YOP 3 Week 8 Update

This past week has been strangely productive. I think it was due to a visiting friend but I got the urge to spin again! My wheel came out one evening and I finished up some green fiber I got as part of a spinning class I took....last year? There's some more green that's a lighter shade that still needs to be spun and then they'll be plied together. Brilliant move on the instructor's part to give two colors. It really helps you see what you're doing.

It's Renaissance Festival season again. I see people with their knitting out there and I wonder how they do it. Not because they are knitting in public but because of how dirty it is out there.

Exhibit A: He's wearing a white shirt.

This is a friend of mine out at Fest. That shirt started out white. And I'm sure the head covering thing was really black and not that dusty gray color. I can't think about bringing out my knitting to Fest. My taste in yarn is too expensive.

But I had a visiting friend, remember? She learned how to spin on a drop spindle. I own a drop spindle and have attempted to use it a few times but haven't been very successful with it. I decided that I would bring that out to Fest (with some basic sheep wool) because it was okay if those got dusty.

While sitting with some friends, I decided my hands were feeling too twitchy, so I attempted to work on the spindle. And I had success! It wasn't perfect but it was progress. I eventually saw my friend and she learned that she spins (at least on spindle) in the opposite direction than I. This was really funny actually as she would start the spindle and everything would untwist and it would fall. As we were watching a stage show, she briefly "kidnapped" (spindle-napped?) my spindle to play with it. I think it's the first time I've seen her spin. And while I have another friend who has been spinning for ages longer than either of us, it was fun to learn from this visiting friend who I don't get to see very often. I like to think that it's possible to learn from anyone and I definitely picked up some new things to try.

We had also met earlier in the week for tea. She showed me All the Projects. Or, at least the things she's made recently (including a shawl for her oldest daughter) as well as a dragon that she's working on. It was at this point that she pointed out how she had learned that when seaming something, you seam loose and then tighten the stitches! Wow! I'm glad I hadn't started on the shoulders yet! I had no idea that you should do that instead!

After tea, she came over briefly and I gave her a gift I've been meaning to mail for months. Yarn! Three lovely skeins left my house!

So I spun, had stash-ish yarn leave the house *and* learned a new technique for a current WIP. I think that makes the week a win.

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Apollonia Socks 

YOP Year 3 Week 7 The Pictures Edition

Girl on Fire

Girl on Fire

Browncoat Top 

Apollonia Socks

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Apollonia Socks 

YOP Year 3 Week 6: First FO

Last week I spent time waiting in line to see some fringe shows and I was serving at my church by running the lighting during a leadership event. There was quite a bit of down time or as I like to call it, knitting time. I brought along two of my sock projects to work on. While listening to the different speakers, I was able to finish a pair of socks! Of course, I still haven't blocked them or taken pictures but darn it, I wove in the ends! That means Girl on Fire is my first FO for the year! They would have been finished much sooner if I hadn't kept putting them off to finish up different projects. I am glad that I finished them before I passed a year from cast on.

The Browncoat Top has passed a year since cast on. I haven't seamed the shoulders yet. Husband keeps wanting to know why it's not finished and I explained that it's a project that I need to do while sitting still, in good light where I don't have to be paying attention to anything else. This means it doesn't go into the car now and I definitely don't do it while we watch "Sliders". It's going to need something that I've seen a million times, like "The Princess Bride" or "Goonies".

As I finished the Girl on Fire socks, I set to work on the Apollonia socks. I feel as though I messed something up in the heel turn as I seem to have a small hole/gap but the math is correct. It's amazing how much my knitting has improved over the years. I look now at my first socks and am delighted with how far I've gotten. A pattern like this one would have scared me when I first started as it uses a chart but it's now amazingly simple. Turns out I prefer charts to written out patterns. It's much easier for me to find where I am when I set something down for several weeks.

My plan this next week is to take photos of things, cast on a youth sweater and come up with something to knit for Husband's 2nd Cousin's 2nd child. Most likely another blanket but I want to do it in a different pattern.

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Apollonia Socks 

YOP 3, week....5 Oops

Just over a month since my last update and I've yet to get around to replying to comments from the last post! This must be a sign that I really am busy and am apparently not sitting in front of my computer as often as I imagine.

 Confession time.

I haven't done much knitting in this last month.

I haven't snapped any new photos of my WIPs.

But....

I have finished up the main body of the Browncoat Sweater. Shoulders need to be seamed and then there's some finishing work. This will also be followed by weaving in all the ends and blocking it out but I can feel that it's getting closer! The pattern is fairly straight forward though I did get hung up a few times with the wording. The author responded to my questions on Ravelry which was really awesome. Eventually I was able to figure out where I left off last autumn and discovered I hadn't done something correctly. This meant it was easy to frog it back to the spot in question and get a clean go at it.

Yesterday I received this month's Cookie A sock yarn. It's a yellow color. I've seen the spoiler photos but I haven't opened it yet. Husband did ask how my stash is holding up. It's getting tight but if I can finish up a few things, I'll be in good shape.

A knitter in one of the local groups I try to attend asked for test knitters for a youth sweater pattern she has written. My youngest step-daughter is small for her age and would probably like to have a sweater knit for her though I just put her laundry in the dryer (the kids wash their own clothes and I decided to be nice and not have her things sit all night in the washer when I took my clothes out of the dryer) and there may need to be a conversation about how not everything should go into the machine first. I do have other friends with younger children who might get more use out of it. The pattern is sized up to 6 but I really don't know what that means. A quick glance has me feeling like it shouldn't be too hard but I need to look closer at measurements.

Husband's Wesley sweater ended with arms that aren't long enough. To be fair, he was traveling most of the week during this time period so I was doing a lot of guess work on how it would fall on him. Instead of frogging back past the cuff, he wants me to add onto the cuff. I said I'd do it if I can get a picture of him in it first. His job has settled down but the weather has gotten terribly hot and I haven't had the heart to ask him to pose in the sweater yet. He was worried that I wouldn't have it done in time for the cold weather as I did start a pair of socks since then.

A large part of the reason why I haven't been knitting lately is because of the Bathroom of Doom. This is the latest remodel project that started a couple of years ago when we cut off the hot water to the bath/shower as it was leaking. It became an actual "now we're going to fix it problem" about a month ago. I ended up taking the week off from work (well, I went in one day and the end of the week was a paid holiday) to assist Husband on the project. I've made all of the hardware store trips, mostly by myself. So far there have only been 11, half of which have been me returning plumbing parts and getting the correct size.... So after exhausting days of ripping out walls and dealing with plumbing, my hands and mind had no interest in knitting anything.

That's all for this week. Happy knitting!

Finished Projects 

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Apollonia Socks