The Birds!

 I've been doing a little more knitting this week but still not as much as I'd have liked. 

I'm almost ready to start decreasing on this hat.  Only a few more rows to go.

Wow, that's orange!  Hayden is going to be a duck for Halloween so I'm knitting her duck feet to go over her shoes.  I don't have a pattern and they didn't flare out and 'web' as much as I'd hoped they would, but they do fit over her shoes perfectly.  Now I only have the challenge of making the second one match the first. Hope my notes are better than I think they are.

I've also knit 40 billion chapstick holders for the upcoming fall/Christmas bazaars I'm doing.  

But the real reason I haven't gotten much knitting done...

My sister took her grandkids to the Richmond Metro Zoo and invited me to tag along.

I never pass up a chance to go to the zoo.  We saw the penguins,

And of course we fed the giraffes.

The wolves were awesome!  I had never seen live wolves before and was surprised how big they are.  I expected them to be large dog - labrador, german shepherd... size but they were much, much larger.

The black one is a "baby" and looks like a Hellhound.  The others seemed mostly indifferent to the visitors' presence but that black one looked like he'd like to eat us all alive.

 

The camels are always fun to see and thankfully they were in a good mood.  No spitting this time.

 

But my favorite was the birds.  I didn't think anything could surpass my love of feeding the giraffes but those birds....  I didn't want to go into their habitat. I had no idea I have a slight bird phobia.  I mean,  I'm fine with sitting on the deck watching the birds in the yard.  I'm cool with birds in pet stores.  But the idea of going into that giant cage with a zillion birds flying around... Yikes!  But I white knuckled it and went in.   And I'm SO glad I did.  After I got over my initial anxiety wig-out, I had a blast.  The birds landed all over me, and yes, they pecked me a little but the experience was worth the tiny bit of pain. At one point, I had three on my head, several on my back, one on my shoulder pecking at my cheek, three on my arm and another crawling up my jacket sleeve.  So much fun!

Oh, and let's not forget the pygmy hippo.  He was singing to us.

I can't wait to go back!

And Another Hat

I seem to be on repeat these days. I keep knitting the same things over and over and over again.  It's mostly because I'm trying to get inventory built up for Winterfest, but this time...

An Etsy customer asked me too.    This time around I'm knitting the same hat in the same colors but with a much longer, foldable brim and a faux fur pom.

And yes!  I am able to knit once again.  Yay!!  I'm still not walking too well or for too long but my back is getting better.  It's a slow process but I am getting better.  I no longer need the pain pills and I'm down to only one muscle relaxer before bed.  Doesn't sound like much but it is progress.  And I'm very, very happy to be knitting again.  

For those of you who were in Ida's path, I pray you made it through the storm safely.  We had a nice stiff breeze, two claps of thunder, and a mess of rain but nothing like the rain they got in some places.  The storm added three or four inches of water to the pool and that was it.  One nice thing about Ida - she sucked up all the moisture in the air and left us with absolutely GORGEOUS fall-like weather for the weekend.

Hmm.  I just realized this weekend is Labor Day weekend for those of us in the states so....

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Layers of happiness

Despite all the drama that has been going on around here, I've had some really good days recently.  We are having even more, different plumbing problems.  How is that even possible??  So no, the plumbing hasn't been great but in other areas of my life...

The husband finally finished fixing and painting the deck so we can swim once again.  Yay!

Hayden seems to have fully recovered from her head injury.  She'll have to go back to the doctor for an offical 'all clear' but she's not stumbling or acting weirdly.  She can still count to three, feed herself, walk and run, throw the ball, point to various body parts and say "eye" when she tries to poke yours out.  In other words, she's back to normal.  Double Yay!

I finished the custom hat for my Etsy customer and he seems to be happy with it.  The two colors played together SO much better than I thought they would.  I'm so glad I ordered double the amount of yarn I needed.  I plan to make another for the shop.  

Anyway, it's always nice when you have a great customer and finish their project well before the deadline with no problems along the way.

But what I'm most excited about is my hair.

Remember this post about my horrible, swamp witchy hair?  Since that post, my hair has only continued to grow.

It grew and grew and grew until...

(Warning:  You're about to see a zero makeup photo.  Yikes!)

I followed a Youtube video, cut eight inches off and layers into my hair.

There's still plenty of length left, but only in the very back.  I cut so much of the weight and thickness out.  I loved it while it was wet, but I was pretty nervous about what it would look like once it dried.  My hair tends to grow sideways as it dries.

I love it!  I've only had about three haircuts in my entire life where I didn't go home and cry.  I cannot believe I was able to do this to my own hair.  I am just so excited and happy with it.  If you could see any of my childhood Barbie dolls, or any of my dolls for that matter, you'd understand my shock at how well the cut worked.  I have Never been good with hair!  But I absolutely love my new do.

This hat!

 Ooh! This hat!

I am seriously digging this hat!

I received a custom order over at my Etsy shop shop the other day.  Happily, the customer knew exactly what he wanted.  A hat with a gray brim and eggplant purple crown to match his new ski coat.  He even sent me a link to the coat so I could see the colors.  I just love it when the customer knows, and can verbalize, what he wants.

Once again, Knit Picks was on the ball with their shipping and the yarn arrived quickly.  And I immediately began knitting.

I am absolutely LOVING these two yarns together.  From looking at the skeins, I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast and that they were going to make a rather bla hat but...  Goodness!  It's like they were made to go together.  The gray (Mineral Heather) has hints of the eggplant (Amethyst) in it and they are absolutely perfect together!

Now, if I'd only had more time to knit today.  Poor baby Hayden took a tumble this morning, fractured her skull and gave herself a concussion.  She's okay though.  She has a big old knot on her forehead, but she's home and didn't have to stay in the hospital.  

I know I shouldn't laugh, and I know I'm going straight to Hell for it but... I can't help but laugh at Hayden.  She's obviously dizzy and having some vision issues due to the concussion.  She keeps falling down and even out/off of her child size comfy chair.  Now that I'm over the original "OMG! She fractured her skull!!" panic attack, I can't help but laugh at her as she stumbles around looking like a little drunk toddler and shaking her head in what I assume is an attempt to get her vision to clear.

She really is funny to watch, but now I'm feeling extremely guilty for admitting it so I'm going back to knitting.

Knitting with birds

So, last summer, there was a carpenter bee (I have always called them bumble bees and have just recently found out they are two separate beings) that would come say hello to me every day when I was sitting on the deck.  We got so used to each other that he would land on me and crawl around and I was mostly okay with it.  He even took a nap in my knitting bag a few times.  

This summer, I don't have a bee friend.  Instead, I have goldfinch and hummingbird friends.

Yeah, he's very pixilated.  Sorry.  We are friends, but it's a new friendship.  He comes to see me each morning but he doesn't trust me enough yet to allow me to get a decent photo.

I can't even begin to get a photo of the hummingbird.  Every afternoon he flys up about two feet from my face, hovers just long enough for me to realize what's happening, and then he's gone again.  

I am really going to miss the wildlife here at this house when we move.  And no, we don't know so when that will be but it will be soon.  Well, soon-ish.  We are feverishly working to clear out all the junk from the house and fixing the things that need to be fixed so we can put it on the market.  And once that happens, our search to find a house to buy will turn into panic mode house hunting.  I can't say I'm looking forward to the experience. 

Thankfully, I have my knitting to keep my mind occupied.

And boy do I have knitting!  I finished the granny square baby blanket.  It's being modeled on the new deck railing.  I finished the blanket much sooner than expected.  I sort of went into knitting panic mode because...

I thought I'd mentioned that I was going to be a craft vendor at Winterfest this year but I don't see a post about it so I'm not sure if I never wrote it or if I deleted it some how or if it's there and I'm just blind.  Who knows.  Who cares.  The point is, I'm going to be a craft vendor at Winterfest this year.  I am excited and I am in TOTAL panic mode.  I've never participated in such a big event before and I'm slightly terrified.  But also very excited.  And very, very busy knitting for it.

Currently, I'm focused on knitting faux fur cowls and headbands.  I should have chosen something else to focus on during the summer months but I already had most of the yarn I needed and the projects knit up fast.  I wanted to quickly feel like I was making progress.  ...So, I'm slogging through knitting with faux fur in July and August.

I'll be sharing the Winterfest booth with several other artists and to get some practice working together, we participated in Ashland, Va's 4th Friday celebration last week.  Even though we didn't sign up in time to be advertised, we still had a decent amount of foot traffic and sales.  

In fact, 4th Friday was so much fun, we've decided to participate each month leading up to Winterfest.  If you are local, come check us out.  We have a nice, varied selection of items for sale because we have a jeweler, a seamstress, a paper artist, an all round crafter and my knitting.  There's something for everyone and it's never too early to start your holiday shopping!

Meanwhile, I have a few thousand items I need to go knit. 

Three on Thursday - Quick Knits for Valentines

Thank you all for the wonderfully positive knitting and puzzle mojo you sent my way.  After reading your comments, I quickly finished the puzzle and pulled out a box of yarn and started a new project.  I'll show you the new shawl tomorrow but for now, I wanted to give back and share a little Valentine's knitting mojo with you.  So, for today's Three on Thursday, we have three quick to knit Valentines projects.

First up, and probably most difficult of the three, Valentine Plaids Hats from Cassandra May.  I just may have to knit all three of these for Hayden.  She's growing like a weed though so I better hurry!  The patterns are designed for newborn up to toddler size.

Or how about a cowl for the grown-ups?  Sweet Valentine Cowl, designed by Ambah O'Brien, is written for two sizes - a long and a short version.  I really like this one because I don't think I'd really notice the hearts if the cowl wasn't knit in traditional Valentines' colors.  Honestly, and no offense to the designer, I see lily pad leaves rather than hearts.  But that's probably because I've been reading a lot of fish pond/aquarium books lately and they are on my mind.  Whether they are intended to be hearts or lily pads, I like this design.

And, last but not least, a Valentines Dishcloth from Cecilia Fameli.  This pattern would be great for those of you (and most likely me) who have procrastinated until the 13th and are in a sudden Valentines Day panic.  Although it's technically a dishcloth, it could easily be used as a special wash cloth for the little one in your life.  Or knit it in manly colors for that boy child who's living on his own and may need a little motivation to wash his dishes. 

Thanks again for sending such an outpouring of knitting mojo my way.  You wouldn't believe how much it helped and I hope one of these patterns returns the favor.  I also hope you'll join me over at Carole's for today's Three on Thursday link up.

A light at the end of the tunnel

 There's a tiny little light at the end of the tunnel.  The Christmas gift knitting tunnel, that is.

The hat is finished, blocked, tagged with washing instructions and placed in a box waiting to be wrapped.

All that's left is six pairs of beaded socks for Hayden, those #$&&#! never ending Smitten mittens and a shawl.  Oh, and I still need to line the stockings for Hayden and her mom.

It's a good thing Hayden is so adorable because she's a lot of work!  😊

Actually, Grandma Nana (I'm having trouble getting used to being Nana) is always happy to knit for Miss Hayden.

Good thing I'm happy to knit for Hayden because I just remembered there's a sweater on the needles in the bottom of the knitting bag for her.  Best get that finished too.

So yes, that light at the end of the tunnel may have just dimmed a tiny bit but there's one good thing keeping my spirits up.  I am NOT the one that's going to have to wash the sticky candy cane out of that fuzzy blanket!

Happy December knitting!

Christmas knitting

Remember the scarf for the eight year old?  Well, I finished it.  And even blocked it!  Then promptly packed it up and put it away in the Christmas gift box.  Notice a missing step there?  Yep!  I completely forgot to take a photo of the finished scarf.  Oops!  Maybe my great niece will send me one after Christmas.

I quickly moved on to knitting a hat for her younger brother.  Not to be left out, he's getting "special" yarn too.  I'm using some fingering weight superwash merino from Neighborhood Fiber Co.  This yarn had also been in my stash for a while.

I'm pretty excited about my Christmas knitting all coming from my stash.  Well, okay, I bought a few skeins of Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks back in the late summer with the intention of maybe knitting the Smitten mittens but I hadn't even printed the pattern at that point.  There was nothing firm in my plan and honestly, I was thinking of knitting socks, not mittens.  Because the yarn sat in my stash pile for more than two months, I don't count it as "new" yarn.  It's stashed yarn.  And that means every gift I've knit, or plan to knit, this year will be from my stash.  I'm pretty dang excited about that!

As for the Smitten mittens status, I've knit 24 so far.  Only 48 more to go.  I'm fairly certain I'm not going to make that goal.  99.9999999% sure of it in fact.  But I'll keep knitting anyway.  Maybe there'll be a Christmas miracle.

Meanwhile, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.  I'm so excited to not be excited about it this year.  We have a couple of dishes that we always serve that never get made the rest of the year and I'm always so excited thinking about the food.  But remember the new meds I'm on that take away my appetite?  Well, they are working!  Thankfully the over active butterflies in my belly have disappeared and I'm feeling pretty good.  And not the least bit hungry.  Well, that's not true.  I do feel hungry occasionally, but a very small portion fills me up.  And I'm not craving all things sweet and carb filled.  All I really want is raw green vegetables which is VERY, very not typical for me.  While I am looking forward to that turkey sandwich on Friday, just the thought of all the Thanksgiving food is kind of making me queasy.  It's pretty cool and quite exciting.   It's going to be interesting to see how I actually do on the day.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three on Thursday - Is if fall yet?

Now that the 4th of July is in the wind, I have fall fever.  No, I don't want the weather to turn cold so that I have to stop floating in the pool but... I could really go for jeans, a flannel shirt, a fire in the fire pit and some hot spiced tea.

Between my fall fever and Virginia's July heat and humidity, I need to be knitting small, tiny things.  Things that don't lay in my lap.  Things that never even touch my lap.  And so, for today's Three on Thursday, three hat patterns.

Halloween Knit Hat by Holly G. Hats

A hat for Halloween!  What could be better for fall fever knitting in July?  It could also be a good stash buster project, although I don't think I have an appropriate purple or green in my stash.  Perhaps I need to go yarn shopping.

1898 Hat by Kristine Byrnes

I may have mentioned this one before.  I've downloaded the pattern multiple times but for some reason, I've never knit it.  It looks fairly simple, easy and quick to knit, all things right up my alley.

Do any of  you have to use a radio for work?  It's been ten months since I left my job, but the instant I saw that dude's radio, I could feel my finger flexing as if to push the talk button and my old radio call sign popped into my head.  Gosh, habits are hard to break!

Ombre Hat by Emily Dormier

I've been wanting to knit an Ombre Hat for a while.  I think this would be a great stash buster project and I am all about stash busting these days!

I hope you enjoy these free hat patterns and that you'll join me for Three on Thursday.

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 - Baby Knits

Three baby or toddler patterns for today's Three on Thursday...

Baby Bear Bonnet by Pernille Larsen

Hayden will need a bear hat this coming winter.

Baby Yoda by Arianna Soloway

So, okay, Grandma is loosing her memory.  Hayden's mom is either a Star Wars or a Star Trek fan.  I have a 50/50 chance that this would be a happy addition to Hayden's wardrobe.

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre

I'm pretty excited about this pattern.  Karen from Pumpkin Sunrise gifted me this Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan pattern and I know it will get lots of use!  The smallest size is a 2T though so it may be a while before I knit the first of what I'm sure will be many.  In the process of 'borrowing' that photo off Ravelry, I noticed there's also a Baby Tea Leaves pattern designed for baby's first year or two.  I just might have to purchase that one myself.

Hope you'll join me for Three on Thursday.

Leap Day

Tomorrow is Leap Day and I plan to spend it resting on my butt and knitting.  

For transparency's sake, let me be up front about today's post.  I'm writing it on Tuesday night.  And it's already been a looooong week.  I am SO looking forward to that extra day and I really, really, really hope I can spend it on my butt, knitting.  My plan is that the most difficult task I will have is choosing a pompom for my Lofoten hat.

Lofoten hat knit with Wool of the Andes

I don't have a coordinating store-bought pompom in my stash so I'll need to make one.  Should it be all yellow?  All gray?  Or a yellow/gray combo?  I'm thinking all gray.  What do you think?

even floats!

I'm so pleased with the way this hat turned out.  It was my practice project for learning to hold two yarns in one hand and well, it couldn't have been easier.  Look how awesome my floats worked out!  I have never in my entire knitting life been happy with my floats, much less been proud enough to show them off.  Anyway, I plan to knit many more Lofotens in the future.  Specially since I've finally learned how to spell Lofoten.

As for that loooong week I've been having....  We've all been having it actually.  

First, there's been the dog drama.  We live in a super rural area and we are the only house on a dead end road that edges the swamps of the Chickahominy River.  Hunters frequently ride up and down our road looking for their lost hunting dogs.  And sadly, hunters seem to love to abandon their unwanted hunting dogs on our road at the end of hunting season.  This year was no exception.

Since the first week or so of February, we'd frequently seen three hound dogs running together.  On Valentine's day, Animal Control set up a trap beside our property and caught one of them late at night.  We hadn't called to complain about the dogs running loose, but I did call to complain about the trapped dog's howling.  He was loud!  And my phone call set off a chain of events.

The next day, a Saturday, the one remaining loose dog showed up at our doorstep and never left.  He was so sweet!   He was terrified of us, but he was also hungry, lonely and needed a place to rest.  We fed him and gave him an old blanket to lay on.  I let Animal Control know he was here and that we were taking care of him until they opened back up for business on Monday. 

Sometime between my call to Animal Control on Saturday and their arrival on Monday, I fell head over heels in love with the dog.  We named him Andy.  Animal Control was happy for us to keep him. They provided us with a giant bag of food and a large box of treats and they called it a trail basis so that we didn't get jacked up for not having a rabies certificate and for allowing the dog to continue running loose.

Over the next week, we worked to gain Andy's trust.  We were jubilant when he finally took food from our hand even though he still wouldn't let us touch him.  Andy was an excellent walking companion.  He heeled, even without a leash or collar.  We all loved him and my mother-in-law particularly liked going for walks with him.

But Andy wasn't perfect.  He liked to bark, or bray, as hound dogs do.  He knew zero commands and no matter how many times we used his name, he didn't recognize it.  He also liked to chase dark colored cars.  Then one day, he became obsessed with running out into traffic on a nearby busy road.  A very busy, 55 mph road.  And the next day, during one of their walks, he lead my mother-in-law out into that busy, 55 mph road.  It was terrifying.  While my brain had known we couldn't keep him, my heart was set on loving him until the end of time.  But that moment of looking out and realizing they were both out in the road....  Well, I knew at that moment Andy couldn't be ours.  

On Sunday evening I made the dreaded call to Animal Control to say that we couldn't take care of him any longer and they agreed to come pick him up on Monday.  About ten minutes before Animal Control arrived, Andy allowed me to touch him for the first time.  I scratched his chin, then his ears, then the top of his head and he flopped himself over and presented me with his belly to rub.  And then Animal Control showed up and took him away.  It was horrible.  Horrible!  But at the same time, I know he wasn't the dog for us.  The timing just wasn't right.  He needed much more attention than we are able to provide at this time, not to mention a Huge fenced in area to run around in which we do not have.  

Animal Control assured me that Charles City's pound is a no-kill shelter and that they would take good care of Andy.  They'd give him his shots and some training and turn him into a much more adoptable dog.  I sure hope they are right.  I have tears in my eyes just typing this but I also know that all my interactions with Animal Control were pleasant, and there were many interactions! In fact, I spoke with Officers Wiggins and Miller so much I feel like they need to be added to the top of my Christmas card list.  They were both so kind and helpful. They seemed to love and respect the animals and were nothing like the wicked people you see portrayed in the movies.  They even put Andy's toys in his kennel before driving off.

I miss Andy desperately!

And if the dog ordeal wasn't enough drama for the week, my daughter is having her wisdom teeth surgically removed on Thursday.  Not just pulled, but surgically removed.  Surgically removed with real anesthesia, not just laughing gas and novocaine.  And it's a bit concerning.  The roots have wrapped around a nerve and there's a chance she may end up with some permanent numbness in her face.  Not droopy, like she's had a stroke, just numb.  Sarah is handling it well but I'm a nervous wreck.  And, since I imagine I'll be the hovering mamma bear on Thursday and Friday, I figured I'd go ahead and type this post tonight.

And so, I plan to spend Saturday, Leap Day, sitting on my butt knitting.  What will you do with your extra day?

Goals!

I'm pretty impressed with myself these days.  Okay, I'm also The queen of denial so I'm totally, 1,000% ignoring the number of times I've broken my yarn diet.  But being the queen of denial, I'm ignoring that.  Instead, I'm focusing on the positive things.

Every year I set goals for myself.  I write them down then I basically ignore them.  But this year...

This year, I knew life would be a little rough and 99% of my days would not go as planned.  I planned on not living with a plan and I set my goals accordingly.  I still have goals for the year, they were just much more doable than normal.  And guess what - I'm actually doing a few of them!

It's only February and I've already read more than half the books on my list.  Not having internet (i.e. Netflix) sure is helping with that one.

One of my yarn drawers is ... well, not empty, but it has a definite empty corner.

I have not bought a single pen in 2020!  (We won't mention the notebook count.  We are focusing on the positives here, not the slip ups!)

I set a goal to increase the average number of monthly blog readers by the end of the year.  The goal I set had me increasing readership by about 300 each month.  It was a pretty 'out there' goal that I never expected to come close to reaching.  But, as of today, I only need to increase readership by an additional 538 in order to reach my goal for the whole year!  I have no idea why, but I'm way ahead of where I expected to be this month but thank you!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  That is all your doing and I can't express how grateful I am.  I do wonder though, can I look a gift horse in the mouth?  Can I ask that you share a post or two over the next few months?  As excited as I am now, I can't imagine how fantastic it would feel to reach my annual goal in the first quarter.  There might even be a give-away if that happened!

Another goal I set for myself was to learn certain things.  I'm already making progress on mastering Excel.  I'm far from a master but I can do a lot more with it now than I could in December.  And, remember my goal to learn to knit with two yarns in one hand?  Done!  This one was so easy to learn I'm embarrassed that I had it on my list in the first place.  

Lofoten knit with Wool of the Andes

Now, if I could only learn to count.  Apparently this Lofoten hat is going to give me lots of practice knitting with two colors in one hand.  I'm about to tink the last row for the second time.  Good grief!  The pattern says to knit two yellow stitches then one gray and repeat.  Twice now I have knit two yellow and two gray. Argh!  But hey - I'm being positive here.  I'm choosing to think of it as more practice at two color knitting.   And, there is no deadline for this hat.  Thankfully!  Because it may be next February before I get past this one row.

I have to say though, despite my inability to count, I really like this method of holding the two yarns in one hand.  My stitches, floats and gauge seem to be much more even than when I knit with two hands.  I think there will be much more colorwork in my future!

And again, thank you all for showing up here and reading my blog.  I still don't know why you do.  According to all the 'how to blog' books, each post should be either educating you or selling you something.  That definitely doesn't happen here.  I just talk to you about my knitting instead of to my family.  And believe me, they are thankful!  I imagine my marriage would have lasted about 20 minutes if I talked this much about knitting to my husband.  We are both thankful for your continued presence here!

And while I'm blathering on about how thankful I am....  Many of you have blogs that I follow religiously.  Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been commenting lately.  My apologies for that!  I'm still reading, but I have to read them on my phone most of the time and my phone refuses to allow me to comment on anyone with a Wordpress blog.   It sends me into a never ending loop of wanting me to log in but then it wants me to create an account but it won't let me create an account until I log in.  Anyway, please know that I'm still reading.  I'm just commenting in my head instead of on the screen.

Kale Hat

Things are about to become very brief around here.  I've officially entered panic mode.

I mentioned we were selling our house, right?  Well, the people buying ours sold theirs so it's on now.  It's official.  We have to move.  In two weeks and a couple of days.  Aack!  We're moving in two weeks and couple of days. 

And worse than 'we're moving' is that we're moving in with my mother-in-law.  She's getting on up there in age and needs some help.  

Our ultimate goal is to eventually build a house on tidal water, with cash, and live debt free for the rest of our lives.  Our living with the MIL will not only help her, but it will help us reach our goal sooner.  It's a win/win.

The problem with this win/win plan is, how do I pack?  What do I pack?  We don't need to take anything with us except our tooth brushes, clothes and yarn.  What do we do with the rest of our stuff?  We don't know how long we'll be living with the MIL.  It could be three weeks or three years.  How do I pack for that??   I'm so undecided, I'm totally frozen.

So, instead of packing, I cast on a new hat.

Hat knit with Kale from Unplanned Peacock

It's the Kale Unplanned Peacock yarn I bought at the fiber festival last weekend.  On US #8 needles,  it's knitting up super fast which is nice.  I really should be focusing on knitting the baby blanket and the Martha shawl but I needed a break from all that garter stitch.  Somehow, stockinette in the round seems so much better.

And now, I should probably go pack a box.  

Three on Thursday

This post contains affiliate links.

I have three new projects on the needles.  Well, okay, one of them you've seen before.  But the other two are new.

Cascade Heritage Waves Hat

1.  The hat.  You've seen this before.  I knit it while watching Stranger Things.  I had about an inch of it done when I started the show, binge watched the entire thing over 24 hours and all that's left is the decreasing and a pompom.  I knit the hat extra long and floppy so that I can stick my hair up under it if need be.  I  have a lot of  hair so the hat is extra long.  

I didn't have a pattern.  I just cast on enough stitches to be able to knit in the round, knit around and a round, purled a turning row, knit some more, picked up and knit the cast on row with a regular row to form the hemmed brim and kept on knitting.  You can't see it well in the photo but the yarn is a gray gradient which makes a nice, neutral but not too terribly boring hat.  And the yarn, Cascade Heritage Waves, is unbelievably soft.  If I had any sense, I should have knit it into something that would be worn next to my skin rather than on top of my thick head of hair.  But, I think I have enough left over to knit a pair of matching fingerless mitts. 

Reyna

2.  Reyna.  I needed a new basic, garter or stockinette in the round project since the hat was almost complete.  I must always have a simple project OTN to knit on while reading.  I almost started another Hitchhiker but I wanted to use this yarn and I didn't need another blue Hitchhiker.  So... Reyna.

Reyna shawl knit with Knit Picks Hawthorne (#affiliate #ad)

The yarn is Hawthorne in The Pearl colorway, which I believe is one of their newer colors.  I've knit the pattern before and enjoyed it.  It's a simple garter and mesh/lace triangular shawl.  And this time, I'm even following the directions!

yarn from Unplanned Peacock

3.  Eclipse.  The pattern and yarn are both from Unplanned Peacock.  The purple (Starling) will be the main color and the green/blue (Lagoon) will be the stripes.  I've knit this pattern several times before.  I absolutely love this design.  It's shawly enough to wear as a shawl but it's also scarfy enough to wear like a normal scarf.  And don't even get me started on how much I love the Unplanned Peacock's yarn.  

Both Reyna and Eclipse are mostly garter stitch so I can read while I knit them.  But, they also both have a touch of open mesh or lacework that I can't work while reading.  So, the plan is to switch projects when I get to a lacy section.

Want to take bets on which gets finished first?

Joining Carole for Three on Thursday.

Knitting with Stranger Things

And so it begins...

Every summer, as work takes over my life and the weather gets hotter and the weeks seem longer, I begin to skip regularly scheduled posts here and there until I suddenly realize I haven't posted in a week.  Sometimes two.  This year I promised myself that wouldn't happen, even if I had to resort to 'phoning in' the posts.  I picked a bad year to make that promise to myself.  I think I've previously mentioned that I'm having a lot of dental work done.  Anyway, I've been averaging 60 - 65 hour work weeks and since mid May, every day off has been spent either at the dentist or taking Sue to the chemo doctor.  The schedule is wearing on me.  The schedule (work schedule that is) also got messed up this past week and I had Sunday off instead of a weekday... and I just had to say, "Ef it!  I'm spending my day knitting and binge watching Stranger Things, not writing a blog post."  So sorry, not sorry. 

My new chart keeper is helping me knit Madli's Shawl (affiliate link)

Anyway... I did knit.  I knit sixteen rows on my Madli's Shawl while I finished binge watching Roswell on Netflix.  Yes, my TV viewing tends to be that of a 12 year old girl.  Laugh all you want, I don't care.  It was a good show.  And there was more than one Buffy reference made and y'all know how I feel about Buffy.  Anyway, I've finished 20 and a half pattern repeats, only ten and a half more to go.  My goal is to have it blocked and finished by October 1st.  I wanted to keep knitting on it but....

Stranger Things!  I'm not coordinated enough to knit beaded lace and watch Stranger Things at the same time.  I put down the lace and picked up a simple stockinette hat. 

knitting with Stranger Things

The hat is knit with Cascade's Heritage Wave yarn on US2 needles and it's taking forever!  It is my 'only knit while I read' project which is one reason it's taking so long.  The other is, well, to quote my mother when she'd get really mad, "Dammit all to Hell!"  A fellow blogger recently posted about how their ball winder had started messing up and causing big loops of thread to hang out of the skein.  I smugly thought to myself, "That never happens to me.... except for the skein I just wound yesterday did have one weird loop sticking out of it..."  Of course that skein was my Cascade Heritage Wave.  And of course, karma!  After knitting about five rounds, that loop started causing all kinds of problems.  I have No idea how that one little loop sticking out could cause SO many tangles but.... ever since, I've knit about half a round, spent five minutes untangling and freeing enough yarn to knit another half round... and repeat.  Over and over and over again.  Dammit all to Hell!

But back to topic - Stranger Things!  Have you watched it yet?  Besides being a fantastic show, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to be visually carried back to the '80's.  And that outfit that Nancy Wheeler is wearing in the photo, I had the exact same outfit!  Well, almost the same.  Her stripes look gray while mine were a faded blue.  I remember not wearing the skirt much but I practically lived in the shirt.

And now, I suddenly realize I'm running late and have to go get ready for work so I'm cutting this short.  Until next time, happy knitting!

Dirty Santa

No, I'm not still going on about Christmas related happenings.

Dirty Santa Hat

I'm talking yarn.  Dirty Santa is this yarn's name.  It's a bulky weight from Knitted Wit that I picked up at my LYS, Center of the Yarniverse, recently.

Dirty Santa

As you can see, the yarn pooled a bit but Sarah was happy with the effect and that's all that mattered.  

I took Sarah to the yarn shop with me in hopes of her talking me out of buying anything.  She's pretty good about that.  She's usually immune to yarn fumes.  Except... apparently not that day.  She saw the skein hanging on the peg on the wall and announced that I was going to knit her a hat with it.  And once I saw the name of the yarn, I had to agree.  There was just no way I could not buy Dirty Santa.  

The hat knit up very quickly and the yarn was a delight to knit with.  I don't normally like to knit with bulky weight - it makes my hands and wrists ache, but this yarn wasn't too bad.  

A fake fur pompom completes the hat and does a fantastic job of covering up my weird decreasing job.  I was running low on yarn and had to get creative.  The hat has a hemmed brim which used more yarn than expected.  After doing the crown decreases, I only had a few inches of yarn left to use for attaching the pompom.

Despite the funky decreasing and a mean game of yarn chicken, Sarah and I are both quite happy with the hat.