Year of Projects: Week 50

Just knitting and crochet to talk about this week, so a slightly shorter post than usual. If you’d like to read about my plans for 2023 in terms of crafty things, you can visit my middle of the week post here.

I finished the self-striping socks I had been working on. The yarn is Desert Vista Dyeworks Viso Sock (75/25 SW merino and nylon) in the “Big Damn Heroes” colorway, which is a reference to the Firefly series. I added in contrast heels and toes, and used my usual Fish Lips Kiss heel for these. They are ready to head off to the gift recipient!

I’ve also cast on 2 new knitting projects. The first is another Musselburgh Hat. My husband liked the one I made for myself in terms of fit, so I’m making him one out of colors of his choice (dark greens). I don’t think I will have quite enough of the MC to do as deep a folded brim as he would like, so I’m going to knit this skein of merino/yak from Sweet Sparrow Yarns up to the point the outside layer and the folded brim are done with this one, and then will add in another dark green I have as a stash remnant in merino/cashmere for the lining and it should make this one SUPER warm.

I also cast on for a new pair of socks for the Socks from Stash December challenge prompt – work with a solid-colored yarn. I’m using West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in the colorway Pacific. I’m using the 3 Leaves pattern, which was originally in the Laine 52 Weeks of Socks book, designed by Paula Pereira. These are toe-up, which are not my usual go-to choice, and I did have a go at redoing the pattern to work cuff-down, but 2 rows of one of the patterns were giving me difficulties and I don’t have the mental bandwidth to re-write the pattern to that level this month, so toe-up it is! I am going to be substituting in a Fish Lips Kiss heel as I feel more confident about getting a good fit with that placement than with the as-written gusset and flap.

My Evening Dew cardigan is currently on hold this month. I realistically won’t get much, if any, knit on it until maybe after Xmas itself. Also no new handspun to report this month.

I will be started on my December focus x-stitch project this afternoon if I can get done with work at a decent time, but since I haven’t put any stitches in it yet, I’ll save that update for next week.

Finally, my big/focus project for this month will be my advent box. I received the Quiet Voices advent box of miniskeins from Suburban Stitcher, and I’m already in love with the soft, muted colors Dianne chose for this year’s box. One thing that I didn’t like about the project I made last year (also from her) was that I had leftovers and I really wanted to use up as much of the minis as possible. (The box has 25 minis, 20 g and 97 yards each.) This year, I did some swatching with some random minis from stash and, using a 4.0 mm crochet hook, and the interior pattern from Purl Soho’s Bear’s Rainbow Blanket (I’m not doing the neutral border that is 2 more rounds), I can get 2 blanket blocks from each miniskein with a yard or two left over, while holding the sock-weight yarn doubled for a DK weight. This makes me very happy as I can use up every bit of the minis, but will also have a nice big stack of squares to join up for a lovely blanket to use year-round.

So here are days 1 and 2 and one of the inspiration photos Dianne used to create the color palette for the box. I am loving the trend in these beautiful colors and also love the little daily meditation/quote cards that come with each day to open and enjoy. I’m going to try to keep up with each day’s miniskein as we go through December, although these work up fairly quickly so if I need to catch up a bit, I think I can do that too.

That’s it for me this week YOPer’s!