Year the TENTH: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - History has it's eyes on us (Update #4)

 Happy Sunday! This past week has been a whirlwind and we'll have to talk about that, but first, let's get into my Self-Imposed Year of Projects. This marks the end of my first month...sort of. I mean, it's the 4th update but it's not the end of the month yet. We have that sneaky 5th Sunday this month. Regardless, let's get going!

FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Greenwood Fiberworks Dark BFL (Viktor): started 28 June 2020; finished 17 January 2021

I finished something! Well, it's like 99% finished. I started spinning this during Tour de Fleece at the end of June and I just finished it up this week, meaning I plied my two bobbins together. I do still have a little left on one of the bobbins and I'll Andean-ply that later, but otherwise, it's done. It's even been washed and hanked back up. The finished skein has about 290 yds, which means it's a light worsted, maybe a DK weight. Somewhere in that neighborhood. Given that I'll probably wind up with another 10-20 yds after I Andean-ply the remaining bit, I'm leaning closer to a DK weight. I do not have a decent photo of the finished skein yet. Maybe next week? I do, however, have this photo, which was taken right after I finished plying. The bobbin was the one Husband made on the 3D printer and I needed to try it out. I think he'll be making me more of these. Bobbins are great to have. 

 

 

 

WIPs (Works-in-Progress) *these are carried over year after year, as needed*
1. Wink: started 5 January 2015
2. Shetland Neck Wool (support spindle): started 8 September 2017
3. Returning: started 14 January 2018
4. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini): started 13 April 2018
5. Granny Square Blanket: started 28 April 2018
6. UW Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018
7. Purl & Loop Weaving Project: started 28 August 2018
8. Herbivore: started 15 November 2018
9. Linen Stitch Scarf: started 2 June 2020
10. Vanilla Socks: started 9 August 2020
11. Minecraft Socks: started 12 August 2020
12. Sand Drift Blanket: started 17 January 2021
13. Alpaca (Viktor): started 17 January 2021

So, because I finished one project, I get to start two more, kind of like Hydra, or something. Whatever, I started two projects this week. Because I had finished a spinning project, I started a new spinning project. I've had this grey alpaca hanging around since 2014 and I've never spun alpaca so I just dove in. I'm really hoping that it doesn't turn out like rope but we'll see. So far, I'm spinning it a bit thicker than I normally would to help it not turn out like rope and also because it apparently wants me to. It will probably wind up being an Aran weight when I'm done. Maybe bulky. I don't know yet. 

I also started the Sand Drift Blanket that I talked about last week (wherein my friend threw the yarn, needles, and pattern at me). It's not a terrible knit but I can see how she would have been overwhelmed and frustrated. What she needs is to knit a worsted version of this where you only hold one strand of each color. The rows take forever so I've only been doing one pattern repeat at a time, which is four rows. It's fairly meditative, actually, but I'm weird in that I like linen stitch. I do not, however, like 1x1 ribbing...but linen stitch doesn't bother me. Anyway, that started. It's only a couple inches in at this point so there's not much to see. 

Aside from the two new projects, I worked on two of the older WIPs this week, as well. I finished up the cuff for the second Minecraft Sock for Little Man. Then I started the pattern and it was discovered that I cannot, in fact, count to three. The socks are currently sitting in the naughty corner to think about what they've done. I need to tink back two rounds because I managed to miscount my rounds. It's a twelve-round pattern repeat but it's broken up into three rounds per direction. I got the first three rounds right (because they're just plain knit rounds) but I managed to knit only two rounds of the second set of three rounds so I need to tink back and actually try to count my rounds and see. I'm not positive I screwed up but I'm pretty sure I did. Thankfully, it's only two rounds. 

I also finished up the heel flap & turn and started the gusset decreases on my Vanilla socks. They are also in the naughty corner. When I picked up the heel flap stitches, I discovered that I knit an additional two rows that I cannot find a mistake for and rather than rip it back, I went with it. It's fine. The yarn is so dark and fuzzy that if you can notice that, you're too close to my feet and deserve a kick. But that wasn't the only issue. When I did my first heel gusset decrease, which is a SSK, I managed to drop a stitch that I didn't notice until I was trying to figure out why I had an odd number of stitches in my heel turn...it didn't run very far but it was enough that there's a noticeable hole there and I'll have to patch it up or risk it turning into a bigger hole. So, more knits in the naughty corner. 

But that was it, I swear!

OMGLSGWTFBBQ

Design WIPs:
1. Messed Up Moss: started March 2009 - write pattern as PDF (iterations: first, second)
2. Susan's Hat: started 31 August 2010 - need new prototypes & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third, mini, fifth, sixth)
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket: started July 2010 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
4. Chunky Scarf: started 6 October 2012 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
5. Pacific Waves Hat: started 9 March 2016 - need new prototype & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third)
6. Fall in San Francisco: started 18 September 2016 - need new prototype & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
7. Stomping Grounds Collection: started 26 February 2017 - need prototypes & write patterns
8. Unnamed Hat Design: started 14 August 2017 - need various weight yarn prototypes & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
9. Paradiddle Socks: started 19 October 2017 - write pattern (iteration: here)

 

Design Ideas:
1. Christmas Stocking for Husband
2. Christmas Stocking for Little Man
3. Christmas Stocking for Stormageddon
4. Baby Blanket
5. Stomping Grounds Collection

 

Items for ME (Selfish Knitting FTW!):
1. Rose's Wrist Warmers (DK weight - using Aran instead; hand-dyed Malabrigo Twist?)
2. Perianth (fingering weight - Knitcircus Trampoline in The Whole Enchilada)
3. Stranger Things Hat (worsted - Malabrigo Rios in Archangel)
4. Autopilot (worsted weight - Sincere Sheep Cormo Worsted or htNEVELE Worsted in Reveire)
5. Fine Tune (fingering weight - uses minis so maybe a rainbow type one with the Canon Hand Dyes?)*
6. Flax (worsted weight - Misty Alpaca in the Harry Potter colors)
7. Park Slope (fingering weight - Mountain Fibers Crazyfoot in Shamrock)
8. Undone (bulky - maybe the reclaimed yarn from the Freeport Vest?)
9. Socks (fingering weight - Bob knows I have enough so I should use it - maybe with the CSM)
10. Sockhead (fingering weight - I have tons...pick something!)
11. Age of Brass & Steam (Handspun purple/white barber pole)
12. Radiate Shawl (fingering weight - Artfibers Carezza maybe?)
13. El Panal Cowl (Kit from Greenwood Fiberworks)

Children's Items
1. Flax for Stormageddon (Stunning String Legacy Worsted)
2. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
3. Mittens for Stormageddon (worsted weight probably)
4. Boo-yah! for Stormageddon (Creatively Dyed leftover sock yarn in Dark)
5. Maybe a Flax for Little Man...maybe...

 

Utilitarian/Household Items
1. Garter Chevron Blanket (KP Mighty Stitch - may need to get some more black or white)
2. Diagonal Knit Dishcloths (cotton of some sort)
3. Reusable Produce Bag (cotton or acrylic of some sort - worsted)
4. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (cotton or maybe bamboo, depending on the use)

Spinning:

1. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL

2. Mixed BFL

3. Allons-Y Fiber Arts Merino, Trilobal Nylon, Silk

4. Fiberlady.com 100% Bamboo 

Dyeing:

1. Sock Blanks
2. Skeins of sock yarn
3. Random worsted/sport skeins

4. Anything else I find along the way

Other Fibery Endeavors:

1. Create project bag inventory

2. Update library inventory (on Ravelry) *in progress*

3. Update stash inventory (on Ravelry) *needs to be redone*

4. Stitch markers: kits and individual

5. Destash as necessary (it's always necessary)

6. Stash Fit

 

 

This week, we saw history happen in the United States. Again. If truth be told, I'm really getting tired of all these historical events happening in my lifetime. Like, I feel like we should already be so far ahead of this and yet, here we are. 

This week, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Kamala Harris were sworn in as the President and Vice President of the United States, respectively. We saw our daily Covid19 numbers go over 4,000 dead per day, and we saw our overall Covid19 deaths rise to over 400,000. We also saw a former president slinking off instead of welcoming his predecessor to the White House. We saw the House send the second Impeachment paperwork over to the Senate, which has been scheduled for early February. History has it's eyes on us. Again. 

A bit closer to home, remember that earthquake I had mentioned in my last post? Well, here's what happens to a 3D print when a 4.5 earthquake happens:

 
There's a ridge going toward the right side, about in the middle. That's the earthquake.

In addition to the knitting I mentioned above, I forgot to mention some knitting mending I did. It's not a very good job but the point was to make it so it could last another twelve years or so. Many many many moons ago, when I was a wee knitter, I was getting married. I decided to make all the dudes in the wedding scarves. I wound up making...I think it was like ten scarves, all of the same pattern, which I've long forgotten other than it was a slip stitch of some sort. Anyway, our friends in Fremont, across the San Francisco Bay from us...the husband was Husband's Best Man when we got married. The scarf has been well-used and loved by everyone in the family (they have three kids these days). It was great when the weather was cold when they lived in Virginia but since they've moved to California, they haven't needed it often, so the kids have been using it for dressup and playtime and whatever. Well, one of the kids got his little hands on some scissors and decided to cut, right at the edge. I have none of this yarn left anywhere, though I know it was an acrylic of some kind, and it was right on the edge. I grabbed some unknown worsted cotton yarn I had laying around (I feel like it was maybe pima cotton as it's kind of shiny but I'm not sure). I used that to try to mitigate the damage. Like I said, it's not very pretty but it's functional! I shipped it back over to them earlier this week. As long as the kids keep the scissors away from it, it should be fine.

 
Puppy has been going through some retraining. He sleeps in the bed with us, which is fine as long as he actually sleeps. Unfortunately, he had gotten into this habit where he was getting up in the middle of the night because he wanted to go pee. He starts dancing around, jangling his tags, and I wake up. Husband tends to sleep right through this, much like he did when the boys cried as babies. 

Anyway, I wasn't getting a whole lot of sleep so we decided he needed retraining by spending his nights in the kennel for a week or two. And now he's back to not dancing every night...for now. I don't know how long it will last but we'll see. He was dancing last night for a bit and I told him to lay down and he hopped back up on the bed and did just that. No issues the rest of the night. He's such a pretty puppy. He does need a bath and his nails trimmed, though. ::sigh::

 
Stormageddon and I played a few games of Jenga one night this past week. He's actually pretty good at it. I think this was our first game that night. He's very proud of himself. As he and Little Man get older, I can definitely see which traits come from which parent. Both Husband & Stormageddon are good at things like this. I am with practice but they just inherently know. With that said, I did win two out of the three games we played but he's six and I'm not.

Aside from all that, not much else happened this week. The weather is expected to turn cold and rainy again this week. We'll see if it actually happens. Sometimes I think meteorologists make it all up because they don't have a clue. It was supposed to rain a few times this week and we got a little rain over night once. Enough to make my backyard muddy but that was about it. 

I hope you've had a lovely week and weekend!