My Month in Instagram!

   Wow, this month flew by fast! And mine was great, I hope ya'll had a great beginning to the year as well. I spent a great deal of it knitting (mostly knitting gifts for a Secret Valentine that I am running out of time for! Oh no!

   But I finished my first knitting project, a pair of socks, then my second, then third, and I have a few works in progress as well.

   I am really, really looking forward to February, even though I currently have no plans for the month. Just hard not to look forward to it when this month so far has been so great!

   So here are some photos of my past month! Hope you like them! You can follow me on Instagram as well, it's linked in my sidebar.

Cunning Socks

      I am super thrilled! I finished my first ever knit project (not the first picked up, just the first finished. ;P), a pair of socks with the colour scheme from Jayne's hat. They took longer than I'd like to admit! The first sock(s) took about two weeks, I ended up pulling out all the stitches of the first one and starting over with a much better sock. Luckily, the second sock didn't even take two days. Hurray!

   They are certainly far from perfect, and you can see where I tied the previously cut (from before I ripped out the stitches) yarn on the first sock a bit, the second sock looks a lot better! Regardless, I love them so much and they are so toasty compared to all my other socks, none of which are knit.

   The pattern for these bad boys are from Knits for Nerds, mine are a size small and are a wee bit big on my feet (size 6, for anyone else cursed with ridiculously small feet), but not so much as to bother me, they are still very wearable! Just maybe not with the tightest of combat boots. ;P

   Has anyone else reading this knit this pattern? I'd love to hear your thoughts! I know I love mine and I've never been more proud of a pair of socks in my life, haha. :) Enjoy!

W.I.P 1/1/2014

     Happy new year! I have a lot of things to look forward to this new year (especially since they are short term. I am terrible at long term plans!), among them being my current works in progress!

      I forgot to add one of those items in the photo above. :( And have no other photos of it yet, but it's not a big deal since it's only a muslin for a pair of boot cut jeans. I am an odd size for clothing in general, mostly so for jeans. I've made a few pairs of jeans so far but none of them fit perfect, so I decided to make a muslin this time to help make that perfect fit as well as to use for a pattern for future jeans. To be fair though, I have literally never had a perfect (or even super great) fitting pair of jeans in my adult life. Store sizing sucks and I'm still learning my way around making them myself.
      I think that's enough of a rant about jeans! More about the items I didn't forget to photograph!!

      I went to Barnes and Nobles in late November and say this 'Knits for Nerds' book. The Firefly themed projects made me want to learn to knit! I had already wanted to a bit because crocheting just doesn't make the style of socks and sweaters I like, it would seem, but this really cemented it for me. I didn't buy the book - yet - but I bought a 'Learn To Knit' kit for ten bucks, which included needles, yarn, and a kind of useless book. But the point is I decided to learn to knit partially due to this book, and I finally started on my first project from it!

 

     My first pair of socks! More specifically, Cunning Socks. I started these socks earlier this week, I had them listed as projects I wanted to finish in December, but this is the only I started on. I love them so far! I am changing them a little to make them slouchy (just added a couple more stripes on the leg), and I may have to buy more yarn. 

     Before I started the socks I started crocheting a bobbly polka dot scarf. I'm terrible at setting down projects to start new ones. But I'm gonna pick it back up soon because I'm really excited to finish it and I think it will be really cute. It's inspired by this pattern from Mollie Makes, however I didn't really want the pattern they had, I just wanted dots. Less seasonal, more "anytime it's cold enough for a scarf." I love the fur yarn, I bought a different brand than suggesting from Michael's, which was $5 for a skein of about the same yardage instead of $25ish. Much more affordable and it's so nice!

     This next project I started last night, for the second time. I finished it once and ended up pulling out the stitches because it was far too large. I switched to a thinner yarn. I'm pretty excited for this one to finish! It's a relatively fast project, wish it was already done though. Here is the pattern, it's super cute!

     The last item is not much to mention, I received a big set of knitting needles for Christmas and I need a bigger case, so I'm making one. Boring, right? ;P

    Well, that's what I'm looking forward to so far in this New Year. What do you think? Any favourites? What patterns are you excited to conquer this year?

My Year in Instagram Photos!

   I was very late on the Instagram game, so maybe this isn't the most exciting share... but I love when other bloggers do 'week/month/year in Instagram' posts, so I thought I'd share my own. :) Here's my partial year on Instagram!

• The first dress I've sewn that I liked (second dress I've sewn since I've picked up sewing).

• My mom taught me how to crochet when she flew up for my birthday and left me with some yarn and hooks!
• One of the things I made during my mom's trip up to Washington, some velvety leggings lined with thermal fabric.
• My first order of Spoonflower fabric, of my little boy Einstein of course. :)
• The pattern to my first jacket I've sewn.

• Just some delicious grilled cheese, haha.
• Starting my first ever crochet project.
• And finished my first crochet project as well, a slightly slouchy hat!
• My first ever yarn haul. :) I was just using the yarn my mom left prior to this.
• My second hat/project, I just had to make this. I love my old Jayne hat that I bought on amazon but it was simply too big!

• The results of a quite annoying trip to Jo Ann's. Not Jo Ann's fault though, I was not prepared for the cold weather. :(
• And the jacket that I finally finished with my little Jo Ann's haul!
• I decided I needed beautiful portraits of my kitties with yarn, so here's that!
• Portraits, of course, are not enough for a cat lady. I also needed to make a dress with my boy, Einstein's, face plastered all over it. :)
• I started (and did not finish, boo!) a project of taking a self portrait every day for a month. Even unfinished, I got some photos I really love out of it. Part one portraits, part two portraits, part three portraits.

•  Just a little festive cat beanie and my photogenic boy, Einstein, haha. :) I made the beanie for some Christmas themed pet portraits. :D
• My first buy from knitpicks, definitely not my last. :)
• A current WIP, a silver bobbled polka dot scarf! I've put it down in lieu of starting my first pair of socks, but I'll have to spend some more time on it soon.
• I got a TON of knitting needles as a Christmas gift, so now I have to make a new (neon pink!) needle case to fit them all.
• Last but not least, I wrote out my first pattern. I love my new double pom hat. :)

   Well, that's my year in Instagram. :) Happy New Year ya'll!

 

   Happy Holidays from my cat family to yours!

My Favourite Things: Super Chunky Yarns

   I am in love with super, extra, jumbo chunky yarns right now! I love how visible and obvious the texture of the yarns are. I love how the stitches stand out and are extremely easy to see. If I don't get my hands on some soon, I might explode!

   Some of the yarns in particular I have been looking at are Loopy Mango and Couture Jazz yarns.

   Loopy Mango's Big Loop yarn is on the pricey side, to put it lightly, but it looks oh so worth it! Plus, they have 'mini's of their super chunky yarn for less (thought still a bit pricey) and there is plenty in it to make an awesome super chunk scarf or cowl.

Loopy Mango's Big Loop Yarn | Loopy Mango Knit Kits (lots of good Big Loop kits here!)

   Premier Yarn's Couture Jazz goes for a much more affordable price, if you don't mind it being a bit less chunky! It is a funky open-net style yarn that you can apparently make a cowl out of without even knitting or crocheting it.

    I prefer the knit cowl from SimplyMaggie, but this non knit/non crocheted 'jazzed up' cowl is definitely worth checking out and trying for yourself. You can find Premier Knits Couture yarns on amazon.com, overstock.com, walmart.com, etc. It's pretty easy to find!

   Another awesome alternative by Laura from nocturnalknits.com is using unspun wool roving (and pvc pipes as needles. How cool!) I imagine it sheds a bit but you should definitely take a look at this video, anyways:

 

(on YouTube)

   I wanted to share my newest yarn obsession (can you consider it an obsession before getting a chance to try it out yourself? I can't stop googling and youtubing it so I guess so!) with ya'll, but blogging has made me ready to knit and crochet something instead! Hope you enjoyed!

A Couple Little Crochet Things

   I've made a couple little crochet things so far this month! The first was just a free-handed bag for my crochet hooks, I didn't have anything to store them in and they tended to wind up everywhere! The bag is nothing special but it keeps them all in one place so I'm happy with it. :)

   It's actually kind of ugly, haha. But it does it's job and that's all it needs to do.

   The second project turned out much prettier! (At least I think so. ;D) It's a quick bow scarf pattern I found to try and use up my Hometown USA yarn. I had two skeins and now just have less than half a skein left, I have no idea what to do with the remainder though!

   Here's the scarf!

   These are kind of unflattering photos, so just ignore that please, haha.

   I found the pattern for the scarf on Ravelry. It worked up in about two hours, and was really very simple. (Of course, my little helpers helped me take my time.)

   I definitely recommend it for a quick, cute project, here's a link to it!