Several years ago my mom gave me six skeins of Ironstone Fun Yarn in the Rainbow colorway. She had purchased it for a project and decided not to make it so she passed the yarn on to me. It has been sitting in my yarn stash for several years and I finally decided to try and make something with it. This yarn is listed as a Super Bulky weight so that is what I looked for in a pattern. I knew I wanted a simple sweater pattern to let this yarn shine and fell in LOVE with the pattern Passerby by Erika Knight.

So far I have finished the front and back of the sweater and I am working on knitting the sleeves. I have been working on this on and off for about two weeks and so far it has been a very quick knit. 

I am hoping to finish knitting the sleeves this week. Then I can start sewing the seams and knit the collar. I can't wait to block this sweater and see the final product. 

What are you working on (knitting or otherwise)?

~ Katy

So far 2019 has been crazy! There have been a lot of changes in my personal life, which I will hopefully have time to share soon. It will be very interesting to see how many of the patterns in my 2019 Make Nine will get completed. My Make Nine for 2019 is: 

Andorra Wrap - Jocelyn Tunney

Concentra Cowl - Erin Kurup

Baubles - Andrea Mowry

Wool & Honey - Andrea Mowry

Solbein Cardigan - Mary Jane Mucklestone

Stone Wool Turtleneck - Michele Wang

Hermione's Everyday Socks - Erica Lueder

Casu Cowl - Galia Lael

So what does the question mark stand for? I am hoping to design my first pattern this year!

~ Katy

In September a local indie dyer I know posted on Facebook that they were KnitCrate's artisan sock dyer of the month. The two colors she dyed for them were gorgeous so I decided to sign up! My first crate arrived very quickly and I was excited to continue.

I really love all of the yarns I have received through KnitCrate. I was not to sure about October 2018 Celery by The Artistic Ewe but when I got it in person I really liked the soft green colors and there is a lot of depth. Besides that color I knew I would like the colors I got based on the sneak peaks at the beginning of the month.

The patterns are okay but there is a chance I will never use them. I did really like when they changed from the single pattern format to the book format. The booklets look nicer and showcased the patterns better.

As for the extras... I got two really good extras. The knitting needles will come in handy at some point and the progress keepers are adorable and you can never have enough of them. The other extras were kind of meh. I may use the highlighter but will not reach for it over others due to its large size and my personal preference. The snowman card is cute and I will use it at some point but until then will be clutter in a draw. The hat pin is just...why? and will probably hang out until the next time I clean out our guest/craft room.

Do I think KnitCrate was worth it?

Absolutely! I did really love the yarn I received and just for the yarn the value was worth it.

So why did I cancel?

There were two main reasons I cancelled.

After the first month shipping took FOREVER. I was billed for the crates the first of the month and received them well after the 15th in most cases. It was not uncommon for many people to post the full crate reveals before mine even shipped and that took a little bit of the fun out of it.

The other reason was the cost. One of my personal goals for the year is to work on my finances and save more money overall. Cutting out any remaining subscriptions I had was an easy way to save some money every month.

Would I sign up for KnitCrate again?

Maybe. For now I am going to purchase a skein or two from an indie dyer I have been following when I have some extra money.

Are you signed up for any subscription services?

~Katy

Also from WhatSaraKnits De-stash sale I picked up two skeins of Ford Explorer Fibers in the colorway Plant Sale which I believe was a custom color. I have no idea what I am going to make out of this but I love the colors in it.

From Rainbow Yarn and Gifts in Norway Michigan I picked up some Encore by Plymouth Yarn Company. I use this to make kids hats when I have knitters block.

I also picked up two skeins of Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Worsted in a dark grey color. I have a hat planned for this yarn which I hope to get on the needles soon. 

What crafting supplies have you picked up recently? 

Happy Crafting. 

~Katy

Like many people in the fiber community I started seeing the FibreShare posts on Instagram a little over a year ago. I instantly fell in love with the gorgeous pictures and idea of making friends and getting a box of yarn. 

So how FibreShare works is you sign up and pay a fee to be in the program (I paid $7 but I think the latest round went up to $8). Through matching you get two partners. The partner you send to and the partner who sends to you. The fee partially goes into running everything but also goes to sending replacement packages if they get lost in the mail or a partner is unable to send one for some reason. 

I signed up for the first round of this year and got my partner information on January 26th. With in a few days I was talking with the partner who would be sending me a box on Instagram and emailing with the partner I was sending to. 

So with my partner information I got to work on the box I was sending. I had a lot of fun putting a box together and went to three yarn stores in the process. I felt the box I sent was relatively well rounded and would be exciting to get. 

The deadline to send boxes for this round was March 4th. I sent my partners box on March 3rd and it was on the other side of the country in about three days. Then I started waiting for my box. I knew there was a lot of bad weather on the East Coast (where mine was coming from) so I waited patiently. 

After two weeks I contacted my partner and she told me it must have gotten lost in the mail. At this point I was thinking okay it happens I will just submit a missing package report. Then my partner messaged me saying she was going to send a second box. So I waited to submit the report. So I waited and waited and waited some more. I reported a missing package on April 13th which was right around the deadline to report a missing package. 

The missing package investigation was not a short process, but I understand why they want to get to the bottom of things. I finally got a replacement package on May 18th, WELL over a month after the final shipping date

I was not disappointed with the replacement package and will use the yarn I was sent. 

Overall I am still really disappointed that I didn't get more interactive partners and that my actual partner didn't send a box. It was also disheartening that the partner sending to me was selling parts of her stash online, many things I would not have minded getting in a box. I do not think she ever attempted to send me a box and if she was unable to for some reason or another it would have at least been nice to have been told one wasn't coming. It was honestly very upsetting to be waiting excitedly for a box and then not only not get one but realizing you were lied to about it. 

In the end it took way more time and energy than I was expecting but FibreShare did hold up their end of the bargain and I did get a replacement package.

Will I do this again? Most likely not. Next time I want a mystery box I will order a yarn mystery box from a dyer or have someone close to me choose something. 

Hope you have better luck than me.

~Katy

In August or September of 2017 I attempted to complete the What the Fade Mystery Knit Along by Andrea Mowry. Many good things happened during this time but life got in the way. There was a new job, a rapid move, and lots of new friends. However, not a lot of time for knitting especially for a big project, so it got put to the side in favor of smaller projects.

I recently picked back up my shawl and am slowly plugging away at it. The brioche section is finished and I am part way into "Garter Town". Currently I am on section five out of nine, but the rows keep increasing so it is hard to say if I am truly half way or not. 

So far my thoughts are:

1. It is very big and relatively intimidating if I am super busy

2. When I am working on it there are very repetitive patterns, making it good Netflix watching knitting. 

3. I am really happy with the colors I chose. 

4. I think I will like that it is really large when it is finished and I can use/wear it.

What is a project (knitting or non-knitting) that you are currently working on?

~ Katy

Flipping through Cozy Knits by Tanis Gray I fell in love with the Raindrops and Rivulets pattern. I found the texture of the body of the hat absolutely gorgeous, and knew almost instantly that I had to make it. The next trick was to find the perfect yarn. 

The top of the hat ends up looking like a bobbled rain drop. While it does make the hat look a little boxy, I think it is a different way for finishing the top of a hat but is rather cute. 

Overall I really enjoyed making this hat and think I would make this pattern again. 

~ Katy

For those of you who may not know, or may have ended up here by accident, a UFO in knitting is an Un-Finished Object. To this day I have never had this many at one time as I try to keep all my projects in the Work In Progress (WIP) phase. Well anyway I currently have four UFO as well as two work in progresses. I know to many people this may seem small but to me it is a lot and one of them is a rather large project. 

I have two pairs of mittens about half finished both of which are part of 12 Months of Mittens. 12 Months of Mittens has started out rough but will hopefully get better as the year progresses. 

January's Mittens 

I have yet to start the second snowflake mitten, and this mitten does not have a thumb.

February's Mittens

I have the cuff of the second mitten started neither have thumbs. I am planning on adding these back into my rotation soon. 

I also have the Raindrops & Rivulets hat started which hasn't been picked up or thought about in probably a month. It is a pretty pattern and the yarn is gorgeous but I got side tracked by other projects. 

For the March for Science I also did several of the cable version of the GENEie Hat pattern from ChemKnits. I was able to finish three of them but still have a few left. The one I have started is out of gorgeous teal 100% alpaca yarn.


Another hat which I believe I started last spring or summer that has never been completed is a Flower-Motif Benie. Thankfully I haven't needed the needles for another project because it has seriously been sitting for months.

I am also still working on the Babies and Bears sweater, I have both sides done. Now I need to Kitchener stitch the two halves together and add on a boader and coller. I has been very easy for me to get side tracked from this project because it is rather hard to see progression in the pattern.

My current plan is to limit the number of proejcts I start until I get some of these done. This has included some yarn buying freezes until I get certain projects done. So far it is working and I plan on updating on the projects I have finished soon.

~ Katy