YOP Update #4

No pictures this week but there has been much progress. I've started on my second skein on the baby blanket and it's around 12" long! Baby Blanket 1.0 was onto it's second skein when it was frogged and was maybe 6" if I'm lucky. It's been my walking to and from the car to work project though it's starting to get a little too long for that. I also walked from work to a crafting group, which was about 3 miles, while knitting on the blanket. It was nearly one full repeat of the pattern while walking but the tail of the 1st skein kept getting stuck between my legs. If it hadn't been 80 degrees F out, this probably wouldn't have been an issue but it was kind of awkward.

The Tiberius socks are coming along nicely though I waited until the end of the week to work on them. A 90 minute car ride is an excellent time to work on them. They aren't a walking project because I need to refer to the chart too often, though I imagine I should actually be able to knit without looking at it. It's easier to look though as it makes it harder to get lost. I went to a knitting group this afternoon that traditionally meets on Tuesday but they've expanded to the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to work on a project and chat with fellow knitters. The yarn has also seemed to decide to behave. I'm hoping that this trend will continue.

I'm not doing so well on the getting my stash smaller. I did get some yarn recently. One skein was to have enough yarn to make a vest for Husband who now doesn't want a vest. Apparently I shouldn't believe him when he starts day dreaming about knit items. The other skein is called Temporal Rift and knits up stripped like the 4th Doctor's scarf.... It's going to become socks. I'd love if Husband would wear them while dressed as the 10th Doctor, but I don't think he's going to agree to that. Maybe I should just knit them anyway and he'll fall in love with how comfy they feel...

YOP Update #3

Since last week, I've actually managed to make decent progress. I have a really awesome chiropractor who adjusted my neck and arms last Monday so I was able to work on my projects. One even got finished.

Birthday Bag

 Back in April when I went on the yarn shop hop, I purchased a kit to make the above bag. It included everything I needed to finish it. It was mostly completed back in June. I waited until I got home to block it as it would be silly to block it and then to pack it in my luggage. Then I needed to run the string through it. The blocking went smoothly but I kept putting off adding the string. Mostly because I knew it didn't have to be finished until this week. I had purchased it to make and give to my youngest step-daughter who loves not only the color purple but also purses, bags and containers that she can hide things into. It was fairly easy to do once I looked back at the pattern to remember which row was the eyelet row. In the photo above, it's standing so nicely because it has a napkin stuffed inside of it. Without that, it sort of lays limply on its side. It should be fine once it is filled with gifts for a 9 year old.

Baby blanket

Now that I've got the 3rd repeat done of the pattern on the blanket, I'm liking it. I'm glad I didn't get discouraged and rip it out. It's about a fifth of the way done and is just over 2 feet wide. It's currently around 7 inches tall. The nice thing about it is that I can mindlessly work on it while doing other things, such as playing D&D, which is exactly what I did last night. Using much larger needles is speeding the process up so I think I'll actually get through this before the end of the year. I should check with Husband and see when is his cousin's daughter's birthday as it would make a nice birthday gift.

Tiberius Sock

These socks are from the June 2013 Cookie A Sock Club. I made myself finish the socks from the April shipment before starting these. I decided I wanted to make them in yarn the color of Captain Kirk's uniform. My mom happened to have dye that was the "correct" color so we dyed some white yarn that I founded at a local shop while I was at home. I had purchased a skein of "Snow" Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn.

While this yarn felt amazing and took the color beautifully, it's been nothing but a headache. When we went to dye it, neither of us noticed that the skein was only tied off in one place. This meant that as we soaked it before the dying that the yarn became a tangled mess. While we noticed right away, there wasn't much that we could do. After it was dyed, we tried to wind it into a ball. The skein was such a mess that it wouldn't even fit on the swift. Mom ended up winding it into a ball without a winder. When I got home, I rewound the ball. Twice because it kept knotting up. When I finally got to the color change (my choice), the yarn, which I pulled from the center, eventually became horribly tangled. I spent a large amount of time on Friday trying to untangle the mess that it had become. The yarn ended up having to be cut a couple of times as the mess was impossible to untangle. And since I was knitting both socks at the same time, there wasn't a free end that I could use to help. Additionally, I didn't want to rip out what I'd already knit in hopes that the knots could be taken out.

I spent part of Saturday going through my yarn stash. I've pulled out yarn that I know I'll not use. It either has too much acrylic content (yarn I'd bought before I paid attention to fiber content) or is an unknown material or is too small for me to feel I can make anything useful. These will soon be re-homed elsewhere. While I know my step-daughters would love them, they don't actually do anything with the yarn they already have. The younger one wants to learn how to knit but I don't know how to teach her. The eldest makes crocheted chains. That's it. When she makes a "dress" for their dolls, she just makes a chain and then wraps it around the doll. And until they actually make things, I think it's safer that they don't add more to their stash.

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf
• Birthday Bag

Works in Progress

• Tiberius Socks
• Baby Blanket

YOP Update #2

Sunday is typically update day in the Year of Projects group on Ravelry. I, however, decided to brush my teeth Sunday morning and managed to tweak my entire upper back and neck by turning on the tap. That meant no parkour, no knitting and no blogging for me. By the end of the night, I was able to get a little neck movement back through stretching, a heating pad and a husband willing to cause me pain by rubbing the knots in my neck.

Box weave on original blanket

Cable on original blanket

I did manage over the last week to start a new project. More accurately, I restarted an old project. My husband asked me to make a baby blanket for his cousin. I started one back in April and was frustrated as I was making up the pattern as I went and the needle size I was using meant the blanket was going to take forever. I didn't want to frog it either because it's a fuzzy yarn and it knots really easily. When I was visiting my mom in June, she ended up frogging it for me! I've apparently not practiced enough at frogging to be at the expert level. I felt it was time to redesign and restart the blanket. The original one had cabling and a box weave pattern but it wasn't reversible. I strongly feel blankets should be reversible. I have no idea where I got this notion from but there it is. I'd been unhappy with this blanket as it wasn't going to be reversible. Then I learned about reversible cables.  That was what I was going to do. After doing a million other things, I finally sat down and wrote out the pattern. Now that I've started the blanket and am on the second repeat, I know I'm going to have to rewrite the pattern as I completely screwed some things up. It's a good thing that I wasn't looking at the pattern but at the stitches so that I got the cabling right! I've been a little unhappy with it but now that I've started the second twist the cable, I'm feeling better about it. Husband simply says it looks like a blanket, so I guess that means it's acceptable.

For this week that I'm already past the middle of (and will hopefully update on Sunday like a "good" knitter), I've been spending a lot of time debating a project. I want to make this for someone and the yarn I want to use is lace instead of fingering as the pattern calls for. So I'm going to have to do a gauge swatch for it. But that means winding the skein and I have no swift. So I'm currently putting it off but I also really want to play with the yarn because it's from Indigodragonfly, who I have come to love and adore. I'm also feeling a bit selfish and want to use this particular yarn for myself though I know that it's going to be loved by the person I'm going to make the shawl for. I know that I will feel very awesome for giving it to her and even though it's a non-repeatable color, I also know that she will most likely it wear it more than I would. Besides, there may be something even more awesome that I'll want instead.

Current lists

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf

Works in Progress

• Birthday Bag
• Tiberius Socks
• Baby Blanket

Adventures in cookie making

At some point yesterday, my eldest step-daughter once again saw the giant bag of chocolate chips that we have (you can never be too prepared) and suggested (demanded) that we make cookies today. This was after another bout of clothes shopping (I really, really hate shopping for women's clothing because it's either cheaply made or non-functional; if I had the time, I'd consider making more of it myself just so I didn't have to deal with the annoyance of shopping), a trip to the library (we found All the Doctor Who books...and checked them out) and dinner. All of this was after I'd worked a crazy kind of day so my brain wasn't in the correct place to really function, but I had promised cookies.

The first thing we (read I) did was make the dough for some homemade Jammie Dodgers (which I've misspelling all over the internet...I'm tired, leave me along). Once that was made and put into the freezer to chill, we started on the chocolate chip cookies.

My youngest step-daughter is currently not allowed to eat chocolate which has led to a lot of whining and moaning and comments on how she was going to get more of the Jammie dodgers because she can't have the chocolate. I, however, had a plan. After the dough was mixed, I split it into two containers and added white chocolate to half of it. I then had the eldest the chocolate chips to the other half. All of the chips, as in, a full batch worth of chips. She asked if this was correct multiple times and I assured her that it was correct. Silly me.

We ended up with this:

The best part? It took me way too long to figure out what happened. My step-daughter even explained it to me and I didn't get it. I have no idea when the light bulb finally went on but it was certainly a slow one. At least they are still edible. Reminds me of a birthday cake I was once given that sort of....exploded into a platter filled with 5 pounds of chocolaty goodness.

Once these were out of the oven and "cooling", we moved onto the jammie dodgers. Most of our cookie cutters are holiday themed in nature. Something about making sugar cookies around the holidays.... I had decided to make them heart shaped because that was the least...cold related cookie cutter we had that wouldn't also break it's neck (eldest step-daughter has a thing for giraffes and got a giraffe shaped cookie cutter for her birthday). I didn't have a smaller cutter to make a window in the top cookie. At first we were going to just leave it and throw caution to the wind as far as the recipe was concerned. Then I commented how cool it would be to have a keyhole opening because we could then call them Kingdom Hearts jammie dodgers. And so we started to carve out keyholes in half of the cookies. Well, mostly half of the cookies. The youngest made a face for one of the cookies. I don't know why but I have learned to not question almost-9-year-olds anymore. It's safer that way.

So after much silliness and giggling (and some fighting and trying to talk to Husband), we baked some jammie dodgers. About half ended up with raspberry jam and the other half got blood orange marmalade. I just hope the girls crashed from all the sugar and are now sleeping.

A Year of Projects-Post #1

Thanks to the join that is the internet, I have learned about the Year of Projects blog-a-thon. I've never actually joined in on a blog-a-thon before. I've thought about it but have never quite managed to make the commitment. Heck, I struggle with the concept of writing in my blog once a week among other things that I want to do. I only have so many spoons.

This is what the group page says about the Year of Projects: The Year of Projects starts on 1st July 2013 and runs to 30th June 2014. No reason for starting mid-year, other than that’s when the idea arose and we decided to do it! This isn’t a fanciful list of New Year’s Resolutions, after all.

To join in, all you have to do is come up with your list. It can be as long or as short as you like, as easy or challenging as you prefer. Some start out with the patterns they know they wanted, items languishing on their Ravelry queues. Others start with their stash, and turn the challenge into a year-long stashbusting exercise. Some have even stayed true to The Purple Purl and chosen a book to work through. It’s totally up to you.
Our regular updates are posted on our blogs on Sundays. 

I've obviously missed the first post, but to be fair, I only got around to figuring out what this thing was today after reading someone else's post. It's amazing how easily you can find things once you figure out where to look!

I've introduced myself on the forums and have looked at a couple of other blogs. It seems that there are several different ways to go about making your list. I've never really been good at making lists for projects I want to finish. I've slowly been getting rid of the parts and pieces of long forgotten projects that I know I'll never finish or touch. Purging seems to be a lot of fun sometimes, at least when it leads to more space in my craft room for yarn. Yes husband, I may have a problem. I've also realized that this means I'm going to need a bit more about blogger so I can make a page or something to refer back to my list.

My 2013-14 Year of Projects List

•  Socks
• I want to do at least one pair every month of the Cookie A Sock Club. They all seem to take me longer than I think they will, which is why I'm committing in writing to only finishing one pair. I hope to finish all 12 before the year is out and to start the ones for the club next year.
• Shawls/scarfs/cowls
• I don't really need either but there are some lovely patterns. I'd like to make myself a nice cowl for the fall/winter so I can go out and be dressed up and not have to keep track of an awkward scarf.
• I'm definitely doing the Bigger On the Inside shawl, which will be finished in time for Chicago TARDIS.
• Gifts
• I really like giving gifts that I've made. I've liked the reaction that I've gotten from the gifts I've made in the past.
• Among those gifts will be 2 baby blankets for the children of cousins. 
• Destashing/using the hoard of yarn I own
•  I need to work on getting through some of the yarn I have so that I can get more yarn....
• Hat
• As much as I love my troll hat, I have some really lovely yarns that I want to make into hats. My husband likes this idea for some reason....
• Mittens
• Last winter (in February-ish), I lost one of my mittens that I had made. So now I need to make a new pair for this coming winter.
• Designing my own 
• I've had the chance to dye some of my own yarn and it was a lot of fun. I hope to do more of that this year.
• My husband has challenged me to design my own socks. I've got an idea in my head. Still need to figure out the logistics of it but it will be very geeky.  

Not a very exciting or detailed list but it's a big deal. If I keep things vague, I don't have to commit to a particular pattern yet! After all, it's only the first week. I can change my mind on what yarn to use on a pattern multiple times in the same hour. I hate to commit to something and feel like I can't change my mind. Though it seems that since this group is for fun, it should be okay if I don't stick to a strict list.

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf

Works in Progress

• Birthday Bag
• Tiberius Socks 

International Scarf

 

This scarf if pretty special. Right now, it's on it's way to Japan to be given to my step-son's host family. He's spending 10 days in Japan on an all expenses paid trip. 

This past Tuesday we finally got the information for the trip and there was a mention of gifts for the host family, which didn't surprise me. I had already mentioned it to my husband that something would be needed. On the paperwork, there was a note about something handmade. When I went to visit the college I ended up going to and when I did a home stay in England, my mom sent me with handwoven alpaca (or llama, I don't remember now) scarfs. I wanted to do something for my step-son, to be able to contribute to his experience. So I decided to knit a scarf. 

The last scarf I made took me a long time. You can probably guess why by this picture:

 

That's an 18 foot long scarf. It took months and months to make. I didn't have months and months to make this scarf and my step-son certainly didn't have the room to pack a scarf this massive in his suitcase. I had 5 days.... It was a good thing I was on vacation this last week as I dropped all other (okay, there's only one other project right now) projects to work on this scarf. My husband and I took a trip up north and I knit the entire time in the car, 3 hours each way. I even frogged the scarf at one point because I didn't like the needle size.

I'm mostly happy with the final project. It's not as long as I would have liked and it wider than I had intended but by the time it was giving me a good idea of how it was going to shape up, I didn't want to frog it again. It turns out that the host family live in a "Siberian type" climate so this scarf will make an excellent gift. My step-son was a little reluctant at first to bring it because a scarf is a "weird" gift for July. I'm glad he decided to bring it. I even had time to block it, which gave it a little more length. I can't wait to hear what his host family thinks about it when he gets back.

Spinning again

It's been over a year and a half I think since I pulled out my spinning wheel. Something about getting married has kept me busy. I've taken the week off for the holiday so after doing some housework, I thought I'd relax by spinning.

I'm still not sure if I'm getting the right amount of twist in the yarn but at least I'm working on it. I'm hoping to become proficient enough to have some nice yarn spun up by winter. Just in time for the holiday gift giving season.

And finished!

Tonight I the hardest socks to date that I've ever knitted. The left one took just over a month and plagued me with some many problems that I wasn't sure I was going to finish. Thankfully I was inspired by this month's club patterns that I made myself promise myself I wouldn't start any of them until I finished this pair.

 

Now to finish a birthday gift (putting the cord into the bag) and then to start more projects. I appear to have run out.