I’ll be honest and tell you that this photo was taken a couple of days ago but it’s still a reflection of our vegetable garden this summer … at least in the new raised bed. We’ve already harvested three summer squash and some Swiss chard and kale all of which are growing really well. The tomatoes in the other big raised bed are not doing as well. We must need to give it some extra nutrients or something because the tomatoes are pretty pathetic. Oh well, we will learn and do better next year.
I spent a block of time yesterday in my atelier catching up with some of my favorite YouTube channels and knitting on my Lattice Have Pie kitchen towel that I’m knitting for my step-daughter. I am really having fun with this project. The yarn is Tahki Stacy Charles Classic Cotton and I chose two colors of blue because her wedding colors were blue and white. I didn’t want to make a white or even partially white dish towel. Yuck. I’m working this on a US7/4.5mm straight needle since it’s all back and forth and slipped stitches are so much fun! There’s not one fancy complicated stranded row in the whole caboodle. I find it relaxing working on this project and I can see doing more.
The pattern is a purchased pattern on Ravelry and it has charted and written instructions. The process is simple enough – follow the steps on the first pattern row and then knit the knit stitches and slip the slipped stitches. Easy as … pie!
I started with the rolling pin design (because it was first in the pattern directions) but you can knit the designs in any order you choose. I then decided to knit the finished pie with steam and all and then I’ll knit the pieces of pie next. I hope it’ll be long enough at that point, otherwise, I’ll knit the rolling pin once more. It’s fun to watch the stitches turn into a picture! It will be washable and dryable and it will be sent with a knitted heart light-up wall hanging that I’ve also given to other couples that I love who got married. I think they’ll like it.
We’ve had an extended time of unseasonably hot weather here in Maine and we’re all “complaining” about the heat. This is like the Florida weather that we came to Maine to avoid. Until a few years ago we only had fans in the house and we only needed them a few days a summer. And when the days got a bit warmer, we added a window air conditioning unit to the living room and then to my studio and my hubby’s man cave, too, but we only ran them for a couple of days in August. This year we installed them in mid-June and have been running them pretty constantly. Yuck! This weather can go straight back to Florida!
Well, it seems that it’s Monday again and I’m on hold with Electrolux/Frigidare because hubby’s 2 year old air conditioner that was a replacement for a 2 year old air conditioner is broken. Does this seem like a pattern to you? I have approximately 19 minutes to wait on hold and since I’m still not feeling particularly energetic, I thought I’d just wait. I hope I can drag half of our laundry to the laundromat today but it may be tomorrow. We’ll see how I do.
Today our gorgeous purple iris is blooming. This is one of my favorite flowers in our garden. Well, actually, they’re all my favorite when they bloom because they all bloom at different times: yellow iris, white iris, peonies, lilacs, forsythia, daisies, echinacea, astilbe, day lilies … you get the drift. I loved seeing my purple iris this morning and today it’s my favorite. Don’t tell the others.
I’ve been doing a little bit of knitting and a lot of thinking about knitting as I recover from Covid. We both got it somewhere in our travels and in the wedding bliss but we’ve both weathered the virus well and haven’t been too terribly ill. Thank goodness! I’ve been without a fever for a couple of days and yesterday the cough subsided for which I’m really grateful. I hope with another couple of days of relative rest, I can return to work later this week.
My second gray Hermione’s sock has turned the heel is well on its way out to the toe. I have to re-check my notes to see how long I knitted it before I started the toe because I’m that close. I do love the texture in this pattern and I love the Coop Knits SocksYeah! yarn. It’s soft and not at all splitty. It makes knitting socks a cinch. I hope my sister will like them. The next pair of socks will be for my brother-in-law. Two great couples will be gifted custom knit socks this fall/winter.
I’ve also be working on my River cowl by Yumiko Alexander. I am really loving working with the Sonder Yarn Company Muse yarn. It feels great in my hands and it’s a tiny bit thick and thin at times which makes it interesting. I think the drape, once blocked, will be gorgeous. I also love the color! The pattern is fun and easy enough to not take up too much of my brain’s band width (which hasn’t been great with my covid brain!) I’ve completed the five repeats of 66 rows of the “hard” work of cables and dropped stitches. There were a couple of places where I forgot to twist edge stitches so that when I dropped the purl stitches and unravelled, it wanted to go too far. Thankfully, I knew this was a problem and stopped the process. Grabbed the stitch and wove it in with a new piece of yarn so it will stay put. And it barely shows. Since this is for me, I’m good with that fix.
I’m measuring the length of the edge of the River cowl at 52 inches long at the five repeats of 66 plus 1-9 for a total of 339 rows so far and the pattern wants 52.5 inches so I have a couple more rows to complete to make the length what they’re asking for and then will begin picking up stitches along the edge to make the body of the cowl. I’m excited about this one! AND I’m so glad I chose not to make the tee with this yarn. I’ll wear this cowl all the time. (I think!)
I’m still on hold with Frigidaire … it’s been 54, almost 55 minutes so far … and so I’ll just write that I am thinking the next project will be a pair of baby sweaters for my granddaughter and great-nephew and a pink Lane’s Island in Remix Light for myself. And, of course, the socks for my brother-in-law. All of the yarns that I will need are in my stash – yay!
We arrived home last night after a week of travel to Denver and Fort Collins and a wedding of my husband’s youngest daughter to the love of her life. The wedding was perfect, the travel was acceptable and relatively trouble free and it was fun to spend some quality time with hubby’s older daughter and her hubby. Bonus was that I got to meet up with a childhood family friend and my former mentee and visited a couple of yarn shops, too!
So, we flew out of Portland, ME to Baltimore where we met up with my hubby’s daughter, Robin, and her husband Evan. Our flight to Denver was only delayed a bit and we arrived our Airbnb in Wheat Ridge, CO by 9:30 or 10pm (with a time change). Wednesday we picked up the dance floor and made a visit to Fancy Tiger Crafts, a co-op with yarn. I may have bought some local yarn and a US7 knitting needle. The project that I had intended to work on while we were away was NOT going to make me happy so I frogged it and found another project to use the yarn in.
Frogged – Staple Tank Top by Joji LocatelliCast on – River by Yumiko Alexander
Before leaving for the wedding venue in Fort Collins, we made goodie bags and the bride’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets and arranged some flowers for the reception. The flowers were all white and they were gorgeous. Amy, the bride, ordered the flowers from Costco. They arrived on Wednesday (for the wedding on Saturday) and I had some serious concern that they wouldn’t hold up all that time but they sure did! Not one rose was droopy on Saturday afternoon! I’d say that was a success.
the bride, her mom and sister getting our mani-pedis onFort Collins
From Denver to Fort Collins we went on Thursday. The wedding party and lots of guests stayed at the Armstrong Hotel. It’s a beautiful hotel, we loved the decor and the sidewalk cafe. We unloaded the bride’s car into their room and we checked in at our Airbnb there. Thursday night we had dinner as the family of the bride at a taco restaurant and it was good.
Matron of Honor and the Bride -to-Be
Friday I had breakfast and visited a yarn shop, Lamb Spun of Colorado, in Fort Collins where I may have bought a little more yarn. We also hunted for a book store to buy me a new book since I finished “Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon on the airplane. The rehearsal dinner was at a great brewery and the caterers were amazing! We had a delicious dinner and then the rest of the guests were invited to gather at a Welcome Party. A wonderful day and a fantastic dinner.
A Bee! Art in Ft. CollinsBridesmaids’ first lookOur beautiful brideThe Venue … exceptionally gorgeous!!!
The wedding day was perfect and the weather couldn’t have been better. It had been unseasonably warm in Colorado (like in Maine) but Saturday gave us all a break – a little cooler and cloud cover for the ceremony. Another perfect dinner and great party. We even got lifted up in chairs with all of the parents during the Hora!
So, let’s talk about yarn … I had been knitting the Staple Linen Top by Joji Locatelli in Sonder Yarn Company’s Muse in a shade of pink that I really fell in love with up in Montreal. I thought I’d like the tank top but to get gauge I had to get out a bigger needle and it was going to be way too sheer for me to wear without another tank under it. SO … I frogged it and just happened to see a shawl/cowl pattern on Facebook that uses the same weight of yarn and I think it’ll be really beautiful. The new pattern is called River by Yumiko Alexander. It starts with a long narrow piece of cables and dropped stitches (I’m making the largest one and it’s five repeats of 66 rows.) I’m pretty sure that from there I’m going to pick up stitches along one edge and knit the rest of the cowl. I loved the photo in Ravelry with a shawl pin and I have a few that will be fun to wear with this. I’m enjoying the cables and drop stitches … there’s something really fun about dropping stitches and unravelling them all the way down!
Two repeats in … RiverSecond sock
I still have the second Hermione’s sock on the needles. I didn’t do a ton of knitting while we were traveling … there may have been other things to do!
We have started a Christmas in July KAL/CAL at work and I have to pick a pattern and cast on my stocking. I knitted one years ago that I don’t love any more so I want to knit a new one. I also have one more to make for a friend of our family. I’ve been thinking about knitting an Arne & Carlos pattern that they used as an Advent KAL last fall/winter in Patagonia Organic Merino. Or the other option is the pattern that I made for my daughter. It was a kit that I bought. I’d buy Cascade 220 for this one. Both are stranded colorwork and 100% wool because it’s the best for colorwork. Update just as soon as I get into the store!
It was gray and hazy when we woke up this morning and we’ve since had a really good rain storm. Think rain boots and full-length yellow raincoats with a hood pulled up rain storm. The plants will thank us for it, I’m sure. I had intended to start the day with a trip to Target to return some stuff I bought last week that didn’t fit as intended but I went up to my atelier instead.
AND I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the first French Macaroon sweater. This was a simple/boring knit until the finishing part. The garter stitch body starts with the main color and then you cast on the stitches for the sleeves on each side of the body in a contrasting color resulting in a little “T” shaped boxy form. The second side is pretty much the same except for a button hole at the middle of the back. Then it’s a three needle bind off at the shoulders/sleeves and seam the sides and underarms are you’re good to go. BUT I realized a little too late this time that the sleeves are meant to be folded back so the next time I make this sweater I’ll weave in well past the normal distance.
I left the cast on tail extra long at the very beginning so I could use it to seam the body in the main color and I cut off a length of the left-over contrast color to seam the underarms. Seaming Garter Stitch is pretty simple if you look at what you’re doing and know how to read your knitting. On the sides, you grab the bars behind the smiles or frowns (look at your knitting and you’ll see what I mean!) on one side and then go to the other side and do the same. On little garments I tend to use every stitch rather than two at a time which I sometimes do for adult garments.
Under the sleeves it’s a bit different but still simple enough if you read your knitting. I took a few in-process photos to show you what I mean.
I marked my stitches on the top of the underarm with grellow “loops” and I use the bottoms of the loops where the “v” is to insert my needle. Can you see the lower “v” that’s in front of my needle? (There’s another loop with a “v” stacked on top of where my needle is. I am careful to catch the two legs of the bottom “v” (the stitch) when I am seaming.
This is half of the seaming … seaming requires two sides. In this case I’m holding my sleeve horizontally so I have a top and a bottom that I am sewing together. Here’s the bottom.
The photo on the left shows the little smiles and frowns that are on the bottom row of the sleeve seam. I am going to go under the smile in this case and grab both legs of the stitch and in this case, they’re an upside down “v” (an “A”?). You’ll notice that the smiles are above and between two frowns.
Now you’re going to loosely sew between the top and the bottom of the sleeve leaving the stitches loose for about an inch or two and it will look like the first photo below. I’ll take hold of the tail of the yarn and pull the working end/ where the needle is … gently! until all of the stitches are zipped up tightly. I pull once more from each end of the working yarn to ensure that the seam is taught and will lie straight. Continue across the underarm a couple of inches at a time until all the stitches are used up.
Ta! Da! You’re done! I find seaming really satisfying when you (finally) learn how to handle the different types of seaming that you’re asked to do in knitting. After 40-ish years, I am finally settling in to being comfortable with seaming and don’t dread it like I used to. I knitted seamless garments for years because I was so intimidated by seams but as I started to learn more techniques for finishing and seaming, I got more comfortable. Kind of like everything in life, right? Thus the statement, “The more you know” (remember the PSAs on NBC?)
I knitted this little Macaroon sweater in Berroco Vintage DK rather than the intended cotton yarn. I don’t love knitting with cotton and Vintage has a bit more stretch and it’s soft and washable. This one is going to live with a friend’s baby who is bi-coastal and he should be able to wear it in the fall. The fact that the sleeves can be rolled back is a good thing because it’ll give him a few months more wear because they grow almost fast enough that you can see them grow out of clothes from day to day.
I have two more of these sweet sweaters to knit for other babies in my life. I think I’ll take one of them with me on my next travel excursion and in the mean time, I’m working on a pair of Hermione’s Everyday socks for my sister and I cast on a tank top for me last night.
Hermione’s Everyday Socks is a free pattern on Ravelry by the Crazy Sock Lady. I have written about it before and I love this pattern. These are knitted with Coop Yarn’s Socks Yeah! fingering weight superwash wool with nylon. I love this yarn! I had gotten several hanks of it when I joined A Year of Techniques with Jen Arnall-Culliford back in the day and chose not to make the projects in the class. Years later, I made a pair of orangey-pink socks for myself and I want to send a great pair like this to my sweet sister. I like this pattern with variegated and solid yarns and it’s easy to memorize. I’ve started the second sock and they’re almost always with me just in case I have a few minutes to knit.
Last night I cast on the Staple Linen Top by Joji Locatelli in Muse, a merino/linen blend yarn that I bought when I attended Knit City Montreal. I’m eager to see how the yarn knits up. This pattern was one of the shop models at Sonder Yarn Company’s booth and I thought it would be a good summer garment and I hope it will fit well and look a little dressier than a t-shirt. I loved the pale pink Grand Ballet colorway. Crossing my fingers. Ha! Ha!
I’ve gone on too long. The rain has stopped and I can go get dressed and head to Target for my returns. Gone knitting.
It’s not a lovely day outside this morning a bit breezy and cool for coffee on the porch BUT the warm weather is coming later this week with temperatures in the 90s. This is way too warm for Maine in June. Our flower gardens are ahead of where they usually are at this time of year. The daisies are getting ready to bloom … yikes!
I’ve been doing some small knitting projects and working to get something accomplished but I’m still not particularly motivated. I’ve cast on a sweater for a new baby girl who has joined our extended family. My ex-husband’s cousin’s daughter had a baby girl recently and I wanted to knit her a little something. She lost her mom years ago and her father more recently and I hope a little gift from me will tell her that I love her. I chose to knit Baby Vertebrae by Kelly van Niekerk because I’ve knitted and loved her newborn version of this pattern several times. I wanted to make something a bit bigger than newborn because it’s warm right now and she probably won’t need a sweater for a bit. I knitted this up in a new cotton yarn, Botanika, by Cascade Yarns. Botanika is a fingering weight 100% organic cotton yarn made in India. I chose the pink colorway because it’s for a baby girl and the first girl after two adorable boys. I have to say that I like the yarn. Working with cotton is always a big change from wool but this is a little bit forgiving and not as hard on my hands as I had expected. (Maybe linen is the most difficult?) Anyway, I’ve gotten the body of the little sweater done and only have a couple of little 3/4 sleeves to add and then I can block it and send it off. I do have to run to Target to get a couple of little things for the big brothers!
Baby Vertebrae in Botanka by Cascade
I’ve also been working on the first of two French Macaroon pullovers for a couple of bigger kids in my life. I’m going to make a third, too. One for my granddaughter, one for my grand-nephew and one for my daughter’s friend’s baby because he doesn’t have a knitter in the family. The first one is for the baby because it’s the smallest one. I’ve chosen to make these sweaters in Berroco Vintage DK because of its wide variety of colors and I love that it’s machine wash and dry. I’ve finished the front of the first sweater and have started the back. This sweater is knit in two pieces and then seamed together … in an innovative way, I think. I don’t read the pattern all the way through before I knit it but I know it ends with the first color at the top of the white. (What you see is the two rows of teal and the stitch holder.) I’ll report more when it’s completed. Then I’ll start one for Noah and Sylvie. They’re both a little bit bigger! I think Sylvie’s will be in a salmon color and Noah’s in a green. I’ll show you when I actually buy the yarn and get knitting.
French Macaroon in Berroco Vintage DK
I’ve finished the little dress for my granddaughter and I can’t wait to see her in it. The arm openings were finished with applied i-cord edging but they also had to have ties. The designer’s answer to this is brilliant and it was a fun new technique that I’ve never done before. The pattern of the dress itself was simple enough and well-written. I used a bubblegum pink cotton yarn because I needed her to have a bubblegum pink cotton sundress. Ha! Ha! It came out as cute as I had anticipated.
Applied icord edge and tiesSunbeam Kids’ Dress
After another couple of busy weeks, we celebrated Father’s Day yesterday with a quiet, relaxing morning at home, coffee on the porch and the Sunday NY Times. I had made blueberry muffins and we just took it easy. We decided to go out for lunch to a new “food truck” nearby that was closed so we went to a family favorite, the Red Barn, for some fried seafood (we shared a basket) and then went to Fieldstone Gardens in Vassalboro to wander in their gardens. We bought a few herbs and a Lily of the Valley plant for the perennial garden. I hope it will spread like wildfire! It was a beautiful day. I got my sweet hubby a little t-shirt gift that’s perfect for this year.
Well, it’s been another busy week at the Warner homestead! We’ve had a couple of rainy days but this morning we were able to enjoy our coffee on the porch. What a wonderful way to start the day. Coffee, my favorite husband and the BBD.
I’ve been home from my babysitting gig for about a week and a half and I’ve more or less recovered from full-time grandmothering. AND then life started up again. In the past week we’ve both had our eyes examined, I worked a little bit extra and a Saturday when the boss was out of town, had a board meeting, Maine Arts Academy graduation and a couple of committee meetings. (Thank goodness for Google Meets.) We are now looking ahead to our youngest daughter’s wedding at the end of the month and a bit of travel. I’m excited about July when we will just be at home. I know we have at least one visitor for the 4th of July so that’s exciting!
Yesterday “the girls” at work and I dressed our front window at the store. We’ve been planning this for a few weeks and announced to our LYS community an Emotional Support Chicken kal/cal in our weekly newsletter. We’ve had terrific participation and we are so excited by our summer window display! Our customers are excited about it and we are, too! We even have a couple of foxes.
Today I spent the morning running little errands. One of which was to deliver the little signs for the window. This is one of my boss’s favorite lines and we thought it was appropriate for our window. The ESCs have been such a great fad and we capitalized on it. Isn’t it great!? (New from Lake Yardgoods is that four more chickens arrived today! Yay!)
I’ve knitted four of the ESCs myself. One was sent to a friend in Florida and one was delivered to my granddaughter. The other two are in the window for now. The purple ESC who I’ve named Janet is going to be raffled off to one of my donors for the Longest Day Knit-a-thon that I do each year. The longest day is actually on a Thursday when I have to work so I’ll be knitting on the following Saturday. I hope that maybe some of you will donate to the Alzheimer’s Association through my link.
Thank you to those who’ve already given. I’ve raised $450 of my $1600 goal. But we’re getting close to the date and I hope to amp up my fundraising posts soon.
I’ve been in a little bit of a knitting slump. I don’t really want to knit anything that takes any bandwidth. I’ve started a pair of socks ostensibly for my brother-in-law or my sister and I’ve been working on a little sundress for my granddaughter. I need to frog back a bit on the socks because I noticed last night that I’d made a mistake in the pattern an inch or so back. Since these are gifts, I have to make them right – I see the mistakes and I won’t gift them that way. I might be able to forgive the mistake if they were for me … alas they’re not.
Emotional Support Chickens
I did make a couple of chickens and a giant ray which I finished. BUT I just noticed that the ray doesn’t have a tail and I threw away the left-over yarn. I also returned the other balls of yarn to Michael’s because the yarn had changed. The new white yarn was SOOOO messy and was shedding all over me and all over my atelier when I was working on it. I hated it. Hopefully, though, my daughter will like it and she can stuff her corn heating pad into it and use it as a heating pad cover. We’ll see how the reports come back. I may also close up the hole after I stuff it like the one for Sylvie (which lives in her crib!)
Ruby Ray the Mega Ray
I also ran out of the blue yarn so the poor ray is a bit wonky. But that white yarn was a horror to work with. I’ll be finding white ray fuzz in my studio for years.
Sunbeam Kids Dress
The body of the little dress is finished. I have a few icord edges left to knit and I hope to get to them today but I had to run my errands and pick up some veggie plants for the garden before it’s too late. We have a short planting season here in Maine and we’ve been derelict in our planting duties. My sister-in-love had kale and lettuce ready to eat in her garden. We hadn’t even planted any but today we got some in. Swiss Chard, tomatoes, yellow summer squash, broccoli, kale and some radishes are in. We have to soak our pea and bean seeds and get them planted … maybe tomorrow.
The gardens are full of weeds but the flowers are blooming all around. Spring bulbs have faded into lilacs and then into wild roses and peonies and iris. I love watching the gardens come alive again year after year. We may even get a blueberry or two this year – if we can beat the birds and critters.
The King Fishers have returned to the lake as have the Humming Birds, the Great Blue Herons and, of course, the loons … I mean the fishermen. We had two old guys who could have heard me (ahem) sneeze this morning. I watched them from my atelier window as they scrutinized our house and I’m sure they heard me yell down to my hubby, “maybe they’d like an invitation to dinner” because they quickly motored away. They were close enough to cast their lines onto our shore and hook the dog! With hundreds of acres of water, you’d think they’d choose a spot where people aren’t obviously living – our cars are in the yard, the doors are open, the flag is flying … geesh!
Still on the needles where I was when I last wrote about them are WIPS: 1) Fiddlehead Mittens, 2) Oorik Tank Top … I did at least pick up the stitches and knitted the 5 rounds and bound off for the last arm hole. All that remains is to stitch down the steeks and I can block the sweater. 3) Pink Mittens, 4) Three Seasons Cardigan: I’m going to have to frog this and start it again when I’m ready. My tension is bound to have changed since I bound this on over a year ago. I have done a tiny bit of hand stitching; started a new block for the love note quilt – a picture of our old house here on the lake before we rebuilt.
All I want to do it knit little things. I have yarn for two French Macaroon sweaters by Purl Soho for Sylvie and her friend Isaac. Mitten yarn was purchased for Sylvie and cousin Noah. Dish Towel yarn is in the house for a pair of Farmhouse Dishtowels by Purl Soho (they have some terrific free patterns!) Little things, boring things, things that don’t take a lot of thought or effort because I’m not there and it’s okay.
Today I mixed up some natural ingredients that I hope will work as ant repellant. I am allergic to everything (allergies may be part of what’s going on with me because my system is overwhelmed) and we can’t use any chemicals in our house. This ant repellant is all natural with witch hazel, water, castille soap and essential oils. I’ve had an infestation in my atelier and it’s bugging me (ha! ha! funny!) I had to have a full on cleaning session before heading to work yesterday because they were everywhere – turns out they were in my bag of cough drops the little buggers. I vacuumed, washed the floors and walls and my desk, tossed anything with ants in it and now I sprayed. Crossing my fingers they’re gone forever.
Ant Repellant – Mix in an 8oz. glass spray bottle:
One of my college friends on social media said that she always left her grandkids with an empty tank and a full heart and I can tell you that is exactly how I feel after this week. I got home last night from Marblehead and five days of what I’m calling “grandmothering” (because babysitting just doesn’t cut it.) My daughter had a gig with the Boston Pops on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and rehearsals started Monday afternoon. We might have been in a hotel room for the week but we asked my brother and sister-in-love if we could come stay with them and they enthusiastically agreed. So we spent four nights with them in their house and we all had a blast!!! My granddaughter is a little 19 month old spitfire with a pleasant, upbeat, happy personality. She’s at that age where she’s challenging the boundaries and stinking independent and what a joy she is to be around. She’s also exhausting!
She quickly warmed up to the big dogs and was sharing a dog bed and Cheerios with Dory in her bed by the time our first day was through. She loved the garden, found puddles to splash in and loved picking and eating the kale and peekaboo. It got warm enough for the baby pool to get filled up but she liked sitting in it just as well (almost) and throwing the ball for Buck. Auntie bought a huge wonderful bubble machine and bubble “guns” and they were a huge hit with Sylvie and her cousin, Noah, who we had several play dates with. Mama visited on Thursday for a few hours and went out in the rain to blow bubbles and splash in the puddles. The lights on the garden fence and the neighbors and their dogs were another hit. We went to the playground, the Muffin Shop, the grocery store, the book store and the toy store – all via stroller. We didn’t get in the car once. And by the time I got her into bed in the evening, I was unsure whether this body of mine would make it up or down the stairs once more. Ha! Ha!
My family embraced this little girl like they do everything, with love and caring and we all made some really great memories together. And how can you not laugh when this little peanut turns a corner and sees you and smiles, waves her little hand at you and says, “hi!” She is so happy to see you every time.
Hermione’s Everyday Socks (yes, again!) – As of bedtime last night
Needless to say, I did very little knitting. I’ve started a pair of sock for my brother-in-love and I knitted exactly 21 rounds of 2×2 rib on the first sock. That has to be the least that I’ve knitted in a decade. Last night I got another inch or two knitted and the socks will be lovely. And when 9 pm arrived, this little YaYa took herself to bed and slept really well. I’ll do the same tonight and hopefully I’ll be feeling a little less exhaustion. I was very proud of my body that ached at the end of the day but was feeling pretty good again the next morning. Lifting and carrying that little 20+ pound body up and down flights of stairs and chasing her around is more action than I’ve seen since my kids were little.
Tonight we are going out for dinner to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We love being home and go out very seldom … less seldom on the weekend! But this special occasion is a good reason to celebrate in a different way. He’s chosen Front & Main at the new boutique hotel in Waterville as our spot. Tomorrow I’m attending Maine Arts Academy’s graduation ceremony and celebrating our newest graduates. What a privilege it is to volunteer my time for the school! Who knew that when I got older I’d have such a full and meaningful life?! I’m so grateful every day.
What a beautiful morning! We spent the morning on the porch with our coffee and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away. And a bonus visit from my college roommate who’s in the area to attend Colby College’s graduation. I pulled a few weeds and have spent the last couple of hours or so in my atelier writing a newsletter for the store and getting organized for the week ahead. We have no particular plans for the Memorial Day weeekend but we hope to take our first boat ride in two years this afternoon.
The third time’s a charm. My Hermione’s Everyday Socks in the deeply stashed TOFUtsies yarn are done. Done! I have no idea why I had such a challenge with these socks. I’ve made so many pairs of socks for myself and they always fit. These just didn’t. The first sock I finished was too long. I frogged it back and reknit the toe … too short. Frogged it again and added a bit to the foot and knitted the toe and it (finally) is juuuuust right. The second sock was not a problem and as of yesterday afternoon, I have a pair. Good grief.
I still don’t know what the problem really is. I have my foot measurement that I’ve been using for years as 10 inches. So, I knitted to 8 inches for the foot and added the toe. Should have been perfect. What did end up being right was knitting the foot to 7.5 inches … I KNOW my feet didn’t shrink. Could it possibly be the fiber content of the yarn? TOFUtsies is a blend of 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% chitin (from shrimp and crab shells and 50% wool. Can you see me shrugging my shoulders? I’m stumped. But they’re done.
I repaired my college roommate’s sweater and hat and have sent them back and I finished the little Zip Up a Baby Sweater. The two former items have been mailed off to Michigan and the sweater just needs a little something for the big brothers to go with it to Colorado. I’m getting there. You can read about these projects in my previous post.
Yesterday I worked on my “Longest Day” Emotional Support Chicken – I’ve promised to send one to one of the people who donate to my Longest Day fundraiser in June. I’ve promised to knit from sunup to sundown in honor of my mother who died in 2008 from Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother was a vibrant, active, involved mother, grandmother and friend to many. She loved animals, children and tennis. When she was still quite young, we started to notice that she would make the dressing for her potato salad twice, or she was buying her morning coffee (because she couldn’t remember how to use the coffee maker) and other little things. She was diagnosed in her mid-60s with Alzheimer’s. It was a devastating blow to all of us as we watched our mom withdraw into herself. In October of 2008, mom passed away. She was 76 years old but she’d been gone for ten years. We were all robbed. So, in her honor, I knit for a day and hope that the funds raised will find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease once and for all so that no other family has to struggle like we all did.
Emotional Support Chicken (knit)
She is going to be a beauty!!! I’m knitting her with two yarns with purple as the main color. All the details are on my Ravelry project page.
I’ve also been laundering sweaters and need to get the hats and mittens going … it’s that time of year to clean up and store the handknits for the summer season. Moths or their larvae love to feed on the dead skin cells that hang out in our wooly items. I have been really lucky that we have not had an infestation … yet. It takes me several days of lovely weather to get the hats and mittens done and several more for our sweaters but it will get done and I’ll start today.
Next week I’m off to my brother and sister-in-love’s house in Marblehead, MA for a few days. I’m on grand-mothering duty while Sylvie’s mother is working in Boston. She’s performing with the Boston Pops on Wednesday and Thursday in a show called from D-Day to VE Day. I’m sure we will all be ready for our normal lives to begin again post babysitting but we will also have the fullest hearts and lots of new memories. I hope we’ll have some beautiful weather like today so we can play outdoors!
After a run of cloudy, gray days, this morning was stunningly beautiful. We had to drop my car off to get an oil change first thing this morning but after we got back, we had a cup of coffee and breakfast on the porch. Hubby was reading in the sunshine and I grabbed my crochet hook and some yarn to start yet another project that I’ve been thinking about. Castonitis is real!
At one point I looked up and the Canada Goose Family was passing by and the goslings have already gotten much bigger. We have some huge Snapping Turtles and Bald Eagles, all of whom would make a meal of a little goose. We always cross our fingers for the new babies around the lake.
AND yesterday I got so many little things checked off my list! My college roommate sent me some knits that needed repair. They’ve been sitting on the extra chair in my studio for a while now and I’ve managed to put them out of my mind but yesterday, I pulled a single crochet round off of her favorite (ugly) hat and added a new one and then blocked the hat. It’s drying as I type. She also sent me an Aran sweater that had some wear at the elbow and the folded neckline was coming apart. She’d said that she was ok with my using some visible mending and I did. The elbow will live for another few years and the neckline is repaired and the sweater has been washed and it’s drying with the hat.
I hadn’t been able to find my crochet hooks bag so I decided to clean out the cabinet that holds my “uncommitted” yarns. I emptied everything out because I also wanted to look at the collection of Jamieson & Smith 2-ply jumper weight yarn that I have for two different projects: a cowl that Goodrun Johnston is teaching in season 9 of Knits Stars AND I want to knit a clock face Yoke O’Clock. I was thinking I needed to buy a few colors of fingering weight Shetland wool but I have plenty already in my stash! I’ve now cleaned up and organized the cabinet again and put all of the like yarns in plastic bags to make finding it a wee bit easier. I hope.
DIS organizedOrganized
I also have a sweater that I knitted for a young woman who I mentored when she was 10. She’s quite a bit older now and is about to have her third baby boy. I made her a Zip Up the Back baby sweater – pattern is Zip Up a Baby Sweater by Marge Webster. I knitted it in Cascade Pacific Prints in greens. This is a great pattern to knit and a wonderful baby sweater. What’s not so great is that I have to hand-sew a zipper into it which is not my favorite activity. But yesterday I got it done and the sweater is blocked, too. (I was shocked that a mass-manufactured yarn bled so much. The water was green!)
Zip Up a Baby Sweater
That’s three finished objects in one day! Yay, me! I feel lighter already. And that brings me back to the morning today – I cast on a Ruby the Mega Ray. It’s a crochet pattern that my daughter sent to me for my granddaughter and I made it relatively quickly. She suggested that I make another one for her sister and “how cool would it be if you could put one of those corn things inside” … corn things are the microwavable bags that are so wonderful on sore muscles. I’ve made a lot of them over the years. The last bunch for the kids was made after they all got sore muscles after a ski trip up here. So, I’m going to try to adapt a crochet pattern … try, I will. I have a sort-of-plan and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back and make the ray according to the pattern. Crossing my fingers my plan works because it sure would be cool!
Pink Sock progress
I’m still making progress on my pink socks. The heel and gusset are finished and I’m working my way down the foot. And I’m also working away on the little pink cotton dress for Sylvie. It’s not a difficult pattern but it’s a lot of purling. If I were to make it again, I’d make it inside out so that there was a lot of knitting …
I’ve cast on another Emotional Support Chicken, too. I had a ball of wool that I found deep in my stash and started the tail in that and then changed to a ball of violet-ish wool that was given to me. I think she’ll have some more of the first yarn in her as stripes around her neck and that should leave me enough yarn to make yet another chicken. Ha! Ha! I’m hooked. They don’t take a ton of time or effort and I am enjoying the process of knitting them. We’ve decided that we’re going to have a chicken coop in the store window this summer and we’ve asked our customers to make Emotional Support Chickens and loan them to us for the window. We’re hearing that it’s a fun idea and hope participation will be strong.
Last night I decided to try on my first sock. That was not such a good idea because it led me down a rabbit hole. The sock, Hermione’s Everyday Sock by the Crazy Sock Lady (it may be my new favorite sock pattern), was too long. What was I thinking when I knitted the foot/toe? I wear a size 9 1/2 shoe and that means I knit to 7″ and then do the toe decreases. For some reason, I was thinking that I needed to knit to 8″ … and you know what that means, right? The sock is too long by an inch!!!
So, frog I did.
I pulled out the needles and pulled and wound up the (now) extra yarn so that when I reach the correct length, I can re-knit the toe. And then the “hard” part is to find the right stitches for each of the three needles. Luckily, the pattern repeat for the sock is 4 rounds and I could tell where the pattern started so I could easily find the top of the foot stitches and get them on the needle. Which left the other half of the sock to be divided onto the two remaining needles. Now, all I have to do is knit the toe. AGAIN!
One would think that after knitting several dozen pairs of sock that one would not make mistakes any more … and one would be wrong. This is how expectations lead to negative thinking and I started to beat myself up with “what a dope” and “dummy” … but as I realized what I was saying to myself, I stopped and remembered that I simply made a mistake and it’s all good. We all make mistakes, even experts, and I gave myself a pat on the back for catching the mistake before I tried to wear the sock.
I thought it looked long. I tell others all the time to trust their gut. I will remember to listen to my own good advice and trust my gut.
Queen Bee Knits 