woolythyme

I want it all.....

Janesville Jacket is finished.  It's pretty perfect for a cool fall day; the only problem is....we have yet to have that 'cool, fall day'.  I think we're close.  

This has been 'hanging over my head'....I volunteered (yes, I really did) to knit 6 shawls for a dear friend's daughter's wedding.  I finished the prototype...sent it off, and I received the 'A-OK' that it was just what the bride had in mind.  So far, so good.  Five more to go.  The only problem....BIG, CHUNKY yarn (which I hate) using BIG, CHUNKY needles (which I HATE even more).  But, now, the knitting is done...the finishing won't take too terribly long and the wedding isn't until December, so I'm sort of free from this project---at least for a bit. 

What to cast on?  Do I want to finish a UFO? (no) I've put the Ghana socks in the car for stop-and-go knitting.  They are guiltlessly out of sight.  Now what?

Enter, the chevron cowl.  I had a mini-package of Wonderland yarn assorted colours...and one large skein (in grey, what else?)  This is simply a basic chevron pattern, done in the round.  I'll knit until each of the mini skeins is gone, separating each section with the grey....and then I'll kitchener the ends together.  Reversible...no ends to weave in.  Pretty mindless.  My kind of project.

It's moving along nicely.  I was happily engaged in the whole thing.  Yarn is lovely.  

And then, I went to the mailbox Friday, and found the new issue of Making: no4 Lines.

I'm not going to turn this into a spoiler alert post, but YOU NEED TO RUSH OUT AND BUY THIS ISSUE ASAP.  This cowl is going on the needles soon---real soon.  As are a pair of socks, a shawl, a pair of mittens, and the sweater!!!! I really need it in my closet. This list doesn't even include all the sewing things I might like to try! I have loved every issue of this magazine, and when I receive each issue I declare it is my all time favorite....

this time I really mean it.  I want it all.  

sweetgrass.....

This book is quickly becoming my favorite summer read.  Robin Wall Kimmerer is, according to her bio blip on the back cover, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a scientist, mother, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, and an award winning author.  What it doesn't tell us is she is also a lyrical poet.  A reverent Nature Lover.  A keeper of traditions.  A relationship builder.  An extraordinary storyteller.

Elizabeth Gilbert has called it 'A hymn of love to the world'.....something our world could use a little more of

A beautiful book (thank you, Jane, for recommending it to me!)

And, yes.  

I chose my *project yarn by the book cover.

 

 

* Hermione sock pattern.  Tosh Sock in the Mansfield Garden Party colorway. 

the lost is found...

Would you look at THAT?  There!  No.  There...in front of you!  In that old project.  MY MISSING #1 ADDI LACE NEEDLES!!!  It's times like this that I want to unravel every single started and abandoned project and reclaim ALL my MIA needles. (I'd score a few favorite stitch markers in the process.)  I hunted for these things all winter long.  I KNEW I owned them.  I just didn't remember where they were otherwise occupied.

So, in celebration of the 'missing-being-found'....I've taken the Point-of-View vest out of hibernation and started knitting on it again.  It's more than half finished, if I can go by the fact that I'm well into the last cake of habu linen.  If that proves to be in error....then, I'm well on my way to losing another round of yarn chicken.

Living on the edge....again. 

 

it's complicated....

I've been rather lackadaisically alternating between using up stash and finishing UFOs (some buried pretty darn deeply in that deep hole of obscurity in the yarn closet!)  

After the Searsport Market bag (that didn't use as much stash as I had hoped) was finished, I dragged out this random stripe blanket (started in 2014) and added a skinny stripe.  I, then, cast on for a wider stripe, telling lying to myself that it might be the last stripe before the border. If that is the case (I know it's not, but I often believe my own lies) then I wanted the blanket to have at least another random section of lime green.  (I guess the secret is out....I love lime green almost as much as I love grey. Together, they send me to the moon and back! This blanket NEEDED that green.)  

Problem....the leftover lime green is currently playing with the yarn for the scrappy socks (the pixelated ones, begun a mere 6 months ago---so current that I didn't even need to do a deep dive to find them)....

 So, in order to make the next stripe for the blanket, I must finish these socks.

Boo.  Hiss.

how many road trips does it take to knit a shawl?

How many road trips does it take to knit a shawl?

I really wish I had been counting.  This poor thing was started in March 2014....so I know it had a couple jaunts before it got dragged out again.  Since it's reappearance in the 'let's-finish-a-few-UFOs' marathon, it's been on three trips to St. Louis, one to Franklin, TN, and one to Oxford, MS.  It has attended a Cardninals baseball game in person, and has sat through nearly a dozen televised games.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And here my internet stopped working.  

Luckily, the knitting continued, and this poor thing was finished last week.

and was unceremoniously thrown on the to-block pile, where it will likely reside---indefinitely.

I've been trying to mix up finishing started, unloved, semi-forgotten projects with using up old stashed yarn.  This time, I grabbed a couple orphan balls of Rowan 4-ply for a baby sweater...

for another road trip....this time a real quick 36 hour jaunt (10 hours of which were in the car!!!) for our granddaughter's first communion.

(here she is...pre-first-communion-attire!)

It became pretty clear that the two balls probably will not be enough and I've played yarn-chicken enough lately.  I have both sleeves going at the same time now, with the contrast swans island owl-white for the cuffs, and the front trim when I run out.   Maybe with a couple white buttons, it will look like this was all planned.  Remember:  One 'oops' is a mistake.  Two 'oops' make a BIGGER mistake.  But three 'oops' magically become a design element.  Hoping here for a designer-baby-kimono!

So, without further ado...and my internet connection having another hiccup...I'm hitting 'publish'!   Have a great week!

 

Contrary to popular belief....there is still fiber in my diet.  Just not quite as much...and definitely not as exciting...as in the past.

On the needles....another Citron shawl for the shawl-ministry pile (the 'pile' of which, at the moment, is non-existent, the last one having been gifted last week).  This is probably my favorite mindless shawl to knit for the simple reason that it can end up any size.  I've knit them with 10-section repeats, 7,6 and 9 section repeats.  This one is ending after 8---which is exactly 10 ruffle rows from being completed---unless I run out of yarn sooner, which will simply make that ruffled edge a tiny bit shorter.  Somehow on it's journey to completion, the stitch count got off by a couple of stitches, but on this pattern it doesn't matter a lick.  The rows get pretty long here at the finish line; I was sure there were at least 3000 stitches on the needles, but a quick count showed me there were a mere 832.  I've got a good book, so who cares?

As I was diving in the stash to find a hank of lace weight for the Citron, I came across this...

 ?????  Pretty pattern.  It's a very small (although I vaguely remember this being for me...) cropped (really short) back and one front.....and a very, very small amount of yarn.  No pattern.  No needles.  AND NO MORE YARN???!

It now looks like this...

I wish I could 'tick' a project off Ravelry, but this one never even made it onto the WIPs list.  Baby blue?  For me?  What was I thinking?  Now, I'm thinking baby boy sweater or a multitude of baby boy hats which it should have been in the first place. 

So, if knitting hasn't been consuming my hours....what has?

I'm in the middle of my second on-line course, taking a class at the local art school, spending a teenager's amount of time on Instagram and Pinterest (so much that just about all that pops up now is photography related posts and pins...I sort of miss all my fiber inspiration) and quickly realizing that my learning curve is really really steep.  

And I have the patience of a gnat.

Not a good combination.

blame it on insomnia...

It's 2 am and I can't sleep.  And I don't have any knitting that is screaming to be finished. I don't have any knitting that simply wants to be knit.  And the book that I've been half-heartedly reading stinks.

Thank goodness for the internet....and all those blog posts that I've missed lately.  I got caught up....re-inspired...and cast on a shawl.

In linen stitch.  (see previous post)

Blame it on the hour.

yarnalonging....

Five weeks in to 2017 and I haven't made a single yarn purchase yet. (this might be a record.)  Needles, yes. (not my fault---blame security in El Salvador)  Yarn, no. 

This full version Hansel used some Knit Picks Bare from a purchase last year when I thought I was ready to dive into natural dyeing and didn't, some sock yarn I bought on our holiday trip to Germany (still enough left for socks! I hope---see below) and some Jamieson Spindrift from a 2005 trip to Shetland.  Thank goodness yarn doesn't get stale.  True to form, none of this yarn was used for it's purchased purpose. (can you tell I'm feeling rather smug using all this stash for what turned out to be a rather substantial shawl!!!)

On the needles now, a Kristen Kapur mystery sock (ssssh.  it's a mystery, you can't see it; you wouldn't want to see it anyway.  We're on clue 2; I'm still on clue 1) and the hap for Harriet shawl that lost its needles on the trip.  I've just about reached the mid-point....and if I was excited about any other project, this would most likely head to time-out.  (Maybe I would love it more if it was grey.)

Reading.....  Books for Living.  From last week.  Still liking it.

!LOVING! the cup (and tea) I won a while ago in a drawing at Mysistersknitter.  Andi had to send it twice....first time, it decided to return itself to her.  Really happy it decided living here was going to be OK.

 

joining Ginny for yarnalong!

FO number 2....2017

Good thing this pattern really IS Pure & Simple and it's a good thing that I've knit it so many times that I only need to refer to it for a couple of key numbers....

because Freddy apparently loves it as much as hubby does.

He has it in yellow, forest green, heathered green, beige, red striped, two shades of blue, and now grey.  The first grey one hit the trash eons ago....threadbare.  It took me through 250 pages of Hamilton, 10 hours in the car, and the Force Awakens.  I guess that means I could get at least another one knit before Hamilton ends.....but, guess what?  Not going to happen. Time to move on. (and anyway....what colour would I knit??!?)

When I cleaned out and reorganized all my assorted knits (and they were E-V-e-R-Y-w-H-e-R-e!!)...I found  only one Citron shawl left (??how did that happen??);  I just gifted it to a friend who's facing some challenging health issues.  So...

 Citron shawl it is....using some Silky Alpaca Lace from deep in the stash.  I bought it a new bag.  

 

yarnalonging....2017

Winding what I think will be the last skeins needed to finish this sweater....a generic top-down sweater pattern that hubby LOVES!  I've lost count how many times I've knit this, but I totally 'get it'.  When I find that perfect something, I want it in every colour, too.  Lucky for me, I get to start the new year off right with a lovely shade of....grey ('sweatshirt' in BT Shelter)!  I'm definitely in my happy zone.  The body is done, one sleeve is well on its way, so this should be a done-deal real soon.  And here it is....day 4 of the New Year, and I have yet to cast on some impulse knit (although there are several waiting in the wings for when the will-power falters.)  

The sweater actually could have been off the needles if not for the annual 'I've-got-to-get-organized' frenzy I've been on.  The refrigerator is cleaned...the freezer declared a disaster area and left alone (for now); houseplants have been purged from my life, combined and repotted or just repotted (I know it's the wrong time of year to do this, but the temps have been in the 50+ and the plants are as confused as we all are); furniture rearranged....rooms re-accessorized; and kitchen drawers and cabinets given a major Marie-Kondo once over. Today, I'm tackling the knits....getting shawls, mitts, scarves, cowls, sweaters all together in like piles----the socks, bless them, seem to stay together.  I've been putting this off.  They are stashed E-V-E-r-Y-W-h-E-R-e....but, in my defense, I believe they've been reproducing on their own.  Freddy may have helped relocate a few.

If you noticed....there is no book in the photo today.  That's because I'm reading Hamilton, and you will be seeing it a whole lot before I'm finished with it.  It seems I've been on a revolutionary war era kick lately....finished Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, and waiting in the wings is Washington's Spies, the story of America's first Spy Ring, and Gore Vidal's Burr.  I started reading Hamilton because we'll be going to see the play later this year.  In doing my 'homework'....I've found myself totally immersed in the story. If 800+ pages doesn't turn you off...I highly recommend this one. 

What IS in the above photo is my treasured antique swift with its carved bird decoration and painted grip...

bought in New England years ago. I thought it too delicate to actually USE, but after retying the slats, and finding a short wooden needle to replace the peg, it's been a true workhorse all these years for me; I just wish it would tell me stories about all the yarn it wound before coming into my life.