Much has happened but not much progress

 Still working on the second sock, started another for me and no progress on the shawls. I am attempting to pair up various yarns for 'franken socks' for the rest of the year. First up is a blue yellow yarn that reminds me of either Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' or Dr. Who. I had to size down the number of stitches to start since I'm working on size 2 needles and a thicker yarn.

I got a joking request for a red 'fashion' scarf from someone and then went looking for red yarn. I only found one ball of Comfy fingering in a cranberry red (not enough to do much with) and then the other Tofutsies in the pink/orangey color. I found a scarf pattern that was relatively easy and by the time I got to this point, I looked at the work and all I could see was red marbled meat. I can't unsee it. I'm going to have to put off that project for a while and maybe find a ball of something closer to the end of summer to whip something up.

 

I finally decided to tackle untangling this ball last night. I thought it was Kroy Socks (FX? I think due to the glints of mylar thread in it) definitely a 'copper' colorway. I've searched online but all the listings for that yarn don't list it having a 'metallic' thread in it. Unless it's also a nylon fiber.

I had both ends started because I happened to find both before. So on the left is close to what it was originally and what I had to deal with on the right.That may look like a mess but I was lucky enough to have picked up the end that was from the center and hit the untangled middle of the skein. That helped speed things along greatly and at that point I was about a half hour in of winding it. I started around 10 pm and finished at 11:45. Yes folks, took me almost two hours to get it untangled. But that will be another pair of socks probably for someone else as I'm not so sure about that color for me. It's definitely a stripe and still think it's Kroy Socks but yet again it's likely so old no one has it anymore even listed. I have two balls which is my thinking ahead that was needed for socks.  Those will be fun to make though.

So that's done, I was working on both socks this morning, alternating between sessions on an ipad game. It's April and need to get my knitting projects for Christmas moving along a bit more briskly.

Oh! I discovered on Pinterest a series of lace designs from a 'company' named Gannet Studio. She names them from a random word generator and sometimes they have absolutely no relation to what the stitch looks like.

 This one is called 'Coffee'. None of her stitch patterns are downloadable, she's got them on her blog and a Patreon account so getting them to a pdf format is involved. 

Those larger eyelet holes are from a double YO and then there's a knit 3 together stitch. So kind of ingenious but also kind of complicated. She last updated her blog post in 2018 so not sure if she's doing them anymore even.

This one is called 'Swags' and is derivative of the previous one. I mean, who could  not use more lace patterns right? But on the other hand, it's only half the idea for a shawl or scarf or even a sweater pattern.

She's got dozens and dozens of patterns listed so there's bound to be at least one that's relatively simple for using on a scarf.

So those are my discoveries and accomplishments for knitting. Blankets and shawls are put aside for now.

 

Mistakes were made.

 So I went back to the sock to try and figure out how to do the contrast color heel. I 'thought' I knew what I was doing.

I wanted the classic round heel contrast and, being impatient, didn't realize I was using a different kind of heel. I made another mistake in cutting the main color to start the heel color. Halfway through that color the yarn had a thin spot so had to work back so I could join that and only after getting to the last row of the Fleegle Heel did I realize it was  not what I was looking for.

 I didn't get a picture before but that is what I ended up with. I ripped back the orange, then everything got tangled and I cut the mess loose and then researched what I needed. Which was a short row heel and I found a good video on doing a German Short Row.

I just happened to have a stitch holder thing (can't remember what it's called) and successfully threaded it on the row before the gusset increases. I was only five stitches off from the row I had done so that was an easy fix and then just slipped the stitches back onto my circular. I felt so accomplished doing that because I've tried that in the past and had failed with split stitches, wrong ones picked up and all that.

So if you aren't familiar with a German Short Row, instead of doing a wrap & turn you do the equivalent of a yarn over but by slipping the first stitch and pulling the yarn to the back so the previous stitch creates two stitches. You know, the one mistake a lot of new knitters (me included) used to do at the end of a row.

The important thing is to not drop that double stitch. Which I did. Twice. So had to back the rows up and restart but that wasn't nearly as bad.

So here I am, just buzzing along about five rows in and realize I had skipped a stitch. Only have to back off that last row thankfully but it's par for the course on this sock right now. I think I'm going to keep the black marker and put another one on the other side to mark the last double stitch so I don't forget to go that far and can count the stitches easier. 

Once  you get to the point where you have as many stitches unworked as you have in the toe on one side (for me it's 14) and have an even number of double stitches on either side then you work back again. 

It's rather exciting and frustrating working a new technique and I think I 'm going to add in the directions for a German short row heel into my Hybrid Sock pattern. This is the video I found and I think I'm going to find the pattern she's using with the ribbing on the top of the foot as well.

German Short Row Heel w/circular needle

This is the video I found and I think I'm going to find the pattern she's using with the ribbing on the top of the foot as well. Really looking forward to getting this one done so I can start the next one and know what NOT to do. Should go a lot faster.

All my other projects are worked on sporadically. The blanket is one or two rows a day, haven't picked up the shawls in a few but that's hyperfocus for you. Go until it gets frustrating and pick up another project. When you end up with only projects that have mistakes, then you start fixing the simplest one.

Go figure.

 

ADHD crafting strikes again!

 So... if you know, you know. I have three shawls on the needles, one is to the point where it has a big mistake RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE six rows down and I do not have the patience to take that all back so that's on hiatus. I have the other two shawls that I alternate between and then the orange sock I started and have not touched in a few weeks.

This is the crocheted skein almost finished. After that pooled section it went back to randomonium for a few more rows before the skein ran out. I was done. I then got an even crazier idea to cast on an entire five foot wide blanket instead of making a Lego brick one, just do a blanket in the Lego colors. So I cast on about 240 sts. Yes. You read that right, it was about that many and I did six rows all purl so it matched the cast on edge then am keeping the edges about six stitches in that stitch and do stockinette in the middle. Hoping to find some green that will work as a border and in between skeins because I will not get that far with one skein.

Now as for the other yarns. 

I have this crazy yarn from making a hat for Katie and decided to see how it would look as a Ten Stitch Blanket. It took me two days and four restarts to finally get through the second turn. I have made two others in the past but you can see where I'm going with this. Bright center then fade to lighter color on the outside. They're all similar types of yarn, that soft type that will get fuzzy if you work it too much. The bright one is Soft & Shiny from Michael's and the other two are Yarn Bee from HL. That is some of the messiest knitting I've done in some time like I haven't knitted in decades. I'm using size 8 double points that are vintage metal I got from the 'community' table in our complex from someone who had to move (or other circumstance that happens with elderly people). 

 Bernat 7 inch double pointeds in grey painted metal for $.60. 'Made in England by Aero.' So yeah, and they looked like they had never been used. I was going to use an ultra short circular needle set but it was getting annoying with the very short bamboo tips being too short and the metal ones were too long. I might switch back to that at some point because dropping these is incredibly noisy on a hard floor. They aren't hollow aluminium (yes I spelled that the way Brits say it)... they are solid.

So I work on a shawl for a row or two, the huge blanket the same way and then go to a small project and cycle through them again. Such is the way of sporadic crafters with ADHD. Don't get me started on if I had the money to get yarn what I would do with it.

My grandsons have favorite colors and one of them is black, red and orange. He has a jacket with those colors and I got the crazy idea to try and find a yarn that could mimic that for a hat or something. Well I found one. Red Heart 'Moody Cherry' All in One Granny Square yarn. And... you guessed it, discontinued. Or at least not available at a storefront, would have to order it online. I would not be doing a granny square I can tell you. I tried. Maybe it was the yarn or constant distractions but it didn't work for me.

Anyway. Just another crazy idea. I'm an idea person really. If I were a rich person I would come up with an idea, connect with someone that would be able to follow through and do the finish work and then get paid for having the idea. Right? That's a job isn't it? 

::insert ducks quacking in laughter::

New storage and organization and hooboy!

 An advantage to living in a complex such as ours, is sometimes random furniture or items show up on the community patio table that are just what I was needing. I went down yesterday on the way to the garden and a 3x3x1 cubby shelf thing was out there. It looked like it got a bit man handled in a move but was just the thing I needed for reorganizing my yarn!

Previously that space was my purple file box, the grey tub with bags and bags of projects and yarn. There is about two feet between the cubby and my side of the bed now and likely was the same before but it feels more crowded because it's a solid wall and a bit taller. It's much better though and as Rocky was investigating it and checking it out I suddenly realized why I never had my yarn out in the open.

(this is actually before the other two pictures) He sniffed everything thoroughly and then I realized it was an open playground of yarn for him. Also he likes climbing things and getting into the cupboards and I thought 'oh no, going to have to put everything back into bags because of the little furbutt'. Surprisingly, he is not interested in getting into the empty cubby sections, only pulled on ball of yarn out because he was throwing a tantrum while I was taking a shower. He can easily jump onto the top of that but only did it once so far. 

I have an underbed storage box that I had full balls of yarn in previous to this. I swapped out those balls, but the random partially used yarn and soon to be frogged projects in that box and put the whole balls in the cubby with more active or recent projects in bags. That farthest stack has my sock project, three shawls and the shrug. This way I can just pick what I'm going to work on at any given time, toss it in a travel bag if I'm going out and sitting a while, and pop it back in there. Now I do have some all or partial wool yarns that I also belatedly thought they were safer in a bag from moths. I'll be looking for the cubby containers, most likely the collapsible fabric ones to put everything in to also keep the yarn out of Mr. FurPerson's view.

I can't believe how many shawls I have in progress! 

The Diamond Homespun Shawl

Bella Botanica Shawl 

Patons Fern Leaf Shawl (currently working on)

Shawl in a Ball Eyelet Shawl

 And lastly this purple green and white which I forget what pattern and the yarn it is but I made a different shawl years ago for a friend in the same yarn and then proceeded to make one for myself because the yarn is so fluffy and pretty. I just had a hunch and it's the Haruni Shawl by Emily Ross and I found it on the KnitPicks site.

 

Once that is done I will likely gift it to another friend who loves those colors as well. I saved a LOT of my patterns in Dropbox which I still have access to thankfully. Most of my books and other patterns are on my Ravelry library.

What can I say? I went through a lace shawl phase for a while. I discovered how to read charts and now that's my preferred way of doing a pattern. I remember my epiphany when I looked at a chart and suddenly realized it wasn't any different than a cross stitch chart that had symbols for the different colors. The difference is with knitting, the symbols for the different stitches are mostly universal. As long as the symbols are constant, you can read most any chart for knitting or crochet no matter the language of the creator. Note I said 'most any' because some patterns have a written preface or instruction for starting. But that's what google is for right?

I think most of my other projects I may have ever done are completed and gifted, though I do think there's still a box or two of things in storage. 

Oh well, out of sight out of mind.

Knitting discoveries and more projects

 So, about last night.....

I was looking at my piles of bags of projects and yarn and I think I wanted to look for a project I remembered. So digging through and discovered not one, not two, but three shawl projects that were in progress. 😳😲 Well then, let's see if I remember what they are, oh and that doesn't include the one I'm currently working on, the big one in Homespun.

These other two are done in a finer yarn, one I remembered what it was when I got the stash home and labeled it so I have the pattern just have to figure out what row I was on.The green and white one I had the charts needed and could look up what it was.

The green shawl is Paton's Grace Chevron Leaf shawl in a yarn I found in a Tuesday Morning store randomly. Only two balls so it's not going to be very big and I 'think' I have the label for it in one of the other bags. It has alpaca in it for sure and sadly, unless I find another yarn similar that ball is the only other one I have and it will only be a shoulder wrap, it's not going to be very big even blocked.

The green and white one is done in Wool Like single thread (which explains the other colors in that yarn I have under the bed) and has beads in the green section (I hope I bought enough to finish it). I had luckily printed out the page of the charts I needed and luckily at the bottom of the page was the designer, looked it up and realized it was the Bella Botanical shawl which just the name had me hooked. I also discovered where my thread crochet hooks were. Because of the fine thread and beads I needed the smallest crochet hook to work the beads in and had them in a tube with the project. Can't believe I was that organized. I remember working on this when I was working at the fabric store.

I am also discovering where all my extra long Chiao Goo cables and needles are.... ::looks embarrassed::

They are both now bagged and labeled. Lord help my kids if I should leave this earth without finishing them. I have to start writing up what to do with them, as there is a group of crafters that you can contact for when someone passes on and leaves unfinished projects and they'll finish them as long as they have the pattern and enough supplies to do it.

So the Homespun shawl is on a back burner because it is so exhausting to move the stitches onto the needles. I really do want to finish at least one of the shawls, then there's the issue of figuring out how to get them blocked. My blocking combs are in storage and I gave up my blocking mats when I moved last time. 

Oh, I did frog back that crochet project to half the chain length and restarted the first row. So let's see that's three shawls, a crochet project and a pair of socks currently on my list. If I work on each of them for one row or an hour, whichever comes first, then I might have something accomplished by the end of the year. That's also four hours in a day that I will be crafting. I could also pick a project a day to work on for an hour, that would take even longer to finish.

Oh and I originally went hunting for the velvet yarn shrug I started a month ago because my neck and shoulders were cold this morning sitting in bed. So that's another project.

Frogging and other things.

 I have hit upon a theory, could be proven right or wrong but would have to take a poll of thousands of knitters and talk to doctors and all that. It is a common unwritten truth that crafters usually have more than one project going on because of varying degrees of ADD/ADHD and wanting to start a new project for the thrill of it. Here's my idea:

It is accepted that knitting and other hand arts are therapeutic for hand flexibility. Now, the converse of that is that prolonged use can actually be bad if you're doing the same size tool and pattern. It is better to have more than one project of different types going to exercise your hand and brain. So for knitters, let's say  you have a really simple sock pattern you can pick up when you have to pay attention to something but not really engage your brain. For multi-tasker brains it's easy. When your eyes and hands get fatigued from that, switch to a larger needle project. So it is beneficial to have more than one project going at a time mentally and physically for the crafter.

This project is done, moderate success but not ideal. Gave them to my honey and he wears them when his feet get cold but again, not the best project.

Now what do I pick up for my 'mid size' easy project? The Lego block blanket is stalled out due to yarn procuring issues. It's not a desperately needed project and will get done when the time is right. I toyed around with the pooling yarn that finally aired out but really am not satisfied working with it on knitting. Most of the pictures were of crochet so I got it in my head to try and recreate the blanket I made when I was like 10, I'm sure I've chained a lot more than I had on the original, might even pull it out and start over.

I am sure that the actual width of the original is half that but you can see the blocks of colors forming already. Yeah, I think I'll pull that out and go for half or two thirds of that size.

But crocheting is difficult now with the lack of dexterity in my fingers. I don't work on that one for very long and frankly, Super Saver is the absolute bottom yarn that is the most durable so will see what happens. There is still three more skeins of yarn in a bag that is still waiting for sunny weather to air out. Silly rainy days makes it difficult to put them in a box outside.

I rifled through another bag that I thought was just the shawl on the left but it also held a hat I was making at the same time (most likely). The shawl is the same one I made years ago out of blue homespun and for whatever reason I was enamored with the pastel homespun and bought four skeins to make this shawl. It is lovely but I have never been a pastel kind of person but it's somehow appealing because it's a muted rainbow. I luckily still have the pattern for that in multiple places just had to figure out what row I had stopped on. Oddly I kept thinking it was row 15 of 20 I had to do next and after checking the pattern and the shawl multiple times, I was right. I haven't touched that project in over a decade. So that shawl is on size 11 needles which are very awkward to use and the pattern needs my full attention to keep track of where I am. Not something to do when there's constant interruptions and can't work on it for long periods due to the cumbersome size of the needles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other is a slouchy hat project in James C Brett DK  yarn that is also discontinued and as well as I was going on that project, and the fact that I actually have the pattern book handy, I am not a hat person. So frogging was done and am now trying to find a cowl/neck warmer pattern to use for that yarn. I love those colors too, muted pinks and greens, almost a garden effect. Could do a scarf but I don't really like scarves unless they're really long and you can wrap it around your neck so it doesn't come off. I was just going to frog it back to the ribbing but then saw that very sloppy join at the cast on edge and decided to take it all out. I counted the stitches and may just restart with the same number as a turtleneck part and then do spaced increases and maybe a decorative stitch insert like I had. Just too pretty to sit around.

So I have these five balls of TOFUtsies yarn, all of which is discontinued so no chance of getting another ball of a solid. I decided to go out of my color range and use the orange and matching variegated for another pair of socks. I really wish I could get a ball of blue to coordinate with the other two. So, since I pulled the purple sock out I have the longer size 1 circular available and off I went.

For whatever reason, somehow I ended up with yarn over holes doing the rounded toe pattern. Also those little pooky points at either end. I was not pleased with that outcome and decided at that point to just frog it all out and restart.

Second start without distractions worked much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was going to try and do some stranded pattern really simple but that turned out to be too much fiddly hassle and went with a stripe to begin with. 2 main (variegated) 2 orange, then 3 main and then 3 orange and then just the variegated for the rest. Will do the heel and ribbing at the end in orange as well. Maybe do stripes like that on the leg side of the heel and before the ribbing, who knows. 

One of the reasons why socks are such a great project is for those of us females that want cool looking socks without paying ridiculous prices.

These are socks I got from the community table along with another pair, in our complex and obviously not a women's large sock. Those stripes are all individual colors not a self striping yarn and machine made. I am not crazy about doing stripes like that but being able to have socks that actually fit my feet and look cool is what keeps me going.

And that's all for the projects in the last few weeks. More updates when they happen!

Happy crafting!

 

A new skill learned and more yarn.

 I have been wanting to learn colorwork for years and seeing that celtic blanket kind of got me fired up again. I learned how to cast on with two different color yarns as a test.

I finished the cast on, then did the first row until I discovered a mistake. Dangit! Oh well, I did enough of the cast on to sort of have it in my muscle memory. It was a variation of the long tail cast on so half the memory was there already.

I then went looking in my stash boxes for smaller yarn to try and do a test swatch and found this.

To say it was yarn barf is being kind. I thought it was a single ball of Kroy Socks FX  yarn but once again it may be so old that it's discontinued. It might be something else and why oh why is it orange and browns? Those are not in my color palette. Obviously I never got to it and I think the other ball is somewhere in storage. Don't remember whether I bought one or two. They may have been on sale or something and I took pity on them.

So I think I've gotten large yarn projects out of my system and want to go back to socks again and maybe incorporate colorwork into them. I'm crazy of course but need to keep my hands busy somehow. I'm almost done with the second purple/green slipper at least, finishing up the cuff now.

Speaking of orange. I went rummaging through the container of yarn and looking at all the Tofutsie balls looking for two that would coordinate. What did I end up with? Orange and a variegated that works with it. Oh well. Hoping I can finish them in time for summer.

Right.