boogaj

Making Things

I've decided to make 2016 about making stuff and being creative. Last year was, well, not the greatest for me. We had some big changes in our lives and working through it, finding a new normal, was tough, but rewarding. 

Now I'm coming out the other side (fingers crossed) and I'm ready to get back to all the things I love -- learning, making, creating. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my drawings from Lisa Congdon's daily drawing challenge. It hasn't even been two weeks and I'm already feeling more confident in my drawing abilities. The practice of drawing daily is almost like meditation and I hope to keep it going after January, and the challenge, have ended.

Maddie & I finally made some of these tied fleece blankets over the weekend. After a mild and damp start to the winter, we are starting to get some seriously cold weather, making these a timely timely crafting project. While cutting the strips in the edge of the blankets, Maddie & I spent a few hours together chatting, making this a nice mother/daughter bonding project. In case you were wondering, this is my blanket. Maddie's chose a MY Little Pony fleece for hers.

I even finished up a knitting project this January! Here - finally - is Drachenfels. 

I even blocked it. Maybe 2016 is my year.

And another finish...

Herbivore is blocked and I love it!  The shaping really makes this a functional piece.  It sits over the shoulder and is more well behaved than a simple triangular shawl.  

You can see what I'm talking about in this photo.  Those bent sections really do make a huge difference.  

This was my first Stephen West knit and I'm very happy with it.  So much so, that I imagine I will be making another of his designs very soon.  In fact, I already have his Spectra in my Ravelry queue, so I imagine that might be my next shawl.

More on this project at Ravelry.

Unblocked

I finished Herbivore over a year ago as far as I can remember.  So why has it been sitting unblocked in my office all this time?  I have no idea.  Today I finally soaked it...

... and the yarn really bled.  Yikes!  When I rinsed it, it was a bit better, but I'm still a bit shocked since I used some fancy shmancy Malabrigo sock yarn.  I suppose that's a risk you take to get that beautiful variegation.

Finished photos soon?  I hope so.  And you can see more details on this project at Ravelry.

Doin' Stuff

I do not like summer.  The heat leaves me pretty miserable and somewhat lethargic, so it seems that I get so much less done during those long hot months.  Now that it's cooling down, I'm getting back to the things I love -- baking, cooking, knitting, sewing and such things.

While watching Heroes on my iPad (I'm late to Netflix, but so digging it!), I finished my orange Herbivore.  Well, I should say that I finished the knitting.  This project desperately needs to be blocked and I don't have blocking wires.  Can anyone recommend some good, inexpensive ones?

I also started socks for Maddie (who loves handknit socks -- yeah!) using Wendy's generic toe-up pattern from her first ever knitting book -- Wendy Knits: My Never-Ending Adventures in Yarn which I have owned for ages. In fact, my copy is an arc.  I can't believe I hadn't tried it before -- her description of the short row toe was very easy to follow.  

Which brings me to another Wendy Knits book:

Wendy Knits Lace: Essential Techniques and Patterns for Irresistible Everyday Lace, which I have had sitting on my desk for a few weeks, right next to my computer because I have wanted to post a review.  Let me say that this book is all fancy-like with charts and illustrations and lots of pretty photos of great lace projects.  I especially like the Stacy Shawl and I think that if I get brave, I might attempt the Vortex Spiral Shawl.  There are also hats, mittens and gloves that would be nice smaller projects.

I leave you for now with a photo of Spike, my big orange fella -- sleeping in a bankers box.  As you can see, it's a tight fit. 

When you have to vacuum your knitting. . .

you know it's been a WIP for far too long.  In fact, I began this shawl waaay back in 2004 and I try to pick it up every year, work on it a little, then put it up on the top of the bookshelf in my room.  Luckily I put the pattern on top of the basket, so the shawl wasn't dusty but the basket and pattern were -- so yes, I vacuumed it.

So here I am again, but I feel this is the year I finish it.

Seriously.

No Photo of the Keepsake Shawl

I wanted to take a photo of the Keepsake shawl today because I made it to the 12th skein of Koigu last night.  I still have a long way to go -- probably a bit less than 1/4 of the shawl -- but the 12th skein is the last one, so it's downhill from here in my opinion.  It already feels as if the rows are getting much shorter.  It's another grey day though (as was yesterday) so I know that I'm not going to get a decent photo.  I guess it will have to wait for another day.

In other news, I've been re-organizing lately -- kind of a spring cleaning in autumn.  And I now have pretty much all of my craft books in one big bookcase in my office.  It's very exciting!  They were scattered throughout the house in piles and crammed in various bookshelves.  It's nice to have them all in one place.  Next I need to organize them by craft.  Then I tackle the fiber/sewing room (oh, yeah and writing room -- sorry BoogaP!)

So, no photos today.  Hopefully we'll get some sun around here soon!

WIP Confessional

It's time to lay it all out.  Well not all. . . I know I have more wip's than I'm showing here, but these are the ones I'll probably finish.  (Well mostly. . .)

Keepsake Shawl knit in many colors of Koigu.  I started this in 2004, I believe and I came up with a great system for knitting it so that I could just pick it up and remember exactly which yarn to use and which row I was on.  So why does is sit?  Who knows.  I really want to finish this one up, so I think I will make it my #1 knitting priority.

Ingeborg, oh Ingeborg.  I started you back when the knit-along began.  Was that 2004 also?  And every winter I pick you up and get re-invigorated . . . for about 15-20 rows.  Maybe this will be they year that you get finished!

Trekking socks started for the "Trek along with Me" knit-along.  I never did take a picture of me trekking along.  Is it still going on?  I'm *awful* with knit-alongs (see Ingeborg above) and should never, ever join them.  These socks will get finished though.  I love Trekking yarn!  It just takes me several months to finish a pair.

New felted bag design I'm playing around with.  It's a smallish bag and I'll finish it up in the next week or two.

What is this thing????  Why am I making it?  Okay, this is the Amineko and I decided to make it with Encore from the stash.  I should have gotten a different yarn.  I didn't really want a red cat and I don't really care for this yarn, so I never work on this project and the featureless head is all that has been made.  Time to rip this one out and start over with a new yarn, I think.  This was my only crochet project in the works and it's a failure.  Ugh!

Oh!  My quilt!  I love these fabrics and want to get back to work on this soon.  The last month has been so busy and I really need time when I want to quilt, so this has been neglected.  I know that cooler, quieter weekends are on the way though, so it will progress!

Mountain Colors woven scarf.  I love how the weaver's wool from Mt. Colors is sort of striping, sort of not in this scarf.  A free hour or two and some good podcasts to listen to and this will be finished!

I'm still making good progress on that lovely pink fiber from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  The third bobbin is well on it's way to getting filled up and then it's on to plying.  I have no doubt that this will be finished up very soon.

Paradigm Lost cross-stitch sampler.  I often want to work on this but there are several impediments to my progress -- First, I don't have good lighting pretty much anywhere in the house and I really need it to work with this dark thread on linen.  Second, it's in a small basket, so I have to keep it stored off it's stretcher bars.  So I can't just pick it up and stitch a bit -- it requires set up time.  Third, my eyes get tired at night and that's usually when I find time to craft.  Hmmm. . .

Elsa Williams Jacobean Crewel Embroidery.  Not sure why this has stalled, other than the fact that I have so much going on. 

I realized that I haven't listed the Kumihimo braid I'm working on either.  And I'm sure there are other things.  Maybe posting photos of my wip's on a regular basis will get me excited about them again.  It seems to have worked.  I'm already looking forward to getting in some rows on the Keepsake Shawl!

In other news, guess what tomorrow is.  It's not my birthday, or wedding anniversary, but it is *an* anniversary for me. . .

I need to buy a vowel because. . .

O my god!

A Gathering of Lace arrived yesterday & I *love* this book!!  So many projects!  And so many projects that I actually want to knit!  (Okay, enough gushing.)

Here's the deal. . . the book is 173 pages and filled with pictures.  There is a little bit of general knitting info, but the book assumes that you can knit and know a bit about knitting lace.  This book isn't about learning to knit lace, it's about lace patterns.  And there are some beauties.  Of course there are many shawls, but also included are patterns for gloves, sweaters, socks and more!  Let me scan a few photo's for you:

Here are the Vanalinn Gloves designed by Nancy Bush.  I think these may be the first project I knit up from this book. 

And here's Meg Swanson's Super-Spiral Shawl.  I've never knit a round shawl and this one looks like it would be fun.  I believe there are some bloggers out there working on this one.

If socks are your thing, there are a copule of great patterns including this one by Medrith Glover -- Medrith's Little Lace Socks.  These are on my list!

And the Frost Flowers & Leaves shawl by Eugen Beugler just amazes me!  I hope to conquer it one day. 

I've just touched the surface here.  Some other designs I like:

• The Faroese Shawl by Marilyn van Keppel -- it looks so big a cozy. 
• A Beginner's Triangle by Any Detjen -- I think this would make an excellent first lace project.  It's a simple pattern, but the finished product looks gorgeous.
• Ribbed Lace Pullover by Norah Gaughan -- Gorgeous lace and cablework on the sleeves.

Great designers, great stuff to knit.  I'm really glad that they finally brought A Gathering of Lace out in paperback!

A few other things. . .There is a Gathering of Lace Knit Along going on. 

And there is a list of correction out there for this book.  Here's a link to the pdf file with all the info!

I'm off to look through the stash to see what I could use to knit those gloves!

Birch Finished!

Okay, not any more finished than it was yesterday (meaning, still unblocked. . .), but at least you can see the shape and a bit of the pattern here.

I really enjoyed knitting Birch!  (I have to say that I am a process girl more than a production girl.)  Lace is one of my favorite things to knit and the Kid Silk Haze is *so* wonderful!  The Birch pattern is super easy and I had it memorized after only a couple of pattern repeats.  And because it was so easy to see where you were at with the pattern, no stitch markers were needed. 

And now for a little trade action. . .

I bought 4 balls of the Kid Silk Haze in color Dewberry with no particular project in mind.  I decided on Birch which only needed 3 balls, and ended up using just over 2 1/2 balls.  (The full ball weighs .8 oz without it's ball band according to my postal scale and the left over bit weighs .3 oz.)  So I have up for trade 1 & almost 1/2 balls of KSH in Dewberry.  I love this yarn and would love to trade with someone for a similar amount in another color!  However I like unique trades too.  Other laceweight?  Other crafty stuff?  Heck the last trade I did was for scone mix and syrup!  Let me know what you have to offer!  (BTW, I think there is a pattern for a pretty scarf using one skein of KSH in Last Minute Knitted Gifts.) Email Me with your trades!

Escape Velocity

Well I guess I achieved escape velocity today with Birch.  (Go check out Stephanie's physics post on knitting if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

It's not blocked yet, and the child was the closest thing I had to throw it over for the picture.  More tomorrow when I am (hopefully) feeling better.