A Fairly Quick Test Knit and Changes in the Blog

I finished my Hop O My Thumb test knit for a fellow raveller this week.  I picked the mirrored option for the second sock and I think that they actually turned out pretty well.

I got a chunk of knitting time in on those socks waiting for a repair man to look at the dishwasher.  He quoted me a repair price that is just slightly less than an entire new dishwasher!  Even though it is only one portion of a pump that has gone bad, it comes as a single piece unit, two pumps and a motor!  Guess I get better at handwashing dishes for a while as both the numbers (his quote and the new dishwasher) are a couple of hundred dollars above what I am willing, or able, to spend on it at the moment.*

The yarn is from my (hoarded) stash of Land O Lace Steffi and I knit the socks on 1.5 US needles.  To the rest of the world that would be 2.5mm.  I think in total there are about 64 beads in my version, more if you follow the pattern and work them all the way down to the toe.


TDQ does not like beads inside her shoes so I left the ones on the feet off and we like long socks around here so I also repeated the leg chart an extra time which gives us a really tall tree on the back of the socks and a long path through the woods on the front.

Sorry, I wasn't up to going out in the (really soft and fluffy looking) snow today to get pictures, so I just had TDQ stand on a chair so that I could give you an idea of what they look like.  When the pattern is released I will let you know so you can knit your own pair!


Speaking of pattern releases, I have three patterns, no four patterns, with test knitters now, that hopefully will be making their debut soon!  With so many designers looking for test knitters on Ravelry it is sometimes hit or miss if you get a good selection of skill levels in a test...so... I have decided it would be worth my while to announce upcoming tests and pattern releases a different way.

If you look over on the sidebar you will see a place where you can sign up for a newsletter.  I swear upon my yarn stash, especially that (hoarded) stash of discontinued Land O Lace yarn I have that I will never share your information and I am not going to bombard you with emails, but about once a month I will let you know what is upcoming for testing and give you a way of joining in if you want, what is about to be, or has just been, published so you can grab a copy of the pattern if you would like, maybe some knitting tips, and a hidden promo code to make it worth your while actually reading the thing!  If you sign up, expect the first newsletter later this month.

Happy Weekend!

~M

*TFB did offer to raid his "Money to Take over the World" can to buy a new dishwasher, and as he is my saver he has enough, but I am not (quite) sick enough of doing dishes the old fashioned way yet to take him up on it.

Endings......

Today is a day of endings.

The end of December.

The end of 2015.

The end of yet another round of yarn chicken!  The log cabin style blanket project has officially been determined to be a draw.  2 for the chicken and 2 for me!

It all started with a bag of assorted colors of Big Lots Acrylic.  I bought it on a day that I had a coupon for 20% off an entire purchase and the yarn was marked at a dollar a ball.  I bought all they had in a beige, cinnamon brown, burgundy and black and proceeded to knit a couple of little charity scarves out of some of it and then uncovered it again months later to start a tv watching blanket as the colors would look good with the sofa.

Now, being the organized knitter that I am (NOT!!!) I of course knew how much of each color I had (NOPE!) and just grabbed balls out of that big plastic bag as I needed them.....And along came the yarn chicken.

He tugged and pulled at ends until he won with the cinnamon brown.

He tugged and pulled at the ends until he won with the burgundy.

He pulled and tugged, but lost (by less than a yard) with the beige.

He pulled and tugged, and tugged some more until he lost with the black.

The finished blanket is just one or two people large...I didn't measure it yet, was too busy washing and clipping all those pesky little ends....and does go rather nicely with the sofa!

I learned a few things knitting this very plain and boring blanket.  (I suppose the first should be to check how much yarn you have before you start, but I doubt that will ever be my strong point!)  Having spent years knitting shawls and seamless items I haven't had to do a lot of picking up of stitches, other than sock gussets, and having them look messy was annoying me, so I worked at learning a few different techniques and the back side of my blanket looks like this :

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

So there is one ending that turned out just right!

Of course, today is also the day of reflection on the past year.  What went well?  What didn't?  What do we plan for next year?

I am always happy to sweep the last dirt of the year out the back door, and open the front door to see what things the new year will hold.  2015 was kind of a mixed bag.  Some, few, high points, some, too many, low points.  But, as a wise person once said, without the hardships we would never enjoy the highlights.

Here is wishing all of us a year filled with highlights in 2016.

~M

It was Christmas Eve at the Workhouse

When I was a kid, I think it was my dad would wander around just quoting that first line from a poem.  I have actually looked the rest of it up, and I found it horribly depressing so that is all you get from it!

It is not much of a workhouse around here.  The official Christmas knitting is all complete, including three sets of ornaments for an Advent Tree. (We won't mention that I am two trees short of a set, now I have 11 months to get the trees done for next year!)

I am tempted to knit another star, so that one can be the topper and the other hang on the tree.  We'll see how lost I feel in the morning when I don't have another little ornament to knit!

I did get my ex-mil's Winter Wheat finished in time to get mailed off to the West Coast.  The designer asked if the "largest person in the house" could possibly model it for her.  The boys voted and as the kids' dad was already here for his Christmas visit he got handed the sweater!

 He was a very good sport about it.  The sweater is a little small for him and quite a bit too big for myself or TDQ.  Maybe I will get pictures of it on ex-mil so that we can see if it really fits her!

It is starting to sound like I have nothing on my needles, which isn't true!  I still am plugging away at my boring garter stitch log cabin blanket.  The yarn chicken won our game with the darker brown and burgundy.  I won with the beige and we are tugging back and forth with the black that will be the outer border.  TDQ asked if I was almost done, which depending on how you look at it I am.  there are only 2.5 more segments to go.....unfortunately for me, they are the largest segments.  But I am determined to get it finished this year, so maybe, during our movie marathon Christmas I will cast it off and get pictures!

I also have a cardigan for myself on the needles, none of the kids wanted or needed sweaters this year so they are getting their traditional socks and a hat each.  I figure TDQ has stolen enough cowls and fingerless mitts to keep her going for a few more years!
 
I am still working on the "great stash elimination/organization" project.  Three boxes of yarn need to find a home, not good yarn, just old acrylics and odd balls that won't ever get used here.  Even the boys have tastes that run to silk and cashmere so there is no sense in keeping (hoarding) yarn that won't get used.  I did discover that when you actually enter your stash in Ravelry, if you are looking at a pattern it will suggest yarns out of your stash to knit it with!  Great feature that I had never seen before, because my stash was just my stash!  I am all the way through the lace weights, mostly through the sock weight yarns (that was stashed in lots of different places and I am discovering more as I go!) and probably over half way through the worsted and aran weights.  I used up some bulky weights making really thick cowls for charity knits, and hated every minute of that knitting!  So the rest will be joining the acrylics in a box and the next charity that is picking up in my area will get them.  Of course I left the hardest area or last, my ColourMart Stash has it's own little area and apart from digging out some things for TFB to weave with I haven't even started on that!

But that is a project to get back to next week, for now my garter stitch log cabin blanket and I are going to go watch movies with the kids!

Merry Christmas!  May your stockings be filled with all you could ever want and may the true spirit of the season live in your heart all year long!

~M

It's been HOW long?

What can I say, this summer kicked my butt in more way than one.  I have come to the conclusion that I do not get along with odd number years (and sometimes not even the even numbered ones!)

Lots of changes for us over the past couple of months, and although I know that someday I will look back and say that everything worked out the way it should, living through some of them is not at all what I would call fun.

But in every thunderstorm there are flashes of light.  Some of ours have been :

The Drama Queen bugging me about setting up her company to sell her beading until I did it - which if I had done it right would have been wonderful, somehow I managed to set myself up as her company!  (All comes from knowing my social security number better than hers and doing things too quickly.)  We will leave it the way it is for now and then I will "sell" her the company name once she has actually made some money and all will be right. As soon as college started back up she lost a lot of her creative time so it is left to me to be in charge anyway,  I might sneak a few of my things into her craft fair displays and etsy store!

The First Brother decided what he wants to do for a living, did his own research and is now attending a technical type school so that he can get a good chunk of the training he will need out of the way on the school districts dime. (Well, mine really, most of my property taxes are school levies but I was going to pay them anyway.)

The Other Brother is still trying to figure out how to make playing computer games, listening to pod casts and surfing the internet into a career.  As this is a knitting blog I should mention that he is taking after me (to an extent) and has mastered knitting in the round, making hats to go with scarves and suffers from end of project let down!

But the biggest flash of light to be seen, right this minute, is that I am officially a designer of knit goods!  I finally got up off my rear end, wrote down some patterns, had a couple of people look at them and give me some input. I then re-wrote and charted, test knitted and published!

Knitted Flowers Large and Small

Twisted Woolens - Easy Cable

Twisted Mitts with Large Flower

The Red Cap - Cabled Hat

Twisted Mitts - Easy Ribbing

Upcoming we have socks, hopefully ready for Socktober and a deceptively simple lace shawl.

~M