Knitmas in July

 I do admit that I am knitting a project out of my normal wheelhouse.  I am currently knitting Knitmas in July designed by Becky Beagell with a kit by Nomadic Knits and yarn by Emma’s Yarn. In fingering weight yarn.  Yes, you read this right, fingering weight yarn on U.S. size 6 / 4mm knitting needles, no less.  

I started this project 11 days late. Yes, it has been one of those months.  It’s only July 12th and I am ready for August.  Although I still hope to have the shawl finished by the end of the month. I made better progress yesterday.  Today I only accomplished 5 rows.  If you want a challenge this is it.  The first several rows convinced me that I had an easy pattern to make.  Then I got to the second column of directions.  I have not done today’s twist stitch in over 20 years.  I had to watch the tutorial to get it right.  I also had to tink back a difficult row because I forgot to pay attention to the color change.  I did get it to look okay.  I am taking notes and keeping track with moveable tape.  

There are a lot of color changes.   Oh, the ends to weave in.  I am sure if Dr. Seuss were a knitter he would have written a book about this pattern.  I also can’t be tired when I knit this one.  Wish me luck. 

Oops I Forgot

 With as hectic as this month has been, I forgot that I have a Christmas in July knit along. I started today after lunch and got through the set up rows and 40 other rows. Now Let’s see if I can get it done by the end of the month. Wish me luck. It’s fingering weight Yarn on US size 6 needles. By the way, It seems to be a two row pattern.  The first color change is coming up. No pictures yet. The yarn feels yummy too. 

An update

 Last week has left me physically exhausted and drained.  It has also caused a flare up.  So that equals a lot not getting done.  I hope the flare up ends soon.  

113

 The best thing about summer and really warm days is, that I can wash a pair of mittens at noon.  Put them in the garage to dry.  Then they will be warm and toasty for bed time.  By the way our high in Tucson was 113 F  Or 45 C., today.

Tomorrow will be almost as hot so it is a day for knitting and spinning all day.  

A Travel Hack

 We have all been there.  We have checked into our hotel rooms.  Opened the cute little bar of soap and put it in the little tray provided for the soap. Used the soap and placed it flat on the soap dish only to come back later to the soap glued to the dish.  I stumbled upon this hack quite by accident.  It has worked in 2 different hotels over 10 days, with 2 different soap dishes.  It is even husband approved.

After washing your hands, simple put the soap on its side like in the picture below. The first time you try it you might have to exert some light pressure to make the soap stick.  After that you will be golden for the rest of your trip.  

L.A. Is Fine….

 After being away from L.A. for over 31 years ago.  We found  that the city is fine. Also more crowded and a bit on the run down side.  Everything was so expensive.  We went back for almost a week. My mom died early in the week. There was initially, some misunderstanding on the date of the funeral. So we had a few extra days to hang out. 

We hung out with some family and friends.  We tried a few new places to eat.  Drove around a bit. Most surprising of all is that I did not need to buy any yarn, to do any retail therapy.  We did not stop at one Yarn store. Although we did have a trip to one of the local malls.  Considering the week I handled it very well.  

There was a huge sense of relief when we crossed back into Arizona.   The drive was uneventful.  We did some chores when we got home, but mostly rested.  Tomorrow I will finish unpacking.  Start the laundry. Do some errands.  Life goes on.  

Time to Tink Another Project

 This project will be tinked because I am not liking the way it is turning out.  See where the double pointed knitting needle is, you can see areas where both strands of yarn were not caught in the stitch.  The project consists of 2 strands of lace weight yarn, one is mohair/ silk and the other is wool. Then I am going to spin it into 1 a two ply yarn.  

I am going to try my new plying tool called iPLY from i spin in the United Kingdom.  This should make it easier to ply on bad hand days.  This part may not happen today. All three of my spinning wheels are currently on other projects.  Then I will start the project over because I like the overall design of the shawl.