Striped.

I finally started on a sweater from the plant-dyed yarns I bought at last year's Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  I want another warm sweater to wear in Iceland, and decided to knit something that would be like a jacket.  Unfortunately, the sleeves are a bit close-fitting, but I don't have the time (or possibly the yarn) to redo anything.

Here's the current progress, you can see how the gold yarns shade in tone:

I am still deciding whether the sleeves will have
a garter stitch cuff, or ribbing, and what colour(s).

I use the safety pins on the sides to track decrease rows, and also the length.  To work the sleeves to the same length when I have only a single ball of colour, I pinned a couple of points together:

Also from this week, my irises are doing very, very well this year:

   

The photos are from three days apart, the plant in the back of the lefthand photo.  It's been very hot and I didn't water, so they didn't last as long as they could have.  Since it hasn't rained much, we're on water restrictions.

Fiberuary 8-14

8:  I worked on the replacement hat a bit, and finished adding straps and buttons to the sleep sack I bought at The Scrap Exchange.  The straps are long pieces of double crochet with a border of single crochet; the spaces between stitches make a nice snug buttonhole and it can be anywhere on the strip to adjust for the baby growing.  I forgot to take a photo before delivering it.

Then during the Big Football Final (plus a bit of the Winter Olympics) I worked on a baby blanket UFO I'd found whilst looking for the sweater.  I had marked the copy of pattern so knew where I was, and made a slight adjustment to the additional rows on top and bottom to elongate the rectangle a bit.

9:  Back to work!  Very busy day, I did get a bit more done on the ribbing of the replacement hat.  I decided to do a deep ribbing that I can turn up for extra thickness over the ears when wanted.

10:  More work, more ribbing.  I am figuring out yarns for another sweater for me - which pile, which pattern?  Leaning towards the Elizabeth Zimmerman Tomten in some heavy handspun and yarns of similar weight, or thinner handspun held together.  I replied to a question about the Triangle Fiber Guild's participation in the Carolina Fiber Fest; we've been asked to run a community contribution event.  Originally they wanted a relay race but I pointed out that we don't have time (one month) to publicize it properly, so they agreed to a gaming-style event.  Now I have to locate my dice, which are scattered.

11:  Switched to the plain part of the replacement hat just in time to go to the dentist for my annual cleaning and to have a tooth checked.  It will have to be removed.  I've decided the replacement hat is not "me" and will give it away or sell it or donate it once done.  I decided to pull out the UFO baby blanket and get back to it.

12:  Worked on the blanket after my final mini-MBA class.  During class I knit on the current charity scarf, of Lion Brand Fair Isle.  I like the yarn.  Blanket is at a point where I need to keep count so I am adding a safety pin to mark the larger loops on the border, to be sure I can find them.  Then I start working the next row, and the instructions are confusing and the counting isn't quite right, so I'm fudging.

13:  More progress on the blanket.  Now on Row 30 of 35.

14:  Worked on the charity scarf during Torah Study, and the replacement hat (for which I may have found a new owner, if I get it finished by tomorrow) while out on errands and an unexpected lunch date.  I checked out three stores in a chain that was advertising items that people think are from Joann's end of bankruptcy sale, and found some crafts items in two, no fabric, and a little bit of yarn in one.

End of a long month.

It's still hard to focus sometimes, but I am getting better.  I think we all are.  I am geographically closest to my mother, so am usually there to help with things, informally check on her, and whatever one does after the other parent dies suddenly.

I've stepped into a role Mom had in the past, since she isn't doing it: Storm Soups.  When weather got bad, Mom would make a big pot of soup.  It would warm the house while simmering, and feed us for a few days.  After they moved, portions would go to the neighbors.  Mom isn't up to it right now.  So last weekend, when Winter Storm Fern brought ice, I made a pot of 15-bean soup, with plenty of vegetables and some p'tim or large couscous or soup pearls, and delivered a big jar to her across-the-street neighbor who is a widower and becoming increasingly disabled, plus a smaller jar to Mom.  I arrived at the neighbor's house just as he returned home from getting groceries, so I helped him carry them into the garage, from where he would take them into the house using a trolley.

This weekend, it's split pea soup with vegetarian sausage, because that's what we found in the freezer.  I cooked the peas with a bit of carrot and onion, then took some of the peas out and used an immersion blender to make the rest smooth.  Peas returned, sausage added, and all cooked together a bit.  The neighbor was delighted to see this week's jar and said he would eat it for the next meal.

I had a potato that was starting to sprout, so boiled it and added it to what is left of my soup, for the next couple of meals.  Both soups are hearty and satisfying, just what is needed on very cold days.

If the weather continues to be cold, next weekend I'm making chili.

Getting other things done, of course derailed earlier this month.  I am very close to finishing one of the craft-along items for Carolina Fiber Fest, and it caused me to break my "dry January" plans by buying more yarn, because I needed a specific colour.  That was my only purchase of yarn - or any crafting stuff - in January.  I also have the sleeping bag to which to add straps for the Welcome Baby collection.  I am, as usual, behind in reading the book for my SciFi Book Club's February meeting, but did finish the one for January, although I didn't go to the meeting.

I did finish a long-pending UFO, which needed the i-cord binding added:

Yes, it needs to be washed and blocked.  It's reversible.

On Wednesday I needed something to carry-around so started a garter stitch scarf out of a ball of yarn that's been hanging around, for a charity project.  Tonight I started what will probably be my first red hat.  Some scoff at the making, but it's like the pussyhats in 2017: a visual symbol.  Accessible for people who cannot go into the streets or otherwise take a more visible stand.  A way for people to show what side they are on.  And for people who cannot do more at this time, a way to show solidarity and contribute in a way that they are able to do.  Red yarn is going out of stock at many shops.

Today I received a box of puzzles I'd ordered, and which I wasn't sure would arrive in January.  A friend mentioned Nautilus Puzzles, and I was intrigued.  I love puzzles.  I saw that they have round puzzles for each month of the year, reminiscent of or based upon Tiffany stained glass, and thought it would be fun to get the set and put together each month's puzzle in its month.  They arrived today:

I decided to try putting together the one for January, and was successful:

   

I might do the one for February tomorrow, or wait until later in the month.

For those counting, the last hostage (technically, his body) has been retrieved.

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.

A contented day.

Family celebration of Christmas today, part of it was happiness that none of us were "on call" for work, nor felt an obligation to sidle off to work for a bit.  We ate a reasonable (vegetarian and gluten-free) brunch, complete with snacky bits of cheese and multiple desserts.

Most of the gifts we exchange are donations to favourite charities.  I had token gifts for the family: dark chocolate covered apricots for my parents; socks with the Hot Wheels® logo for my brother, who owned and played with many as a boy; compost for my sister-in law, who directed it to a local farm; National Parks water bottles for my younger niece and her partner; and for the elder niece, a hat:

When I mentioned to my mother on Tuesday that I was struggling to find a token gift appropriate for my older niece, my mother suggested a warm hat because my niece's job includes working with students in a community garden, and it's been cold.  I sent a message to my niece asking for her three favourite colours, because I know she has a black coat and didn't want to make a black hat, especially on short notice.  She responded that evening.

Then I had to dig to find enough yarn in her choices of black, green, and pink.  I found a skein of handdyed yarn in pink with bits of black, and some leftover green.  I decided to use a pattern I've knit many times, doubling the pink/black to get the correct thickness.  I started on Wednesday morning, and spent the evening watching holiday videos and knitting.  I woke early and managed to finish with plenty of time to wrap the gifts and arrive at my parents' house with time to help set up.

The hat fit, it's soft enough to suit my niece, and she's happy to have it when the weather gets cooler again.  Today was unusually warm, especially for Christmas Day.

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.

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.

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.}

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.

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.

DFW Fiber Fest 2024 - Charitable Giving

Every year, DFW Fiber Fest allows various charities to set up shop, so to speak.  For several years the locally-headquartered Warm Up America! has been co-hosted in the vendor hall information booth, and this year they were given their own space.  As previously reported, I took quite a few items to donate.  I debated whether to switch to a large duffle bag but decided that might entice me to bring back more yarn than I need,* so I decided to pack into the suitcase (unfortunately, not an expanding type) and a couple of totes, one of which looks enough like an oversized purse that I could carry it on the plane as my personal item.**

I also took these two sleepy kittens which a friend is collecting for her local library's Welcome Baby project.  I made them out of scraps of dishcloth cotton plus a bit of acrylic for the light purple face:

The pattern says to use DK weight yarn and mine
are of worsted, since that is what I have handy.

I made sure to get a photo of the luggage before unpacking:

Saturday night I spent a couple hours post-supper relaxing to videos and running in ends and making sure everything has tags.  I tried to photograph them by groups, but a couple items hid under other things so are in a different group.

These are blanket pieces.  WUA takes 7"x9" pieces and has
volunteers sew them into blankets.  I was trying stitches.

Eighteen hats - the nineteenth was hiding under scarves.

Four shawls, assorted sizes and shapes.

Eleven of the scarves.

Three hat-and-scarf sets.  The middle one is of a handdyed
acrylic I purchased at DFW Fiber Fest two years ago.

One more hat, a pair of mittens (also handdyed yarn), and a
striped pair I decided I don't like enough to keep.

These scarves were still in a drawer when I took the other photo.

My total is 2 blanket pieces, 19 hats, 3 hat-and-scarf sets, one hat-and-mittens set, one large pair of mittens, 13 scarves, and four shawls.  Most have a label from the yarn; a few have printed washing instructions.  I had an old worn-out duffle I'd left with friends that one brought to me, and I packed everything into it.  I was surprised that they all fit!  I printed a donation form and marked everything included.  So when I walked up with the donation, the volunteers offered to unpack and I said they didn't have to do it, I was happy to donate the duffle as it couldn't be used as luggage reliably.  One started to ask me to fill out a form and I pulled out the one I had, which was in an outside pocket.  They got very excited as I had written the number of each item on the form - the volunteers told me many people just do a checkmark at the type of donation.  Hey, it's not my first donation!

_____________________________________________________________________

* Not that I truly need yarn, you understand, but there are show colourways to collect.  And so on.

** Handily, it plus my computer bag fit under the seat in front of me, always my preference since I don't like struggling to reach into an overhead bin if I can avoid it.

Rainbow and Emergency Yarn Hats

In theory, I've been on a yarn diet this year.  It does have a number of exceptions, such as finishing a yarn series I began purchasing last year, and yarn purchased while traveling or at festivals because these are really souvenirs.

Of course, I have added to the stash otherwise, such as at the fiber group swap (which I decided doesn't entirely count because I swapped out more yarn than I brought home) and because a friend has been giving me her leftover bits to pass along to another friend who does a lot of charity knitting.  Some of which I decided would be transmitted in the form of hats, and since much of the yarn is wool and wool-blend sock yarn, which is quite fine, I've made most of the hats by holding two or three strands together.  I did do one with the yarn just singly:

I liked the neon-splash yarn enough to make this hat with
the sock yarn singly, but it's a very plain basic beanie.

When I found several balls of rainbow-y yarn I decided to figure out a way to highlight the colour changes instead of working the threads together.  This means using very fine needles, and lots of stitches, because I had to use the yarn singly because otherwise the colours would mingle.  The problem is that most of the yarns will make stripes if you knit at the number of stitches in a sock, but hats use many more because heads are bigger around than feet.

How to emphasize the rainbow for the ribbing?  Usually this is worked as part of the hat and thus with a large number of stitches around.  I decided to use a ribbing taught in a class many years ago at a historic home, where we learned to make ribbed mitts in a 18th-Century style.  This ribbing, instead of being done longways, was worked shortways.

Thus I made a long, skinny piece working one row knit, one row purl, one row knit, and repeating these three rows until it was long enough.  Luckily this happened in an orange bit so the stripes came out fairly evenly around.

Next I  grafted the starting row to the final row, and picked up stitches around.  I decided to use four balls, two that appeared to be rainbow sequence, and two that alternated the rainbow rows with grey, alternating the balls.  So I used safety pins to mark each quarter, counting the ribs, and two to mark the start of the round:

Having the two pins was helpful because I had to switch back and forth from a knit row to a purl row at that point because I wanted to use stockinette stitch to keep the stripes most clear.  So I needed to know where to switch and not accidentally continue.  I wouldn't need to do this if the hat were all of a single yarn, as the one at the top of this post is, but to keep the four panels clear I had to work intarsia, which means switching from one yarn to another at a seam:

Above are the inside and outside of one of the three regular seams.  However, the fourth seam is where I had to switch from knit to purl, and because there was only one strand of yarn I had to do a pick-up-and-knit/purl-together maneuver, which left a less pretty seam:

The final result looks fairly nice overall:

At the end, I decided that if I were doing it again, I would have started one of the grey-and-rainbow balls from the outside, and the other from the inside, so the striping would be the opposites.  On the other side, as you can see in the first pair of seam photos above, the yarn has very short stripes, which I also didn't know until I started using it.

Why am I talking about emergency yarn hats also?  I was visiting the friend who had been giving me the leftover yarns, and was trying to travel lightly.  So I also did not take many projects.  I had a cat ball that I was making for a friend, and since I was traveling on Granny Square Day I took some bits of yarn to make a hat.  Which I finished while there:

While packing I had a third project, and thought that might be excessive for a four-day trip, so I left it home.  Which meant that when I finished the pink hat, I was in need of a project!  Preferably one that used the needles I had with me, which were the size I usually use to make a double-strand sock yarn hat, because I thought the friend would have more leftovers for me.

Nope, she'd been working on other projects since my previous trip, and had only one scrap of cotton yarn in the collection box!  What is a fidgety fiberista to do?

My friend's plan for that day was to check out friends' new yarn shop (they had recently moved from their old location), then to attend a knit-and-crochet monthly hangout.  So I definitely needed a project!  I decided that I would buy some "emergency yarn" at the shop, thus helping friends and having things to do, and make charity hats so the yarn would leave my stash immediately.

At the shop I picked up a hank of Cascade Heritage Wave, and also one of Cascade Yarns Cherub Chunky Wave because the "Spring" colourway looked so pretty, even though I didn't have the correct needles.  Both were orphans, the last of their kind, so how could I not adopt them?  One of my friends insisted on using their ball winder to prepare the Heritage Wave, and pulling from both the inside and outside of the ball, I was ready to go!

When we got to the meetup, somebody had brought a bin of yarn and unfinished projects from an estate clearout.  Had I known, no shopping would be required, but I don't mind helping my friends.  Out of curiosity, I sifted through the bin, and most of the yarn was novelty or mohair, neither of which is my favourite.  In a bag at the bottom, with a couple of pattern magazines, was a half-finished blanket.  There wasn't enough yarn to finish it, and none of the patterns matched, so I decided to rip it back to a scarf-width size (since it was long enough) and bind off.  Hence the photo above.

My friend was leaving the next day (as I left to return home) for a fiber retreat at which everybody contributes to a charity collection.  My friend had seven hats and nine scarves. I told her that in my religion the number 18 is a powerfully positive one, so I gave her the scarf and hat to include in the collection.

And between the emergency yarn and some from the bin, I now have five more hats for charity:

The two deep rose ones on the left are from the Cascade Heritage Wave, both in variations of Barley Hat.  I had to finish the second one with some bits of yarn from the donation box.  In front is the hat from Cascade Yarns Cherub Chunky Wave, a basic plain beanie.  Next to it on the right is a hat of black-and-red yarn that was a partly finished sock, with not enough yarn to make a second one.  I filled it out a bit more with some black-with-red-tinge sock yarn from my friend's donations, and it's also a Barley Hat variation.  In the back is a granny beanie I made from some of the leftover yellow and gold of the repurposed blanket.  I thought of another scarf, but I'd been wanting to try this pattern and the two complimentary colours seemed just right for it.  There is enough yarn for another (for which I am reversing the colours, not that it really matters) and there might be enough remaining for a knitted beanie or mittens.

I think it is most appropriate to return these to Texas, so will be donating them to Warm Up, America! at DFW Fiber Fest later this month.  Before I make any more, I want to finish at least one of the make-along shawls; it took a while to get the rhythm of the pattern and I had to graft in a stripe of a different yarn at one point because one of my colours might run out.  All good for now, and I plunge ahead!