Knit Happens

Hi everyone!

I’m a fairly recent knitter. I’ve been knitting almost 2 years now. Since then, I’ve found the vibrant knitting community and have wanted to participate more fully. That’s a little difficult with me living in Germany right now, so this is my contribution. I’m on Ravelry as EweknittedSkeins, so feel free to friend me.

I’m planning to blog once a week. I’ll talk about things going on here with me in Europe, my WIPs and FOs, spinning as well as other crafting I might be doing, my ever-growing stash and monthly knitting goals. I hope you join me each week.

So this past weekend, my husband and I, along with some friends, went to Pilsen, Czech Republic for their yearly Liberation Festival. Each year, they celebrate the ending of World War II and this year was the 70^th anniversary. They have a military convoy parade, re-enactments and a military camp set up as it was back then.

This year, Lynyrd Skynyrd played there. It was an awesome show and cool coincidence, the band stayed at the same hotel that we did. The bass player was down in the lobby, signing autographs and taking pictures.

The other fun thing in my life this week was my puppy’s birthday. My Havanese, Lola, turned 1 year old on Tuesday. She’s been such a joy and I’m looking forward to many more years with her.

So this is a knitting blog so where’s the knitting? Never fear. We’ll start with my Works In Progress (WIPs).

I have 3 current projects. I’ve had my Miranda Sweater on the needles the longest. I started it in October, but it got pushed to the side with Christmas knitting and other projects. I’m back working on it and while it will be a few months before I can wear it, I can’t wait to finish it. This is my first full adult sweater and it’s going well. I’m using KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted in Winter Night.

I love knitting socks and like to have a pair on the needles at all time. Currently, I’m working on the Vanilla Latte socks, a free pattern. I’m using Biscotte & Cie Felix Self-Striping yarn in the Conte de fee B colorway. I like to work my socks two-at-a-time and I’m about halfway through the heel flap. I’m doing something a little different with the heel flap. Instead of doing sl1, k1, I’m knitting the RS and doing sl1, p1 on the return. I’m also using the Double Gusset heel.

The final project on the needles is my Barn Raising Quilt. Shannon of the Minerva Turkey podcast got me started on this. I have lots of sock yarn scraps from making socks so I decided I would do something productive with them. I currently have 4 squares done. I’m not sure how many I’ll do, but I plan to use a neutral color to border the individual squares and the blanket.

One of my most recent Finished Objects (FOs) was a test knit for Maria of the Stitched in Sweden podcast. The pattern, Lattice, is now available. It was a great pattern, easy to read and understand and the FO is one of my favorite shawls.

I haven’t done much spinning lately, but I plan to get back to it. I’m currently working on merino by Godiva Yarns in the Underwater Daughter Light colorway.

I’m trying to limit adding to my stash right now as I’m heading to the Stockinette Zombies Zombie Knitpocalypse knitting retreat next month. I did get a few goodies in the mail, though. Sarah of the Love Sock Wool podcast showed some Zauberball Crazy yarn in the Wolke (means cloud) colorway. I loved it and it’s easy for me to get German yarn here so I picked up two balls, 1 for a pair of socks and 1 for a shawl.

I was able to grab a skein of Pi Day from FibernymphDyeworks and it showed up this week, along with a skein of Total Eclipse lace yarn.

Lastly, Spun Right Round enabled me with Instagram last week. I picked up two fiber braids. They are both Falkland in Colorplay 252 and Colorplay 250.

Each month, I make a list of projects that I’d like to complete that month. The Vanilla Latte socks are left over from April. I plan to have those finished this week and then head right into May’s projects. I’ll be working on Miranda, as well as the following projects:

•           Geek Socks with String Theory Colorworks Continuum Self-Striping in the Enterprise colorway.
•           Tortuga Twist Socks with MustStash Yarn & Fiber Perfect Sock in the Maleficent colorway.
•           Pebble Beach Shawl with 100% Australian Merino in yarn that I dyed myself. This pattern was recently updated to include two larger sizes.

Finally, I wanted to share a few patterns I found on Ravelry that are currently free.

•          The Mediterranea Shawl is free until May 12, 2015.
•          The Bohemian Shawl is free until August 31, 2015.
•          The Chevalier Shawl.

That’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the post and I hope you come back to visit with me. If you have any questions or comments, please free to contact me or post in the comments section.

Until next week, keep crafting!