Progress!

I  am just so happy I need to share.  My never ending leg on the Twisted Flower socks has come to a completion.  The heels have been turned and I am about 1/4 of the way through the pattern for the foot.  This photo was right after the heel was turned and I was working on the decreases.  I am probably going to have to put these socks down until the weekend and work on my plain stockinette socks.  I don't have a recent photo of those.  I am working toe up with an afterthought heel and have just pasted the heel mark.  I put in the heel marker the other night when Josh and I were having the movie portion of our date night.  First time I had seen The Abyss.
Last week Kelly and I went to our local pet store for Pet Easter Bunny Photos.  My 7 month old German Shepherd Bloodhound is not the best at photographing when you want him to do something...i.e. sit in front of the bunny and look at the camera.  He was so distracted by all the other dogs and the kid creeping closer with his dog asking me about Klaus.  After what felt like a lifetime there were two okay photos which he wasn't looking at the camera.  At least it wasn't showing him gnawing on the foot of the bunny.

~Sandy

And The Grays Have It

Last time I said I would get into my ongoing projects and I think that I have all of them.  I recently moved and well have not finished organizing....well anything.  Of course that has not stopped me from casting on a new project or 3.



We will first start with the pretty much finished project of a cowl that is for my adopted soldiers.  his is not a fun color; but, I am restricted on what I can send to them and have it be useful.  It is made out of Patons Classic wool in a color I don't remember.  It is some sort of warm gray.  This is a pattern I came up with and well haven't written down anywhere yet.  I made it long enough to cover the neck to the ears/nose.  To go with the cowl there are fingerless gloves that are not pictured.  I have about a million of ends to weave in and a wash before I can call this finished.

I am seeing a theme here.  A while ago I cast on twisted flowers socks by Cookie A in a warm gray patons sock yarn.  I am a bit further down  than this.  Actually almost through the leg which was two repeats of the pattern shown.  So far I love knitting them.  I only see one issue and that is the leg.  I have not tried them on but they might not fit around my calves.  If that is the case then I will need to find homes for them.  I might end up making the foot a little shorter and gift them to my sister.  This will be decided once I am on the foot.

Now I wont bore you with all of my WIPs.  There are quite a few blankets I have started and are in time out so they have not gotten photographed.  I have at least 3 baby blankets.  Don't ask me about them because it has been a while that I would not be able to tell you much.  Two of them are crocheted and the third is knit and quite cabley.  I like the pattern I was quite tired of the color.  I have my wonderful sock yarn mitered square blanket that I will be working on for ever.  A few blankets that I don't think I will ever finish.  I am working on a crocheted blanket that is not technically mine.  My supervisor's grandmother passed away a year or so ago.  Since I knit and crochet her stash of 70's acrylic and half finished projects were given to me.  I re-purposed a granny square blanket that she started but did not have enough yarn to finish into a large cowl.  Of course I did not get a photo of it.  I have been working on and off on a blue crocheted blanket.  

My hexiflat worsted weight is slow and coming.  I have not taken a new photo because I have a bunch of hexiflats that need to be added to it.

I also began unpacking my yarn!  I have a "extra" closet in my hallway where I decided it would be great to store my yarn.  I have picked up a bunch of the fabric boxes and well decided that I need a few more.  I think I need to reinforce the shelves before I add anymore books.

~Sandy

A New WIP

Today, I started a new project at knitting. I am working on a Miss Winkle shawl by Martina Behm (my favorite designer). I am using CuppyCake Yarns in the Rainbow Dash colorway. So far, I am liking this shawl. 

-Kelly

I have an unconfirmed case of WIP-itis

I feel that it is time to start up the blog again.  Personally, I have been all over with my knitting this year and have been having a horrible case of WIP-itis.  My cast on has been greater than my cast offs this year.  Since I have moved my knitting organization (or what little I had) has been in limbo.  I have a room where it is all currently stored in totes and well that is about it.  Except for the skew socks sitting in my car and the twisted flower socks in the bedroom.  I also started a worsted weight acrylic eater project AKA the Hexiflat Blanket.  Even though I have just started I have already lost 2 sets of bamboo knitting needles.  The puppy, Klaus, has found the joys of knitting.  This weekend I am also going to look into ways to repair knitting needles so I can have a backup.  Luckily, there are only a few gnaw marks.

~Sandy

Instagram viewing

Today I would like to share a little knitting humor.  I know my day could use it.  Enjoy

Sandy

Finally some FO's

Happy Sunday everyone!  For me it is my day of Craft.  Lately work  has been cutting into this time a lot.  However, I do have some finished projects.  Ok well two in the last 2 months.  I started and finished the Birthday Cake Cowl out of Patons SWS in Natural Plum.  I am excited for the temperatures to hopefully dip down a little so I can wear it.

I also finished a pair of nutkins socks out of the patons kroy fx in clover colors.  Photos of the socks will be updated later.  Honestly,  I am finishing this post on my new tablet and have not looked into how to add hyperlinks.  I think those were the quickest socks I have ever made.

Now I am off to work on the next pair.   They are a basic sock with ribbing down the side and an afterthought heel.  Happy knitting! 

Sandy

Neverending Cycle of Mediocrity and Failure

There's a project I've been working on for a while. Well, maybe "working on" isn't the right way of putting it. Over the years, I have knit probably over 100 pairs of socks, and I thought I needed to do something with the leftovers. Thus began the sock yarn blanket of doom!

I have crocheted a bunch of hexagons and attached them together as I go. But I haven't done any work on this blanket for about 2 years. 

Here is the problem: I get very frustrated by the lack of progress (I am a product knitter, not a process knitter), so I work on it even less, which makes for even less progress and so on and so forth. It truly is a never ending cycle of mediorocity and failure. 

It is just like the piano. I used to take piano lessons as a young girl. When my family moved, and in became more involved with after school activities, I stopped taking lessons. Ever since then, I have wanted to take up the piano again. So I get out my keyboard to practice, and I sound so bad and out of practice that I stop, and then I practice less and less, and when I do practice, it is so bad and there you have it! Another cycle! 

So to try to remedy this situation with the blanket, I am gathering up scrap sock yarn and starting a second section which will later be attached to the first section. I would really like to turn this long term project into a finished object sometime this year. And who knows, maybe I will get that keyboard out again and do a little practicing soon.

Kelly

Winter is Here

We are currently in the elusive Florida winter.  It normally is only a few days over a month maybe two if we really try to stretch it out.  As a knitter it is the best time!  I try to pack on as many of my knitted items I can.  My knit item for this winter day is my Irish Fishermen Sweater.  

Happy New Year!

I am having a quiet New Year's Eve this year.  I am just watching some TV and knitting.  I finished a slightly less slouchy sockhead hat.  I used a little over one skein of Knit Picks Felici yarn in the Time Traveler colorway. I still have about 3  more skeins in my stash (I might have gone a little overboard on this limited edition color,  especially since I e already used 2 additional skeins for a pair of socks!).

Here's to hoping everyone has a fabulous 2014!

Kelly

Tis the season for giving

I am happy to say that I finished all of my work Christmas gifts.  I decided to crochet ornaments mainly snowflakes.  This way us Floridians can get some of the snow too.  Below are the majority of patterns I used.  Next time I will have to remember to set them sooner.  I set them twice using a glue water mixture and pinned them to dry.   I did this twice because the first application still had these rather flimsy.   

I also finished the BF's mom's wrap.  I started this sometime last year with the directions that she wanted something red to wear for when she goes to church.  During the Great Yarn Organizing of 2013 I found the project just barley started.  I dug down into my memory (which is sub par at times) and some how happened to find the pattern was the Lacy Wrap.  As you can see by the photos my cat (Charlie) has claimed it as his own.  Every photo I took had him in it, and on the FO.  Now all that is left to do is pry it away from Charlie and ship it off....well that and figure out what the address is.  I made this out of Premier Yarns because it was acrylic and the label indicated that it would not pill.  So far it has kept it's promise.  I went with acrylic because I know she will be a little rough with it, like throwing it in the washer and dryer.  There will be no blocking to show the pattern.  All in all I am pretty happy with it. 

The last few days I have been knitting extra on my snowflake blanket.  I am still trying to determine if I want this to be a throw size or a bed size.  After I have all the knitting done I will be backing it with felt.  I would get a lot more of this blanket done but this is what I have to compete with....


 

Three adorable cats that are behaving themselves.  One is laying on the half finished blanket so I can not add any additional squares, one on my lap which I am knitting around, and the third laying on the yarn organizer.  Funny thing is that a few years ago a coworker bought this yarn organizer for me.  I have used it mainly for plying my handspun but it has come in extra handy for this project.  It has 6 compartments inside that I have stuffed with worsted weight scraps and the solid white yarn.  This weekend it has been the place to rest for my Mage cat with only minimal interference with the yarn. 

 

I have been putting off the next bit of my knitting organization.  I want to organize all the patterns I have printed out and throw away the half printed out ones.  I keep finding page 4 of 8 but where are the other 7 pages!!  Back when I first started knitting I was pretty good at keeping them all together.  But that was also when I had 5 patterns and 2 magazines.  I can honestly say that has increased significantly.  On my to do list will be finding my page protectors and a three ringed binder.

 

I want to try to end 2013 with a clean slate.  I don't know how many of you feel but I can say that the last part of this year has really kicked my butt. 

And the rush is on

I hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving.  I can say that 99% of my stash is organized and is up on Ravelry!  The first part of my organizing was great and fun.  I only started to feel a little overwhelmed when I pulled out all of the acrylic yarn and dumped it out.  I did rewind a lot of yarn which two of my cats thoroughly enjoyed.  I found a few projects I put aside because I didn't like how they were turning out or I got bored with them.  Most of those got frogged.  I also cam across a wrap (Lacy Wrap) I was making for my BFs mother.  I put this one aside because I couldn't find the yarn for it.  Finding it reminded me that Christmas is right around the corner and I am WAY behind on my Christmas knitting.  I am hoping to get this wrap out in the mail before Christmas but I will also need to make something for his stepdad.  Possibly a hat.

I did finish my Oaklet Shawl with only a few yards of yarn left.  I also casted on and off the Wurm Hat.  I shorted the length of the pattern.  I am hoping the temperature drops down again soon so I can wear it!

My next organizing endeavor will be to organize my patterns and finish organizing my needles.  That will take a while.

I will leave you with my cat and scrap yarn.  I only put a few of these on her.....

Gearing up for Turkey Day

Sandy here.  I am pretty stoked that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  For me that means a lot of vacation time which translates into crafting.  I tend to have TONS of projects going at one time which turns into a love hate relationship.  On the up side I just finished making the Trilobite knit hat for one of my fellow Geologist.  Last weekend we went on a brief camping trip and the weather was dipping into the chilly degrees for us Floridians (in the 50's!!).  I made the hat out of the durable Patons Classic Wool in Dark Gray.  I can say it was a big hit.  During our camping trip I taught her how to knit and we visited a few fabric stores to look at the quilting sections.

After many attempts to make socks with my stashed yarns from lime & violet in the Smoke and Scent colorway I frogged it for the bigillionth time.  On the way back from Georgia I casted on the Oaklet Shawl with the Smoke and Scent.  I am about halfway done with the body of the shawl and they yarn is not refusing the pattern.  I can't wait to see the finished product!  I do not have a photo my progress but I have the next best thing.  One of my cats curled up asleep with my yarn while I am knitting!

Welcome to 2 Krafty Stitches!

I just wanted to type up a quick introduction post to our new blog.

This is 2 Krafty Stitches.

We are 2 friends who met through a knitting group about 6 years ago. We were both relatively new knitters. I'm not sure how long Sandy had been knitting at that point (but I do know she is crazy ambitious and talented when it comes to arts and crafts! Her first knitting project was a cabled can koozie...in the round! Can you imagine?). I had been knitting for less than a year and had just started my sock-knitting addiction that continues to this day. The two of us clicked and found ourselves in charge of the group when the leader left.

Now we both head up Tampa Knitters. We have our weekly meeting at a local Panera. Our group is not-too-big/not-too-small, but just the right size. Sandy and I love to bring new things to the group and do little reviews, so we thought why not do it here! We will also be using this blog to share our current works-in-progress (wips) and finished objects (fos). We hope you enjoy visiting with us here in our little place on the web!

Kelly

(I know I said this would be a quick intro, but as you get to know me, you'll notice that I'm the long-winded one!)