July WIPs                                     

        As I mentioned earlier, WIPs are happening like nobody's business over here. It seems that every year when I enter a new season of the year I get all nostalgic and think about what life was like at this time last year. At this time last year I was so very pregnant and furiously knitting a blanket for my sister and her now husband. I knew they would be engaged soon and got the notion to make them an "engagement quilt." I'm not really sure if engagement quilts are a thing but I decided it was a nice notion. I banked on Peter being two weeks late since he was my first baby and I didn't want to get my hopes up for any earlier. Well - Peter decided to come 2 days early thank goodness and the engagement quilt was put to a halt and finished at Christmas. But I have such sweet memories of that part of the summer where the only thing I needed to do was wait for baby to come. Each day I would make sure to take an hour walk through the hilly streets of Bellevue and listen to the "Wives and Daughters" audiobook and then come back and knit and watch "Miss Marple" and in the evenings "Merlin" with Dave. During the course of this year I've been busy being interested in things other than knitting like baby and reading. So here I am as we enter the second half of the summer and I start to think of cooler months and what I want for those months. I currently have a total of 6 WIPs and 4 I'm pondering just putting on the needles too since I'm so excited about them.

      1. Peter's Green Blanket. - This is in stockinette stitch with a garter stitch border and since I have so many knotted yarns in the back of the blanket I plan on sewing a layer of minky (color tbd) on the back. I plan to give it to him for his first birthday. Anyhow I'm very excited about this - it's with Caron's simply soft yarn so it can be washed and I just love this rich Kelly green!

      2. Dave's hat. Since the husband will be using public transportation this whole winter I want him to have a very good hat. I had some leftover yarn from when I did the ties for a friend's wedding party. It's this lovely shade of deep turquoise with these lovely shades of aqua in it. I love that about non-acrylic yarn - the colors are much richer and deeper. It's going to be somewhere between a toque and a beanie. I will unfortunately have to frog what is on the needles though since I am only just learning how to use gauges and will have to reassess since my yarn is a heavier weight than the pattern calls for. I'm also very pleased that I didn't throw away a too small wool dress since I plan to line the hat with some of that fabric. I think I finally have the gauge figured out (after doing it 4 times!!!) and will be putting it on the needles very soon.

     3. Gryffindor bag. This project is all knit except for the strap. I plan on this being used for knitting projects and library books on the days that I go there. This fangirl is so excited about this bag! I should keep a running count of how many times I reference Harry Potter on this blog. Mom is going to sew a knit stretchy crimson fabric into it for me.

     4. Mom's Pillows - This pattern is from Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Knitting". It's such a stunning book with beautiful pictures and such a dynamic and elegant writing style. I told Mom that I'm really hyper about knitting and she could request something. I'm also very glad that I know about how to use gauge now since I was using a chunkier yarn than the pattern called for and needed to go down 2 sizes in needles. I can't count how many projects would have been saved for me if I had known about gauge swatches before.

      5. Pop Fizzle Hat - Even though this isn't cast on yet, I will be taking this with me on vacation and will be casting it on soon. I thought about pairing these yarns when I saw this Pop Fizzle hat pictured on knitgraffiti from Lesley Anne Robinson . As soon as I saw this Pop Fizzle hat I HAD to have the pattern! It's on Ravelry and the KAL (knit along) goes until September 30th. There's an option in the pattern to use DK weight as the main color and fingering weight as the accent color. I think these colors would look simply smashing together!

    6. Beanie Hat with chunky yarn. I have had this hand dyed Gwen Erin wool that is so pretty I'm having trouble committing it to a project. Unfortunately there's not quite enough for a hat on its own so I'm going to try out pairing it with a grey acrylic and wool chunky yarn. I would love to have a really fun and warm casual winter hat. 

Projects I'm pondering:
Proper socks (small needles with fingering weight yarn) with sock yarn
Comfy socks with chunky yarn
A double moss stitch scarf blanket (pattern in "The Gentle Art of Knitting"
Big comfy jumper (pattern also in "The Gentle Art of Knitting")

 So it took me a little while to find my camera and I still haven't found the charger (fingers crossed) because I would love pictures to be a regular thing on here when I want to share my knitting. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I'm knitting and I would love to hear from anyone about what they're knitting!

Cheers, Kate