• 2026 - Blanket - Cats - Crochet - Garment - Knitting - Socks - Sweater

    March 2026 Projects Update

    March 2, 2026 - By 

    It’s hard to believe it’s already March and I haven’t posted a finished project for 2026. I have been crocheting and knitting a lot this year, I just haven’t completed anything yet!

    I started off the year working on a crochet along with Attic24, the Wildshore Blanket CAL. The CAL takes about 2 months, with the border being released last Friday I should have finished it this past weekend, but I’m just not sure if I’m going to follow the border pattern, or pick something else. It’s the look of the final row that has me uncertain.

    I also started a raglan sweater for myself, that I have knit and frogged multiple times. I received the yarn and pattern as a Christmas gift and I started off knitting it from that, but it was a raglan sweater knit bottom up in pieces and I got frustrated with it. I thought I should switch to a top down raglan knit in once piece that I could try on as I went. Which sounded like a good plan, but then when I finished it, it ended up too big in circumference. When I told James about the latest fitting he said “you always seem to knit your sweaters a few times” I replied, “because I’m not good at it!” LOL I have the techniques down, but I really seem to struggle with garment sizing. So it’s in a time out right now while I think about how I want to fix it.

    I also started a loosey goosey sock knitalong with my friend Terri, I was meant to knit one pair of socks per month throughout the year. I started a pair in January but lost interest in the pattern and frogged it. So no January socks. I started a different pair in February, did I finish them? Also no. I am knitting them two at a time and have managed to knit the legs, do the heel turns and gusset decreases, so I think I am in the home stretch. But then I have to think of March socks…

    You’ll notice that the cats have been spending a lot of time near me as I work. Trixie is very good about leaving my yarn alone, but Miss Marple is a very naughty knitty kitty, she’s always keeping an eye on the yarn and trying to eat it, so that has contributed a bit to my slowness. Hopefully I’ll be adding a flurry of completed project posts in the next few weeks. 😉

    With that thought in mind, I have a couple changes to the blog for this year. I think I’m going to get back to the chatty blog posts I used to write, this past year of only adding projects hasn’t been as creative for me. So fair warning. I’ve also added a “spotlight” page you can access from the top menu, I’ll add photos I particularly like there. I also thought about changing the blog theme and appearance, I even purchased a new “pro” theme but I can’t get it to work the way I want. I need to learn more about working with it, maybe that will be a 2027 update.

  • 2025 - Cats - Knitting - Socks

    2025-30 Fang Socks

    January 9, 2026 - By 

    When I saw this pattern the first person I thought of making them for was my daughter Keely, who has a blank cat named Fang. The pattern uses a grey yarn for the cat, but black is in perfect contrast to the green.

    Pattern: Cat-astrophe from Biscotte Yarns

    Craft: knitting

    Made for: Keely

    Size: one size

    Needle: 2.5mm and 3 mm

    Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll – black, Sea Turtle Fiber Arts Ridley Sock – Meadow

    Notes: Turkish cast on, then knit one more round. Made shorties because I only had 50 grams of black.

  • 2025 - Knitting - Socks

    2025-21 & 22 Basic 64 Stitch Socks

    January 9, 2026 - By 

    I made two pairs of basic socks to keep my hands busy. The purple ones I added to my gifting box, the second pair I forgot to take a photo of before giving them to someone (I can’t remember), but they used up the yarn left over from a previous project. https://micheleleigh.ca/2025-10-11-socks-for-e-j/

    21 Basic 64 Stitch Sock

    Pattern: nothing specific

    Made for: ?

    Craft: knit

    Size 64 sts

    Needle: 2.5mm

    Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock Effects

    Notes: cast on 64 sts, worked 1×1 rib for 1 ¼” then knit stockinette stitch until leg is 6” long. Heel flap is garter edged eye of partridge as in Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern. Knit foot until 7” ending after finishing sole stitches.

    22 Basic 64 Stitch Sock

    Pattern: 2×2 rib

    Made for: I forget

    Craft: knit

    Size 64 sts

    Needle: 2.25mm

    Yarn: Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight

    Colourway: Indigo

    Notes: Used the heel flap pattern from Hermione’s Every Day Socks.

  • 2025 - Knitting - Socks

    2025-20 Scrap Yarn Socks

    January 6, 2026 - By 

    Amy is my youngest sons girlfriend, who also happens to be one of my daughters best friends, we LOVE her! I thought it was time to make her a pair of socks, she is a big crafter, she quilts and makes wonderful articles of clothing with reclaimed fabric, so these scrap yarn socks seemed like the perfect fit for her. She loves them!

    20 Scrap Yarn Socks

    Pattern: from Leftover Sock Yarn Socks — Knitting Squirrel

    Made for: Amy

    Craft: knit

    Size: 64 stitches

    Needle: 2.25 mm

    Yarn: 10-15 colours of about 10 grams each of scrap yarn.

    Notes: First stripe is cast on plus 3. Then 5 stripes of each colour.

    I followed the advice in the pattern to weave my ends in as I went, because there were so many of them! To do this, I wove in the tail of the yarn of the previous section on the first round, then the tail end of the yarn of the current section on the second round. I wanted to make it feel a bit less bulky. I also followed the advice to do a jogless join, I used this method – How to do the Jogless Jog — Knitting Squirrel 

    15 stripes for leg.

    Work 32 rows for heel flap to end with 18 sts after heel turn.

    Pick up and knit 16 stitches plus one more in the gap for each side of gusset. Knit into the back loop for 2nd side of gusset. 

  • 2025 - Knitting - Socks

    2025-10 & 11 Socks for E & J

    July 18, 2025 - By 

    I work with a couple of really great women, who are definitely knitworthy. We also have some pretty great clients, one of whom offered me some sock yarn this tax season because she had been given quite a bit from someone else and couldn’t possibly use it all. Our office colours are turquoise and silver, so of course I asked her for turquoise options if she had any, and she came through! I knit a pair for both Erika and Jeanette after tax season, I still have some yarn left, so into the stash it goes, to be pulled out another day. Maybe I’ll get a pair of sock out of it?

    Cheers to a new project!

    10 Socks for Erika

    Pattern: Petty Harbour by Reyna Curtis

    Craft: knitting

    Made for: Erika

    Needle: 2.25mm

    Yarn: Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight

    Colourway: Indigo

    Notes: Foot length 10” 

    Switched out the heel flap pattern for eye of partridge. I used 75 grams of yarn, I was gifted three balls, so I have enough left to make a second pair.

    11 Socks for Jeanette

    Pattern: Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku

    Size: 72 sts

    Craft: knitting

    Made for: Jeanette

    Needle: 2.25mm

    Yarn: Woll Butt Watzmann 

    Colourway: 82357

    Notes: Foot length 9.25”

    First two rounds of picked up stitches ktbl

  • 2025 - Knitting - Socks

    2025-1 Smooth Operator Socks

    June 4, 2025 - By 

    I never make New Year’s resolutions, but in 2009, after crocheting for about 15 years, I made a New Year’s resolution to learn how to knit. So in January of that year I searched the internet for resources and came across a website called Ravelry and signed up! For many years I really enjoyed their database of patterns and yarns, but what I really liked was their project section where I could keep track of everything I made, the pattern, yarn, needle and hook sizes, and notes for when I inevitably made changes. I often went back to look at completed projects when I was making a similar item, and I referenced other makers notes on their project pages. In the summer of 2020 they updated their website, which left me soured on them for various reasons. I decided it was time to step away and keep track of my projects another way. I still search their database occasionally when I’m looking for pattern inspiration, but I’m not active on it as a user anymore unless it’s required for a designers test knit.

    What I ended up doing was just keeping a word document for each year stored on my Google drive, I could access it anywhere and make updates on the fly, functionally it works very well for me, but it’s a private document, so other crafters can’t see it and get help from the notes or ideas to work on their own projects like they could do on Ravelry, and it’s not as easily searchable. In the last few years I’ve also not been enjoying social media as much, my Facebook and Instagram feeds are often just filled with ads and it wasn’t a space I enjoyed sharing my projects anymore. So the idea of writing another blog, just about my craft projects was born.

    So here’s what a project in my word document looks like, I’ll post each one as a separate blog post. At some point I’ll go back and share previous years projects, but I’m going to start with 2025. Eventually I hope it will make searching easier by using the categories and post tags.

    1 Smooth Operator Socks

    Pattern: Smooth Operator Socks by Susan B. Anderson

    Made for: Keely

    Craft: knitting

    Needle: 2.25 mm

    Yarn: Pro Lana Golden Fjord Socks

    Colourway: 189 Burgundy

    Notes: Yarn was gifted to me by Jeanette for Christmas. Start cast on for cuff with final solid section of burgundy. 40” length of yarn for long tail cast on.

    Knit ribbing for 1 ½”

    Knit leg for 6”, until 4 rows of solid light pink.

    Knit foot for 5 ¼” past waste yarn (last round of burgundy section.)