Year the TENTH: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation...wait, no, scratch that. Only fifty-six days (Update #25)

Happy Sunday! According to Phineas & Ferb, there are 104 days of summer vacation....Little Man and I checked; there are only 56 days. Regardless, today is Sunday so let's get on with it!

 

Oh, and a cautionary....all the links for patterns/projects/yarn/fiber will take you to Ravelry. I've just not had time to look into alternatives yet. 

 

 

FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Greenwood Fiberworks Dark BFL (Viktor): started 28 June 2020; finished 17 January 2021
2. Boo-Yah: started 26 January 2021; finished 27 January 2021
3. Minecraft Socks: started 12 August 2020; finished 6 March 2021
4. Alpaca (Viktor): started 17 January 2021; finished 17 March 2021
5. Dyeing Project: started 9 April, 2021; finished 9 April 2021
6. El Panal Cowl: started 5 April 2021; finished 29 April 2021
7. Rose City Rollers: started 7 March 2021; finished 1 June 2021

Nope. Move along...

 

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. Sand Drift Blanket: started 17 January 2021
12. Flax for Stormageddon: started 29 April 2021
13. Rose City Rollers: started 1 June 2021

I've done some actual knitting! Hooooray! 

I'm working down the foot of the first of the latest pair of Rose City Rollers. I finished up the heel flap, did the heel turn, and I've started the heel gusset decreases. I figure I have maybe 60 rounds left before the toe decreases. Not that I'm counting or anything. It's been good TV knitting, which is good as Husband has been going through the following Star Wars shows: The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Bad Batch. In addition to that, we've also been watching Loki because MCU and a few other random things. 

I also worked on Stormageddon's Flax sweater. I decided to pause on the body and start working on the arms because I want to make sure I have enough to match the dyelots for the arms until I need to start mixing them further down. I don't think I'm making sense but the point is that I have a third skein that was not purchased with the first two and I need to add it in but I want to get the sleeves to the same point as the body before I start doing that so things look more.....intentional. I think that's what I'm going for. Yeah. That made more sense. So, I'm in the middle of Sleeve Hell right now (first sleeve). The sleeves are also going to have the same stripes as the body so I'll be able to work back and forth between the two sleeves (I have 2 sets of Signature DPNs so I can do that and it'll be fine). I really should take an updated photo of that....

My Vanilla Socks were also pulled out and had a few rounds put into them. I thought I was much closer to my toe decreases than I was so, sadly, I'm still in the midst of Foot Hell, which is much like Sleeve Hell, but without having to change yarns. I'm close to the toe decreases, however, which is a good thing. I'm not sure how I feel about these socks. I think they'll be fine. They fit me fine and all that, though a bit shorter than I usually make my socks but I've never done single-ply yarn for socks. So.......we'll see. 

I know. It doesn't look like a lot but I really did make some good progress and that's all that counts, right?! Besides, I'm playing for all the Internet Points in Stash Dash. Also, it looks like Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday, which will also help in my quest for Internet Points and have the added bonus of clearing some fluff out of my fluff stash and into my yarn stash. Or not. We'll see how things go. I have plans to spin, which is a start...but what I'm going to spin is still a mystery. 

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?)

Children's Items
1. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
2. Mittens for Stormageddon (worsted weight probably)
3. 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 (I think I have 5 left)

2. Random worsted/sport skeins (I have maybe 2-3 left)

3. Anything else I find along the way (I don't think there's anything else)

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

 

 

 

Like I mentioned above, we only have 8 weeks of summer vacation. And it started this week. Tuesday was the last day of school. I took this photo of the boys Tuesday morning. Their last day as a 4th grader and a kindergartner. Normally, I don't think the boys look all that much alike...and then photos like this happen.  

 

 

 

 

After school, I took the boys to the beach in Half Moon Bay, which is about a half-hour drive in decent traffic. We met a couple other families from the school and the kids played and the moms (and one dad) talked. All the adults were cold except me. ::sigh::  Actually, I was "cold" when this photo was taken. I had a tank top on prior to this.

 

 

 

The boys didn't actually go in the ocean because it's too cold but they splashed around at the edge, looked for sea creatures (and found a few parts of what may have once been jellyfish), and attempted to bury each other in the sand. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the week was kind of a hot mess at home, through no fault of our own. We have had some....issues....with our neighbors since we moved in. They have a large family, and when they get together, they can get loud and honestly, disrespectful. Like they wouldn't clean up after themselves, they would be loud/obnoxious into the wee hours of the night, and they take up a lot of physical space with vehicles, especially when the family gets together. Driveways are blocked constantly, roads are blocked by double-parking, music is loud, you get the idea.

 

Well......the patriarch of the family passed away about two weeks ago. He fell and it didn't go well after that. He was 90 so it's not surprising that a fall led to his passing. Now, when I said they have a large family, I wasn't kidding. The Old Man was one of 12 siblings and each of them had at least 4 children of their own, who had at least a few of their own, and so on. There are 4 generations of families from these 12 siblings (and don't forget about their cousins and the additional generations from them...). 

They're Tongan and as part of their culture, the mourning period is up to two weeks. In addition to that, they're Catholic. Do you see where I'm going with this? This past week has been a flurry of the family visiting and a ton of activity next door. Port-a-potties were brought in, a huge tent was set up in the front yard....at one point, there were probably 300 people next door. I talked to one of the granddaughters that lives there and she said that was maybe half the family, at most. It. Was. Insane. Thankfully, the craziest and busiest part only lasted three days. We made a tuna casserole. They dropped off this:

 

 

 

 

 

When I said they had a lot of people, I wasn't kidding. This is from our front camera. They have my car completely blocked in by....I don't even know what's behind my car, honestly. You can see the tent on the left, people in the street....yeah. It was crazy around here. The UPS truck couldn't get through so the guy actually just parked about halfway down our block and walked our packages to us. It really was that bad. And on Friday, Husband dropped off a (frozen) pulled pork shoulder. Then they dropped off two cakes. I feel like we're going to be going back and forth for awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

Something I will say, though.....we've had plenty of issues in the past. We've called the cops on them more times than I'd like to admit. But we offered an olive branch. So, we'll see how it goes. They were actually outside cleaning up the mess yesterday morning. Like garbage bags and sweeping up broken anything. Husband let them the leaf blower. Soooo....we'll see.

 

Yesterday was also "Promotion Day" at our house. Little Man was promoted to mowing the lawn. Stormageddon was promoted to picking up dog poop and cleaning up the yard. I still have to do the weed whacking, which is fine. Mom's Salon was also open and the boys both got haircuts yesterday. Stormageddon wanted his tiny hair so I used the shortest attachment we had. Little Man didn't want me to cut his hair but it needed to be done. The last few times I've done it, I've used the longest attachment we have...I went down a little bit so it's shorter than he wanted but it'll be good for summer.

 

 

 

 

 

The only other things that happened this past week were a trip to one of the parks for a playdate (in obnoxious heat) and Little Man caught a pair of garter snakes. We are very exciting. 

I'm hoping that we can work on cleaning out the boys' rooms this week. I'd like to go through all their clothes this week. Little Man can pass down some of his stuff to Stormageddon but Stormageddon is outgrowing things so I'd like to get them out of the house. I also want them to go through their toys again. And school paperwork. Little Man doesn't have much of that but Stormageddon has so much and honestly, I don't really want to keep much of it so I may take the time and do that myself....because he'll want to keep everything. 

We'll see what the week brings. 

I hope you've had a lovely week and weekend! I think I'm making a cheesecake today for Husband since it's Father's Day. I don't know what we're having for dinner but I have dessert figured out. That's important!