Back to Three WIPs

It's Thursday, a day to link up with Carole and friends for Three on Thursday. Appropriately, this morning I find myself with three current knit and crochet projects because I finished up a rather large one last night:

The blanket has not been washed and blocked yet (if that wasn't completely obvious from the curling edges and ends that have not yet been trimmed), but Rainbow and I plan to take care of it tonight. I finished the final round on the single-crochet border last night after she went to sleep, so I presented it to her first thing this morning and she immediately curled up in it. I think that means she likes it! I'll do a proper FO write-up once we've blocked it and gotten some glamour shots, but for now I can tell you that it used a total of 2,957.9 yards/2,704.7 meters of yarn. That's a major addition to my Stash Dash totals!

I am quite relieved to have this project done and to turn back to the other WIPs. Two you have already seen and have not changed since you last saw them -- my Torbellino sweater and the C2C crochet blanket. But I also have a new project cast on in the last week.

I think most of you will likely be able to guess the yarn -- it's my old standby, Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce. This is the colorway Seven Deadly Sins. I'm knitting a hat to match my Slipdash cowl (Ravelry link), something I've been meaning to do for quite some time but had been procrastinating on the two minutes -- no exaggeration! -- of math I needed to do to get started. The hat will have a deep ribbed brim and the same slip-stitch patterning as the cowl. I'm planning to grade it to five sizes (baby through adult), and I'm hoping to get the sample knit up pretty quickly because I know that the pattern writing will be very straightforward.

All the craziness of the times we're in has really messed with my creativity and my concentration, so I haven't been very productive with my designing this year and am behind my self-imposed schedule of releases (but I am working to give myself some grace in that area; as the situation is unprecedented, I'm reminding myself that I can't reasonably hold myself to the same high standards of the past). I'm itching to cast on another design sample, too, a shawl with some handspun, so maybe the tide is beginning to turn again? With all of the madness surrounding the Ravelry redesign, I'm also spending some time getting my patterns into a Payhip shop so that the folx who can't use Ravelry can still buy my patterns, and of course there's still work. One day at a time, right? I'm doing my best, just as I suspect most of you are, and I'm finding comfort wherever I can. As it so often is, comfort is frequently found in playing with yarn and fiber, so I plan to do more of it this weekend. Be well and stay cool!

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.

Three Ways to Pass the Days

Well friends, we've made it to the end of April. It seemed to be a very fast month for me, especially in comparison to the glacial pace of March, but I suppose a large part of that has been all of us adjusting to our routines. Rainbow has school online and assignments to complete, and the past few weeks, they've added "lunch" (a special Zoom session with just a few kids and a teacher), "recess" (unscheduled class Zoom sessions), and even sessions with the specialist (e.g, art, music, library) teachers. She still has her moments, and she's still spending more time in front of screens than I'd like, but she seems to be doing better now that she has of a structure to her day and more opportunities to connect with her friends.

I've also settled into a new schedule of sorts. I've been able to adjust my wake-up time to be a bit later now that my commute to work onlyinvolves walking up a flight of steps to my bedroom, and that also means I've had more time in the morning to enjoy my coffee and catch up on blogs and email. I've been working through lunch most days so that I can take my break at the end of the day, and that when I go out for a run or a walk as the weather allows. I've also been showering before dinner rather than when I wake up in the morning, and I've fully embraced the makeup-free, wild hair look. On the rare occasion that I've put on makeup or blown my hair dry, it feels like a treat.

Today I'm joining Carole and friends to talk about three things that are getting me through these strange days. There is my job, of course, but things are strange there, too, and even when I'm busy, work is only a temporary distraction.

1. Fibery things
My knitting mojo is still here, and I've been working diligently on my shawl design sample just about every evening. I can see progress -- the end is in sight now. I'm also finding a lot of joy in working on Rainbow's crochet blanket for at least 15 minutes a day as part of the 100 Day Project. It's been and excellent project during conference calls, which I have several times a week now. Yesterday I joined in the second color of Felici.

The colors are a little loud for me, at least mixed all together like this, but Rainbow likes them, and that makes me happy. I certainly feel good about using up the stash.

I also finished a pair of socks for her earlier in the week that had been on the needles a while and which I'd kind of forgotten about. It wasn't much effort to finish them up in the end.

These were knit toe up using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel template, though I worked the heel a bit differently, using garter stitch and actual wraps and turns, just to try something different. The yarn is Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway Gimme Some Sugar (Cookies), which came in the last shipment of Lisa's Just Desserts club last year. It came with a matching mini skein, which I used for the heels and toes at Rainbow's request. I didn't ask her if she wanted the stripes to match until I was starting the second sock, and though I wound off some yarn to get to the same color in the stripe sequence that I'd started the first sock with, it was sheer luck that the stripes matched up so perfectly.

As you've no doubt seen, I've also been doing a ton of spinning, mainly because my "office" is my spinning corner in my bedroom, where I have my comfy chair set up in the corner with my wheel in front of it and my laptop sitting on the end of the radiator next to me. I have found that I'm able to spin while reading a Kindle book in addition to the usual things I do while spinning (watching a podcast or something else online or listening to sometime).

2. Exercise
My job is very sedentary -- I sit at a desk most of the day -- but I live close enough to my office that I've almost always walked to work, which means I was used to getting two 15-20-minute walks a day. Now that I'm working from home, I definitely miss those walks, so I've been making a point to try to exercise every day if I can (the weather doesn't always cooperate with me). I've been running a lot and yesterday officially hit 60 miles for the month, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. But getting fresh air and seeing other people out and about has been just as uplifting as the endorphins, so I feel extra good about making it a priority.

3. Reading
Several weeks ago I was having trouble focusing on books, but I think the key to getting my focus back was reading something really excellent, and my recent finishes did the trick. I haven't gotten a bingo yet on my card, but I'm definitely filling up more spaces.

Right now I'm in that wonderful yet horrible position where I'm reading two books I'm really enjoying -- one on Kindle, one on audiobook -- and am frustrated that I can't enjoy both at the same time. The Kindle book is Apeirogon, which came highly recommended by Kat and is really unlike any book I've read. I'm not even halfway through and can already tell that it's going to be a 4- or 5-star book for me. The audiobook is Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, which I picked from available audiobooks from the library when I was looking for something new to listen to while running. Though I didn't love Fever when we read it for our virtual book club, I did enjoy Keane's writing and had heard good things about her most recent book. I'm almost a third of the way through it and am really enjoying it as well.

So now you know how I've been getting through these pandemic days, and I'd love to hear what you're doing to keep you sane and calm and healthy.

A Different Kind of Stitching

It's Wednesday, not one of my usual days for blogging, but I felt like putting up a post today, so why not? I'm joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

Usually the stitching I talk about here is in the form of knitting, though occasionally there's some crochet or embroidery. But the times being what they are, I decided to try some stitching of another variety over this past weekend and pulled out my very old sewing machine (not quite antique, but I've had it since I was in high school, I think, so it's certainly not from this century). I wanted to try my hand at making face masks, for obvious reasons, but I'd also been meaning to try sewing a project bag for about two years.

For the face mask, I followed this pattern/tutorial, which I'd thought looked pretty straightforward for a non-sewist like me but which I've since been informed is actually not very easy. I guess that's why the first attempt looks so amateurish:

The first one was made in Rainbow's size and used some quilting cotton (the white with polka dots) and some old pants of mine that no longer fit. The white fabric was meant to be the outside originally, but the black ended up being larger and so we flipped it the other way. Because I was still figuring things out, there wasn't enough fabric at the sides to make channels for the ties, so I cut out extra pieces of fabric and added them after the fact. The tie is actually a strip of an old T-shirt that had holes in it. The end result of this sewing, which took longer than I'd like to admit, is serviceable but not very attractive.

Last night I was ready for a do-over. I'd come to the conclusion that part of the difficulty in the first attempt was my fabric choice; both fabrics were on the floppy side, and the black was especially difficult to work with because I couldn't see any lines I'd drawn on it to cut out the pieces. So for attempt number two, I pulled out an old ripped bed sheet and a pillowcase from a sheet set from my teen years (one I never liked, mind you). The sheet was plain white, so I told Rainbow to have fun with some fabric markers to make it a bit more cheerful.

Can you see the improvement? I knew what I was doing this time and also how to adapt to the issues I had with the first mask. Instead of straps, I used hair elastics for this mask (though I can always do straps later). I also added a little pouch to the inside so I can add a nose wire if I want, and the sides are still open, giving me the option of sliding in some sort of filter. I'm pretty proud of myself for doing this, even though I know there's still plenty of room for improvement. I plan to make some more for the immediate family, and though Rainbow can't do that much to help with the actual sewing, she can still help by prettying up the fabric, which she seemed to enjoy.

After the first mask, we also worked on a project bag using this tutorial. (And when I say "we," what I really mean is that Rainbow told me which fabric she wanted where and I did the measuring, cutting, and sewing.) This project was much more successful.

This bag uses three different fabrics. The purple at the top of the exterior has the same unicorn and rainbows design as the bottom, just in white outlines, and the interior is pink with gray hearts (it's the same as the fabric used for the scraps). Though the fabric I used is probably not the highest quality or the best for this sort of thing, it worked well enough, and I am really happy with this bag -- especially considering that I measured and cut it all in a rather haphazard way (with a ruler, pencil, and scissors). I'm particularly proud of the drawstrings, which were probably the most challenging piece. I can definitely see myself making more of these in the future, though I'll probably wait until I can get my hands on some better fabrics. Rainbow has naturally claimed the first one and is using it for a gift she is knitting for one of her teachers.

These sewing successes (because while they're amateurish and sloppy to those of you who know what you're doing, they're still successes for me) have really grown my interest in learning to sew properly. I've been interested in making clothing for a while, but I really want to do it right, by taking classes and learning about fabric and techniques. I know there is a sewing studio not far from my house, so I'm definitely going to look into some classes once we're able to do that kind of thing again. If you are a more experienced sewer and have any recommendations for me in the mean time, let me know!

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!

My Heart in a Skein

I started spinning more than a dozen years ago, at a time when I was very very into knitting socks. I mean, I'm still into knitting socks, but back then I was really churning them out at a very high rate. My interest in spinning came primarily from wanting to spin my own sock yarn, something I achieved fairly quickly (thanks, Type A personality!). Every spinner will likely tell you they have a default yarn -- that is, the yarn they tend to spin when they don't think about what they're doing or get distracted when trying to spin something else. For me, that default is a three-ply fingering weight yarn. I have to really pay attention if I want to spin something different, but the good news is that most of the time I'm perfectly happy to spin fingering weight yarn.

Over the past couple of weeks, as I've been working (or "working," depending on the day) from home, and as the news of the world has gotten grimmer, I've been turning to my spinning more and more. I think this is mainly because it's both soothing and mindless. The treadling of my wheel is good for getting out anxious energy, keeping my hands busy keeps me from biting my nails or otherwise touching my face, and the mindless nature of spinning my default yarn means that I can zone out to some extent. It's been incredibly therapeutic. Ending up with a gorgeous skein of yarn is just a bonus.

This Hello Yarn Targhee came to me in a swap a number of years ago. It was a club shipment that my swap partner either didn't care for or felt she wasn't likely to spin, so she passed it along to me. And I loved the colors so much that I did my usual thing and hid it away in the stash to save it (yes, I know that's completely illogical). Perhaps I had a premonition of what was to come and knew that I'd need to use the good stuff, because I put it on my 20 in 2020 list to spin, and toward the beginning of this stay at home thing, I decided the time was finally right.

I did very little with the fiber before I started to spin. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to chain-ply it to preserve the colors, but I didn't want huge sections of them, so I split the top into four strips lengthwise and spun each from end to end in the same order. So now when this is knit up, it'll stripe, to some degree, but as my splitting was imperfect, it won't stripe in a predictable way, which I rather like -- I fully believe that all handspun should have some sort of imperfection or irregularity to remind you that it's made by hand.

I couldn't be more pleased with this skein. Despite spinning it under a state of near-constant anxiety, it came off the wheel well balanced (and that's unusual for me, because I tend to like a lot of plying twist and overdo it on occasion). It poofed up nicely in the finishing and has a nice spring and squoosh to it. I have approximately 389 yards, plenty for socks or a hat or a cowl. I haven't decided what I want to do with it just yet, and I don't need to. I'm perfectly happy just squishing it in the skein for the time being.

I wasted no time at all getting the next spinning project on the wheel in the form of a more recent stash enhancement:

This is the fiber that came in the October 2019 club shipment from Southern Cross Fibre. It's on Corriedale and is called New Day. It's mostly a muted, dark mix of blues and purples with a few spots of that bright burnt orange. As you can see, I've split the fiber into thirds, and for this skein I'm going back to my comfort spinning: three-ply fingering weight.

The first bobbin was started with the ball of fiber in the lower left in the photo above, so that brilliant orange is now hidden underneath all this darkness. I'm hoping that the finished yarn, once it's plied, will be dark overall with the occasional pop of orange, sort of like that last sliver of sunlight just before it slips below the horizon at dusk.

I think you may be able to tell from the tone of my writing that I'm feeling a bit calmer today than I was a few days ago. I'm still worried about the situation in the world in general, but I'm feeling a little more secure at home. My wonderful partner spent much of the weekend shopping to make sure we have enough supplies and food. He went to Costco first thing yesterday and brought home Clorox wipes and toilet paper(!) among some needed food and health supplies. He then went and bought my in-laws a huge load of groceries because they've been unable to schedule a delivery (and as they're both considered high risk, they've been avoiding supermarkets when they can). Then he went to get a new laptop for himself so he could give his old one to Rainbow to use for her schoolwork. As if all that wasn't enough, this morning he went out again to buy fresh produce, chicken, fish, and milk so that our refrigerator is now well stocked.

I've also shamelessly copied Mary's idea of taking a bit of time each day to focus on three things I've accomplished and five things that made me happy or brought me joy. I started last night by listing them in my journal, and I plan to try to continue to do it every day for at least as long as we're holed up. You may be hearing from me more on here, as well, as I seem to find blogging sort of a public way of journaling and sometimes just getting my thoughts out helps me to feel I can breathe again.

I hope your weekend was restorative in some way and that you were able to find at least a few things to bring you joy!

On Keeping Calm and Carrying On

I'm now into my second week of working from home full time and have somewhat settled into the new schedule. Because I no longer have to get up and get everyone out the door on time and walk to my office, I've been able to sleep in a bit (only an extra half hour, but it makes a difference). My morning routine isn't so rushed because I'm no longer bothering to put on makeup (my family knows what I look like without it, so I'm saving it). I can linger over my email and blogs and drink all my coffee at a leisurely pace. And then I go back up to my bed room to sit in my comfy chair and log in to work.

The lack of the normal frenetic pace in the morning is helping to keep me calm, as is staying mostly away from the news during the day (I'll still peek at Twitter a few times during the day, but I usually wait until the evening news to see what's happened because it's rarely anything good). And I'm doing as much crafting as I can whenever I can -- I suppose that's one major benefit to working at home, because during my down time I no longer have to look busy. Yesterday after I finished up what I needed to do, I read a book and worked on a sock for Rainbow:

As you can see, I'm now past the heel, for which I used some of the coordinating mini skein that came with the self-striping yarn to do a garter stitch Fish Lips Kiss Heel. The heel itself is a little shorter/shallower than the usual stockinette heel, but it's nice and squishy and I've also made the sock a bit bigger than Rainbow's foot on purpose so that she won't outgrow it right away. She mostly wears her hand-knit socks around the house and to bed anyway, so I'm not concerned about this not fitting in a shoe.

Today featured two other crafts. First, this morning, I did some spinning. Then, during a large conference call this afternoon, I pulled out my granny square blanket, which is frankly starting to get a bit unwieldy.

I've found that I've been reaching for this project quite a lot, probably because it's very soothing and easy to work on. I have officially finished up the last of my holiday mini skeins and have started adding in the remaining sock leftovers I had in my project bag. I also have a small number of minis in a separate bag that I can add in when I get through all the leftovers if I want the blanket to be bigger. I honestly thought this blanket would be in progress throughout the year, but if I continue at this rate, it might be done in another week or two!

The yarn that you saw me unraveling over the weekend has now been washed and caked up, ready to be knit:

The colors are terribly off in this photo, but at least you can see that I have a decent amount -- in fact, not including the half skein leftover from Rainbow's mittens, I have about 1,160 yards salvaged from the sweater, so I'd say probably enough to make about 10 pairs of mittens. I keep thinking about how great it would be to come out of this pandemic (because, let's be honest, we could be at home a while) with a bunch of warm things to donate come next winter.

It's making me feel better to think about helping others, and having something like this to contemplate and plan for gives me a little sense of control. I'd say feeling like there's nothing I can do to stop or help with the crises is what's most stressing me at the moment (well, that and not being able to see my family in person). As of 8 p.m. last night, my county is officially under a stay at home order, so at least I know everyone else is stuck, too! I will say this for these extraordinary times: Thanks to the current situation, I was able to have a virtual meet-up of my old knitting group last night, something we haven't managed in person in many years!

So how are you doing? Are you finding comfort in yarn? Do you miss going to places? I hope we can continue to support each other for as long as this crisis lasts.

Making Yarn Two Ways

Spinning continues, and I'm now probably a bit more than halfway done with my singles because I am on the third of four balls of fiber:

I spun quite a bit yesterday while watching video podcasts and during a virtual knitting group that Mary hosted this afternoon. If the pace continues, I expect to be plying by next weekend.

Meanwhile, I made yarn a slightly different way this morning. After doing a lot of snipping and unweaving of ends last night, this morning I was able to unravel my sweater.

I wasn't able to salvage all the yarn and in fact lost quite a bit due to some haphazard snipping last night, but I did end up with a decent pile of yarn ramen:

All this yarn has now been washed and is hanging to dry, and once it's dry I'll wind it into cakes and weigh it to see how much I have to work with. Seeing as we may end up being home for a while, I figure I can at least use some of that time to make some charity items, and this pile is all destined to become felted mittens (though I'm planning to keep one pair for myself).

This weekend seemed a little less surreal than last, though I still only left my house to take a long walk each day -- thankfully the sun was out both days though it's been a little chilly. Rainbow and I had our Hebrew class via Zoom this morning and then she had Sunday School, and the Mister went out to brave the supermarket. We're well stocked with food and have a lot of flour, butter, and eggs (but they were out of yeast; I thought I might try making challah for this coming Friday night), so it appears that I might have to try my hand at making pastry. Somehow I don't think that's entirely a bad thing! I'm really trying to focus on the good things, even if they seem inconsequential, like how neatly I managed to fold the sheets this morning and how lovely the sunshine feels on my face. Then I saw this hanging from a tree in front of one of the houses in our neighborhood on my walk this afternoon and nearly lost it:

Be kind to each other, friends. I think it's the only way we're all going to get through this.