Hue Shift

 I couldn't help myself.

I had to start the Hue Shift afghan.  I just couldn't stand to wait any longer.

Hue Shift is a mitered square blanket knit with Brava from Knit Picks.  Or at least, mine is.  The pattern also includes instructions for using Mighty Stitch yarn.  Knit Picks sells kits with several different color combinations and there's even a crochet kit.  

The blanket is knit in four sections that you can arrange in different ways before sewing them together to get completely different looks.  I'm a little concerned about my ability to power through this blanket without putting it aside to knit something else but, the frequent color changes will keep it interesting and as luck would have it, the last section contains my favorite colors.  I'm hoping that motivates me to keep knitting.

Meanwhile, Hayden keeps me in stitches by making funny faces.

Happy knitting!

What a week!

This has been quite an exciting week!

I finished the Mimosa sweater for Sarah.  I even sewed it all up and she's worn it.  Of course I forgot to take a phot of it.  Next time she wears it...

I finished knitting the Squish blanket and bound it off.

I even wove in all the little ends and have been enjoying snuggling up under it the last few nights.  The blanket really is aptly named because it is incredibly thick and squishy.  If I can stand that many long-term projects, I may have to knit one for each family member.  I love it that much!

And, most exciting of all....

The Cadbury eggs are stocked and on the grocery store shelves.  This pleases me to no end.  My weight-loss doctor, probably not so much.

Continue-itis

You've heard of start-itis.  Well, I'm suffering from continue-itis.  I just keep knitting on the same items and never seem to finish them.

I'd forgotten how much I dislike having mutliple projects on the needles at once.  I mean, one simple, knit while I read type project and one complicated, gotta pay attention project on the needles at the same time is okay.  It's a good thing actually.  But more than that.... and it's just a bad case of continue-itis.

I did finish the knitting part of Mimosa and one side seam is sewn.  But that other side seam....  I really neeed to finish it before Sarah beats me over my head with my knitting bag but....

But when given the choice between sewing seams and knitting....

Even when the knitting is slightly boring and never ending, I'll choose knitting over seam sewing any day of the week.  There may actually be an end in sight for Squish.  I guestimated its length this morning and it looks like I only need to add four more color stripes.  And that means, by next Friday, I should, hopefully, be showing off a finished Squish.  Fingers crossed!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but my husband gave me this book, Selbu Patterns, by Anne Bardsgard for Christmas.  How he knew I wanted it or where to find it is beyond me but he really came through this year! 

 

And of course I had to immediately cast on a hat.  It's not a true Selbu designed hat, but it is using a Selbu design element.  This is the one knitting project without a deadline or a waiting receive so of course, it's the project I want to knit on most.

I could have knit this hat 16 times by now but I'm struggling with the chart color vs my yarn colors.  See how the chart is black and white?  Actually, it's charcoal gray and white.  My yarn is charcoal gray and yellow.  On the chart, the background stitches are white and the pattern is gray.  But my yarn, the background is gray and the pattern is knit in yellow.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to tink back and switch my colors.  

I'm at the halfway point of the chart though so 16 more tinks and reknits .... and I'll be back to solid color knitting.  If I focused, I could have this hat finished by next Friday too!

Wish me luck and happy knitting!

Flying

 The needles have been flying!

The thumb splint was due to be removed on the day after Thanksgiving but I took it off a day early.  Sarah still did most of the cooking but I helped a little and did most of the dish washing.  The warm water felt really good on my thumb and I think it was a big help in getting some mobility back in it. 

Our Thanksgiving was pretty peaceful.  We only had three in attendance because everyone else had the flu.  

After dinner clean-up, I sat down and knit.  And knit and knit and knit. I'm making a Garter Squish blanket, a free Stephen West design.  Of course I'm not following the pattern exactly.  I added a few extra stitches for little bit of extra width and I'm changing colors much more frequently than suggested.  

It's only been a week of knitting and the blanket is already too big to fit into my sweater plus a hat or two sized knitting bag.  Being knit with two strands of worsted on large needles makes for a wonderfully thick and squishy fabric. (Thus the design's name.)  I'm not crazy about the way my color stripes look when it's bunched up in my lap or knitting bag but it's better when spread out over a bed.  I think - I hope - it's one of those magical projects, like a scrappy mitered square blanket, where the colors clash and look awful until you finish and suddenly, presto-magic, they all blend together perfectly.  That's what I'm hoping.  But even if it turns out ugly, it will be warm and snuggly.

I'm knitting the blanket with two strands of Brava held together.  One strand is Custard throughout and the second is a mish-mash of mini skeins from multiple sets.  It's a very relaxing knit and the fabric knits up super fast - obviously!  The pattern has a knit as you go i-cord border which is pretty cool.  I've never seen it before and while it's not visually noticable, it is super easy to do and does make the edge neater and somewhat sturdier.  

Squish has been a wonderful project to be working on this past week.  It's mindless and exactly what I've needed.  Remember how I said everyone had the flu for Thanksgiving?  Hayden was one of the 'everyone' and it hit her hard.  Really, really hard.  She ended up being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and gave us a all a pretty good scare.  This year's flu is no joke.  

She's home now, after multiple days in the hospital hooked up to all kinds of tubes and wires.  She's feeling better but still isn't her normal bouncy self.  Now, if we can just get her parents well.... I'm not sure who I felt more sorry for - Hayden hooked up to all the life saving gadgets or her parents, having to sit and worry about her while they dealt with their own flu symptoms.  Zack seems like he's making a little progress getting better.  His fever has finally broken at least.  But Hayden's mom, honestly, I'm not so sure she shouldn't be hanging out in her own hospital bed.  

Meanwhile, I have a giant snack basket with enough snacks to sustain me for several days and I'm hiding out in my room, doing everything I can to avoid their flu germs.  Thank goodness I have a closet full of yarn and my thumb is healed and I can knit once again. 

Oh, and just to make sure my thumb would allow me to use regular sized needles, I cast on a .... well, the first of a set of four somethings for a Christmas gift.   Also being knit with Brava.  I've never liked acrylic yarns but Brava is pretty nice.  I've knit almost exclusively with it since the start of summer and have had zero issues with it.  It's soft, seems to wash and wear well and comes in lots of pretty colors.

Oh, and I started to decorate for Christmas.  I didn't get very far before Hayden got sick.  And apparently I forgot to water the brand new pointsettias.  Hopefully they will bounce back.

I hope you all also had a peaceful Thanksgiving, although for different reasons.  (I've been too busy knitting and praying for Hayden to read many blog posts.)  I also  hope you can stay far, far away from the flu germs but if you do get sick, take care and take it seriously.  It's a nasty, nasty bug this year!

Tragedy

 Tragedy has struck.

This giant box of yarn arrived...

On the same day this happened.

Yes, I am such a klutz, I managed to fracture my thumb while laying in the bed.  I put my hand up over my head and drove my thumb straight-on into the wall and fractured it.  

I really need to come up with a more exciting and less embarrassing story.  But then, how many people can claim to have broken a bone while sleeping?

The tragedy is that I can't knit with my thumb like it is.  I'm happy that it doesn't hurt that much (as long as I don't bump it on something, which does seem to happen 1,000 times a day.  Have I mentioned what a klutz I am?)  But despite being mostly pain-free, I can't bend it or move it towards my pinky so I can't grip anything.  

I know opposable thumbs are important, but I never really realized just how important.  I can't even put my hair in a ponytail and it takes me an extra 15 minutes to unbutton/button my pants.  And worse, I have to take my shirt all the way off in order to remove my bra. 

No knitting and no easy bra removal.  It truely is a tragedy!

 Sadly but thankfully, I can still scan gallons of milk and cases of beer and my grocery store customers have been very understanding and helpful, so I'm still functioning fairly well at work.  I'd rather be able to knit but...  At least I'm not sitting at home, bored out of my mind and twiddling one thumb.

Meanwhile, the giant box of yarn I can't currently use was packed with a Rainbow Hue Shift pack of Brava.

And a mini pack of Rainbow Brava.

I'm sure you've all seen the Hue Shift afghan and that's what I intend my Hue Shift pack to turn into.  As for the mini's, I'm going to knit Stephen West's Garter Squish blanket.  I can't wait to get started.  I'm thinking that the next time I re-wrap my thumb, I'll tape a knitting needle in there between my thumb and the brace.  That ought to work, right?

I'm supposed to wear the brace for three weeks.  

As of typing this, three days of no knitting down, eighteen more to go.  Wish me luck!  Really, you should wish my family luck.  I can't imagine what my mood will be after 21 days of no knitting.  There could be some serious trouble ahead.

It's been a while

I'm alive!  I survived Covid and have been back to work for several weeks now.  I still tire easily, I can't taste or smell anything, and thankfully my vision is better but still not 100%.  It's such a strange disease.  Three other people in the house hold got it but thankfully Sarah, who was playing nurse maid to me, did not.  She stayed healthy through it all.  Miracle of miracles because she can catch colds from comercials about cold medicines.  😛

Thankfully my too-tired-to-knit symptoms didn't last long and I was able to spend the last couple of days of quarantine knitting pretty much non-stop.  Non-stop except for those afternoon naps and early bedtimes I needed.

I started a beaded infinity scarf last month.  There's no pattern, I just cast on a whole bunch of stitches and started knitting.  I didn't even count the stitches, just cast on enough to bunch up on a 24 inch needle.  Figured it would be plenty.  Yes, I am definitely a lazy knitter.  I knit five or six rows then do a row of randomly placed beads.  I'm using Palette from Knit Picks.  If this turns out as well as I hope it will, I plan to knit several of them for my Etsy shop.  It would be a great way to use up some of the thousands of Palette skeins and beads I have.  

I finished the granny square afghan I've been working on for what feels like forever.  Remember  me talking about knitting market bags to sell?  That turned out to be a huge NO!  I did not enjoy knitting them and it took me forever to make one.  Probably because I didn't enjoy the knitting.  Anyway, I used all, well, almost all, the yarn I'd bought to make market bags to crochet the granny square blanket.  I started with two small squares sewn together so that it would make a rectangle but I should have started with three.  It still looks like a square when laid out on the bed.  But it's colorful and I used up a bunch of yarn so I'm happy.  

Despite my continual yarn purchases, my goal in life these days is to use up all my yarn.  Okay, not all.  That would never happen.  I couldn't use it all if I knit 24/7 for the next 25 years.  I guess the real goal is to use up a noticable amount.  To empty a few of the giant Rubbermaid containers my yarn is stored in.  Heck, I'd be happy if I just used up a few of the shoe box sized boxes of yarn.

And, despite covid brain fog, I designed a slip stitch hat pattern that I can not stop knitting.  I'm totally obsessed.  That's hat number five.  And, umm, there may be another giant box of yarn on it's way to me that will allow me to knit 42 more hats.  42!  I definitely have a problem!  I keep telling myself what I have is an Etsy shop, but truthfully, I think I probably just have a problem.  I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever receive the yarn though.  According to the tracking, my box has been sitting in a post office in New Jersey for over 10 days now.  The tracking did finally update last night to show it will be delivered later next week.  We'll see.

And, thankfully I was feeling better on July 4th.  It was my last day of quarantine and I sat far, far away from the rest of the family while they shot off fireworks.  I'm so happy Hayden loves fireworks and isn't afraid of them.  She also loves thunder storms.  Absolutely LOVES them!  Her eyes get huge when she sees the lightening and she thinks the thunder, even the sudden, loud cracking kind, is hillarious.  She just laughs and laughs.  

And that is pretty much a recap of my life for the last 22 days.

I hope you are all well and don't catch this new covid strain.  It seems to be insanely contagious.  

Stay healthy and keep knitting!

And then my arm fell off

So, remember the needlepoint I just finished and how I was excited about how quickly the project had gone so I was going to start another?  Remember how I'd said my arm was so sore from the repetitive motion of pulling the tread through the mesh?  Apparently, I did not remember that until I started the newest one.  It didn't take long to remind myself.  Ouch.  

So I decided to focus on knitting instead.  

But it's too hot to knit.  And since I'm spending most of my time outside on the deck because there's no TV or internet... and it's been 95 degrees and crazy humid.... It's just too hot to knit.

So what do you do when it's too hot to knit and your arm feels like you've had six flu shots in one day?

You begin a giant, single granny square, stash busting blanket.  Of course you do!

Although I had to resort to Google's help to remind myself how to start a granny square, the project was going well.  It was going well until I remembered that I'd stopped crocheting years and years ago because it irritates my carpal tunel so badly.  A few stitches and I can't even pick up a pencil for a week.

In other words, it was going well until my arm fell off.

On the needles

Not much knitting happening these days.  I've gotten a few rows completed on my Timeless sweater, I've made it to the second lace section of the Lagoon Reyna and I picked Rambling Rows back up to work on while I read my, cough, cough, week's worth of email.  Good grief!  How did I manage to not open my email for an entire week?

Anyway, not much knitting happening these days.  The pool gets in the way.  I need to figure out how to knit while I float.

I'm glad I wasn't floating yesterday because this happened.

Hayden's reaction to the rain was priceless.

Three on Thursday - Rambling Rows

First, there was a snafu.

Slight snafu on my Rambling Rows afghan

Argh!  That multi-colored square attached to the yellow rectangle and blue square was not supposed to be attached to the blue square.  It was supposed to just hang down under the yellow.

Snafu removed

Second, I tried to fix it the easy way.  Although it would make the mitered angles go in the wrong direction, my plan was to cut off the offending square, leave the white and brown blocks hanging and work backwards from there.  It was late at night when I made this decision and that's never a good time to make decisions.  I didn't notice that I was pulling on live stitches while I was yanking on the bits of multi-colored yarn trying to get them to separate from the brown and white squares.  By the time I realized what I was doing, I had messed up most of the stitches on multiple rows.

Starting over

Third, it was easier to just cut off the white square and start the whole section over.

I hope that you are having better luck than I with your knitting and that you'll join me for Three on Thursday.

Three on Thursday - OTN

For today's Three on Thursday, I wanted to show you the three things I'm currently knitting.  Or not knitting.  Instead of knitting, I'm just picking one up, putting it down, picking up the next and putting it down, picking up the third and putting it down....

But before I show you my knitting, I'd like to threaten someone.  Many someones actually.  I'm going on record as saying I would like to kick the butt of every single blogger and person I've seen on any form of social media since the lock-down began who has mentioned doing jigsaw puzzles.  Good Grief!

Although I don't do them often, I've always enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles.  Ever since we moved in with my mother-in-law, I've had the urge to do one but that urge was never strong enough to go out and actually purchase one.  Until last week.

I knew there was something I was leaving out of the other day's Drama post.  I'd finally found a puzzle for under $20 and was so traumatized by it, I completely forgot to list it along with the other drama I've had going on.  It was that traumatic! 

That &%^$^%&%*&^$ Queen of Hearts puzzle was the last puzzle Target had on their shelf.  And it about kicked my arse.  All those frames!  And half the pieces fit perfectly with other pieces that they weren't meant to fit with.  It was Horrible. It didn't help that the available lighting I had was horrible.  I may never do another jigsaw puzzle as long as I live.  If any of you are local and would like this one, I would be most happy to pass it on, but I take no responsibility towards your mental state once you start working it.

Now for the knitting....

Rambling Rows Afghan

My Rambling Rows afghan is the project I want to be knitting on.  Besides loving the frequent color changes and the chance to use up some of my scrap yarns, I have this urgent sense of needing to get as much knit as possible before it gets too hot to hold it on my lap.  But this project has no deadline and is going to take forever.  It should be my back burner project.

Scottish Highlands Shawl

Of the two shawls I'm currently knitting, this Scottish Highlands shawl is the bigger of the two.  It also has no deadline.  But the  yarn is divine and I'm anxious to get through all the garter so that I can start the lace border.

Onete

Of course, the Onete shawl will be the quickest of the three projects to knit, I do have a deadline for it, and I love the yarn.  But it's got M1L's and M1R's (make one left and make one right) which are driving me insane.  Yes, eight rows in and I'm already insane.  It's not like the M1L's and M1R's are complicated.  It's just that my needle is rather blunt tipped and my memory is horrible so every time I take the shortest of breaks, I forget which is stitch is which and have to dig out the directions.  If I could just focus on this one  for an uninterrupted hour or two, I'd be able to memorize the difference between left and right leaning increases and it would be a much more enjoyable project.  But... that Rambling Rows keeps calling me back.

I'm caught in a vicious, vicious cycle.  A knitter's life is never easy.

I'm not 100% sure Carole will be hosting a Three on Thursday link up today.  If you follow her blog, you know her husband was hit by a car recently.  Thankfully he is home from the hospital and on the mend, but Carole may be too busy taking care of him to host today.  But if she is hosting, please join me over at her blog for today's Three on Thursday party.  Meanwhile, lets all wish Dale a speedy recovery.

Drama, drama, drama

What a week!  Actually, what a two weeks!  They have been drama filled!  Nothing drastic or life ending, just drama, drama, drama.  There's been so much drama, I don't even know where to start.  Let's see if I can try to put things together in timeline format...

First, as of last month, I now have an endocrinologist.  I've been having some thyroid issues for a while and the day before the hospitals got locked down and no one could enter except on a stretcher via the emergency room, I had an ultrasound.  The ultrasound showed that I have several nodules on my thyroid, one of which is bigger than my thyroid and it's pressing on my trachea.  Well, that explains why I can't breathe properly if I put my arms up over my head!

So, my GP sent me to the endocrinologist who I absolutely love.  She ordered a biopsy but because the hospitals are still closed....  No biopsy yet.  

There have been a few dementia developments that I won't go into detail about, but they have certainly added to the drama.

The washing machine broke.  The washing machine that's located on the second floor.  Thankfully Lowes is still delivering and brought us a new one and even installed it.  They even installed it on the second floor!  Unfortunately, in the process, an old pipe behind the wall broke in the process and the entire washing machine full of water dripped through the ceiling on the first load washed.

The pipe got fixed and the refrigerator went on the blink.  We noticed that the milk didn't seem that cold yet the just brought home from the store on a hot day ice cream was hard as a rock after only 10 or 15 minutes in the freezer.  You know how ice cream gets a little mushy on the trip home from the store?  Yeah, well, our ice cream was so hard we couldn't scoop it.  We couldn't even cut it with a knife.  We had to microwave the whole container in order to melt it enough to even stab it with a knife!  

The next day was my birthday and after waking up to find the refrigerator wasn't even sort of cool (although the freezer is still freezing things solid) I went off to another visit with the endocrinologist.  Maybe I don't like her so much after all.  That's a joke.  I really do just love her.  But she diagnosed me with Hashimoto's and pre-diabetes.  On my birthday! She also put in another 'emergency' request for the biopsy because I'm now feeling like I can't breath properly when I lay on my side or tuck my chin to my chest.  

 I have never felt so old in all my life and I'm now taking more pills than Grandma.  But hey - at least I have a partial excuse for all the weight gain.  

Daddy giving Hayden bunny ears.

The birthday wasn't all bad though.  Hayden came for a visit and I got to snuggle with her for a bit.  It was her two month birthday so we partied hard despite her fussiness.  Poor baby - she had an ear infection.  And, as it turns out, she's already teething!  At her two month check up the next day, the doctor confirmed it.  Holding her head up And teething at two months!  Those poor parents are in for a wild ride!

The next day, the heat soared and our air conditioning wasn't blowing cold.  My brother-in-law worked on it and got it working thankfully.

The next day, we woke up to the air conditioning fiercely blowing ICE cold air while the radiators pumped out hot air although the heat was set on 68 and the a/c was set on 72.  (They are two separate systems.)  If you weren't near a radiator, it was painfully cold.  We turned the a/c up to 74 and the heat down to 64 and sat outside on the deck where it was warmer.  Mid day, the house was still freezing and the radiators were still cranking and the a/c was still blowing... so I turned the a/c up to 78 and the heat down to 60 and went back outside where it was hot.  After dinner there was still no change in the house's temperature so we turned the a/c completely off.... And it kept on running!  The a/c continued to run for over an hour after we turned it off.  It was like something out of a Stephen King novel.

So now we don't have a/c. 

But once again, a visit from Hayden saved the day.  We still don't have a/c but I got to snuggle with Hayden a little more so all is right with the world.  

Check out Hayden's shirt.  It says "I still live with my parents."  My blogger friend, Carole, made it for me/Hayden.  Thanks Carole!

Rambling Rows afghan

Meanwhile, thankfully, very, very thankfully, my knitting has been drama free.

Scottish Highlands Shawl

Well, mostly drama free.  I want to knit all the things and I want to knit them all at once.  So of course, I'm not making much progress on any project because I keep putting one down to knit on the other.  Five minutes later, I put that one down and pick up the other... and the cycle continues. 

Drama, drama, drama!

Rambling

I hope everyone had the best possible Mother's Day that they could have this crazy year.  I know it was pretty disappointing for many.  Mine was disappointing but it could have been much, much worse.  We had big plans this year because for the past eight Mother's Days, I was at work and didn't have a celebration.  No work for me this year!  But, at the last moment, my husband ended up working.  And his coworker's wife was hospitalized with covid-19 symptoms (thankfully her test came back negative and she just has 'regular' illness.)  And the MIL was taken out gallivanting around the state a few days before. Between the chance of the MIL being infected while she was out and not knowing what the status of the co-worker's wife was, and having a preemie newborn (seems like Hayden has been with us for ages but she's still considered a newborn) my son couldn't attend.  And I certainly understand that decision.  Don't mean to sound like I'm guilting him here.  I'm really not.

So our party was shrinking.

And then for reasons unknown, I had an allergic reaction to my towel when I stepped out of the shower and dried my face off Sunday morning.  In less than 30 seconds my face began to burn and itch and sting and it turned all red and got all....  well, it looked like I had 100's of zits popping up.  Not fully up, but coming.  You know the type.  The type you'd get when you were 16 or 17 and had a hot date for prom and you'd wake up with a red spot on your chin or the end of your nose.  And it burned!  And felt like 1,000's of bees were stinging me.  It was horrible.

So I called off the Mother's Day celebration completely and hid in my room.  Alone, with just my knitting and Kindle for company.  Honestly, it wasn't a bad way to spend the day.  Instead of having the BBQ my brother-in-law was going to bring, I ate a bag of chips for lunch.  A giant bag.  No fear of starvation here!  And my husband brought fried chicken home for dinner.  And my daughter made a cheesecake.

The cheesecake was delicious and frankly, I'm okay with skipping the Mother's Day thing this year.  It meant more cheesecake for me!

Rambling Rows Afghan

And what did I knit while hiding in my room?  Rambling Rows.  I can't stop knitting on this thing!  Before casting on, I'd set a self-imposed schedule of knitting five blocks a month.  It's only been 14 days and I'm already on block 15.  I am way ahead of schedule.  I don't get to say that very often!

Off the needles

Do you see him?

Actually, I guess he's a her.  She's the first deer I've seen on our property since the social distancing started.  I guess even the deer are getting tired of staying home.

I finished my Hitchhiker finally.  I've knit a thousand of these over the years and I think this is the first one I've actually knit all 43 teeth.  I always either run out of yarn, get bored, or simply get too excited to start the next project.  This time around, the yarn was so glorious to work with, I didn't mind knitting all 43 teeth.  I even considered giving it extra teeth but....  It's long enough as is and now I have left over yarn to add to my Rambling Rows afghan.

The Rambling Rows may prove to be my downfall.  It was supposed to be my 'while I read' project and I had several other projects planned for this month but I just can't put it down.  I just can't!  The call of a new square and a new yarn is just too strong and I can't help myself.  I think I might need a meeting.

Three on Thursday - Triple Nothing

I got nothing for this week's Three on Thursday.  Absolutely nothing.  The home-life has been a little crazy this week and not much else has been going on.  Nothing fun and exciting to tell you about.  Nothing maddening or frustrating.  I haven't had three yummy desserts or loaves of bread, I haven't read three books and I haven't been considering three new knitting patterns.  Life pretty much just sort of flat lined this past week.   So...  

You get the world's most boring Three on Thursday post.  

1.  The idea I had to knit Kaffe Fassett's Coins cowl out of only two colors....  What was I thinking??  First, I didn't want a cowl, I wanted a scarf.  Second, only two colors??  The whole point of knitting a Coins scarf is to make it bright and multicolored.  And there was a third thing but I don't even remember what it was now.  I scrapped the whole idea.  Really, what I wanted was to use the yellow Madelinetosh.  So I am, but in a different project.

Rambling Rows Afghan

2.  Instead of the Coins cowl/scarf, I decided to knit a Rambling Rows afghan.  I'm not overly impressed with the examples on Ravelry but I have knit several of these in the past and have always liked the design.  This time around, I'm using scrap fingering weight (the pattern calls for worsted) and it will just hang over the edges of a twin sized bed.  In other words, it will be the perfect couch blanket.

The pattern is from Cottage Creations and is lots of fun to knit.  It's made up of two sizes of mitered squares and a rectangle.  The pattern gives directions for three different sizes.  I'm making the largest.  Of course I am.  I'm using fingering weight and a US2 needle.  Why wouldn't I choose the largest size?

My plan is to use all my machine washable scrap yarn once then as I knit other things, immediately knit a block with the leftover yarn.  The idea is that no two blocks will be the same.  We'll see how long that plan lasts.  I may get impatient and start using some of my full sized stashed skeins.  There are a few that have been calling to me.  We'll have to see how it goes.

3.  Zack finally sent me a photo of Hayden wearing the Clara dress.

She looks absolutely horrified.

Three on Thursday - Stash Busting

As much as I love LOVE receiving giant boxes of yarn in the mail, I have to admit, I'm enjoying this whole forced stash busting thing COVID-19 is causing. And thus, three more stash buster project ideas...

Leftovers Sweater by Julie Philip

I love this idea and I especially love how the sweater on the right has been embellished with what I assume is embroidery.

Slip Stitch Stash Hat by Renee Rico

Or how about this beauty?  It always amazes me the effect a simple slipped stitch can have.

Northeasterly by Skeinanigans

Now, this is my kind of pattern.  I can knit for as long or short as I wish with a color before changing.  I can knit it long enough to be a full sized blanket, a baby sized blanket, a scarf, or even a table runner.  The knitter calls the shots!  A friend from my knitting group is knitting one of these and ever since I saw hers, I've been thinking I need to cast one on.  She's using her Advent kit yarns but I would just used stashed yarns.  Although.... it would be a good excuse to sign up for one of those kits.  Hmmm...

Hope you'll join me for Three on Thursday.

Three on Thursday

Three random questions I've been pondering...

1.  My knitting books and The Move.  Do I take all my knitting books with me or do I depend on Ravelry for patterns?  And if I take my books, do I take All of them, or only a few?  What is a few?  Do I set a limit on how many I can take?  How low should that limit be?  I think I might cry without my books but...  They do take up an awful lot of space and honestly, I usually depend on Ravelry for pattern inspiration and Youtube for help.  But without my books, it may feel more like prison than a step towards the big life goal.

2.  Harry Potter.  What is it with all the Harry Potter stuff that keeps popping up?  Have you noticed?  It seems like everyone is once again knitting Harry Potter stuff.  Why?  Not that Harry Potter wasn't a fantastic book and movie series.... but those books and movies came out years ago.  Years!  Why is everyone suddenly knitting Harry Potter stuff again?

car knitting

3.  I bought SO much fall colored yarns over the summer... and here I am knitting for a spring baby.  Spring baby colors are completely different from fall adult colors.

Join me over at Carole's for today's Three on Thursday party.

Three on Thursday - OTN

Today's Three on Thursday post is going to be quick and dirty.  I just so happen to have three projects currently on the needles...

Three projects currently on the needles

1.  Top left is the dish cloth styled baby blanket. I keep thinking I'm almost ready to start fading into the next color but... Sadly, the blanket is at that stage where even if you knit on it for eight hours a day for three days straight, there is no measurable increase in knitted fabric.  But one day... one day soon I hope, I'll measure it and discover it has suddenly grown six or seven inches since I last measured it fifteen minutes ago.  

The yarn I'm using is the no longer available Sock Labs Stroll from Knit Picks.  I'm quite sad to see the yarn sold out.  It's a delight to knit with.

2.  In the middle is the world's widest sock knit from Patons Kroy Sock in Rusty Stripes.  It's a simple vanilla sock and naturally I didn't do a gauge swatch.  I've knit with this yarn 1,000 times before and my notes in my knitting journal told me how many stitches and what needle size I needed.  My journal was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  

This is actually the second sock.  No SSS for me!  Anyway... For the first sock, I was several inches into it before I paid any attention and noticed that the tube I was creating for my calf was wide enough for my thigh, maybe even both thighs!  I didn't want to frog it and I'm not using top dollar hand spun/dyed yarn... so I just made a decrease row and kept on knitting.  When doing the gusset decreases (the socks are top down) I just kept decreasing until the sock was tight enough on my foot.  Okay, that's wrong.  I kept decreasing until the sock was Almost tight enough.  And I will do the same with the second sock.  And this pair will be the pair I wear when my feet and ankles swollen because I've had a long day on my feet and too much sodium.

3.  At the bottom right, we have the cowl/showl I'm test knitting for Chris Knits.  I finished the smallest size and had plenty of yarn left over so I kept on knitting.  I'm about halfway through the medium size and it looks like I still have enough yarn left to knit the largest version.  The yarn, Eucalyptus Leaves from Forbidden Fiber Co., is a delight to knit with so I'm happy to keep knitting as long as the yarn holds out. 

Oops.  I guess this post wasn't as quick and dirty as I expected it to be.  

Hope you'll join me over at Carole's for today's Three on Thursday celebration.

On the Needles

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While the Te Ara mitts sit in time out, I started something new.

on the needles

Isn't it fabulous how it matches my yarn bowl?  It's like they were made for each other!

I imagine you can guess what I'm knitting.

Yes, it's a dish cloth style blanket knit with the green set of Sock Labs Stroll from Knit Picks.   Eventually the 'solid' green will fade into the speckled but I have a long way to go before that happens.

Sadly the Sock Labs Stroll is sold out but... Have you seen the new Hawthorne Sock Lab yarns?  Needless to say I'm, once again, anxiously awaiting my UPS driver.