Wednesday WIPs

 

Daughter sent me a Knit Picks gift certificate for Mother's Day. As I was busy spending it I remembered I still had the kit I bought with last year's certificate. Since I don't have a sweater in the works at the moment, I pulled it all out and cast it on. Casting on with black and not getting it twisted is a hair raising experience but I think I got it done. 

This year I spent that gift certificate mostly on sock yarn since they were having a sale. After coming home empty handed from the MDSW this year I had already ordered some sock yarn from different places. Look closely at these two new arrivals. Do they look the same to you? They do to me. They are not supposed to be the same. The ball bands say one is Raspberry Veridian and one is Lime Sierra. I don't think so. They each came from different shops so I have no idea which one is wrong. 

Thankfully, Miss Babs got it right. Her MDSW colorway is prettier in person that it was online. Even better, I already have the perfect project bag to match. I declare this the Summer of Socks. I just can't seem to stop casting them on. 

And...I was asked a question about Dear Jane yesterday and it's been a long time since I explained what it was all about so here are the details. In 2017 (!) I bought the entire kit from Paper Pieces thinking I might get a quilt out of it someday. Ha.

Each kit has all the pieces for a row of blocks. It's like putting together a fabric jigsaw puzzle. I'm getting ready to finish up row D if I ever get D 11 finished. There are 13 rows and 13 blocks in each row so finishing it in my lifetime is not going to happen but it does serve to keep the hands and mind busy which is all I can ask for at my age. 

Poor Jane is always getting set aside for bigger and better things but what keeps me going is the sight of those hard earned blocks all laid out together whenever I finish a row. This was my reward for finishing Row C last June. Just seeing this has me all fired up to get this row done so it's time to get to work. D 11 WILL done by the next Tiny Needle Tuesday. Maybe.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

You can count the new additions to my Garden to see how many quiet sit down days I had last week. Four. Bathroom painting, migraines, yard work and a sick Pup (she's fine now) ate up all my time.

I can also blame this goat. It's the middle goat from Goat Load and I had a devil of a time figuring out the colors. The pattern colors don't always work for me so there was a lot of trial and error. I'm still not sure about that white ear. That might need to change. 

I did some more appliqueing on the Patchwork blocks. I'll be ready to add another row soon.

Funky Flowers got a green center ring finished and the white ring started. I wish I could say I was getting better at this but I'm not. I think I'll have to learn to live with the wonkiness or finally admit that needlepoint is not my thing.

Poor Dear Jane has been languishing for so long that I forget about her. I did get two of her lattice pieces sewn on and made the next two. She's still far from getting finished. The hard part is still to come. 

Bagged

 

The new Connecting Threads catalog came out last week and I was sorely tempted to buy more material to make some simple project bags but then I remembered I still had this sitting there giving me the side eye in the sewing room. 

Instead of hitting that purchase button I unloaded my cart and got to work on a lined knot bag.

With a bit of drama and a lot of cursing, I got one bag finished. The best thing I can say about my sewing skills is that I got the sheep going in the right direction. I found a coordinating ball of yarn and set out to get two socks cast on out on the deck in front of a fire. 

By the time it was too dark to see, I had two socks on one needle. I cheated and cast them on separately, worked the cuff and then transferred them onto one long circular. I hate casting on twofers on the same needle. It's for crazy people imho. 

Yesterday I hobbled myself to a shady park bench with my new bag and sat and knit while The Mister walked Pup. My nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis wasn't helped by spending hours on a ladder painting that bathroom. Luckily for me, sitting and knitting is pretty much the only cure. 

Mum's the Word

 

Do you miss yours as much as I miss mine?

Happy Mother's Day.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

 

I was really excited about getting tile for the bathroom. With all that white, I thought something with some character would be in order. Didn't happen.

I couldn't talk The Mister into anything but the same old, same old. Now we've got three bathrooms and a laundry room that all have pretty much the same tile. The difference? This tile is 13 by 13 inches while the ones we have already put down are 12 by 12. That little difference made the The Mister have a crisis of indecision in the store. I'd had enough hemming and hawing by then-and so did Pup so he decided to take a chance on that extra inch. Men.

Friday Fluff

 

Buoyed by inspiration from the MDSW,  the fluff corner saw a bit of action this week. I'd forgotten about the hat I started last winter. I'll have it finished soon.

The Pi Shawl survived its cat attack and is back in progress. In order to get one 500 plus stitch round done a day I'm playing a game with a stitch marker. I move it along in big chunks as I knit and I try to guess how many stitches I've marked off. It keeps my brain from going belly up and makes the whole round go faster-in my mind. 

Something new is a granny square afghan being made from....

...my TdF fluff from 2023. It's BFL in a colorway I dyed called Barbie's Dream House. I wish I knew where that BFL came from. I'll have to investigate. I've never crocheted with my handspun before and it's...interesting. It's a bit splitty. If I ever spin for crochet again I'll have to be fierce with the plying.

And....coat number one went on without a hitch yesterday morning. Coat number two is going on this morning and then we are off to buy tile for the floor. Is it really possible this project may soon be coming to an end? I can't wait. I'm at the point where the clutter is starting to get to me. I can't wait to have those shower doors out of my living room and all that concrete board out of the hall. 

Auxiliary Check In

 

My auxiliary projects haven't had much love this week. Wolf Pup has had the most seeing that I had to thread the reed three times in order to get it right. In my defense, we are now canopy covered which means I get very little sunlight until those leaves fall again. I can't see a thing in here. I did buy myself a floor lamp with natural light hence all the re-doing from finally being able to see my mistakes. 

I was really on a roll with Patchwork of the Crosses but even it's slowed down because we are finally painting the bathroom and it's going to take a lot of coats. 

Spiral Chicken says hi. I did get another corner done. I admit to being fired up again when I saw the table of projects the rug hooking guild were working on at the MDSW. 

In case you are wondering what color the room will be, it's the third one down. We call it "drywall gray" but it's real name is Bunny Gray. The entire rest of the house is painted the top one, Distant Gray but we thought with the new white shower and white cabinetry we better go a bit darker. Every home magazine declares gray interiors over but we still like it. It goes really well with clutter. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

Thanks to sitting in traffic coming and going from the MDSW on Saturday I got a big chunk of work done on the Static twins. The more I get done on these, the more I dislike them. What's with that big speckly section in the middle? It's an ugh, for sure. 

Since I finished all the knitting on Bon Amie I thought I better pick up some more colorwork to keep my mojo going and a pair of socks seemed like a good idea for summer. Since the fit of colorwork socks is always an issue I made a swatch in the biggest size so I could try it on and figure out the best size for me. Now that that's done I got started on the ribbing. 

The big news is that I finished weaving in all the ends in the body of Bon Amie. Now I've got those sleeves to tackle. I thought this would be a terrible chore but it turns out it isn't nearly as bad as I thought. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

The Garden of Joy has one more row. I'm heading to the top left hand corner now. 

Do you remember this photo from last week? After I posted it something started nagging me. I was taking my victory lap that day but low and behold, when I was putting all of it away I discovered....

.....Goat Load. I had eight patterns in the project pouch but only seven critter piles in the photo. I've got it kitted up and ready to go but I'm having too much fun in the Garden of Joy right now. The goats might have to wait. 

I've also got Dear Jane back out. I have to put the lattices on before I can pull out the center paper piece in order to applique down the diamonds that go around the center. I've got a goal to finish row D by the end of summer and if I don't start putting it back into rotation, that's not likely to happen. 

MDSW Part 2

I took $200 out of the bank of Friday hoping to have a spending spree but alas, the heat did me in and most of it came back home with me.

I did get lost in the Hipstrings booth for a bit. I went with the intention of bringing back some of their Cormo and Polwarth for this year's TdF and this is what I had to choose from. There were too many beautiful choices and I kicked myself all the way home for not buying more. 

This is all that I managed to come home with. All of the booths were covered in plastic since rain was expected. It turned them into saunas in the broiling sun which didn't encourage browsing. The MDSW Ravelry group posted that later at closing time the rain and hail were so bad they couldn't see to drive and had to pull over until the storm passed. 

Here are the details. 

I peeked in the fleece shed but wasn't tempted. I find the fleeces a bit overpriced for the quality. I also didn't want to have to carry a giant bag of stinky wool around on what was shaping up to be a pretty miserable day not to mention that long, hot trek back to the car which was all uphill. 

There's a new, big exhibit hall that features guilds from all the fiber crafts. Wheels, looms, rug hooking, machine knitting, you name it and it was there. There were tables and tables of happy crafters eager and willing to share their knowledge. I went to look at the ribbon winners while The Mister wandered. I found him mesmerized at this booth. It was the bobbin lace guild ladies doing their thing. I'd never seen it happening in person and it really is an awe inspiring endeavor. 

I bought a pretzel for lunch and The Mister had a lamb burger from the 4H booth and found a bench under a tree to rest a while. I am honestly horrified that anyone would want to eat a sheep at the MDSW. The Mister did enjoy it although the $16 price tag was a bit of a shock. I had to remind him he was probably eating one of the 4H kid's pet, hence the hefty price. (!)

We took one brief look at the herding dogs exhibition and then took off for home. I still had all of that leftover money burning a hole in my pocket so I did some online shopping with it and bought some sock yarn from Miss Babs in one of the festival colorways. I also bought some shaniko fiber that I had been considering from an Etsy vendor. 

In spite of the rather miserable day, I'm looking forward to next year and hoping that Mother Nature is more cooperative. 

MDSW 2025 Part 1

 

Somebody really has to do something about this climate change thing because every fiber festival I've been to lately has been too darn hot. Yesterday was no exception. I've been going to this one for at least 30 years and back in the day I wore woolly things from head to toe. Every year I made a shawl just to parade around in. By the time I got back to the car yesterday, I was practically naked. 

The traffic was unbelievable. We sat for almost 45 minutes getting in and another 30 trying to get out. People were still pouring in when we left at noon and traffic was backed up for at least a mile in every direction.

We rolled into the fairgrounds at 9:30 and the place was already rocking. 

The first place I went was to see this year's featured sheep, the Valois Blacknose. Usually there are only a couple on display but this year there was an entire barn full of them.  

You don't get cuter than this but I did feel sorry for them in the heat. It was in the mid 80's and those barns were brutal. I hate to see panting sheep. The poor coated ones were really suffering. 

I beat the heat with one of these and my new cooling scarf. I also packed a little spray bottle of water that I used to squirt myself down. I just can't do heat anymore. One trip around the grounds was it for me.  You can't get too excited about all things woolly when all you want to do is sit in the shade. I did manage to buy a few things.  I'll tell you all about them tomorrow. 

Meet Me At the Fair

 

If you're looking for me today, I'll be here!