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

Short and quick project update

I meant to write a few weeks ago, while I was in Colorado but I was having too much fun and excitement. Then I was going to write this past week but I set a knitting goal for myself. I had finally reached it just in time for us to lose power. I've been without power at home since Friday evening. I'm currently at the local library working on some lighting design work which I need a mental break from so I've decided to update this blog. It would be even more awesome if I could do the updates that are floating around in my head but the photos for those posts are at home. So here are the highlights until I get better organized.

• I visited the Estes Park Wool Market with my mom for the first time in over a decade. It was much more interesting now than when I was 18.
• I got to spend a lot of time knitting and finished the knitting part of a beaded bag for my youngest step-daughter's birthday present. It's the first time I've ever done bead work while knitting.
• Dying happened at the end of the week. Tie-dying and yarn dying that is. I use to make tie-dyed shirts All of the Time. I probably had about 21 at one point. It was my first time dying yarn. I made some for my mother-in-law for her birthday and then some sock yarn for the Cookie A Sock Club because the Kirk inspired socks needed Captain colors.
• I'm about to turn the heel on the right Pirouette sock. It took me about 3 weeks to reach this point on the left one. I did it in about 1 week this time. I don't know if I've simply spent more time knitting on it or if my brain stopped freaking out but it was certainly easier.
• I learned about World Wide Knitting in Public and did spend some time knitting in public.
• Last night, I cast on plain socks as 2-at-a-time using the Magic Loop method. I think I have actual socks instead of a mess even. I'm very proud of that.
• The baby blanket has been frogged so that I can knit it on larger needles. Mom did it for me because she is awesome.

And now back to cuing work. I'm dreading writing out the cues for one song because there are going to be a lot of them. I hope it looks as magical in real life as it does in my head.