Y4: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #6

Hello and happy Sunday :) Let's get started!


Finished Objects (FOs):
1. Elefante: started December 19, 2014; finished December 28, 2014
2. Hat #1 - FoH: started December 31, 2014; finished January 1, 2015
3. Hat #2 - FoH: started January 1, 2015; finished January 4, 2015
4. Hat #3 - FoH: started January 7, 2015; finished January 10, 2015 
5. Hat #4 - Stitches Rock Hat: started January 16, 2015; finished January 24, 2015
6. Vanilla Fingerless Mitts: started January 23, 2015; finished February 3, 2015
7. Paradiddle Hat: started January 24, 2015; finished February 7, 2015

Hey there, lookit that :) I finished up the fingerless mitts. I've even washed/blocked them. What I haven't done (yet) is taken proper photographs. I still have some time to do that between now and tomorrow (which is when I intend to ship them to Wisconsin). So, there's that. And I also finished up a prototype for another design. I'm not 100% sure if it will fit Stormageddon (the intended size). I'll find out when he wakes up. It should be. It's a bit shorter than his other ones, which is good because they cover his eyes. 


Works-In-Progress (WIPs): - carried over from 2014...and maybe earlier...
1. Dragon's Egg Socks: started September 2, 2013
2. Pacific Shawl: started June 8, 2014
3. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014
4. Traveling Socks: started December 23, 2014  
5. Wink: started January 5, 2015  


Five projects and I feel a little naked...I almost want to start another one. I might even do just that. We'll see.

I spent some time on two of the above projects this week, in addition to the two most recent FOs. My Dragon's Egg Socks and Pacific Shawl are hibernating for now...I'll get back to them soon enough. I didn't get around to Snape's Stockings this week because I was focused on a few other things, mainly pattern writing, but I also completed the heel on my first Traveling Sock and actually restarted Wink. The Paradiddle Hat was part pattern writing and part just knitting it. But I finished that. And hopefully all the pattern writing will pay off...I still need to do some math because, for some reason, I just don't think my sizing is quite correct. I think I'll need to make a different size to be sure. Or I could have a test knitter do it...but it's not quite ready for that yet....I'm all in a confuzzlement, apparently. Oh well.

Onward...


Children's Items
1. George's Vest (for Stormageddon - sock/fingering; solid or semi-solid)
2. Nottingham (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
3. Nottingham (for Stormageddon - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
4. Alvin (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. Alvin (for Stormageddon - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
6. Harry Potter Blanket (for The Family - worsted; solid) - from various Harry Potter inspired square blocks
7. Albert the Absent-Minded (for Stormageddon - any weight; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)  *need pattern*
8. Mirkwood (for Stormageddon - bulky; solid or semi-solid)
9. Smaug (for Little Man - worsted; solid or semi-solid)
10. Dandy Sir Cephalopod (for Little Man - any weight; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)  *need pattern*
11. Moe the Mustache Monster (for...someone - worsted; self-stripe, variegated, solid, or semi-solid)

Items for Me (Selfish Knitting, FTW!)
1. Vanilla Socks (using one of my Harry Potter yarns)
2. Drip Drip Drop Socks (using either a solid or semi-solid sock yarn that I haven't decided on yet)
3. Hermione Hearts Ron (sport; solid or semi-solid)
4. Ginny's Cardigan (DK; solid or semi-solid)

Secret Sock Club Bags (Pick a bag at random)
1. Scotch and Soda Scarf (using Briar Rose Fibers Wistful - leftover from my Icarus Shawl)
2. CashSilk Fern Scarf (using a skein of Online Supersocke 100)
3. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
4. If You Know Where To Go (in KP Felici in Green Veggies)
5. Gardener's Socks (using Malabrigo Sock)
6. Paradiddle Socks - my own design (using Malabrigo Sock)

Because I love Husband
1. The Dude

New Techniques (one of the following stranded/multi-yarn kits)
1. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie

Christmas Presents
I have absolutely no idea what's going to end up here, if anything. I suspect something will end up here and I might pull it from other lists but we shall see. Maybe I won't do any Christmas knitting. Maybe all I'll wind up doing is Christmas knitting. I suppose this is a wait-and-see section :)

Designs
1. Susan's Hat
2. Traveling Vines Socks
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket 
4. Paradiddle Socks (see Secret Sock Club Bag section)
5. Stitches Rock Collection of Hats (see FO #4 above)
6. Paradiddle Collection of Hats 


In other non-knitting-but-still-fibery news, I've done some library tossing this past week. I went through all my knitting and spinning magazines, as well as all my books and booklets. I have a pile that is almost two feet high of books and magazines I'm willing to part with. If you're interested, you can take a look right here. At some point I'll go through my loose patterns, as well...but that's for another day. I need to organize them and get them into sheet protectors and binders and all that. Doesn't that sound exciting? 

I'm gearing up for Stitches West, as well. It's February 19-22 down in Santa Clara. It only takes me about 40 minutes to get there, if the traffic is decent. I've been going through the list of vendors, trying to decide which ones I want to make sure to visit. There are a couple that are just a given: Erin Lane Bags, Slipped Stitch Studios, and Miss Babs. There are several more that I'm interested in seeing (some I've seen, some I've not): Invictus Yarns, Shalimar Yarns, Carolina Homespun, and Verdant Gryphon. But seriously, my list is almost 40 vendors long and I've still got the last column to go through. I think I'm going to be quite busy that weekend. I'm reallllllly hoping that my friend has her baby either a day or two early or right on time, so that I don't miss Stitches West this year. She's due this coming Saturday and her children are known for being stubborn. Her first one was given an eviction notice and still didn't want to come out (even with induction, baby still didn't want to come out). The second one was given an eviction notice and decided to come at the most inconvenient time in the hospital (mom wasn't induced but the second the doctors left the room because hey, she's not that dilated, he decided he wanted out). Soooooo.....this one, who knows?! Hopefully he'll come on time or a day later. Why is this important? See, when she goes into labor, I'm the one that is watching her other two kids while her and her husband are at the hospital. Husband will help, also, but if it's the middle of the day, I'm on notice. Sooooo, yeah. 



In "real life" events, Stormageddon has rolled from his tummy to his back but he's only done it once or twice. He seems to not be a huge fan of bananas. I think it's because it was so vastly different from the sweet potatoes. I may try those again and lay off the bananas for now. He's growing like a little weed, too. My sister-in-law got him a 3-6 month pair of Oshkosh-B-Gosh overalls (the pinstriped train conductor ones) and they were too big when she was here just a couple weeks ago....and now, I've got the straps as long as they can go and they're almost too tight for him at the shoulders. The legs are still long enough, though. So, it looks like he has a long torso and short legs...like me. ::sigh:: Of course, he's just over five months old so maybe it's time to start thinking about moving him into the 6-9 month clothing. 

Little Man has been all about the iPad and the DS this week. I actually took the DS away from him for a few days and hid it because he was hiding out with it so often (in his bedroom). He's also rediscovered the dry erase board and has been drawing the time vortex from Doctor Who. He had me draw the Tardis (he colored it in, though). He also asks me about going to school on an almost-daily basis. He wants to go. Poor kid. He has to wait until August. 



I hope you've all had a lovely week and weekend and so on and so forth :)

WIP Wednesday

Happy Wednesday :)

It's been awhile since I've participated in a WIP Wednesday post but that needs to change right now. It doesn't take much to take the WIPs out, photograph them, upload them, and go from there...really, it doesn't.

So, let's see what's been going on lately...

My longest-going WIP: Dragon's Egg Socks

I started these on September 2, 2013; a full YEAR before Stormageddon was born. And this is how far I am. To be fair, it requires reading charts and that's not something I can do with small children around. So, these socks have been delegated to "nighttime" knitting and I'm not always coherent enough to knit from charts at night. But I'm past the heel on the first sock so they should go pretty smoothly from here on out...if I would just work on them :)


My next longest-running WIP: Pacific Shawl

I started this shawl on June 8, 2014 after I was gifted the pattern from one of LSG's monthly craft threads I'm on the final set of charts and I can't brain what I was doing so it's currently sitting in time-out until I thread a lifeline through and figure out what the heck I was doing. I have a feeling I'm going to have a good chunk of yarn leftover so I may have to think of something else to do with the yarn :) Also, I'm making the medium version and I suspect it's still going to be quite small. Oh well.


Next up on the WIP Train: Snape's Stockings

I started these on August 20, 2014. I worked on them while I was in the hospital with Stormageddon when he was born. He was in the NICU for jaundice so I didn't have much else to do. I'm currently working on the gusset decreases (that's what those stitch markers on the bottom of the foot are about). These also require chart reading but I can do it a bit with the boys around so I have worked on these here and there. But, they're mostly for "nighttime" knitting.


One of my more recent WIPs: Traveling Socks

Ooooooops. No photo. These were started on December 23, 2014. The reason there's no photo? They're stuck in my purse somewhere and we're having some work done on our ceiling and I'd rather not walk through there if I can avoid it. I'm close to the heel flap but not quite yet. Soon, though, soon.


Next up: Wink

Yeah, I realize this doesn't look like much. The blue is for my provisional cast on and the camel is the actual color...and, honestly, it's pretty close to the actual color. I've not exactly restarted this after Little Man had an adventure with my needles but I do have the pattern printed so I don't have to scroll back and forth looking at charts and chart keys...which means it's also "nighttime" knitting. I hope to get it restarted (again for the fourth or fifth time) in the next week or so. For now, it looks like this. ::sigh:: It was originally started on January 5, 2015.


And my next-to-most-recent WIP: Vanilla Fingerless Mitts

I'm officially halfway finished with this project. That's not bad considering I started them on January 23, 2015. These are definitely going to need a good washing though. You can see it on the first mitt: laddering. I normally don't have this issue when I work with DPNs but it's something about this yarn. I had a similar problem when I made Elefante, as well. But I think it will come out with some washing and agitation. The yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend so I don't have to worry about felting or anything like that. We'll see. I hope to start the second mitt either today or tomorrow.


And my most recent WIP: Paradiddle Hat

Again, I know it doesn't look like much (because it isn't). I started this on January 24, 2015. You also won't find a pattern for this as it's coming from my own little head. The ultimate goal is to have this in a range of sizes from newborn-adult but this one is the 0-6 month size. I think. It'll fit Stormageddon and that's important.



In other random events, there's not much going on. I'm debating about whether I should put myself on some sort of nightly schedule. There are so many things I'd like to do and I feel like some of it I just never get to. I want to start doodling/Zentangle again. I want to read more. I want to knit. I want to spin. I want to blog (more than just WIP Wednesday, FO Friday, and my Self-Imposed Year of Projects). So, perhaps I need to do a schedule or something. Maybe that will help. I don't know.

Oh, here are some photos from when my sister-in-law was in town a couple weeks ago :)

These are the Painted Ladies. The view is from Alamo Square, made famous in the US as being the hill that the Tanner family is sitting on in the opening sequence of Full House as well as being heavily featured in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which I've not seen).

Here are the five of us. Husband and Little Man both wanted to be Captain America that day. And Stormageddon, of course, is looking off in a completely different direction.

And of course we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge. This was taken near Fort Scott. It's still an active military base with occupied military housing and all that.



Anyway, I'm linking up with Tammy today :)