My Knitting Life · My Sock Philosophy

Recent Sock Knitting

I’ve been knitting a pair of socks and have a few other projects on my needles. I haven’t done a lot of knitting because I just came off a hard (and wonderful and final!) year of teaching! Suffice it to say that students are wonderful but the climate in education, sadly, is all about test scores. Enough of that!

When the governor’s wife came to town!

I love to buy a mini skein to use for cuff, heel, and toe. The mini-skein is called Emma’s Yarn Sock Smalls, Drops of Jupiter. The main color is Miss Babs Estrellita, Jubilee, an exclusive color for Simply Socks Yarn Company. I made my own simple pattern, 64 stitches, a simple cable down the leg, classic flap heel, and modified rib for the lower part of the sock (no sense in feeling those cable lumps in my shoes!)

Oh, and we are moving. To Kansas City. Here in Salt Lake City, we are on our “second tour of duty in Utah,” and it’s time to move closer to family. We have our reason: she’s two and grand! I’m hoping (as I always do) that I will now have more time to blog—haha.

Finally, I’ve used a few new tools, some needles and some yarn holders. The needles are from Addi called Crasy Snake. Yes, I spelled it correctly! They are shaped and not straight, meant to battle fatigue while knitting. I think my left hand liked the shape, but since I’m a thrower as opposed to a picker, my right hand was just ok with having to regrab after every stitch.
As for the yarn holders, I ordered more! These come in different sizes and are snug on center-pull balls, keeping the yarn from tangling. I love these!

That’s all for now! Stay sane and keep knitting. These two things go together, sanity and knitting!

Free Knitting Patterns · Home Projects Patterns · My Knitting Life

Diminutive Placemats

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New kitchen needs new placemats. But any placemats that I own are so large that I can’t fit 4 of them on our table or kitchen island without overlapping. So I went shopping for placemats, but they’re all HUGE! And I couldn’t find any that I liked. Additionally, they’re all pretty expensive (times four)!

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In an attempt to solve this problem, and since I like the stuff that I make, I thought I would knit some smaller placemats. They’re 12″ x 16″ (as opposed to the usual 14″ x 20″). I have one placemat finished and three to go. I used Lily’s Cream ‘N Sugar yarn in Earth Ombre colorway. They’re machine washable too, unlike many I saw at the store. I like the ikat looking print that the variegated yarn automatically made.

Here’s the pattern for you!

Diminutive Placemats