2019, Here’s Your Hat

There was knitting, but there was no project completion.

There was loads of travel, but there were few adventures.

There was family, for which ever grateful.

There was discord and incivility in the world and in this nation. And yet there were fine moments spent with fine friends.

At least the piano has been tuned.

Back to Bach. Back to knitting.

Here's to a year with some better days to come.

Snow Morning

Actually brought work home to join the work from home brigade.

Taking a few breaks, though.

Happy New Socks 2019

New Year, meet old pre-occupations.

Managed to resume some small but steady knitting progress this past year.

Have made some slightly ambitious knitting goals, employing some Ravelry tools and groups.

Cast on not one but three projects on New Year's Day — and made progress on a fourth as well.

Have even started to tackle some skill building.

Here's to a Happy New Year for all.

Simple Yet Effective

There is knitting.

There are visits to friends.

There are host gifts.

Simple Yet Effective Cowl, in Socks That Rock, is done in less than two weeks, a shocker for my knitting habits of late.

Jabberwocky is the colorway.

Okay, so I used the pattern for stitch count and the cast-on/bind-off rows of reverse stockinette. Chose the longer, wrap twice around the neck version. I overran the actual stockinette part of the pattern: details in Ravelry.

I am not linking to anything today. Seek and you might find.

What Was I Thinking?

Too small.  Off to the frog pond.

Sent from my iPhone

Yarn Problems

I lost another hat.

If only I had a way to solve that.

The August I Finished a December Gift

This may never happen again. I have actually started in July and finished in August the first of a December gift list.

I had made two of these for my younger aunt earlier this year for her home dec celebration of grandchildren. A wee one joined the family this August. I am ahead of the game. Witness sock number 3.

I surely hope I can maintain a bit of the momentum.

Not Fancy, Merely Finished

Seriously have been knitting (and crocheting) the less than fancy, not particularly challenging pathways lately. Still, some things are done.

To be fair - still pleased. This is a decent amount of progress, some old stash moved out, and all of it gifts moving out.

After all, Towering Textiles did MOVE this year, residentially speaking. I carried all the yarn myself. It was a zen thing. I needed to own the responsibility, and I didn't want to purge the stash. I was clearing out a lot of everything else, including about one third of the fabric. (Note - the fabric bins in the photo are not the ones in my home.). Nope, I said, I am looking forward to using it.

Use is use. My life needs calm, and calmer crafting right now is the simple stuff. Garter stitch, little gifts.

And yes, I did make a new garter stitch dishcloth first thing when I moved. Did I say that already? Not fancy - but just fine with me.

Life Beyond Blogs

I know they are identified as passe, these poor old blogs.

Truly, though, I miss them.  In these days of all the drama that passes for interaction and all the clickbait that passes for news, I miss them even more.

Life may have moved beyond blogs.  I still confess, though, that I follow many.  I want to hear about the life beyond the blogs.  I even want to hear the messiness that some seem to object to:  the truth that human beings living in communities will have opinions about communities and may take action based on those opinions.

I'm even a little bummed for the folks who seem to need to demand the escapism of "blogs beyond life."  How dare they, some folks protest, how dare someone post an opinion about politics on their Instagram or podcast or blog - we came here for the distraction.  

I don't know that I"m going anywhere grand with this.  I will just be glad of the folks that are willing to share.  I am thankful of the folks that recognize and value the life beyond blogs.  I'm living outside of them, and I'm thankful they are mindfully doing so, too.

I needed a small moment on a tiny soap box.  It wasn't important, and it won't rattle anyone's life nor distract from their distractions.

Ooh look.  Knitting.   (Wow, my pictures have gotten worse...)

Knitvember

As I was focused on moving into my very own mortgage-attached condo this fall, I could not let myself knit much. I looked forward to Knitvember, I said! All I could really manage was a hat.

This was a great idea. My friend organizes a bunch of crafters to make hats for charity in celebration of her dad's birthday. I made this sturdy and dense, generously sized beanie of 2-ply worsted from Maine. The green is a leftover (and there is still a bit leftover) from a Sabbathday Lake skein that became workman' fingerless gloves. The navy is Bartlett Yarns, also a sturdy 2-ply. I'd purchased enough decades ago to make a sweater. Then it worked its way into a fabric messenger bag, so I have only a few skeins on hand anymore. Seriously bought those yarns about twenty years ago. I think there need to be more hats and mittens for the charity bin.

The Knitvember hat went in the December bin for the Lakeview Pantry:

Moved!

Not the blog - me!

I haven't been able to knit much this fall. A new dishcloth for the new condo is pretty fair for a domestic move during the start of a school year -- and through work on a musical in top of that.

Summer Activities

Quilting, cleaning, veggie CSA, catching up on old projects, whomping out new projects - these are part of my summer so far.

This picnic blanket is a wedding gift (due for a wedding this evening). I meant to be prudent and use what I have at home. Happens I needed the ants, and I wanted to match the laminated fabric (already at home) tote bag I made for the gift. Most of the top fabric was purchased the way things go - the chickadee went with the bag, as did the green and the bold multi picked up other colors in the bag. The polka dots were a nice foil - this is the path that leads to towering shelves of stash.

Fortunately for stash utilization, both turquoise pieces were on hand, leftovers from the graduation quilt explosion of the past couple years. That rounded out the front and covered the backing. Similarly, I had an excess of purple binding prepped from one of the graduation quilts - 6" or so more than I needed. Serendipity.

I am about to head out for the morning. Will also be tackling one of those other summer projects: donations! I have a large bag of felt to drop off for an arts studio youth class. This afternoon I will stitch the last stretch - it is pinned and ready to go. Started cutting out squares last Saturday, so that's a pretty good week!

Finish Lines

Finished is another Auntie gift, started last summer. . . Or was it the summer prior? Should have been done two summers ago, as that was the summer of all the high school graduations. I am pretty sure that it was nowhere near to finished if I did work on it the prior summer. Pretty sure last summer got it to the basted stage.

Who cares? Done now. Hasty machine quilting, less hasty binding, and it is done.

On to the next finish line - a series of finish lines, all within the year of "it's okay to deliver wedding gifts within the year of the wedding."

October and March: I see you and will get these done by August, finished ahead of the finish line.

Slow Going, So Done

(Tried to post this on 17 February 2016.)

This gift has been a slow race to the finish.  All the placemats are now shipped and received.  Phew.

I missed when the rules changed.

It's no wonder the blog is so quiet.  Rare enough that I email a post - seems they weren't landing correctly.  (I only caught on to this in February, when I started this post.)

Santa's Workshop

Seriously will get this second batch done.

About That Swap, Helen

Seriously, this yarn is going to be used up.

I bought a bunch of this Patons for something like a dollar at a ridiculous close out - probably a big box moment where other merchandise needed the in-store real estate. It then sat, because it was a sale for which there was no actual need. I could make things from it, but I had no real interest in doing so. One summer it was duly and dutifully removed to swap at knitting camp. Helen, a thrifty and practical person, saw some potential in this large quantity of yarn. Terrific.

I don't have Helen's story, but I would guess that the bargain again outweighed the need to knit. Helen publically shared her recent successes with decluttering. And voila, the yarn turned up at knitting camp this summer for an encore. or a reprise. Or a reprieve. (Musical theatre or punitive metaphor, hard to choose....)

At the last gasp, or a few gasps before it, I put the yarn in my bag. Swapped and reswapped as it was, I had a couple ideas that might serve to use it up. First round, within that very week, was a day of crafting with my cousin's little girls. Yarn that changed colors - though not quite as magically as that description suggested - was wound round lots of sticks from the yard. I left the remainders of two skeins at their house for further craft play.

I have been making Fuzzy Feet for a slow gift for a friend and her family. Another skein left the swap bag officially this week.

I have two of these left. I am making monsters. Two strands will eat it up, but I will be interested to see how much - and how many monsters.

Ready for the washer!

Also ready for mailing! I sent a batch of these to a friend and her family some years ago, and they tackled the fulling-to-size.

I visited them a couple summers ago and was reintroduced. "Oh, the slipper lady." And, much to the delight of a practical knitter, the slippers had been Worn Out.

How could I resist?

Autumn Knitting Goal

How about that! I finished a pair of gloves for myself before Autumn turned certainly and completely around the corner into Winter.

Basting: Not Only For Turkeys

One quilt basted: turns out this is a great purpose for very old thread no longer suited for actual sewing!