Archive | 2019

Crafting weekend

This weekend reaffirmed my growing understanding that sometimes it’s a good thing to do scary things. I met up with a blogging friend and a few of her friends for a crafting weekend. Meeting new people is intimidating for me, and given the extended nature of the plans, it could have gone very wrong if we didn’t hit it off. Thankfully that was not the case and today has been SUPER fun! Since she’s from out of town, I had to take her to my favorite LYS, Yarn Social.

And my bag of projects broke while I was walking up to my hotel room, so of course I had to get a new bag. And a little bit of new yarn maybe. And a pin. Whatever. It’s a rainbow sheep, of course I’m gonna buy it.

I originally had no purple yarn picked out. Instead, I had two pretty blues. Then I saw this gradient set hanging by the counter and well, you know how it goes. At least I put one of the blue ones back? I also will come home with a new project bag because my new buddy is super nice and made me a gift!

Isn’t that the cutest?? And oh yeah, we spent the day knitting and talking and laughing, and watching HGTV and a little bit of football (not by my choice but it was fine) and there was the cutest baby that I didn’t have to be responsible for. There was junk food and maybe a little alcohol and pizza. Tonight I get to sleep in a big bed all by myself. But mostly it was fun to hang out with like-minded people. I’m just so so glad I was brave enough to come. So the next time you’re apprehensive about doing something, maybe just do it?

40 Odd Things

Nov15

40 odd things about me . . . join in with a comment or a post on your blog.

1. Do you like mustard? Yes but only on my cheeseburgers.
2. Choice of carbonated beverage? Cherry Coke.
3. Ever traveled to another country? No, but I’d love to go to Ireland!
4. Whiskey, Tequila, Vodka? I like vodka but it gets me in trouble. Tequila / margaritas tend to work out better for me.
5. Hot dogs or Cheeseburgers? Cheeseburgers
6. Favorite Type Of food: pizza
7. Do you believe in ghosts? Ish?
8. What do you drink in the mornings? Tea with milk and sugar.
9. Can you do a 100 pushups? HAHAHAHAHA!!! no.
10. Summer, Winter, Spring, Or Fall? Spring
11. Favorite hobby? Knitting, obvs
12. Tattoos? One. Thinking about another.
13. Do you wear glasses? Yep, since I was 10.
14. Phobia? Heights. Deep water. Bit of claustrophobia.
15. Nickname? Bunny, Bonbon, Bmose
16. Three drinks you drink? Tea, Water, Wine
17. Biggest Downfall? I worry ALL THE TIME.
18. Rain or Snow? Ugh. I’d rather drive in rain but snow is prettier if I don’t have to go anywhere.
19. Piercings? Just ears.
20. Age? 43
21. Taken or Single? Married. Can we agree that taken is an antiquated term?
22. How long taken or single? married 22 years, together…26?
23. Kids? 2
24. Favorite color? If you have to ask, you don’t know me at all! (purple)
25. Employed? Yes
26. Can you whistle? Yes.
27. Where were you born? Kansas City, MO
28. Brothers or Sisters? 5 sisters, 1 brother
29. Ninjas or Pirates? Pirates, I guess, but only because of Johnny Depp.
30. Surgeries? Foot surgery, wisdom teeth removal.
31. Religious? No
32. Shower or Bath? Shower
33. Like gambling? No
34. Are You Loyal? Yes
35. Broken bones? Once (maybe twice, but one was a toe and those are hard to know for sure)
36. How many tv’s in your house? 3, but only one gets used
37. Worst pain ever? Dry socket after wisdom teeth removal, I think. I’ve mostly forgotten labor plus epidurals are great.
38. Do you like to dance? With my kids or when no one is watching.
39. Are your parents still alive? My mom is. Dad’s been gone almost 8 years now.
40. Do you like camping? Only on the couch with my knitting and my dogs.

Thank you Mildly Granola for posting this. It was fun to fill it out.

WIP Wednesday

Nov13

I still haven’t taken good photos of my finished cowl (it’s been SO COLD the last two days…okay, I’ve just been lazy about it. Whatever.) so I thought I’d share a couple of WIP photos. Can you believe I only have four WIPs at the moment? Clearly there is something wrong with me. I got to the third color of my Color Me Happy cowl last night.

It’s hard to see, but there are a few rows of the solid purple up there. I think I’m going to love this once it’s done, but it’s an awful lot of stockinette right now. Maybe I need to go to a movie so I can knit on it in the dark.

And I made a swatch! It’s a little swatch but it’s a good start. This is for my Penny sweater with my birthday Malabrigo.

I’ve been waiting to start it because I’ve been trying to eat better and exercise lately, and I thought maybe I’d want a different size. But then I thought, Heck that, I want a pretty pink sweater and I can still wear it even if it’s a little big.

But here’s the best news of the day: I get to have a crafting weekend this weekend!!! One of my blogger friends is meeting a few friends at local hotel for the weekend, and she and I decided we needed to finally meet, so I got a room for myself and it’s going to be DELICIOUS. I won’t spend all weekend with them, because that might be too much, plus why wouldn’t I take advantage of a comfy quiet hotel room all to myself? But we’ll knit together and visit the best LYS and I’m super excited.

It’s also a little scary because I’m an introvert who hates meeting new people, but apparently I’m pushing myself lately. Last weekend I went to a birthday party where I only knew two people, and I had a blast. Maybe that was enough to nudge me toward the crafting weekend. Or maybe I was just drawn by the opportunity to have an extended period of time to myself. Either way, the room is booked and I just need to plan my projects. I’m pretty sure I need to a new cast-on! Sock or shawl??

Knitting for the holidays

Nov11

Are you doing a lot of gift knitting this year? I’ve done some in the past but this year I’ve got a whopping ONE knit gift planned, and I’m just fine with that. I needed someone new to make socks for — the girl and I both have a ton, I’m not convinced the husband wears them, and the boy only likes boring solid dark colors — and I have a nephew who loves handknit socks. Perfect! The only downside is that he’s growing up and his feet are discouragingly large, but when you do a simple pattern, it goes pretty quickly.

Pattern is my favorite Vanilla Latte socks. The yarn is some self-striping Patons I picked up at Joann, and while it’s not the softest, it should make warm and durable socks. Now let’s just hope they fit!

Simple Knitting

Nov10

I went to Joann yesterday for one thing, just one skein of green acrylic so I can knit a cactus. (Or crochet. I haven’t decided. Can you believe I didn’t have the right color in my stash? I can’t!) But of course I had a $10 coupon so I had to get something else, and I happened upon some lovely lavender Bernat Velvet. It is SOFT. Soft is comforting, and I like comforting right now. But I’ve also learned that when working with novelty yarns like chenille, it’s easier to hold another yarn with it, so I grabbed some Paton’s wool in almost the same color. And since I finished a project this morning (it’s blocking, pics will be another day) I decided I need to cast on something new and soft and snuggly.

fullsizeoutput_243c

I tried crochet first, but it didn’t give me the depth and texture I wanted, so I switched to knitting a 2×2 rib. Hopefully I can avoid the chenille “worms” I learned about when looking at Ravelry projects with this yarn! This is for me of course (it’s purple!) so even if I get a few worms, I figure I can deal with it. I just might have to call them something else! Have you had worms in your knitting before?

Happy Halloween!

Oct31

It’s Halloween! But my kids are older so I don’t have to go out in the cold to trick-or-treat, and I don’t have to answer the door over and over while listening to my dogs bark. As cute as my kids were when they were little, I confess I don’t miss the chaos of Halloween. Instead, I’ll leave my porch light off and just keep knitting like it’s a normal night. I’ve got another bottle sweater on my needles, but today I wanted to show off my latest FO, my Not So Lacy Lace Scarf.

fullsizeoutput_2412 After blocking, it was 72″, and at first I was afraid that was too long, but now I think it’s perfect. Plenty of length to wrap around however you want!

fullsizeoutput_2417 Sorry for the less than stellar photos; it’s been a little chilly and I’ve been too lazy to get outside for a proper photo shoot.

The yarn is Schachenmayr Fashion Soft Mix, a nylon/alpaca/wool mix and it’s super lightweight and soft and fluffy! It’s a gift, and I really hope they aren’t sensitive to alpaca or wool. I haven’t made a scarf in a long time, and I was afraid it would drag on forever, but I finished this in a week! Once I memorized the 4-row repeat, it was fast and fun.

Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Sweater Weather

Oct30

Yes, we all know it’s sweater weather, but the fun thing about being a knitter (okay, one of many) is that we can make sweaters for all sorts of things! People sweaters of course, but also dog sweaters, maybe cat sweaters, even chicken sweaters. And now…a bottle sweater!

This was my first time doing cables. I’ve resisted them for years because you know, “cables are hard” and they’re fiddly and complicated. Well, guess what, they’re not hard or complicated. They are fiddly, but gosh darn it all to heck, I LOVE how they look! No wonder people persevere with cables; they look amazing. This is a gift for a coworker, but I might need to make one for myself just for a fun winter decoration.

The pattern is Wine Bottle Sweater and I found it easy to follow. Yarn is just acrylic from the stash. This was so fast to make; I think I got it done in one day.

Mermaid Sea Swell Shawl

Oct28

Remember months ago I wanted to make a mermaid shawl with five skeins of yarn and I tried to make this lace shawl and it just didn’t work for me? I remembered that yarn today and I might have found the perfect pattern on Ravelry.

Capture

This is the Sea Swell Shawl by Stephen West and it’s a gorgeous fade with five colors, which is exactly what I wanted, and it’s a semi-circular shape, which I wanted, and it even has a wave pattern, which I didn’t even KNOW I wanted! Plus after making my Dotted Rays, I’m excited to make another one of his patterns. That one was so fun and addictive, and so much squishy garter stitch. My only caveat is that for some reason I thought my mermaid shawl should have some delicate lace too. But mostly I think I can’t resist how perfect this is in every other way!

What color is your pompom?

Oct27

Well, that sounds weirder than it did in my head. To follow up on yesterday’s hat debate, I ended up going with the two-color pompom. I was overthinking it to a great degree and finally had to realize that it would be cute no matter what color the pompom was. And it is!

So that will go off to my work friend this week. I also finished the scarf for my other friend and it will be blocked today. I’ve got a busy day ahead of me today, but wanted to share my Spring Rain “progress”.

Spring Rain is a two-color shawl with alternating garter and lace sections. The lace sections are 22 rows, no repeating rows, and I had a little trouble keeping track of where I was at times, but I was doing all right. Maybe had to fudge a stitch here or there, but it all worked out. Then, disaster: the needle slipped out of about ten stitches! GASP! With some knitting, that’s not a big deal. But with lace, where you have yarnovers and SSKs and K2TOGs and SKPs…it’s bad. Very bad. I was in denial at first and thought I could fix it. I picked up what I thought were the stitches and kept knitting. The first lace row after that was off by two stitches, so I added two and kept going. The lace row after that, I was off by four. Yes, it was bad. No, I had not put in a lifeline. Apparently I live on the edge. By this point, I was 17 rows into the 22-row lace section. It was the last lace section of the shawl. I could have kept faking it, but I knew the lace wouldn’t look right, and since it was the outer edge, I didn’t want it to look wonky. I needed to frog.

My first step was to find a long circular needle in a smaller size, I think they were size 2, and thread it through the last row of garter stitch.

I did that all the way across without any issues. See the two needles in there?

img_5801-1 Then I pulled out the original circ and frogged all those rows of green lace. It was satisfying and sad at the same time. And this time, when I started with the lace again, did I start using a lifeline too??

No, I did not. But wait, hear me out! I did start putting in a stitch marker after each repeat in the lace rows, so when I lost track, it was easier to find my mistake(s). And since then it’s been going pretty well, though it’s been on the back burner while I focused on some gift knitting instead.

I am glad I frogged, even if I did lose a good chunk of progress. I love this shawl and really want to it to be as close to perfect as I can get it. It’ll be done by St. Patrick’s Day at least!

P.S. I ended up giving Grace her monthly injection for her Addison’s disease a day early and it made a huge difference. She’s back to her bouncy obnoxious self, licking all the faces and roughhousing with Duncan. Fingers crossed it lasts!

I get knocked down, but I get up again

Oct26

A couple of days ago the girl sent me a snapchat asking if I was okay, because I hadn’t blogged in like three weeks. I confess, I teared up a bit because it was really perceptive and sweet and I miss her. As I told her, the answer is yes. But also no. And all the gray area in between. One of our dogs, Grace, got really sick last weekend and she’s still not quite 100% so I’ve been worried about her, plus a little stressed about how much we spent on vet bills because of it. Work hasn’t been what I want it to be lately, and I’m at the point in my life where I think about things like what are my long-term goals, how can I have multiple, competing goals, how do I want to spend the rest of my working life, is it okay to do something that fulfills you even if it’s not “A CAREER”? And I haven’t found any answers yet. I’m knitting, but I haven’t felt the call to write about it lately. Every time I think about it, it seems like a lot of work, so I don’t bother. But, here I am, doing the thing, because maybe if I push myself a little bit, I can get back in the groove.

My most recent FO is a hat commission I just finished this morning. It’s not quite done because it needs a pompom, but I’m debating between pink, silver or both. What do you think? It’s for a 10yo girl, if that makes a difference.

I used Caron Simply Soft Party Sparkle. I do like their acrylics, and I do love some sparkle! The pattern is Zayo Bayo Hat, which says it was written for 4-7yo kids, so I bumped up the stitch count by a few stitches.

Over the last few weeks, I also finished the Cersei hat for my former boss’s birthday, and I cast on for a new cowl for myself and a scarf for a friend’s birthday coming up. Plus I’ve been working on my Spring Rain shawl and my Boxy (not that much on the Boxy, to be honest). Oh, and I cast on a new pair of socks for a nephew, but I haven’t gotten a photo of those yet.