Sure, I Have Time For That!

We are currently neck deep in getting Caleb ready to go.  I've got IKEA bags full of Twin XL bedding piled in the Ball Room.*  I've got a notebook filled with lists, info, numbers, and anything he might possibly need once we get down there.  I'm trying to organize Logan (who's super easy and laid back) and Newton (who's generally nuts, fearless, the color of shadows, and he's teething - he has four lower canine teeth at the moment** so he looks like Venom) for my brother in law, John, who's going to be pet sitting for us (he's my very favorite brother in law!) And on top of all this we keep getting emails from the university to add things and make changes to the way things have previously been set up - most of this is adjusting for COVID, and I appreciate the effort they're making to keep everyone safe, but it feels like every time I get two things checked off a list, there's another thing added.  I've been assured this is normal from a very nice lady in Campus Living who's my contact for Caleb's dorm, and she told me I wasn't crazy when I emailed her asking about toilet paper because I didn't want to send the wrong kind with him and have it blow up the plumbing in the entire building and then not only does he have the reputation as the kid who blew up the plumbing but also everyone who lives in the building is now emotionally traumatized from The Incident and the whole school has to close down for the rest of the semester "for sanitary reasons."  Yeah, this is where my head is at right now.

So naturally I decided to do The Sharon Show MKAL that Casapinka is doing this fall.  It starts tomorrow.  I've picked my yarn (from l-r, and A-D for the KAL):Dark Yarns 50%Merino/50% Silk (I don't remember the base name and the skein isn't sitting here) in Arya, the other three are all Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Ink, Kelp, and Tart.  I'm hoping to cast on and at least start the first clue this weekend, but then I'll probably fall behind a couple of weeks while we do The Move, but then I hope to catch up a bit.  Maybe.  Never mind that I'm still teaching Newton not to attack the yarn as I knit from it.  He's doing pretty well and mostly just holds it in his paws, but sometimes he just can's help himself and sinks his teeth into it with a look of pure joy on his little kitty face.  Baby steps.  Also, I might have grabbed a partial skein from my Leftovers With Potential basket (where I keep partial skeins that still have half or more of their yardage) for a sock project to take on the road trip.  I mean it's obvious that with everything else going on in my life I really need not one but two new knitting projects to really round things out, right?

Have a great weekend, and just as a public service announcement, strawberry lemonade and vanilla vodka are really yummy together.  In case anyone else needs to know this.

*We are really not fancy enough to have an actual ballroom in our house.  This is the combination formal living room and dining room space, but we don't use it for that, we keep workout stuff in it, including the big exercise balls.  One day, a few months after we moved here, back when he was eight years old, as we were leaving the house I called to Caleb to get going and he told me, "I'm already downstairs, I'm in the ball room."  Naturally, it's been the ball room ever since - how could it be anything else?

**I know that if Newton doesn't lose his baby canines by himself, he'll have to have them pulled, but I googled it and we don't have to deal with it until we get back from dropping Caleb off.  Hopefully, they'll fall out on their own in the meantime, but I know this is something to be watched.  It's on a list.  (I'm not kidding, it's on a September list.)

I'm Still Here! I'm Still Knitting!

 

It's been quiet here on the blog, but I've been busy knitting.  I finished a pullover and I love it.  This is Ambiente, knit in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Dopamine colorway.  The shaping of this sweater is oversized and boxy - kind of like Relax - but it's not as wide as Relax is.  It's also knit top down in one piece where Relax is knit bottom up and then seamed.  Ambiente has a little bit more scoop to the neckline, long sleeves, and a split hem.

I changed the edging and I didn't do the pocket, but the rest of the pattern is knit as written.  The edging used in the pattern was curling like crazy in this yarn, and I just didn't really think it would block out (I didn't actually try blocking it, so it might have settled down, I just didn't trust it).  I redid it using K2, P2 rib instead and that worked out just fine.  I was pretty sure the pocket wasn't going to show anyway in this yarn, so I just left it out.  I think it could be cute in a more solid or tonal type of yarn.

Here's a picture of what the yarn looks like close up.  I love this colorway!  Remember a couple of years ago when I said I liked the new speckled colorways that were showing up in yarns at the time and how I thought they'd be great in socks and small projects but I didn't think I'd want to knit a sweater out of them?  Clearly, I've adjusted my thinking there!

Sew Together Bags And A Recap of 2018

 

I've been sewing.  I made six Sew Together Bags this month, some for gifts, some for me.  I heard about this pattern a few years ago, thought it was an amazing idea, bought it, downloaded it, and haven't done anything about it since then.  Periodically I would sort through fabrics and try to decide what to put where, but I never really got anywhere.

 

This year, I decided to make some for gifts and figured I'd make myself a couple as well, for a total of six.  I sat down with my piles of fabrics and some post-it notes and figured out (and marked) what was what.  I had the pattern, the link to the sewalong, and an insane number of zippers (the company at that link sells a set of the long zipper and the three short zippers you need for this bag in your choice of colors - NAYY).

I separated the fabrics and zippers for each bag into their own ziplock bags so I wouldn't get confused.  I realized I could sew three of the bags with white thread and three with hot pink thread.  This meant I could use assembly line techniques and not have to change thread too often.

Some of the bags have the same fabric in each pocket lining, some only have one fabric.  Some of the bags use different fabrics for the interior and exterior side panels while some bags just used one.  Cutting out took an entire afternoon, but I stayed organized and kept each of the bag parts together.

I quilted all of the exteriors with a 1cm grid (my sewing machine is a Pfaff - metric markings), and after trimming them down once they were quilted (quilting can make a piece of fabric draw in, so for projects like this, you cut your pieces bigger than necessary, quilt, and then trim down to the correct size as listed in the pattern), I was ready to go.  I was also 12 hours into the project and hadn't even started the actual construction yet.

I used a combination of the pattern directions and the sewalong directions to put the bags together.  I also used this tutorial for zipper tabs on the interior pockets.  I think it makes the zippers look neater and it reduces bulk as you sew it.

When I did the binding, I sewed them on by machine first and then turned them over and stitched them down by hand to finish them.  For the long, top zipper bindings, I only did hand stitching along the bag.  I machine stitched both sides for the ends of the zippers where they make little handle loops.  I felt like this would make them more secure.

While this is definitely not a beginner pattern, I didn't think it was difficult either.  There are some fiddly bits and being comfortable with your sewing machine makes it easier to get through these.

This was not a fast project, but I enjoyed it and I think the fact that all six of the bags are different kept it from getting monotonous.  Everyone who got one of the bags seemed really happy with it and I hope they get lots of use!  (By the way, I just have to add that in the bag in the photo above, the zipper at the bottom is a color called Monster Snot Green.  I can't tell you how happy it made me to be able to use this and also how weird it is that this color really works well with so many of the Kaffe Fassett prints.  Best zipper color name ever!)

On a completely unrelated note, since today is the last day of the year, I went through my Ravelry notebook and took a look at everything I've knitted or crocheted in 2018.  I only counted finished projects, but here's the count:

• 4 pullovers
• 6 pairs of socks
• 4 pairs of footie socks
• 2 shawls
• 1 scarf
• 1 cowl
• 1 blanket (the Meditative Blanket was finally finished this year)
• 3 tentacles
• 5 hearts
• 11 stars
• 4 leaves
• 2 narwhals
• 1 Cthulhu

I didn't knit a single cardigan last year, but I did make a lot of weird little things.  I currently have another crochet blanket in progress (Granny Goes Large) and two pullovers on the needles (Relax and Sipila).  Those won't be finished until after the new year.  I'm hoping for fewer injuries next year and I'm guessing I won't knit as many weird things, but there's no promises (seriously, who makes three tentacles and a Cthulhu?)

Hope your New Year is amazing and I'll see you there!

I'm Back!

Unfortunately I wasn't vacationing in some exotic locale, I came down with the weird Starts-Like-Allergies-But-Then-Settles-Into-Your-Chest-And-Head-Virus that's going around.  Medical scientists have no interest in curing it because by the time they type the name of the virus, their test subjects are over it.  Anyway, much sleeping, coughing and sneezing has been taking place.  Now things are better though and we're getting back to normal.

I did a little bit of knitting in between naps and hot tea and stars are perfect for short little bursts of creativity!  I found that if I have pre-measured the yarn lengths, I can get a Small star knit to the point of blocking in just under an hour.  Medium and Large stars take just a little bit more time.  Fortunately, I had done some pre-measuring before I got sick so all I had to do was knit and block stars.  Yesterday, when I was feeling better, I stuffed and finished them, so now I have seven more stars!  There's one more Hydroponic star and the others are Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Dragonfly using leftovers from my first Relax.

Just a note about the pre-measuring:  in the pattern (Scintillation) you measure your yarn (she gives lengths) and start in the middle.  That way you only have two ends to weave in, which is a very nice thing.  I found that for me, and in fingering weight, the suggested lengths are longer than necessary.  As a pattern writer, I totally understand why - you can knit these in any yarn and heavier yarns will use more yardage than finer yarns; and everyone's tension is a little bit different, so even if two people knit the same size star from the same yarn using the same needles, they might use different lengths of yarn.  If you underestimate yarn necessary in pattern writing you will get complaints - think torches and pitchforks here, maybe a crazed mob or two.  If you vastly overestimate yarn, the most you will hear will be mild grumbling but even that will be minimal.  When I knit my first star (the Large size), I measured out the length for the Large in the pattern and I kept up with my yarn ends when I finished knitting it.  Then I measured the yarn ends - what I didn't use - and subtracted that from the original length.  I added back a little bit for wiggle room, safety, and variation between yarns and that's my new length for Large.  Then I worked backwards, knitting the Medium and Small stars the same way, figuring out how much fingering weight yarn each size of star takes for me.  I'm not going to share my lengths for the reason that you might need more or less, but I will tell you that the pattern estimation for the largest size has less waste than the medium and small, so start there.  If this sounds ridiculously complicated and you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.  Just use the recommended amounts in the pattern and use the leftovers for stuffing your stars!

Twinkle, Twinkle

 

A couple of weeks ago, the Scintillation pattern was released and I bought it immediately.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to start knitting them immediately.  When I finished my Ravello Five, I immediately cast on for a star with the leftover Hydroponic.  I've now knit all three sizes of the five pointed star in stockinette stitch.

The original pattern gave instructions for a five pointed star, in three sizes, but within a week, the designer updated the pattern and added four pointed and six pointed stars (also in three sizes).  There are also three different stitch patterns within all of those variations, so lots of options!  (The one in the photo, in my hand is the smallest star, just over an inch across.)

I'm not done making stars  They are just adorably cute and fun.  There are a few things I've learned through:

• Have at least an hour for starting.  The cast on and beginning is a bit fiddly and you won't want to put it down during that time.
• The largest star is the easiest to make, so start there.  In addition to the fiddly beginning, the center of the star is also fiddly and the largest one gives you more to hold onto while you're knitting it.
• Once you figure out what's going on with your first star, the next stars are easier, faster, and slightly less fiddly.

There's a KAL in the designer's group on Ravelry (that has more tips as well as emotional support if you need it), and if you were wondering, yes, this is the same designer who made the Palpitation heart pattern, and the Gripping tentacle pattern.  She also has tons of accessory patterns that are just beautiful.

Time

Summer around here is now over.  Homeschool starts today.  Caleb and I are both dragging a bit this morning at the early wake up, but it's time to get back to learning.  This is his senior year of high school and I have no idea how this happened.  It seems like only yesterday that I was walking him to kindergarten and he talked to me the whole way.  Walking to and from school was always an easy way to find out what was going on in Caleb's head.  Now here he is, taller than I am, his voice is lower than Mickael's and he doesn't need help crossing the street anymore!

In a totally non-related knitting way, the Space Mermaid has left the black hole of No Visible Progress and is now getting nice and large.  I'm enjoying knitting this, but I'm to the point now that I'm ready for it to be over.  It's now too wide to be spread out over the needles, and I honestly hadn't realized exactly how large it is until I spread it out for the picture this morning.  It's just been clumped in my lap and not opened all the way up.  I'm going to keep going until I run out of one of the yarns.  I think it will be the Planet 9 (the dark blue) first.  I'm going to try to get this wrapped up soon, but because it requires some concentration, it will be worked on in the evenings.  Fortunately, I have two stockinette stitch sweaters I can knit on during the school day.  (Yes, I get to bring knitting to school!)

Knitting Adventures

When you're a knitter, you get to have all sorts of interesting conversations.

This morning Mickael was trying to tell me what he wanted from the grocery store and I replied, "Give me a minute, I'm trying to photograph my tentacles."

He ended up being confused and slightly terrified.  Knitting is fun.

I have three tentacles now!

Something Strange

 

Over the weekend I made a tentacle.  Just one for now, but there will be more.

When I started making the Palpitations hearts earlier this year, I realized that most of my sock yarn leftovers were not exactly "heart" colors.  One thing I noticed is that I have lots of greens and blue greens in my leftovers bag.  Then I remembered the Gripping pattern.  It's a free pattern and let's face it, the look on your teenage boy's face when he asks you what you're knitting and you answer, "A Tentacle" is priceless.

This one is made following the directions exactly but when I stuffed it at the end, I put a magnet in the very bottom of it.  I don't know if I'll add magnets to all my tentacles or not, but some of them will definitely get magnets.  The directions give variations for longer or shorter or thinner or fatter tentacles.  I think a good variety of shapes and sizes is the way to go here.

Palpitations

After finishing my Ramble shawl, I had about 50 yards left of Aniversario so I decided to make another Palpitation heart.  I was able to get two hearts out of it (a small and a medium size) and I had enough yarn left to make a lucet cord to connect them.

Naturally, I hung them on my tote that's holding my new sweater project (not off to a great start with sweaters this year, but hopefully the third time's a charm), knit in Aniversario - of course.

I'll show you the sweater tomorrow!

Palpitations

 

No, I'm not having any kind of heart issues, I've been making hearts!  These cute little guys are from the Palpitation pattern from Hunter Hammersen.  I've made all three sizes in fingering weight yarn.  The smallest one (Malabrigo Mechita in Cereza) is knit on US 0's (2.0mm).  The medium and large size (Madelinetosh Twist Light in Opaline and Malabrigo Sock in Indiecita, respectively) were both knit on US 1's (2.25mm).

I've got some other yarns and heavier weights pulled from my stash that I want to play around with using this pattern, but since most of my knitting is with fingering weight yarns, most of my leftover bits are too.  This pattern makes a fun little project and I will definitely be making more of these!

Little Stars

 

After Christmas I had a few days where I just didn't want to work on my Norderney pullover.  I really didn't want to do much of anything, but sitting still makes me fidgety.  I ran across a crocheted granny star on Pinterest and after looking over the directions, I decided I could probably handle it, so I made a few.

Then I made a few more and while I've only woven in ends on the first six, I now have a total of 24 of them.  I'm working them in #10 crochet cotton with a 1.50mm hook and they're less than 2 inches across when they're finished.  I don't have any definite plans with them, they're just cute and fun to make.  I might make a bunting out of them, but for now I'm just playing with them.

I Made A Thing!

 

I made a Double Pointed Needle Keeper!  I've been thinking about making one of these for a while, both to protect my needles in the project bag and to protect my project bag from my needles.  It worked up super quickly and would make a fun little gift for a knitting friend.

I used the tutorial I found here.  I made mine a little shorter because I usually use five inch DPN's for socks.  My main fabric is from Spoonflower (they've got a BOGO sale on Fat Quarters right now and a single Fat Quarter will give you several of these), and I used some batik scraps from my stash for the lining.  I had the KAM snaps already but this was the first time I've used them.  They were super easy to use and I like the way they look on the finished needle keeper.

Here's an action shot with the Rosebud footie in progress in it.  Footie socks are kind of a funny shape, but the needle keeper is still doing its job - keeping the needles tucked in and safe!

Have a great weekend!

Fading

 

The shaping has changed and I've turned a corner!  I'm finishing up Color D (the fourth of seven colors, Madelinetosh Twist Light in Video Baby) and the shaping has changed direction.  I'm hoping to start Color E (Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Budgie and the first of the blues) later this week.

Today though, I'm getting a new dryer.  Our dryer decided to die Monday night on the last load of the day (a set of sheets).  So I spread the damp sheets across the sofa and the guest bed (Max made a fort out of the sofa one) to let them air dry and we went and picked out a new dryer.  It's an exciting day here at Chez Pink Lemon!

Have a Great Weekend!

Well, Flickr is having some sort of hiccup this morning, so I can't show you where I am on the Find Your Fade (still in Color D, Section 7, but completely finished with Color C);  Runkeeper didn't track this morning's run correctly; and I just caught Max trying to eat my breakfast.  I think I'm going to go back to bed.

I do plan to start another sweater this weekend, even though I haven't woven in the ends and finished the Bentley Cardigan yet.  I just feel like I need a sweater on the needles.

I hope the rest of the weekend goes more smoothly than this morning is going and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  If you're going to Rhinebeck this weekend, have fun! 

Playing

I tend to plan what I'm going to cast on next while I'm still knitting on my current project.  So while I'm somewhere around the halfway point of my Canal Grande scrap wrap, I've been thinking about the next shawl I want to knit and I think it's going to be a Find Your Fade.  I knew I had to have yarn in my stash and I think I've found some that will work but I'm not sure which order to use them.  The small leftover balls of English Rose have to be Color A, but the others are all full skeins and can go in any order.  I've come up with three options but I'd like some second opinions, particularly if you've knit a Find Your Fade.  Leave your favorite in the comments!

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Which one do you think will work best?

Some Sewing

 

I've got a few finished sewing projects to share today!  I made some tech doo-dads and a box bag for my brother-in-law who will be traveling again soon.  From top left to right, these are the Annex Double Zip Box Bag from Sew Sweetness (I made the Medium size), Cord Keepers, and a Circle Zip Earbud Pouch from Dog Under My Desk.  The box bag is a paid pattern, but the other two are free tutorials.  I loved the idea of a box bag with two compartments and while there's a lot going on when you're sewing it, the directions are clear and putting it together went smoothly.  The other two projects were definitely easy and just used tiny bits of the leftover fabrics I had after cutting the box bag.  (I started with a fat quarter of each of the three prints I used.  Each side of the box bag is lined in something different.)

Here's an action shot of the Cord Keepers (you can see the lining fabric) and the Earbud Pouch.  Mickael has already asked for an Earbud Pouch of his own, and I will definitely be making more box bags.  Also, I can see the cord wraps being really useful for travel.

These were all fun to sew and I hope they'll be useful.  I'll definitely be making more of these, so if you're on my Christmas list and want any or all of these, feel free to let me know!

Getting There!

 

I've finished the knitting on the body of my Eyre pullover.  The back was partially blocked when I was trying to measure the lace section, but most of it isn't blocked yet.  There is a ribbed edge at the lower front, but it's rolling right now so you can't see it.  I will be blocking the whole thing this weekend (and trying to keep Logan from laying on it and "helping").  Then I will seam the front and back together at the sides before I start the sleeves.

The sleeves are picked up and knit from the top down, so once I finish those, there won't be anymore seaming.  There's a narrow neckband, but I haven't decided if I'll do it before or after the sleeves.  I'll make that decision later.

In completely non-knitting related news we had a nature sighting yesterday.  Mickael startled this little guy out of wherever he was hiding when he (Mickael) went to mow the backyard.  The little bunny squished himself into the gap between the house foundation and the patio and tried to become invisible.  Those are standard size bricks he's next to - he would absolutely fit in a teacup.  He stayed there for several hours (long enough that I took him a small bowl of water and some carrots), but when I took Logan out (leashed) at bedtime, the little guy had gone home and we saw his mom in the yard.  I'm guessing they had quite a discussion last night.

Have a great weekend!

Little Things

I took the little crochet motifs I showed you Friday and now they are finished.  What did I do?  I'll show you.

I wove in the ends of the yarn and blocked them flat.  (Apparently I decided my leg would make a great background for blog photos.  I'm questioning that decision this morning, but it's too late to worry about it.)  Then I spent about 30 minutes looking around my house for something round that was just slightly larger than my little stars/flowers.  When I finally found it, I used it to cut out felt circles - white felt for the red ones and black felt for the blue multi ones.  Then I tacked down the crochet motifs on the felt.  The carefully blocked out points melted into the felt and gave the shapes more of a flower look.  Oh well.

I added buttons in the center.  I found some sparkly snowflake buttons for the red ones.  Then it was time to glue!  First I picked out my giant paper clips (I found these colored ones at Kroger, of all places), then I put some glue where the clip would go and dotted it around the back of one circle.  I put another circle down on the glue and used my Clover Wonder clips to everything together and keep the paper clip in place while the glue dried.  I used the same fabric glue I used to glue rhinestones and shells all over my mermaid costume from a couple of years ago - Gem Tac maybe?  Anyway, once it was dry I just stitched around the circles as neatly as I could and...

...TA DA!!!  Book marks!

I'm really happy with how these came out, but if I ever do them again, I might try to make them a little smaller.  They are very lightweight so I think they'll work just fine anyway.

What Are These?

 

Well they're actually the first three rounds of Shape #49 from this book.  What are they going to be?  You'll just have to wait and see on Monday!

Have a great weekend (if you can take the suspense)!

A Change of Plans

 

I've changed my mind on my nupps project for Loopy Academy.  I love the Crown Tee design but I'm not loving it in this yarn.  I think the Wollmeise is too crisp; the design needs a softer yarn.  I've decided to do the Biscuit cowl for my nupps/bobbles/popcorn project instead, and new yarn is on its way to me.  At some point I will knit the Crown Tee in something softer, maybe just a little bit fuzzy.

Once I made that decision, I frogged what I had done for the Crown Tee and I will make something else with the Wollmeise.  It will probably be another Featherweight cardigan.  I haven't decided if I will start it immediately or if I'll knit another sweater first and let the Wollmeise have a little time out.  I think it helps the yarn forget the unsuccessful attempted project and then when I come back to it, it's ready for something new.  Or maybe its me that needs to forget.