More Soldotna Woes

 I thought I had smooth sailing ahead with the body of Soldotna but nooooooo........

 Instead I'm trying to juggle four balls of yarn while working on the speckled body.

 On the ill fated first version I only used one color for the spots not two like the pattern calls for. This time I thought I'd get fancy but I didn't realize that having to also alternate the green would be way too many things to think about.  For extra length I also added two extra green rows between the dots which was a mistake. Trying to strand all those colors up the side is a nightmare. The seam was a mess. I had to tink it back three times before I could get a seam that didn't look all bunchy and twisted. Trying to keep the right tension is terrible.

 I even gave up tinking back at one point and just cut the colors so they'd lie flat but all those loose ends made me dizzy.  It's always something with this thing. Sigh.

Getting Stuff Done

 I had to pack up the loom so the autumn project had to come off.

 Ta dah.....not bad. Maybe I'll get it hemmed during the Sunday football games.

The spinning wheels had to go too so I had to get those Autumn singles plied. Hmmm.....after chain plying it doesn't look a bit like fall to me.

I guess I should have seen that coming.  It really didn't look like fall in the braid either.

Be Grateful

 On this Thanksgiving Day be grateful that your living room doesn't look like this....

....and that your kitchen doesn't look like this. Lol...it could be worse. At least we haven't pulled out the cabinets-yet.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Big Needle Wednesday

 Soldotna looks like this now. I just divided for the sleeves-again. Woo hoo...Now the jog is under the arms instead of in the middle of the back. I did a jogless thing on the first one and hated how it looked. It looked worse than a jog.

Here's the old yoke in case you are interested. I got rid of the weird neck and traded some colors so there would be more contrast. I thought this version looked a little muddy with all that pink, purple and wine so close together right in the middle. Bringing in the green helps to break it up. The original colors on the pattern are very nice. My kit, not so much.

 My third Mosi hat looks like this. I just downloaded the matching mitten pattern and I am going to send it to Iceland with Daughter to see if she can bring me back some yarn for it. I even printed the pattern out in the original Icelandic since Daughter doesn't speak a word. I tried to write a little note to say I didn't need the exact yarn just something similar. We'll see how well the Google translator works. This could be funny.

My Where the Wind Blows Cardi is almost done. I think. I am at the stage where I have to figure out if it is really long enough or am I just tired of knitting it. A trip to time out usually cures that. I'll pick it up again in a few days and see how I feel about it.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 Ta dah.....Thanksgiving is done. Now I have the entire rest of the thing to do but that will have to wait until next year. I'm over it.

 I am happy to say that I picked up my hand quilting again. I've got eight more of the melon shapes to do and then the edges. I'm starting to see a finish line.

Dear Jane and I have been having words this week. I have yet to abandon a block but this one is giving me fits. It looks so simple but I assure you it's not.

Here's how the kitchen is going. We are grinding up the old thinset. The gadget works pretty well but I have to stand next to The Mister with my little shop vac to pick up any excess dust that gets away from the dust shroud. It's back breaking work but it's going faster than we thought. We are almost halfway done already. I can't wait. Putting the floor down has got to be easier than this mess.

Sunday Soap

 Taking advantage of the day off yesterday I started another soap making adventure. I paid a lot of money for this bottle of aloe juice and I've got to use it up within 30 days so the production line is in business once again.

 I'm making big loaves to use it up faster.

 When you substitute the water for the aloe you get a rather strange bar of soap but since so many soapers raved about it I'm willing to give it a try.

 I am also using my new micas and loving them especially the white. If you have ever used titanium dioxide for anything you know how horrible it is. It makes a huge mess and is almost impossible to clean up. This new Snow White mica performs just like the nasty stuff but dissolves just like a mica so clean up is a breeze.

Here is that big blue soap I made last week which was the first of the aloe soaps. This is the one that had to have its top lopped off because I tried to pile on too much batter and it all collapsed instead of standing up in stiff peaks.

None of the aloe soaps are holding nice peaks for some reason but I cut down the recipe to make it more manageable in the mold. Once it's in the tub no one will know the difference, right?

Running Out of Autumn

 It's finally looking like fall around here. I know most of you are already in winter but fall took it's sweet time getting here this year.

Everything is looking like this.

The yard has an interesting leaf pattern going on. The Mister was using the riding mower to pick up the leaves when a cable broke. I've got funny leaf paths all over the yard now. He was not amused.

 We are both recuperating from too much heavy work last week. His hip is not feeling right and neither is my back so we are taking the weekend off. I'm picking up all my neglected fall projects.  I've been plying these singles for weeks now. It's time they were off the wheel.

 The socks in the November colorway will most likely still be on the needles in January but I gave them a few inches anyway.

The fall weaving project has to come off the loom in the very near future. I need to pack it up until the kitchen thing is over. It's taking up space I need for other things at the moment. I was pleased to figure out a way to count my pattern repeats yesterday. I've been using the clothespins to mark them so I don't have to keep switching glasses to count threads. It makes everything go much faster.

Finally, as you can see I've almost got Pup's sweater finished and she's less than thrilled with it. She hates wearing sweaters but it's gotten cold again so she's living in Too Bad Land right now. It's put it on or stay home. Little dogs are a lot like little kids.

Wut?

 Yesterday was errand day and I was taken aback by the amount of ugly Christmas sweaters there were to behold. Marshall's was full of them . Even on the dog aisle.

 Walmart had plenty of them too and some of these things with the leggings to match. Do people really wear these?

 Even the men had several aisles of the ugly things. No age or gender was spared and they weren't exactly cheap.

I thought I was into neutral territory in the grocery store but noooooo......they were everywhere. I just don't get it.

Incoming

 On the way out of town to pick up the new floor we noticed they were turning the pier into a holiday fairyland. It's a hike out to Annapolis to the floor store but we pack up Pup and make a day of it.

 Ta dah....the floor is home. In boxes. 21 boxes to be exact and they each weighed 46.5 pounds which made for a grueling afternoon carrying them in. They were heavy.  Very heavy.

 Waiting in the mailbox were some new micas from a new-to-me company. I got micas and some Smarties along with a free sample.

 I love little companies that personalize your order.

I had just settled into to using the soap table for sewing again but I really do need to make more soap. I have 88 small bars but I really want some big ones for winter and I've got to use up the rest of that aloe juice in 30 days.

 I also had the rest of the yarn for Soldotna in the mailbox. I got the only two colors they had left from the kit. The green is not a great match but I can alternate the rows in the body so it shouldn't be too bad. At least I hope not. The wine should be enough for a nice thick hem. Since it's not near any other wine it should be fine.

In case you're wondering what she looks like now, here she is. I'm almost finished with the yoke-again. It really is an addicting project. I get started and I just can't stop. Good thing. I've already got the yarn for another in the stash.

Ahead of Schedule

 You know that new flooring that was supposed to be here on December 2? Well, we got an email saying it's already at the store and ready for pick up. We're going today to get it. Yesterday we had to finish what we started and get the rest of the tile up.

 That meant moving all the appliances which was as yucky as I thought it would be.

The refrigerator was real mess inside. I've got to start scheduling a regular cleaning. I can't believe it was still working with all that dust.

The hero of the day was my little shop vac. She might be small but she's mighty.

And....something else I've been working on got unraveled last night. The new Pup sweater was almost done when I realized that it was HUGE. It could have fit a German Shepard. I have no idea how I mixed up the sizes but I did. An alarm bell kept going off in my head when I saw how much yarn I had used up on it compared to the first one but I kept on knitting. Oh, well. It's back to the starting line with this one too.

Unraveled Wednesday

 Queue the funeral music. Soldotna is no more. Sigh.

 It wasn't just the rolling hem that was driving me crazy. It was also the "volcano neck" from the badly done short rows and the way the jogs were in the middle of the back. Every yoked pullover I've ever made (and I've made a lot) has the jogs under the arm where you never see them. So.......after trying to fix that rolling hem one too many times I happily pulled it all apart.

I also ordered $40 more of these two colors to add to the body so my crop won't be so cropped. I should also have enough for a good deep hem which I hope will put an end to that blankety blank roll.

Now she looks like this. I am also playing around with her colors this time around since I hated the nonexistent contrast between the wine and the purple.  I also did a reversible neckline like I do on all my yoked sweaters. That higher in the back thing just doesn't work for me.

 In other knitting news I finished a pair of Lopi mittens. I was digging through my Lopi box and found a half finished pair. Now they are both done and getting felted. Lopi is the one yarn that loves to be treated rough. After a few baths and a good brushing they will be soft as a cloud and practically waterproof. We better get some snow this year. I'm ready.

As for the kitchen, this is how I've spent my last two mornings. I wet the floor down and then we spend a few hours scraping off the old thinset ridges. We are waiting for the grinder and dust attachment to get here to finish the job. So far everything is going faster than we expected. Tomorrow we move the appliances to get under them. Ugh. I bet it's a mess back there.