Work in Progress Wednesday 203

Hi everyone! Look, two weeks in a row!!  I'm back in the swing of things and working hard in the heat of the summer. I actually just returned from a knitting/cross stitch/craft retreat in Lake Tahoe. It was an amazing experience. I had so much fun and it was awesome to be surrounded by like minded people for 4 days.

We got to visit and tour Jimmy Beans Wool as some of you know who follow my Instagram feed (@candyskein). I'll hopefully have more time to tell you about it at a later time and share more pictures that weren't posted to Instagram.

A few of us at the retreat have been working on a special project, a kit that combines all of our businesses. In the kit you receive an exclusive colorway skein of yarn from both Candy Skein (which is me) and Black Market Wool (which is owned by my friend Rijel). Two patterns are also included, both designed with the two skeins of yarn that is included, one a sock and the other a shawl. The patterns are designed by Meaghan from Unapologetic Knitter. On top of all that, you also receive an AMAZING bag made by Stephanie (@befedee on Instagram) who is just starting a bag making company. I have to say, this has to be the nicest knitting bag I know own. It's HUGE (and fits both skeins of yarn PLUS. In fact, it fits my Sock Yarn Blanket AND scraps) and has a nice thick interfacing so it stands up on its own and can be used as a yarn bowl when knitting in the wild.

The exclusive fabric, with a logo that combines all of our companies and looks awesome, was designed by SeaandLake. The kits are on sale now for only $99 at blackmarketwool.com!

As far as what I worked on at the retreat, I didn't want to have to pay attention to a pattern or where I was in the knitting, so I worked on my Sock Blanket! A few of us brought yarn scraps so we could share. I think what I love most about this blanket is having different squares from different people, as well as the memory of knitting them. For example, I'll always remember where I know the 12 squares I finished during the retreat!

That's it for me today. I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Work in Progress 185

Hi everyone. I hope all is well! Sorry I forgot about FO Friday last week. I meant to post the Mister Linky despite not having a FO, but it slipped my mind. I hope you all had a great weekend.

 

Here's an update on my sock yarn blanket, with bonus cat butt. HA! She decided to lay down just as I put the blanket out to take the picture. As you can see on the left, I've started to add squares to the side. I'm going to be adding to the left side, but won't on the right yet, because I'm not 100% sure it's the width I like. Right now it's 13 squares wide. It's about the size of a one person lap blanket. I think a few more squares added to the width would be best, but right now I am focusing on just making it deeper. I am so in love with it so far! It's a great mindless project that I pick up when I don't feel like I want to commit to my knitting at the time.

 

I'm sure you don't remember this. I started this Herbivore shawl by Stephen West back in May of last year, and I bought the yarn, Tosh Sock in Spectrum, at Stitches West 2013. I decided to pick it up again this week and am close to finishing it soon. I took this picture Tuesday afternoon, and worked on it all Tuesday night. I've finished as far as the size based on the pattern, but since I have a bit of yarn left, I'm trying to squeeze out a little more. I can't wait to see this off the needles.


That's it for me. I hope you have a great rest of the week. I hope to have my shawl done for Friday! See you then.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier! 

Work in progress 182

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good week. I've been super busy this week, as Stitches is this weekend.  I'm not a vendor, but since I won't be working Thursday and Friday, I have extra on my plate at the start of the week.

Speaking of Stitches, I'll try and schedule a FO Friday post before I leave so you guys can still post your links. I should be posting a lot of pictures to my Instagram account, @candyskein, if you're interested in following.

This week I haven't had too much knitting time, so I just worked on my Sock Yarn Blanket. It's actually getting quite big considering I only started it 13 days ago. It's a great addicting project that uses up yarn I never thought I would use. Unfortunately, it's also caused me to buy yarn. I'll be looking for mini skeins at Stitches for it, as I plan not to buy too much full skein yarn. If you're looking for a fun project that's pretty portable (you can make single squares and connect them later on, or do little blocks of squares and connect them later), look no further. The only problem is you have to be pretty patient because it takes a LOT of sock yarn to finish this thing. I plan to work on it quite some time.


That's it for me today.  I hope you have a great rest of the week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work in Progress Wednesday 180

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going well. I've had a nice week of packing orders and waiting for a large yarn order to arrive. It finally did yesterday, so I got right to work on the monthly subscription orders I still have to dye/ship out for February. Sorry for the delay, if you're one of the people who hasn't received theirs yet, but my yarn was held up due to weather. I hope to have all February yarn shipped by Monday.

Due to the delay, I have had time to knit which is nice! This weekend I didn't get much time, as we went to the zoo, bowling and did a ton of yard work this weekend. However, I now go to a knit group Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so it gives me time to semi-focus. To be honest, I don't get much knitting actually done in knit groups, but it's great for the social aspect of my life. Working by myself (most days) from home can get a little lonely. Thank god for Netflix and podcasters.

This is the sock I started with the February colorway, Broken Heart Tart, which is available on the website. I love love love how it's knitting up. I'm using the Waffle House stitch pattern, but converted it to cuff down and also did a Eye of the Partridge heel. I'm knitting them on size US 1, because I think I'm knitting a little looser than I have before and I usually knit socks on US 1.5. We'll see how these fit.  I'm actually a little further than it looks here, as this was the beginning of yesterday and I worked on them throughout the day. I'm about a 1/4 of an inch away from the toe. Woohoo! I plan to cast on the second one right away so I don't have serious one sock syndrome.

Since I'm pretty much insane (head meet desk), I decided I needed to start a sock blanket, where you knit hundreds of mitered squares with sock yarn and connect them as you go. Oy! What am I thinking? I think I'm just tired of seeing so many scraps of sock yarn sitting around my house. However, this will only make them even more unusable as I don't think I want two squares to look alike. We'll see. I may change my tune quickly. If you are interested in swapping sock yarn bits, PM me on Ravelry (hpseeker4 is my username). If I get enough people interested, maybe we can organize a swap. I have tons of Candy Skein extras, as well as other yarn companies (mostly indie dyers).


That's it for me today. I hope you all have a great rest of your week and I'll see you here on Friday, with hopefully a finished Waffle House sock (but not the pair unfortunately).



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!