Happy Weekend Everybody! The sun is shining and there is much to celebrate.

Yesterday was Canada Day *waves flag proudly* and my friends in the US will be celebrating their nation’s Independence Day on Monday.

Over in Europe, there’s the Wimbledon finals, the Tour de France AND the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

And it looks like Mother Nature has finally decided to let us have some summer weather.

All very good reasons to raise your glass and cheer!

~~~

Most of this week it’s been pretty rainy around here causing me to regard mostly colourless projects as, frankly, kind of depressing.

White, Grey, Grey/Rust/Grey, and Khaki. *sigh*

There was only one solution…

CAST ON!

Digging around in my sock yarn stash, I picked out the brightest, happiest combination I could find, grabbed my copy of Last Minute Knitted Gifts and my 24″ set of 3.5mm Addis.

“I Dream of Oceans Scarf”

VOILA! Instant happy.

It’s the very popular Chevron Scarf pattern by Joelle Hoverson done in Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton Handdyed Merino Fingering Wt in “Pacifica” and Lotus Yarns Chakra in “Jenna”.

A great take-a-long project that I can pick up and do a few rows on whenever I need a blast of colour.

~~~

Regardless of the icky weather earlier this week, my Mitered Crosses Blanket seems to be progressing nicely:

4 squares down, 6 more to go.

Each block seems to be a 2-day project, so I give it a couple more weeks and they should be done.

I’m still thinking about how I want to handle the border as I really am not a fan of applied I-cord. (Don’t get me wrong, I like the look, but I find it a bit of a pain to do.) Guessing it’ll depend on how much yarn is left after the squares and filler pieces are done.

~~~

This weeks quickie project was knit out of some of my first wheelspun – remember this?

Well, it became this:

“Mind’s Eye Hat”

One of the hat patterns from Shannon Okey’s Spin to Knit book.

I don’t think it came out too bad for 62 yds of (badly) Navajo-plyed, eye-searing BFL.

You won’t lose me in a crowd anyhow LOL.

~~~

When the sun came out in full force on Thursday, I took the rare opportunity to work on my embroidery projects that tend to get neglected in favour of my knitting obsession.

I got a little bit more done on the petit-point version of “Witchwork” by Amy Law that was designed for the Monica Ferris novel “Blackwork”.

Rather than ordering the kit from Kreinik (it just wasn’t in the budget when I started it last year), I ended up substituting the Silk Mori and Braid with DMC Cotton and Metallics on white linen from my fabric stash.

My version is a little more vibrant than the Kreinik original, but I really like how it’s coming out. I’ve just started the final border, so the embroidery should be done fairly soon.

(I apologize for the fuzzy picture, my camera’s acting up again.)

It will eventually grace the top of one of these boxes.

The piece measures *less* than 4″ square. Next time I’ll throw a coin in the picture for scale.

My other cross-stitch in progress is a kit I bought for myself aeons ago just before I went for gallbladder surgery (and a good two years before I found out I was Celiac).

I pull it out and work on it from time to time when I have the inclination.

It’s the “Frederick the Literate” kit designed by Charles Wysocki.

I love it lots. And I got a fair bit done on it while watching the live feed from Wimbledon on Feegle (my Netbook).

Thursday was a very good day.

~~~

Yesterday, I started a new pair of socks for the July SKA Challenge (Fair Isle/Intarsia), got a little carried away and finished the first sock at around 1:45am.

Fair isle knitting apparently has a hypnotic effect on my brain, causing me to not notice hunger, fatigue or even Canada Day fireworks. It’s powerful stuff.

So, I share with you the grand total of my Friday accomplishments:

The first Turkish Stashbuster Sock.

And when I say “stashbust”, I mean STASHBUST! There’s everything from tapestry wool, scraps of aran wt wool to quadrupled Kroy 3-ply fingering wt in these things.

When they’re done, I’ll have used up a full *17* balls from the stash. Small ones, sure – but they’re out of the stash all the same. And it’s the small leftover balls that drive me bananas.

It’s the Turkish Sock pattern by Bronwyn Lowenthal (from “Love to Knit Socks“) which is written for 14 different colours of Debbie Bliss Aran on 4mm needles. I used 3.5mm and found them plenty big enough.

I think they’ll look fabulous with my steampunky hiking boots this Fall, don’t you?

July is also a “Mystery Sock” month – a colourwork pattern designed by Stephanie van der Linden – WOOHOO!!!

I’m going to finish off the stashbuster socks first then cast on for them. I already have the yarn pulled – can’t wait to show you!

~~~

I mentioned before, the Tour de France is on, in fact, it started this morning.

And any fiber person can tell you that means only one thing…

THE TOUR DE FLEECE HAS BEGUN!

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your wheels/spindles!

My goals are pretty up in the air at the moment, but I *have* started spinning one of the larger bunches from my fiber stash and will go from there.

8 oz of Pacific Wool & Fiber “Spinner’s Choice” Colonial Heather Wool Top in “Jewel Great Britain”.

My first test run was coming out a little thick, so I plyed it back on itself and started a new bobbin.

I’ll ply each bobbin back on itself to make things easier all around.

It’s really pretty stuff, teal and green with shots of burgundy – YUM.

(Just for the record, I haven’t joined any of the numerous teams – simply spinning for fun this year.)

~~~

Speaking of spinning, I did finish up a skein of handspun that I was working on earlier this week:

It’s about 438yds of fingering weight (4 oz) spun on my Schacht Hi-Lo Spindle that I couldn’t bring myself to ply. So I finished it off as a singles yarn.

This delicious BFL Top is from Woolgatherings with the very descriptive title of “Dyelot: BFLM02181101″. I call it “Jewelled Rainbow”.

It reminds me of Malabrigo. If Malabrigo dyed BFL.

Hands off – it’s mine

~~~

I’m pretty sure that’s it for now.

Enjoy your weekend everybody!

TTFN.

But even if your house is a mess and your spouse doesn’t quite recognize the crazylooking person in front of them, you will have something freaking impressive and beautiful when you’re done.

Behold:

My Dreamscape Shawl.

It’s glorious. Deliciously soft, gorgeous drape, and frankly, ENORMOUS.

I wish my photography skills were better so I could do it justice.

I love it.

~~~

The lace knitting inertia continued…

Windsbraut Bertha

Also delectibly soft (Mondial Gold Merino/Cashmere), HUGE (70″x 38″) and horribly photographed.

~~~

But what if I don’t knit lace? I hear you say…

Knit socks.

My hubby tends to overlook the dusty furniture if I knit him socks.

Stripey D-Man Socks for my Danny-boy.

Aloe Vera infused (Austermann Step) socks, because I love him lots.

AND I got the stripes to match – yeah BAYBEE!

~~~

But you do have to know when step off the train to Crazyville.

The Patchwork Blanket out of sock yarn?

Well, it became a rather funky looking Patchwork Cushion instead.

This is what the back looks like:

The rest of the leftover sock yarns will be addressed at another time.

~~~

What of the Christening Set?

Progress has been made:

It’s slow going – but I’ve been informed that nephew Marc will be christened in September, so I have some time.

The sticky white cotton on tiny needles with 3 active cats in the house also makes me slightly paranoid with sessions of manic handwashing after touching *anything*.

I hope my sanity survives the creation of this set, I really do.

~~~

How to soothe the madness?

Let’s try some nice stockingette.

This is my cotton Lady Grey Tunic. Which I hope will look something like this when it’s done:

Pretty hunh? It’s free pattern (found here).

~~~

And when all else fails, you can’t beat good old garter stitch.

And no one (with the exception of Elizabeth Zimmermann – have you seen the new book? WANT!) does it better than the gals from Mason Dixon Knitting.

Now, I have been continuing to work on the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket (20 more ridges to go on block #7), but I had something slightly less epic in mind.

A Mitered Crosses Blanket.

10 afghan squares. I think I can handle that.

Not having any Noro Silk Garden (sniff), I delved into the stash and came out with some tweedy woolly goodness with which to make my version.

Red Cross to the rescue

~~~

As I’ve once again rejoined the world of the (slightly) sane, I will talk to you all again next week.

TTFN

Let me savour this strange feeling for a minute…

**deep breath**

Okay, that’s enough

This week’s plan was to finish the WendyKnits’ KAL Summer Mystery Shawlette (aka my “Lucky Penny Shawl“), get as far as I could on my Dreamscape Shawl (“In Dreams Mystery Shawl“) and start on the Christening Set for my nephew.

Here’s how I did:

~~~

Lucky Penny Shawl

As I mentioned in last week’s post, the main part of the shawl (clue 3) was to be released later Thursday afternoon.

It was done by Friday night.

The final section was released around 5pm tonight (my time) and took about a half hour to finish it off.

Blocked to within an inch of it’s life and completely dry by dinnertime.

Final measurement on it is about 56″ x 26″. Not too bad, but I do wish that I had done the extra repeats since I ended up having about a third of the ball of yarn leftover.

Oh well, into the Patchwork Blanket project bag it goes.

~~~

Dreamscape Shawl

I’ve been going great guns on this shawl since last Saturday.

Clue 5 took a good 2.5 days of fulltime knitting:

It was at this point that I suddenly discovered that I had accidently deleted any and all Clue 6 emails without actually downloading said clue.

My normally rational zen mind shattered.

I flipped out. Full on Kermit flail.

After some rather panicked emails to the designer (Susan, you are a SAINT!) and a very large serving of chocolate pudding, I was back in business.

The last 2 rows of Clue 6 were finished this morning.

Clue 7 is printed off and ready to go. I hope to have it finished by Monday or Tuesday.

Oh, and Susan? I owe you martinis and cabana boys. Seriously.

~~~

Christening Set

The first part of the set, the bonnet, is off the needles and awaiting silk ribbon.

I cannot *begin* to tell you how difficult it is to photograph 3-dimensional lace objects in this yarn.

Here is a picture of it before sewing up so you can actually see the pretty:

That line above the leaf motifs? Knitted pin tucks. I am so proud

The rest of the set is going to be altered a wee bit. I’ll be doing the same as many others have done and combining the bodice of the jumpsuit (with shortened sleeves) and the skirt of the overdress. Then work a pair of simple “longies” (pants w/feet) for underneath.

It’s a bit more of a user-friendly option I think.

Crossing my fingers it’ll all be finished before he’s born.

~~~

Quick and Dirty (Clean?)

BadgerDan prefers to wash dishes with a plastic scrubbie (*shudder*).

I ethically refuse to buy any more of them from the dollar store.

So I made him a tawashi out of some leftover Red Heart SuperSaver:

He’s happy – I’m happy. Win-win.

~~~

Coming Attractions

The next Windsbraut Shawl KAL will be starting tomorrow (Windsbraut “Bertha”).

My SKA socks for this month will be “D-Man” by Lykkefanten for BadgerDan.

The June Woolly Wormhead KAL Hat is the Tebe Slouch which I quite like.

Yarn options are still pending.

I may or may not get to them next week – we’ll see.

~~~

Furkid Update

Little Miss Lilith seems to be settling in very nicely and is holding her own with the boys. There’s quite the personality under that shy exterior that is showing itself a bit more each day.

She loves to hide behind curtains and suddenly attack or chase Maverick, Tomi and her toys. Lightning fast and super quiet – we have dubbed her “NinjaCat”.

We think it’s funny as hell – 13 yr old half-Siamese Tomi is not as amused.

~~~

Until next week…

TTFN.

“Just one more” (row, round, stitch, skein, ball),

“Then I’ll get to” (sleep, housework, cooking, bathing, blogging).

I am not immune and that is why there was no blog post last week.

I had personal goals that I wanted to hit and, well, I figured you guys knew me well enough to know that if there was a gap in my blogging, there’s probably some good stuff coming in the next post.

And there is!

So here we go…

~~~

Sockapalooza

In the last 2 weeks, I finished a whopping *4 pairs* of socks. Yes, I said FOUR.

The Crocodilian Socks (aka the Entrelac Socks from HELL) were finished first. As expected, the second one went a *little* faster than the first due to extensive notetaking.

BadgerDan declared them quite comfy and wore them most of last weekend. He does, however, mention that one really shouldn’t wear entrelac socks in workboots as they’ll give you some weird-ass welts on your instep.

Sound advice, thank you dear.

Those were followed closely by the Garden Stroll Socks.

(Very cute – I really need to pick up some summer skirts to wear them with.)

Next past the finish line was my “fun stuff” project from the week before last.

Now, I may not have mentioned it before, but I try and do something quick and frivolous every week to break up the steady work on my epic projects.

Sometimes they get ripped out and you don’t hear about them, but for the most part, they do get finished and that’s the origin of all the bags, hats and other ephemera speckled throughout my posts.

I generally call them my “day projects” as they normally only take a day or so to finish.

Well, this time I decided to tackle some crocheted socks.

Why? Because you can never have too many socks.

(Do you *hear* the sarcasm? Yes, I know I have a problem. I’ll figure out what to do about it. Eventually.)

These ones I totally blame on the yarn which didn’t want to work for any other thing I tried to use it for and I just wanted it out of the stash before it influenced any of the other balls. (Hey, if stash can breed, it can also organize an armed coup.)

Behold – 2 upstart balls of Patons Kroy Jacquards in “Summer Moss”.

And here’s what they became:

I used the “Ultimate Crocheted Socks” pattern by Dorothy Hardy which I had attempted about 5 yrs ago and gave up on, but managed to muddle my way through this time.

I call them my “Crocheted Carnival Socks“.

Being toe-up, I simply continued the leg until I ran out of yarn and then proceeded to do the cuff in some solid Patons Kroy 4-ply in Burgundy.

I think they have been tamed quite nicely .

And last, but not least, I finished off my Bliosán Socks today!

Janel threw us a bit of a curveball with the last clue – shaped arch construction on the foot.

Sneaky. Clever. Pretty darned funky.

~~~

Fun Stuff

Last week’s little fun project came in the form of a wee stuffed bird.

Meet “Stripey Chirp“. He’s 3″ tall and made out of scrap Noro Kureyon, and some other wools.

(My apologies for the fuzzy photos, it was late at night when they were taken.)

The pattern is another one of Rebecca Danger’s adorable creations called “Chubby Chirps” and is available for free.

(I may have fallen down and purchased her Big Book of Knitted Monsters. Shhhhhh!)

~~~

Epic Garter Stitch

What really has been taking my time up has been a slight obsession with my two blanket projects.

I finished the middle 12″ of the Patchwork Blanket which consists of 36 two inch mitered squares:

Sock yarn. 2.5mm needles. This is gonna take FOREVER!

So I decided to upsize the squares a little:

The 6″ squares still take forever to knit (about a day each), but at least it *seems* like progress.

The Moderne Log Cabin Blanket has also been getting a fair bit of love:

Block #7 is now over the halfway point… only 62 more rows to go.

This is Hockey Playoff knitting at it’s best . (GO CANUCKS GO!!!)

~~~

A New KAL

A bunch of my Plurk friends twisted my rubber arm and suddenly I found myself participating in WendyKnits’ Summer Mystery Shawlette KAL

I’m using MadelineTosh Tosh Sock in “Copper Penny” on 4mm needles and decided to call it my “Lucky Penny Shawl“.

It’s been easy going so far:

The largest clue (Part 3) is due out in a few hours, so you know what I’ll be up to tonight .

~~~

Next Week’s Agenda

All this clearing off my proverbial desk is to free me up to work on my nephew’s Christening Set which I hope to get done in the next 2 weeks.

I also have the last 3 clues left to do on my Dreamscape Shawl.

Never a dull moment around here.

TTFN.

~~~

Completion!

The last three days have been a slog but… it’s finished. After 14 months it’s finally finished.

I give you Evenstar in all her majestic glory:

It’s knit in vintage winter white Bucilla Wondersheen Super Mercerized Cotton (so vintage in fact that it proudly declares itself “boilproof” on the label) on 3mm needles.

I can now move on to the rest of the Christening set for my future nephew.

Compared to the shawl, the christening set should be a cakewalk. I hope.

~~~

Spinning

This weeked I spent some quality time with my wheel and some pretty blue Corridale:

The roving is from Lakehouse Loft and is called “Blue Stunner”. Totally lives up to it’s name

Spun on my wheel and then plyed on my new favorite plying spindle from Highland Handmades, it’s 111g/205yds of 2-ply in approximately a DK wt.

Delicious.

~~~

Quickie Project

I love making bags. I just do.

This was Saturday’s project:

Spiral Berry Bag

It’s the Spiral Rib Bag from One Skein by Leigh Radford.

A good use for an orphan skein of Cascade 220 Handpaints that didn’t match ANYTHING ELSE in my stash (col. 9926 “Cherry Berry”) and even though the pattern didn’t call for it, I handsewed a liner for it:

Denim was the only choice in my mind to go with the yarn, made from an old pair of jeans.

A great small muckabout purse that can double as a project bag. WIN!

~~~

Sock Progress

The Crocodilian Socks are coming along slowly. I did a repeat or so when I needed something mindless to work on (generally while watching the NHL Playoffs).

The May Mystery Socks have been retitled “Bliosán Socks”

Janel revealed the name of the pattern with the second clue – “Artichoke“. “Bliosán” is artichoke in Irish Gaelic.

I haven’t had much time to work on Clue 2 in the rush to finish Evenstar, but I did manage to complete the chart for the first sock:

I think I’m going to continue the pattern on the leg by another 3″ to make it a comfortable height.

Will work on them tomorrow.

~~~

New Arrivals

A pretty pair of Peacocks were waiting in the mailbox yesterday:

I couldn’t help it – I had to get the Tussah silk too. I am a weak, weak woman.

We also gained a new furry member of the family on Tuesday night.

Meet Lily. She’s a 2-3yr old tabby and used to live with my 87yr old MIL who could no longer care for her properly.

She just loves BadgerDan and, well, she didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Maverick and Tomi seem to be taking the news of their new sister fairly well so far. The boys are giving her a wide berth and the growling and hissing has been pretty minimal. Give it time.

~~~

Until next week…

TTFN.

~~~

May Mystery Socks

This month’s Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery Sock is by one of my favorite sock designers Janel Laidman.

Using up the seemingly unending stash of Scheepjeswol Invicta Extra in electric green. (I was given 3 balls of it from a destash – 2 pairs of socks later I still have 2 balls. There is something distictly odd about this yarn. But I digress…)

The beads I’m using for the socks are from a mixed batch of #6 Miyuki Glass Beads in greens with an Aurora Borealis finish.

Still trying to think of a better name for these pretty socks, something Irish maybe…

~~~

Garden Stroll Socks

Finished the first sock! Ain’t it cute?

~~~

Crocodilian Socks

Finished the toe of the second sock and started on the entrelac instep.

~~~

Cotton Mini-Basket

Needed a container that could hold an entire box of cotton swabs in the bathroom – so worked up this adorable little thing during a hockey game (go Vancouver!) using some #20 Cotton Crochet Thread held quadrupled with a 3mm hook for a nice tight gauge.

Couldn’t be happier

Worked out so well it got me thinking that I may design a crocheted box for all those DVDs I organized last week.

~~~

Evenstar Shawl

I finished Clue 6 last night (YAYYYYY!!!!) and after much thought and consultation decided to skip the beads on the border to avoid problems for the baby it is intended for.

Hoping to have this finished by next week and a good start made on the rest of the Christening set for our nephew.

(He’s due next month – OMGMUSTKNITFASTER)

~~~

Sweater Recycling Program

Since it was such a gorgeous (if a bit chilly) spring day today, it got me thinking about warm weather yarns and my lack of them.

So I pulled out one of the thriftstore sweaters I had put aside for “upcycling” and had a lovely time dismantling it.

This particular sweater I really liked but it didn’t quite sit right on my frame and so warranted a re-work. I even got a couple of matching buttons in the deal!

The yarn is a cotton/acrylic/nylon/wool blend, approximately a DK wt and the sweater yielded 7 balls at approx 52g/209yds each (total = 1463yds) Not too shabby.

Thinking using it for a nice big shrug-style open cardigan or perhaps a tunic. We’ll see.

TTFN.

This fog was very strange and kept me in it’s evil clutches for about a week and a half. It scrambled me so bad that I could barely string 2 relevant thoughts together.

You can imagine what it did to my knitting. It fairly near reduced me to tears.

Nothing would work, and when I bravely soldiered on, it caused much cursing due to skipped instructions, miscounting and multiple rippings back of hours of stitching.

~~~

Adventures in Entrelac

I did, somehow, manage to finish the first Crocodilian Sock through sheer willpower and gritted teeth.

The leg took 3 runs at it to get the stitchcount down to where it fit an 8″ leg.

Final count = 45 stitches. Fingering wt. On 2.25mm needles. BIZARRE.

I swear, entrelac must warp the space-time contiuum or something.

Upon finally reaching the cuff, I changed first round of cuff to (K1, P1, KFB) to increase stitchcount from 45 to 60.

I also had to alter the first row of the heel by knitting into the front & back of each of the 15 stitches to bring it up to the required 30.

Okay, from here-on-out this should be a cakewalk, right? Wrong.

Following instructions, I diligently worked the heel and half of the gusset as written:

Then I tried it on. The rectangular heel turn (Welsh?) as a rule doesn’t work well for me, but the worst part was that *the gussets weren’t lining up*. One side was about an inch ahead of the other side. HUNH??

For the life of me, I couldn’t work out how to pick up the bloody stitches evenly on the sides of the entrelac instep.

Being so fed up with this idiot sock at this point, I did the only logical thing possible.

(No, it didn’t involve copious amounts of alcohol or screaming, although those thoughts did filter through the fog.)

I ripped back to the heel turn, did a regular triangular heel turn (French?) and proceeded to knit the gusset and sole without joining to the instep. When the sole was long enough, I simply kitchenered it to the bottom of the toe and sewed up the sides of the foot.

DONE.

This pair is going to BadgerDan because I simply cannot get over my ambivilent feelings for this pattern enough to wear them.

~~~

Lace Limbo

I didn’t dare even *attempt* to pick up one of my shawl projects, but I had promised my friend Heather Zoppetti (aka “Digitalnabi”) to test knit her newest sock pattern “Bobbie Strow“.

It took me *three days* to knit the lace cuffs. This would generally take me the matter of *maybe* 4 hrs.

This is as far as I got on my version – “Garden Stroll Socks” Thankfully far enough that I could send my notes off to the ever-patient Heather with confidence.

These will now become the resident “purse” socks until they’re done as the hard part is over.

~~~

Maybe It’s a Yarn Weight Thing

Sure, that’s it – you’re overloading on sock & laceweight yarns. You need to knit with some chunky yarn.

Emmaline has been in the queue for a while, why not give it a go? Okay.

After screwing up the bodice increases 3 times, it occurred to me that perhaps gauge wasn’t the issue after all.

It did get done though, however slowly.

I had to put it away, but pulled it out again yesterday and finished it this morning:

Emmaline Top

Finally – a Finished Object! (a week late.)

~~~

What Can I Do????

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to a Knitter who can’t concentrate enough to knit – let’s just say it isn’t pretty.

Over and over I muddled over in quiet desperation what I both wanted to do and *could* do in this troubling state.

I was almost to the point of hysteria when a little internal voice answered.

“You can spin”.

So I took it’s advice.

I spun:

Highland Handmades Superwash BFL – “Life’s Lemons” (4 oz)

And spun…

Intentions Yarn Superwash BFL – “Fertility” (4 oz)

And spun…

Handplyed Recycled Shetland (from sweater) – Brown Heather (36g – 2 ply lace to 4 ply fingering wt)

And spun some more…

LlamaGoldsmith Alpaca Roving – “Simon” (1.3oz)

Louet Dyed Eastport Alpaca/Wool Roving – Toasted Almond (2oz)

I even spun up some itty bitty samples into 55yds of self-striping laceweight singles:

Natchwoolie Samples of: “Black” Alpaca; “Hazelnut Truffle Fawn” Alpaca/Tussah Silk; “Milk Chocolate” Alpaca; “Sterling Mixed Grey” Alpaca/Tussah Silk (total weight: 12g)

~~~

All Spun Out

Relaxing a bit, time to branch out a little and ease yourself back to knitting. How about some crochet?

Fingerless mitts – that should be simple enough…

Bohemian Opera Gauntlets

Wow, those were unexpectedly fast and easy.

And very sexay!

~~~

On a Roll

Hmm… perhaps you should try to do something with all those tiny balls of dishcloth cotton that have been driving you nuts…

Clockwise from top: Big Blue Flower Washcloth; Nature Star Tawashi; Spumoni Starflake Tawashi; Forget Me Not Tawashi; Eye-Searing Leftover Dishcloth; Softie Leftover Washcloth

Little balls of cotton? GONE.

~~~

Then Badgerdan returned home from Toronto with a set of Ikea Kassett CD Boxes.

Who knew that this small act could make me deliriously happy and spawn a joyful afternoon of cutting up sleeves from the overloaded CD binder all to the tune of blaring 1990s music?

I am such an organizational geek.

With my appetite whetted, I moved onto the 2 unsuspecting DVD binders with scissors in my scheming hands…

Believe it or not, there’s 76 DVDs and 14 extra empty sleeves in that small plastic dollarstore basket. I’ll pick up a snazzier box for them next week.

And the binders didn’t go to waste!

They’re now safely housing my collection of cross-stitch patterns and magazines.

This little adventure got rid of 2 plastic binders, one slightly warped CD binder and 2 plastic magazine holders. YEAH BAYBEE!!!

~~~

There’s still some residual fogginess going on, but the worst of it seems to have passed.

I think I can safely start on Clue 6 of Evenstar without too much chance of casualties.

I hope.

TTFN.

(Note: Will be back to regular Thursday updates starting next week.)

Well, I encountered my first fullblown challenge to the plan a little over a week ago while out shopping with a girlfriend at the local Salvation Army Thriftstore.

You see, I found yarn.

Good yarn. Wool yarn. Useful yarn.

2 balls of Lana Grazia “Lavabile” (100% Wool, DK, 110m/50g) in a lovely camel colour @ 99c each.

1 oz ball of vintage Simpsons Supremacy 4-ply “All Purpose” Fingering Yarn (50% Wool/50% Nylon) @ 79c.

Total purchase price = $2.79

Now here’s the kicker – at that point, I had only earned 30% of a single new yarn purchase. A deficit of 2.7.

Translation: I would need to use up a full **27 balls of stash yarn** before even looking at any new fiber purchase. ACK!!!!!!!

After I finished thwacking my head against the wall for a bit, I girded my loins and decided to face the monster head on.

~~~

First up – finish the Sampler Baby Blanket.

I simply couldn’t afford to wait another 2 months for the CAL patterns.

So a few more filler squares, a couple more February squares, four of the April squares for the corners and a sewing marathon later, I had this:

Added an improvised border and VOILA!

One crib sized baby blanket ready for the baby nephew

~~~

Next – finish the Exploding Plum Blanket.

And holy cow, did it ever explode! It’s almost 6 ft wide!

Had to get a little creative at the border due to goofing up the pattern sequence a little and not wanting to pull it back to correct it. It’s not perfect, but it still looks pretty cool .

~~~

Well that’s 22 balls down. Need 5 more. Hmmm…

I *had* planned on using some Malabrigo for this month’s Woolly Wormhead KAL Hat (“Waffle Slouch“) – maybe I’d better check the wool “oddball” case instead.

Rummagerummagerummage

Here’s 22yds of a dark brown mercerized wool (okay, that’ll totally work for the brim…), 71 yds of brown tweed Aran wt (nice for the body… but will it be enough? Better be sure…) and 28 yds of red heather (well, it blends a *little* with the tweed… maybe some stripes?)

Crossing my fingers, I used the stitchcount of the smallest size with larger needles and hoped for the best.

The brim yarn yielded a good 2″ of ribbing on 5mm needles. (The pattern said 3″, not too bad.)

Upsized the needles to 5.5mm for the Aran wt tweed and got to work. After a couple of repeats, decided that I’d need the red heather after all and threw a single repeat of it after every 2 of the brown tweed. Had *just* enough tweed to finish the hat. (Whew! That was close!)

There’s still a little bit of the red heather left… hey, how about a flower applique? There’s that one in the Knit 2 Together book…

Add an army surplus button from ye olde button box and…

The Crunchy Granola Hat is born.

I swear to you that the red heather wool isn’t NEARLY as pink as the photo suggests and actually blends with the brown.

I’ve been wearing it for 2 days now – it’s cute as Hell.

~~~

Damn – still behind by 2.

It’ll be summer soon… maybe it’s time to do something with those pesky balls of shiny cotton-blend ribbon yarn.

Enter the Steampunk Safari Scarf.

I offset the ribbon with some heavier mercerized cotton braid in a deep rich brown.

The pattern is called “The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief” by Orange Flower and only calls for 240yds of DK wt yarn.

BTW, did I mention that it’s *FREE*?

Lovelovelovelovelove. OMG – Must. Make. More.

~~~

Beginning Yarn Stash Talley: -2.7
Current Yarn Stash Talley: +0.1

And that, dear Reader, is why this week’s post is a day late.

Now there’s the small matter of the 9 more balls that need to be used up before this GORGEOUS Highland Handmades Corridale can come home.

I *really* need to get on that.

TTFN.

“All right, all right, all right”

The Mojo – she is BACK!

I even managed to resurrect some old skills and learned a new knitting technique this week – but more on that later.

Let’s tidy up some loose ends first…

~~~

Evenstar Clue 5 was the first on the docket:

I don’t think I’ll ever get over how pretty this shawl is. Just 2 more sections to go!

My La Vie de Bois socks were Tuesday’s mission:

Mission Accomplished.

I am insanely happy with how these came out. They stop just shy of my calf muscles, so no shaping was required, although I did have a needle the next size up handy should they prove to be getting too snug near the top. It turned out to be unnecessary and they fit perfectly.

The last couple of days, I’ve been tackling the monster that is the Shadowed Cypress Project Bag.

The cotton cinch at the top turned out to be far less “easy peasy” than I thought. In fact, those 5 inches of cotton took the better part of 16 hrs to knit. That “allover cross stitch” pattern nearly killed me. I ended up knocking off the last two repeats to save my sanity.

Then the black cotton wouldn’t behave when attempting to make the twisted cord (or Monk’s cord according to the pattern). Having just about enough with this thing – I decided it was time to play dirty.

I dug out an old curtain tie-back, snipped one end, wove it through the eyelets as instructed, then carefully sewed it back into place on the tassel.

HA! TAKE THAT!

Next I had to tackle the lining, which I also technically cheated a bit on by re-purposing an absolutely *hideous* drawstring bag that I picked up somewhere. (To my credit – it had gorgeous green satin ribbon ties with blown glass flower beads & was only a buck, so it was totally worth the money.)

All that was needed was to square off the bottom, fold over the drawstring hem and sew it in:

I know it clashes badly, but it’s for my personal use and no one’s going to see it most of the time anyway.

The fugly was promptly hidden anyway by immediately stuffing the bag to capacity with the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket and it’s yarn.

Mischief Managed.

I also finished the 16 square centre panel of the sock yarn Patchwork Blanket:

All the squares will radiate out from here. (The colours are a bit off in the photo, but I wanted to show the pattern texture.)

~~~

A little known fact … back in the 1980s when I was a little girl, my parents gave me a loom. It was plastic rigid heddle loom made by Fisher Price and looked like this:

I distinctly recall using it, but couldn’t for the life of me tell you either what I made or whatever became of it.

But what it comes down to is the fact that I was weaving even before I ever picked up a crochet hook, embroidery or knitting needle. (There was also my unwavering obsession with my Grandmaman’s tiny 4″ wooden working model of a spinning wheel from the time I was a toddler, but I digress.)

Fast forward to a few years ago…

Harkening back to my childhood loom, I worked a trade with an acquaintance for a vintage “Wool Weaving Loom” made by Spears Games in the UK (circa late 1940s-early 50s).

It is, according to the label, a “size 3″ model (what it refers to, I haven’t the faintest idea) and had basic instructions on the lid.

Anyhoo…

Late Sunday night I got a wild notion to warp it up and see if I could weave a scarf on the little sucker.

I used about 25g of Burnt Orange Patons Kroy 4-ply for the warp (27 threads for those interested) and then started weaving a basic linen stitch scarf with the cursed – err – *cranky* Koigu KPPPM (darned stuff didn’t seem to like whatever I tried making with it) held double for the weft.

Well what do you know… I guess it’s just like riding a bike .

I wove all day Monday and had a complete scarf by dinnertime:

A new professional grade loom may be in my immediate future – just sayin’.

~~~

The Sock Knitter’s Anonymous challenge for April is Entrelac and/or “Non-traditional” sock construction. I came prepared for this one.

Drummossie by Rachel Brown has been in my queue since last year’s Sock Madness.

It took a few attempts with different yarns and a stitchcount adjustment, but I think I’ve got it now:

This Opal Rainforest colourway (“Veronica die Wilde”) is based on a butterfly, but is turning out decidedly more reptilian in flavour, hence their title “Crocodilian Socks“

The toe is knitted in the round, the instep is worked flat, then you provisionally cast-on for the second half of the leg which you work in the round to the cuff. The standard top-down gusset heel and sole are worked back and forth starting from the provisional cast on, ending where you kitchener the sole to the bottom half of the toe.

Wacky, but it works. I can’t wait to see how these turn out.

~~~

Desperately needing a mental break from knitting black cotton in the dark last night, I grabbed some chunky acrylic yarn from the closet and started crocheting a quick throw using my 8mm hook and a vintage doily pattern.

The pattern is called “Sunburst Pineapple” which is amusing enough at one-o-clock in the morning, but as my yarn is this great dusky purple and my version will dwarf the original 20″ doily, the name “Exploding Plum” came to mind and put me in a fit of giggles.

There’s 19 more balls of the Mary Maxim Cloudspun where that ball came from (a neighbour gave it to me) so I expect this blanket will be HUGE.

Goodness! Would you look at the time!

You must excuse me – I have to go be all crafty now.

TTFN.

2 shrugs and a baby sweater project were knitted, pulled back, knitted again and finally frogged and the yarn put away in sheer frustration. To the tune of 3 wasted days.

Unless, of course, you take the Thomas Edison philosophical approach – then I simply found multiple ways of how not to make a shrug and baby sweater.

Doesn’t make it any less annoying though.

~~~

I have, however, managed to make some small progress on a few projects, not as much as I’d like, but progress just the same.

The La Vie de Bois Socks have come a fair distance since last week:

I was going to try and run out the yarn, but decided that an 11″ leg was plenty long enough.

So very pretty and surprisingly stretchy.

I put some quality time in yesterday on Evenstar, getting to the halfway point of Clue 5 (of 7):

And I got a few more rows done on the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket:

Must remember that even small steps will eventually get one to a destination, regardless of one’s patience levels.

My inner child is screaming in the backseat right now.

~~~

Needing a positive distraction, I started spinning up some of the happiest darned handdyed roving in my fiber stash:

4oz of Superwash BFL called “Life’s Lemons” (from Highland Handmades)

Possibly the most perfect cheerful delicious yellow on the planet. Wonderful to spin but it does makes me hungry for pie.

~~~

Something new…

The sheer number of leftover balls of sock yarn was making it hard to close the stash suitcase in which they were stored. Unsurprising perhaps, but something needed to be done.

I gathered all the patterned and handdyed sock yarn balls that weighed under 40g, threw them in an old project bag and grabbed my copy of Vivian Hoxbro’s “Domino Knitting”.

Yep. It’s official.

The leftover yarn levels have reached the mitred square blanket stage.

But rather than go with the diamond style (a la Shelly Kang’s famous Sock Yarn Blanket) like most folks attempting this epic undertaking, I’m going a slightly different route with my Patchwork Blanket.

Using my favorite potholder pattern (#3) in the book as a basis:

I’m working the squares in randomly pulled colours radiating out from the center until it’s wide enough, then working the top and bottom in pattern until it’s long enough.

Each square measures 2″ with a cast-on of 27sts on 2.5mm needles.

I have no idea what kind of timeline this project is going to have, but I’m sure it’ll measure in years rather than months.

~~~

My cousin Jeffrey and his lovely wife Susan welcomed their little daughter Anne into the World early Sunday morning.

It was a wonderful bit of news to find out from my Uncle Paul & Aunt Marilyn (the proud new Grandparents) on Monday as we laid Grandmaman to rest in a beautiful ceremony that she would have loved.

A true blessing.

TTFN.