Another Scarf Finished

 I finally figured out a very good solution for the 3 pound cone of fluffy fingering weight yarn.  I combined it with a double knit. I then used a U.S. size 13 knitting needle.  The first’s scarf came in at just over 50 inches long.  The colors are terra cotta and a variegated blue.  It looks and feels wonderful.   I am sure a teenager will love it.  

I also spent a little time organizing yarn stuff again today.  The priority projects to finish are on the fireplace.  Teaching bags were emptied and sorted.  Some patterns went to the giveaway pile.  I also found time for a lot of rest too.  

I still have not found the missing fingerless gloves. I really hope that they show up   They just can’t walk off inside a silver Della Q bag, can they?

The Number of the Day is 3

 As in 3 loads of laundry finished, now we are not counting folding the laundry. That is because “No laundry shall be folded before it’s time.”  1 bag of trash and 2 bags of recycling out which equals 3.  And most importantly 3 chores finished around the house.  Alas, that did not include my knitting.  I did not complete any knitting projects today.  I can say that I am almost finished with another scarf.  

The day also hit an interesting note. The grocery store up the hill from us has decided to do an upscale makeover.  Really does anyone really need an upscale bohemian grocery store when they are looking for their Orville Redenbacher popcorn? I looked all over the store for it. Turns out the country’s best selling popcorn is no longer good enough for them. I also got the you aren’t the right fit for our grocery store look. All they had was some upscale $15.00 a bag popcorn from back east.  They have also gotten rid of most of the made in Tucson or Arizona products. It’s a-shame because most of the hotels drop their guests off at the mall to do some shopping.  In my humble opinion people flying in from the east coast don’t want to buy, what they can get at home cheaper to give as gifts.  Something made in Tucson or Arizona would sell faster. 

They also did something that I have never seen before at any meat or fish counter. They weighed my purchase, but did not print the tag. Then they wrapped up my purchase in a lot of butcher paper, more than they use to use. Weighed my purchase again and then proceeded to print the tag. So what ever the meat or fish cost per pound, I was paying the same price for the paper per pound. Most stores figure in the cost of the paper into overhead, which is fair. That really has me tempted to look up the state law on that. Maybe even proceed with it. 

 My usual summer sundress with an oversized cover up and silly socks was not appropriate wear by the looks that I got from the staff.  It’s summer in Tucson, we do not get dressed to the 9’s to go grocery shopping.  Come to think about it, we never get dressed to the 9’s to shop in the winter either.  Are they going to be disappointed if they expect us to dress up to shop.  

The popcorn solution was to make an online order at Walmart to be delivered tomorrow.  It’s worth paying the delivery fee not to leave the house and get some extra rest.  I might have over done it today.  

TTFN

Tinking Yet Again

 I tinked another scarf today.  I did not like how it was turning out.  So I combined the original terracotta yarn with a variegated blue yarn which was slightly thicker.  It has a distinct southwestern flair. Then I went from a U.S. size 9 knitting needle to a 13.  I started another Broken Rib scarf.  I am past the point in the terracotta yarn, when I decide to tink it out.  

I am so glad that I made the decision midway through the project to change it.  Even if I have to say so myself. It looks so much better.  The combination of the yarn and the stitch pattern adds so much depth to the scarf.  Even better is that I have 3 more skeins of the blue yarn.  That will be 4 scarfs in total for this color combination.  Since the terracotta is on a 3 pound cone I will have to look for more coordinating yard. I am beginning to wonder just how many scarfs that I will get out of 3 pounds of fingering weight yarn.  

Below is a picture of today’s progress after tinking.  Just in case you were wondering, the scarf is currently 31 inches long.  

That is not all I accomplished today.  I actually got some deep cleaning done too. I did not quite fill a full recycling bag, however John felt it was a good start.  I still have not found my purse gloves. The decision has been made to start a copy of both pairs.  Maybe then I will find them.  

Pictures

 I finally had time today to take some pictures of my finished projects.  These are my favorite 3 out of the 6 completed projects. The silk scarf and wool mittens are for me. The woolen mittens did shrink, but not felt after a hot bath followed by hanging in a very hot garage.  Who am I kidding, it’s summer in Tucson the garage is always hot this time of year. Yes, I actually make things for myself very occasionally. The cotton scarf is for charity, it going to my favorite children’s clothing bank.

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. 

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.  

A Slow Summer Day

 It’s been one of those days.  I am a lot on the tired side. So spinning did not happen.  A little Tunisian crochet project saw a little action on an oak* shawl, I am working on the center panel right now.  I also found time to work on a pounder scarf in progress, just because I needed some left handed knitting time.  I find alternating between knitting right and left handed takes pressure off my right hand.  

Because I have finished, but sadly not photographed them all yet. I have found space to move some knitting projects from the sewing room to the knitting/ spinning room.  I even found a few UFO’s. Imagine that, me having multiple UFO’s.  I think I will take the basket off the shelf and just stack the projects on the shelf and use the basket elsewhere.  The basket just uses up to much shelf space.

Some time in the far future my plan is to separate the sewing room from all yarn. Wish me luck on that one.

*oak is a one of a kind project that I will be making for myself.  This is usually because the yarn is no longer available or the yarn is too expensive for most knitters.  I like to keep the price of yarn down on most of my patterns.  Fiber arts can tend to get expensive, thus seem too exclusive for many.  Also the more expensive the yarn in a pattern is, the less likely the pattern will sell. 

I Found More

 Just as I was seeing the end of the UFO pile. I found more UFO’s on the shelves.  I was just doing a bit of organizing and peaking.  I found several more shawls that were only partially finished.  So my UFO pile just got a little bigger.  I guess I will not be starting any new projects anytime soon.  

If at First You Don’t Succeed.

I just love the color way and feel of this Queensland Collection Perth in Bay of Fires yarn. Please be forewarned that this yarn might not be in your local yarn shop anymore.  The explanation is quite simple really. I tried five different patterns with this yarn. The yarn was not happy with the previous patterns.  It was really saying I know what I want to be. You are not understanding what I want.  So after each failure the whole project bag was put in timeout.  Yes, sometimes yarn does need a time out.  Maybe, I just did not know what to do with the yarn.  

I need to start a different UFO,  I have completed 3 projects in 2 days. I still have to make time to take the pictures. I believe I am up to 5 pictures that need to be taken. It has been crazy busy since we got home from our last family trip. 

Well last night everything changed.  I tried knitting the project that was on the knitting needles.  The yarn said no.  So I frogged the work.  Using U.S. size 10 1/2 knitting needles and not the recommended U.S. size 1 to 3 knitting needles I charged ahead using a slightly different cast on count of My Doodling Shawl pattern, available on Ravelry.  By the third row the yarn was sing, she finally got me.  So I kept knitting until I needed a longer knitting needle.  Believe it or not I did not have a circular knitting needle in 10.5 by 60 inches long.  So out came the LYKKE interchangeable knitting needles to the rescue.  By the way don’t the copper knitting needles look good with the yarn?  

I don’t know how big the shawl will be.  I have 3 skeins of Bay of Fire at 437 yards each. Again I think the shawl will make the decision for me. This should make a great summer weight shawl for those cold places. 

Tuesday

 Meta has changed the rules yet again.  I am only being give the option of one Facebook page. So you will find me on Handmadebysheri on Facebook.  All my posts will go there in the very near future.  

Now that today’s business is taken care of. We go on to the real stuff.   I finally finished a UFO today, with the exception of weaving in the 2 ends. So you will see it tomorrow.

My new gloves shrunk as hoped for with the exception of 2 small areas by my fingers.  Since it supposed to be 110f on Sunday, I will try shrinking them one more time.  The garage should be nice and hot.  Along with the water temperature.

In looking at all my featherweight spindles today I have discovered that they are all between 10 and 29 grams.  I can’t believe that I did not realize that I had a 10 grams drop spindle.  Gee, that is awfully light. 

The Gloves WereTo Big

 When I wore my new gloves this week I was quite dismayed that they were about an inch too wide and let in a lot of cold air. The pattern said that they were meant for an adult hand. Apparently my hands are too small.  I do wish pattern designers would put the across the palm measurement for sizing.  So as you can see in the picture below I soaked them in hot water with a hot water rinse.  Careful not to agitate them.  I did not want them to felt.  Then I put them in a very hot garage to dry.  

If the easy method does not work, I will then have to steek them. I will put them on and put several marks where the seam will go.  Then I will baste them on the sewing machine, making sure I have a very secure seam.  Then it will be time for the surger.  I think the first run through will be without the blade.  I will cut them by hand. Wish me luck in this endeavor.  

Lost Gloves

 The only thing to do when I lose my hand knit fingerless gloves after 2 weeks of searching for them is to make a new pair.  To that end as of tonight I am 1 1/2 way through knitting a replacement pair. I know for a fact that the only way that they will come out of hiding is to have competition from a new pair of fingerless gloves.  

How is your weekend going?

Trying Something New

 I am trying something new and different.  In the past 25 years of knitting I have always had multiple projects going at the same time.  Currently I have at least 5 scarves, 2 hats, various shawls and mittens on the knitting needles. It can be so overwhelming at times I just start a new project for a change up.  

Today, I started to try something new.  For me it’s revolutionary.  I have never done this before, well really after my first scarf.  I really wanted to start a new shawl today.  I currently have 4 different shawls on knitting needles.  I decided to try to finish all the shawls on my knitting needles / crochet hooks before I wind yarn to start another shawl.  Most of my friends only have a couple of projects going at once.  Some even only buy more yarn when they finish a project, this will not happen for me for so many reasons.  

So instead of winding more yarn to start another project, I put the project bag back on the shelf.  I pulled out a shawl in progress.  With plans to finish it and several other shawl projects before I wind yarn into cakes for the next shawl.  

It’s probably not conducive to a neat house having 10 or more UFO’s on the fireplace waiting for my attention.  Not to mention a few baskets worth in the knitting room. This does include weaving projects that have not been completed.  

So wish me luck. I will try my best to finish most of the projects, before I start new a new one.  I am trying to see if it’s more efficient to only have one of anything going at once.  I might not make it. I will at least give it a trial run before I can pass judgment on the plan.  By August I should have enough data for a conclusion.  

Yesterday

 Yesterday was a busy day.  I started out in the garden cutting back a bush that had gotten all branch very little green.  Then it was laundry and chores.  

The good news is that I have completed enough UFO’s to send a laundry basket back to the laundry room.  Yes I was seeing what I needed to finish and organized things as I went.  Thus the knitting room got a small reorganization.

Knitting waited until dinner time.  Then I finished 2 charity projects,  1 hat and 1 pounder scarf.   Then I cast on another pounder scarf and hat for my charity projects.  

Pictures Taken

 

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures. In the above picture, there is one handwoven scarf, One crocheted scarf, and four knitted scarves. Also included our two of the three mud rugs that I have recently finished. They are now all logged in to ravelry so I have completed 16 out of 24 anticipated projects this year for 67% completed so far this year. They are all being put in the appropriate bags to leave the house.

I have had a lot of health issues this year, so I have not been doing much Crafting. I have mostly been resting this year, however, as I start to feel better, I’m starting to get things done and I’m going after my WIP’s So I can have a sense of accomplishment. I continue to empty the WIP basket. So this is a good start and as I get as I feel better, I’m hoping to accomplish more. 

All the above projects were stashed dive projects. So no new yarn was bought to complete them. Although  I still seem to be losing the stash war..

I still have good days and bad days. So some days, I don’t accomplish anything at all.

I hope everybody has a good holiday season and enjoy your friends and family.

*WIP is works in progress.  

Cooking More and other things

I have been feeling well enough to do more things like cooking. In the past 2 weeks I have cooked 5 times which resulted in 9 homemade dinners for my husband and myself.  The home cooking is great and some creative recipes have come into our dining rotation.  A new favorite is Scottish Loch Trout, which is similar in appearance to salmon but with an entirely different flavor and texture.  I am happy to report that the Scottish Loch Trout tasted even better the second night.  

You have guessed that there is a down side to all this cooking.  Yes, there is a downside. I plan my shopping trips early in the morning.  Then after the food is put away I take a 2 to 3 hour nap.  Wake up in time to start dinner and nap again while dinner is cooking.  

I am also working on a small shawl.  It has a 7 row repeat.  I find that since I am on the second skein of linen yarn I can only do 1 repeat of 7 rows a day.  That’s ok with me.  The shawl is slowly getting finished.  Any progress is good progress. 

As for house work it is all done in 5 to 10 minutes at a time followed by resting or a nap.  Sometimes I wonder if the old energizer bunny will ever return.  Other times I am grateful that I can get so much accomplished between my many rest and nap breaks throughout the day.  

Completed Projects

 These are my completed projects for the week as of yesterday.  The 4 blue skeins of yarn are going to my sister. The 2 small skeins are going into my hand spun yarn stash.  The 4 skeins of pink were responsible to compress some of the air out of the yarn to make it more suitable for weaving.  The green skein of yarn is going into a new pattern design.  The hat is part of my holiday knitting for the kids clothing bank here in Tucson that I am supporting.  That would be 6 more completed projects for the year.   

Now to pit everything away or get it ready for mailing tomorrow.  I hope to have a big stack to bring to the post office.  It’s always good when things leave the house.   

Finally

 I finally got 3 low hanging projects completed.  One project in each of the following categories: knitting, Tunisian crochet and quilting.  I added 3 more stitch markers to the counting vase.  Without further ado here they are.  The quilt is a present so I can’t show you the rest until the quilt is given.  The scarfs are a head start on next year’s holiday gifts.  

Projects by the Dozens.

 This is the year to complete as many UFO’s as possible.   Every where I look in the sewing and knitting rooms I  seem to find more UFO’s without even looking.  I just seem to be scattered trying to finish everything at once.  Right now I have one on the sewing machine with two more lined up, meaning under two hours to finish each project.  One on the espinner, a little over halfway done with the first spin, then plying, hot bath and thwack. Too many on Tunisian Crochet Hooks and knitting needles to count. 

Did I mention I still have to write the directions for a beginner weaving class on mudd rugs?  That will be two different pdf’s. 

Now if I could only be more organized.  Wait a minute, if I was more organized I would be able to complete one project before starting another project.  I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.