Y4: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #26 (Happy Halfway!)

Hello and happiest of Sundays to you :) Today is the 26th update of my Fourth Self-Imposed Year of Projects.......which means we're at the halfway point for the year (which also marks the end for most other people participating in the Year of Projects - congrats to all those participating!).

We know what happens on Sundays so let's just get going :)

Finished Objects (FOs):  
1. Elefante: started December 19, 2014; finished December 28, 2014  
2. Hat #1 - FoH: started December 31, 2014; finished January 1, 2015
3. Hat #2 - FoH: started January 1, 2015; finished January 4, 2015
4. Hat #3 - FoH: started January 7, 2015; finished January 10, 2015
5. Hat #4 - Stitch's Rock Hat: started January 16, 2015; finished January 24, 2015
6. Vanilla Fingerless Mitts: started January 23, 2015; finished February 3, 2015
7. Paradiddle Hat: started January 24, 2015; finished February 7, 2015
8. Stitch's Rock Collection (of Hats) - Variegated: started February 22, 2015; finished February 24, 2015
9. Sorin Fingerless Mitts: started March 8, 2015; finished March 31, 2015
10.Stitch's Rock Collection (of Hats) - Variegated: started February 27, 2015; finished April 1, 2015
11. Stitch's Rock Collection (of Hats) Pattern Test: started sometime in February, 2015; finished April 18, 2015
12. Sooooooooper Secret Pattern Writing (project #2): started sometime in February; finished April 15, 2015 -- full disclosure in October 2015
13. Sacrificial Goat #5: started May 29, 2015; finished June 4, 2015
14. Baby Hat: started June 4, 2015; finished June 6, 2015
15. Elvish Leaves Dishcloth: started June 10, 2015; finished June 12, 2015
16. Baby Hat: started June 19, 2015; finished June 27, 2015

I finished up the second baby hat out of the Bernat Jacquards yarn very (very very) early yesterday morning...if I had my way, I would have considered it Friday night but the clock didn't lie. So, Saturday morning.

I've not taken good photos or had a FO Friday post about it so that will be coming, hopefully this week but we'll see where the week takes us :)


Works-In-Progress (WIPs): - carried over from 2014...and maybe earlier...*shifty eyes*
1. Dragon's Egg Socks: started September 2, 2013
2. Pacific Shawl: started June 8, 2014
3. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014
4. Traveling Socks: started December 23, 2014
5. Wink: started January 5, 2015
6. Fire & Ice (Fire) Socks: started April 15, 2015

Aside from finishing up the hat this past week, I worked on Wink here and there. I'm just a scant pattern repeat away from where I pick up stitches from the collar and start knitting the actual body. We'll see how that goes. Other than that, I may have worked a row or two on a dishcloth I found in my project bags but that was about it. Nothing fancy.

I also pulled Viktor down once this past week and spun some more of my green merino I've got hanging around. It's probably completely overspun, which is okay because I know it will balance out when I overply it the other way. So, there's all that :)

In other "what else did I pull out" events, I pulled out two skeins of Knit Picks Felici Rainbows on Friday with the intention of starting some Pride Socks....which just means they're going to be rainbow socks, probably boring but maybe Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings because, you know, Dumbledore and all :) But that's as far as I got...I have the yarn pulled and the needles but I didn't actually start anything. Oh well....I had good intentions :)

I will be starting a project this week. It appears it's going to be a baby hat. I'm taking a class with Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting next Sunday at Atelier Yarns in San Francisco. It's a class about designing stitch motifs with traveling cables and our homework involves casting on for a baby hat. So, there will be that project going on at some point next week. After the class, there will be a book signing and a meet & greet with both Alana and Julie Crawford of Knitted Bliss, who is often a model for Alana and will be in the area.


In my "OMGLSGWTFBBQ, crazy lady?!" lists...

Children's Items
1. George's Vest (for Stormageddon - sock/fingering; solid or semi-solid)
2. Nottingham (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
3. Nottingham (for Stormageddon - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
4. Alvin (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. Alvin (for Stormageddon - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
6. Harry Potter Blanket (for The Family - worsted; solid) - from various Harry Potter inspired square blocks
7. Albert the Absent-Minded (for Stormageddon - any weight; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)  *need pattern*
8. Mirkwood (for Stormageddon - bulky; solid or semi-solid)
9. Smaug (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
10. Dandy Sir Cephalopod (for Little Man - any weight; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)  *need pattern*
11. Moe the Mustache Monster (for...someone - worsted; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)

Items for Me (Selfish Knitting, FTW!)
1. Vanilla Socks (using one of my Harry Potter yarns)
2. Drip Drip Drop Socks (using either a solid or semi-solid sock yarn that I haven't decided on yet)
3. Hermione Hearts Ron (sport; solid or semi-solid)
4. Ginny's Cardigan (DK; solid or semi-solid)

Secret Sock Club Bags (Pick a bag at "random")
1. Scotch and Soda Scarf (using Briar Rose Fibers Wistful - leftover from my Icarus Shawl)
2. CashSilk Fern Scarf (using a skein of Online Supersocke 100)
3. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
4. If You Know Where To Go (in KP Felici in Green Veggies)
5. Gardener's Socks (using Malabrigo Sock)
6. Paradiddle Socks - my own design (using Malabrigo Sock)

Because I love Husband
1. The Dude

New Techniques (one of the following stranded/multi-yarn kits)
1. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie

Christmas Presents
I have absolutely no idea what's going to end up here, if anything. I suspect something will end up here and I might pull it from other lists but we shall see. Maybe I won't do any Christmas knitting. Maybe all I'll wind up doing is Christmas knitting. I suppose this is a wait-and-see section :)

Designs
1. Susan's Hat
2. Traveling Vines Socks
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket
4. Paradiddle Socks (see Secret Sock Club Bag section)
5. Paradiddle Collection of Hats


In "real life" events........so many things happened this past week, not only in our home but for our entire country. First of all, SCOTUS (the Supreme Court Of The United States) upheld the Affordable Care Act. Again. If you've not been following along or aren't from the US, the Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare) was put into place as a way for anyone to be able to get (generally) affordable health insurance. There's a lot more to it than that (like the removal of pre-existing conditions as cause for rejection for health insurance, among other things) and it's definitely not a perfect system. But, millions of uninsured people now have health insurance. The Republican Party (or, as they like to call themselves, the Grand Old Party or GOP) has been up in arms about it since the second it was even brought up....and they've been trying to get rid of it ever since. They've hauled it to SCOTUS several times and every single time, SCOTUS says, "bite me, idiots" and the law stands. So, that happened.

And then, Friday morning.....oh, Friday, you lovely, lovely day......Friday was the beginning of Gay Pride weekend across the country and SCOTUS decreed that gay marriage is legal in every state in the US. It was a 5-4 decision and Antonin Scalia had a little bitch fit about it, writing his own dissent, but it passed. The bottom line: the 14th Amendment which grants everyone equal protection and rights under the law. The 14th Amendment was originally passed in response to the end of the US Civil War and was written to grant rights to former slaves, specifically, who had no such protections under the law prior to that. But, it was a very broad amendment and it was used during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Women's Suffrage (which started even before the Civil War but culminated with the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote), and for the rights of LGTB peoples.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of idiots that are screaming that this is going to cause God to smite us all and religion is going to fall apart and lots of pearl-clutching going on. These people are failing to recognize the difference between religious marriage and lawful marriage. You can get married in a church, by a clergy, and still not be lawfully married. Until you file paperwork with the government, you're not legally married. After my grandfather died, my step-grandmother and her boyfriend stood up before their families and God and got married in a religious ceremony. Paperwork was never filed because it would mean my step-grandmother losing my grandfather's pension, which she needed, plain and simple. Husband and I, the agnostics-bordering-on-atheists that we are, were married by a clergy in the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, no religion involved, but we filed the paperwork with the government. We are legally married but not religiously married (even though there was a clergy involved). I could go on about the stupidity of people but, I'll never have enough space for all of it. And I'm not the smartest person in the world, either.

So, those are the big things going on in the US.......and then there are the things going on in our house. I caught Stormageddon taking steps across his pack-n-play without holding on (granted, it was only two steps and it was more of a "OMG-I'm-falling-oh-I-caught-myself" thing but, still...). He also wanted me to pick up him up the other night so he let go of the baby gate and put both his arms up to me....and then promptly fell onto his butt. He also cruises around the furniture. We've had to move a few more things because of him...like power cords for laptops and our actual laptops.

Little Man is still loving his swimming lessons. He starts soccer in a couple weeks. We've been trying to go to the park more. We went three times this past week. He's also doing much better with his epic tantrums. That may be due, in part, to us taking the iPads away completely for most of the last week and limiting his time playing video games....hence going to the park. But, he hasn't had a major one except for one day last week. He's also doing well with his other chores. His room has been staying pretty clean and he's helping with laundry and dishes. All is well there.

Here are some photos from the last week or so.....

Riding the train at the park

Brotherly love

Look Mama, I hold on with one hand!

Cheese!

Brotherly love, part two.

Cheese!

Oh, nuthin'. Just chillin' in the wood chips.

Take my picture by that tree again, Mama.

This is what happens when you get Daddy's crappy bug bite reaction.

This last one.......poor boy. Husband gets these nasty welts when he gets mosquito bites and other bug bites. I mean, I get a little welt but he gets a welt the size of a penny......and then there's Little Man, who can have an eye swell shut from a bite on his cheek. Husband's welts are the size of pennies....Little Man's are the size of half-dollars. Poor kiddo. You can't see it in this photo but his right ear is all swollen and red, too. The good thing is that it goes down within a day or two and he'll just have the scab from the original bite...but the looks I get when we're out in public in the meantime. ::sigh::

Anyway, I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday!