Highland Heather Socks

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Tuesday night, June 30th, I finished up the fourth pair of socks I had finished up in June. I hadn’t finished any socks in May, and a couple of the pairs were carryovers from socks I had worked on in May.

The last pair I finished up, on Tuesday, was the Highland Heather socks. Highland Heather is the colorway, I got this colorway on the Coquette yarn base from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm.

I am definitely trying to utilize and maximize the time I have while on Furlough. My furlough has been extended quite a few times already, and was extended again today. At this point I am off at least until the end of the month.

At this point, I am trying to get the autumn and Christmas sock yarn knit up into socks. I am saving most of the spring and summer colors I have for winter, when it is cold, wet and in when I need some vibrant colors to work with. It would also be nice to have my autumn and christmas colored socks to wear this coming autumn and Christmas season.

Working towards the Future that is Calling my Name

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It’s crazy to me that I have only finished (from start to finish) three pairs of socks since I was furloughed from my job like twelve and a half weeks ago. I had a couple pairs that I had finished up early on, that had been started while I was still working during the early part of the pandemic, and I have one pair of socks that I am so close to being done with the second sock on, that I just need to wind the yarn I had to order to finish it up. I also have two other socks in the works that are the second socks of their respective pairs. Once I get yarn wound up, which I will hopefully do this week, I will be finishing up three pairs of socks in the very near future. I am waiting on the last two hanks that I ordered to arrive, so I can wind all the hanks I have in one go while I have my swift out. Once I can get these three pairs done, I will have knit up six pairs of socks while on furlough.

I am trying to make the best of this furlough, because I would rather have work to go to. Having this time off work, has given me time to think and really evaluate and reevaluate what I want to be doing as far as work is concerned. I have been doing what I have had to, to have work, though I feel at times that I have forgotten what I love doing.

Since I have been off, I have really been trying to work on knitting up the yarn I have, and that I have ordered, as well as doing some baking and going for walks. I live near an older / more established part of town, where the streets are tree lined, and these trees, once they get leaves each year, provide much needed shade. With that, on nice days the smell of the trees reminds me a bit of being at summer camp (way away from the city). No matter the weather, the smells also remind me of going hiking in the woods. So for brief moments, my mind wanders and takes me away from the grind of the city life.

I definitely want to get away from the city life, and live a life where going outside means dirt trails, fewer neighbors, more elbow room, more of a need for my hand knit wears through many months of the year. I definitely want to do more hiking (hello hand knit boot sock collection) and in general living life outdoors, even in the colder months, where I can put the hats, scarves and wraps I have made / am making to use. I am really not a big city person, so other than my walks, a lot of my “out and about” time is spent 1) in the car, 2) going briefly from the car to the building and 3) in another building. I am trying to change that, and have the accessories and such that I need to allow me to live the kind of life I feel led to live.

I am not saying that I want to spend all of my time outdoors, just more of it. I still enjoy cooking, baking, homemaking stuff (decorating for different seasons, and making where I live feel like home), and of course, knitting.

I have definitely found that evenings are where I am most productive when it comes to knitting. During the day, I am definitely busier with things like going for walks, making food, household chores, writing blog posts, running any errands I need to run, all that kind of stuff. Evenings are the time of day when I settle in, and have a larger chunk of time to focus on knitting and projects, so that’s when a lot of my knitting gets done.

While in Quarantine;

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I had started these socks back in January, and I finally finished them more than two months later.

The yarn itself was from the Christmas / Holiday Collection from Forbidden Fiber Company. This is the “Let it Snow” colorway and it is on the Fortitude yarn base.

Beings that I have been off from work for a week already because of the Coronavirus, and I will be off for at least another week, likely a bit longer though.

I went back, looking at my posts, and I have also been remiss to update about the other pair of socks that I finished earlier last week.

I finished the pair of “Maple Leaf” socks I had been working on as well.

The yarn I used for this pair is from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm, it was part if their Autumn / Fall Collection last year. This colorway is on the Coquette yarn base. It definitely makes me think of October, and some of the changing leaves, and the angle of the sun, and how it looks in the afternoon during “golden hour” during that time of year.

The Coquette yarn base is nice and thick, and creates thick and cozy socks without being too thick.

Social Distancing Knitting

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Now that the Corona Virus is here, and it has everything in such an upheaval, and we are told told to practice “social distancing”, its like I have been preparing for this my entire life.

While I have been going for walks the past few days, I have also spent more time working on the socks I have been working on for a while.

I have been working on these two pairs of socks done really soon.

What’s closed down now is bad enough, if “everything” (aka my workplace) closes down, I won’t be bored, and will still have plenty to work on. I have plenty of sock yarn to work with, and make socks out of.

Racing against Time and the arrival of Warm Weather

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I finally finished up the “make it pink, make it blue” socks on Sunday. At this point I am still leaning towards selling this pair eventually, but I want to wait a bit, and see if there are any more pairs I knit up that I decide to sell as well.

I am still have the second “let it snow” sock on the needles, but I went ahead and cast one one of the Bumble Bee Acres Farm yarns I had ordered last autumn. I chose the campfire s’mores colorway to cast on. I had gotten this colorway on the Coquette yarn base. As this is an autumn colorway, it is no longer available in their shop.

This is just the progress I had made by about 4:30 this afternoon. As of writing this post (at 11:00 at night), I have made a bit more progress on the leg.

Last week, I want to say it was on Thursday, that I was surprised that the latest Bumblebee Bee Acres Farm order “shipped”, and actually shipped on Friday. I could be wrong, but I get the feeling that they process and get orders ready throughout the week, but actually ship and take to the post office on Friday’s, or at least that has been the case with my last two orders (I honestly don’t remember the first). Now that I feel like I understand their system a little better, my opinion of them isn’t quite as low, and has gotten a bit better. That being said, I am still trying to buy from people / small businesses that have a bit better turn around and align with my values a bit more, or are at least able to stay neutral as far as their business is concerned when it comes to polarizing issues.

This last order from bumblebee acres arrived yesterday, and here are the three Hanks that I ordered:

The colorways are from the Outlander Collection. From left to right they are: Safe Harbor, The MacKenzie, and Murtagh. All three of these colorways are on the coquette yarn base. As of writing this post (February 4th, 2020), they are still likely in the shop should you choose to order them.

One of the things I have learned about indie dyers is that some of them only do a limited run of certain colors, and when it’s gone, it’s gone while others keep particular colors in stock on certain bases, and when their stock on hand is low, they dye up more while others keep particular colors in their shop and dye to order (and are up front about that and about turnaround time). So, if I am shopping a new shop that I haven’t dealt with before, I know that I need to snap it up if I really want it, just in case it sells out. There are others, that I know keep an inventory of certain colors, or if it in in the shop, it is dye to order, so if I like it, it can wait until payday to order.

Now that work has slowed down, and I have a lot of sock yarn that I have ordered the past few months, I am trying to get as many pairs of socks knit up as I can, while it is still too cold and wet to hang them outside to dry. I love line drying / blocking socks. Since all of my socks are at least part wool, the idea of putting them in the tumble dryer is definitely a no-no. I would just as soon wait several months for warm weather to dry them outside then tumble dry them. This is for my newly knitted socks, I have other hand knit socks, that if I wear them, I will wash them, and hang them out (even if it is cold and wet) to air out the smell of the wool wash, then bring them in to finish drying. I would eventually love to live in a house with a wood burning stove (among other things) and be able to set up a collapsible clothes dryer at a safe distance away, and put my socks over that to dry near the fire. By the time I have worn my socks, and they have already been blocked and shaped so I wouldn’t need to really block them in the way I need to block the new ones, to get the feet shaped right. I would and will likely set the new ones aside for warm weather to allow them to hang up on the blockers on the clothes line once I wash them for the first time.

I also use a different wool wash for the first time I wash my socks, than I do for subsequent washes. I prefer using the laundress wool and cashmere shampoo for the first wash, I feel like it helps get all the excess dyes, waxed, and anything still there from the processing and anything left behind. Once I have done that and I am washing them after having been worn, I use either Kookaburra Brand or Outback Gold wool wash. Both have tea tree oil which not only is a deodorizer, but also has anti microbial properties. Both claim to be biodegradable, which is nice. Though I am leaning a bit more toward the Australian Gold, as it is made in the USA and the smell isn’t as strong, but we will see in the long run which one I stick with.

The Campfire Socks!

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I finally was able get my Campfire socks done today!

The Christmas yarn and the Gluttony Mini Skein of the Campfire yarn I had ordered showed up this past Friday, and I got it wound that evening. The two colors of Christmas yarn I had ordered from this year’s collection are: “o, little town of Bethlehem” (the darker one) and “Let it snow” (the lighter one).

I have been working on getting the Campfire socks done since the mini skein arrived, and I finally got the second sock finished today.

Working in any sort of knitting has been slow going since September, when work started getting busy. Work is finally starting to slow down, and we are finally starting to get caught up on freight. We had gotten behind when the truck that was supposed to come the day before Thanksgiving (November 28th) didn’t come until the following Monday (December 2nd) and we still got our normal Thursday truck on the 5th. We finally turned the corner on getting the large truck loads. Over the next three to four months we only have two “big sets”, one is coming up really soon, which is our post Christmas set, and then our outdoor (summer) set which we will set sometime in March or April, neither of which compare to our holiday freight loads.

That being said, I will be able to be spending way more time knitting in the near future, which I am super excited about. I have plenty of sock yarn to be knitting up, and I am so ready to get back to a normal sleep schedule so I have more energy, so I will want to spend my free time knitting!

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.

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.

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.

Ironing Out the Kinks

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Over the course of the past couple of days I have finished up two projects.

The first project I finished up, I was up into the wee small hours of the morning finishing up this shawl.

This shawl is about 38 inches from the tip to the cast off edge. I used four balls of KnitPicks Simply Wool Bulky yarn in the color “Wilbur”. I used a pair of 10.5 (6.5mm) straight knitting needles.

Last night (Thursday night) I finished up the second sock of the pair of socks I knit up out of KnitPicks Palette Yarn in Ash.

I used my set of size 1 (2.50mm) KnitPicks sunstruck double pointed needles.

I have come to love using the 2.50mm size 1 needles versus the 2.25mm size 1 needles for both the Palette yarn and the various Stroll yarns I have been using. The socks come out a little looser which is fine, the gauge is still tight enough that there are no real issues with the tension or being too loose. I also haven’t had the issue of my needles breaking either. Which makes me think that the 2.25mm needles were just too small for what I was doing, and I have also gotten better at knitting socks.

I definitely wanted to get the shawl done, as far as getting it knit up anyway, this week. I have some more bulky yarn coming in, in the next few days. I only have the one set of size 10.5 needles and I wanted to get the big project off them before the new yarn comes in, so I can get it cast on pretty soon. I do still have one ball of the bulky Simply Wool left, which I am using to make another pair of fingerless gloves.