I said there would be pictures!

Finally some FinishItUpus has hit at Chez Yarn Diet!

We just won't mention that there was a little bit more startitis to go with them!  Because, really what is a few extra projects on the needles between friends?

First we have the Anniversary Mystery Shawl that I knit with some of Lara's Creations fabulous yarn!  If you haven't had the chance to take a look at some of her ColourWaves you really should, they are gradient yarns at their very best!
 
No clunky color changes, but they will drive you crazy if you ever decide to knit until the next color, because you will never see them coming!

Second we have an adaptation of Pierina Shawl by Anna Dalvi.
 
 I took a triangle shawl and turned it into a square baby blanket and went with a single color of yarn through out.
 
As written the pattern is a two tone shawl and I plan on making another blanket using two tones, but I wasn't sure which colors the mom to be would want for this one so went with a plain white acrylic yarn and then killed it with my steam cleaner.

I really like the edge on this one!

Nothing to show....yet

Two (almost) finished objects this week.  Both require blocking and a photo shoot, so watch for a blog post later this week!  I would be completely finished with them, but I got distracted with another crafty type project that seems to have grown out of proportion in time and energy!  (I will share that later, but not yet, it is a surprise!)

~M

Why I couldn't do my chores, by The Other Brother

Mom has this crazy thing on the fridge called a Chore Board. 

Every day us kids are supposed to look at it and then do whatever jobs are listed next to our names.  All school year the first chore has been the same "Put your ice pack in the freezer" and we all do a really good job of doing that one.  TDQ usually does her chores and TFB (my twin) will sometimes do his, but not until Mom calls to say she is on her way home.

Me, well I am very good at avoiding doing my chores,  she should put things like "play games on your computer" or "surf the internet" and I would do them every day without fail!  But sometimes, it isn't my fault that I can't do my chores, for example, this is how the conversation went....

Mom : How was school?
Me : It was good.
Mom : What did you do?
Me : The usual.
Mom: What did you learn?
Me : Nothing new.
Mom : Did you do your chores?
Me : Well, I put my ice in the freezer, but I couldn't do the other one.
Mom: Why not?
Me : The Bird Feeder was already full.
Mom: It couldn't have been full, we just bought the bird seed.
Me : Here's a picture.
 
Mom: Just move the branch, silly boy!
Me: That didn't help, the bird feeder is still full.
Mom: What?!?!?
Me: Here's another picture, of the inside this time.

Mom: Ok, you can skip filling the bird feeder!

So you see, it isn't my fault that I couldn't do my chores!

Mom finished her Chloe's Vest.  She says that working with ColourMart yarn for a sweater is always a bit of a gamble, you know how the swatch behaves but will the finished object behave the same way when the machine oils are washed out?  Her top ended up slightly wider than she wanted and just a touch shorter, but after a quick trip through the washer and dryer the angora in the Shiny Cotton really came out to play.

I am pretty sure that TDQ stole the shirt while Mom wasn't looking, it isn't on the table any more!

Stats:

Pattern : Chloe's Vest
Yarn: Colourmart 3/15 Cotton/Angora/Merino/Viscose 174 grams, yarn held doubled for body and single for the lace insert.
Needles : US 6 and US 8
Mods: None really, was trying to get between the two smallest sizes so worked the second size and prayed the minimal shrinkage would work out.

Mom says there isn't any other knitting news.....she claims she was too busy doing everyone's chores to get any other knitting done!

Go with the flow

It is a bank holiday weekend here outside Columbus, Ohio, and let me tell you what a gorgeous weekend it has turned out to be!  Practically Perfect Weather for me.....mid sixties, blue skies, sunshine.

So what, you may ask, did I do with all that fabulous weather?

Hmmmmm......I worked on a plumbing issue, a computer issue, cleaned up cat barf from the coat rack (don't ask, it wasn't pretty.) and then I went to the gardening store,  picked out a few things, and played in the dirt, because by then it was too late to go hiking! (Ok for those of you who are not in Ohio it would be called a walk in the woods, but I say it is hiking so it is.)

Today had been designated for more yard work, and some got done but then I parked my rear end on a patio chair for an hour and enjoyed listening to the birds singing, kids down the street playing (well I didn't enjoy all of that, they got a little shrill but mine were worse at similar ages and they were still happy noises no matter what my dog might tell you about those poor children needing him to go rescue them!) and the sun on my face. There were so many other things I should have been doing, I should have felt guilty, but for once I didn't.  Not even a little tiny bit, well, maybe a tiny little bit, the least I should have done was grabbed some yarn and started on the next project but nothing that I saw in my stash really called to be that project and in the dive I ran across some yarn that really wanted to be a tank top for me to wear this summer, so I grabbed some needles to go with it and parked my rear end back in that chair for another half hour!

In case you are wondering, sitting in the sun is no place to be working on a mohair wrap, so the Purple Winter Wrap is still being ignored on the corner of my desk!  I did, briefly, consider working on the last clue of my mystery shawl but beads out on the patio didn't thrill me either!  Instead, I cast on for a vest from Interweave Knits Spring Issue.  Side note here, can someone tell me why this is called a vest and not a tank top? I can see all kinds of possibilities using that basic shape and various shawl starts for the center panel!
 
 I picked out some of my ColourMart 3/15 Shiny Cotton to make this one.  Depending on how much yarn I actually use I might make another in red, but I only have one full cone of that color left having used it to make two other shawls!

The mystery shawl needs it's final clue knit,

 and Lucy's Gift is blocking now,
 
so there was a little progress on the already started knitting.  I just seem to have a terrible bout of startitis, must be chronic, I think I have had it all year! But, I have decided to quit fighting it and just go with the flow, eventually something will get finished!

~M

If it's Sunday I should be home

It is that time of year again.  The time of year when every day is a whirlwind of activities and meetings, endings and setting up new beginnings.  Days where I have to hit the ground running and keep running all day.

It is also that time of year where the weather is unpredictable.  Want 80 degrees, we might have that for you, but watch out for the 50 degree days to go with it.  Rain, sunshine?  How's about both!  All the plants are growing like weeds, especially the weeds.

TDQ had things to do, I had things to do, the boys had things to do, and I made it to all but one so far!  Speaking of TDQ she wanted to show you part of her fancy formal updo from last week.  This summer she plans on chopping all that hair right off, so it might be the last formal updo for a while!

I missed blogging on Mother's Day.  All three got together and made me "Flower Cupcakes" which it turns out are a great way of showing me that when they want to all three can work together without arguing!  When I pointed that out they said it was a fluke and not likely to ever happen again.

There was some knitting during the two weeks I have been absent from my blog.

The Anniversary Mystery Shawl actually is an entire clue ahead of me, but I have been working on it when I can.  Here is clue 3, but Clue 5 was released yesterday.

As I was knitting on it, looking at where I am in the yarn, I was concerned that the magical properties of the color shifts in the yarn were not going to show at all.  Being a much larger skein than I need for the project it looked like there was a risk that really it is a mono-tone shawl......

Hmm, guess the colors shifted without my noticing!

Lucy's Gift is getting closer to the end, and the grey version of Winter Extravaganza made it there.  The purple version still needs an edge and two sleeves, so quite a lot of knitting!

I got some more cream yarn to make a replacement for the ColourMart Contest Shawl where I didn't plan ahead!  Webs is having their annual super sale and had some cones of Alpaca in cream, two jumped in  my cart and as I didn't want them to be lonely a couple of other things did too!



 
 

Now to figure out where to find the time to knit them!

~M

Blink and you will miss it

Spring has sprung outside Columbus, Ohio!  It seems that my garden went from nothing, to full of very healthy looking, bright green, weeds in the blink of an eye!  The daffodils have pretty much come, and gone again.  The woods hyacinths, which have spread beautifully over the past few years are hanging on just a little longer.
 
 (Except the ones that drifted into my lawn, they have been picked and stuffed in little vases all around the house each time I go out to mow.)

The mower died.

Well, not the whole mower, just the battery wouldn't hold the charge once I got everything plugged in where it was supposed to be.  Even rechargeable batteries give up after a while, and no-one had the right one in stock...not to mention not being able to get it out of the mower to replace it if they did.  The instructions that came with the mower made it sound so easy, push down here and pull out.  Wrong!  So I am back, for now, to doing the cord dance with the mower.

While I was out looking for batteries, and alternatives to doing the cord dance, a few plants found there way into my arms.
 
 TDQ was all set to do some potting up of a herb planter while I was weeding one corner of a flower bed when I heard a piercing shriek!

Obviously planters make good nesting spots!  As she moved the stack of planters to get the one she wanted from the bottom, one of the two birds that had been sitting in the top one flew up at her, scaring the living daylights out of a girl who didn't expect anything to be there.  She took a picture of the one who stayed in the planter,
 
 they are both gone now, obviously the neighborhood didn't really suit them!  However, there are at least three robins nests that are being actively manned in our garden.  It leads to some exciting times coming in and out of our gate as one is on the top of the fence post!

We have put in a few veggies,
 
 not many yet as I forgot to start any of our seeds inside this year so we are having to buy plants this time around.  So far just a few peppers and tomatoes, and the leeks that got trampled to death last year seem to be coming back, now to thin those starts and see if I can actually spend enough time playing with dirt this year to grow them properly!  I really hope I can, we have a fondness for Emergency Soup.

The red currants have already set a ton of fruit, we need to eat red currant jelly faster, I still have several jars left from last years harvest.

But on to knitting news...Did you miss me last week?  I missed me, next to nothing got done in the way of knitting!  It is that time of year again, when every school has end of year things that have to get done.  This month only sees it get worse, with Honors Nights and performances, picnics (I don't think I am going to be able to wrangle my way out of work to go to those, but I am going to try!) and dances.  Seemed like every time I had a few minutes I was separated from the majority of my knitting!

This week I got a little bit caught up, just in time too because Clue 3 of my mystery knit was published and printed yesterday.  Probably won't get knit until later in the week, but such is life around here right now!

I did get a few rows of the latest baby blanket, by the way, we have now discovered it is for a girl, but I am sticking with the single color this time around.  I think that for the next one I will do white and pink as the other baby I need to knit for is also a girl!  I don't know if I will pick who gets plain white and who gets two tone or let the pregnant moms duke it out.  LOL

I also got a wonderful gift in the mail. 
 
Well, bittersweet gift really because it is destined to be knit as a tribute piece for a sweet little ball of fur named Lucy, or LucyFur ..... Andrea, BadCat Designs, lost her companion this past March, right after she went to Iceland on a trip.    Lucy had helped with many a project that Andrea designed, sitting in the middle of wet shawls to pose for blocking photo's, or just sitting in Andrea's lap while she was knitting, so it was fitting that Andrea design a piece in her memory, and in memory of some of the things she saw while in Iceland.

I was supposed to be picking up stitches and working on the edge of my Purple Winter Extravaganza......instead, I starting my Lucy's Gift!

So what is on your needles this week?

~M

What I did and What I SHOULD have been doing!

The March Madness Weather seems to be continuing well into April in Ohio this year.  One day last week we were near (or at) 80 degrees, the next couple of days brought us a thirty degree temperature drop, heavy rains, blustery winds and according to one of my customers, snow! (Luckily it didn't stick!) Also luckily, even though I had planned on taking my patio plants back outside last weekend, I never quite got around to it, so they didn't suffer through the frosty nights and mornings!

In my last post I talked about how I hadn't listened to that voice in the back of my head and that I am going to run out of yarn long before I run out of knitting on a shawl.  The wonderful people at Colourmart did look, but they do not have more.  They (well Sue actually) have offered to color match my yarn if I send them some, but that seems like an awful lot of work for them to do because of my lack of planning, so I will be frogging back on that one.  Part of me, the part that doesn't want to put in an "after thought" lifeline and catch flying beads when I pull that thread, says just to forget it, pick a different yarn and start over.  Part of me says that either way those beads are going to fly around the house* and to just grin and bear it.

So far, I haven't listened to either of those parts of me and did what any reasonable knitter would do when faced with this dilemma.....

If you click the FO2013 tag on the side bar you will notice something.....there has been an awful lot of things started, but not much finished around Chez Yarn Diet recently.  I should have worked on my Some Kind of Wrap,
 
 or even worked a few more rounds on that Plushie Tardis that seems to have stalled about two thirds of the way up from the base.
 
 I could have worked on some socks, or even the repairs that needed to be done on some socks.



 
But, I didn't.

I could have put knitting on hold and done some more weeding in the garden,

or dug over where our vegetables are going to grow.  I could have got the paint out and finished painting the trim in the laundry room.

I could have organized the bookshelves in the basement as none of us has done a good job of putting things back where they belong and over the winter an awful lot of new books came into the house that need to be put away properly, not just stacked on top of shelves haphazardly.

I should have cut the grass when it wasn't raining, but at least for that one I have an excuse....when you have a battery operated electric lawn mower it is all very well plugging the charger into the mower, you still have to plug the other end into an outlet on the wall or you will still have a "low battery" mower, which doesn't go very far for that first mow of the season.

Did I do any of those things?

Nope.

What is it that I think a reasonable knitter does when faced with a yarn dilemma, and the multitude of unfinished projects I have scattered around my house?

I think she casts on some more!

We have another baby blanket, it was supposed to be two tone but the ultra sound** wasn't able  tell for sure if the second color should be blue or pink so I am keeping it simple and knitting all the way through with white.
 
And...
 

 
The Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2013 in some of Lara's Creations amazing ColourWave yarn.  I am in no danger of running out of yarn on this one, pattern calls for a little under 900 yards and I have 1260 to play with!

While I am thinking about it I have been meaning to tell everyone about these nifty keen, super cool, totally rad blocking wires I am dying to try out!  (Maybe if I ever finish anything I can!) Inspinknitty, who I have no affiliation with, has these flexible wires that will hold curves! Seriously no kinks, no fuss, no muss...ok now I am starting to sound like an infomercial!  But, seriously, go check them out!

What's on your needles?  Finish anything fun to knit lately? With the attention span I seem to have right now I should be looking for a new project in about five minutes.

~M

*I actually have a plan for the flying bead issue, put the whole thing in a ziplock bag and just have the end of the thread I am pulling on sticking out, that way the beads will all stay in the bag when I am done ripping!
**No, I am not pregnant, but there is a bout of pregnancy going on around me, this blanket will not be joining the collection I have started in my Baby Blankets through Time project, but it is a handy tag to use to keep all the blanket ideas together.  In case you are wondering, that pattern is a modification of Anna Dalvi's Pierina Shawl.