Lavender Field Heather

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I got the pair of Lavender Field Heather Socks that I have been working on for a bit, finished up this morning.

Lavender Heather is the colorway, and it’s on the stroll tweed fingering weight yarn from KnitPicks.

It was one of the few spring colored yarns that caught my eye.

It’s crazy to me how fast the last three months have gone. In the earlier weeks of my furlough, I spent some of my time going and looking for toilet paper, and as the weather started getting better, I have been going for walks. Now, that it’s really to hot to be going for walks at a normal hour, I am definitely trying to spend more time working on knitting. I am trying to get as much done before I go back to work, and the holiday season is upon us again.

Another LYS is Closing

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I found out this afternoon that another Portland yarn store that has been one of the main yarn stores for years will be closing its brick and mortar store in a couple months. That will make the fourth yarn store (that I know of) to close its physical store in about 5 years. While the reasons given, typically are personal in nature (family illness, time to move on etc), I can’t help but wonder if the rising rent / lease prices in the shop front spaces and the growing move of consumers to online retailers is also part of what is driving this shift in Portland’s (and thus Oregon’s) LYS scene.

I also kind of feel like the crafting (knitters and crocheters) community here isn’t what it once was. Then again Portland isn’t what it was 10 – 15 years ago. The demographics of the area has been changing a lot since many of these yarn stores opened.

We do have a handful of local / indie dyers here in the area (only one that I can name off the top of my head), and the closest fiber festivals are 15 – 18 hours away, in SoCal.

I know I order a lot of my yarn online, and while I have definitely ordered a fair amount of yarn from KnitPicks, and will likely order from there again, most, of not all the sock yarn I have ordered in the last year has been from small, indie dyers from back east.

I would definitely love to see things change out here, since this part of the country is home. At the same time I definitely want to attend a few fiber festivals, meet my favorite dyers, and see some more of the country.

I haven’t been this excited for yarn in ages!

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Yesterday, after I had finished up the second Tea Rose sock, I cast on the first sock of my next pair, using KnitPicks Stroll tonal Fingering yarn, in thunderhead tonal. I have been anxiously awaiting getting the Tea Rose pair done so I could cast on this pair.

This yarn is so soft and pretty. Not to mention it is knitting up amazingly too. I was a little concerned at first that it might knit up like a super wash yarn, which is the Bain of my existence. All the super wash sock yarn I have used has been a royal pain in the butt. This yarn cast on and knit off the first row beautifully.

Grey has become my second favorite, yet most sought after color to knit with. I have been getting my hands on all the grey sock yarn I can find.

I more than surpassed my goal for today on what I wanted to get knit up today, I wanted to finish up the cuff and get at least 25 rows of the leg knit up. I did all that and knit up 33 rows of the leg. I wanted to get as much done before I work again Thursday and Friday.

With so many projects in the works and more lined up as I get each one done, and I have way more yarn for pairs of socks to knit up, that I am trying to make full use of my days off, and get as much knitting as I can done.

As the weather gets nicer, come spring, I will be wanting to get out more and do more hiking, so I am trying to make use of this winter. As it is, I have two pairs of socks done that I need to wash and block on a nicer, warmer day.

Lesson learned

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In the past couple of weeks, I was reminded the hard way, to pay attention to yardages of Yarns when I am looking at buying them for specific projects. I had bought some yarn that I haven’t used much (like once before), and had gone by weight rather than yardage. I found out the hard way, with about 2/3 of the second sock knit up when I ran out of yarn. I am waiting on more to arrive so I can finish this pair of socks, and knit up another pair of the same color. To put it out there, that unless you are making ankle socks for a woman, or socks for kids, you will need two Hanks of KnitPicks Hawthorne Fingering yarn.

While I have been waiting on more yarn to come, I have knit up another pair of socks. I finished this pair today.

I used KnitPicks Palette yarn in Tea Rose.

With the holidays over, and work calming down, I have had the time to get back to knitting. I missed it so much the past few months. I am definitely trying to get more projects done.

While working as a retail stock crew member is not a career for me, the past few months have reminded me of what I am capable of doing, and what I do want to be doing with my life. Hard work, early mornings, early nights, working with my hands and making tangible things.

The Perfect Knitting Weather Has Arrived!

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Autumn is here, and I finally have the energy to really knit!

Today didn’t even get to 70, and it cooled off quick. We had some thunder and lightning and pouring down rain, like more than 1/2 an inch today. I have also been warming a cube of Pumpkin Roll Scentsy wax with two cubes of Vanilla Bean Buttercream Scentsy Wax. This is my favorite autumn scent combo.

It’s been amazing to actually get work done, and have the energy to do so.

Friday, I finished up the second Finnley Heather sock, completing the pair. Monday I washed up this pair since it was a nice day, and warm enough to let the dry outside for several hours.

Today I finished up the second Opal Heather sock, completing the pair.

After I finished up the second Opal Heather sock, I have cast on a new pair, using the KnitPicks Stroll Yarn in Barn Door Heather that I have in my stash.

I have a lot more sock yarn in my stash, that I am slowly working on stash bushing and getting socks done.

Opal Heather and Finnley Heather

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This summer has been somewhat busy, and things like gardening and making jam have pushed knitting to the back burner.

Now that summer is winding down, I can shift more of my focus back onto Knitting.

I have been slowly working on a couple pairs of socks in recent weeks. For both pairs I am working on I am using KnitPicks Palette yarn, in the colorways: Opal Heather and Finnley Heather. I absolutely love the Finnley Heather color. Grey has become my favorite color.

At the looks of things, summer is finally quickly fading. When it is hot I don’t have much in the way of energy and desire to work on knitting.

Can’t Seem to get enough Stuff to do

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The past three weeks or so have been pretty busy, and I am finally getting back to working on my knitting projects.

I currently have seven projects in the works, like I can’t get enough stuff to do, I keep adding knitting projects to what I have going. I have three shawls in the works as well as a wrap, two socks for two different pairs, and a dishcloth. I kind of like it that way. I like having different things to pick up and work on.

In addition to the seven projects I already have the yarn for my next twelve pairs of socks picked out from my stash. I have more than enough sock yarn to choose from.

I have four different colors of Stroll Tweed yarn for four different pairs of socks as well as one color of regular Stroll yarn left that I am wanting to get knit up. I also picked out seven different colors of Palette yarn to knit up. I am at the point where I am not buying anymore yarn and trying to work up the yarn I have before I buy more, since I am running out of space to store my yarn.

At some point I am going to need to buy more Wool Wash and containers to store my finished projects. Before all that I need to get projects knit up.

I am wanting to get more socks knit up, washed and blocked this summer so I have more choices, especially going into Autumn, and the weather cools off making it more comfortable to go Hiking.

Finishing Projects and Washing Wool

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Earlier this week, we had a few very hot days (90 – 96 Fahrenheit / 32 – 35 Celsius). Because it was so hot, I took advantage of the heat and washed a wool shawl I had finished a while back as well as the three pairs of socks I had done and needed to be washed.

Earlier this month I had gone to a couple stores searching for this white wash tub to use to wash shawls. I found it at the second store I had gone to. The first store had nothing similar which I found odd, because I would have expected Fred Meyer to have these types of tubs. Maybe I was looking in the wrong areas, but I looked in the bath sections, the kitchen sections and the cleaning sections, and nothing. I found what I was looking for at BiMart. That’s what I like about BiMart, besides being a locally owned chain of stores, they have a lot more in the way of “old school” household basics that other stores don’t carry, and for a decent price. BiMart is the place to go locally for canning /home preserving supplies and for the essentials.

I had washed my shawl using the Laundress Wool and Cashmere Shampoo. It has a really nice cedar scent, and I love using it to wash bigger items that I only wash when necessary, which is not nearly as often as socks. I had pulled out my blocking wires, T-pins and blocking mats to dry my shawl. I had put the wires through the increase holes that are along the edges, as well as the bound off edge. I realized that at some point I need to get another box of blocking mats, as I don’t have enough to properly dry these larger projects.

 

Earlier this week I had finished up my pair of Hollyberry colored socks. The yarn I used for this particular pair of socks is the Stroll Fingering yarn from KnitPicks.

This pair I had worked really hard on to finish up by this past Wednesday, so I could get them washed up and dried outside while it was so hot outside.

The past few pairs of socks I have been knitting with a longer knit leg, just to try something different and see how I like this pattern, and if I like it any better than the shorter all ribbing leg. I do like the fact that with the longer leg, they protect more of my ankle and lower leg from getting blisters when I wear them with my hiking boots.

These are the three pairs of socks that I washed the other day. The hot pink pair and the grey pair are both knit up of KnitPicks Palette Yarn, the pink color is called Rouge, and the Grey is called Finnley Heather. The darker red, cranberry color is the pair I know up from KnitPick Stroll in Hollyberry. The Hollyberry color reminds me of Christmas. Its name is aptly fitting as it is similar to the color of the color of the berries on the Holly bush. It is also similar to the color of Cranberries.

I had also finished up the second (the longer one) of these two dishcloths this week as well. I had finished the first one a couple of weeks ago. The yarn I used for this was one of the balls of the KnitPicks Dishie yarns I had bought. The colorway is called “Cabin”, which is fitting since the colors are a bit more rustic and fitting for a cabin. I had enough yarn leftover that I probably could have made the first dishcloth a bit longer to be about the same length as the second one. But you don’t always know how something is going to work out when you are using a particular yarn for the first time.

Next Up: Cyan Socks

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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.

Finnley Heather Socks

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Last night I finished up the pair of KnitPicks Palette Finnley Heather socks I had been working on for a while.

With all the sock yarn I have stashed away I am trying to work through it this summer. I am trying to stash bust my sock yarn. The finished socks are easier to store than balls of yarn. They are also wearable, versus just taking up space.

This upcoming week is supposed to be down right hot, and I want to take advantage of that. I am trying to get as many pairs of socks done before it is hot enough to dry socks outside, so I can wash them and put them out to dry.

I have one more pair that I want to get done before next weeks heat wave.

I also have started the next pair of socks, for when I get the Hollyberry Stroll socks done.