2023: Wk of 5/21-27; Ranunculus FO, Sea Glass Tee Cast-on, and Other Knitting News

RANUNCULUS FO

Final photo of this project. Very happy with how it turned out and that this pinkish yarn is now in a project that I’ll wear more often. Not thrilled with how mohair sheds but it’s kinda fun to be a “fluff ball”.

“SEA GLASS” TEE CAST-ON

Tee FO means it’s time to cast-on the next tee. I have so many I want to knit!! Sea Glass Tee won. I am using the Sea Glass Tee pattern but this time I’m switching between light and dark yarn every other row instead of every other stitch. The intent is so that the tee isn’t double thick as it is when you have to carry the yarn for every other stitch. I am using Figment by Deep Dyed Yarn in the Danger Danger colorway. I bought it at the local wool festival a year and a half ago. It’s a colorful variegated yarn with a metalic thread. I’ll use it for the dark color changing yarn. I’m using Berroco Quinoa in the Basmati colorway as the light color. It doesn’t change color but has an interesting texture. Too early to be sure but I think the alternating rows are working as I had hoped.

STITCH MARKER/PROGRESS KEEPER ACQUISTION

Big splurge! I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some charms for a summer theme. Note the flower charms hanging from the stitch markers on my Sea Glass Tee. I had gotten those honeycomb stitch markers a while ago and never used them since they weren’t colorful. Now with the flower charms hanging from them, I’m loving them for this tee. Also, the honey bee progress keeper. It’s my goal to have seasonal stitch markers and progress keepers.

YARN OUT

I’m happy to share that this has been a very good year so far for Yarn Out. I was surprised to realize that I’ve had at least an FO every month and a tee FO every month except January. My yarn out has actually been twice that of my yarn acquisitions. This is good because my local yarn dying friend just announced yesterday that she will be doing an advent calendar this year afterall!!! (I had reached out to her a month or so ago and she said it wouldn’t be till 2024.) Thankfully I never ordered the advent calendars I was eyeing. I will definitely order hers. This will be in addition to the stitch marker/progress keeper advent calendar I bought. Now the question is, do I delay again the I yarn advent calendar I bought last year and not open it until 2024?? Three advent calendars does seem a bit excessive. But hey, they make cute Christmas decorations for our Florida condo rental. Since I do love my stash yarns, it’s been easy to focus on projects that use the yarns already in my stash. It is kinda my goal to reduce my “yarn wall” although I just love looking at all my colorful yarns on display along the kitchen counter that separates the kitchen for the living area.

“WINTER” COLORWORK SOCK

Got the heels done on both socks and working my way down the foot. Loving the self striping yarn I’m using (Lollipop Yarns) although there isn’t enough to finish the foot. I have another ball of leftover sock yarn that I’ll use to finish. I used Natalie Sheldon’s Advent Sock 2019 for the stripe patterns.

HEALTH UPDATE

Hubby and I are both recovered from Covid and back to our normal activities. Well, with the exception of acknowledging our age limitations for some household chores. For the first time we hired someone to power wash our wooden deck and pergola. Hubby tried climbing a ladder to power wash the overhead beams and quickly realized it was no longer a good idea for him. We did do the restaining of the wood ourselves. The person that did the power washing also does grass mowing so we are hiring him to cut the 1/4 mile (400m) of driveway we maintain (it’s a shared driveway so neighbors cut the parts that are by their property). It is very uneven ground and even with a “self propelled” lawn mower, it is getting too much for me. We will still cut the flatter lawn that surrounds our house.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a Ravelry YOP post. A fun group of bloggers that post once a week on our yearly crafting plan. Sticking to the plan is not required. 😉

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2022: Wk of June 5-11; New WIP

Hello from rainy Cincinnati. My wish that June would bring clear skies was not to be. It was grey and drizzly for hubby’s birthday party but all had a good time anyway. I do treasure every time it is dry enough to enjoy our decks.

NEW WIP

I did finish the Quirky socks. So I got to cast-on a new project – my son’s girlfriend’s shawl. I’m knitting Summer Shrug by Dana Young. It’s a very basic pattern; 6 rows of “lace” (3 rows of YO, k2tog with a purl row between the YO rows) at the beginning, followed by 40″ of stockinette, finished with the 6 rows of “lace”. I really want to be complimentary of the pattern but I just can’t. I bought the pattern through Ravelry but if I had looked on her Etsy page I would have seen the criticism that it was pricey ($6) for an extremely basic pattern. On the other hand it’s only $6 so lets not nit pick. It’s knit flat as a long rectangle and then the edges are seamed for a few inches to create a slight sleeve. I’ve modified the pattern by putting I-cord edging for what will become the top and bottom edges of the shrug (thank you Steven West for teaching me this in your Spiraling Cables shawl). The only positive of the pattern as that she does provide mattress stitching instructions although I’ve learned from watching podcasts that I should use Bickford seaming for a more invisible seam.

I am using a skein of yarn that is basically a fade through 4 “yarns” that I got in a yarn swap. I cut the yarn into 4 balls since I want to have the second half match the first half. I will use half the mini ball before switching to the next color’s ball. The construction will mean the ‘stripes” will be vertical instead of horizontal. I found a mini that continues the fade if I need more yarn. Turns out I’m not liking the big blocks as stripes. I’m going to show it to my son’s girlfriend later today to get her thoughts both on the colors and the big blocks. It’s likely I’ll rip back to the “lace” and make much smaller stripes. This is a quick knit since it’s just stockinette. It’s a nice change to use a large needle, US 9, instead of the US 0 I use for socks.

WHAT’S UP NEXT??

I have the toes knitted up for one pair of socks to take on the Windjammer cruise I’m taking off the coast of Maine in 4 weeks but I want to take along a second pair as I expect to spend LOTS of time knitting on the boat. So I got the yarn divided in two and wound into balls. I’ll work on getting the toes knit up today. I’m going to use the Simple Spiral pattern as it’s supposed to be easy to memorize while having a slight lace to it.

Plus I really do need to watch the Patty Lyons Fix It video for brioche and work on my swatches. Guess the shrug will be hibernating for a few days.

ADVENT CALENDAR – ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!!

After sharing my 5 year stash plan last week, you would think that I’d be successful in resisting purchasing more yarn. But no. I watched a YouTube video of one of my favorite dyers, AGirlAndHerWool, this week. Wouldn’t you know she is offering a very good price on an advent calendar. Did I mention I’ve already purchased 2, count them 2, advent calendars? Supposedly one of the advent calendars I bought I’m putting away until 2023 so that means I only have one for 2022 right?? She offers 10g mini skeins so I bit and ordered one. I have no self control!! It really is an expensive way to buy yarn but I know I’ll enjoy the little surprises every day in December. 10g will be perfect for the Sea Glass Tee. Downside is I’m going to have to figure out how to store all these new minis.

KNIT IN PUBLIC

Yesterday was “Knit In Public Day”. World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes. It began as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each other’s company since knitting is often a solitary craft. I’m trying to get a monthly knit session set up with knitters that I met at my LYS so we met yesterday at Panera. We got to “knit in public” and kick-off a monthly knitting group. It was nice to catch up with folks I haven’t seen in a year or more.

That’s it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.

This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group â€“ 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 is in it’s 11th year. It’s my second in the group. I’ve been knitting for five years.

2022: Wk of May 29 – June 4; Stash Review, Sock and May Goal Status

STASH REVIEW

One of my 2022 goals was to review my stash to see how many projects I already had on hand and to establish a 5+ year plan. Well, I’m happy to say I’ve accomplished my goal. Unfortunately I do indeed have 5-6 years worth of project yarn (assumes 10 small/sock and 4 large/sweater per year) already on hand!!!!! Truthfully it’s slightly worse as it doesn’t count a sweater quantity of minis I already have on hand, baby yarn that was given to me in Florida, nor acrylic yarn I still have. Plus I will be receiving 2 plus sweater quantities of minis in December from the advent calendars I’ve already purchased. It’s a good thing I’ll be out of town for the local fiber festival in September this year. So far I’ve resisted purchasing more yarn and hope to maintain this resistance unless yarn is REALLY on sale (like half off). I have laid out a rough 5 year plan of socks, cowls, shrugs, tees, and sweaters although many projects don’t have a pattern picked yet. I crossed out acrylic yarns that I will probably donate rather than use.

5 YEAR STASH PLAN

QUIRKY SOCKS – Almost FO

I made progress on my self striping socks this week. Not quite an FO yet but will be finished in the next couple of days. One sock is ready for the cuff. The second sock will be ready for the cuff by the end of today so should be done Monday or Tuesday.

MAY GOAL UPDATE

As noted above, I did complete a 2022 goal of reviewing my stash and created a rough multiyear knitting plan. May was a rough month for actual knitting. With the wedding and lawn care my daily stitches did not meet my goal of 1800 stitches per day although I’m still averaging more than 1800 per day for the year to date. I’m looking forward to getting back on track in June. I can’t wait to cast on a colorful shawl for my son’s girlfriend once the Quirky socks are finished. Also, I need to get back to working on my Brioche class.

SUMMER KNITTING

I’ve got my deck knitting “nook” set up. I’m looking forward to spending some afternoons enjoying the nice weather assuming it finally stops raining!! We had twice the normal rainfall in May but I think we are supposed to get back to “normal” in June. We finally planted flowers and tomatoes this past weekend.

Deck Umbrella with Netting

We have been enjoying dinners on our upper deck. I just love June in Ohio. It’s before the humidity and bugs hit for the summer.

Upper Deck

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.

This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group â€“ 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 is in it’s 11th year. It’s my second in the group.