madelinetosh yarn

Happy Sunday YOPers! Hope you all are doing well and if you’re in Texas and are affected by the apocalyptic snowstorm that you’re at the very least, warm, dry, fed and safe today.

While I had snow in my area the week past, it was what us East Coasters are used to this time of year. The snowfall, some tea, soup and Girl Scout cookie treats made the perfect backdrop on the snowy days for cozy knitting after work. I’m still continuing to go through the Hope Holders hat knitting portion of my Sigma 21 list. The current project is for my friend TJ. She’s another person who I could not have made it through 2020 without so my current project is a token of thanks. Her favorite color is green and as a Baylor University grad, green has an even firmer place in her heart (the school’s colors are green and gold). It took me some time to find the perfect shade of green for her coloring but it was worth the search. I faked her out in a text conversation — talked ad nauseam about my “friend” who loved green and wondered if she would like the shade. She totally verified that any green loving person would love the shade because in her words, the colorway is “exquisite”. I can’t wait for her reaction when she gets the hat in the mail.

The pattern I picked for her is Gather from Tincan Knits. The word gather means — “to come together; assemble or accumulate”. By itself, as a meaning, it doesn’t say as much as it could but in the context of 2020 and my experiences in that year, she was one of the people who came together, assembled themselves to provide me with a level of support I had no idea I’d get but absolutely needed. This project is being made with love and immense gratitude for who she is as a friend, a colleague who helped me stay afloat, the Shawn to my Gus (for all you Psych fans out there) and my faith sister.

The pic shows the project after the ribbing then the first two of an 8 row repeat. Her hat size recommends five repeats but I’m not sure yet if it’s necessary to do all five. I finished two more repeats while virtual “knit nighting” with my friend A from NightOwl Handcrafts yesterday so all that’s left is to measure it to see if I need to do another repeat or if it’s time to start the decreases. This should be finished today, then a slight wet block then mailed on Wednesday.

Project Details:

Pattern: Gather (this link leads to Ravelry. Please note that the new interface has caused accessibility issues for some users).
Designer: Tincan Knits
Yarn: MadelineTosh Vintage in Malmo (This link leads to the Jimmy Beans website. I’m not an affiliate or ambassador, this is just where I bought the colorway from.)

After I’m done with this project today, I’m taking a bit of a hat break to crank out this beauty for my friend Laurie who’s birthday is on the 27th. With 90 yds of Malabrigo Rasta on size 13 needles, I’ll absolutely finish this today for mailing on Wednesday too.

Cheers for a great week for all of you. ❤

Okay … so this inconsistent blogging is getting on my nerves and it has to stop. LOLOL! I’ve been cheating with Instagram; it’s so insta! 😀

Once again I have to say, although I haven’t been posting here, I’ve been crafting. Crafting has been such a refuge these days while job hunting, it really has been helping me unwind after the daily search. But let’s get to the projects:

first up is the first cross stitch project I’ve finished. Maaaan … this thing was a dream. Once I found my rhythm it was zen. This piece was made for the front of a card for my friend who’s birthday is on Valentine’s day and she’s also a crafter and a Potterhead. For those of you who are not Harry Potter fans, the sign is the Deathly Hallows (book 6).

It didn’t take me long … maybe about 1.5 hours and it was an absolute delight. It was an internet freebie and it’s certainly piqued my interest in cross stitching. So much so … errr … let’s just say, I fell down another rabbit hole! LOLOL!

The next project I’m working on is the ever popular Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure. My goal is to finish it is by Saturday. I’ll show it off then.

How divine is this Madeline Tosh yarn? Can you believe I almost gave it away? I tried to sell this so many times, I just couldn’t get rid of it. I need my head checked right? It’s just so divine with this pattern. I can’t wait to finish it, complete with a very large pom pom. 😀

And of course, these days, there’s no crafting for me that doesn’t include dyeing. I’ve been messing around with natural dyeing and with acid dyes. So much fun. For this project, I was shooting for a semi solid grey and I think this works: