1 F.O and Endless W.I.Ps

I can't believe February flew by so fast!  Luckily I got my Walking Dead/Valentines Day socks finished before February! I have been really enjoying this season of The Walking Dead so far!  Lately I have been working on a new pair of socks, a shawl, and the new Flidais Stole which is a Knit Picks pattern that I am really liking so far! I also got some new yearn from my LYS.  I got some new sock yarn to join in on the Pinfeathers and Purls Stripey Sock KAL.  I'm going to be making these socks for my mom!  They also had some sale yarn so I got some super soft thick yarn for two hat patterns I've had in mind and have been wanting to knit.

I also started cutting my fabric for my new David Bowie themed Donuts Quilt!  I just got my Backing Fabric in the mail and I am so excited to start cutting and sewing!  I have never pre-washed my fabric but this time I am going to try, especially since my backing fabric is black and I do not want it to bleed once I wash my quilt later when it is all finished.  This quilt is inspired by my favorite David Bowie song!  If you have any guesses on which one it might be feel free to leave a comment!

Yesterday we also introduced a new kitty to our family!  We named him Watson!  Since our other cat is named Sherlock we thought Watson would be a good name for this new cat!  So far he has been living in my room until Sherlock gets used to his scent and then we will introduce them to each other! Watson is such a love!  He likes to cuddle!

When You Play the Game of Socks!

When it comes to sock knitting there is nothing I love more then to have perfectly matched socks, and this pair is perfect!  Yarn is by Nomadic Yarns in the When You Play the Game of Thrones colorway!  I originally worked on the first sock during the last season, and planned to work on the second one when the new season came out.  However I went on this kick of finishing all WIPs and using up all my yarn so I decided to finish them.  This was my first time working with Nomadic Yarns and I love this yarn!  The stripes matched perfectly all the way down to the bind off being red on the front of the sock and green on the back!  They are super cozy and make my feet very happy! The colors are perfect and captures almost every color of all of the houses in the series! The perfect fangirl socks! 

Most people when sock knitting have second sock syndrome, where they fly by knitting the first sock and procrastinate on the second.  I have the opposite problem.  I have first sock syndrome! The first sock normally takes me forever to knit (this first sock took me almost a year) while the second sock flies off the needles (the second sock took me about two and a half weeks).  It has been this way for all of the socks I have knit so far.  I think it is because I get so excited that I just have one more sock to knit and then the pair will be finished! 

School started and amidst all of the the work I have been enjoying some personal indulgences!  Some of my favorite things this week have been:

• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series!  I normally get into a kick watching this series around Christmas time and then it dies down until the next Christmas season (there is nothing more relaxing then snuggling up in a blanket with a cup of tea and figuring out a mystery).  However, this time around my obsession has been continuing all the way into February! 
• Drinking tea out of fancy tea cups! Perhaps it has been the murder mysteries getting to me, but I feel like I'm a part of a different time in history when I hear the clink of my teacup hitting the saucer! 
• Harry Potter!  As I mentioned in a previous post I have been re-reading the series for the billionth time! Almost done with the Goblet of Fire!
• Planner and time organizing! I literally plan out my whole day into my planner, right down to when I have to do laundry!  I think it keeps me sane between working and school! And there is a great feel of satisfaction when I cross something off the list of things to do! 

I hope everyone is finding the time this week to do something you love!  We all need to pamper ourselves once in a while because we deserve it!

Star Scraps

First F.O of 2016 is my Star Scrap blanket!  As primarily a knitter, I find it hard to follow crochet patterns but I used The Crochet Crowd pattern for this star blanket!  The Crochet Crowd has wonderful videos and I always use the videos as reference when I work on crochet projects.  This year, as I mentioned previously in a post, I would like to really use up what I have.  For this project I had a lot of scrap wool so I decided to make a lap blanket.  At first I was not to thrilled with the colors but in the end I liked how it turned out!  I started the blanket after Christmas, so it was fairly fast to make!

This past weekend we had a giant blizzard!  On Friday I ended up going to my LYS and picked up some new sock needles and some sock yarn (despite my goal to use up stash).  Normally I knit socks on size US2 needles but I want my stitched to be a bit tighter so I ended up getting a size US1 and I like it so far!  I am using some stash yarn by Mode Knit Yarn in their Michonne color way that they came out with for The Walking Dead about a year and a half ago.  The pattern I am using is out of the Socks From the Toe Up book by Wendy D. Johnson (my sock knitting bible) called Dead Simple Lace Socks (to keep with The Walking Dead theme).  The new season comes out on February 14th so they are also doubling as my Valentines Day socks!

I also picked up a skein of Regia yarn when I got my needles and OH MY! I love it!  I have only knit the toe so far because I want to focus on my WalkingDead/Valentines Day socks, but what I have knit so far I love.  This is my first time working with Regia yarn and I am loving the patterning as well as the feel of the yarn.  Normally I wear socks under my hand knit socks, but I do not mind the feel of this yarn on my bare feet.  Only problem with it, is the cashier from the store never put the tag of the yarn in the bag.  Oh well!  

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow!  School started up again for me and I am super excited to have school come to a close soon! I graduate in the fall so I would really like to start keeping up with the blog more and posting more recipes and knitting related things!  We will see how much tine I have during the semester! For now until the semester really gets intense I will be continuing on with my yearly Harry Potter re-readathon! I find these books are the easiest to read while knitting because I have read them so many times that they actually lay flat!