A Problem with a Solution and Stripes

Hello readers!  It's a warm and beautiful day here in Minnesota today.  My son is now old enough to go to our local park on his own so I find myself with some free time in which to write this morning.

My Tegna sweater knitting is going slowly and I already have the fear of running out of yarn in the fawn colorway.  I know I should always buy extra yarn, but I hate having "extra" leftover.  Using it all up is my favorite thing, but in this case I might very well have to purchase extra yarn.  Sigh. 

Though that's not the problem I mention in the title.  See, I made a mistake in the lace.  Well, actually, I made quite a few mistakes in the lace, but this one is pretty consistent, obvious and doesn't look good.  There are two inverted stockinette triangles that are stacked and each are topped with two rows of purls.  The bottom one however only has only a single row of purls and looks rather wimpy compared the the  top triangle which is correct.   Ripping back that far was just not an option.  I simply couldn't handle frogging all that lace (Of course I noticed this mistake after I completed the entire lace section.)

Problem photo.

Thinking on the problem a bit I came up with the idea of duplicate stitch but with purl bumps instead of smooth knit stitches.  That solution proved a bit difficult to wrap my brain around performing, but simple embroidery back stitch worked out wonderfully.  I've only done this one out of my 23 repeats and although it is time consuming the result is perfect I think you'll agree.  My plan is to do a couple at a time to break up all that knitting in the stockinette section. 

Fixed photo.

Speaking of the stockinette section what do you think about the stripes?  I made them 3 rows stripes and am wondering if narrower would be better.  I knit them using this "jogless" technique I watched on YouTube.  I love YouTube knitting videos.  It's so much easier to see what's happening than deciphering pictures in a book I think.  There are short rows that happen in the shoulder section of this sweater so I might switch back to the solid fawn color when they occur and stay in the one color all the way to the bindoff.  Hopefully that will balance out the lace section. 

Well, my son is still out so I might sneak in a bit of knitting time too. Until next time, bye-bye!

Sweater Progress and Making Do

 Tegna sweater lace hem in progress.

Hello there!  How are you all doing?  I'm pretty happy and content these days.  I have even been adding long daily walks with my Black Labrador Easy to my mental health regime.  She's such a sweetie as labs generally are, but even more laid back and easy going hence her name.  It's funny that when you are well mentally doing the things that add to your mental well being are no problem, but when you are depressed can be a Herculean feat.  A few months back taking a walk around my block would have been more than I could handle, but now I'm up to walking 10,000 plus steps a day!  My hope is that by establishing a walk as part of my daily duties during these warm summer months I'll be able to keep it up during autumn and winter.

On the knitting front, I have been making slow and steady progress on my Tegna sweater.  I fussed with the gauge, as I seem to be doing lately, trying to get the yarn I already have on hand to work.  I knit up and washed a large swatch of the Charlemont fingering weight yarn on US size 5 / 3.75 mm needles and got too many stitches.  Realizing I would have to go up to at least to a US size 7 / 4.5 mm needles to get gauge, made me also realize that the fabric would be quite loose and too sheer to wear the sweater by itself.  So, since the Tegna pattern had a good selection of sizes I was able to do some math to pick which size would get me the closest to my desired amount of ease.  I'm hoping to get about 8 inches / 20 cm of ease at the bust which makes the ease at the hem a wild 27 inches / 68.5 cm by knitting the 2XL size.  If I would have gotten gauge I would knit the L size. 

Let me tell ya there are quite a few cast on stitches for the 2XL!  I followed the advice of another knitter and placed my stitch markers for the lace repeat as I was casting on to make the counting simpler.  It was such a good idea!  Good luck was with me and I didn't twist the cast on when I joined in the round.  Woohoo!  The lace chart is very clear, but with so many repeats I made any number of mistakes as my attention waned.  Some mistakes I fixed and some I just left alone as the sweater will fall into folds with so much ease that no one should be able to see them.  There are still 6 rows of lace left, then it's onto the stockinette stripes that I can knit easily while I watch a movie.  Since I talk to myself when knitting lace to keep on pattern, I haven't been able to watch or listen to any podcasts for quite a while now. 

Not being able to watch or listen to anything has made my time knitting more focused and actually more relaxed.  Thus, I am enjoying my knitting even more  This need or desire we have to multitask I think robs of of this enjoyment of being in the moment with our knitting.  Hmm, maybe I'll rethink how I want to knit the stockinette section?

As I mentioned earlier about making the yarn I have on hand work I have also been trying really hard to make due with what I have around me for other things such as my wardrobe, sewing, making dinner etc.  This brings me to having some success of turning a "wanting new" into  a "I can do that myself."  For a while now I have wanted a Fringe Field Project Bag.  I see them all over, but quite frankly they are too expensive for me.  It dawned on me while I was looking online at said bag that I could sew one myself.  It wouldn't have the leather handle, but I had thick red canvas (cira 2008) thread and got some cotton clothesline from the hardware store for cheap.  So, I embarked on an afternoon of making a project bag for myself with no pattern just a general idea from the pictures I've seen.  Below is the result.

Homemade Field project bag.

My only disappointment, if you can call it that, was that the bag doesn't close completely as the fabric is really thick.  Otherwise, I am thrilled with it!  It has 3 inside pockets, double thick sides and bottom and it stays open on it's own.  It is also big enough to hold all 4 skeins for my Tegna sweater!  A wonderful achievement for an afternoons work.  How are you finding ways to "make do" with your crafting?

I'm Back

     I'm back both in both the literal and figurative sense  I'm "back"writing a blog post and I feel "back" to my old self again.  The wonders of modern medicine and talk therapy!

     It feels wonderful to be enjoying knitting again.  Since I last posted, I finished that scrappy linen stitch scarf as well as a shawl (shown above) called Areas by Martina Behm.  Areas was a very simple and soothing knit with no purling at all.  Because I didn't do a gauge swatch (I know, I know, bad Ann.) it came out smaller in length measuring only 72 inches instead of the patterns stated 84 inches. I am a tight knitter by nature and should have gone up a needle size, but in the end the shawl turned out to be perfectly fine for how I would like to wear it come cold weather.

     The yarn I used I've had in my stash since Mother's Day of  2015, so it's high time I used it up.  It's called Charlemont by Valley Yarns and consists of a blend of Merino Wool, Silk and Nylon.  I used their colorsways natural and navy blue as these two colors represent about 80 % of my wardrobe and as I mentioned earlier they were already in my stash.  I enjoyed the feel of the yarn while knitting and adore the sheen when it catches the light, but it is rather a splitty yarn.  That said, I am already planning to use it again as it's such an excellent value for the yardage and fiber content.  Of course, there is the fact that I still have 2 more skeins of the navy blue left in my stash.

     Yes, I am already off planning a new project.  Yay!  I love the planning stage.  My wardrobe lacks any summer short sleeve sweaters or dressier tops so my plan is to next knit Tegna by Caitlin Hunter to fill that gap. Tegna is a swingy oversized short sleeved sweater which consists of a lacework hem, stockinette body, dropped shoulders (I been seeing these everywhere on knitting patterns lately) and snug short sleeves.  My 2 skeins of navy blue yarn will not be enough to complete the pattern, but then I thought of adding stripes to the stockinette sections and I think it will work out.  I landed on the colorway called fawn which is a warm light brown shade.  The lace, neck edging and sleeve edges will be knit solely in fawn and the rest of the sweater will consist of narrow 2 row stripes of navy and fawn.  I think it will look smashing!  So, I have purchased two more skeins of Charlemont from WEBS and now am anxiously awaiting the mail.  After having downsized my stash I was a bit loathe to buy more, but it will help lessen my stash in the long run.

     This method of first accessing my wardrobe to see where there are gaps, second to view my stash to see if I can make what yarn I have on hand work, then third picking out a pattern is how I plan to go about my knitting in the future.  In this way I am hoping to only make what I feel I need and not just getting pulled in by a the latest patterns excellent photography/model/yarn and making something that doesn't suit me or my lifestyle.  I'm hoping to slow down my knitting and I think this method will help me do just that.  Why am I wanting to slow down my knitting you ask?  Well, I've decided to get off the producing treadmill and focus more on the enjoyment of the project in and of itself.  Because really, what's the rush?  I'm not a designer with deadlines to meet.  I've gifted so much to my mother that she has told me to stop knitting her sweaters.  My own closet is already pretty full so I don't need much more.  Why speed through the knitting simply to have something new to photograph?

     This documenting of knitted products I find good in that it's enjoyable to see your past knits and your progression as a knitter, but I think it can cause stress too.  As much as I enjoy Instagram I feel it is one of the culprits of this stress to produce more so you can share new photos of what your working on and thus feel part of the knitting community.  It's this feeling of more, more, more that I want to rid myself of , instead focusing on that I have enough already and I'm only refining my wardrobe here there.  Do you know what I mean?

     To keep myself in check of accumulating endless amounts of yarn for endless amounts of projects I found that I have to miss out on going to fiber fairs, knitting shops, knitting retreats and classes.  This leaves me sometimes feeling like I'm missing out, but I know myself too well that I can't just view.  If I view, I want, and if I want, I buy.  Then I feel the push to knit faster and faster in order to get through all that yarn.  It's time to stop the madness.

Some Knitting

 

     Hey there.  I thought I'd pop back in for another entry to tell you how things are going.  Basically, it's better, not great yet, but waaaayyyy better than where I was in early Spring.  I believe we found the right mix of medication and certainly having a wave of beautiful sunny days which had me walking my dog around the neighborhood is helping too.  Getting out and moving my body has been really wonderful after our long snowy winter when people just gave up shoveling their sidewalks as we continued to have snow until the end of April. 

     The question then is - is my creativity coming back along with my better mood?  Well, yes albeit much slower.  I did purchase this lovely skein of naturally dyed yarn to tempt me into knitting, hoping to turn it into a lightweight summer scarf with this pattern, but it is not what's calling me back to knit.  What is speaking to me, oddly enough, is my bag of sock yarn scraps.  The rather clean slate I accomplished by selling off most of my stash was not enough for me.  So, I decided to knit up my sock yarn scraps, leaving only a small bag of bits and bobs for sock darning, to shrink my stash even more.

     Over the years I've started and stopped a lot of scrappy knitting projects.  Do you remember when "hexipuffs" were all the rage as well as the mitered square blanket?  In the past I've started both of those patterns, but lost interest and drive along the way.  They were basically too epic.  Having a penchant for scarves, I decided to try this very simple linen stitch scarf as the way to use up all my sock yarn.  The means with which the slipped stitches blend all the colors really appealed to me.  There was the hurtle though, of the humongous amount, 500 in total, of cast on stitches (this scarf is knit lengthwise instead of the usual widthwise.) It took me a few days to complete casting on all those stitches, as well as a kind husband to check on my counting skills.  Finally, I got to the fun part of trying to blend the yarns in some aesthetically pleasing manner.  In my first attempt, I switched yarn every two rows picking a contrasting colorway each time.  This method turned out a bit muddy looking.  So, I switched over to grouping the yarns in like colors i.e. there might be 10 rows of blue, then 8 rows of yellow etc., this method made the colors stand out and shine much better.

     I'm knitting a bit each day, but only for short stretches.  There is no hurry.  After all, it's now Spring and the weather is warm.  I might not even keep this scarf for myself as I have enough cozy scarves for Winter already.  Luckily, my local knitting guild takes donations for charities each year so it will find a home with someone who needs it.

     This brings up an interesting topic which I think about often:  how do creatives create with out amassing huge amounts of knitting, clothing or whatever your end product my be?  Now, I believe creating is vastly important.  For me, it's an actual need and I feel a hole when I go long stretches without making something.  But, when does it become too much?  Have a bit of a think on this and I'll talk about it more in my next post. 

Not Knitting

     Hi lovely people!  I've been vacationing on Instagram, but felt like to coming back to blogging as I miss this space for simply writing.
 
     There has been a struggle within me these last few months with my depression and my creative life.  I've been sailing along quite well for many years with my regime of medication, counseling, exercising, using a SAD light, seeing friends and trying to eat healthy.   Then I was derailed this past February.  It was a subtle shift.  A slow decline that I did not notice was happening until I was no longer interested in knitting.  Not interested at all.  I was not physically knitting, planning new knitting, reading about knitting or listening to knitting podcasts.  It all seemed so pointless to me and when I felt that, I knew something was truly amiss.

     Now, my depression is pretty severe and not of the situational type, but I'm really, really good at pretending everything is fine, even to myself.  My doctor had no answers as to the "why" this was happening to me, but I am of an age of hormonal changes, and she said frankly it just happens.  So, on to dealing with it.  New meds were ordered, then rejected and yet a different medication tried.  It's like being a rat in a lab, doctors truly cannot predict what is going to happen. You need to try the drug out yourself and wait and see.  As your mother always told you - everyone is different.

     Meanwhile, it felt like the end of who I was as I so heavy defined myself as being a knitter.  If I wasn't a knitter than who was I?  Where was my personal identity?  I had no idea.  I started going though all my knitting accoutrements hoping to jog myself out of this rut.  When I got to my stash, it felt wrong to own so much yarn if I wasn't going to knit with it.  Thus began the great selling off of my stash.  Now, stashes vary quite a bit so to give you a sense of the size of mine it was stored in ten Rubbermaid plastic bins. At first it was hard to take in all that I had, list it on sites such as Ravelry and Craigslist, putting a price to my precious stores but, then I started to feel good about what I was doing.  It was like shedding a old skin, an old life.  Currently, my stash consists of only a one gallon sized Ziploc bag of sock yarn scraps and two smaller bins of full skeins.

     Sitting with what yarn I had left I realized how much more comfortable I felt.  There wasn't the crushing weight of years of knitting waiting in the wings.  It was a fresh start.  I kept those last bits of yarn hoping I'd find my way back to the knitting world and my old life.

     Yet, I knew I could not go completely back to my old life of knitting all the time.  The cycle of acquire and consuming at such a fast rate.  Being now unbalanced emotionally I could see how unbalanced I was in my day to day life.  So, I started to remedy this imbalance by watching movies with no knitting in my hands, reading instead of listening to books that kept my hands free to knit, walking in the garden I started so many years ago before knitting entered my life.  I observed there was more to my life than only knitting and there was more to me than just being a knitter.

     I'm making my way out of my hole both emotionally as well as creatively.  I have high hopes for the future, which for me is big thing.  My future with knitting, but also including the other things I enjoyed and sadly forgot about along the way. 

Yarn Along - Cheating on My Knitting

 Sleeve number one for what will be my new Spring Cardigan.

Now, I'm not a monogamous knitter, but I was really hoping to be with my Branches and Buds sweater.  There is only a sleeve and about 4 inches of body to go, but the dark navy blue is dragging me down after so many cloudy, dark days in a row.  I resisted as best I could, but that meant I wasn't knitting anything at all, which is bad.  So, I succumbed to the CoBaSi plus yarn in my stash in it's beautiful bright shade of indigo blue.  The pattern is for a cardigan called Silver Creek by Andrea Sanchez.  Maybe going from a sweater to a sweater is not the smartest move.  Maybe knitting up a quick accessory would be the thing to do, but I actually need some sweaters so here we are.  For once I am using the yarn called for in the pattern and got gauge bang on nose with the recommended needle sizes US 7/4.5 mm and US 8/5 mm.  The larger needle sizes are lulling me into the belief that this sweater will fly off the needles, as my Branches and Buds sweater is on US 4's. Time will tell.

This pattern is pieced and sewn together at the end of all the knitting.  I think this will play in my favor as finishing each section of the sweater can be an accomplishment in and of itself.  They have you starting with a sleeve knit in the round.  Now, I like DPNs but I get ladders, not between the stitches spanning the gap, but from 2nd to the last stitch on each needle that gets pulled out of shape i.e. I pull too tight.  I just can't seem to get the right tension.  Since I don't want ladders running up my sleeves, instead of DPN's I now use ChiaoGoo's 12 inch circular knitting needles.  I simply love them!  This solution wouldn't have worked it this was a full length sleeve, but being a 3/4 length loose fitting sleeve it was perfect.

This week finds me again without a book of my own so I will write about the book I am reading to my son.  It's called Time of The Dragons by James A. Owen.  It's from the Teen Fiction section of our library, not so much for content I think, but for the writing which can be challenging at times.  The book is quite a hefty tome at 772 pages, but the action is such that my son's interest hasn't waned in the least.  There is a lot of history and historical literary figures, mythology and legends used as well as his own vision of course.  You could spend a year with this book, which is the second in the series, looking up all the references.  In fact, we did spend quite a lot of wikipedia time on the 1st book as well as watching all the Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio movies (my son didn't like watching Disney movies when he was little what with the parents always dying off in the beginning and all.)  My only real complaint is there are no female characters, even in the background (the first book did have 2 female secondary characters.)  Just men, men and more men.  Even the talking animals have all been male.  This doesn't bother my son at all, but I find it incredibly ridiculous seeing as we women make up half the planet.  It's just a book of course, but you can bet I did point this out to my son.

Well, that's that for this week's very belated Yarn Along post.  I wish you all a relaxing weekend. 

It's All About The Planning

 My small stash of Shetland Spindrift for my Fair Isle Knitting class at this year's Yarnover Event.

There's a group I belong to on Ravelry called Pre-process Yarnies.  They are knitters who love the planning of projects possibly more than the actual knitting itself and tend to get themselves into trouble by acquiring too much yarn and more patterns than they could ever knit up.  Loosing themselves down the Ravelry rabbit hole for hours on end.  Does that sound familiar?  The hope of these knitters is to have more yardage go out, in the way of completing projects or selling yarn, than comes in over the course of a year.  It all started with the group leader's blog post which you can read here.

 

The leader has developed a great Spreadsheet to help the group members track their progress oddly called The Spreadsheet of Doom. It helps you track the yardage of the yarn you knit up, bought and sold (as well as fiber and spinning if you are so inclined.) So far mine spreadsheet numbers are abysmal as so much yardage has gone into my stash with my local yarn shop closing.  Also, since I am in the midst of a large knitting project I have only been able to add 2 small projects to my finished knitted items column.

To help get me an accurate picture of what I have on hand I dove into my stash (yes, again) and pulled all the yarn I haven't yet photographed to get them listed on my Ravelry Stash page.  I do love this process, the organizing and cataloging, as well as just tossing the stash to say "hi" to all those beautiful skeins of yarn.  It was a pretty enlightening.  My stashed yarn listings went up quite a bit more than I expected.  Remember this photo?  Well, imagine adding 3 more of those tubs and you have my current stash.  I'm going in the wrong direction folks.

The yarn budget now has only one fourth left with less than one month of the year gone, but the stash looks like about 3-4 years of solid knitting.  I have a lot of sweater quantities which got me to thinking of a challenge for myself:  I am going to try to knit and complete four sweaters this year.  Basically a sweater per quarter.  Definitely doable don't you think?.  Probably there will be a little room leftover for sock and accessory knitting too, at least that's my hope.  A girl doesn't want to get too sweater crazy right?

Yarn Along - Around and around and around

Around and around and around and yet not getting anywhere.  Well, at least, that's how I feel about knitting my Branches and Buds sweater at the moment.  So much stockinette knit at a fine gauge on US 4 /  3.5 mm needles is slow going.  I positively flew through the yoke with it's stranded knitting of the branch pattern as it was so fun to see the pattern emerge, but now I'm left with stockinette and a little 2 x 2 ribbing.  Sigh.  I knit up one of the sleeves to break up the monotony of  knitting the body, but it too was stockinette so it wasn't much in the way of variety.  I am dying to block it and sew on the buds in the beautiful golden yarn I have chosen.  Pretty sure the sweater is going to be lovely and having tried it on twice I think it's going to fit well too.  The dark navy blue I believe is part of my problem.  You see the weather here in Central Minnesota has been very dark and gray and it has me craving the color I find lacking in my landscape.  This is the sweater I am wanting to cast on in hopes of getting to wear it this Spring.  It calls for Cobasi Plus yarn which I have in the most beautiful shade of indigo blue.  I'm excited about the pattern and trying out a new to me yarn, but I'm pushing it down until I finish my current sweater.  At least so far...

As for reading again I have no book of my own, but instead will share with you a book I'm reading to my ten year old called The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill.  You may recognize the author from this previous post where I wrote about another of her books called The Girl Who Drank The Moon.  This story is a bit darker, but again has a boy, Ned, and a girl, Aine, as our main characters.  At first their lives are separate, but they soon become intertwined in the effort to save the world from magic.  Ned's mother is the town witch who uses the magic for good and Aine's father is the Bandit King and uses the magic to rob and steal.  What's interesting is the magic has a mind of it's own and has major consequences when used.  It starts with us just being concerned about Aine and Ned's families and then expands to us to hoping they stop a war between their two countries.  My son loved it and highly recommends it.

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.   

The Best Laid Plans

Simply Shetland Lambswool and Cashmere yarn.  I love the rich colorways.

Ah, it's always interesting when your actions counter your intentions.  When I talked about my fiber budget in this post I mentioned my local yarn store that's closing and liquidating it's stock.  Well, I went back to purchase some Jamiesons Shetland DK (my absolute favorite yarn brand as Shetland is so durable) with which to make a sweater for my mother, Miss Rachel's Yoke by Kate Davies to be exact (although I intend to steek it and make the pullover into a cardigan), when I saw some other yarn by Simply Shetland (an off shoot of Jamiesons) that was 50% off.  It was Jamiesons attempt to make a more luxury yarn by mixing Shetland with Cashmere.  But what pulled me in so completely was the beautiful colors - especially the yellow curry shade.  I decided right there and then to make the same sweater as I'm making my mom but as a the intended pullover for me.  It was a heck of a steal for such wonderful yarn, and I'm still within my yearly budget, but I certainly did not plan on this purchase.

I have sold some more items, mainly the leftovers to my knitted toy business as well as some yarn, needles and project bags, to help boost my budget back up, but I'm at the halfway point and only 3 weeks into the year.  Sigh.  I really need to stay away from temptation and focus on what I already have.  I feel there are so many temptations and people enabling others to purchase more, but not many on the other side.  Is it just an aspect of our consumerist culture that acquiring is always good?  I saw this on Instagram the other day and it made me feel so good that someone was taking such time and care to renew something old instead of just tossing it.  I want to be that type of person.  I've always loved the saying "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without." but it really is difficult when the new is so inexpensive and readily accessible.  This really goes into the idea of Slow Fashion, which I think knitting can be a part of, but it can also so easily be about consuming too. If your interested in Slow Fashion there is a great conversation on Instagram started by Karen Templer of Fringe Supply Company.  

It seems to come down to making conscious choices.  So, I will redouble my efforts about really thinking about my purchases and sticking within my fiber budget.  Do you have any techniques for sticking to a budget or goal?    

A Fiber Budget

My now more organized yarn stash.

To buy or not to buy that is the question.  This year I am on a fiber budget to help curb my impulse control and overspending.  It was a joint decision between my husband and I that we need to be more aware of our spending.  Surprisingly, so far I'm finding having a budget is comforting.  What?  Yup, I said comforting.  For instance, my local yarn store is closing (the proprietor wants to retire so good for her, sad for me) thus she is liquidating everything in her store.  I could go crazy shopping, but with the budget that has to last the whole year, multiple fiber events and holiday gift making I simply can't if I'm going to keep my sanity.  So, instead of grabbing anything and everything that suits my fancy I actually mapped out a few projects and took stock of the yarn and needles I already have before purchasing.  And you know what?  I only bought what I planned for and no more.  Wow!  That has never happened to me.  I always come away with something I didn't plan on.  It felt really good to be in control, like really good.

I'm also finding myself figuring out how can I add to my budget.  This has me sorting through my yarn stash, needles, project bags and thinning out what I don't really love.  Basically, I guess I'm simply de-cluttering.  Then, I'm selling those items I've culled with the proceeds going back into my yarn budget.  Thus far I have paid for a class and the teachers dinner for my local fiber fair called Yarnover with these proceeds so my budget hasn't even gone down that much.  Now, this probably won't work for next year, but it is helping ease me into budget life with the added benefit of being more organized.

Since I do have enough yarn for years of future knitting projects, ahem, I am thinking I will save most of my budget for classes, events and experiences.  In Minnesota we have Yarnover and Shepard's Harvest in the Spring and the Fall Fiber Festival in Autumn.  They all have classes and lots of local fiber vendors.  I'm hoping to learn more about Fair Isle knitting from Mary Jane Mucklestone in her class Fresh Fair Isle at Yarnover as well as how to use a knitting belt used by the people of the Shetland Isles from June Hemmons Hiatt at the Yarnover teacher's dinner.  Both I think will be money well spent as they are based on key interests of mine.  

Well, it's only January so I'm still feeling pretty optimistic about this whole Fiber Budget idea.  I'll check back in with you on this subject in the coming months to let you know how it's going.  Do you have a fiber budget?  What helps keep you on track?  I'd love to hear from you.

Yarn Along - Hats for Women's March

You've probably heard about the Women's March on Washington, but have you heard of the Pussyhat Project?  It's a lamentable name I think, but the idea is to give the marchers a striking presence that cannot be ignored so they can better be heard.  Being a knitter I thought this was a great way for me to contribute.  My friend is flying to Washington DC to be part of the March so I am sending a hat along with her as well as another two for friends participating right here in Minnesota for our own Women's March.  You can find the very simple pattern and more about the project right here.   I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Mopsy aran weight yarn in the Orchid Queen colorway.  It's a wonderful yarn to knit with very round and squishy and blooms beautifully when blocked.  I made a few changes to the pattern which can be found in my Ravelry project page.

Photobombed by my son when taking a project photo.

So, that's what has occupied my knitting time.  As for reading I currently don't have a book of my own, but I will share with you the book I am reading to my son.  It's called The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill who is a Minnesota author (I have just a wee bit of state pride I guess.)  It is a very lovely almost poetic story of a girl who becomes in-magicked by the moon when she is rescued as a baby by a kind witch.  There is a loving swamp monster, a tiny but enormous dragon, an evil witch as well a a kind one, and a sad village.  There is triumph as well as loss, but the balance is so well done that you never despair.  I first heard of it from Laura of The Knit Girllls podcast.  She is a Middle School Librarian as well as an avid knitter.  Their show is mainly about knitting, but they have a segment where they discuss what they're reading and often Laura is reading kid/teen books for her job which she reviews.  

I'm joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.  Wishing you a wonderful rest of your week!

Frogging, Finishing and Starting Fresh

These are my favorite knitting project bags.  

Star Trek and Hobbit are by Stitched by JessaLu and the British Telephone Box is by Zigzag Stitches.

I started in December re-accessing my knitting WIP's as there were many which left me feeling weighed down.  They took up room, filled every project bag I own, and inhibited my starting anything new.  I had heard a quote that went something along these lines "If I can stand to stop knitting on a project, it is probably not something I really truly want."  Sadly, I don't remember where I heard it or the exact wording, but the sentiment is right.  It got me thinking about how we sometimes really do need to let go to make space for something even better.  I, like many of you I'm sure, get wrapped up in the amount of time I've already given that item and feel it's all for naught if I don't finish it.  Well, if you look at it from a different perspective, that item, while not completed, has already brought me excitement in the planning process and casting on, comfort in the actual knitting and possibly it has even given me practice at some new skills.  So, it wasn't a wasted effort, but maybe more of a pastime until the right project comes my way.  You know the type of project I'm talking of, the one you can't put down, that seems to knit itself, or that is just what you needed to complete your wardrobe.

Thus a frogging I went through all my project bags.  A couple of scarves here, a beautiful yet too small mitten there, a brioche poncho, a gorgeous sleeveless top and others met there end to my ripping back the yarn.  But isn't that the lovely thing about knitting though?  That you can reuse the yarn (well unless it's mohair then you might just be stuck throwing it out.)  I do think it's the reason I've stopped stressing as much over my knitting.  When yarn is recoverable to make anew with, unless it's the aforementioned mohair, the "risk" of wasting money is slight and that eases my mind.  The only thing truly gone is your time and as I mentioned previously that's really all in how you look at it. 

Now, looking at the projects I am carrying over into this new year I find they are ones I really do want.  The double knit mittens to match the hat I already finished and wear all the time, 2 sweaters that will add to my wardrobe, a stole which is such a perfect match for it's yarn, a pair of vanilla socks as I always take some with me as my on the go project, a late Christmas gift scarf (it's a bit of a boring knit, but the recipient can sure use it) and lastly a cowl out of the remainder of my handspun yarn.  So yes, there are still quite a number of projects crossing over into the new year.  I am not a monogamous knitter by any means, yet I do hope to get back down to only 3 projects at a time:  socks, sweater, and a neck or home accessory.  Thus, I am hoping to restrain myself from casting on anything new until a few more WIP's have become FO's. 

So, while I have no fresh cast on with which to begin the new year I feel as if I am starting fresh with my freshly sorted WIP's and future plans.  Now, on to re-accessing the yarn stash which is due for a good tossing.  How do you start the new year with regards to knitting?

Yarn Along - First Finished Object of the Year

Well, I did get what I wanted for Christmas, but not what I wanted for New Year's.  Instead of starting out the New Year with the intentions I wrote about in my last post, I started the year with a stomach virus and all the ickiness that goes along with that sort of sickness.  I'm simply going to call this a false start and begin again this coming weekend when hopefully we are all back to our normal selves, because, of course, it hit all three of us.  Only our poor black lab Easy escaped unscathed, unwalked sadly, but at least healthy with lots of family snuggle time.

I did manage to finish a knitting project as I was only half a dozen rows from completion.  Doing a couple rows a day in-between bouts of discomfort and 3 days later my first finished object of the year is done.  It's yet another, albeit now the last, set of 4 Cozy Coasters by Joelle Hoverson from her book More Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  I used Frog Tree Sport Melange Alpaca yarn held double and US 9/5.5mm needles to make a 4 inch/10 cm square, which I found to be a better size for our mugs than the much smaller size the pattern as written creates.  They will be the first addition to the knitted Christmas Gifts box for 2017 making them the absolute earliest knitted Christmas gift I ever completed which tickles me to no end.  The fact that I finally used up the yarn I purchased nearly four year's ago is just icing on the cake as the saying goes.

As for reading, this being Yarn Along and all, I just finished Sheepish:  Two Women, Fifty Sheep and Enough Wool to Save the Planet  by Catherine Friend.  I borrowed it from the Library on a whim and was I delighted with a wonderful story!  It's about a woman whose partner rather drags her into becoming a sheep farmer, the trials of being a writer and full time farmer and her finally understanding "Fiber Freaks" as she calls them in the beginning of the book.  It was a nice mix of reality (the romance of having my own sheep is now utterly gone), humor (animals are funny after all) and journey of discovery.  The fun fact that their farm is only a few hours from where I live was such an added treat to discover while reading, that we may actually go visit if they still do tours.  

Hopefully your beginning to 2017 went the way of your heart's desire and you are all healthy and well.  Are you finishing old projects or starting the year afresh?  I 'd love to hear all about it!

Intentions for 2017

It's Friday night and I am home writing as I sit in my favorite chair, "Mama's chair" as it's called 'round our house.  Everyone respects this, well, everyone except for the dog that is, but she readily moves when I want my spot back so I forgive her transgression.  This is where I do most of my creative work, that being mainly knitting with a little writing thrown in too.  Blogging though has been far from my thoughts for some time now.  I tried a quick stint at video podcasting this past summer to perk my creative juices, and while fun it was quite a lot more work than I can regularly fit into my days.  It was an attempt to give myself some joy and something to look forward too.  You see, like many others I had a pretty stressful, awful 2016 where I just didn't have the wherewithal to share my joy of knitting with all that was going on in our lives and world.  Now that the new year is just around the bend I find myself wanting to put my intentions for 2017 into the world.  Figuring, probably naively, that if I set my intentions for the new year in print, give it my focus, they might actually come to fruition.  So hear goes.

I intend to make more family together time.  We have a very small house so we are usually all together within sight and talking range, but most often we are parallel playing as in we are each doing our own thing.  I'm wanting to add simple activities like read aloud story time, a movie night, a game night, family walk and park times where all three of us, four is you count our dog Easy, are focusing on the same thing.  Where I put down my knitting and my son and husband walk away for their individual games or books and we enjoy each other.  

I intend to be successful in my endeavors.  By this I mean slowing down enough to create items of quality in my knitting, house upkeep and homeschooling.  I often find myself rushing to finish, usually short-cutting some element or someone along the way.  2016 was a year of frogging most of my knitting, partially finished home projects and a lot of homeschool angst between me and my son.  So, I will slow down this year, take each thing as it comes and try my best.

I intend to take care of myself mind and body.  I do well about caring for my mental health and have a good support network set up.  But my body I abuse.  I simply don't move enough as my favorite activities of reading and knitting are sedentary.  This Christmas my back had had enough and my muscles seized up on one side landing me in bed on ice for much of the Holiday.   It was a bit of a wake up call.  I won't make any lofty goals, but will simply break up my day with stretches and try to get myself out walking more.

I intend to keep up with my friendships.  In general I have a tendency towards holing up at home as often going out seems too difficult.  This is an aspect of my depression where I need to push myself to go see people.  I will then have a lovely time with them, but the getting there can be hard.  So, my friends, bless them, might not see me for long spurts of time.  This year I will make a better effort of seeing them all regularly and not let excuses get in the way.

Really the underlying theme in all of these intentions is slowing down.  Which part of me finds funny as we're not exactly living in the fast lane, and yet we haven't learned to make time for stillness.  That resting and reflecting are just as important as action.  I use the word intention as I find setting a definite goal is an easy road to failure for me which leads to depression, which leads to everything going off the rails.  My husband taught me years ago that instead of saying "Today I will paint the bathroom." say "Today I will work on painting the bathroom."  Small difference, but in the first if I don't finish painting I have failed.  Whereas in the second if I do any little thing towards the painting of the bathroom I am a success.  So, I encourage you, if you're so inclined, to make "intentions" for the new year instead of "resolutions" or "goals".  Then, now this is the important part, pat yourself on the back every time you make some effort towards those intentions.  After all, we all need to be kinder and gentler with ourselves. 
Happy New Year everyone!

Simply Playing Podcast Episode 2 - Where Sheep Take Over My Life

Introduction:

Hi this is Ann.  Welcome to episode 2 on my new knitting podcast called Simply Playing.  I'm so glad you could make it!

Playing with Sicks and String (or current knitting projects)

Pattern:  Cozy Coasters by Joelle Hoverson from the book More Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn:  Frog Tree Melange 100% Alpaca Sport Weight Yarn (held double)  (This yarn is discontinued)
Needles:  Knitter's Pride Metal US 9/5.5mm DPNs

Pattern:  Viajante by Martina Behm available as a Ravelry download
Yarn:  Madelinetosh Twist Light 75 % Superwash Merino 25% Nylon 4 ply Fingering Weight in Candlewick colorway
Needles:  Chiaogoo US 3/3.25mm and US 5/3.75mm fixed metal circulars

Show and Tell (or finished objects)

Pattern:  Felted Tote Bag by Yvonne Eyer (not on Ravelry but received as a class handout)
Yarn:  Cascade 220 100% Wool Worsted Weight (held double) in the colorways: Navy, Straw,  Lemon, and Natural
Used:  1 skein each of the Straw, Lemon and Natural and a skein plus some of Navy for a total of 1009 yards/922 meters
Needles:  Clover Bamboo US 11/8mm and US 13/9mm straight and fixed circular needles

Pattern:  Sheep! by Susan B. Anderson available as a Ravelry download
Yarn:  Shetland Oatmeal handspun, Cloudborn Fibers Highland DK in Charcoal and Oatmeal Heather and Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Candlewick
Used:  Fair Isle Sheep 75 yards/68 meters, Textured Sheep 66 yards/60 meters and Loopy Sheep 91 yards/83 meters for a total of 232 yards/212 meters
Needles:  Knitter's Pride Wood US 4/3.5mm DPNs

Forgotten Toys (or languishing works in progress)

Pattern:  Fair Isle Vest by Mary Jane Mucklestone purchased as part of a Craftsy Class
Yarn:  Cloudborn Fibers Highland DK in 9 colorways

• Espresso Heather (dark brown)
• Maize Heather (yellow)
• Oatmeal Heather (natural)
• Burgundy (red)
• Navy
• Sky Blue (very light blue)
• Dolphin Blue (light blue)
• Stormy Skies (medium blue)
• Autumn Heather (orange)     

Needles:  Knitters Pride Wooden US 3/3.25mm and US 5/3.75mm interchangeable circulars
Project Bag:  Stitched by Jessalu Large Wedge in Star Trek 2 Generations Fabric

The Toy Box (or a visit into the stash)

Yarn:  Rimrock 70% CVM Wool 30% Kid Mohair 3 ply Fingering Weight sold through Etsy
Company:  Roubaix Wool Company
Location:  Winterwind Farm in Battle Creek, Minnesota United States

I also mention her amazing Goat Milk Soap

Ooo Shiny!!! (or yarn and pattern distractions)

Yarn:  Ovilab Yarns - handpainted and handspun yarn sold through Etsy's new pattern by platform

Pattern:  Shrug and More by Martina Behm sold as a Ravelry download
Yarn I'd Use:  Quince and Company's Chickadee 100% Wool Sport Weight

In Closing

You can find me on Ravelry and Instagram as SimplyPlaying or
email me at annATsimplyplayingDOTnet

Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to spend with me.  I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.  Until then remember to keep playing!  Bye! Bye!

Simply Playing Podcast - Episode 1 - Pleased to Meet Me

Introduction:

Hi!  This is Ann or simplyplaying on Ravelry and Instagram.  Welcome to my new knitting podcast called Simply Playing.  I'm so glad your could make it! 

Playing with Sticks and String (or current knitting projects):

Perfectly Plain Vest by Julie Gaddy from the book Guy Knits the best of Knitter's Magazine.
Using Valley Yarns Stockbridge in the Light Gray colorway.
Knitter's Pride Interchangeable Wood Needles in US 4/3.5 mm and US 6/4 mm.

Felted Tote Bag by Yvonne Eyer (not sure where this pattern is available as I received it as a class handout)
Using Cascade 220 worsted in Navy, Straw, Lemon and Natural colorways.
Clover US 13/9mm bamboo fixed 32 inch circulars.
Clover US 11/8mm bamboo 9 inch straight needles.

Show and Tell (or finished objects):

I mention The Knit Girllls podcast and upcoming Stash Dash.

Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda Teague
Using Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Candlewick colorway.
Chiaogoo US 4/3.5mm and US 6/4mm 16 inch circular needles.

Forgotten Toys (or languishing works in progress):

Toe Up socks using a 3 x 1 rib over 64 stitches.
Afterthought Heel Socks pattern by Laura Linneman.
Using TurtlePurl's Turtletoes in the OM colorway.
Chiaogoo US 1/2.25mm 16inch circular needles (2 circular sock method)
Boxy Bag project bag by ZigZag Stitches.

The Toy Box (or a visit into the stash):

Clara Yarn CVM/Romeldale 2.0 fingering weight 2 ply yarn.
In Aborio (cream) and Rye (oatmeal) colorways
About 425 yards/388 meters per 100 gram skein.

I hope to knit Joji Locatelli's Baby Garter Stitch Kimono, Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap by Gro and some as yet to be determined baby booties for my immediate neighbor who is having a baby in October of this year.

Ooo SHINY! (or yarn and pattern distractions)

First off WEBS anniversary sale.  Need I say more?  Yikes!

Liberty Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne from Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines book.  It uses Berroco Ultra Alpaca worsted weight yarn which is in WEBS anniversary sale for such a good price.  I would have used the Indigo Mix (navy blue) and Winter White (cream) colorways.  Sigh.  Knitting a blanket in the summer - who am I kidding!

Qwist Mitts by Melanie Berg - vickyness' version of gloves!  Very dreamy.
I'd use Malabrigo Finito in the Anal colorway exclusive to Amazing Threads in Maplegrove MN which I actually have in stash.  (I don't know if "exclusive" means they are the only ones in Minnesota or in the US)

Bye! Bye!

I hope you enjoyed watching me work my way through my knitting past, present and future.  If there is anything you'd like to hear about let me know at annATsimplyplayingDOTnet.  Thanks so much for taking some time out of your day to spend with me.  I greatly appreciate it.  Bye! Bye!

Note:  Title Please to Meet Me is in reference to a Replacements album - an awesome Minnesota band from the 1980's.  Yes, I've just dated myself ;)  Give them a listen and rock out a little.

A Long Hiatus

Knitting myself a new felted purse.  Can you tell I have a navy blue crush?

Hello.  I am back from a long unexpected hiatus.  You see sometime back in February during the cold Minnesota winter I injured myself while shoveling snow.  At least I believe that's what started the bout of tendonitis I am currently experiencing in my forearms.  I was shoveling our driveway when my arms shouted "enough already!".  Figuring I probably overexerted myself I stopped shoveling,  but I didn't give much thought to my arms other then noting they would probably take a few days to recover.

Well, my arms didn't get any better.  I managed to deny anything was really wrong for weeks until both my arms got worse to the point where they hurt badly while I was knitting.  Again, still thinking this was simply a case of overuse I took a week off from knitting anything at all.  Doesn't sound hard right?  Well frankly, I was in tears by the end of the week and my arms still hurt.  All the advice I got both professional, internet and friendly was to not use my arms to give them time to heal.  And I tried again not knitting or doing anything non essential with the result being more tears and still aching arms.  

Since I have pretty serious depression I go to counseling regularly as part of my management program.  As this not knitting regime was affecting my mood so significantly it came up during session. I not only found out my counselor also has tendonitis in her forearms, but she has an active way of managing it with massage therapy.  She promptly gave me the name of her massage therapist who I rapidly made an appointment to go see.  

My visit was very beneficial.  The therapist agreed it was a pretty classic case of tendonitis and proceeded to give my arms a massage.  This was not a pleasant relaxing massage.  On the contrary, it was rather a painful experience.  But after a few days of feeling very sore I started feeling notably better to the point where I could knit again.  Not for very long at first, but with each subsequent visit to the masseuse my knitting is feeling better and better.  It has been such a relief I tell you.  I was starting to wonder there what the heck I was going to do with my time if I didn't knit.

I'm not back up to my regular knitting speed/endurance yet, but at least now I can feel the improvement happening.  Which has me back to doing some planning (Stash Dash anyone?) and now blogging as well.  I'll catch you all up on everything next post.  

Have a great week everyone! 

May The Force be With You

Being a Star Wars fan since the original movie was released in the 1970's I simply had to knit The Force Awakens Hat pattern by Mrs. Luedeke when it popped up on Ravelry.  It's a free pattern, but I would have paid for it.  It's a fair isle stranded knit hat with a band of Empire Tie fighters, a band of wording (which I left off as my husband didn't care for it) and a band of crossed light sabers and Storm Trooper helmets.  There was also some fair isle patterning in between the motif bands which I left out or replaced.   You can see my mods and notes here.  It's a fast knit which I found very enjoyable.  My husband loved it and has seriously been wearing it ever since - even inside the house (hmm, maybe I should turn up the heat?)  He has a Star Wars buddy a work who oddly is not another computer geek like himself, but a woman in the HR department (now, that might seem a bit sexist of me, but really the odds are clearly in the computer geek sector don't you think?)  Anyway, she flipped when she saw the hat, and since it's a fun fast knit I told her I'd make her one too.  She did give my son an R2-D2 kitchen timer after all ;)  So, the gray version is my hubbies and the blue in progress one is for his Star Wars buddy.  Now, my son Sam wants one too to match his dad.  Good thing I like the pattern huh?

As for books, I'm on to reading book two of the Percy Jackson series The Sea of Monsters to my son.  We're really enjoying it thus far.  This time around instead of stopping a World War Percy must save Camp Half Blood, the only spot on earth safe for the half blood children of the gods.  No small task.  This week I'm even squeezing in some time for my own reading and since my interests are turning towards Minimalism that's exactly what I'm reading about.  Minimalism, live a meaningful life by Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus.  I like parts of it and not others.  To risk sounding sexist again it's a little bit single male in tone, but they are guys without wives or kids so what do I expect? Actually, I'm noticing a lot of minimalists seem to be men.  Not sure why, but now I'm on the look out for some Minimalism books by women.  If you know good one leave the title in the comments would ya?  Thanks and I hope you're all having a great week!

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

A Wee Break

I needed a break from my Banded Turtleneck as the sleeves are giving me trouble and thus annoying me to no end.  So, I turned to my bin of WIPs and picked out one I thought I could actually complete in a short time and came up with the above Arika cowl by Jane Richmond.  It's very much like wearing a poncho without all the bulk.  There are two yarn strands used to "create" a bulky weight yarn in my version as I had no bulky yarn that the pattern calls for when beginning this project.  The first strand is Flax Down by Purl Soho which consists of Alpaca, Merino and Linen fibers and is so light and s-o-f-t.  The second strand is Tilli Tomas's Raw Silk 100% silk sport weight yarn. The effect of the two shades of yellow I find very pleasing as it creates more depth of texture.  Tying on all the fringe was fun and it does go all the way around the back in case you were wondering.  A very satisfying knitting project, but oddly too fast as I am not ready to go back to my sweater just yet.  Maybe it's time to go back to the WIP pile or cast on something new?

As for reading my son and I are still enjoying The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan.  It's the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series and it really does hook you in as a first book should.  I'm hoping to finish reading it today to find out who was the instigator behind it all.  As for adult reading, I have been reading mainly on lots of blogs/websites lots about Minimalism.  We are wanting to downsize to a smaller home and as I go along in the process of shedding possessions I need some inspiration to keep me going.  Theses guys are my favorite.  I'm writing about our process to live better with less on my other blog called Small Simple Dreams.

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Turtleneck With a Capital "T"

The past few days have me cruising along on my Banded Turtleneck sweater by Kathy Merrick.  And, when I say turtleneck I mean TURTLENECK!  Wow, did it come out big!  Even when I made it a whole two inches shorter than specified in the pattern.  What do you think?  Is it too much?  I'll definitely be warm wearing it and with the sub zero Fahrenheit temps we've been having in Minnesota I better hurry up and finish it.  The body and neck are completed and I only have the arms left to knit.  Will see how it goes, but so far it's slow as increasing while keeping in pattern I find a bit difficult. 

I noticed something while knitting the arms that I find dismaying and humorous at the same time.  Look at the above swatch and see if you can see it.  In the first row of blue there are squares of the oatmeal colored yarn and on the top blue band there are dashes.  Now, the first is correct and the second is not.  So, which row style did I knit the whole sweater in so far?  The dashes of course!  Yup, I just glazed over that row in the chart over and over and over again.  There is really nothing wrong with changing the pattern, but I do prefer the look of the squares to the dashes. With so much already completed though, the dashes with continue on the arms as well.

My son and I finished the Blackwell Pages' last book Thor's Serpents by K.L. Armstrong and have moved on from the Norse Gods too reading about the Greek Gods in the hugely popular Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan.  We are on book 1 The Lightning Thief and enjoying it thus far.  It's a bit sillier, faster paced and more humorous than the Blackwell series which I think I preferred, but it's a bit too early to judge.  I gave my son the DVD of the movie based on this book as a treat to watch after we finish reading the book.  What books are you reading now?

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along