A finished Holden

The name of this shawl has made me smile since I started it, because I have a nephew named Holden, and he's what I've been thinking about while I've knit this.

So yesterday I got home and had exactly 30 minutes before having to head out to the symphony (side note, my husband knows the assistant conductor, but didn't realize that until he was introduced, pretty wicked cool!). So with that I decided to block out my Holden Shawlette (which I would almost call a shawl because it's big) and my Grandpa's socks.

The socks gave me a bit of a heart attack because when I pulled them out of the water it felt like they'd grown 10 times, but they seem to be fine this morning.

These are just regular toe up socks with a heel flap, the pattern can be found on wendyknits.net under her free patterns. I was expecting the water to have a lot more blue than it had, but at least I know they're mostly rinsed out. I can honestly say I probably won't use Sockittome again. It's lovely and soft, but it's a single ply loose spun yarn, and it split all over the place while I was knitting. The worst part was during the bind off of the second sock when I all of a sudden had the yarn completely separate. Luckily I was able to spit splice it back together, but still, it was a big moment of panic. 

This is very unfortunate because I love the colours in this yarn. I really don't think these would wear well on feet that walked around a lot, which is why they're perfect for Grandpa.

Anyway, on to the real reason you're here. Holden.

Here he is having a nice rest on the futon after he'd had his bath.

(I had to stand on a chest/coffee table we have in order to take this picture.)

And here he is on his first trip out of the house.

This was made out of Noro Kureyon Sock, which is another yarn that I love to hate. I love the colours, so long as there aren't any knots in it.

This would have been done quicker if I hadn't made so many rookie mistakes on the feather and fan area. I really enjoyed making this, and the long area of stocking stitch was perfect to show off the rainbow colours of the yarn, and the lace area was just enough to give a bit of interest without being muddled by the variegation.

It's nice and warm, and after a dip in the wool wash, it's softened up nicely and I think it will be a wonderful scarf/shawl for winter.

The Sock Groweth

Lame title I know, but it made me laugh when I thought of it.

I have 10 more rows to knit on my Grandpa's blue socks, and then the 10 rows of ribbing and the sewn cast off and they're done!

Usually that would me I could present them to him and he would put them on immediately (he's like that). Unfortunately, I noticed something interesting as I was knitting the latest dark blue patch, my fingers have become blue!

So I will have to wash these socks prior to giving them to Grandpa to make sure that his feet don't turn blue.

After I'm done this (which should be in about an hour), I will be starting to sew some embroidery floss into the spring thaw shawl so that I can pull it back and then put the edge on it.

I'm slowly working my way through some UFO's, we'll see what happens with other projects I find.

Do you ever get that Sinking Feeling?

Yesterday I was searching through my house, I had a skirt that I wanted to wear and I was determined to find it. I never did.

But I did find all my embroidery floss! No Aida fabric yet, but at least I have the floss.

In my search I came across a large bag filled with unfinished knitting projects. Ones that I had been working on prior to a baby shower I held in May, some of which, I don't even remember what they were.

That's when I got my sinking feeling, because that's when I started tallying up the UFO's I know I have and adding the ones I forgot about.

I think my next little while is going to be going through all my UFO's and either finishing them up, or frogging them.

I have my Holden Shawlette which is getting closer to being done, but still boring knitting to show you, I have the Spring Thaw Shawl that I'm letting sit for a bit because it needs some first aid, and I've decided to grab these socks that I had on the needles for my Grandpa.

This is Sockittome from Estelle Yarns in colour 52606. I really love this yarn, it is so soft and the colour transitions are beautiful and long. I don't know how well it will wear, but my Grandpa doesn't do a lot of walking.

Grandpa is diabetic and he has heart problems so his circulation isn't the greatest. He loves my knit wool socks though! I usually have a pair on the needles for him. These would have been done months ago if they hadn't ended up in a bag stuffed in a room so that my house looked somewhat presentable for family.

I'm going to keep these in my bag as simple knitting, stuff that doesn't need a pattern. They're easy toe up socks based off of Wendyknits standard pattern with a heel flap worked in reverse. I love this pattern because I don't have to worry about stitching up the toe, and I can just knit until I'm done my yarn on the cuffs.

This weekend I'm hoping to go through my house and round up all my yarn, projects, and the like and bring them down to my living room. Then I'm going to sort them out and get everything put neatly into my new crafting wardrobe. I'll probably have a section for UFO's which I'll be drawing from for the next while.

I'm hoping to have a bunch of finished knitted stuff to show you in the near future, so stay tuned.