Minions (who do my bidding) and Followers (who do not)

About Me

My photo
Mama, wife, knitter, blogger, spinner, wannabe something or other. That's enough, right?

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Year SIX: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #4

Happy Sunday! A month in so let's get going :)


Finished Objects (FOs):

1. Pussy Hat: started January 10, 2017; finished January 16, 2017

In true fashion, I have my first FO for the year before the end of the month :) But, also in true fashion, I've not done a proper FO Friday yet. As it went to someone else, I have no modeled shots. Sooo, when I get around to it, we'll just have to deal with flat shots. 


Works-in-Progress (WIPs):
1. Wink: started January 5, 2015
2. Oh, She IS a Bad Nut: started August 11, 2016
3. Fall in San Francisco (prototype 3): started October 4, 2016
4. Frene Creek Farm Corriedale (spinning): started October 12, 2016
5. Smooth Operator Socks: started October 13, 2016
6. Stormageddon's Vest: started October 17, 2016
7. Hermione's Everyday Socks (v2): started November 14, 2016
8. Trusty (v2): started December 22, 2016
9. Morvarch Aardvark: started January 1, 2017
10. Messed Up Moss: started January 4, 2017


I spent most of my time this week working on the aforementioned hat but a couple projects got some needed attention.


This is one of Hermione's Everyday Socks. When this photo was taken (late late late on Thursday), both socks were at this point.


And a close-up of the heel decreases (you can only see the first half but there are two lines of decreases).

I figure it will be about 4-6 more pattern repeats before I start the toes. I might have these finished sooner than I think. We'll see.

I also pulled out this:


I don't know that I've shown this one but this is the Trusty Hat. I did the green one at the end of last year using worsted weight, as called for in the pattern. This one is done with DK weight so there had to be some modifications up front, the first being needle size followed by number of stitches. I made the largest size when I did the worsted one and it fits me perfectly. Soooo, I knew the largest size using DK weight was going to require modifications in order for it to fit me. I didn't do anything too drastic.

In addition to the the knitting projects, I also took care of plying my bobbins of Corriedale from Frene Creek Farm. It's still sitting on the bobbin so I have no idea what my yardage is, though I suspect it's in the 300-400 yd range and probably a sport weight. Maybe. I really don't know; let's be honest. And no photos of that. But that part is finished.



17 UFOs in 2017

1-8: WIP list UFOs (ignoring the fact that there are more WIPs than what are listed here)
9. Design: Susan's Hat
10. Design: Little Man's Baby Blanket
11. Design: Paradiddle Socks (aka Little Drummer Girl)
12. Design: Pacific Waves Hat
13. Design: Fall in San Francisco Hat
14. Stash Inventory (photos, in Rav database) **DONE**
15. Dystopian Novel
16. Doctor Who blanket (1)
17. Doctor Who blanket (2)

So, if you haven't noticed, I have a note that says my Stash Inventory is finished. And it is. Mostly. All the bins are taken care of. I still have a couple bags that need attention but otherwise, it's finished. And I have a few things that I haven't been able to find and I've noted that on the stash pages. It took a few days but once I had my system down, it was fine. And now that I know what I have, I can better plan projects...maybe. And the first step toward better planning: how many yards do I really have? Ravelry has this handy little tool in your stash page.


It's that little square to the left of the Advanced Search bar. If you click it, Ravelry will turn your stash into a spreadsheet. It tells you everything that your stash pages tell you. The nice thing is that if you highlight all of column J (that's what it is on mine - the one for total yardage) and click the summation button, it will tell you how many yards you have entered into Ravelry. And if you're a weirdo like me, you can do some other math to figure out how many miles of yarn you have. With everything I've entered, I have 244,000+ yds of yarn stashed (which doesn't include partials and things like that)....that's around 139 miles of yarn. I think I had better get knitting......


And in my "OMGLSGWTFBBQ" lists...

Secret Sock Club Bags - Pick a bag at random; do pattern with yarn
1. Scotch & Soda Scarf (using Briar Rose Fibers Wistful, leftover from my Icarus Shawl)
2. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
3. If You Know Where To Go (using KP Felici in Green Veggies)

These are the only ones that are currently set up. I have plans to make a few more but we'll see how things go. With all the WIPs and such I have going, this may not be a good idea at this point. Or maybe I'll pull things from the lists below and put them into bags. I don't know.


Stranded Knitting
1. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat (kit)
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking (kit)
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie (kit)
4. Xanadu Snowflake Cowl
5. Unknown Christmas Stocking for Little Man (see also: Designs)
6. Unknown Christmas Stocking for Stormageddon (see also: Designs)
7. Unknown Christmas Stocking for Husband (see also: Designs)


Children's Items:
1. Stuffed toy for Miss C (SIL's foster child)
2. Stuffed toy for Mr. K (SIL's foster child)
3. Stuffed toy for Miss E (SIL's adopted daughter)
4. Stuffed toy for TAZ (brother's daughter)
5. Undetermined hat for Little Man
6. Undetermined hat for Stormageddon
7. Mittens for Little Man
8. Mittens for Stormageddon


Items for ME (selfish knitting FTW!):
1. Park Slope (fingering, specifically Mountain Colors Crazy Foot)
2. Worsted weight house socks (worsted, of course - maybe something like Lumberjack)
3. Classic Silk Mayfaire Camisole (Miss Babs Northumbria with modifications)
4. Evangeline (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. Lichen (Aran or Sport/DK; solid or semi-solid)
6. Moyen Age (fingering; one of my Vice Yarns? Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20?)
7. Ginny's Cardigan (DK; solid or semi-solid)
8. Drip Drip Drop (sock; solid or semi-solid)
9. Celtic Myths (worsted; solid)
10. Jag in Garter Stitch (DK; 2 colors)
11. Cobh (fingering; 2 colors)\
12. Offhand Lace (bulky; solid or semi-solid)
13. Whitman (DK; any color)
14. Flax (worsted; any color - Misti Alpaca Harry Potter-esque one?)


Christmas/Charity Bin:
1. 198 Yds of Heaven (worsted; solid)
2. Comfort Food (Aran; solid)
3. Tombreck (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
4. Premie Spiral Hat (DK; any color)
5. Pumpkins & a Pattern (any weight, any color - gauge doesn't matter)


Designs:
1. Susan's Hat *started* - need new prototype & write pattern
2. Little Man's Baby Blanket *started* - write pattern
3. Paradiddle Socks - need prototype & write pattern
4. Pacific Waves Hat *started* - need another prototype & write pattern
5. Fall in San Francisco *started* - need another prototype & write pattern
6. Stormageddon's Baby Blanket - need prototype & write pattern
7. Cabled pullover (grey look-alike sweater) - need sketch, grading, swatch, prototype, & write pattern
8. Christmas stocking for Little Man - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)
9. Christmas stocking for Stormageddon - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)
10. Christmas stocking for Husband - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)


Spinning:
1. Finish up the Frene Creek Farm Corriedale (see also: WIPs)
2. Miss Babs BFL
3. Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk (1)
4. Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk (2)
5. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt
6. Wash & start processing Alpaca fleece from Lambtown
7. Wash & start processing Merino fleece from Lambtown


Other:
1. Stash Inventory (see also 17 UFOs in 2017)
2. Stitch markers
3. Make sure my vintage patterns are in Ravelry (Workbasket magazines, leaflets, etc.)




This week has been.....challenging. The weather was less than cooperative, of course. Husband came down with strep. Again. So, we've had a lot of down time and the boys probably spent far too much time with technology this week. Combine my time with my stash along with this week's activities, and I've discovered that I've taken....well, I haven't taken any photos that weren't of my stash or the few above of my knitting. No photos of the boys this week at all.

Little Man  had off from school on Monday for the holiday. We spent the day around the house because there wasn't much else to do. Oh, wait, I take that back...one of my Mama friends dragged me LuLaRoe shopping. I'm a convert. I could live in those pants (and probably will since I bought four pairs). I'll take photos of the patterns one of these days. They're pretty fantastic. Tuesday meant we could get back to our normal schedule, if you can call it that. Nothing is ever normal around here.

There was some excitement on Thursday. As you know, or maybe not, Northern California has been getting quite a bit of rain lately. I was hanging out in my car between going to the post office and a doctor appointment, it was raining like it's been doing most of the week. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see this HUGE flash of light and my first thought was that a transformer had blown. And then there was this HUGE crash. Friends, it was lightening followed by thunder! My little Wisconsin heart was all aflutter! THUNDER AND LIGHTENING, PEOPLE! And then it poured for a little bit. Apparently on the other side of town they had hail. That does not happen around here. It was awesome.

What was not awesome was when the same thing happened multiple times at 4:20am. There were probably 5 or 6 different flashes of lightening that I could see, followed by thunder on two of them. The whole house shook. I will say this about thunderstorms here: they're not like they are in Wisconsin. Lightening is bright and infrequent (from what I could see) and thunder is extremely loud. In Wisconsin, you might get the rolling rumbles of thunder but these were crashes. I don't know how Stormageddon slept through it but he did. Little Man did wake up but he didn't come out of his room.

Friday, both Husband and I felt like crap, which did not make for a fun day...and the rain.

So, in short: this week happened, there aren't any photos of it, and I touched just about every skein of yarn I own, including partials.



I hope you're having a lovely, non-crappy-weather weekend. I could use some caffeine and chocolate. If you're in the area, please bring me some :)

13 comments:

  1. I love my LuLaRoe. I own 14 pair of leggins and 16 shirts, 2 maxis and a Carly. I live in the stuff. Great for me as I cintinue to drop pounds and inches off my body.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right now, I have four of the leggings, a Carly, and I think the short is an Irma....maybe. But I could live in the pants.

      Delete
  2. You are so funny! I just started putting my stash on Ravelry....just the good, new stuff....probably not the old...we'll see. Thank you for the tip about the yards/miles of yarn too. I love that yarn you using for your trusty hat. It is rain here too but warm and dry enough that I was able to wash a few windows this past week. Today is rain, rain, rain. Your Hermione's turned out great....I'm working on mine but had a question on the pattern repeat on my post. If you go over there maybe you could answer it. Stay dry! And I hope you all get better from the 'crud'!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine aren't quite finished yet. Soon. Probably by next week

      Delete
  3. We only had thunder once and damn, it was loud; it was like a sonic boom. A tree at Jellybean's school got hit and is slanted now. I like the green of your socks; I like the way it fits your foot. Holey bagels you and your crew keep getting sick. Do you take vitamin C and probiotics? I read this article in my newsfeed how this reporter tried probiotic pills for a month; he usually gets sick during the holidays and was able to avoid it last year. I may add that to my vitamin in take.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We eat yogurt, we drink water, we have an orange tree going nuts in our yard...we're covered. Husband is having his tonsils out soon enough.

      Delete
  4. I love thunderstorms! We get all kinds around here. Sometimes just the thunder-y kind with sheet lightning in the distance over the lake. And sometimes the fork lightning which usually stays north of us.

    Interesting to see the Rav Stash features at work. I guess I'm the opposite sort though, because the idea of spreadsheets seems altogether too much like work for me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the best part about the spreadsheet: once you've done it in Ravelry and click on the spreadsheet thingie, it's already all filled in.

      Delete
  5. Love those socks.
    Sorry to hear that a bit of illness has been visiting your home this week. Hope all are better soon.
    Congratulations on completeing your stash inventory, job well done. And thanks for that tip about the Rav stash calculator. It will be very useful if only I could get all my stash uploaded, lol.
    Awesome to see/hear the lightning crashes. They are quite dramatic sights and sounds here in NZ too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I needed to buckle down and do it. My stash is out of hand and I need to go pseudo-cold sheep this year. We'll see how that goes.

      Delete
  6. Thanks for explaining about the spreadsheet for stash on Ravelry! I'd seen the spreadsheet before, but had never noticed that I could see totals of things at the bottom (when a column is highlighted). I am now officially mortified at how much yarn I have. There's no way I'm going to tell you how many miles of yarn I have to crochet or knit before I'm done... ;^)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thunder storms AND touching all your stash - sounds like a good week (except for you and your husband feeling crappy.) You are so organized - I try to be, but it never gets onto paper. I have used the Ravelry spreadsheet but it was years ago - off to give it a 2017 go.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love that sock heel! I don't think I have any decent photos of me wearing my pussy hat either, but I'll have to go through them to see. Those storms sound intense!

    ReplyDelete