2022: Wk of 10/23 – 29; Christmas Stocking

Not a lot to share this week. Preparing for my nephew’s funeral used up a lot of my knitting time even though my role was simply to provide for the luncheon following the internment. It was wonderful to have my daughter and son-in-law stay with us for the weekend.

CHRISTMAS STOCKING

My granddaughter’s Christmas stocking got most of the knitting this week. I got the heel done and I’m working on the toe. I’ve created a chart so that I can double knit her name down the leg. I should have it done by later today. Then I need to sew a lining for it.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

My hubby is glad that I’ll be getting back to knitting his sweater. I had him try it on and of course, after knitting the next smaller size, now the sweater is a bit tight. I’ll have to block it out. Hubby isn’t as thin as he thinks he is. 🙂 Two more stripes and it will be time to separate for the sleeves. I should have some good progress to show next week.

BABY SWEATER

You may recall that I knit a baby sweater last March as a test knit. Turned out it was too big for my granddaughter then but it fits her well now. Here’s a picture of her in the sweater.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts.  YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 10/16 – 22; Christmas Stocking Cast-on and Hubby’s Sweater Update

CHRISTMAS STOCKING CASTON

I did end up casting on a Christmas stocking for my granddaughter. So the winter colorwork sock goes on hold until I complete the stocking. I decided to go basic with the Christmas stocking. Kits are expensive and I didn’t want to buy more yarn. I had a skein of Christmas striped sock yarn in my stash. I bought 2 skeins last year and had already knit up one skein into a pair of Christmas socks for me. The yarn is kind of “wooly” so I didn’t want to make another pair of socks. It’s perfect for the Christmas socking. I’m using some stash yarn to make the white cuff. “Unfortunately” since it’s knit with sock yarn, I am not knitting it with a large needle to give my hands a break from the smallish (US 4) needles I’m also using on hubby’s sweater. I hope to add my granddaughter’s name with duplicate stitching down the leg. This should be fun and fast. I will have to line the sock as it’s not going to be strong enough fabric on it’s own.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

With the focus on the Christmas stocking, Hubby’s sweater is getting less love so not a lot of progress. Poor hubby, he always falls to the back of priorities. Good thing I love the yarn. I’ll be lucky if I get it done by Thanksgiving. More like Christmas. The progress keeper shows the progress I’ve made this week.

ADVENT CALENDAR

The first advent calendar has arrived. The others should arrive next month. This one is the Emma’s Yarn calendar. It will make a nice Christmas decoration. Apparently you just pick random ones to open versus being in a numbered order. It will be packed away to open in Florida. I’m thinking of making the Party Cardy with the mini skeins. The pink bag in the middle is a Christmas Day goody added by the yarn store that sold the calendar.

I also receive my autumn mini set that I will set aside for a Christmas in July ’23 opening.

COVID?? FLU??

Sadly I didn’t get to see my granddaughter and stepdaughter yesterday as she had to cancel the birthday party. My granddaughter has been running a fever for the past 5 days and my stepdaughter also came down with a fever, sore throat and body aches. Not sure if we will be able to squeeze in a visit in November before we head to Florida as my stepdaughter needs surgery for a “frozen shoulder”. I’ll have to mail the baby blanket for my grandson’s baby.

DEATH VISITS

Just when I thought things were bad enough with the loss of my childhood friend, “God” sends my family a sucker punch. My brother called me Wednesday evening with words I thought I’d never hear, “Derek is dead.”. Derek is my brother’s 35 year old son. It’s not clear exactly what happened other than he fell on his front steps and hit his head hard. He had a heart attack (?) either before or after the fall. I pray my brother and sister-in-law can survive the death of their son. I cannot image surviving the death of my child. So give your loved ones a special hug, call, or text this week.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts.  YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 10/9-15; Sweater Update, Sock Cast-on, Advent Box

AH HA!!!

I have been super frustrated with my gauge not matching my sweater. Even checking my gauge once I’ve started knitting has resulted in sweaters still being too big. What the heck?! Well this week I measured the gauge of my husband’s sweater. I measured it while the garment was still on the needles but far enough below that I could ensure the fabric was smoothed out. According the gauge I’d measured, the sweater would be much too small. But since I’d already had him try on the sweater with a barber cord and it swam on him, I knew this couldn’t be true. So I transferred the sweater to the barber cord and rechecked gauge. Indeed a HUGE difference. While still on the needle cord, the gauge was 5.1″ for 30 stitches for a garment circumference of 43″. On the barber cord, the gauge was 5.8″ for 30 stitches for a garment circumference of 49″!!!! Apparently this means I need to transfer swatches to a barber cord since leaving them on the needle cord apparently doesn’t result in an accurate gauge for me.

I’m making good progress on hubby’s sweater. He sure needs it as this fall has been unusually cool. I’m enjoying getting to wear my sweaters before we head to Florida. Sadly it’s also been extremely dry so we’ve had to buy water for our cistern. We did find the leak and fortunately it was both an erratic toilet and a leaky outside faucet, not a broken water line.

COLORWORK SOCK

I was getting bored with all stockinette knitting on hubby’s sweater. While I wanted to cast-on a second Ranunculus sweater, I decided to cast-on a colorwork sock. This way I’m also alternating knitting styles – Continental for the sweater and English for the sock. This is supposed to be good for decreasing stress on my wrists. Now ergonomically speaking, I’m just missing a project with larger needles. Stay tuned as I just realized I should knit a Christmas stocking for my granddaughter.

Similar to the Christmas colorwork sock I knit last year, I’m knitting a “winter” colorwork sock. I’m hoping the sock could be worn not just in December but in January if the stripes aren’t blatant Christmas. The stripes will be snowflakes, pine trees, hot chocolate mugs, etc. I plan to gift them to my daughter.

ADVENT WINDOW BOX

I was hoping to find a nice “box” to store one of my advent calendars in as I unveil the minis over the month of Dec. I found a nice windowed box with 10 compartments. I used balsa wood to make 24 compartments and stained the outside wood. Sadly the compartments are definitely too small for 20g mini skeins. One advent calendar I bought is only 10g minis. It will be tight but I’m hoping they might fit if I wind the minis into a ball. Here’s a picture with some of my leftover yarns as examples. Oh well, it wasn’t expensive and I’m sure I’ll figure out something to do with the box for advent even if it’s just to fill the compartments with chocolates. 😉

SAD NOTE/HAPPY NOTE

On a sad note, I’ll be attending the funeral of a childhood friend this week. Her death wasn’t unexpected as she had ovarian cancer and it had gotten A LOT worse these past weeks. This one is upsetting me more than I expected. Probably because it hits too close to home. We had been meeting monthly for lunch these past 10 years. I will miss her.

On a happy note, the day after the funeral I will be traveling to Indiana for the weekend to celebrate my granddaughter’s first birthday. I will enjoy spending time with my stepdaughter, her hubby, and my granddaughter. Just the pick me up that I’ll need.

I can’t believe this year is winding down already!! The holidays are almost upon us. I hope you are enjoying this fall season and this week of crafting brings you joy.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts.  YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 10/2-8; Baby Blanket FO!! and Sweater Redo

BABY BLANKET

Whew! It’s done. Lordy I hope there is a pause in baby blankets as they are not my favorite thing to knit. Good thing is that I’ve used up almost all my acrylic yarn that my daughter-in-all has gifted me over several Christmases.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

Finishing the baby blanket means I’m focusing now on my hubby’s sweater. I had him try it on after completing the hem and knitting 25 rows of the body. Despite making a gauge swatch, it’s way too big. So I ripped back to the hem and removed the added stitches the pattern called for. This results in going down one size. Plus I am going down a needle size. I will check the gauge again after I knit a few inches and see if any additional modifications are needed. Also see the cute Halloween progress keepers/BOR marker I got this week. I also got some Christmas ones.

Twice Sheared Sheep Holiday Markers

I’m probably going to end up casting on a pair of socks or another Ranunculus this coming week just so I have something to alternate between versus endless rows of stockinette. He wants a plain sweater which makes it easier to knit but also a bit boring. The striping does help alleviate the boredom.

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN

I tried to resist since I have already ordered 3 advent calendars but I just couldn’t resist my friend’s “autumn” mini set. Definitely going to have to make a lot of striped tops/sweaters. Maybe I’ll save this set for a Christmas in July so as to knit a tee for autumn. I’ll have forgotten the colors by then! Happy to say her yarn dying business is going well and is now her fulltime job.

Coates & Co Minis

CHRISTMAS IN THE AIR?

I seem to recall seeing someone make ornaments using up leftover bits of yarn. So I’ve been collecting the yarn I snip off after weaving in ends or if I truly have so little yarn left from a project that I’m not going to use it in another project. I would like my small Christmas tree that I have in the Florida condo to be knitting related. So yesterday I bought these tiny (1.4″/3.5cm) clear plastic ornaments and I’m stuffing them with the colorful bits of yarn. I’m planning to make a simple garland out of the leftover yarns from the baby blankets as well.

NON KNITTING STUFF

I got the most recent Covid booster Thursday. WOW. I’ve never had a reaction to Covid shots before. This one left my arm feeling like a professional boxer hit my arm. Then I had the worst headache I can remember in a very long time. Fortunately within 24 hours I was back to “normal”

It is almost the peak of autumn colors. Certainly by next week. Then it will start “raining” leaves. 😦 This is absolutely my favorite time of year. Sunny but cool enough to wear sweaters and wool socks. Bright blue skies. It’s weather and scenery like this that makes it impossible for me to consider moving to Florida year round. Oh and that broken rail at the bottom of the stairs…. a reminder of the incompetent concrete contractor we hired last summer.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts.  YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 9/25 – 10/1; Autumn Socks FO & Charlie Harper Project Bag

SEPTEMBER REVIEW

I just missed my stitch goal of knitting 1800 stitches per day in September although I’m still meeting that goal on a yearly basis. I am not surprised since I had 3 travel days where I wasn’t able to knit much. Turns out the months with week long wedding celebrations resulted in missing my stitches knit goal. I’m okay with that. 🙂 I started 3 projects and finished one although I’m tempted to count my autumn socks since they were so close to finished.

ALWAYS SOMETHING!!!

This has been a rough week. After returning from our Outer Banks/Delaware trip, we discovered we have a leak somewhere in our water system. We collect rain water from our roof which is stored in a cistern under our front yarn. So far we have confirmed the leak isn’t a sink/toilet. We are trying to determine if the cistern has developed a leak or the pipe from the cistern to the house. I suspect the recent concrete work my husband insisted on has caused the crack and leak.😖 Then the driveway repair this past week has been slow and resulted in accidentally cutting our internet/cable so I’m currently sitting at Starbucks as I write this using the free wifi. I’m getting my steps in since it’s 1/3 mile to the street where we have to park our car.👟

Hurricane Ian did damage the roof of our oldest son’s home in North Port, FL. He also lost the fence at his home. I believe our grandson’s home in North Port has serious water damage. Fortunately our son’s home in Gainesville, FL was unaffected as was our daughter’s home in Charleston, SC when Ian came ashore a second time. We are very fortunate that the condo we have rented for this winter made it through without a scratch. Some of the trees got blown over in the condo complex but the complex seems to have survived the hurricane well.

AUTUMN SOCKS FO

Got my autumn socks off the needles in time to wear with my autumn cowl this fall!! It will be fun to wear these in support of the Cincinnati Bengals football team as well as fall in general. I think it is interesting how at 68 stitches the orange pooled while at 64 stitches the orange striped. So I have pooled orange on the foot and stripes on the leg. I like it that way.

Now I have to focus on finishing the baby blanket and get back to knitting my hubby’s sweater. Then I can start thinking about casting on another pair of socks. Maybe Christmas colorwork socks!?

CHARLIE HARPER PROJECT BAG

I did end up making a project bag with the Charlie Harper fabric. I LOVE IT!! It is quite small; perfect for a pair of socks, especially if using 9″ circulars and 50g or less yarn balls. It’s only 7″ wide at the top and 4″x3″ at the bottom. It’s about 9″ tall. I have enough to make a second sock size bag. Charlie Harper was a Cincinnati based American artist well known for his stylized animal illustrations. I picked up the soccer ball charm at Michaels to use as a zipper pull.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts.  YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.