Y5: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #5

Happy Sunday! Let's get down to business :)


FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Fire Socks: started April 15, 2015; finished January 6, 2016
2. Nottingham for Stormageddon: started January 12, 2016; finished January 14, 2016
3. Design proposal for Fire Socks: started January 13, 2016; finished January 18, 2016
4. Purple merino/silk spinning (singles): started toward the end of Tour de Fleece (July 4-26, 2015); finished January 29, 2016

I finished spinning the merino/silk singles this week. Originally, I was going to spin equalish amounts onto two bobbins and make a 2-ply yarn......and then I went to weigh my yarn this past week and it turns out, if I had continued with my plan, I would have wound up with ~60% on one bobbin and ~40% on the other, which would have left ~20% left on the larger bobbin....so, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to just spin the 4 oz onto the one bobbin and I'll ply it with something else in my stash. I suspect I'll barber pole it with a grey wool or a white merino I've got hanging around. We'll see what happens. I have no recollection of where I picked up this fiber but the purveyor's site is here. If the information in her shop is accurate, I think the color I have is called "Plum," which would make sense as it's purpley.

WIPs (Works-In-Progress) - carried over year-to-year
1. Dragon's Egg Socks: started September 2, 2013
2. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014
3. Wink: started January 5, 2015
4. Vanilla Latte Socks: started November 19, 2015
5. Swirl Hat: started December 16, 2015
6. Ice Socks: started January 7, 2016
7. Swatch for Marly Bird class at Stitches West: started January 8, 2016 (no project page)
8. Nottingham for Little Man: started January 17, 2016


I brought out my Dragon's Egg Socks this week. I worked about ten rounds while Stormageddon napped one day this week. I also worked a couple rounds on my Vanilla Latte Socks. My Swirl hat saw maybe another 3/4" of work. My swatch grew a couple inches here and there. Nottingham is growing. I've finally finished the cabling section so now it's just working in the ribbing pattern until it's long enough to start doing decreases (which will probably be around 6.5"-7").

My Ice Socks are, sadly, still in design time out for now. Snape's Stockings and Wink......well, they're in the bag but I haven't worked on them. Oops.


In my "OMG CRAZY LADY WTFLSGBBQ" lists....

Children's Items
1. George's Vest (for Stormageddon - probably the largest size; fingering in solid or semi-solid)
2. House Hat (one each for Stormageddon and Little Man - worsted, two contrasting colors)
3. Nottingham (one each for Stormageddon and Little Man - worsted, solid or semi-solid) *Stormageddon's is finished, Little Man's has been started....soon this will be removed!*
4. Mirkwood (for Stormageddon - bulky; solid or semi-solid)
5. Smaug (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
6. Arthur the Alien (for Little Man - worsted; any colors)
7. Holiday Countdown Stockings (for the family - Aran/worsted; four colors)
8. Creeper Gonna Creep (for Little Man - DK; green because Creeper)

Items for ME (selfish knitting, FTW!!)
1. Vanillaish Socks (using one of my Harry Potter Yarns)
2. Paradiddle Socks (using a solid or semi-solid sock yarn)
3. Hermione Hearts Ron (sport weight; solid or semi-solid)
4. Hermione Hearts Ron Fingerless Mitts (sport weight; solid or semi-solid)
5. Classic Silk Mayfaire Camisole (Miss Babs from Stitches Midwest)
6. Stormont (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
7. Sockhead Hat (sock; any colors)
8. Moab Shawl (sock; any colors) *need pattern*
9. Prowl (DK; solid or semi-solid) *need pattern*

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. CashSilk Fern Scarf (using ONline Supersocke 100)
3. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
4. If You Know Where To Go (using KP Felici in Green Veggies)
5. Gardener's Socks (using Malabrigo Sock in Indiacita)

Stranded Knitting
1. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie
4. Xanadu Snowflake Cowl

Christmas/Charity Bin
1. 198 yds. of Heaven (worsted; any colors)
2. Phillip and Mr. Grum (sock yarn; any colors)
3. Comfort Food (Aran; solid)
4. Fine Fella (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. November Leaves (Shelter from stash) *need pattern*
6. Skinner Hat (sock; solid or semi-solid) *need pattern*
7. The Shoemaker's Hat (bulky; solid or semi-solid) *need pattern*
8. Roll Out The Barrels (cotton; any colors)
9. Sweeny Todd Scarf (worsted; any colors)
10. Bridal Shower Lace Cloth (cotton; any colors)
11. The Snowmen Cometh (worsted; any colors)
12. Sunburst Dishcloth (cotton; any colors)
13. Starfish Cloth (cotton; any colors)
14. Seamless Circular Cloth (cotton; any colors)
15. Tombreck (Aran/worsted; solid or semi-solid)
16. Premie Spiral Hat (for hospital donations - sport or DK; any colors)

Designs
1. Fire Socks (finish prototype and pattern for submission) *half finished, started other half as proposal; will eventually write the pattern*
2. Ice Socks (knit prototype and pattern for submission)
3. Susan's Hat (make proper - photos, pattern, etc.)
4. Little Man's Baby Blanket (make proper - photos, pattern, etc.)
5. Paradiddle Socks (knit prototype - see "Items for ME")

Spinning
1. Spin approximately 4 oz of either a grey wool or white merino to ply with the purple silk/merino listed in the FO section above.
2. Finish up the remaining Asshole Blue Corriedale that I found in Stormageddon's room awhile ago (don't even get me started on this one!)
3. Start something new...or something different....or, just something :)



In non-fibery events, we're finally getting over the plagues that have been running through our house. I think I'm the last one that's still "sick" and, at this point, I don't know if I'm actually sick or if it's allergies going bezerker. All I know is that I'm sort of coughing to get the ick out that's hanging around...but the ick doesn't seem to be going away. So, a healthier family means more time to do all the fun things...whatever that means.

Stormageddon has taken to faceplanting off the couch in our living room. In the last week, he's gotten two bloody lips from this, in addition to a couple bumps on the back of his head when he falls off backwards. To try to soften the blows, I bought a small area rug for in front of our couch. Of course, since I bought it, he hasn't fallen off the damn couch (the chair, however, is another story). I'd rather have it and never need it than not have it and have to take a trip to the hospital. It's not a thick rug but it's just enough to soften the blow when he does fall flat on his face (which I'm sure he is going to do again).

In other crazy baby news, he's learned a couple new words recently: "baby," "go," "wow," and an attempt at "brother." He's also waving more often and has decided that going to the gym with Mama is just great. He used to flip out when I'd drop him off but lately, he's gotten really excited when he sees where we're going. Silly boy. I'm glad he likes it, though...it makes some things easier, like leaving him with Daddy while I take Little Man to soccer.

Little Man, on the other hand, has taken to drawing and coloring in droves...I swear he's gone through a ream of paper in the last month. I took the advice of Tammy over at Life and Yarn or Yarn and Life. She suggested getting a binder with plastic sleeves to house his artwork. I swear it's already half-filled. But, it's cut down on the clutter of drawings considerably. I had piles and piles of papers and I had to go through them while he was at school so I could cull the pile. This way, it just all goes in there and when it's full, he has to cull it himself (with help from me, if he wants it).

He made a puppet at school this week. Apparently it's a monkey because for Chinese New Year, we're now entering the Year of the Monkey. Sooooo....he made a monkey finger puppet out of clay. He's been very excited about it all week and was practically ready to rip the bag open on Friday to show me.

Other than that, not much has been happening around here this week. Oh, wait, I remember something....we got Little Man's container garden up and running. We actually started it last weekend by planting the seeds in little starter pods and a bunch of them had sprouted by Monday afternoon. By Thursday, over half had sprouted so.....we planted them. We picked up the soil and some bins last weekend and had everything hanging out in the garage until Thursday afternoon.

We had two bags of different soil: an organic peat (that's the one Little Man is digging in) and regular Miracle Grow potting soil (the one Husband is digging in). We have six large bins and five small bins in a little greenhouse on the side of our house. We spent Stormageddon's nap getting all the soil into the bins and planting our sprouting goodies.

This all started because Little Man's school has outdoor gardens and his class grew a bunch of stuff: broccoli, lettuce, carrots, and, sadly, the zucchini and pumpkins didn't fare well (mold). After fall harvest, he came home and said that he wanted to have a garden this year. So, we already had the supplies from a couple years ago when we were going to do it (Little Man destroyed the greenhouse because he treated it as a toy in the backyard - we didn't make that mistake again)...and off we went.

Here are some other photos from this past week :)

A little bit of photobombing.....

Some time at the park (it was nice for a hot minute this week!)

And a sleepy baby. I felt so bad waking him up right after I took this photo...but we needed to pick up Husband that day.

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend! I'll be back tomorrow with my Monthly Goals :)