Year SEVEN: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #38

Hello and happy Sunday! I'm a bit late today because of who I am as a person but I'm getting it done, right?


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
16. Paradiddle Prototype: started 19 October 2017; finished 31 July 2018
17. Frankensocks: started 1 March 2018; finished 2 August 2018
18: Cup Cozy: started 22 September 2018; finished 22 September 2018

I haven't made a project page for it but I made a little cup cozy yesterday during my class at Vogue Knitting Live.

It started out looking like this. We were given the yarny goodness (all Cormo Worsted from Sincere Sheep) and directions for how many to cast on and such.

It's a little wonky but this was the finished product. I still need to weave in ends and block it but it turned out pretty well and it's actually useable. I'll talk a bit more about it later.


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. Returning: started 14 January 2018
7. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini Spinner): started 13 April 2018
8. Granny Square Blanket (1): started 28 April 2018
9. Clapotis: started 29 June 2018
10. Safari Duo - Ella the Elephant: started 11 July 2018
11. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018
12. Abracadabra Socks: started 7 August 2018
13. Age of Brass & Steam Shawl: started 10 August 2018
14. Purl & Loop Weaving Project: started 28 August 2018
15. Sockhead: started 11 September 2018

I didn't do a lot of knitting this week for various reasons but I did get to a few things. I worked mostly on the Sockhead. I'm still in the midst of ribbing hell but I'm past the halfway point on the ribbing, which is lovely. It still looks like clown barf though. I'm okay with that. I had several people tell me that they love it so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I also pulled out the Age of Brass & Steam and decided that I am, in fact, going to play yarn chicken with the last ball of yarn and add the fifth eyelet section. I got a few rows into the last stockinette section with the second ball of yarn so I decided to just go for it. If I start running out, I can get more of it fairly easily as it is, for once, not a discontinued yarn.

I also worked on the Abracadabra Socks. I've finished up the cuff of the first one and started working my way into the leg pattern, which isn't really a pattern since I'm just making it up as I go along (it's just a ribbing portion). I need something fairly mindless for when I'm out and about (like swimming lessons).

I think that was about it for actual knitting this week.



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. Moab (fingering - Wollmeise in "Lavender")
11. Pumpkin Pie (DK - Kangaroo Dyer orange)
12. Anne's Sweater (sport - Artfibers something)
13. 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. Sock Blanks (10) from Vice Yarns

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)


Yesterday was Vogue Knitting Live in San Francisco. Actually, it's Friday, Saturday, and today but I only went yesterday. I drove to the City by myself, took a class, and shopped in the marketplace (as one does).

The class I took was First Fair Isle with Julia Farwell-Clay (her website is here). I've been meaning to learn how to do multi-color knitting for awhile and I get the gist of it but there are some slight nuances that I thought a class would help with, and I was right.

I understood the idea of floats in colorwork but I thought you had to twist the yarn to avoid holes, which you do have to do with intarsia...but not with colorwork. So, that was the first thing I would have screwed up. I also knew there was something about yarn dominance but I didn't understand how it worked. I could see it in photos with comparisons between the two but I couldn't seem to find anywhere that actually explained how it happened. In class, I could have sworn that she said, multiple times, that your main color (in our case, the white yarn) floated on the bottom and that the contrast color (whichever not-white color I used) floated on the top.....but I was backwards. In my case, my yarn is background (main color) dominant. I was consistent, which is also important, but it was backwards. It was a little swatch that happens to be something useful. I'm okay with it being "incorrect" because I know how to correct it and I learned something valuable (to me).

And the reason behind taking the class? Well......it's totally self-serving. In my Stomping Grounds design collection, I have a couple colorwork items and, you know, it would be helpful to know how to do it correctly. Also, my University of Wisconsin Ski Hat is colorwork.....with some really long floats (like 18-22 sts in spots). The long floats was one of the things we didn't directly cover, but Julia did ask if any of us wanted to see how it was done and she did a demo (which I took video of, just in case). I'm going to need that. And now I can probably knit colorwork properly.

Outside of class, I spent some time knitting, away from my children, which is always lovely. I also perused the marketplace and came home with some lovely items, including a Delores kit from Webs, among other things (hopefully a Stash post is forthcoming because I've acquired a few other things outside of VKL, as well....which need photographing and posting). I also ran into Jasmin & Gigi of the Knitmore Girls podcast. I commented on my hair matching Jasmin's Frozen Hearts sweater (it's pink right now) and her hair was matching my socks (it's blue right now, though in the past she has also had pink hair). We also briefly discussed dyeing yarn (I have some yellow she'd probably like, though I don't know that I can replicate it) and spinning at the winery (apparently she knew I was there but super far away.......which means she recognizes me, which kind of makes me fangirly).

There are some things I was a little disappointed with (and maybe it's because I'm used to Stitches events). They did the show guide completely via app, which doesn't bother me if the app is useable. I could not see an entire page while using the app because it had a "preview"-type scrollbar along the bottom, which didn't allow moving the page above it up or down. I could zoom in and then move the page about, but it still wouldn't go below a certain point. That was extremely frustrating. I also wished for a little more direction in the hotel. There was a map in the show guide but it only gave you the absolute minimum. It didn't say anything about how to get from the self-parking garage at the hotel to the actual tower where the event was occurring, or even how to get from the hotel lobby to the classrooms. Thankfully, there were people around to ask for directions. I was also a bit underwhelmed with the marketplace....but, again, that may be because I'm used to how Stitches events work. There were plenty of lovely vendors but I feel like there were.....well, for example, when you go to Stitches, the Webs booth is massive and at VKL, the Webs booth was not all that large. It was like they only had two sizes for booths and vendors were only allowed to occupy that space (like you could have a single or a double-size booth but you couldn't, say, get two double-size booths). I kind of expected the bigger companies to occupy more space but it didn't work that way. I suppose that was more "fair" but I felt like it held back some of the vendors with regards to what they could bring (like Knit Picks and Webs).

Regardless, I still had fun and learned new things.



Now.......in other bits of California life, not much has happened. I was involved in a hit & run. I was the one hit and the jerkwad ran. He probably didn't even realize he hit my car. Luckily, the damage is superficial and the boys and I are fine. But, seriously, this guy was in such a rush that he pushed around my car so he could turn because I was stuck at a stop sign a block away from a stop & go light and traffic was not moving. It was one of those days.

It's difficult to see anything but there is a lovely scratch and some dots. ::sigh:: Jerkwad.

I also took Stormageddon in for some "professional" photos at JC Penny this week. Little Man went when he was about 2.5 years old and we finally did it for Stormageddon. Here are some of the photos from that session.

Other than that, we had a pretty benign week. We did some work on the yard.....which by "we" I mean Husband had the idea and I did the work to carry it out because his back disagreed. We leveled the stairs for the hot tub and made a little "patio" out of some pavers. The electrical needed to be covered so we made a little thing from some rock pavers that surrounded it. Oh, and we put down some sod where we had the trench. We're going to see if it takes or not...if not, we're only out $20. And if it takes, woo-hoo we can get more. Exciting.



Anyway, I hope you've had a lovely week and weekend! I hope to have a stash post next week but we'll see how things go.