Christmas starts in July

 At least Christmas knitting does.  I decided to gift my children with knitted items, and possibly my Sweetie, so I have started my Christmas knitting early this year.  This is particularly challenging as I can only knit when they can't see me.  

So far, I have one pair of fingerless mitts finished for my youngest son.  I am optimistically hoping to add a hat to the mitts, but wanted to get started on others first.  

Second, in progress, is a new Hogwarts scarf.  My oldest son pointed out that the design of the scarves changed in the later movies, and now that he is in high school (?!?!) he wants the older student design. He identifies as Ravenclaw, but likes to dress up like Harry Potter.  So I asked which house he wanted, and he said "both".  Of course he did, twice the knitting.  

Then there are the annual Teacher Mitts. . . . I may not have started early enough.    

Today it is all about the early starts.     

So many ends

 My kids and my sweetie went camping last weekend.  Yes, the Boy Scouts are a hardy lot.  They camp in January in the upper Midwest.  In tents.  I am not a hardy Scout.  I stayed home.  36 glorious child-free, husband-free hours.  Just me and the doggies, snuggled warm and cozy inside.  I never even stepped outside, but I did think of my guys as I woke up to single digits outside.  

Mostly, I watched cutesy movies on the Hallmark Channel, and I finished knitting.  I had a shockingly large stack of items that I had finished knitting, but hadn't seamed or tied in all those loose ends.  One item after another.  I kept digging in the knitting bag, and I would find another unfinished item.   

The final count was two ear warmers, one baby blanket and four placemats.  

Today, it is all about the stack of completely finished objects.  

So which part do I do now?

 My last post was about missing knitted winter gear.  Over the course of the last two weeks, my sweetie and I have been cleaning out closets and rearranging things.  More him than me.  He has had the past two weeks off, along with the kids on Christmas break from school.  I, on the other had, have had to work those two weeks.  Other than the obvious, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, I worked my job,  I am self-employed, but sometimes my boss (that would be me) if very mean.  The problem comes in that if I am not working, money isn't being earned.  

Anyway, in the course of our efforts, I found a pair of fingerless mittens, and an ear warmer.  My missing winterwear.  My ears and fingers are warmer for the finds, but the knitter wants matchy sets.  The ear warmers are an adorable pink and gray, but I only had enough yarn to do the one item.  The fingerless mitts had a matching ear warmer, two actually, but they were flawed.  The first was too narrow to cover my ear effectively.  The second had a flaw: the seam in the middle of my forehead.  (I had since learned a technique to prevent.) 

   

I had started the new set with a new yarn.  I am almost finished with the new ear warmer.  So now what?  Should I make the fingerless mitts in the new yarn?  Or should I make the new and improved design in the old yarn?  I mean, I am eventually going to make both, but it was 27 degrees outside today, so the weather requires that I be as efficient as possible.  

So what do I work on next? 

The second consideration these days is the stash.  My beloved knitting group, Knittervention, is having a stash exchange tomorrow night.  Bring your unwanted yarn, and exchange with others with their unwanted yarns.  One knitter's neglected yarn is another knitter's droolworthy treasure. I have a few things in the bin.  Plus, for some reason three people have gifted with me with an elderly family member's stash.  "Here is all Grandma's old yarn, some of it is decades old, can you use it?"  So I have some of that, plus a few nicer things that we in my stash, but not as beautiful as other things in my stash.

Ironically, my sweetie and I spent Thursday cleaning out and rearranging the Foyer closet.  He put some things in the new gun safe, and a few more things in the barn.  He moved a set of shelves from a corner to closer to the door, and I used those shelves for kitchen pantry overflow.  Those items had previously been in my room.  My office/craft/workout room.  Then I spent Friday cleaning out my room.   I went through everything in that room.  I went through the yarn.  I went through the recipe books.  I separated garage sale stack with kid toys and clothes that are nice enough to go to Once Upon a Child.  I went through EVERYTHING.  There is a lot more room in that room today.  

Meanwhile, I have two bags of inherited yarn, plus one bin of my stash ready for the exchange.  I have told my sweetie that the real challenge is not to come home with more yarn that I left.  Or is it?  I have so many exquisite skeins, but you can never have too much beautiful yarn.  Am I right?

Today, it is all about the rearranging.  

The Case of the Missing Winter Knitwear

 The past few years, I have knit myself several pretty winter accessories.  Fingerless mitts and ear warmers, mostly, but some scarves and cowls too.  Some matching sets, some pretty singletons.

As the cold winds blow and temperature drops, the consolation prize is I get to wear my pretty knits.  If only I could find them.  Last spring, I packed these items in a safe place, and at present, I have no idea where.  

I checked the usual places, and found mens and boys items.  Scarves, hats and gloves abound, but not my pretty items.  

I found a random cowl, one well-stretched ear warmer , and my first fingerless mitts, but none of the recent matching gems.  I have been wearing my mismatched items out of necessity, but this cannot continue all winter.  What is the point of being a knitter, if I am not wearing pretty winter knitwear?  

Sigh.  Obviously, I need to start knitting more.  

Today, it is all about the duplication.  

Yarn self awareness

 Since I couldn't decide what to start next this past week, I concentrated on finishing.  I realized that I was only a couple inches away from finishing a complete pair of socks.  In part as a defense against the Second Sock Syndrome, and in part out of memory preservation, I had been knitting both socks at the same time.  I hadn't knit socks for a while, and found my skills as bit rusty.  So I went back and forth between both socks, in an attempt to ensure they were identical twins.  I cast on the toe, and increased to the foot, then did the same on the second sock.  I knit the foot, then did the same.  I did the heel, well, you get the point.  This is only the second time I have knit two socks at the same time.  It seems like the progress is so slow, then all of a sudden, you are only a couple inches away from a PAIR of socks.  Just in time for winter!

My guys were away camping this weekend.  I would have gone, but my mother is abroad this month, and someone had to stay home with the doggies.  (She usually dogsits for us.)  36 child-free/husband-free hours is not a bad thing.  Along with my list of cleaning chores, I wanted to break through my knitting block.  

As I was rearranging and visiting in yarn in my stash, I identified what my barrier.  I have really stepped up my yarn quality.  With my Local yarn store closing two years ago, and a dear friend hosting a de-stashing  party, and some stunning yarns that I secretly bought on Ravelry (Shhhh, don't tell my husband), I have some high quality, truly beautiful yarns.   I was so looking forward to turning some of them into beautiful knitted objects, but then I was struck with self doubt.  Would this yarn be right for this project?  The yardage be enough?  The drape/stitch definition be appropriate?   I didn't want to make a mistake, and have to risk damaging the yarn by frogging.   Quality yarn had made me gun-shy about making a mistake.  Once I realized this, it was easy to overcome.  For what is the use of having delicious yarns if they are stuck in my yarn room for all eternity?  

I did my research:  I looked at the pattern, other examples of that pattern on Ravelry, other projects with that yarn on Ravelry. . . . then I cast on.

   This is a nice start for the day.  I have a new skein of sock yarn and a pattern picked out too.  

Today, it is all about the starts. 

The opposite of startitis

 First things first, a new Finished Object to show off.  Radiating Rubies.  Started at some point in 2021, and off the blocking pads this morning.  And it is STUNNING.  

I just love the miracle of blocking

And here you see the close up of the lace pattern.  The pattern is Radiate, free on Ravelry.  The lace pattern itself is not too difficult.  The overall pattern is customizable, and I found the instructions of which chart to use when and for how many times to increase stitches as needed a bit confusing.   All in all, a rewarding knit.  

So now what to put on the needles?  One disadvantage of having my elliptical in the same room as my yarn is a find myself staring at all of my beautiful yarns, and thinking about pretty things to start next,.  Now that I have finished something an can start, I find myself facing complete indecision.  I have a number of things in my Ravelry Queue, already paired patterns and yarns from my stash.  This should be easy, but I still can't decide.  

I started one shawl, but after a few rows, I am questioning the gauge.  I worked a little on a WIP that has been long neglected, but I am also questioning the gauge.  Also, both are not intricate lace projects.  I just finished a more complex pattern, so I can start another complex difficult pattern.  I am not usually so indecisive about my knitting.  

Today, it is all about  the indecisiveness.  

Yarn Chicken

 

I am nearing the end of Radient Rubies, I did something smart.  I started weighing my yarn.  Each row, I checked how many grams I was using per row, how many grams I had left, and how many grams I should save for the edging.  

Within only a few rows, I realized that the repeat in progress would absolutely be the last repeat.  I checked my yarn after every row.  

15 grams.  Two more rows.  13 grams.   Last three rows of the repeat.  10 grams.  Six rows of border.  3 grams.  

I feel pretty confident going into the cast off, but it is a new bind off for me, so I can't be certain enough of the yarn usage to relax.  

It is a Suprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  That sounds like something that might use more yarnage than your average row.  

The bind off is as stretchy as advertised, which is absolutely required to form the little points at the tips.  But it requires a backward Yarn Over.  That sounds simple enough, doesn't it?  Just do a yarn over in the opposite direction than you normally would.  Except my brain no longer thinks to do a Yarn Over.  My fingers do it using muscle memory.  And my head can't wrap around which direction I am supposed to be overing the yarn.  I literally have to start a knit stich, take note of the direction, undo the almost knit stitch, do the Yarn Over in the opposite direction, then complete the rest of the steps.  EVERY BLOODY TIME.  I can't even retain the information for more than one stitch.  

When I think about it, I simply cannot remember which way the Yarn Over is supposed to go.  It has been hundreds of stitches bound, and I cannot for the life of me remember the opposite direction.  It is excruciating!  I have spent hours binding off, and I am still only halfway!

Today it is all about the muscle memory vs the brain memory.