Wednesday WIPs

 

The 8 ply twins are past the fussy heel stage. 

While I was waiting for the yarn match for the sweater, I started a colorwork sock. I've never had any luck with the fit of a colorwork sock but that didn't stop me from trying again. 

From now on this will be known as the Goldilocks hat. First it was too big, then it was too small so it's seen a lot of trips to the frog pond this week. I'm thinking this time it might be just right. I sure hope so. I don't think this wonky handspun can take much more ripping. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday and a Little Sunlight

 

There was absolutely nothing very interesting happening here tiny needle-wise this week. I've been waiting for this to show up. I was going to get it started yesterday but The Mister designated it Do Our Taxes Day so nothing but that got accomplished. 

The BIG news is that this arrived. Unbelievably, someone was selling it on eBay of all places...

...and what was even more unbelievable was that is was indeed a match. I had no idea what color my sad little pile of yarn actually was and took a chance on some Sunlight that paid off.  I can't thank all of you enough for your suggestions and stash diving on my behalf. I really had no idea Knit Picks even had discontinued Palette colors and that's sad because this is a particularly useful color when doing colorwork. 

Now I'm afraid to go look in the box where I keep my in-progress Chestnut. Bon Amie was just a test knit to see if my steeking will work on the main event which is this one. Chestnut may have to go from a pullover to a vest if there are more discontinued colors in that box. I can't possibly be this lucky more than once.

Claiming My Space

 

The big dining table is mine again. The Mister has been banished back downstairs. I did buy him a new paint by number to make up for taking his puzzle space. 

I will be tackling the Big Crazy Thing soon but for the next couple of days I'll be working on these placemats and hot pads to work up my courage. 

I've been practicing Angela Walter's feather meandering on them and it's not going too badly on the smaller pieces. I doubt I can pull this off on the big quilt since dragging it around on the machine is pretty awkward but I just may give it a try anyway. I've become an expert on picking out bad stitches.

It's Too Easy Being Green

 

It was 60 degrees here yesterday so The Mister and I had a puzzle finishing marathon. We were both tired of looking at the ski village and I need the table for the Juki so I can quilt that big Crazy Thing. We did indeed finish the thing and I should be setting up the Juki today.

I had the Juki in use last week adding more quilting to the little quilt I wanted for the back of the couch in March. I had never quilted the white sashing and it looked puffy and wrong so I did a quick loop de loop down it and now it does look much better. 

My house has now gone from Valentine's day red and pink to green. I even had to dig out my old green Crocs. What I don't seem to have are any green socks. I might need to remedy that. 

And along with Nancy in Wyoming.....

The First

 

Ta da....the first of the crocus blooms has appeared. There's no going back now. Spring has sprung. Even a bit of graupel, as March snow is called, won't stop it now. 

Another sure sign is an invasion from the north. You can see the chevrons and hear the constant honking as the geese make their way back to their nesting grounds which unhappily for us is the local marina. 

They make an unbelievable mess on the grounds every spring and every spring the city tries ways to discourage them. This year they've "planted" all these little fox statues to scare the geese off but those geese in my photo are just a few feet from this guy. I don't think Foxy is going to have what it takes but he is awfully cute. Just look at that fluffy tail.

Friday Fluff: Better Late Than Never

 

I should have done this at the beginning of winter instead of the beginning of spring but I've turned my little spinning corner into a spinning/handspun knitting nook. 

The Garter Squish blanket has always been there but now it's joined by another pair of Thermal Mitts in progress and.....

....a soon to be cast on Pi Shawl using EZ's basic pattern from her almanac. In a week of crafting craziness it feels good to go back to things I've knit before using some of that ever growing pile of handspun. Now I can get that beautiful Cormo/Silk on the Ladybug spun without feeling a bit guilty about it. 

The Curse Part 2

 

I hate when the Wolf Pup is sitting empty. It takes up a big chunk of my living area so to justify it, I need to be using it but I'm not. The scarf that was on it is no more. I hated it, The Mister hated it so it's history. 

I still wanted to make him a scarf so I went stash diving for some wild and crazy sock yarn. The Mister likes wild and crazy and this hand painted merino should have done it but.....

....it wasn't enough so I added in stripes of color using some sock yarn that had been in the stash for years. Years. Like more than twenty. Maybe thirty. It all looked great while I was winding the warp until I noticed that this old sock yarn was coming apart. It was fraying and breaking. You can't weave with that, so off it all came. It was the third time this week I had tried and failed to get something else going on the loom. At this point there were some very big emotions going on. 

On my fourth attempt at stash diving, I spied this. It's my leftovers from the Audun throw. These were the ugly colors that didn't make the cut so.....

....I took those little balls of ugly acrylic and starting mindlessly winding them. I didn't even care what came of this project. I just needed to be doing something. The next morning I decided I didn't want a scarf that looked like something an 8th grader made in Home Ec class so off it went. 

Finally, for my 5th attempt in a week,  I've decided to go back to what I know. I made this towel ages ago but never liked the colors and really wanted to try the plaid modification that you see behind it in the basket. 

So I pulled out some spring colors and started doing the math to make it fit my smaller loom. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Wednesday WIPs

 

This has been a terrible week for all things crafty. It started with the broken needle and went downhill from there. I did get the heel flaps on the 8 ply twins but I'm afraid to go any further because I think I've been cursed. 

When I say I've been in tears this week over pretty much every project I've got going, I am not exaggerating. I know in a world full of woe a bit of crafting drama is childish to carry on about but just look at that. I'm out of the pale yellow for the second sleeve and the yarn I thought was its replacement is anything but. This is Palette and Knit Picks doesn't have a lighter yellow anymore. I ordered several other brands of fingering weight yarn in light yellow to see if I can come up with something closer but it's not looking good. 

And...what should have been an easy peasy mindless bit of knitting, the hat I'm making from my merino handspun is also giving me very bad vibes. I think it's going to be too big. I did indeed swatch but that doesn't seem to matter when the math isn't mathing. I won't even get started on what's happening on the loom today. I'm saving that sad tale until tomorrow. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Say hej då (goodbye) to the Swedish Folk stitching project. Its month is up and I'm not exactly feeling sad about it. There was a lot more ripping out than there was stitching this week.

Ditto for the Christmas Cactus. I'll see it again next January. I had to rip out and re-stitch the top in order to get those white motifs in the right place. There's more leaves than there were last week but none of them were drama free either.  I've got something new for spring on the way. Something easy. I hope. 

At least the applique work is behaving. I have 17/25 done now. Eight to go. 

Dear Jane is getting closer to being an actual block. I've got the two sections together and now I have to join them but I'm being a big sissy about it. It was a lot of work up to this point and my stitching juju has been off kilter this week. I think it will just sit in time out for a few more days. 

So This Happened

 

There's no worse feeling than knitting along and then realizing that your stitches are no longer on your cables. I've had it happen with lace, with colorwork and now with a sock. Luckily I had another needle in the same size or I would have been a lot more hopping mad than I was. 

This also happened yesterday. We spent the morning clearing all the winter debris off of all the things that are sprouting up all over the place. We've got temperatures near 50 and plenty of sun all week so it was time to see what was going on under all the dead stuff. It's a good thing we looked because there was plenty going on everywhere. 

We were outside working in just our shirts but when we took Pup down to the marina for a walk we spied the fire department's big rescue boat breaking up ice along the docks. There was still a thick coat of it in the calmer waters of the inlet and the day fishermen were having a time getting their boats out on such a nice day. I wouldn't exactly say spring has sprung right yet but it's getting pretty darn close. 

Duck, Duck, Goose

 

It's been so cold here that the seagulls have been ice skating on the bay but warmer weather is on the way I hear. 

Last weekend we were on a walk on the railway trail, a place we usually have to ourselves, when a big crowd of very excited folks with giant cameras on tripods descended upon us. 

It seems that there was a sighting of one of these unassuming little ducks. It's a Barrow's Golden Eye and apparently they are very rare in these parts. It went swimming by with a bunch of mallards, completely unaware of its celebrity status and then disappeared under the dock much to the crowd's dismay. What I'd like to know is how all those people knew it was here in the first place. So many questions.

Too Much of a Good Thing

 

I'm not spinning as much as I used to. This has been on the Ladybug for months. I work on it every now and then with no real urgency. 

Here's the reason. I pulled all this handspun just out of the nooks and crannies of the living area. I have three big bins back in the sewing room.

I've tried using it up. I'm making blankets out of it. I've made lots of mitts and socks but it never makes a dent in the stash.

I cast on a hat with some of it yesterday. Out of shame. 

As much as I love my Ladybug and my Ashfords, I need to make this my primary spinning tool again. Wheels are just too darn efficient. 

Sugar Coated

 

We didn't get the big snowstorm they were predicting last week but we did get a dusting yesterday. 

The Mister, Pup and I went up to Daughter's for an overnight babysitting adventure and when we came home we were surprised there was any snow at all. This time The Mister got to wrangle the toddler while I did baby duty. Toddler duty is pretty easy seeing that he likes to do pretty much the same thing The Mister likes to do. 

We were both worn out yesterday but I did sort out Spiral Chicken. I was feeling pretty good about a not too distant finish until I realized that I had to do all that space outside the wavy frame too.

The designers vision has some interesting stuff happening on the outside so it might be fun to work on but it is going to take more time than I had anticipated. 

While I had Ms Chicken off of the frame I gave the needle punch a try on it. A lot of punchers use this type of frame instead of a hoop and I can see why. Much safer for the fingers. I just may have to go looking for a bigger frame for the rugs and keep this little one for other things. It's something to think about. 

Edited to add that I did indeed buy a bigger frame as soon as I finished this post. Details to follow.