Using things up.

Classic procrastinator me avoided the sewing room.  Procrastination is my super power.  Instead, I did this.

And, if you are wondering, the brown is short because that is the brown is almost used up.  Only this remains.

There was quite a bit more of one yarn strand than all the others, but I used it till the first strand was finished.  

When I started this brown stripe, I thought I would get 3 rows completed but I got four rows in, short 9 stitches before the browns gave out.  Decent mileage really.  I decided to just get on with the work and started the last purple row right there.  I wanted to use up the yarn to the bitter end.  Mission accomplished.  The purple will go a bit further and will, I hope, make this chair pad, long enough that I do not have to add another colour.

If 8 balls does indeed make a good size felted chair pad, then it's time to pick out the next batch of colours from the bin of Pallette. 

This next pad will be greens and rosy pinks. The greens are pretty accurate in colour here, but the deeper rosy tones look brown.  

The more I work on these chair pads, the more I can't wait to put them into service.  It's a really nice use of yarn I had no plans for and it uses up a significant amount of it.  For the first time ever, this bin of yarn closes easily.  

Looking ahead? Sure. Why not.

I got to work with the new hook as soon as I posted yesterday.  You know what?  It was awful.

I know!  Not what you expect from a brand new tool.  There was a ridge of rough plastic at the centerline of the hook.  Under the hook and over the tip were the worst.  It was catching on everything.  Luckily Keith had some very fine sandpaper and I could deal with the ridge.  It is about the same as if I had bought the wood hook.  Oh well.  It is what it is and the hook works well enough.  

I spent the afternoon baking.  It's high cherry season and I made a really nice cherry cobbler using an Allrecpies page recipe.  Very tasty and just perfect for these cherries.  I did not pit the cherries, just used them stone in.  They are small this year but plentiful.  It was not worth the hassle of dealing with pits.  When I was a kid, my mom canned the cherries stone in and they weren't a problem.  The cobbler was a winner.

More knitting and crocheting today to be sure, but I really want to get to the sewing room too.  It's time to get that in order so winter projects can begin. Failing that, it could be a good day for a stash dive.  It's chilly today and it makes me think of all the wonderful yarns I could work with for the fall and winter.  

Woe

Quelle disaster.

 

It just snapped.  I wasn't putting pressure on it.  It just snapped.  I stared at it for a few seconds longer than most people would have.  It was so unbelievable that the tool let me down.  It was inconceivable.  

I think I bought these in the 90s when I started making sweaters for myself.  So they are at least 30 years old.  Maybe more.  And old plastic does get brittle.  But I had only this one hook in this size.

Keith stopped at the giant big box in Vegreville to see what they had for replacement.  I am not a fan of hooks with a too thick shift.  My favourites are hooks that are slender and then get thicker.  I also don't like wood hooks.  No slip and I don't like things feeling as if the hook is grabby.  

  

I went with the green 6.5 mm hook and a blue 7 mm hook.   The one that broke was a 6.5 but I had wished for one just a bit larger when I started chair pads.  Next pad will be done with a 7.  The new hooks will be okay.  They feel oddly light in comparison but they are otherwise the shape I prefer.  

I knit most of the day on the Kauni sweater so today I need to get in some good time on the chair pad.  Let's see if I can run out of yarn and need a third colour.  

Knitting!

After a week and more of utter despair health wise, I am feeling a thousand times better today.  It was a much better weekend too so I am going to keep my fingers crossed that this keeps going.

I kept working on my chair pad crochet project.  

And you can see I am actively using my new progress keepers.  It really is keeping me focused forward rather than focusing on what is done and feeling it isn't enough.  Do I wish it was farther along or even finished?  Sure, but the marker is a reality check.  I did make progress and that is enough. 

As I was ready to change colours after the purple, I debated adding a third set of colours.  I would rather use up some balls completely than have a bunch more leftovers.  I really want this bin of yarn used up so I stayed with my wide browns and purples stripes.  I hope that two of each colour will be wide enough to make the size I want before I felt it.  I have a funny feeling though,  that it will be a bit shorter than I want and I will very likely need to add a third colour anyway.  

I didn't want to only work on a very workhorse type project.  I wanted something to raise my spirits.  I was searching for the Hiraeth sweater but found my Kauni sweater first.  

 

  It's stripes which are always fun and it easy on the hands knitting.  I have a couple rows of the Kauni left before I go back to the Tove garter band.  It's nice easy knitting in yarns I absolutely adore. 

The more I knit on this sweater, the happier I am with it.  I love how the colours are working out, though I admit, I took out some of the greyest blue.  There was just too much grey for the middle of the body and I am eager to get to the rich purple and green sections.  

Both of these are my work of the day, though I am also going to work on more pants.  Sewing is good.  Knitting is great and life is a lot better than last week.

Boy the photos on this page are dull.  I need to do something about that.

It seems to be the summer of inflammation for me.  Everything hurts.  Just not enjoying things at the moment.  

A Different Direction

Things went in a slightly different direction than I planned yesterday.  

I picked up my needles and dug to find yarn colours to start with

And away I went.  I cast on 75 stitches because I would rather have to cut off the felted end product than find I made it too small.  I knit three rows and started to worry.  My thumb thingy was gently starting to make me face up to a problem.  

I am quad stranding this so my fabric is thick once felted.  My hands were never going to manage the weight or the needles.  What to do?  

I went to look for my largest remaining crochet hook.  I once had a 9 mm hook but got rid of it years ago.  My biggest remaining seems to be a 6 mm needle.  Oh well.  It will work.  

It went fairly well though I found I got bored of the browns fairly quickly.  I picked out some purples.

The chair pad will be striped and that is okay by me.  

This is where I am at this morning.  Nice wide stripes and nice loose crochet will make a decent chair pad.  It will also use up a fair amount of a yarn I don't really have a plan for.  That matters to me.  Plus after the first full day of use, my leg feels much better.  No more chafing.  This yarn is now the chair pad yarn and is suddenly useful and important to me.  

At one point, I was going to sell this yarn or give it away.  And suddenly it has become a big part of things that matter to me.  Funny how that happens.  When your direction changes you just never know what will be the right thing.

Maybe knitting

Big needles.

Big bin of wool.

Let's see what sort of wool chair pads we can come up with.

Felted wool

More not normal knitting.  Again!  

Old sweaters.  What to do with them?  When a sweater is worn out or I am bored with it, my usual treatment is to felt it.  I usually cut it into squares of various sizes depending how I will use those felted squares.  They make great hot pads and coasters.  The last batch of old sweaters had no specific use planned though I was leaning to using them together for a blanket.  I cut squares of various sizes to get the most fabric out of the garments.  

And they sat for months.  Which I'm glad for now.  I could use some chair pads to make life more comfortable.  I made a small one a few weeks ago to alleviate some pressure on one spot, and it has made a real difference.  Maybe wool chair pads are the answer and that's what I am using all these squares for.  

I start with larger squares and make a well sewn together base.  Then I layer 

smaller shapes on top.  They get sewn on and are attached on all sides.  You can see there is a bit left to do on the center square.  I would like to knit a nicer looking top layer and have stash yarn in mind to do it with.  In general though, I just need a good thick wool pad.

That's the woolly stuff I have been doing lately.  It's not much but it will make a big difference in my life.  

I do have some fun stuff too.  Remember how I spoke of spending time looking at stitch markers and progress keepers?  I said I was going to make my own?  Ha.

I fell for some from an Ontario maker.  Cupcake cuteness and stones.  They aren't stones, just acrylic or resin faux stones.  But they are a reminder of so much of my life with Brian.  There is beauty in all the small things including ordinary stones.  Thse would be more than ordinary if they were real but as a stitch marker, these are the perfect weight.  It's just what I was looking for.  

There is so much to do today.  In the heat things have seemed to pile up.  Oh well.  One chore at a time and it will get done.

Goofiness

This weekend was full of  goofiness.  And it was not my fault.

One of the little things I had to move through the floor replacement was my Lego Botanicals.  Keith gave me a set for Christmas a few years ago and they lived among the blue and white china collection.  It always bugged me that they weren't displayed with the focus on them.  

While they were stored, a couple of the individual pots were broken.  I brought them out and Keith found instructions online to rebuild them.  And then he grouped them on a shelf.

He also tucked in the wee squirrel that a friend made for me a few years ago.  I loved it and jokingly said "He needs a watering can."

And that's when Keith got ... well, odd.  His eyes lit up and he went for the lego box.  

He  couldn't find what he was looking for so

It was like watching him at 6 and 7 and 8 years old again.  I just laughed.  And before you know it

Watering can.

I had to add a bit of something so I used some extra pieces from the kit and made a few flowers.

Pretty soon, Mr. Squirrel has his own complete garden and I am utterly charmed.

I may have to make him a rake and a hoe or maybe a trowel.  It was just fun.

Lots of water

I got all my planned chores done yesterday but for the blue and white china.   Yay for me.  There is still so much to do though.  I did pull out a pair of pants and am partway through pinning the waist band on too.  That was an extra thing I had not figured on.  I did some yarn things but no knitting.  

Today will be another hot day according to the weatherman.  I am wearing lightweight clothes but my head is all about winter sweaters.  Seriously.  In fact I'm wondering if my decision on Lunan is because its time to start finishing up the winter sweaters I have on the go.  

I pulled out my Hiraeth sweater.  

 

I want to knit on this so much.  It got set aside for all the summer knitting.  In a way it's a bit like my Shalom.  Hiraeth has the same round yoke and I am planning for my Shalom to have bands of the twisted rib at the bottom and at the cuffs in a similar way to Hiraeths bands of corrugated rib.  Everything is different and yet a wee bit the same.  

I was also digging my fingers into the bag with my Staffin sweater.  I can't wait to get working on that gorgeous deep red.  It will be a total restart to resolve some errors but I knew that going in.  First try was just practice and now that I understand the set up, and what she is doing I can go ahead and enjoy the knit.

I am also looking for a speedy finish to my Kauni sweater.  

Some progress but not a lot since spring. It's the sort of sweater I will wear a lot as summer turns slowly to fall.  This sweater is nice straight forward knitting.

Today I am going get the pants finished.  Both pair just need the elastic waistband and as I mentioned, one pair is already half pinned in.  I do have a hemming project to do.  That's more fussy work than anything else but it's something I am looking forward to.  And then I hope to get in a bit of knitting.  My hand is feeling much better so I will give it a go.  

Add to this, lots of water.  Lots and lots of water.  

Stuff

I got some sewing in yesterday. I almost have pants!  It's a bit of a mess in there.  The post flooring mess remains though all the furniture is back in place.  Nothing is in order.  All the things that were out in spring so I could work on miniatures and sewing is buried under the bits and pieces from the living room that need to be put away or go back on the bookcases.  I need to spend a day just putting things in order before anything else happens.  But not today.  

Today, the books get finished sorting.  I am going to be mashing two shelves into one.  Maybe.  It's my plan but we shall see how that works.  Then Keith has promised he will help get the blue and white China collection back in place.  That takes care of some of the sewing room problem as well as getting all of my living room back.  

I am going to try to get to some knitting or sewing today too but they will be low on the list of things to do.  I think my Musselburough is going to get some work.  

My time will otherwise be taken up with having a nap in the heat of the day and a cool afternoon shower.  I hope you can find ways to keep cool too.  

Books and a Treat

I did not knit yesterday.  I have a bit of a hand thing happening that I didn't feel till now.  It's on the top of my hand and feels a bit like when you have foot trouble, in that I think the problem is more from the palm.  Resting felt like a good idea.  I think it comes from the tablet and not knitting.

I have decided to frog my Lunan.  I didn't gauge swatch and as much as I like the fabric, what I have is not going to work. It would be fine in wool, which blooms a bit but this cotton wool won't work.  I need a smaller gauge to make the top I want.  

And that is it.  I have been busy reorganizing my library and that is taking surprisingly long.  I move slowly, I guess.  The knitting library is finished.  It's not in order by subject but in order of height of the books.  This is a crappy way to organize a library but if you are short on space, it does work.  I try to get subjects close to each other but that's as much as I can do.  

I am starting on the other books today.  Which reminds me, the town newsletter always has a library update.  Today they talked about the bill the government put through to ban a bunch of books.  They gave a few sample books, a short list of four, and I am thrilled to say I own two of the four they named.  I am going to go find the whole list and may buy more on the list.  Because I am snarky that way.  

I have a treat for you this morning.  I am watching a new vlogger today and she is really enjoyable.  Knit2KnowMe is her YouTube handle.  I caught her first episode and she is just genuinely lovely.  She is out of Cambridge New Zealand and I encourage you to watch all of her episodes.  Ep three is amazing.  Enjoy.

A good weekend

We had a week of hot and I did not do well.  The last couple days of cool and I am feeling a lot better.  We finally have all of our cooling the house strategies in place.  Fans in windows.  Emergency blankets on windows.  Doors open in cool parts of the day.  It works.  Thank you full roll screens for doors.  

It was a good weekend of knitting too.  I knit on the yellow Lunan top.  I love the way this fabric feels. I did not quite get as far as I hoped but it's OK.  I will get there today.  

I spent lots of time on my Shalom sweater.

I have a half row to finish this garter stitch section before a third section of twisted rib.  And by the looks of this picture, I think my increase rate is looking good.  And in case I forgot to say, this is going to be a pullover.

I wore my new fully complete Geddy Tee this weekend.  I think it's going to be a really good part of my wardrobe.  The fabric is warm enough that it's going to be a great vest with a shirt for all season wear.  I took some bad photos of it on.

I really love the front neckline.  She has the most interesting neckline instructions that I will be using again.  It's just a wonderfully clear section of pattern writing.

And a shot of the shoulder fit.  

Perfect fit and a really nice length for how I want a drop sleeve to fit.

This morning I am wearing my dishcloth cotton Lusk top.  I.  Love.  This.  Top.  The pattern is superb and the fabric this cotton makes is really great.  It's warm enough for cool mornings and breathes well enough that I've worn it through some of the hot days.  I find myself contemplating knitting another of these in some of my multi colored kitchen yarn.  It's awfully comfortable to wear even if I find the multi makes a not pretty fabric.  Stop me please.  

Lunan is the work of the day.  And maybe a wee bit of knitting on a sock just to keep my hand in.  

Finished?

With all the fuss and bother of the last few days, I have been putting off weaving in my ends on my Geddy Tee.

There are a lot of ends. Or so I have been telling myself.  It really no worse than any other garment.  It just looks bad because I left all the ends nice and long so I could weave them in well.  Plus, the double stranding.  It's a mess.

Since it is so hot today, I am dressing easy.  I did have a minute where I felt a chill as the fans started up, so I grabbed this tee and slipped it on.  Goodness I like this tee.  A lot.  It fits me so nicely.  And that is how I finally started weaving in ends.  

I am really hoping to get in some knitting today.  It's three days now since I knit.  I am feeling twitchy, so it's time.  I am going to work on the yellow till I get the back of Lunan done and then I will set it aside to work on the Shalom pullover.  That has a lot of visual interest and is fun to work up.  That's my weekend work unless I cast on something else that is new and fun.

Settled again

There was absolutely zero knitting yesterday.  It was the day to restore order to my house.

This is a library on its way to reconstruction.  I had two helpers and it took all day.  We took short breaks and one of my assistants went walking to our downtown to pick up lunch.  We worked steady and not too fast but fast enough to get the job done before their mom came by to pick them up.  They did a great job and I am so thankful they helped.  By the end of the day, we had this.

We shifted the TV a bit.  It's been in the same spot for 10 years and now that all we need is a plug in, it was time for a shift.  I'm not going to put all my foo faraw out again.  Some yes, but a little less is fine with me.  It just needs to feel homey to me.  

The other thing about getting things back to order is that I can now get to my yarn again.  The bookcases were standing in front of the wool closet and you cannot imagine how it feels to be able to get back in there.  It is not that I needed anything there.  It's just that loss of a small freedom of access that was surprisingly hard to bear.  

The other thing mostly cleared out is my sewing room.  I am going to finish my two pairs of pants that just need elastic and hemming, today or tomorrow.  I will be so happy to have them.  They are light weight airy fabrics and should be perfect for summer wear.  

I did get to the underarm shaping on the yellow Lunan sweater and hope to get that done as well as the sewing.  So it will be a busy day ahead. 

Good knitting

I'm free! I'm free!  The floor is done and looks good.  It's is an almost perfect match for what we had before and yet it is oh so different.  

I had a great knitting weekend.  

I knit to the middle of the first multi colour band...and then I ripped it back.  Too many stitches too soon caused the whole thing to ruffle up.  A ruffled top is not a good look on a person.  Not when it is supposed to be smooth.  Real ruffles are great but look very different.  

The restart looked better immediately.  

Much nicer.  

I have just finished the second round of increases and I am ready to move on to a longer needle.  Once I do that, I will be able to see if this second round is right or if I need to do another pullback and do a different rate of increases.  

It's close I think, but I want better than close.  I love how it looks.

I will be working on the yellow sweater today.  I want that just as much but a solid single colour sweater needs a bit more determination and stick to it  than a many colored joyous thing.  I want it so I must knit it.  

Cheats and an answer for Jen.

The story of yesterday was I cheated. Let me start at the start.  

I picked up early in the morning and all went very well.  

It's going well.  I put in a couple of inches and am pleased with how it's going.  It's a fun knit.  

But I was heartily sick of it by noon.  I am quite sure it has to do with being stuck in my room while floor work goes on.  It was just that antigens that creeps in when you can'tdo more than anything else.  I put my pretty yellow away.  

I thought I would knit on my Kauni sweater.  I searched through the bags in the WIPs bin and couldn't find it.  It's somewhere in here but when I opened a bag with some navy Cascade 220 and some multi colored yarn from a maker called Yarn Love ghat I purchased from someone's stash a good long while ago, I threw all thought of sticking with knits on the go aside.  I needed to cast on something new. That was exciting. 

I am making a Shalom with this.  Shalom is an oldie that I made four times before as a vest or a sweater.  This version is going to be a pullover.  

And now for an answer to Jen, who commented yesterday regarding gauge issues.  Simply put, not anymore.  There are no patterns I will not knit if I have a gauge issue. That's the simple version but the truth is way weirder that that.  

I rarely follow patterns completely.  Right from the start of my knitting journey some almost 20 years ago.  I struggled as a new knitter and still struggle now.  The difference is I now understand why.  When I see a line of type with letters and numbers they pile up at the end of the line.  Literally.  A knitting pattern can be a nightmare for me.  I have to break it into today smaller bits in order to understand what is going on in a pattern.  Once I understand it I can usually make something that will fit me and that will kind of look like the design I want.  

To get to this point, I read and played around lots.  I highly recommend reading everything by Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitting In the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson Roberts,  Knitting From the Top Down by Barbara Walker, Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl McPhee,  Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague for starters to encourage you to be in the drivers seat of your knitting.  

Longer ago, I could purchase what I wanted to suit a pattern but now, with a ginormous stash, and little spare cash, I play gauge games.  I also play gauge games because my one hand has a shaking problem that makes fine yarns very difficult.  That is what happened with the Geddy Tee.  

I wanted that tee. I bought the pattern to read how the designer built the design.  I carefully read the schematics.  I made a swatch of what my gauge with my yarns was.  Then, I rather blindly made my crocheted granny squares.  I knew I wanted to use only two for the shoulder saddles because that looked nicer and two were wide enough for how I wanted it to fit.  And then basically, I picked up the number of stitches that I would need based on her schematics and my granny squares measurement.  

As you can see at the shoulders, the main body ruffles a bit but the picture shows the unblocked sweater.    After that it's all about my gauge and her schematics.  I rarely read the pattern except to confirm her details.  I try to keep to the details of the design, the shoulders, the collar, all the little bits that make her design the sweater I want.  

So I sort of wing it.  Because I can't do anything else.  Would that I could.  Would that 9 year old me could have done those train math word problems or that slightly older me could have done algebra.  

Do I need patterns? Not really.  That is both blessing and curse. I struggle with patterns that are too line by line and where numbers are perfect on every row. But can I knit to fit me?  Yes.

I hope this helps answer your questions Jen.  It's all about gauge and the designers schematics.   If you don't have my issues with letters and numbers, the reasonable thing is to do the things you describe to get the size you want.  

That's it for today.  The little bits of rain we are having is nice and the air smells Grand.  All the really heavy stuff is south of us.  So far.  So far.  

Interesting times

Interesting times I think.  I am now, more or less living in my substantial bedroom.  It is really much too large for a bedroom unless you are of the school that the master bedroom is a retreat and must therefore be enormous.  This room is of that school and I am thankful for it. All the things I use daily are able to fit in here.  It's a bit of a squeeze but it's okay for the hopefully few days that it will take to get the new floor in.  

I had a great day knitting.  

  All the increases are complete and only the length to the underarm remain to be knitted.  I hope to get everything of that done today.  It's kind of fun knitting, because of the rib. It's never going to feel like a long slog.  

New day, new project and plenty of tea.  Not a bad way to spend the day. 

 

Ordinary time

What a lovely day yesterday.  Maybe a bit warm, but it was great 9verall.

Plenty of interesting knitting.

A new cast on!  I am so excited.  This is Lunan by Rebecca Clow, The Creabea.  I noted it a couple years ago as she was knitting first sample.  I had to wait till she took it to testers and through the process till it's release date.  And since the release date, I have been waiting to knit it.  

I knew exactly which yarn I wanted to knit it with.  The yarn is Elle Elite, a long discontinued cotton and wool blend out of South Africa.  The lovely soft yellow is a perfect colour for spring and fall.  I have knit with the griegey green I have in this yarn several times.   My first Tolsta was made using leftovers from a greigy green sweater I made years ago when I lived in my wee house on the west side of the city.  I still have both and wear them often.  It's just a good sound fabric.  I think I have a brick red colour of this as well.  I will knit that up sometime soon.  Ish.  There are lots of other yarns to knit through.  

I am really enjoying the Lunan pattern.  It's more than stockinette with the tiniest bit of a rib but my most wanted thing on this top is the Polo collar.  I have always wanted to knit a Polo collar top and here it was.  I do have Elisabeth Zimmermann's books and have read many times through her patterns and advice on Polo collars.  I have a Vogue Knitting book that has a Polo collar design.  I have several other patterns that have Polo collars like  Sari Nordlund's North Wind sweater.  I want to try her version of European shoulder construction.  

For now, Lunan.  Interesting knitting.  

Today is going to be busy.  The last preps are happening for the floor guys.  Doing flooring really is best done in an empty house.  With a bit of luck all the mess and stress will be done soon and my little world will be back to normal.  Or what passes for normal here.  What is  normal really?  Life is about flux and change and adaptation and then a couple of ordinary days before it all starts again.  I am lucky that I have knitting to get me through whatever flux there may be to get back to ordinary time.  

Happy Happy

Yesterday was a very good day.  I experimented with mostly hanging out in my room.  That went okay.  Mostly that's about sorting out the issues and what I need in here while the floors are curing out there.    

It was a good day knitting too because

It's done!  I am so pleased.  Are there things I would do differently if I was to make it again?  Sure, but that is experience.  It's could use a good blocking but otherwise I am very happy with it.  If I was to change anything, it would be that at the bottom hem I would have done 7 rows of the colour, not five.  I also would have gone straight into the rib rather than do the few rows of stockinette.  But that's it.  I love how it looks and fits, and that is what matters.

I also started something new.  I know I have things to work on that I can't wait to wear.  The Hiraeth sweater 

It's gorgeous and I have only a few rows of coulourwork to go.  I'm not fond of the fit of circular yokes on me.  I am very hopeful for this because it is a combination of styles.  After the round colourwork, there are additional raglan increases to help you get a great fit for your body.  There is more colourwork at the hem and at the sleeve ends.  So lots of gorgeous colour offset by my beloved brilliant sunshine yellow.

And my Kauni sweater.  

 

I love this.  It's in one of my all time favourite yarns, Tove, sadly long discontinued.  I adore the way the Kauni is changing.  It starts very subtly a few rows before the Tove bands.  And that grey?  Blue.  Just this wonderfully dusty blue.  That brown?  A rich dusty purple.  It's wonderful.

Now the new top?  That will wait for another day.