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? 

Recent finished objects ... and some blather

 While getting ready for this blog post I decided to look up the last time I posted finished objects. 

1. It's been a while

2. I was trying to track down the wrong tags.  I almost labeled this one WIPs #6 for 2023, or something like that.  

Oops. 

It's been a bit of a week.  It went fast. It dragged. I felt behind on all the things. 

And now I feel like I may be coming down with something. 

My son has been sick this week, and was complaining of a sore throat earlier this week. 

Guess who is feeling a bit of a sore throat?  Yup.  This girl here.  

Fingers crossed the vitamin C I took will knock it out before it gets a hold. 

The weather this week has been a bit odd. The other day I broke down and made a fire in the wood stove.  My husband said "Really?" when he came home and I told him what I had done.  I was cold! It was *not* warming up in the house and I had opened the windows early in the morning, thinking it was going to warm up a lot earlier than it did. My feet were like ice that day. 

Anyways, I'm sure the weird temperature fluctuations aren't helping anything. 

*clears throat* Okay.  On to the finished objects I promised. 

Vanilla socks are done! Another project that had been on the needles for what feels like forever.

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: June 1, 2023, or thereabouts

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

I think I'm going to put a bit of a pause on vanilla socks, and get back to basics.  

"What?" you are probably asking. 

The last pairs of socks I've made have not been my best work.  I seem to have lost something. 

Soooooo ... I decided to look up sock classes on craftsy.  I have a membership there and came across a class by Lucy Neatby. I'm going to do a remedial (to me) class. 

I decided to pick up some acryllic worsted weight yarn and I'm going to work through the class and use that yarn to make some bedroom socks.  

The other thing I finished is my February Month to Month.

Here it is. "Barn fresh."

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: June 14, 2023

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

I am very happy to finally have it complete. It's going to go into a finished object pile until I decide how I want to FO all of the pieces in the series. 

In other crafty news 

Last night I started back up on my snowflake cross stitch. 

Using patternkeeper to keep track is on this chart is great. I'm bouncing around the grid with the same color and it's so much easier. 

I put in just over 100 stitches.  Last night I was scrolling through the Facebook and a group or page had something about a stitch-along and the notes said if the stitcher stitched 200 stitches a day, it would be easy to keep up and finish the stitch-along on time. 

I thought "What? That's a lot of stitches," and figured the person would probably have to really dedicate their time to the project.  Then I saw how quick you can do 100 stitches.  

With that in mind, I'm thinking if I put some dedicated time to this project, I can get it down sooner than later. 

I'd also like to pick "Edna" back up and work on her, and get it finished. 

I felt like I was starting to pick up steam before I decided to put it away.  Evenweave kinda kicks my butt. 

Recently I switched up the hashtags I am following on Instagram and was reminded that Tour de Fleece is just around the corner. I've been working on the same wool for the last several tours. 

My problem with spinning is that I don't have a good dedicated spot for spinning.  The chair I usually sit in when I'm in the living room isn't very comfortable for the sitting position I need to be in when I'm using the wheel. What I have been doing is  bringing out a kitchen chair, setting it up near Furby, and leave it like that for a while. 

Furby doesn't seem to mind my hanging out by her. 

It was a dark and stormy morning ...

The sounds of baby rooster crows echoed. 

Well, that's partially true.  It was dark when I woke up this morning.  It was raining, but no storming.  Just a nice, soft steady rain.  It didn't last long. 

At least one baby rooster was crowing this morning.  Some of those young fellas started finding their voice in the last week. Have I ever mentioned how adorable they sound? 

I am also starting to feel a change in the air.  Summer is winding down.  My son goes back to school in a couple weeks. School information is arriving in the mail.  I'm still trying to figure out what his first day of school is supposed to be like.  He's going into high school and they have an orientation day. There's no mention if it is a partial or a full day. 

The garden is in the final hurrah. We are eating the last of the broccoli and lettuce.  Tomatoes are coming in. The tomato plants grew so large and the fruits are so heavy that they toppled over almost all of the tomato cages. This is a first. 

We are also enjoying the cabbage, jalapeños, cauliflower and everything else that is in the garden.  We haven't dug up any of the carrots. 

I mentioned the baby roosters already.  They are doing great. We have separated the young hens from the roos, so the girls will get used to going into the big coop every night. We discovered we have a lot more hens than previously thought.  Which is wonderful.  I was a little concerned we sold off too many hens. 

The turkey ... oh, that turkey! He's in display mode almost constantly. He thinks he's gorgeous.  He's totally correct. He is gorgeous.  

We had someone stop by last night.  The visitor said "Oh, you've gotten bigger since I last saw you." The turkey knew he was being spoken too and it was complimentary.  The turkey puffed back up and walked over to say "Hey, I know you think I'm gorgeous," and inserted himself into the middle of the group. It was very amusing. 

The big girls are getting to know the young hens and a couple of the young roos that we decided we'd like to keep.  

The bunnies are doing well, too.  We sent off the majority of baby buns off to their new homes.  We still have three in the house with us.  

This little one fell asleep flopped on his back.  He was out cold, too. My son was able to start scratching his belly before the bunny woke up, flipped over and gave us a look like "I wasn't asleep!"

Knitting has slowed down a bit.  I have one sock done. 

You'll notice it looks a bit different. I'm not referring to the line down the center.  That's where both circular needles met. My decreases showed up at the top. 

Sometimes when I follow instructions something gets lost in translation.  This is one of those times.  

However, I think the sock fits my foot better.  The sock fits perfectly, actually. 

I bought myself a sock ruler and I measured my foot length, checked it again, and kept knitting until I reached the the point where I needed to decrease for the toe. 

I kept checking the measurements and at first thought the length was too long. In the end, I fretted for nothing. 

Project: Vanilla socks
Pattern: My own
Started: July 10, 2019, or so.
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm, circular needles
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici 
Colorway: Surf's up, Mostly blues with a stripe of purple

I've got the second sock started, but I'm taking my time with it since it's *supposed* to be purse knitting. I'm eager to have it done. 

I've been doing a bit of spinning on the wheel and my spindles. The spindle spinning is going slowly, no surprise. 

I'll just keep spinning until I run out of this particular fiber. It's the same fiber that I am spinning on the wheel.  

In the meantime, I'm spinning this fiber only on the drop spindle. This is fiber I dyed up a couple weeks ago.  If I was to name it, I'd call it "Big Damn Sunset."  

I'm curious to see what kind of yardage I wind up with. 

Rediscovering spindle spinning has been fun.  I wish I had more time for it. It would help if I actually carried it around with me. I could spin a few minutes at a time. 

On the wheel I'm spinning some fiber in a woolen method. I was struggling at first. I'm gradually getting the hang of it. 

I'm hopping to get two bobbins worth of this fiber.  I haven't decided if I want to try two-plying, or chain plying. Can you chain ply woolen spun singles?

Happy Thanksgiving

Today has been a pretty great day. My MIL made an awesome Thanksgiving dinner.

We did go out and hit a few stores that were open. I was surprised at how cold it was. Later I realized the windchill was about -15. Jealous? It did snow a bit yesterday. We did shovel a little bit but the wind was just enough that it kind of blew some back.

On the knitting front I did do the finishing touches on one of the fingerless mitts I've been working on. I haven't done much else today except clean and help the little man set up the Christmas tree. He has been looking forward to doing this for the last two weeks.


Yes, I am planning on doing Black Friday shopping. I hope I'm not too loopy tomorrow.

If I have the energy I want to skein up and set the twist on the Gilly weed fiber I finished up a week or so ago.


Three bobbins of loveliness. I decided I was going to keep it as singles and make a shawl (perhaps) out of it. I'm thinking I must have at *least* 600 yards. I should be able to make something out of that, right?

I know a few people on my blogroll has posted today what they are thankful for. I am thankful for so many things and so much seems so trivial. I am thankful I have a healthy family, a roof over my head, I don't have to worry about food or clothing. I have a job when so many don't. I'm thankful that I have a partner who treats me better than I could have ever though possible. When you are a young girl/woman you dream about a man who will come and treat you like a princess. I was fortunate enough to meet someone who does just that.

I have a wonderful MIL who has been more of mother to me than my own mother has these past 13+ years.

I feel *extremely* fortunate to have found, not one but two, online support groups. One group I've know them for five years. The other group I have known for two years and is an awesome group of ladies. Well, they both are. We all can go online and blather absolute nonsense and it will be well-received and reciprocated.

Well, I could go on but I better stop. I have to start getting ready for that Black Friday shopping. :-)

Brr it's getting cold out there

Less than one week til Thanksgiving. I am very much looking forward to the holiday/family break. What I'm not looking forward to is the cold.

The cold has hit the Northland. That does not make for a happy me.

However, it does put me in the mood for making mittens, hats, scarves, etc.

But I can't make anything because I'm still working on Christmas gifts.

*insert woe face*

One of my friends pointed me towards these fingerless mitts. Susies reading mitts.

They look simple and elegant, which I think will be perfect for the person I'm making them for.

Last night I cast one on. I haven't made much progress on it. I did finish the first fingerless on the other pair I'm making. I still need to put the thumb gusset on it though.

Today I tried tidying up this shelf that yarn and fiber have slowly been accumulating on. MMmmm, it's not looking too much better. But it's a start. I have a grand plan of clearing the clutter and tidying up my itty bitty yarn stash. I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon though.

So ... yeah ... not a lot of progress this week. I've been feeling a bit run down this week. Since I'm concerned about getting sick during the holidays I've been taking it a bit easy in hopes that my body will fight off whatever has been going around work my son's school.

And on that note, I'm going to go pour myself a glass of orange juice and get ready for the night.

Busines trip

It feels weird to say this, but I had a business trip last week. It was my first trip that I had to stay overnight somewhere for my work. The weeks going up to it I was a slight mess. The night before and the morning of I was so anxious that I had could barely stand still.

First time being away from my son since he was born. I know, that probably sounds slightly pathetic but I am not a traveling gal. I like sleeping in my own bed each night and the fridge is always stocked with foods I like.

Anywho, it ended up being a good trip despite some hold ups. I came back home with a lot of notes and a lot of things to think about. I was pretty glad to have gone and even happier to be back home.

I didn't do any driving on this trip so my hands were free to do some knitting. On the way there I was working on some Dashing mitts for a Christmas gift. I like the pattern but I got confused when I got to the twisting cable bits. So I ripped it back and started over again with a different version of cabling. I messed up a cable so I ripped it all again and rolled the yarn into the ball and put it away. I ended up pulling out the Pi Shawl that was a mystery KAL with Wendyknits.net.
First I had to remember where I was since I had put it away. It's been a few months since I've touched it. I'm in the third clue and starting repeat 10. I call it four row purgatory. I have got a renewed interest in it now. The repeats take me a while though. Then I seen in the next clue the repeats need to be done nine times. Oy! Just got to take it one repeat at a time.

I'm not sure if I'm going to try the dashing mitts again though. The yarn has some silk content in it and I have only bamboo needles. Very sticky combo. Unless I try for a magic loop technique so I can use my metal Options needles I think I will search for a new pattern.


I've got the shawl on a 16-inch circular. Can't recall what size needle, but it's the recommended size from the pattern. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. The yarn is KP bare yarn that I dyed. The yarn was originally bought for a mystery KAL. The one that people threw a fit over at the end because it had a Bible verse on the last clue of the pattern. ... Uh yeah, some people just look for stuff to Bi&^h about, I think. It was a lovely verse to go along with the pattern. Granted, I didn't finish it, but it was a nice project when you seen it all put together.

Anywho, that was a slight diversion. I have seen the Pi shawl finished and it is lovely.

Progress this week

I need to think of a proper title for this weekly wrap up. Here goes. ...

I did get all that was on my needles finished. Both fetching mitts are done and they have thumb gussetts. The worst weight sock has been kitchenered. I do see a weaving in ends party in the near future. I would like to get the second worsted weight sock done before my road trip on Wednesday. I still need to decide on what to bring with me for working in the car ...

I didn't touch my spinning wheel though. There is one more full bobbin of fiber that needs to be plied. If I can, I will get that done before I head out.

I don't imagine I will be getting much done this weekend though. Got to get my ducks in a row at the house. My two guys will be left to their own defenses. I'm kind of nervous.

That reminds me, I should check online and see if there are any LYS in the town I'm going to. Gotta get a skein to remember the trip!

WIP(s) this week

This week I'm working on a pair of Fetching mitts and vanilla socks for gifts this year.

Last night I finished the first mitt and need to knit the thumb gusset. I'm using Berroco Vintage worsted weight yarn. It's a gorgeous deep blue color. And it fits my hand super nice. I swear, I have made so many pairs of Fetching and I don't have a pair for myself. I am seriously contemplating keeping these. The recipient won't know what she's missing, right?

The vanilla socks are being made in the same Berroco Vintage worsted weight yarn. I really, really like this yarn. So far I've knit the first sock all the way through the heel flap. I still have to pick up the gusset stitches. Since I do that with a crochet hook I usually wait until I'm sitting at home with no interruptions. The yarn I'm using for the socks is a really pretty teal blue with hints of green. In natural light it looks almost like jewel tones.

I've also been spinning a bit each night. It's fiber from Forbidden Woolery that I purchased back in July. Like I wrote in an earlier entry I really missed spinning. I forgot how much spinning relaxes me.

So, a little bit of progress on both fiber fronts.