And now I need to knit all the sweaters

It started when the Pandamonium hat made it's debut on Ravelry, causing me to contemplate colorwork hats...so I remembered that I wanted to get some dk or worsted yarn to make an adult version of The Hedgehog Hats to match the mittens kit I have which meant digging the kit out of my knitting stash bins so I could find yarn colors for the hat that match the mittens.
This led me to unearthing the yarns for:
The Taming of the Shrug, (Flaming Kate model of course):

The Smithfield sweater, (modified a bit):

The Berkeley sweater, so simple and elegant:

A sweater worth of lovely sport weight, superwash wool in a burgundy red that I decided needed to become a  Blaster:

And enough yarn in a similar color, though different gauge and base is on it's way to make an Aiken
Why yes, I do have a knit designer crush on Andi Satterlund.  Can you really disagree?  Her stuff is wonderful!
Really, this is what happens when I start getting close to finishing a sweater.  Petrichor is close to being done.  I keep trying it on, which slows down the knitting process, but makes me happy and less put off about knitting sleeves.

The first sleeve is actually complete now, but it's been over cast and I haven't gotten a better picture.
I also dug out a long hibernating work in progress, that I neglected to take pictures of.  Honestly, it looked so sad, I didn't have the heart to document it's neglect.  What it will be, is a lovely Viola in black with deep, jade green edges...once I finish work on it.
The fabric for my Halloween dress arrived too.

The pattern pieces for the dress I'm going to make out of it are all drafted and cut out.  It now means stopping knitting long enough to cut out the fabric and start sewing!

Bits and pieces

I've finished a couple of pairs of socks.  The first pair has been on the needles long enough, that other than remembering it was bought from Knit Picks, I don't remember the colorway or base.  It was an alpaca blend hand paint sock yarn from years ago.

The second set is a pair of Rose City Rollers, in Hawthorne sock, Rose city colorway.  I really love working with the Hawthorne base yarn.  The projects turn out beautifully.

I've also managed to find a pair of plain, black kitten heels and a pair of black cat eye sunglasses that actually fit!  Thank you Pin Up Girl!

Essie also just put out a gel nail polish line with a color called Spiked with Style.  It's my favorite deep blood red.

Over the last year, I have also managed to find three red lipsticks that really are wonderful.  Two are from Besame.  The darker is Red Velvet and the other is Victory Red.  The third is my day to day red, and I adore it.  It's from Shea Moisture in Red Rose. 

What all of this actually means is that I am slowly but surely getting together a proper wardrobe of things that go together, not just things that pique my interest at the moment that I never wear/use.  Knowing that I can grab something out of my closet, swipe on some lipstick, and look like I have my act together, (even if that act is gothic June Cleaver meets Ms. Frizzle), is reassuring and enables me to focus on other things that need taking care of.

First of three complete

My Keavy is done! I cast off the last sleeve stitches midday yesterday. I didn't decrease the sleeves as much as the pattern called for, as well as halving the number of collar rounds.

It still needs to be blocked.  The fit is really wonderful as is, but the cat tried to sleep on it at least once so a bath is required.

I've made a few inches progress on Petrichor  since yesterday afternoon, even with repeated rippings to get the correct number of stitches picked up at the collar.

I am adoring the bigger needles and heavier gauge yarn projects right now.  As much as I could really use the socks so close to being done, the obvious progress on the sweaters is just what I needed.

I also got the autumn embroidery piece for the entry traced out.  It took me ages to pick the floss colors for this one.  I haven't made much progress yet, but the complicated parts are out of the way.

I may have also come across some glow in the dark fabric today....and may have decided I needed to make a dress out of it.  I'm actually proud of my restraint.  It's the time of year that makes me think I need all the things...to stock up of course...for when snowflakes, hearts, and bunnies take over the displays.  Halloween really is my happy place.

If I concentrate...

If I don't get distracted by all the shiny, sometimes, I actually get things done.  

Like the first embroidered dishtowel in a new set from this set

And the fact that I have only knit on one project for the last week means Keavy is almost done!

The photo is from a couple of days ago, as of right now, the first sleeve is four inches from completion.  Admittedly, the sleeve black hole has me casting desirous glances at this yarn:

Yarn which was recently obtained for the shawl Hestia. I have not let myself wind it up, or even keep it in plain sight.  Winding the first skein is the reward for finishing the first sleeve.

Life is not all needlework though.  We've been hitting the farmers market most weekends.  A couple of weeks ago we bought cabbages. The largest was bigger than my head!  

That's a quart mason jar (with tea) for scale.  The cabbage was a solid ten pounds and quite delicious.  There's been lettuce and tomatoes and herbs from the potted plants in the backyard...I keep forgetting to take pictures before eating them.

Now back to knitting sleeves...while visions of lovely shawls and pineapples dance in my head.

Time to Knit Sweaters!

Fall has started to bat her eyelashes at us.  The mornings call for a sweatshirt or light jacket, with twilight (arriving earlier every evening) comes thoughts of wool socks for chilly toes. (At least for the last few days; I do hope it continues.)
Taking my cues from said weather; I decided I would like new woolies before the cooler season gets here, instead of trying to knit them at super speed while shivering.

The maroon one in progress is Petrichor, the oatmeal tweedy one is Keavy, and the quite green cabled pretty is Corsica.  All of them are thicker yarns at a larger gauge, so they should finish up fairly quickly, provided I continue to work on them consistently.

Summer has been busier than I expected, enjoyable yes, but busy.  I admit though, I am tickled that Halloween plans are starting to be discussed in earnest and that socks will have to be introduced back into my wardrobe.

My cat is incredibly excited as well.

Wallowing in the surreality

Mix together all the publicly known chaos and violence lately that you still feel quite personally involved in (my thoughts and heart have been with those to whom those things are personal quite often), paired with the actual personal things that really are at soap opera levels at this point and then add a dollop of current American politics.

It makes life feel astoundingly surreal,but not the good kind of surreal, more the kind where you stand there saying: "Really?!"

The blog suffers (I'm never quite sure what to say as it ends up sounding trite and insincere even when it's honestly neither), but I get quite a bit of knitting done.  Sometimes, I even finish things...even if I don't block them.
I finished the Water shawl in the Elemental Collection

I also finished the Queen of Thorns MKAL:

Aaaannd the Godswood MKAL, the dvd case is for scale, it turned out much larger than expected:

 

My gauge was off on the last one.  I ran out of yarn....twice.  It is really lovely though!

Books have been bought, more yarn purchased...and I may have purchased some of  this in the Forget Me and Milky Spite colorways.  I made a shirt out of Deep Regret, (scroll down)  it's a quite flattering mauve/old rose/ washed out copper colorway and the name was outstanding.
There's been much focusing on the mundane and routine; taking care of new folks in the office, attending barbecues, gardening and active contemplation of what to do for Halloween this year.
For now, it helps

Maybe I'll move to Australia

I should be happy.
I got to have an enjoyable visit with family over Father's Day.
My house is surprisingly clean and orderly.
My plants are starting to produce blueberries, sugar snap peas, and tomatoes,  with the promise of green nutmeg melons and cucumbers soon.

But in less than thirty minutes yesterday, I had a happy crash.

The heating element on my dryer died, with two loads still soggy.
I cracked my skull on the laundry cabinets looking for the model number on the dryer.
I ran out of yarn,  for the second time, on a shawl I would desperately love to finish. (My fault.  Gauge issues.)
And my laptop caught something unpleasant that I still am attempting to get rid of.

So this afternoon,  after working on the laptop problem a bit, weighing the ball of yarn and realizing it would not stretch to all the ever increasing rows as well as the bind off...I put down the knitting, got ice cream, and bought more yarn. There may also be a glass of huckleberry wine later, after I get dinner sorted.

It's not really awful or terrible or horrible.  Things can be fixed. My head will heal.  More yarn is on the way. I didn't even drop my ice cream.
It was just multiple little things all at once that got under my skin.  It happens sometimes.  And it would make me cranky wherever I was.

Trying to get caught up

It's that time of year, courtesy of Stash Dash and The KnitGirllls, that I start trying to organize my projects, so that just maybe, I will be able to have some things completed before the year is over.  The list of knitting projects to finish is at forty-two.  I've got a dozen or so embroidery or cross stitch pieces as well as at least that many sewing projects just waiting for me to pay attention to them.
On the positive side, once I sew in the sleeves on my Embry, the list of completed projects will be up to sixteen.
I did manage to complete the Sibylla lace shawl.  It was a fabulous piece to knit.  Now it just needs a wash and a block.

I've also managed through clue 4 of the Queen of Thorns, Game of Thrones 2016 mkal, though the fifth and final clue has already gone live, so I am hoping to complete this shawl this weekend.

I also just got through clue 3 of The Godswood of Winterfell shawl.  I am currently a solid clue behind, the piece is lovely, I just keep getting distracted.

Here is one of the distractions...

I found him over at Urban Threads, had him downloaded, traced and stitched in two days flat.  There was something about the design, I couldn't seem to put it down.
The other distraction is my growing collection of coloring books.

I love them!  The small ones are actually blank notebooks.  As someone who was a fan of the DoodleArt posters as a teenager, how could I not love these coloring books?

Just one more?

The lovely Erica Jackofsky came out with the fifth in her elemental knit along, The Philosopher's Stone, so of course I need to knit it.  I do already have the rest of the set, one is even finished, though still un-blocked.
I've managed to stay caught up with the Queen of Thorns knit along, not the other two knit alongs, but I will get there.  I wasn't sure I liked how the colors were working up at first, but when I stepped back to photograph it, I was smitten again.

It's also embroidery season again around here.  The beginnings of my bout of summer themed embroidery got started yesterday.

I also dug out the fabric and personalized pattern I bought back in February for a wedding gift that I need to send out before September.  This is fabric only, as I don't want to spoil the potential surprise.

It will probably get put in a hoop tomorrow.  I have a knit shirt that I am doing the finishing on today and a copy of Deadpool to watch (sooooo much love for Deadpool)!

It's shawl season!

And it's almost Stash Dash so I may have joined a few knit alongs.  Yes, I have tons of works in progress. I just have a terrible weak spot for themed knit alongs.
Which means I have yarn for three shawls that I haven't started or the kals haven't begun yet.  Those are Gerda

Cheshire

As well as We're All Mad Here which I am going to use my Glow Cloud yarn from Nerd Girl Yarns for.
There are also three in progress.
Sibylla done in Valley Yarns Northfield in Olive Grove. The yarn is a joy to work with even if the colorway I chose isn't showing the lace pattern much yet, especially with it crumpled up on too short a circular cable.

Queen of Thorns is the latest installment of a Game of Thrones kal I have done three years running now.  I am using Wonderland Yarns, Cheshire Cat in their Dark Rainbow Pt. 2 and Hawthorne Kettle Dye in Blackbird

The Godswood of Winterfell is the final kal I am working on right now.  I am using Knit Picks Galileo in Gosling.  I have ruby red beads set aside to use on it later.  Yet another lace shawl scrunched up on to too short a cable.

My new summer patterns also got here the other day.

Now to dig the fabric out of the garage, goodness knows where it all is, and actually get started sewing.  People in the house are just going to have to put up with fabric and patterns everywhere for a little bit.

Happy May Day!

These are cherry blossoms on the (sadly)ornamental cherry tree in our backyard.

Who knew blueberry blossoms were so pretty?  I am really looking forward to the fruit as well, homemade lavender blueberry ice cream possibly?