Great Day

Today was a great day!

I won the laundry war!  By 3pm.  Holy smoke.  I am totally bad ass.

The Kidlet returned to school after spring break.   Which was sad.  But I got my office, my workroom, my studio back.  Which was great.

I had a chance to work in the garden.  Alas, the weeds are winning.  Even though I have been cleaning up the garden for weeks.

It started to rain.  Again. So I went inside and began work on a quilt.  A Dresden plate pattern, but in batik.  Fabric I picked up after Christmas at Esther's Fabrics on Bainbridge Island.  This is a bucket list pattern for me.

A couple of weeks ago we went and saw a band called Rat City Brass - A Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass cover band.  They were great and everyone in the audience had a silly smile plastered across their faces.  It was like going back in time!  Today, Gary made a mixed tape of their greatest hits.  It was so much fun to listen to while I worked on my quilt.  I knew almost all the songs

Then I had a chance to go back outside with the camera and capture some snaps of spring in the Northwest.

Have a great week!

New Spring PJ's

Sometimes, in the spring I get the urge for new jammies. 

This is a pattern from Butterick (3314) I have used many times in the past.

I found a super cute fabric at the store, and some grosgrain ribbon.  Seriously, isn't it cute.

And I added some really cute trim on the bottom of each leg.

 And ta dah!  A pair of spring jammies.  So, even though we were still getting snow flurries last week, I have something bright and flowery to let me know spring and summer are right around the corner.  Really.

Finished! Toast Handwarmers

Whoo Hoo!

Since my last post I knuckled down and finished a project.  I had about 10 others swirling around in my brain distracting me, but I held strong and finally have one for the finished column.  Oh my gosh, it feels good.

A few weeks back I was looking for an easy commuting project - something I could do on the bus to and from work.  You know something kinda mindless.

I was poking around on Ravelry and found Toast on the A Friend to Knit With Blog.  Looked easy enough.

I used a lace weight yarn from Malabrigo which I picked up at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas on Bainbridge Island on sale right after Christmas.  I love this stuff.  Super soft baby merino wool.  Appears to be hand dyed.  In order to get a fingering weight I combined two strands. This color reminds of the faded denim of my favorite jeans.

I am always freezing cold.  Ask anyone!  I sit wrapped up in a blanket much of the time at work.  I would take the blanket to meetings if I thought I could get away with it!  But even with a blanket, my hands are like ice.  But these are nice and warm!  Especially when holding a very large cup of hot coffee.  This is Seattle after all!

I modified the pattern to accommodate for the lighter weight, casting on 56 stitches on 2.25mm circular needles.  The result was a very fine, smooth knit which feels great on the skin.

I added little slits for thumbs, but I can wear them the other way too.  I also added a little picot edge, which I think is nice and girlie.  But he very best part is that they really are toasty!

And props to the Sweetie for helping out with the photo shoot.  Thanks Sweetie!

UFO's

There are people who would say I am a focused person.  Some would say very focused. 

I would say I'm a hot mess and can hardly string two thoughts together without a third interrupting.  I think there are meds for this sort of condition...

Back to being focused.  I am pretty good about starting and finishing things.  I might have a couple projects going on at any one time, but nothing unmanagable.

Then recently it occurred to me.  I had begun more projects than I had finished... unfinished objects... AND I was seriously considering starting even more.

I have 3 quilts started.  One mostly pieced but is not comning together the way I envisioned so it is stalled waiting for inspiration to strike.  One, a vintage piece, which would be really cool with some hand embellishments.  And a third I cut out and attempted to conjure up a pattern for over the Christmas holiday.

This doesn't of course count the quilts, yes plural, I have fabric for, but have not yet started.

There are 4 knitting projects in various stages of 'unfinishedness'.  Yes, I just made that up.  A mohair sweater where the sleeve went wonky and I set it down - for months.  A hat.  Another sweater, this one with stranded knitting which will take more concentration than I currently have to finish.  And finally some yummy, soft merino handwarmers which I began a week and a half ago.  I was contemplating a hat to go with them, but have held off starting... so far. 

Let's see... there are sewing projects too.  I made a couple of little zippered bags for a trip.  One to hold my sunglasses, and another to hold all the little knitting tools I seem to leave all over the house.   I have more fabric cut out for additional bags.  The sunglass case is currently holding crochet hooks, so I need a new case for my glasses.  And I have fabric all put together to make cute little lined gift bags as I gave up on paper giftwrap a couple years ago.

Gaaahhhh! (A Dilbertism).

I am going to dedicate the next chunk of time (read 5 minutes) to finish some of my UFO's.  And on my honor I will try... not to begin anything new.

Ha!

So You Might Be a Geek If...

It is easy to recognize 'geek' in someone.  I mean come on, you know them when you see them, right?  Urkel comes to mind.

It is considerably more difficult to recognize it in oneself.  So here are a few examples to help with self awareness:

You might be a geek if you have owned (or perhaps still do!) every single Apple product ever sold.  Every. Single. One.  Taking the brand to cult-like status.  Even own black mock turtlenecks...You know who you are.  Yes, I'm talking to YOU.  Just sayin'.

You might be a geek if you purchase items from ThinkGeek.  I personally love this online store and own some of their products.... Like Smart Mass Thinking Putty (like Silly Putty but  cooler),

 and Flying Monkey Balls (I think they changed the product name, but this was the name when I purchased them),

and the bestest thing ever... the Slanket.  My bro turned me onto them and they are way better than the Snuggie.   Warmer, bigger, more couch potato.  Yup.  Geek.

OK, so you might be a geek if you spend hours researching a camera bag.  The. Perfect. Bag.  With the goal that it doesn't obviously look like  a camera bag.  It arrives in the mail,  it is loaded with camera gear, and slung over the shoulder.  You show it to the 'wife unit' and announce, "Hey isn't this cool?  It doesn't look like a camera bag."  OMG, you're right it doesn't look like a camera bag> It looks like an airline approved carry-on bag hanging against your hip.  All it's missing are wheels and a retractable handle.  And that messenger bag strap doesn't make it cool.  Yup.  Definitely a geek.

But here's some geekiness that snuck up on me.  Yes me! 

My birthday is approaching and I asked for a yarn swift and yarn winder.  So, the Sweetie, looking at me like I was hooked on prescription drugs, said OK and ordered them for me.  See how nice he is?   Even after I dissed him about the camera bag!

Recently, the doorbell rang and it had arrived!!  And the Sweetie allowed me to open it early.  I am such a lucky girl!  So the yarn swift is the gadget at the yarn store that you put the skein of yarn on, the yarn winder takes yarn from the swift and makes a ball. 

Doesn't everyone have a whirligig thingy attached to their dining room table?  What?!  You don't?

So I promptly set it up and and proceeded to make several yarn balls. 

It was a blast! It sure beats winding balls of yarn by hand.  Yeah, so, um, I might be a geek.

And where's there's yarn, there's Max, one of my Unusually Helpful Helpers,  With yarn hanging from his ear.  He's a geek too.

Snow

It snowed this weekend in Seattle.  I was running errands on Saturday and literally turned the corner and snow began coming down.  Hard.  I think we have a couple of inches, which is no big deal in much of the country, but it can be a bit snarky here.

I am not snow's biggest fan.  I figure that I can drive a couple of hours and visit it in the mountains if I really want to see it.  Which I do - every 5 years or so.  But if it is going to coming visit me then I should make the best of it.  My new banner, celebrates the snow and the witch hazel in bloom in the front yard.  A little bit of hope for spring peaking out from under the snow.

I had planned a different post, but let's go with the snow theme.  Since the beginning of the year I've been working on (wait for it...) another stranded knitted hat.  I used Mountain Top Vail for the cream which is 70% alpaca and 30% bamboo.  The green is  Malabrigo Lace, which is I doubled.  It is 100% merino wool, which feels heavenly.  I used a US 1 (2.5mm) circular needle.

The entire project took about  2 weeks, including commute time on the bus.

When finished I washed and felted it lightly which helped even out a few wonky stitches.  It is soft and light weight.  Perfect for a snowy Seattle day.

Another Stranded Hat

I had sooo much fun with my first stranded knitting project I began another right away.  It was as much fun, but I ran into issues.

The good news?  My tension improved.  Yes, the stitches were larger than straight knitting, but they were consistently big.

The not so good news?  I cast on way too many stitches.  This bad boy could have fit Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

See what I mean?  Humongous!  Pattern is cute, but good grief it was big!

I used my 'go to' cure for all my wonky knitting issues.... felt it!  It shrunk considerably but was still very, very large.   While it was still damp, my sister-in-law popped it in the dryer.  That helped a little more.  Still big, for me anyway, but no longer unwearable.

And the end result?

What?  You thought it was going to look like every other hat walking down the street?  Nooo.   My sister-in-law asked for tassels, and there you go.  Tassels.  Adds a certain whimsy, don't you think?

Pretty darn cute, if I do say so.  And found a new home with my sister-in law in Alaska.  She was a huge help in salvaging this project. 

Learned a BIG lesson on double checking one's math before casting on.