ELEVENTH Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Someone tell the groundhog he's an idiot (Update #12)

 Woo Sunday! Let's get going 😍

FOs (Finished Objects)

Not yet. Someday......maybe? We'll see.

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. Vanilla Socks: started 12 December 2021
13. Dishcloth: started 25 February 2022
14. Mixed BFL (Annie): started 18 March 2022
15. Lakeline Tank: started 18 March 2022

So. It appears that I'm a crazy person. Again. Some more. Whatever, ti's fine. 

I started two new projects on Friday. My craft room is still a hot mess but I had some time to myself and I took it for crafting. I pulled out my new wheel, which has decided that her name is Annie, and I pulled out some fiber, and I started spinning.

I've had the fiber for a few years now. I picked it up at Lambtown in 2015 from Carolina Homespun (she's active on Facebook and Instagram, though she doesn't have a website). It's a mix of BFL, undyed. We'll see how the finished fiber turns out. I might dye it, I might leave it alone. Right now, it's been a delightful spin. I'm using the 16 oz bobbin that came with my wheel. I suspect I'm going to spin about half onto it, spin half onto an 8 oz bobbin, and then ply onto the other 16 oz bobbin. Or something. I haven't decided yet. I have a little time. I don't know when I'll get back into the room to spin.

The only issue I ran into was that I have carpet in my craft room, obviously, and Annie sinks so the wheel doesn't turn very well. I'm going to have to get some sort of mat or hard rug for underneath. As it is, the drive band left a black mark on the carpet. Oops. But it was still a delightful spin. 

In addition to that, I also started swatching for the Lakeline Tank. I bought the pattern a few months ago after seeing a college friend's test knit (and discovering that it does, in fact, come in my size). I decided on a "big box" yarn called Nuboo by Lion Brand. It's 100% Lyocell, which is a fiber made from sustainable bamboo pulp. It's soft and drapey like bamboo or linen, but has the strength of mercerized cotton. I've only been swatching; I haven't actually started the project. I need to find my tape measure to figure out my gauge for pre- and post-blocking...I know I have a few around the house. I think what I really want is my Anne Budd stitch gauge ruler (available at Webs, among other places)...I have a few of those, as well, because I keep losing them. Now, to be honest, I rarely swatch. I have a pretty good idea how yarn behaves for certain things like hats and socks and I usually over-buy for things like shawls so if my gauge is off, it's not a big deal...but this is a new-to-me yarn and I have no idea what it's going to do. Hence, I'm swatching. 

In other crafting events, I finished up another granny square. I haven't started a new one because we were watching Picard and it was a bit intense (not as intense as last week but still intense). Hoepfully I'll get another one started this week. 

I also pulled out the UW Ski Hat and sorted out a few more rounds. I know I've mentioned this in the past when I've worked on this project but I'll mention it again. The chart for this is teeny-tiny and I have a really hard time reading it so I "translate" it in a notebook and work from that. So instead of reading across a teeny-tiny chart, I read on my paper something like, "3R - 2W - 4R, etc," which is perfect unless I screw up the translation...which is what happened on the 8th round. So, I had to tink back some colorwork and fix the issue. It's not difficult to tink back colorwork but I have no desire to have to drop down and fix something that way in colorwork. No thanks. But, I fixed it and moved on. I've got through the 12th round translated and I'm in the middle of the 9th round of actual knitting.

I think that was it, though. It wasn't a terribly productive week but it kind of was? Meh. Progress is progress. 

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. Park Slope (fingering weight - Mountain Fibers Crazyfoot in Shamrock)
2. Flax (worsted weight - Misty Alpaca in the Harry Potter colors)
3. Musselburgh (any weight - likely DK or worsted)*
4. 3 Color Cashmere Cowl (fingering weight, 3 colors)
5. Gradient Band Cowl (fingering weight - Safronie Fairy Tales gradient and a solid)*
6. Fine Tune (fingering weight - uses minis so maybe a rainbow type one with the Canon Hand Dyes?)
7. Stashbusting Helix Hats (worsted weight - bits and bobs of worsted)
8. Lakeline Tank (Aran weight - I have yarn for this somewhere...like I bought it specifically for this but I can't remember what it is)
9. Hüj Tüb (laceweight - maybe that 100% lace cashmere I've had forever?)
10. Undone (bulky - maybe the reclaimed Freeport Vest yarn?)

 

Children's Items/Knitting for others
1. Flax for Little Man (worsted weight - likely Baah Yarns Shasta in London Blue)
2. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
3. The Mandolorian (sport weight - need grey, white, and green...which I might have)*
4. Zelda Beanie (worsted weight - black or grey and yellow, which I'm sure I have)
5. Wasabi for Mr. K (worsted weight - Cascade 220 in Moss Agate if possible)
6. Bugle for Miss E (worsted weight - multicolor; htNEVELE in Reverie if possible)
7. Bonbon for Miss C (worsted weight - Cascade 220 in Vinci if possible)
8. Baby Bear for Mr. T (fingering weight - anything will work)
9. Pig for Earle & Duane (worsted weight - need pink, of course...maybe a good use for the one skein of Molly Ringwald I have?)

 

Utilitarian/Household Items
1. On-Trend Chair Socks (worsted weight bits and bobs) - I have a lot of chairs that could use these
2. Garter Chevron Blanket (KP Mighty Stitch - may need to get some more black or white)
3. Diagonal Knit Dishcloths (cotton of some sort, possibly a cotton/bamboo blend, depending on use)
4. Reusable Produce Bag (cotton or acrylic of some sort - worsted)
5. Harry Potter Blanket (worsted weight - based on several dishcloth patterns to make blocks)
6. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (cotton or a cotton/bamboo blend, again based on use)
7. Pop Blanket (worsted weight - a little of this and that?)
8. Holiday Countdown Stockings (worsted weight - various colors)

 

Spinning:
1. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL in Stream Bed
2. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL in Winter Night
3. Timber Ridge Farm Alpaca Roving
4. Ashland Bay Fiber 100% Merino Top in English Garden
5. Anne's Fiber Expressions Elynenium

 

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, but maybe?)

 

Other Fibery Endeavors:
1. Stash Fit
2. Create a project bag inventory
3. Update library inventory (on Ravelry)
4. Update stash inventory (on Ravelry) and reorganize yarn
5. Stitch markers: make kits and individual for Etsy shop
6. Destash as necessary/needed

 

The weather has been wonky around here, again. It was really nice earlier in the week. We got a new patio set (because we left ours in California - on purpose) and I put the chairs together, and we spent time on the screened in porch. The boys played outside. It was a really nice day. Then it got a little colder, but still relatively nice. And then we got rain and it got colder. And yesterday morning, we had snow...but it wasn't warm enough to really stick/freeze, which was good. It might be nice again for a day or two before dropping back down into the upper-40s. It's the one thing I dislike about spring and fall: the back and forth between nice and crappy weather. Oh well. 

Aside from that, I fell down half a flight of stairs last Monday. We have beautiful wooden stairs that go from the main floor to the boys' domain upstairs. We knew they were slippery when we bought the house and we put 48" long, 4" wide anti-slip strips on the stairs, double-wide...so they're actually 8" wide. Regardless, we did things to mitigate slipping on the stairs....except I managed it. I slipped, landed on my butt, and proceeded to fall down about 4-6 additional stairs. My back is less than pleased, obviously, I have a blackish-purple bruise on my left buttcheek that is still extremely tender, my left foot swelled up a bit from where I tried to stop myself falling (basically the ball of my foot), and my hips are out of whack. Nothing is broken but I'm pretty sore, even almost a week later. I know I'll be back to normal(ish) eventually.

With the fall down the stairs, I wasn't able to do a whole lot. I did get some patio chairs put together, which wasn't terribly difficult but I was standing for a long period of time. Standing for awhile made my back grumpy. But, the good news is that the chairs are relatively comfortable. The bad news is that it got cold so we're not sitting out on the screened in porch. Oh well. I know warmer days are ahead. 

I did manage to get into my craft room on Friday, and not just for spinning and knitting. I spent time unpacking a few things and trying to put things away. I also sorted a few things out, threw some things out, and so on. Did I make as much progress as I would have liked? Absolutely not. But there's time and I'll get there. It's still a hot mess in there but I'll get there. 

Oh! I almost forgot! I also put a rocking chair together for the front porch. It's made of a plastic material, similar to what our deck in California was made from. It's not terribly heavy and wasn't difficult to put together. I did that before I fell, thankfully. We picked it up from Costco.

We also had a puppy visitor to our house. This is Puppy's girlfriend. She's a 2 year old yellow labrador named Daisy. She loves to give kisses. She hasn't been over to visit recently because she hurt herself and needed to be kept calm and down. But she's a sweet pupper.

Stormageddon hasn't been feeling so hot. He was running a fever and said his brain hurt on Friday night. I gave him some Tylenol and this was him yesterday morning:

 

 

 

By the time yesterday afternoon rolled around, he was doing this again. I don't know if he's just not feeling well or if he was bored or some combination of the two. But he crashed out on the couch yesterday afternoon. Poor kiddo.

 

I hope you all had a lovely week and weekend (better than mine, anyway). I still haven't posted about all that I bought at the Madison Knitters' Guild Knit In but I'll get there. I haven't even put it away yet. I'll get there. Maybe this week? We'll see!