It's Friday -- I Think

As much as I love an extra-long weekend, they do make it difficult to keep track of what day it is. Yesterday I kept thinking it was Saturday, so it was nice to wake up this morning (even if my regular weekday alarm woke me up) and remember it's only Friday. I'd already planned to take a vacation day today, but then the university decided to give us a bonus day off as a holiday and we had a 2 p.m. closure on Wednesday in my office, so my weekend is ending up longer than my workweek!

We had a very low-key Independence Day here. The weather wasn't great -- overcast, hot, and very humid -- so I went for a walk in the morning but then spent the rest of the day indoors. One project for the day was going through my handspun stash (well, part of it, anyway) and pulling out and labeling skeins to take to sell next week at the Twin Set Summer Retreat. Mo helped by attaching the tags after I wrote them out.

I still need to go through all of them to create an inventory, so I don't know exactly how many skeins there are, but let's just say I am feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of handspun I have and really need to focus on using it up, selling it, and/or giving it away!

I also spent some time yesterday working on my Little Plinth Tee preview knit. I was having an issue with it, and it turns out that it's all due to my apparent inability to count, so I had to do a little frogging back. But everything is back on track now, and I have a feeling I will finish it up very quickly now.

It's a bit off center here (the two white markers you can see are the center front), but you get the idea. Right now I'm in the "work even until body measures X inches" part, and everything you see above the ruffle was knit in less than an hour last night.

The most exciting thing to happen yesterday is that after finishing my plying on Wednesday, spending about an hour skeining, and then waiting a good 24 hours for the yarn to dry after its wash, I finally measured the yarn and confirmed that I have enough for the main color of the intended sweater!

It really is as shiny as it looks here! I wish I could show you how much drape this yarn has; you'll just have to take my word for it. I've got approximately 1,168 yards total, which is about 200 yards more than the pattern says I'll need. I've looked at the pattern and done a little math to figure out roughly the proportion of the contrast color I'll need for sleeves versus body, so now I am ready to split up the remaining fiber. I'll share how I'm doing that in a future post.

We don't have a lot planned for the rest of the holiday weekend, although today I'm attempting (this is attempt number four, if you're keeping count) to donate blood this afternoon, and this evening the Mister and I are going to a wedding (the son of one of his coworkers is getting married, so we won't know many people and likely won't stay too late). I'm hosting my mahj group on Sunday afternoon, and that's it! I hope to get some more spinning and knitting and reading it as well as to catch up on sleep (the Mister has been snoring a lot this week). I wish you a weekend full of whatever brings you joy and offer you the greetings of this tiny visitor to my zucchini:

Unraveled, Week 27/2024

Good morning! It's Wednesday, which usually means linking up with Kat and the Unravelers, but as Kat is taking a little break from being online right now, there's no official link-up. I like a routine, though, so I'm doing my usual post.

I am, still, plying my three blue singles. I had hoped to finish up the second bobbin yesterday, but I had some actual work to do (boo). I'm hoping it'll get finished today so I can skein and get an estimate of my yardage; I don't want to start splitting up fiber for the contrast until I know if I have enough main color for the sweater I have in mind (Ravelry link), though I do have a plan, which I will share if the blues end up being enough.

I've been continuing to work on my test knit in the evenings while we continue our watch of Gilmore Girls (we are almost halfway through the second season). I'm just about finished with the bottom ruffle and should be able to wrap that up this evening.

I also cast on a new project about a week ago that I never shared with you. I like to have something plain to knit while I'm reading something for work (I concentrate better if I have something to do with my hands, but it has to be something I can knit without looking), so I decided to start a pair of socks for my father-in-law for the holidays. It's been a while since I last knit him socks -- years, in fact -- so he was due to get a pair. He's a pretty plain guy, so I pulled some pretty plain yarn out of deep stash.

Want to know how old this yarn is? This is Knit Picks Essential Tweed, a yarn that was discontinued/rebranded as Stroll back in 2009. I wasn't too into rainbow-y tweed back then, which means that I probably bought this on clearance to get to free shipping and that was probably when the yarn line was on its way out. Even if I bought it in 2009, that means this yarn is still likely older than Mo. I know some of you might have stash that's a lot older, but considering that I only started seriously knitting around 2004/2005, that's still pretty old for me.

I haven't done as much reading this past week -- well, at least I haven't done as much finishing this week -- and only finished one book.

I was in the mood for a fun audiobook over the weekend and borrowed Sex and Vanity from the library. This is a modern retelling of A Room with a View, with the added complexity of issues of race and money. I'd enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians, and this book is very much in the same vein: lots of people who are too rich trying to outdo each other. It got a little tiresome in this book, though I think that was kind of the point (at least for one character), and I got a little annoyed with the narrator, who didn't entirely succeed in all the accents she was trying to do. That said, it was good entertainment while I was out exercising and cleaning. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm still chipping away at A Suitable Boy, and earlier in the week I started an ARC that I was invited to read and review from NetGalley called Like Mother, Like Mother. I'm halfway through and should finish it up soon.

I'll leave you today with a little life hack. I'm a big fan of iced coffee in the summer -- it's a special treat on those days when I run in the heat and find myself very sleepy after lunch. But I don't drink it quickly and get annoyed when it gets watered down, so a couple of years ago, I started making ice cubes from coffee. We tend to have a little left in the pot most days (not enough for another cup), so I've been pouring that into a silicone tray that I bought for freezing homemade baby food back when Mo was a little one:

When all the spots are full and frozen, I'll pop them out and store them in a Ziplock. Easy peasy!

If you're celebrating the holiday tomorrow, I hope it's a good one!

Hello, Monday; Hello, July

I was not very excited for my alarm to go off this morning after a not-so-great night of sleep, but at least it's a short week. And while the heat and humidity are coming back midweek, right now it's 56ºF with a 50º dew point, which means I'm going to have a very comfortable run this morning!

We had a fairly low-key weekend, with the usual chores and errands but also a lot of relaxation time. I started out by finishing up both of the projects that were close to the end, starting with the second Bousta Beanie:

Somehow I used less yarn (about nine yards) on the second hat, despite knitting them exactly the same way. No matter -- I'm very happy with them both! Now they're ready for a bath and a block before they're added to the donation pile.

I also finished up the Benny singles Friday evening, so I was ready to start plying on Saturday:

After several plying sessions over both days, I had one bobbin finished yesterday:

I was concerned about having enough of this yarn for the main color of the sweater pattern I have in mind, but based upon how long it took to fill this first bobbin, I'm feeling more confident. I'll have to wait until I skein up the yarn to know for sure, of course, but there seems to be quite a lot of yardage there. I will continue to ply the rest today, as work allows.

I also started my test knit of the Little Plinth Tee over the weekend:

This is the peplum/ruffle along the bottom of the tee, and I actually think this part is going to be the slowest of the whole project because I have to count rows and work a set of short rows every 12 rows. But I've gotten into a groove now and no longer have to check the pattern as closely, so I don't think it will take me too long to get the rest of it done. Once I pick up for the body and start working in the round, I think it will be even faster. It would be great if I could get the whole thing done before Mo and I leave for our retreat next week, but we'll see. I'm focusing on this week first and will think about retreat knitting next week.

As I mentioned, it's a short week. Obviously we're off on Thursday for the holiday (I'm hoping for an early dismissal from work on Wednesday to kick it off), but I decided to take a vacation day on Friday as well, both because I needed to use up some time and because the Mister and I have a wedding to go to in the evening. I'm also going to try to donate blood again (this is attempt number 4 in the last month) on Friday afternoon; I'll share that saga if anyone is interested, but I'm hoping this is the end of it. In the meantime, I'm hoping it's a quiet week at work given the holiday. I hope it's a good week for you!