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Monthly Digest & Wrap Up

Monthly Digest and Wrap Up | February 2024

ClassicBhaer2 Comments

Hello and welcome to a wrap up of the shortest month of the year, but with a bonus day thanks to leap year! I had high hope for this month and honestly, I got a lot done with all the stuff life threw at me this month. I will say, I am happy to announce I read another book this month! I am honestly really thrilled with this because I would rather read a book or two a month consistently than not read at all like I did pretty much all year. I also was able to get some projects off my needles, which I am excited to use now.

Books

This month I ended up only finishing one book, but it was a beautiful read. I ended up finishing Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is the 3rd book in the series. The series is heart breaking, but beautifully written and just one I cannot get enough of. The bonus is, these books are usually around 200 pages or so and fly by. Even within those few pages a world is built easily and you feel like you fall into the pages of of the books. This most recent read from this series was the exact same way. I am hoping to read the next book in the series very soon. I have to be honest, this is probably the only series I have been keeping up with since reading has gone into a full slump over a year ago. That says a lot about this series in my eyes. It is hard to really summarize this series, it is slice of life where you follow the on goings in a café in Japan. It is not just a regular café, but has a magical realism twist where you can travel through time when insider its walls, but there are rules you must follow. The stories of those who work there and those who are patrons are always well developed and intriguing and at times exacting and totally heart breaking.

Finished Projects

I finished my Christmas Eve cast on the Teddy Clutch! (Website | Ravelry) It is a large clutch that is made using yarn like a teddy bear, so it is super soft and cute. I am excited to finally be able to use it out and about. If you plan on using the recommended yarn for the pattern, I will warn you, if you drop a stitch is is nearly impossible to find it. Thankfully in my opinion it is worth it, but if I made it again I might try a different type of yarn of the same weight for a different look. The instructions were well written and easy to follow, which was wonderful! I really feel like this is a great project for adventurous beginners.

The second item I got off my needles was a really quick little scrappy project, which was called the Mini Crop Puff (Ralvery). It is a tiny little sweater and I was testing out the pattern to see if I wanted to make ornaments for next Christmas with my scrap yarn. It was a really cute and I liked the project for sure. I am not sure if I am going to use it though, the main reason being is I think they are a tad bit too big for our tiny baby tree. I might make them for friends and family though and embroider the initial of their last name. Yes, I am already planning projects! I don’t want to be really behind like previous years.

Adventures

Honestly, this month has been one of a roller coaster let me tell you what. There were some really scary things that happened, but I also had some really awesome things happen as well. I don’t want to get into to much detail about everything, but one really great thing I would like to share is I got engaged this month and I am really, really excited. It is going to be weird introducing him as my fiancé now.

Monthly Stats

  • Knitted Items: 3
  • Crochet Items: 0
  • Garment: 0
  • Accessory: 3
  • Yarn In: 1,170 grams
  • Yarn Out: 1,610 grams
  • Books Read: 1
  • Fiction: 1
  • Non-Fiction: 0
  • Pages Read: 222

Yearly Stats

  • Knitted Items: 5
  • Crochet Items: 0
  • Garment: 1
  • Accessory: 4
  • Yarn In: 2,430 grams
  • Yarn Out: 2,860
  • Yarn Year Total: -440 grams
  • Books Read: 3
  • Fiction: 2
  • Non-Fiction: 1
  • Pages Read: 1,135

Thanks for Reading! ClassicBhaer.com

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For the record: everything I’ve written here is entirely my own opinion.These views do not reflect or represent those of my current or past employers.

Knitting, Crochet & More

52 Weeks of Socks | Week 01: Intersections

ClassicBhaer3 Comments

Hello and welcome! Todays post is going to be a little walk through in my experience in knitting my first pair of socks from 52 Weeks of Socks published by Laine. For this first week I ended up actually picking the first pattern in the book, who would have thought? When I first brought up this series in my post, 52 Weeks of Socks | Series Introduction, I said I was going to pick pattern from a bottle. I ended up getting my hands on some beautiful yarn that wouldn’t work with just any pattern so I ended up picking differently. The name of this pattern is Intersections (Ravelry) and was written by Marceline Smith. Anyway, here is how it went!

Casting On

52 Weeks of Sock Book with the completed toes of two socks in a multi colored yarn and a mini skin of a golden solid placed on the floor.

I ended up casting this pair of socks in early March of 2023. I ended up using a limited edition color way from TheLittleWolfKnits in her Catamaran base. This pattern is written toe up, which is something I am new to, but casting on and completing the toes went well and flew by. At this point in time I was thinking about having a contrasting heel and cuff, so I wound up a mini skein as well.

The Process

These socks took me some time, not because I was not enjoying them, but because I had a lot of gift knits I needed to get done. I picked them up for a bit then would put them on the back burning, leading to these taking about 3 months. I will say, I really did like working on these socks. The pattern repeat was really easily memorized and even after putting it down for a few weeks at a time I had no problem picking up where I left off.

I think the only downside to working on these socks or frustrations I had was purely my own fault. I ended up knitting these in tandum, which is something I usually do. I decided for some reason to pull from the inside of the ball and the outside to do this. Usually I am smart and split the skein, but I don’t know why I felt it was a great idea to pull from both ends of the ball. This led to tangles needing to be fixed before starting my knitting session. It wasn’t horrible or a huge deal, but it cut into my knitting time and was annoying.

Final Socks

I ended up finished June 30th, 2023! I am in love with these socks. They are my first all over lace socks and I will say I really learned a lot from them. Always split my yarn if I knit in tandem was a huge one. On top of the practical lesson I learned I like doing a heel flap and gusset from the toe up more than cuff down. While I can and do pick up stitches in my socks normally, I enjoyed this process a ton more and it has inspired me to try some other heel, options such as the Shadow Wrap Heel (Ravelry Link). Spoiler alert, I used it this heel last week and I loved it so much. Anyway, I also realized if I do lace I might invest in US 1.5 needles. While they do fit very well while wearing them, I really have to tug to get them over my ankle. Overall, I feel like this first sock was a huge success and I am inspired to keep on going with this series/challenge.

Thanks for Reading! ClassicBhaer.com

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