Tag Archives: urth

So close, so far

I was totally determined to get these socks done this week, but it’s just not happening. Not from lack of trying (sorta).

I got close. I’m halfway through the toe decreases on the second sock. In fact, if I hadn’t sat down to write, I could probably have finished by the time I post this.

But, you know what, I’m a-OK with leaving them as they are right now. The socks are pretty. They’re going to be lovely when they’re done, but it’s hot outside. It’s not like I’m itching to put on a pair of new wool socks right now, anyway. And I’m super tired after almost a month of near daily playdates and almost constantly entertaining my kids, so I’m going to give myself a break. (School is out for the summer, and it’s become wildly obvious (again) that they’re both huge extroverts. They need to play with kids and get out of the house every day, or they turn into little chaos gremlins. I, however, am a big old introvert (hence the knitting), which means that every playdate and outing I set up for them leaves me fully overstimulated and exhausted.)

Anyway, all that’s a long-winded way of saying, the socks aren’t done yet. They will be done, and soon, but not yet.

How hard do you push to finish a project?

One Down

Woo! I’m on a roll. I just got back from a big trip to visit family, and my kids are finally at the age where they can just sit in the airplane and watch shows/play games on their tablets. Instead of having to do a whole dog-and-pony show for my toddler, I was able to sit for a good chunk of our flights and just knit and listen to my book. It was fantastic.

Not only did I get to do some knitting, I managed to knit up a whole sock (and a half, but then I frogged it).

And I gotta say this yarn is full of surprises. First, I thought it was variegated, then I thought it was an ombre/gradient situation. But now, it turns out that it’s fully striped! I don’t know if I’ve ever been so surprised by a yarn.

Luckily, it’s been a good surprise so far.

I mean, it’s super cute! And “Uneek” (which I guess should have been a clue). I don’t know if I would have put these colors together on my own, but I really like how the yarn looks knit up.

Now to match the stripe pattern for the second one.

When’s the last time you used self-striping yarn?

Gorgeous

Y’all. I can’t get over how beautiful this yarn is turning out! I’m literally making the simplest, most vanilla socks ever, yet I can’t wait to pick them up. The colors are blowing my mind!

Look at it!

It’s like a gorgeous jewel-toned sunset or something! I love the subtle blue/green stripes at the top, and how the yarn changes so slowly into a deep fire-y red. I can’t wait to see what this yarn does next!

Looking at the ball of yarn, I’m guessing that it’s dyed so that the pair will be twins (or at least siblings), but there won’t be any repetition in the stripe pattern within the sock. I have to say, I really lucked out here- I thought I was just getting a pretty (but fairly normal) variegated skein of yarn. Turns out I’ve got myself a full-on work of art!

Plus the yarn base is so lovely. I thought it was going to be a little thin and splitty, but it’s really nice to work with. I’m knitting it up on US1s, and the fabric is coming out soft, firm and silky. (Which makes it sound like tofu. Or maybe I’m just hungry.)

I’m honestly a little bummed that I’m going to have to turn the heel soon. I kind of just want to keep knitting the leg so that I can see the entire stripe pattern all laid out.

Have you ever surprised yourself with a skein of something really special?

Surprise!

So, I guess I need to pay more attention to what I buy, because you know that gorgeous, variegated yarn that I got last week?

Well, I managed to get it all wound up this weekend, and I got a surprise!

Turns out, it’s self-striping and it looks totally different than I was expecting! I had no idea when I brought it home. It’s hard to tell from just looking at it all wound up, but I think it’s going to have some cool super-long repeats. (Yes, I could have just looked at the website and I would have seen that it was self-striping… But I just didn’t.)

I’m so excited to get knitting on these socks! they’re going to be so pretty!

Have you ever been surprised with your yarn purchases?

A little retail therapy

It’s nearly the end of the school year, so it’s been wildly busy around here. I’m on the board of our preschool co-op, so there’s lots of year-end stuff that we have to do. We’re getting ready for our big kid to graduate from PreK (which is insane and hitting me harder than I expected). And, we’re getting ready for a big multi-state trip back to visit grandparents (our first big trip since Covid, and our first time flying with two kids. It’s going to be nuts).

Needless to say, I’ve been a little stressed. So, when my little one and I had a bit of free time the other day, we went on a coffee/donuts/yarn run. They were more excited about the donuts than the yarn, but they’re two, so that’s not really surprising.

I, however, bought myself a lovely skein of Urth Uneek Fingering. I know nothing about it, except that it was soft, pretty, and superwash. I plan on making a nice vanilla pair of socks with it while we’re traveling. I’m hoping for some nice, low-key, relaxing knitting for the plane (HA!)

Now we’ll just have to see if I can remember my formula for improvising socks…

What’s the last thing that you treated yourself to?