Two FOs and Two Autumnal WIPs

Right after the last post, I started my third Ranunculus.  My hope was to have it finished in a week, but that didn't happen.  It was more like two weeks. Part of the longer timeline was my indecision about the sleeves.  I wanted the sleeves to be a bit longer.  I originally thought about making balloon sleeves.  I knit one sleeve and then starting having doubts about that decision.  I knit the second sleeve just as a straight sleeve.  Once I finished the second sleeve, I ripped out the first and redid it as a straight sleeve.  I'm very happy that I did.  The end result is close to what I wanted.  I could have made the sleeves a tad longer, but I'm happy nonetheless.

This Ranunculus was made out of two yarns held together:  Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stopper in Turning Over a New Leaf and Apothofaery Fabrications Halo Lace in Oxidize.  The end result is a light fabric that isn't too see through.  I probably could get away without anything underneath.  I'm not wearing a camisole in this picture, but I did wear one when I wore this to church last week.

My hoped for deadline for the Ranunculus was our anniversary.  This year was #34.  We went out to dinner and enjoyed a wonderful dessert compliments of the restaurant.

After the Ranunculus was off the needles, I cast on a baby sweater for one of Trisha's friends.

The sweater is the baby sweater from the CocoKnits Sweater workshop I took a few years ago.  The hat is the Debutante hat.  Both were knit in Plymouth Yarn Encore in color 029.  This was stash yarn that I had purchased a couple years ago.  It is a great yarn for baby knits.  It works up fast and machine washable.  I added snaps to the sweater and gave it to Trisha to take to her friend who is due to have her baby any day.

My current project is now the Audrey sweater from Knitty McPurly.  I'm knitting this in Berrocco Vintage in colorway 5164.  I wanted an autumnal sweater to wear for Thanksgiving.  This color is exactly what I was hoping for.

Knitty McPurly is having a Knit-Along for this sweater.  The KAL started yesterday and runs through the last Sunday of November.  As mentioned above, I'm hoping to have this done by Thanksgiving.  I'm making the 4th size, but already modified it.  The neck is very open.  I get cold around my neck so I decided to cast on fewer stitches and make the neck ribbing a bit longer.  It is also a cropped sweater with 3/4 sleeves.  I purchased extra yarn with the hope of adding a bit to the length and sleeves.  Since this is being knit in worsted, I'm hoping it works up fast.  My other hope is that I don't get too distracted by other knits.

What might distract me, your ask?

Last year I purchased several bundles from Blue Sky to make their autumn leaves.  While digging through boxes in the basement, I came across the bundles.  I'd like to have a garland made out of these and the knitted acorns.  We'll see if I can also get them done by Thanksgiving.  If this past weekend is any indication, I have no hope.

My husband had another should surgery on Friday.  The surgeon was able to clean up some scar tissue and arthritis and remove a few bone spurs, but he was not able to repair a torn tendon.  The tendon at some point in the past year had torn completely and retracted.  Ed is not happy about that news but there isn't anything that could be done about it now.  The surgeon said that if things don't get any better now, the only other option is a reverse shoulder replacement.  That would mean Ed would be restricted to no more than 25 pounds for lifting, which seriously limits his activities.  I'm praying it doesn't come to that.

And Just Like That Someone Turns 1

 Six weeks or so seems to be my cadence for updating this blog.  Here's what's happened since the last time.

The biggest event of the past month and a half was someone's 1st birthday.

About a week before his birthday, Trisha made a smash cake for him to enjoy.  She did this because Kristin was here and was not going to be able to be at his birthday party the following weekend.  At first he didn't know what to do, but once he figured out how sweet and fun the cake was, he tore into it.  Fortunately the weather was nice enough to have this fun in the backyard.

The next weekend was his birthday party.

I can't believe how big he's gotten!

We were all there except for Kristin.

Uncle Blake got some snuggle time the next day before heading back to Cincinnati.

I finished the test knit for Knitty McPurly's Digory Tee.  I used her Freetown Fingering in colorway Thistle.  The yarn is a non-superwash single ply organic merino.  It is very soft and drapey.  The pattern is very easy to follow and was fun to knit, even with the plain stockinette body.   I like how it turned out, but I'm disappointed I didn't knit a smaller size.  The neck opening is too wide for my liking.  When I get motivated, I'll rip out the neck ribbing and make it a little tighter and longer.

Ed and I headed off to Orlando for Labor Day weekend.  We again stayed at the Sheraton resort east of the Disney area.  Getting there was a bit of a hassle, but the rest of the trip was calm and relaxing.  One the day we left, I got stung by a bee in the armpit while waiting for the shuttle bus at the Columbus airport.  Our flight out of Columbus was delayed for nearly 45 minutes because someone forgot to update the maintenance log after the inbound flight.  That delay caused us to have to sprint through O'Hare to catch our connection to Orlando.  The flight to Orlando was calm, but lasted an hour longer than scheduled because of bad weather in the Orlando area.  We circled for an hour before landing.  Because of the weather, all of the inbound flights were backed up and that made the rental car lines tremendously long.  We should have gotten to the resort by 7pm, but instead got there at 930.  We hadn't eaten since breakfast so we quickly found a place to grab a bite to eat and then a grocery store to buy some Benadryl for my sting, which was swollen and itchy at this point.

While we were in Florida, Trisha took Jameson to get his first haircut.  He wasn't too happy about the deal, but she said he did well for the stylist.

I took only one knitting project on the trip, the Marlow poncho by Berroco.  My friend Vera bought the pattern and yarn for this back in 2020 at my prompting.  I thought I could teach her to knit using this pattern.  As it turns out, she always pulled the yarn so tight around the needles that she couldn't make a new stitch.  After a couple hours of trying, and some wine to relax her, she gave up.  I felt bad that she spent all that money just to toss it aside so I told her to give me the project and I'll make it for her.  She is heading to Europe at the end of September, so I made it my goal to finish it before she leaves.  I have it all done except for a few ends to weave in.

Last Friday when I was babysitting Jameson, I decided to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  He loved them!!  This will be a regular meal when he's at Omi's!

I have a few knitting projects on the needles, but no pictures of them at the moment.  I'm also trying to get my craft stuff organized in the basement.  I'm on the hunt for some autumn leaves I knit last year.  The pattern is from Blue Sky and uses their mini set. I found the bundles I used for the oak and maple leaves, but can't find the poplar leaves I knit.  They have to be somewhere downstairs, but I'm not sure where. I have this Saturday completely to myself so I'm going to spend some of that time sorting/hunting in more of the boxes.  Wish me luck.

Another Six Week Summary

The end of June was bittersweet.  I got to spend a week alone with Kristin, but it was to help her move to Charlotte, NC for a new job.

She hired a moving company to transport her stuff and unload it to her new apartment.  We spent the week unpacking boxes and organizing closets and shelves.

It wasn't all work though.

We took a break one day to drive 2 1/2 hours to Ashville, NC to explore Biltmore.  It was my second time there, but Kristin's first.  After we toured the house and walked through the gardens, we went over to Antler Village for lunch and wine.  I came home with 6 bottles.  Unfortunately one of my favorites wasn't for sale to the general public, only wine club members.  I'll have to check their website to see if it pops up there. I was told that if there is any left it will be listed later this summer/fall.

We also went to nice seafood restaurant one evening.  Kristin had a mule and I had a very lovely peach drink.  It was similar to a margarita.  I wished I had snapped a picture of what was in it because it was tasty.  Something I'd like to try to recreate at home.

We also explored the city, mainly while running errands.  One morning Kristin took me over to a place that she had seen when she was checking for apartments.  It was a nice park with a pond and amphitheater.  I suspect she will spend a lot of time there running around the lake or reading a book in the sunshine.

On my last full day we visited with Ed's brother and sister-in-law.  They had just purchased a lake house about an hour south of Charlotte.  Kristin and I spent the day with them on their boat and then joined in a cookout with one of the neighbors.

It was a good week and I'm very grateful to have spent that time with Kristin.  I feel it brought us closer.  There will be many more trips to Charlotte in the future.  I'm just sad that she's moved away.  I don't expect that she'll ever move back this way.  She has already suggested that we move down there, but that isn't up for discussion.  At least not yet.  We can't move until Ed and I are retired.  And with his parents still with us, we can't move away and leave them without family nearby.

This summer I have been enjoying watching all of the hummingbirds that are visiting the feeder I hung off of our deck.  From what I can determine, there are at least 3 pairs.  I'm basing this off of the direction the fly to/from the feeder.

We have 4 weddings to attend this year.  The first one was in April.  We attended the second one in July.  The other 2 are coming up in the fall.

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We babysat our grandson for a week while Trisha and Craig visited friends in Germany.  It was wonderful to have him, but exhausting!  He has started crawling and likes to pull himself up on things.  He's very vocal and tries to sing.

On the knitting front, I finished two projects and started another.

I finished the baby blanket for my nephew's second baby.  The blanket still needs to be gifted though.  I'm seeing my sister, who is grandma, tomorrow so I'll wrap it up and give to her to pass along.

I'm happy with how it turned out.  I based this on the Purl Soho Half and Half  Triangle Wrap.  I used some very old stash yarn.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I also finished the Suri Shirt.  It turned out exactly as I had hoped.  The fit is perfect.  The color is perfect.  The softness is perfect.  It is perfect.  This is going to get a lot of wear.

I followed the pattern as written except for the bind offs.  I did the Italian bind off for the neck ribbing but did a regular bind off in pattern for the bottom and sleeve edges.

I'm now test knitting the Digory Tee by Knitty McPurly.  I am using her Freetown Fingering in colorway Thistle.  It is a single ply, non-superwash organic Merino.  It is very soft and lovely.  The pattern calls for 3 skeins in my size, so I'm using helical knitting with 2 skeins to knit the body.

The body is straight stockinette, which great for TV knitting.  This is flying along.  I'm about 2/3s of the way through the body.  The pink stitch marker shows how much I did last night.  I should have the body done up to the front/back separation by the end of the week.

I have a couple other projects on the needles, but no pictures to share yet.  They are gifts for people.  I'm sure they don't read this blog, but I'll wait to discuss them later.

Hoping another 6 weeks won't go by before I blog again.  August looks to be busy, like every month anymore.  See you next time!

 

Hey Knitting Mojo! Where'd You Go?

I won the baby race.  I didn't get the blanket for my niece's baby done in time for the shower, but I did get it done before the baby was born.  It didn't, however, get to my niece until the baby was about 2 weeks old.  Kristin took it to my niece when she went to visit at the beginning of June.

One of my nephews and his girlfriend are expecting their second baby.  I did a very deep stash dive to get yarn to make a baby blanket for the little guy coming in July.  This yarn is at least 30 years old.  I think I made a toddler dress out of the yellow for my niece who will be the aunt of this baby.  I'm following the general directions for Purl Soho's Half and Half Triangle Wrap, but I'm doing my own thing with the colors.  Stay tuned for a FO picture in the next post.

I cast on the Suri Shirt using some yarn I bought in April from a yarn shop in Newark, OH.  It's coming along slower than I had hoped.  I think the main reason is that I've lost my knitting mojo and can't motivate myself to sit for too long.

The pattern is top down, working the shoulders first followed by the armhole shaping.  After joining in the round, you are supposed to knit the body and finish with the neckband and armhole ribbing.  I decided to do the neckband before the body just to see how it looks.  The ribbing is bound off using the Italian bind off, which is a sewn bind off similar to kitchen stitch.  It took me an entire Saturday afternoon to do the neckband bind off.  I had to rip out a couple times because my tension was wonky.  I think it looks fine now.

I'm now slogging through the body.  I'll finish that before tackling the armbands.  The pattern just calls for ribbing at the armholes.  I'm going to try it on before deciding if I'll add some short rows first.  I'm not fond of my upper arms and don't want them too exposed.

Over Mother's Day weekend we took a trip to Charleston, SC for Ed's niece's college graduation.  Everyone went except my son-in-law.  It was a nice get-away, but not very relaxing.  Almost every minute of the trip had an activity planned.  We did manage to sneak off to the beach for a long walk on Saturday morning.  My grandson had his first experience with sand and ocean water.

Trisha started making a quilt for her bed last year.  Or maybe it was the year before.  I don't remember.  I helped her with cutting the pieces and with making the quilt sandwich, but she did the sewing and quilting herself.  She asked me if I would sew the binding.  She doesn't like doing that.  I've been using this as some TV time activity.  I need to get this done soon because she wants to use it with a family photoshoot coming up in July.

My grandson continues to grow.  He is not yet crawling, but is babbling like crazy.  He and I love our Fridays together!

 

Six Week Summary

The end of March and then all of April flew by in a flash.

The landscaping was planted around our house.  We are still waiting for the sod.  We've had a wet spring so a lot of our yard is washing away into the pond behind the house.  I hope the sod comes soon.  It is very depressing seeing the mud everywhere.

I managed to finish up a couple WIPs.

Letho is done!  I redid the I-cord bind off around the button band several times.  It was too tight the first time.  Even after going up a needle size, it is tight, but I didn't feel like redoing it again.  If I ever make this jacket again, I'll do a tubular bind off, which would be much stretchier.

Because of the I-cord bind off, it doesn't lay across the back of my neck as nice as I'd like, but that is my only real complaint.  It is cropped, but since I'm short it won't be too bad.

On the positive side, this yarn was an absolute dream to work with.  It is The Fibre Co.'s Cumbria.  I have a little more than a full skein of the grey left and a little less than full skeins of the red and green.  I'll definitely use it for something else.  Maybe I'll get a couple more skeins of the grey and make a color sweater.

After I finished Letho, I pulled the Anker Summer Top out of hibernation where it has been since last fall.  I only had to knit a little on one sleeve and then make the other one match.  This is out of Berrocco Remix Light in Taupe.  I got the yarn a couple years ago from Hank in Cincinnati.  I'm think it turned out well and am looking forward to wearing it this spring and summer.

The baby blanket for my niece is still slowly growing.  I can tell I'm getting closer to the end because each set of rows (over and back with one color) was taking me well over 30 minutes to do.  Now I'm down to the 15-20 minute range.  Once I'm done with the garter section, I'll need to do something for a border.  The pattern suggests an I-cord edge, but after doing that on Letho, I'm not thrilled with that idea.  I might crochet an edging just to finish it off.

Speaking of my niece, we had a baby shower for her yesterday.  I was in charge of making all of the desserts.  It was a lot of work, but I think everyone enjoyed them.  She doesn't know the gender of the baby yet, so I decorated the desserts with pink and blue.

There were dozens of petit fours.  The pink were filled with apricot preserves and the blue had raspberry jam.  Apricot was my favorite.

I also made cut out cookies in the shape of baby bottles.  These were a basic sugar cookie recipe with royal icing.

To finish off the selection, I made mini cheesecakes with red raspberries for girl and blueberries for boy.

April also included a wedding in the family.  My nephew got married and all of my siblings were able to come into town for the event.  Here we all are in are finery.  This was the first time since October 2021 that we've all been together.

And to close things out, here is a picture of the cutest little guy in the world.  He continues to grow.  

He is absolutely perfect!

Plans Are Made To Be Broken

 February didn't go as planned.

I wanted to finish at least 2 of my WIPs.  But I only managed to get one done, the Setesdal hat.  Babysitting and COVID threw a big wrench in the plans.

I got the Setesdal hat done in time to enter it into the prize drawing from Arne and Carlos, but sadly I did not win.  The hat was a fun knit, but my gauge was too tight.  I can't get the thing on my head.  I'll block it and tuck it away to give to Jameson when he gets older. 

I'm slowly making progress on Letho.

The two halves are joined and I finished the welts along the opening.  I think the button band and ribbing are the only things left.  It will be cropped.  I added an extra repeat of the pattern to make it longer, but I'm wondering if I should have done one or two more.  Too late now to change it.  The ribbing along the bottom appears to be several inches.  Crossing my fingers that it turns out OK after the ribbing.  I do have to remember that I'm not tall and I'm short waisted.  This may end up being OK.  Stay tuned.

The Loveland Shawl is also still in progress.  I finished the main color and am now in the mesh stitch section using the contrasting color.  It should go quickly now, if only I would work on it.  I want to get Letho done, so this will hibernate until that is completed.  Since this is autumnal colors, I probably won't wear it until the fall anyway.

In the middle of those WIPs, I cast on a blanket for one of my nieces who is having a baby in May.  I wanted it to be machine washable so I bought some Bernat yarn from Joann's.  It is 100% acrylic and is not fun to knit with.  I guess I've turned into a yarn snob.  The colors are nice and it should be easy to care for, though.  It is miles and miles of garter stitch, so I'm having to motivate myself to work on it.

Speaking of knitting motivation, mine has totally gone away since the move.  I found that since I took a break around the time we moved, my hands lost some of their muscle memory.  It was hard to get back into it.  Also, we've been so busy on weekends, I haven't had a single day to just sit and knit.  Ed starts fishing again soon.  I'm hoping to have a 'Me' day one of these coming weekends.

As I mentioned earlier, COVID hit us at the end of February.  It's been over 2 weeks and I'm just now starting to get some energy back.  The weather is still very cold, so it's not helping.  Once it warms up I'm going to start exploring the new neighborhood and get a walking route or two mapped out.

My grandson is growing so fast.  He's almost able to sit up on his own.  He can roll over and it becoming very vocal.  It is such a joy to watch him.  I'm am so grateful we were able to move closer to him.  I know my daughter and son-in-law appreciate having us nearby to help too.

This week we are babysitting him overnight Thursday.  Trisha and Craig have a concert Thursday night and then plans to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Friday morning.  I suggested we just keep the baby overnight so they can enjoy themselves.  My brother Joe is visiting this weekend also.  I'll pick him up Thursday evening and he'll stay until Sunday.  With the overnight guests, there won't be much knitting going on this weekend.  

Keeping my fingers crossed that I can get some in next weekend.