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?

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

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

Works in Progress

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

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!

YOP # 9 or Bonding Time with Husband

I've made quite a bit of progress this week.  All of my projects from last week have grown. Unfortunately, that makes them harder to take with me as I walk places but that seems to have worked out this last week.

Husband realized that all of the James Bond movies were available to watch on Netflix. Up until this week, I'd seen one full Bond film, the most recent one, and had seen bits and pieces of others. I've never truly been drawn to the whole Bond thing but Husband wanted to share the movies with me. However, they were only streaming until September 2nd.

We only managed to get through one complete movie, Golden Eye, though I saw most of another one with Roger Moore...there were horses and Christopher Walken was the bad guy. I don't remember the title now but the opening sequence on skis was pretty fun. The best part was that I could sit there and knit.

Fuzzy is nearly 2 feet long now. I didn't take a picture but there has been some growth there. I still haven't decided if I'm going for a certain length or a certain number of skeins used for the project yet. I guess I'll see how big it is once I'm finished with the 3rd skein.

The Tulip socks have a cuff and the set-up for the leg pattern. Since there's a chart for the leg pattern and I don't know how complicated it is yet (I've glanced but not memorized it), I don't know if this is going to be a traveling project or not. I'd like my printed out sheets to stay pretty but they end up folded and beat up when I travel with them.

The camera on my phone and the lighting really don't do the colors any justice.

I also spent quite a bit of time on Waves. It was my travel project this last week but I think it has now earned stay at home status as well.

I was in the middle of a row and stopped for some reason but wanted the picture more than I wanted to finish the row. There are over 200 stitches on the needles right now.

To add to the fun, and to have something I am certain can travel easily, I've volunteered to test a pattern. Another pair of socks but they looked like fun and then I can add "pattern tester" to all my other abilities.

The goal for next week is to actually update this on Sunday...

Finished Objects

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

Works in Progress

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

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

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

First the oldest WIP:

Fuzzy

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

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

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

Now onto the two newest wips....

Tulip Socks

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

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

Waves of Love

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

 

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

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

Finished Objects

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

Works in Progress

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

YOP #7 or How Camping Can Interfer with Knitting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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