Super funky chunky VEST

First I made another one of those funky bags with leftover yarn:




I love how all those little pockets look, outside and inside (okay, so it just looks like a black hole, but really, there are two pockets on the inside!):




No pockets on the back. The overall color theme on this one is more green-brown tones, whereas the previous bag was brighter colors.



When I realized that these bags don't even make a dent in my leftover yarn stash, I tried to come up with a "bigger" project and decided to make a vest:



I really like all the weird color and texture combinations. It was a fun process, knitting and picking the next yarn or yarn combination.



However, the vest came out not just funky, but also really chunky :( and is not very flattering to wear. At least not for someone who "needs" flattering :). It's warm, though.

My husband really likes it and thinks I should add it to my "stash" and sell all that stuff at a booth next holiday season. He even wants to "man" the booth :).




It was great actually using up a lot of yarn. Oh, by the way, our foster dogs also helped with that. I woke up one morning to a huge yarn mess in the living room. They had had a ball over night. Fortunately for me, no work in progress was destroyed. Unfortunately for my daughter, she was not as lucky :( ...

Anyway, here is the "left over" leftover stash:


This does, of course, not include the stash of "new" yarns. Yarns are like books. It's hard to resist them in the store, but once you have them at home, they keep staring at you...

Anyway, next project: another pair of socks. Basic stand-by: toe-up. Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks, Mineral:



Three-stitch, two-row pattern:
Row 1: k, k, p
Row 2: k, p, k
repeat


I knit a lot during the bus commute to work. And socks are easy to take along...

Hugs, shrugs, cabled shrugs, boleros, and superchunky

Other than the "endless knot" socks, I am working on a shrug for my daughter right now. She takes a sweater to school every day, because she says it's always cold inside. Jennifer Thurston calls her pattern "Hug," and Jenna (knits & pieces) altered that original pattern into a "cabled shrug" (see Jenna's picture). This shrug is basically two long sleeves that connect around the shoulder, thus keeping all the parts warm that usually get cold. It is knit starting from one wrist across the shoulders to the other wrist. I am using Lion Brand Wool-Ease solid, looking pretty much like Jenna's picture here (color is called "Fisherman"). The original pattern was knit with Cashmerino Superchunky, so I am doubling the Wool-Ease to make it "superchunky."

It's really fast and easy, except I think I made the first arm too long, so I am waiting for my daughter, so I can measure it on her. I might have to open parts up again. As easy as these shrugs are, getting them the right size always seems to challenge me.

I made this other, really cool shrug, called Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher for my daughter. Instead of using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease like the "recipe" said, I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted, which somebody else on Ravelry had used. It came out great! Really awesome!! But after the first time it was worn, it "grew" to about double the width. The pattern completely lost its "spring," and I am totally bummed. I definitely want to make another one with the Lion Brand yarn to see if that makes the difference. By the way, I had the hardest time with the pattern at first (remember, I mentioned before that I have a hard time "reading" knitting patterns), but once I figured it out, it was totally, totally easy!