End of the week catch up and a finished project!

 I took Thursday and Friday off of work.  I felt the need for a break and to clear some things off the plate.  I knew I was getting into a mood. There hasn't been a lot of downtime lately. 

Yesterday I took care of  several things that I've been meaning to do for a while. 

One was ironing the last of the fat quarters for the Dancing Stars quilt. Now I can start cutting it up for the squares.  

Another, less sexy, project that I've been holding off on was to make a cover for our new smoker. 

I'll be the first to say it is not my best work.  I didn't have a pattern, or anything to work off of.  I stuck that welding blanket on the smoker and drew lines and sewed. 

I thought I was super clever with what I was doing, until I got to a part where I realized I wasn't nearly as clever as I thought. *sigh* and I had to cut the fabric. ... 

The cover is almost all done.  A hold for the vents in the back needs to be cut out.  I have the fabric all stitched and ready for the hole to be cut. 

This week I received some fun mail. Someone sent me a goody box full of sock yarn. All Forbidden Fiber Co yarn. 

It's all so PRETTY! 

I have books full of sock patterns that have barely been made. 

I chose this skein of yarn for my journey back into patterned sock-making. 

  The colorway is "Tale as old as time," on the Fortitude base.

I decided to go with the Monkey sock pattern, by Cookie A.   It's a simple lacework pattern and I probably need something easy to start out with. 

Then I yarn-caked that skein of squishy goodness, and admired it. 

Maybe my favorite moment of the last couple days is when I sewed on the last button of my crochet cardigan!

I admired my handiwork and then tried it on.

It fits a bit close, but I'm optimistic it will stretch out a bit.

The important thing is that I would wear this outside the house, in public. To me, that is what's most important. If I didn't like how it turned out, it would be a only-in-the-house-cardigan.

Today I gave it a nice soak and it's still drying in front of the wood stove.

Project Name: My first crochet cardigan

Started: Sept. 30, 2023

Finished: Nov. 9, 2023

Designer/Source: Craftsy or Lionbrand. 

Yarn: Lion Brand wool ease

Colors: Grey heather

Hook Size: H 5.0 mm

Made For: myself. 

I am no longer afraid to make a crochet sweater or cardigan.  I've worried because my crochet tension is not always consistent. I'm definitely feeling more confident with my crochet. 

I'm still here, I swear!

 Hello!  I'm still here and kicking! 

The latter part of January I was trying to use up vacation time, and a lack of structure got me all out of sorts and discombobulated. 

In addition to that, the weather has been a bit manic. We've had some cold days. More recently the weather has been really nice and sunny.  The other day had a high in the 40s.  One of the local weather people said it's almost unheard of to have weather this warm in February. 

When I was driving that day I came upon a large puddle on one of the county roads. I was so surprised to see it that I had to take a photo. 

I even dragged Miss Furby June outside to enjoy the sun.  She wasn't too happy. 

She's been quieter lately.  I can't tell if she's pouting because I haven't had Kimberly on Youtube as much, or if she's settling into maturity.  She'll be three in a few months.  I don't recall her hatch month.  A regular chicken this would be considered middle age, I suppose.  She's been spoiled and pampered since the predator attack, so who knows how long she'll go.  I recently saw on Instagram about a rooster who was 13 years old.  I know chickens can live up to 18 years of age. This is quite impressive to me. 

There have also been a few milestones in the household.  This week I celebrated 20 years at my work place. My coworkers surprised me with a beautiful bouquet.

 I was wondering why the UPS man was at my door. What a happy surprise. 

The other big milestone was my son's birthday. He made it!  More importantly, *I* made it.  Now we are on the homestretch to gradution. Yes, I'm already be looking forward to May. 

I'm looking forward to May for more than one reason, however.  

This warmish weather has kicked my spring fever in to gear and I've been daydreaming about beautiful spring days, warm summer mornings and seed starting! 

There has been a lot of seed starting and homesteading-type videos back on the youtube.  Furby doesn't know what what to make of it.  Which is why I think she's partly pouting lately, instead of squawking her fool head off. 

I've been working a bit on all my works-in-progress and I've been setting up for a few quilting projects. I haven't got far on those.  I ran out of starch.  I have learned I like a little stiffness to the fabric. 

This morning I bit the bullet and ordered a quarter-inch foot off of Amazon. I hope it fits my Memorycraft 6650.  If not, I'll just return it.

This is the jist of what's been going on in my neck of the woods. 

WIP Wednesday

 I realize it's been about a month since I shared my WIPs. To see my last update, please see it here. 

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn:Knit Picks Felici

Colorway: Captain Nemo

Colors: blues

Required Amount: 

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

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: 18510

I've been working on this while we are in the car and a little bit when I'm watching tv.  I got to a point where I knew I was super close to finishing the first sock, so I concentrated on it and finished it up on this past Saturday.  I brought this with me for the few appointments I've had recently Naturally, I didn't have "extra" time to fill. 

The cuff ribbing is all done and now I can cruise along the leg for a while. 

Project Name: Stars and Stripes

Started: July 16, 2022

Finished: Oh ... I finished it a bit ago.  Sometime in August. 

Designer/Source: Eszter Marjanovic of SubRosa Design Pattern out of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher

Fabric: 14 Count Aida by Zweigart, in "toast."
Pattern originally called for 36 count linen, in a light mocha color

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 74 x 122

Size: Too lazy to do the math right now

Needle Size: size 26

I finished the main motif of the chart and realized my aida cloth wasn't large enough to put the border on. Bummer.  If I had turned the aida cloth and worked it the other way, I'm sure there would have been enough room. I'm deciding if I want to put a simple border on it, or not.  Also, how to FFO it?  I was thinking about making it into a little pillow finish. Or, maybe finish it with a hoop? 

Project Name: Edna goes to brunch

Started: early July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Lindy Stitches

Fabric: 32 count Mint Splash Lugana by Zweigart

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 133 x 96s

Size: 8.3" x 6"

Needle Size: size 28

I am making slow progress on this little cutie. It's the evenweave.  I'm getting used to it, bit by bit, but I still can't go *zoooooooom* on it.  I'm gonna love it when it's done, though. 

Project Name: My First Raglan

Started: Sept. 18, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Lionbrand

Yarn:Hobby Lobby's "I love this yarn!"

Colorway: Shocking violet

Colors: mostly violets

Required Amount: I bought 6 skeins, to be safe

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 6 (4.0 mm) and U.S. 8 (5.0 mm)

Gauge: I got 17 stitches over 4 inches; and 23 rows over 4 inches.  Just a little under the recommended gauge.

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: 202227

I have a new knitting WIP. I started it this past weekend.  The weather is changing and I felt the urge to cast on a sweater. I was scrolling through the Craftsy sweater classes and saw one that I thought would be good for me to practice my sweater-making skills on.  It is a Lion Brand pattern, called My First Raglan Pullover. 

So far I have 11 inches knit up on the back piece. Yes, I'm knitting it flat and will be seaming together. Since I have access to the Craftsy class I'm hoping it will help me through any issues that may arise.

I have to knit until it's 15 inches long and then start decreasing for the shoulders. I've been knitting on this in the mornings, before work, and for a little bit in the evenings, once I'm settled in.  It seems to be going quick.  I anticipate that feeling will last until I have to make the sleeves. I'm crossing my fingers that this time around, the sweater won't stretch out like the grey cardigan did.  People make clothing items out of acrylic yarn all the time, and store bought sweaters are made from acrylic yarns.  What did I do wrong?  Should I be hand washing these pieces like my wool pieces? 

 

The importance of guage

I decided to participate in a KAL for the February Lady Sweater by flitknits.com. I have a bunch of acryllic yarn that I decided to use for it.

Not too long ago I was listening to the manicpurl.com podcast and Chrissy was talking about qauge. She had decided to do a gauge swatch for a sweater and take all her measurements, etc. and she was surprised at good the sweater turns out when you take the time to do a gauge swatch, prep it properly, and take down all your measurements. With this still fresh in my mind I started swatching Saturday.

I swatched on size US 8 (Got 14 stitches for 4 inches), then size US 6 (Got 14.5 stitches for 4 inches) and finally US4 (Got 16 inches for 4 inches). Some told me that I was a loose knitter.

I watched my guage swatch go from loose and drapey, to smaller, dense and kind of stiff.

I asked for input and came to the conclusion that this yarn was not for the "The Lady" I figured that there was just no way that I could be that loose of a knitter. The knitting sure didn't feel loose on Size US 4 and US 5.

On a "Oh for the heck of it" moment I dug a small ball of Cascade 220 that I have and started a small swatch. I got a couple inches into it on US 8 and measured. Guess what? I got 17 inches to 4 inches. So I'm only guessing that if I dropped to a US 7 I would get guage.



So I pondered this for a few moments and got up to go get the original yarn. I compared the yarns side by side. The yarn I origianally swatched with is MUCH thicker than the Cascade 220.

No wonder I wasn't getting gauge. Now I have to decide if I want to continue with the yarn and just try my hand at a smaller size or buy new yarn.

This weekend taught me that not all yarn weights are the same even when they both say that they are the same weight.