YOP #8 or This is What Happens When I Must Start ALL the Projects NOW

After successfully being project monogamous for 3 weeks(!?!), my fingers were itching to play with new things.

First the oldest WIP:

Fuzzy

I've decided that the blankets name is Fuzzy. I have no logical reason other than the yarn is fuzzy. Part of me feels it's silly to name projects but on the other hand...I like it better than just a generic description.

Fuzzy is now 19 inches long! It's taken a lot of patience to get this much done. I have no idea what it will look like once blocked. I'm thrilled that the cables are reversible. I suppose I should take a picture of that as well....

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be happy with the new pattern but I'm thrilled with it! It's about 24" wide. So far, there are 2 skeins (3rd one is in progress) in the blanket. In the first version, most of 2 skeins only had me at about 5 inches high. I can either plan on using a total of 4 or 5 skeins. I'll probably just knit and make my decision as I go. Surely there becomes a point where a blanket is just too big, right?

Now onto the two newest wips....

Tulip Socks

My bonus kids bought me a lovely skein of yarn for Christmas. I started making one pair of socks out of it and decided the pattern just didn't work. I showed it to mom who agreed and suggested I make the Tulip socks from the April 2013 Cookie A Sock Club. I've not gotten very far on them, but they are started! I think I felt compelled to make these socks for two reason:

1. I like that Husband got his kids to buy me yarn. I LOVE the yarn and I want them to see me using it and knowing that I love their gift and that it's just not sitting in a drawer gathering dust bunnies.
2. Neither of the August sock patterns screamed MAKE ME.

Waves of Love

This is my first shawl and it's a gift. I'm absolutely loving the yarn. It's Filament o' Squid from Indigodragonfly and it is a dream to work with. I've never worked with sea cell yarn before but I could easily get addicted to this yarn! It's the June club shipment my mom got for us.

 

I'm going to need to switch to circular needles soon but it's been nice to bring out my straight needles. Mom gave them to me as a Christmas gift in 2011. I've only made a handful of things on them since I've been so sock crazy lately. Husband is still to blame/thank for my sincerely getting into knitting. Knitting gloves for his youngest inspired Mom to buy me these needles and I sort of got hooked. Then came sock knitting and it seems I've been swallowed up whole!

I think this coming week is going to be more of the same. Fuzzy is soon to be an "at home" project as it's getting to big to deal with knitting while walking outside in the ridiculous heat index right now (I believe it was suppose to feel like 105 degrees F today). The Tulip socks take pattern reading and marking right now, so that's another mostly at home project. At least the shawl has a fairly simple pattern right now, making it travel worthy.

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf
• Birthday Bag 
• Socks, the Final Frontier

Works in Progress

• Fuzzy, the baby blanket
• Tulip Socks
• Waves of Love

YOP #7 or How Camping Can Interfer with Knitting

Late to post once again. Maybe this week will be better.

Last week I went camping with my family. I brought the baby blanket along to give me something to do while my husband was driving. Except we were taking a very specific route so that we could make to where we were going. The fun part about owning an electric car is that right now, you can't just get more energy when you run out. You have to plan where you're going to stop before you leave. I ended up doing more navigating than knitting, though I did get one pattern repeat done. We stopped in Sparta, WI for a recharge and lunch. There was a yarn shop! It was closed but we'd be back through at the end of our trip.

When we got to the campsite and unloaded the car, I left my knitting in the car. Not because I was worried about getting it dirty but because I wanted to focus on the family. Husband went and moved the car to a place to charge it while we were there. When he got to the campsite, he had my knitting. It was really sweet of him to bring it and I did work on it a little bit, but not much.

We did take a short walk to a play area (which turned into a short hike because we took the "short" route back to the campsite to make lunch) and I took my knitting along. I managed one row while walking and then it was a cable row. It's hard to cable while walking.

On the drive back, we did stop in Sparta again. As we needed to kill time, we did go into the yarn shop. Husband even picked out some yarn (100% merino fingering called Zitron Unisono) so I can make him some gloves. Of course, he has hidden the yarn from me until I finish another project for him first.... At least he's finished the design for that one. I drove back so there was no knitting for me.

The good news is that my blanket is almost 16 inches long now! I do need to take some new photos to update.

Hopefully this next week will be more productive in the casting on of new projects.

YOP #6 or Why I Shouldn't Wait Until It's Time to Go Camping to Try and Write an Update

I have this "wonderful" habit of blogging* in my head. (Note: I'm currently writing this while helping my husband fix the toilet. Nothing like multitasking!) This post was started in my head on Saturday the 10th while I was finishing up my Socks, the Final Frontier socks (formerly Tiberius socks). It was my intention to actually blog on Sunday. Then things happened, mostly getting ready for our trip.

Once again, I was mostly project monogamous. Enough people who had seen my socks had commented how awesome they were that when I saw a post on Ravelry about entries into the State Fair, I started to think about entering them. By the end of the week, I knew I was going to enter them if I could finish them. I even went and bought sock blockers.

They were finished around 11:54 pm on Saturday evening. The picture below was taken at 11:59 pm, which is why isn't not entirely in focus....I may have been desperate for sleep and knew that I had to get up in less than 7 hours....

Sunday after church (both services; I was running lights, hence the waking up early), my oldest bonus daughter came with me to the State Fairgrounds to drop off the socks. I've never entered anything into any state fair before. I hadn't pre-registered because I hadn't even thought about entering anything. The kind lady took my information and my socks (and promised that they would take good care of them) and let us go on our way with a receipt to pick them up after the fair. The best part? Driving on the fairgrounds. No, I don't know why this amuses me.

Before the first Sunday service, I did work on the baby blanket for a couple of rows. It's now over 12" long. Not nearly where I want it to be but pretty decent seeing as how I haven't touched it in a couple of weeks. I even remembered my pattern!

I did attempt to start Bigger On the Inside shawl but the yarn and I did not see things the same way. I have 3 skeins of Policebox Blue from Vice Yarns. I need just over 2 skeins so the third skein will become something else as well. I did manage to wind one skein this past week, though it took me most of the week. Why? Because I don't have a swift. I improvised one with objects found in my craft room. It didn't end well. I got it all wound up and decided to rewind it so it would be nicer. Big mistake. It ended up becoming horribly knotted and I ended up having to cut things so there are now all kinds of fun knots in it. Guess which skein is going to be number 3?

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf
• Birthday Bag 
• Socks the Final Frontier  

Works in Progress

• Baby Blanket

*I also do this with emails and forums and anything else that requires me to write something.

YOP #5 or How I was Project Monogamous for a Whole Week

I'm late on getting this week's post up. I was going to do it Sunday but that was an exhausting day with not enough sleep. There was plenty of knitting though. This last week at work, we were home to a physics conference. I spent most of my stage managing time sitting in a dark corner listening to advanced physics whooshing over my head while I worked on my Tiberius socks. I'd really hoped that they would be finished but alas, they aren't.

A friend snapped this picture of the progress on Saturday (I'd finished the heel and was starting the foot).

I've included her commentary because it amused me. I tend to be hyper-critical of myself. I see people finishing projects in a week or less. I've been working on these for a month and they aren't done yet. Perspective is nice that way. Here I've been thinking that I'm "okay" and "passable" at knitting and then a friend who has been knitting for decades tells me I have a gift. Absolutely humbling.

Last week I mentioned walking and knitting on a blanket at the same time and I was surprised at how many people can't do that. I stole the idea from a book on the history and techniques of knitting which showed some Irish women walking with peat on their back that they'd just gathered and knitting at the same time. I figure if they could do it, then so could I. These socks have been worked on while I've been walking.

I had hoped that if I worked on them, and only them, for the week, that they would be finished before our next Cookie A packet came. This didn't happen as I needed sleep. I did end up dreaming about knitting these socks in my sleep though, which probably means I was a little too intense on them. Husband says I'll be finished with them by Thursday. We'll see if that's the case though I'm thinking it won't be until Friday that they are completely off the needles. There's about 2 inches of the pattern left and then 2 inches for the toes.

There are also lots of things I need to cast on, so that's the goal for this coming week, once these socks are finished. I want to cast on two shawls and get more work done on the baby blanket. I want to be past the halfway point by Sunday, which might happen. I'm running the lights at church this weekend and I can knit during the band's rehearsal time and I've got D&D which the blanket is an awesome knitting project for as I don't have to think too hard about it. It also keeps me from building dice towers. I also want to cast on another pair of socks. I think I should always have a pair of socks going if for no other reason than socks are cool. I'd also like to use the yarn that my bonus kids gave me for Christmas, which is going to become socks.

Finished Objects

• Japan Scarf
• Birthday Bag

Works in Progress

• Tiberius Socks
• Baby Blanket

New to social knitting

Back in June, I went to a knitting group that meets at a local bakery. I've been lurking on their meet-up page for a while but hadn't been able to go as there were other priorities, mostly work related. It was a lot of fun and then July happened and I wasn't able to get back. They started to do the 2nd and 4th Sundays as well and last Sunday I decided I was going to go to it. I made a point of doing some work around the house (mostly cleaning up my craft room) and going to the Scary Place (Costco) for some much needed milk and other supplies so that I could go and eat a French dessert and still feel like I had done something productive at home.

It was a much smaller group but it was a lot of fun. It was nice to simply sit and knit and chat for a while without having eye rolling from my husband. I love him but knitting isn't really his thing. He doesn't always appreciate yarn the same way other knitters do. Everyone was impressed with my self-dyed yarn for my Tiberius socks and they were all impressed with the pattern. I had no idea that Cookie A socks were so impressive! I mean, they are beautiful and a lot of fun to make but I didn't realize how many people seem to be intimidated by them.

Last night I went to another group that I've been meaning to get to, but they only meet every 1st, 3rd and 5th (when there is one) Thursday of a month. This group met at a church, which I kind of like better than the bakery. The bakery has very yummy things but there are also other people who tend to be loud. Not that knitters are the quietest group of people on the planet but it's nice to be able to not worry about speaking over people in a bakery. I saw some lovely patterns and my Tiberius yarn was again admired. It was a very lively bunch and a lot of fun.

I hope to keep going to both groups. While I've hung out with friends and worked on crafts before, there was something different about going to a place that wasn't someone's home and knitting. I really enjoyed it. It was a chance to be social in a smaller group without having to dive into the drama of my life, which my closer friends are use to me doing, but getting to be around people. It was also dedicated time to knit with nothing else demanding my attention which was nice.

The best part? I came home last night to a box of yarn from my mom! Some of it she had even spun herself for me. It's quite lovely. Now I just need to get faster at knitting....