22.5 degrees

I finished my first Camp Loopy project! The challenge was to make something by a designer who was not from the same country as you, and it also needed to be 400 yards. After much pattern searching I kept coming back to this simple but elegant pattern by Martina Behm, which you can find here. I ordered some Colinette Jitterbug from the Loopy Ewe in the Caramel colorway.  Not my typical colors, but I like it. I omitted the scalloped edging because I knew I was going to be close on yarn. Instead I weighed my skein every 5 minutes until I was sure I wasn't going to get another row out of it, then bound off.

I really like how it came out! I used up all but a foot of the yarn, so I call that a success. I even photographed myself wearing it (it was a little warm since it was about 78, but much cooler than it has been!)

In other news, lots of little projects are underway at the house. The window installation is coming to a close, the garden is (finally) planted, the herbs in their planters are flourishing, and my hammock is going to be put up this week! I'll try to take some photos, but lets me honest, I'll probably forget ;)

Date Night

In lieu of knitting content, which has been few and far between until a few days ago, I give you a date night in pictures :) The location is Evangola State Park, about 5 minutes from where we used to live.

The hubs carrying our feast (pizza and wings from our old favorite haunt)

Scenery

Found our table!

Posing with the food before digging in

The hubs chasing sea gulls

Feet in the water

The edge of the beach/cliff where we were walking

Deer at the edge of the woods

Our initials in the straw. Normally we draw it in the sand, but we forgot and were about to leave, so we made do ;)

What Have I Been Up To?

Well, let me tell you!

Last weekend the Mr. was out of town, and I had grand cleaning and knitting plans. The cleaning went pretty well, but I wont take photos of my entry way to show you how nice and clean it looks now :) What I will show you is how far I got on my knitting projects!

First is the big guy, the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket. I have't given this a ton of love, but I still really like it.

Umm, cat unintentionally added for scale? You can tell he snuck in there pretty quick because he is a little blurry :)

Next are the two shawls. First up is the Rousette Shawl for my friend's wedding. This one doesn't look like I did much, but I'm more than half done with the stockinette portion.

Wow, photo fail today. Please excuse my finger :)

Nest is the 22.5 degrees shawl. This has gotten the most love as it is more than half done. Since this is for Camp Loopy it needs to be finished by June 27th to count, so I've been trying to finish it up!

This is a really wide, shallow shawl so its getting really bunched up on the needles, so sorry about that. It looks kinda like a big blob :)

Lastly, I have a sad story. I'm pretty new to sock knitting, but this last pair I cast on was going really well. They were going really fast, I was loving the pattern, loving the yarn, and was finally feeling like I was a real sock knitter! I turned the heel and was at the point where I need to start knitting in the round again, and disaster struck.

I had a spaz moment and a few stitches dropped off the end of my needle. I tried picking them back up three different times but since it was the heel there are decreases and slipped stitches and it just wasn't working. I got all the loose stitches picked up but now there is a hole. After chatting it over with some friends I have decided to leave it and go back later and patch it up with duplicate stitch.

Other than the hole I still like these socks and plan to finish them by the end of the month. Maybe my third pair of socks will be the charm!

Things I Observed at Work Yesterday

1. There is a decent amount of middle-aged and above women who take out plenty of bodice rippers.
2. There are even more older women who play a lot of Facebook games.
3. Said women get very grumpy when the internet doesn't work.
4. 8 year old boys do not think shirts are necessary to come to the library.
5. Harry Potter movies and books still go out :)
6. 17 year olds are looking older and older.
7. People who irritate you will always come in when you do not want them to.
8. A lot of surprising people really want to read Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy (50 Shades Trilogy)

9. If a coworker is trying to get someone to work for them without your boss knowing, they should not call you while you are working.
10. No matter how much you have worked in the past 7 days, you will get asked to cover someone else, and it is good to learn to say no :)

Stripey Socks

I FINALLY finished my stripey socks that have been on the needles for two months. They definitely aren't perfect- the heel is a little wonky, but I know what I did wrong, so I can fix it next time. They also turned out too big for me in just about every direction, so they will be going to a friend with bigger feet than me.

I'm just happy to have finished them, because this means I can finally start my Hermione's Everyday Socks out of Sunshine Yarns Classic. I'm hoping now that I have a pair of fingering weight socks under my belt that these will go quicker and actually fit me!

S is King

Shawl and socks have taken over my knitting life. Only the Moderne Log Cabin blanket stands out :) I'm *this* close to finishing my stripey socks, so those will have to wait for a finished photo. However I have some progress pics on the rest of the items I've been working on:

This is my Camp Loopy project, the 22.5 degrees shawl by Martina Behm.

I am loving this shawl so far. It has a three row repeat which is easily memorized and it has become something easy to take with me when on the go. I might make another for a friend, but I'm not sure yet :)

The other shawl that I've been working on is the Rousette Shawl for my friends wedding out of Knit Picks Capretta.

The color is off in this photo- its much more deep and purple than this bright pink. I really want to get my hands on more of this yarn though- its simply LOVELY :)

I still haven't cast on my Hermione's Everyday socks yet- mostly because I need to finish the stripey socks first. Maybe today?