How to Schedule a Knitting Break

I googled the How-To language above on an impulse that might better have been used doing something else.

Not surprisingly, there are blog or journal notes from people taking a break FROM their currently frustrating knitting projects.

There are discussions of taking a break for wellness in a long stretch of otherwise uninterrupted knitting.

Here and there are a few sightings of other creative work done while knitting activity was on hiatus.

A few photos with feet up or tasty treats readily at hand speak to a nice holiday from everything, with knitting as the honored guest at the party.

Me, I need something of a lesson:
HOW can I GET the KNITTING back INTO my SCHEDULE ?!?!

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Why yes, I would love a little cheese with my whine.
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Meanwhile, everything's fine here.
Pardon me if I indulge in this hasty dramaqueen moment.
I'm simply announcing to myself that my hyper-productive schedule has swung its pendulum too far from the knitting zone. I may have to make myself close the door and knit for a half hour when it's supposed to be suppertime.

Sometimes it helps to say it out loud.
It also helps to have a piece of chocolate.

The sun is shining, and I have a cup of coffee.

Hope your morning is as kind.

It is fair to say that I often measure the quality of time by how productive it was. While I'm happy to say that my month away from the blog has been quite productive, I'm also delighted to out myself by saying that some of it was delightfully unproductive.

I am okay with this.

I also knit several things which escaped photographic archiving. This too I find to be quite alright.

This is both a quiet and a noisy week. I've come to the office daily. The first days were whirlwinds of welcome home and "eek! I've been waiting for you - I have a problem." This morning is blissfully quiet.

I'll be back with knitting content and other word noise. Today looks to be very productive; but first, some quiet blog reading and the rest of my coffee.

Happy Merry!

Will be absent for about a month. Traveling with students. Packing some knitting.

Have a happy and safe New Year!

Holiday thank you gift DONE

Holiday knitted gift #3 has been completed! This is a thank you gift for a colleague and friend who bailed me out one hot summer day when I had a shopping meltdown for a formal occasion.

Meanwhile, nothing like a little low-engagement clapotis knitting in a very pretty Manos Silky Wool to make one happy. Zipped this out in a week. A Week! Really. Finally set it out to block yesterday.

I changed nothing in my photo taking saving or posting, but for whatever reason, the last month's photos have been monster sized and won't conform nicely to the Blogger rules like previous ones have done (ie. large or medium). Therefore I give up and post the thumbnails. Click as needed.










Promptly packaged it up and sent it off via the delivery service of her kind spouse, also a colleague.

Things need to be simpler.

I can't decide which picture I like. One exposure better reflects the actual colors.
However, on my computer that one seems really too dark. This next one was taken with a different exposure. Neither photo is brilliant.


Yarn is Dream in Color Classy.
Color is Black Parade.
Pattern is Morningside Neckwarmer (Jared Flood's pattern)
Made this neckwarmer for an assistant when I had a set of bus trips - 8 hours at a crack - along with a good start on another gift. (That one's for another post.)

So naturally, when my brain can just about handle knitting a tube at best, I get myself painted into a corner wherein I have to make THREE hats by noon tomorrow.

I'm sewing them, at least.

STILL.

One more week and then the craziness I create will calm down.
I better go home. I have an a late night and a full morning of creative improvising ahead.

Done.

One show running, one scarf wearable.

Crazy, Busy, and Sneezy

Things are a little crazy, so I'm taking refuge in some garter stitch.

Knitting this Noro sock into a Baktus kerchief.

Meanwhile, to take a nice hint from Elizabeth, it's handy to have a photo or two in the can for a blog update during busy times. Whipped up this hat last month in about a day or two for a costumer's request.




I'm going to sneeze my way home. Thanks for the kind notes about the Wisp. I'm afraid I haven't been able to reply directly. Seems I don't have the blog set up to do that, and even if I did, I think my manners took a hike with Crazy, Busy, Sneezy, and the rest of the umpteen dwarves....

(ETA - since when have my photos been cropped like that in the posting? Honestly, the pictures show the whole hat! Something is different, either at photobucket or in Blogger. Oh well, not today's worry....)

Creature of Habit

I like scarves to be around my neck. The Malabrigo laceweight (Indigo) used in this project is perfectly suited to this.
In the blocking of Wisp, I wondered if I was really likely to do multiple tricks with it.

I puzzled over ways to button and to wear, and the truth is, this is what I'll do. It's what I usually do.

(The buttons are not as rosy as this side view shoes. They have a good iridescent shell quality, blues, purples - well suited to the subtle tones in the yarn. Seems that justifying photos is also a matter of habit.)

AAAARRRGH

At a time when you want to say AAARRRGGGH, it's nice to receive a gift that let's you say AAAAAARRRRR, instead.

Long time, no socks

Sock knitting returns:


Yarn is Cherry Tree Hill in Nantucket Red.
The color is less intense than pictured.
Figures, as the alternative picture was too washed out.

Discovered this Mystery Sock KAL at Ravelry. The pattern and knitalong are crafted and hosted by Through the Loops.

I'm on the cuffs. Not enough visual here to serve as a spoiler, though I'm happy to report I'm much further into the cuffs than pictured here.

Veggies & Leftovers

Karius, a neckkerchief
a Norwegian blog viral knit
- One skein of Claudia Hand Paint in "Eat Your Veggies"
- Leftover blues & greens from the Pomatomus socks
- Leftover green from petticoat socks
- a little more blue from a sample hank from the CTH people
- size 4 needles
- started with 4 and built up to about 60 stitches and back down





I might just make another silly little neckkerchief. I rather like it.

Cotton-Fleece-Instead-of-Hemp Market Bag

December gift done.
Yarn:
Cotton Fleece - Caribbean Sea, or some such color name
Amount:
1.5 skeins
Pattern:
Needles:
As prescribed.
Hemp Market Bag from Bag Style
Details, such as they are:
The gauge was naturally a bit larger than the yarn the pattern originally called for. Still kept on with the needle sizes and stitch count, as it is, after all, a bag. The body of the bag has fewer than the 20 esprit lace repeats, as I'd reached the measurement needed, and I didn't want it to be completely gargantuan.
Photo particulars:
Don't know why I decided I had to fold the bag in half lengthwise, but I did.


Might be birthday, might be holiday gift, but it is most certainly done.

Breeze

There's a nice breeze in my office today. I enjoy having the windows open for fresh, cool bits of air. It seems to buoy me up just as I feel swamped by a weighty, weighty day in a challenging week in an intense month.


Fittingly, for the season, on Friday I started knitting Wisp from Knitty in a periwinkle-evoking blue Malabrigo lace. It might even be for me. (If it isn't, I have another color of the same yarn, and that can be for me.)

Almost done with the market bag. Enjoying the neat and tidy look of the garter stitch strap.

Thinking today of friends who've received difficult health news and of friends who've come through long stretches of health challenges.

I hope they, too, can find some little breeze that lifts them up, comforts them, or brings them ease on difficult days.

It's something.

I don't really have a whole lot of time for anything right now. I'm not enjoying that. Makes me feel like a lousy manager of my time, when the truth is really that there are just too many things I have to do. I am overloaded.

I went home last night "early" - which meant I left before 7:30. This gave me the chance to stop at a few stores - sympathy card store and wine & martini store, to be precise. Because the truth of the matter is, that I have to try to do a few things that make me feel human, regardless of the overload. I need to have sympathy cards on hand so I can get them sent OUT when the occasions arise, and sadly they do. (Nothing close to home in this story - families of colleagues.) I need to have a moment in a weekend when I can sit down and relax with a little glass of something, turn on some music, and do one little thing. Read, maybe. Or knit. Even though I really didn't get home until what would be pretty late to be considered "home early," I did still have a little glass and a little knitting.

I worked a little more on this Hemp Market Bag (the name of the pattern) in Cotton Fleece.


Tomorrow I will work a little bit on the finger bits of this first mitt.


Meanwhile, this was my break in a working Saturday. Had a morning meeting to sing through a musical. There's another production tonight. I have a few hours to get a few things done. Since I left ALL of my reading glasses at home, including the LEAVE THESE AT THE DESK pair I wore home the other day, I am going to go out in search of a pair of reading glasses before I develop a big headache.

This was one break. Walking to go glasses shopping will be another.

It's something, anyway.

Norbert

FINISHED.

Somewhat inaccurate as a dinosaur, but that's because I just needed to finish and stop dawdling.



His spine is a little wonky.



Asymmetry is a fine thing in a dinosaur.

Really, I do knit for myself, but it's not in this post.

Elizabeth, Marcy, and Batty - thanks for your kind words. I have to admit, I was thinking of Elizabeth as spokesperson for letting things go free when I was home coming up with this scheme to give away a sweater. It helped me steer clear of hanging onto something I just couldn't make good use of right now. (Bad sentence, but you get the drift, maybe?)

I finally FINALLY F I N A L L Y stitched up the Norberta I began working on - what, last October? I will take a photo tonight or tomorrow. (I've just chucked the camera into my bag to be sure it goes home. I don't know what took me so long.

Okay, maybe I do. I needed to pick up stuffing. I also needed to feel UP to putting the spine-spines on straight AND also up to easing them onto the back, as it seemed I had different measurements of pieces. And then I dawdled. Done dawdling.

I opted for black yarn eyes, no nostrils, no fangs. Well, and no wings, as this Norberta is no dragon. More Norbert the Somewhat Inaccurate Dinosaur.

Will be sending him off as soon as I can. He has a book companion for his travels.

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Meanwhile, I can't figure out what I DO want to start making for myself. Working on the niece and nephew request knitting so I have them done in time for birthdays (October and December). Took a break from them and looked through patterns. Ended up tidying up the knitting pattern folders. Of course, I've been ignoring the sweaters in hibernation. Didn't feel like waking them up this weekend, so I kept on with the paper frenzy and cleaned out a huge basket full (ie. the "clear the desk by putting it in one place HERE" basket) of paper that needed filing, pitching, tidying, etc.

This will not sustain me as a substitute for knitting for myself. Maybe I just need more time to think.

Maybe I need to make some dishcloths.

A Good Sweater Day

Today is lovely, sunny, and a little cool - a perfect sweater day. Good day to catch a picture of the finished Greenjeans, done in Malabrigo yarn - Velvet Grapes the colorway.



I realized this morning that I didn't want to keep this sweater tucked away for when I'd lose enough weight for a good fit. So I devised a plan. Had colleague try on the sweater for a photo. Knew it was a good color for her. Asked if she was allergic to wool. She admired the sweater. I noted that it was actually a decent fit for her. Put it on to demonstrate my fit problem. Asked her if she would like it.

I gave away the sweater. She was delighted. Really.
She already ran in a couple hours later to say she's wearing it already.

I'll knit the pattern again, though maybe not instantly.
And I'll size it better for who I am today.

I think that's a pretty good sweater day!

I Could be the Cubs

Great season and then a few games that don't go so well, that's me.

My Greenjeans sweater is done. Picture soon. On a hanger. Or on the dress form.

Not on me.

Seems the blooming I got when I swatched didn't transfer as well into the cabled ribbing.

Seens I may have overestimated the amount of bloom in calculating the finished size.

Seems the 10 pounds I lost this summer aren't enough progress to make this sweater look really good.

Seems I need to think more carefully about how to make button holes behave. Of course, less girth around the middle will also keep that button hole from stretching out so much.

What are the lessons here?
Swatch and wash the cables, too.
Keep up with the healthy meals. I've just had a nice tomato & veg salad.
Take a walk this afternoon.

I'm not going to despair of failure in the knitting. It wasn't a win, but it's still a good looking sweater.

I hope to wear the sweater soon. I could still have a winning season. Go Cubs.

A Proper Gift, Juno Regina!

This is a gift for a good friend. I'll have to call now and find a time to bring it up. I don't want to mail it!

Blocked out to 16 " wide - could have been wider at the largest cross section of the diamond ends, but I opted for straight.

Length blocked out to 72" or so long - I think it was about 60" unblocked.


I am truly pleased.

A good week

What makes a week good for you?

In this good week, I got up pretty early every day so I could do one thing I WANTED to do for myself. You know, a little variation of the "put your oxygen mask on first before you assist others with theirs" bit of airline safety instruction. Two mornings I went walking. A couple mornings I permitted myself a little time for knitting with the early morning news & entertainment programming. And I've tackled a couple of those daily or weekly household tasks that it's NICE to do with some degree of regularity.

In this good week, I've eaten some pretty healthy things, and on a regular, planned basis! While this should be standard, right now it feels remarkable, as it has been a week of packing lunches, dinners, and/or breakfasts to go go GO. Today's lunch included a really fragrant white peach with blueberries and a dollop of really thick, plain yogurt. 23 more days to make it a habit, right?

In this good week's knitting, I finished off the Juno Regina. It's modified - a few repeats fewer, a little less wide (in pattern if not in actuality), the yarn is a little heavier (Ancient Threads TRI - a sock weight fingering). It's also a little shorter - about 63 inches unblocked. I didn't run out of yarn, also good. While I have enough left that I wished briefly I had knit the center span longer before I started the detail of the end pattern, I'm much better off than if I'd run out of yarn before I was done.

This weekend I will block it. It'll be the last time knitting will have little to no competition for the cutting table! Picture time will happen then, too, as the camera and the scarf are at different ends of my commute!

And finally, in this good week, I've been remarkably productive. I have managed to clean up my desk daily, so as to keep the chaos at bay. And I've really been able to keep up a modest degree of some balance in my week.

Looking forward to a GOOD weekend.