WIP Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

I took some (crappy) photos so I can actually participate in a WIP Wednesday :) Trust me, the photos are nothing special...

Anyway, onward to the photos!

Eat Your Monkey Socks

This is the first of my Eat Your Monkey Socks. The yarn I'm using is from Sun Valley Fibers and is a merino/cashmere/nylon blend. If I remember correctly, it's superwash merino...I believe it's the same blend as my Hermione's Everyday Socks and I've thrown them in the washer and dryer and they came out just fine.

I started out CO for the "small" size on US #1 needles. I worked two repeats and tried the socks on. Sadly, they were too small. Sooooo, off I went to the yarn store and picked up some US #1.5 circulars and some US #0 circulars. I restarted them on the US #1.5 circulars, I've done two repeats, and I've tried them on (they fit). Woo-hoo!

Icarus Shawl

This is my Icarus Shawl. The lifeline is left from the end of the second chart and I'm really hoping that I don't have to rip back that far. With that said, I'm maybe five or six rows into the fourth (and final) chart. It requires a bit of concentration to read the chart so I tend to work on this while Little Man is asleep.

The yarn is Wistful from Briar Rose. Initially, I never had any desire to knit this shawl until I saw a version knitted up in the Briar Rose booth at the Madison Knitters' Guild Knit In in 2010. The version I saw was a red/brown version and I inquired about it. I picked the blue/green/yellow color in the correct number of skeins (the one displayed was done with 1500 yds. of Wistful on US #6 needles)...and I may have enough to make two. That's due, in part, to changing the number of repeats I did for the first chart. It'll be plenty big without the official number of repeats. My gauge is probably different, too.

Mama's Vanilla Socks (round 2)

The second version of my Vanilla Socks looks much the same as the ones I frogged for being too small. I've transferred these to two US #1 circulars (the ones I'm no longer using for my Eat Your Monkey Socks), which gives me the ability to try them on along the way. These are good, mindless knitting for when I don't need to pay attention to what I'm doing very closely.

The yarn is Sock Yarn from htNEVELE in Parrot Bay, which is 100% merino, superwash if memory serves. She was a local dyer when I lived in Wisconsin.

Giraffe Mane!

I've also been working on getting the mane for Little Man's Giraffe just right. I went round and round about what technique I was going to use and I finally decided upon the one that Susan Anderson has a tutorial that I'm using. I've started and restarted it a few times but I think I'm going to keep it this way. I CO seven stitches and I'm doing the loop on the second, fourth, and sixth stitches on the right side rows and purling the wrong side. I think I'm going to have to give it a good soak and pin it out before I sew it on, just so I can get the "hair" to lay a little better. It's Cascade 220 Superwash so it should be fine.

Anyway, that's all I have for this WIP Wednesday :) For more WIP Wednesday fun, visit Tami!



Oh, and because I haven't posted photos of Little Man in awhile...

Maybe a week after his birthday...playing with his new toy from Husband's brother and sister-in-law.

He found his hoodie under the dining room table one day and tried to put it on all by himself. I think he did quite well, considering that he put it on upside down and didn't bother to unzip it first.

We had lunch at a place called Togo's over in San Leandro the other day. He only wanted to eat potato chips but he was happy doing so :)