My Knitting Vacation Begins Now!

We decided to close the shop for a mini vacation (actually ours is a "stay-cation") starting at 4:00 pm today and we will reopen at 10:00 am on Thursday, July 5th. You can probably guess what I will be doing. Lots of knitting and yarn related activities of course! No specific plans but I can tell you I will definitely work on my sock yarn blanket squares. I've got 46 squares done, which leaves me with 17 to go. I may be able to knock off another 5 squares while I'm vacationing in the cool comfort of my home. (It's 90+ degrees here and will continue through next week, so couch surfing is perfect!) I'm also going to work on a Bias 'Before & After' Scarf. I've started two of them, so we'll see if I can make some progress on one of them :)

Have a wonderful Fourth of July and I will update you on my knitting progress at the end of next week!

Keep on knitting!

Nancy

I'm sort of in a rut ...

I know. I am obsessed with making the sock yarn blanket squares. I'm working on my 41st and will most likely finish it today. It's not that I'm not knitting other things, but forgive me, the squares are MINDLESS! And sometimes mindless is really nice! I only have 22 squares to go and I'm sorting them into piles of like colors. I can see that I need a few more greenish ones and no more pink or purple ones! I have 6 solid or semi-solid squares to knit that will make the whole layout nicer ... even if knitting them will be super boring.

I also need to make sure they are all blocked (as you can see in the picture, a bunch aren't blocked yet). I'm not good about keeping up on that. As far as I'm concerned it's never fun to block and put your knitted pieces together! My plan for assembly is to make a 7 x 9 block grid on paper and number each square on it. Then I'll lay the blocks out until I like the way I have all the colors. I have some string tags that I will number from 1 to 63, and I will attach a string tag to each block, so I can assemble them in strips according to the paper layout.

I don't know how I will attach them together, but have tested a couple of techniques, from crochet to seaming with a yarn needle. If anyone has a great idea for me, please let me know!

Keep on knitting!

Nancy

My Makeshift Blocking Board

Here's an idea for you (it may not be a new one, but it was new to me ...)! I went to Lowe's on Monday and bought my new "blocking board" for my sock yarn blanket squares. Lowe's sells a package of four 24.5-inch square foam mats. I bought the gray set which are meant to be used for exercise or exercise equipment. (They also carry the same size set in primary colors for kid's playroom floors.)The package was less than $20, and I can configure all four into a square or a long rectangle. I've marked four 7.5-inch squares on the textured side of one of them to block my squares. I think they will be just as handy when I'm trying to plan the layout of the blocks and strips for my blanket, too.

An inexpensive and portable blocking board!

Keep on knitting!

Nancy

Vera Bear KAL for June

Oh honey!  Let me tell you that I barely got this blog posted in time.  The June KAL is going to be Vera Bear by Annita Wilschut.  This pattern is by the same designer from our April KAL, Jacobus the Monkey.  Purchase your pattern on Ravelry, then purchase your knitting supplies at KT and join us Thursday evenings from 6-8:00pm beginning June 7th.

Knit me, knit me, knit me ...

Vera is very teddy-bearish looking and is fun, fun, fun to knit!  If you are up for an extreme challenge while you knit this bear, you can download your pattern in Dutch.  But don't expect any help from me going forward.

Happy Knitting and hope to see you for the KAL

Renee