Knit Night Knitting

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I feel like a bad grandma, but I put down the newborn sweater and have been focusing on my Out of Winter shawl.  It's amazing how much more you can accomplish when you knit monogamously.

Knit Night Knitting - Out of Winter Shawl, Sock Labs Stroll yarns

A couple of hours spent knitting rather than eating and drinking at Knit Night and I'm ready to start the lace border.  My goal is to finish it before Labor Day. 

I'm excited to be done with the shawl so that I can move on to knitting All the baby things, but at the same time, I'll be sad to put this yarn away.  But that's okay - I have more!

Assuming the lace border doesn't take a full skein, I should have enough of each color left over to knit either two very tiny baby sweaters or a larger striped one.  And, I've enjoyed knitting with this Sock Labs Stroll yarn so much, I ordered more.  

Sock Labs Stroll

I'm pretty sure there will be a baby blanket using the green set on the needles soon.

And while I was ordering the green Sock Labs set, I may have ordered a few skeins of plain Stroll sock yarn and perhaps a skein or two of Stroll Tweed sock yarn too.  I'm all things Stroll these days and currently on a mission to ensure my grandbaby stays toasty warm during his/her first spring.  I also want to make it easy for the new mama and papa and want everything I knit to be easily washed.  I may not have the best memory these days but I do remember how much laundry a newborn creates.

But what I really wanted to talk about today was why I love the Sock Labs so much.  First of all, it's machine wash and dryable.  Who doesn't love that??  

It's unbelievably soft.  Even my daughter who has become THE world's most picky person regarding wool around her neck, says it's soft and she'd be happy if Mom would knit her a speckled cowl.  

And the colors!  Oh, the colors!  The colors are so bright and cheerful and slightly less harsh in real life than they are on my screen.  

The yarn glides through my fingers and across my needles, even when it's 98 degrees outside and I'm hot and sweaty.  

The yarn isn't the least bit splitty and while it's hard to tell from my loose gauge and stockinette shawl, I have knit when I should have purled a few thousand times and based the appearance of those accidental stitches, the yarn has fantastic stitch definition.  

And best of all, or worst of all depending on how you look at it, the Sock Lab yarns are limited editions so not everyone in your knitting circle will be knitting with the exact same yarn.  I like that.  But I do feel the pressure to grab some more while it's available.  The purple set has already sold out.

Out of Winter

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Another super short update....

Out of Winter knit with Sock Labs speckled Stroll

I didn't get a day from work this week so not much knitting has been happening, but I have made enough progress on my Out of Winter shawl to know that I LOVE this Sock Labs yarn.  I love it so much I just ordered a bunch more even though I already had the rest of 2019's knitting planned out.

You know what they say about plans...

Stay tuned.  I'll share what I plan to use all the speckled yarn for next week.  I have some pretty exciting news that deserves it's own post.  A post that I spend more than three minutes writing.

Meanwhile, happy knitting!

Out of Winter

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My plan for today was to show you a photo of my finished Reyna.  I finished it on July 31st and planned to at least have it on the blocking mats if not already blocked and dried.  But something got in the way.

Out of Winter knit with Sock Labs Stroll

I mentioned yesterday that Knit Picks had sent me a two skeins of their new Sock Labs speckled yarn to play with.  Knit Pick's timing couldn't have been better.  Mr. Mailman was leaving the yarn on my porch as I sat in the dentist's chair across town, frantically binding off Reyna.

As soon as I got home from the dentist, I tore into the package, photographed the yarn and began searching  Ravelry for the perfect pattern.  I couldn't decide.  I started with a list of eight designs which I narrowed down for yesterday's Three on Thursday post.  I asked for your opinion...

And then couldn't stand to wait.  I chose Out of Winter, which was odd because it was my least favorite of the three.  But the moment I started knitting it, I was hooked.  I'm loving the pattern, it's super simple.  And the yarn!  I've knit with Stroll before so I knew the yarn would be a joy to work with.  And the speckles!  It's so much fun to watch the speckles appear.

Sock Labs Stroll

This gorgeous limited edition yarn is selling fast so if you're interested, go take a look right now.  You won't want to miss the chance to stash some of this gorgeous yarn!

And on a woo-woo note, at the beginning of this post I mentioned I'd bound off my Reyna shawl on July 31st.  Guess what I was doing exactly three years ago.  Yep!  You guessed it.  I bound off my first Reyna on July 31, 2016.  How freaky is that??

Tangerine Speckle

I'm going to be right up front about it.  Today's Three on Thursday post contains affiliate links.  Knit Picks sent me two coordinating skeins of their new speckled Sock Labs Stroll yarn to play with and I couldn't be more excited.  The colors are Tangerine and Tangerine Speckle.  I normally lean towards much more subdued colorways and most likely would never have chosen these colors for myself but I absolutely LOVE them! 

Now, the question is, what do they want to be?

Sock Labs Stroll Tangerine and Tangerine Speckle

I'm leaning towards the Rayas Cowl.

Rayas Cowl

I feel like the brightness of the Tangerine calls for a simple design.

Even the 'solid' color is slightly speckled.

But then, with all that speckle, perhaps I should knit a Speckle Tonic shawl.

Speckle Tonic Shawl

I love how the solid and speckles yarns play together in that one.

Fingering weight speckled sock yarn from Knit Picks

Or perhaps an Out of Winter shawl.

Out of Winter shawl

What would you recommend?