Fall Fever

I'm suffering from a serious case of fall fever.

While unpacking my booth setup stuff after the county fair last weekend, I set the cup of fake leaves down in a random corner of the room for a lack of a better place to store them.  They looked so lonely, I added a pumpkin.  And now I officially have fall fever.  I want candy corn, bonfires, jeans, boots, flannel shirts, and did I mention, candy corn?  I love candy corn.

The fair was a success, despite it incredibly hot and humid.  From my booth alone, I saw three different people get loaded into ambulances, presumably from heat related issues.  It was hot!  Naturally, no one was in the mood to buy wool hats but I did sell tons of pumpkins.  Despite the heat, it was a successful day.  My booth neighbor, Winnie from Sweet Threads, was a lifesaver.  There wasn't room in my booth for the fan I'd brought but Winnie had a spare and aimed it at me for the entire event.  Thank you Winnie!

I've been pretty lazy since getting home from the fair.

All I've managed to accomplish craft-wise is to bind off a scrap shawl I was knitting and I started a granny rectangle blanket.

I'm loving the granny rectangle, although I can't crochet for more than about 30 minutes a day or my hand feels like it's going to fall off. Crochet bothers my carpal tunnel.  Anyway....  

I've never crocheted an official granny rectangle before.  I've always just made two (or more) squares, sewn them together then granny stitched around them to create a rectangle.  This time, I watched a you tube video to learn how to do it correctly and I love the results.  I'm already afraid I'm going to run out of yarn though.  I may have grossly miscalculated how much I'd need.  The blanket may end up being a weirdly large table runner.  We'll see.

As for the scarf, it's another simple scrap Palette garter stitched scarf.  Every row is a different color and I leave a little extra yarn hanging off the ends to become fringe.  Super simple to knit and a great way to use up little bits of mis-matched left over yarns.  I've made a zillion of them and will most likely make a zillion more.

And that has pretty much been my week.  I hope your week has been as relaxing and frivolous as mine has been.

Happy knitting!

It's been a while!

When I said I was retiring, I didn't mean I was retiring from blogging but apparently....

Life suddenly got busy and the I'll do it tomorrow's started flying past and suddenly, here I am, over a month later.  Oops.  I'm only working two days a week now so hopefully I'll have time to blog on a more regular basis.  Or, if I'm being honest, hopefully I'll have the motivation to blog more frequently.  My retirement plans include spending much more time on my Etsy shop and doing in-person markets in the fall.  Those plans should help the motivation.

Anyway...

What have I been up to over the last month?

A close friend of ours passed away in late April and he was involved in the DAV (Disabled American Veterans.)  I got a little emotional at his memorial and told his commander I would knit and donate 75 hats by mid November to be given to the disabled vets for Christmas.   Like I said, I got a little emotional.  Have you ever been to a military funeral?  I think I'm still dehydrated from all the tears.  

Anyway.... I've since bought myself a Sentro knitting machine which is helping tremendously with the hat situation.  Fifteen down, sixty more to go.

Oh, and while I've been cranking out hats, I'm also trying to get the shop restocked and items made in preparation for the fall market season.  Oh, and let's not forget the personal projects.  The Insanity blanket is growing but at a much slower pace now.  Currently, I have knit 102 blocks.  Only 184 more to go.

I'm also crocheting a Frozen blanket for Hayden.  I think I've previously mentioned how obsessed she is with Frozen.  The blanket is just a giant granny square, well, granny rectangle, knit with Ice Cream Big Scoop yarn from Lion Brand.  I chose this yarn simply because it was blue & white, has 1117 yards per skein, and it was relatively inexpensive.

And yes, it was the yarn that broke my No Yarn Purchases For A Year streak.  I didn't make it a year, but I did make it to seven months and a few days without buying yarn.  Oh well, the purchase was for a good cause.  I only wish that was the only yarn I'd purchased.  Once that streak was broken, I went a little crazy.  It didn't help that Hobby Lobby was in the middle of one of their yarn sales at the time.  But hey, I do need yarn for those 75 DAV hats so...

Let's see, what else have I been working on?

I pulled the Christmas sock out of the UFO pile and knit on it a little bit. I just can't get excited about these socks for some reason. Although... I'll admit, every December I kick myself for not having finished them. 

Speaking of socks, I've beaded eleven pairs since my last blog post.  They are a popular item in my shop and it's hard to maintain the current inventory while creating new color choices.  Well, of course it wouldn't be so difficult if it wasn't for all the other knitting projects, but you know what I mean.

Oooh! And see that basket in the above photo?  I absolutely LOVE my Bolga basket.  I'd ordered it from Amazon and wondered why in the world I was spending my hard earned money on it but I am SO glad I did.  I absolutely love it!  I'm actually thinking of buying another.

I started another Musselburgh hat.  I'm not focusing on it much right now.  It's the 'I'm knitting outside, I've already made the day's quota of beaded socks and it's too hot to work on the Frozen blanket' project.  In other words, it doesn't see much action.  The  yarn is Maditosh Hand Dyed in Sycamore.  It's been in my stash for ages.  Sarah had chosen it for a scarf years ago but the color was Awful with her skin tone.  And yes, that's a capital A for awful.  For someone who can wear yellow, it will be a beautiful hat.  It's just not for Sarah.

I've also been knitting pumpkins and chickens for the shop/fall markets but I don't have any photos. Have you seen the Emotional Support Chickens?  They are adorable!  I'm not following that pattern, but it's where I got the idea and I still think my chickens are cute.

I've been doing lots of gardening.  Well, okay, some gardening.  I'm not exactly skilled so it takes me forever to accomplish anything in the yard.  It's also been really hot.   

Sadly, my hydrangea is already close to death.  Apparently when Google tells you hydrangeas like daily watering, they mean it.  Oops.  I'm trying to be better.  But hey!  Most of my tomato plants have tomatoes and some are even turing red!  Oh, and my pepper plants are getting teeny tiny peppers and the other 1,000 plants I bought are still alive.  

It's official!  We are now the most redneck household in the county.  My husband bought this old, abandoned and broken down race truck and plans to fix it up and sell it.  He's buddies with the guy he got it from so he knows it's history.  My daughter tells me that under all the dirt, the flag paint job is actually very pretty and has a metalic shimmer.  Not sure if that helps or hurts the redneck factor but hey... My husband bought a broken down race truck.  I have nothing to feel guilty about over spending a fortune on yarn and plants that will probably not survive the summer.

Oh, and speaking of spending a fortune, we Finally closed on the house.  What a friggin process that was!  It took a full year from application to closing.  Good grief!  But the brick pile is officially ours now.  You'll probably be hearing me moan about all the things that go wrong with a 100+ year old house while celebrating the little improvements we plan to make.

And, no photos but, Hayden has graduated from Headstart and has qualified for some kind of advanced preschool for next school year.  I honestly don't know much about it but I'm very proud of her. 

On another note about Hayden, she's officially over pretending to knit.  She wants to learn to actually knit (or crochet) so if anyone has suggestions for a no patience having grandma who doesn't like to teach that needs to teach a four year old how to knit, please send those suggestions my way.  I'm hoping there's a magical Youtube video out there that she can watch over and over while I sit nearby in case she needs hands on assistance.  Got any suggestions???

Well, I think that's about it so, until next time,

Happy knitting!

Orthopedic Shoes

I'm so excited!  I need to get myself an eyeglass chain and some orthopedic shoes because.... I'm retiring!  Actually, I'm still going to work a few days a week but my retirement application was approved by Social Security yesterday and they sent me the approval letter today.  I'm pretty dang excited about it!  Retirement doesn't officially start until June 1st but still, I'm pretty darn excited!

To celebrate, I sat on the deck and knit after spending the morning mowing the grass. The Insanity blanket continues to grow.  I'm trying to knit on it as much as humanly possible before it gets too hot to hold it in my lap.  Currently, I'm on the seventh block of the fourth row.  57 squares down, 283 more to go.

I wish I hadn't done that math.  

Hayden took a brief pause from being Elsa and turned into a lion today.  She's got quite the roar!

The Insanity Continues

 I went MIA there for a bit.  Actually, I went S.O.A.

The TV in my area died so I've been re-watching nothing but DVDs for the past several weeks.  I pulled out the Sons of Anarchy set and have pretty much done nothing but watch bikers and knit on the Insanity blanket ever since.  (Yeah, see all those post-its scattered everywhere?  They are reminders of the things I'm supposed to be doing instead of knitting.)

It's a good thing S.O.A. is six?? seven?? maybe even eight seasons long because this blanket is going to take me a lifetime LIFETIME!  It's 17 squares wide which means it will need to be at minimum 20 squares in length.  If not at work, I really have pretty much done nothing but knit on this monster since I started it and I've only just started the eighth square of the second row.  A lifetime, I tell you!

I did take a brief few minutes off from knitting so I could pick some daffodills. We have a bumper crop this year.  I guess they really liked all the rain we have gotten over the last bunch of months.  

And of course I took an afternoon off to attend Hayden's Elsa's Frozen birthday party.  I'm ashamed to admit, I still have not watched Frozen, but I feel like I have.  Hayden quotes it and sings the songs constantly.  Like father, like daughter.

Happy knitting!

Insanity

I know I've said it before but...  What is wrong with me??

Because I'm too lazy to wind the yarn for the project that I really want to make, I decided to start knitting another blanket.  I'm calling it the Insanity Blanket because, obviously, I've gone completely insane.  

I'm using scrap fingering weight yarn and US2 needles.  Have I mentioned I've gone completely insane??

I've based the pattern on Knit Pick's Hue Shift, but I've made a few modifications of my own.  I'm still using two colors per mitered square, but there's no plan for what colors come next.  I'll use one skein until it runs out and change the contrasting color for each square.  I'm also going to knit the entire blanket in one piece rather than in Hue Shift's four pieces that have to be grafted together.  I'm also using a differnt number of cast on stitches since mine is using fingering and Hue Shift calls for worsted. 

I also plan for this blanket to fit over a queen size bed.  

And all of this because I'm too lazy to wind one skein of yarn.  Good grief!

Yes, I'm pretty sure I've gone completely insane.

Meanwhile, spring has sprung here in Virginia and I've been thankful to spend some time outdoors.

Time outdoors with Hayden.  She loves her trampoline! 

She turned four recently and I can not get over how much more skilled she is this year than last.  Last year she couldn't figure out how to pedal any of her riding things and this year,  well, let's just say, Nana is taking up running again in an effort to keep up with her on that bike.  

Oh, and she blew out her candles on the first try this year instead of just spitting on the cake!  My little grandbaby is growing up so fast!

Stupid February

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the month of February?  February has never been a good month for me and this year .... Well, this year, February simply sucks.  First, I had that stomach bug that lasted four or five days.  Then I got the cold/sinus thing which is still hanging around two weeks later.  And for the icing on the February cake, we've spent the last 36+ hours in the ER.  My husband had a bit of a health scare but after about 45 thousand tests/procedures and even more medicines, they hope to send him home shortly.  We're just waiting for the final approval from the doctor.

On a more positive note, the hubster will be fine, although we may end up divorced after all my future nagging about taking his health more seriously.  

And, I finished the Rambling Rows blanket.  That photo is the best I can do from ER.  I never got around to taking a photo of the finished blanket.  But yeah, I went with the icord border and am glad I did.  I don't know why I was dreading it so much.  The icord knitting went super fast - much, much faster than a garter border would have been.  After being on the To Knit list for four years, I'm pretty dang excited to be done with that blanket.  I even already got the loose ends woven in!

Maybe February doesn't suck so bad after all.

It's raining. Again.

Goodness! It's been a wet winter.  Sadly, we've had no real snow, but we have had 9+ inches of rain since the first of December.  And it's raining again today.  Good grief!  I really shouldn't complain because we are now 'water front' rather than 'swamp mud' fronted. The view is definitely nicer.

Anyway...

I've been knitting.

After finishing the brown striped socks, I pulled Rambling Rows out of the UFO pile.  According to Ravelry, I started this Cottage Creations blanket in April, 2020.  I've knit a few of these blankets before and really like the pattern. It's super simple but the color changes keep you from getting bored, and best of all, the blocks are large-ish so there are only 100's of ends to weave in at the end instead of 1,000's.  

The blanket is made up of multiple sizes of mitered squares and rectangles, it's super easy to knit and it's a great way to use up leftover yarns.  For this version, I'm using fingering weight and it's going to be more of an oversized baby/lap blanket size.  I'm thinking seriously of knitting another (or maybe 3 more) and sewing them together to form a blanket big enough for a large bed.  But considering it's taken me four years to get this far.... probably not.  But on a positive note, I'm on block 47 out of 55.  Here's hoping I can stick with it and actually get it finished.  

I'm really enjoying this 'finishing' thing.  I finished the summer/4th of July diamond painting.  I'm not really into the shiny/sparkley way the finished pieces look (although I LOVE my sparkley snowflake coasters) but I do enjoy attaching the diamond dots to the backing.  It's so mindless and meditative.  I went a little crazy last summer and ordered multiple coaster sets and three large seasonal designs.  There's this one for summer, an autumn one with pumpkins, and a winter one with a snowman.  They're all the same size and the idea is to buy one frame that I can move the diamond paintings in and out of seasonally.  The goal is to finish one each quarter.  We'll see how that goes.

And, I finished the shawl.

I haven't blocked it and honestly, I may just skip that process entirely because the yarn is so soft and drapey as is.  I used almost 5 full skeins of Obsidian City Tweed and most of a skein of Snowbank.  I didn't use a pattern, it's just a simple triangular, bottom up, garter stitch shawl.  Easy peasy and now I have another item checked off the list and 6 skeins of yarn out of the stash pile.  Win/win.

Happy knitting!