Cleanout

With fall imminent, and with stash dives and warm knitwear planning there are a few other maintenance things to do.  Time to go through the WIPs bin and give it a good clean.  It sits in a prominent position in the living room and acts as footstool and coffee table as well as WIPs bin.  It is a great piece of furniture.  

First job is to empty it.  

Bigger bags

and smaller bags.  Each of these contain an ongoing project plus the sock projects.  I count those as one project which I call a sock parade.  

Here are some of the things I am ignoring...sort of.

My teal sweater.

This is a second start for this sweater.  I think about it all the time.  Why I am not knitting on it, I do not know.

A summer top similar to the Recalibrate and several other similar tops.

I was distracted by other summer knits but mean to get back to it.  This mix of colours and yarns is turning out as pretty as I hoped.

My version of Joji Locatelli's Newspaper sweater.  

I paused this one to knit Linger and It suddenly felt like all brioche all the time.  I love this sweater and do plan on completing it.

My version of the Starting Point shawl or wrap

Made in many different yarns.  I.  Love.  These.  Colours.  But it's a wrap and is taking second place to all the sweaters.

And finally, my gorgeous bright yellow sweater.  

This is one I do work on for a change of pace.  It won't  go into steady knitting till after Christmas by which time I hope to be on the plain stockinette.  Knitting brilliant colours is a great way to brighten dark winter days.  

And that brings me to this.  

I had an Ott light but it was broken during the renovation and the guys did not think it could be fixed.  I am pretty sure that I would have figured out something, but Keith said he would replace it.  I didn't want him to do that.  There were downsides to having a floor model.  I still needed a light but I told him not to worry.  I wanted to think about it and  would deal with it myself.  So I did.  I ordered the pink one for cheap.  He ignored what I said and he ordered a Lumos brand light.  They are both great but now what to do?

While I think on that, I am going to go put away these things.  

Yarn and future things and bags not in use and general stuff.  Time to deal with the excess.  

The Glory of it All.

When I woke this morning, my first thought was how much I wanted to knit the whole day away today.  

I think of knitting everyday, but my first thoughts are usually about how fast I can get the bipap mask off or other urgent morning things.  To have my first thought be about knitting and how I can't wait to knit today is unusual.  

In my minds eye, I could see my hands knitting the Custom Woolen Mills yarn and the Noro Silver Thaw that I want to use.  I have been thinking a lot about it.  I think I am going back into the stash and am going to pull out the cone of CWM Single ply Mulespinner to use with the other yarns rather than buying more.  The chances of getting a great colour match to my old stash yarn is zero and the grey singles are a really good match. If I use them judiciously through the whole sweater, I doubt you will be able to tell them apart from the mill 2 ply Mulespinner.  

Sometimes yarn questions, knitting questions, and sweater questions get solved in my sleep.  I always feel better when I have a way forward with my work.  In a way, finding  resolution is sad.  I don't get to think about it anymore.  The good part is that with one thing worked out, I have a thousand more questions about knitting and yarn and patterns and stash running amok in my head.  And that is the glory of knitting.

Just a plain day

Thinking about all the things I want to knit this fall and all the yarns I want to use, has made me oddly aware of all the good things I have on the needles already.  And all the things I plan to be wearing very shortly.

While my knitting remains monogamous to the Anyday Sweatshirt, my head is off and deep in the WIPs bin today.  

Particularly this.

It is the Scandinavian Star vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests.  This is a book that I have had since forever.  I knit Brian's Lichen Vest from it and there are several other's that are on my want to do it list.  

The thing is, it has limited sizes

and for a long time, my knitting skills weren't ready to be able to really wing it and make this really nice pattern, my way.  Now, my approach is to do a faux side seam for the motifs to end at.  I center my motifs at the front and back and just do what I have to do.  

Purists do not consider this the proper way to do it, but when purists start designing colourwork for this body I have, I will start thinking about changing my process.  I have the same approach to all patterns.  I need sweaters to fit me, and pattern designers have to knit for a more usual proportioned body.  I would face the same problems even if I were not oversized.  And so it goes.  

Earlier this morning I watched a quick video tutorial on helix knitting. I have long thought about trying this technique.  It is one of those 'round to it' projects that flit through my head.  I may cast on a pair of helix socks.  

Or I may continue the monogamous Anyday knitting.  My day is only just begun.  

A Quick Dive

I did a quick stash dive yesterday.  I was thinking about it for a few days.  The nights are cooler and some days, particularly the mornings are cool.  My head has been deep into thoughts of warm sweaters and what I really could use for fall and winter.  My work day sweaters are getting very worn and  am getting tired of them.  I wear the Christmas tree sweater at least twice a week in winter.

It has been such a good sturdy sweater but  am so very tired of it.  I made it in 2020 and it is time for it to go to the less worn pile.

I pulled yarn for a few things that I really want to knit.

This is the yarn I want to use for a Bountiful Bohus.  I have wanted to make this sweater for a very long time and it looks like this year it is going to happen.

Then I pulled out my Hacho stash.  

I love these colours. The rich pops of brilliance make me happy.  For a long time I was concerned that it would be difficult to get it looking good, without weird pooling but I no longer care.  I just want to wear weird colourful things.   Whatever I knit, it will be a simple garment.  Possibly another Granito or another Tolsta Tee but with long sleeves this time. 

I pulled out the big bag of sock yarns to work on heavy plain socks.  

I wear the two pairs of thick socks I knit earlier this year all the time, and I know that I will want even more this winter.  I know that the Big Fabel yarn isn't around anymore but socks with 2 strands of Kroy is downright magical. Kroy doubled is amazing.

I also pulled out these.  

This is Rowan 4 ply, a yarn yarn developed for colourwork.  It is deep stash and isn't available anymore so it is much treasured.  There are some designs that are right for just two colours like the Secret Garden Sweater , Amidala or Obsidian, the last of which isn't even released yet.  

I pulled out the leftovers from my first Undercurrent.  

There isn't quite enough for a full sweater and the debate right now is do I order another one or two skeins of the grey from Custom Woolen Mills or do I double up the cone of singles I have?  I only know these two yarns are a great combination and there will be a sweater from them.  Soon.  I hope.

I also pulled out some of my vast Briggs and Little stash. Regal in three colours. 

I don't know what they will be, but I need good sturdy hardwearing sweaters and Briggs and Little is certainly that.

For now though, back to knitting on WIPs.  I need sweaters and the WIPs bin if full of good things that will be garments before I get to get down to cold weather wear.

A Good Sweater

 I could think about why it took almost a whole week to sot out my funk, but that really doesn't matter. It will happen again. I know it will clear itself up in a few days, much like the ever changing weather. I choose not to worry.

 The whole weekend was spent working on the Anyday Sweatshirt.  I love the way the yarn looks and how it feels.  However, now you get a real sense as what it will be. I had some concerns.  

The pattern shows a close fitting neckline as a sweatshirt would have. My version doesn't seem to. It looks rather wide to me. It is also very wide at the shoulders.  This is what it should be though I have to say, if I was restarting I would pick a smaller size.   

I had been debating about ripping back and restarting but when I tried it on again this morning, it fits well enough or will when the sleeves are on to properly shape the whole.  Beyond the too wide neck, I like it.  

I feel it may be an issue with upsizing the pattern though it is very possible that it is my knitting.  Meanwhile, I am just going to keep on knitting because one way or another it is going to be a good sweater. 

Hat Knitting

I set myself to knitting yesterday.  I focused on it and it helped me feel better.  The hard  part of my sleeping problem is how quickly I get fuzzy headed when my mask or machine are not working properly.  It is a struggle to stick to anything or to accomplish anything.  I feel like Doug the Dog when someone says squirrel.  Knitting usually makes me feel better, more grounded and more in touch with the rest of my life.  

I am pleased with the Musselburgh hat now.  The fabric feels better.  It's less sock like. 

It has stretch and give and I think it will make a really good hat.  The fabric is a bit open for a hat for Canadian winters, but doubled with the brim turned up, it should be just right.  

Tops and Bottoms

I have not felt like writing the last few days.   I am having some trouble with my bipap seal and that means I am not sleeping as deeply as usual.  I feel unmotivated and can't seem to stick to any one thing.

I worked a bit on a sock.

I really like this colourway of Kroy.  The stripes please me.

I also picked up my Musselburgh hat.  I enjoyed the knitting, but found I was not picking it up even when I felt it might be the right thing to knit.  Looking the project over, I think it was a needle problem.  I was working on 3 mm needles, and it just felt too tight.

I pulled it out and am restarting it on 3.5 mm needles. 

We shall see if that helps.

Toes and head.  Socks and Hats.  Tops and bottoms.  That is it today.

The People Who Add to My Life

Thee is a thing about working with hand dyes.  You can sometimes play with fire.

You can really see the difference between colours of the different skeins. It is not nearly so sharp in real life but today in the pictures, it looks as if there is a cool tone and a warm tone difference. In the real world, the skeins below the underarm are both lighter where the top is a bit darker.

I watched a new to me podcaster on youtube this morning and it brought to mind how much richer my life is for having all these far away people in my life.  They are not the sort of people who yearn to be influencers. They are just ordinary people sharing the things they love to do and make.  There are many that are yarn people, but there are also those who are not.  

Some of the outliers are Tim the Lawnmower Man, Tasting History with Max Miller, Living the Skye Life and their sister channel, History Hikers, Sit with Nature, Roaming Wild Rosie, LCC Cleaning, Letters Live, to name just a few.  

Some of the fibre and fabric people are Mijn Wolden, Engineering Knits, Wool Needles Hands, My North Knit Corner, Kristin Vike, Shannon Makes, Stephanie Canada, NorwegianKnitter, Finish Knitting Stories and the new one, Knits from Lincolnshire.  There are others, too many to list them all.

Others are walking channels with only nature sounds, some are History channels and lots of archeology.  There are channels from miniature makers and F1 podcasts too.  

But how rich my life is with all these far away regular people making my days better.  Thanks you to them all.

Quick

It really isn't a writing morning.  I started late and am still on my first coffee.  Sheesh ad the day is half done.

I do have updates on a couple of things.  

The Anyday Sweatshirt is looking more and more sweatshirt like.

Nicely into the body now so all the knitting is easy.  Still love the colours of this yarn.

And Linger.  

That proto sleeve is four days of significant knitting.  I like the process of this stitch is so enjoyable but it does take forever to get anywhere.

And that is it for the day.

Found yarn

When I was digging in my yarn stash a month or so ago, I found yarn.  I know this isn't a huge surprise.  It was stash after all.

It is yarn for the Linger sweater.  

When I was last working on Linger, I seemed to have very little yarn left.  I was particularly concerned about the grey yarn.  I only had 3 balls left from a bag of ten.  I was quite sure I didn't use that many skeins and yet it was hard to get past what was in the bag.  Finding these means I will have lots of yarn and that makes me happy.  There is nothing I worry about more in knitting than running out of yarn.

I did work on the sleeve of the sweater during the day.

I knit a lot, but this lush fisherman's rib eats yarn and never grows.  One day, you look at it and you are almost done.  I hope this turns out like that. 

I want to focus on this sweater now.  Fall is looming and September is just around the corner.  Cool weather is never far behind the turning of the calendar and this sweater is needed.  Much as I want the sweater, will I knit on it?  

I hope so.  If I don't, it will be because I picked something else.  And that means a different sweater will get done.  One way or another I will be warm.

Little Loom Squares

I did do Zoom Loom squares yesterday.  

Three complete and one half done.  

It ended up being a pretty busy day.  

I worked at getting my library back in order.  The odd thing is that all the books that came off the shelves do not fit back on to the shelves.  Even with doubling on some shelves.  My question is this.  Do books breed like a yarn stash, seeming to spawn offspring with wild abandon?  

I know the answer and it is, naturally, YES, only I don't buy paper books very often anymore. Most of my reading is audio books.  In the last two years I have been gifted two on paper books and that is it for new acquisitions.   

My quest to fit everything back on the shelves continues today.  There is also going to be a bit of work with the loom.  I want to complete the square that is on it and use this to squeak out one more.  Maybe.  

It isn't a lot of yarn but it will be interesting to see how far I can get with it.  I have other colours standing by to assist if needed.  

Doldrums

As usual, finishing something puts me in the doldrums.  I couldn't seem to settle to any project.

I tried working on the Anyday Sweatshirt.  I tried the brilliant yellow Folklore.

I even pulled out Linger to see if that would be the one to excite me.  But nope.  None of them sparked my imagination.  They will, in time, but just not today. I thought about socks but I don't feel sockish.  

I was putting back some of the things that make my WIPs bin too full to close.

and realized I had the solution at hand.

Zoom Loom squares!  They work up fast and are endlessly interesting to make with sock yarns.  I did a calculation the other day of the size of blanket I want and I need about one hundred more squares.  It sounds daunting but these took no time at all and there are 80 of them already.  

The other thing I might work on is this.  

These are some sock yarn skeins from Custom Woollen Mills.  They are a wonderfully  soft yarn, like  velvet with a sturdy, implacable core.  It's great to work with.  This yarn is not a superwash, so it isn't going to be socks, but a nice simple shawl?  That feels just about right .  I could use some new winter warm shawls.

I wasn't planning on starting yet another project yet, but if it gets me out of the post project doldrums, that is just fine by me.  

Complete

The striped top gave me a few more problems before it was done.  Or ratherr I created a few more problems before it was done.

I knit a short ribbing around the neck to echo the cuffs and hem and cast off.  I felt great.

Till I tried it on.  I couldn't get it over my head.  I had bound off the edge a little too tightly. Back to the drawing board.   I redid it and all was well. 

 I am really happy with the way this turned out.  

I am in love the colour blocked stripes.  I love the choice of three row stripes.  I love the way the colours look together.  Even though it is not waves like my grandpa's blanket, the colour reminds me of grandma and grandpa and that makes me happy. Its a nice basic tee and I love it. I wore it yesterday with the green khaki skirt I made earlier this summer and it was perfect.

I  wish the neck was lower but it was what I knew would happen when I  made the arms too deep.  Still it is nice and fits really well.

It was a successful winging it.  :)

I Have Been Sleeved

It's a sleeve!

That may not mean much to the normal among us, but completing a sleeve is big among knitters.  The really good thing is that I was so inspired to finish the first, that the second sleeve is half done.

I would have knit more but it was time to set it aside and rest.  I spent a good part of the rest of the day chatting with Marcus.  

When my boys were small and they were playing computer games, they all crowded around to watch.  And they took turns.  It was a really cooperative thing for them.  When Marcus and I are talking, it is the same thing.  He just wants someone to watch along with him.  He needs to have a crew around him cheering him on, discussing his choices and his strategies with him.  And so every couple days, we 'talk'.  I am so happy to do it. 

I don't get to do it with my other Carter's family.  They have fewer devices and more kids.  When I talk with Carter it's games on the phone or these really nice deep talks about the world and storm watching and night skies and big thoughts. With his little brothers poking their heads in and telling me about their world too.  It  is sweet and funny and I come away charmed by their hearts.  

I am a lucky grandma.  And a lucky knitter who will finish a sleeve today and will only have a neckband and ends to weave in before I have a pretty new top.

A Perfect Day

There was no knitting again yesterday. This is bad because I get antsy and weird when  am not knitting at least a bit everyday.  Knitting makes every day better.  

I started this morning by watching NorwegianKnitter on Youtube .  Her gorgeous Olga sweater made me need to pick up my needles and just do something with them.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I had started a sleeve and realized that my gauge was way off.

You can see it pretty plainly here.  I pulled the sleeve out

leaving me with something akin to a plate full of noodles.  I did not pull it back all the way.  I wanted to restart with the stitches I had picked up already.  Those picked up stitches are often a bit loose so starting with them seemed like a good plan.

And I am off to a good start.  I know it is only two rows but everything counts.  

I do have more books to move back today.  I cannot work as fast as I used to and I am giving all the books a good cleaning and dusting too.  Plus all the little side adventures are just too wonderful to stop.  I spent a good couple hours looking at and reading my Encyclopedia of World Costume.

It is a compendium of words and descriptions and small pencil sketches of items of clothing over all the centuries of garments up till the 70s.  It is a treasury of the arcane. I got is as a library discard and it is a treasured part of my library full the weird and wonderful.  

So today will be a day of knitting and books. Add some coffee and it is my kind of perfection. 

Getting a Little Lost

At the end of yesterday, I realized that I had not knit a single stitch.  I did however, wash the shelves and start moving books back to the bookcases.  

The hard part of doing that is fighting the urge to sneak a peek in them and get lost in the pages.  I have these books because that is what happens when I read them.  The whole world melts into the far away and I become the story the pages contain.  It happens with novels, with histories, with cook books and it happens with embroidery books and with all my lovely knitting books.  

The other thing I realized was that the calendar is looking like mid August is not that far away and it is time to get with it on fall sweater knitting so that sweaters are ready when I need them.  The Anyday Sweatshirt and my lovely brilliant yellow Folklore Sweater are calling loudly.  My  Linger sweater is no longer sitting in the corner patiently waiting but is screaming that it needs to be knit on.  

Just two sleeves on my striped top to go and I can pay attention all the other things and get just a little lost in the joy of bringing a dream into real life.

Much to do, things to tidy, things to knit.

We are almost back to normal or whatever our normal is. Almost everything is in its new place in the kitchen and the living room things are out of my bedroom.  I may not have mentioned it but we ended up needing to do the hallway as well as the kitchen flooring.  The guys couldn't find any area where the old flooring did not separate from its base layer. Replacing the hallway could have been as far as we needed to go, but I felt it was a smarter choice to replace the floors in the living room as well. It looks nicer with one flooring in the main areas of the house. And so, I was buried in bookcases and other living room things in my room. My books and my cheap blue and white china collection still have to be put back into place but I can do that in my own time and after a good cleaning.

I did not do a lot of knitting over the long weekend. It was mostly filled with the work of setting things right again, but I did manage to face up to fixing the overly long upper yoke.

  

In the past, I would have cried uncle and put it to the side for weeks and months but I just couldn't settle.  I had to deal with it.  I really do want to wear this top. I snipped the yarn at the appropriate length and did a three needle bind off to join the shoulders again.

I started working on the sleeves and they are fine...

except that the gauge is very different than on the body.  I have to pull it all out and restart.  I might change to a tab type sleeve as well.  Maybe.  It is one of those things that I won't know which way I will go till I start knitting it.

But that is it for today.  Much to do, things to tidy, things to knit.  That is good enough for me.

Almost

Almost there.

We are moving things back in.  Today is largely going to be work.  Might be knitting this evening.  

I Knew it Would Happen

I knew it was going to happen.  The arm openings are miles too deep.

As I was knitting along on the upper front and back, I realized that I was forgetting to do increases near the arm area.  Instead of pulling back, I kept on knitting.  I need to shorten the upper by three inches.  Yeah.  I know.  

We are still knee deep in renovations.  It is going well and I love how it is looking.  One huge farm style kitchen with plenty of room for the biggest family gathering you can imagine.  

Moving the island was the best thing we could have ever done.  I really like the flooring that Keith picked too.  It feels as if it has always been there. And I cant wait for the new sink.  Keith wanted one big sink and I think it is a good choice for the way he works and the kind of pans he likes to use.  

I am debating what I am going to do this morning.  I am not sure if I feel up to dealing with the top of the striped top.  It isn't hard but thinking is required.  I feel discombobulated and out of sorts because of the kitchen stuff and I am not sure any bran power is available.

I'm going to go knit socks.  

I feel better already.