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Knitting Recap, 7/2026

August 2, 2026

As I mentioned in my last knitting recap, I was very close to finishing my gradient Gramercy Tee at the end of June. So I was all done about one week into July:

I knit this in a cotton/linen/viscose yarn that I got at Marden’s (in Maine). It was A) fun and B) crazy-making to work this pattern in a gradient yarn. This top starts with the saddle shoulders. Then you pick up and knit the upper back panel, put it on hold, and do the two front panels before joining them with the back and then starting to knit in the round after the V of the neck. I really wanted the gradient to match up on the three pieces (back & two fronts), which took some MATH. I had to calculate how many stitches would be in each front panel, and then I counted back that many stitches (by row) on the back to figure out where in the gradient I needed to start my fronts. At least it worked! Once I started working in the round, the gradient shifted much faster, so then I decided to alternate skeins to slow it down. And I wanted the sleeves to match the saddles AND each other. It was all a whole big thing!

But it turned out so nicely! I love the fit of it, too. I’ve got plans to knit a long-sleeved, mohair version for cooler weather. I rarely knit with plant fibers, and it’s interesting to see how they change my knitting. The columns of stitches on this all slant diagonally, which is something I’ve never had happen before. It made it a bit of a pain to block, but it doesn’t seem to affect how it sits when worn.

Even with sport-weight plant fibers, I still find the tee to be a bit too warm for a true summer’s day. I’ve worn it a couple of times, including once to the beach (aka sitting in the shade while kids swim), and it wasn’t too bad, though.

Works in Progress

Most of July was spent working on a color-blocked Late Checkout Sweater:

I have a lot of worsted wool in smaller quantities, and I thought it might be fun to combine them into something a little zanier than I’d usually make. I say worsted, but actually the lighter body color is aran, and the neck is leftover DK from my Halibut. But the darker green and the rest of the colors I’ll be using are all Briggs & Little Regal.

I’m trying to withhold judgement before I finish this sweater. Mainly the fit of it is bothering me a bit right now. It’s pretty oversized — about 48″ at the bust — but the bottom ribbing is knit on much smaller needles, and it really pulls it in. Between that and the length of the body, something feels a little off. The sleeves also feel a little out of proportion — too narrow for the body, even though they’re plenty wide on their own. This isn’t a critique of the pattern but the specific sweater I’m knitting up (my yarn choices are far less drape-y). I’m telling myself to chill out because I think this will actually have quite a sweatshirt-y fit when it’s all done.

My other WIP is the new Sunflower Top:

This popped up on my IG feed before the pattern was released, and I made a mental note to keep an eye out for it. And then I jumped on the pattern as soon as I could! This is not my typical knit, and I rarely wear sleeveless tops outside the house, but it was calling to me.

It’s a DK top, and I’m using fingering weight held double. The yarn is Eddie Bauer Adventurer Cotton that I got at Joann’s a few years ago. It was a backup yarn for a different project, and it’s just been sitting in a box since I bought it. I didn’t think it was anything special, but I really love the fabric it’s making at this gauge!

I’ve got a few more increases to go before I join in the round, but it’s moving along! I don’t think I’ll do any edge finishing for the armholes (the slipped stitches look nice), and the neckline is already so high that I’m not sure I want to add anything to it. Blocking will help with the rolling a little, but I’m also curious if elastic thread would flatten it out more.

Acquisitions/Plans

No acquisitions, thankfully, but I’m full of plans!

I feel like I NEED to try the new dot|top. The shadow knitting has me so excited. The photos on the Ravelry page give you an idea of what it’s like, but it’s worth looking for a video on IG to see it “in person”. It looks like a striped top from straight on, and dots magically appear as you move to the side.

So that might be my NEXT project, but I also have the mohair Gramercy in my mental queue, along with a red Hold the Line pullover. We’ve had a lot of HOT days this summer, and even though I like when it’s green outside, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to sweater weather!

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Madrone Pants

July 28, 2026

Apologies for the grainy photo — apparently it’s dimmer in here than my eyes think it is. (Phone can capture image of nearly invisible aurora but not moderately well-lit room??)

ANYWAY. I made a pair of Madrone pants! It’s a fairly recent pattern from Sew Liberated, and it’s a LOT of fun to make. There are sooo many elastic-waistband pants patterns out there that are nearly indistinguishable. These don’t fall into that category! The oddly shaped leg pieces are so interesting to put together, and bits like the pockets and cuffs are satisfyingly different from a basic pants pattern. I had a great time sewing these, to the point where I think maybe I’ve finally matured and started enjoying the process?? ???

This pair was made as a wearable toile — a test of how the pattern fits, but one that would (I hoped) be usable as an actual garment. I got this plaid fabric from the thrift store and had originally imagined that I’d turn it into a dress, but it’s too itchy for my upper body. I’m pretty sure it’s a wool/synthetic blend. I did a burn test, and it smelled like hair, but the part that didn’t burn away felt like plastic. I thought it might be kind of fun to have a pair of pants ~~that goes with none of my clothes~~ in a bold pattern, but I also wouldn’t have been heartbroken if the toile fit poorly, meaning that the fabric had been wasted. I figured that, with all the many (curved!) leg pieces, pattern-matching would be impossible, so I didn’t waste any time thinking about it. Though I’m now happy with how the stripes align fairly well at pocket level and then diverge.

I didn’t make any changes to the pattern for this toile, and I think it’s a good fit! I made the longer inseam but figured I’d probably have to lengthen it more — these aren’t supposed to skim the floor, but the longer inseam is still 5″ shorter than my actual inseam. The only adjustment I made was to use a smaller seam allowance on the cuffs, which probably got me a whole extra 1/4″ on the length. I also thought I might like a higher rise, but I didn’t mess with it, and the rise on these is great. These don’t sit all the way up on my natural waist, but they are well above my bellybutton. The shirt I’m wearing in the photo is quite cropped, FYI. The pattern calls for a drawstring, and I’d like to put one in, but I can’t decide if I want to make or buy one.

I LOVE the shape of these pants! From the front. I like the shape from the back. I’m less sure about the shape/drape from the side. It might be what the pants need to do to achieve the nice barrel shape from the front, though. And the fabric I used has some heft to it, but it’s still pretty drape-y. Maybe (probably) fabric with a little more body would do something different.

I definitely want to make this pattern again! This specific pair is wearable, for sure, though I’ll have to figure out what the shoe situation should be. Because they’re wool, these are cold-weather pants, and my cold weather footwear go-to last year was Birkenstock-style clogs and thick socks. But I think clogs with plaid pants might look a little too college-kid-wearing-pajamas-to-class. We’ll see. I might still do it, anyway. Everything is an aesthetic.

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Maine Trip

July 5, 2026

The past few years, I’ve given the kids some choices for their birthdays: presents OR a party OR a trip. Up until this year, the “trip” has just been a night or two in the Twin Cities. There have been rides at the Mall of America, swimming at the hotel, visits to zoos. But last year, Kid 2 said, “For my tenth birthday trip, I want to go to the seaside.” Like… that’s a little bit farther away than the Twin Cities! But we did it!

The main goal was whale watching, and a search for good whale watching spots on the east coast turned up Bar Harbor. I now realize that Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are well known and very touristy, but I’d never heard of Bar Harbor before that google search! Luckily, Kid 2 was born at the perfect time of year for this sort of trip: everything was open, but the crowds had not yet descended. (We were there late May / earliest June — I would also consider visiting in September, after schools are back in session, but seeing current photos of Acadia, I would NOT go in the summer!)

Anyway, whale watching.

This photo is from the second time we went on the whale watching boat, because the first time, we spent five hours freezing on the open sea and *didn’t see any whales*. The whole experience, to me, was as close as you could get to torture while still making the torture-ees pay for it. Just absolutely miserable. And we were fairly well prepared! The company gives you a voucher (good for three years) to come back on another trip for free. I couldn’t imagine doing it again! But a few days later, we bundled up and headed back out. This was *the thing* Kid 2 really wanted! It was colder that day, but at least it was sunny. And we saw whales! Several fin whales, including a mother and calf. I got a couple of video clips but mostly just enjoyed Kid 2 being ecstatic. Worth it!

We really fell in love with Maine! I keep saying that it’s all the things we love about Minnesota — just more of it than we have here. Kid 2 was in heaven, being able to hop in the car and be looking at tide pools a few minutes later. We actually stayed about 45min outside of Bar Harbor (on Hancock Point), and I didn’t mind the drive to Mount Desert Island, but I’d also probably choose to stay on MDI if we went back.

Conveniently, Kid 2 just finished fourth grade, so we were able to get the free national park pass that’s available to fourth graders, which meant we were able to drive around Acadia without having to pay anything! We weren’t ambitious in our plans, but we got a reservation to drive up Cadillac Mountain (see the photo at the top of the post) mid-morning one day, and that was very cool. From there, we went to Jordan Pond for lunch and strolled around the pond for a bit. Then I failed at sign reading and got us stuck on the loop road around the park, which wound up being lucky, because we stopped at Sand Beach and Thunder Hole.

This is what Kid 2’s dreams are made of!

We also spent a lot of time in Bar Harbor itself, and it’s a perfectly lovely town. I’m not sure I’ve ever been anywhere SO seasonally touristy! The Oceanarium was nice, and we really liked the museum at the College of the Atlantic. (I’m a little bit starry-eyed over the College of the Atlantic. Do *I* need to rack up some college debt to get a degree in ecology in my 40s??)

Kid 2 was ready to leave our old life behind (including Kid 1, lol!) in order to start anew in Maine. I do have to say that this was the first place I’ve visited that actually felt truly tempting. Not Bar Harbor itself but Downeast Maine. It was so like Minnesota in a lot of ways and even better in a few. The temperatures are milder, but they average more snow than we do (that’s a strike against it, sadly). I do think that if we had an unlimited travel budget, we’d be going back every few months!

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Knitting Recap 5-6/2026

July 5, 2026

Since I finished only one project in May, I decided early on to skip the 5/2026 recap and round it up into one post. (Of course, I was also planning to post about our Maine trip in June, and I didn’t get around to doing that…)

Finished Objects

This isn’t knitting, but it’s knitting related!

Kid 2 and I found several canvas bags at a garage sale — the cheap kind you buy to decorate. There were a few drawstring backpacks and a few small totes, about 12″x12″. I liked the idea of making a project bag that said, “tell your WIPs I said hi,” but I figured “yarn” was probably more easily understood. This was just a quick dye and Cricut project. If anybody ever reads the bag, it doesn’t seem to make an impression, but I think it’s funny.

On to the knitting! In May, I finished my Petites Fleurs top:

I enjoyed knitting this, I like the color (though it’s not something I’d usually choose!), and I think the top is cute. I have yet to actually wear it out of the house, though. The yarn is sport weight, which would seem like a decent weight for a summer top — not too heavy. But there’s no way I’d wear this in any sort of heat. I’m not sure summer knits are for me? If I’m hot, I don’t want anything to do with a top made of wool; if I’m cool, I want long sleeves. Hopefully we just haven’t had the right weather for this since I finished it.

My only FO in June was the Flock Vest:

This is really cute! I used (light) worsted alpaca yarn for the main color and darker purple stripe. The lighter purple was a random ball of DK superwash wool I thrifted. It all worked really well together. Alpaca is a little too warm for summer, and I need to swap the buttons for ones that are bigger. So, again, I haven’t worn this yet. I seem to be knitting for the love of knitting, lately. And this was really fun to knit!

Works in Progress

After I finished the Flock Vest, I immediately cast on a Gramercy Tee with yarn I got in Maine (more about that in a minute):

I was tempted to delay this post further because I’m very close to being done with this now! But the photo was taken mid-June, after I’d put the body on hold to finish the collar and sleeves. (I’ll save it for my next post, but yarn management on this project was a whole thing!) The yarn is sport-weight linen/cotton/viscose. Perfect for a summer top. Will I wear it in the summer? TBD. I’d been eyeing this pattern for a while, though, and it hasn’t disappointed. I really love the fit of it so far — we’ll see how the plant-fiber yarn blocks out when I’m done.

I mentioned this other WIP in my last recap post, and I haven’t actually worked on it since early May, but here’s a photo:

This is a free market bag pattern, and I’m using the Cascade Pima cotton yarn my mom found at the Goodwill bins. It’s a simple pattern, but it’s JUST nuanced enough that I think I’ll mess it up if I try working on it while talking with friends. So it’s been having a little break the past couple of months.

Acquisitions/Plans

One of the things I was excited about doing in Maine was checking out Marden’s. There’s no store I love better than a discount store. I knew that they usually stock yarn, and while 95% of it was unappealing , I did find a couple of things to bring home with us.

The four balls in the front are that linen/cotton/viscose I’m using for the Gramercy Tee. And behind is lace-weight alpaca/mohair. There’s a subtle gradient on it, but I’m not sure it’ll be noticeable once knitted. My plan for that (right now, lol) is a long-sleeved Gramercy Tee. I have some fingering-weight Shetland yarn in two oatmeal-y/neutral tones, and I think it could all look really nice together.

With the end of my short-sleeved Gramercy tee in sight, I’ve been trying to decide what to work on next. I kind of want to do something chunky that will knit up fast. A break from sport-weight yarn would be nice. I have lots of worsted-weight wool where I only have one or two balls per color, and I’ve been imagining a striped/colorblocked pullover. The Late Checkout Sweater is at the top of my list for that, right now — something oversized and cozy.

There’s so much more that’s been percolating, but I won’t go on about it until I actually start some of the projects!

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Knitting Recap 4/2026

May 3, 2026

It’s May! Somehow! Let’s take a look at what I was knitting in April.

Finished Objects

Most of April was taken up by a project that’s still a WIP, so I’ll share about that in just a second. I finished the first sock from the sock reel yarn, but I don’t consider a single sock a finished object! I figured I’d have nothing to show for April until my mom found some fancy yarns (more about that in a bit), and I made two hats in three days:

To be fair, the yarn is fairly heavy weight (I would say aran for the darker and super bulky for the lighter), so it’s not THAT impressive how quickly they knit up. The darker is Manos del Uruguay Maxima, Ultramarine colorway. It was gorgeous in the skein, but I feel pretty “meh” about it now that it’s been knitted. It reads as black and medium blue now, whereas it was all greens and blues when it was hanked up. BUT it’s so amazingly soft — perfect for a hat. I’d say 90% of the yarns from That Estate Sale are rustic/farmy yarns, which makes for amazingly warm sweaters, but you wouldn’t really want them touching your ears. This Maxima yarn is the opposite of that! I used the free Jason’s Cashmere Hat pattern.

The lighter hat is made from Quince & Co. Ibis (discontinued). It’s 50/50 merino/mohair. The yarn was white, but Kid 2 wanted a light blue hat, so it took a quick detour to the dye pot before I started knitting. It’s very luxurious, etc, and it took less than a day to make, but I don’t love the super bulky look. I used the folded brim version of the hat patterns Quince & Co. posted for this exact yarn. It was really handy to find a pattern that called for a single skein of that yarn! It only has 98yds/skein, which didn’t sound like enough for a hat, but I guess it was! My only change to the pattern was to the decrease section — I did eight evenly-spaced K2tog decreases instead of four double decreases. I think it just looks tidier.

My other FO is a little bit cheaty:

I knit the Schemer Slipover a few years ago now. But my gauge was off (too tight), so even when I blocked it for width (which made it too short), it wasn’t something I loved. It *fit*, just not the way I like my clothes to fit. The collar also rode up too much and was itchy on my neck. Since I never wore it, I decided I might as well experiment. I picked up stitches to knit button bands, reknit the collar, and then steeked it. I both needle felted and zig-zag stitched the steek, and I’m happy with it!

I had dyed this garment after knitting (didn’t have much leftover yarn, anyway), so I picked a yarn that coordinated with the tweed flecks. TBD whether I wind up wearing the vest now that I’ve done this. I’ve added one button to keep it closed the way I had it in this photo, but since I blocked for length, it’s even narrower than before. Mainly I did this as a trial for what I want to do with my Halibut pullover!

Works in Progress

Most of my knitting time last month was taken up by the Petites Fleurs top:

How cute! I’m making the short-sleeved version. I had four skeins of this sport-weight, hand-dyed wool from the estate sale, dyed by the woman who owned the shop. There’s a lot of variation between the skeins (bluer/redder, lighter/darker), so I’ve been alternating every two rows the whole time. There are still some areas where you can tell I switched skeins, but it is what it is.

The yoke flew by, and I was like, “Are we sure this is a sport-weight pattern?” and then I hit the in-the-round part of the body and realized it definitely was, lol. It’s lovely to work on (and Kid 2 sat on and broke my wooden US5 needles right after I started this project, so I replaced them (the needles, not the kid) with a ChiaoGoo red lace circular, which makes it extra nice to knit), but it’s slower going after a few worsted/aran garments!

I blocked my gauge swatch, and the yarn relaxes and blooms really well with blocking. The fabric of this top will look so much better than it currently does! The way the back collar is rolling is particularly annoying to me, but blocking should fix that, too. I’ve still got a few more inches before the bottom ribbing, and then I’ll add however much sleeve I can manage with the yarn that’s left.

Acquisitions/Plans

I cannot be blamed if people get yarn FOR me!

My mom found all of this at the Goodwill bins! For a few bucks! Can you believe it? Those are some nice yarns. There are a few grams missing from the Rowan Cocoon, but the rest of the skeins are unused, including the two Farmer’s Daughter Craggy Tweed ($30 a skein!) that have been balled up.

It’s been a fun creative challenge to find patterns for these — single skeins are hard to work with, and they’re not the types of yarns I’d usually choose. Kid 2 and I needed (“needed”) new hats for a trip we’re taking, so that was the Ibis and Maxima taken care of. I’ve got my eye on a shawlette pattern for the Cocoon. And I’m about a third of the way through knitting a market bag with the DK Cascade Pima.

Right now I’m focused on finished the Petites Fleurs and the market bag, but you never know what will pop up over the course of a month!

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Little bags

April 22, 2026

I’ve been working on some small sewing projects. Kid 2 had a pair of fish-print pants that had been not only outgrown but also thoroughly played in, to the point that there was no longer a knee on one side. The fabric was so cute, though! So now we have two bags:

The rectangular hip pack is mine, and the square-ish purse is for Kid 2. I used to sew purses and bags all the time. But it’s been a minute, and I got a little ambitious with the hip pack. I should have done a flat zipper pocket on the front instead of one with a small side panel. It’s all a bit wonky. Not my strongest sewing! The other purse turned out exactly as I imagined, but it’s basically just a zippered pouch on a string, and I can sew a zippered pouch in my sleep.

Aren’t the little zipper pulls cute, though? They’re the ends of the pants drawstring! I’ve also been making some simple drawstring bags/pouches out of old t-shirts that don’t fit the kids anymore. I’ll post photos when I’ve finished a few. I’m in my upcycling era?

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Knitting Recap 3/2026

April 1, 2026

Watch out — I’m recapping March on the very first day of April! And up until recently, I didn’t think I was going to have any finished objects to share, but I became possessed during the last few days of the months and knocked out three sleeves!

Finished Objects

The first finish was my Zakkuri cardigan:

By looking at a calendar, I can see it only took a little over three weeks to knit this, but somehow I spent about a million years working on it. It’s quite oversized, so those loooong purl rows contributed to the endlessness, but also I blame the yarn. I’m very happy with this Briggs & Little Regal — it softened up a lot after blocking, and I think it will continue to soften as I wear and wash the cardigan. But it didn’t move easily along the needles. I usually use bamboo interchangeable circulars, but I went out and bought a stainless steel ChiaoGoo for this, which made it a little easier but not a ton.

Anyway, I’m very happy with the finished product! I wanted this to feel like a sweater version of a spring jacket, and that’s exactly what it is. It IS very oversized (at least 12″ positive ease), but the color and the ribbing stop it from feeling too slouchy. I really like the 3×1 ribbing! The button band is knit along with the body of the cardigan, and then you create button holes by stretching the stitches and overcasting around the opening, and that was a lot easier than I imagined. I’m not 100% sure I love the toggle buttons, but they’re what I was picturing as I was knitting it, and I’m happy enough with them for now.

I knit the Zakkuri sleeves in basically two days, which was WAY too much knitting all at once, but I had gotten the bit in my teeth and couldn’t stop. Instead of celebrating the finish with a long stretch of NOT knitting another sleeve, I dove right into that second sleeve on my Driftwood pullover:

Oh, wait, that photo looks almost EXACTLY like last month’s! I swear it has two sleeves now:

This yarn came from the thrift store; I knew it was all wool but not what brand or kind. After I finished the top, I whipped up a quick tube with all the colors (using a toy knitting machine) and threw it in the washing machine. This yarn is so soft compared to the rustic yarns I’ve been using lately that I couldn’t decide if it felt like superwash. Everything apart from the fuchsia did felt, however. I could tell the fuchsia was different as I was knitting — it was a slightly lighter weight, although you can’t tell now that the sweater has been blocked.

I mentioned last time that I realized I’d chosen too big a size once I separated for the sleeves. I sized up because I wanted more positive ease in the body, but I didn’t think about how that would affect the shoulders. It’s still a wearable top, but the shoulder/sleeve construction is really nice, and it’s wasted on a shirt that doesn’t fit well. This was a fairly quick and fun knit, though, so I think I’ll make it again in a smaller size, with more neutrally-colored yarn.

Works in Progress

I’ve been working on socks here and there (mostly the one from the sock reel that I posted in last month’s recap), but I was very focused on finishing the Zakkuri in March. At one point I cast on for a very boring shawl, though:

Well, boring to knit! It’s just a triangular, garter-stitch shawl. The mohair came from That Estate Sale, and the photo is not doing the color justice at all. There is a lot of variation in the color, from purple to teal-green. The solid gray yarn is an angora/wool mix that came from a thrift store. I originally wanted to make a shawl with some detail — an eyelet lace pattern. But when I caked up the mohair, I realized it was much “wilder” than your typical, commercial mohair yarn, so any detail in a project would be lost. Hence the boring garter stitch. This will be such a lovely finished object, though, extremely squishy and fuzzy and soft.

Plans

I’m not sure what to cast on next! Even though we have ANOTHER snowstorm on its way, my brain has moved on from winter knits. My two top contenders for next cast on are either the Forest Keys vest (finally!) or, like, a shortsleeved Ranunculus, since I’ve already made that pattern more than once, and it knits up sooo quickly.

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Knitting Recap 2/2026

March 9, 2026

Well, this month’s recap post should be blessedly short because I didn’t manage to finish ANYthing in February! Honestly, that’s much more of a standard month of knitting for me. Or maybe the fluctuation is. Sometimes I can’t stop knitting, and other times I’m distracted by other things. Getting obsessed with Animal Crossing in 2026 hasn’t been a distraction lately, I’ll tell you that.

Works in Progress

I’ve cleverly cropped this photo to make it look like I finished my Driftwood pullover! But it’s currently sporting just one sleeve. When I finished the body, I was a bit disappointed by how big it was. I did size up because I wanted more ease than the pattern calls for, and silly me didn’t think about how that would affect the shoulders. It’s a shame, because the sleeve/shoulder construction is really nice, but they don’t sit quite how they should. After finishing the first sleeve, though, I’m liking it a bit more. Knitting sleeves just isn’t much fun, so I’ve been putting off starting the second one.

Acquisitions/Plans

A friend recently asked if I’ve kept to my vow not to buy any new yarn, and I was like, “Well…”

BUT they’re sock yarns! BUT they came from the thrift store! We’re all in agreement that these don’t count. The Mary Maxim Footloose yarn was hard to pass up because you know I love a self-striping sock yarn! And I was intrigued by the sock reel. I’ve seen sock blanks, which are usually large rectangles of machine-knitting sock yarn that you can dye (or buy dyed), unravel, and then knit up. This is the same idea, but it’s been knitted into a very narrow tube/tape instead.

I… kinda feel like perhaps the dye job was meant to look cool in reel form vs. looking cool when knitted into a sock. I found some sock projects that had used it on Ravelry and didn’t love them. The black-gray-teal stripes are so short compared to the large sections of neon green and aqua. With a combo of luck (where the pattern started on the reel) and planning (breaking the yarn to start with neon green when picking up stitches on the heel flap), I’m decently happy with the layout of the stripes so far. TBD whether there will be enough left after the first sock to match the pattern on the second! I wouldn’t have chosen this color scheme, but the yarn itself is nice enough, and I’m not that fussy when it comes to socks.

I also started (in March) a Zakkuri cardigan.

I have a big bag of this Briggs & Little Regal 2-ply wool in Midnight Blue (9 skeins — something like 2400yds!), and it’s also not a color I would usually pick, but it came from That Estate Sale. I’m actually really loving it. I think it’s going to look smart in this cardigan, which I’d like to finish soonish, so it can be my spring “jacket”. But we’ll see!

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Paper Planner.

February 28, 2026

Quick! One more post before February is over!

My YT algorithm started feeding me a lot of videos about journals and planners a little while back. I kept a daily “journal” for years, not to write about my thoughts and feelings but as a sort of to-do/have-done list. That used to be a big part of my morning routine, but I’ve never been able to consistently find a place for it since having kids.

But I’m very easily persuaded by YT content, so I started thinking about what kind of notebook or journal would be right for me. I had a journal back in college that I made with binder ring clips, and I’ve always liked how eclectic and creative that was, but the thought of making something from scratch was daunting now that I’m… *flops feebly*

But apparently Filofax planners are all the rage these days? (On my narrow slice of the internet, anyway.) It’s all Filofax this and analog that! As many folks have pointed out, the analog “trend” smells a lot like overconsumption, with people buying special bags and supplies to distract themselves from their phones. (One knitter said in a video that the rest of the world has suddenly discovered project bags — yes!) Anyway, I didn’t want to buy a fancy planner because 1) SIGH and 2) will I even stick with it? Enter good thrift vibes:

It’s not Filofax but a Dayrunner Looney Tunes planner from the mid-90s. But basically the exact same thing and less than a buck. A crow sticker nicely covered the Tweety Bird on the front cover. I took out the remaining planner pages and made my own tabbed dividers, cut paper to size (I like plain graph paper best), and printed out some calendars. Clearly my personal aesthetic for this sort of thing settled on “cute” at some point and won’t budge.

I realized I really liked the ring-binder system because it’s so easy to add or lose things or start all over, if I want to. Kid 2 is a little jealous and looking to start her own. My “setup” (as it’s called in the Filofax-girlie world) is not particularly interesting, but if you need to lose one to seven days looking at interesting, stationery-related things, Pinterest can help you out with a little “Filofax setup” search. Then hit the thrift stores!

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Knitting Recap 1/2026

February 9, 2026

Hardly over a week late with my recap of January’s knits!

Finished Objects

As expected, I finished my two December WIPs pretty quickly. It looks like I had the cardigan blocked by 1/6 and the pullover by 1/13.

I powered through this Good Grandpa cardigan in, I think, ten days? I just really wanted to wear it! I remember I knit the first pocket while the kids were at Girl Scouts and told my friend that I would NOT be knitting the second, sewing them on, and blocking it that night. So of course I sent her a photo of it blocking a few hours later.

This has immediately become one of my most frequently worn knits — I knew it would because I had been wearing my brown version a ton since winter hit. The yarn came from That Estate Sale, and I wasn’t sure about the color for a long time, but as soon as I started working with it, I fell in love! It’s Black Watch from Christopher Sheep Farm.

My second finish in January was my Easy V pullover:

You might remember that last month I was debating whether to shorten the first sleeve I’d knitted. I did! I put circular needles through the rows above and below the section I wanted to remove and then cut and unraveled that section. I grafted the two pieces of sleeve together the same way you graft closed the toe of a sock. I’m able to find the graft line if I really look, but it’s just about invisible. So I’m pleased with that!

I want to love this, but I think it might be my least favorite thing to wear… ever? I have some grievances. The pattern calls for worsted-weight yarn, though the yarn used in the sample is considered light-worsted/dk. If I were the boss of knitting patterns, I’d say this is a dk pattern that should be knitted in cotton or linen, not wool. The very wide neckline says “warm weather top” to me, and worsted-weight wool is not that. I don’t want to wear a tank top under a wool sweater, but it looks goofy with anything that has a winter-appropriate neckline.

I also have issues with the shaping of the garment. Instead of short rows to shape the “neckline”, there are a few short rows AFTER the yoke colorwork — short rows that end on the sleeves, which makes the shaping awkwardly visible even after blocking. And that shaping does nothing to stop the sweater from constantly wanting to shift backward as you wear it. This pattern maker is very popular in the knitting world, but after this and the Halibut pullover (also hers), I think I’m done. It’s probably not fair to generalize from two patterns, but if I were gonna, I’d say she’s got a great eye for colorwork design and perhaps not so much for garment construction. I’ve knit a lot of tops, and those two are the only ones where, when I put them on in the end, I thought, “This just doesn’t work.” Bummer!

My last FO for January was this pair of Biscuit socks. I mentioned last time that I made these from some very soft synthetic yarn I thrifted. They have been a pleasure to wear! I did more standard toe decreases instead of the circular decreases called for in the pattern — circular just didn’t sound comfortable to me. Otherwise, they were knitted as-is, and I still love that eye-of-the-partridge heel flap!

Works in Progress

I continued working on my self-striping socks but haven’t made much progress since my first post about them:

Sometimes knitting is just really boring, guys. I will be very happy to wear these when I finish them, but no part of me feels like working on the foot of that sock — and then I have to knit ANOTHER ONE??

Speaking of boring…

I discovered that some yarn I thought was worsted was actually sport weight (clearly I didn’t look at it too closely!), which sent me down a delightful rabbit hole of pattern searching (my TRUE hobby). I settled on the free Parnell pattern, which I think will look really nice with red-on-red stripes. It’s worked bottom up, which means you start with the garter panels that make up the split bottom hem. And my brain just does! not! wanna! I was looking forward to a slower knit with lighter-weight yarn, but garter stitch is a minor PITA, and it grows soooo slowly. The front panel needs to be 3″, which is what I have so far, and the back panel will be 5″ — oof!

Anyway, TBD as to when I pick that up again because I indulged in a dopamine cast on:

This will be a Driftwood pullover, another free pattern on Ravelry. I’ve made progress since I took this photo, but this one shows the sleeve construction nicely (as well as my pretty t’toos). The stripe colors are what happens when you let the thrift store choose your colorway! I got a bunch of balls of unlabeled wool yarn last spring/summer, and hopefully it’ll be enough! It’s giving 90s Gap striped sweater, no? I really hope this turns out well because it’s been a lot of fun to knit, and a colorfully-striped henley pullover is definitely something I don’t already have!

Plans

Folks with amazing memories may have realized I didn’t start the Forest Keys vest that was in my plans for January. That’s still on my to-do list, but I don’t know that it’ll get cast on in February, either. I’d like to finish up / keep working on my current WIPs, and other projects keep jumping the queue.

One of those projects miiiight be the Mini Maine Motif socks that I came across a little while ago. I found them on Ravelry, but the pattern is in a magazine that I managed to track down on Libby! I would make them with purple, fuchsia, and very pale gray sock yarns that I already have. On the one hand, SUPER cute, on the other… all-over colorwork socks? No thank you very much. But maybe yes.

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