Just in time for Christmas

The Smittens are finally finished.  After a shockingly long time in the queue, they are finally on the way to their intended recipients.  I hope my brother and his fiancée enjoy them.  I originally had the idea of adding two ear warmers to the gift.  One ear warmer is done, but my sweetie chided me that men don't wear ear warmers.  He tried on one of mine, and I have to admit it made his hair look ridiculous.  The way it popped up on the top beyond the coverage of the ear warmer made him look like Bart Simpson. So I changed my plans to a coordinating hat for my bother.  But as you can see, it is still in the contemplation stage.  I have yarn, pattern, and needles, but I have not yet worked a single stitch.      

But, it takes some time to get Christmas gifts to Poland, so the mittens are on their way, and we will see if I can finish the hat anytime soon.  

Today, it is all about the Christmas deadlines.   

From the Bottom of the Knitting Queue

I have really been focused lately on finishing the long-forgotten works in progress that have been languishing in the bottom of the knitting bag for way too long.  The hunting mitts was one.  This mess is another.  

A long time ago, my baby brother asked me to make a mitten for two people to wear when they are holding hands.  I did some wandering on Ravelry, and behold!  The Smitten.   Then he mentioned two mittens for the non-holding hand.  Then he realized that there should be a set of mittens for each person for normal wear, with a companion Smitten.  When I bought the yarn, there was a cute speckled version in blue/gray and pink/gray skeins, and I got the idea of making an ear warmer for each to match.  So one two-person mitten turned into four regular mittens, one oversized mitten and two ear warmers.  

So I dug everything out of the bag recently, to see where I was.  Two pairs of mittens done (except for the ends and a couple thumbs), and the smitten designed and started.  

I would really like to be able to have all of this to my brother and his darling fiancée by Christmas.   THIS Christmas.  

Today, it is all about getting ready for the Season.         

Done and done

I have been on a finishing kick lately. I finished my recent shawl, and I finished the hunting mittens that have been in progress forever. This is actually the second attempt at this mittens. These were supposed to have a flap that folds over the fingers. That is where I was having the issues. The first time, the flaps were opposite each other. One showed the purl side and one knit. The second time I was trying to figure out another way to do it, when my sweetie decided he just wanted them to be fingerless, like I have done with all the teachers. Really? Just plain fingerless mittes? I can do that. I can have it finished in a couple days. And lo and behold, finished. Whew! It feels so good to scratch off another long in progress knitted item. Today, it is all about the dones.

Pulling the plug

I have reached a point where I had to make a decision: I am supposed to end on a garter area of the pattern. So at what point to a switch to garter whereever I am in the pattern. I think I have reached that point. I am supposed to do twelve rows of the lace pattern, then twelve rows of garter. But I only have a teeny tiny ball of yarn left (pretty nice dark, burgandy yarn. No more beige!) and I don't think I can stretch it that far. Then I remembered that I have a measuring tool. A little gadget where you run the yarn through it, and it measusre for you. It came in a package with my swift and scale, and I think this is the first time I have actually used it. I know I was imperfectly measuring, but it was still only 38 feet left. Definitely time to switch. I have been showing an uncharacteristic monogomy towards this project, and I may actually finish within a day or two. Today, it is all about the final stretch.

A world of beige

 My boring trial inspired burst of inspiration has led to my first cast on.  

I am loving the pattern, and the yarn, except for one thing. There is a lot of beige.  I hate beige.  Beige is not a color.  It is the absence of all color.  I see the pretty pink and burgandy, and I know  that those pretty colors are coming.  For now, however, there is row and after, repeat after repeat, endless stitches of . . . .  beige.  

Meanwhile, I have found something even more dangerous that matching patterns and stashed yarns to keep me amused in court: searching stash for sale. Especially when one person has a bunch for sale, with discounts and free shipping if you buy enough.  This could get dangerous.  Especially when I am staring at a whole bunch of beige.  My immunity is compromised to pretty new colors.  

Today it is all about the need for colors. 

Court time

Sometimes I am just stranded in court with nothing to do or think about.  Something like a  Termination of Parental Rights trial, when my client is incarcerated, in the wind or completely disinterested.  I still have to stay in the trial, because there are other parents in these cases that may have a different participation in the trial/case, but if my client is in prison for a couple years, there really anything that I can do on their behalf. 

That is my day today.  My client is incarcerated until 2022, so it isn't like he can step up and get custody of his child.    So here I sit, at my laptop, listening to witness after witness none of which pertain to my client. 

I can't knit.  That would look bad.  It would help keep me awake and would not interfere with my ability to listen to the witnesses, but optics matter.  So instead I have been looking at a half dozen yarns from my stash, and looking to through Ravelry to see possible patterns that fit the yarn.  I discovered a new feature about searching patterns.  I can actually just search the patterns in my favorites.  I loved being able to narrow the search to those hundred or so patterns that I have already flagged that I liked. 

I now I have my next four or five projects tentatively picked out.  That may or may not be a good thing. 

Today, it is all about the future cast ons.   

Permission to Frog

Knitters are funny.  We keep working on something, long after it has told us that it isn't working.  We plug away on a sweater for an adult that would be tight on a toddler.  We slog forward on socks that are big enough to suit an elephant.  Hideous color combinations, combative yarn/pattern combinations, knitters will ignore the obvious forever.  We hate the idea of unraveling stitches that we worked so hard to ravel, we continue onward, knowing in the deepest corner of our heart that it isn't working.

Since the move, I have been unpacking and viewing parts of my stash and WIP's that haven't seen daylight in some time.  I have given myself permission to frog at will.  If I don't like the yarn anymore, frog it.  If I don't like the pattern anymore, frog it.  If I am just bored with it, frog it.

Today, in a corner of my office, I found a half-finished child sock for charity.  I tried working on it a little today, but I was hating the colors of the yarn, the feel of the yarn, the tininess of the needles.  I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with the socks after I finished them.  The yarn store that used to accept charity woolies to ship to an orphanage in Russia has now closed.  After two rows, I decided to frog.

What freedom!  I still don't know what to do with that ugly yarn.  I may stick it in the garage sale stack, or just throw it into my "charity stash" and think of something else to make with it.  For now, it is one less work in progress.

I found three others partially finished projects stuck in that same corner, but I still like them.

Today, it is all about letting go.      

Too much free time?

And just like that, two months pass by without blogging.  It would seem like staying home for a couple months would mean I would have plenty of spare time.  It. Does. Not.  Working from home, while trying to help two kids navigate e-learning is more complicated than it sounds.  And my sweetie (who worked the whole time normally, except for a short two week furlough) seems to think that working from home means I don't actually have to work and have plenty of time to clean.  Seriously?  Flexible work hours doesn't translate to not working.  Sigh.  Eye roll.

I did get quite a bit of knitting done, especially in the evenings when I would otherwise be chauffering children to Scouts, sports or other fun activities.  Two hats ready for St. Baldericks. (Assuming they have their fundraiser this fall.  I can't even predict next week.) A baby blanket half-finished.

And, for me, a shawl nearly finished. clapotis.  I started the decrease rows last night.  After that, I have to drop all those stitches.  Intentionally.  That just goes against the grain for a knitter, but that IS the design.  The silk bamboo feels dreamy, but the overall shawl is a bit heavier than I expected.  Maybe it won't feel like that when draped around my shoulders, but on my lap, it weighs pounds.

Today, it is all about the weight.

The New Normal

This past Monday was Knittervention, but, of course, we couldn't actually meet.  The private room wasn't big enough for all of us to sit 6 feet apart, we might accidently have more than 10 people, and (the deciding factor) our pub, 9 Irish Brothers, was closed.  

But you can't keep a group of knitting aficionados down.  We met for community knitting through video conference.  It was a little weird.  We sometimes would talk at the same time.  Long silences were more awkward.  (Why does it always seem like we are counting all the same time?)  But it was nice to talk to someone other than my husband and children.  

I watch the news, and hear the numbers, and I can't help but wonder what I can do to help.  I mean, I don't work in the medical field, and I am still working my normal full time job, caring for my children at home, and dealing with a seemingly perpetually grumpy husband (at least these days), but I still want to do something.  

So I started knitting hats for St. Baldricks.  I didn't get any  done last year.  For that matter, the baby blanket that I did make, I never turned in, so I still have it.   

In moving and unpacking, I found yarn that I didn't remember that I even had.  Some of it is quite nice, so I have decided to use it for charity hats.  I think this ball is enough for two hats, and there are more in the queue.  

Today, is all about wanting to make a difference.  

The Training Has Paid Off

In the course of a week, life as we know it has changed.  Schools are conducting e-learning.  Restaurants and bars have closed.  People are snuggled at home for the immediate future.  My social butterfly friends have been lamenting how they can't go out and have fun.  Me?  I am a knitter.  I have been training for this for decades.  I have years worth of yarn.  Give me my DVD's and internet connection, and I could quarantine for years.

Since the kids are home with me too, I should probably include wine.

In the coming weeks, I should have some great knitting works in progress to show off.

Today it is all about being a new kind of prepper.  

Battle of the Socks

The old sock is  a LITTLE fiddly.  About two rows out of the twelve row pattern.  Not too bad, but enough that it is not really good for briefcase knitting.

So I started a new sock.  Easy, simple, something I can pick up and put down easily.

I hadn't knit, or worn, hand knit socks in a long time.  It may sound stupid, but I didn't have shoes to wear them with.  I had a great pair when I was pregnant, but they eventually wore out, and I never really replaced them.  Then I saw something similar, but pricey, so I put it on my Christmas wish list, and my husband is generally smart enough to buy from the list.

With all the cold weather the past couple months, I was so grateful for the cozy wool socks.  Why did I ever stop wearing them?  I have five pairs of handknit socks, and now I want more.  Hence the two socks in progress.  

Today, it is all about knits for the feet in the winter.  

Third Time Charmed

My third attempt at the Cozy Cowl was indeed the last.  Success!  Hurray for math!  (Shhh, don't tell sister Anna Maria, my freshman algebra teacher.  I would hate to think that she was right about something.)  I am now the proud displayer of a soft and woolie cowl, guaranteed to keep my head warm in the bitterest of Indiana winters.

I was uncharacteristically monogamous to the cowl.  Maybe it was the Indiana that seems to get colder and longer every year.  Maybe it is just where my mind is these days.  So many things going on, so little space in the RAM of my brain to allocate between them.  Knitting seems to get the brain power that is leftover after everything else in my life, limiting the level of difficulty these days.

We are still moving the last of the random things in my mom's basement.  Some  most of the last random items have literally been in her basement for years.  I am finding yarn and projects that I forgot I had.  Some have been the source of new inspiration, some have been more along the  "what was I thinking?" lines.

I am trying to approach the large, neglected stack of WIP's in a positive manner.  I don't want to beat myself up about a single sock that I have been working on for years.  I have decided to take them one at a time.  Pick up and evaluate it.  Do I still like the yarn?  Do I still like the pattern?  Are the yarn and pattern working?  If not, I have given myself permission to frog without guilt.  Give away the yarn, if I don't like it.  Put it back in the stash if I do.

I started with a single pre-heel sock.  I had remembered the pattern as being too fiddly, and opened the bag with trepidation.  To my surprise, I was able to immediately figure out where I was in the pattern repeat, and I did still like the pattern.  I will see if the other rows are too fiddly, but in the meantime, it is in my briefcase for before-court knitting.  One neglected WIP back in progress, way too many more to go.

And, I started something new.

Today, it is all about the new and the old.  

Called It

I did run out of yarn before it was wide enough to fit around my head.  It was looking close, and I really waited until the last row, but it was definitely too narrow.

So I ripped out again, and recalculated the new width, to have the proper length.  Thank God my six grader was there, because rather than just continuing to do trial and error, he suggested the formula.  Since I had the total area that the yarn would create in that needle size, all I had to do was find the new width and length that would equal the same area.  Brilliant!!

So, I am still working on the same cowl, for the third (and hopefully, final) time.

Today, it is a question of whether I am smarter than a sixth grader.

I May Have Adult Onset Knitting ADD

I have had a lot of things going on in my life, and I think that it has pushed me into Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder, at least as far as knitting is concerned.  I have found myself gravitating towards simple knitting.  My teacher mitts, placemats, that sort of thing.  Whenever I come to a part when I actually have to think about it, I find myself sticking it down a little deeper in the knitting bag and ignoring it.

So what is a knitter to do?

Start something new, of course.  In my defense, this is some of the pretty yarn that I bought when my yarn store closed.  (Sniff, yes, I am still in mourning over it.)

I didn't even put this lone hank in the yarn cabinet.  It has spend the last few months snuggled into the knitting bag, tantalizing me.  Begging to be turned into something soft and warm.

I only have one skein, so I really have to be creative.  I found a pretty cowl that called for two strands of worsted weight.  My boucle was aran, so I paired it with an ivory DK, and I figured that about equaled out.

Of course, a wise knitter would have done a swatch, and I have proven once again that decades of knitting experience means nothing when there is a new project tempting you.

Six inches later, I finally had to admit that the fabric was too dense, and was probably not wide enough.

But, with the aforementioned decades of experience, I was smart enough to rip out and start over.  I swatched four different needle sizes, and calculated the gauge for the desired width.  Then completely restarted.

Now that I am nine inches into it again, I am starting to get a little concerned that I will not have enough yarn to get all the way around my head.  So, it is entirely possible that I will have to rip the whole thing out again, and shave a few stitches off the sides.

It is a good thing that I am a process knitter.  And hopefully soon I will be able to tackle complicated knitting again, like short rows and separating a sweater for sleeves, and things like that.

Today it is all about the knitting and the reknitting, and possibly rereknitting.