Knitting

Both Hats are Done

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These hats are now washed and blocked and ready to give as a gift.  They are soft and squishy, however, because this yarn (see 2 blogs down), even tho it is 100% acrylic,  will require a little bit of special care.  It can be washed in the washing machine on gentle and cold water but, it can’t go in the dryer, it must be laid flat to dry, and they took a full day and night to dry (maybe because of the weather or because they are so thick), would be less time I’m sure if you put a fan on it during the day.  That might be a problem for people who aren’t familiar with knitwear care.  So I will reserve this yarn for family and friends who are knit worthy :P.  The friend, who these were made for, is knit worthy, but because she is a busy nurse I hope this won’t be a pain for her.  Her babies will be warm tho :).

Now to work on a hat for my daughter out of some hand spun alpaca.

Baby 2X2 Hats

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I have a friend who had a baby girl about 2 months ago so I decided now that my hand was better to make her a simple baby hat (my hand still tires easily and gets nerve pain when I over do, but it’s slowly getting better.) I certainly can’t leave her 3 year old brother without a hat, so after finishing the 2X2 rib hat from 5 Easy Pieces – Knit Newborn Hats (Circular), (free pattern on Ravelry) for her daughter, I started one for her son.  I choose the 2X2 rib because it’s, easy (to knit and on my hand) and soft and squishy.  I used a size 6 for the newborn size (the pattern called for a size 7, I knit loosely so I  usually go down a needle size to get gauge)  and used the size 7 for the 3 year old’s hat and added 12 stitches.  I will also add length so it will cover his ears :).  **There use to be a way to magnify the pictures on Word Press but I can’t find it anymore, so even tho you can’t see the yarn very well, it’s Yarn Bee (from Hobby Lobby) Soft and Sleek, the pink is pink stripe and the blue is Denim Blues.  It is very soft stuff and knits nicely.  I believe Hobby Lobby is having a yarn sale in the store this week (Monday Dec 24th – Saturday Dec 29 2018) for 30% off.  Incentive to buy some more :P.

I am still working on the spinning.  I finished that rolag and weighed the bobbins with the singles and first one is a little heavier so I decided to get another of the rolags to spin (that will leave 3 left) and put 2/3 of the rolag on the lighter bobbin and the rest on the other bobbin, hopefully that will balance it out.  We will see.

Tomorrow will be baking day, rolls for Christmas dinner on Tuesday :).

**Update:  I discovered that if you choose the pictures side by side choice that you can click on them on the blog and they will enlarge in a separate window, however if you chose the single pictures they will not.  So there you go.

Sudden Loss

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Scarfalong  This is my progress on the Scarf Along I was doing with my friend Kari.

I got a call from another friend of ours today to tell me  Kari was killed in a one car accident yesterday evening.  My heart hurts over her loss.  She was my Harry Potter marathon buddy when I lived in TN.  We would have a Harry Potter marathon every 3 months or so, popcorn, soft drinks and knitting.  We went to church together (where I met her) and I enjoyed her “lets go do something” attitude.  She will be very missed.  I will finish my scarf in her memory.

One More Contraption to Wear on the Road to Recovery.

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splint/brace Well, had my hand Dr appt. today and the cast is off!  I will now be wearing this for at least the next 4 weeks.  Plus starting Thursday I will be having physical therapy appts, where I will find out what my new physical therapist determines will be the duration of my torture, I mean therapy sessions.  The dr was nice enough to prescribe me pain meds for the upcoming therapy sessions after he bent my little finger to see it’s flexibility after being in the cast for 6 weeks and my eyes almost bugged out of my head, and I said I don’t think I want physical therapy.  He then informed me that if I didn’t I would lose a lot of mobility in my fingers, and to be honest at that point I would have been fine with that :P.   Can you tell I am not looking forward to these?  I’m accepting volunteers to take my place for those :P.

I was hoping I would be knitting again, however I did not anticipate having a splint/brace on for at least another month, sigh.  Maybe time to see if I can figure out the throwing knitting style or a variation there of (I normally knit the combined continental knitting style, also referred to as picking, so I use my left hand for my knitting tension like a crocheter does and my right hand does the actual knitting.)  Time to get serious to see if I can spin with my left hand in this contraption.  At least, I can take it off to wash my hair :), and for those dang physical therapy sessions and whatever home exercises they make me do.  Otherwise it is to be in this thing, tho honestly, my hand is grateful for the support the splint/brace gives.  Aspirin at this point is my friend :).

 

Just one more set, honest :P   I couldn’t resist this one more stitch marker set from Adore Knits , it was on sale and so darn cute! These are tiny for sock knitting, which works well for me because I have to use size 0 to get gauge for my socks.

There Be Socks!!

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Hermiones Everyday Socks finished

Finally done, I have a finished pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks!!  The family member I knit these for will be very happy indeed.  These would have been done much faster if my knitting mojo wasn’t so hit and miss lately.

The yarn Dreams in Fiber I used was actually dyed by the same person who wrote the pattern for this sock, and the match up wasn’t on purpose, so as Dumbledore would say it was “by some happy circumstance” :).  The yarn was wonderful to work with and I love the pattern :).  Thanks Erica :).

Beautiful Roving!!

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I belong to a Ravelry group called The Fiber Pusher Podcast .  She is very knowledgeable with natural dyes, fibers, weaving and knitting.  On her group she is having a spinning year and when we post pictures of how our spinning is coming along or just general comments in that thread we become eligible for a give away every month.   April’s prize winner never got in contact with her so she redrew a week ago and I won the new drawing!  It is two 4oz braids of 80% Targee wool/ 10% Viscose Bamboo/ 10% Tussah Silk (there are two pictures of it because it was to long to get in one picture :P.)  It is from BaH Yarns and is so pretty and very soft.  I have not spun Targee wool before so this will be a fun spin as I watch the colors unfold in the yarn I make.  She also has a sheep breed study she is doing and she had some Navajo Churro fiber that she gave away 1 oz to the first 16 people who voiced that they would like to spin some.  That is the little packet of white fluff you see in the picture.  It’s not a soft fiber but will be an interesting spin to know what the different breeds are like to spin and what they are best used for. 🙂

You meet so many wonderful people online.  If you are a knitter, spinner weaver or crocheter please check out Ravelry if you aren’t on there already, there are so many wonderful patterns and podcasts.  It’s a great place to see what others are knitting, crocheting or spinning.  And definitely check out the Fiber Pusher Podcast, she even has a wonderful free ezine (email newsletter/magazine) she does once a month you can sign up for in her group, sooooo much information!!

I am working on the 2nd sock just not fast enough lol.  Hopefully I will post a picture soon :).

HFO! I know it’s about Time

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Hermionies Everyday Socks hfo

I finally have one sock done!  It is not blocked yet, tho the ends are woven in, I just put it on the blocker so you could see it better.  For my non knitting friends, a hfo (some knitters call them a ho, but, lol I don’t like that term)  is a Half Finished Object.  One more sock and I’ll have a pair done, which is a FO  (finished object) ;).  Hopefully this 2nd one won’t take as long :P.  This is a fun design that is easy to memorize.  It seems harder to see on darker yarns tho.

We have another few days this coming week of 90’s weather and some storms at the end of the week.  I try not to complain too much because before you know it, it will be winter again.  School starts the end of next month, so it will be upon us before you know it.  The hot weather may not be much fun, but at least there is air conditioning and you aren’t driving in bitter cold with ice and snow.

Happy Father’s Day Dad! & Lace Bookmarks

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My Dad Happy Father’s Day DAD!!!

 

I know, I have been AWOL, kinda sorta, but it’s not unusual for me to not post more than one to 2 times a month.  Nothing major going on in my life at the moment and not a ton of knitting (but there is a little bit :P), so there is not much to post about.  In my Church we have what we use to call Visiting Teaching (the women of the Church that we refer to as Sisters, as we visit with Sisters we have been assigned (usually 3 to 4 Sisters per Visiting Teaching companionship (two of us) to help and check on to make sure they are not in need of help every month and depending on the Sister we give a little spiritual thought) and Home Teachers are the Brothers of the Church and they do the same thing for the brothers and their families.  It’s our way of taking care of each other.  The name we call this program has recently changed to Ministering, and I’m trying to get use to using it instead of Visiting Teaching but I’ve been a member of my Church for a long time and changing the name of things is hard to remember :P.  This month my companion and I chose to talk about the scriptures and as a little gift to help them remember I found this wonderful pattern for Bookmark Trio , (it is a free download on Ravelry) and decided to make a bookmark for each of my 3 sisters and my Visiting Teaching companion. :).  I chose the lace bookmark and used scraps of sock yarn.  It calls for 25 yds of yarn (I weighed out the finished book mark because I put a tassel on it, and it was about 1/8 of an oz.).  I made each one out of a different left over sock yarn scrap, I still have one more to make but so far they have been well received :).  I found the lace bookmark well written, easy and enjoyable.  I haven’t tried the other two yet.

I need to finish the socks that I have been working on forever, and I am starting to get my knitting mojo back so hopefully I will get busy on those soon, it’s not like I have a ton left to knit on them :P.  My dad is waiting for his pair of socks (that was for his Father’s Day gift, I know I’m slow at everything, so I need to finish these so I can knit his :P.)

We are having quite a heat wave here in the eastern middle part of IA.  It is 93 with a humidity heat index of about 100 to 105.  This is about the time I wish we had a little left over snow from the winter :P.

Hermione’s Everyday Socks have Heels!!

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Hermione's Everyday Socks have Heels

I did finally get the heels in this pair of socks.  I will just stick to the heel I was taught until I feel that I have mastered it and can move on to different sock heels :P.   Now it’s just the feet and toes which will hopefully not take as long as the heels.

I have been lazy in finishing the heels, no not really lazy, unmotivated is more like it.  I lost a child right after Mother’s Day almost 8 years ago, and this time of year leaves me lacking the desire to do things.  I know he’s with our Heavenly Father, I just miss him. It just hits harder at this time of year, maybe because it’s so close to the anniversary of his death and the combination of it being so close to Mother’s Day.  I try to keep everything tucked in so it’s not apparent to others that my emotions are trying to leak out as tears.  Some people tend to think, because it’s been more than a year,  you don’t grieve anymore (sure we do) or that you can just pick yourself up and get back into your old life.  Well life is never quite the same after a death, it changes everything in your life, it turns everything upside down and it will never really be back to normal again, like that picture on the wall that never sits quite straight again after it falls.  Oh it does eventually get easier to handle during other times of the year as the years pass, but there are still those very tender times during the year that are hard for others to understand because you tend to isolate yourself so others won’t see your pain.  Times when you miss his phone calls, or miss laughing at something silly he said or did.  I know I will see him again when my time comes to return to our Father in Heaven, but until then, I just miss him.

Oh My Gosh More Snow! – Sock Update

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More Snow 4-8-18

Well we got about 1 to 1 1/2 inches of snow last week end, Sunday April 8th, evening and over night.  Close to the same is suppose to hit us tonight into tomorrow.  Sigh, we hit almost 70 this past Thursday and now we are in the lower 40’s today, cold relative to Thursday’s temps.  Tho’, in all honesty it’s not really considered cold in IA :P.  The picture was taken during the early part of the storm and it melted off by mid Monday afternoon.

 

Knit Picks Hawthorne Fingering

First, I’m sad to say I did have to frog the heel in the Hermione’s Every Day socks, sigh.  I will just go back to the heel I’m use to, the one this pattern called for made no sense to me, but I’m not an experienced sock knitter, yet :P.

This picture is of a sale yarn I ordered from Knit Picks, it is their Hawthorne Fingering Klamath Falls Tonal Hand Paint colorway (I like when sock yarn is on sale so I can afford a skein of sock yarn for special things.)  I wish my camera would get a realistic picture of yarn colors, but it doesn’t.  It is a dark blue but it has some brighter highlights that just aren’t showing up.  Because it is 100 grams but only 357 yards instead of 400, it’s a little heavier, and that makes me I wonder if I should go down a needle size and if I will have to play yarn chicken with the socks :(.  I bought this so that when I am finally finished with the socks on my needles now, I can start these for my dad for Father’s Day.

Hope you are all having a great week end.  I’m watching a Star Wars marathon on TNT. 🙂