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.

Baby Steps

 

The Crazy Quilt sandwhich has been unceremoniously dumped in the sewing room because.....

...the big table in the dining area is still occupied. There's no way I can quilt that big thing in my teeny tiny sewing room. I thought for sure The Mister would have this puzzle done by the time I got home from my babysitting gig but nope. It's a hard one. We've both been working on it and getting nowhere.

That might have been a good thing after all as I am still unsure how to go about quilting it. When I made the blocks I had one leftover. I'm not sure how that happened but it did and that turned out to be a good thing because....

....I can take my pile of leftover fabric and that orphaned block and make two placemats, some mug rugs and a couple of hot pads out of them so I can experiment with thread color and quilting patterns before I tackle the big quilt itself. With dreary March on the way, some Kaffe Fassett in my kitchen sounds like a really good idea.

Chillin'

 

Ta da......Mr. Chill is finished. I should be happy about it but I really enjoyed working on him. I'm going to miss him.

Here's a peek at his....um, backside. 

If you are wondering what's going to happen to him, I'm planning on doing the same thing with Mr. Chill that I did with Rainbow Kitty when I finished him in 2023. Nothing. They live in a cabinet with a glass door so I can see them but that's it. There's no way I'd use them as actual rugs. They could be pillows but I'm not talented that way. I'd make a mess of them.

Now Spiral Chicken is on the frame again. Maybe this will be her year too. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

This is the sign the county puts on the door of your house after a tree has fallen through it. It's not my house. It's the house across the street. Last night, while The Mister and I were sleeping in our lower level because of those terrible winds, a very large unwelcome visitor took off the back of their house including their beautiful sunroom. I wish I could tell you that there were no inuries but I don't know. There's no one around to ask. The entire neighborhood is hunkered down from fear of those horrible swaying trees above us. Every time the wind blows I curse whoever thought it was a good idea to leave poplars so close to the houses. 

Needless to say, I spent yesterday downstairs again even though the wind had died down a bit. I hadn't stitched a thing all week but I did get more border done on the Christmas Cactus and a few more branches finished on both sides while I listened to Dateline podcasts.

I watched Bette Davis fight Nazis on my Chromebook while I worked on the bottom border of the Swedish Folk Cushion. 

Babysitting plus bathroom remodeling plus wind didn't leave me much stitching time this week but I did finish two more Patchwork of the Crosses blocks and get another one ready to go before the wind made working in my upstairs sewing room a worrisome prospect. 

For a brief second upstairs I worked on Dear Jane getting one of the HST blocks sewn together. I rushed it so it's a bit wonkier than I would like but no complaints here. Even though I've had to hide out downstairs, at least I have a whole house above me. So far. 

Well, Blow Me Down...

 

It didn't take me hardly any time to get that cuff back where I had it before. A rainy and very windy day was all I needed. Even The Mister was convinced it was best to stay put. 

When the wind started blowing hard enough to convince me to go to the lower level, I picked up this abandoned project that was in the corner of the downstairs craft room. We have not been on speaking terms since I put that punch needle halfway through one of my fingers a while back.

I feel like I need a tetanus shot every time I pick it up but I was bored so I thought I would once again try to crack the code. Everyone says the key is to get your yarn, your needle and your fabric right in order for it to work so I tried some leftover Palette with some evenweave and voila....I think I've got it. Even better, no fingers were harmed in the making of this particular mug rug. 

Stormy Weather

 

Yesterday was the start of a really nasty weekend weather-wise. It was a sit on the couch and knit kind of day so I finished the second toe on the Felici twins. I have no idea why but I always get ladders up the sides of my Felici socks. They will usually block out after a few washings but they always leave me annoyed. 

To celebrate the finish I started another pair using one of the 8 ply sock yarns. At first I had misgivings about it. That thick yarn and those bigger needles just seemed wrong but after a few inches my hands adjusted and we're all good now. 

Then disaster struck. I was celebrating the finish of the second corrugated sleeve ribbing when I noticed.....that I had left out the middle green section. Argh....ripping it all back was no fun but it's all safe and sound on the needles again and today, since it's another rainy day, I just might get that cuff finished-again. 

And....I ate the very last of the Christmas fruitcake as I watched the rain melt away the snow. They are calling for more next week but I never believe it until I see it.