Friday Fluff

 

I was on a mission this week. I needed to identify all the handspun in my bins so I could pull out what I needed for the Garter Squish. I had finished two cakes of yarn and needed to get a plan. 

Out of all three bins I had only put the label back on to two of them. TWO. I am terrible at organizing my stash. I should be ashamed. 

Some of the caked up yarn had a post-it stuck in the middle with the details. I spent several days hunting down the information on the rest of them using my blog posts and my Ravelry project pages.

It was an eye opening experience. I had no idea I had spun so many different breeds. There was Manx, Falkand, Bond, Gulf Coast, Punta and Texel along with the usual Merino, Corriedale, Polwarth and Shetland. 

After spending hours writing up labels to put on all the skeins I could identify, I certainly won't be making the same mistake with these two Blue-Faced Leicester beauties. From now on the original label goes back on the finished skein or it CAN'T go in the bins. 

Almost Sweater Weather

 

Thanks to my aching tooth the household has been up early this week. I have to get up for some pain meds at 6 so Pup is ready to roll out the door before the sun comes up. It's been chilly so I've been working my way through my sweater bin giving each a wash and a bit of a blocking. The hats are going next.

As soon as we had the first day that wasn't in the 80's I started washing and blocking my scarves. Now they are ready and in a sneeze proof bag. There's nothing worse than a dusty scarf around your neck.  

It's nice to be down by the water early in the morning especially since the tourists have mostly gone home.

Even during a low tide the water looked clear again after only a few days of cooler weather. In the summer it's a murky, stinky mess. 

And I'm not the only one glad that the crowds are all gone. The wildlife seemed relieved to have the place all to themselves as well. 

But....what I did the most of yesterday was watch The Weather Channel. Yikes ya'll. That's going to be one big mess to clean up. Stay safe Florida friends.

Wednesday WIPs

 

The body is done so I'm working my way up the sleeves on Advent Sweater Number 13.

I'm past the thumb gusset and nearing the top of the second Fright Club mitt. I see a monster weaving-in adventure in my future. 

AND.....I managed to get two size one socks out of one of those Stroll mini skeins. That tangle of yarn is all I had left. On the next pair I WILL be making the leg shorter. That game of yarn chicken was NOT fun. Whew....

BUT....my biggest knitting adventure this week (that took up a ridiculous amount of time) was obsessing over this sweater. I saw someone wearing it on a YouTube video. It's Chestnut by Marie Wallin. The problem is that it's a cardi (not a fan) and it's knit flat in pieces-NOT in the round. Fair Isle purling is a cruel and unusual punishment for any knitter so I wracked my brain for days planning how to get around all these problems and went so far as to substitute all the $$$ British Breeds yarn into Palette and put it in my cart. BUT...I did NOT end up ordering it. I came to my senses but still......looking at it now...sigh. It's just so darn pretty. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

The fall projects are coming along slowly. Mr. Raccoon had his vegetation stitched this week. The patchwork sampler got a little basket and a potted plant. 

I only finished one Dear Jane block and one Hexie block this week. 

I've been spending most of my afternoon stitching time working on the little Nautical quilt. I had to wait for a delivery of sashing fabric I forget to buy so I've been catching up since its arrival. 

Of course it was a happy chance that the day I went looking for that fabric was the day I found these on sale. As soon as I get that little quilt done I'm heading back to humor my place mat obsession. These happy flowers will be just the thing for spring and summer. 

Little Feet

 

As I mentioned yesterday I'm not in the mood to do much of anything thanks to my aching tooth but before all the stuff hit the fan around here I had ordered this set of mini skeins after Daughter had asked for some new socks for the toddler Grand. After digging through my stash, I couldn't bring myself to use a small part of a full ball of sock yarn. 

I knew they were only twenty ounce skeins when I bought them and thought that might be enough but after I wound them up they looked so small. I doubt I could get two socks out of them.

I had my suspicions confirmed when I weighed a stray baby sock in a newborn size that I had knit ages ago. 10 ounces. I need a one year old size. Since I'm not one for joins in socks (because I have no faith whatsoever in my weaving in abilities), I've got a problem to solve. 

I suppose the easiest thing would be to order another pack of mini skeins for those second socks. I'll just have to ignore that screaming from my wallet. 

When It Rains....

 

Never was the saying "when it rains, it pours" as applicable to a stretch in time as it was last week. Every day brought a new problem or a new worry. To make it all worse,  I've had an awful tooth ache all week.

This is what it cost me to get it fixed which won't be until the 6th of October when I get a root canal. Until them I'm taking OTC pain relief round the clock with a cotton ball soaked in booze on the tooth for the pain. No fun there. 

On top of that... we played juggle the cats all week trying to get them to the vets for their mite check up and med refill. They won't give me anymore mite medicine until I get them all in and that's no easy task. We did a video visit last time but now they have to go in. Ugh. We had two appointments this week and could only catch one of them to bring it in and it was an epic battle. Sigh....cats and vets are a terrible combo. The one cat we did manage to get in the carrier and to the vets cost me $400 for the check up and the Revolution refill. Ouch.

AND....we finally did get the part for the AC-as soon as the weather got cool, of course. That little part was another $400. My bank account was screaming as loud as my tooth was all week since I had also just paid for my fancy new $1500 refrigerator the week before. For the first time since I retired 12 years ago I had to transfer money from savings to make ends meet. Sigh.

BUT none of these things were as important or more worrying than having a family member having emergency surgery and being in ICU all week. It's not my story to tell but thankfully, the issue seems resolved. An old colleague used to always say that when your kids are little they give you little problems and when your kids are big they give you big ones. So true. 

 

A False Start

 

So whatever happened to that warp I was putting on the Wolf Pup? This is what happened. 

I spent all that time getting everything lined up and pulled through the heddles and then was moving onto to pulling the strands through the reed when I discovered one thread that was missed. One. That's all it takes to have to pull it all out and start again. 

I was momentarily taken aback by the boo boo but the truth is that I like this part of the process and doing it all again-this time slowly and carefully, is not such a bad thing. 

Friday Fluff

This was one craptastic week on so many levels I won't even begin to go into them. I may one day but not today. 

Today let's talk about fluff. 

Without a working AC the days were warm and humid but the mornings were cool enough to get outside and play with wool. 

I drug out my spinning stuff three mornings in a row and for a few wonderful minutes cranked up a nice little pile of roving which will one day turn into some blended rolags. I haven't got around to spinning any of the ones I've already made yet but it's on the agenda.

What I have been doing is trying to make my way up and down the two levels of steps in the foyer to get them ready for some serious painting. Our steps were only meant to be carpeted when the house was built and they are made from some poor quality pine. When we moved in 30 years ago Mom and I ripped up the burnt orange carpet, sanded them and put a stain and sealer on. Now they look terrible and nothing is going to fix that. I am going to try painting them and if that fails I'll be calling the carpet guy-as much as I hate the idea. 

 

A Real Croc

 

My new Crocs were a bit of a disappointment. As you can see, the one on the right is deformed. It bends in and rubs on my foot and was not comfortable. Crocs are not cheap so I called customer service and was put on hold for almost an hour until someone who barely spoke English answered and asked if I wanted a refund or a replacement. I said replacement and then they mumbled something and quickly hung up.

I wasn't sure if anything would come of that bizarre interaction until a very big package showed up on Sunday. In it were my replacement Crocs AND another pair in the Citrus colorway. There was no correspondence in the package explaining what was going on. There were also no instructions or mailing label to send the defective ones back. I was confused. 

There were ALSO 5 Jibbitz in the package which are those things that you stick in your Croc holes for decoration. They are not excatly cheap at $5 each. I'm not sure what's up with any of this and I'm certainly NOT going to get put on hold for another hour to find out. 

I sort my Crocs by seasonal colors so the unexpected ones will go in the spring and summer box and if I don't hear from Crocs wanting them back by then I am going to consider them mine. Until then I'm going to have a lot of fun with my beautiful Croc family. I love matching them up with my socks once it gets chilly. I also saw a lady wearing a pair of fuchsia ones over the weekend that I am now obsessively coveting. As soon as I recoup some of the money I've shelled out this week (story to follow) I just may treat myself.  

Wednesday WIPs

 

Thanks to all the laying in state and funeral watching I've got two FOs to show off today. I've never been so glad to get socks off the needles. They were a real slog at the end. I think I need a sock break for a while. 

Fright Club Mitt and Advent Sweater Number 13 are growing-slowly. If I can force myself to get one row on each a night I consider myself lucky. The no AC thing is wearing me down. We have the windows open at night and the sounds from the woods are horrifying. What the heck is going on out there?

Garter Squish is going to a dark place color-wise and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not planning the colors, I'm just letting whatever rolls out of the two balls happen. I've got to learn to take a deep breath and just let it do its thing-something I've never been good at. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Getting the lettering centered correctly on the baby sampler took up most of my stitching time this week. I had to rip it all out and start again more than once when my brilliant math turned out to be not so brilliant. I still have the date to stitch on it but I needed a breather after all the drama. I'll tackle it this week. 

I did get the pumpkin finished on Raccoon Rable and two more small motifs stitched onto the fall patchwork sampler. 

I also got that serious framing job done. I really liked this kit. It was from a different company than the one I have used in the past. This one came from Frame It Easy.

Of course there was drama. The whole thing looked off but it's because my stitching was off on one side by a few rows. It didn't seem that obvious until I put the mat on it and you could see the stitching area was out of square.

I could rip it all out and restitch that side but I didn't. Years from now someone may notice it and say..."how quaint". The odd wonkiness makes it look very vintage so there's that. Hopefully no one will notice it was stitched in 2022 and not 1822.

AND....I need to thank Sandflies for another delivery of my favorite seasonal coffee. I had gotten up before 5 yesterday to watch THE funeral (funerals) yesterday and was running out of steam right when they arrived at Windsor for the second go round. It was just about then that The Mister came in from the mailbox with the pick me up I so badly needed. 

Thanks again!

To Market, To Market....

 

Remember the time the Queen came to a college football game in your hometown? I don't but apparently she did. In 1957. I grew up right down the street from where she is sitting. I had no idea. 

She also went shopping at a local grocery store. That's her prince behind her. 

She had never seen a "supermarket" and was anxious to see one before so on her way to the White House for dinner she stopped in at the Giant Food near the mall I used to hang out at as a teen. 

 I had to piece the story together using Google after The Mister showed me a Facebook post that had an old article about it. I was only about that kid's age at the time but you'd think someone might have mentioned it before now. How cool.