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

I said I would post before the end of June

As I sort of promised that I would show you some more of the 2014 Christmas knits before we got to the end of June 2015, I suppose I had better hurry up and post some pictures and stats before the entire month gets away from me!

Here we have TFB's (what is becoming traditional) Striped Christmas Hoodie. 

He wore holes in the last one and tried patching the holes himself with iron-on patches that I had stuffed in a drawer to repair the holes in knees of jeans for TOB.  The plan didn't work so well, for a number of reasons.

The first reason being that the patch, as it was made for denim jeans, didn't match the knitted red and grey fabric of his hoodie at all.

The second being he hadn't actually ever been taught the finer points of using an iron!  I will forever have an iron pattern in my dining room table!

But, back to the Hoodie.  It is a standard top-down-raglan cardigan with a zipper, two pockets and a hood.  He wore it most days until the temperatures starting rising to our Mid-West Summer normals, and even this past week when we had more Pacific Northwest temperatures and rain it got pulled out of the drawer and worn for parts of the day.

I know it sounds strange to the non-knitters in the world, but you know, it sort of warms the heart when socks and sweaters get worn so much they develop holes and thin spots.  Shows me that all the hours and effort I put in to making them were appreciated!

~M

Back Log

As I have mentioned before,  my knitting time is down to next to nothing these days, but luckily so was my blogging time so I actually have a back log of knits to tell you about.

Here we have TOB's (The Other Brother's) Christmas Sweater.
 
 It is really hard to tell in the picture but it is a dark green Henley-ish sort of thing with non-matching buttons (because he is not matchy matchy in anything!) and sleeves that "stay up past my wrists" (his request) so that he can wash his hands a million times a day!


I started by following a pattern for this, then gave up as the proportions didn't really fit the nearly 16 year old body they were going to be placed on.  the beauty of a top down raglan style sweater is you can try it on as you go and just divide for sleeves when it feels right and stop when it is long enough!

TDQ just looked over my shoulder and informed me that you all think that I am dead or a zombie because I haven't blogged in so long!

Changing jobs was probably the worst thing I ever did for what I consider my real life...you know the one that involves spending time with my family and friends, or knitting!  Many days I get to see the kids for less than 30 minutes before it is time for us to head off to bed or out the door in the morning.  I keep saying that things will normalize, but I am at the point where I am wondering if this is the new normal!

If I get the chance I will show you TFB's Christmas sweater sometime before the end of June!

~M

Quiet on the MidWest Front

Did you think I had fallen off the face of the planet?

That I had given up knitting needles and taken up some other form of addiction?

Or something more sinister? Or depressing?

I know I worried my friends, my email box was filled with notes, some of which went along the lines of "you don't even have to type anything, just hit reply so I know you are still alive, if not ok".

It has been a rough 6 months.  And, really, that is all you get to hear about it.

If it wasn't for the fact that it has been 6 months I wouldn't even have any knitting to show you!  I wish I could say it was because I have been working on test knits for books (I have but nothing that extensive) or secret knitting rather than some weeks it being an accomplishment for me to knit one row on a sock!

Luckily, there is a little bit of a back log of knits now, after all Christmas knitting did get done although not as much as in prior years and there is a new pattern from Andrea to talk about!

But when last we spoke I was working on my "Copy Cat Kelpie" which involved a yarn in a colorway called Vincent and the Doctor.

The pattern was another one of Andrea's, a Moebious that we had knit as part of a group project.  Another knitter had used this yarn and I instantly fell in love and needed one for myself!  As yarn wasn't in my budget for that right then, I bemoaned my lot and suddenly it arrived in my mailbox courtesy of a friend.  I have to keep stealing the finished scarf from TDQ, she loves it as much as I do, so I have taken to hiding it...but I won't say where, I think she stalks the blog when I am not looking!

But, I mentioned there was a new pattern to talk about!  One I haven't actually finished knitting, but that is more about my reluctance to be as free spirited as I should and just run with some randomness!

Andrea has a pattern in the next Knitting Traditions magazine, Margarita's Coverlet.  As with all test knits, a select group of us got to try out the charts and read through the pattern long before it will hit the stands and we started making hexegons.

The whole idea was to use up those ends of yarn from making socks, join them together and make a blanket.  Andrea has very clear instructions about making different sizes, from crib blanket to bed coverlet.  I dove right in and started knitting with the leftovers from Christmas socks past.

 And created the first "flower"

 But rather than continue adding hexes to the outside of the flower, my mind wandered to quilts.
 
Specifically a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt (which truth be told is my second favorite quilt style, my favorite is the Double Wedding Ring, but I am not up to knitting one of those!)

I should have done some math first though, even if I make a smaller blanket, and not something big enough for my bed I will be knitting something on the order of 127 hexes before I am done!

The individual hexes go pretty quickly.  Cracker knitting really, you know, you can't just have one!  But they got put aside in favor of other Christmas knits and then.....Well, I still have a lot of knitting to do!  I lost a lot of knitting time the past few months, maybe by next year I will have the finished project to share. When I get there, Amanda has promised to sew in the last three yarn ends for me!  :)

~M

In which little to no knitting was accomplished

I swear, by all the yarn in my stash (and there is a quite a bit in there) that one way or another I am going to get this work thing organized and running such that I am not wandering home at nearly bed time to a group of starving children.  Not that the children can't feed themselves, they are used to having to fend for themselves every now and then, but when the menu has something on it that they don't know how to cook, or would prefer to wait for me to cook so that we can eat together, coming home so late really pushes dinner time too close to bedtime for everyone!

About the only knitting time I have had is when TDQ needed dropped off an hour before I needed to get to work and during our one hour of television time yesterday.

Which is a two paragraph way of saying...the only finished object to show you is a little one!

To try out some different center starts, or practice on them if you already have a favorite, Andrea of Bad Cat Designs has posted a couple of small doily patterns on her group page.  This is the 8 wedge doily, knit in a laceweight cotton held double.

I blocked it after our one hour television stint last evening, so it is a little wonky (It was late for me!) but a very enjoyable quick knit to make me feel like I accomplished something this week!

I got another pattern repeat finished on my Exploding Tardis Copy Cat Kelpie.  I will need to keep a close eye on this one when it is done, TDQ has already announced that she is stealing it!

And finally, I got through the increase section of the hood on the sweater for TFB. 
 
Still have most of the hood, the zipper band and sleeves to go, and then to find a pattern for TOB's Christmas Sweater.  TDQ has declared she doesn't want another sweater (mostly because she hasn't out grown any in a while so has several, unlike the boys who keep getting taller and taller) but has put in an order for "several pairs of socks, warm and toasty, a neck thingy (she means a cowl) and mittens.

Sounds like I should be knitting and not blogging to me!

Although, with the sale she has going, I might just run over to Lara's Etsy store and drool all over my desk looking at yarn! If you run over there quickly there might be some lovelies left for you to purchase!

~M

As it isn't Wool Gathering Yarn it doesn't count as cheating, right?

Last week I said that I was not going to cast on a project with any of my haul from Wool Gathering until I had at least one of the sweaters I am working on off the needles.  Technically I stuck to my word....

Do you remember late last year and earlier this year when the people who Knit Along with Andrea Jurgrau (aka BadCat Designs) were working on Infinity Scarves?  I faithfully used up yarn I had in my stash to complete the projects.

I knit the necklaces.

Some Lichens.

 
A couple of Martiniques.


The Phi Cowl was the latest addition, and I have one of those. and the yarns for the second because it is just so much fun to knit!

But all this time I have only had one Kelpie.

To make matters worse, during the knitalong, one of the knitters used a yarn that I had looked at and thought was pretty, but then wasn't as impressed with the projects I saw made from it.  But then I saw hers and I knew I had to have one just like it.

Unfortunately, there was no yarn budget right then to pick up a skein and knit away, so I cried about it to a friend a little bit and moved on.

Right until the mail man delivered a skein of that very yarn!

The friend has asked a couple of times how the knitting was progressing, and truth be told, I for some reason find this particular pattern stitch to be the hardest of all the Infinity projects.  It seems no matter how hard I try I always end up with the wrong number of stitches and the pattern just not lining up either side of the equator unless I cast on with stitch markers.  (I love how cute stitch markers are, but really except for beginning of round markers I really don't like using them in my knitting!)

Three  failed attempts to cast on without them and I dug through my supplies to find them again. Just like the last time I knit this pattern I had to use them, but as I soon as I did everything fell into place and I have the starts of a beautiful infinity scarf!

As it is not Wool Gathering yarn, technically I did not break my word...and as I finished the body portion of the red sweater, briefly it had no needles in it, so that means in two ways, technically, I obeyed my own rules!

The Kelpie Scarf is going into the car, in the hopes I will get a lunch break and some knitting time, I am back to the Red Sweater, hood next I think then the doldrums that are sleeves!

~M

Gathering Wool, Silk, Copper, Yak, Bison

After a week that just wouldn't slow down enough for me to catch my breath for even a minute, we did actually make it to Wool Gathering!

I needed the fun trip, not thinking about work, or household chores or even what to have for dinner. (This weeks menu is short one meal, got any suggestions?  I am clean out of ideas!)

As usual, we toured the tents once, picking out ideas of what I would like to buy.(I save all year for this event, stashing nickles and dimes in a savings account and then taking them out of the bank as dollars when the time is right.)  Some things I knew before we left home I wanted, just a matter of picking colors.  Some things were spur of the moment decisions.  But the entire plan for the day was to shop til my money ran out and feel no regrets for what I bought.

It was a gorgeous day, not too hot, not too cold, not raining, and although we ended up parking a little bit of a walk across the road and down a field it was all good until I went to make my first purchase and had no money in my pocket! (When I got the cash I was in my work clothes, smart lady that I am at times rather than put the money in my pocket I put it in the glove box of the car...where it was still sitting!) We took the walk back to the car, got the cash and walked back up the field, across the street, past the batting cages, slippery slide and vendor parking to get back to the tents.

First purchase was some kettle dyed purple superwash.
The lady that dyed it was a newcomer to being a vendor at Wool Gathering, and she was very interested in what I was planning to make (not sure yet, this was an impulse buy) and in asking for finished object photo's. I am sure it will end up being something for TDQ, those are her colors, but if you have pattern suggestions leave me a comment.  It is 745 yards of sport weight yarn.

Next up was the Fiber Optic booth.
I had been eyeing the PaintBox sets last year, but didn't buy any, this year I helped myself to two!  Both in the same gradient of Espresso-Crimson-Gold.
  I see a shawl for a certain KAL in those colors in my future!

Having had so much fun knitting the PhiCowl in copper and laceweight merino, when I saw more of the Habu Copper/Bamboo yarn I had to get some to try it in a different colorway.
When I was paying for that the Grignasco Knits MerinoSilk jumped into my hands all by itself.  (It is even worse than you think, I didn't get pictures of the set I gifted to a friend that I met up with long enough to say Hi and Goodbye to.  She has been going through a difficult pregnancy so I picked her up some as once the knitting is started you really don't have to think to hard about it and everyone deserves something really pretty to make their day.)

The Unicorn Tails were just so cute I couldn't pass them up!
Not quite sure what I will do with them, but I am sure that something will come to mind.  I don't know this for sure, but I think it is a very clever way of packaging and selling those ends of yarn that aren't quite enough to make up a full skein and there are so many patterns in the world that either lend themselves to stripes, or require just a few yards of a different color, that many knitters will pick them up for that alone!


I stopped by the Knitted to a T Booth long enough to pick up two skeins of Heavenly, which is Bison and Merino in fingering weight. 
200 yards of Purple People Eater and Bare Naked will either make some fingerless gloves or little neck warmers for me and TDQ for the winter.

Luxury Sock, is handwritten on the bands for this yarn, and it does not lie! It is a blend of Alpaca, Silk, Yak, Camel, Cashmere and Nylon. It is so soft. and decadent to the hands! This was another impulse buy, so no idea what it will grow up to be.
  (Yes, I know there are two skeins there, a third was already gifted and there is a plan for the second, but you know, itsasecret.)

At this point, I was nearly out of spending money, but I held aside enough for just a few last second purchases.

Soap!
We all love the soap, so a few bars made their way home with us, and no trip to Youngs Dairy would be complete without cheese and ice cream!
(Sorry, no photo's of the ice cream, but I will tell you that two giant scoops each along with deep fried cheese curds made us all glad that we eat healthy* most of the time!  Ice Cream for dinner may get me thrown out of the Mom Union though so don't tell anyone!)

Now the question is, with all the craziness in my life, will I actually get to knit with this bounty?

Of course I will, but first I need to do some more work on these and get them off my needles!


Today was spent cleaning house, and all the chores I avoided doing yesterday while Wool Gathering.  So far, but only barely, I have restrained from casting on anything new.  Let's see if I can hold onto the thoughts of finishing one of those two sweaters before giving in to the urge!

~M
*We call it 10%.  Ninety percent of the time we eat very healthy, lots of fresh fruits, veggies, organic, wholesome food. Ten percent of the time we throw caution to the wind and eat whatever we feel like.  Truth be told our 10% days are few and far between, but calling them 2% or 1% days seems rather limiting.  Anyone who has ever been on a diet will tell you, there is nothing you want so much as those things you can't have...so for us, nothing is ever truly on the "you can't have it" list.  It might be on the "you can't have it today" list, but if you truly want to have Sea Salt Caramel and Black Walnut Ice Cream in a giant waffle cone with sprinkles and chocolate, you can.  :)