Experiencing setbacks and setting this week's goals

 Sunday afternoon I started working on the second sleeve of my Harvest cardigan. 

I knit and knit, and knit and knit. I may have knit almost all the way to bedtime, with a small break for playing Animal Crossing with some of my friends. 

So ... no finishing my cardigan by the end of the weekend.  That's okay.  No biggie, right. 

Yesterday, after dinner, I settled in my chair and knit some more ... I was tempted to push through and knit the last five inches so all I would have to do today was binding off and attaching the button. 

This morning I finished the last decrease repeat and measured the arm.  It was at the correct length so I just needed to switch needle size and knit the cuff. 

I opened my needle case and the slot for the needles I needed was empty. 

I knit almost the entire sleeve with the wrong size needles.  

That has been my crafting life since the new year started.  I don't even get it.  When I'm crafting I don't  feel stressed, or really any pressure to get the project done. Why do I keep having these issues? 

So at 6 a.m. I ripped back 16 inches worth of sleeve. I did compare the two sleeves and there was an obvious difference in gauge.  I know I would have never been happy with it as it was. 

Tonite, after dinner, I picked up the stitches and knit a few rounds.  I decided to call it for the night. Give myself a break from it. 

 Sooooo .... my goals for this week is to reknit the second sleeve and finish spinning the fiber that I didn't finish spinning in January. 

I'm going to take a bit of a break from most everything tonite, though.  

Tonite, I'm going to toss on "Community" and sew together the leftoever squares from my daydream wall quilt.  

I'm short two white squares.  I have no idea how I wound up with extra half-square triangles.  They will be ripped apart and pieced together to make full white blocks.  I'm thinking mug rug? Small pillow? Still deciding.

In other news for the day I had to make a run to town and the office.  I made the rounds to the stores and found the yarn I wanted for making the emotional support chicken. 

These two colors are probably the closest I will find for Furby's colors. I can start knitting the emotional support chicken at any time. 

I also picked up a string of fairy lights for the she shed. 

They need to be adjusted still. I'm sort of wishing I had picked up a longer string.  Oh well.  It is a nice pop of color and sparkle. 

One of the ladies at my work building called me about noon today.  There was some excitement after I had left. 

One of the guys had just returned from the post office.  He came through the front door and a moment later there was a terrific crash of glass breaking.  Some lady was going through the area and smashing windows of businesses and houses.  She's been arrested.  That is all I know. 

Someone from my work building posted a photo online. I was able to see the damage. 

It's not the first time there has been "excitement in my work building neighborhood.  I'm sure it won't be the last. 

Quiet first day of the new year

 I went to bed about 10:40 last night.  Not even late enough to watch the ball drop in Times Square.  I thought about staying up until at least 11 p.m. Then decided that it would probably wreck me for today if I stayed up late. 

So I went to bed and woke up today about my usual time. 

Quiet day.  Didn't have the television on for most of the day. I knit a bit, off and on throughout the day. 

I learned something interesting about my knitting.  While working on my Harvest Cardigan I decided to time how long it took me to knit a row, and then purl a row. 

My knit row was 9:02.16. 

Wanna guess how long it took me to knit my purl row? 09:03.00

Yup. I was just as surprised as you. 

I played my newest "obsession." Though I don't know if I can call Animal Crossing an obsession. A few of my friends started playing and we are having fun telling each other how far along we are and such. 

I also did some puttering around the house, catching up on housework and putting away almost all the Christmas stuff away.  I let my Mother-in-Law's angels up.  I'm not ready to put them away just yet. 

My hubby and I spent a bit of time out in the back twenty. The weather was decent today.  Not warm, but not cold.  Like, it was cold enough outside that you could do physical work and not be uncomfortable.

It was decided to run the tractor and see how things were working.  Just making sure the implements were ready to go when/if we get enough snow that will need to be pushed around by big machinery. 

Everything works as it should and the tractor seemed ready to tackle some "serious" work. 

We ate chicken wings for a late lunch. What a treat!

The afternoon was spent chilling, basically.  Watching tv, puttering on the Internet. 

We need more days like this.  Especially now that I can officially start thinking/planning/doing seed starting stuff. I'll be setting my indoor greenhouse up for seed starting. 

I think I'll be going back to a non-every day writing schedule.  Several days a week.  I'll aim for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and maybe a day on Sunday.  As the spirit moves me. 

Northwoods weather

 Yesterday I woke up to a combo of ice and snow that was sticking to everything. 

When I went out to the back 20 it was so pretty. This blog post is going to be photo-heavy. 

I took a short video while I was out there.  The squirrels were running around and making all kinds of noises.  I'm not sure if I was able to record the noises. 

I saw this fella outside one of my windows, enjoying a snack. I thought it would make a neat photo. 

And then, in the early afternoon, the sun came out and the snow and ice mixture started melting. 

When you looked in the other direction, the sky looked completely different. 

Something neat happened when the sun hit the trees in the front yard. The sun started melting all the snow and ice in the trees and turned the frost on the tree trunks to steam.

This morning we woke up to more frost. 

Brrr!

You ever see something and think "Wow, that's so pretty!" and try to take a photo of it? 

That happened to me this morning. 

Sun shining bright behind the trees, and there was a mist in the air. 

The sun wouldn't let the camera on my phone focus. 

I ended up having to move until the sun was behind the trees. 

Frost on the leaves. 

Speaking of leaves, I gave Feffer some fresh oak leaves this morning and he was happy as can be. 

Last night I spent some time in the craft room drawing lines on pieces of fabric. Then I placed them together and stuck them with pins. 

A project I'm hoping to have done by the end of January.  Would be great if it was completed sooner. 

Today was a pretty quiet day, and it went quickly. My hubby was able to leave work early and we went out hunting this afternoon.  All I saw was a squirrel. 

This evening I knit a bit on my Harvest Cardigan. 

I'm also pondering a goal list for 2024.  Last year I tried a list and failed miserably.  I think I may have been dreaming too big.   Minimal is attainable. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear readers! 

We stuck close to home the last couple of days. 

Christmas Eve I spent the morning doing a bit of food prep. The only two things I took pictures of were the two cheeseballs I made. 

This one I started off with a recipe from Almanac. I was a bit disappointed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it tasted just fine.  However, one of the groups at our local Cathedral church makes cheeseballs every year for a fundraiser and they are SO good. I know some of the ingredients that are used for the cheeseball.  I'm going to try and make one.  Wish me luck. 

The other cheeseball I made was a dessert cheeseball, that I made with my own inspiration, no recipe. 

This one was a HUGE hit with my husband.  I tried to replicate the flavor of the cranberry-covered goat cheese logs from Aldi.   I done did good. 

For the main meal we had a gorgeous prime rib roast. 

We went hunting in the afternoon. The neighbors started shooting firearms again.  Incredibly frustrating. This time around the shooting sounded further away. 

Oh! Sunday I did watch some Christmas movies. My friend Becky was talking about Christmas movies on a recent blog post and I got to thinking that I should probably watch a few. 

While I was doing food prep I watched Christmas at PeeWee's Play house. 

Then later on I watched A Muppet Family Christmas. 

What a throwback watching this movie was.  It included the commercials from the year 1987. 

Today was a quiet day.  Woke up to more rain.  Did I mention the rain we had yesterday?  Yup.  Rain. 

Then more rain today. 

Today our big meal was beef tenderloin steaks.  Yum! And then the boys had crab legs (surf and turf) 

This is one of the crab leg clusters. 

What did we have on the television while we were prepping this meal and eating? 

Why MXC of course.  Nothing screams Christmas quite like this show. 

I watched a bit of A Christmas Story while knitting a few rows on my Harvest Cardigan before we ate.

If you couldn't tell, I completely forgot about a Christmas Day cast on. As much as I try to remember these sorts of things, I more often than not forget about them.  So, for now until maybe New Year's Eve, I'll just keep working on my cardigan and other current WIPs I have. 

Or, maybe I'm in the minority of my knitting/stitching/crafting circle. Does anyone do Christmas or New Year's Eve cast ons? 

A little bit later I was watching the Muppets Christmas Carol.  My first time seeing it.  They have a different spin on the story.  I haven't finished the movie yet. Don't tell me how it ends. *wink* 

I told my husband the rats in this movie reminds me of the creatures that hang on Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars movies. He agreed.  Even the noises the rats make are similar to what the other creatures make. 

This afternoon we went out hunting again. No random shooting from the neighbors this time. 

ANNNNNDD I had a bit of action. 

A small doe showed up.  She was super skittish and left within a few seconds after this girl showed up. Then this gal left after a moment. 

It was the first deer I've seen in almost two months. 

So that was exciting. 

Then close to shooting hours ending I got a text from my hubby, saying he was packing up.  I wrote back, saying "okay" and started packing up myself. 

Then I looked out the window and went "Sh*t!" and quickly sent a text saying "Deer!" 

I quick looked through my scope and through my binoculars.  Another doe. Possibly one of the "babies" we said we were going to pass on.  I confirmed it was not a buck. Also, you see that ribbon?  I have that. ribbon to help me know if the deer is big enough to harvest. 

I got to sit for a few moments and watch her guard the pile from another deer.  Then she ate for a few moments and then disappeared.  A moment or two later my husband was there, waiting for me to leave the blind so we could go back to the house.  

This evening we opened gifts and my husband was happily surprised by the gift from our son, and my son was really surprised by the gifts we gave him. I already received my gifts from my husband (the yarn) and my son ordered my gift but it won't be here for a few weeks. My guess is that it's something garden-related. 

Speaking of gardening ... now I can officially start thinking about all things gardening-related, if I haven't mentioned it already. Yay! I need to pull out my binder that I started this year, and I'm taking notes from some of the things shared from Kristin at Shifting Roots. 

You don't have to be a fast knitter ...

 You just need to be dedicated and knit a LOT. 

Last night I had two inches of the mitten cuff.  

This morning I got up, wiped the bleariness from my eyes and had a cup of coffee.  

Then I started knitting.  

Don't remember how long I knit.  The day had to be started. And I was hungry. 

Then we ran to town. 

I didn't have to drive, so I brought the mitten. 

I knit on the way to town, and on the way home. 

When I got home, I did house-y things, like cleaning up the kitchen and ... I don't remember what else. 

Then I took a nap. 

Then I got up and got ready for hunting. 

Another time of it being so quiet out there that my ears were ringing. 

The temperature this afternoon ... unreal. I saw bugs flying around.  BUGS! on Dec. 23. 

I had immediate regrets that I didn't bring the mitten with me.  I could have knit and not have worried about my hands getting cold. 

And ... unfortunately my hunting time was cut short. 

Someone decided to empty a magazine of something that was not .22 ammo a little too close for comfort.  

I was reading a book on my kindle app when I heard "bang, bang, bang, bang ... etc.," and it felt stupidly close to where I was sitting.  My hubby said it sounded like it was right by him. 

So ... if anything might have been coming our way, it obviously took off and left the area. 

We came back to the house and had supper. 

Then ... I started knitting.  I knit and I knit. And I knit. 

And now I am done!

Just in time. 

Adventures and reclaiming yarn

 We got our smattering of snow overnight. 

Total was maybe an inch. 

It made a nice back drop for the Christmas tree. 

This morning, before work, I was scrolling a bit on Facebook and saw something that got the wheels churning and I did an online search for convertible mittens. 

I found a video that is a modification to the Tin Can Knits mitten I just made.  Hooray! 

Then I had an even better idea! 

Several years ago I knit some Mosey leg warmers. I hated them from the moment I finished them. So they've been put away until now. 

I decided to unravel the yarn. Reclaim it, and knit it into some convertible mittens. 

Great idea, right? Sounds easy, right? 

*sigh*

I learned that I'm *way* too good at weaving in my ends. 

This is what I thought was the end, after about five minutes of searching.

It was not. 

I gave up and snipped the yarn. That didn't work so well. 

I wound up with a hole. 

I kept undoing the yarn and pulling it out of loop after loop. 

Eventually I wound up with this thing. 

Honestly, no idea what was going on with it, so I cut it off. Then kept undoing the yarn.  Loop by loop. Twist by twist. 

Eventually I got it to where I could just unravel the yarn. 

One leg warmer is all skeined up.  I just now realized I forgot to take a photo. 

Here's my little pile of short yarns. 

I'm working on the second legwarmer.  I found the end on this one and I'm slowly, agonizingly, undoing it, in the hopes I don't have the mess I did with the first one. 

This evening my hubby and I went out on a little adventure. 

Tromping out in the wilderness and being amazed at how beautiful the night time sky was.  We were hoping to see northern lights in all their glory.  There was clouds. So many stupid clouds. 

Photos were still cool. 

It was a lot of fun. 

After supper and clean up I sat down and started working on the next ornament. 

Bet you can't guess what it is!