Year SEVEN: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #29

Happy Sunday! Happy summer. And so on it goes......let's get going :)


FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Adare: started 30 December 2017; finished 5 January 2018
2. Luck o' the Irish Cowl: started 31 December 2017; finished 14 January 2018
3. Rasta Scarf: started 19 January 2018; finished 10 February 2018
4. Rastarmulke (v2): started 10 February 2018; finished 10 February 2018
5. Gamer Bag: started 28 September 2017; frogged 16 February 2018
6. Oh, She Is a Bad Nut: started 11 August 2016; frogged 16 February 2018
7. Garter Stitch Baby Blanket: started 6 July 2017; finished 3 April 2018
8. Pattern submission: started 19 March 2018; finished 3 April 2018
9. Tiny Narwhal: started 5 April 2018; finished 6 April 2018
10. Tiny Narwhal: started 5 April 2018; finished 6 April 2018
11. Hat for Little Man: started 19 April 2018; finished 27 May 2018
12. River's Edge Fiber Arts Falkland Merino (wheel): started 19 May 2018; finished 2 June 2018
13. Smooth Operator Socks: started 13 October 2016; finished 12 June 2018
14. MaryAnn Wool (wheel): started 9 July 2018; finished 12 July 2018
15. Malabrigo Nube (wheel): started 12 July 2018; finished 20 July 2018

I finished up spinning the Malabrigo Nube merino fiber that I dyed. I split it by weight and spun it onto two separate bobbins. The first bobbin was 60g and the second bobbin was 55g. I plied them together and, as usual, wound up with a bit left on one of the bobbins. I'm not even sure if it was the first or second one at this point. Mathematically, it should be the first bobbin because I had an extra 5g of fiber but it all depends on how it was spun. I feel like I spun that bobbin a little thicker but I could be wrong, Either way, I wound up with more on one bobbin than the other, necessitating Andean plying. In the end, I wound up with ~ 266 yds total, ~ 248 yds the first round, and the remaining ~ 18 yds from the Andean ply.

Now, to be fair, this is right off the Niddy-Noddy and it hasn't been washed yet. I might get around to that today but when I took the photo, it was not that day :) It needs a good soak. It's not overspun, which is helpful.



WIPs (Works-in-Progress) These are carried over from the last Year of Projects....or longer.
1. Wink: started 5 January 2015
2. Stomping Grounds Collection: started 26 February 2017
3. Hat Design: started 20 March 2017
4. Unnamed Hat Design: started 14 August 2017
5. Shetland Neck Wool (support spindle): started 8 September 2017
6. Paradiddle Prototype: started 19 October 2017
7. Returning: started 14 January 2018
8. Frankensocks: started 1 March 2018
9. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini Spinner): started 13 April 2018
10. Granny Square Blanket (1): started 28 April 2018
11. Clapotis: started 29 June 2018
12. Safari Duo - Ella the Elephant: started 11 July 2018
13. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018

Part of me feels like I didn't get a lot of crafting time this week but, really, that's just a lie. I know I did things...now, some of it was prep work type stuff but it's still related.

For instance, I started trying to translate my chart for the University of Wisconsin Ski Hat into something that doesn't require squinting. Basically, I'm writing the chart out into something I can read and understand (I can read charts but this one is tiny). Unfortunately, I have a couple of problems. First, I've never done true colorwork of any kind. Second, there are some really long floats in this pattern (like 15-25 sts), which means not only do I need to learn to do colorwork, I also need to learn how to catch ridiculously long floats. I don't know that it's necessarily going to be difficult to learn but I'm going to have to sit down and figure it out. I have a feeling that I have a couple of books that can teach me (Principles of Knitting or 150 Scandinavian Motifs or a couple others I have rolling around on my shelves)...and, barring that, there's YouTube, which I'm sure can teach me. We'll see how it goes.

Outside of that, I didn't do a ton of knitting. I worked on my Paradiddle Prototype sock and my FrankenSock. I don't go very far with my FrankenSocks (like to knit night or something like that) because I have to weigh the skeins every time I go to use them again. I'm trying to finish them before Stash Dash is finished in August (and I'll probably succeed) but I have no idea how much yarn I used on the first sock (which will count by itself for Stash Dash, in case I don't finish the pair), hence weighing things. It will also help when I want to figure out how much yarn a partial has left in the ball.

I think I looked at a couple of the other projects but that was about it.



OMGLSGWTFBBQ Lists:

Children's Items
1. Undetermined hat for Stormageddon
2. Mittens for Stormageddon
3. Oliver for Stormageddon (worsted weight - Stunning String Studio from Stitches West 2018)
4. Lancelot for Little Man (worsted weight - green Plymouth Encore)
5. Dandy Sir Cephalopod (worsted weight - Red Creek blue, maybe)

Items for ME (selfish knitting FTW!)
1. Brickless (worsted - Miss Babs Yowza in "Celebration") *
2. Honey Badger (fingering - BMFA STR L - one of the ones from Carrie)
3. Park Slope (fingering - Mountain Fibers Crazyfoot)
4. Maya's Shawl (bulky - Plucky Silk Merino Aran)
5. Companion Mitts (fingering - BMFA STR orange from Carrie) *
6. Forest Cardi (worsted - Baah Shasta in "London Blue" and....something....)
7. Flax (worsted - Cascade 220 in "Royal Blue" or Misti Alpaca Harry Potter color)
8. Jag in Garter Stitch (fingering - KP Palette grey and Artfibers Carezza)
9. Reichenbach (fingering - AVFKW Slick or BMFA STR-M in "Vintage")
10. Sockhead (fingering - Madelinetosh Merino Light)
11. Moab (fingering - Wollmeise in "Lavender")
12. Pumpkin Pie (DK - Kangaroo Dyer orange)
13. Age of Brass & Steam (DK - Berroco Comfort DK)
14. Anne's Sweater (sport - Artfibers something)
15. Moyen Age (fingering - Vice special order either grey or green)

Random Things
1. Pop Blanket (worsted - may need to order some yarn for this)
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking kit
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie kit
4. Xandu Snowflake Cowl (fingering - two contrasting colors)

Designs
1. Susan's Hat *started* - need new prototype & write pattern
2. Little Man's Baby Blanket *started* - write pattern
3. Paradiddle Socks  *started* - 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 - Old Navy hooded sweater with cable) - 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)
11. Stomping Grounds collection *started* - need everything: charts, prototypes, swatches, etc.

Spinning
1. AVFKW Merino Silk
2.  Abstract Fiber Merino Tencel
3. Allons-Y Fiber Arts 18.5 Micron Merino
4. Allons-Y Fiber Arts Merino, Trilobal Nylon, Silk
5. Alpaca (from Lambtown 2014)
6. Ambrosia & Bliss Rambouillet Top
7. Anne's Fiber Expressions
8. Ashland Bay Fiber Merino Top
9. BMFA Handpainted Roving
10. Bramble Wool Farm Shetland Wool

Dyeing
1. Gaia (worsted)
2. Euro Sock 6-ply or BFL Sock (I can't remember which one I have)
3. Whatever else I find in the bag...I have a bag...or maybe a couple of bags....sock blanks, some more BFL sock....

Other Fibery Endeavors
1. Stitch markers
2. Vintage patterns into Rav database
3. Inventory of books & loose patterns (update)
4. Inventory of PDF patterns (update)
5. Update yarn inventory (make sure it's up-to-date)/destash
6. Inventory project bags (Erin Lane, I'm looking at you)



We spent most of this week being pretty quiet. We stayed home, except for a playdate on Wednesday afternoon and our usual trips to the gym and Costco (but those aren't exciting).

Wednesday's playdate involved a friend of Little Man's who was here visiting his grandparents. Little Man was in preschool and kindergarten with him and then the family moved to Colorado (mom, dad, 12 year old, 9 year old, and 7 year old). They come back and visit because mom's parents still live here and dad still works "here." He can telecommute for most things but he is here about every 5-6 weeks for at least a few days at a time. So, they were all here this past week and we set up a playdate with Little Man and a couple of his friends at one of the parks. They had a blast and I took no photos.

We did have a funny incident with Stormageddon at the playdate. He's potty training and is about 95% ready but he doesn't know how to wipe his own butt (not surprising) and he's not good at saying, "hey, I need to go," and instead, he'll just go on his own (which isn't a problem unless we're at the gym because they keep the door locked). So, we were at the park and I was probably 50 yds away, sitting under a tree with mom friends. We saw him go into the bathroom. I knew his diaper was full so I expected that he'd pull it off, go potty, pull his pants up, and come out. Instead, he came out with his pants around his ankles, running over toward us. I got up and walked to him, watching him pull up his shorts, and he kept saying, "Mommy, squeeze America," which is what he says for "I squeezed one out for America," which translates to, "I pooped on the potty." I asked where his diaper was and he said it was in the bathroom. I asked if he wiped his butt and he showed me toilet paper in the potty but he didn't actually wipe. So, we wiped, pulled up his shorts, threw out the diaper properly, washed hands, and he was good. I've hardly had him in a diaper since. He's been wearing underwear except when we go to the gym but that's their protocol because they're not allowed to wipe butts and all that so if the kiddo has to go, they need mom/dad to come to help with that part. He's gone out in public in his underwear and has yet to have an accident. But him running out to us with his shorts around his ankles....that was pretty funny.

On Thursday, one of Husband's coworkers from their office in India was here, so the five of us went out to dinner at Dave & Busters, which is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. I mean, obviously, kids go also but it's not necessarily geared toward kids.

Stormageddon had far too much fun and I had to literally heft him over my shoulder to get him to leave. I felt awful but it was already 9pm and I knew he was tired and cranky. But, they did have tons of fun.

The only other entertaining thing that happened this week was Stormageddon put a bucket on his head. A lot. I don't think he ran into any walls or anything but he was being a goofball.



I hope you've had a lovely week and weekend :)