Not So Visible Progress

 In the not so visible progress I managed to start the next round of a bespoke shawl for me.  I am only using “luxury yarn” from my stash.  I am 3 full skeins in with skeins 4 and 5 currently being added.  So far I have used a merino and silk blend for 2 skeins.  One skein of llama.  Currently being added are 2 skeins of 100% silk yarn.  The center panel is Tunisian Simple Stitch.  The first 2 color blocks are a half double crochet.  The current round is Tunisian crochet in the round. Honestly it went much faster once the stitches were picked up off the half double crochet round.  I am not sure how big it will become.  Whether or not, I will add more yarn to the project. Or call it quits once I go through the current skeins that I have picked out.  Only time will tell, and of course more crocheting.  

I added a couple of more rows to a charity scarf tonight.  All progress stopped when the television shows became too interesting. 

Of course 30 minutes of house work and organizing required a 2 hour nap.  The antibiotics are just zapping my spoon level to the basement.  I even sat down to sort the silverware.  I have to say it was a little awkward, although everything was put in the proper place.  

My new Apple Watch is a bit more jumpy than I expected.  Putting away the plates triggered an alarm for loud noise. Excuse me have they ever had a baby crying in their ears nonstop? Smashing a bug that landed on my arm,  elicited an alarm for “did you fall? Do you need medical assistance?”. Cleaning and organizing has had multiple alarms for me to sit down immediately and rest.  At this point I’m not even sure if I bought a watch or a portable mother hen.  I have been using smart watches for a long while.  I have never had one this jumpy.  Of course my last watch refused to give me the temperature in Fahrenheit, one day it decided all it would do with Celsius no matter what I did. When it started dying I gave up brand loyalty and switched to an Apple Watch.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the watch less jumpy? I would love to hear your thoughts.  

Reorganizing Again

 I got a new mushroom shaped ottoman for the knitting room.  It has enough storage space for most of my very small warping yarns.  This in turn gave me room to swap out to shelves that store yarn and projects.  The warping cones went to the small bookshelf and the kits to the more roomy bookshelf.  The advantage to this is that when I want a larger cone of yarn, I will not have a bunch of cones falling on my feet.  I also have a larger area to put kits of yarn. This makes them more visible.  

To tell you the absolute truth is that I am searching my yarn stash for a certain shade of brown and yellow in a luxury fiber like  silk and linen blend or just silk or maybe something more exotic, before I search the bins.  This of course is for my bespoke shawl.  So far I have not found neither.  So the bins it is for some stash diving. 

I also put away a slew of books and started a Bookman’s bag.  All totaled it took all of 30 minutes.  Which was wonderful, because I only had 30 minutes of spoons.  

I also got 6 inches into a broken rib charity scarf from the 3 pound cone of yarn.  This will be scarf number 5, with at least 15 to 20 more to go.  At least when I pair the yarn on the cone with a worsted weight yarn I can use U.S. size 13 knitting needles so it goes extremely fast.  

I am wishing everyone a wonderful week. 

It’s Finally Finished for the Second Time

 About 10 years ago I finished a one of a kind shawl with the mohair spun by Kathy Withers.  I did not have a chance ro wear it before one of Eric’s aides took a scissors to the beautiful lace. Less than 24 hours after completing the shawl. It was placed in a canvas shopping bag to wait the needed repairs.  In his opinion all I was allowed to knit in my own home was hand knit items for kids in need.  This was the first but not the last thing he cut up or outright stole.  

Well he is long gone. 

Fast forward a few years and I could not get anyone to mend it for me. No matter how much I was willing to pay. I did however get some pointers.  I was really scared that I would ruin it.  

Fast forward to today.  I finally got the nerve to do the repair on this hand spun mohair lace yarn spun by Kathy Withers’s and a pattern designed by me.  Really I just wanted to clear my backlog of repairs, UFO’s and long ago purchased projects.  I pick out the right shade of thread. I did not have any yarn leftover, let’s just say I won at yarn chicken. I secured the thread and trimmed the end. I started weaving everything together. I was so tense that my shoulders throbbed. I carefully did tiny French Knots to gather the tiny clipped yarn. I did the final thread tie off and clipped the excess thread.  

Tomorrow it will get washed in Soak. Then blocked. It should be ready to wear this weekend. 

Below is a picture of the repair work.  The picture below that is halfway through the repair work. I know it’s not perfect. I did my best.  You can also not see it from 5 feet away, which is my gold standard for knitting boo boo’s.