Archives

Musings on a Monday

Jan20

If you read my last post, you’ll know I was meant to work on my Faded Boxy yesterday. Why I thought making an oversized sweater in fingering weight yarn was a good idea, I’ll never understand, because it’s taking 84 years just to knit the dang body. I started this sweater over four months ago and I’m finally getting to a point where I can imagine splitting for the sleeves.

908CC117-7E5F-453E-A443-3B519E8A2B1A_1_201_aThis is about 16 inches, and I need 19 before I split. That’s just one color section; I can do that. Or can I? Yesterday I did not work on my Faded Boxy. Instead I cast on a new worsted weight cowl, because those are my jam right now.

8875B99C-4DF8-4BA1-AF48-E0741A8D8748This is the Diamond Purl Cowl in KnitPicks Preciosa, color Tadpole. This is one of my favorite yarns from KnitPicks. It’s soft and fluffy and I love the subtle variations in the color. The pattern is pretty easy, still a comfort project as I sit with Duncan. Now, the question is: as I watch the coverage of the Australian Open today, will I work on the cowl, or the sweater?

And today is my Dad’s birthday. He would have been 76 today, and he’s been gone almost eight years now. Yes, it’s gotten easier, but I still miss him, and it’s still sharp sometimes.

IMG_5621Not everyone marks these days, the birthdays and death days of people they’ve lost. Maybe they think it prolongs the grieving process. It’s different for everyone but for me, I think of Dad often. I’m going to be sad about it sometimes regardless. And recognizing those days means they’re still important to me, and that Dad’s still a part of our family, even if just in this tiniest of ways. I like having this special day where I remember Dad fondly and with intent, and I allow myself to feel the loss a little bit. So, Happy Birthday, Dad. Wish you were here.

FO: Peyto Lake Cowl

Jan19

There has been knitting again! I got a full night’s sleep Friday night which felt amazing and restored a lot of energy, both physical & mental/emotional. Long-term sleep deprivation is not fun, and I’m really glad Duncan is almost to the point of being left alone at night without the cone. Anyway, I spent some time hanging with Dunkie yesterday and finished a cowl I haven’t even shown you before.

You know my goal is to work down my stash, so lately I’ve just been poking around and pulling out skeins that call my name, then finding a project for them. This is a skein of Malabrigo Worsted, one of my favorite Malabrigo yarns, in the color Whales Road. (Which I also have in Mecha and the colors look SO different which is weird.) I poked around in Ravelry and settled on the Peyto Lake Cowl, since the water theme kind of went with the blue/purple colors of the yarn. The wavy lace gets a little lost in the color variegations but I don’t mind.

I’m just loving knitting worsted weight cowls again, after so long knitting with fingering weight. I’ve got another one on my needles, but it’s a totally mindless all-stockinette cowl with rolled edges and everything, so I save that for when I don’t want to use any brain cells at all. This yarn is Dark Side of the Moon by Alexandra’s Crafts, in the color Purple Rain. And it’s a merino/SILK blend, yay!

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I’ve got a two days left in my three-day weekend, so I anticipate more knitting in my future. Let’s see if I can motivate myself to work on my Purple Faded Boxy, or if I’ll cast on for another worsted weight cowl. I do have the yarn already picked out and the pattern purchased!

Bandana Cowl

Jan14

What’s today, Tuesday? I think that’s right. I’m still sleeping downstairs with a dog and I do believe it’s killing brain cells every night. But Duncan did well by himself yesterday while we were all gone, mostly thanks to a healthy dose of a sedative. He slept all day and all evening and didn’t perk up until 4 am, unfortunately. He got a slightly smaller dose today and hopefully that will balance things out a bit. Anyway, I’m really here to share the knitting, because I finished a project. I started a Bandana Cowl last week with some Woolfolk LUFT from my stash.

img_6545I LOVE this yarn. It’s so soft and lightweight, it’s like wearing a warm cloud. I had a little over a skein and a half so I just kept knitting the top part until the yarn was almost gone. It’s been done for a few days, even washed and blocked, but I never found a good time to take photos, until yesterday, when I wore it for the first time.

img_6608It’s perfect, just perfect. I can pull it up to cover part of my face and it’s super warm without being heavy. And I just now looked up the fiber content: it’s 55% merino and 45% Pima cotton. I had no idea there was cotton in there! Well, this is the best yarn I’ve ever used with cotton in it and now I want more. Except not because I’m not adding to my stash right now! Right? Right!

FO: Rasta Hat

Jan13

I was not in a sock mood last week, which is very weird for me. I think I knit about an inch of my current sock over the entire week, so there’s no point in sharing that. Last week was about bulky yarns, the bulkier the better, and for me, the best bulky yarn is Malabrigo Rasta. I pulled out a skein of gray Rasta the other day and within a couple of hours, I had a finished hat. I love that.

fullsizeoutput_2538The pattern is Nour and I love it except I made it a touch too long, so it slides down more than I’d like. If I were really crazy ambitious, I could frog back to the last pattern repeat and re-knit it smaller, but I don’t think that sounds like fun. If I end up really disliking it, I’ll give this one to someone else and make a new one for me! The pompom is one of the fantastic snap-on versions, so I can switch it out with other colors.

Today I go back to work, which means Duncan will be confined in the kitchen, wearing a cone, with a couple of Trazodone to keep him calm and sleepy while I’m gone. Here’s hoping all goes well!

 

A Dog Leg Warmer

Jan12

Duncan had a shaved spot on one of his front legs, where they had the IV during his surgery, and when he came home, he kept licking that spot. Originally I took a t-shirt and trimmed it so it covered that leg, and it was pretty cute.

img_6530But, well, I’m a knitter, and I kept thinking I could do better than a t-shirt, especially as that t-shirt got grungier. So last night I whipped up a little doggy leg warmer and by some miracle, it fit!

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Sadly, it’s really only good when he’s lying down. When he’s up and moving around, it slides down and eventually works itself off. Oh, well, it was a nice idea at least. Tomorrow I’m back to work so he’ll be in the cone and confined in the kitchen, so he won’t be able to lick anything anyway. And Thursday we’ll go back to the vet to hopefully get the stitches out and maybe even get permission to ditch the cone!

 

Thinning the Herd

Jan11

Every January, a large number of knitters declare, “I’m going to knit from stash this year! I’m not going to buy so much new yarn!” I’m usually one of those knitters, and this year is no different. I do want to knit from stash; I’ve spent a long time cultivating a healthy collection of beautiful yarns.

img_5735I mean, look at all that yarn!! I shouldn’t need to buy more at all for a long time! But I don’t want to stop buying new yarn completely. That’s not realistic or fun, especially since I’ll be going to Knitting in the Heartland this year. No, my goal this year is to simply use more from my stash than I add to it. I’m going by skein count rather than yardage and to increase accountability, I created a page in my knitting journal to keep track of skeins in and out. I’m off to a good start, especially after a week of lots of knitting time: I’ve used five skeins from stash and added none! Last night I wound two more skeins and this morning cast on for a new project, a Malabrigo Rasta hat that I’ve been planning for about a year.

img_6584What are your goals for stash this year?

Baa? Bah!

Jan8

One of my work knitting friends makes the cutest animals, some knit, some crochet. She’s done elephants and pigs and I don’t know what else, but I love them. Most recently she made the cutest little sheep and I just had to make one for myself. It’s small and quick enough that I made it all in one night, just a few hours.

So cute! And soft! And fluffy! And so fiddly to make that it’s gonna be one and done for me! Now, I probably got annoyed because I sewed the legs wrong the first time, and had to pull it apart and re-sew them, but still, making tiny animals has never been my favorite thing. So now I have my wee sheep and I can move on…to Eeyore. Sigh. I know, I never learn.

Duncan’s getting better every day, which is good and bad. He’s well behaved until around 3:30 in the afternoon, and then he’s bored and restless and wants to do all the things he’s not allowed to do. Yesterday we got a delivery of new Benebone chew toys, which was a huge help.

IMG_6548Not sure what I’ll do this afternoon when I have no more new toys to give him, though!