My love for gray is a real thing. It matches everything as easily as my favorite pair of blue jeans. I’m a little bit OCD, so things that match without effort have a special place in my heart.

When Hunter Hammersen asked if I wanted to knit for Curls 2, I leapt at the chance. (spellcheck says I leaped, but I’m pretty sure I leapt). My response was something like, “Gray? YES, PLEASE!”. Hunter mailed the yarn and I cast on as soon as it arrived. She included a swatch and the size needles she’d used. I went up something like 5 needle sizes to get a fabric similar to her swatch. I may have been wound a little tight. I’d never knit a Curl before and didn’t want to mess it up. So I cast on with US size 9?!? needles. A few repeats in, I remembered that I know how to knit and swapped out for 7’s which seemed a bit more reasonable. One more repeat in, I settled into the thing and found myself on 5’s. A season (or two) of Vikings later, we had a lovely wrap.

Pattern: Mendacity by Hunter Hammersen
Book: Curls 2
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Rastita
Colorway: 43 Plomo

The end of April feels like a good time to check in with my knitting intentions for the year.

I find that if I don’t focus, I’ll just knit the latest eye-catching pair of socks and be perfectly happy until the end of time. The year will pass and I’ll have made zero progress on my journey to knit 50 pairs of socks for knit-worthy people in my life AND use up some stash. To be clear, I have zero regrets about my 2016 knitting. It was everything I needed it to be and now I’m looking at 2017 so regret doesn’t sneak up behind me and pounce.

That’s not the whole truth, if I’m being 100% honest, I just really really like to make lists.

My 2017 Knitting Goals:

1. Knit or destash* every hank purchased at Vogue Knitting in 2012 (As of Jan. 1, 2017, I’d knit 0% of this yarn)

– Blue Heron Bamboo in Plum – I just do NOT love this yarn. Out it goes.
– Holiday Yarns sock yarn in Orchid is going out too – who am I kidding? I’m not going to knit pastel socks. This yarn is beautiful, but…Know Thyself.
– Hunt Valley Cashmere 4 Ply Sport in Red – socks? or do I obtain a contrast color (gray) and go for (unlined) Fiddlehead mittens?
– Shi Bui Staccato in ivory – I’m going to incorporate cream stripes into my next frankensocks. I have quite a bit of scrap sock yarn.
– Tosh Merino Light in Fathom (Constellate Hat in progress)



– Tosh Merino Light (TML) in Winter Wheat (There are 70k TML projects in ravelry. I was overwhelmed.)
Lucky for me, the perfect project presented itself (test knit for Hunter Hammersen)


2. Knit or rehome my Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in Silver – I want to love it. Sadly, I do not. Good day, yarn!

3. Socks:
Green Stripey socks for one of the little people in my life that still needs his first pair of hand knit socks.
Lime Green socks for my rocket scientist. (started in Feb. 2015)
Red socks for my favorite fellow self help addict.
Pink/White/Green socks because I dyed the yarn at Meghan’s birthday celebration…5+ years ago.
Madelinetosh Cosmic Wonder Dust socks – because I need to try speckled yarn.
Plymouth Yarn – because I need a backup plan in case the first speckled yarn experiment doesn’t pan out.
Little Green Finch Pink socks for me because this is the only pink I’ve ever loved.
Undead Yarn Gray socks because my love for gray is pure.
Electric blue socks because well, I’m addicted to blue.

Green and Rainbow Socks!

Ensnared Socks!

Note: As with all things, I like to stack the deck in my favor. So, any socks for me are optional.

4. Mend Pink Socks for SIL – aka Try Needle Felting.

5. oh, and I seriously almost forgot….knit my Dark and Stormy sweater. – DONE (I keep wanting to call this my Top Draw sweater. i have no explanation for this. If you do, I’d love to hear it!)



*If you read my blog and shop my destash, I’m giving blog readers 10% off until midnight April 30 Central Time, so when you message me, just mention that you’re a reader for the discount.

I finished knitting these beauties, vacuumed my rug and took some glamour shots. The first thing I noticed in the photos is the right and left sock do not match. What the everloving heck?!?! I had a mini heart attack and quickly grabbed the socks to diagnose the issue. They are a test/sample knit for Hunter Hammersen and I wasn’t at all keen on having botched them up. Hmm. In person, they look perfect. I looked at the photos again.
and then back at the socks.
and then back to the photos.
How odd. There’s an optical illusion so the pattern looks slightly different based on the angle. Turns out the position I contorted myself into for this sock picture is one of those angles.

See, different angle and everything’s fine. Crisis averted.

Yarn: Space Cadet Oriana 8-ply
Colorway: Gobsmack
Needles: 2.25mm Addi Sock Rockets for the legs
Signature Needle Arts DPN’s for the feet
Pattern: Test knit for Hunter Hammersen (rumor is the pattern will be out in Mayish, and if you join Hunter’s mailing list, the odds are better than average that a magical coupon fairy will visit your email box when the pattern is available)