Y5: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #13

Lucky #13! Also, I hear it's Easter today.......and I've been chatty this week. But we can talk about that in a little bit.

We're here for an update and an update we shall have :)

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 (link to the preview; pattern goes live on Saturday, April 2nd)
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
14. Asshole Corriedale (spinning project): started March 23, 2016; finished March 24, 2016
15. Pacific Waves: started March 9, 2016; finished March 25, 2016

Sooooo, a couple things happened around here. My Fire Socks go live on April 2nd (which is Saturday) but the preview is up and you can view it here. More photos can be seen on Friday's blog post. In addition to that, I made rolags of the remaining 2ish oz of Asshole French Blue Corriedale, spun the singles on Wednesday afternoon, and chain-plied it on Thursday afternoon, and soaked & thwacked & hung it on Friday, where it's currently residing until it's fully dry. A post went up on Friday. It's not great but it's done and I just don't care anymore.

But wait! That's not all! I also finished up the first prototype for my Pacific Waves hat. It's going to serve it's purpose as a hat but I have a few things I want to change for the next prototype...because screw swatching; let's just go full-scale! I have a bunch of partial balls of worsted weight so it's perfectly fine for this to happen because in the end, I have hats for small children and that's acceptable. It's also drying right now. I washed it when I washed my handspun on Friday. I need to weave in ends, as well. So, woo for that.



Moving along, however.....

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. Mirkwood: started March 22, 2016

Many of my projects have seen the love this week. Let's talk about that!

Snape's Stockings are still on the gusset decreases but I'm on the "second set" for now. If I would sit down and work on them, they could be finished...but, I've only done a couple rounds here and there.

Wink did not see any love this week. I was busy with other things.

My Vanilla Latte Socks are in the last throws of sockdom. Translation: I've finished the gusset decreases and I'm just working down toward the toe. I finished up the gusset decreases during soccer yesterday morning and worked a bit on the foot while we watched Star Wars last night. Woo. Exciting times all around.

My Ice Socks....well, let's not talk about those. I'll get around to it.

And, as if I didn't have enough to be getting on with, I started a Smaug Hat for Little Man. Well, I thought it was a Smaug Hat. The photo is of a lovely acid green hat and a goofy kid wearing it. The directions are there, clear as day and I followed them......but my hat was not looking like the photo in the pattern (which, admittedly, were not that clear to begin with). And, of course, I was the first project so it's not like I had anyone else's finished hat to look at. As the pattern is in an eBook collection, I was just scrolling through the rest of the patterns to find the other hat on my list below, Mirkwood. Turns out the directions for the Smaug Hat were the exact same as Mirkwood and the hat I was making was, in fact, Mirkwood...with more stitches. Sooooo, there's that. I did email the designer to let her know of the error. The Smaug Hat has a reverse stockinette section that is nowhere in the directions, which is how I discovered the problem in the first place. ::sigh:: So, I'm apparently making a worsted weight version of Mirkwood for Little Man.

That means my lists have changed a teensy bit, specifically to remove the Smaug Hat and Mirkwood Hat from my "Children's Items" section and to remove the Asshole Corriedale from my "spinning" section. You may also notice that I've added a section labeled "Other" for things that are fibery/crafty in nature but not necessarily knitting or spinning.

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. Arthur the Alien (for Little Man - worsted; any colors)
4. 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?) *I've started this*
6. Stormageddon's Baby Blanket (design process, knit prototype, etc.)

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. Start something new...or something different....or, just something :)

Other (for things that are fibery/crafty in nature but not specific to knitting or spinning)
1. Unravel my Freeport Vest and reclaim the yarn...maybe make it again in a smaller size.
2. Organize my handmade stitch markers
3. Make more stitch markers (to sell? donate? hoard?)



Around here, it's spring break. Little Man's started on Friday but I know a couple of the area colleges & universities started at the beginning of the week. He has two weeks off. What am I going to do with that boy for two weeks?!

I don't know if I mentioned it in my Year of Projects posts but my LYS closed and last Sunday was their last day. I'm sad. Where the hell am I going to go to knit?! But, I came home with some lovely "parting gifts," as it were. You can read about them here.

Tuesday was a particularly busy day around here. Little Man was at school in the morning and I did some major work in the bedroom. The Montessori school Little Man goes to did their big annual auction (which includes a live auction as well as an online auction) and I bid on having a professional organizer come in and work with me. I wound up winning so she came on Tuesday. I won two hours and then I paid her for an additional two. So, for four hours, we worked specifically in the bedroom/closet and it's so much better. I only had one bag of garbage go out and three diaper boxes for donation. The rest of the stuff (which included a HUGE pile of bins from Stormageddon's room) was reorganized, moved around, and it all fits where I intended it to fit but never got around to getting it there. So, it's lovely and more organized and things are in better places and it's not perfect but it's better and that is an immense help. After an hour, it looked like a bomb went off but it slowly got better and woo it's done.

I did make it to the gym one day this week...and then this happened:

I'm pretty sure Little Man tripped on air and fell flat on his face but regardless of how he did it, this was the end result. He's got a bruised goose egg, and some rug burn, and his eye is a little bruised. He's fine, he cried for a couple of minutes but that was it. We've been keeping the scrape above his eyebrow bandaged with goop because of it's location (his hair will stick, otherwise). Poor kiddo.

In addition to that, this happened:

Stormageddon loves his brother, I promise. That's why he uses him as a chair when they watch movies. Or not. Little Man didn't seem to mind too much.

Here are some other photos from this week:

Sadly, we had to retire the red iPad. We're not sure how it happened but there's now a(nother) crack in the screen. We suspect the replacement screen wasn't as robust as the original and a drop possibly caused the crack. ::sigh:: But the above two photos of the boys with iPads happened at the same time. It was the first time we had really let Stormageddon have his hands on the iPad. He seems to like Cat Piano. Whatever. He also likes saying, "hi" to Siri on a regular basis.

On Friday morning, I took the boys to the "big park" in town (Central Park, if you're local). It had been quite awhile between visits. It was the first time I had let Stormageddon out to actually play. I had to keep a pretty close watch on him because he kept trying to wander over toward the equipment for older kids (where Little Man was playing). He did figure out how to climb the stairs to the slide and go down without me holding his hand. He did fall off the end of the slide a couple of times but he did really well otherwise.

But of course we couldn't just go once. We went to a different park on Friday afternoon. And such is our life on spring break, apparently.

Other than that, we had a pretty benign week around here. Little Man had soccer on Saturday (we're doing two weeks of rain make-ups), I cut about 6" off my hair on Thursday, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, and my beloved Badgers lost to Notre Dame on Friday night. I was not pleased. 

Anyway, I hope you're having a lovely Easter Sunday :)