Lost Sweater & a Hat Club

So last week I lost my sweater I was working on, finally found it today. Just in the nick of time as tonight it knit night. Will hopefully be able to get some progress done on it as I haven't done a thing on it since the last time I posted it.

I've decided I want to use up some of my blah yarn. Do you know what I mean? That yarn you own & have no clue why you have it, you have no love for it & it's not a great color or fiber. I have a few skeins of that kicking around & am going to make hats out of most of them. I like knitting hats & they are wonderful gifts. So many people that I know from Ravelry have done their own shawl or sock clubs using stash, they've taken one pattern & the yarn & put them together & then pull one out each month to get 12 pair of socks or 12 shawls or whatever. I think I am going to aim for 20 hats this year. I've already done 7 so that's only another 13 to do & I have 3 on the needles right now so it should be no problem. I can then use those for holiday gifts for people. I'm pulling together patterns now & will match them up to skeins this week.

I am also trying to figure out what to make with my worsted scraps. I've quite a few of them & some are superwash & some aren't I kinda don't want to make a blanket & I'm at a loss for what to do with them.

Footle

I've been a bit quiet because I've nothing really to say that is "blog worthy" (whatever that means). I've not knit anything amazing, not traveled the world, not cured all forms of cancer, not figured out the last digit of pi, not done anything super interesting I guess.

My roommate got a Wii & I've started working out with it & that's been fun. I am using it 4x a week & have been for the last 2 weeks. It feels nice to have a simple routine I can do to start my day.

Been working slowly on my sweater, ribbing is hard on my hands so I'n not as far as I'd like, but winter is still a while off. I did decide to cast on yet another hat. They are just so easy to whip up & the perfect size to carry with me when I'm out & about.

Same style hat as the last few I've made, but different pattern. I'm knitting it with some Malabrigo & it's so soft! I am loving how this feels on my hands & I'm always a sucker for a single ply.

Finished the hat & started a sweater

Finished up my hat (& think I'm done with that pattern for a while), it came out quite nice.

Cast on my first sweater & opted for some red yarn rather than the blue or green I bought for my first sweater, decided on a different pattern too.

It's a simple ribbed sweater all knit in one piece so no seaming, which is nice. The color in the picture is a bit off owing to the fact my camera hates reds. My gauge didn't come out right, but was only 1 extra stitch per 4" when I went up a needle. In the end I decided to go with the needle the pattern called for, but go up a size & hope for the best.

Sweet Find at Thrift Store

Look what I found at the thrift store for only $12!

The Pink & purple aren't really my colors, but I can either knit for girl-child or over dye. They are both JaggerSpun 4/8 Super Lamb (which is Merino Superwash) & are one lb cones. The blue is really pretty & is JaggerSpun 4/8 Wool-Silk (which is a 50/50 mix of Merino & Tussah Silk), they are also one lb each. I added them to my Rav stash straight away when I got home yesterday, then went to see how good of a deal I got & this is just over $200 worth of yarn!!! Really glad I went to the thrift store.

The Trouble With Cotton

The trouble with cotton is it shows any unevenness in stitches really well.


I've been working on this swatch & I think I need to admit that this might not be the best yarn for a first sweater.

I've a second (& third & forth) pattern picked out, just waiting for the needles to get here in the mail so I can get started. I really need to make a habit of buying a few needles each month to fill in the many gaps in my supply.

Easter Tulips

Every year girl-child's pre-school sells tulips as a fund raiser & they are so nice. They always are in a nice full bloom for Easter.

I love tulips!

My current favorite no-cook supper

I'm lazy about cooking, my roommate prefers take-out & my 4 year-old eats like a 4 year-old, so I never see the point of spending time in the kitchen. I've got a few no cook meals I really like that I would even have no shame in serving others.

It's a pack of Schwan's Microwave Penne Pasta , Green Giant Immunity Boost, 1/3 cup shredded roasted chicken breast (from one of those chickens they have all done at the grocery store) sprinkled with MrsDash hot & spicy & a little of my favorite rib rub.

Nuke the pasta & veggies for a minute less than the shortest time on the package

Toss them along chicken in a sealable container, sprinkle on seasonings, close up tight & shake like mad

Put in fridge to let the seasonings permeate the food

Re-heat & serve later

I usually make this in the afternoon & have it for supper, then lunch of the next day. It's over a pound of food & it's only 585cal, 11g fat & 3g fiber for the whole thing, not bad for 6-7 minutes of "cooking" & serves 2-4 depending on appetite. Would be yummy with some BOCA Crumbles (I wouldn't add those til you were heating to serve, they don't sit in food for hours well) or any ground or shredded meat.

Sweaters

So I got sweater yarn & just needed to get the needles in; those came yesterday. I think they green is really a bit splittier than I want to deal with for a whole sweater on size 6 needles. Going to look at some other patterns & consider a different pattern for the first sweater, I can use the blue.

Not a totally knitting post

Mostly I talk about my knitting here, but I need to take a moment to talk about something else. I quit soda! Now I know you all don't know me in person, but trust me this is huge. I have drank soda as the only liquid in my diet for at least 10 years (sparing the occasional 2-4 month break I tried 3-4 times). So to give up soda is pretty major. I replaced soda with spring water mostly, I like the taste of spring water better than tap. If I can't get spring water then I go for icy tap or tap with lemon. I am having a cup of tea 2-3 morning a week & once summer gets here I'll brew up plain decaf tea to sip on during the day or water with lemon, lime or cucumber slices in it.

On the knitting from I'm almost 1/3 way through the hat I started the other day. I've had a cold or something the past few days & haven't been knitting much. I did get down to knitting the other day & good thing I did there was free yarn! There is another knitting group that meets when we do & someone brought them in free yarn from a yarn shop that closed a few years back. Once they'd picked theirs out they shared the rest. I got 2 sweaters worth of mohair/acrylic/wool, the one I'll do a tension square of & see how it behaves, it's only 25% mohair so I might be able to do a sweater with it. The other is really fluffy so I may do a loose knit wrap or shawl or something where a screw up won't be the end of the world since I know it won't tink well. I also got 3.5 skeins of some great bulky in black that I might make a sweater of, I've a pattern in mind, just need to get needles for it.