Friday, October 11, 2013

Finished (almost) and Other Awesomeness

Bigger on the inside
After waiting for over a year, I now have a door, a proper door, for our bedroom. This was my husband's birthday/Christmas/I love you gift to me. I can also be argued that it was really part of an unfinished art project and was going to be made with or without my consent. Luckily for him, I love it. I do need to get better pictures but I wanted to share it today because it started off my week which ended up being filled with Awesomeness. Of course, as the title suggests, this is also a project that is almost finished. The doors are up and they close but they don't latch. There's also some finish work to be done around the door opening (top and bottom and the inside where there would normally be trim masking the gap). This is where my finished project this week is as well. 



Waves of Love, very wavy when unblocked
Here is the Waves of Love shawl, off the needles. I ended up not finishing it correctly because I really wanted to finish it. It still looks lovely and I'll see how well it blocks. This is the most intricate piece I've had to block so far and I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to block it one. The scarf that went to Japan got blocked using cork trivet things but I need a larger something to block this piece. Thankfully it's a birthday present for December, so I'm not horribly worried yet. Hopefully I can  come up with something before then. I also need to weave in the ends. It doesn't seem to matter how many tapestry needles I own, I can never seem to find them when I need them. I've decided that I'm just going to get some more and put them into my Hippo bag as soon as possible as the Hippo bag doesn't seem to cause things to disappear.  It does mean that I can now cast on Bigger on the Inside, which I've been holding off on doing. I'm trying to limit how many projects I have going at once and of those, how many of each type of project I have going at once. I'm still working on Fuzzy, which should hopefully be done soon. After talking with mom, I've decided to take it to about 36" long. They may not use up all the yarn that I intended to (3 skeins has gotten it to 29" long) but it will be a nice length. Does one block blankets as well?

Monday was exciting because I got my Cookie A October sock yarn. I had already peeked at the spoilers thread, so I knew what the color would look like. I think I drove the kids batty (at least the youngest one) because I didn't open it immediately. 
In fact, I just opened it this morning. 
It is definitely my color. While I still claim that green is my favorite color, there is something about rich reds that I adore. Maybe it's all those years of surrounding myself in green that my eyes love deep reds. Who knows.








Monday there was also a package slip for me. At least I knew it was for me as the zip code of the sender is my mom's. Having a husband with a name that shares your initial is sometimes amusing when they only write the first initial and the last name on the package slip. 

I did know what was coming in the package as well since mom had messaged me that she had sent off the package. This one I did immediately open outside of the post office to take a look at it. Mom did the Colorado yarn crawl this year, which I may have introduced her to by taking her to a new yarn shop this past June where they mentioned it. She managed to get to all of the shops and she bought yarn (though she didn't buy yarn at all of the shops) and sent some onto me. I'm not doing too well at this whole knitting more than I'm acquiring but it's so soft and comforting and pretty. Now to just find the perfect project for all of it...


My half of the haul from the Colorado Yarn Crawl.

Note the awesome color for my soon to be made awesome socks.
 I am also now the proud owner of Qiviut sock yarn. Husband can't tell the difference between it and most of the other yarn (he did notice that some is coarser than this yarn) but I can definitely feel the difference. I can't wait to make these into socks. It's also very similar to the Cookie A sock club yarn so I could make both patterns (I love both of them too!) in similar colors.



 The best part of the package wasn't the yarn, but the swift that was also in it. Thirteen years ago this past April, my Great-Aunt CeCe passed away. She was a teacher and I remember she had a million books (and corgis; she's to blame for my love of corgis) whenever we would visit her house. She also had a million things of knitting. Projects, yarn, needles. She convinced a friend of hers to publish a book and this friend is now a well-known knitting author. Mom ended up with all of her knitting supplies after she passed away. Recently mom found Cece's old swift and asked if I wanted it. This was a silly question to ask as she knows I've been wanting a swift for a while as I find winding skeins tedious without one. It's nice having somethings of CeCe's. She was always this mysterious, elegant woman in my mind. She was always dressed well but not necessarily normally and she didn't give a care what anyone thought of her. I'm sure she probably did on some level as she always looked amazing. I think she and my other Great-Aunt helped inspire my love of museums as they were both involved with the ones in Denver. When we would go spend time with either of them, we were usually going to a museum. So a family tradition lives onto another generation through me. My sister has no patience for knitting but that means that I have another person I can gift things to (the hot pink in the yarn haul picture that's in a separate bag is going to become a hat for her; she already knows about it too).



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

YOP #14 or I could taste the finish through the tears

Last week was insane.

I work at a concert hall, so we often have insane weeks. Last week was it's own special mix of amazing, heartbreaking and insane. Usually the insane weeks don't have me in tears.

We had two Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra concerts scheduled, just past the year anniversary of the beginning of the lock-out. On October 1st, the same day our wonderful (/sarcasm) government shut down, Osmo Vanksa announced that he was resigning as the conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, which is something he had threatened months ago if an agreement wasn't reached. By the end of the week, he was conducting his musicians for a farewell concert and we added a third concert. This turned into a media three-ring circus. On top of it all, the musicians were also honoring their long time stage manager who had retired last month. I still cry when watching All Dogs Go to Heaven, so there was no way I wasn't going to be crying at some point during these shows. Add into it everyone else crying and it was inevitable that I would be crying.

One thing that helped get through most of the concert (the last piece, the encore, was heartbreaking and entrancing and the only thing to do was to watch and listen to it) was that I had my knitting on hand. Knitting helps as  a way to focus on something mechanical to prevent emotions from overwhelming me. I had brought along Waves of Love in hopes that I would finish it. And I almost did. Why didn't I? Too much crying? Nope. I ran out of yarn with about 4 rows left. I had an extra skein at home, but that wasn't going to be of much help during the last piece of the printed program. Cursing myself for not planning ahead, I set the knitting down and somehow managed to get through the last of the concert with only a modest amount of crying.

After an exhausting weekend, I pretty much crashed when I got home. I insisted on driving to church the next morning, mostly because I didn't have a project on hand. Husband drove after church. There were some raw emotions. I was resigned to not being able to work on anything until I got the other skein caked, which I wasn't looking forward to as I didn't have a swift and I find it tedious to wind yarn without one.

Husband needed to go out and do something, anything. It was a rough day for him on Sunday for personal reasons and it was a rough one for me too. Sunday was my Gramps' birthday. He passed away in 2008. I've actually gotten "better" at not tearing up on his birthday but Husband greeted me Sunday morning by proclaiming "Happy Birthday" after I noted that our bedroom doors were up (he built them as a birthday/Christmas present). That pretty much broke my sleep deprived brain. When we headed out, he told me to grab my knitting, so I picked up the Fruity Tulips. Apparently my brain had decided that the pattern was much harder than it really is because once I got a few rows into it, I realize that I mostly have the pattern memorized on the leg. At least I know I have another travel project now! We ended up buying fabric for an outfit for Husband that we need to start work on this weekend. Still need to buy a pattern to modify but it's only Wednesday, right? Before the night was out, I did lock myself in my craft room and wind the second skein for Waves of Love in hopes of finishing it before the night was over but the finishing didn't happen. Maybe by the next update it will be done.

This mid-week updates tend to screw up my thoughts as to what I did during the "week" but I do know where I stopped on Sunday. The whole weekend was such a mess that it's taken me a few days to recover. This has somehow given me a good idea of where I had stopped for the week. Maybe next week their be something finished and pictures.

Finished Objects

Works in Progress

Thursday, October 3, 2013

YOP #13 or Did I Really Do Anything This Week?

Yet another week of chaos. I was going to write on Sunday, but it was closing day at the Renaissance Festival and it was a killer one at that. It was not only our second best day of the season but second best day EVER. So I was exhausted and there was minor drama at home.  Even though I have at least 2 friends who knit at the Renaissance Festival, I simply can't get myself to do it. It's so incredibly dusty out there. I blow black stuff out of my nose for a day or two after festival and I just don't want to think about all of that dust getting into the yarn. I know that I can wash the yarn but it just seems like a bad idea. It does mean that I loose some potential knitting time.

Since I'd finished the easy travel project the week before, I debated about casting on something new. The next Cookie A shipment will arrive most likely on Monday, so there will be new patterns. The pattern I really want to cast on is the Bigger on the Inside shawl but I've decided that I have to finish one of my big projects first. Thankfully I've had a lot of events this past week, so my Waves of Love shawl came to work with me. It's not an easy, mindless project but at least it has some rows that are pretty mindless (K2, YO, knit to 2 before the end, YO, K2; I don't have to think to knit that.) Of course, I'm now really really close but not yet finished. I'm hoping that it'll be done this weekend.

Sometime in the next week, I'll also be casting on a new pair of socks. It's another test pattern. It doesn't need both socks (or even one sock) to be finished. It's more about the cuff and leg but the pattern looks really cool. I'm planning on calling them "The Angels have the phone box" as I'm planning on using TARDIS and Don't Blink colors from Indigodragonfly. Now to just make sure the ones I have are in the same base otherwise I may need another plan....

I also hope that once I'm finished Waves of Love, I'll also have time to cast on Bigger on the Inside and, by some miracle, have that finished in time for Chicago TARDIS at the end of November. It's only October, right? That's possible. Maybe?

I do hope to be more excited by the October Cookie A socks. Not that the August ones weren't pretty but they certainly didn't call to me like previous ones. I also want to finish my Fruity Tulips before casting on another Cookie A sock.

Finished Objects

Works in Progress



Sunday, September 22, 2013

YOP #11/12 or Small Creatures Lead to Distraction

I honestly meant to write last week, but my life got thrown a little upside down.

We got....a dog.

This is her over a week after we got her. Her leash is being held by the Boy, who she doesn't yet trust.
We got this lovely little papillon from a rescue organization. She has, of course, decided that I'm her human, which means she's been responding more to me than anyone else. This also means that I'm becoming more responsible for her. The plus side is that during the first few days, she would quietly sit next to me while I worked on my knitting. Now that she's warmed up and decided that I'm her human, she's decided yarn might be fun to play with seeing as how I'm playing with it. Thankfully she's not destroyed anything. It does mean I can't just leave knitting projects laying down anywhere. Who knows where she's able to climb to?

On to projects!

I was once again, project monogamous, but I did manage to finish them! I've been working on a test knit of Ladders to the Sky socks. It's the first time I've done a test knit and it was a lot of fun. I made the legs shorter than the pattern called for because I was worried about time. I finished them this morning, which is a week late for the project deadline. There was enough information from what I'd done that I was able to fill out the survey. Every time I thought I'd be able to get them done, something came up between the dog, the bonus kids and the universe. But now those are done.



Of course, my other projects aren't really travel suitable, so I need to finish something else up this week so I can cast on something new. It's not actually realistic but a girl can dream, right?

Sunday, September 8, 2013

YOP #10 or Another Week with Nothing Finished

When you write in the middle of the week, Sunday comes around quickly. It seems like only a few days ago that I did an update....

No new finishes this week. I started off the "year" really strong with 3 projects right away and now it's slowed down. It probably helps that 1 of those projects was mostly finished and the other one had a week deadline. I'm reading about the lovely things that other people are finishing and I really want to be done NOW with all the projects...so I can cast on more projects.

This week was very intensive on Fuzzy and the Test Socks. Last night when I measured Fuzzy, it was around 28" long. Of course, I've probably added another couple of inches since last night as Fuzzy is currently the Once Upon A Time project. We're watching one episode a night with the bonus daughters, which gives me about 45 minutes work on it. This is usually enough to add about 4 rows a knit. I also work on it when Husband and I watch movies together. It's nice and mindless. And it's growing. I'm nearly done with the 3rd skein. This means that I'm 3/4 of the way done. Or 3/5 of the way done if I want to use up 5 skeins for the project. I'm still undecided on the matter.

Waves of Love got some attention last night while I kept Husband company dealing with emails. It's taking longer and longer to finish a row as each row adds at least 2 stitches. It makes sense but it seems to take forever. I'm nearly done with the first section though, which I'm happy about. Hopefully one of these projects will be off the needles sooner rather than later so I can cast on Bigger on the Inside shawl.

Test Socks are my travel project. I'm loving them and have a feeling I'll be making a pair for myself as well. I think the ones I make for myself will be closer to knee socks as the ribbing makes the socks very squishy. This project is yet a constant reminder of how much I love indigodragonfly yarns and my mom. Mom bought us membership to Cookie A's sock club and the first yarn was from indigodragonfly. It's a joy to work with and I'm hoping my friend will love how they feel on her feet. These are being knit two at a time. The legs are past the halfway point already. I may need to be mostly project monogamous this week to finish them by next Sunday though. I did get to work on them at work today during a concert and I have another event on Thursday where I'll get to sit and work on them.

My poor Tulip sock has been sitting abandoned this week. Once the Test Socks are completely, I'm sure I'll be working hard on those.

Of the four projects I currently have going, only one is for me and that one has gotten the least amount of time lately. I suppose that means I'm feeling the need to give right now which might explain why I want things finished.



Finished Objects

Works in Progress


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

And the results are in!

Monday was the last day of the 2013 Minnesota State Fair. This also meant that today was the first day that I could pick up my socks and see what the judges had to say about them.

I was pleasantly surprised.


When I picked up the socks, the woman who brought them out to me said anyone who knits socks deserves an award. I thanked her and she told me to come back and enter something next year. I said I definitely was going to be back next year. As I walked away from the building to my car, I opened the judging sheet and saw this:


I turned around and walked back to the building. I asked what was a perfect score, which turns out to be 100. That seemed to be the instinctual answer but you can never know unless you ask. They seemed curious why I had asked and I told them that this was only my 4th or so pair of socks (it may actually be more than that, but details) and I was thrilled to have received a 94. I was closer to getting a ribbon than I thought I was! Turns out that there were a lot of really awesome textured socks this year. Next year I apparently need to do a harder pattern (Ha! I guess that it's okay since this was the "easy" Cookie A pattern from June) and to work on my kitchner stitch. There may also have been giggling when I got out of the building....

As I walked to the car I called my mom. I made her guess what score I got. She guessed 87. She was thrilled that I had done so well! She was definitely proud of my work.

Tomorrow I'll be wearing these socks to show them off at my knitting group. Of course, I've also got some building (as in lumber) to do tomorrow at work, so maybe I'll bring my socks and wear them to knitting group.
Better picture.

Artistic shot.


Trip to the State Fair

Thursday August 22nd was the opening day of the 2013 Minnesota State Fair. It was a lovely day, not too hot or humid, and there wasn't much going on at work, so I decided to take the day off to go to the Fair.

We parked on my side of the U of MN campus and walked over to the stadium that for a free shuttle ride. I had my knitting along.

Pedestriyarn: Here I am knitting and walking at the same time.

The first place we were going to go was the Creative Arts building to see how my socks had done. We got distracted but did eventually make it there. It took a bit to find them, but I did find them on display. No ribbon but I honestly didn't expect anything.

Pardon the bad reflection...


Wanted one, yes, but I know I'm still essentially a beginner and I know there were things that needed fixing on the socks. The heels weren't my best as it was my first time doing a short row heel. At least they were blocked, which there were many other socks displayed that weren't.

We walked around the building a little bit and looked at the amazing things that did win.





Then we headed out to get some food (I was still walking and knitting). Lunch was a very tasty Mexican sandwich (I don't remember what it's called and I didn't take a picture; food was too tasty smelling). We then headed over to the Eco Building to see some of the other Tesla owners. Husband ended up sucked into talking about the Tesla (it's really easy), so I wandered away with my knitting to look at some other things on site. An hour later I rescued him.

We ended the day by going to get cookies and milk. While we were at the "All You Can Drink" milk stand, I noticed a banner that declared Alpacas. Since I'd humored Husband by letting him get sucked into the Tesla vortex, he let me go over and bet the yarn and chat with the owners. I actually managed to not buy any yarn! This was the second place that there was yarn to pet. In the dairy barn, there was a booth with yarn and fiber for sale (I don't know why). I didn't realize it when I dragged Husband in to look at the butter sculptures.

I do feel very encouraged to work on my knitting and submit more items next year!