Ah, Spring!

We got a big snowstorm yesterday. It dropped about a foot of global warming everywhere. Thank goodness I have lots of wooly warmth!

 I love my knitted blankets especially. Right now I have four that I am sort of working on. There’s the crochet ripple afghan that I had to quit working on last fall because I didn’t have any more worsted weight scraps, but now I have more, I found the hook I was using, and sometime this year I’ll finish it. It’s hibernating right now. Also in hibernation is the Bakery Bears My Favourite Blanket KAL. I just have to wait for the March (or is it April?) part to come out, so that’s why it’s in hibernation as well. Finally, also hibernation is the Rectangle Granny square that I started with the remains scraps of DK/sport weight yarn, which I was excited to begin, but I found that I didn’t really have enough scraps of that yarn to go further. I mean, I have enough yarn, but I need more colors. So I will wait.

But I do have enough colors of fingering weight scraps to work on my Bits and Bobs blanket, which is another Kay Jones design of Bakery Bears. I work on this every night, and I already have a foot done. I love it. 

This blanket is so soft squishy! It’s all knitting done in a way that looks like brioche but isn’t. It uses two strands of fingering weight held together, so it blends the colors together beautifully. It’s easy enough that you can watch TV and knit. In the beginning I made tons of mistakes but I just left them and kept going, and they’re really not that obvious. The more you do, the faster you go, and the more you absolutely love this blanket. So, it’s my night time WIP.

My other WIP which I started yesterday on size 1 circular needles is a pair of cabled, beaded socks by Heidi Nick. They’re a little slow going because I am not used to cabling with such teeny tiny needles, but it’s getting better.

Also, I’m not used to using two circular needles. I’m using a lovely yarn that I bought on sale recently. It’s Capretta, an 80% superwash fine merino wool, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon. It’s squishy and has the soft feel that only cashmere imparts. 

I have one finished object: my Festive Shawl I was using my Advent Calendar yarn to knit. This is it unblocked:

It will be gorgeous when it’s blocked. It’s also huge and lovely. It will be lovely to wear.

In other non-knitting news, I’ve been enjoying the results of indoor gardening. I had an amaryllis from 2021 that I was going to try to get to bloom again, so in December it got repotted and I waited. And waited. A few leaves sprouted finally, and I waited some more. Then finally boom! A bud appeared! And in about four days it was this big:

I am very excited and happy to see it bloom. A few days ago we finally got around to planting the 2022 Christmas amaryllis and it has gotten its legs under it and is raising its head and beginning to look around. It was fairly pasty and white when it started out, but it has got some green in it now:

I’ll let you know how it turns out! I think it will be spectacular.

That’s all for now. Gotta get back to my sock! I hope you are knitting something wonderful!

 

The Leaves They Are A-Changing . . .

Autumn is here. Mums are the current flower of the day. 

These beautiful flowers were a gift from Barb and Mark! Thank you!

Plants are in from the cold, and candles are lit most days now.

We anticipate a higher cost of heating fuel, so wearing knitted things at all times will help. I like to keep candles where I can see them, because lit candles always make me feel warmer.

Add a cup of coffee and some knitting and I am quite happy.

This pattern is Yankee Knitter #37, Top Down Roll Raglan for Kids, and I am knitting it with Lion Brand Feels Like Butta, an acrylic Aran weight yarn that feels like chenille but is a lot easier to knit with and is machine washable and dryable, which I am sure his mother will like. I’m knitting a size 2 for my great grand nephew who will turn 1 in January. I’m not sure that is what to call him; he is my niece’s grandson. Sheesh. Now I feel really old.

As usual, I am not knitting it in the order that the pattern says. I knit down to the underarm and put the sleeves on waste yarn, but then rather than knitting the rest of the body, I instead knit on the collar, which is supposed to be the last thing knit.

Then I knit one sleeve and am currently knitting the other sleeve. Why? Because I have learned from past experiences knitting top down sweaters that it is way easier to knit the collar and sleeves without having the bulk of the body in the way every time you have to turn your work. After the sleeves are knit I can breeze down the body and then BAM! Sweater’s done, make the baby warm. 

I am still knitting my green socks.

I had the heel flap almost entirely knit last night but I discovered to my chagrin that I had somehow made it a stitch too wide, so I had to pull it all out and start my heel flap over again. Now it’s about half an inch long. But, two more evenings and it’ll be done. 

In spinning news … after finishing spinning allllll that black wool, I started spinning much more colorful wool:

That’s about 4 ounces of some wool I dyed before I had a stroke, and I’m finally getting around to spinning it.


It’s lovely. And surprisingly, it’s kind of in the autumnal spirit. I’ll try to spin it in a two ply fingering weight and maybe I’ll get some socks out of it. Yay! 

Treading Water

Hi there! I can’t really talk about my knitting right now, so I thought I would talk about other things, like Christmas advent calendars and mini skeins and whatever.

I watch a handful of podcasts on YouTube about knitting, and they all pretty much have the same format (which is about what I do in this blog but I am not doing it on video). The podcaster (or two or more podcasters) have a little chit-chat about the weather or something going on in their world, and then they talk about what they are working on, followed by their finished objects, finishing up with what they have bought or acquired be it yarn or patterns or needles or gadgets. Then they usually talk about what they want to knit or are planning to knit, a little about their kids or the trip they just took or whatever.  


Usually after watching a podcast I want to buy the yarn they were gushing about or the pattern they made or are making or want to make, or the New Knitting Thing they were enraptured with. Then I usually take myself firmly by the hand and say, not today. If I still want it a week or two after I hear about it, I may buy it. I wonder how many people buy stuff they don’t really need by just hearing about it? A lot, I bet.

A lot of people go gaga after mini skeins - 10g or 20g little skeins of usually fingering weight or DK weight yarn that are hand dyed and packaged 5, 8, or 12 together at a time. Now to me, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to have all these little skeins of different colors. But that’s because colors aren’t the most important thing in my knitting world. I know, seems odd, but what can I say. I’d rather focus on the garment design and the stitches and the tools than the color. But for most knitters, color is everything. And those mini skeins give them the chance to buy 5 or 8 or 12 colors at a time instead of 1 or 2 or 4 full skeins.

Every podcast has something that makes it different as well. Some people are in a different country, some are hand dyers, some just have a good sense of humor. But one person that I watch loves yarn, makes hand dyed yarn, and she loves the same books that I do!

Holly of Mystery Mouse Knitting loves to read  mystery books and knit. She’s not a huge yarn dyer, but what she has is named for something related to a book. She had colors reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and lately, Nancy Drew mysteries. She makes a few skeins, they sell out, and then she puts up another color. But the best thing is, she is offering her first yarn Advent Calendar, calling it Holmes for the Holidays. It includes twelve 20g mini skeins; a full skein of yarn, all in gorgeous Victorian colors no doubt; some stitch markers; and other treats and surprises.

The big surprise is that you follow the clues as they appear and solve the mystery of what Sherlock Holmes story the whole thing references! I thought about it for a good long while and then I bought it. So I will have a nice little gift that comes just in time for Christmas! Usually these advent calendars are pre-ordered in the summer, and are delivered in October or November. I think she has a few left, but if you want this advent calendar, you’ll have to be quick because I think she’ll be ending preorders really soon.

Kindness and Communications

We recently lost two people who played characters in two of my favorite shows, Dr. Who and Star Trek (the original series).

The first one was Bernard Cribbins, who played Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble’s grandfather, in Dr. Who. He lived to the age of 93, and was 70 years in entertainment. He was known as the kindest character in Dr. Who. Though his part was relatively small, it was memorable. 


The second was Nichelle Nichols who was Lt. Uhura, the communications officer on Star Trek. I loved Uhura. She was so beautiful, smart, able to get things done. Nichelle Nichols lived 89 years. I miss her. Another part of my childhood has died with her.

So, I have added two things to my queue of knitting items to make. I might not get around to making them right away, but I will make them. I already have the yarn!

The first is Wilf’s Hat by Patricia Schonhold. It’s a beautiful red hat with cables on it, and I will try to get an airplane charm like Wilf’s to put on it. It’s a free pattern!

The second is Uhura by Zohar Designs, a shawl that is shaped like a communications officer’s badge with “hailing frequencies” stitches reminiscent of Lt. Uhura’s job on the bridge. It’s available for £3 from payhip. I’ll knit it in red like Uhura’s uniform. 

Blocked Magazine

Blocked is a new knitting magazine on the internet, with free patterns, articles about knitting and humorous cartoons. What it is also about is a knitting community made up of people who have been blocked, slandered, called names like ‘racist’ and ‘white supremacist’ and ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘homophobe’ and the like by people who are just plain wrong. Those people have basically tried to ruin the lives and livelihoods of good, caring people, and Blocked magazine has given them a space to write their stories, tell the world what happened to them, set things straight. 

 

If you feel triggered by reading these stories, just download Blocked magazine for the free patterns and knit your heart out. If you like Blocked magazine, there is a place at the back to support it ($5) through a Patreon account for the magazine,  and another page to go to the websites of the people whose stories are in the issue of the magazine, where you can buy their stuff.

Blocked magazine is put out by many fabulous people. The editor in chief who spearheaded this publication is Neil of UKnitted Kingdom, a feisty Brit with a huge sense of humor who is like a breath of fresh air. Neil has, expectedly, received hate for putting out the magazine, being called all sorts of names mentioned above and having the magazine taken down over their first weekend (it’s up now, no problem). Neil is now the ‘Knitler’ of his UKnitted Kingdom and he is pretty happy about it, too.

This first issue has a 2-page spread about knitting a gauge swatch, my favorite thing! It uses cute little drawings of a mouse with a sweater that came out too small, and one of a sweater that came out too big, and several ideas of how to get around knitting a gauge swatch if you really want to just start knitting but still want to have it come out right. Talk about a useful magazine! I’d put those two pages up on the wall of my yarn shop if I still had one!

The cover sweater is a pattern in this issue, as well as gorgeous mittens, a cowl, a hat with a modified intarsia in the round motif (with a great blank chart to design your own motif!), a hat with a block pattern (appropriate for the first issue!), a crocheted amigurumi emoticon, and dishcloths. Also, there are a couple of KALs/MKALs too. 

I encourage everyone to go take a look at Blocked magazine. If you agree with it, great; if you don’t agree with it, then fine. I think we all need to get over ourselves a bit anyway. But we can all use a free pattern in these inflationary times too!

The Living Is Easy

It’s summertime! There are flowers everywhere, outside and in my house:

I love flowers.

Notice the wee socks in the last picture?

These are some itty bitty baby socks for a baby boy. I intended to make one pair, but before I knew it, there were four pairs! The socks will go with this little knitted sweater:

It’s an adorable little crew necked, short sleeved sweater that I am knitting out of Lion Brand 24/7, a 100% cotton yarn. It will be a cute sweater for summer! The pattern is Popsicle Pullover by Marie Greene. The pattern was free in Knit Camp, but it costs $10 to buy. It would be a good project to use to get rid of worsted and DK scraps if you have some lying around. The pattern has a long sleeved version as well as short sleeve, and it fits kids from newborn up to 10 years old.

I finally finished the Compton Aran Pullover! Here it is in all its glory:

It was very rewarding to finish and it will be a lovely warm sweater for Mr. Yarndemon this winter.

Another thing I have been knitting is the Double Scoop Shawl by Marie Greene. (It was the free pattern this month in Knit Camp. Join by June 21st, 2021, and save 40% on either the monthly membership $24.95 or the annual membership $249 with the code FRIEND40.)

 I was able to destash a bit using a skein of mauve Sockaholic Serene in Imperial Barley and a skein of Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock hand dyed in a color I forget the name of, but it is pretty, and it uses a lot of orange and blue with lots of other colors:

Here’s what it looked like when I started:

One person in Knit Camp called the pattern stitch meditative, which pretty much sums it up. It really is relaxing to knit.

 I have been spinning. I spun the rest of the blue fiber, and I loved it, but when I started plying it, I simply adored it! It is spinning up to a fingering weight, and there is so much color in this yarn. The color has a lot of depth. 


I know what I want to make out of this. I’ll surprise you!

We are farming potatoes:

Farming makes Pogo soooooo tired:

I hope you can get out and enjoy the sunshine! 

Goals

I've been keeping a private knitting blog since Ravelry decided I was a white supremacist (I am not.). It replicates the projects function of Ravelry. It has pictures of what I knit, lists the patterns, yarn. needles, start date and finish date of everything I knit. It keeps track of my FO's and my WIP's. It also has a list of my WP's -- Wishful Projects, the projects that I plan to make, and the yarn in my stash that I will make them with, if any is found. Usually, yarn is found. I rarely have to buy yarn anymore since I got my stash settled, which for me is a good thing, but which for the yarn stores is not.

I haven't been knitting much. I am going through a period of no-knitting that I hope will change very soon. I find that knitting things that are extremely easy is about all I want to do for the moment, so I knit gauge swatches for two sweaters that I want to make (simple stockinette and simple knit-purl double moss stitch), I have a simple scarf, a garter stitch blanket, and a circular knit stockinette (every round is knit! Knit knit knit!) scarf that I am knitting helically with my three leftover balls of lace weight yarn. It is going slowly, but that is fine, because I don't really care. I knit on it at night watching TV; sometimes I don't knit anything and I just watch TV or play Solitaire on my iPhone, which really is such a waste of time. I should be slapped.

Image by succo from Pixabay

I don't even have pictures of any of them, sorry. And I set my harder yet more boring project aside to hibernate for a while. I'll get back to it. It's a shawl, by the way. Yet another warm shawl of sport weight yarn that no one actually uses or wants, so I'll keep it and use it occasionally.

So, goals. I'd use Make Nine again, but that seems like so much to do.

Goal #1: Knit what I can. I plan to knit less but use up my yarn responsibly. There are two sweaters that I want to make, one aran sweater for my husband that I doubt he will ever wear, but it uses up 10 skeins of stash yarn; and an aran cardigan for me because a) my October Frost finally wore out and I need another one (it was knit of really old yarn from the eighties), and b) Marie Greene of Knit Camp is doing an aran cardigan for the January knit-along this year, the timing was perfect, and c) I'll use up 9 skeins of Bartlettyarn from my stash. If you are not in Knit Camp ,you can find it on Olive Knits as the January Workshop for $29.95.

Goal #2: Help my husband as much as possible to deep clean our house, get rid of a ton of stuff we never use, simplify and organize, and get some new chairs for the living room. There will come a time when we will have to move, probably far in the future, but it will be easier if all our residual stuff is gone and the rest is mostly packed up.

Goal #3: Spin more all year. I'll try.

Goal #4: Read more. You know, I used to read all the time. Now, I don't. I don't know why. I like reading. I just find that I don't like many of the books anymore. Maybe I have to dig a little deeper to find them. There are some historical non-fiction books that look interesting:

• This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain’s Knitted History Paperback – by Esther Rutter
• The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair
• The Fabric of Civilization: How textiles Mad the World by Virginia I. Postrel
• Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle by Clare Hunter
   

 

 

Goal #5: Lose weight. You know you are old when the reason for losing weight is primarily to please your doctor. But there it is. I've gained a lot of weight since the lockdown started.  Weight gain is anathema for a person with diabetes, and since I was able to get off my medication because I had done so well by losing weight, I should really try to take some extra weight off.

There you go! Five goals! Happy New Year!

Image by Mees Groothuis from Pixabay

Goals

The past two years I have made a list of goals to work on -- Make Nine. Let's take a look at how I did in the last year.

One -- Knit Kitty Cat Socks. I did that! Yay!

Two -- Design two new patterns and put them on my blog. I designed Blossoms and Buds Hat and Busy Mitts, so I accomplished this. Yay!

 

 

Three -- Spin an hour a week. Well ... yes and no. I spun over 52 hours this year ... but I stopped spinning back in May. So I guess I didn't do it. Boo!

Four -- Knit the Saxony socks from A Fine Fleece. Didn't do it, and don't want to do it. Every time I thought about knitting these socks, something made me procrastinate and not do them. So bye bye Saxony socks! I'm writing you off. ::crickets::

Five -- Knit 6 sweaters for myself. I knit Biscotti pullover, Boathouse pullover,  the Knit Camp Cardigan, I See Spring pullover, Brookings pullover, and Soundtrack pullover, which makes six! I accomplished this! Yay!

  

Six -- Make at least one small thing each month (like hats, socks, mittens, small shawls). I accomplished this! Yay!

Seven -- Organize my yarn by weight (lace, fingering, sport, DK, worsted, bulky). I did this! Yay!

Eight -- Get rid of my unwanted yarn via donating it/giving it away. I did this as part of organizing and sorting my yarn. Now instead of having ten bins of yarn upstairs I only have two, as well as a bin down stairs and a chest full. It is still a lot, but now it seems doable and I can instantly see what I have and where it is. Yay!

Nine -- Clean out and organize my knitting chest. I did this back in the spring, and I re-did it as part of our upstairs clean out this fall, so it has actually been done twice! I got alllll the needles sorted, found my sock blockers, and found my bobbins, so now I am all set. Yay!

That is seven Yays!, one Boo! and one that I threw out, which counts as a Yay in my opinion, it's a winner in my book.

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful

It's a beautiful spring day on the coast of Maine!

Photo by jdgrigsby from FreeImages

I finished my blue-green Linus shawl a while ago.

I also went to my WIP bin and took out an Absolutely Fabulous Throw kit by Colinette  that someone had started, given up on it, gave it to me, and I never worked on it ... but thought I would, someday. Well, someday came. The kit originally sold for around $180, contained your choice of four throw patterns, and had enough of eight beautiful Colinette colors in a variety of yarns to make the throw. The yarns are still available, but sadly the pattern is not.

See? It really is Absolutely Fabulous. Pogo settled down on it as I was putting on the fringe. She gave it her seal of approval.

 

I finished spinning my Maine Coast yarn.

Three skeins (total of 385 grams) of 2-ply fingering weight yarn. It's gonna be great!

What is on my needles now?

An Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl using fingering weight scrap yarn (I got tired of making endless Linus shawls) ...

... and a red cardigan for me. It's sweater #4 for those who are counting.

Keep knitting and spinning! Remember, you are beautiful!

 

 

Unraveled

I unraveled my Kinsale sweater. I determined that the two cones of yarn were not, actually, going to have enough yarn to knit a sweater; I got about a quarter of the way up the back and found I had used almost half the yarn ... and each cone was supposed to be enough for a back (or front) plus a sleeve.

Oh well. The yarn is destined to become something else I guess. Maybe I'll use that blue yarn to crochet a shawl, do something quick. Yeahhhh ... that's the ticket.

In the good news department, the Raineach hat is done.

Unblocked

Blocked

I like how it came out, but it will be even prettier in yarn that has more contrast. I'll knit another one sometime.

Today I feel very tired and lazy. I have ten things on my knitting cue (I have a ton of things to knit, but I limit my Knitting Queue  to only 10), but only two items have yarn ready to knit. The eight others all need the yarn caked or balled up, and it just seems like too much work. Then there would be a gauge swatch to knit. I think I'd rather just take a nap.

Still Quarantining

Hi there! I'm fine, how are you? Healthy, I hope!

While others have been busily sewing masks

Image by Christo Anestev from Pixabay

and doing other heroic things, I have been spinning and knitting and just staying home. In other words, my usual life.

On the spinning front, I finished the turquoise fiber and am halfway through spinning a braid of yarn that I hand dyed pre-stroke:

Here are a bobbin of each side by side:

I am going to ply them together and make a fingering weight yarn that will look like a summer day on the coast of Maine. I can almost feel the wind in my face and hear the water slooshing by! I'll knit the Crest O' the Wave stole by Wendy Johnson:

On the knitting front, I have knit three pairs of socks:

These socks were started pre-stroke, so over ten years ago.

The red fluffy ones on top are a mohair blend that I lost the band from, and I ran out of yarn to finish them, so I completed the foot on the second sock with bright red worsted weight wool. I neglected to photograph them when they were finished.

The pink socks are a worsted weight from a yarn called Wick (now discontinued) from Knit One, Crochet Too, a 53% soy, 47% polypropylene yarn that wicks moisture away from you.

These socks are fingering weight from Heavenly Yarns in Belfast. (They have lots of yarn, buttons, and needles! Free shipping on orders $30 and over! You should go!) The yarn is Sox by Berroco and is so pretty!

What is on my needles?

I have a sweater, a hat, and a shawl/scarf/thing going.

The sweater is Kinsale by Alice Starmore (in Fishermen's Sweaters):

I am using two 1-lb. cones of Jagger Ragg in blue that was gifted to me by Nancy Howard in 2015 or 2016.

The hat is Raineach by Juliet Bernard that was in The Knitter magazine, issue 148.

I am knitting Raineach out of scraps: gray yarn from my KittyCat Socks, and a ball of pre-stroke handspun that I don't even remember spinning at all, or what I originally knit from it. Perhaps I was drunk.

Anyway, it is really pretty. Here are the sweater and hat together:

So pretty.

Finally, I have another Linus shawl/scarf/thing on my needles for my evening TV knitting, using scraps of blue and green:

Here it is so far:

I have a ways to go!

Happy knitting and spinning, stay healthy both mentally and physically, and learn something today that you didn't know yesterday. I think I will learn how to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Yum.

 

 

Hello March

I used to hate March, hate it with a passion. It was long and dark and snowy, but most of all, it was just more winter when I was ready to be having spring. Gahhh.

This year, we haven't had much snow on the coast of Maine, and it has been a relatively warm winter... probably because we got a new snow blower and two generators. So, this March seems to be easier than usual. Or, we could get the winter's worth of snow and cold all in one month, which would truly suck.

If that happens, I am prepared for it as well! I just finished knitting this sweater:

Pattern: Biscotti by Kiyomi Burgin

Yarns: Annabel Fox Chunky Donegal, 109 yards in 100g, 100% wool, 6.5 skeins, color 662 Alder; Berocco Vintage Chunky 136 yards in 100g, 52% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 8% Nylon, 1.3 skeins; color 6134 red

This is a very heavy sweater knit on size 11US/8.0mm needles. Wrangling would be the best way to describe it, or, in my case, one-armed wrangling. ::rolls eyes::

I have had this yarn forever. Well, nearly. I got it around twenty years ago, and it was the oldest yarn in my possession. It's a beautiful dark tweed, a gorgeous yarn, and I truly love it. I hope this sweater never wears out, because I will never have this yarn again!

I used only 6.5 of the 10 skeins I have. What is your favorite bulky weight item to make with around 375 yards of yarn?

I knit a gauge swatch in the round (the back is all big loops of yarn) and got 3 stitches per inch. The good thing is this sweater knit up really fast! It took me 12 days to finish it, but I had spinning and the pink shawl and a ZickZack scarf to work on too, so I only worked on it for about two hours at a time. It probably took me 36 hours to knit.

The only casualty was the cable from my AddiClick interchangeable needle set, which alarmingly separated from the metal bit in the middle of a sleeve.

Luckily, I had a couple other size 11 needles on hand and was able to finish the sweater. Which is actually pretty amazing that I had them, since I almost never knit with needles that large.

That cable is the one I used the most, and I have used it a lot since I got the set back in 2014. I emailed Skacel (info@skacelknitting.com) because I knew they had a lifetime guarantee on their needles, and I wanted to ask how to get another cable. They responded in a few minutes and emailed a form that I printed and filled out. I popped it in the mail along with the cable that broke, and got an email a day or two later that said the replacement was on the way! It will be here soon! If I hadn't had another needle to finish my sweater, I would only have had to wait about a week before the replacement arrived. I think Skacel deserves a big round of applause for their great service!

Have a super duper March, and happy knitting! Stay warm!

Make Nine 2020

Happy New Year!

I don't do resolutions, but setting nine goals for the year ahead seems fine. I give you my nine goals for 2020:

ONE: Knit Kittycat Socks. I have the yarn and I planned to do it anyway, and I found a sock knitting group online with goals for January socks, and this pair seemed to fit in nicely:

From The Knitter issue #136. That cat looks mightily frightened. Anyway. I thought it would be good to start the year off with something that I am 100% sure I can do.

TWO: Actually design two brand spankin' new patterns and put them on my blog.

THREE: Spin at least an hour per week (Sharon, this one's for you!). Also counts as therapy for my right foot (the previously paralyzed one, now just mostly paralyzed) because I got a Hitchhiker single treadle spinning wheel after Arline died, but it is for the right foot.

I think I can make it work now. I'll try anyway. And it's not like I don't have any other wheels!

FOUR: Knit the Saxony socks from A Fine Fleece. I am gonna knit these!

FIVE: Knit or crochet 6 sweaters for myself. Yes, 6. I am a sweater monster.

SIX: Make at least one small thing each month (like hats, socks, mittens, small shawls).

SEVEN: Organize my yarn by weight (lace, fingering, sport, DK, worsted, bulky).

EIGHT: Get rid of my unwanted yarn via donating it/giving it away

NINE: Clean out and organize my knitting chest. It is a wooden chest in our living room that is about four feet long and eighteen inches wide and I don't really know what all is in it. There's a lot of yarn, and a lot of needles, some empty knitting bags, and Lord know what else. I think my sock blockers are in it somewhere, and I hope my bobbins are at the bottom. I need to have them to make progress spinning!

That's my list. What's yours?

November

Wow, where did that month go?

Anyway.

Here's my progress on the Estonian shawl that I am knitting 2 rows a day, 5 days a week:

It's getting longer, month by month. At the end of December, I'll be three-quarters of the way done. It will finish up when I am halfway through the month of March, I believe.

I knit a couple hats, finished my Shedeer Shawl, and worked on my scrap yarn ripple afghan in November. I did some finishing work for a friend; she had around 18 things that were taking up room, just waiting to weave in ends and sew a few seams, and I finished them for her. She was the same friend who came to my house for a few weeks after I had my stroke and helped me to relearn cooking and helped me find myself again. She got me started.

Mostly I have been looking around for patterns and yarn and making lists of What To Knit for the next year. That list is getting longer and looooonger, but it uses up lots of yarn in my stash! I suffer from SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), so I always try to use up my stash wherever possible. My aim is to get all of my stash to fit in one chest in the living room. It's do-able, between knitting and donating and throwing away. Next spring, when it is warmer, I'll have to dive into The Yarn Room upstairs and clean it out. Should be fun!

New Stuff!

I got some new stuff in the mail! I ordered a yarn bowl and stitch markers (because you can never have enough stitch markers), and they came today.

The yarn bowl is great for many reasons. First, it is from a small company in Vermont, and I like to support small, local companies. Second, it is lightweight and durable. I've never gotten a yarn bowl because if it was ceramic, I'd break it, and if it was wood, I'd scratch it, so I just didn't get one. But this one is made from PLA plastic, a biodegradable material made from plants! It feels soooo good too. Thirdly, it is 3d printed, which is something I am fascinated by. I think there is a 3D printer in my future.

The stitch markers are great for a couple more reasons. Not only are they 3D printed from the same material from a small company, but the ones on the left are glow in the dark!!!! Yessss!!!!  And the ones on the right were free, but the reasons I love them are a) one is an alien, which is cool, and I visited the alien museum in Roswell, New Mexico years ago, and b) the other one is a black cat like Nicky, and I loved Nicky.

Some of the bowls are glow in the dark too, and who knows, I might just need one ....

Steep Hill Farm in Vermont. Their service is fantastic. Go and see what they have!

https://steephillfarmvt.com/

Yarndemon Patterns on Blockstack

I've put my patterns on Sigle, which is a Blockstack blogging app. I plan to add a tip jar Bitcoin thing there too. The reason I am doing this is for my own security. If my patterns are on Blockstack, they will always be there and owned by me.

You can get to them HERE or just keep getting them on the regular internet too, right here on Yarndemon.com. My blog isn't changing, and I'll continue to post as usual.

If you want more information about Blockstack, you can find it here: https://blockstack.org/

Too Many UFOs

Unfinished Objects, that is.

Since my stroke, I have had between one and three UFOs (also known as WIPs -- Works In Progress) at a time, and that was fine. Just fine. Before the stroke, 43 WIPs were common, and I hardly ever finished any of them; but since my stroke, I have had more time, and I was able to finish all my WIPs, unless I fell out of love with them and unraveled them.

But lately, I have gotten back into my bad habit ways. I have eight UFOs, yikes!

I have a brown sweater:

And a blue sweater:

And a green sweater:

And a shawl:

Two rows a day til next February! Woohoo! This is the only project that I have that I can't work on, because it is an Estonian Lace KAL hosted by Pattern Duchess, and I am all caught up on clues.

And I have a scarf project and a sock project that I have already put away and didn't get a picture of them.

Actually, I also have a spinning project that I put aside because I needed to find more bobbins, and I never got back to it. It's been about two years. I really should ply some stuff off the bobbins I have and finish it.

Really, all the UFO's will just have to wait, because I just got a super secret assignment to knit which I love, but can't tell you about right now (sorry). I'll share pictures when I can. But I really, really love it!

Also, I signed up for Knit Camp hosted by Marie Green, best decision I have ever made. So much fun! So many knitters! It's great! Registration is closed right now, but it will reopen in October -- I will remind you. It costs $9.95 a month, but the cost is more than worth it. Just the monthly pattern alone is worth $9.95. And Marie's patterns are awesome. I got four patterns right away just for joining Knit Camp!

I already started one of them:

This is the Ellery hat pattern from Marie. Marie assured me that single skein projects don't count toward the pile of UFOs or WIPs, which I was grateful for; according to that rule, I only have 5 UFOs! Woohoo! I am using Swans Island Sterling Collection Fingering in the color Citrine. I love it.

My days will consist of two rows (five days a week) of the shawl, about an hour of the Ellery hat, and the rest of my knitting time on the super secret knitting. I'll do the shawl in the morning and the Knit Camp knitting in the evening, because s'mores. Lovely drinkable s'mores around the virtual campfire:

Recipe Diaries S'Mores Cocktail -- yummmm!!

Have fun knitting!

New Knitting Website

In case anyone is looking for another knitting website, Our Unraveled has started up, having 3000 members in just under a month. I just joined, so I will be finding out what it has to offer as I use it.

This YouTube post from Woolf & Sheep seemed to sum up what I feel in a reasoned, well-stated way:

https://youtu.be/ulmg3UUHjYs

I love that her dog is named Whitman.

Happy knitting everyone! Just enjoy fiber arts.

Bad Sweater, Bad Knitter. BAD.

Actually the sweater is a lovely, simple sweater and I love it; it's a great design, Drachen by Heddi Craft on Knitty issue 65, Deep Fall 2018.

The problem is there is a small error in the pattern, and I am apparently a fluffy-brained knitter who doesn't know how to read my pattern in time to stop myself from making big mistakes. I have always said (when people talk about me knitting fast) that it just means I can make bigger mistakes faster. I proved it.

I cast  on and zoomed up the body. I am using Swans Island superwash yarn, so I wanted to alternate two strands of yarn to mix the colors better. Everything was going swimmingly, and I split the front from the back at the underarm, read the directions for the next bit which said "Work even in St st for 19[21, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29] rows or until work measures approx. 9.25[9.75, 10.25, 10.25, 10.5, 11.25, 11.5] inches" and proceeded to knit for 10.25 inches.

Ahem.

Astute readers will have seen that 10.25 INCHES of knitting is wayyyyyy more than 23 rows. Way more. But I blew right through that part, because reading is a skill that I HAVE NOT MASTERED YET (despite having a B.S. in English), and I merrily knit along til I reached 10.25 inches. That's when I read the next part.

I realized my mistake when I read "Work even in St st until piece measures 6.75[7.25, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5] inches".

After I got through swearing, I had to figure out how far to rip back, because although I had knit a gauge swatch and got the right number of stitches per inch, my row gauge was off by a good bit, but it didn't really matter because the shaping wasn't row dependent (probably why I ignored the rows earlier).

For my size, D and E add up to 10.25". C is 7". So the amount I should have knit to the neck shaping was actually 3.25", which meant I had to rip out seven frigging inches and there were two damn strands of yarn and it was going to tangle and I  ONLY HAVE ONE HAND.

Sigh.

Sooooooooo I took my trusty miniscule US size 0 needle, and threaded it through the stitches at 3.25".

I unraveled seven inches carefully, as I wanted to avoid tangling everything badly. Then I wound up the two balls, which took some time because there was a lot of moving things in and out every time they snagged. When it was ready to continue knitting forward again, I put the whole damn thing in time out for about a week, maybe more. Every time I looked at it, the dragons looked forlorn.

With a sigh, and after letting it stew for a bit, I started to knit Drachen again, knitting the right front and the left front, and started the back.

Dammit! Right off the bat, the directions say "Work even in St st until piece measures 6.75[7.25, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5] inches". I could have made the back first and then I would not only have had to rip out only 3.25 inches, but I also wouldn't have to knit the whole back over again!  Arghhhhh! WHAT. AN. IDIOT!!!

So what has this taught me?

1. Sometimes, even in simple patterns, there is a tiny little error.
2. Read the pattern.
3. PAY ATTENTION.

The real reason I was mad is because it was ultimately my own damn fault, not the designer or Knitty. I love the design, and it really is very simple to knit, and it is fun, too. I just am brainless. (Technically only half brainless, but oh well, whatever).

Wish I could take Pogo's advice and hide my head under my tail!

And yes. The back is almost done.

 

 

 

 

Make Nine

So I was reading in the forums on Ravelry, and I came across the Make Nine Challenge. Apparently I miss a lot by not being on Instagram: I have an account, but never use it at all. Anyway, the Make Nine Challenge helps bring focus to your life, set gentle goals, center yourself. People can set their goals on specific things they want to knit, or they can include things that they want to learn,  goals that they want to achieve ... goals can really be anything. Putting it in writing is a way of focusing your mind.

I thought it would be fun to try and come up with nine things in the world of creating that I wanted to do in a year, so I have made a list. I give it until January 30, 2020 to see if I do them all, some of them, or none of them. Some goals are very broad and general, and some are terribly specific.

 

Beth's Make Nine Challenge

1. Finish the Turquoise Zebra Blanket. It has developed a life of its own, like a child that goes on and on living with its parents, eating their food, never leaving. It is time for it to vacate the premises. I live for the day when I can say, "The Turquoise Zebra has left the building."
2. Make at least one small thing each month (like socks, hats, mittens, small shawls). √ √ √ √ √
3. Make three big things this year (like sweaters, big shawls). I have sweaters knashing their skeins in project bags, ready to be knit. The Turquoise Zebra, while HUGE, does not count because a) it has been ongoing now for two years, and b) it is almost completed. √
4. Make one thing that is hard for me to knit. It might be because of the difficulty of the pattern, or the unusual technique, or the size and weight of it (sorry, that is the Turquoise Zebra talking).
5. Become accomplished at knitting brioche. So far I knit a hat, flat, that was in one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's books, back in the 1980's, and another hat knit in the round in December of 2018 that I gave to my brother, despite the huge amount of errors in it. I need to get better at knitting brioche, try cables in it, try two colors in it. It looks so pretty.
6. Design two patterns and put them on my blog.
7. Knit the Selbu Modern hat, which has been in my Ravelry queue for ten years (March 26, 2009). That is before I had my stroke!
8. Knit Saxony Socks by Lisa Lloyd which have also been in my queue for ten years (December 10, 2009). And I even have the yarn for them.
9. Crochet a garment. I used to crochet Aran sweaters back in the eighties. I've crocheted a few blankets, hats and one sweater in my projects since I have been on Ravelry, so I thought I should beef up my crochet skills.

Mak moar knittdd mouses!

(Sorry. Pogo got on the keyboard again. Sigh. ::shakes my head::)

I Have A Substance Abuse Problem

The substance is the chocolatey goodness that is Nutella™. For a person who has diabetes, Nutella™ is like a flame to a moth. If a jar of Nutella™ is in my house, given half or even a gazillionth of a chance, I will eat it, a large spoonful at a time, and that is A Very Bad Thing for a diabetic person to do. 

My diabetes meant that I had to eliminate it from my house entirely and forever. I was sad. :( 

But then the internet came to my rescue! I found that there was a sugar free version of the chocolatey hazelnut spread online ... but upon reading the ingredients, I couldn't do it. There is too much crap in it. To be honest, there is probably too much chemical crap in regular Nutella™ too. I fumed for awhile, but then I thought, maybe ... maybe I can make my own. Hmmmmm.

So, just for fun, I searched for recipes. Bam! There are lots!! Woohooo! 

And all of them had powdered sugar and chocolate chips! Booo! :(((

But by then, I really wanted my Nutella™. I looked in AllRecipes.com (apparently my  go-to recipe place online), and found this.  It was a recipe both time consuming (roast your own hazelnuts and take the wrappers off??? melt chocolate in a double boiler in this heat???) and filled with sugar. I laughed and ordered already roasted unsalted husk-fee hazelnuts from here and also dark chocolate sugar free chocolate chips from here too. Take that,  sugar and already-wrapped hazelnuts! 

Everything was ready. I put a cup of hazelnuts in the food processor and ground them till they were paste. I had to stop and spatula them into place a lot, but my fire to get sugar free Nutella™ helped. I added the other ingredients (I used regular granulated Splenda™, but you can use more natural sweetners too -- Swerve™ and Lakanto™ both have powdered sugar varieties, and there is liquid stevia too), and while they were grinding in the background, I put 12 ounces of the sugar free dark chocolate chips in the microwave on a medium power setting for 4 minutes til they were all melted (Ha! No double boiler mess!) and added them to the food processor and let it all blend together. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes.

I tasted it. It was heavenly! Chocolate goodness that I had known before ... well, it wasn't exactly the same as Nutella™ ... it was better! They used milk chocolate, mine used dark chocolate; they used sugar, mine didn't. And my Nutella™ used way less chemical crap too. And I added sea salt that was unground to add a salted chocolate taste, but mostly because I was too lazy to grind it up.

I am in chocolatey goodness heaven. Pardon me while I get my spoon. 

Nutrition info of my recipe according to MyFitnessPal.com

Fleas

I thought I would be done my Tor Grass shawl by now, but I am not.

One reason is I fought with a skein of brown 2-ply wool from Christopher Sheep Farm to knit these mittens:

The yarn seemed really thick, and I had to struggle to knit every stitch. I thought it was because I needed better needles with more of a point, so I went to Heavenly Yarns up in Belfast with a friend one day and stocked up on a couple sets. (Heavenly Yarns is a fabulous shop; you should go!) 

I got the needles home, and they helped, but the yarn still fought me. Anyway, I finished them and put them in a sink full of hot water to block them. 

Wow. I found out why the yarn fought me. Lots -- I mean, LOTS -- of brown, greasy stuff oozed out of the yarn. It wasn't dyed, because this particular yarn is not a dyed color, it is a natural color, it was just really dirty. It felt kind of sticky when I was knitting with it, actually, but I thought it was just the lanolin. I had to wash it three times to get the water to run clear! I knew I had had the yarn for quite a while. The natural colors of that wool have more lanolin in them, the dark brown especially, and I think it had hardened up with age. The resulting mittens are soft and lovely and warm though! I like them very much. But I spent way more time knitting them than I thought I would: two weeks instead of three or four days. 

The other reason is fleas. Pogo has fleas. Well, she almost always has fleas, but they are usually kept in control with FrontLine or something, and I brush her several times a day because she loves it, even though she is not a long haired cat. 

 This year, for whatever reason, the fleas suddenly and vehemently overtook the earth, notably Pogo and my house. Medication, both applied to the cat and sprayed on surfaces, has had some effect, but it's like the Boss Flea is laughing in the face of modern medicine, saying, "Bring it on, I will eat it up!" So, I have been cleaning. We washed every mat, blanket and pillow that Pogo laid on (and she has a lot around the house; she is pretty pampered). Mostly I have been vacuuming and washing the floors daily, through the whole downstairs.  Daily. And it is not easy for me, but it is getting easier with repetition, lol. It takes time though, lots of it, so my shawl suffers. However, better that my shawl suffers than poor Pogo.

Luckily, after a week of daily vacuuming and washing the floors, they are safe for Pogo to walk on, but I still have to keep it up, because this year the fleas are winning. So it continues. 

I have about 80% of Tor Grass complete. There are only about 21 more rows to go and then bind off. Of course, there are over 500 stitches per row, so I can only do about three or four rows a day, but it is slowly getting done. I was hoping to get it done in time for the Beekeeper Cardigan KAL that I will start July 2 or so ...  if I am not done by then, Tor Grass will have to wait for me to get the Bees done! It should only be 5 or 6 days though. That is what they say. I live in hope. 

Odds & Ends, and Knitting Words and Their Lack of Digitality

After finishing my sheep socks, I had a lot of leftover yarn sitting in the bag looking balefully at me. Now, although I have a bajillion favorites in my "Colorwork" bundle on Ravelry, none of them sang to me. I just wanted something simple, something easily, mindlessly knit while watching NCIS shows in the evening. I am therefore knitting a children's hat with a couple stripes in it for interest. 

It is going slow.

The pattern (yes, although this hat is drop-dead simple, I used a pattern; that is how pathetic I have become) is DROPS 12-37. 

My main project at the moment is the Aran Coat from Debbie Bliss in purple. Actually, this color deserves an exclamation point and all caps, it is a show stopper -- it is an Aran Coat in PURPLE!!

Hehehe. Gotta love it. Also I love my awesome new bookmark that Lynne painted for me. It is of hollyhocks in pinks and purples that seem to go with the Aran Coat! 

This pattern is the Aran coat from Debbie Bliss Classic Knits for Kids, which was first published in 1994, and is now out of print. (Your library may help you to find a copy, and there are used booksellers too.)

That was before the Internet really got going, so the book is really not digital in any way. I was kind of stunned at how dependent I had become on my computer when I knit. Usually I download the pattern, read it on some screen or another, keep notes in a sticky note on the screen, keep track of where I am with a line or a ruler that I can just move into place on the screen. But this pattern? Nope. 

It. Is. A. Book. 

Yikes. 

My first inclination was to put all the panels for the Aran in pictures on my iPhone, put them all into a .pdf document, and bam! But I didn't. I decided to do it the old-fashioned way.

Also, there are  NO CHARTS. Ugh. Everything is written out. With words! Knitting words! 

I had forgotten how much concentration this way of knitting took. But the Aran Coat is going well and I am enjoying it, once I remembered all the skills that I hadn't used in like, ten years. It's coming out very cute. 

Because of the concentration required and the space it takes up on the table, I have also started knitting a shawl to use up some worsted weight that I had lying around. I am knitting the Ka'ana shawlette by Jennifer Weissman, which promises to be a lovely thing to snuggle into and it will be knit quickly too, since it is on size 8 needles. I am using white, oatmeal and pink and maybe dark gray, I don't know yet. But it'll be pretty.

And it is really easy to knit!!!!!!!

 

 

In the meantime ...

I started to knit Sylvi on October 22 and finished it on March 22, so it took a long time to get it done. However, I didn't work on it the whole time. I took a few long-term breaks to knit other things. 

I knit the purple Ironwood Shawl that was in the KnitScene Spring 2017 magazine, out of Wildwood Yarns Arcadia in a pretty purple. The pattern called for two skeins of Madeline Tosh Sock, which has 385 yards and is about $25 a skein; I had one skein of the Arcadia and I didn't notice that the pattern called for two skeins. Arcadia has 394 yards per skein. I knit happily along, and about the time that I went to the Spa in Freeport I noticed that I was running a bit low on yarn, and that is when I saw that the pattern called for two skeins! I estimated that the amount of yarn I had would almost come close to finishing the shawl though, so I figured I would just put another color on whenever I ran out, something that would contrast nicely and look like I had planned it that way. When I got home, I rummaged through my odds and ends of sock yarns and found some pretty lavender handspun that I made eons ago, and set it aside.

But the ball kept going and going and going. It was a magic ball! Just two rows before the end of the shawl, I finally ran out of yarn. I knit the final two rows, bound off, and am quite happy with it. If I had forked out $50 for Madeline Tosh Sock yarn though, I would have been kind of mad that it had only required about fifteen yards of the second skein.

Beside the shawl, I knit a couple sweaters that I can't show you or talk about yet, and a bunch of hats:

Watch Cap by Michele Rose Orne

Bayside Beanie baby hats by Stacey McCrea Warner

Spruce Head Hat by Michele Rose Orne

Then I designed and knit a cowl at the Harpswell Inn Knitting Weekend with yarn that was provided. It came out pretty and I'll put the picture and the pattern up here when I get the pattern written; the cowl is blocking now.

Another thing that I knit (that is still blocking) is a scarf/shawl that I recently completed. It was the Mystery in March KAL (yup, I got it done in March), a lovely asymmetrical piece in a sampler of various knitting stitches, by Tori Seierstad. The yarn I used was originally used in the Mystery Sock IX: Crazy Quilt Socks, done in Old Number 8 in a dark red yarn. After working three clues, I thought I would never wear those socks (the pattern was perfect, they just were nothing I would ever wear. Sorry.) So, when I saw the mystery shawl commencing, I ripped out the sock and started the shawl. It was a blast to knit! Pictures soon. :)

So what is on the needles now? The primary thing is Amy's Scarf, which is reinvigorated after a long hibernation that started at the end of October. I started it back in July! I have to get it done. It is inspired by the scarf that Amy Pond wore in two Dr. Who shows, and I have wanted it for years, ever since I saw it on Dr. Who. I bought just the right skein of lovely red at the Spa in 2016, a red called Rock Lobster, in Mad Color Fiber Arts Sonatina. I'm about half done!

 

So Much Fun!

I have had so much fun the last couple of weeks! 

First, the things I have knitted: not much, actually. I have my stealth knitting project almost completed. In fact, it will be finished this week probably, and I can go to Freeport at the end of the week with a clear conscience. I have, in addition, sewn up my Sylvi coat/sweater, woven in most of the ends, and am now working on the hood:

It is kind of hard to knit because of the weight of the sweater and only having one and a quarter hands, but it is going slowly onward. I hope to finish it next week, after SPA in Freeport. At least Hillary will be able to wear it for a couple weeks before Spring!

Second is the goodies that I have bought.

I pre-ordered MAINEknits by Beatrice Perron Dahlen a few weeks ago, and promptly forgot it, and then there it was! I wanted to get it when I realized that all of the patterns in it were in my favorites in Ravelry, which was a sign that the book needs to be on my shelf.  I was pleased to find that the book has really gorgeous pictures of Maine, a foreword by Pam Allen, and well-written essays by Sarah Kilch Gaffney, Julie Letowski, Samantha Lindgren and Beck Robbins in addition to beautiful, highly-wearable and desirable-to-knit patterns by fourteen excellent designers, including Beatrice Perron Dahlgren. 

The book is divided into three sections: Sea, Farm, and Wild, which is how I think of Maine too. I'm from Aroostook county, Maine, the wilderness was all around me in Portage where I lived, my father was a farmer, and now I live by the sea! There are five or six patterns in each section, totaling seventeen patterns in the book. Most of them are sweaters and accessories for women, but a few are unisex too, and one is photographed on a man and a child; that sweater can be made in children's sizes too. There is also a cowl in child and adult sizes as well. 

I also got some little colored stitch markers from Cocoknits.com. They are so pretty, I want to string them on a chain and wear them as a necklace! 

I succumbed to pattern lust and bought the yarn to make these socks:

They are 173-45 Sleepy Sheep from Drops.

They are so springy and pretty! I don't really need 450g of yarn to knit socks. I'll have yarn leftover, so maybe I will design something with Mary Jane Mucklestone's books that I have been looking over.

The best thing though is the fluff that I got from On the Round! It is soooooooo gorgeous! It makes me want to spin and spin and spin! 

This fluff is hand dyed Corriedale top in a OOAK (One Of A Kind)  color. That means it is unique!  Rachel Jones does an incredible job of dyeing. Her colors are imaginative, playful, and creative while being harmonious too. It takes real talent to do that. I will wait as long as possible to start spinning this, but I think the beauteousness of the fluff will overwhelm me. It is sitting right beside my computer and I keep looking at it and sighing happily. I need to get a couple things done, but soon ... soon!

The third and final fun thing is ahead: SPA!!! Lynne and I are going to Freeport for the weekend (February 24,25, & 26) and we will have so much fun. We are staying at the Hampton Inn. SPA is a weekend of fibery goodness that is at three hotels in Freeport, but it really kind of takes over the town. It is like a convention of 1000 (maybe more) knitters and crocheters and spinners and weavers and felters and other fibery folk who show up for the weekend. Some people go for three or four days. Lynne and I will pretty much stay in the Hampton Inn; the vendor area doesn't really interest me much (see above) but there are many vendors and people who want their wares. Also Mother of Purl is in the area and there are a few things that they offer too this weekend, including an On the Round trunk show -- Rachel will be there in person to amaze and delight you! 

I haven't the heart to tell Pogo that the sweater isn't for her.

Wet and Crazy!

I decided after much dithering to wet block the pieces of Sylvi. My sister used to dither about lots of things, especially things she was afraid of doing. After a week of not sewing the pieces of Sylvi together, I realized that I, too, was doing what I used to give Rachel hell for doing. "Just do it already! What are you so afraid of? What is the worst that could happen?" I would tell her. So, I took my own advice and wet blocked the pieces. I had thought long and hard about blocking the coat all sewn together, and what a nightmare it would be. Blocking the pieces proved to be much easier and, in fact, enjoyable. 

It is amazing how much wool changes when it is wet. These pieces were placed in the washing machine, which was then filled with water, set a while, and then spun dry. Easy peasy. When I started to pin them to the blocking board (really a slab of blue insulaton board, don't tell), it was magical how they were so easy to pull into shape! The en-even edges became even, the cable down the back that dipped down making a U-shape was easy to straighten out. I loved it! So that's where Sylvi is now: drying. It will be easy to sew together now, I can easily imagine it. The hood will be fun to knit (actually knitting this coat was pretty enjoyable), and the petals will be no problem to knit either, now that the fabric seems so flexible and pleasant to work with. The only thing that I am not sure of is sewing the petals down, but I feel that that is because I haven't done something like that since my stroke, but now I really feel like I can do it. 

My right hand (the paralyzed one) is waking up and getting more useful. I can actually hold a big tapestry needle with it, and kitchener the toes of my socks together using my right hand now! That is a big improvement. My fingers all open and close at my command -- slowly sometimes, but I will take it. I'm working on strengthening the muscles in my forearm to make it easier to lift my right arm, too. And I walk around the house quite a bit now without my cane. I walk like Frankenstein, but without my cane. I still have to wear the damn brace though. 

And now for the crazy part of my blog post!

Some readers may remember when Wendy Gaal had her first Mystery Sock Knit-along way back in 2009. I participated in it, making these beaded socks:

Well, now she is up to Mystery Sock #9: Crazy Quilt Sock Knit-along! It started on Friday, January 27, but it is not to late to participate. You don't need to buy yarn or the pattern for the knit-along; the pattern is free, but only people who use Wendy's yarn will be eligible to win prizes in the end. The last clue will be posted March 10, and the winners will be among those who have knit one sock in one of Wendy's Knitter's Brewing Company Sock yarns. 

Wendy always challenges knitters with these Mystery Sock Knit-alongs. She also makes tutorials and videos that are really well done to help you learn the techniques involved, and there are tons of people to help out if you have any problems at all. Several people who have never knit a sock before at all are successfully knitting this. Wendy gives you a bit at a time and spoon-feeds you the very detailed directions with lots of hand holding if you need it, and she is the most patient person with these Mystery Sock KALS that I have seen.

I got the kit with Old No. 8 sock yarn in color BAC OTL from Wendy at Knitter's Brewing Company, and wound it up:

It came with a pretty little commemorative stitch marker:

I don't use the stitch markers that come with the sock yarn in these kits because I am using double pointed needles, but I love them and use them in other things!

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I have done the first Clue, and let me tell you, it is really crazy!! It is a toe up sock, knit up at an angle, with a pretty cool little texture going on! 

I love it! I can't wait to see what the next Clue will be!

 Here is a picture of an ancient Egyptian picture of a cat herding geese, since Pogo wasn't in a posing mood:

New Year, New Socks!

My New Year Socks are done! They are so sparkly and colorful! I feel like I am disco dancing when I wear them!

(Beth laughs and laughs and then composes herself)

I have a Sylvi update, too. I have the right front done to the underarm :

I'll finish the right front tonight, sew it together over the next two nights,  knit the hood for a couple of nights, and then there will be The Petals. Actually knitting them won't be difficult if I can get them started. I think I can do it. Anyway, the whole thing should be done in about two weeks, maybe less. It will be pretty.

I have some stealth knitting, to borrow a phrase from Wendy Johnson. It is my daytime knitting at the moment. I hope to show you at some point in the future! It is why I am only working on Sylvi at night :)

 

 

 

 

Another Sylvi Update and Other Projects

Sylvi is growing by leaps and bounds. The back is done:

I have the left front done to just above the underarm:

The black yarn on the side marks the increases, and the one in the middle marks what row I started the underarm on.

Pogo the astute feline inspector says they pass and gives them a paw print of approval.

       

I started some bright, glittery socks just before New Year's Eve. 

   

Everyone needs bright glittery socks What a wonderful world it would be if everyone wore them. The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Stiletto, purchased from WEBS, but it seems they are out of it. I did buy it in their big year end blowout sale. Anyway, the pair is half done, and I start the second sock tonight during my daily TV watching. The pattern is the one that I have pretty much memorized, Classic Socks for the Family by Melinda Goodfellow.

I got a knitting magazine (KnitsceneSpring 2017) and a skein of lovely purple Wildwood Arcadia yarn from my friend Lynne! I started the Ironwood shawl, and it is perfect for the yarn. I love both the pattern and the yarn! 

   

Happy knitting!

The Summer 2016 Ravelry Games Update!

Halfway to the finish line! I can almost hear the cacophony of 200 or so Ravelry national anthems swelling the stands! 

My sweater is puttering along nicely:

   Day 4

   Day 5

   Look! A cute kitty!

   Day 7

   Day 8

   Nicky would be tired of watching me knit too.

   So would Nora.

   Day 11

I hope to be finished in time!

I am trying a sort-of new-to-me technique, magic loop knitting. It's where you use a circular needle with a long cord to knit small circumferences in the round, like on socks or sleeves; some people do it to bypass having to use double pointed needles, but I do it because I didn't have any freaking size 9 double pointed needles AND my Denise set of circular needles was missing one pair of needles --- you guessed it, size 9! Therefore I couldn't use the two-circular-needles method for small circumferences. So I am using a 36 inch (or 42 inch, don't know exactly) size 9 circular needle to knit my approximately ten inch circumference sleeve (which will be even smaller at the cuff). Good times. 

   Pogo's butt for size reference

The sleeves look too narrow, but hey. I can always unravel it and re-knit it after the Olympics are done if I need to.

I actually "invented" this method of knitting many, many years ago while on a camping/canoeing trip with friends. It must have been the 1970's or early 80's because Icelandic sweaters were all the rage, and I was knitting them for everybody on my Christmas list. The only thing I hadn't remembered to pack was my needles for the sleeves ... which I needed. Sigh. 

Most people would have given up on it, stuffed the sweater in the bag, and made a S'more. Not me. Maybe I needed to have the sweater done by the time I got back, I don't recall. But, I figured that there must be some way of making it work, and I knit the sleeves while pulling out the two feet of extra needle as I went. It worked. 

I had to chuckle when I found this on YouTube.com: The Traveling Loop method.

Or, the Being Stuck Up the Creek Without Double-Pointed Needles method. Hehe. 

See you at the finish line!!! 

 

It Makes You Think

I read an article lately by Woolly Wormhead, the fabulous hat designer, about the cost of producing a pattern. It was enlightening, to say the least. Now I want to buy one of her hat patterns.

Lots of people on Ravelry make money with their patterns. Some get an order once in a blue moon, some get an order every hour or so. Some make $1 for a pattern, some make $5 or more. Some people work hard to make their patterns accurate and readable, some don't. My patterns have always been free, mostly because I didn't have the time or energy to hire tech editors and test knitters and photographers. But now I think maybe I should. It's not like I don't have the time. I just have to figure out who does tech editing of knitting patterns and find people to test knit my designs. Hmmmmm, I might have to do some knitting myself to earn the money for that!

I did a Google search for "work from home knitting" -- there are tons of offers. Many are simply pages that talk about it. I'm sure most of us have wanted to make extra money by knitting, right? Reading about it usually satisfies my urge. Then I remember my WIP's and pick them up again.

Anyway, random thoughts on a Tuesday. Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

Obligatory cat picture goes here: