Wednesday works in progress update #9 for 2023

 It looks like it's been a bit since I've done a WIP update.  I've had something in mind, but keep backing out of doing it, so that's why ... Yes, I'm mysterious. 

I've had the last few days off work and have been enjoying them.  House stuff has been caught up so that means time for vegging out and watching Fr. Brown and working on my knit and cross stitch projects a bit. 

When I'm not napping.  

Just kidding, I don't nap that much.  

In the last couple of weeks I've started a few new sock projects, a new cross stitch project and I've kitted up a few other projects, so to speak. 

My handspun.

Definitely a work in progress, despite my finishing it up this past weekend. Last night I decided I'm going to use it to make a cardigan. Specifically, the Bly cardigan by Berroco yarns. 

Photo is from Berroco's website. 

I decided I wanted to make something on the more easy side.  This seems perfect. 

Picture this pile of squishyness in a cozy cardi. 

I'll start this as soon as I get a few skeins wound up in to yarn cakes. Wish me luck! 

First sock project is my Monkey socks by Cookie A. 

Project Name: Monkey Socks
Started: Nov. 12, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: knitty.com

Yarn: Forbidden Fiber Co.

Colorway: Tale as old as time, on the Fortitude base.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

Yarn is a pleasure to work with. 

Next up is a vanilla sock

Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 13, 2023

Finished: 

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Amythest stripes

Colors: dark purples.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

I started this project up for the times where I want to knit, but don't want to think of a pattern repeat. You can see I've got a LOT done on this sock so far. 

Up next is another Vanilla sock

Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 18, 2023

Finished: 

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Coastal stripes

Colors: variations of blue and some white or grey.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

I started this sock on a 9 or 11 inch chiaogoo mini twist. I recently started watching the Knitting Traditions podcast on Youtube, and she mentioned making socks on the small circs and I thought I would give it another try.  So far it hasn't been as tough as I remember. 

Cross stitch ... 

I started a new cross stitch project. A few weeks ago I saw Javagirl Stitches pop on with a new youtube video and an announcement of a new stitch-along and I fell in love with the Quilted Cross Stitch charts, despite my already having christmas charts to work on. 

*sigh* I was SO enabled. 

So I went to walmart and picked up some 18 count adia and dyed it myself.  I wrote about it not long ago. It turned out so lovely. 

Started: Nov. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Emily Call Designs

Fabric: Charles craft aida cloth 18 count I dyed myself. Purchased at walmart.

DMC floss in called for colors

Blanc, 168, 469, 3712, 3045, 816, 310

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

I'm not sure if I've worked on my snowflake cross stitch since I last shared it. So I'm sharing again, possibly. 

Project Name: #723 Snowflake

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tiny Cross Stitches

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart. Aida has silver threads running through it. 

DMC floss in called for colors

747 ; 964 ; 995 ; 996 ; 3756 ; 3761 ; 3843 ; 3846 ; B5200

Colors: blues

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. I've decided I'm keeping it for myself.  I told my husband that when it is done, I'm putting it on display year-round. 

It looks like I have done a smidge of work on it. 

Quilty stuff ... 

I haven't done any actual sewing on the two quilts I've had going. I'm cutting fabric.  If you are a quilter you know that cutting and prepping the fabric can take a good long time.  

I feel like I've been working forever on cutting fabric for my Dancing Stars quilt. I really need to make a hashtag for this one. 

I didn't look to see how many more fat quarter bundles I need to cut up.  Feels like a hundred. It's probably four or five.  Each bundle takes about an hour to cut.  I've been working on a bundle at night while watching "The Mindy Project" or "Burn Notice." 

Last night I decided to switch over and cut up some fabric for the sandpiper quilt. 

Project Name: Sandpiper quilt

Started: Jan. 21, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: It's Sew Emma / Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Fabric from the Solid Fat Quarter Club

Colors: A different color palette each month.

Made For: Myself

I think I have four more squares to cut for on this quilt. Then I can start assembling.

I have a feeling January is when these two quilts are going to see a significant amount of love. 

Future projects ... 

I decided I'm going to make another Harvest cardigan.  The last one I made I made using carons simply soft. That yarn, combined with my lack of knowing how to care for big handknits like this, cause the cardigan to stretch out. It looked awful.  

I'm going to use acrylic again, but this time I'm using a hobby lobby yarn, and I won't be throwing it in the dryer. 

I purchased this yarn about a year ago. I think it's going to look great. 

Started: Soon

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tin Can Knits 

Yarn: Hobby Lobby "I love this yarn"

Colors: Cinnamon Cedar

Needle Size: US #6 / 4mm & US #8 / 5mm

Made For: myself. 

This pretty yarn is going to be made in to something very soon, too. I saw a amigugrumi in a facebook group and decided I had yarn in stash that would be perfect for it. 

It will be a gift for someone.  Not saying who just yet. 

That is all in my bag of tricks, friend. Tomorrow is the big turkey day. We are planning on smoking a turkey (so yummy). My son will be working.  My hubby will be working on some projects he's been wanting to do for a while, and I'll likely be puttering in the kitchen and knitting when I'm not in the kitchen. 

So, until then, happy Thanksgiving to all of you! 

Another end of the week catch-up-ish ...

 This past week a lot of my focus was on an early deadline for work. 

We made the deadline. Woo hoo! Then Friday there was something wrong with our work email.  So that kinda threw me off my game.  I am SO glad that it didn't happen the day before.  That would have made for a very stressful day.

Thursday, I think it was, I decided it was time to devote some time to my spinning project that has been languishing. 

Friday night, at 8 p.m. CST, I spun the last of my grey corriedale fiber.  

When I pulled this last bit out of the bag I was so surprised it was the end. 

I purchased this fiber back in August 2019. 

The last of it all spun up. 

Like four years it took me to spin up a little more than 2 pounds of fiber. I have too many hobbies!  I can NOT take 4 years to spin the next sweater's worth of fiber. 

Saturday I turned it in to a 2-play and today I soaked and whacked it.  It's currently air drying. Sometime this next week I'll measure it and see how many yards I have. 

If I have enough yardage, I'm going to aim for the Brielle sweater in the most recent Knitty.com. 

If there is a LOT of yardage, I'm going to look for something that will use more yarn. 

In other news, the mystery CAL I signed up for I am not doing.  The parts were released and when I saw what it was I decided No thanks.  It's cute but it's not something I'm interested in making. So now I have two skeins of acryllic yarn I need to find a project for. Or, just put it in the stash/collection. 

Next week is probably going to be a busy week for me. Getting ready for Thanksgiving, There's some other things I need to take care of.  

Then, maybe then, I'll be ready for snow ... 

Friday works in progress update #7 for 2023

 I had intended to write a WIPs on Wednesday post.  Alas, ... it's been a bit of a week.  My close buds have heard me complaining about the rain putting me into a bit of a funk.  I like taking photos of my projects when we have decent outside light. 

There still isn't decent light because - shocker of all shocker-ey things - it's raining. Again. 

Last year I decided I was going to try making a crochet cardigan, after seeing a "My first cardigan" class on Craftsy. 

This year I finally took the plunge. 

Last night I finished the back.  

Project Name: My first crochet cardigan

Started: Sept. 30, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Craftsy or Lionbrand. 

Yarn: Lion Brand wool ease

Colors: Grey heather

Hook Size: H 5.0 mm

Made For: myself. 

I've got some mixed thoughts on this project because of the craftsy class. I haven't viewed all the videos yet.  A couple things I've had to look on the internet to figure out what I was supposed to do. Nothing personal against the instructor, but the more knowledgable I get with some of these crafts, the less impressed I am with some of the craftsy classes.  I remember when craftsy first came out and everyone thought it was the greatest thing.  I'm feeling kind of meh about it.  Definitely cancelling the subscription. 

The next part to work on will be the fronts.  I'm confident I'll be able to blaze through them.  What I'm not looking forward to is the sleeves.  I'm sure that's a universal feeling. 

Next, we have my snowflake cross stitch project. 

Project Name: #723 Snowflake

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tiny Cross Stitches

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart. Aida has silver threads running through it. 

DMC floss in called for colors

747 ; 964 ; 995 ; 996 ; 3756 ; 3761 ; 3843 ; 3846 ; B5200

Colors: blues

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. Maybe. I haven't decided yet if I want to give this away. 

I put this down a few months ago.  I got tired of working on blue.  Blue, blue and more blue.  I was pretty dedicated to it when I was working on it, and got a ton done. 

How it looked back in June: 

See, lots done since June. 

Patternkeeper is SO awesome. If it wasn't for patternkeeper I think I would have given up on this.  

I'm sure I'll make this one again, some time down the road, but I'll be using a single color rather than nine different shades of one color. 

Spinning ... 

I identify as a spinner so much, you'd be shocked at how little I actually spin fiber into yarn. It's pathetic, really. 

I've been working on the same fiber for years and years.  I bought ... two and a half pounds, maybe, years ago, with the intention of spinning enough fiber to knit a sweater for my husband.  I even picked out the pattern for an interweave knits.  Now i'm not sure I'd make that specific pattern because it's all kinds of cables and pretty bits.  

Anywho, I'm still spinning the fiber and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with it. 

I probably haven't touched this since last year ... or maybe early this year? 

I was watching Dark Winds the last time I was spinning, and now I tie watching that show very strong with spinning.  So now I don't want to work on it unless I'm watching the show. 

The other night I pulled the spinning wheel out and got her all dusted, cleaned up and pretty. 

Now to just make the point of watching the show, right? 

Maybe when it's just a little bit more "fall" out? Sitting by the wood stove, with Dark Winds on, and spinning for like an hour at a time.  I have a goal of getting the fiber all spun up by the end of the year. 

Quilty things next ... 

I started the year with such good intentions with the Fat Quarter solids of the month club.   

And then ... nothing. 

I have four blocks done so far, and two blocks in progress. 

Project Name: Sandpiper quilt

Started: Jan. 21, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: It's Sew Emma / Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Fabric from the Solid Fat Quarter Club

Colors: A different color palette each month.

Made For: Myself

The last time I shared I had finished the blue one that is in the top photo, lower left. 

I have fabric for the next few months are all ironed and ready to go. I iron it really well and do my absolute best to keep things lined up. I figured I didn't need things to be super-duper precise, so no starching. 

Project Name: Dancing Stars

Started: 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: It's Sew Emma / Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Fabric from the Solid Fat Quarter Club

Colors: A different color palette each month.

Made For: Myself

This is the quilt pattern suggestion for the 2022 Fat Quarter Shop solid fat quarter club. I had to buy a special ruler for this one. 

The fabric is being starched.  I feel precision is really important on this one. 

It's five quilt blocks for each month, and the pattern calls for all 12 colors in the monthly bundle. 

This project has been at a bit of a standstill.  Lots of ironing and making sure none of the colors are out of place. 

A couple weeks ago I had the great idea of using the liquid starch to starch a lot of the fat quarters at once. 

I used a jug of the sta-flo liquid starch at a 50/50 mixture and used almost all of the mixture.

There was hardly any left. 

 I starched 108 fat quarters in like half an hour.  It was amazing! 

Then, it wasn't so amazing. All the time I saved on starching I'm making up for in the ironing.  The fat quarters are SO wrinkled from my squeezing out the excess starch.  It's probably taking three times as long to iron because I need to steam and spray extra water to get all the wrinkles out. Ugh! 

The project is slow going due to my desire to iron all the fat quarters before I start working on it again. 

This quilting project I started ... oh who knows ... and it stalled almost right away. 

It's a project from the January 2022 sew sampler box from, you guessed it, Fat Quarter Shop. 

I have all the pieces cut out and almost ready to sew. I wanted to make the smaller size that is a wall hanging, and make it for my bedroom.  Since there's no pressure to get it done, it hasn't been worked on. 

Oh, I take it back. I did blog a bit about this when I first started it. 

Project Name: Daydreams lap quilt

Started: Feb. 5, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Beautiful Day collection by Corey Yoder

Made For: Myself. 

Since I basically cut it and forgot it, I didn't remember it! Heh, funny how that works. 

*ahem*

And as I type this I remember that in the spring time I decided I wanted a pretty spring-ish project bag.  I got as far as ironing the fabric.  No cutting for pieces, though.  Would it count as a work in progress if it's only been ironed? 

If we were having coffee ... I'm feeling so unorganized lately

 This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk about how fast this month has gone. I realized a few weeks ago that I haven't written anything, anywhere, for a while. Oops.  Though, to be fair, I haven't spent much time on social media or the internet. Plans. I had so many plans and aspirations.  Then time goes by much faster than anticipated and before I know it, a month has gone by. 

Things are still a bit busy for me. Not as busy as a few months ago, thankfully.  I'm enjoying this little bit of a lull before things pick up again. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd give you an update on the chicken flock. We have the roosters separated from the girls. The roosters are finally realizing they are boys and were harassing the girls too much.  The hens seem happy they aren't being constantly chased around. The roosters are now busy harassing each other and pulling each others tails. They will be heading off to the freezer sometime next month.

Let me tell you about the roo who has turned into the dominate roo. We call him Mangle because he has something going on with his feet that I didn't spot until after it was too late. Apparently he's grown up on the mean streets of the farm yard and has learned how to take care of himself. The other boys are scared of him.  It really is something how he handles himself. I still remember helping him out from a corner he got himself stuck in back when he was a young chick. Now he's ruling the roost. He's pretty tame around people, so that's nice.  

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you about the rabbits.  We rehomed Loki and Thor. They were sweet rabbits, Thor in particular, but it was getting to be a bit much. After we had 14 baby buns born in one day I decided we had to do something to prevent the pregnancies. I had Feffer and Thor together, and Shadow and Loki together. Shadow was being mean to Loki. (The big bully) When the opportunity to rehome some of them came up, I grabbed it. 

Feffer is now by himself, and Shadow and the baby bun are together. Still don't know if the baby bun is a boy or girl.  My son is thinking it's a girl.  I've been calling her "LB." 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share that Furby is still in the house with us. She's learned a new trick.  When she's outside and ready to come back into the house, she finds her way to the deck and calls until someone hears her and goes out to get her.  Spoiled much? Those grand ideas of integrating her back into the flock -- I don't think it's going to happen.  

Yesterday she was running around with a hen and I thought for sure that was going to be it.  Nope.  Furby went off on her own and then meandered a bit until she heard my voice, and came running. 

This photo is from a while ago.  She was really feeling it that morning and was bawking up a storm.  So I pulled her over by me while I was working. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd blather about the weather and the garden. We are in the midst of a drought and high heat. At the beginning of the garden season I was prepared and expecting cold weather and potential frosts. Instead, we got extreme heat and my cool weather crops didn't fare well. The weather keeps switching from extreme heat to cooler temperatures. 

I've been doing a great job keeping up with weeds. I get out there almost every day and I take care of them and enjoy the flowers and the butterflies.  What I need to do is get out there and take care of some things like I've been wanting to do since early spring, but have either been to lazy or too busy to go out and mess with. 

On July 15 I took some video clips of the garden. I want so very much to have videos of the garden throughout the summer.  This go-round I decided to chat about the plants. Before I knew it, a couple weeks went by and the videos were still sitting on my phone. Until the other night. I've got the clips together and then it took me a bit to remember how to compress the video and get it to a decent file size so it wouldn't take all day to load to youtube. It's been a learning curve all over again. Please bear with while I figure this all out again. 

If we were having coffee ... Crafting.  Crafting!  I've been doing some crafting. 

Tour de Fleece happened.  I did some spinning at the beginning and finished up my first two pounds of grey Corriedale fiber.  

I have no idea on yardage.  I spun four bobbins worth.  

I had a ply party one evening.

Then.  Nada.  I decided to be dedicated to a cross stitch project and get it wrapped up. 

I ordered the "Happily Ever After" Stitch-along kit back in 2016, for Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's 2017 mystery stitch-along.  I got overwhelmed by the border and header and put it away almost right away.  I pulled it out later and did the first square, got overwhelmed and put it away again until last year.  I looked at it and told myself "I'm going to work on it this year."  Then didn't touch it until a few months back. 

Well ... I'm done! It's so pretty! 

I completed it on Saturday, July 24, at 10:35 p.m. Years in the making.  I didn't dream that I would take years to finish this sampler. 

Then what did I do?  I grabbed the cross stitch kit my SIL gave me for my birthday last year. This one is a bit harder for me. The colors are so close that I was struggling a bit.  And, you guessed it, I put it down.  

I guess I'll be dedicated to this one for a while. I'm breaking it down into sections and focusing on one flower bit at a time.  Which is good. Even with the cheaters, the line keepers and whatnot, I'm still goofing up a bit. Fortunately I see the mess-ups right away. And as I was proofing this blog post I realized the project itself is upside down in the photo.  See, so easy to get mixed up on this one. I've got a feeling there are going to be a lot of unintentional customizations on this one.  I'm worried about running out of floss, since it's a kit and it feels like I don't have a lot of leeway. 

Sock knitting happened. When my son was playing chauffeur to my Miss Daisy, he kept commenting that I needed, *needed* to bring knitting with me.  

I knit socks. I found the sock yarn at a shop over in Ashland.  I looked at the colorway and thought "Oh, those are nice summer-y colors."

Really? Wool socks in summer? 

Well, yes. In my area they are sometimes necessary. 

Project: Vanilla socks

Started:  June 2021 (I think)
Finished: July 2021 (I think)
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5mm
Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks yarn (Cherry Pop Stripes)

This is most of the excitement that has been happening on the homestead. There are some days where I still feel like I'm struggling to catch up on the to-do list. What I need to do is take some time off of work and make myself tackle some of those things on my mental to-do list. 

Well, let's hope it's not another month before I update again. 😁 (One of the very few times I'll use an emoji on here)

Episode 15 - The sun is shining

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink or grab a WIP, and join me. 

To listen to the audio version go here, or click play below. 


The audio-only version is also available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

Finished Object

Grey C.C. Copycat hat

Started: February 9, 2020
Finished: February 15, 2020 - or there abouts. 
Needle size: U.S. 7, 4.5 mm
Yarn: Hobby Lobby soft and sleek yarn
Color: Grey with sparkles

Crochet dishcloths based on a sunflower coaster pattern. It is here.

Started: February 15, 2020
Finished: February 15, 2020
Yarn: Dishcloth cotton
Hook size: G, 4.0 mm

Spinning

I have some progress on the fiber I've had sitting on the wheel.  This is fiber that I purchased from Paradise Fibers.

Corriedale spinning fiber to be spun for a sweater I'm making for my husband.

My fancy new tool

Future projects

I chatter a bit out the February Lady Sweater pattern.  I pulled out the yarn I am going to use. 

Kitchen adventures

I've still been busy in the kitchen.  I can't recall all the lovely things I've made.  

Here's a few of them

Low carb bread pudding. - My husband LOVED it.  It smelled divine while it was baking. Super easy to throw together.  I didn't take any photos. 

Cream puffs - I used the video tutorial from In the Kitchen with Matt. 

Choux pastry is magic!

It goes from this blob of paste

to this, in such a quick amount of time. 

Book I'm listening to

I'm currently listening to "Feed" by Mira Grant

I've enjoyed the story, so far. The book was written at least 10 years ago.  I've gotten a lot of amusement from what's being told.  Some things never change and the bloggers of the world are the heroes.  There's more to it than that, but I don't think I could adequately explain it all.  Sort of predictable in terms of who the villain is. 

There was one kill-off that tee-ed me off.  And if you know me really well, you will know when it happens.  I think I sat with a scowl on my face for at least 15 minutes. 

I also rambled on about a few other of Mira Grant's books. 

Gardening

Update on the indoor seedlings.

I'm still watching gardeners on YouTube. Where were all these folks when I was just starting out? They are wonderful. 

Homesteading

I tell a quick story about Shadow, Feffer and Thor. 

Even bigger news: Chick incubation will commence. I can't wait for baby chicks! Estimated hatch date is  March 13.