I Took the One Less Traveled By*

After sustaining the injury the other night (which I fully accept is my own fault), I knew I was capable of knitting but wasn't sure I could spin. I use the injured thumb to draft, and drafting is darn near impossible when you can't feel the fiber because your finger is covered in a bandage. Thankfully, I healed up quickly. I still have a wound there, but it was healed enough by Friday evening to take the bandages off for a while and actually have a Friday evening spinning session! (I typically spend Friday evenings at my wheel, spinning and catching up on video podcasts -- I have my laptop set up on the end of the radiator next to my spinning chair.) I didn't need very much time to finish the rest of the singles, and yesterday I managed to find time to chain-ply the entire bobbin. I'm in love with the results, and I can tell you that the gloomy light today is not allowing these photos to do it justice.

The colors are rich and dark and moody. The fiber was a delight to spin. If you've never spun Bond, I highly recommend getting your hands on some. I'd describe it as being like Merino in its softness but with a little more toothiness to it. The finished skein is fingering to sport, with a tight twist, and about 333 yards. This spin was pure comfort spinning to me, and I'm actually a little sad that it's done.

I mentioned last week that I had some stash enhancements come in the mail. I showed you one skein of yarn but alluded to there being more. Also in that package from Fibernymph Dye Works were two bundles of fiber:

On top is 4 oz. of Falkland in the colorway Cosmic Vertigo. On the bottom is 4 oz. of oatmeal BFL in the colorway Winter Deep. I'm planning to turn the BFL into a relatively thick two ply, and I think the Falkland will make a spectacular three-ply fingering for sock yarn. I know I really wasn't in need of any more fiber, but I didn't have any of Lisa's fiber in my stash and she had a good end-of-year sale, so I decided to treat myself.

*The title of this post is a nod to the colorway of the completed spin, Two Roads Diverged. If somehow you're not familiar with the poem these two lines come from, go take a minute and read it.

That Was Most Unfortunate

Today I'm asking you to forgive any errant typos you see in this post because I'm typing wounded:

Last night, in a misguided attempt to save time, I decided to get out my mandoline (similar to this one, though my blade goes straight across) to slice some zucchini for my dinner instead of using my handheld spiralizer. It came with a hand/finder guard, which I foolishly decided not to use. And I paid for it -- I not only sliced the vegetables, I also sliced off a chunk of my thumb. And of course it's my right thumb, which is most inconvenient because I'm extremely right-handed. It's complicating pretty much everything I do with my hands, but amazingly I am still able to knit, albeit carefully. The Mister wondered if I should go to urgent care to get stitched, but there's really not anything to stitch together, so I think I'm stuck with lots of Bandaids for the time being.

Once I was fully bandaged up, I managed to finish up a blanket square, save weaving in ends (which I don't yet have the dexterity for) and blocking. I'm hopeful I'll be able to accomplish both this weekend.

This square is going to be part of a comfort blanket for Amy of the Ross Farm, and I used leftovers of Ross Farm Shetland yarns for all of it. The lace panel at the center is a heart, which should open up a bit after blocking. The blanket was the brainchild of my friend Lisa (the dyer behind Fibernymph Dye Works), and the two of us will be seaming all the squares together into a blanket and delivering it to Amy.

I had a little bit of time before bed after I bound the square off, so I started a dishcloth. It's also a project on my 20 in 2020 list and it counts for a knitalong I'm participating in, so I feel like I'm multitasking. I've only gotten a handful of rows done so far, and I appreciate that it doesn't look like much yet.

I'm using this pattern and two skeins of the Knit Picks Dishie I bought in the Great Kitchen Cotton Acquisition of 2019. The colors are Coffee (deep brown) and Swan (natural white). I expect that when it's done, Rainbow will inherit it; in addition to her obsession with sloths, she's also quite enamored with hedgehogs.

Because the knitting is rather boring at the moment (and also won't photograph well) and it's Thursday, how about we talk about reading, specifically the three books I've finished so far this year?

1. My first book finished of the year was an Amazon First Read freebie, Room to Breathe. As a vacation read, it served its purpose, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. It was moderately entertaining but not especially well written, at least not in terms of character development. All the characters felt very one-dimensional to me. I gave it 2 stars.
2. Yesterday, I finished reading our next online book club selection, Fever. This one I liked a lot better, and it was certainly very well written and well researched (save for one mention of crocheting with needles!). I did enjoy the first half of the book more than the second half, though, and my lack of enjoyment of that section pulled my overall rating down to 3 stars. The book did give me a lot to think about, though, and I'm looking forward to our discussion of it.
3. Finally, just this morning, I finished listening to the fifth Inspector Gamache novel, The Brutal Telling. I'd started listening to it while taking my long walks in Florida, and it's been good company on my commute this week. I won't give anything away, but I will say that I'm still a bit shocked about the ending of this one. As is always the case, I enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars and am looking forward to reading book six!

Up next is my first Ann Cleeves book, Raven Black (the first in her Shetland series). My hold from the library very conveniently came up this morning, just in time!

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!

Recentering

We are home, after a bit of an ordeal, to be honest, and getting back into the swing of things. We flew home yesterday after a truly lovely and restful vacation. We'd booked a 1 p.m. flight, which would get us home in the late afternoon time frame, giving us all a bit of time to unpack and catch up on the mail and generally settle last night. Unfortunately, all did not go as planned. The flight was showing as on time, and we boarded the plane at about 12:30 and then taxied to the runway at a bit past 1 (though I wasn't too concerned just yet, because when the pilot had come on to welcome us onboard, he'd said that the flight was about an hour and 55 minutes from takeoff to landing, so I knew that even if we left after the posted departure time, we'd still be on the ground by our estimated 3:30 p.m. arrival). When we got to the runway, though, I noticed a long line of planes waiting to board. We were informed after waiting a few minutes that the backup was due to the air traffic controllers' trying to avoid congestion in the airspace because of some storms and rain on the west coast of Florida. Then we were put on a ground delay as the weather moved over us. In all, we were sitting on the tarmac for a bit more than two hours and finally took off a bit before 3. We landed around 5, and thankfully there were no hiccups after that. The Mister immediately went to get the car while Rainbow and my parents and I grabbed the luggage (which was already on the belt by the time we got to baggage claim),  and the five of us went directly to a restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner before heading home to unpack. Though we probably all could have gone to bed a bit earlier, we all got a good night's sleep and got everything done at home without feeling too rushed.

We did have to do some of the normal chores and errands today, but it's largely been a relaxing day. As has been the case practically every other year we've gone away in the winter, I had a strong urge to spin as soon as we got home, so I spent about two hours at my wheel today, working on the lovely fiber that was already in the process of being spun. I found it apropos that the colors of the wool are very similar to the colors of winter up north -- muted and moody.

I've got about a foot and a half of combed top left to spin, and I expect that I will get in some extra time this week after being away from it so long.

One of my goals for 2020 is to really spin up more of my stash, particularly as I still have fiber coming in once a month from the Southern Cross Fibre club. This fiber, for instance, came in right before we left:

This one's called Pretty (aptly named!), and it's on South African Superfine Merino, which feels like kittens. It's actually even more vibrant in person, but it's a typical dreary winter day here, which does mute everything colorful.

In addition to getting to a lot of the hand-dyed fiber in my stash, I've also decided that 2020 will be The Year of the Fleece. I have quite a lot of unspun fleece fiber, some completely ready to spin and some washed but not yet processed. I have enough that I could knit several sweaters out of it, if I would just get around to spinning the yarn, so I have set myself some modest goals of spinning up several ounces of at least two fleeces. One is washed, carded, and already divided into 2 oz. bundles; one is the beautiful Romney/Romeldale cross I bought at MDSW 2018 that I've already sampled. I think I might wait until spring/summer for the latter so I can take my drum carder outside and leave the mess there, but I think you can expect to see the former soon. Hold me to that, will you?

Encounters with Wildlife

If I were not on vacation, I'd be sitting at my desk at work right now, counting the minutes until 5 p.m. Instead, I am very thankful to be sitting outside with a view of palm trees and blue sky. I'm soaking up every bit of warmth and sun I can get!

Today is what I'm viewing as our penultimate day of vacation (we fly home early Saturday afternoon, but my father is a bit neurotic about leaving early, so that means we'll likely be leaving for the airport right after breakfast). We've been taking this vacation for a number of years, but as Rainbow has been fairly young for most of those years, our activities have mainly been limited to relaxing by the pool, going to the beach, going out to eat, and shopping. Today, however, we decided to do something completely different. We drove about 30 miles away to a marina and took a boat tour to see manatees, among other exotic wildlife.

It's very hard to see, but that lighter brownish blob just to the right of the pylons? That's a manatee! It was one of several we saw, including a mama manatee and her baby. This one was enjoying all the yellow leaves from the mangrove trees that had fallen on the surface of the water. The water in this spot was shallow enough that we could see it pretty clearly and watch it "crawl" along the bottom with its flippers.

We also saw quite a few alligators along the sides of the waterway, though we didn't get so close.

This guy seemed to be enjoying the sunshine.

We don't have to travel far to see some other wildlife, though. I've been running or taking long walks (like 6+ miles!) almost every day, and in addition to seeing lots of birds like herons and egrets and ducks on or near the water features in the development and tons of little lizards sunning themselves on the sidewalks, I also spotted this guy as I was nearly back to the house the other day:

I was a bit worried he was going to get himself run over, but as you can see he was a bit scared by my being so close to him, so I didn't want to traumatize him more by lifting him up and carrying him the rest of the way to the grass. I decided he was close enough, and I didn't see any remnants of a squashed turtle the next day, so he must have been fine.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a break from the wild animals and go read a trashy book outside. Happy Thursday!

Unraveling the Year's Plans

I know there are some people who like to end the year with no projects in progress and start fresh in the new year, but I am not one of them. I would feel very twitchy with nothing on the needles, even if only for a brief period of time, not to mention that because I'm away from home from the vast majority of stash and some of my projects, it's not really feasible for me.

I am, however, thinking about what I want to knit and spin in 2020, and I have some pretty lofty plans. Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works and the 90% Knitting podcast is sponsoring a 20 in 2020 make-along, so I've made a list (which I'll be able to change at the beginning of each quarter) of 20 projects I'd like to make, 20 stash yarns I'd like to use, and 20 items in my fiber stash I'd like to spin. My project list is heavy on sweaters, and I plan to get started on the first of those after we get home.

Here's where the WIPs stand at the moment (at least the WIPs that are on vacation with me):

The socks you have seen. I have not yet started the second design sock, but I will soon. I cast on the second 12 Days of Christmas sock this morning because the Mister and I are going to see Star Wars this evening and I need to have appropriate theater knitting. The one you haven't seen is the start of a new hat design that I'm knitting with a strand of sock yarn held together with a strand of mohair/silk. I wish you could pet it -- it's unbelievably soft and fuzzy!

The two WIPs that aren't pictured are the ones that stayed home: my crochet granny square blanket and my current spinning project.

I have enough experience with trying to limit myself to know that I shouldn't declare that I won't buy yarn this year and only work from stash, but I really do want to make a better effort to use up stash this year. The sweaters on my 20 in 2020 list will all use yarn I already have, and I really want to do more charity knitting this year as well. I have so many half or partial skeins of DK and worsted weight yarn in my stash, and that stuff is perfect for hats and mittens.

While my Ravelry notebook is great for keeping track of stuff, I think I'm also going to follow Lisa's lead and create a spreadsheet of my projects -- all my projects -- so I can track how much yarn and fiber I use up over the course of the year. I'm not setting a goal for how much I want to use or anything like that; I just want to get a better idea of what's being used.

How about you? What do you have planned in terms of your crafting for 2020?

A Look Back and a Look Ahead

Sometimes celebrating New Year's Eve and New Year's Day seems so arbitrary, especially given how much importance people seem to place on it. I mean, really, the switch from December 31 to January 1 is the same as the switch from any other day to the next. I suppose part of it is due to the big industry that's grown out of people making new year's resolutions, something I used to do many years ago and have long ago given up because I know I'll never keep them.

But the part of me that enjoys looking back and reflecting on my life does like the artificial division of one year to another because it forces me to pause and take a look back at the year that was and ponder what I'd like to do and see in the year that is yet to be.

2019 was a busy year. For much of it, I was solo parenting, as my husband was traveling a lot for work. This year it felt like things got a little easier. Keeping up with the daily schedule was still busy, but Rainbow is now old enough that she can do some things on her own, can help with some things, and can understand that sometimes Mommy needs some Mommy time. I did a lot of reading, made some wonderful new Internet friends, and did a fair amount of knitting and spinning (as well as some crochet, for the first time in a long time). I met some pretty serious design goals, publishing 13 new patterns -- including my second sweater -- and hitting 100 total designs in my portfolio.

It seems fitting that my final projects for 2019 (which technically aren't finished, but at least individual components are) are two socks, both my own designs. While I enjoy making so many things, the things that I come back to all the time are socks.

Looking ahead to 2020, I am looking forward to joining those of you who have a word that sets your intentions and your focus for the year. I've actually had my word in mind for a while now, but I was sitting with it until now to make sure it's the right one. I'll have to see how it goes next year, of course, but for now, it feels very apt.

My word for 2020 is SAVOR.

One thing this past year has shown me is that life is uncertain and unpredictable. I don't want to miss the beautiful things in my life because I'm so busy rushing from one thing to another -- rushing to finish that book, this project, that meal, and so on. I want to remind myself regularly to stop and enjoy the moment and to appreciate it to its fullest. Life isn't a race, and in fact we should actually all try to take as much time as we can to get to the end. It's about the journey, the experiences, and the people we meet along the way.

Wherever the new year takes you, I hope it's full of things and people you love, good health, and things that bring you joy.

A Year in Pages

It's not one of my normal days for blogging, but vacation and an utter lack of anything resembling a schedule have made it hard to keep track of what day it is -- and of course I haven't any spinning to share to merit a Sunday post in any case -- so this week I'm free-styling it. Today, I thought I'd look back on what I've read this year, because it's been quite a productive year of reading for me.

Based upon my Goodreads records, I have finished 74 books this year (and if I can squeeze in one more before going to bed tomorrow, I'll hit 75). My initial goal was 50, so I pretty much blew that out of the water. A lot of that is thanks to Summer Book Bingo, when I achieved a cover-all. But I think I also got more reading done this year thanks to my full embrace of the digital format. Of the 74 books, only eight were actual, physical books -- the rest were ebooks or audiobooks. That's quite a change for me, someone who considers herself a book collector, but it's also very freeing in a way. I think it's also notable that a very high percentage of the books I read were borrowed, either from the library or via Amazon Prime Reading. And 10 of those 74 were audiobooks, which is another departure for me, as typically I've had trouble focusing. I think discovering that listening to audiobooks while running works to both get me to pay attention to the book and keep running has been great for both my reading list and my physical fitness!

I've read so many good books this year that it's hard to pick the top ones, but I'll try. Here are the reads I'll remember the most from 2019, in no particular order except the order in which I read them this year:

The Overstory by Richard Powers is one that many people recommended to me, and for good reason. It's masterfully written and incredibly powerful in its environmentalist message. I will never look at trees the same way again.

You can read my 5-star review here.

Becoming by Michelle Obama was a hit for good reason -- she is a phenomenal writer! I thought I had hit my limit of admiration for her before I read her entire life story, but it turns out I was wrong.

You can read my 5-star review here.

One of my goals for my reading this year was to spend some of my reading time working on educating myself on recognizing and challenging my white privilege and working toward antiracist causes. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo is a must read for any white person who is committed to fighting racism, because you can't fight it without recognizing and accepting that you are part of the problem.

You can read my 5-star review here.

The waiting list at the library for Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb was long but worth it. I think this book resonated with me so much because at one point in my life I wanted to be a psychologist and therapist. I've been through a lot of therapy myself and recognize its value, so reading this memoir felt familiar and even comforting to me.

You can read my 5-star review here.

If you've ever asked me to name my favorite book, chances are that I've said that one of them is Jane Eyre, so when I heard there was a book that told the story from Mr. Rochester's point of view, I was intrigued. But Sarah Shoemaker's Mr. Rochester goes far beyond that part of the story and gives us Edward Fairfax Rochester's entire life up to the point where Jane becomes part of it, and she does a stunning job of it.

You can read my 5-star review here.

I know reactions to Margaret Atwood's The Testaments were varied, but I loved it and found it to be a hopeful antidote to the despair created by The Handmaid's Tale. I gave it 5 stars (and I'm not linking my review here because I didn't say much more in it than I've already said here).

The virtual book club did a superb job in its first selection. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, which has recently been released in movie form, is at times a difficult and heartbreaking read. But it's something that should be read, and read widely, if only to open eyes and minds about the injustice of our criminal justice system.

You can read my 5-star review here.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is a gem of a book, and while I have no doubt I would have enjoyed reading it on my own, the performance of it by Tom Hanks made it pure pleasure from start to finish. I honestly lost count of the number of people I recommended it to.

You can read my 5-star review here.

When your first book is a hit, it's not easy to do the same thing with your sophomore effort, but Erin Morgenstern has done it, in my opinion, with The Starless Sea. I'll add the caveat that this will not be a book for everyone, and to enjoy it you will need to let go of preconceived notions of how a story should be told and even what is possible. You need to be okay with magic and fantasy. But if you can do these things, you'll be rewarded with positively gorgeous writing.

You can read my 5-star review here.

My final 5-star read of the year (at least as of this moment) was Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew. If you know me and my reading, then you'll know that I've done quite extensive reading the Holocaust fiction genre. Quite a lot has been bad, but this book is exceptionally good. Hoffman is know for her magical realism, and it's at play in this book in the form of a bit of Jewish mysticism. I found the writing to be good, the plot to be believable, and the denouement to be satisfying. What more could a reader ask for?




I hope your virtual bookshelves have been similarly blessed this past year. Here's to many more good books and lots of good reading time in 2020!

I've Been Waiting All Year

Ah, vacation. I take time off so infrequently that I think I appreciate it all the more. We've now been in Florida for almost a week (we arrived last Friday evening), and as usual it has flown by. But I've been completely enjoying it. I've been staying up late -- for me, anyway -- mostly reading and sleeping in. I've gone for long walks outside and a couple of runs, one outside and one on the treadmill because it was pouring. I've enjoyed leisurely cups of coffee and good dinners. And I've been knitting!

I started a new sock design sample just before we left but also brought another skein of sock yarn for movie knitting, because we always go to the movies on Christmas Day. Appropriately, the yarn I chose was Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway 12 Days of Christmas, though I don't think the colors are particularly Christmas-y. This is a 12-stripe repeat, with each stripe's color representing the item(s) mentioned for that day in the song. I cast on Christmas Eve and knit up the ribbed cuff so I'd be all ready to go the next day and then knit nearly 4 inches of leg in the movie.

I'm really enjoying the colors! The movie we saw, by the way, was the new adaptation of Little Women. I really loved it, but Rainbow had some trouble following it because she wasn't familiar with the plot beforehand. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to tell you that this version departs from the story a bit in that it jumps back and forth in time, so unless you know the general order in which major events happen, you are likely to be a bit confused. The acting is, on the whole, quite wonderful, though I find Timothee Chalamet a little young to be playing Laurie, at least in the later part of the story. Still, if you're a fan of Little Women in general, I highly recommend it -- and I probably don't need to tell you to bring the tissues.

The other knitting I've been doing is secret knitting for Rainbow for her final Chanukah present, and that means I've only been able to work on it after she goes to bed -- which, when we're on vacation, is much later than normal. That means that it's taken me longer than it normally would, but as long as it's finished before Sunday, I'll be okay. I'm knitting the Neon hat using a one-of-a-kind skein of FDW Cozy (worsted weight), and I'm ready to start the crown decreases tonight. In fact, provided I can stay awake long enough, I might even finish it this evening.

My reading has been quite good this past week. First I finished reading The Starless Sea, which I'd been anxiously awaiting from the library. I absolutely loved Erin Morgenstern's first novel, The Night Circus, and was a bit worried that her follow-up wouldn't live up to my expectations -- but it did! I will add the caveat that you need to read it knowing that there won't be an answer to everything and a lot of it won't make sense (or won't make sense right away), but it was so beautifully written that I can't even fault its very minor shortcomings. It was definitely a 5-star review from me, and if you want to hear more, you can read my review here.

As soon as I finished that, I moved on to Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew, which I know many of you have already read and recommended. I'm a little more than a third of the way through it, am enjoying it immensely, and hope to finish it up in the next couple of days.

I hope if you celebrated Christmas yesterday that you had a wonderful holiday, and whatever's on tap for the rest of the week, I hope it's bringing you joy! I'm signing off to try to finish a hat.

Pattern Release: Yofi Hat and Cowl

I think I may have mentioned earlier that one of my design goals for the year was to reach 100 designs in my portfolio by the end of 2019. Thanks in no small part to the speedy assistance of my tech editor, I am delighted to debut patterns number 99 and 100 today!

Presenting my Yofi Hat and Yofi Cowl, two squooshy, warm accessories for the coldest winter days. Both use Knit Picks Swish Worsted yarn (or any DK/worsted weight you'd like) and the same addictive and straightforward stranded colorwork pattern.

The hat is graded to five sizes to fit everyone from babies to large-headed adults. The colorwork pattern is suitable for even beginners to stranded work, as there are no long floats and several lines that repeat. As written, it has a slightly slouchy fit.

The cowl comes in one size, but it's a size that will fit children and adults comfortably. It uses the same easy colorwork design and no shaping at all, so it requires even less thought and attention than the hat. Both of them are great if you need to whip up a last-minute gift or just want to do some easy knitting for yourself if you need something that doesn't require too much active thinking during the craziness that is the holidays. And they're both perfect for the cold winter weather, as all that stranding traps air and adds extra insulation.

To celebrate their release and meeting my big goal for the year, I've put both patterns on sale. Add both patterns to your cart on Ravelry and enter the code HOLIDAYS to get 25% off!

Whatever you may be celebrating (or not) this week, I wish you well. I hope that you can enjoy whatever it is you do with family, friends, and loved ones at this time of year and that amid your celebrations you can find time to yourself to craft.

My Bags Aren't Yet Packed (but I'm Ready to Go)

It's Thursday morning, with less than three hours of work left for me this year, and I am more than ready to be on vacation. There's still a list of things to do around the house before we leave, including packing (ha!), but I've gotten the most important thing done -- my sister-in-law's socks.

These were knit using Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in Lisa's seventh anniversary colorway (from 2017), the Seventh-Year Stitch. The skein had been waiting patiently in my stash for the right time to be knit, and I think they colors are perfect for her. I knit my plain vanilla sock recipe over 68 stitches on size 0/2.0 mm needles, the same that I'd do for socks for me, but her feet are shorter than mine (9 inches to my 9.75). Because the stripe pattern repeat is so long, I didn't try to get them to match but rather made them coordinate; when I did my cast on, I made the first loop right at the spot where the speckled white stripe changes to a semisolid color stripe. I figured that way at least the stripes would hit in roughly the same place. I think I goofed a little on the second sock, though, and made the leg about two rounds longer, so if you look closely you can see a little spot of color at the tip of the toe. I highly doubt my sister-in-law will mind, though, and I was too pressed for time to rip back.

I'm trying to squeeze in one more knit gift before we leave, and I should manage to finish it up tonight or tomorrow morning. If you weren't already aware, let me tell you that scrunchies are back. And Rainbow is a big fan. She's got a small collection of store-bought scrunchies already, but I thought I'd try my hand at knitting one.

It's hard to tell now because the tube is curling up on itself, but eventually I'll fold the tube of stockinette in on itself like a donut and seam the ends together, enclosing that black hair elastic inside. I'll see how well that works before I embark on a real scrunchie-making career.

The one project that's now actively being worked on but isn't making the trip is my granny square blanket, which has grown a bit since you saw it last:

I've been adding in my FDW holiday mini skeins, slowly but surely, and am about up to day 7 or 8. Clearly this won't get done before we leave, but I'd rather have a big cozy blanket than call it done just to finish before the end of the year. My plan is to incorporate all the remaining mini skeins and then add on other sock leftovers until I either run out entirely or decide that it's big enough. I'm really having so much fun with this project that I'm not in any hurry at this point, and I honestly can see myself starting another one as soon as this one is finished.

This afternoon, the Mister and I are both attending a performance of Rainbow's elementary school musical (she and her classmates are in the starring roles), and then this evening we'll get down to the laundry and cleaning and packing. Rainbow has half a day of school tomorrow morning and then we're off!

2.5 Days

Not that I'm counting or anything, but I have 2.5 days of work left this year. We leave Friday afternoon for our annual trip to Florida, and I'd already planned to take that day off so I could do the last-minute packing and prep, but I also decided to take Thursday afternoon off so that I could go see Rainbow's school musical performance. So soon I will be counting down the hours until I'm on vacation.

I'm happy to report that I am going to meet my knitting deadlines with time to spare. The first deadline was really self-imposed, and that was the sample for what will be my last published pattern of the year. It was finished and blocked Sunday night, and I've just gotten the pattern off to my tech editor this morning. If you're not quite awake yet, you might need some sunglasses for this one:

Rainbow has already claimed the sample as soon as I get all the pattern photos taken, and I'm happy to give it to her. At least wearing something this bright, I'll be able to spot her easily.

The other deadline is for the only real gift I'm knitting, and that's the socks for my sister-in-law. I'd hoped to be able to finish them last night, but I ended up with too much to do around the house and didn't have as much time to knit as I'd planned, so they'll be wrapped up at lunchtime today. All that remains is part of the toe on the second sock.

I'm quite happy with how these have turned out and think they will suit her quite well. I'll give them a quick block tonight and then arrange for a time to deliver them in the next couple of days.

My vacation knitting is almost sorted. It looks like I'll mostly be taking "work" knitting in the form of design samples for patterns for next year, but Rainbow has also expressed interest in learning to knit socks, so I'm pondering how best to approach that. She hasn't yet knit with anything thinner than worsted/DK weight yarn, nor has she wrestled with DPNs yet, so we might do something like Fuzzy Feet and some stash yarn. There are also some big-box craft stores nearby in Florida, so we can pick up some Patons Kroy or similar yarn if she wants something closer to the real thing. I'll also likely have some plain vanilla socks for movie knitting (we always go to the movies on Christmas), and of course I'm likely to throw in an extra skein of sock yarn just in case.

It's Been a Decade

On the top, December 15, 2009 -- our first picture together. On the bottom, December 15, 2019 -- she still likes to cuddle!

I Call a Do-over

Sometimes I really need to remember to remind myself (ha!) that it's worth it to take my time. Way back before Thanksgiving, I finished up a new hat, wrote up the pattern, and sent it off to my tech editor.

I'll admit I was rushing a bit because I wanted to get it to her before December and all the craziness I knew was in store for us in the first week. When she got her comments back to me over the weekend, I had a moment of reckoning and realized that the sizing was completely off. While the numbers all worked out, I'd come up with the sizes based upon the gauge I thought I was going to get rather than the gauge I actually ended up getting, so everything was too small. So on Monday I decided to start from scratch and rewrite the pattern for actual head sizes. Of course, I was out of the green I used for the contrast in the original sample, so I had to use something else. I rather like this new combination, even though it wasn't my first choice.

I finished up the colorwork section on this new sample last night, and tonight I expect to get through the crown. I'm also planning a matching cowl (with the colors reversed, provided I have enough purple), and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to get both patterns back to the tech editor by the end of the weekend so that I can publish them by the end of the year, thereby getting me patterns number 99 and 100 in my portfolio and achieving my last design goal for the year.

I'm posting this to prove to you that designing often involves as much ripping and redoing as it does knitting -- and also to show you that it takes time to get things right! Even though I've been knitting for most of my life, there are still plenty of times I don't get it right on my first try. And even when I'm the one coming up with the pattern, I can still manage to screw it up.

When the design knitting is done, I'm going to take a bit of a break and do some knitting for pleasure, at least for a couple of weeks. I haven't completely decided on what projects/yarn I'm taking to Florida, but chances are good it'll involve at least some dishcloth knitting because this yarn bonanza showed up in yesterday's mail:

It actually doesn't look like that much here, but that's 23 balls of Knit Picks Dishie that I ordered when they had a big sale on it Thanksgiving weekend. My supply of kitchen cotton has gotten down to only small leftovers, and I actually like Dishie a little better than the typical big box store cottons, so I figured I'd stock up. There are at least two dishcloth/washcloth patterns I want to make, and I frequently get the urge to cast one on, so it'll be good to have a small stash of the stuff. Or at least that's how I'm justifying the purchase to myself!

A Roller Coaster of Emotions

You may have surmised from the lack of a post yesterday that it was an extremely busy weekend. I figured it was pointless to try to post on Sunday because I had exactly zero new spinning to share and hardly any other crafting, for that matter. This weekend was my brother's wedding, and as all three of us were in the wedding party, that meant a lot of activity in addition to spending time catching up with family and friends who came from out of town for the occasion. I did not carry a purse, nor did I have any pockets in my dress, so the only photos I have are from the Mister (and I don't think he too many, either).

This photo is a little strange in terms of perspective (my head looks enormous and I look much shorter than I am), but at least you can see me and Rainbow in our dresses and with our beautiful flowers.

And here's the junior bridesmaid again with the bride and groom right after the ceremony:

She had a fun time at the wedding, though she left shortly after the ceremony for a slumber party at our house with my cousins' kids. I don't think anyone got much sleep, but these cousins get together so infrequently that it was probably worth it. She seems to have picked up some germs from someone, though, because she woke up with a fever this morning, so we're having a quiet day at home today (I took her in to the pediatrician this morning to get her checked out; the strep test was negative and her ears looked fine, so it's likely just a cold or similar virus).

While the majority of the weekend was happy and celebratory, there was some sadness as well. On Thursday, as I was getting ready for the craziness ahead, I learned that Scott "Scooterpie" Manko of the Ross Farm had been killed in a tragic accident on the farm. The funeral was today, and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it, so I went to the visitation at the funeral home yesterday. It was as sad as you can imagine. If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you know how wonderful Amy and Scooterpie have been to me over the years, taking me to Rhinebeck and Maryland and supporting my designs, so I was devastated by the news. If you'd like to do something to help, a fund has been set up to assist Amy with the expenses from the funeral and of running the farm, and you can donate here.

Pattern Release: The Sky in the Stream

I am not a very outdoorsy person. It's not that I don't like nature; I just never much cared for some of the things in nature, like mud and bugs that bite. I also grew up in a city, where we didn't have much nature other than a patch of grass in front and behind the house and some old oak trees lining the street. Perhaps that's why the memories of one particular nature hike have stayed with me all these years: It was a fall day, cool enough for long sleeves but warm in the sun. I was probably 10 or 11, which would have made my younger brother 4 or 5. My family had driven out to the suburbs for some reason, and my father decided to pull the car over at a place called Salamander Park to take a "nature walk." I wasn't keen on it, but it was a nice day and I didn't put up a fight. My brother, because a very boyish boy, was delighted to pick up sticks and poke at things. I know we took some family photos, and I'm pretty sure we got a bit muddy, but what I remember most was the golden color that seemed to be everywhere.

Why am I telling you this? Well, when I spotted the colors I used in the pattern I'm publishing today, they reminded me so much of the colors of that day: the blue of the clear sky, with only a fluffy cloud here and there, and the warm, rusty red-brown of the dead leaves on the ground and the changing leaves still on the trees. This one is called The Sky in the Stream.

The gorgeous colors in the yarn are from the very talented Rebecca of Dusty Tree DyeWorks. When I bought them, I knew they were destined to be together, though at the time I didn't have a plan. I patiently tucked them away in my stash until the right idea came along, which it eventually did. Today, I'm delighted to share with you my new shawl pattern, The Sky in the Stream.

With this design, I've returned to my beloved top-down triangle and the squish of garter stitch. The knitting is pretty mindless until you join in the contrast color, where there's a little bit of slip-stitch colorwork and some short rows for fun. A row of eyelets near the bottom edge adds some lightness, not to mention a shortcut for blocking. Finally, the ends are finished with optional ornamental leaves, which you can toss over your shoulder, like so:

or, if you prefer to wear your shawls bandana style, tie in a loose overhand knot to secure the shawl around your neck:

Here are all the specs on this pattern:

• You'll need two 100 g skeins of fingering weight yarn in two colors that go well together. You'll use all or nearly all of the main color and about three-quarters of the contrast color.
• The gauge isn't critical (because it's a shawl), but keep in mind that if you work to a larger gauge, you'll likely need yarn, so plan accordingly.
• The shawl starts with a garter tab, so if you hate those, feel free to sub in another way to start.
• The short rows call for w&t, but you can sub in any other method you like. I find w&t works well with garter, because the wraps just blend in.
• As with all my patterns, this one has been professionally tech edited for accuracy and clarity.

I really love this one, maybe more than I should (I should love all my designs equally, right?), and I hope you do, too. It's 20% off with the code LEAFY through December 10.

Fulled and Fuzzy

It's the week leading up to my brother's wedding, I'm still working, and the Mister is away, so it's super busy around these parts, but I did manage to find time to whip up a pair of mittens for Rainbow over the long weekend. You've seen the pattern before -- it's the Snow Day Mittens that use superwash for the cuff and non-superwash for the hand. I knew I was going to use a skein of Cascade Alpaca Lana D'Oro, a 50/50 wool/alpaca blend, leftover from one of my sweaters for the hands, but I let Rainbow choose the yarn for the cuffs, and she selected leftovers from one of my favorite sweaters I've ever knit her. Last night I tossed her finished mittens, along with the two pairs I'd previously knit for charity, into the dryer to felt (I soaked them first and tossed in a few dryer balls for friction).

Here are all three pairs before felting:

and here they are after:

There's still a bit of stitch definition in a few spots, so they could probably be felted even more, but I'm pretty happy with them. Rainbow's pair, which fit me perfect before, are now just the right size for her, and as she snagged the pair she's been wearing at school yesterday, the timing couldn't be more perfect. I've left all three pairs sitting on my radiator today to dry out, and with any luck, they'll be ready to be put into the regular rotation tomorrow.

Here's a closer look at Rainbow's mittens -- just look at that fuzzy halo from the alpaca!

I've resumed working on the socks for my almost-sister-in-law during my lunch breaks, but I've decided to dedicate my evening crafting time this week to my granny square blanket. As of this morning (when it was very overcast, hence the dark photo), it was this big:

For reference, that's a queen-size bed.

I started opening my Fibernymph Dye Works holiday mini skein yesterday and plan to start adding them into the blanket, but I want to work through a few more leftover bits first. The plan is then to work the minis in order, as they're intended to flow from one to the next. It'd be great to get this finished up before we leave for our trip, as I really don't want to have to drag this big of a project all the way to Florida -- it'd take up precious room in my luggage, not to mention that sitting with a lap full of wool isn't ideal for the climate!

It's Going Too Quickly

The title of this post refers both to the long holiday weekend and to this year in general; I am absolutely astounded that today is December 1. Less than a week from day is my brother's wedding. Two weeks from today is Rainbow's 10th birthday. Three weeks from today we'll be in Florida. How is it that the weekdays can crawl by but yet 2019 is almost over?

I suppose one way to (artificially) make time seem to slow down is to do a slow craft, so I did spend a little bit of time at my wheel this weekend, though not as much as I would have hoped. The truth is that there were many things to do to get ready for upcoming events in the next few weeks, and so crafting necessarily had to take a back seat to those things. But I'm almost halfway through the singles for this spin, and it's really such a perfect spin that I'm not in any rush to hurry it along.

Southern Cross Fibre Bond wool in the colorway Two Roads Diverged

These colors are moody and subtle, and I'm finding them very soothing. The fiber is drafting beautifully and is very soft. There's nothing I don't love about this spin (except that I'm not finding enough time for it). It might end up being my last spin of the year, depending on how busy things get before we leave for our trip. I'm toying with the idea of taking a spindle or even my Nano wheel with me to Florida, but I think I'll likely end up just taking knitting -- after all, it'll give me something at home to look forward to rather than dread!