Y5: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #11

Hello and HAPPY SUNDAY!

So many things happening around here! I suppose we should just get started :)


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
5. Nottingham for Little Man: started January 17, 2016; finished February 1, 2016
6. Swirl Hat: started December 16. 2015; finished February 4, 2016
7. Swatch for Marly Bird class at Stitches West: started January 8, 2016; finished February 7, 2016 (no project page)
8. Fire Socks design (the actual pattern writing & photography part): started February 6, 2016; finished February 12, 2016 (I think it's going live in a few weeks; I'll let you know)
9. Mountains Beanie: started February 9, 2016; finished February 17, 2016
10. Rathmore: started February 25, 2016; finished March 4, 2016
11. Dragon's Egg Socks: started September 2, 2013; finished March 9, 2016
12. Creeper for Little Man: started March 4, 2016; finished March 10, 2016
13. Mother Bear Project #1: started February 22, 2016; finished March 12, 2016

Wow. Look at that list. If you're keeping track at home (and honestly, I think I'm probably the only one that is), you may have noticed that there are THREE new FOs this week.

First and foremost, I have finished my longest-running WIP: my Dragon's Egg Socks. They're currently still drying on the sock blockers. It's been rainy and wet and icky, which means things are taking forever to air dry. But, they have been bound off, ends weaved in, washed, and are blocking. I call that a win. Even better, they still fit. I am a little worried, though. I'm finding that with the weight loss, many of my socks no longer fit properly. I'm still going to wear the hell out of them because SOCKS TAKE FOREVER.

You'll also notice that the little Creeper is finished. He had a debut on Friday. Little Man has, of course, claimed it as his and has already lost it once (on Friday afternoon). It was soon found and all was right with the world. It's small so I expect that he's going to lose it more than once.

Lastly, my Mother Bear Project was finished. I need to take some photos before I send it to Minnesota for the first part of it's destination journey. But, it's finished, as well.

Which leads me to this....


WIPs (Works-In-Progress) - carried over year-to-year
1. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014
2. Wink: started January 5, 2015
3. Vanilla Latte Socks: started November 19, 2015
4. Ice Socks: started January 7, 2016
5. Pacific Waves: started March 9, 2016

You would think that with all those finishes this past week, my leftover WIPs wouldn't see any progress........and you would be wrong.

Okay, admittedly not a ton of progress has happened but there has still been progress.

Snape's Stockings came out of pseudo-hibernation on Saturday for a few rounds, the Vanilla Latte Socks grew a little bit here and there (okay, mostly at Little Man's swimming lesson and it was only three or four rounds), and you may have noticed that I started a new project. This one is a design of mine and rather than sit and swatch and so on, I'm just going full-scale. Well, a mini-full-scale as I'm making this one for Stormageddon (I hope to have hat sizes from premie to large adult). We'll see how it works out. I have a bunch of partial skeins of worsted to use and I think this will be a perfect way to use them. Bonus: I have hats for the boys and for donation and so on.


Children's Items
1. George's Vest (for Stormageddon - probably the largest size; YOTH Little Brother from Stitches)
2. House Hat (one each for Stormageddon and Little Man - worsted, two contrasting colors)
3. Mirkwood (for Stormageddon - bulky; solid or semi-solid)
4. Smaug (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. Arthur the Alien (for Little Man - worsted; any colors)
6. Holiday Countdown Stockings (for the family - Aran/worsted; four colors)

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 - Plucky Primo in Petunia?)
4. Hermione Hearts Ron Fingerless Mitts (sport weight; solid or semi-solid - Plucky Primo in Petunia?)
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. Ice Socks (knit prototype and pattern for submission)
2. Susan's Hat (make proper - photos, pattern, etc.; knit new prototype from Babs K2 from Stitches)
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket (make proper - photos, pattern, etc.)
4. Paradiddle Socks (knit prototype - see "Items for ME")
5. Pacific Waves Hat (knit prototype, pattern for submission? self-publish?)

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 :)



Moving along........


It's been rainy, windy, and just generally icky around here this past week. In addition to that, the plague is running through our house. Little Man got sick last weekend with the phantom fever, coughing, and general snotty upper respiratory gunk. Then he shared with Stormageddon. He didn't have the fever but he did have the cough and ick and snot...Oh. My. God. The snot! He's still snotting out his nose. ::sigh:: I had hoped that I wouldn't catch it......but when you have a grumpy baby that wants to cuddle, what are you gonna do? So, of course, I now have the plague. And, of course, mine is different. I have the sore throat and general congestion, occasional coughs and sneezes. Otherwise, I feel okay...for the most part.

Between the weather and the sickies, we've spent quite a bit of time inside, laying on couches, and watching movies. I think I've seen the Minions movie somewhere between 8-13 times this past week (three of them on Friday alone). I'm not too fussed about it. The boys like it and it's cute. So, we watch it. Over. And over. And over. And over. I've been pointing out characters from Despicable Me & Despicable Me 2 that make appearances in the Minions, including El Macho, Dr. Nefario, Gru & his mama (that isn't at the end), and so on. Yes, they really are there.

Stormageddon had his 18 month appointment this week. He's just like Little Man: tall and skinny. He was 33.25" long (which was the 75th percentile for his age) and he was 23 lbs, 11 oz. for weight (which is the 35th percentile for his age). Silly children. I keep trying to get him to eat more but he starts fighting me about everything and I quit. He loves milk and crackers and curry, though. Yeah, that does say curry. If I make veggies, he'll try them...he may not necessarily like them, however.

Otherwise, most of this week has been a wash.

For some reason, photos of Stormageddon are lacking this week but I do have a couple of Little Man :)

He spent a lot of time inside being creative: drawing, play dough, and Legos. He also found his old Bucky Badger hat and tried it on (on Thursday, I believe).

And here's a close-up of the blue play dough on the counter.....

Yeah. I thought it looked like a penis, as well.



Anyway, I hope you're having a lovely week/end! I'll probably be back this week with some stash enhancement photos (my order from Verdant Gryphon arrived yesterday) and, hopefully, an FO Friday...quite possibly with THREE FOs (Rathmore, Dragon's Egg Socks, and the Mother Bear Project).