FO: Christmas 2020 Socks

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and (soon to be) New Year!

This year has brought many changes and trials that we have had to overcome. It's been a much slower knitting year for me due to spinal and joint alignment issues that I have been struggling with since March, but after many weeks of chiropractic and physical therapy visits, I am starting to feel stronger and able to heal more. I am hoping that the new year will bring my body back to normal.

Nevertheless, I have finished my Christmas socks in time for the holiday, and so let me share the finished knit with you:

Ironically they matched some my surroundings, such as my knitting basket, a rug at a play-place my kids were at at the end of 2019, knitting bags and such. I have been working on these socks casually for over a year, and that's okay. Life is too short to care about missing the boat.

You can find the project notes here.

These were knit two-at-a-time, which is nice for trying to get the socks to match up identically, but I find finicky in terms of yarn tingling management. I still go back and forth in my mind to decide whether or not to do future socks as singletons.

 

These socks took me a year, but I'm okay with that. Time slipped away from me this week and I intended to cast on next year's Christmas socks before the holiday, but I'll do that now that the crazy Christ-massing is done. 

Here's some photos that capture our merry-making this Christmas:

Spiced sugar cookies, kolaczkies (not shown) and really scrumptious peppermint macrons with fresh Italian (peppermint) buttercream.

 

One twin still wears Halloween and Thanksgiving wear, and the other twin is ALL about Christmas! Can you believe that they are 10 years old now?

 

No, we do not know how to make the appropriate amount of appetizer food for a small amount of people! 

Don't loose your humor and silliness people.

 

I know that the weather has turned cold, but don't forget to some fresh air and sunshine throughout the week to nurture your physical and mental health... and vitamin D3 supplements! 

I wish you good health and much happiness from this year into the next!

FO: The Dockhouse Sweater

Guys, this raglan is one of my absolute favorite FO's ever. Period.

It is warm, squishy and has an appealing diamond texture in a captivating heathered green colorway. The V-shaped collar has faux buttonholes, and you can't go wrong with a long-sleeved raglan construction. Plus, let's talk about green clothing...you can sport it for so many occasions, espeically St. Patty's day, Halloween AND Christmas! 

(If I were Emeril Lagasse, I'd say "BAM!")

 

 

Materials & Notes

 Pattern: The Dockhouse Sweater, by Amy Herzog

This sweater pattern is in the style of a pattern 'recipe' in Amy Herog's "Ultimate Sweater Book," plus I switched the yarn weight, so I heavily modified this sweater to the point where I practically had to design it myself off of the pictures/idea of the design.

Needles

US 2 - 2.75 mm

US 3 - 3.25 mm

US 5 - 3.75 mm

 

Gauge

US 5: 23 stitches and 34 rows = 4'' in the Diamond texture

 

Yarn

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light

9 skeins = 1296.0 yards (1185.1 meters), 450 grams

Colorway 4275 Pea Soup Mix, dye lot 701 

 

Notes:

Sport weight yarn, 216 sts

Total active days knitting it: 44
      Sleeves: 3-ish days each sleeve---plan on a week for a pair of sleeves
      Front or back sides, after armpit BO’s : 2-3 days each
      Bottom ribbing: 1-2 days
      Collar 1-2 days
      An average of 8-12 rds of 216 sts per day.

457g of yarn (1 lb 1oz) of yarn. 

MY DETAILED RECIPE NOTES

This was another project that I chipped away last August while at a family reunion near Galena, Il. Here's a little journey into my WIP stages:

 

That feeling, when you finally try it on and it fits perfectly!

 

I had to re-knit one of the sleeves due to an error on my part, so after I knit what was three sleeves, it was so satisfying throwing it in the wash.

Aw. The photo above was taken in what was my newly renovated bathroom at our last house, several months before moving. I miss those counters and mirrors...

 

As soon as it gets chilly this will be coming back on me!

Knitting Project Bags!

Meet a project bag prototype.

It was created after me lusting over knitting project bags from knitting podcasts and the like.

These handmade bags are normally $25-$35 online, so I decided to dabble with the sewing machine again to make my own since I had leftover fabric from all sorts of things.

Then came ambition.

I decided to scour the Walmart fabric section to see if, by chance, they had a pattern for the type of project bag that I've been seeing.

They actually did! And I took the last one. (Ok, well, two different pattern packets...but more on that another time.)

Meet Simplicity knitting bags and organizers 1079. It's a 2015 publication. I figured, it's "simplicity," so it must be relatively simple for a neebie, like me.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Not.

I had to figure out how to cut out the fabric correctly, so the pattern wouldn't be upside down. That's a learning curve all on it's own for someone who hasn't really done many patterns (or at least a sewing pattern in a long time).

I managed. Eventually.

I couldln't resist making a Halloween themed project bag. It also gave me that extra nudge to finish it quickly, since Halloween was 2.5 weeks away.

I was stumped pretty much at the first couple of directions. A huge part of why it took three solid days to finish this was because of me being careful, making sure I was cutting them out correctly, or reading through all the instructions first (the knitter in me) and trying to get a generally idea of the construction since there are a lot of parts to this bag (surprisingly).

The pattern photo left out a few important details, like: it has an "outside" pocket! Or it has a divider! These are nice, but unnecessary features for me that confused me in the end without a clear photo visual.

The pockets really challenged me, but after ripping it out a few times, I finally understood how to sew the shaping on the bottom. That pinching in shaping is used three times for this project, so luckily I practiced on the darn pocket first!

I'm really proud of this feature, which was my idea. They wanted me to just sew a cord. This looks so much more professional. I'm still working on finding that perfect handle to clip it on to. I figure, I can also clip this onto a backpack or purse.

This bag is very spacious. I can easily store 4 balls of yarn or a sweater project (which I plan on doing).

I bought this ring puncher, but it actually destroyed the fabric on my bag and didn't crimp together correctly. I am very dissapointed in this, and hope it doesn't get pulled wrong and fray around the ring. The center is too jagged for yarn to pass through. :(  However, this bag is only going to be used around October and was my "guinea pig" bag for future ones.

I love the denim on the bottom. My next bag will have more of it; it looks so polished.

I hope you like it! I am super proud of myself.
I'm back to knitting though, my brain needs a rest! I'm not used to thinking and scratching my head so much while doing patterns! ;)

Here's a funny thing. I decided to sew my own bags to save myself money. How much money did I spend on tools, hardware, different fabric, etc.?  Um, probably 4-5 times the amount of a bag sold online! Life of a crafter, I say.