And We're Back...

I did not get the cardigan done.  The outside of the center pull ball I was using unwound, found some of my hair, random cat fluff, plus a few fuzzies for good measure and ended up with partially matted knots in a few spots. 
Scissors were involved.
I refused to stress about it. 
So I pulled out a lovely shawl I had made several years ago, flung it round my shoulders and called it good.
I did get the sleeves attached to the body though:

Most of the yarn barf mess has also been attended.  The project got put in time out for a few days.

I have managed to complete most of the body of my modified Brenda sweater in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night colorway.

Sadly, that is pretty much all of my knitting.  The time and the drive just haven't been there.

Spring is finally starting to show itself around here.  Mostly in hazy clouds of green, pink and white around still skeletal looking trees.
And in dandelions:

I also turned forty three.  Can't say I feel any different.

Ah first week of April....

Book-ended this year with us remembering a friend who passed today, as we have every year since his passing,  and a family funeral this coming weekend.
Meaning while the week involves wine:

As well as knitting:

Neither is really for a joyous reason. 

It's only just lunch time, and so many other things that should be falling into place...just aren't.  Much of the irritation and problems are being caused bureaucratic nonsense that could be resolved with a minimal level of customer service instead of treating a customer like an inconvenience at best.

On the plus side, the lip paints I bought from ColourPop's Disney Villain collection got here today:

The colors are exactly as expected, if not better.  The lip glosses are Bad Apple and Sad But True, they have mild vanilla scent that is rather pleasant.

My lips will at least be wicked and wonderful this week, even if everything else keeps insisting on skewing the other way.  We shall see what happens.

Not the post I had planned

I was going to post pictures of the multitude of projects I have on the needles right now.  This changed a couple of days ago, and now I am trying to knit a cropped, short sleeved black cardigan in a week.

The pattern is a heavily modified Montrey with buttons purchased from my local JoAnns, in black Valley Yarns Charlemont from Webs out of stash.  Half the body is done.  Half the first sleeve is done.  Housework may have to suffer.  This cardigan will get done.
In slightly less urgent sounding news, I got a new water bottle:

Yes, it is a metal water bottle made to look like wood.
I also bought stickers to put on it.  I couldn't have a boring water bottle! 

They may not all be put on the water bottle, we'll just have to see.  I did grow up in the '80's though, so coating something in stickers seems like a wonderful idea! 

Now back to knitting the cardigan!

Doughnuts, Unreasonable Craft Goals and Hair

First and foremost; they opened a huge new Albertsons just a few minutes from the house.  Shouldn't be at all exciting right?  Wrong.  It is one of the most amazing grocery stores I have ever been in!  The store has standards like a bakery, meat counter and pharmacy...as well as places where you can grab poutine, a bison burger, fried chicken or a poke bowl.  They make tortillas fresh and there is a bar in the grocery store!  The selection was outstanding.  The produce was some of the best I have seen in ages!  I may have called it "Food Disneyland."  The only down side is that everybody else seems to love it too, so it is quite busy, pretty much all the time.
We may have bought a smattering of their doughnut selection...to taste test of course.  And that giant apple fritter just seemed to hop into the cart.  It was all quite tasty!

I finally finished my Sea Witch hat:

I've put in a bit more work on my crochet scrap blanket:

I also cast on a heavily modified Brenda in Winter Night blue:

I also realized just yesterday, that maybe I should be working on items that I could wear during the Spring and Summer...and I probably didn't need another Winter hat right this instant.  So on top of the list I already had planned for the year, I made a list of things I want to knit to wear in warmer weather.  There are twelve tops on that new list.  Those twelve do not include the five warm weather tops on the original list, nor the six other cold weather sweaters (three for other people) I would like done before Fall comes round again.
And because it is a Summer Knit List, none of the sewing projects (that I cut out last year) are on the list.
Even the brain that came up with these grand plans, trying to rationalize such a crazy amount of things to finish by say, the end of this May (at least for most of the sewing and a handful of the knit tops), is questioning the actual feasibility of this endeavor.
Part of this likely comes from the fact that I cut my hair (which totally requires new clothes, right?).  It's still just a bit longer than shoulder length, but I now have chin length bangs.  This is the most dramatic change in the styling of my hair for a solid twenty years.

Still not sure how I feel about the look yet.  It also requires actually doing something with my hair.  The most effort I've put into my hair most of my adult life is kept it trimmed and dye it red.  This is definitely new territory.

I guess I crochet now....

I finally dove into my basket of sock yarn leftovers and put a Granny Stripe Blanket on the hook.  It took a couple of tries to get things rolling, but there is now a six foot wide blanket started. The extent of my crochet before has been simple edging on random knitting projects and a double handful of festive dishcloths one year. This will be a huge blanket, which is rather the point, my bed is a CalKing.  What it really means, my crochet will get better, eventually.

It's not beautifully planned like some.  This will be a true scrap blanket, working the yarn amount that I've picked next till I run out or am bored of the color.  This...is going to take a good while, about five months at an inch a day.  It is kind of a perfect project for my accidental year of working from stash though.

I also had a sock jump on my needles, because my brain said I needed them.  These are the Kia socks by Dawn Henderson.  The yarn is Junkyarns in the Sophie colorway.

I really need to stop casting on new things, even if it is all stash yarn.

Randomness and Things I Think Are Important

There are a ton of things on the needles right now.  May even get that crochet scrap blanket on the hook soon too!

As I knit quite a lot of gray last year, I made the (unconscious) decision to knit more purple.  The glorious blue-green is the first of three Sweaters for Other People.  As two of those people are over six foot and all three are taller than me I feel it deserves a capitalized title.
The Sea Witch hat finally got cast on.  The Shiny, Datura, Rizzo, as well as the sparkly vanilla sock, in Endora from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, are all for me.  The first Sweater for Other People is the Hyde's Hooded Sweater  for Darling Son.  It will be hooded, long and rather a behemoth, but it's knit on largeish needles so it should go kind of quickly. I hope.

The other thing that is still consuming my personal brain space is the discussion of race in the fiber community.  No, it is not going away.  Yes, it is important.   A few weeks of discussion does not automatically fix a major societal problem in the same way a few rows of stitches do not a sweater make.  I will continue to randomly signal boost it.  This article on Vox sums things up nicely.  This is the blog the lovely humans have started, Unfinished Objects.  The Militantly Mixed podcast was recently brought to my attention, there's a Twitter too!  This kid...he is just absolutely amazing!  Please, go take a peek at Jonah's work.

I am a nerdy, over 40, white woman who rarely leaves her house and who talks more to her knitting than to other humans. I still try to practice what I preach when I do leave the house.  I am frequently awkward, but as that is the normal for me, it's all I've got to give.  This is my favored platform just because, by current standards, I am old fashioned in that I prefer my computer to my phone. 

Whatever method, you have to at least try.

I knit a hat.

It's the Braineater by Vi Caughran, the large size, done in Husband's current college colors (I call it the Boise State Braineater).  Happily, the hat does fit him beautifully...me, not so much!  I do apologize for the less than ideal photo.  It's been raining for days here, so the light is awful...and I did take the shot selfie style and blind.
At some point I will remember to take pictures of the four other projects I've finished so far this year, out of the fifteen I set for myself, all stash. 

As it's Valentine's Day:

And so do I!  I am absolute shite at demonstrating it, but whether we are just internet acquaintances or someone I have known (and likely not seen or even talked to) in more than twenty years;  I love you.  I think of you often.  I probably know what is going on in your life (at least superficially) and wishing good things for you always. (The embroidery pattern is from Urban Threads.)

Please do remember that you are loved.

I swatched.

I am really trying to stick to my list of things to knit this year. Seasons of Love  was an impulse cast on, but uses up stash yarn, so it's not too far off course.  It's also now about three quarters of the way complete and I am trying to finish it by the end of January.

I did pull out yarn for three other projects actually on said list; the Igor'th Thawl. the Hyde Sweater and the Rizzo sweater.  I swatched for all three.  Not huge swatches, but at least four inches (10 centimeters) wide(except the shawl as I just had to like the fabric), washed and blocked so I could even check row gauge.

As I was conscientiously knitting away on things already warming my needles, I couldn't stop thinking about the skein of Nevermore (special colorway for last years Poe kit) from Potion Yarns waiting to become a Corvida.   So I wound the yarn, thinking that maybe it would be enough to just play in the yarn for a bit...it was not.

While the colors are not my usual, the colorway is making me absurdly happy while I work on the shawl.  The finished item will also be perfect with a black dress or three that reside in my closet.

In my defense, the shawl pattern was on the list and kitted up with the yarn already.

The Hedgewitch pattern is another story though.  The pattern has been in my favorites for a year.  Every time I see a finished one, my brain wants to cast on the giant, woolly goodness immediately.  That would require buying yarn, which I've not done since October. 

We do have a craft room, though right now it's rather a catch-all space.  The inversion table, folding chairs, table linens, spare blankets and other random bits have found a home there for the moment.  It is also the lowest priority on the organization list...and it shows:

It's also the first time we've had a room just for the making supplies, (yes, we, it's not just my stuff in there), so I am going to have to find storage solutions.  Previously, if it lived in a bin, it likely was in the garage and if it was in a project bag, it got crammed into the linen closet or a random corner.  Now, there is finally dedicated space...and I am not quite sure what to do with it. ;-)

There has been a discussion...

Mostly on Instagram, in the knitting community there has been an active, seemingly productive, discussion about race.  My reach and audience is....limited.  It would not matter the platform used really, but you have to try.  There was also no way I was not going to say something, even in a minor way.

These lovely humans, aside from making wonderful things, have said it better than I can, as I do not have the personal perspective to do so; ggmadeit, jeanettesloan, su.krita, ocean_bythesea, and thecolormustard. 

Jeanette Sloan also has a lovely page of POC designers and crafters.  Expand your horizons, find more people that make beautiful things.  On Instagram?  Follow Meet Makers of Color.

This is the Swag page of Neighborhood Fiber Co.  there are bits with "Unity" on them.  We are a community.  All of us.  Read a post.  Like a picture.  Buy something gorgeous (or even just a coffee) from (or for) a new to you maker.  Please, do not just sit there.  Listen to what is being said.  Say something.  Do something.  Make our community better by including everyone. 

 

Making

There has been knitting, unsurprisingly.  I finished two Bloody Stupid Johnson hats

The kids picked the colors they wanted and absconded with them almost as soon as they were off the needles.
I went stash diving, (something I've been doing often this year already), as soon as the Seasons of Love wrap by Tif Neilan went live.  It's been a joyous knit, which might explain why I am over half way through the wrap in a rather short time frame.

I kept it simple with only two colors.  The gray is Deep Unrelenting Gray from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted and the tweedy cream is Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in Birch tweed

I made lotion and lip bars.

The recipe I found online wasn't bad, but not quite right for the personal preferences of the house, so they got melted down and re-worked to much better effect, though not as entertaining to look at.

I pulled out a bunch of yarny fingering weight odds and ends to start on a Granny Stripe blanket, which is crochet and there is no rhyme or reason to the colors I put in the bag, so we will see how it works out.

I've started some seedlings already since our warm weather season isn't overly long.  I also needed to replace the catnip plant as it was gotten rid of during the move.  I haven't been able to find a replacement locally.

It's very much been a mentality of use what you have, to make what you actually use.

The house is mostly put together, some refinement as well as extra shelves and the like are still needed, but there is no doubt we are making it our own:

Goodbye 2018

I am not sorry to see you go.  You caused me and mine rather a lot of distress and unhappiness, and that was just on the personal level.  You seemed to be heavy handed in shoveling your unpleasantness onto acquaintances and strangers as well, which, I admit, I still took somewhat personally.

The holiday decorations are already down and packed away till next year.  Our household is decidedly ready for 2019 to start.

The Elemental shawl was started August 4th, 2018.  It was bound off December 18th, 2018.  Honestly, this is probably some sort of record for me as it's not quite 1400 yards of laceweight.  Possibly, it is an indicator of how I deal with stress?  The shawl is not blocked yet, and is already the size of a baby blanket.

Yarn is already being wound for another 2000+ yard (also laceweight) shawl.  Igort'th Thawl will be knit in memoriam of MMario.  A knit along is being held by the Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild. 

Gardening plans are being made, for when the temperatures are back above freezing.  Terroir Seeds has a wonderful selection of seeds, some of which I've not seen elsewhere.
Plans for different makings are also in progress; lotion and shampoo bars, a sourdough starter and whatever else catches my fancy.

When bandying about ideas for a word/theme of 2019, Husband suggested Recovery.  It is a suitable word, though I would add something along the lines of Authenticity as well, as Reclaim and Recover sounds more like a recycling program....and we are not quite that old, yet.

Her Ladyship Alzoa Shadowcat Fluffybutt (and her humans) wish you a wonderful New Year filled with treats and the adoration you so obviously deserve!