Sneaking it in

I am sneaking in a quick post in case I don't get time later.  

Marcus came out of the room I am staying in with a big ball of yarn and he said he brought it because I probably needed it. Sweet isn't it.  

Since I was knitting on socks at the time, it seemed like a good idea to go and check out my sweater bag.  The sweater was all over the floor,  I took yarn (attached) and stuffed it all back in and told him thank you for helping grandma. 

Because what else could I say when really, he wanted to do something nice.  I only hope the stitches are all still on the needle.  

And so it goes.

Sock knitting

Yesterday was all about sock knitting and it kind of felt good to take a day to focus on those small simple to knit things.  I seem to go from no socks on the needles to many pairs on the go and right now I have many on the go and not a single solitary pair finished this year.  I don't think I have been so behind since the first year I was knitting.

Yesterday I worked on two pairs that I thought would be brainless to work on.  Not so much for pair one.  

 The cable on this side of the sock for my brother has a dropped stitch.  Once I get that sorted, it will be ready to knit again.

This is part of a pair of socks that the goal is to use up as much of the yarn as possible.  This is the only time I have worked two at a time.

That I can remember anyway and you know what?  It's making me nuts.  I know many people who wouldn't consider knitting socks any other way than two at a time, usually one one needle (the path of of true insanity.  😉) but not always.  I'm happy they like it, but It is just not my thing.  

After I realized I dropped the stitch, I set it aside in favour of  another sock well under way. It didn't take long to make significant headway and call sock one long enough.

Sock one, the perfect stubby length for my feet and with an afterthought heel, perfect height cuff for my kankles.

I do hope to get all the socks I have on the needles done as part of stash dash, even the fancy lacy one.  They are all so close to complete and it feels just a bit wrong to not have a completed pair yet in 2018. 

Today is back to the sweater day.  Its raining here,  and it isn't a school day and the kids are playing happily downstairs together.  Seems like good knitting could happen.


 
 

One and Done

On Sunday morning, I sat down to work on something.  I didn't feel awake enough for a sweater, so I picked up the Log Cabin mittens I have been working on.  It just felt like the right thing.

I was watching F1 and while some races are conducive  to great knitting, Monaco isn't one of them.  It's full of corners and lots of busy things.  Picking up all the stitches was only possible because of commercials!

Shortly after the race  was won, I finished mitt number two.

I'm pretty pleased with them.  The ends need weaving and for small things, they have a lot of ends, but they fit nicely and will keep my hands warm next winter.  

I did one mistake.  The mitts are exactly the same, so the second back of the hand doesn't show the same part of the pattern as the first, but by the time I realized it, it was too late to worry about it.    They will do the job.

The other thin about getting this little job done first in Stash Dash is it clears the way  for getting some socks done as palate cleansers  between larger projects.

And tht was it fo Sunday knitting.   My grandkids are here and we are planting flowers today.  Wish me luck.




 

Dash: To run or travel in a great hurry

Why yes, yes I am.  

Late yesterday afternoon, at about a third of the way through the back section, I started working off the second skein of yarn.  Today, after knitting the whole day, with breaks for excersize, gratuitous meandering on Ravelry, a good nap and dishes, I got to this point on skein number two.

I am about a third of the way through the second underarm section.  

What a wonderful day.  After months of lingering hand numbness and pain and all sorts of oddness and weirdness and strains, sprains and tendonitis,, my right hand finally feels good and strong enough to do what it needs to do and I owe it to one thing.

A Powerball.  I've had mine for two weeks, admittedly not heavy knitting weeks, but with it's help, I knit an entire baby blanket last weekend, and I knit a huge part of a sweater today.  I took regular breaks, about 10 minutes every hour, and several longer breaks, but I did a lot of knitting last weekend, and again this weekend, with no soreness, no tiredness, no numbness, no aches.  I feel like myself again when I sit down to knit.  How lovely to get back to it.

I am dashing to get this one done, because there are lots more things to knit, and I cannot wait to get to knit those too.

 

Stash Dash: Declaring My Intentions

The knitting continues on Amy's Camping Pole sweater.  It is in the long part where there is really only two things happening, a short row section and the rows between.  It's not that exciting for you but I am really enjoying working it.

 I'm a big fan of the Knit Girllls video podcast.  A couple of summers ago, I did Stash Dash with them and had a lot of fun.  I tried some of their other event things and failed miserably.  Last year, there wasn't anything that I was interested in focusing on to finish by summers end.  This year?  I've been pre-gaming the system.  

This sweater? Needs a steek cut and placket and collar and it is done.  I left it because here was no rush but also left completing it for Stash Dash.  

This sweater, begun last summer and still waiting for completion?  Going to be complete before the end of summer.

And this sweater?  Planning on finishing this before summer begins.  It's a camping sweater.  She will use it this year even though my wee Emmett is still teeny tiny and adorable and cute. They love camping.

But, there is more.

 I really want to get this pair of handwarmers done.   I am know that the pair I made last winter made a huge difference to my hands and wrists.  I've only stopped wearing them to bed this last few weeks when the weather warmed up to extremely hot so suddenly.  I'd like to have a couple more pairs of various warmers ready for winter, but this is the one I will focus on finishing. 

And last but not least,

This lovely shawl. Bridgewater. I started her a lifetime ago.  I meant to finish her for sure last Christmas for Olga's mom, but hand problems, a messy lace problem and a short timeline meant it didn't happen.  It is past time for it to be finished.  

I do hope to complete at least one of the pairs of socks that are on the needles.  It would actually be nice to finish more than one but with a few pairs in the wings ready and waiting, I don't feel a lo of pressure.  

 Totally Pre-gamed, to say nothing of the many projects I would like to start!

Stash Dash, starts today!

Does This Look Like A Sweater?

See what you think.

It is till an amorphous mass of knitting, looking like not a lot more than just a pile of knitting.

You can see that I am about halfway across the back of the back rectangle.  Things are moving along even though it seems like a painfully slow process. 

I hear little feet.  Gotta go.

 

When Knitting Doesn't Work.

When knitting isn't happening, there is always lovely Ravelry to fill in the tiny pockets of time I do seem to get.  

This morning, before it is too hot out, the kids are outside and I am just inside watching them out the door.  I decided to have another look at a new tailored sweater by Laura Aylor.  Laura is one of my favourite designers.  She generally stays with clean simple lines and garments that really work.  

Her newest sweater design is Fogbound.  It's almost blazer like look would make it perfect for even the stuffiest offices.  It's crisp lines and neat, cleverly tucked pocket make that tidy corner of my heart sing.  If I was still doing office work I would make it like a shot.  For my life at home, particularly in this house, that collar is very attractive.  The double layers of the distinctive deep shawl collar are perfect for the chill on the back of my neck.  

Looking at this sweater this morning led me to another new sweater, Ashore.  While I can make Fogboun work for me, Ashore is going to happen.  I love the simple everyday style of this.  It's style without pretension.  It's style for ordinary lives.  It is an every person can do this.  

I already have the mods I will make. There is  lovely colourwork forest panel out there somewhere that I think I could work into these classic lines.  It would take a bit of figuring but it's the only way I have enough of he yarn that came to mind for his sweater.  It's some Green Cascade Eco Plus, and I do have 3 balls, but adding a smattering of cream and maybe it would work. I do have another yarn in mind an I know I have tons of that.  

The only problem with the other yarn is that I already have a plan for it, and that too comes from Laura Aylor's stable of patterns.   Harkening Hill would be perfect for this special yarn.  The only problem is will there be enough colour contrast to have the punch tht com from that rich rust.  The yarn I am thinking of, is all so very natural and if the punch isn't there, do I want to add something else in.  

So many decisions.  All this looking for the perfect thing is just right for his stinky hot weather.

On Changing Bags for Something Different.

I'm with grandkids again today.  Having a  fulfilling knitting life is hard with little kids around.  Sometimes the challenge is bigger than me.  But there are things that are slowly falling into place.  

One of the things I am doing is change out my usual bag for sweater projects (the big ziploc that comes in a box of 5 bags) and I am using one of these. 

This bag is normally full of spinning stuff, but it happened to be sitting empty, right where I needed it to be, to become the perfect solution for sweater knitting on the road.

As a sweater knitting bag, it really is great.  It can fit plenty of yarn in the bottom of the bag, and it can fit the garment unsquished.  I'm thinking these might become regular sweater knitting bags for at home too.

It can also hide grandma's devices from small people who think they should be on devices all the time under all the yarn.  

I know that most people buy or make nice bags for themselves from the many makers online, but my beer bags are a great solution.  The biggest plus is that they are waterproof and are perfect for car camping trips. I never have to worry about things getting damp from dewey grass.  

It is sweater knitting that is getting the knitting time today.  I am now about a third of the way across the back panel.  With a little luck, I will get another full section complete today. 

Ok, That is it. I am Done

Done baby things that is.  

If you have only a couple days off and you really would like to knit a lot (I don't mean a single lot, I mean many many lots.) then decide you are going to knit a baby blanket in a weekend.

I didn't really decide that but it did happen.

I cast on 75 stitches in the Comfort Chunky, and then just knit and after every pattern repeat, did one row of garter stitch in the blue.  I knit all day yesterday, and had 5 of the colour repeats completed before I stopped.  This morning, I did one more, and took stock of the yarn.  I was still on ball one of each of the yellow and white, but I was a little concerned about the blue.  Originally I was going to make this longer with 7 colour repeats, but when I looked at colours, and thought abut the edging, the blue would have been an issue had I continued.  As it was, I couldn't do another full ridge of garter stitch in blue on the outside edge.    I got a really nice 32 x 32 blanket this way and that is good enough for stollers and carseats.

I am pretty pleased with how this quickie blanket worked up (about 12 hours total) and I do hope mommy likes it as much as I do. Berroco Comfort Chunky is a really good acylic and nylon yarn.  It feels really wonderful, dense and deep and perfect for projects like this, where washing and wear and tear are an issue.  Which explains why I have a very stuffed full tub of the stuff.  

Not out of my system yet.

I finished up the last bit of hats last evening and got up this morning to work on the sweater.  Only I didn't feel like knitting on the sweater.  What to do?  What to do?

Baby knitting is not out of my system yet.

The other day while sorting through yarns for baby things, I pulled out a few stray colours of Berroco Comfort Chunky.  I had yellow and white that I picked up when RCY was selling off the last of the yarn in their stock.  I picked up a single blue at another time from the bottom of the bottom of a discount bin. 

I always thought it would be perfect for kids scarves and little kiddie hats but it just was never the right yarn for my kiddies.  I was never sure it was enough for a baby blanket either.  Turns out 685 metres is.  Or it will be.

It won't be a giant blanket but rather something useful.  It is about 24 inches wide and I am going to knit till the whole is about 32 inches long.  There ought to be enough left to make a small edging, probably garter stitch to keep it all from rolling. As you can see, the plan is to use twice as much white and yellow as blue, so that by the time I am done, I will have almost the same amount left of each, for the edging and between each completely balanced colour section there will be a garter ridge of blue, distinct from the double rows of blue between the yellow at the center of the repeat.  Simple, a little bit playful and making the most of whatever metres I need to make a nice blankie.

Two repeats in almost no time at all this morning,  a pleasing bit of well balanced colour play that is knitting up very quickly.  

Capping off a tiny project.

I'm still here.  I made it through week one!  Honesty  makes me admit that part of it is that I have no choice and the other part is that it is early days yet.   It helps a lot that my bedding plan worked out.

I bought an air mattress to use for camping but I was concerned that it wasn't going to last the whole night.  I had a backup mattress, the cheapest foam there is from Ikea, in case of deflation.  The air mattress is holding and with the addition of the foam, it is a supremely comfortable sleep.  I am looking forward to camping.  

 There is knitting, but nothing nearly like my usual.  I've been focusing on tiny things and finishing.

 The  wee tester hat.  My gosh I love this yarn.  It's a shame that it is almost gone.

  
Wee Mittens , all tidied up, ends all woven.

  
The sweet little variation on a February Baby Sweater on Two Needles.  I love this little thing.  The only problem is what idiot put buttons all the way down?  I put a button hole every 4 ridges, which means there are nine buttons.  Half of the weight is buttons!
 

 I finally manged to knit the white and celadon how I wanted to.  Celadon ridges is a much prettier fit for the ridges on the sweater and mittens.  I do like the other hats solid sections but if you are looking for matchy matchy, as I was on this wee set, the having the celadon ridges are it.  

 Almost done with the second tie and then this little batch of things for wee Emmett is complete and I am totally content with it.
 
 

Getting it all to fit in.

It would be really nice if I remembered how to fit it all in.  I think it will take some work. I did knit yesterday but only while on adventure with Marcus and then only a bit.

It felt like a good day to look at Amy's sweater again.

 You can see the opening for the sleeve.   I have just started working across the back stitches and am very pleased with how it looks this time around. 

What this join is, is a basic perpendicular join.  It looks odd when you have worked this sort of join before, but only because usually the join is usually knit firmly on a shoulder strap or a ribbing.  This sweater is knit at a fairly loose open gauge so that the fabric of the sweater flows and that the short rows just do their job to add to it all .

Things are moving along nicely in the sweater.  It remains a fast feeling knit.  There is always something to do and that busy work makes time and stitches fly by.  My  next bunch of days are going to be filled with kids and chasing kids, cats and dogs, but I really do hope that there is some time in here for knitting.

Close doesn't need to be a cigar.

I had a lovely couple days working away on my little pumpkins wee things.  I had success!

February Baby Sweater .  This might just be my favourite baby sweater that I have yet knit.  Just the right amount of colour to be completely neutral.  Stylish babies can wear it with everything!

Wee Baby Mitts.  These both turned out so very well.  Buttons and a bit of end trimming and weaving are all that is required.

What did not go so well was Aviatrix number one.  I was trying to use the yarn that I had effectively and trying to keep it matching the sweater with its single garter ridge stripe.  

The plan was to use the celadon for the single garter ridge between each section but I ran out of white on section 4.  I know that I have a remainder of another skein around here somewhere, but it doesn't want to be found right now. So rippit!

I had to find a way to add more of the celadon but I wasn't sure what would work.  So I grabbed some other yarn to play with.

This is all that remains of a really nice bouncy superwash yarn that I used for a baby's things some years ago.  So practise and a hat.  Not bad from scraps and my little fella can't have too many hats. 

I think this colour option will give me a coordinating hat for the little celadon and white set. I will make the ribbing celadon, with a white stripe and then do the same thing as this hat for the colours.  I ought to just be able to squeak it out.

So I didn't quite get all three pieces completed but I did knit half a hat and then another hat and close doesn't always need to be a cigar.  Today, close can be a baby hat.  I plan to finish this one and one to match. 

Then back to his moms sweater.  This has been a lot of fun, but I am sort of looking forward to the sweater. 

In Its Own Time

I have some things to do today and some things that have to get done before Tuesday.  One of them is to ply on my new wheel!

If there is one reason why I wanted a different Louet wheel than my Julia for a second wheel, it is this.

Significantly bigger bobbins.

You can see a healthy space at the end of the two bobbins and if you add in the two end caps on the Vic's bobbins, you know that these lovely large S51 bobbins will hold significantly more plyed yarn.  Or singles. 

The back whorls appear to be the same size on one end, but the larger of the two whorls on the S51 bobbin means that at least at one end, I can keep adding more yarn.  

I have treadled and it is wonderfully smooth and easy. This wheel may get used for much more than the plying I have planned for it.  I do want to give it a go plying the rest of the Big Big Ball singles first, but I already have plans to spin too.  I have a bag of grey Shetland that I think I am going to spin up and see how it manages a long draw.  Then I think I am going to take a bag of some dark green Corriedale and see how it manages  a short forward draw or whatever it was that I did before I discovered the long draw. If I take the time now to learn what this lovely thing is best at, its quirks, how it feels to work on and with, then I can get the best possible use from it.  

I did get a huge bag of carded alpaca fibre, a ginormous batt really, from the previous owner too, which was a lovely and unexpected bonus.  I am going to play with it on this wheel and see what happens.     

I set it up this morning to ply but wanted to have coffee before approaching it.  With coffee comes knitting, so I managed to take my Wee Pumpkins sweater a lot closer to completion.

Now that I started it, I think I am going to keep on working on this, so I can get it over for Emmett to wear.  Mom and dad both report he likes to be warm and snuggly.  One more sleeve, then some mittens and a little Aviatrix hat to go.

It is kind of adorable, isn't it?  Everything in its own time and a time for everything.  So long as there is time.

Other wee things

I'm sitting here away from home this morning staying with grandkids.  Mommy and daddy are with wee Emmett while he sleeps under warm lights.  He had a bit of jaundice and they are all getting that taken care of.  As things go, generally pretty easy to take but mommy hasn't been here before so she is worried.  

Yesterday morning I was all hepped up about a spinning wheel (mission accomplished.  I am very pleased.) but I wasn't  picking it up till late afternoon.  I sat down to knit but my hands weren't  in it.  My mind kept going to my little pumpkin so I took out some yarn and just started.

It is some Cascade Pacific that was well stashed from when his big brother was tiny.  I pulled out my Elizabeth Zimmermann and started a plain variation of the February Baby Sweater.  I'm  going to make a little Aviatrix to match and some little mittens from Christine's pattern too.  I have plenty of yarn.

This sweater is small and I know he is going to grow out of it in the blink of an eye but there are so few chances to knit wee tiny things and wee tiny things are so cute.

I have lined up other yarn for a bigger sweater and possibly a blanket but those are down the road.  Mama's sweater first.  Then more things for little boys like pants and more sweaters and socks and. ...

It's safer when I knit.

Every once in a while I toodle around the internet instead of doing anything even remotely productive. Sometimes I feel ok about wasting my time and sometimes, my feelings are a bit more complex.

A couple days ago, I toodled and found this.

I went to bed congratulating myself on not falling for it.  But I looked at it several more times and dreamed.  Then it showed up on a facebook group and

I think I  may have bought another spinning wheel. I pick it up this afternoon.  

Socks: The Return of Routine

I sat here this morning, debating what to write about.  To my right was a pile with the purple sweater and the interesting sweater, and to my left was socks.  In front of me was spinning. I'm not ready yet to tell you about spinning, and the purple ragg sweater still looks exactly like it did the other day, just more of it.  So socks.

I sold my coffee table in my garage sale, which meant that I had to do a little reorganizing of my surfaces in my livingroom.  My lovely yarn bowl now is living on the table beside me as is my coffee cup spot.  Having the yarn bowl right beside me, means that I have actually picked up and worked on the socks that live there,  

these pretty things from a sock blank from I don't recall who.  The blank was given to me as part of a trade for a small loom.   

They are part of my heel and toe play from last year and are probably going to be the last heel flap socks I knit for a while.  Although with the recent lack of sock completion, maybe I am okay with heel flaps again.  

The general pattern is from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, the Lichen Sock, which is a variation of the Golf Socks from the book.  It appears very near the front of the book, right after the 'toes' section.  

It's a nice simple sock with a Welsh heel and a Star Toe of three points.  When I started, I debated making a star toe from the toe up, but I was working on it as I was moving, preparing to move, unpacking from the move, and I don't think I was ready to figure out how to make a good fitting sock with a new sort of toe.  My short stubby toes usually demand something different than star toes, so I went with a my regular 'cast on and knit around both sides' toe.  

One of the reasons I originally bought the book was for the many different heels the book has in it, but for this pair of socks, I went with a standard heel flap based on the Maia Spins Tutorial  for how to do a heel flap toe up.  It's a great little resource for how to figure out where to start the flap of a toe up heel flap.  Which really isn't a toe up heel flap at all.  It is much more of a bottom of the foot flap, but it lets you put the heel flap with its opportunity for extra firmness by stitch pattern or a double strand of yarn, right where I wear them out, at the bottom of my foot , under my heel.  

Mostly though, I just was not ready for figuring out a new heel  form and the challenges that would come with knitting from the toe up.  Besides, it allowed me to add the ribbed sections to the gusset area.  Looks almost cool.  If being cool still matters that is.  I just like the lines straight against the gusset slope.  

I guess it is more of an inspired by sock, but I do love the book and its array of wearable, soundly designed patterns from long ago, updated and made easily readable and knittable for the modern knitter.

And that is what I am working on when I am done working with big needles, and after spinning  stalled.  Wow.  Two sock knitting posts in the space of one week.  What is this world coming too?  

Routine.  That is what it is.  I almost have a routine.

A Spinning Sort of Day

Today is a spinning sort of day, only I am not going spinning.  I am still more jetlagged than I thought I should be and the heat isn't making it easier.  So spinning at home today where I can nap as I want and put my feet up as I require.

I am continuing the plying that I started last week.  I don't think I showed you more than a flash of it if at all.  I'm working on plying all the big ball singles.   

My plan has always been to keep the colours clean and strong with this fibre so this is being chain plyed. One of the biggest advantages of this method is that you can stop and start at will and still keep your work nice and smooth.  You keep your loop at the end and add the single back in the same way you would if your singles tore.  And voila, a nice seamless yarn.

The result is pretty good so far.  Not perfection, a few pig tails as you can see, but generally, a whole heap of pretty good.  Or so I think.  I won't really know till it comes off the niddy noddy and has a bath and dries, but all my sampling seems to show me that I am doing alright.

It was also time to clean out the bottom of the bag.

I have fuzzy bits that I have been putting into the bag as I go along.  There is another ball about the same size around here somewhere.  I think I am going to save this all up and eventually make dryer balls or something for my brother and my sisters.  Mom too.  Or cover soap bars with it.  I keep thinking of doing that for myself.

Anyway, today might be a really good time to get the singles plyed.   It might also be time for this grandma to show you the addition to her brood.

My wee pumpkin, Emmett.  He looks like his Papa Jim and his daddy and like his big brothers.  It's really too early to tell.  Doesn't really matter.  No matter who he ends up taking after, he will be his own best version of himself and that means pretty darn cute.

  

  

After a busy busy week.

Made it through the garage sale in fine style.  It was wonderful except I forgot some of the things that were the reason for having the garage sale.  Oh well.  They will go to second hand or the dump if we must.

And I made it through baby.  Wee Emmett is doing wonderfully well.  He is a trooper sleeping for mama and eating and doing the diaper thing.  He is utterly adorable and I cannot wait to see him again. And I made it to here.  Sunday was the first day of normal in what feels like forever.  Only it wasn't forever, it just feels that way. 

But there was knitting.  Lost of very feels just right knitting.

I restarted Amy's Pole in a lovely new yarn, Cascade Duo.  It knits up with no obvious colour changes, just a pleasing softly muted little here, little there sort of Ragg look. 

It feels so much better having the right yarn for the pattern.  I am going to have to line it though, with a soft stretchy t shirt knit fabric.  Wool makes her feel itchy, but I know that she will appreciate the wonders of wool when she is out camping or on a chilly winters evening watching a movie or out running errands in the early fall.

Pole is such an interesting approach to knitting a circle sweater.  It isn't a circle from the center out.  It has such a lovely shape as you view it from the back.  It is just a really attractive thing that is kind of fun to knit.  I am just at the first sleeve section in no time at all.  The only real steady knitting I did on it was yesterday evening watching 'Unforgotten' on TV.  The rest was between playing and talking with grandkids, and when the garage sale was quiet.  It sort of zips along, taking you far into the sweater before you know it. It isn't something you will get bored with.  There is always something interesting going on.  Short rows, joining, plain rows, all alternating in a pleasing keeps your mind entertained sort of way.

Anyway, this sweater is going along really nicely.  The other not so much.  It's parked and now there is a bit of baby knitting that needs to happen before it too. I just have to sort out what I am going to knit for my wee little fellow.  So many choices!  

A Joyous Kind of Tired

Home again and a really late post.  Might have more energy Sunday.

Just wanted to note that no matter what happened, I was meant to go into this garage sale woefully under prepared.  Sometimes that is the way it goes. I was home and doing my own thing a whopping 9 hours this week.

Emmett David made his grand entrance yesterday morning about 10 a.m.  I don't have a photo of him just yet.  I was too busy holding babies. 

It should also be noted that as I wrote the word babies, I got a call and had to head out.  Olga is a firefighter and she had a call out and I am the back up team for kids.
really not going to be ready for that garage sale.

Well that didn't go as planned.  I started a sweater.  

I had to do it.  No.  Not the one I started last week.  A different one.

This one.  I will tell you all about later.  I had a long post ready all about it.  It didn't quite work out that way.

Right now I am watching grandkids.  Maybe waiting for one more.  

I had a great plan yesterday.  The plan was to spin and then go home and prepare for the looming garage sale.  Only it didn't quite work like that.  

I was spinning with frazzledknitter a little later than we usually do and I was just packing up when I got a text from Scott that I was needed for child minding at his house and could I come.  Of course grandma can.  It is what grandma's do, so off I went.  And did not get home till 10 p.m.  

I was looking at the list of things I wanted to go through for the sale and while most of the really hard stuff is done, everything has to get out to the garage.  I am watching grandkids today and Friday.  The way this week is working, I have one day to do that.  Tomorrow.  I may possibly get this afternoon too, but I can't count on it.  And so it goes.  Whatever I get dragged out to the garage, is what gets in the sale.  

In knitting,  all I can say is thank heavens for socks.  Ever small.  Ever portable. Always with me.  Never a lot of knitting at a single sitting but slow progress.  

Sock du jour.  But at least a pair is on the horizon. The second foot on this pair is almost complete!  

Knitting stuff but not knitting or Come to my Garage Sale.

Everything I did yesterday was concerning knitting and yet, there was not a lot of knitting in the day.  

It is the time of year where all the sweaters need to be washed and put away in plastic bags for the summer.  I usually end up using only one or two all spring and summer as my go to things, but the rest of the sweaters and large shawls are all in my sweater chest, there, should I need them.

I started washing them all in one fell swoop last year after I got the nifty drying rack.  At the house I dried all the sweaters on the rail by the stairs, so I never needed a rack.  At my wee house, I dried them on the backs of spare chairs. After moving here, I picked up the rack because there is nothing spare here.  Last year the rack was under the window in my bedroom and it was set up fully open, but this way, braced on the wall by a simple hook, carrying the weight of things on its own legs, it allows me to open it up only halfway.  This way it stays in the laundry corner, completely out of the way.  Unless I am doing laundry, but even then, I simply drop the support for a moment and then pop it back up, sweaters intact.  

This is round one.  Round two is in the wash tub soaking and round three and the rest will happen as the week goes on.  It only takes a bit more than a day to dry each set, so by Friday I will be done. Scarves and shawls that I have worn this year are getting washed and blocked too as well as a couple things that have never been properly blocked.  It all is going to get done.  Spring cleaning of the wool.

The other woolly thing I did yesterday, was go through needles.  Our town has a town wide garage sale the first day of May each year.  Town wide so that more people show up and many many people come just for it each spring. They stop by the bakery and the sausage shop to for some really great stuff as well, but the garage sale is a draw.

 

These are the needles that I do not use.  There are also glass vases with dpns on the shelf and the shorts, that do get used a lot, but the tallest is seldom ever moved from its place on the shelf.  Most of them come from way back in the dawn of time, when I tried to knit for myself and my boys but had no confidence in what I was doing.  The grey needles don't have a tip that I care for.  If I have to use a straight needle, they are not the ones I use.  The pretty bright coloured needles were a gift from Scott, and are lovely to work with, beautiful, cool lit tips, but again, I just don't use them.  My pretty bouquet of needles is going to go.  

All that remains are these.  The silvery needles are a custom made set of gansey needles from a maker in California, for when I knit myself a traditional gansey style sweater.  There is a set of swing needles, from a maker in Nova Scotia.  Swing needles have a ball as a stopper if you want it and are meant for single direction knitting.  Nowadays, it is generally done with circulars, but these and the gansey needles are how it was done before. The gold headed needles I have to size but they are going in the bin to sell.  And my very small collection of regular straights in metal with a tip I do like.  These actually do get used for straight knitting on occasion.

I've already gone through knitting books and cookbooks, and have a box of those ready for the sale.  And the yarn was gone through a month or so ago.  I might go back and give the whole stash another quick look in case I missed something that I just don't see me using anymore.  I never did go through the sock yarn box and I do have a lot of sock yarn.  

So, come this Saturday, 9 a.m. to my house in Mundare AB.  There will be wool, significant amounts of wool.  There will be books.  There will be needles.  And household items and so many other things too.    Actual address should show up on the town garage sale page.  Or just by driving around town.  It's not that big of a town that you wouldn't drive all the streets anyway.

Or just come and share a coffee with me.  I am always up for that.