A Fiber-filled Reflection

The last day of 2020 has finally arrived, and I am more than ready to see the year go. But before it does, it's time for my annual look back on my year in making.

According to my Ravelry projects page, I completed 39 knit and crochet projects this year, using up more than 15,000 yards of yarn. I think I've actually used more than that, because according to my KnitMeter counter, I've actually used more than 19,000 yards. (The discrepancy is likely due to my own inconsistent tagging in Ravelry). Those projects included two crocheted blankets, four sweaters for me, 12 pairs of socks, 10 hats, three shawls, and various other projects.

I've also done quite a lot of spinning this year, prioritizing spinning my "back catalog" of fiber club shipments. According to my rough calculations, I converted almost 160 oz. -- that's almost 10 pounds! -- of fiber into yarn. That includes a fleece as well.

I have some plans for the year ahead, but because it's Thursday and Carole is hosting her final Three on Thursday link-up for the year, here are three things I want to finish before the year is out:

1. My mittens
In order to finish off my patterns 20 in 2020 list for the year, I need to finish this two pairs of mittens. I knit up the first pair earlier in the week, and now I've got just a thumb on the first mitten and the second mitten to knit. That might seem like a lot of knitting for one day, but the hands on these mittens (which are later felted) are knit at a very loose gauge and knit up very quickly. Pretty much the whole hand above the thumb on this first mitten was knit in about an hour last night.

2. My Base 12 singles
I really tried to get this done yesterday, but I accidentally nodded off in the middle. Oops. I have a bit of what's currently being spun and the last little bit of fiber left to do. I realized that it was unrealistic to expect to finish the skein before the end of the year, so instead this will be my first finished skein of 2021.

3. My book
I'm nearly finished with a silly Amazon First Reads book that I started earlier in the week. It's not very good, so I really don't want it to be my first finished book of the new year. I have like an hour and 20 minutes left to read, so I figure I can handle that while I'm knitting or spinning -- multitasking for the win!

I hope that in spite of everything the year has thrown at us, you've accomplished something you're proud of, and I'd love to hear what you're planning to cast on first for the new year! For me, it will likely be a Bousta Beanie in my handspun.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, VACCINATED new year and a year full of wool!

One List Complete

It's going to be hard to finish all three of my 20 in 2020 lists (yarn, patterns, and fiber), but one of them is officially complete as of yesterday. I finished spinning the singles on Friday, let them rest on the bobbin overnight, and then wound them off into a center-pull ball yesterday morning so I could ply from both ends, which I managed to do in one sitting yesterday.

I wanted to skein and wash last night, but we had a late evening -- we decided to watch You've Got Mail, which I've been quoting to Rainbow for years ("F-O-X!"). She now finally gets my references and also has been properly educated about the early days of email, but it meant that it was almost 10 by the time we finished. So I skeined and washed this morning, which means that I don't have final final photos to share -- it's still a bit damp and is hanging out on the radiator to dry out. But it's still pretty nice yarn, if I do say so myself.

I won't be able to determine the final yardage until it's fully dry, because handspun skeins often shrink when they dry, but it looks like it will end up sport weight and likely the in the neighborhood of 300 yards.

I really struggled to capture the colors accurately in these photos, and ultimately I had to edit them a bit because the colors were appearing so washed out when in fact they're actually quite deep and moody.

I was pondering what to spin next and was considering several options -- and then I remembered I still have an Advent-ish fiber thing to spin! So when I next sit down at my wheel, I'll be digging into my HipStrings Base 12 fiber. Can't wait to see what's inside those brown bags!

Slacking

I really hoped I'd have more spinning done by today -- but alas, little progress has been made. It was a busy week at work, so I didn't have time to spin during the day, and my evenings have been filled with gift knitting. I did spend a bit of time at the wheel yesterday afternoon while I watched a podcast and for a little bit of time during the weekly Zoom session that Mary hosts, so I have added some singles to the bobbin since last weekend's update. But as luck would have it, the top layer on the bobbin is exactly the same color as it was when I snapped a photo last week, which makes it hard to see the difference, so this time I thought I'd also show the fiber still remaining to be spun:

I'm hoping that I'll find some more time to work on this during the week ahead. I'd really like to finish this and one other bag of fiber this year to finish off my 20 in 2020 fiber list!

A Major Finish

What a difference a week makes, eh? It feels like an eternity since last Tuesday, but one benefit of all those anxious days is that I got a lot of knitting done and have a big FO to share today! My apologies for not having any modeled shots just yet; I'm the only one home today, and you already know that I have very poor selfie skills. I promise I will get some modeled shots soon, but for today you'll have to enjoy the old sweater on the floor trick.

Pattern: Radiate by Joji Locatelli (Ravelry link), size S
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Cozy (100% superwash merino) Serendipity Sweater Set
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: September 25/November 7
Mods: adjusted sleeve length (see below)

This sweater was one of the biggest projects on my 20 in 2020 list, and I'd intended to knit it with this sweater set since last year. The set came with six skeins of yarn, a five-skein gradient in shades of blue and one variegated skein to coordinate. Although Joji's sample uses two solid colors, I thought the pattern would look just as nice with a little more color variation.

I dithered a bit about which size to knit because Joji recommends some positive ease, but I knew that I was also using a superwash yarn that was likely to grow, and I didn't want a few inches of positive ease to turn into a potato sack. So in the end I opted for the size that would give me pretty much zero ease, and though I can't prove it yet with a photo, I can tell you that the fit is perfect. It's fitted with a long-sleeve t-shirt on underneath, but it's not tight.

The yoke in this sweater is really clever. It looks like stranded colorwork, but it's actually slip-stitch colorwork, meaning you only ever use one color per round. The increases are very cleverly incorporated into the design, too. I think the impact might be a bit stronger with solid colors, but I really like how the variegated yarn knit up here.

As far as the gradient went, I had to pretty much wing it. Every time I introduced a new color, I worked a total of eight rounds, alternating colors every round. When to introduce a new color was the real guessing game, because I wanted to be sure that I had enough of each color to work the same sequence on the sleeves as well as the body. I suspect there was probably some math I could have done to be more exact, but I really just made a guess when to switch by weighing what was left in each skein and starting the switch when I had between 40 and 50 grams of yarn left. I don't think it's terribly obvious, but if you look closely at the sleeves as compared to the body, you'll see that the sleeve colors, while in the same order, don't have quite the same proportions.

It would have been cool if the colors transitioned at the exact same spots, but I really don't care that they don't. I'm more than satisfied that I managed to get all the colors on both body and sleeves without running out. What's more, I never even had to break into the final, darkest color in the gradient! Here is how much yarn I have left:

You can see I cut it pretty close on the darker blues, and I'm feeling pretty good about maximizing my yarn usage because of that. I think the untouched skein will likely be a charity hat, and I might just have enough with all the scraps combined for another one.

We're expecting record-breaking high temperatures here today (close to 80!), but rain is coming through tomorrow and then we'll be back to more typical weather for this time of year, so I expect this sweater will get its inaugural wearing pretty soon. Bring on the sweater weather!

Three Projects to Cast On

It's Thursday again, and the start of a new month. Monday it still felt like summer, and then overnight a front came through to bring us some much-needed rain. It's left cooler temperatures in its wake, along with a lot of leaves on the ground, and I'm excited about fall -- true knitting season! I'm joining up with Carole and friends today with three projects I'm getting ready to start in the coming days.

1. Socks for my mother
So far I've gotten holiday gift socks done for my mother-in-law and my two sisters-in-law, so it's my mother's turn next. I bought this skein of Emma's Yarn Practically Perfect Sock at least a year ago, probably more, and I've been thinking that it'd be perfect for my mother for a while. Thankfully it wasn't buried in the stash and I was able to find it easily, so now I just have to wind it to get it ready to go.

2. A hat for Rainbow
These skeins have been wound for a week, but it's a good thing that I hadn't yet cast on because they'll work perfectly for a Pigskin Party challenge for this month to use two yarns held together. I'm planning to make a slouchy hat with these, using the slub base on its own for the brim and then joining in the mohair/silk for the body of the hat. Rainbow can be a bit sensitive to itch, so I figured using the merino/nylon on its own for the part that will be rubbing against her skin would be the best bet.

3. At long last, a Hitchhiker
I'm embarrassed by how long this skein of handspun has been wound and been sitting with the printed pattern next to my computer; I don't know how long it's been precisely, but it's been long enough to gather a layer of dust that I had to clean off. I've been so inspired by Bonny's series of Hitchhikers over the past year or so that I really wanted to finally make one for myself, and I even put it on my 20 in 2020 list, so as we enter the last quarter of the year, it's now or never!

I'm off to get started. I'll see you back here on Sunday with at least one new skein of handspun!

A WIP Roundup

As much as I love a long weekend, it makes the following Monday a bit rough, doesn't it? I was definitely dragging yesterday, and I may or may not have grabbed a cat nap or two during the afternoon. The weekend itself, though, was very restful. And I did quite a bit of crafting. You saw the spinning output on Sunday, but how about the knitting the crochet?

Despite the fact that we're in the middle of a verified heat wave with highs in the mid- to upper 90s, I already started thinking about my next sweater. One of the patterns on my 20 in 2020 list is Torbellino (Ravelry link), which I've been intending to knit for a couple of years and even bought yarn for at Maryland Sheep and Wool back in 2018. Kristen is sponsoring a sweater knitalong right now, so it seemed like the perfect time to cast on. So I swatched over the weekend.

Swatch gauge tool from Akerworks

Because the sweater is knit in the round, I swatched in the round using the cheater method. Do you know how to do this? I didn't want to sacrifice any yarn (if I had enough, I would have knit an actual tube and cut it to measure), so I did the faux in-the-round method of draping the strand of yarn loosely across the back of the swatch. Here's what the back looks like:

I used a US 5/3.75 mm needle for my swatch and am ever so slightly off on gauge (I'm getting 21 stitches over 4 inches rather than the called-for 22 stitches) but I like the fabric I'm getting and think going down a needle size would give me fabric with no drape. I have to do a couple of math checks, but I think it may work out to knit a size smaller than I'd intended using my gauge. I still have to wind the rest of my yarn before I cast on, but I'm trying to finish up my TTL Mystery Shawl first (more on that in a moment).

I worked on Rainbow's crochet blanket quite a bit over the weekend and am almost done with the 10th ball of Felici, with four more left. It's currently measuring about 42 inches wide. Once I'm finished with all the Felici, Rainbow will assess the size and decide whether it's big enough or whether we want to dig through the stash for more yarn to add. Though I started this for the 100 Day Project, I know I missed a few days recently, so I'm just continuing to work on it and keeping my own count.

Because one crochet blanket isn't enough, I started another one over the weekend. Rainbow had a giant ball of big box store acrylic that she'd started a granny square blanket with around the same time I started mine, but she recently decided she didn't want it anymore and ripped it out. She then gave me the skein to play with, and I'm using it to crochet a corner-to-corner blanket. Have you heard of this method? It's pretty ingenious and is rather like the crochet version of entrelac. I used this pattern (Ravelry link) to get started, and while the very start was a bit tricky, once I figured it out it's been smooth sailing. And this yarn seems particularly well suited to this method.

My plan is to try to use up all or nearly all of the skein of yarn (which is more than 1,100 yards!) and make a blanket for the couch in our family room, where we've been using two blankets knit by my aunt, one of which is a loosely knit lace blanket she made for Rainbow when she was born (in acrylic, so it's holding up fine, but it's not especially warm). I worked on this new blanket for a while this weekend to get the hang of it, but I've now put it aside to focus on getting Rainbow's blanket done.

Finally, my mystery shawl is WIP priority number one. The final clue came out yesterday, and I spent my crafting time yesterday working on it exclusively. I have one more chart and the bind off left to do, and I'm hoping to get through all that today, but of course work might throw a wrench into the plan.

Once this is done and blocked, I'll be sure to take some better photos -- these unblocked shots really do not do the design justice!

Plans for My Three-Day Weekend

Today is my Friday. Although my employer has temporarily removed the limits on the amount of vacation time we can accrue, the two personal days I get each year will still go POOF! at the end of the fiscal year (which is the end of this month), so this month, as I've done for several years now, I've taken two random Fridays off. In the past, one of those has typically been Rainbow's last day of school, but of course this year everything is different. Taking a day off now pretty much just means doing what I normally do every other day but not being glued to my computer. Tomorrow is my second of those days off, and while I don't have any specific plans for the day, I do have an idea of what I want to do this weekend.

For starters, I want to put some serious time in on Rainbow's crochet blanket. I must admit that I've missed a couple of days of work on it, completely unintentionally, though I'm still tracking my days so that I make sure I put in at least 100 days. As of this morning, this is all I have left to add of the original yarn set aside for the blanket:

It's now measuring about 40 inches across, which is a good size for a lap blanket but not as big as Rainbow wants it to be. So now I will start adding the additional six skeins of Felici we discovered in my stash. We will reassess the size after those have been added.

I also want to see how much I can get done on my Tegna. I finished up the back on Tuesday evening and got started on the front last night. There really isn't that much knitting left to do, though I may make the sleeves longer than specified given that it looks like I'll have plenty of yarn.

Finally, I want to devote some serious time to reading. I'm about 30-ish% into The Beautiful Mystery and am absolutely loving it, but I haven't been able to read it for any extended period of time just yet. The weather forecast for the weekend looks steamy and rainy, so it will be a good excuse to curl up in the AC with a book.

I'm off to see what Carole and friends are up to. Please share what you're working on and planning for the weekend ahead in the comments!

I've Been a Busy Little Bee

You know one really great thing about working from home during a pandemic? When work is slow, I can craft! And I have I ever been crafting lately. Last week was pretty darn slow at work, so although I had to keep an eye on my computer throughout the day, I pretty much always had something going in my hands. And that means I've made a lot of progress on my current projects. I just discussed my spinning two days ago and have only just started a new bobbin of singles since then, so no update is really needed there, but look, I finished a project!

These are the socks that I've been knitting for my sister-in-law as part of planning way ahead for holiday gift knitting. I finished these up last Thursday, getting the foot of the second sock done in just a day or two. I used my regular sock recipe and size 0 needles, working them over 68 stitches. The only modification I made, of course, was to add a little visual interest by slipping every other stitch for a round when the yarn changed color; I did this all the way around on the leg but only on the instep on the foot. I did take steps to make the stripes match on both sock, and I also manipulated the striping a big after I finished turning the heel by pulling out a little yarn to get to the next color so that I wouldn't have one awkward round of gold as I started the gussets. That meant a couple of extra ends to weave in, but I did that under the heel, which I figure will just add a bit of extra durability. My sister-in-law's feet are a bit smaller than mine, so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about running out of yarn, and I still have some leftover. I have yet to block these, but I will soon and then pack them away until December or until I can't wait to give them to her, whichever comes first.

I also made quite a bit of progress on my Tegna -- I've now split for the front and back and am ready to start the shoulder shaping on the back.

It looks like a silly face, doesn't it?

Now that I've made the split, I'm working with only one strand of yarn; the purpose of alternating the skeins every round before was to keep the color progression without too much variation, and now I should have front and back pieces that more or less match. This project was great company last week while I was reading, but now that I have to count and do short rows, it requires a bit more attention.

My main focus yesterday, as it has been for the past few weeks, has been the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl. I didn't have to tink or rip back at all to complete Clue 4, but I also didn't manage to get it all done yesterday, so I literally just finished the last four rows. Spoiler alert -- here comes a photo with Clue 4 all done!

I think this photo doesn't do it much justice because the lace is all scrunched up and it's hard to see the small section with mosaic knitting, so trust me when I tell you that it's stunning. This has definitely been a fun knit, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes in the last two clues. I'm also thankful that I've been able to keep up with the clues every week!

Though I haven't been able to do it as part of multitasking as much in the past few days, I have still been reading. I finished Such a Fun Age last week, which was just so-so for me. It had the potential to be better, in my opinion, but it wasn't bad. I gave it 3 stars. I am now onto The Beautiful Mystery, which I've anxiously been awaiting from the library. I'm fighting simultaneous urges to rush through it (because I know others are waiting for it) and to savor it (because I love these books and I've been waiting to read it). I expect I'll make it through all of it this week. I'm also still reading How to Be an Antiracist and am taking my time with it because it deserves my full attention.

The Pandemic Pile Grows

You may recall that in the early days of this pandemic (or least the early days of the stay at home orders), my knitting and reading mojo went AWOL and all I really felt like doing was crocheting and spinning. As a result of that time, I finished my giant granny square blanket and I've been positively plowing through my fiber stash. I've gone through more than a pound and a half of fiber in the past month and a half or so, including about half a pound alone in the last week. I think I've solved the mystery of why my knees have been so cranky with me lately -- too much time treadling! But I have to say that in the case of the most recent finished skein, it was absolutely worth it.

Part of the fiber backlog I've been trying to get through is shipments from the HipStrings Synergy fiber club that Jill was putting together for a while. If you're at all familiar with HipStrings, then you know that what the company is known for is really creative and unusual fiber blends. The club was really thoughtfully put together, offering in each shipment a miniature fiber study of sorts. This one was earmarked in my 20 in 2020 list because I loved the classic simplicity of it. The shipment contained about 2 oz. each of four shades of naturally colored wool that was a blend of 50% Shetland and 50% BFL. It was just begging to be spun into gradient, but rather than spin each color on its own or spin them all in order and chain plying, I decided to do more of a fade by spinning a traditional three ply, with each ply being made up of one section of each of the four shades. Because I am human and not a machine, I knew that the transitions would be gradual, meaning that the color changes would happen in slightly different spots in each ply.

I think if you look closely here you can see a bit of the marling effect where this happened. I'm quite pleased with it and think it will make for a gentler transition when I knit this up.

I'm planning to turn this into a relatively simple top-down shawl, something classic and cozy to show off the yarn. It ended up being about fingering weight and approximately 559 yards according to my estimates (for the mass, I would have expected more, but that's the BFL content for you). This finished skein was large enough that I had to get out my miniSpinner to ply it, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd spun on that week -- I actually had to dust it off first! I suppose my knees would appreciate my using it more often now.

I pulled some more HipStrings fiber out to spin up next so I can add to this quickly growing pile of yarn that has been completed since I started staying at home:

I hope that you've had as nice of a weekend as I have. We got really lucky and have had two nice and fairly warm days in a row. Yesterday I went for a really good run and today we met up with my in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law and nephew (socially distanced, of course) to take a long walk through the woods in one of our city parks. We spotted a deer and lots of chipmunks, and it was great to see everything getting green. I had a couple of nice Zoom calls with knitting friends, and I've had time to work on Rainbow's blanket and my shawl and to read a bit. Of course, under normal circumstances I'd be at Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, so I'm sad not to be seeing friends I'd normally see at the festival and sad for the vendors who are hurting from the cancellation of this and other festivals and events. I have been ordering from smaller vendors/indie dyers when I can and urge you to do the same if you're able. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Rhinebeck can safely occur later this year!

Anything But a Nightmare

My pile of pandemic-spun skeins has grown bigger in the last few days. After spending a few days spinning up all the singles, on Friday morning I plied them all. I let the yarn rest on the bobbin overnight and then skeined and washed it yesterday. I wish the lighting were better to show you how stunning this yarn is -- these photos just don't do it justice (thank you, rain that will be here all day!).

This yarn was spun from a set of batts that I bought at SSK when I attended back in July 2017. One of the classes I took at the retreat was on spinning batts with the extremely talented (and delightful) Jillian Moreno, so it seemed appropriate to pick up some batts at the marketplace from Liz at Hobbledehoy, who is not only a talented fiber artist but also an extremely nice human being who I became friends with at the retreat. She called this set of batts "Nightmare batts" for some reason known only to her. They contained a blend of organic Polwarth wool, bamboo, yak, silk, and a touch of sparkle. Does anything in that list sound like a nightmare to you? Me, either!

There were three batts in the set, so I spun each onto its own bobbin. The singles were spun long draw, to match the woolen preparation of the fiber, and then plied into a traditional three ply. Fresh off the wheel, the yarn appeared to be in the area of heavy fingering to sport, but then it had a bath and the magic happened: One of the signature characteristics of Polwarth fiber is that it often poofs up when washed, and that's exactly what happened to this skein -- it bloomed into a super squishy DK/worsted.

I love how the fiber prep combined with the method of spinning results in a more rustic yarn that's a little more inconsistent -- I think it adds great character to the yarn. I have about 265 yards, so enough for a smallish project, and I'm fairly certain that a purple-loving 10-year-old is going to claim it for something for her.

I've already lined up the next spinning project, again dug from stash from a couple of years ago. I'm not 100% certain what it is, though I know it was a HipStrings club shipment and I think it's the August 2018 shipment that contained a blend of BFL and Shetland in natural colors. It came in the form of four bundles of fiber, and as you can see, I've split each shade into three portions.

My plan is to spin another traditional three ply and do it as a natural gradient, so each ply will use one bundle of each of the four shades. My splitting and spinning are just inconsistent enough that the transition between the shades is likely to be in a slightly different spot in each strand, which should result in more subtle transitions. I haven't weighed the fiber yet, but I think I have 2 oz. of each shade, so I should end up with a pretty sizeable skein when I'm done (I'll have to break out the long-ignored miniSpinner to ply it all!). I think it'll make a fantastic and cozy shawl -- but first things first. I'm planning to start on the spinning later today, and though I've been on somewhat of a tear through my fiber stash, I think this might take a little longer to get through than recent skeins.

Sometimes Stress Is Good

Stress and generalized anxiety seem to be the new normal state of existence for me. I'm a worrier in general, especially when the health of my loved ones is an issue, so you can imagine that the current pandemic is not great for my mental health. Luckily, I have years of therapy behind me, so I have strategies for dealing with this kind of stress, and I've been taking medication that helps me to feel like I'm on more of an even keel. But these times are extraordinary, so I've been finding I need a little something extra now and then to work out the nervous energy.

Running has been helping a lot. I started out the month with the goal of running the equivalent of a marathon, and as of yesterday, I've completed 23.8 miles. I've actually gotten to the point where I'm looking forward to and enjoying my runs! Physically, they're getting a bit easier: I don't get winded as fast, I feel less sore afterwards, and I've been able to run for longer. Yesterday I even ran 3.6 miles without stopping and recorded my fastest ever 5K time (27:27, if you're interested). Now, I don't think I'll be running a marathon anytime soon, but it feels good to move, to be outside, and to feel physically exhausted at the end of the day rather than emotionally so.

In the past week, I also did what I kept referring to as "stress spinning." Basically that meant really fast spinning -- treadling probably a bit too fast than was good for the singles and noticeably thicker singles that what I usually produced. But it scratched an itch to create and to create something quickly, and frankly I'm not at all sorry I did it because I ended up with some beautiful yarn!

This is Southern Cross Fibre organic merino in the colorway The World Spins. I had split the fiber into thirds and spun each third onto its own bobbin. When the first bobbin ran out, I wound off the singles on the bobbin left with the most into an Andean plying bracelet (after the last disaster, I wasn't about to let it defeat me!) and continued on until the second bobbin ran out. There were still singles left in the plying bracelet, so I continued to ply until they were all gone. Then, when I wound off the yarn, I broke off that little bit of two ply and made it into its own tiny skein.

The main skein is roughly worsted weight, which is way outside my normal comfort zone. But it's certainly dense. David's club shipments are typically 110 g, a tad under 4 oz., and this skein is only 165 yards or so (compare that to a typical commercial worsted weight yarn, which is usually about 220-ish yards for the same weight). I was not at all surprised, given that this was spun worsted, which squeezes the air out of the fiber. And frankly I love how it looks so much, I'm only sorry I don't have more because I'd like to have the options that come from having more yardage. But I won't complain.

The fiber was predominantly blue and green, but here and there were spots of dark purple that turned a little brownish, and I love how you can see them in some of the plies if you look closely. It's this kind of thing that makes spinning handpainted fiber such a joy.

I had such fun with this spin that I think I might do it again with another recent Southern Cross Fibre club shipment that's been sitting next to my wheel! I don't know if I'll have as much time to spin during the day this week (the start of last week was fairly slow), but at the very least I can get in some time during meetings.

I hope you've had as good a weekend as possible, given the circumstances, and if you celebrate, I wish you a very happy Easter. Let's continue to channel our stress and anxiety into things that bring us joy!

One Very Big Finish

I have a really big FO to share with you today. It really deserves a great photo shoot, but sadly it is dark and gloomy here today. I did try to edit my photos to brighten them a bit, but I'm not an expert in digital photo editing and I fear these photos will not do this project justice. I promise that the next time the sun comes out, I'll try again.

In any case, thanks to all the comfort that my crocheting has brought me since this public health crisis started, I am delighted to tell you that my granny square blanket is officially DONE.

According to my Ravelry project page, I started this blanket on August 11, 2019. I had grand plans of finishing it by the end of the year, but of course that didn't happen. I didn't really use a pattern for this, just found instructions for starting a granny square online and kept adding on to it. It's made entirely of Fibernymph Dye Works yarn. The very inside is leftover Bedazzled (75% superwash Merino/20% nylon/5% Stellina), but the rest is Lisa's Bounce base (30% superwash Merino/20% nylon). I started out using leftovers from previous sock projects and eventually also incorporated Lisa's holiday mini skein set from last year and some other mini skeins I'd collected, either from sets or that came as contrast skeins with sock sets.

As I ran out of each leftover or mini skein, I used a Russian join to connect the next one. This meant a little bit of bulk as I came to each join but only two ends to weave in at the end, and when you consider just how many small bits of yarn I used, that's a lot of finishing work I eliminated!

I finished off the outer edge by doing a more solid round of double crochet and then working the final two rounds in single crochet. It's still curling up a bit, even after going through the washer and dryer, but I really don't care.

So how big is it? That's a little hard to say because this stitch is so stretchy that I could measure the blanket's dimensions and come up with different measurements each time, but for scale, here it is on top of our queen-size bed:

I thought this was big enough given that it's mostly likely going to be used as a throw (the Mister runs warm and never needs an extra blanket on top of the bed).

There are certainly a number of mistakes in the blanket, many of which I "fixed" in ways that are clearly visible, but this wasn't meant to be a show piece. This was meant to be a comfort project in every sense of the word, and I can tell you now, as I sit with it draped around my shoulders, that it is just that. It's cozy and cheerful and provided just the comfort I needed as this very anxious time in the world started. It also used a whopping 3,502 yards of yarn -- yes, you read that correctly! I pretty much depleted all my FDW sock yarn scraps, and that feels very good.

And I haven't gotten the crochet bug out of my system just yet. Rainbow has already tried to steal the blanket several times, so later today I'm going to be starting a new one for her. I'm joining in on the 100 Day Project for the first time because it's very much looking like we'll be staying at home for the foreseeable future and I know I could use a little comfort from crochet to get me through each day. Last night she picked out yarn to get me started:

The blanket will start with the leftovers of my I've Got Sunshine socks and then move through eight skeins of Knit Picks Felici I already had in stash. Once I get through those, we will decide if the blanket is big enough and, if not, dig through the stash for something appropriate to add. Rainbow has requested a tighter fabric for her blanket, so I'll be doing pretty much solid double crochets around, more or less like Casapinka's Blanket of Calm pattern. I really can't think of a better name for a project right now!

Cross Another Off the List

The sudden change in our daily lives is meaning a lot of time at home, which isn't all that unusual for a homebody like me, but usually over the weekend we get out a bit. Obviously any plans we had before have been canceled, so now I have the perfect excuse to stay in with my knitting. Over this past weekend, that meant the perfect opportunity to finish up a project and cross another item off my 20 in 2020 list.

Pattern: Brackthaw by Faye Kennington, size medium
Yarn: Quince & Co. Finch (100% American wool) in Sage, less than one skein, and handspun Georgia "rustic wool"/silk/nylon
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: February 13/March 14

These mittens have been on my want-to-knit list for a while, and I decided that the Woolly Thistle's annual mitten KAL was the perfect opportunity to finally do it. I'd already decided that I was going to use these two yarns for the mittens, both of which were in my FibreShare package a year ago. It felt good to use stash yarn for a pattern already in my library.

So let's talk details.

This pattern was a bit of a challenge not because it was hard but because of the level of detail. It's worked at a dense gauge -- 9 stitches per inch -- and, as you can see, has a very delicate design. Faye's pattern is very well written and easy to follow, but the charts might be a challenge if your vision isn't great. My sight is generally good, but I had to be very deliberate about keeping my place in the chart. Once I got to the second mitten, however, I found that the patterning was a little more intuitive to me, and the knitting definitely got faster as a result.

I made one modification and one error (that I could easily identify) in the knitting. As I was doing the decreases at the top of the second hand, I notice -- several rounds later -- that I'd done a decrease stitch in the wrong color. I wasn't about to rip back at that point, so I just used one of my yarn tails after I finished to duplicate stitch over the offending stitch as part of weaving that end in. I felt a little smug about it, actually, and though I know exactly where it is, I'm guessing that you can't see it, even if you enlarge the photo. The modification is likewise one that's not easy to spot: I did two additional decreases at the top of each mitten, a centered double decrease on each side (the palm and the back of the hand are separated on each side by three stitches -- white/green/white -- so I just decreased each set to one stitch). This meant that each mitten ended with a small number of stitches all in green, and that was aesthetically pleasing to me.

I generally don't block colorwork too aggressively, but these were a little lumpy because the handspun was a bit inconsistent and overall just a tad thicker than the Finch. I discovered that the top of my Knit Picks sock blockers were the perfect size and shape to stick into the hand, so after the mittens got a good soak, I stuck the blockers into them while they dried. The fabric is still not as even as it could be, but I have a feeling that as these get worn and rewashed, they will even out a bit more.

I'm completely delighted with how these turned out and now have an urge to knit more colorwork mittens -- and perhaps even design a new pair myself!

How are the rest of you coping with the new reality? It's been a long time since I had a knitting group to go to, but I'm finding that it would be really great to have one right now. Would anyone be up for a virtual knitting get-together sometime soon? I'm sure I could figure out Google Hangouts or something similar, and it would be great to be able to talk to some of you in real time while knitting. Let me know!

Meditation for Social Distancing

I'm on day 3 of staying home, and while that wouldn't be that unusual for me for a normal long weekend, there's definitely a weird vibe. I'd be lying if I said I was completely calm. I was doing okay, but this morning I woke up a bit panicked and ran to Trader Joe's to stock on up groceries right after it opened. Many other people seemed to have the same idea, which didn't help my nerves. But after I got that out of the way, I tried to do as much as possible to self-soothe. Rainbow and I went for a leisurely walk in the sunshine. We used last week's bananas to make two loaves of chocolate chip banana bread. And I did some spinning, which I always find wonderfully meditative. I did quite a bit of spinning this weekend, actually.

First, on Friday, I finished up the singles of the natural Clun Forest. I let them sit on the bobbin overnight (for the non-spinners reading, this makes it easier to ply because the twist rests a bit and so isn't quite so active when you ply, which means less fighting with the singles). On Saturday morning, I wound them off into a center-pull ball/cake, and then I plied from both ends of it. Here's the yarn fresh off the wheel:

You can tell that the ply twist is more active by how much it's twisting back on itself. So it got a nice soak in hot water to relax and then hung to dry overnight. This morning, I had this:

There's still maybe a bit of excess ply twist in there, but I think there's also some floofy bits that just look like too much twist. Overall I'd call it a heavy laceweight/light fingering. I had neglected to weigh the fiber before I started spinning, so I weighed the cake of singles and found that I had 72 g, which is about 2. 5 oz. The finished skein is approximately 218 yards.

I don't have any particular plan for this yarn, though Rainbow and I might try our hand at dyeing it with turmeric or dried marigolds for fun.

For my next spin, I wanted something truly relaxing and in my comfort zone, so I pulled out some Hello Yarn Targhee that I received in a swap several years ago:

I split the fiber into four vertical strips that I am spinning one after another and plan to chain ply, and as I'm spinning my default singles, I really don't have to think much as I spin. This has been the perfect project as I've been reading and trying to finish Lab Girl from the library.

It doesn't look like much, but that's about two hours of spinning time because these singles are very fine; I want the finished yarn to be fingering weight, and Targhee is one of those wools that poofs up when you wash it, so I have to make the singles very fine to compensate. It's drafting and spinning beautifully, though, so it's the perfect thing to help soothe my anxiety. And as both of these spins are on my 20 in 20 list, they're helping me feel like I can be productive even if I'm just sitting at home.

As of right now, it looks like I can expect to spend quite a lot of time at home. Rainbow is off on spring break for the next two weeks, and her school has elected to stay closed for the two weeks after that (all schools in Pennsylvania will be closed for at least the next two weeks anyway, as our governor ordered them to close). Pretty much everything is shutting down, and I'm pretty much expecting to work from home until things start opening up again. I got a call from my orthodontist's office earlier this afternoon to see if I'd be willing to postpone my appointment tomorrow morning, but he said he'd also be willing to see me because I'm due to get my braces off(!) as long as I understood that it might be a bit slow because it would be just him in the office. So that is my one bright point in the near future, and I expect things in this country and the world are going to get worse before they get better. I am trying to make smart choices and am certainly following public health guidelines as much as possible, but I'm also reminding myself that if we get sick, the three of us will likely be okay. It's all very surreal at the moment, and I think it's the uncertainty that's getting to me.

I realize I'm starting to get a bit dark here, and I apologize for that -- I'm someone who generally tends toward worrying and seeing the glass half empty, though I try to be more hopeful. I hope that wherever you are, you're staying healthy and safe and trying not to go too stir crazy!

Pleased as Punch

If you follow me on Instagram then you will already have seen these photos, but I think you can understand why I want to post them everywhere. I really couldn't be happier with my first finished sweater of 2020.

Pattern: Darkwater by Jennifer Steingass, size A/37.75 in.
Yarn: HipStrings Buoy DK (37.5% BFL/37.5% Shetland/25% Manx Loaghtan) in Marine (MC) and Goldenrod
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm), and US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: January 24/March 4
Mods: cast on/bound off using CC

This project had been in planning for quite a while. I bought the yarn at Indie Knit & Spin last February and really wanted to cast on right away, but I had other things to knit first and then things distracted me, as they so often do. I wear my other Buoy DK sweater so much, though, that I knew I wanted another one in rotation, and so I put this project atop my 20 in 2020 list.

The pattern calls for using fingering weight yarn, but the gauge given is really more suited to a DK, in my opinion. Buoy DK, as it happens, is more of a light DK at 288 yards per 100 g, and I knew it would knit up nicely at the pattern gauge. I was able to get spot-on stitch gauge, but my row gauge was a little off, so while the fit in this sweater is exactly as I wanted it, I do have a fair amount of positive ease, especially in the yoke, which I think you can see well in this photo:

The yoke ended up being a bit deeper than it likely would have been if I'd used fingering weight; the underarm of the sweater, for instance, is about 2 inches below my actual underarm. All this really means is that I just have to make sure that the yoke isn't riding up too much when I wear it, but it sits nicely and doesn't look sloppy, so I'm okay with it. It's a good reminder for me to have good posture, in any case.

The difference in row gauge also necessitated recalculating the sleeve decreases, and I ended up pretty much doing my own thing for the sleeves anyway because I picked up more stitches under the arm to avoid holes and then worked mini gussets to decrease them away. I knew how many stitches I should have at the top of the sleeve and how many I needed for the cuff, so it was really just a matter of doing some basic math using my gauge to figure out when to decrease.

When I blocked the sweater, I was very deliberate about smoothing out the colorwork yoke. It's still not as flat as it could be, but I know that it will even out over time as I wear the sweater (and trust me, I'm going to wear the heck out of it!) and wash it. It's certainly extra cozy with all those floats in there, and over time I expect them to stick together a bit.

The only other real mod I made that wasn't necessitated by fit issues was to add a pop of the contrast color to the edges of the sweater by casting on the neckline and binding off the lower hem and cuffs with it. It made for a few extra ends to weave in, which was a bit of a pain, but I had plenty of CC yarn to work with and like the effect a lot.

While I was worried (as I usually am) that I'd be cutting it close on yarn, I ended up having plenty: I used just a smidge more than three skeins of the main color and about half of the contrast color, so just a little more than 1,000 yards altogether.

I've already worn the sweater once (and gotten tons of compliments on it) and hope to get in another wear or two before I pack it way for the summer!

New Year, New Socks

Given that I describe myself as a "recovering sock addict," it seems perfectly appropriate that my first finished project of the year is a pair of socks. They're also the first thing I can cross off my 20 in 2020 list!

Pattern: Non-Euclidian
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (80% superwash merino/20% nylon) in 12 Days of Christmas, one skein
Needles: US 0/2.0 mm Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: December 24, 2019/January 5, 2020
Mods: adjusted placement of heel decreases (see below)

These were cast on to be my Christmas Day movie knitting; the other socks I had on the needles at the time were patterned and thus not suitable for knitting in the dark. I cast on and knit the cuff only that day and then got about four inches of leg done in the movie. I think the first sock was finished on New Year's Eve, because the Mister and I went to see The Rise of Skywalker on New Year's Day and I worked on the start of the second sock during that. The majority of the second sock was knit on the plane on Saturday, and it's probably the reason I didn't completely lose my mind during that long delay!

The modification I made to the heel is the same one I did in my last pair of Non-Euclidians. Instead of working the decreases as described in the pattern (which are done while working a flap back and forth under the heel), I resumed working in the round after turning the heel and worked mirrored decreases toward the center of the sole, starting at the edges of the stitches left after the heel turn. It's a bit hard to describe, but I think it makes much more sense if you look at the socks.

I'm still working on the other socks, which are a new design that will be released next month; I should start the heel during lunch today. I've also got another design sample on the needles (you saw a peek at it last week -- it's the sock yarn held together with mohair/silk), but I'm already plotting my next cast on. I'm late getting on the mohair/silk bandwagon, but I'm solidly on.

The skein on the left is a OOAK skein of FDW Beguiled, a 75/20/5 blend of superwash merino, nylon, and Stellina, that I got in my grab bag last year. I thought I'd use it for a hat for me, but that was all the thought I'd given it. And then I so enjoyed knitting Rainbow's Neon that I thought I'd use it for one for myself, but I'd kick it up a notch in the warmth department by holding a strand of mohair/silk alongside the DK. Lisa just so happened to be having an end-of-year sale, so this skein of Floof in the colorway American Rust found its way to me (along with a few other things that I'll share once I have decent light to snap some photos). I think that these two yarns together are going to look pretty amazing and be extremely warm, which is what I really want for walking to and from work in the winter. I mentioned my plan to Rainbow, and naturally she also expressed interest in having a hat with some mohair, so it appears this skein will be doing double duty -- luckily there's a lot of yardage in this 50 g skein!