What’s on My Needles Wednesday

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a while since I have written a “What’s on my Needles Wednesday” post. It has also been far too long since I posted regularly here.

Today was one of those days where I was able to spend the entire day knitting and making significant progress on my current pair of socks.

I had started this sock before I finished my last pair. Though most of the progress I have made has been since I finished that pair.

I am currently working on this year’s “Road to Rhinebeck” sock set from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. This colorway is on the Coquette yarn base.

The Coquette yarn base happens to be my favorite from Bumblebee Acres. It’s thick for a fingering weight, making it warm and cozy. It makes the perfect cold weather socks.

Rhinebeck Is Goals

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This morning I finished up the first sock in the pair of “Road to Rhinebeck” socks I am currently working on.

This was a sock set with a main variegated hank and a smaller contrast / coordinating tonal hank for at least heels and toes. I have gone on the conservative side and not tried using the contracting tonal for a top rib in the cuff. I may kick myself later for that, if I end up with a decent amount left over. I just wanted to make sure I had enough for the heels and toes for two socks.

This sock, seriously evokes all things fall for me. Cozy Sweaters, Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, turning leaves, fires in the fireplace, Gilmore Girls, Mel in Virgin River – the scene from the first episode or two when she is walking down the street in Virgin River talking to her sister on the phone in the cute sweater and boots.

Yes, one sock made me think of that. Well, it did have the help of visiting two local yarn shops yesterday. Those made me think of rainy Portland October days, with a cup of tea, hunkering down in a cute yarn shop working on a knitting project, or squishing the yarn. For me, Starlight Knitting Society was the coziest and most inviting of the two. It also really made me miss Happy Knits. Happy Knits was a yarn store here in Portland, on SE Hawthorne Blvd, that I fell in love with. They closed a few years ago (Pre Pandemic) they had a very light, airy, welcoming shop that wasn’t super crowded but had an amazing selection. In the back, they had a large table to sit around and work on projects as well as a couch that faced the natural gas stove. It was amazing in the colder wet months to go hang out, look at yarn, squish yarn, get inspiration, work on projects. I miss that space.

I have known about the Rhinebeck sheep and wool festival for several years. It is the big festival. I really want to go, and I want to try to make it happen next year. This year isn’t going to work for me, since I have other things I need to deal with first. Rhinebeck is one of things that I feel like I should experience at least once.

We don’t have many fiber festivals out here on the West Coast, and the ones we do have aren’t on the same caliber as the ones that take place back east.

All the smaller indie dyers I follow and typically buy from are from east of the Mississippi River, and the “better” fiber festivals are part of the circuit that most of these dyers go to.

Which is why I would love to go to Rhinebeck, especially, as well as some of the other fiber festivals back East and find more small, Indie, US based dyers who have amazing yarns.

Kodiak: The Beginnings

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Before I had even finished my last pair of socks, I had cast on this sock.

This is the Kodiak Colorway, on the Figment yarn base from Deep Dyed Yarns.

I had this company and yarn base recommended to me by one of you, my readers, I am am glad you did. I have been enjoying working with this yarn.

I am also loving this colorway. It kind of makes me think of the Northern Lights, which I would love to see in person.

I have been glad to have something to work on while I have been off recovering from being in the Hospital last week. I am doing better now, but still trying to figure out the why it happened and what is going on / source of my symptoms. Having knitting helps keep me sane and calm amid the craziness and and insanity that is life sometimes.

I have definitely been looking at where I am at and what I am doing. I am trying to get healthy now, and I am taking it seriously now. Knitting will continue and always be a part of my life, and part of me getting healthy.

With getting healthy, I want to spend more time outdoors, and work my way back up to hiking. That is part of where my socks come in, warm cozy socks are important for year round hiking in this part of the country.

Smoky Air Life

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I have worked 5 shifts in a row, and it felt longer. I wasn’t able to get much knitting done on the days I worked.

I finally got the heel finished, turned and the gusset done since I got home from work yesterday. It definitely feels good to be making progress on this sock, especially since the second sock always seems to take longer.

The smoke has been really bad this past week. The air quality has been hazardous most of the week, and I have been trying to stay home with everything shut up as much as possible, to help keep my respiratory system as protected as much as possible.

Having knitting to work on definitely helps while being cooped up indoors, between the pandemic quarantine and now this smoke, I am very thankful that I know how to knit.

So. Much. Yarn.

Hey Everyone!

When I was ordering sock yarn at the beginning of the month, I knew I was ordering “a lot”, but I didn’t think / realize how much yarn it really was until it really started showing up.

All I can say is, oh my goodness I ordered a lot of sock yarn, and it’s not even all here yet. I still have one more order that I am waiting on. It’s mind blowing, for me, anyway, how much I actually ordered.

I have plenty of sock yarn to keep me busy for quite a while.

I had another couple of orders show up yesterday and today.

As you may be able to tell, I have a thing for blues, greys, and neutrals. Grey has to be my favorite.

I am waiting until my last package of yarn arrives, before I wind up the latest batch of Hanks of yarn I need to wind. I haven’t bothered to dig out my yarn swift and ball winder since my big order or Forbidden Fiber Company yarn arrived.

I will definitely be knitting pretty socks for quite a while. I am definitely alright with that.

Leaving Ravelry and Finishing Projects.

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It’s a bit crazy how much has happened since my last post.

First off was the #Istandwithravelry / #byeravelry – #unraveled chaos. 99% of the time I do prefer to keep the extent of my political views to myself. Though it came to the point that I couldn’t standby and continue to support private companies that don’t share my values, who choose to discriminate against and inaccurately label a group of people who they don’t agree with. While Ravelry and the companies who support them are well within their rights to have their beliefs, and choose to take whatever stance they choose, it is also well within my rights to choose not to support Ravelry and their supporters. As a White, conservative, woman, I don’t appreciate being labeled a “White Supremacist”, when I am not, just because I chose to vote for Trump over Hillary. Honestly I don’t like the man any more than anyone else, though I certainly wasn’t going to vote for Hillary.

Since all that went down, I have been going through those who I follow on social media, and did some clean up. I choose to follow those who have similar values or are able to keep their business neutral. It did show me who I do and do not want to support.

That all being said, I intend to keep my blog about Knitting and yarn crafts in general, and keep it neutral. I don’t mind explaining something if I am asked a question that is respectful, and out of curiosity and just wanting to know why. Anything that is hateful, or looking for an argument will be deleted, that is how I have always operated.

The only reason I am even addressing it, is because the yarn I used for the most recent pair of socks I had knit up, I had ordered from a company prior to the Ravelry show down, that I wouldn’t have ordered after it happened. I am not going to waste the money I have spent on yarn, it just means going forward that I choose not to order from these companies.

I knit up this pair of socks using the hank of bubble sock yarn I had ordered from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm, in the colorway “Scottish Thistle”. The last time I had checked it was no longer available, though I have no idea whether it is currently still unavailable.

The socks turned out pretty, but the yarn was kind of a pain in the rear end to knit with.

This was also the same company that it took a month or so to even ship (so I had to wait for 5 weeks to receive the yarn).

That all being said, I am now definitely more mindful of where I buy my yarn from, as well as my patterns. I haven’t found a new place for patterns that I really like, besides KnitPicks, and the patterns I had gotten off Ravelry, most I had printed off when I got them years ago. I had just one left that I had printed off before I deleted my account. It’s no hard loss for me since I hardly used Ravelry anymore, it’s more the principal of the thing. I don’t support discrimination, and I try to treat people with respect, until I am treated with such disrespect that I need to walk away and tell them “Bye Felicia”.

When Work Slows Down

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I have gotten a lot of knitting done this past month. I still can’t believe I let a month lapse between posts.

So much has happened in the past month, that isn’t work related. Work totally slowed down after the holidays.

Since my last post, I completely finished up the pair of socks I started using KnitPicks Stroll hand painted yarn in Koi Pond.

This pair is currently out on the line drying with the Thunderhead Tonal pair of socks as the first pair of Hawthorne Fingering socks in Tie Dye Speckle, beings that it turned out to be a beautiful spring day. It has been a sunny to partially cloudy day, where it is currently 56 degrees outside (13 Celsius).

I just cast on the second sock of the pair, for the second pair of Hawthorne Fingering yarn tie dye speckle socks. I had to order another hank of the tie dye speckle yarn, to finish up the first pair, which I had talked about back in January. I went ahead and ordered two Hanks of the tie dye speckle yarn to make a second pair of socks with the yarn once I finished up the first pair of socks. I had finished up the first sock of the second pair, this morning.

A couple days ago, once I finished the Koi Pond socks, I cast on another first sock for a pair of socks, using KnitPicks Stroll Tonal Fingering yarn in Frozen. It literally looks like the colors from the blue Elsa Dress.

I have also been working on the Tuckamore Wrap that I am working on.

I finally got the second repeat done yesterday.

In the past month, I have also fit in a trip to IKEA as well as a couple of adventures, one of which included going out into the Columbia River Gorge. The other was just out to Estacada, and by the Pioneer Church at the baker cabin.

It was to icy to go much further:

The Pioneer church:

IKEA:

I should also mention that I stocked up on my favorite tea, and found some new shows to watch while I work on my knitting.

Two weeks ago I also submitted my passport renewal application, so I can hopefully be doing some traveling in the near enough future. I would love to go to a fiber / fibre festival in the UK among other things.

Even though work is super slow and I am not getting many hours, I have been able to get a lot of other things done.

Knitting through the Snow

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Winter has arrived, it has snowed a couple times this week, and is supposed to continue/last through next week.

I was happy when my latest KnitPicks box arrived yesterday, before the snow came in.

The hank on the left is Stroll Tonal Fingering in Inverness.

The second from the left is also a Stroll Tonal Fingering, in colorway Frozen.

The second from the right is Stroll hand painted in colorway coffee shop.

Last but not least is Stroll hand painted in Koi Pond. This one, in the pictures on the website, the lighter green looked like it was white.

As it is, I am working on finishing up knitting the pair of Stroll Tonal Thunderhead socks. I am on the second sock. I haven’t decided when one of my new Yarns I will cast on next.

Christmas Socks

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It had taken me two months to knit up these socks.

These socks were knit up from Knitpicks Palette yarn in Mist.

I finished the second sock up on Christmas evening.

I have started another couple pairs of socks, one is of Palette Yarn in tea rose, and the other I am using Hawthorne Fingering in the dye speckle.

Work was very busy the past couple of months, so I have basically been eating, sleeping and working. I haven’t had the time to knit. Now that things are calming down at work, I will hopefully get some more knitting done.

Next Up: Cyan Socks

Hey Everyone!

This past week, after completing the Finnley Heather socks, I cast on a pair of Cyan colored socks. The variety of colors that the Palette Yarn comes in, is one of the things I love about the Palette line of KnitPicks fingering weight yarn. There are more colors to choose from than I have ever seen in any one line of yarn before.

I had started the Cyan socks before finishing up the pair of Hollyberry Stroll socks that I am working on. Once I got the leg going on the Cyan socks, I have been focusing on the Hollyberry socks as I am trying to get them done by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday), as Wednesday is supposed to be the hottest day of the next 10+ days. When you are looking at having a day with a high in the mid-nineties, here in Portland, Oregon, you take advantage of it.

You work your rear end off to try to get as much stuff done as you can, so you can wash it and put it outside to air dry. I never put my hand knit items in the tumble dryer as it tends to ruin whatever it is that I knit, I always air dry (and 99% of the time, hand wash) my handknit goods. Highs in the nineties is not an often enough occurrence here in Portland, that when it happens, you take advantage of it. As it is I have a shawl, and two pairs of socks done, that is all ready to be washed. I am hoping to make the Hollyberry socks the third pair of socks I am able to wash on Wednesday and put outside to dry.