock knitting career, and they’ve been out of commission for so long that it feels pretty nice to see them again.
How did you do with your 2015 goals?
One of my knitting friends has done what she has dubbed “cablepalooza” over the past few years, just after the holiday knitting rush. During cablepalooza, she knits a bunch of interesting cabled hats, thereby learning more about cables and ending up with lovely new hats.
This year, cablepalooza has spread to our knitting group, and some of us have decided to knit things other than hats. Me, I’ve decided to knit a pullover. I’ve been feeling the need/want of a simple, neutral, very useful knitted sweater that isn’t a cardigan. Another knitting friend suggested the pattern French Toast, and this, combined with two skeins of Miss Babs Wowza in Pewter, seem pretty much perfect.
wowza indeed! these are giant cakes of yarn!
when you see ukiyo-e and you realize you’ve been to the place depicted.
awww!
tiny tea making!
i think the wee boy would love this.
nyan!
ganesha
The Wee Boy was at school this morning, and the Wee Girl had a friend over to play, so I spent most of the morning with tea and my POP blanket.
I hadn’t been happy with the dimensions, so I decided to add 6 rows of single crochet before starting the border, which ended up being 3 rows of single crochet. By late afternoon, I was done, and had just a small bit of the Cascade 220 left.
I’m happy with it, I just hope that the bits that stick out will calm down when I block it.
Merry Christmas! I hope you had a nice holiday! We had a nice, simple day.
At the park I got the Wee Boy to model his new fish hat.
He likes it, but ran around so much that he was too warm to need it for long.
Tonight I finished seaming my POP blanket, which is my Christmas miracle!
The dimensions are so funny. It’s great as a lap blanket, because it’s really not as long as it looks here.
I wonder if it would help if I crocheted extra rows onto the long sides (before starting the crochet border) to even it out. What do you think?
Aside from late-night gift wrapping, today wasn’t particularly Christmas Eve-y. We started with a trip to the local grocery co-op, where I giggled to myself over the absurd prices of (sometimes absurd) items.
We also hit Imagiknit (twice!), and admired their holiday window decorations.
Between bouts of rain, we scaled Corona Heighs.
We saw a huge rainbow!
We strolled Fillmore Street and admired decorations in our favorite shop windows.
And I finally put eyes on this fish hat!
I don’t think it looks so worried in real life…
And that was Christmas Eve! Hope yours was merry!
Last night I moved right along with my seaming on this blanket, but today I suddenly realized that I’ve been doing single crochet instead of slip stitch. This creates more bulk and uses more yarn. But I’m fine with the way it looks and I don’t fancy ripping out all the seams plus the woven-in ends!
I feel silly though, especially after convincing myself that I totally remembered how to slip stitch and didn’t need to look it up. Lesson learned!!!
Last night I couldn’t figure out the crochet seams of my POP blanket. After a half hour, I was still at square one, literally.
Luckily, things clicked at Knit Night tonight, and I crocheted four columns.
I wove in the ends at home. Note to self and prospective blanket knitters: weave in the ends as you go! This was only four columns, but it was tedious. Luckily I’d learned early on to at least weave in the seaming end , but there were still many, many ends. The crochet is easier than I thought, and I’m kicking myself for having waited so long.
P.S. We saw the Force Awakens today! Loved it! Go see it, so we can talk openly about it!
With few days left in the year 2015, my knitting goals have been on my mind. I’m trying to gather up enough courage to crochet my POP blanket squares together. I think my arrangement is fine, so I’m basically ready…. Wish me luck!
In non-crafty news, the kids and I were killing time today on Clement street in the Inner Richmond here in San Francisco. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s kind of like a non-touristy Chinatown with western places of business scattered throughout. It’s a good place to spend a rainy afternoon.
donuts and hot chocolate= a good 20 minutes
i kid you not, they were saying “exterminate! exterminate!”
I hadn’t planned on buying anything, but left with a super cool handle-free rolling pin (we used them in my bread class back in Tokyo!), and a few cute sets of chopsticks for the kids’ stockings.
I finished a bear! 
I was going to name my “I” bear Inigo for the character from my #1 favorite film, but as I wanted to use up lots of blue acrylic, she is a girl and I decided to name her Imogene after a very minor character from About A Boy. I think she’s sweet, don’t you?
Next up is J…
Because of other knitted gifts, I ran out of time to knit for the Wee Girl’s teachers! Somehow I thought I could knit two pairs of fingerless mitts in two evenings. Or two bulky scarves in one evening and a morning! Or maybe sew something! Luckily I eventually remembered beading, and that I could easily make some earrings quickly.
Of course, I went overboard. I thought I’d make a pair for both teachers.
Six pairs later…. 
I let the girl decide who gets what, so each teacher gets three pairs-including one red pair not pictured- which means that I get the dangly jade pair in the top row, yay!
I realized a few things today:
1.Don’t leave crafty gifts until the last minute!
2.wow, my beading skills are rusty!
