What's on the needles now that I have time for ME?

So with a change in what has been taking up my knitting time, due to my recent termination at my LYS, I'm enjoying my new found knitting time! As much as I loved working with the deliciously dyed yarns, the fantastic designers and the amazing people I am LOVING the chance to knit for ME and my FAMILY!! WOOT!

This week, I started and finished several projects. The first was knit in the midst of our family being hit with the flu. I found out that my dad had been stealing and wearing my mom's hat, that I knit with her last year out of Three Irish Girls Springvale Bulky. I adore this yarn. It's nice and fluffy, a nice solid bulky that lends well to a squishy finished object. . .and the way it takes dye can't be beat. They carry a lovely assortment of this yarn at Smitten Yarns or you can always order it directly in any of the available colorways directly from the Three Irish Girls website.

This is a bad cell phone photo of my husband modeling the simple hat I knit for dad so that he would stop stealing mom's. It's soft and squishy and he loves it.

I also had the chance to finish up Zach's Flax sweater. The Flax pattern is free and designed by tincanknits. I love the simple garter detail that runs the length of the sleeves. A REALLY fast knit. I couldn't however, get my child to stand still so there is a bit of weird puckering going on. It really is a flattering knit and fits him well.

I am also working on my 14th pair of socks. I think it would be great to wear handknit socks every day for two weeks without having to wash them, so I started the lovely Static Zing Socks by Megan Williams (justrunknit) out of Lollipop Yarns Tradition sock yarn in the Life is Beautiful self-striping colorway. I'm further now, but this is the most recent photo I have.

Megan did such a great job with this pattern and I love how it works up with self-striping yarns. This will be a future go-to sock pattern, for sure.

My next plan is to finish off what I am calling "On Fire in the Shire". It's the Prairie Fire pattern, also by tincanknits. I'm knitting it out Madelinetosh tosh DK in the Shire colorway. I started this a few months ago when one of my friends was one of the first casualties of my LYS's firings. He had said he loved this colorway so much, so when I decided to knit a sweater, it just had to be in this. Unfortunately, this colorway does not capture well in photographs. It's much more green than blue but hopefully I can finish up the sleeves in the next few days and take a real photo of it that represents the colorway better.

I am also working with Mel right now to tech edit and test knit a few patterns for her. I'm excited about that. Taryn (fiberhaven) and I plan to set up some spinning and knitting classes once we secure a space, so if you are local, keep your eyes peeled! So life is moving forward and I am enjoying every minute.