Busy (and COLD) week.

I went to Chicago for a conference, and the temperature was around 18°F one day and not quite to freezing the next, so combined with the inevitable windchill it felt like -15°F.  Unlike last year, when it was warm enough to go out without a coat, this year I decided to stay in the hotel for the duration and not look at the lights or go to the Art Institute on Thursday evening.

It was a good conference but work was crazy-busy, so staying in my room and working was the best answer in the evening.  I enjoyed seeing people in person and my parents where thrilled to receive a bit of Garrett Mix as a gift when I returned.

I took a "pocket hat" to work on, and also some yarn for a gift but struggled with the pattern, so I am going to pull it out and try something else.  When I got home I returned to the "Christmas-Channukah Advent Shawl" as I'm ten days behind and need to focus and catch up if possible.  Because it's a bit bulky and has a stitch pattern, I started another "pocket hat" to take to the opera today.

"The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson"

I call these "pocket hats" because they are small enough to carry in a pocket (or purse) when being made, and of course fit well into a pocket once finished.

Top left: shawl, almost ready for Day 6 to begin.
Bottom:  Almost-at-decreases hat.
Top right:  Newly-started hat, ribbing completed.

I finished a book and started another, but haven't made much progress.  Yesterday was my usual day at my parents', this time helping my father clean out and organize his closet.  Luckily we're mostly done in the garage as it was cold here (but quite a bit warmer than Chicago!) and we didn't want to work out there.  Then I ran errands, including picking up a load of towels at a local shop (sale, discount coupon, store credit) because a church backed out of getting items for a group of senior citizens for the holidays, and a local community group stepped in.  Within 48 hours people had pulled together a huge carload of gifts of the kinds wanted: hats and gloves and scarves, blankets and towels.

Three Red Scarves

 I finished the last of the red scarves very late last night:

This used up an entire ball of A Pound Of Love in "Cherry", plus a small ball of brighter red that I bought when it was clear that I couldn't get a full third scarf.  In the end, I had less than 3" of the Cherry as scraps!  I do have a bit more of the brighter red (it's "COLOR/COULEUR # 15705", no name) but not enough for a single additional row.  I'll use some to tie on the washing instructions and put the rest into the box of scrap yarns.

These are closeups of the stitch patterns:

Bavarian Stitch - crochet

"Hot Frosty" or broken rib (K3P1+K1) - knit

Simple 1dc1sc repeat, worked from center - crochet

I have made not enough progress on the Advent/Channukah item, because I was focused on getting these three scarves done.  But I made some progress:

I planned to use three stitch patterns but did not like the transition from #2 to #3.  So I frogged the third stripe and now I am using just two, seed stitch and single moss stitch.  I also realized that some of the minis are longer than other minis, and decided that rather than have wildly uneven stripes, I will end each one somewhere around the 2½" width.  So I will have bits of leftover yarn, which may get added later, or put into another project.

Tonight is the holiday party for one of the local fiber groups I have joined.  They are collecting the red scarves, hence my deadline of today.  We are having a potluck and I made Grinch Cookies:

Simply dye a basic cooky dough green, roll into balls, flatten
slightly, and add a red candy heart before baking.  These were
made with a gluten-free cookie recipe, but you can use any.

For the white elephant gift exchange, I made a few stitch markers and packaged them with a hank of yarn from a mystery yarn purchase.  I love the dyer but notice this has a lot of mohair, which can be an issue for me.  I have kept all the other mystery skeins!

Later:  Party was small but fun enough.  We played a game of pull a question from a bag and answer it, which generated some interesting discussions.  The person who received my gift was very happy to have it, and I scored a Bonne Maman 2024 Advent Calendar, which I am very happy to receive!  I'm not opening it yet, in part because I scored sugarplums from Andy's Orchard and am very happily eating those.

{Also:  This is my 350th post.  A piker compared to many who have posted daily for years, or decades, or even those who posted weekly from The Beginning.  But more than I expected I'd have.}

Thankfuls.

Unlike the last couple-three years, I didn't do the Thankful Thing, where every day you list something for which you are thankful.  I was traveling at the beginning of the month, and after the election things were a bit fraught, and work kept me busy, and my parents, and so on.

I was thankful on Thursday that the family got together, and the food was well-liked and met most of the dietary requirements (probably a little too carbs-heavy), and we were able to visit.

Yesterday my dad and I did what I think is the penultimate day of garage boxes, although there are a few along the sink wall in the back, but they are out of the way and don't count for this part of the exercise.  Besides, many of them hold records, not books, and that's a different adventure of sorting.  I was able to get the car packed in time for Mom to make one delivery to the Friends of the Library, and four more boxes await delivery on Tuesday.

I'm almost to the end of the fourth foot of the second red scarf, and need to add the extra length to my hat, especially now that it is cold, but instead I have started a new project:

Some people on one of my lists were talking about advent projects, usually designed for a package of miniskeins of yarn and doing something every day.  Others are, for example, a stocking where you do part of the pattern every day.  One pattern that several people liked is a scarf where you pick a skein every day, knit a tube with a circular needle (so it goes fast, and I supposed you could use a loom or machine also), and when it's done you have a double-thick scarf.  I debated doing that, for simplicity.

Then I decided to have a bit of fun and make a stole-type shawl for myself.  This is just a long rectangle.  Some of the advent patterns do this with a solid between the miniskeins, and I debated trying to figure out some yarn in my stash that would be enough to carry along with the random colours.  I couldn't find anything that I liked well enough, in a thin enough yarn, with sufficient yardage.

So the current plan is to work with the yarn doubled, and every day do a half-skein, and when one runs out add the new colour.  It may or may not work - and I can always frog and try something else.

So I gathered together 33 miniskeins and balls, marking the 25 days before Christmas and the eight days of Channukah that follow this year.  Instead of working them singly, which would require a pattern (or be too boring) and not give enough interest for me, plus possibly very abrupt colour changes, I decided to work the yarns together:

Crochet cast-on, so the ends will look more similar.

Since I have two of the goldish-tannish colour, which as the top photo shows isn't solid like the others, I decided to divide the brown that was also wound into a ball in halves, and use this for the starting and ending.  Other than this, whatever colour comes next will be randomly selected.

If it doesn't look good, I will frog and may crochet instead, for speed.  We shall see!

Three films.

In the last week or so I've managed to watch three films about dementia of various types.  This wasn't planned; they just happened to be scheduled by online groups in this timeframe.

One is Still Alice, about a woman with familial early-onset Alzheimer's.  Not a story in my family, but I have a friend who has been diagnosed, as has her sister, so it's something of interest to me.  The online service had some issues but I was able to watch the film, and in joining the discussion suggested that caregivers might want to read Her Final Year, which helped me deal with decisions I had to make.

The other two films focused on performers whose work I admired and enjoyed.  SPARK is a film about Robin Williams and his battle with Lewy Body Dementia.  This is the disease that felled a woman I considered one of my godmothers.  She was diagnosed during her lifetime; he wasn't until after he died.  It was interesting to watch, and heartbreaking.

The final film focused on a performer on whom I had a crush: Gene Wilder.  Remembering Gene Wilder is a biography that gives a fond overview of his career, addresses his marriages, his relationships with co-stars and Mel Brooks, and explains how, in the end, his mind faded with Alzheimer's.

The uncle for whom I was responsible had some form of dementia in the end, so I am interested in the various forms it takes.

Things finished today:  Another book (so I am at 23 of 18 for the year) and a scarf for the Red Scarf Project.

Bavarian Stitch, based upon this pattern.

One of the local groups is collecting at their holiday party on December 9th so they can be mailed to arrive by December 15th.  I should have at least one more done by then, maybe two.  The next one is knitted and I did two inches during tonight's online group get-together.

Final Dozen.

I was going to post midweek but ended up sick on Wednesday, with a sinus headache that morphed into a migraine.  I took two naps that day, and lots of OTC medication, and kitchen medicine in the form of chicken soup, wasabi chips, and hot sauce.  

Not my bottle.

I got my head in order enough to participate in "Lady Windemere's Fan" that evening (luckily, I had a small part as a gossip at the ball, channeling my inner Anna Russell on the line 'Who is she?') and before then to drop off five hats and five scarves to the Twisted Knitter collection:

The five scarves are all my basic C2C, made from a now-discontinued red/white/blue Premier Candy Shop yarn.  I intended them for Knit Your Bit but since they are not currently collecting, this is a good substitute.

I knit or crocheted three of the hats while on my trip earlier this month.  The top left hat is based upon the Airegin Hat pattern but adjusted because the yarns I had are thinner than the pattern requires.  The yellow hat below it is the Granny Beanie, and the other yellow hat is based upon it but working the rows in the one two below, so it closes up the holes.  Because I used the majority of the multicoloured yarn on the first one, I spaced those rows out further on the second, because I have lots of the gold.

The brown hat is based on Barley Hat, out of a ball of Taos I received in a local fiber group's holiday swap.  The white-and-grey was worked from leftover acrylic yarns, Premier Sweet Roll Silver Swirl.

I didn't have this set finished in time to deliver it on Wednesday evening, because of the play, but I finished during my "offstage" time and delivered it Thursday morning, just in time for the deadline:

So that's the last dozen for this collection.  Up next are the Blue Elves and Red Scarf Project.

On Friday I finally felt better.  Yesterday I had my usual Saturday at my parents' house, helping my father to sort books (we finished a carload in time for Mom to deliver it to Friends of the Library, instead of having to wait for Tuesday), then after this week's soufflé Dad decided to clean out his bureaus and closet a bit.

This week's soufflé was especially tall.

Today I got to do chores of my own.  This evening I am watching a film about Braver Angels.  In this fraught post-election atmosphere, they are probably very much needed.

Accounting.

I finished a book and read two others on the trip.  One was a thick mystery I picked up from the ship's library and stayed up late to finish so I could leave it in place; the other was a slim mystery I took with me and read mostly on the trip home, finishing this morning.  So Goodreads tells me I have finished 22 books out of my 18-book Reading Challenge for 2024.

I did buy a little yarn on the trip:

The purple is a yak-wool blend that will make a lovely hat and mittens or gloves to go with my blue-teal coat.  I wore the coat to the shop and we tried to match but nothing was close.  A few yarns were within a shade or two, just enough that they looked odd, but the purple really glowed.  The other is an intriguing-looking yarn that I will use to make more charity hats.

I finished (except for a bit of sewing-up) four charity hats, and am mostly finished with one similar to the yellow hat, plus have started a scarf to match the wedge hat on the right:

This is after I finished a hat for myself on the flight over, and wore it often.  I need to make it a bit longer and will post a photo once that is done.

I also made a collection of gingerbread (lebkuchen) to try:

The black bag came from the Basilika St. Michael in Mondsee, Austria; they are using it to raise funds to repair the roof.  The others from a Vienna shop that also had a stall at the St. Stephen's Cathedral Christmas market, two of their several types.

Like many people, I am nervous and a bit frightened about what the results of Tuesday's election means for much of the country.

Taking care of business.

Leaving in a few hours, and my laptop was approved to travel outside our geo-blocking, so I can keep up with work.  Yes, it's a vacation, and I won't stress to participate in meetings while gone, but tracking through email and not returning to an overfull inbox and missed deadlines can be restful.

Of course I made sure to vote before I leave.

The other night I took a quick break from work and delivered nine hats plus one hat-and-scarf set, plus a scarf a friend had knitted, to the Twisted Knitter collection point at our community center:

Some of these are in acrylics, others are sock yarn leftovers, and others are hand-dyed yarn from Always Be Kind Yarn, Forbidden Fiber Co., and UP North Yarns.  While it may seem absurd to use an expensive yarn for this purpose, the dyers are paid and appreciated; I get the fun of using the yarn; and somebody gets a nice warm hat!  I tag them with washing instructions, of course.

Off to the airport in an hour, for my next adventure.  I've packed yarn for more hats and a scarf.