Y5: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #38

Happy Sunday! Let's 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 (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
24. Bridal Shower Lace Cloth: started June 20, 2016; finished June 27, 2016
25. TdF 1: 25%/25%/50% purple merino/silk & white merino (~ 540 yds; ~ 8 oz; DK/lt. worsted): started during TdF last year and finished the purple singles January 29, 2016; started the white last weekend, plied them on July 4, 2016
26. TdF 2: 25%/25%/50% leftover purple merino/silk & leftover kelly green merino (~ 20 yds; unknown weight; DK/lt. worsted): leftover bits that were plied on July 4, 2016
27. TdF 3: 100% merino, 50% hot pink, 50% grey (~ 50 yds; ~ 1 oz; DK/lt. worsted): started & finished on July 5, 2016
28: TdF 4: 100% merino, 50% rose pink, 50% navy blue (~ 50 yds; ~ 1 oz; DK/lt. worsted): started & finished on July 5, 2016
29. TdF 5: 25%/25%/50% leftover purple merino/silk & leftover hot pink merino (~ 10 yds; unknown weight; DK/lt. worsted): the purple was started during TdF last year and finished January 29, 2016; the hot pink was spun on July 5, 2016; they were plied on July 5, 2016
30. TdF 6: 100% merino, 50% leftover hot pink, 50% leftover navy blue (~ 10 yds; unknown weight; DK/lt. worsted): started & finished on July 5, 2016
31. TdF 7: 100% merino, rainbow gradient (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white) (~ 220 yds; ~ 4 oz; worsted): started July 5, 2016; finished July 6, 2016
32: TdF 8: 50/50 merino/tencel, Fat Cat Fibers in Razzmatazz (three different skeins: two skeins are three-ply, one is around 245 yds of worsted and the other is around 120 yds, also worsted; one skein is chain plied, probably also a worsted weight, about 25 yds): started July 8, 2016; finished July 12, 2016
33. TdF 9: 100% white merino (~ 446 yds two-ply, probably sport weight; ~ 15 yds Andean Ply, also around a sport weight): started July 15, 2016; finished July 18, 2016
34. TdF 10: Superwash Merino/Bamboo/Nylon from Happy Hands Hand Dyed (~ 166 yds two-ply, probably Aran weight; ~ 14 yds Andean Plied, also Aran weight): started July 15, 2016; finished July 19, 2016
35. TdF 11: 60% BFL/40% Bombyx (Mulberry Silk) from Corgi Hill (~ 298 yds two-ply, probably DK/lt. worsted; ~ 25 yds Andean Plied, also DK/lt. worsted): started July 18, 2016; finished July 20, 2016
36: TdF 12: Unknown BFL, possibly from Yarn Hollow (~ 144 yds two-ply, probably Aran weight): started July 21, 2016; finished July 23, 2016

37. Rainbow Gradient Cowl: started August 5, 2016; finished August 6, 2016
38. Gex for Niece: started June 28, 2016; finished August 19, 2016
39. Diagonal Owl Dishcloth: started September 1, 2016; finished September 2, 2016

Nope. Nothing new. This shouldn't be all that surprising, really. I'm slow, don't knit as often as I'd like, and all my projects are HUGE.


WIPs (Works-In-Progress) - carried over year-to-year
1. Wink: started January 5, 2015
2. Caffe Macchiato Socks: started May 7, 2016
3. Corgi Hill Polwarth/Tussah blend (spinning): started July 21, 2016
4. Oh, She IS a Bad Nut: started August 11, 2016

Admittedly, there hasn't been much knitting this week. For some reason, probably because it's the beginning of the school year, things have been extremely busy this week. I feel like I've had more meetings and appointments and things to do in this last week than I've had in months. So, that leaves me exhausted and therefore, my knitting suffers.

However, with that said, I did get some knitting accomplished this week. My second Caffe Macchiato sock have made it beyond the heel flap and the heel turn and I'm in the middle of the gusset decreases. The stripes don't match and I did pretty well with not having the weird thing where you have a half-width of color because you're in the middle of a color when you pick up for the gusset decreases. I do, admittedly, have one round of red but it almost blends into the purple so it's not as noticeable. Well, I don't think it is. Maybe it is. I don't know. Here's what it looked like on Friday night.

But, really, not much else has happened.


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)

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)
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?) *started*
6. Stormageddon's Baby Blanket (design process, knit prototype, etc.)

Spinning
1. Given that TdF happened and I SPUN ALL THE YARNS, I think I'm going to take a break from spinning for a bit...Viktor needs a tune-up anyway. At least my parts have arrived.

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


I mentioned this week has been busy. It's not a lie. This is a list of the things I've done this week (that I can remember):

1. Taught an enrichment class to middle schoolers on Monday...with Stormageddon in tow
2. Little Man had Wee Theater (which is an after-school enrichment program for Kinders on Monday)
3. Stormageddon had a doctor appointment on Tuesday morning
4. Our washer started throwing error codes at me so I needed to schedule someone to come look at it (Tuesday)
5. Started packing for Husband's trip to Wisconsin
6. Had our washer diagnosed on Wednesday
7. Montessori Parent Education Night on Wednesday
8. Took Husband do the airport for his trip back to Wisconsin (Wednesday night)
9. Taught an enrichment class to middle schoolers again on Thursday...without Stormageddon in tow (he was picked up by a friend, along with Little Man, and her daughter and they went to the park)
10. Got the back room ready for guests (pulled out the bed, made the bed, put the pack-n-play together, picked up, etc.)
11. House guests (they left early this morning but arrived Thursday)
12. Little Man had swimming lessons on Thursday (and I had Stormageddon along as Husband was out of town)
13. Art in Action meeting on Friday morning after drop-off (AiA is the art program the school uses - it's taught by volunteers, almost always parents - I might be doing one of the 1st grade classes on Thursdays...need to suss out the schedule first)
14. Trips to the post office (one on Thursday, one on Friday)
15. Trip to Costco (Friday morning)
16. Trips to the park (Thursday and Friday)
17. Getting our washer fixed on Friday afternoon
18. Probable lesson planning for the middle school enrichment program (I'm still unsure if I'm actually teaching tomorrow or not)
19. Discovering that the washing machine was still not fixed....but it wasn't fixed in a different manner. It was throwing the code for not getting water into the soap dispenser. ::sigh:: So, had that attended to yesterday...except it didn't happen and he's coming on Monday (which is fine)

Yeah, you could say it's been a busy week. On top of that, I've done the "regular" stuff like dishes and laundry (when the washer was cooperating), and picking things up, keeping up on Little Man's homework, etc.

No wonder I've not been knitting much.

So, the middle school enrichment thing....three days a week, the middle schoolers have enrichment programs (there's a drama class, chess, volleyball, choir, flutes, robotics, and a bunch of other things). Most of these classes have actual hired teachers and some are done via volunteer. The music classes usually have actual hired teachers......except when paperwork hasn't gone through. So, I have a background in music education. I'm not a licensed music teacher but I've had all the coursework and I have a clue what I'm doing. The flute teacher hasn't had her background check cleared and they still have a class so I was asked in to help teach the middle school flute class. Hence the work on Monday & Thursday.

In addition to that, Husband went back to Wisconsin this week. One of his best friends was in a motorcycle accident a couple weeks ago and apparently they saw something on the x-ray and wanted to do a CT scan...which turns out the "something" they saw on the x-ray was actually thyroid cancer. To be honest, not that anyone wants cancer...but if you're going to get cancer, that's the one you want to get. So, Husband flew back to Wisconsin to help out, cook a buttload of food in bulk (to freeze - because in Wisconsin, everyone has an extra freezer somewhere), and to keep someone sane (probably his friend's mother...but, you know, someone will need a sanity check). But, it means I've been solo with the boys since Thursday, really (he left late Wednesday night so I'm not counting that)...but he won't be back until late on Thursday of this week.

Let's not forget that in the midst of all this, we had houseguests! A friend of Husband's that he grew up with came out here with his wife and their youngest (they have four kids total, the oldest is almost 7 and the youngest is just 10 weeks)...they had planned the trip before we knew what was going on with the friend and then that happened and we didn't want them to switch around their plans and it's not like I wasn't going to be here. So, they were here.

In other random events, I had this come out of Little Man's mouth on Wednesday: "One of the girls said I had a girlfriend......but I don't want a girlfriend."

It was adorable. I can't even explain the tone of his voice but he sounded so cute. He's still in the "girls are icky" stage, which I'm perfectly fine with. He was somewhat concerned, though, because he didn't want to be paired off with someone. Oh, the joys of kindergarten.

Other than the HUGE list of things that happened noted above and a few other random things.....yeah, I think that's enough to be getting on with.

Anyway, here are a few photos from this week...

Stormageddon finally had his chance to sit on the Pokéball outside Target. And then he wouldn't look at me. ::sigh::

On Friday afternoon, after school, I took the boys to the park, along with some classmates. We had a smorgasbord for lunch, the kids played hard, and then Stormageddon started getting really cranky. I took him home and he fought and fought about going down for a nap. I got this right as he was almost asleep. He also fought me last night and I wound up putting him in his crib, still screaming. I thought for sure he was going to wake our guests' baby girl (10 weeks old!)...but she slept right through it.

Little Man got a little shiner on Friday afternoon, as well. It's a nice little bruise now (and ignore the pizza sauce on his face). He has no idea how he got it, which means it probably can't have hurt that much but, being where it is, he just bruised right up. Oh well.

This is the first book (that isn't a homemade book) that Little Man has ever read to me, word for word. It's a Bob Book, which we've had but he wasn't into them when we had them...so they went away and now he gets them from school. This one is about Mat & Sam (which is fitting since they've been working on their "M" and "S" sounds). I'm so proud of him. He's finally starting to listen to books and such.



Anyway, it's been a busy week and next week is looking less busy but still busy......and with Husband out of town, we'll see how all that goes over. I hope you're all having a lovely weekend :)