2024:Wk of 4/28-5/4; Abydos Tee and Daisy Stitch

A lot of knitting; not much progress.

ABYDOS TEE

This has been the week of ripping! 😝 Based on some of the project comments I added 4 rows before to be sure the armhole wasn’t too tight. After blocking and trying on the yoke it’s clear that the hole is plenty big so I went ahead and ripped back to remove the added 4 rows. No biggie. I reconnected the front to the back and knit a few rows before double checking the stitch count.

Ok, this next part is super embarrassing as someone who’s supposed to be pretty good at math. I counted 97 stitches for the back and 95 stitches for the front. That adds to 202 right? (Keep reading). 10 extra stitches!! How in the world did I add 10 extra stitches?? I double checked the pattern, yes casting on 17 stitches at each arm with the 80 and 78 back and front stitches should add to 192. So after a day of stewing, I again ripped back. Since this is for someone else, I am more prone to make sure “it’s right”. How ironic that on Thursday the podcast Wool, Needles, Hands (one of my favorites) posted a video on being a “perfectionist”. I reattached the front and back only to find myself with 97 and 95 stitches again. Then the math brain FINALLY kicked in. I actually wrote down the carryover number. 97 plus 95 is 192, the correct number of stitches!!!! Lesson learned – use a calculator since apparently I can no longer add!! At least I can be glad I didn’t blindly reduce the 10 stitches only to eventually find out I had 10 too few stitches. It was only 2 days of lost knitting, not counting the ripping back to remove the added 4 rows, but still frustrating. Glad to be back on track knitting down the body.

I didn’t even finish writing the total when I realized what I’d done.

DAISY STITCH

Have you seen Stephen West’s new sock pattern that uses the Daisy Stitch?? So I was intrigued. YouTube to the rescue. It’s now the stitch I’m using for the next stripe on my daughter’s baby blanket.

GOTTA LOVE COINSEDENCES

I mentioned in last week’s post that our good friend’s daughter is also expecting her first child. They misremembered the expected due date. It is literally the same day as our daughter!! They got a good laugh out of my happy dance after watching their video of the gender reveal. She is having a boy!! I have some baby blue yarn that has been begging to be knit into a baby sweater and now I finally can.

MY VERSION OF GARDENING

I do enjoy everyone’s gardening updates. I’m just not good at maintaining anything beyond pots of plants on my deck. We are having a VERY warm spring and it’s expected to continue so I went ahead and put some flowers out “early” for our area of the country. Normally I put 3 varieties of flowers in each of my hanging baskets that hang in my outdoor “knitting nook” pergola. It rarely works out well. This year I decided to try something different. I bought 6 different colors of one plant, Calibrachoa because I really like the blossoms, and put only one plant in each of the 6 hanging baskets. The colors are more consistent with my love of all things rainbow. I’m hoping less plants competing for the limited soil will have better results.

I hope you had a wonderful week of crafting and are looking forward to the coming week. This has been a Ravelry Year Of Project post. A group of crafting bloggers that create an annual crafting plan and then share weekly updates.

2024: Wk of 4/21-27; Rainbow Baby Blanket and Raining Babies

RAINBOW BLANKET

It’s a girl!!! My daughter called to say she is having a girl. I’m so excited. My rainbow blanket goes with any baby. This has been a pretty fun knit except for having to make sure to cross over the border yarn with the central rainbow line so that there aren’t gaps as I switch between black edging and rainbow yarn. It means I’m juggling three balls of yarn. Not always smooth. I stopped by JoAnn’s to get another ball of black as I realized there was no way one ball was going to make it. I think this is going to be a big blanket compared to my usual baby blankets.

What’s in the water!!?? Our friends that always invite us to join them at their beach house in the Outer Banks just informed us that their daughter is pregnant and due one week after our daughter! It will be their first grandchild. Guess I’ll have to knit a sweater for the baby. My friend and her other daughter both crochet so they already plan to make blankets. One of my Cincinnati knitting friends is also having her first grandchild this summer!! Goodness gracious.

ABYDOS TEE

Gosh I love this top. I’m also fortunate that the designer has been patient with my “dumb” questions. Last week I asked about how to do the tuck row. This week I was confused by the German Short Row instructions. I just couldn’t visualize it. Also, this is my first time to do short rows on “flat” knitting. The pattern assumes you know to “turn the work” when you reach the end of the row so it didn’t tell me. I was confused on the first row as I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to “turn” or start knitting the front and back together. Duh. The fact that you purled the stitches was kind of a big hint that you needed to turn. I can be a bit dense! This indeed is an easy knit while being unique (to me) with the rounded stripes on the yoke and the shaping around the armholes. Now it’s just straight stockinette in the round until I get to the ribbed hem. I’m definitely going to knit one for me.

FIXATION SOCK

My poor Fixation sock hasn’t gotten a lot of “love” over the past month. I take it on visits to Dad but seems I never get a chance to knit. I took it to the soccer match last night and actually did some knitting during the game. Working on my knitting while not looking. This is a low priority knit so it will be on the needles for a long time. Too many sweaters and tees I want to knit this year.

MISCELLANEOUS LIFE STUFF

Got Dad moved into the assisted living facility Thursday. He slept through the whole thing. Sounds like he was more wake Friday and actually ate 3 meals!!! He got to eat dinner with 2 other men which was also our hope that he’d get to socialize. Dad has lost another 4 pounds over the past week so he really needs to eat!

Aldi’s had a great deal on a backyard firepit. It’s only 24″ wide but just the right size for me. Looks like it’s finally going to stop raining here for a few days so I’m looking forward to using it tonight. After a year, we finally got our propane supplier to hook up our new gas grill. My stepson bought us this nice cover for grilling in the rain or just to have some shade while grilling

Hubby and I took a gardening class on how to grow mushrooms. It was fun but I didn’t realize it’s such a long process!! I don’t know if we will ever actually start some mushrooms but it’s fun to think that we could. I can see getting him an indoor kit just as a fun Christmas present.

Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you had a fun week of crafting and you are enjoying Spring. This has been a Year Of Projects Ravelry post. A group of fiber crafting bloggers that create an annual crafting plan and then share weekly updates.

2024: Wk of 4/14-20; Rainbow Blanket and Abydos Tee

Hope you are having a wonderful spring. After temps in the 80s last week making it feel like June we are having temps in the 50s this week making it feel like March. This is why we can’t garden until mid-May. But my azaleas are blooming so all is good here in Ohio. (Yes, those are cistern lids in the background. We live on rainwater out here in the woods. I also get to laugh when the news this week was about microplastics in the city water.)

DESHAIN UPDATE

I did not think wet blocking would have much of an impact on my linen/hemp/silk yarn but I could not have been more wrong. It’s easily a good 4+” longer. Also it’s clear that the issue with the “bags” under the underarms is due to the dropped shoulder being “too dropped”. Guess I should have knit a smaller size. I think I’ll try to stick to raglan or round yoke designs. The sleeves still need to be reknit “someday” to smooth that transition.

BABY BLANKET WIP

What a joy it is to knit on this. I love bright rainbow yarns. I decided to try to carry the black yarn up the sides to create side borders. I’m using the 2017 Mystery KAL Baby Blanket pattern as I wanted stripes of texture versus different color stripes. Not surprisingly, the stripe with purl bumps to create a heart doesn’t show up on this highly variegated yarn (the pattern is designed for a solid color). I’ll keep it but future stripes will stick to a texture versus purl bump designs. I have a stitch dictionary so that I can create stripe textures. It was free from that online knitting summit a few months ago. Even though the yarn is acrylic, it’s softer than acrylic yarn I’ve used in the past so it’s enjoyable to knit the yarn. Target is to have it done by June as I’ll be heading to South Carolina to help my daughter move into her new home.

ABYDOS TEE

Another absolute joy to knit. The yarn is 100% bombyx silk. It’s sooo soft. Plus I love the shine of silk yarn. Sadly the yarn has been discontinued. I’d love to get more of it!! I did the tubular cast-on for the first time. (Followed the pattern!) I’m not a fan of cast-ons that make me guess how much yarn I need for the cast-on. I ripped it out once because I allowed WAY too much yarn. Better the second time but still way too much excess yarn. Decided to go ahead and waste the excess yarn versus trying a third time.

I was nervous about knitting the “tuck row” that creates the “tube” between the mohair stripes as there was no video. You knit 5 rows of MC and then knit together the first row’s WS purl bump to the first row of the mohair creating the tube. Fortunately, it’s easier than I feared.

DAD NEWS

We move Dad to assisted living this week. It will be nice knowing someone is checking on him at each meal trying to encourage him to eat. We will see where we are at in a month to better plan for the future. Thankful my brother and sister-in-law can enjoy their trip to Austria to see their daughter without worrying about Dad.

That’s if for the week. I’m keeping my WIPS to a minimum since I want to focus on getting the baby blanket and tee done. My posts may be boring for the next few weeks as I only work on two projects.

This has been a Year Of Projects post for the YOP Ravelry group. We share our annual knitting plan and weekly “progress” reports.

2024: Wk of 4/7-13; Deschain FO and Yarn Acquisition

Busy week. An “FO”, ready to cast-on, and more yarn!!

DESCHAIN

UGH! My Deschain did not turn out as I had envisioned!! I’m guessing the waist shaping I added created those “bags” under my sleeve separation (on the plus side they match the bags under my eyes – haha). As Liz warned, the sleeves are tighter than I wanted. They are wearable but a tad looser would be better. Also …. NO MORE dropped shoulder sweaters. I HATE picking up stitches and it shows. I’m going to go ahead and wet block it just to see how much I need to rip out. Then I’m sure I’ll still need to rip the sleeves out and reknit them in addition to ripping out the body back to almost the underarms i.e. basically reknit it!! For the time being this is going into hibernation!! Thankful this was for me so it can just be set aside.

ABYDOS TEE

Now to finally cast-on the tee I’ve been promising my son’s girlfriend. I’ve been looking forward to knitting this pattern for quite a while. I’m also looking forward to using up some Mana by Araucania that I got 3 years ago in a yarn swap with my Cincinnati knitting friends. I’ll be using Inka for the fuzzy stripes. It’s a much thicker yarn than shown in the pattern so that the stripes aren’t see through.

BIRTHDAY YARN

I used my birthday coupon for the local yarn shop to buy some Berroco Remix Light to knit the very popular Pressed Flowers cardigan. My stepdaughter asked for recycled yarn. She is ALL about recycle, reuse, vegan, etc. The yarn is nice and I like the colors. Fortunately she likes the colors I picked and the pattern. This will get cast-on after I finish the Abydos Tee.

LIFE UPDATES – LOTS OF GOOD NEWS

I didn’t get to do nearly as much knitting this week as I had hoped because I spent three of the days with my dad and brother. We took advantage of Dad’s willingness to at least look at assisted living centers and looked at 3. We emphasized that we are not selling his house and finally got him to agree to try one out. Over the next two weeks we will get his level of assistance assessed, move some of his furniture there, and get him settled. Now we will see if the daily stimulation can return him to being able to be awake more of the day so that he eats. Being at the assisted center will give Dad his best chance to thrive.

The other good news is that my daughter in Charleston is buying a house in time for the new baby to arrive!!! Charleston is a hot market so houses are selling fast and are quite expensive. They have been looking for months with houses selling before they could even tour it. She got this house one day after it went on the market!

Lastly, our sour cherry trees are in bloom. Fingers crossed no freezing weather so that we can get a harvest in June.

Total Solar Eclipse

Monday we got to experience a once in a lifetime total solar eclipse. We were on the edge so not as dark as an hour north of us but did get to see the sun completely blocked. The auto light correcting of my phone camera makes my second picture brighter than it was. Definitely felt it get colder and got to see the white ring around the blacked out sun. Also got to see the local eagle fly to his/her nest along the river. Not related to the eclipse but very interesting.

Hour Before Total Eclipse

360 Ring of Sunset at Horizen at Total Eclipse

Wishing everyone a wonderful week of crafting. This is a Ravelry Year Of Projects post. A friendly group of fiber craft bloggers that share our yearly crafting plan and weekly updates.

2024: Wk of 3/31-4/6; Baby Blankets and Rip-It

Just wanted to start off saying thank you to all who like, comment, and encourage me on my posts. Your suggestions are often spot on. It does bring me joy and makes Sunday my favorite day of the week. Call me weird but I usually start writing my post mid-week and keep modifying it until Sunday morning when I publish.

BABY BLANKETS

As expected, I finished my niece’s baby blanket Monday. It’s more of a car seat/stroller blanket as it’s pretty small. But I think it will be nice to have one to keep in the car. It got mailed to Texas on Wednesday as severe thunderstorms on Tuesday kept me inside.

I still couldn’t find the yarn I had in mind at any of the “big box” yarn stores. So instead of buying skeins of individual rainbow colors, I bought rainbow variegated yarn with black for the border and some black stripes mixed in with the rainbow textured stripes. I only got the first border started. I’m planning to pull from both the outside and the inside so that I can continue to knit the black contrast boarder along the sides. The pattern isn’t designed this way but when has that ever stopped me.

DESCHAIN

Sadly, didn’t get this finished. Multiple mistakes. First there was a knot in the yarn. Instead of cutting out the knot and weaving in ends, I tried just pulling a loop of yarn and thus weaving in the knotted ends. Seemed logical. After about 10 rows, it looked awful. The tension got all wonky so some stitches got hugh versus others. I tried dropping stitches and repulling them back up in just the affected area but it looked even worse. Ugh, frogged 10+ rows and started reknit. Then as I was looking at it last night I realized that I had apparently done the wrong lace row two repeats back. 😡 I think I’m further behind than I was last week!!🥴 I’ll be glad to get this sweater done. On the other hand, I’m really getting good at frogging back. 😉 I even rewound the ball so all looks pretty and neat.😊. FYI- the attempt to turn the Lemonwood mini minder into a tabletop yarn butler did not work. So I’m hanging it from my TV tray with a tabletop purse hanger. Saves tabletop space.👍

Also, a reminder why I don’t really like linen yarn. So much more difficult to repick up stitches since they aren’t “sticky”. Very easy for the stitches to run. This is also why it’s so hard to weave in ends when starting a new skein. Fortunately, this top will use up all the Knit One Crochet Too linen/hemp/silk yarn I have in my stash. I still have a lot of Rowan cotton/silk yarn which is only slightly better.

SOLAR ECLIPSE

Cincinnati is right on the border of the total eclipse and since we live north of the city we should actually get to experience the total eclipse for about a minute. I’ve got my solar glasses ready!! Not planning on driving anywhere as we have been advised traffic on the highways and even back roads will be jammed with eclipse visitors.

FAMILY STUFF

Some of the fun this week was dealing with my 95 year old father. Sadly he is declining rapidly. My brother and I are trying to figure out what is best for him and get him to agree to it. My brother is exhausted and Dad won’t admit that he needs help. We are currently trying to get him to accept going to an assisted living place for a month as a trial. I’ll be on the phone this week trying to find a place for him.

This has been a Year Of Projects Ravelry post. A group of crafting bloggers that create a yearly crafting plan and then share weekly updates.

2024:Wk of 3/24-30; Home Again, FO, Near FOs, and Cast-On

It is sooo nice to be back home again. The weather has been mild, a welcome change to the humidity we were experiencing in SW Florida. I’m enjoying getting settled back in. We did have a nice visit with my son and his wife followed by a nice visit with my daughter. We did some baby stroller shopping and created a baby registry. So lucky that all the traffic issues were always the opposite direction of where we were going so the drives weren’t stressful.

DESCHAIN

Lordy do I hate picking up stitches!! I’ve knit the left sleeve 3 times. First I used the same size needle as I knit the body but the stitches looked huge compared to the body. So I frogged back to about 2 rows past the picked up stitches and went down a size. After 5 rows went down a second size. But it looked wonky so I ripped the entire sleeve out. Restarted picking up stitches with a needle two sizes lower than I used on the body. This is looking okay. I want to add about 4 more inches before binding off. I do plan to modify the pattern in that I will do the hem trim pattern for the sleeve cuffs. Others have done this and it looks much nicer. Good chance I finish this week as I just need to knit the second sleeve, and now I know what needle size and pick-up rate to use, plus add a few more inches to the body.

VANILLA SHORTIES FO

After being too stressed to help with the driving on Friday and Saturday, my hubby was able to do a lot of the driving on Monday. I was able to finish the shorties. This is the same yarn that I used for the Yamadori socks so I don’t need them. I’m planning to gift them to my step-daughter when we see her.

BABY BLANKET CAST-ON

Turns out I don’t have a bunch of rainbow colored acrylic yarn in my stash so I’m changing my blanket plans. I do have 2 skeins of Aran weight “city lights” colorway that my son gave me for Christmas. I think it’s making a beautiful blanket. It’s rainbow-ish in that it’s marled -black plyed with bright rainbow colors. I think it will be perfect for my niece’s baby boy. I did have to order larger needle tips (US13) which delayed getting the blanket cast-on. I’ve blocked it slightly over the halfway point even though it’s acrylic yarn as I wasn’t sure it would flatten out so that the stripes of garter and stockinette would show. It blocked out great. I should finish it today and get it in the mail this week.

NEXT BABY ITEMS

I’ll be off to Hobby Lobby this week to find yarn for my daughter’s baby blanket. I have Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for knitting a baby sweater. It will be hot in Charleston, South Carolina in September and October so I better plan on knitting a 3 month size sweater. This pattern has only the newborn size but I think if I go up a needle size or two, it will be fine. A looser gauge would be good for their hot environment.

PORTABLE YARN BUTLER

I love Twice Sheared Sheep’s new portable yarn butler. I’m trying to see if I can turn my Lemonwood mini minder into one. It is designed to only be used when it can hang from something, like your wrist, a purse hanger, etc. I bought a 4″ lazy susan off amazon and glued part of a styrofoam ball to it (left over from a planets of the solar system project of my son’s). Carved a slit into the styrofoam ball so that the spindle part that protrudes beyond the base (Twice Sheared designed their spindle to be flush with the base so that it can sit on a rotating base) can fit into the styrofoam ball.

I’m probably going to just give up and buy a Twice Sheered portable yarn butler since her design is so superior to the Lemonwood one.

EASTER

Sadly we no longer have big family gatherings for Easter so it will be a quiet day for us. The three boys that live in Cincinnati will here for a late lunch. It’s sad to see a family that used to have monthly gatherings split over time. But life goes on. A tradition I maintain is getting creme filled chocolate eggs from a local candy store. They have been in business since 1908!! I spend way too much money but it’s a yearly treat. This is our “family” basket, ie hubby and mine. We will share some today with the boys. The youngest still gets his own basket and we maintain the tradition of hiding it for him to find. I also make up and hide a basket for his girlfriend.

The cinnamon coffeecake is about to come out of the oven. I hope you have a wonderful day and a fun week of crafting. This is a Year Of Projects post for the YOP Ravelry group.

2024: Wk of 3/17-23; Not Much

This will be a short update as not much was accomplished this week. The week was focused on cleaning and packing for our return home. Sadly I did all but one hour of the driving so no knitting while driving 5 hours to our son’s home on Friday and another 5 hours driving to our daughter’s home on Saturday. Tomorrow we leave for the final 10 hour leg to Cincinnati so fingers crossed no major traffic delays.

DESCHAIN

What knitting that did get done was on my Deschain. I’ve stopped knitting the body so that I can knit the sleeves and then determine how long I want the body. The design is for more of a cropped sweater and I’m already longer than cropped. I’ve started picking up stitches but didn’t get them finished before we had to leave so this project will sit till we get back to Ohio.

SHORTIE SOCKS

My shortied socks are almost done but not quite. I’ve started the cuffs. As planned, I’m running out of the main yarn and will finish the cuffs in the hot pink yarn.

FIXATION SOCKS

I did cast-on a sock using Fixation yarn. The elastic DK yarn is easier to work on while riding in the car. We will see if I get to work on it tomorrow.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully I’ll have more progress next week. This has been a Ravelry Year Of Projects update.

2024: Wk of 3/10-17; Acquisitions, Deschain Update, and ’24 Plan Blows Up

MISS BABS TRUNK SHOW/A GOOD YARN LYS

What fun girl’s trip! Turns out going on Friday is MUCH better than going on Saturday as it was much less crowded and we got first choice at all the yarn. I was a “piker” compared to my other friends but then they don’t have access to yarn shops unless they make the 1 1/2 hr drive. I only bought yarn for 4 projects.

As I said in last week’s post, I wanted light orange mohair (the mohair is oranger than the photo) to pair with the neon orange yarn I already have at home. I’m looking forward to the knitting the Calliope from Espace Tricot (modified with fitted sleeves at the wrist).

Miss Babs herself helped me pick out the mohair that I want to pair with my neon green yarn. I thought this highly colored mohair would add a lot of interest to my neon green base yarn. I plan to knit the Flax (modified to NOT have the garter panel down the sleeve).

For the Joji Evanescence I decided to go with a variegated mohair instead of trying to create a fade. I will still need to buy the undyed lace weight wool/silks to pair with the mohair from Miss Babs online site as she did not bring that yarn to the trunk show.

Finally I splurged on a cashmere/silk skein. I knit a beautiful campfire colored cowl last fall with this yarn. Now I plan to knit the new Nettie Scarf.

As I am leaving for the north, the group is embarking on learning to spin with drop spindles in the coming weeks. On one hand I’m sorry to miss the fun. On the other, I’m REALLY trying to avoid stash spread so I’ve resisted quilting, weaving, and spinning so far. I’ve dipped my toe into felting in that I bought a felted gnome kit last year but still haven’t made it.

PROJECT BAG GIFT

What a wonderful surprise!!!! One of my Florida knitting friends, who is a good seamstress, brought a project bag to our knitting session a few weeks ago that she made. We all oh’ed and ah’ed over how well she designed it and the cute fabric. So last week, she brought all of us (6) a project bag!!! It has 4 outside pockets and 2 inside pockets. I love that it’s a zipper top instead of a drawstring. It can hold about 4-5 skeins. Perfect for me as most of my bags are smaller since I frequently knit one skein sock projects and 2-3 skein tee projects. Actually, I think it will be my baby blanket project bag. The sheep and yarn ball fabric is perfect for those projects.

DESCHAIN UPDATE

I’m really happy with my decision to use a provisional cast-on so that I could kitchener the shoulder seams. I like this seam better but I’m still not a fan of seamed garments. I’ll plan to stick to ragland or round yoke sweaters in the future. I used an I-cord bindoff for the neck stitches and I really like it better than the pattern design. I’m also happy with the tighter neck opening as I’m not a fan of the bra strap showing design should I not want to wear a top under it. I have joined it in the round which makes it so much easier to knit the body. I have plenty of yarn so I think I’m going to make the sleeves on this one. (OMG – like the pattern …. say it isn’t true.)

UNRECOGNIZABLE 2024 KNITTING PLAN

It’s only 1/4 of the year into my knitting plan and I can’t believe how much it has changed!! But I’m happy that it’s a lot of gifts being added. I now have added two Christmas stocking for friends that we see here in Florida. They always give me a little knitting notion when they arrive in January. The yarn I bought to knit hubby’s Christmas stocking, that I ended up not using, happens to be the team colors of my son-in-law’s favorite football team so he’s getting a hat. Of course, my daughter having a baby has added a baby blanket and a baby sweater. Maybe a baby hat in dad’s hat colors?? Then the light bulb went off (finally!!!) that my niece who just had her first baby, a boy this week, needs a baby blanket. I’ve got to get going on those blankets!!!! I’m waiting till I get home as I have some acrylic yarn that my daughter-in-law gave me from past Christmas’ that would be good for baby blankets.

Well, this is the last post from Florida until December. It’s always happy/sad during these transitions. I’ll miss my friends and activities in Florida but many of them are ending next month as the “season” comes to a close. Condo friends are moving to houses so lots changing down here in Florida. I’m looking forward to visits with my son and DIL and then daughter on the trip back north. It will be nice to see my son and girlfriend that live with us as he looks for a new job. I’m looking forward to knitting with my kitty every day. I already have a knitting session scheduled with my Cincinnati knitting friends for the week I get back. Also catching up with Ohio friends over dinner and cards. It’s getting hot and humid here in SW Florida so I’m happily leaving that behind till July in Ohio.

This has been a Year of Projects Ravelry post. A friendly group of crafting bloggers who share our annual crafting plan and weekly updates. Sticking to the plan is clearly optional.

2024: Wk of 3/3-10; FOs and Deschain Update

SCATTERBY SOCKS FO

Yea!!! These socks are off the needles. Now to see if the socks actually fit. They went into the mail Thursday and should be delivered tomorrow. I’ll have to wait till I get back to Ohio to pick out the yarn and pattern for the next pair.

ELEPHANT TOY FO

This went much better after I decided to ignore the pattern instructions on joining the head to the body. After stuffing them, I closed the holes so that I count attach the head 90 degrees differently than the pattern would have them be attached. Maybe I did something wrong in following the pattern, but sewing the two pieces together at their openings had the trunk sticking straight out, nothing like the picture. Most of the project notes for this pattern indicated there was a problem with the sewing the pieces together instructions.

Granted these small toys are a quick knit, but I don’t enjoy knitting the tiny tubes for the legs, trunk, etc. It did get better once I figured out how to use two 9″ circulars and a needle tip to knit the legs. I have no desire to buy a bunch of DPNs in the sizes I need to knit toys. I probably would like larger toys. A yarn dyer I follow, M1Yarns, plans to make a teddy bear kit. If the bear is a decent size, I might consider getting it.

VANILLA SOCKS

The vanilla socks got a little bit of “love” since they are currently my only “braindead” project for TV/social knitting.

These may well get done before we head north. I don’t have a lot of yarn so they will definitely be shorties. No matter what, I plan to cast-on a pair of Fixation yarn vanilla socks for the drive north. The thicker, elastic yarn makes for easier knitting in the car.

DESCHAIN

The Deschain is underway. I am going to knit the front and back pieces flat as the pattern instructs but I’m going to join them at the armhole to eliminate the need to seam the sides. I am using a provisional cast-on so that I can kitchener the shoulder seams instead of seaming them as the pattern instructs. This way I’ll also be able to try on the top to determine where the armhole should be. I have plenty of yarn so I may make it tunic length instead of the cropped design. Just have to see what looks good as I try it on. (Lordy, I’m not good at following patterns!)

MISS BABS TRUNK SHOW

This Friday is the Miss Babs trunk show. My knitting group is making it a girl’s day as we all make the 1 1/2 hr trip to shop for yarn followed by lunch. I’ve given myself “permission” to buy yarn. I definitely want to buy mohair to “tone down” the neon orange and neon green yarn I have back home. I also really like Joji’s new pattern, Evanescence. One my Florida knitting friends was a test knitter so I’ve seen and touched it. Rinah says it’s really warm even though it’s mohair. I (of course) would make it tunic length instead of knee length. I’m not thrilled with the dark stripes at the bottom as shown. I love the airy lace pattern. Not thrilled about the sheading of mohair. I’m leaning toward using a strand of wool/silk lace (solid color) with a strand of mohair instead of holding mohair double per the pattern to reduce the sheading and give the cardigan a little more structure. It will depend on if I can find a fade of yarns that I like. I don’t want the stripes of solid color so it either needs to be a very subtle fade or one color in my opinion. I hope to find some lightly variegated yarns.

HOMEFRONT NEWS

The news from the homefront was expected but a little sad. My son’s school declared financial emergency last month which meant the state had to take over. They are one of only three districts in the whole state to be in financial emergency!!! They eliminated 67 teachers and he’s one of them. This was his first year of teaching so it’s not like he had a lot of time invested in the school district but he enjoyed working there. It makes me glad that we are heading back home just so I can be a sounding board for him as he goes through finding a new job. Sadly the people that should be fired for not doing their job and thus getting into this mess will likely suffer no consequences.

In happier news, my daughter sent us her latest sonagram. You can see little legs!! We plan to go check out cribs and baby furniture during our visit on the way north.

That’s it for this week. Hope you had a great week of crafting. This has been a Year of Projects Ravelry post. A fun group of crafting bloggers that share our crafting plans and updates each week.

2024: Wk of 2/25-3/2; Cast-Ons and Socks

OOPS, THIS IS EMBARRASING

Well, this is embarrassing. I can’t claim brain fog. I swear I measured before starting the heels of my Scatterby socks. After spending Sunday knitting on the legs of the socks, I just couldn’t get over how huge the foot of my socks looked even though they are for a Size 13 foot. So I measured the foot now with the heel on. They were too big by 1 1/2″!!! UGH! How in the world did I mismeasure by 1 1/2″??!! There went a week of knitting! So, I ripped out the rows of leg I had knit, the heels, and 1 1/2″ of foot. Now the foot including the heel is 10.5″ which according to my Cottontail Farm Sock Sizing board hubby gave me for Christmas is the correct sock size for a Men’s Size 13 foot. Oh well, a lost week of knitting isn’t the end of the world but it sure is frustrating. Sadly, through no fault of the person I’m knitting for, this is becoming a hated project just since I’ve struggled so much with trying to figure how to knit for a much larger foot when I have no more information than his shoe size. I will be glad to get his pair off my needles!!

“ACQUISITION”

I was excited to buy Summer Lee’s new book, The Sock Project. I make A LOT of orders on Amazon. Often when I select a delayed delivery date (usually by only a day or two), I get a “digital reward” that I can use to buy digital books. This is how I bought Patty Lyons “Knitting Bag of Tricks” back in November. I’m looking forward to reading her comments about sock knitting as well as her patterns. I prefer ebooks for knitting content as I pretty much use my Kindle for patterns/charts (Knit Companion) as well as my cast-on/bind-off ebook.

DESCHAIN

What to do, what to do?? This pattern calls for an Aran weight yarn so it has a gauge of 14 stitches. I am using a DK weight yarn. To get the “look” of the pattern that means I should target for roughly 19 stitches. Here’s my swatch.

The bottom stripe has a gauge of 20, the middle is the target gauge of 19, and the top stripe a very loose 16. The gauge of 16 would definitely show the cami I would wear under it which was my point in trying a looser gauge. I want this to be a summer tee that is worn over a cami. After pondering I’ve decided to go with the “recommended” gauge of 19. I like that I’ll be able to knit the top with less ease than the pattern calls for since my gauge is smaller. I’ll be casting on today.

TOY ELEPHANT

While I was pondering the correct needle for my Deschain, I decided to start my toy elephant. I give up. Crochet is not for me. So I searched Ravelry and found a toy elephant pattern. Fingers crossed I can figure out the pattern. It’s my hope to drop off the handmade toy to my daughter on our way back to Cincinnati in 3 wks. The elephant kit was gifted to me by my daughter’s younger brother which makes kinda a nice “family” gift for the new baby and the first baby from the “second set” of kids. (Due to the large age gap between my stepchildren and my natural children, we often refer to them as the first set and the second set.)

That’s four WIPs which is pretty much my limit. I should be able to finish the elephant and Scatteryby socks in the next week or two.

We are winding down here is SW Florida. Time to do a deep clean of the condo and make sure we are emptying the freezer and refrigerator. I am ready to get back to my house and my activites. Hope you had a great week of crafting and are looking forward to the coming week. This has been a Year Of Projects Ravelry post. A group of bloggers that create an annual crafting plan and then share our progress each week.