A year and a bit and a whole lot of projects

It's been quite a while since I've posted any crafting updates though I have certainly been busy with my crafting.

I ended up making a total of FOUR of those little llama cowls as a friend of my sister loved it and wanted one for her son's girlfriend (I think) and then loved the one that I had made and my sister asked me to make another one like that for her friend to surprise her.

After that, I finished off a scarf for a friend as a surprise birthday present. It was also a test knit and my friend absolutely loved it. The color ended up being exactly what she wanted and she wears it a lot, though more as a head scarf than a neck scarf.

 

 

It was fun to see the difference between pre- and post-blocking. It was another reminder of how important it is to block. 

After that, I worked on a project that took about 7 months to complete. I made two double knit scarves for friends who were getting married. Husband gave me an initial design to work with (which I had to modify a few times because gauge in double knit is different than in normal knitting and if I had been using my entire brain, I would have remembered that stitches are wider than they are tall and the letters in the scarves would have looked less...squished) and I modified as I went along. My mom dyed the yarn for me and it was a lot of fun to work with though I did get tired of the project because it was taking forever. In fact, I was finishing it at the local reception three months after their wedding ceremony. For that reason, I don't have any photos of either scarf finished because I was working past every deadline that was set. The original plan was to have them done in time for the wedding but that wasn't going to work as it was taking much longer than I thought it would and when it came to opera week at work, I didn't knit the entire week. To be fair, it was a very physically demanding show and my hands ached from some of the set-up. Then it was to have them finished over the 4th of July weekend when I flew out to Colorado and back but my flights got canceled due to bad weather and Husband and I drove out to Colorado (I did most of the driving) and I ended up losing some (a lot) of knitting time. There was also project fatigue. I have experienced this before and it's usually in socks as I'm on the feet because it takes forever to knit the feet of my socks. If it wasn't for the fact that the yarn wasn't crinkly, I would swear that the socks were frogging themselves overnight so I would have to keep working on them.

Luckily the bride took lots of pictures. Here's one of her holding up her husband's scarf.

 

When Husband first asked if I would knit something for the couple, he wanted me to do intarsia for the letters and the fish. I believe I told him that double knitting would be easier. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that double knitting would have a more finished look to it. It was definitely not easy but there was a rhythm to it. When I finished, I said I was going to take at least a few days off from knitting as these were the only things I had worked on for such a long time (almost true; I did try to do a test knit of some double knit finger less mitts but I got confused with the pattern and then the deadline came and went before I could puzzle it out). This wasn't what I intended my first double knit project to be. In fact, Mom had bought me yarn and a pattern for a MKAL but I got sucked into these scarves instead. Probably for the best as they ate my soul or at least felt like it.

I managed to not knit anything for nearly two months. I believe that is the longest I have ever gone without knitting. In fact, I probably would have gone longer except the conference I was working was so...full of itself, that I couldn't focus on reading. (Seriously, I think there was some sort of competition to see who could say the most words and make the least amount of sense.) I went home after the first day and cast on the Owlie Mitts that I was going to make for a friend. I had completely meant to get around to them and hadn't. See the bit about the scarves above. At the time, she really didn't like knitting. Since then, she's gotten into it. I felt like I was in a bit of a race to finish the mitts before she decided to try her hand at them. I didn't take many pictures and haven't done a whole lot of documentation lately but I did manage to snap one photo before I mailed them off to her.

They were a lot of fun to work with and I got to use up some of the beads that I bought forever ago to make faire favors to hand out. I made a few shortly after I got them and gave them out for a season or two and have never gotten around to making more. There are also quite a few beads still left. The best part is that my friend got them as a complete surprise and her son thought that they were for him! I should ask if she's learned how to knit in the round yet...

While having friends over for dinner, I showed off my handy work (not sure if pun is intended this late), wanting to gauge the interest of one friend who has a thing for owls. She gave some nice comments about the contrast between the beads and the yarn, which I knew wasn't the best but I wanted to use what I had on hand. She then offered to buy a pair from me in an orange tone. I finished those much faster than the first pair but failed to get a photo of them. Eventually I'll get a photo as I hope that she'll be wearing them out at the Renaissance Festival once it gets colder. In fact, we met when I had stopped by to visit with other friends in the dance troupe she performs in and she ran up to me asking if she could take a picture of my fore panel because she loved the color. She was happy with her pair once I got them into her hands.

I have also managed to pick up the All Shook Up socks that I started back in 2015.  While I have marked them as finished, I believe I still need to weave in the ends but I got a little into the Disney Planning Mind and haven't gotten around to that yet.

 

My sister asked me to make her another Christmas gift. The last time she asked me to knit something for her,  it took a few years. This time, it only took a few months. The biggest issue was/is her head size. I ended up doubling the yarn and adding stitches so that I knew it would fit her head unlike the last hat I made for her. So even though I had planned to work on it while at DisneyWorld, I ended up not having large enough needles to work with the doubled yarn. At least I was at DisneyWorld, so I couldn't pout. That seems to happen mostly to children who have very few coping skills and don't know when to stop.

 She ended up loving it even though she didn't get it until February. It was a faster turn around time than with the cowl I promised and eventually made for her. It also fit her head much better than it fit the dog's head.

I also joined the Heroes of Yarnia MKAL in January after returning from our family trip to DisneyWorld. I put myself on a yarn fast because, well, Disney is expensive and worth it and well, I should use some of the yarn I have. The problem became that I didn't have enough of two colors to make into a double knit scarf that would have enough contrast. So my mom helped me dye some yarn when I visited her in January for her Fiber to Shawl competition. (When I say my mom helped me, what I really mean is that my mom dyed me the colors that I wanted; I only gave opinions while she did the actual work).



When I got back home, I made a mess of winding the skeins (they were larger than my swift, I eventually used the backs of chairs instead). This scarf is going even slower than the previous double knit scarves. Not only is this one out of sock weight yarn, but the charts are far more complicated.

Clue 1

As you can see, there are a lot of little charts within each clue. It's been fun to pull out my dice and roll to determine which chart I would knit. I also purchased the Knit Companion App so that I could keep track of where I was in the pattern.

I haven't had nearly as much knitting time as I would like as I have to sit and focus on the chart so I can't just mindlessly knit in front of the TV. I've also  not been traveling with this project in hopes of keeping the yarns from getting too tangled.

Clue 2

It wasn't until I got through the first clue that I realize that the colors are the ones usually associated with boys and girls. I had decided on the colors completely independent of each other, simply picking ones that I would want to wear. This is the second time this has ended up happening. The last time was in a lighting design for a show that dealt with gender (parents bring home a new baby and the baby won't tell them if they are a boy or a girl and the parents are too polite to look, so they decide the baby is a girl). I ended up lighting show with blue and pink from the front to mix it to look white and cast crazy shadows. It was a fun show to do and it was kind of nice to have a pleasant memory come up while knitting.

All of the clues have been released and I'm still on clue 3. It'll eventually get done but I've been working on a couple of other projects that are nearly finished.

Before the yarn was dyed, I took one of the yarns I tried to do the Yarnia scarf with and finally cast on the Cookie A Tulip socks that I had the yarn for to begin with. I saw the yarn and thought it would be perfect for the sock pattern. I was very right and will eventually have patterns. These are also technically finished, but I still need to weave in the ends.

With those socks finished, I decided I had to cast on this cravat pattern from the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop. This year was my favorite year so far because everything was inspired by music. Each shop played music tied into their theme and it was delightful to visit every shop. It was a lot of fun. This pattern has also been a lot of fun to knit though I'm feeling grumpy about the last four rows because they are taking forever. Of course, there are probably about 800 stitches or so in the row.

YOP 3 Week 21 Update

The world may be ending as I'm actually writing and posting a new blog post on Sunday, which is Year-Of-Progress Blog-along day.  In reality, I'm waiting for the pumpkin bread to finish baking so I can go to bed (why did I start baking it so late? Because that's when Husband insisted I start it after I got home from work and ate something first) and as I've already washed the dishes, it made sense to sit down and blog.

First things first. My sister posted a picture of her in her new cowl, which arrived in a timely fashion. Not only has it gotten cold up where she lives but it got there just in time for her birthday. Before you offer congrats on getting a gift out before the intended owner's celebration, I should note that I was going to make this as a birthday/Christmas gift about 2 years ago.... It apparently just took me that long to find the perfect pattern. She has reported that it's nice and warm though, so it was worth the wait.





I did eventually get a new project cast-on. I wouldn't say it's exactly an easy pattern as it does have a chart but it's not lacework and there is a strange rhythm to the pattern. It's one of this October's Cookie A patterns. I'm using the club yarn, which is this wonderfully soft yarn with camel in it. I would like to just bury my head in it and let the world zoom by for a day or so. It's yarn like this that makes me wonder how some people can't feel the difference in types of fiber. I'm 2/3 of the way done with the first leg. The problem is going to be the feet. While my feet are proportionate to my body, they sure are long when it comes to knitting socks. At least it's a short week for work and then a short vacation to somewhere warm for the holiday! Of course, there will be knitting but the odds aren't good that I'll get anything worked on.

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire
• Apollonia Socks 
• Llama Little Cowl the First
• Llama Little Cowl the Second 

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Remarquable Grand-Mere
• All Shook Up

YOP 3 Update, about a month later

And what a month it has been. It seems that I'm just keeping my head above water in some ways. I'm managing to usually sticky the new forum thread and lock the old one. It seems I'm currently the only active moderator and by active, I mean, maintaining the board. I'm certainly not active when it comes to writing. Somehow I have also become the moderator of a group for the recreational roller derby league I'm in while volunteering for the greater league and still working a full time job and serving at church. At least I have decent knitting time during all of that or I would be very batty.

I still haven't taken pictures of Apollonia. Perhaps next week when things slow down (or the end of the week; that may also work).

Thank you to everyone who commented on Husband's sweater. He's been getting a lot of compliments for it as well. One of his friends told him that it looked store bought (which, in Firefly, would be an insult at a fancy shindig) and several others haven't necessarily believed him when he said I had made it. The cooler weather up in Minnesota means it's been getting a lot of love too. Most days when I get home from work and he's been out, he tells me of yet another person who has been impressed with the sweater.

In the meantime, I finished one test knit (twice actually and both before the deadline; apparently my sister has an ENORMOUS head according to our mother. I imagine she would know best) which was a wonderful, semi-mindless knit. My sister and her vet assistant will now be twinsies.

The first one. I make the dog model most cowls.

 

The 2nd one just before shipping, so no dog photo.

I've also started another test knit. It's a lovely, lacy scarf.  Of course, it needs to be frogged as I dropped at least one stitch while hiding from the teenagers last night.

I had hoped to cast on some socks today which is funny because it's the load-in for the fall opera. If I had something already cast-on, I might be able to work on it while programming, but there's definitely not time to do the casting on while there. All the projects I have on needles (a total of one, which is weird) require me

YOP 3 Week....something....

I've started several posts in my head over the last few weeks but have yet to manage to write any of them down. So today, while I still have energy, I'm making a post.

The most exciting thing is that I finished my socks! I really enjoyed working with this pattern and yarn. The dark yarn wasn't always the best when working backstage but it felt amazing in my hands. I haven't snapped a picture of them yet. In fact, I didn't even block them. I wove in the ends and wore them the next day! They were so comfortable and lovely.

I did finally snap some photos of Husband's sweater. He was being very silly but it meant I got to get some fun photos of him. As you can see in this picture, the sleeves are a little short. Technically, the cuff is a little short. He had me end it early. And now I'm adding to it because he realized that it is indeed a little too short. One was really easy to pull apart but I wove the end of the other one in so well that it was a struggle to find it! I plan on finishing that tonight before I go to sleep. Only a few more rounds to add and then to once again cast-off. End weaving may not happen right away though! It is getting cooler though and I do like that he has a sweater made by me to wear.

With the socks done, I decided to work on a new project. It's probably been a couple of years now, but I had asked my sister what she might want and if she'd be interested in a cowl. Once she discovered what this would look like, she got really excited. She lives the in the Middle of Nowhere (also known as North-east Montana) and it gets cold there. I'm finally getting around to doing it (she doesn't seem to mind or to have remembered that I said I'd make it). I sent her this picture asking if it was an okay color combination. She replied enthusiastically in favor of them. It's also a test knit, which I enjoy doing. It also holds me to a time table. This way she'll actually get it before it becomes too cold up there.

There is potentially more but those are the main things I want to write about at the moment. Sundays are hard days for me to decide to sit in front of a computer as I have roller derby practice in the afternoon. If I was truly wise, I would write this before then but that makes too much sense!

 

  Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire
• Apollonia Socks   

Works in Progress

• Browncoat Top  
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves
• Llama Little Cowl

Homemade Yuen-Yang Beef

Preface:
Last night, Husband picked me up from work to go get my car after repairs. As part of the deal, I had to help him with dinner. I was instructed to look up a recipe for this dish but wasn't able to, so instead was asked to find a recipe for a basic Chinese brown sauce. We decided to start with this one and then modified it for what he had in mind. He wrote most of this post. I only wrote down the sauce ingredients and instructions.

Introduction:
This recipe was inspired by a signature dish served at Bamboo Restaurant in Bedford, MA.   I enjoyed it enough to want to share it with my family. 

On the Heat:
It is tamed down from the chili peppers due to being a recipe for mixed palates.  The slices of ginger do add some heat without it being pepper-hot.   Due to the overall volume of food involved, the pepper, peppercorns, and chili powder spread out the heat more evenly than having whole chili peppers. 

On the Ginger:
Ginger is, like most spices, intangibly healthy for you.  It belongs in your diet, and calms your stomach.  This is definitely the main draw of the dish for me.

On the Meat:
Chuck roast is a cheap, stewing meat.  It is difficult to create a meal with an inexpensive cut of beef.  Paying for ribeye steaks isn't always in everyone's weekly dinner budget, so this was a surprisingly enjoyable meal for 1/4 the cost per pound for beef.  It could certainly be made with more expensive cuts of beef, however. 

Ingredients

2 pounds chuck roast
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds

2 bell peppers
1/2 large sweet onion
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger
2-4 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
1/4 tsp sesame oil

2 pounds green beans

rice

Sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup cooking sherry
4 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 to 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water

To make the sauce:

• Heat cooking oil and add garlic and ginger for about 30 seconds.
• Combine soy sauce, chicken broth, cooking sherry, brown sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, peppercorns and chili powder in a separate container. Add this mixture to the cooking oil after briefly mixing.
• While this mixture is cooking, combine the cornstarch and water in a separate container.
• Once the sauce is boiling, stir in the cornstarch mixture.

Meat preparation:

• Slice into thin strips, aim for the length of your green beans.  Under 1/4 inch in thickness
• When working with chuck roast, if there are fibrous portions in it, since you're slicing it up anyway, make sure you cut the tough bits out ahead of time.   
• Add the meat to the sauce and simmer for perhaps 20 minutes.  
• Make sure to stir the meat occasionally to ensure even cooking.
• Once the meat is cooked, add the sesame seeds

Vegetable preparation:

• Slice the ginger to 1/8th inch medallions.  
• Chop the bell pepper into short strips.
• Chop the onion similarly to the bell pepper.
• Heat a wok to high and add vegetable or peanut oil enough to stir-fry, and 1/4 tsp of sesame oil.  At these temperatures, some oils will smoke. 
• Cook the ginger and onion together and first for about seven minutes
• Add the green beans* and bell peppers and cook together for another ten minutes.  

• The onion should be translucent, the green beans a brighter green and swollen, and the ginger should be tender, having soaked up some of the liquid from the onion.  The bell pepper should be shiny and somewhat firm.  

Serve this with the green beans and vegetables on the bottom and the meat on the top.  Serve the meat with a ladle so the sauce involves the vegetables.  Optionally serve with brown rice.

*Adding the green beans to this isn't what happened the first time this was cooked. This is a modification to help in the future. The green beans were unsuccessfully steamed when they needed to be stir-fried.

YOP 3 Weeks 9, 10 and 11 Updates

Two Three weeks have managed to slip by before I've had the chance to write about what I'm knitting! Between the internet being a little screwy and wanting to spend more time with people than on the computer, it's no surprise really. (I started this last week and just never got around to finishing it. The internet has been fussy but I guess that means I have more to write about now!)

I have had plenty of time on my Apollonia socks. Everyone loves the color. The first one is done and I'm moving right along on the second one. The leg is nearly finished. It would be amazing (and actually might be possible) if I got it finished by next Sunday. I won't hold my breath too long though.

The first sock. The purple is so much more amazing than it appears here.

I've decided I need to learn how to double knit. Husband has requested I make a gift for a mutual friend and he'd like it to be multi-colored. This means double knitting in my mind so that both sides are finished. I picked up some yarn at Goodwill last week to work on this project because there's no way I'm going to teach myself on full price yarn. I got two yarns that are close in size and contrasting in color. It's been an interesting process. Not my favorite yarn to knit with and tension has been awkward. I knit in the English style, so I'm struggling to keep even tension between the colors. I have seen tools out there that can help with this when using multiple colors but I'm not sure it's worth the price. I did remember after the first few rows that I needed to twist the yarns so that I wouldn't end up with a gap/hole on the sides. There are definitely holes on the sides for the first few rows. The entertaining part of this was examining someone's sweater and determining that part of it was double knit. He quickly took off the sweater as it got a little weird and we were at church.

Netflix has recently released NCIS on its streaming service, so between loads of laundry, I watched that and worked on Browncoat. The shoulders are seamed! I actually had no idea how to do it, so finally looked it up. Much easier than I thought it would be. There are going to be so many ends to weave in.... One armhole is almost finished (5 rounds are worked to finish the edge) and the other one should go just as smoothly (I hope). A couple of more things and then I block it. The more I look at it, the more I wonder if this is really meant for someone else. I have a friend that I think it would be perfect for though it would end up being bigger on her as I used the pattern sized for myself. I guess blocking will tell.

Finished Projects 

• Girl on Fire

Works in Progress

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

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 

Year of Projects: REBOOT (Year 3, Week 1)

Well...here is it, my 3rd year in a group blog-a-long. Last year, I basically fell off the internet map. I pretty much stopped blogging about anything for various reasons this past spring. I didn't stop knitting and I definitely didn't do any spinning (that was one of my goals for this past year), but I didn't get around to documenting things. Or at least not blogging about them. Below is the list of things I did manage to finish.

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks
• Shrubbery Caulking
• Husband Driving Gloves
• Crusher Sweater 
• Holly Socks

Not a whole lot but better than nothing. One could argue that the Crusher Sweater isn't actually finished as my ape-armed Husband needs slightly longer sleeves, which has yet to happen. I still need to get the initial finished picture of the sweater with him in it. The body was the hardest part of the sweater for me because it just kept going and seemed as though it was never going to end. I guess I felt the same way about the sleeves. I almost had second sleeve syndrome now that I think back to it.

I did manage to cast on and finish a pair of Cookie A socks in record time for me. They were nice and mindless. Husband called them my Holly socks. If you click on the link, you'll see why. I changed the heel to a short row heel as I've decided that I really like the way that they fit. I've started to wear my hand-knit socks on work days in which I know I might be annoyed (such as a long day of opera) because then at least my feet are happy.

I've made a new page with this year's goals. Here's hoping that I get the Browncoat Top finished. I set it down sometime last fall...and didn't clearly mark where I was in the pattern. I figured out where I was in the back section but I may have to frog back to a point I recognize for the front sections. It also turns out that finishing this project wouldn't really have helped me with Husband's Sweater because they were completely different types of tops. Husband did comment in amazement at how much faster the sweater was knit up as compared to his gloves.

I have less than a month to finish the 2nd (first made, second finished) pair of gloves if I want to enter them into the State Fair this year and then wear them this winter. I'm not exactly feeling motivated to deal with it though. Socks and knitted tops are less annoying.

Works in Progress

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

Yop#2.32-36 or It's Been Too Cold to Blog

Saying that it's been too cold to blog is really a horrible excuse but it's the only one I have. The desire to sit in front of a computer has been low when I could be bundled up under blankets, streaming Star Trek on Netflix, while knitting. It's also been hard to get time in front of the computer when my brain is in the right spot to write.

So enough excuses and an update instead.

I FINISHED THE GLOVES!!!!

I don't have a photo of them finished yet (it has been below stupid cold here lately and I haven't have the patience to get Husband to model them in the car. I just want to be out of the car and somewhere warm) but Husband has been enjoying them. He told me that I had to finish it before I started my next project so that really motivated me to get them done. That and I was really tired of them.

So what did I cast on next? A pattern test for a sweater but not just any design. This sweater was inspired from the Ensign sweater that Wesley Crusher wears often in the Star Trek: Next Generation series. It's been available for streaming on Netflix and I had only watched a handful of episodes here and there. People would make references and I would smile and nod as though I knew who they were talking about. (Most of the smiling and nodding had to do with the character Q because I didn't want to have gasps of disappointment that I didn't know who they were talking about.) On a whim I decided to start watching the series from the start. After only an episode or two, Husband joined in. When I went looking through the free pattern tests forum to see if there was anything I really wanted/needed to knit, I saw the sweater and knew I had to do it. It would mean buying yarn most likely as I tend to have a lot of single skeins and it would be making a sweater which has intimidated me greatly.

After a yarn shopping trip with Husband (he was having to wear the sweater after all and he did agree to the trip!) at Lakeside Yarn (I'd won a gift certificate there last year at the Yarn Shop Hop) and digging through my stash, I was able to make a swatch and start the sweater.

It's been going really well and quite quickly. Amazing what knitting on medium size yarn on larger needles is like! Husband has even noted how much faster the sweater is compared to his gloves. It's also easier to be using someone else's pattern and not adjusting everything as you go! Even though it's straight knitting (once I get through the shoulder increases) for most of it, I'm really liking that it's a relatively mindless project.  And seeing as how I'm currently updating about once a month, it may even be finished by the time I write again.

Of course, it does mean that my Girl on Fire socks have been put temporarily on hold until I needed to change colours and was out somewhere and then I would work on them. While I had hoped to get them done before the first Cookie A package arrived this year, it seems that it just wasn't meant to be. At least I'm not getting paid or graded on my knitting timeliness!

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks
• Shrubbery Caulking
• Husband Driving Gloves

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 
• My Driving Gloves 
• Crusher Sweater 

YOP #2.27-31 or This is How a Month Passes You By

Well....I apparently suck at this blogging this so far this year. In good news, I've been productive this year. Since I last wrote, I've refinished part of a futon/couch thing (I also intend to blog about that), hacked many portals, bought new yarn and started roller derby practices again as well as all the usual fun stuff at work.

Additionally, I've spent a lot of time not on the computer when I get home. Blogging at work is...odd, so I tend to not do it in general unless I need to get something out of my head before I go home. The plus side to not being on the computer is that I've gotten more knitting done.

Husband's second glove is starting to get a finger. I was hoping to strand the colors behind each other loose enough that I'd be able to save some time just going forward instead of flipping back and forth. I've tried the first finger twice now and it's messing up my gauge too much and making it too hard to get my finger in, let alone his (not that I've tried, but I don't want to), so once more to frogging it. Then it'll be doing it the twisty way of flipping back and forth as I knit and purl. Due to the semi-tricky step of picking up a stitch to knit or purl with the last stitch of each round and then slipping yarn in front of the stitch on the other side of the end of the round, it's easier to flip back and forth instead of trying to knit backwards. It's also so tiny. I also realized that while Husband is using his one finished glove (and will soon use the pair) that I can send a completely unused pair to this year's state fair as that will be about the time I get around to finishing my pair of gloves.

I've had some time to work on my Girl on Fire socks. I'm nearing the last repeat of the leg pattern. I know once I get past the heel then the sock will go flying off my needles. My pretend goal is to have this pair finished before the next Cookie A package shows up. Seeing as how the first package isn't being mailed out until February 14th, I may actually manage to do this.

In exciting FO land, I have my first 2015 project! I made a pair of boot cuffs for a friend at church. While prepping Christmas decorations, she asked if I'd ever made boot cuffs. I hadn't but I did have a pattern that I wanted to make. She wanted a green pair and we eventually narrowed down the color to green and I showed her a picture of a skein of yarn I thought would work. Sure enough, she loved them! She asked how much I wanted for them and I said they were either a late Christmas gift or an early birthday present (turns out her birthday is in September so it's a very early birthday present). I know that she wanted to pay me and that Husband would think I should be paid but I knit because I enjoy it. She's given me all kinds of chances to use my talent of lighting at church as well as taken the time to get to know me (our church is about 30 miles away in one direction). Maybe one day I'll be up for selling them but for now, I like making gifts for friends. Besides, I have no idea how much to charge for them!

Here they are, just before I gave them to her. I nearly forgot to take a picture!

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks
• Shrubbery Caulking

Works in Progress

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

YOP #2.24-26 or Surviving the Holidays

This picture isn't what it seems. I have often posted a picture that looked exactly like this through out this half of the year. This one is quite different. It's the second glove! To be technical, it's the third glove as the second glove is the 1st glove of the Husband's pair and the first glove was suppose to be the 1st glove of his pair but has turned into the 1st glove of my pair which will eventually get finished. Eventually. The reason that this is so exciting isn't because it means I only have five (or 11 if you count my gloves) fingers left, but because it means that the first glove is finished!


Here is the right glove in all it's glory. I may have actually woken up yesterday morning at 7 am so I could finish weaving in the ends so he could wear it to work. (This also explains the quality of the pictures...better ones coming at some point.)

The thumb and first two fingers have a conductive thread knit in them so that the car's touchscreen can be used without removing one's gloves.

This grey yarn was found at a store in Sparta, WI where we stopped to charge after a camping trip. Husband picked out this yarn. It's been lovely to work with as it has aloe in it. 

This is proof that I love my Husband. I knit intarsia gloves, in the round. I'm sure I could gift a ton of these (there's no way I could sell them; no one would pay that much) but I don't know who else I love enough to knit that many fingers.

One of us is amused by this picture.

This were finished up after Christmas. While I had all of last week off, this is really my first week of vacation. Between taking the little dog to the vet (she has been scratching her eye too much which irritates it and causes her to scratch it more) and doing shopping for everyone (including myself) and serving at church (6 Christmas services in 2 days; I think I've recovered; this was actually one of my favorite parts last week), I didn't get much knitting done. I got some done at church while the worship band rehearsed (after I set all the lighting) and then during the Pastor's riveting sermons (they are really good but it's a lot to hear one that many times; the 6th service was different at least) but not nearly as much as I had envisioned doing. Of course, I have an odd sense of time and space some days which means I'm often surprised when I can't get everything done.

I did manage to finish one of the Girl on Fire Socks. For some reason, I still have to look up the start of the kitchener stitch. You would think I'd done it enough times by now to know it by heart! The first one was finished during a sermon and I started the next one between services. I'm not at all surprised how smoothly the second sock is going now that I know the pattern. Cookie A's patterns seem to be like that more often than not. They look intimidating (I had a few people look at them and comment about how hard they look) but once you know what is going on, they are really simple. I love that they look hard than they really are. Not that some of her patterns aren't hard. This just happens to be one that isn't.



The most exciting news from the last couple of weeks is that I finally have a finished object! Of course, I meant for it to be finished several months ago... Maybe I'll learn to not ground projects for nearly as long.

Finished Projects 

• Mint Twist Socks

Works in Progress

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

YOP #2.19-23 or I'm Not Dead Yet

It has been over a month since I've blogged anywhere. Part of that is due to my work schedule and being so drained from it that sitting down to write would require a different attention span than I currently have available to me. Part of it is personal reasons that can stay off the internet. And the final part is that I don't feel like I've really made enough progress on anything to write about it. Of course, there has been some progress, just not as much as I want to have finished.

I've finished the 2nd Mint Twist sock and had my friend try it on before I closed up the toe. Success! I even managed to frog the 1st sock back to where I needed to add to the heel flap without losing any stitches in the pattern. The toe decreases were just started last night, which will hopefully mean that I'll have a finished pair come Sunday. This will be the first thing I've finished since July...gah. Though one could argue that I finished the Pretty Pillars Test sock...but only one sock. I plan on doing the 2nd one soon as it was a quick knit, so it's still on my WiPs list.

I know I shouldn't beat myself up as much as I do about my progress. Heck, there have been several days in a row (almost a week even) that I didn't knit anything.

I should probably finish the thumb on the first pair of gloves that were suppose to be for Husband. I've started the second pair (the first one) so that he can have them before the new year...at least I'm taking the weeks of Christmas and New Year's day off so that this is a higher likely hood of happening. I've started the 2nd finger and need to add the silver thread to it. I spent a week house-sitting for a friend and decided that Husband would prefer his gloves to not have tons of dog and cat hair in them and I didn't want to have to worry about my friend's mouthy dog (he's only just over a year old, so I get it) eating the thread. My plan is to pick up working on them on Monday when things slow down at work.

 My last Cookie A 2014 sock club yarn showed up today. Mom signed us up for it again next year which I'm excited about. I'm only doing one club next year as even though I keep seeing yarn (and sales!) that are tempting, I want to really make a dent in the stash I have.

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 

YOP#2.18 or Being an Adult is Hard

Not a ton of knitting this past week. A lot of time was spent giving up my craft room. You read that correctly. I decided to let my oldest step-daughter move into my craft room so she would have her own room. It hasn't been easy for me and while Husband will point out that I do most of my crafting elsewhere, it was my space. He had built it for me. Technically he built a nook in the room for me but we refinished it for me and my use. It has my sense of color and lighting. The ceiling is a beautiful blue and white that he thought I was mad to have him paint until he saw a sunrise in it. I don't see many sunrises but I knew what it would look like based on my past experiences with lighting. And now someone else is in it.

So I spent a lot of last week preparing to move things out and around in the room. Some things are staying (my supplies in my nook for example) but most things have moved out. It's been hard for me because most of the moving happened while I was working a choir rehearsal (I agreed to do the rehearsal so I wouldn't have to work the concert and I did get some knitting done during that). In hindsight, I would have insisted that they wait to move the bookcases until I got home as there's been a bit of drama around them. I think it would have helped me with the changes. I really don't like change. At all. I take it as a sign of huge growth that I didn't break down bawling when one of our staff members at work left this past summer. I cried when I left my last job and I hated my last job. In college, I was a music major and had to play in the concert band, which is required to play at graduation. At the end of my sophomore year when a good friend of mine was graduating, I was a horrible mess. It was amazing I could play my flute at all. My professor looked at me and asked what was going to happen when I graduated. I said I would cry a lot and I did. I believe I spent the last 2 months of college crying off and on at random points.

Anyway......

The knitting I did get done was to cast on a new project. It's a test knit for someone I've knit for in the past. It's to do a single sock and rate the pattern. It's a lovely pattern and I will have the pair done eventually but I needed a palette cleanser with my projects. It's been a fast knit and I'm almost done with the leg. I probably would be farther along if it wasn't for tonight's show...Contemporary music has never really been my thing and it's not something I can just tune out and knit to. I have to pay attention to call lighting cues, which is the part I enjoy the most.

So no real progress on the other projects. Of course, if I managed to update on Sunday, I would probably feel like I had more to write but between roller derby, work and real life drama, sitting down at the computer on a Sunday is hard to do. The only reason I'm managing to do it now is because I have a pie baking and this is keeping me awake. Perhaps I shall knit some more while the pie finishes. (Also, if you managed to make it this far, thank you for reading my venting; apparently when I don't knit enough due to stress, I have to write about why I'm not knitting).

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire
• Pretty Pillars Test 

YOP #2.16-17 or My How Time Flies When it Gets Cold!

Another two weeks have come and gone. Not only has life (and work) been busy but so has my knitting. No pictures this time but lots of progress to report on.

Gloves

Husband's gloves have turned into my gloves. I got the index finger done and had him try it on. I thought it might be a little tight but he said it was good. As he was going away for part of the weekend (something about being a renegade with his friends), so I measured his fingers. By the time he got home, I was nearly done with the ring finger. I finished it and the pinky finger and had him try it on and he admitted that it tight on all of the fingers. This actually didn't surprise me as it was fitting my hand fine. I nearly cried as I stared at the glove thinking that I'd have to pull things apart and add to the fingers. Instead, Husband told me that I should make them my gloves so we would have a matching set. Now the question is, do I finish the entire set or make the right hand glove for Husband as well?

Brown Coat

I've slowly made progress on this. There is definitely shaping going on and armholes are starting to show. I'm feeling much better about this project. It's sort of my mindless knit right now.

Girl on Fire

It feels like forever since I've touched these socks but it hasn't been that long. I'm on the foot and it's a delightful pattern. It's sort of a quick knit as well so long as I have time to work on it.

Mint Twist

These socks have been ungrounded. I'm making really good progress on them thanks to having a handful of shows at work. They have become the travel project as I'd like to finish them before Christmas as they were a birthday gift...from May. My friend that I'm making them for has decided to try her hand at knitting socks. She's been knitting for years but has been intimidated by socks. A combination of things has made her interested in trying a simply pair and I've agreed to help her.

She and I went to one of the local yarn stores (StevenBe's) and I found this amazing skein of Miss Bab's Yowza yarn. The most amazing part was that I didn't buy the yarn. Oh, I really, really wanted to but I said no yarn purchases until 2015. It's also a good thing I don't carry cash that often as that was the only way I was willing to buy it. I could have argued that since I have sold off a skein of yarn, I could use that to buy new yarn. That felt like cheating though so I walked away (somehow) without it.

Perhaps by next week there will be pictures and something finished!

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire

YOP #2.15 or This is What Progress Feels Like!

I don't know how, but this week I knit on almost everything!

Arrow Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix so Husband and I sat around and watched a few episodes this week. As we did so, I worked on his glove. I figured out part of the problem. The pattern says to increase after the ribbing. Husband's hands are just...unique. This probably also has to do with not swatching but I think his hands are also not your average pattern friendly. So I frogged that first row and instead of increasing the stitches, I decreased a few. I knit enough rows to begin the thumb gusset and had him try it one. It looked much better. As I knit (and made notes; so many notes for the second glove), I would occasionally stop and make him give me his hand to try it on. It's going so much better! Right now I'm only working on it while he's around so that I can be constantly putting it on his hand. These will be the most custom gloves ever made.

On Saturday I hosted a craft day. I was trying not to pout because I worried people wouldn't show up. I was very pleased that I ended up with 3 of my friends over and I got to work on Girl on Fire. I finished up the leg, heel flap and turned the heel before it was time to go out to a show with a friend of mine. Before people showed up, I managed to get a sort-of life line into the sock I need to frog. It's hard to follow just before the heel and on a pattern that has cables and lace work. Hopefully it'll get me close but I know feel like I can finish the second sock.

I did hear back from the designer for Browncoat. I didn't make any progress, but I did take some photos tonight.

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire

YOP #2.13-14 or Sickness Wins

I've managed to not accomplish a lot in the last two weeks. To add to it, I came down with the same crud the rest of the family has had so my desire to knit (and blog for that matter) is very low. I've thought about knitting a few times but have gotten no further than pulling out a project bag.

On top of that, I'm stuck on my Browncoat. I don't understand the following directions:

Begin Neck Edge
Bind off 8(8,8,9,9,9) stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Bind off 2 stitches at each neck edge 4 times. Decrease 1 sts at each neck edge every RS row 8(8,8,10,10,10) times.

And at the same time when piece measures 12”(12”,12.5”, 13”,12.5”,12.5”,12.5”) you will divide for front and back. At this point you can add additional balls of yarn for the back and 2 nd front and work all three sections at once, or work each section separately as written.

Divide for Front & Back
With RS facing. Break yarn. Slip sts to first side marker
onto holder (front right). Remove marker and attach yarn.

If I knit until the piece measures 12.5", it's going to be longer than the schematic shows once I block it out. The lace section at the bottom is suppose to be 8" and mine is just over 6". I've checked my gauge with the main section of the top and that's correct.

If I knit until the piece would measure 12.5" when blocked (assuming I can get 8" out of the lace section) that means only 1/2" left which isn't enough times to do the neck edge decrease. Do I continue doing them after I divide for the front and back? I don't know.

I have emailed the designer because I really like this piece and I don't want to have to ground it.

Hopefully I'll get over this sickness and start knitting something again soon. I'm a little baffled that it's October and I've yet to finish anything!

Works in Progress

• Lilia Socks
• Mint Twist Socks
• Browncoat Top  
• Husband Driving Gloves  
• Girl on Fire