Tag Archive | crafting

When it rains, it pours

Because I wasn’t stressed out enough lately, the fates decided I needed another challenge. Yesterday I stepped down weird off a step stool and heard a pop in my calf, then felt extreme pain. SUPER. I am so lucky and grateful to have good health insurance and I was able to go to the ER to get checked out for breaks, tears, and blood clots. They decided it was probably just a bad muscle strain and prescribed an NSAID, rest, ice, and elevation. Plus, since it’s my right calf, no driving for a couple of days to give the muscle time to rest and avoid straining it more. And since I took time off last week for my MIL’s service and some mental health time, now I’ve got the guilt from being home again. The sister pointed out that I had a good reason last week, and I have a good reason today, and of course logically I know she’s right. Yet there’s the guilt, still hovering. WhatEVER. Sometimes I hate my brain.

Let’s distract with some knitting, shall we? Here’s my Fade progress.

I went through so many project pages on Ravelry and didn’t find many helpful notes for a 4-color fade, but I got enough to give me confidence to move on. Rather than frog back to fade in the yellow garter section, I was a rebel and did the color melting in the lace section, and I think it looks fine. I did a longer melt than in the pattern, to use as much yellow as I could, and now I’m halfway through the second skein. This shawl is going to take forever, I think. As much as I love the look, I don’t know if I’ll want to make another one for myself once this one is done.

Hope you all are having a better start to the week than me!

Back to knitting

Jun8

Things are weird around here. My head isn’t quite right; the experience with my mother-in-law brought back a lot of feelings about my dad and I’m struggling to get on top of them again. Added to that are a few smaller things weighing on me, and it’s all feeling heavy. I haven’t been excited or eager about knitting, so I’ve just been forcing myself to work on my Fade while I watch the French Open.

But here’s the thing: I think it’s getting better. I took two days off after the service and have been spending time with the husband and kids, who are all home this week too, and that’s been good. I had dinner with my siblings, who always make me laugh. My dogs have been nearby, ready for snuggles. And Thursday I cast on a new sock with yarn that was calling my name. So I’m getting there. Day by day, right? In the spirit of easing back into my routines, I’ll show you what I found at an estate sale this week.

VRdkZHfST52b2rxLaVi7kw The two smaller blue cakes are Koigu fingering weight merino, which came with the unlabeled cake of worsted. The two WIPs I mostly bought for the needles. I’m not sure which brand they are but they remind me of Addi needles. I’ve already frogged the projects, and the big ball of red/blue/white will probably become warm socks for my Colorado girl. And here’s my new yarn, an impulse purchase after seeing it on Instagram.

Z%QLZCKHTxOtf4Bw1pHqGw It’s called Pride in the name of Love, and is an exclusive color from Three Irish Girls for Eat.Sleep.Knit. I kind of had to get it, right? Purple and rainbow! If you feel similarly compelled, it looks like they still have some in stock here.

With any luck, I’ll get a good photo of my Fade progress this weekend, and I can show that off soon. Happy weekend, friends!

HOW does this happen?

May13

As you all know, I got new yarn last week, after the husband came home from Colorado. It is beautiful yarn and I love it! But somehow, I STILL ended up at my LYS on Friday afternoon, buying more yarn.

See, I’d been itching to visit them for a few weeks, but they were hosting a trunk show over Mother’s Day weekend for a dyer new to me, and I wanted to check out her yarns. So I waited, not knowing the husband would be bringing me new yarn. And Friday came and it was a super long day and I really needed some retail therapy so I went. I just went. And it was good.

Except there was no one there to make me feel guilty for buying so much. And the one friend I texted encouraged me to treat myself, so…I did. And I love my new bag and my gorgeous new purple yarns from Honey Girl Farms! She had a lot of pop culture themed yarns, lots of Game of Thrones and Outlander, but also a few Harry Potter. She’s got amazing project bags on her website; at first I wished she’d brought some but then I was kind of glad she didn’t. Anyway, I came home and played with yarn and I’m pretty sure I have an amazing fade begging to be knit:

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I would have cast on yesterday, but I’m trying to finish my test knit shawl. I’m in the last section but I’m afraid I’m going to have to frog about five or six rows, rows that are around 350 stitches. Somehow, my wine convinced me that I could fudge a lace pattern that was off by several stitches. I don’t think it went well but I’ll check on it tonight. I’m pretty sure I’ll be wishing I’d put in a lifeline at some point.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, especially my fellow Moms!

WIP Wednesday

May8

It is Wednesday, right? It feels like it should be Friday but alas, two more days to go. Still, there is some good news here: I finished a project last night! The birthday socks, which are to be gifted on Saturday, only need some ends woven in and then they can be wrapped.

My goal was “complementary” rather than matching, and I think I succeeded at that. Here’s hoping she’s pleased with them! I especially like the second one (on the right) where I striped the two yarns together before switching to the variegated for the toe. Wish I’d done it on both!

But I don’t just have a FO, I have a new WIP to share too. This one is a selfish knitting project (hooray) with yarn that was a gift from a friend. We’re both knitting the Changing Staircases shawl and I got a good start last night.

I can tell this is going to be a fun knit! It alternates between simple lace and stockinette, so it’s quick to memorize but switches so often that you don’t get bored.

And the best news of the day: the girl is home for the summer! I’m looking forward to having her around again for a couple of months at least.

Where’s my mojo?

May4

Excuse me, have you seen my mojo? It went that way? I wonder if I can track it down!

Seriously, my creative juices are non-existent at the moment. I have two WIPs with a deadline so that’s all I’m working on, and I think that’s part of the problem. I have over-extended myself with non-selfish knitting. I’ve been doing a lot of yarn reviews, some gift knitting, some test-knitting, and I think I need a project that’s all about me. I want to choose both the yarn and the pattern, and I want to keep the finished project at the end. Another blogger talked about doing a Mother’s Day cast-on that is purely selfish knitting, and that is a thing I would like to do.

BUT. First, I have to make some progress on my deadline WIPs. I’ve got one birthday sock done and am on the gusset of the second. Thankfully these are Rose City Rollers so they go fast. I tried a new toe this time, a barn toe that’s more rounded, and I like how it looks. I want to try it on one of my socks next.

The niece likes complementary socks better than matching, so I picked two leftover balls and am just kind of making it up as I go along. I’m thinking the foot of the second sock will be striped.

My other deadline WIP is a shawl test for Under the Olive Tree Knits. It’s a beautiful lace pattern and I chose some Araucania Huasco from the stash, so it’s an enjoyable knit. I think my brain is just malfunctioning right now and is often too tired for a trickier pattern that I have to think about.

I’d like to say I’ll make good progress on it today, but that’s doubtful. The husband is out of town, off to fetch the girl home from her first year of college, so I thought “Oh! I’ll let the dogs sleep with me! How sweet that will be!” Well. I have three dogs. And Duncan is not a big fan of sleeping through the night apparently. So I had this 100-pound bear of a dog clambering all over me and licking my face and it was not a restful night. I have learned my lesson and tonight Jack will be the only one allowed upstairs with me because he is a good dog and knows how to behave himself.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to nap a bit.

Just a hat

Apr28

Yesterday was Yarn Store Day here in the U.S. and I did not celebrate the traditional way, i.e. by going to a yarn store and buying more yarn. I wanted to, don’t get me wrong! But I’d already bought yarn this month, most recently last weekend at a LYS, so my budget said I didn’t need more. (Budget lied but whatever.) Instead I celebrated in my closest little LYS, my craft room, poking through all my yarn treasures, reminding myself what perfect little pretties I already have. I picked out one gorgeous skein intending to cast on something new and fun just for me. Then I remembered that I wanted to make a baby hat for a pregnant friend. And then the SIL texted about my niece’s birthday in two weeks: she wants to collect donations in stead of gifts. So cool, right?? So cool that I decided I needed to make her a present to go along with our donation to support her generosity. Pretty multicolored skein went back in the stash…for now.

fullsizeoutput_20c2 The hat was quick enough to make, using leftover Blue Sky organic cotton from my blanket. It’s KU Jayhawks colors, just FYI. I hope it is, at least. The pattern is Long-Tail Hat and it’s one of my favorite baby hats to make. And yesterday was Grace’s birthday (she’s FIVE now!) so I made her wear it for a brief moment.

fullsizeoutput_20c3 She was thrilled, clearly. Anyway, gift #1 is done and now I’m on to some Rose City Rollers for the niece.

Superpower!

Apr27

No, I haven’t gone to see Endgame yet–I’m waiting until the theaters aren’t going to be ridiculously crowded. But I decided that my superpower (or one of them) is keeping people warm. One of my favorite people at work asked for a shawl, saying that her office is always cold and she’s perpetually freezing. (Yes, she’ll pay me for it, and fairly too.) I ordered the perfect yarn for the perfect pattern, but it’s dyed to order so it’ll take a little while to arrive. In the meantime, I decided she needed some fingerless mitts to at least help keep her hands warm.

Her color preferences are pretty much opposite mine, so I didn’t have a lot of yarn in my stash that seemed right, but I had half a skein of Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in an orange/teal mix that would work well enough. I chose my favorite pattern, the 75 Yard Malabrigo Mitts, with some mods for fingering weight, and cast on Thursday night. It’s such a fast pattern that I bound off the second mitt this morning!

This pattern allows for a lot of thumb/finger movement, especially since I keep the top portion short enough that it doesn’t constrict the fingers. They’re just the perfect tiny mitts for handwarmers! What’s your favorite quick gift pattern?

Almost Done

Apr23

This morning I had some waiting room knitting time, and I took my Delphia shawl with me, hoping to get through a few rows. I did better than that, though: I’m ready to bind off!! Now the question becomes: is a picot bind off really worth the time and effort? I mean, I’ve got over 365 stitches here.

With any luck, I can get through the bind off tonight and start weaving in ends. How long does a picot bind off really take, right? I’m ready to be done, yes, but I also have my next shawl project planned and I want to use these needles!

I’m doing another test knit and needed over 500 yards of fingering weight yarn. I was worried at first since all of my fingering skeins are 3 oz and between 400 and 450 yards. Then I found these two skeins of Araucania Huasco that have been in my stash for over three years, and I think they’ll be perfect. I just need my shawl needles now!

Delphia Progress

Apr19

As I said yesterday, I have been getting a bit of knitting in here and there this week. The weirdest thing is that I’ve been a monogamous knitter. I’m not sure that’s ever happened in my knitting life. But I’ve just been merrily going along on my Boca Chica Delphia shawl, enjoying the mindless garter stitch with a few stockinette rows thrown in for fun, and what do you know? It’s grown a lot!

fullsizeoutput_2097 I’m loving this pattern, and the colors of the yarn. I’m also really glad I didn’t try to use these yarns for Straight and Arrow because it definitely wouldn’t have been enough contrast to do it justice. The color changes are super subtle.

fullsizeoutput_2098 See those stockinette rows? Those are the ones with Color B (aka the solid pink). They don’t stand out as much as I anticipated, but it’s fine. I’m starting the big lace section now, which means this won’t be my mindless knitting anymore. Pretty sure that means I need to cast on some new vanilla socks today!

A sock and a dog

Apr14

I finished the first River Fleet sock that I’m testing and it’s quite lovely. I adore the pattern that looks rather like cables and isn’t cables at all.

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The yarn is Knit Picks Capretta in Vibrant Violet, which is a fantastic color! The yarn is nice too; very soft. And thankfully it also fits nicely!

I’ve got the second sock on the needles and hope to finish it in the next week or so, depending on how obsessed I stay with my new shawl! Well, also depending on whether I get distracted by dogs!

This is Teddy. He showed up outside our yard today, and I spent the morning trying to catch him, then trying to figure out what to do with him. He had no tags and no microchip. How do I know his name then? We went to the animal shelter and they recognized him, said he gets out frequently and apparently it doesn’t concern the owner enough to take the necessary steps to prevent that or make it easy for people to return him. Sigh. Too bad I couldn’t keep him!