Meteorological Spring

 

While The Mister played in the kitchen this weekend I tackled the items in my bin of shame. 

First Lofoten got her sleeves steeked.

The sleeves are knit together in the round and then steeked apart. Yes, it's as crazy as it sounds but it's done. 

Now I have to weave in all those ends and sew the cuff linings down before I can sew those sleeves in. Don't ask me why you need a cuff lining. I think the designer way overthought this sweater. There are a lot of steps I wish I had skipped. 

Also in the bin of shame is Tracery. I finally got the sleeves bound off together using an inside out 3 needle bind off. I still have to pick up and knit all those miles of bands but I am determined to get it and Lofoten out of the bin of shame before actual spring-which to me is always March 21. 

The Mister Makes a Cake

 

Since we hit the one year milestone yesterday we decided to go through our boxes of pandemic pantry items to see what had expired. This was close. 

The Mister wanted to eat it but I didn't. I'm not putting anything pink or sugary in my newly restored mouth. I told him if he wanted it he had to make it....and to my surprise he did. 

I stood back and watched. Everything went pretty well until it was time to get the cakes out of the pans. One stuck. There was a big hole in the middle but a little frosting would fix that. 

He turned out to be a whiz at icing. 

He took his time and got every speck out of the container. I usually lose interest halfway through, glop it on and toss the rest. 

Not bad for someone who literally can't even boil an egg or make iced tea without help. He had a big piece with dinner and called it a success. Now I have to figure out how to freeze the leftovers because I know he won't finish it anytime soon and as pretty as it looks...I'm still not tempted. 

 

One Year

 

It was one year ago today that I was last in a store doing my own shopping. The Mister and I went over to Walmart with Pup and we took turns getting what we thought we needed to survive the impending lockdown. I came out with a cart full of non-perishables and he came out with.....this. I had a good laugh about it at the time but then quickly realized we were in the deep stuff when it came to food, cleaning products and above all-toilet paper. 

Being smack in the middle of a kitchen remodel added to the problem. Without workman coming in to measure and install the counter tops the rest wasn't happening. It still hasn't but we are surviving just fine in the chaos.

On the bright side, I have had a lot of fun with my puzzles. I always had one going over at Dad's and had forgotten how much I liked them. I look forward to it everyday. This is the latest. It's another one of my tiny ones-hand for scale. 

One year. Can you believe it?

Sprung?

 

It looks like all that cold and ice didn't hurt the sprouting things one bit. 

There are lots of new things popping up all over the place and the things that had popped before that icy winter adventure seem none the worse for wear. The daffies are even budding. 

The trees seem to have gotten the message also. If you look closely you can see the buds on the branches. We'll be all in shade again soon. 

Everything is new outside do I started some new things inside too. The second mitten has been cast on and the thumb on the first mitten is done. 

My latest two-at-a-timer socks are Fiesta in Felici.

My latest Arne and Carlos Pairfect socks are the lightest of all of them-perfect for spring knitting. 

I had quite the adventure getting them started. I knit the cuff three times before I got it right. The first time it was too long. The second time it was too short. The third time I weighed all the cuff yarn, halved it and then started my long tail cast on from there. It worked. Right now I am hoping I wrote down exactly what I did because I know I won't remember. 

Thrumming Along

I always get a lot of comments asking about the thrumming process so here goes:

Before you can add your thrums to your knitting you have to make them. It starts with pulling out pencil sized lengths from whatever fiber you're using. 

Then you wrap those skinny bits around your hand and roll them together using your other hand making a loop. You take the loop you just made, lay it down and with the side of you hand roll the middle until you get a bow. 

You pull the middle of that bow through the stitch below the one you want the thrum in and then knit it together with that stitch. That locks it in place. I have never had one come loose. Not even went they went through the washer and dryer....ahem.

When you finish that round you get something that looks like a troll doll. Remember those? I still have one. 

Then you tuck in all that wild hair and knit three rows plain. You repeat all this fun until you get to the top. The thumb is an afterthought and follows the same thrum pattern. When you're all done you have a soft cloud of a mitten that is so warm and so cozy you wonder why anyone ever bothers making any other kind. 

 

Wednesday WIPs

 

I finished a lot of stuff over the weekend but I still have a lot on the needles. Festive Doodle is starting to look like a sweater. I'm about 4 inches under the arm now thanks to all that terrible weather we had last week. 

I am on the hem of Altheda. It's a 3 inch garter stitch hem so it's slow going. It puts me to sleep.

The Mosi mitten I knit on that 9 inch circular is a huge success-well, minus the pointy top. I've never been a fan of the pointy top mitten but I have to say it does fit my fingers very nicely. The afterthought thumb was also a big success. It's not quite done yet but it will be soon. I hate the fiddlyness of small circumference colorwork so I am taking my sweet time with it. Now I have to work up the interest to make the second one. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

The second little reindeer is done and the winter patchwork sampler is getting packed up for the season. I'll do the border next winter.

I'm putting my energy into the green grass of my lawn. I finished row three this week. Now I have just 2 more rows of all those 10 by 10 filler squares. There are 13 of them in each row so that makes 26 times 100 stitches to go....yikes. 

My tiny needles were also busy with my little hexies.....

....and my big hexies. I am almost ready to add another row to my table runner.

I got two more blocks hand quilted on the squares lap quilt. I got a lot done last weekend because we were trapped in the house because of all the ice. We couldn't get up the driveway if we tried and believe me The Mister tried. It was like a skating rink out there. We had about an inch of snow covered with a layer of ice and 20 degree temperatures. Not a good combination. 

We were tucked in nice and cozy and everything was just fine until The Mister dared me to take a sleigh ride down the iced back hill and I was dumb enough to do it. 

Heading straight for a tree I tried to stop myself with my hands but my mittens came off and my naked left hand got drug down the hill over the rough ice under the sled. It hurt like the dickens but I'm lucky all I needed were two band-aids worth of care on my poor thumb. It could have been so much worse. I'm such an idiot sometimes.