Year the TENTH: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - New (almost) month, new me, new no. Ha! (Update #9)

Happy Sunday! Happy almost March! Happy spring! Happy happy! Let's get going on today's update!

 

FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Greenwood Fiberworks Dark BFL (Viktor): started 28 June 2020; finished 17 January 2021
2. Boo-Yah: started 26 January 2021; finished 27 January 2021

Close, but not yet. Maybe I'll have something next week :)

 

WIPs (Works-in-Progress) *these are carried over year after year, as needed*
1. Wink: started 5 January 2015
2. Shetland Neck Wool (support spindle): started 8 September 2017
3. Returning: started 14 January 2018
4. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini): started 13 April 2018
5. Granny Square Blanket: started 28 April 2018
6. UW Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018
7. Purl & Loop Weaving Project: started 28 August 2018
8. Herbivore: started 15 November 2018
9. Linen Stitch Scarf: started 2 June 2020
10. Vanilla Socks: started 9 August 2020
11. Minecraft Socks: started 12 August 2020
12. Sand Drift Blanket: started 17 January 2021
13. Alpaca (Viktor): started 17 January 2021

This week has been a total shitshow (more on that later) so I didn't get a lot of knitting done. However, I did work on a few things. I pulled out the Minecraft Socks for Little Man. I was at the point where I needed to do the heel turn and I just wasn't in the mood until Friday so, I did that on Friday. I picked up the stitches, and continued working my way through the decreases and down the foot. I actually managed to work the heel turn and down the foot to about the halfway point of the foot (three pattern repeats - I need to do six total before I do the toe decreases). And it's not like I did it all in one sitting. I worked on them during Stormageddon's morning meetings, took some time off to work on schoolwork with him, and do some cleaning around the house, then worked on them again that afternoon and evening.

I also pulled out the Linen Stitch Scarf and worked a few rows on that. It's nothing spectacular, just working back and forth in Linen Stitch. I'm working it the "short" way, like you normally work a scarf, instead of along the longer side. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel so cumbersome? I don't know. 

The only other fiber-related thing I worked on was my yarn closet. I have maybe mentioned that in Octoberish, Husband decided we needed to store something and the logical place was the yarn closet, which was fine...but he also had this grand idea to put everything into space saver bags and get rid of virtually all my bins and put up an Ikea shelving unit. Now, my bins were not super organized by weight or fiber type or color or anything like that but I had everything (almost everything) entered into my Ravelry stash page and bins were labeled and I basically knew where everything was located. Then we did that and my closet became....well, it's still not pretty. I don't know where anything is hiding in there. But I spent some time working in there last weekend. I do still have a couple of bins, so I focused on those. One has cone yarns (almost all from Artfibers - cones do not do well in space saver bags) and the other has yarn in space saver bags (specifically most of my handspun and some more recent acquisitions). But I didn't know for sure so I hauled the bins out, made sure everything from those bins was entered into Ravelry with the proper location, and then went in and resorted by location and removed anything that wasn't in those bins. I know it sounds confusing but it's not as bad as it sounds. I didn't get to any of the bags on the shelves but I do intend to do those, too. Ultimately, all the bags are going to get labeled and all the shelves are going to get labeled so my entries will say something like "2B" for 2nd shelf, bag B so I can find things again. I also need to make another map of the closet so I know where things are located. It's going to be a rather large project, unfortunately. I can do it in spurts, though, which is good. I can start with the second shelf and do those bags, then do the next shelf another day, and so on, until it's done. The only thing is that I have to haul out my one tower of bins before I can get to the shelves (those bins are two destash bins of yarn and bags, a bin of accoutrements, and the one with the cone yarns). It's fine. I'll get there. In the meantime, I can just.....meh, it's fine, I'll figure things out. 

Anyway, moving along......

 

OMGLSGWTFBBQ

Design WIPs:
1. Messed Up Moss: started March 2009 - write pattern as PDF (iterations: first, second)
2. Susan's Hat: started 31 August 2010 - need new prototypes & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third, mini, fifth, sixth)
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket: started July 2010 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
4. Chunky Scarf: started 6 October 2012 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
5. Pacific Waves Hat: started 9 March 2016 - need new prototype & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third)
6. Fall in San Francisco: started 18 September 2016 - need new prototype & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
7. Stomping Grounds Collection: started 26 February 2017 - need prototypes & write patterns
8. Unnamed Hat Design: started 14 August 2017 - need various weight yarn prototypes & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
9. Paradiddle Socks: started 19 October 2017 - write pattern (iteration: here)

 

Design Ideas:
1. Christmas Stocking for Husband
2. Christmas Stocking for Little Man
3. Christmas Stocking for Stormageddon
4. Baby Blanket
5. Stomping Grounds Collection

 

Items for ME (Selfish Knitting FTW!):
1. Rose's Wrist Warmers (DK weight - using Aran instead; hand-dyed Malabrigo Twist?)
2. Perianth (fingering weight - Knitcircus Trampoline in The Whole Enchilada)
3. Stranger Things Hat (worsted - Malabrigo Rios in Archangel)
4. Autopilot (worsted weight - Sincere Sheep Cormo Worsted or htNEVELE Worsted in Reveire)
5. Fine Tune (fingering weight - uses minis so maybe a rainbow type one with the Canon Hand Dyes?)*
6. Flax (worsted weight - Misty Alpaca in the Harry Potter colors)
7. Park Slope (fingering weight - Mountain Fibers Crazyfoot in Shamrock)
8. Undone (bulky - maybe the reclaimed yarn from the Freeport Vest?)
9. Socks (fingering weight - Bob knows I have enough so I should use it - maybe with the CSM)
10. Sockhead (fingering weight - I have tons...pick something!)
11. Age of Brass & Steam (Handspun purple/white barber pole)
12. Radiate Shawl (fingering weight - Artfibers Carezza maybe?)
13. El Panal Cowl (Kit from Greenwood Fiberworks)

Children's Items
1. Flax for Stormageddon (Stunning String Legacy Worsted)
2. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
3. Mittens for Stormageddon (worsted weight probably)
4. Maybe a Flax for Little Man...maybe...

 

Utilitarian/Household Items
1. Garter Chevron Blanket (KP Mighty Stitch - may need to get some more black or white)
2. Diagonal Knit Dishcloths (cotton of some sort)
3. Reusable Produce Bag (cotton or acrylic of some sort - worsted)
4. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (cotton or maybe bamboo, depending on the use)

Spinning:

1. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL

2. Mixed BFL

3. Allons-Y Fiber Arts Merino, Trilobal Nylon, Silk

4. Fiberlady.com 100% Bamboo 

Dyeing:

1. Sock Blanks
2. Skeins of sock yarn
3. Random worsted/sport skeins

4. Anything else I find along the way

Other Fibery Endeavors:

1. Create project bag inventory

2. Update library inventory (on Ravelry) *in progress*

3. Update stash inventory (on Ravelry) *needs to be redone*

4. Stitch markers: kits and individual

5. Destash as necessary (it's always necessary)

6. Stash Fit

 

 

 

So. Life in California........this week was just a mess all over. Our internet service provider (ISP) was having some issues. Okay, I get it. ISPs have issues from time to time.....but when it goes out on Sunday and they say, "oh, it won't be fixed until Thursday at 8pm," that's an issue. We have two kids that have school virtually and Husband is working from home. This is not okay. This is not going to work for us. Not for four days. Thankfully it didn't last that long but still, it was too long. We actually wound up running the entire household's Wifi off Husband's work phone using tethering. This is what the setup looked like. It was not delightful.

 

 

 

In addition to that, Tuesday morning at 6:45am, Husband rolled over in bed aaaaaaannnnnnd....THUNK. We broke the bed. Again. To be fair, this is not an uncommon issue with this type of Ikea bed. We have a king size Malm bed frame. Between the footboard and headboard, there are the two sideboards and a metal bar in the middle. The metal bar has no supports of any kind. The wooden slats sit on either side, held in place by a couple of pegs. So, with no support in the middle and two not tiny people, this isn't the first time it has happened. It's a known issue that hasn't been addressed by Ikea yet. Basically, they hook into this metal thing that's attached to the frame. The hook ripped, for lack of a better term. 

 

 

 

Husband decided to attempt to solve some of the issue. He ordered three cinderblocks from Home Depot (which I picked up) and I went down to Ikea in Palo Alto for a new bar and some spare parts. The cinderblocks are evenly(ish) spaced along the bar under the bed and then Husband made some quick measurment tools to figure out how thick to make the plastic pieces we put on top to accommodate the extra space between the cinderblocks and the bar. Because of carpet and slightly varying sizes of the cinderblocks, the plastic pieces are not all the same thickness, hence the measurement. So we currently have the three cinderblocks and six of the plastic pieces under the bed. It should help. At minimum, we won't go crashing to the floor if it does break again. 

 

 

In addition to that, Little Man had a rough few days. He just kind of lost his shit one day and, honestly, I don't blame him. He wants to see his friends, he wants to go to school, he wants to have some freedom to move about without wearing a damn mask and worrying that he's going to get sick every five minutes. On top of that, he's worried that he's behind on schoolwork because his Mission project isn't finished yet (it's almost finished, he's fine - we'll finish it later today and then work on the rest of the paper this week). He's just a stressed out hot little mess and I don't know how to help him other than give him my time and do as much "fun" stuff as we can. 

 

By the time Friday rolled around, I was so so so done with this week. Our roommate made some......food. Nothing that there's a recipe for. Husband had gone to the Business Center Costco earlier in the week and came home with a ham that was like eleven pounds, bone in....like that's going to last us some meals! But our roommate made stock with the bone and then he made a delicious ham veggie soup and these....I don't know what to call them. They're almost like crab cakes but made with ham.  And beer cheese. Because why not?! And then he mde lychee martinis for him and I (Husband drank his beer). I may or may not have gotten a little tipsy with my teeny martinis in my Strawberry Shortcake glass. It was much warranted after this past week.

 

Little Man made a shield for Stormageddon so they could play sword "fighting" in the yard. He originally found some wood that he wanted to use but we weren't going to cut it up for that so he used cardboard instead. That and a stick worked just fine. They had fun running around the yard, hitting shields with their swords. 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was cleaning day and yardwork day and laundry day and relaxing day...except I spent part of the afternoon working with Little Man on his science stuff (he was a little behind). Husband mowed the yard, I did the weed whacking. We hung Little Man's clothes on the clothesline. I'm going to do the same with the towels today. We also decided to move the decorative lava rocks so we can quit scraping into them and/or tripping over them. Husband hauled them on the dolly, I did the pushing to get them onto the dolly properly and held them in place as we moved them. My hands got all cut up. I probably should have worn gloves but I didn't think about that. Oh well. Just a reminder of why we moved them! 

 

The only other bit of news is that Little Man's & Stormageddon's school is opening up for their hybrid model next week. The boys will not be going back for hybrid because Little Man is considered high risk for Covid but it, apparently, is happening. So, we'll see how that all goes. There was a principal coffee chat yesterday that I did not participate in so I don't even know what she talked about. 

Anyway, I hope you've had a lovely week and weekend! Maybe next week will be better?