Y5: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #26 (Halfway, baby!)

Happy Sunday :)

Today is my 26th update for this year's Self-Imposed Year of Projects. If you can do basic math, you will understand that this is the halfway point for this year (and if you're partaking in the July-June schedule, this is your last update for the year).

Soooooooo, let's get going :)


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 went 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
16. Freeport Vest Frogging: started March 29, 2016; finished March 29, 2016
17. Pacific Waves: started March 31, 2106; finished April 2, 2016
18. Vanilla Latte Socks: started November 19, 2015; finished April 6, 2016
19. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014; finished April 11, 2016
20. Pacific Waves: started April 3, 2016; finished April 15, 2016
21. Creeper Hat: started April 28, 2016; finished May 4, 2016
22: Finn & Suffolk blend (spinning): started April 1, 2016; singles finished May 27, 2016; plied May 31, 2016
23. Gex for Little Man: started April 8, 2016; finished June 5, 2016

Nothing new has been finished. I've also not photographed Gex on Little Man. It didn't grow much but he'll get at least one year's worth of wear before it's too small for him. ::sigh:: It's been balls hot here so I didn't want to put him in a sweater, if I could avoid it.

Also, Gex has been officially released and you can buy it on Ravelry. I want to say it's $6.50 or so....but it's got 17 sizes from newborn-4XL, so it's totally worth it.


WIPs (Works-In-Progress) - carried over year-to-year
1. Wink: started January 5, 2015
2. CashSilk Fern Scarf: started April 7, 2016
3. Bridal Shower Lace Cloth: started June 20, 2016
4. Caffe Macchiato Socks: started May 7, 2016

The only thing that changed around here is the date I started my Bridal Shower Lace Cloth. I pulled it out, didn't like what it was doing, was having trouble braining what I was trying to do, and I frogged it, restarted it with a couple extra stitches (and marked them, this time), and decided that I could change my "start date" for it. I'm about half finished. It's not difficult but I've not been doing much knitting, honestly. I may have worked a few rounds on my socks, as well...but I don't remember.

I also started getting ready for some Tour de Fleece type stuff. I pulled my wheel down and did some more plying. I had a little bit of the kelly green merino hanging out on a bobbin and some of the leftover Finn & Suffolk, so I plied them together. I still have some of the merino left on the bobbin but I don't know that it's enough to do anything with. I might put it on the ball winder and ply it with itself. I've not decided yet. Both the Finn & Suffolk and the Merino, Finn, & Suffolk hanks got a soak in the sink with some Eucalan (separately). The Finn & Suffolk was dirty...the water was a greyish brown when I finished. I had to stretch and thwack and snap both hanks of yarn as they were both in need.....but the Merino, Finn, & Suffolk was particularly in need.

If you check out my Instagram, you can see what I'm talking about. I'll show you a couple here, as well, though:

This is the pre-washing of the Finn & Suffolk blend. It's now dry and wound into a hank. I need to rewind it onto the Niddy-Noddy to figure out how much I actually have but other than that, it's done. Woo.

Did I mention what this looked like? No? Okay. This is the leftover Merino plied with the Finn & Suffok blend. I wound it onto the small Niddy-Noddy and it behaved something like a scrunchi from my younger years. Seriously, I should have been able to wrap it around my wrist at least twice but is so overspun that it just sprung into what you see above. I could wear it on my wrist and it stayed there, without wrapping it. A good soak, thwack, snap, and stretch is what it needed. It's behaving much better. It's still got a little bit of the twist to it but nowhere near this bad.

In addition to emptying another bobbin, I did some work in my Yarn Closet. I pulled out some bins and bags and such, planning to ultimately dig out some fiber to spin for TdF, but I wound up doing some inventory control, getting rid of things, moving things, and collecting things together. All my empty project bags are now in one place, which also contains my Lazy Kate, my sock blockers, my fanceeeee Fyberspates yarns (that was dyed in a limited edition special colorway when Prince William & Kate got married...and I ordered two because I'm silly and I loved the color), and a few other bits & bobs for knitting (polyfill for toys & my yarn bowl, for example). I also shoved yarn into bins (recent acquisitions - clubs, mostly) and found a few things for TdF. I'm planning on doing a rainbow handspun out of a merino kit I bout over a year ago. I'm debating about doing all the colors in the box (there are, I think, fourteen different ones) or if I should just go with the basic rainbow, plus white and black. The idea is that I'm going to split each ball of color into two equal weights, spin the rainbow separately onto two bobbins, and ply them together, keeping the colors together(ish). I might split the colors into four parts and do two rounds on each bobbin but that might be pushing it. I don't think there's more than 2 oz of each color. And then there are the other colors. I think there's a grey/white, pink, brown, a different blue, and another purple. I might be forgetting some. Oh, and I found my two purchases from Corgi Hill Farms, which I'm also going to try to spin during TdF. She's taking a break until July as she's having a hip replacement so you can't get anything from her right now. She's pretty fabulous, though.

Anyway, moving along.......


In my "WTFCRAZYLADYOMGLSGBBQ" lists:

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)
5. Mirkwood (for Little Man - worsted or bulky; any colors)
6. Something for a baby (brother's baby!) - sweater probably, maybe a toy or socks or lots of things...KNIT ALL THE BABY THINGS!

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. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
3. If You Know Where To Go (using KP Felici in Green Veggies)
4. 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. The Snowmen Cometh (worsted; any colors)
11. Sunburst Dishcloth (cotton; any colors)
12. Starfish Cloth (cotton; any colors)
13. Seamless Circular Cloth (cotton; any colors)
14. Tombreck (Aran/worsted; solid or semi-solid)
15. Premie Spiral Hat (for hospital donations - sport or DK; any colors)

Designs
1. Ice Somethingsomething (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 prototypes in various weights/sizes, 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. Tour de Fleece (July 2-24, 2016)

Other (for things that are fibery/crafty in nature but not specific to knitting or spinning)
1. Organize my handmade stitch markers
2. Make more stitch markers (to sell? donate? hoard?)
3. Organize my books/magazines/loose patterns. *started*


Let's just not talk about this......





And now, for a dose of reality from San Francisco.

Um, hi....there are fires all over southern California right now, including very near where we went camping last October by Lake Isabella. That area is so remote that I'm not surprised it's going up like a tinder box. There's only one road that goes in and out of Lake Isabella and it's a very twisty mountain road. There were also fires going in the greater Los Angeles area. I don't know how far away the closet one is from us but we're in a drought, still, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some around here.

Let's see, what else....oh, Obama was in town on Thursday and Friday, which means things like rubbernecking the motorcade happened, leading to a really nasty group of car accidents on 101 right by my house.....which led to my neighborhood being treated like a thoroughfare for highway traffic, by people that don't live around here. ::sigh:: And this weekend is Pride, of course, and being San Francisco......yeah, I'm not going anywhere near the City right now. Husband had to go to work yesterday morning but he works in the Financial District so he didn't have to get too close to the craziness that is Pride in SF....though his building is locked up very tightly, including the parking garage. We spent some time in the pool yesterday, as well, as it was hot and we don't have central air. We do have two big room air conditioners and a window air conditioner, which keep the house cool enough...but I miss central air sometimes.

I feel like nothing really happened this week but, looking through photos and Ravelry posts, it appears that I did far more than I thought I had.

Firstly, I took Little Man back to the fair, just the two of us, on Sunday. We rode on some rides together (Tilt-A-Whirl, Scrambler, and the Teacups, specifically), and he went on several by himself. I was proud of him for this one:

This just swung around, no going upside down or anything, but it goes up really high. He went on by himself, at his insistence that he'd be fine. He got off, holding his penis, and said, "Mama! I peed!" except he didn't actually pee. He felt like he needed to. He said it was scary but he was okay. He didn't go on it again. He also walked on water...sort of.

He had a blast and he came out hot and sweaty. He slept very well Sunday night.

On Monday, I was supposed to have jury duty at 8:30am. According to the website, I was on a "call back" status and needed to recheck around 11:15am on Monday. So, I went running. On pavement. I can run on an elliptical for an hour, non-stop, without problems. I cannot run on pavement, as indicated by the fact that I couldn't go more than a minute or two without having to slow to a walk and that I had a lot of difficulty walking due to sore legs until Thursday. Oops. When I rechecked the website, my "service was not required," meaning I'm off the hook for jury duty for at least a year.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing mostly benign things, as I could barely walk. Punishment, I suppose, for my running transgressions. Or something. Little Man had swimming lessons on Thursday, Friday we did some shopping, and yesterday we went to Fremont for a bit to see our friends' new place. And go swimming.

That was about it around here. I think.

Also, Little Man said, "shit" yesterday while playing his Mario Bros. video game. ::sigh:: I'll admit it: I laughed. I shouldn't have but I couldn't help it. He said it beautifully; I couldn't be prouder of him.

Anyway, have some other photos from this week....

Little Man won this at the fair last Sunday. He gave it to Stormageddon when we got home, who, of course, loves it.

During one of our slow days, Iron Man watched the Minions.

Ah, my Pride glasses. A Bay Area Ravelry acquaintance lamented that they were having difficulty finding these glasses from Target. There is a drink dispenser and the glasses that match. Dispenser and one glass acquired. I said I'd look. I actually looked twice and found it on the second round, but they had already ordered from Target....but they wanted to come home anyway. So, now I have them :)

Oh, Little Man. On Wednesday morning, the boys and I went to one of the nearby parks, met up with a couple of the boys from Little Man's class, their moms, and one of the other moms (her daughter was at her summer school program but mom came). Little Man literally ran into a tree. Probably a branch but still. He got a little bruise under his eyebrow, a pretty big gash in his eyebrow (that you can't see), and some other minor scrapes. Poor kiddo. He's fine now but Wednesday and Thursday he was not happy about it. Also, I discovered how much monkey is in Stormageddon. There's a netted dome-like structure made out of thick ropes. It's a climbing structure. Well, Stormageddon decided to take his monkey business to the dome and started climbing. I couldn't let him go too far because I'd never get him down. But he tried it. Little booger.

Unfortunately, Wednesday was also a hard day at work for Husband. His company announced a couple weeks ago that cost-cutting measures were coming (read: layoffs). While he was safe (and paperwork had been filed for a promotion), there were other people in his division that were not so safe. Actually, three people from his division lost their jobs this week. I only knew two of them and I was surprised by both, especially as there are other people that probably should have been fired that haven't been. So, on Thursday, we had one of them (and another of Husband's coworkers) over for steaks and such. I also had to take both boys to swimming lessons as Husband was picking up people from the Caltrain station.

Yes, he gets his tongue sticking out abilities from me. I've taught him well. As for how huge his tongue is....I dunno. Maybe that's me, also. Whatever.


I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I would love to be back this week with a rendition of FO Friday but I suspect it's going to be too hot to take proper photos, which means I'll probably just take some photos of it and do a non-modeled FO Friday. Oh well.

Happy weekend :)