I’ve been working hard this week updating our family photo site. I take a ridiculous amount of pictures in a day and an even more ridiculous amount when we’re road tripping or having an adventure of some kind. I took heaps and heaps of pictures and videos on our journey from Ontario to Los Angeles and though we’ve been here for 3 1/2 months, I just finished uploading them all this week.

Since this project was meant to be a ‘scrap yarn’ project I’m trying to work on it between projects with whatever is left from the sock I last made. The issue there of course is that I’m usually racing to finish a pair of socks for someone’s birthday (and therefore I am a week or so behind on knitting the next pair of socks). So when I finish a pair, I’m casting on for the next pair.

However. Since we’ve been in LA, I’ve been a lot more relaxed about everything. I’m sure it has a lot to do with not being ‘home’, even if we are living here for the foreseeable future. I posted a while ago that my mindset started to change just before we left Canada when I had to accept that I was going to have to start our trek down to California without having a new place picked out. That was pretty huge for me. I’m a planner. Like woah, I’m a planner. I almost want to say I was a planner. It hasn’t even been 4 months yet but I feel less of an urge to plan things now. The whole drive down here instead of stressing out about where the next hotel was going to be, we just drove on and stayed where we stayed. We got tired, Googled the closest hotel and checked in. And guess what? It was fine. It was better than fine. I was super fun and I actually felt really relaxed about the whole thing after the first night. So what does that have to do with socks? Um, everything!

In January I made a list of the 12 pairs of socks I wanted to make and who I wanted to make them for. I used to see it as a timeline (as in I have to finish Brigitte’s socks in April because that’s when her birthday is) but now I see it more like an ordered list (Brigitte got her socks at the end of May and was perfectly happy with them). I also took off a few names of people I have already knitted socks for and added a couple that I haven’t knitted for – and no projects are tied to birthdays. So I will keep knitting on my puffs until I feel like casting on for the next pair of socks in my list!

My favorite puff right now is the purple and green one in the second photo. I knew when I casted on that I didn’t have enough purple for a whole puff but in the spirit of a scrap project, I just added on the next ball of scrap yarn and kept knitting. It reminds me of our first apartment – it was green and purple. Haha. yes, really.

I am still working on that this week and today we’re meeting up with a homeschooling group in our area. I’m so excited!

Today I’m linking up with Freshly Pieced

I finished the Hedgerow socks and popped them in the mail yesterday! So in the next week or so my husband’s wonderful Nanny will get her extremely late handmade birthday gift! Photos of that after these little cuties.

At some point last fall, one of my besties Talea, my sister Nikki and I all started knitting our own versions of this amazing blanket. Since it’s a scrap yarn quit, or at least that’s the idea, it’s generally worked on in between projects with the leftover yarn. Very similar that way to the sock yarn blanket comes together (the one I linked to here is my sister’s). I’ve always wanted to make a sock yarn blanket since socks are like, 90% of what I knit, but the puffs are just too cute to resist so away I went. The problem was I’d find myself casting on for new socks as soon as I finished the last pair and my ‘must do things in order’ brain would not let me put down the socks to work on the puffs. However, as I mentioned before, I’m thankfully growing out of that and have been able to put down new socks (these are next) and crank out some puffs.

Each puff takes me between 20-30 minutes, but with three wee ones underfoot I’m lucky if I get the opportunity to have 20-30 uninterrupted minutes when I’m not supposed to be doing something else. Originally I figured this quilt would take me approximately eleventy billion years to finish but then I thought, I’m sure I waste 20-30 minutes at a time doing random things. I’m just going to channel my randonmess into puff knitting and I’ll have this thing done by next year! Do not snap me from this delusion, thankyouverymuch. Right now I have 43 and I’m keeping a tally going in the sidebar, I have to see what happens when they’re all laid out but I will likely need upwards of 400 puffs! It’s going to be a fun, colorful quilt! Some of the yarn scraps I’m using are in the bag in the back of the first image. I can’t wait to see it!!

Here are a few pictures of the finished Hedgerow socks! Socks #4 for the year!

I hope everyone is off to have an amazing and memorable Father’s Day! If you are lucky enough to be able to hang out with your Dad today – go hang out with him! My husband and I will have to settle for Skype convos with our Dads tonight, but that’s after we spend the day celebrating here with the wee ones!

For now though, here’s a quick look at our week!

Sunday = my personal cheerleader	Monday = rad new shirt
Tuesday = so ugly it’s cute cookie jar	Wednesday = knitting on the patio
Thursday Morning = these animal crackers are not for sharing	Thursday Afternoon = time to plant some patio garden seedlings
Thursday Afternoon = patio seedlings started off in repurposed toilet paper tubes
Friday = the possibilities in soap making combos are pretty much endless – so exciting	Saturday = making personalized recipe cards

I have been knitting a lot more lately, and I even managed to finish sock one and get about 1/4 of the way done sock two on this pair – let’s ignore that it’s been two weeks since my last WIP Wednesday. Homeschooling and visitors and exploring and all that good stuff gets in the way of knitting, you know! Also, I had to rip the first sock back 3 or 4 times after I turned the heel. Total Nightmare. However, this second sock is well on it’s way to being done by next Wednesday so I can finally send it off to the birthday girl (whose birthday was in April)!

Do you love my new knitting basket and the so cute it hurts notebook? I know, right? I go the basket when I was out thrifting with Vanessa and the kids on the weekend (I should do a post on their haul they made it home with, I’m impressed with their choices), and the lovely notebook was a gift from my girl Emerald. She picked it up for me when she was in Hong Kong (ooooh, fancy pants – thanks Em)! The pages are lovely and each section is done in a different color, the best part though is the back cover, it says ‘where troubles melt like lemon drops’. Ha! I love random stuff from Hong Kong (that’s another post I should do soon, she brought back a lot of cool stuff).

Annnnyhoo, I sincerely hope these socks are done by next Wednesday and I’ve casted on for my fifth pair of socks for the year. With a goal of 12 pairs of socks this year, I’m already a pair behind if I want to knit one per month. Maybe I’ll knit a pair of ankle socks in there somewhere!

Today I’m linking up with the WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

As if I haven’t posted a WIP Wednesday since I got to LA! The last one was in early March and those socks are finished!

I casted on for these babies, Hedgerow Socks almost a month ago! I had a serious issue lining up the pattern after I broke off for the heel. Ugh. I knitted and knitted and then ripped back daaaaays of knitting and then? Then?! I did it again. This time it has lined up and I’m keeping my fingers crossed the second sock lines up too!

Pattern syncing issue notwithstanding, these socks are a quick and painless knit. The pattern is a four row repeat, but really it’s just two rows repeated twice it’s even easier!

The effect is a pretty but not too fancy sock that hopefully my husband’s Grandmother will love (and wear).

I’ll also show off the finished sock from March’s WIP, the lovely Bintje. These are pretty special socks because while just like a lot of the socks I’ve made in the last two years, they were cast on in the woods of Central Ontario, but theeeeen they were knitted on across the United States. I knitted on these socks in ten different states (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California – for the curious). The recipient of these socks will absolutely love that little trivia about them so she’s the right person to have them for sure!

I know I’m not going to get any sympathy for this but man it’s hard to stay on a productive routine down here. The weather is so lovely and if it isn’t the beach calling my name it’s the pool – or it’s the kids wanting to check out one of the eleventy billion neat things there are to check out here. We also do at least four hours of homeschooling every weekday morning so that takes a serious bite out of the day as well. We have managed to force a routine on ourselves this week though. After my husband leaves for work (at what feels like the crack of dawn), I down water and a pot of coffee, wake the kids, feed them and do school until about noon. If we have an adventure planned, away we go. If we don’t, we’re off to the pool. Then we’re back in time for me to do some cleaning, make dinner, usually with the assistance of my lovely 6 year old sous chef and it’s ready when my husband gets home from work. Tidy, baths, stories, get the two little kids off to bed and theeeeeen I have time to crack open my laptop get a blog post out and then chat with my honey while I knit or bake or whatever. Phew. It’s a full life, but it’s hella good. <3 There is a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes in the same plaza just a few minutes from us! Imagine my glee – go ahead, imagine it! Considering that less than a month ago we were living in the woods and the closest Whole Foods to me was at least two hours away and that we are sorely deprived of Trader Joes in Canada, this is big, big news. I like to go at night after my husband gets home so I can actually hunt down the vegan cream cheese without three kids begging for organic gummy bears (the new fave treat around here). I have been cooking and baking my way through Peas and Thank You still and OMG what a great cookbook! Lots of updates on that next week!

I’m still adding recipes to the site without blog posts so I have a nice record of everything I’ve made! Here is what I’ve added lately!

	I have a pretty serious problem with these candied pecans. I mean, I don’t want to admit this but in the interest of full disclosure, I ate all of them. Not in one sitting mind you, but I ate every single pecan. They really are that good. Of course they are though, right? It’s not like I’m going to post a loser recipe on my blog. One other side note about these little babies is they’re vegan! Hooray! (read).
	They really are so so good. White chocolate and macadamia nuts are a perfect pairing! We included this in last year’s cookie tin and everyone loved them. (read).
	Polymer clay is so fun to make little trinkets and buttons and pendants with. It’s essentially play-doh you bake to set it and keep it forever. Since it sets up really hard you can make buttons and actually use them in garments! Or you can make little beads and string them on thin elastic for bracelets or necklaces. Kids especially love making them and grow ups with a soft spot for that specific child will love receiving (and wearing) them. So cute. (read).
	Just cut the apple into thin slices, carve out the core of each slice (if you have an apple corer, just pop the whole thing out first) and fill the middle with peanut butter, cranberries and chocolate chips. Then sprinkle with cinnamon. You can fill it with whatever you want. The point is to keep it healthy and keep it small (read).
	These cookies are so painfully simple, they’re easy and fun to make with kids and you can roll them in any kind of baking candies to match whatever occasion you like. (read).
	I knitted this blanket for our cousin Jenn and her new husband Adam. They’re mega, super rad. It was a pretty easy knit once I got going on it, the bulk of it was a bit much in warmer months, but totally worth it. (read).
	I made these when I wanted to serve up something cute and simple, but that was a little more ‘adult’ than typical apps I make for the kids after school. (read).
	This snack is especially handy when people show up unexpected for movie night, or when you’re poking around the kitchen in the middle of the night when you should be in bed. (read).

Today I’m linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday, Whatever Goes Wednesday, and Welcome Wednesday

This week I casted on for Sock #3 of 2012 – Bintje. Super super pretty. They’re meant to be knee socks, but we’ll see what happens. Ha!

The cuff on these socks is so neat!! I had seen it in other patterns before, but truthfully I had thought it was more complicated than it actually is and I had skipped it every time I saw it and knitted a normal cuff. I know, super lameo. This year however, along with my resolution to knit a pair of socks every month (I’m on my third pair right now, so far so good), I’m going to follow the patterns I picked out last year and actually knit up this year’s socks as the patterns tell me to. I’m glad I did, look how cute!!!

Essentially, you knit 6 rows, then you knit a row of k2tog, yo – giving you a row of holes, then you knit another 6 rows. I’ll take pic of that on the second sock. Then you fold it over so the holes are the middle and the yarn overs between the holes form the little ridges you see. You can either sew down the top of the cuff or do it the way the pattern says, which I did thankyouverymuch. You pick up stitches at the very beginning and knit them to the last row of the cuff, of course you have to do this when you’re actually on the last row of the cuff, but it was fairly simple. All sock knitters can pick up stitches because we have to when we do the gusset anyway, right? In the third picture you can see the inside seam where I did this. Maybe when I get to the second sock I’ll make a video.

I also chose to use slightly thicker sock yarn (Stroll Fingering hehe fingering instead of Stroll Sock) on 2.5mm needles instead of 2mm needles so the sock would be a little denser than other socks. They’re for someone in a wettish coldish area who reads my blog so that’s all I’m going to say, though that’s probably all I needed for say for her to know they’re for her. Sigh.

There is a lot going on around here in the next couple of weeks and then we depart for a serious adventure that I have no doubt I will fill you in on in horribly painful detail once it begins. I hope to have at least the second sock started by this time next week!

I’m participating in Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

My WIP this week is a little sad, but it was just Valentine’s Day so I was buried in chocolate and red construction paper natch! I did manage to squeeze out some knitting time in the car this week and last night I knitted and knitted and caught up on some Law & Order SVU. Mariska Hargitay is so seriously hot. Like, dudes. I’m also really loving Danny Pino as her new partner, but I digress. I accomplished two repeats on this sock before attacking my husband and going to sleep. Lovely ending to our (does quick math) 13th Valentine’s day together.

The pattern in Flying Arrows by Helen Waittes, it’s a really simple (and really pretty) 10 row repeat, where every other row is the same so it’s fairly simple to zone into it. I may be a little sad when I’m done, but that’s no reason to knit slowly! I had intended to finish these as my January socks, but I got sidetracked by the cute baby legwarmers I posted last week. I think I will officially call those my January socks, even though they are legwarmers and they are so wee.

There is a lot going on around here that I am BURSTING to talk about but still can’t juuust yet. Soon! So even though I am mega super distracted, I am aiming to have these socks finished by this time next week so I’m casting on for my official February socks by then!

I’m participating in Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

I have been very good this week and stuck with the baby legwarmers without touching the Flying Arrows socks at all. I have been spending a lot of my evenings doing research for something that’s sort of a really big deal but that I shouldn’t talk about until I have more details on it. Vague enough for you?!? That’s what has kept me from knitting, that and the very same something has me going on less errands lately so I’m not knitting in the car as much either!

This pattern (Socks for Mary Janes) really is alarmingly cute and would work so well on a little girl in Mary Janes. The little girl I’m making the legwarmer version of these for will look equally adorable running around her house in her little skirts and sneakers.

They are sooooo close to being done, just 4 repeats of 4 rows left and then I will ship them the 800 miles to her house.

This started out as a Work in Progress Wednesday but between that last sentence and this one, I finished them and had Wee One #3 model them for me.

These socks were knit in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK in Paintbox Pink, on 3mm DPNs. What a cute name! The band just says #160, with a name that cute they really should make it obvious.

I really, really liked using this yarn. I bought two balls assuming I’d be using most of it on these little cuties, but I still have a few yards left on the first ball! When this little photoshoot was over, Miss Wee One #3 freaked out and didn’t want the socks I had knit her anymore she wanted to keep these legwarmers. When I asked why, she said, in her painfully cute not quite 3 year old voice ‘beeeeecuz they so peddy’. My heart melted, but I cast on for my friend Rachel’s kid, and so Rachel’s kid shall rock these. I’ll make another pair for my own kid this weekend.

I’m participating in Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

As you know by now, I’m a pretty monogamous knitter. If I have more than one project on the go, I will forget about other projects and they’ll never get done. Although there is the exception right now of my Beekeeper Quilt, which is more of an in-between projects project than an actual always-on-the-go kind of project. Other than that, I’m an extremely loyal knitter.

However.

I currently have two pairs of socks on the go because after being just a few rows into the Flying Arrows I’m making for the principal of my kid’s school, I was reminded that a wee little person I care about was about to turn one. The connection is weird and totally fueled by the internet. She’s my dear friend’s fiancee’s best friend’s kid. Yeah, I know. She’s way sweet and her mother and I are eerily similar so I set to work on finding the perfect sock pattern right away. The only trouble with socks for little people is it doesn’t take long for them to grow out of them. Sometimes, the kid grows out of the socks faster than it took to knit the damn things. Sooooo, legwarmers it is!! Plus bright pink legwarmers on chubby little legs is so freaking cute it hurts. You know it does.

So here is the one finished Flying Arrow sock. It’s actually a pretty quick knit and I haven’t had to rip it back at all. Score for me.

This is how far into the second sock I was before I tossed it aside to cast on for something wee and pink and cuter.
This basket of deliciousness is what will be taking up my evenings this week. I settled on Socks for Mary Janes, but because of the whole ‘babies grow way too fast to knit them cute stuff’ issue, they are going to be legwarmers. With no heel to turn and no toe to decrease to, I really have no excuse on these taking long to knit up. They really need to be knitted up this week because, yeah I have stuff to do! That stuff may or may not include posting a whole lotta recipes and crafty tutorials burning a hole in my hard drive – and it may or may not include this other basket of deliciousness. My Knit Picks order came in the same week that I finally caved and checked out the yarn store out here in the woods. Well, technically it’s actually in the closest ‘city’ to us (and I use the term city really, really loosely). They have a lot more nice yarn than I thought and I managed to hold back and only pick up 4 balls. Go me!!