Swatching

Here's a much better picture of the finished Sorrento  courtesy Julie  I have a tendency to forget to take progress pics and a finished one is hit-and-miss. It takes a village, and this idiot is happy for my village ❤️❤️

 

Wow - I'm even a little impressed with my handiwork seeing it like this!

I should say something about the Studio Linen  Being comprised of 85% recycled rayon linen, it has a softer drape right off of the ball. It doesn't have the stiffness that linen is known for for and that is so hard on your hands when knitting with it. I love linen, the breaking in of it is part of the magic; a shortcut is awesome though! It was a pleasure to knit with, block and seam. 

I have been swatching and knitting on Lemongrass. 

I jumped straight to 6.5mm needles, since I knit tightly in general, though a bit more "standard" on circulars. The swatch was a bit loose, though the row gauge was spot on, which is important on a raglan shaped sweater. I could do and have done maths to correct my inexplicably right row gauges, but swatching is quicker for me. 

I cast on, but by round 16, realized that I'd been knitting tighter, perhaps subconsciously because I knew my stitch gauge was loose. Also, my shorter Addis are standard and the ones that I swatches on were the lace tips. Yes, needles matter. 

 

So I pulled out my Marblz and cast on a new swatch with 6mm needles. 

Much better - stitch gauge is spot on and row gauge is the same as on the 6.5mm. I know, weird. It's a skill; not particularly marketable, but a skill nonetheless. 

So I cast on anew and am at round 16. Again. The best part about using and interchangeable set is that I can just upsize/downsize the cord as needed. 

I didn't get much done on my Flamingo Beach socks last night; I was in plant 2 for 3/4 of the night as they were short-handed. But my step count was higher, so trade off; my steps are about 1/2 when I'm working dock. 

Swatching

Here's a much better picture of the finished Sorrento  courtesy Julie  I have a tendency to forget to take progress pics and a finished one is hit-and-miss. It takes a village, and this idiot is happy for my village ❤️❤️

 

Wow - I'm even a little impressed with my handiwork seeing it like this!

I should say something about the Studio Linen  Being comprised of 85% recycled rayon linen, it has a softer drape right off of the ball. It doesn't have the stiffness that linen is known for for and that is so hard on your hands when knitting with it. I love linen, the breaking in of it is part of the magic; a shortcut is awesome though! It was a pleasure to knit with, block and seam. 

I have been swatching and knitting on Lemongrass. 

I jumped straight to 6.5mm needles, since I knit tightly in general, though a bit more "standard" on circulars. The swatch was a bit loose, though the row gauge was spot on, which is important on a raglan shaped sweater. I could do and have done maths to correct my inexplicably right row gauges, but swatching is quicker for me. 

I cast on, but by round 16, realized that I'd been knitting tighter, perhaps subconsciously because I knew my stitch gauge was loose. Also, my shorter Addis are standard and the ones that I swatches on were the lace tips. Yes, needles matter. 

 

So I pulled out my Marblz and cast on a new swatch with 6mm needles. 

Much better - stitch gauge is spot on and row gauge is the same as on the 6.5mm. I know, weird. It's a skill; not particularly marketable, but a skill nonetheless. 

So I cast on anew and am at round 16. Again. The best part about using and interchangeable set is that I can just upsize/downsize the cord as needed. 

I didn't get much done on my Flamingo Beach socks last night; I was in plant 2 for 3/4 of the night as they were short-handed. But my step count was higher, so trade off; my steps are about 1/2 when I'm working dock. 

The end of that, the start of this

I finished Sorrento, pockets and all! Yeah, you know pockets aren't my fave thing, but they really add the perfect touch to this sweater.  

I did discover an small error on the inc section of the back; the correction is on the errata section of the Erika Knight website. 

I'm sure that Julie will post better pics, this one is rather dark. 

I have moved from the plant at Honda to the dock crew. There is more parking, driving, and getting driven back around. It's a smaller crew, just 4-5 of us and Mark is chill and lets me knit while we're in the bus. Seriously, it's just dead head time. I take the expected teasing in stride, just happy to be able to fill in the time productively. 

 I started these on Tuesday, and considering that I spent most of Friday helping out in Plant 2, I'm well pleased with what I got done. I estimate that if I only knit socks in the bus I could get approx 1 sock knit per week. Impressive for straight up bonus knitting time yo!! 

My plans for this weekend fell through and with Sorrento finished, Craig and I decided to head to Ancaster to trade a finished sweater for a potential sweater and chat with Julie and Cathy. It was a decent day for a drive when we set off. Ditto has been in play in Pokémon, and we've both been capturing low level Pidgeys, Rattatas, and Zubats like crazy trying to find one. Well, Ancaster is the place to go! 5 between the two of us, and I caught my first whilst I was sitting in The Needle Emporium!

 We stopped at Costco for my work week snacks (chicken nuggets, eggs to boil and yogurt) and when we came out it started pouring bone-chilling rain. I dozed off on the drive Back and woke up when Craig stopped at a Tims just south of Orangeville. We went in for a coffee and when we came out it was snowing giant, fluffy flakes like someone had just shaken our snow globe!! 
 

Needless to say we started to think that we should stop stopping and just get home!! HA!! 

Since we decided on chili for dinner, there were a couple of stops for provisions, then I set to the making as soon as we got in, getting Craig set to his sous chef duties. 

 This is the start of something delicious!!

We are enjoying a lovely bottle of red while the chili cooks down.

 

 As soon as I post this, I am going to wind one of the giant skeins of Cascade Yarns Eco in Turtle and cast on for Lemongrass  I was admiring pics of her new Vneck Boxy on Jojis instagram feed, so I'm excited to knit this up!!

Bread's ready - gotta go!

Finishing

Today is just for me to be chill, relax with the puppies and be healthily selfish. I'm marathoning Shameless and eating whatever I crave. 

I'm finally getting to blocking my finished Building Blocks shawl!! It's totally Soakworthy  And I'm blocking it in half since it's massive!! 

 

It'll be fantastic for the impending winter about to descend upon us. And just my luck, I signed up to work, got on the list AND my snow tires got put off from last Monday to the day after the first storm is forecast. 

 

I am also blocking Sorrento  I know, it kind of got stalled whilst Building Blocks was in the needles, but I'm making up for lost time now!  

The beach blanket is doing little to chase the grey chill that is outside, but that's what electric fireplaces are for. Though if you ask the puppies, I turn it in for them. LOL!! 

This is why I almost never use bleach.

 But the counter tops and the dish cloth needed hard core cleaning ... fortunately, it's an at-home comfy shirt. Still, annoyed. 

Now you're pretty much caught up ... I'm off to eat ... beans and egg on garlic bread with cheese toast. I know!!! It's what I craved and it is going to be delish!! 

 

Treats

So on this, the day before my 47^th natal celebration, Craig and I set off for The Needle Emporium. Truly, where else would I find the perfect gift for myself?!?

 

 Another beautiful day for a road trip, even with a decided chill in the morning air. 

My mission to Julie's was to make sure I had a proper

selection of Hedgehog fibres Skinny Sock to make a final decision on my colourway for the Westknits Building Blocks MKAL  I was more than successful! I also picked up the latest Rowan magazine. 

On the way back we veered off of the highway since traffic into Toronto was nuts - concerts & sporting events galore - and I remembered how much I love a Krispy Kreme donut. And since it was on the back way home, and the Magic 8 Ball concurred, we stopped in. It was more processed sugar than we usually eat in an entire month, but it was so totally delicious!! Craig had a simple glazed, but I went with a salted caramel, and a lemon filled. It's my pre-birthday, I shouldn't have to make the hard choices. 

Then there was groceries and home. Since we were making this a cheat day, it was manicotti with a homemade pasta sauce. 

I am now defrosting the freezer to make room for all of the yummy things that I'm making tomorrow. Planning and meal prep is key to any kind of diet plan and having only a 1/2 hour lunch with no easy access to other food. 

I am getting ready to cast on my next project:

 Sorrento from The Studio Linen Collection by Erika Knight. 

I am having a lovely day, and looking forward to another one tomorrow!