Everything Since April

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yikes, it's been 4 months! Summer started and is happening. I finished up my blue Cruiser mittens pretty quickly, the thick yarn and easy-to-remember pattern certainly helping. I knit a little hole into the palm of one so that I can turn the pages of my kindle when it gets cold out. I also finished up the quilt I started for Mary before she was born. The bright colors aren't really my style, but in the end I'm OK with it. The pattern was quite easy due to mostly strip piecing and bulk cutting. I can't remember where I got the pattern from, but it's somewhere on the internet so it shouldn't be too hard to find, right? What took forever was the quilting. I did free-motion quilting across the entire top and I pretty much hated it. I really underestimated the physicality needed to push and pull a full-size quilt under a machine. No wonder people pay other people to do this for them! I will definitely go that route for my next large quilt.

We went to Sheep & Wool and I bought NOTHING. True to my new year's resolution, I have bought no yarn this year and have knitted completely from stash. This actually worked out well because I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up which made me want to get rid of everything. I sent a large bag of craft supplies off to live with someone else, and I'm working on clearing the decks of my quilting WIPs so I can pare down my fabric collection even more. The fabric I was attracted to and was available decades ago (yes, it has been multiple decades since I started quilting) isn't my style anymore. I have one quilt ready for quilting, and another one about 1/2 pieced.

After 6 years of being away, we went back to New Mexico for a wedding in June. We mostly stayed around Santa Fe, eating chile-based foods and looking at Southwestern scenery. I wanted to go back to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, which was smaller than I had remembered, but is worth a visit. The plaza was cheesy as usual, although perfect if you're interested in a dreamcatcher or t-shirt with a howling wolf on it. We drove up into the mountains for a short hike, which was brutal at 10,000 feet; the views were amazing, however. Oddly, one highlight of the trip was the Jambo Cafe, an African restaurant. Highly recommended.

Of course, there have been baby pools and bowls of cheerios on the floor and naps and reading the same books over and over and over. As Mary would say, "It's allllll gooooooood."

Blues

Blues have been living on my needles lately. A friend recently had a baby girl, and being a pink-sparkle avoider like myself, I thought I would make her a baby sweater in non-traditional colors. The pattern is Baby Tea Leaves, and the yarn is Malabrigo Arroyo in Azules. I made a similar one for Mary, and I'm really in love with this pattern. The pattern is written so clearly and the result is super sweet for a baby girl. I made the 12 month size and it eats up 100% of one skein of yarn, which is exactly how I like it. I actually knit the body first, then divided the rest of the yarn by weight for the sleeves.

Also now finished are a pair of Cruiser Mittens in Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb Worsted. I knit a small buttonhole into the palm of one so that I could turn the page of my Kindle when it's freezing out. The convenience of being a knitter! Oh, and I did modify this pattern a bit by adding a thumb gusset. I really don't understand when mitten patterns are written with no gusset, because last time I checked the width of your palm across your thumb is bigger than the width of your palm above your thumb.

How quickly you forget the cold. It's hard to imagine needing to use these now that it's spring. Sheep and Wool is coming up soon! I'm hoping to take Mary this year and introduce her to all the sheep. It's funny how tastes change over the years, and this applies to yarn as well. This winter I realized how much warmer plain old 100% wool is. So, I'm hoping to find some non-superwash wool and/or fiber for socks and sweaters. Even though I've forgotten the cold, it doesn't mean it won't exist again.

The Four-Year Blanket

In April of 2011 I had the brilliant idea to crochet a 100% wool colorful granny square blanket. Four years later, it's finished! Like with many of my projects I didn't really grasp what I was getting myself into. 28 skeins of wool = six pounds of yarn = almost 2 miles of yarn = thousands of stitches = 540 color changes = over 600 ends.

I used Knitpicks Wool of the Andes (the colors are listed on my Ravelry page here) and only had to order more yarn once, for the border. The pattern is Summer Garden Granny Square, although I only did 3 color changes per round instead of 4. If I had done 4 you'd certainly be reading this post two years in the future. A huge part of this project was joining the squares together; I crocheted them together instead of sewing them, which ended up looking great, but taking for-freaking-ever.

So would I do it again? I'll give you the same answer I gave after I ran a half marathon 12 years ago - "I'm never doing that again." I'm not opposed to crocheting a blanket again, but not granny squares. Joining a billion of those things together killed my soul. But now I feel so freeeee! This thing has been hanging over my [crafting] head for years now, and now I have so much more time to knit all of the things.

Now, let me tell you about the 3 unfinished quilts in my basement, one of which is over 7 years old...

Wool Socks for Winter

Last time I mentioned how I do not do well with long-term projects. I really want to knit complicated cabled sweaters and intricate lace shawls, but about 60% in I end up wanting to burn the thing. Of course when it's finished I'm glad I put in the time and immediately want to start the next big project.

Sometimes, though, I need to knit a pair of socks in 4 days. The way that happens is to find some bulky yarn and big needles (it also helps to have small feet) and cast on 32 stitches. 32!! (A regular sock has about 64 stitches in a round.) I just made up the pattern as I went along, because after knitting about 50 socks so far I could probably do it blindfolded. I used Istex Alafoss Lopi, which is from Iceland and as close to an actual sheep as you can get. The wool is pretty "rustic," as they say, so these are better if worn with other socks underneath. That's ok, because it's 62 degrees in my house and they match my House Hat and House Scarf and House Long Underwear. Is it 62 degrees in your house?

A Year of Possiblities

I love this week, which seems fresh and new, like anything is possible in the coming year. I love reading and hearing about everyone's resolutions and projects. Even though I am cynical royalty and know that 90% of these projects will be abandoned (just ask me about my Project 365 that lasted two months), for this week and this month we will indulge ourselves in optimism.

• Knit from stash: I was the happy recipient of much gift yarn this year, and dropped a couple Benjamins on yarn for myself (whoops). This fall I reorganized my yarn by weight into 3 plastic bins, which lasted about 4 seconds before they started to overflow. My goal is to fit all of the stash back into those bins.
• Get the house in order: We've entertained the idea of moving to a different house this year, which means that all of those projects that were scheduled to happen someday need to happen now. I have a 2-page list of all of these projects, ranging from cleaning out drawers to minorly remodeling bathrooms, that I will spare you from.
• Complete photobook pages monthly: Each year I put together a book of pictures from the year, so they can live somewhere physical outside of my computer. Well, this (last) year I took over 1,000 pictures. Wading through them has been a monumental task. This year, I'm going to upload the pictures from each month and complete a few pages so I don't have to do it all at once.

Despite having a terrible name, dutch babies are delicious. Alton Brown's recipe is a winner.