Coast-to-Coast.

Right after Carolina Fiber Fest (as in, that night) I went to the North Carolina Opera Gala (I won only two things in the silent auction, a basket of lots of yummy things from a local cooking shop that my niece and I divided, and several gift cards to a local restaurant; I gave one to her) and the next morning headed to Los Angeles to attend and present at a conference about "Cybersecurity+AI".  My panel talked about trade secrets and AI.  Then I took a red-eye home, managed well enough through that day, but went to bed early.

I mostly worked on small items during my travels, finishing three hats and a Warm Up, America! blanket piece:

I need to add braided tassels to the two red hats.

Coming home, I decided to do some finish-up work on the community pieces from CFF (still in progress) and made another blanket piece from some leftover self-striping yarn.  I also started another mindless knitting scarf, and might have enough yarn for two:

Then I heard about Soap S.A.C.K. and decided to use the cotton yarn leftovers a friend keeps giving me to make a bunch of those.   I finished two today; photo taken before sewing:

I have a dozen bars of Pears soap purchased because I wanted to try it, but this may be a better use, especially since I have a lot of soaps from indie soap makers.

How did I do?

It's Carolina Fiber Fest this weekend, and I ended up with ten items to enter in the competitions, although I forgot to take a photo of the final one, which is one of the knit-along cowls:

Categories AK7 and AK8, respectively.
Knit from a pattern and design my own pattern.

Category AK6 - Knit from handspun yarn.  This is the back.

Category AC10 - Crocheted from handspun yarn.  I clipped
the leftover bit before entering, of course!

Another Category AK7 - The Giverny Shawl of Junction Fiber
Mills' colourway for 2025 Maryland Sheep & Wool

Hat is Category 12, because I designed the pattern, and the
scarf (which is upside down, oops!) is Category AC13, the
annual crochet-along.

:

Two baby blankets in categories AC11 and AK8 respectively.

And these are the results; I have not read the comments cards:

The other items did not win ribbons.  I am well enough pleased with what I accomplished and actually thought I'd get a couple thirds instead of seconds.  I'm not completely surprised that the baby blankets didn't do better.

I was doing VERY well not buying yarn, although I bought some "box bags", and several flavours of tea, and picked up a few books and a box of oddments in the used equipment sale.  I felt very good that I managed to not buy another spinning wheel.  As I was able to get a couple of breaks, I saw many pretty yarns, but avoided buying - until right at the end, just before closing, when I spotted this at a favourite vendor who was right behind our setup:

  

Luckily they had only one left.  I see hat and mitts in my future!

It's Back.

To my surprise and disappointment, the box of hats returned today:

Slightly worse for wear and no explanation.  Now I have to figure out where else can use 100+ hats - because of course I've made a few more.

Almost three feet a day.

After finishing the scarf I took with me on the trip last week, I pulled out a skein from a stash I have there (purchases when the local Joann stores closed) and started a scarf.  This is what I knit in about a day - it's slightly past because I continued on Monday before I left, but I marked where I stopped on Sunday night and this is what I knit in a day:

   

Of course, I was doing a lot of sitting and knitting as we went to a play and then out to supper, and I wasn't driving, plus it is the very basic garter stitch on only 24 stitches on US#8 needles.

After returning home I finished the hat I'd left behind, which is the 100th hat for the community center afterschool collection.

Hat #100 is on the right; on the left is the next hat, which
starts the collection for next year.  There is a lot of the
colourway of Hat 100, apparently they are show leftovers.

I'll get them washed and tagged and ship the box right after Christmas, because there is no reason for them to go into the holiday craziness.

Continuing the theme.

Hats, and I am getting rather tired of them.   I made or finished nine this week, partly because I finished two class ones, and partly because I crocheted a few, which goes faster with worsted weight (#4) yarn and a large (USI-5.50mm or USJ-6.00mm) hook.

The two class projects are a snowflake-patterned hat from the two-handed colourwork class I took at DFW Fiber Fest in September:

And the top-down knitted beanie hat from the Triangle Fiber Guild meeting earlier this month, when we had a virtual lesson from The Knitting Fairy:

In progress, showing how we start using a technique that
leaves no hole to be closed later!  Using up bits of yarn.

The handy thing is that since I wasn't sure how much yarn I had from these two colours, because they were part of a donation bag of leftovers, I could just work until I ran out.  Which I did, having just a couple-few yards of each yarn left, not enough for another row.

In addition to some plain crocheted beanies of ombre yarn, I made one of a new yarn called "Flower Power".  The idea is that you follow the instructions, and the yarn is coloured in a way that it makes the design without you having to change colours.  Instead of turning the item into a square once the flower is done, I worked straight to make it a hat:

There are enough colour repeats to make twelve squares, so since I used three for that hat, I can make four other hats of this style.  I may try doing a top-down hat instead of one both for practice and so that I won't have to worry about ending at the top in the middle of a colour.

This many.

I'd hoped for a hat a day in October, but the final total is twenty-three and one-half:

Yes, I have some ends to run in.  Technically one hat is a stand-in because I made a third of the Peacock colour in the lower left, but donated it to a local group's hat drive.

I was at our department's in-person meeting this week, and am self-conscious about knitting in those, so got almost nothing done, at least in terms of hat production.  Here's hoping that November is more productive.

Fine Times in Philly

I am on a quick turnaround at home between the ACC Annual Meeting and heading to Texas for our quarterly Legal Department All-Hands.  I had fun leading walks in the mornings, and meeting people, and seeing friends, and learning stuff.

Because I am in leadership roles I am invited to the Leadership Development Institute, where we had a team-building exercise to create the tallest possible structure using spaghetti, some masking tape, a piece of string, and a marshmallow.  The structures were measured from the surface to the marshmallow which had to be at the top.

My team had two engineers out of the four of us, and we won:

Design based upon oil derricks and the John Hancock
building in Chicago - and we didn't use the string!

I also, to my surprise, won this:

I did take time on Saturday, after arriving, to visit The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, which in addition to having some interesting exhibits was participating in the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POTS) so I met a number of artists and saw their ongoing works.  I picked up supper at the Reading Terminal Market and ate in my hotel room.

Sweet bologna on rye with mustard, and a pickle.

And I knit a bunch of hats:

Technically the pink one at the top was mostly finished when
I left for the conference, but the other five were knit there.
One of the blue ones was finished after I returned home.

Sitting out the nor'easter.

Bit of weather, but not too bad where I am: lots of rain, gusty wind.  A good day to stay inside with a plethora of fiber group online meetings (Center for Knit and Crochet's monthly member meeting, talking about Knitted Knockers; Franklin Habit; KnitStars; and KnitTalk) and organize the items I need for tomorrow's Triangle Fiber Guild meeting.

I keep plugging away with hats, and remembered before it was completely too late to take a photo of these with a bit of the yarn they share.  One hat has a blue carry-along and the other has a pale yellow one, with the result that they look very different.  I plan to use a bit of tonal deep blue when the multicolour yarn ends.  All of these are (near as I can tell) sock yarn leftovers a friend gives to me.

And here they are, finished:

The ones for our Hundred Hat Challenge (which I am pretty sure will come in well under, but it's good to have a generous goal plus it's alliterative) are finished and tagged.  I set a limit of ten per person as I know how many I can create and wanted it to be fair when we do the drawing for prizes based upon hats a person made and donated.

Yes, it's only seven - I have made many more, of course, but
for another collection.  Although I may add three if the
Guild collection looks very sparse.

I've also begun packing for next weekend's trip to the ACC Annual Meeting, figuring out what to do with my Saturday afternoon and evening, and when to get the token prizes for the program I am running on Wednesday, and routes for the morning walking group.........

And of course, yarn and needles to make more hats.

There went the days.

The Days of Awe finished last week, with Yom Kippur.  I've had two crazy weeks because I went to the NAMWOLF Annual Meeting, then DFW Fiber Fest, got home just in time for Rosh Hashonnah to begin, and then last week did a cybersecurity test development workshop for three days, followed by Yom Kippur on the fourth day, so Friday was my only full day at work.  And unusually for a Friday, it was loaded with meetings, many of which had been pushed out from an earlier day.

So posting was sidelined.

I was able to work on hats, since they are simple and portable and much needed for two charitable donation projects.  Some are using up leftover yarn, and some are using new balls or skeins.  One is a skein I received in a yarn exchange, which turned out to be very tangled:

I should have taken photos of the tangles.  I wanted to wind it on the speed winder, but couldn't until I'd pulled out about a fifth of the skein.  Then it kept jamming, and this was when I realized I couldn't do any more as the yarn wove in and out of the remaining rounds.  So I finished by hand.  Then knit a hat:

I knit it using the yarn doubled, because it was thin, so this is a thick and warm hat.  I might crochet the remainder into a second hat, but there isn't enough for more than a newborn size, so I'll have to use it with something else.  I didn't know the yardage or weight since the skein was untagged, and I think it's sportweight instead of the expected fingering.  Usually I can get a hat and a half or a couple hats out of skein of fingering, depending upon pattern and method.

Speaking of method, I need some crocheted hats for a demo class at the Triangle Fiber Guild meeting next week.  So I worked up a few from a jumbo skein of yarn:

There is yarn left, which might be a knitted hat as I want to do a couple in other weights of yarn to show how the basic pattern adjusts.  That is what I thought I'd do with the leftover autumn coloured yarn.  I'll see what the stash suggests.

Ten Questions

There is a website that sends out a link to a question each day (except I don't get them - not even in my junk/SPAM folder, so have to remember to look) during the High Holy Days.  Ten questions, for you to think about how the past year affected you, and what is to come next year.  Reflections.

If you want to try it:  https://www.doyou10q.com/question/2025/1

You can opt to share your answers or keep them private.

I had a busy week and next one will be also.  The first three days I am in a CISSP exam writing workshop for ISC2, and then it is Yom Kippur.  Luckily my junior attorney returns on Monday and hopefully it will not take her too long to catch up so I can start giving projects to her.  At some point, my mother and I are going to the early voting; my father votes absentee and we'll deliver his ballot.

I'm back to making hats for the various collections:

It looks like I will get a fourth, if small (child, not teen/adult, sized), hat out of the ball of Bernat Forever Fleece.  Each one is a different pattern, including the Flight Formation Beanie that still has sticks in the top.  The ones unfinished will be worked on during tonight's fiber group meeting.  Four of these were knitted in the last week, the three with sticks in the top (and there is probably enough of the pink/grey boucle for another hat) and the striped one at the bottom.

I want to make other things, especially from yarn I purchased last weekend, but I am dutifully working on hats.

Two and Two.

I finished the garter stitch scarf that I showed last week, and made another scarf plus two hats:

Hats are leftover bits of yarn.  Garter stitch scarf is Caron
Chunky Cakes, discontinued colour "Trifle".  C2C scarf is Caron 
Cakes "Lovely Layers" in "Sugared Cherry", also discontinued.

I'm making progress on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club assignment for this month (when I picked up the copy I'd ordered at the bookshop, the clerk was very enthusiastic about it), and should be done in time for Wednesday's meeting.  That will make my 21st book for the year, not counting the one I re-read on New Year's Day.

The library is starting another walking/exercise challenge, which of course I plan to enter.  Why not get double use out of my daily (except for Saturdays, when I do an early yoga class) walks?

Otherwise, it was a fairly standard week.  I should work on the last few items for my DFW Fiber Fest class and start gathering the items needed for the classes I am taking.  Now that I am presenting at a conference during the first part of that week, I have to be organized a little earlier than otherwise.

Today I started a shawl of Knitting Buddha's handspun, stashed from a prior DFW Fiber Fest:

Typically American Measurement

There are jokes and memes going around about how Americans will use anything as a unit of measurement to avoid the metric system.  My friend Trish and I joked about it and decided to display her Great Big Squishy Scarfie Thing against their Grand Caravan:

Current length, on Colour #21 of 25, is about 2/3 of a Grand Caravan.  I've knitted on it twice (somehow, not this trip!), once when I was there for "AIDA" and once at Maryland Sheep & Wool.

I did some knitting of my own, a scarf of Bernat Blanket that I left in Dallas to donate to Warm Up, America! at DFW Fiber Fest next month, and three hats; four if you count the one I knit on a friend's machine so I could try it:

The green one with brick stitch at top left will go to the local
guild's Hundred Hats Challenge collection; the other three are
destined for a different charitable project.

This time I was there to see her son in "HAMLET", portraying several characters, primarily Rosencrantz:

This wasn't the only play I saw this weekend, though.  On Friday I went to the Allen Contemporary Theater to see two friends in what turned out to be a spectacular production:

I've recommended it to people, and they report the shows are
selling out before they can get tickets.  Kudos to ACT!

And then this went into a black hole, instead of getting published.  I thought I'd hit the "Publish" button!

Since then, I finished another two hats for the collection, and half a scarf for WUA:

Ooops, the top one is a repeat from the previous photo.
Both hats are AlwaysBeKind yarn.  Scarf is a Caron Chunky Cake.

I've planned some projects (probably too many to get done before DFW Fiber Fest), and finished my Berie Shawl of the "Sunset Skies" yarn:

When I saw how much is left, I decided not to frog back and add another garter row in the center, and there isn't enough remaining for a border, so the shawl is as it is (and fits me well) and the last bit of yarn will go into a hat or something.  Yes, I have the ends to run in, but that's just a few minutes of work.  I love how it feels, very soft and cuddly.

Without prompting.

An artist who started popping into my fees mentioned that it is World Watercolor Month, and since I have been playing with art, I decided to try to do something in watercolor each day.  I am not counting the form I was completing for the library's Summer Reading Challenge, although I did do the first one in watercolor and completed it on July 2nd:

I forgot to take a photo of the completed form
before I turned it on on July 2nd, when I went to
the library's science fiction book club meeting.

Since I didn't hear about this until a couple days into the month, I needed to do some catching-up, so my first couple of images are just trying the paints I have, on dry and wet paper:

Then I did one that was just making lines, to get into the feel of paintings.  And one limited to red and blue for the holiday:

I probably could have studied and done something
that resembles fireworks more accurately, but no.

Starting with Day 5, I wanted to try something that actually looks like a picture.  I'd seen a tutorial of hers, and it looked easy enough - and it was!

I decided to look up the official prompts for the month, and quickly decided that I am not able to follow all of them.  I may do a few, if I think it's something I can manage, or if the prompt inspires me.  Speaking of which, today's was "Hat" and I decided to try:

I need to make lighter pencil outlines.  And the proportions
are not quite right - but it does resemble a sunhat!

As for the reading challenge, we're supposed to mark every ten minutes we read.  That's too fiddly for me, so mostly a mark each time I read at least ten minutes, although if I read for an hour or so I'll count multiple ten-minute increments.  Nobody should be surprised that I've read well over the number of spots times ten minutes and am well into my second form.

As for my personal reading challenge, I've read fourteen books (fifteen if you count re-reading one) for the year, of the eighteen I proposed.  Being in a book club does help!

For an unofficial challenge I wanted to finish an item each day of the long weekend, and I did:

The "Americana" scarf was my 'car scarf', mostly worked on while waiting, so it took a while.  (I immediately cast on another.)  The two hats and other scarf were pretty much done in the last week.  Hats don't take much time and I wanted to do the crocheted scarf to have something quickly done.  Back to the scarf of linked diamonds shown at the top left.