2015-Week18

In week 18 of 2015 I spent time on the water, got some goodies in the mail and finished a nerdy shawl.

Packing my Bags

This weekend was the local Spring Festival at the Nature Center and in addition to all kinds of good educational nature fun, music, plant sale and nature walks the local association rents kayaks on the lake. I took one out for a hour of hard paddling interspersed with a few moments of nature appreciation. It was good to get out on the water and enjoy the nice day.

This week I received my Bar Maids Quarterly Subscription box in the Knitmore theme and in addition to some wonderful body products like their Lo-Lo Bar this box came with a skein of Abstract Fiber Super Sock in the Danger colorway and a complementary shawl pattern. I can see this becoming something fun for K, maybe socks or maybe this shawl, well see.

First Steps

Cast on some Kroy self-striping yarn for a pair of Fork in the Road socks to see if this style fits BF better than heel flap construction socks.

Along the Path

Still plugging away on the My Cup of Green Tea socks, and the Mystic Cuppa and Solar Flare Shawls. I'll post pictures when I get to the next yarn change or significant progress point

Final Destination

After several days of marathon sessions my Captain America Shawl was finished. It was done in time to wear it to opening night, but it wasn't blocked. Good thing the theater was dark and no one knew. I'll post more pics when its blocked but here it is posed over the steering wheel in my car, which was where I finished the bind off during lunch that afternoon. I loved doing this, both for the nerd factor and because of the new stitches I got to try.

2015-Week 17

In weeks 17 of 2015 I got some yarn, started a cardigan, worked shawls and socks and finished some gifts.

Packing my Bags

I got my second shipment of The Unplanned Peacock's Gemstone Yarn Club. This one was Jasper, a beautiful red with streaks of pinks, whites and other shades of red on their Kinky Sock single-ply fingerling base. It came with a lovely wire rapped stone necklace. I looked at this a potential socks for both BF and DD but then I started dreaming of using it for the upcoming Seeds to Flowers Shawl KAL so I picked up a few additional skeins to give me flexibility to make lots of great red things.

First Steps

Swatched for and cast on the first few rows of the Ferris Wheel cardigan for K in the bright pink/black/white/purple Hydrangea colorway in Abstract Fibers Calder yarn.

Also cast on the Sweet Viola Shawl in my Tinuvial colorway from Sheepy Time Knits Middle Earth Yarn Club in their All your Lace base. This was tricky to do in this yarn but as it starts to hit some stockinette sections it's starting to hold up better.

Along the Path

Finished the 1st shield pattern repeat and starting on the 2nd repeat in clue 3 of the Captain America inspired Shawl MKAL. I'm hoping to get this clue and the last clue finished in time to take the shawl with me to the opening night of the Avengers movie. It will be close but that's the plan. I know...NERD!

Worked on the leg pattern repeats and turned the heel on the My Cup of Green Tea socks. The longer I work these the more I like this pattern. I already had a recipient in mind for these so when I found out that they are too small for my foot it solidified my plan to knit them for her specifically.

Final Destination

Cast on and finished 2 different Tea Toters in some fun blue cotton dishcloth yarn inspired by Beginner's Knit Along mini KAL. These are gifts so I'll post more about them later but they are now my FOs# 19 &20 for the year.

2015-Week 13 and 14

In weeks 13 and 14 of 2015 I embrace the energy of spring and start a bunch of stuff.

Packing my Bags

I literally packed my bags this week to take several short hikes around the neighborhood and surrounding parks. It's been nice getting back out and watching the trees go from bare to budding to full flower, hearing the birds and enjoying the sun, when its out. Indoors, I've been doing lots of cooking, yarn winding and organizing. I got in several orders of yarn for future sweaters, socks and birthday and holiday gifts.

This spring is bearing witness to the preparations for major change that is coming this summer; my daughter coming back from a year away at school and combining households with my significant other. I'm sorting through stuff, mental and physical, to decide what stays, what goes, what needs to find a different place to be and what I just need to accept. I'm looking at what things encourage my creativity, inspire me and promote healthy well-being and what is just holding me down or back or making me feel bad. Through all of this I'm still plugging away at my knitting projects. They, if nothing else, seem to keep me in balance.

First Steps

It seems like a lot of stuff, and it is but over the last two weeks I started the last of my March projects and several of my April Knit-A-Longs (KALs). I started the Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) March Mystery Sock in the Crave Yarn Summit in the Voice the Vision colorway, a deep rich teal and will be doing this for the SKA March MOCK challenge.

I cast on another simple BF sock, this one with blue stripes in the cuff and blue contrast heel toes. I'm going to try to get a better fit for this pair for his giant feet even if it means 4.5 inch heel flaps and miles of foot knitting because he's already wearing holes in the first pair I made him. I guess I should be flattered that he won't take the first pair off except to wash and put right back on but he's hard on his feet so I'm looking for a stronger yarn.

I started another mystery KAL, this one by Heidi Nick called "Enough Already, Mother Nature". I'm doing it out of some Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Marine Heather colorway. This one triple  dips in Heidi's April KAL, SKA's April designer challenge, and is the feature April/May Mystery pattern in the Solid Sock group.

I'm also doing another sock for SKA's April theme challenge: food/drink that will also qualify for the Solid Sock April theme: Green. This one is called My Cup of Tea, and I'm knitting it out of Knit Picks Stroll Solids in Green Heather. I started this cast on but I already think I'm going to have to change needles and restart as its so big.

Next on the needles is a just for fun, gift project for my nephew Henry, a Tin Can Knits Flax sweater in Loops and Threads Impeccable Solids yarn in True Grey colorway.It's such a quick project, I finished the body and have stared on the first sleeve already. I'm knitting it in the 1-2 year size but he's a big boy so I'm not going to wait for his birthday or fall to send it to him in case it will be too snug. This will also help me gauge sizing the next few projects I want to make for him if my sister will give me feedback of the current and future fit. When I finish it I'm going to take as is and stretched measurements for comparison to photos and her feedback.

Finally, the last project I cast on is also my current favorite, a Captain America inspired shawl for the Tales of Suspense MKAL. I decided to use stash yarn and pulled out my KnitCircus Thrilling gradient skein in the Edge of Night colorway that goes from blue to grey and use up the last of the Abstract Fiber O'Keefe in Solid Red to get a very classic red and blue stars and stripes. I know the red will run out before I finish clue two but the designer indicated that solid will look good too so my will be a hybrid. The duration of this MKAL is timed to take us up to the release of the next Marvel movie so I'm really going to try to keep up with the clue releases so I can wear it to opening night. I know...I'm such a geek but I love it.

Along the Path 

In addition to all the new stuff I've started I'm also still working on all my March KAL projects and some older stuff too. Here is a round up of where I'm at with the stuff that's already in progress.

I'm still knitting on my Inconceivable socks from the Buttercups Hero's pattern that was part of the February/March Solid Sock Mystery. I'm doing both socks at the same time on separate dpns and have gotten through half of clue 2 on the cuff.

I added a few rows to the second Alohomora sock, from Sock Madness 9, round 1. Since I didn't finish in time, there is no pressure to finish this but I would like to wear the pair sometime this year so I'm continuing to work on it when I feel like it.

I've also been working hard on my Solar Flare Shawl for the Eco Chic MKAL. I'm still really loving this gradient yarn from The Unique Sheep and it feels like I should be getting further than I am since its surprisingly easy to memorize each new row repeat and there are only 9 of them. However, despite my progress I'm still woefully behind and still making my way through the rows above 58.

I ripped back to the beginning and started over on the Goddess Knits Anniversary MKAL Shawl because I found a mistake in the beginning of the pattern and it was faster to re-do it than to tink back and fix it.  I'm really happy with the pattern now and ready to start clue 2 when i get the time.

I pulled out my first shawl project, the Waterspout by Ana Dalvi, that I'm making for K and put on a few more rows. Also still making slow progress on the Guinevere Shawl for the March Mega-KAL monthly Shawl KAL.

Final Destination

Unfortunately, I haven't actually finished anything in the last two weeks. I was hoping to get the Flax sweater done but those little sleeves are deceptive. Maybe I'll have better luck in the next few weeks.

2015-Week 12

In week 12 of 2015 I finish a pair of socks and start my Solar Flare Shawl while pretending that its Spring even if the weather doesn't want to let it start yet.

Packing my Bags

FYI-in case you missed it through the snow, this week saw the first days of spring. It wasn't the best start but it warmed up a bit on the weekend, enough to get out for a brisk walk and to trigger a bout of spring cleaning so I haven't been up to much knitting.

First Steps

The start of spring also signaled the start of Eco Chic's Solar Flare MKAL so earlier in the week I wound up my set of 6 gradient shades into balls and did a quick swatch of a few rows of each ball to see how the colors would blend. I am truly loving this colorway and the way it carries the tones and shades across the different balls.  I also got to cast it on but didn't get much mileage done as the weekend was too nice to do too much indoors.

Along the Path 

Still working on my Guinivere shawl and I'm planing to make time to rip out my Goddess Knits Shawl and start over, this time with stitch markers to keep the extra stitch on the end of the right side row from moving on me and messing up my pattern.

Final Destination

I finished FO#17 my basic white socks and entered them as my entry to the Solid Socks monthly challenge. These started out as socks for my BF but once I got to the instep I realized that knitting an average mens pattern as is would still be WAY too small for his foot. I decided to reclaim the sock instead of rip out and re-knit almost the entire sock.

2015-Week10

In week 10 of 2015 I get inspired by snow, get the finishing bug to knock out a few hats and re-purpose some unloved legwarmers into gloves.

Packing my Bags

I stopped off at Michael's this week to pick up some much needed 19" cables to fill a few size gaps in my collection that have made knitting hat's harder than it needed to be and while I was there I stocked up on some more of the acrylic yarn BF likes for his warm thick socks in a few more colors. I also got some cotton in fun colors for washcloths. All in all, I spent too much but now I don't have to figure out where my dpns are and swap them between projects when I want to knit hats.

First Steps

With predictions of over 8 inches of snow on the forecast I planned ahead and grabbed a variety of projects to have on hand in case work got canceled by the snow in.  As luck had it I had two days plus a stay-at-home type of weekend to make a lot of progress on projects. Even though I finished or got close to finishing a bunch of stuff I did manage to start a few things too.  It seems that snow was definitely on my mind as the two projects I started were both in white, The first, another simple top-down socks for my BF, this one was the Lion Brand, Men's Grey Socks pattern. Hopefully I can make the adjustments as I go to get this one to fit better than the last one,  The second cast on was for my hat #3 of Meagheen Ryan 12 Hats in 12 Weeks, an ear flap beanie with some basic fair isle colorwork that I'll do in grey.

Along the Path

I'm making slow progress on my first sock for Sock Madness, the Alohomora pattern in my Unplanned Peacock Purple Hydrangea sock madness special colorway. I also resumed progress on the edging for my ALS Keep Warm wrap.

Final Destination

I pulled out hat #3 of the 12 Hats in 12 Weeks MKAL form Meagheen Ryan.It was a cabled tam style that I had started in an soft grey acrylic yarn. I only had the ribbing done and I didn't have the right circular needles so I made some adjustments and just did the best I could. I made a mistake in the cable crosses on one round but since it comes at the bend in the tam its almost unnoticeable. I finished it up the next morning and now its FO #13. 

FO #14 started out as about 6 inches of a pair of legwarmers that I started for my DD in 2010. They've been sitting in a bag for the past 5 years during which time I lost interest and she stopped wearing legwarmers. In my fit of finish-itis I decided that they needed to be done one way or another. I though about re-using them for my nephew but they were sized too wide for baby legs. In fact, as I was testing them out they fit easily over my forearms. This gave me the idea to modify them into some longish ribbed cuffs for a pair of gloves. I used Ravelry pattern search to look for inspiration and decided on a Tin Can Knits Simple Collection pattern called Maize. I did a few decreases to make the stitch counts match where the cuff ended and the hand began and adjusted the patterning detail along the outside of the hand to match the existing cuff rib pattern and just followed the pattern from there. I was following the largest pattern in stitch count and overall diameter but I decided I wanted less fabric at the palm so I shortened the distance past the thumb gussets to the measurements for a smaller size. For something I really wasn't loving, these turned out better than I could have hoped for.

FO #15 is the February Mini Hat from Meagheen Ryan's 12 Months of Mini Hats. These are challenging to work in smaller needles but also fun and relatively quick. 

Back Porch

I'm missing having a garden and all the planning, gathering, and sprouting that happens at this time of year. I've also been reading back through my blog posts and remembering all the good, healthy food I used to bring into my house and the creativity that developed by participating in the local food culture and challenges like the Dark Days and One Local Summer. Now that I'm cooking again and trying to re-develop my preserving skills I've naturally started to yearn for the days past when I sourced my meals first from my CSA share and then to the farmers market stands before picking up a very few convenience items at the neighborhood grocery store. I started researching CSA options a few weeks ago and while its a good time to join up and there are more options than ever I wasn't finding something that had all the factors I was looking for. Over the years I've followed several regional bloggers who, like I did, posted about their CSA shares, experiences and the resulting meals. I started reading back through their archives and I came across a few options I hadn't already considered, one of which I've decided to try.
Lancaster Farm Fresh is offering a pro-rated option to join in on their 13 week winter share season on week 9, giving you 5 weeks of vegetables as well as the option to add-on any of the egg, meat, yogurt, bread, pantry, tofu, or cheese shares individually  or join the omnivore or vegan value shares. They are also taking signups for the summer season but I don't have the funds to join up yet so I decided to essentially sample the last 5 weeks of winter and see if the co-op, pickup location, communication, quantity and quality add up to a reasonable value for me or if I should keep looking and rely heavily on the farmers market and occasional u-pick farms for this year.  
I'll start posting more CSA stuff when I start getting my share toward the end of the month.

2015-Week 9

In week 9 of 2015 I...

Packing my Bags

I received my Yarn Fairy Ragnarok MKAL yarn and accessories this week. I ordered a beautiful blue-grey colorway she named Gunmetal and the kit I ordered came with all these fun things like stitch markers, dragon necklace and earrings, shawl clasps, and purse fobs. The MKAL doesn't start until later in March and I may make it an April project just in case as i have a ton of other things planned in March that will be keeping me busy..

I also finally got around to ordering the tonal purple Sock Madness skein from Unplanned Peacock that complements my set of other sock madness skeins. I also found my perfect yarn in their Silk and Merino Laceweight skein for my Guinevere non-pi circular shawl KAL for March's Mega-KAL. I might have also gotten sucked into their Gemstone Yarn Club but I'll report on that some other week.

Morning Stroll

Sock Madness 9 has officially begun. The pattern for round 1--Alohomora--was posted by the time I woke up well before dawn on March 1st so I cast it on with my official Sock Madness yarn from Unplanned Peacock in the variegated purplely-blue Hydrangea colorway. I have two weeks to finish at least one sock, made to a 9" foot length and exactly as the pattern specifies, in order to qualify to receive additional patterns for the rest of the rounds. If I want to compete on a team for future rounds, I have to finish the full pair in that time. I'm not sure if I will push that hard to get and stay on a team but I would like to knit more socks for me and others for #operationsockdrawer so this seems like a good excuse to power through at least a few of them.

I am also test knitting the Whimsy Cowl for Nimble Knits so I cast that on and am working out the best gauge for my yarn selection. I decided to use another colorway of the same yummy alpaca sport weight yarn that I used for my Armonika cowl.  Its been so useful this winter that I thought it couldn't hurt to have another color/style option in that yarn.

Along the Path

One of the benefits of just jumping in and going along for the ride in Sock Madness is the need to try and learn new skills. This round the sock pattern requires using the German twisted or stretchy cast on (same technique, several names). It's done in the same style of a long tail cast on but catches and pulls through the yarn in a different, twisted way. The first dozen stitches were done really slowly but then I got the hang of it and I found it only slightly slower than a long tail cast on. If it results in a better cuff, I could see myself adopting it for many different applications. I'm happy to say that's 1 new skill learned.

Final Destination

I finished the His Golden Lair Shawl and at the very last few minutes of February I completed and uploaded pictures of my No Purl Monkeys socks for the Solid Sock Fire Challenge. I'm really happy with both, though the socks are slightly loose right now, and I can tell you they are going to get a lot of wear.

Back Porch

Not much non-knitting activity going on this week. Work has been really crazy and I've come home every night exhausted, mentally if not also physically. I've been knitting a lot to finish up these projects and also as my stress relief so I get home, do some knitting and then crash.  The only other thing I've been working on is cook more on the weekends. I'm trying to do more from scratch, planning and creating balanced healthy flavorful meals and wake up my culinary skills. They've been snoozing for a while and I'm a little rusty. But it feels really good to feed and nourish my family, a feeling I'd forgotten, so I'm trying to make it a priority.

2015-Week 8

In week 8 of 2015 I refocus on my February must finish projects and hide from all my WIPS as I get ready for the last push towards the end of the month and the start of Sock Madness.

Packing My Bags

In preparation for several projects I hope to start in late March/April I placed an order with Abstract Fiber for a kids sweater's worth of Calder in the Hydrangea colorway (which K picked out herself via text) and some super sock in the Solid Clover colorway for Aprils solid sock challenge. I also ordered my cotton bamboo fingering for the Knit Eco Chic Solar Flare MKAL from The Unique Sheep in the beautiful gradient Sunset Road colorway. While I was there I decided to try out their Sip 'n Stitch yarn club for 6 months and I couldnt resist getting 772 yds of Sushi Sock in Doctor Blue for a certain someone (and maybe me too).

I received my package from Unplanned Peacock with the lovely Peacock Sock yarn dyed special tonal blue and variegated purple hydrangea colorways just for Sock Madness 9. I got one of each and might be placing another order to get my hands on the newly added tonal purple soon.

First Steps

Last week I had just finished the first sock of my Purless Monkeys on Fire sock and cast on sock 2. I didn't get any time to put into it this week but I'm planning to focus in as soon as my His Golden Lair is complete.

Morning Stroll/Uphill Path

My His Golden Lair continues to be an extremely intuitive knit. I've made a few mistakes by not counting my initial set of pattern repeat carefully on one row and ended up noticing on the next right side row and having dropping down two rows to tink about half the width of the pattern row to move it back one stitch and re-knit it up. It went surprisingly well and even though it's a pain I felt really good knowing that I have the skills to do that without thoroughly buggering the rest of the project.
I'm knitting it in my Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted in the Hadia colorway so at that weight it moves quickly but you add stitches every row and now that I'm in the scales charts each row requires a different count of the increasing/decreasing pattern repeats so I have to re-count each row before I start to make sure I don't make the same mistake again. All that to say that, while easy and fun to knit, each row feels like it takes longer than the last and even with long stretches of knit repeats it seems to take a long time to get to the end of the row. At times it feels like slogging along but I cant wait to finish the last 10 rows and see the finished shawl. I'll bet it looks awesome.

Final Destination

No FOs this week but hopefully I'll have two or three next week.

Back Porch

My three jars of canned locally grown white beans came out great. I'm looking forward to doing other beans throughout the year. The leftover beans that didn't fit in the jars were just perfect to add to a massive batch of crockpot Minestrone Soup that I found through Pinterest and let cook during one of our snow days. It was just the thing to warm and nourish my family on that cold day and the leftovers were even better for several days more.

2015-Week 7

Packing my Bags

Received my order of yarns from Blue Moon Fiber Arts this week. I ordered Targhee Worsted in Haida, a mostly black worsted with bits of greys, for my His Golden Lair dragon wings shawl and Silky Victoria in Aubergenius, a paleish figgy-plum 85% wool, 15% silk sport weight yarn for a sweater. I hand wound the Targhee into 1 giant ball so I could start on it as soon as I finished 1 full project.

I like hand winding yarn, especially the hand spun, hand dyed types. Yes, it can be a pain both in mental and physical aspects and yes, it takes a while and can at times be frustrating but I find that its worth it. I like connecting with my fiber and I've learned over time to appreciate the materials I'm using. And what better way to get a feel for the yarn, inspect it for imperfections, understand the coloring and impart it with positive energy than by running it through your hands while winding it.  I like to use the time to meditate on the intended project, feel the energy of the twist (the physical kind, not the woo-woo kind of energy) and how it behaves off the skein. I feel how it moves across my hand and through my fingers and it gives me a chance to really appreciate the skill of the spinner or dyer who are responsible for the product in my hand. I also like to think that by touching the material and thinking an intention to it as I wind it, I'm imparting some positive energy (here I mean the woo-woo kind) into the project, a pre-blessing to the energy that I'll put into it when I actually knit something with it.  And sometimes I'll decide, like I did with my Crave Yarns Filigree, that the yarn didn't suit my purpose in some way and find a better home for it before I spend too much time learning the yarn as I knit and then have to either live with it or rip it out and start over.

First Steps

So since I finished my project (see Final Destination below) I got to cast on one of my two first step ready projects. Since the His Golden Lair is the February pattern the Mega-KAL in which we do 1 pattern a month and it's the first KAL I decided to do and since everyone who is ahead of me on it has been commenting that its a fairly quick knit for its size I decided to cast it on. Since its done in worsted weight yarn and since it's mostly a reverse stockinette design with a bunch of right side only twisted stitches that I can do without cabling (which means I knit across the back side and only purl occasionally on the front but its interrupted by the fast moving pattern) it really does move quickly. There are a bunch of charts but there are total stitch count grids for each row and the pattern is really logical and easy to memorize each row so that it knits up intuitively. I got through the first few charts in one sitting and have a feeling that as soon as I catch up on my February solid sock I'll finish this up quickly.

Morning Stroll

My No Purl Monkeys socks, the deep red socks I'm knitting up as my entry to the Solid Sock February Theme Challenge-Fire, are coming along nicely. I've just about finished the first one and the second should be easy enough now that I've figured the pattern rhythm out.  My only concern is that this pattern, while written for a medium women's foot, is coming out rather loose on my size 9.5 feet. The heel is very roomy. To be honest, I don't know that its the pattern, it could just be that I'm a loose knitter and need to go down a needle size or two. I don't think they will be too big to wear around the house but I'm prepared with a back up plan to gift them if they don't fit well in the end after washing and blocking. This might be a good reason to try the pattern again with different yarn and on different needles to see where I need to make my adjustments. I might also start experimenting with different kinds of heels and toes to see which style I like best.

Uphill Path

Last week's stroll turn into this weeks up hill slog along with a couple of other things, mostly due to me charging ahead with my assumptions and not really absorbing the full details of some of the more advanced pattern elements, ending up with me having to really examine my work hard, tink back, and re-do a lot of stuff. The SolidSock Mystery KAL sock, Buttercup's Heros, moved to the next clue which reduced the cuff cables into a six stranded cable pattern. Since I failed to read it properly I mis-judged a three stitch cable for a 4 twist cable and that threw my whole pattern off. Luckily I was able to figure it out and go back before I got all the way through the 1st row but it took me way longer than it should to figure out what I was doing wrong.  Then I kept making similar mistakes in my V-Day scarf end pattern and my ALS Keep Warm wrap on the edging fringe lace.  The silver lining was that with each mistake I was able to see what I did wrong and how I can avoid it in the future and with all this practice, I'm getting better at dropping down to fix stitches, re-twisting things and working backwards on complicated patters. I'll take it as a sign that I'm growing as a knitter that mistakes like these don't have me throwing in the towel or ripping all the way back as much as they might have before.

Final Destination

So I finished FO #10 for 2015. These are my first pair of socks finished just in time to gift them to my BF for Valentines Day. He had been watching me knit them and even commented on how quickly they were going from cast on to finished sock in between times he looked over at what I was doing. They aren't a perfect fit but with washing and blocking they should loosen up a bit and now at least I know where to plan in some extra stitches to make the next pair fit better. I'm just so happy to finally finish a whole pair without tossing in the towel. It was the perfect time to give them too as the weather has gotten really cold and he wore them all weekend and said they kept his feet nice and warm..

Back Porch

I took some time this weekend to organize and move my yarn stash off of the floor and look back through it and see how its changed in the time since I've picked up a lot of hand dyed yarns. No real revelations, though I got a few ideas for some things I should do. But it was still nice to get it cleaned up and organized in a way that is semi-visible but no so obtrusive.

2015, Week 6

This week I started more stuff, faced my tough issues in knitting, ripped out/started over several timed, and generally made a little progress on a lot of things but finished nothing.

I'm going to try some new section headings to bin my updates and keep me on track. Since I've always looked at my life as a journey I'm imagining my quest for creativity as a series of wanderings, each one a sort of hike. Some are morning strolls, some more rigorous stomping, and others may be multi-day backpacking treks through isolated forests but all paths bring me back home to a place where I can drop my bag, rest my feet, drink a tall glass of liquid and contemplate my next outing.

Here are the major headings:

• Packing my Bags-Any preparations,  planning or activities before the knitting begins
• First Steps-What I'm casting on
• Morning Stroll-Projects that are moving along easily, that I'm making progress on, or are otherwise on cruise control
• Uphill Path-Stuff that I'm working on that takes effort, a new skill I'm working on or something challenging. Also knits that seem to take for ever or that I've had to start over on and I have to tell myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. This is where the disasters get documented.
• Homeward Bound-The finishing, blocking and other stuff that needs to be done once your done knitting
• Final Destination-A place to show off finished objects
• Back Porch-Other creative chit chat

So without further ado...

Packing my Bags

Getting ready for all the projects I have planned for February I made lists (I like lists) of all the things I needed for each project and started matching yarn and needles with patterns. I realized that I didn't have enough sock needles or longer cables to do some of the things I wanted simultaneously and since I didn't think I'd finish my other socks until after this month's KALs I decided to order some more needles. I also took the time to hand ball my Crave Yarn Filigree in Red Earth Sunset and my Abstract Fiber O'Keefe in Solid Red. Thats when I discovered that although I had bought the Red Earth Sunset for my SolidSocks challenge (the theme is Fire this month), it was too tonal to qualify. But I fell in love with it for my Sacre Coure Shawl KAL, which is due to start in the middle of February so I replaced it with the Solid Red for the sock challenge and I'm happy with the results.

First Steps

This week I cast on a bunch of stuff. First was the cuffs for the SolidSocks Mystery KAL, Buttercup's Heros, themed after the heroic men of one of my favorite movies, the Princess Bride. Each clue tells a bit of the story of each hero, includes a quote and relates back to it in the pattern. Next I cast on the 1st of 5 clues in my CBD Cowl Mystery KAL which focuses on stranded colorwork this month. I'm doing it to practice my colorwork skills, not so much because I want to do this pattern or really enjoy the format of the group. Then I started my entry for the Fire challenge, No Purl Monkeys pattern, a variation on a CookieA sock in my beautiful deep Solid Red yarn from Abstract Fiber.

Morning Stroll

The cables on Buttercup's Heros went really well and were so easy to do. I added more rows to the ribbed length of my shiny pink V-Day scarf. The No Purl Monkeys pattern is actually really easy to work and is fairly straight forward to understand so I made some good progress on the leg, almost finished with 4 of 6 repeats of the pattern and then I can start on the heel. A lot of my knitting time has been dedicated to keeping these and other stuff I've already cast on moving forward.

Uphill Path

I have been making continual progress on the wrap I'm making from a Meagheen Ryan Mystery KAL design I call my ALS Keep Warm project. So far its a stockinette triangle with a cabled pattern running up what I think is the bottom. I've made my fair share of mistakes but its been somewhat easy, with all the repetition, to figure out where I am and fix it on the main body. Its just taken a lot of knitting to get there and at times I've been impatient and lost my place and have to count back to the last cable cross to figure out what decrease I should be on. Would have been easier if I had placed a row marker at the start of the last clue so I wouldn't have to guess.Where I'm struggling now is figuring out how to pick up the cable edge to do the finishing fringe on the body and get it to some out on the correct side. I had to do it several times and then start over because I ended up purling on the knit side and at 152 stitches to pick up it takes a bit of time to re-start. But I did it and now I cant wait to finish it and get to wear it.

Homeward Bound

I have a bunch of things that should be blocked and with all the bigger scarves, shawls and sweaters that I want to do this year I figured I need a better solution than a towel on the counter so I invested in some blocking mats and those came in this week. I didn't get around to doing any actual blocking but I'm looking forward to trying them out on the finished hats I have laying around.

Final Destination

No FOs this week. Hopefully I'll have more next week.

Back Porch

I'm finding that keeping track of what I do on a daily basis can be really helpful. I'm using a pre-designed 365 day creativity journal that someone gave me, that's been sitting on my shelf for years. Its got half a page for each day and while I'm ignoring the creative prompts that come written into each day I'm using the blank space as a place to do several things. I'll note which project I worked and which rows I finished or where to start. I'll make notes about the other stuff I've done or when I've changed out to a new skein of yarn. I'm also documenting the official weather temps for my Temperature Scarf project so I don't have to go knit on it every day, I'll just go in periodically and catch up when the mood strikes me. Its been really helpful when I set a project down but don't get back to it write away and I don't remember where I dropped off and its been essential when sometimes I knit from the pattern on the screen, sometimes a printed copy, sometimes just sticky notes...I have the final word on what got done in one place. And on days that I don't have lots of knitting I use it to write out plans, lists, or other notes to help me organize my many ideas, wants, needs. At some point I think I'll add in other stuff and translate some of that from there to here but for the moment I like having a physical book to write in.