Knit Progress: July round up + bonus pattern

July has slipped away from me – after vacation, work has gotten busy again and I’ve been drifting along working on pieces for the pinwheel throw to get rid of all of the random bits of yarn in my stash. Last night I finished off the last little ball of yarn, yay! I have made 148 pinwheels total, that will get me about a quarter of the way there, I think.

I’m planning to go to the bookstore today to get some inspiration for my next knit design project, but in the meantime I’m making a pair of these short socks that I’ll use as house socks – Mermaid by BarGie available for free on Ravelry. I’ve already modified them a bit, but overall I really like how they are going. I’m using Austermann Merino Lace, which is a little heavier in a beautiful palette of grays.

Here is the quick and easy pattern for anyone who wants to try the pinwheels (they also make great coasters!):

Garter Stitch Pinwheel

Needles: US6 dpn (4 total)

Cast on 49 st (I used the knitting cast-on method because it will give me a good edge to sew together), leave 16 st on each of 3 needles (17 on the third to start). Join by knitting together the first and last stitch in first round.

Row 1: knit all stitches.
Row 2: Purl all stitches.
Row 3: [K6 stitches, ssk] 6 times.
Row 4: Purl all stitches.
Row 5: [K5 stitches, ssk] 6 times.
Row 6: Purl all stitches.
Row 7: [K4 stitches, ssk] 6 times.
Row 8: Purl all stitches.
Row 9: [K3 stitches, ssk] 6 times.
Row 10: Purl all stitches.
Row 11: [K2 stitches, ssk] 6 times.
Row 12: Purl all stitches.
Row 13: [K1 stitch, ssk] 6 times.
Row 14: Purl all stitches.
Row 15: [ssk] 6 times.
Pull yarn through remaining 6 st and weave in ends.

Enjoy!

Vacation State of Mind: Knit Progress

We got back from our yearly trip to the beach, but I find I’m still in a vacation state of mind – I’m not quite ready to tackle my next knitting design project. So instead, I’ve been using up all of my little scrappy bits of yarn left over from projects to create little pinwheel pieces that will someday become a patchwork afghan. If you’ve read this blog before, you may remember this project from last summer.

I ended up using the pieces I knit then to create a piece to donate to the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art yarn bomb installation, which is currently on display and will be up until September. I really liked how that piece turned out, so I decided to give it another shot and am building up a stash of knit pieces while depleting my stash of odds & ends yarn. A win-win!

I finished another pair of Cadence socks on vacation, too. Pictured below, the pattern is great and I love the color. I’ll keep going on the pinwheels for a while longer, then it will be back to the design drawing board.