Boot Sock Saga

I have been wanting to knit boot socks for a really long time. I love boots and tall warm sock during the cold winter months. My friend suggested this cute pattern, Little Cable Knee Highs by Purl Soho. I love how they are simple yet elegant and even a bit sexy. I was given some yarn by my friend to intended for this pattern. I started them, got to about the second repeat and realized the yarn in conjunction with this pattern was not a good fit. 

See, yuck. The cable is just a messy mix of colors! I am not very good at ripping a project and starting over however, this was simply not acceptable. I think this experience taught me to appreciate nice yarn and to find the right project for the yarn and not just to finish a project. I believe this yarn would be great as sock but with a very simple pattern. Lately, because of this small epiphany  I have really started to enjoy knitting much more. The process of relaxing and just working through a chart instead of speeding through a project to get to the end result.

I had some Berroco Comfort Sock yarn in my stash in a solid red color. I cast on and finished the foot of the sock and started the cable. When I saw the first 2 cables I think I drooled a little, I absolutely loved how the yarn looked in this pattern! Simply yet elegant.

 The first sock just flew off the needles, as is the second one. I have just started the cables on the second sock and it looks amazing! I cannot wait until they are complete.

Our holiday

Finally, last post for awhile, I promise! This holiday just flew by. I feel like I blinked and it was over. We had such a great time, hopefully I can recap. First, we spent a weekend in Rogers catching up with the M family. We went to the holidazzle parade, baked, laughed, sledded, and of course knitted. It was a great, relaxing, fun weekend filled with holiday joy. I love spending time at their house. It is truly a place I can relax and be myself. 

We spent one day with my brother and M. Catching up with them, seeing Santa and touring Macy's winter wonderland! We had lunch and played. Nolan opened his gift from them. My brother gave him all of his old toys from when he was a kid! Nolan loved it!! 

 Then we had my sister-in-law and family came to stay with us for a few days. It was so great to catch up with them. My niece is adorable. She is so well behaved and happy! What a cutie pie!

We spent a day in Marshfield, WI for the B family Christmas. Lots of kids, family and fun. It's always a great time seeing everyone and catching up on the past year. We spent Christmas Eve and day at home with the 3 of us. I cherish this time. Having Nolan at this age makes for a bit of magic especially with Santa. We made cookies for Santa and watched the Santa tracker on Christmas Eve. Nolan even got a letter from Santa (whew, we were hoping it would make it on time!)

 Nolan got a big boy bike from Santa! He is so excited to ride around on it!

 Christmas Day we opened gifts from Santa and then hit the road to La Crosse. We had Christmas dinner with my dad and family. We always get so spoiled there! It amazing seeing all the gifts, wrapping paper and listening to all the laughs. Its a great time. 

 We had Christmas with Paul's parents and sister's family the following day. It was again more fun, sledding, presents and great memories.

Overall, the holiday was amazing. Besides a cranky Nolan (he really needs a daily routine) we had great time. Needless to say we were exhausted and ready to get back into the grove of things. New Years we spent with friends and just relaxed. When the cold weather hit, daycare was closed and we were home with Nolan for 2 more days. Getting back to a routine took a long time but it was a holiday to remember. I hope yours was too.

Sydney's Sweater

Sorry for all the posts! I just need to catch up from the holidays! I start teaching soon so I figured I better catch up now!

I wanted to knit something special for sweet Sydney for the holidays. She is an adorable 1 year old with a great personality! I love her to pieces.  Of course I wanted it to be a surprise for her parents as well so I could not post anything about it until after the holidays but I think I was finished with it before Halloween! I was so excited to knit it for her! While I was going to chose a heavy big sweater, my friend reminded me she lives in Florida now. While big heavy warm sweaters are cute, she probably would not get too much use out of it (good point)! We looked forever and finally came up with the mini ballerina shrug. Because I made this shrug so long ago I do not remember having any issues. It seemed to be a fun and quick project. Mercerized cotton was the type of yarn I used but I do not remember the brand or color.

I have to say I am not addicted to mercerized cotton. I want to make a pair of socks for myself out of it. Oh well, someday! Sydney's gift turned out perfect, just like her. I hope she gets lots of use out of it. I miss her so much already.

I want one too

Well, my husband got a hand knitted hat... I want one too! I decided to use the yarn I got for my birthday to knit up a hat for myself. I have been looking at hat patterns for a while and I found myself coming back to the same one. I love snowflakes and I love hats with snowflakes. I like to learn something new every time I knit a project. This time, I was going to learn how to use a chart with a color change. I found this pattern, Snowflake sweater and hat. I loved the hat. Then I always check other peoples raverly pages to see how successful they were at the pattern. Turns out, they looked great as well. I had 2 skeins of Plymouth DK Merino Superwash in colorways 1000 (white) and 1110 (purple). Here is how the project turned out:

The pattern is originally made to knit flat then seam together. I just knit it on DPN's in the round. I CO 26x4 (104) stitches and did 1x1 ribbing for about 6 rows. Then I decreased 2 stitches per needle per round at the top of the hat. I added a pom pom as well. Overall, I love how it turned out. If I was to do it again, I would decrease the number of stitches in the 1x1 ribbing and I would leave more slack for the carrying yarn while working the chart. I am hoping the yarn will stretch out as the hat is worn... fingers crossed. 

Ravelry Page:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nonosmom/snowflake-sweater-and-hat-hat-archive

I have more the 1 skein of each color left so I am going to knit matching fingerless mittens. 

1 Hour fingerless snowflake gloves pattern

Mod Cables Hat V2

Hello. Lately I have been working on some boot socks for people (myself included). However, the boot socks are really long and there is no instant gratification with knitting them. Therefore, I decided to make some hats! With the extremely cold weather and in need of a finished project, I started to make my husband another Mod Cable Hat. The last one ended up in the washer and now fits my 3 year old. So my bestie found some washable yarn and sent it to me so the same mistake does not happen again. I used about 1/2 a skein of Vintage Berroco in the cracked pepper colorway. The second time around, this hat was much easier and faster to knit. I even believe that the hat looks better and I kept my gauge more evenly throughout. In any case, my husbands head is a bit warmer in these cold winter days.