Breath taking. Literally.

A surprise!   My birthday yarn came early and Christmas and my birthday are now one. 

Thicket from Fleece Artist in the Aulavik National Parks colour and the bold strong blues of Stellars Jay.  A sweater quantity.  It's so beautiful I could cry.

That list of things I think about knitting got longer this evening.  Or shorter.  I am not sure yet. Either way, this is just so good.  But a striped sweater would surely bang out fast enough.

It's here

With things as they are, my knitting went straight for my comfort zone, socks.  It is where I began and who knows.  I may well be where I end.

Nice progress.

But I dreamed of the next thing to knit.  I dreamed of knitting my Pesto yarn from Mid knit Cravings.  I have a skein of a wonderful acidy olive green colour, Kelp Forest, to use for the very interesting hem and cuffs on Laura Aylor's Sun Dog.  I am going to add a polo type collar made to look like a second top underneath the wide neck of the original, and there is an almost 100% chance of the bit of a henley treatment as well, just to show off the more solid green.  This will be one of the first things I cast on in the New Year.  

But I also have a hankering for one more last grand thing before the year is out, a special something for between Christmas and New Years.  What I need is one of those sweaters that just love to be swacked out in a week or ten days of work.  I have some of that really nice warm Bulky Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky in my stash, begging to be used and it is just the most wonderful yarn.  I am voting for a copy of 2019's Liesl by Ysolda Teague.  I did that sweater in ten days, but I am certain I could do it faster without all the worrying I did about running out of yarn and which blue was the right blue.  And, like I said, I do have a couple other colours of the same yarn in my stash.  

The problem I have is that I used 8.5 skeins for the original sweater, and I have 8 skeins of olive green  and only 7 of a brighter cheerier apple green.  I do still have some teal blue, a yarn from Diamond though I can't find it in my online stash at the moment but the colour is nice with the greens and it might be enough to stretch the green far enough out to make a sweater with the same sleeves and length.  Won't really know till I knit with it.  I also recall it was the smallest bit lighter in gauge than the Debbie Bliss.  

But then there is this sweater.  I fell in love with the beauty of the project and I really wanted to create it.  I have the same colour of Kauni that the OP knit her sweater in, and I was going to use some of my much treasured Tove stash to imitate the softly changing colours of the knitter's background.  I have these yarns all pulled and in my inspiration cabinet, wound and ready to go.  I just need to pick out a motif from one of my books and to decide exactly how I will do the background colours and then, to sit down and  start.  That could take ten days all on its own.

But, I am also in the mood for a bit of a stash dive. While  I want to see and be with all the yarns, there are a few particular things I want to bring out.  I have some pretty yellow Washed Linen  that will make a perfectly matching summer cardigan to one of my fabrics for summer clothes.

And there is my much desired shawl, the Jahreszeiten - Herbst.   My version is languishing in the depths of my WIP bin, maybe a row longer than in the project page photo.  And the Elton sweater in River City's River colourway or the Breezeway top I started last year in a mashup of Fleece Artist green sock yarns.  

I could go on, because well, there is some cherry red Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport that calls my name as well as a cone of softest tans and this wonderfully aged looking apple green, like old Granny Smiths.  Sweet heavens, I have marvelous yarns.  

In these last few days before Christmas, socks are really where the knitting is.  There is time after for making dreams turn to reality.  Who knows if the dreams will lead to a new sweater or not.  But where ever the dreams land, I will be content.  I love knitting.  I really do.  

Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone out there.  My posting from here to the end of the year won't be regular but I will post when I have something interesting to say and I will post a year end sort of thing too.  But the holidays are at hand and there is Christmas joy to spread, and if I spread it well, it shall come back to me fourfold.

Trying to be stoic, failing miserably.

Just some rather ho hum sock knitting went on today.  Nothing serious at all.  

I called one of my kids families this morning about Christmas.  Scott and Amy have two little ones who cannot be vaccinated yet and the way that Omicron is going around, and the speed at which caseloads are growing, well, I was feeling less and less comfortable about having Christmas with everyone all at once.

Amy was telling me that they were actually going to call today too.  For the same reason, plus Isaac woke this morning with a sore throat and so they have to go find tests for him before they feel good about any Christmasing at all.  It is also complicated by weather.  The window on the back of their vehicle imploded a few weeks ago, and they way supply lines are right now, the ten days for the window is now well into three weeks and Christmas makes it four.  Wouldn't be an issue if it was -4 C but the forecast is for beastly cold -27 C .  Would you drive an hour and twenty minutes with a baby in those conditions.  I wouldn't but then, I told her I wouldn't be keen on them coming if it was that cold anyway.  Owen is just too small to take the risks if there is trouble.

I had talked to the other family the day before, and he said if anyone there gets sick, they are staying home but that they would do what we needed  them to do.  So if they are healthy, they will come, but it will be a much smaller celebration than I had hoped for after last year.  

Still, I would rather they stay healthy and that will be enough.  These days, that counts for a lot.  But I am trying not to be too sad about the way it is coming down.  We will zoom or facetime, and that is a lot more than people have had before. 

Trying to be stoic, failing miserably.

Of socks and more socks.

I knit on sweaters over the weekend.  I was at the part where it was time to separate arms from body and there just were not enough stitches and no matter what I did, I was going to have to go back and add.  The amazing part of things is that I did.  And I knit again to the arms.  And that was enough of that.

I had a hankering to knit socks.  I knew that I had some pretty ones on the go and I knew one particular pair needed attention to get the pattern going correctly.  So after dinner yesterday, I worked on these. I love this yarn.  It is the bounciest softest thing and it really is lovely for socks.

The Gridiron pattern from River City Yarns is a particular favourite for this yarn too.  It's two skeins, one of the multi colour green Touchdown in the Saskatchewan colourway and the Hat Trick semi solid  Hooking.  Toes, heels and cuffs will be in the semi solid and all of the rest of the sock will be the magic of the Gridiron pattern in their yarn.

I went through the other sock bags too.  These are probably the closest to complete. I have to look for the band for this.  I cannot recall what it is.

But these are so much more fun using two colours from my bag of ends.

And this lovely Opal colour bought one dark winter a few years ago at Jos in Stony Plain.  I am using a pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, though I can't seem to figure out the patterns name.  maybe tomorrow.

Tonite it is back to the Gridiron pair.  For now it is enough.

The Day the Monkeys Were Done.

As you saw, my monkey are complete.  It took a mere half an hour to do and I am pretty pleased.  I could have done a few things different, but I didn't so there it is.  They are ready for gifting.

I gave myself the rest of the morning to work on my sweater.  I added a few short rows at the back below the yoke and then just knit.  This sweater is interesting because now that this lovely yoke is done, it turns into a raglan for the rest of the increases you may need.  After a complex yoke that may be a little difficult to customise for size, you now can do what you need.  

And then it was time to go out and get some groceries and pick up the mail and some orders and to get Keith's bandages looked at.  I think he was worried about driving but also about the bandages.  He told me he wanted me along for moral support and in case he couldn't do something.   He did fine.  

I had the very last of the very last things in the mail, all of it my wee Christmas presents.  I was so excited.  On of the things I have thought about for years was about electrifying my dollhouse cabinet.  It came down to it that I really did not want to make the cabinet harder to use for other things down the road.  Thankfully, today, you don't have to.  The range of battttery operated LED lights is fantastic.  As you can see, I now have at least one wee light for each of my rooms.  The living room will have the very fancy chandelier, the bedroom the one that is lit in the photo, and the kitchen the simple globe.  They are all upside down as shown here but they are adorable. 

There. is a dresser for the bedroom, the last room that needs furnishing in the house, and a really well made little wooden chest for at the foot of the bed.  I will make the bed out of some wire to look like the old metal bedsteads that were around when I was young.  Nothing fancy.  

The bedroom is also where the lady of the house has her sewing machine too.

I did get myself one other special treat for Christmas but I am saving those for watching between Christmas and New Years.  Those will go under my tree.

I did order something really special for my birthday too.  I ordered a sweaters worth of Fleece Artist  Thicket.  It is a beautiful yarn and I have thought about getting some for hats just to say I worked with it.  Midknit Cravings was also in contention.  Then I saw the fund raiser. Hats can wait.  They are sending five dollars of every skein of Vine or Thicket sold before December 26 to BC Flood relief and that, to me is very worth it.  If I was ever going to have a sweater of Fleece Artist yarn, this was the time.  Seriously.  Consider a getting yourself a glorious bit of yarn and give a helping hand to the many many people who need it.

Blind Monkeys

The needles did not make it.  

These trusty tools just couldn't quite survive the great stresses they were under.  They did a hero's job and now it is time to lay them to rest.  No problem.  I have plenty of others.

As I thought, there is a good bit of yarn left over.  2 full balls, 2 partials, and a small ball.  The red is used very little and I do mean very little for the way I made the monkeys so plenty of that left and I have a small ball of the first of the cream balls and really only used the second ball for tail tips and the bit around the mouth.  I suspect a pair of socks in my future.  I think I will make them double thicksince I have lots of yarn and I am really enjoying socks knit with heavier yarn.  My floor by the big window is chilly.  

And here is my troop of mostly finished monkeys.  

They just need the eyes embroidered on and they are done.  That will take very little time really.  My troop of monkey is almost complete.

And then on to knitting for me.  I have sweaters to make...I have shawls to knit...I have these delicious yarns....

Updated:  Not blind anymore.  It took less than half an hour and the really simple knots worked perfectly!  

And done!

A much better Day

It was a much better day but it was still outside the plans for this time of year.  I had to bake bread and buns and I threw muffins into the fray as well.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  I haven't baked bread because the oven does not hold temperature properly.  You never quite know  what you are going to get for heat.  I had decent results for being away from it for so long again.  I hope the oven carries on for a bit of cookie and poppy seed roll baking later this week.

After the baking, I sat down to watch some tv and do some monkeying around.  I had a nice cup of coffee and just really enjoyed the putzing.

Knitting the wee mouth patch is a bit of a thing, but the result is perfect, so I will keep on doing it.  They are monkeys all quite unique even though they are the 'same'.  The ears point just a wee bit different.  The tails hang each in their own way.  The arms pop to the side just so, each a little different.  It really is quite right for my perfectly different from each other kids.

I may not enjoy toy making.  Too fiddly, but I must say, my kids are quite worth the fiddling.  At least once.  

It was a Day

I have no idea what I did today. I woke at 5 or so I thought. I groused about on my computer for a bit and I was planning on going back to bed for that last hour of cozy snoozing, but I heard Keith from downstairs come to make his coffee.  So I got up to chat and I looked at the clocks out there and, it was not close to 6 as I thought.  It was close to 7.  He never changed my wall clock.  I had forgotten that and never focused my bleary eyes on my computer cock.  Or my phone clock.

Just like that, my day started an hour late.  Everything was turned around and was out of order.  Because I had intended to go back to bed, I had not taken my morning medications, a not very good error.  It was laundry day and fix the bed day, but that didn't happen.  Well one load of laundry but I have the folding to do from last week.  

I spent way t much time on you tube watching people make tortillas and F1 controversies and all the things that are great time wasters.  After lunch, I watched Downton Abbey the movie, fully intending to sew monkeys but the monkeys were a no go.  Knitting was a no go.  And in the afternoon I made said tortillas with my new tortilla press (I can dozens of way to use this tool) and then it was bedtime.  

There was between those things.  There was no real noticing of between those things.  And here I am.  It was a day.  

I think I am just in need of a long nap.  Last week was not a great week.  Keith had some medical issues two nights that meant I missed out on a bunch of sleep and that led to a quick day surgery on Friday.  He was home again Friday evening, but I had to check him every couple of hours as you must after being under an anesthetic.  So three nights last week were pretty much toast.  He cannot drive for two weeks and he is not supposed to lift anything over ten pounds for them either. Which is sort of a bugger at this time of year.

I am going to sleep in hard tomorrow.   I am going to take that extra sleep even if I hear Keith making coffee.  No matter how good his coffee smells, I am going back to sleep.  And then tomorrow, I have to see about some groceries. And wrapping paper.  Once again, I win the world because all my holiday shopping is complete but for wrapping paper. 

It was a day.  Bring on tomorrow. Because, well that is the way it works. 

Satisfied.

Friday, I sorted out what I would do for the ears.  I just did not like the ears as written in the pattern.  Not at sock yarn scale anyways.  I sorted it out and forgot to write it down and when I did what I thought I had done on the first pair, I could not get it right.  So yesterday I had to come up with something else.  I went with a simple round ear knit firmly with two strands of yarn.  The decreases just naturally seemed to give the a curl that is just right.  You will see below.

Today I faced my last big problem for my monkeys.  This is the monkey mouth as from the pattern.  It is just too big, too wide and too sticky out for the cuteness I wanted these to have.  I don't actually like it on the worsted weight projects online either so I knew it needed something different.

 I looked at tons of monkeys online from all sources and found that the ones I disliked shared the very very large mouths.  I preferred monkey with a thin line mouth much better, so I decided to come up with something like it.  This was my first try.  

It turned out fine, but it seemed a little wide to me.  I would have gone with it if I could have figured out a tidy way to sew it on the face in an even line.  I have six to do.  There had to be a better way.

He looks like he is puckering up to kiss someone.  I picked up stitches where I wanted the mouth to sit on both the top and bottom and knit a little garter stitch patch in red and white.  Do not ask to see the back.  Nothing technical right about the way I carried the white and I do not care.  If I have my way, no one will ever see the back.  It was far easier to do, even though it still was fiddly, but I liked the way the monkey looked.

I finished one monkey to see if there were better ways to attach stuff and to see if the arms, tails and ears were easy to sew.  They were and voila.  One complete monkey with another partial.  Almost complete.  I will embroider eyes on when all the monkeys are done. 

I even got his wee tail on.

It's one of those days of work where I just feel satisfied in a very old fashioned sort of way.  There is lots to do yet, but I feel like the end is near.  I might be able to get to some knitting for myself before Christmas yet.

And then she sat to knit

And knit I did, but I also stuffed.  Six monkey bodies ready for arms.

You can see just at the side, One monkey arm stuffed, bound off and ready to be sewn on to a body.

and when those are completed, there is a host of sewing and stuffing of tails.  Somewhere in this mess, there are six tails. 

There are some ears in there too andone very much too large mouth, but I know how I will take care of that.

All this tiny knitting has been a bit hard on my hands and my head and i am really looking forward to easier knitting when this project is done.  It hasn't been easy on my needles either.

And so it goes.  I figure two more days of serious work and these little things ought to be complete.

Christmas

Nailed it.

I am so happy to see these pretty things.  So many memories attached.  There is the tiny unicorn bought at a San Fransico chain store, with its golden horn and its dainty red bow.  And the four glass ornaments, creche, tree, boot and angel, bought at Grybas Drugs forever ago.  They were on our first tree as a couple and they have been there every year.  And birds with their feather Tails, reminders of ones my mom had when I was young.  And the beads.  I have beads on my tree over a garland of tinsel.  On a bigger tree and as a cild there were both, but this tree really only can handle one.  

I still could put my icicles on, but we shall see how the day goes.  I have the bead tree to bring out and do any needed restoration, and some music boxes to put in by hall book case so the kids can play the single song that I seem to have.  

But today, most exciting, I get to knit.  And stuff.  And see if I can't get some Monkey's together.  

And laundry.  There is always laundry.

A start

It's not a great photo, but this was my work yesterday.  

It doesn't look like a lot but it was.  

There was a layer of cleaning.  Maybe tidying is a better word.  There were things filling the cupboard corner all the way to the end of the wall.  It wasn't messy just piled.  It is just too easy to set stuff there to put away later, be it downstairs or in my space.  Part of setting up the tree was dealing with later and dealing with it properly.

This tree usually gets all my red and white decorations but this year, it has all of Keith's ornaments on it.  As they grew, my grandmother, while she was still alive gave the boys each ornaments, and my mom did the same and so did I.  Plus there are a few interesting things from school and things they made.  It's a kind of sweet trip down memory lane, even for Keith who doesn't  want Christmas in his living space at all.  

My tree of collected ornaments goes up today.  It's  a larger tree but not a huge.  It sized for small space living but remains full size.  And then, the rest of it.  

When I lived in my wee house, I down sized my Christmas decorations.  I don't have the miles of garland anymore and I don't  have stuff for each door.  There is a bit though and that, plus a few special things will go out in a bit of a new space this year. I moved a Kallax book case into the hall and it is a perfect spot for Auntie Lorraine's beaded tree, a music box, and some funky Santa's.  

So much to do.  So many Monkey's too stuff.  Eeeeeeeep.  I will get there.  Magically.  It will happen and it will be fine.

Stuff and nonsense.

No knitting today.  It was a day filled with household and errands and getting out the Christmas stuff.  It sounds as if my wee people and their moms and dads are coming for Christmas.  Grandma is going to have to do a tiny bit better than she did last year with respect to decorating. 

I did get all the monkey bodies completed and the first body is ready for stuffing.  I did not want to pull out the stuffing till I have the tree boxes put away and all that stuff up.  In lieu of knitting monkeys, I am knitting the little backpacks where in they will carry something special for my kids.  Did I say knit?  I am crocheting them actually.  It is quicker and sock yarns are a great weight for it.  Nothing fancy to be sure.  It's just a little messenger style bag with a nice flap and straps to turn it into a nice backpack.  

So not a lot of knitting content today, and most likely, not tomorrow either.  But Christmas is happening here and that is enough to be doing.  

Next week is baking week and the week following...  Well, it is getting everything else ready so that on the day, brunch can happen magically or with Keith's help.  Either way it is good.  

The path to getting there.

It is all in the path you take to get there.  Seriously.

By mid morning, I had finished the body I started yesterday.  So I picked up another set of legs and did as I planned.  I changed to work the first few rounds of the body on two circular needles.  It changed everything.  

By noon, another body was very nearly complete.  

Once I was up the body about a quarter of an inch, I changed to my time tested dpns.  For the tight knitting near the join, the circs were fine, but no way can I knit faster with those needles than I can on dpns. 

By the time my hands gave out just about supper time, there was carnage everywhere.

Two complete body and leg sets and a third with only an inch to go.  There are only two sets of legs after that.  Tomorrow ought to take care of that nicely.  Changing the start of the work made a huge difference.

So the plan is to get out the stuffing and knit the top of the monkey heads as I stuff each body, then arms.  I will sew and stuff tails too.  Once everything already knit is stuffed and attached I will sit down and knit the snouts of my monkeys.  The snout as from the pattern looks a bit off at this scale,  too large I think, so I may have to change it up a bit.  The ears were too big but I have that figured out and they take no time to knit at all.  I feel like I am in a really good place here with all the monkeys.

My shopping is done.  My monkeys are looking good.  I just need wrapping paper, the tree set up and then it will be time to sort out the cooking and the cookies.  Still a lot to do before Christmas and yet, I feel pretty good.

There was sewing Tuesday, but it did not go so well as the first day.  Without completion, it just looks like a pile of nothing.  It will wait to be blogged about till then.

I knit yesterday.  

I knit on bodies yesterday.  Just one in truth but it's a start.  And just like all the small parts, getting there starts out fussy.  

I debated about switching needles to a circular pair I have but it needs cleaning.  It's one of those old brass covered addi ones, where the whole tip tarnished over time and with use.  I have a pair of these in the right size, purchased for using two circs for colour work, but I haven't used these yet.  The next body I will give it a go, at least on the first rows where the join, just like with sweaters, is a kind of a pain.  

Bodies are on the way. It will be so nice to get these done.  I'm  looking forward to stuffing day. Body stuffing day.  The other stuffing is going to have to wait a while.  I have a few weeks till that day.