Cascadia

Ravelry is buzzing with talk of the Rockin' Sock Clubs' March shipment and I realized I forgot to show you January's! The color is Happy Go Lucky and I do have to say it is a color that makes me happy. The patterns for shipment are Flabella by Christina Bain and Cascadia by Sivia Harding. It was hard to choose which to do first, but I chose Cascadia.
I got a rare gem at the Blue Moon sale that it very similar to Happy Go Lucky and I decided to use it for Cascadia. I love the little bit of evergreen that peeks through in this skein and since Sivia told us that her design was inspired by the Cascade Mountain range, it seemed like a great fit. And I still have Happy Go Lucky to use for Flabella.

This is sock one, and I am close to starting the gussett increases.

And here it is beside the club skein. The colorways are so close! I feel like I won the lottery that I had a rare gem that is such a perfect fit for a club pattern!

The March kit is supposed to ship on Friday so it should be here around the middle of next week. The playlist is out and there is quite a bit of Irish music on it. I wonder if that means my friend Irishgirlieknits is one of the designers for this kit? She's so good at keeping secrets though that I know she won't even hint either way. I guess I'll just have to stalk the mailman next week and keep my fingers crossed!

Once in a Blue Moon

There was a Blue Moon on December 31st and Tina from Blue Moon Fiber Arts thought it would be fun to celebrate the full moon by having a world-wide cast on. I went diving in my BMFA stash to pick out a blue yarn for the Blue Moon cast on. I decided on Bella Coola in lightweight.

I picked Angee from my Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. I really liked the pattern, but I found that I really needed to pay attention to it. It wasn't difficult, I just couldn't quite memorize it and had to keep referring to the chart which slowed me down a bit.

I knit the lower sock first, then made all the hats, and then came back to do the 2nd sock. Clearly my tension changed from sock 1 to sock 2, but I decided I didn't care enough to try to match it. I'm just thrilled to have finished something for myself! I think I'll wear them tomorrow!

Defining Success

The Olympics are over and I miss them already. There are so many fun events to watch and not enough hours in the day to take it all in. Like many of you I decided I was going to participate in the Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics. I picked my projects, wound some yarn, and rushed home February 12th to park myself in front of the TV for the Opening Ceremonies. I cast on my February Lady Sweater and started plugging away on it. It was the very next day that my plan took a detour.

Remember the hat I was making for my son that matched his hockey jersey? The one my friend Kelly designed and made for her son? The one that all the boys on the team wanted? Well, I spent the entire Olympics knitting hats for the boys. I finished 7 hats during that 2 week period! And I have finished 2 more since the Closing Ceremonies. (Below is Kody wearing his hat while we were tailgating between games this weekend)
Just by funny coincidence, the boys advanced to the finals for both leagues that they participated in this season. The Granite State League Championship game was at the same time as the Men's Hockey Gold Medal game! Chandler's team won! Here they are with their trophies :-)

After the Olympics were over I was feeling pretty disappointed that I didn't get my sweater done. So I decided to add up the yardage from all the hats I made to see if I was even close to knitting the right amount of yarn I needed. The sweater calls for 1050 yds of worsted. With all the hats and what I did get done on the sweater I knit 1130 yds during the Olympics. I totally could have completed that sweater. But I have 8 very happy boys and 1 little sister instead. I think it was a success :-)