Sigh...few steps back to go forward

I was working on the cardigan and thought I was about done with Chart B. Was going with the flow and and scratched my head last night but brushed if off and went forward. Yeah. I had followed how the pattern was setup with Chart A, but Chart B increases by two stitches, so some modification has to occur. What does that mean?

I had to tink back 8 rows this afternoon. Sigh.

So with two extra rows shown, here is where I am right now:

I'm snuggled up under my Cascade Lizard Ridge Blanket. Link takes you to when it was finished. It is the right size for one person and couch blanket or I've taken with us camping. I've been alternating using the wool setting and the gentle on the washing machine and purposefully gently felting it. Less snagging issues with dog nails that want to lay on the blanket with me.

Think in January I need to make another blanket for the times I have to wait while this one is in the wash and the dryer. ;-)

Blankets

I was reading a status update on Facebook about blankets that were donated by Leigh Radford.  I never did get one of the squares done, but had planned to join Leigh in assembling them together. The day she picked, a Saturday, I was coming down with a cold so stayed home and so didn't get to help out. It was a cool plan she had and implemented.

This reminded me about a discussion we had at spinning this week about blankets. That many of the knitted ones are definitely one sided and often don't have a terribly pretty backside. They might even not have enough weight to really feel like a blanket. So what do you do?

Some may remember my Cascade Lizard Ridge blanket:


It doesn't have a backing, but I have thought of putting one on. I haven't done it yet because one of my thoughts is to use the scraps of worsted leftovers and make another blanket and if about the same size, use it to back it. Odds are though that the second blanket won't be the same size. Things seem to work that way. So, unless I were to do a second Lizard Ridge Blanket, highly doubtful of this happening, I'm going to have two blankets facing this dilemma. Its also slightly felted from use and washing, something I actually wanted it to do a bit of, the felting. So I think there's also some shrinkage and if I backed it with a newer blanket, their felt/shrink rate won't be the same.

Do you back it with flannel or cotton and treat it like a quilt? Okay, maybe not a quilt in the true technical sense of a quilt, but with ties. (It wasn't until I took a quilting class that I found out that the "quilts" that my Grandma Eileen made for family weren't truly quilts, but pieced comforters.) I imagine that you could do some kind of quilting technique with the backing if you have stripes and squares, kind of a 'stitch in the ditch' quilting could work.

I do have the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern in my queue to use up those odds and ends of sock yarn. I had used a bit of them up to make those mini sweaters, mittens, stockings, etc for Christmas decorations, but don't feel like doing more of those. I need to get started on making those little hexapuffs. I think they'll be the perfect knit night knitting.

Love it!

Some may remember my finished big project last year of my Cascade Lizard Ridge blanket. Found out in the Lizard Ridge class that I must be allergic to the vm or dyes in the Noro Kureyon so switched to Cascade 220 and had the balls in a bag and would randomly draw. I seemed to have gotten a lot of yellow. ;-)

It's been a great blanket to snuggle up through last winter and with the cooler days of fall starting I was snuggled up under it one morning recently. There was also a cup of coffee involved. Can you guess? Yes, there was spillage that happened. 

The blanket has been hanging out on the back of the couch during this last year too. Norbert favors it and the flannel quilt that I sewed a couple of years ago to lay on top of. Those diamonds were tricky to line up and there might have been some swearing involved since it was Brandon's idea.

Anyway, one of the other things that happened last year is, to say thank you to Brandon for all the computer help that he's done, his grandfather took us out and bought us a new washer and dryer set. A nice huge capacity front loader and dryer - Maytag Epics, if you're curious. I hadn't had time to do the research so I was going in blind and went with size, energy rating and known name brand.

I've used the dryer to help dry fiber and handspun yarn - it came with a dryer tray so the stuff can lay on the tray and have all the heat and none of the agitation that causes felting. Love it!

With the Lizard Ridge Blanket and the coffee spill it was the first time I was able to use a washer setting - Wool. I first fixed some of the snags, darn dog nails grabbing strands and pulling, then popped it into the washer with a smidgen of detergent, then walked away. I didn't want to watch - chicken I know. ;-)

Twenty minutes later I came back to get the washed blanket - looked awesome! A clean and bright again. Then I looked at this wet wool blanket and was so not going to go through the air dry process. So looked at the dryer to see what it could offer me. There's a 'delicate' cycle but there's also a 'super delicate' cycle. Score! In went the blanket and it did take two times through the super delicate cycle for the blanket to get dry, but it didn't felt at all! Love it!

See! No felting. The boobies came back too.  Oh come on, if you've seen one in progress the short row sections end up looking like boob bumps. (They were blocked out for sewing them up.) So the only drawback to the new set is the whole felting process. Frontends are not inclined to let you open the door in the middle of a cycle, all that water whooshing out. So felting things is interesting but I'm not a huge felter so not a HUGE loss. The old top loader was given to the BIL since they were going through a lot of laundry with two small kids in the house.

The shearing experience continues

So I came home with two bags of fleeces, one more than the other. What the heck comes next?

Washing them. I put back some of the nasty bits of the alpaca that PJ was loading me with but as you can tell from the previous posts pics, she did get some snuck in. I did a quick trip to the Dollar Tree for some mesh laundry bags - $1 three 12x15 inch bags. I then had to clean out the buckets that had been used with the pond fish and sitting out on the back patio all winter. Then since Duffy had shown the amazing results of the apparently clean but really not OFFF alpaca I decided mine should be washed too. This is the pretty apricot colored stuff I had gotten in case you didn't see it back in September:


I loaded up three bags with the apricot stuff and then took some of the worst nasty bits stuff of the white and then put them in the two buckets with some Palmolive (its what they had at the Dollar Tree) and hot water and let them soak over night. Oh my! The apricot water was just as brown as the nasty bits water. So I ran lukewarm water over the apricot stuff and then filled up the bucket with more hot water and detergent and let it soak again overnight. The white stuff took a little bit more work before it got its second soak. PJ had mentioned something about burrs and the alpacas. I found what she was talking about - there were burrs in the nasty bits besides the usual cause of the nasty. There was also a lot more grass and grass seeds and hay in their as well. I picked and washed, picked and washed and had the fleece come out looking much better. Still a little bit of darker areas where the nasty bits had been but looking like something that could actually be used now.

I rinsed out the second really dirty buckets today and got the water to run cleanly through them. I'm cheating with the drying process - I'm using the drying rack in my dryer and have the white fleece in the mesh bags going through a cycle. Then I'll run the apricot through. I figured the white if there was a problem since it was the 'nasty bits' stuff could be a better write off if something happened than anything else. Plus I don't have drying racks to setup to try to dry them any other way efficiently.

I used the cat flicker brushes that I had to try and get the 'blobs' back into a spinning shape. This also allowed me to get more of the vm still left in. So here's the progression, the middle row of the collage shows the same pic twice (Picassa does that if you don't have enough to make the collage) showing the nasty bits prewashing. The top and bottom rows show pics of the nasty bits after they have been washed and coming from the dryer and then the combed 'fluff'.


ETA: While working more with the white alpaca cleaned nasty bit bags I'm finding a lot of dead flea bodies in the mix. I've but those bags into a separate bag and on hold to decide it I really want to put the effort into picking out the bodies and the vm still in there.

I finished sock #1 of the "Band Stoppin' Boot Sock". I did a short row heel and a star toe as deviations from Sharon's "Traffic Stoppin' Boot Sock" pattern. I'm planning on giving the socks to my sister Jennifer I think.

This morning there was snow on the ground and I got a few pics of it with the previously posted crocuses (they were just poking through the ground):


The Cascade Lizard Ridge Blanket is shown on Cascade Yarns 220 patterns page! (Scroll to the bottom!)

Cascade Lizard Ridge is Done!

I originally took a class then set it aside for months and picked it up again just before the June 14th WWKiP day event. I thought it would be a good project to work on during that since it is fairly simple. So it has taken just over two months to finish. Not too bad!

I did find that I ended up grabbing a few colors more often than others, but since it was a totally random thing, that happens. I did find that I happened to have a pattern show up, well two really. Both involving yellow (one of those frequent colors obviously!), that I went ahead and made obvious. I had four blocks that started with yellow and four blocks that had yellow and some other color as the ends. So I made sure to pair them up when I was doing the strips so that it was yellow-color-yellow. The other was a yellow showing up in the same place in a block across four so I went ahead and made them all connect up.

I finished up the whole thing with the Brandon requested black border by double crocheting. The original pattern calls for a scalloped border but that was just a little too fussy and required going around the whole thing twice. Um, yea, right, so not going to happen. One nice easy double crochet around and called in done!

I started work on the border Tuesday evening and of course found that having also used the black to do the seaming, I was short by two and a half blocks. Too late to run off to the LYS for more. I picked some up on my way to the Wednesday night Hagen's group and finished there. Quick flash of the finished product to Jeanette, Sharon and Rachel and back into the bag it went for final photography today.

Challenge - photographing a large object without getting your shadow in it and also getting the whole thing in frame. I did get a couple decent shots by standing facing the sun but the best ones were taken by standing on one of the patio chairs and pointing down.

Here you go:

New computer, new location

We had been planning for the last couple of months to move the locations of our computers from what is technically the 'family room' back over to the L area that the designer considers the dining area. We're a terrible family, we eat together but not at a dining table. ;^)

I have mentioned the new computer table that Brandon and I had been working on. Monday Brandon cut down one of the old computer tables to make a smaller version for himself. We started moving all of my craft stuff out of the new area and into the old computer area that I'll now get for my crafting.

Today, became the day that I moved to my new (to me) computer. It's Brandon's old computer (faster than my old one) that also has Vista on it. I'd moved a good portion of my stuff over a while back just keeping my knitting patterns on the old one for easy access. I've spent the afternoon getting odds and ends moved over, installing programs and the like. Thankfully my old one wasn't 'dead' so I also have it sitting beside me and my LCD monitor has two video inputs so I'm able to use the one to switch between the two computers. Does mean that I have two keyboards and mice too.

I'm sure over the next few days I'll still have adjustments that will need to happen. Finding how Vista does things, getting web sites up and running again. Brandon still needs to get my .pst file found and relocated. I could probably do it, but I'll let the techie do it instead.

Wednesday is all about cleaning up the disaster area that is now my craft area. Brandon still needs to make my new craft table. I want the old one cut down and made smaller so that it doesn't take up so much room. Moving the pieces around so they're in working order. Does look like unless he gets the table made this week, I'm not going to be able to start on Keri's baby quilt.

I had planned on making her a mobile, a handful of baby booties and a baby cardigan. Then with moving things around I found all this baby flannel from a previous baby quilt, so figured it would be a good idea to use it up and have an easy gift. I did order a few skeins of nice cotton yarn for doing the booties from Knit Picks yesterday so it will be fun to see how fast it gets here. But after a quick check looks like the money is coming out of my account tonight, so another day delay. I think I'll save the cardigan, Tulips, for Christmas.

I was able to chat with Lisa the vendor of Three by Hand Etsy store that I won my Challenge Day prize from. I got a discount on my second roving from her because she was having a sale plus she reduced my shipping costs. So very cool. She says that it averages 5 to 7 days though to ship from Ottawa. This gives me time to finish up Hydrangea though. I have two more bundles of that to spin up as a single then I start plying.

After asking Brandon what he thought would be a good color to get for the border of the Cascade Lizard Ridge, and his response of 'black or nothing'. I went for the black. I'm double crocheting the border without the scalloping effect that was done for the original. I think it will look cleaner that way personally. I didn't want to do two layers of single, so one round of double will work for me. I of course didn't have a full skein of yarn, just what was leftover from doing strips in the blocks, and seaming up the whole thing. I ended up two and a half blocks short of finishing it. So I'll buy the black tomorrow from The Knitting Bee and finish it up at knit night at Hagen's. That'll be a quicky project so I'll also bring along the Happy Hour hand towel. I think it's getting closer to being done too.

What a week!

We finished up summer school this week. My one student that can get violent also was having a birthday on our last day of classes. This lead to a week of high tension with him and lots of stress for me trying to keep him from lashing out. I did it though!

I wasn't able to get to the Wednesday night knit at Hagen's. Grandpa was at the aunt and uncle's recovering from surgery. He had a tumor removed from one of his kidneys that they had been watching for a year and it was time for it to leave. I was also just really tired and didn't feel safe driving alone.

I did manage to work on mattress stitching the blocks together after Alyssa showed me how to do it live. Yes, I'd checked out the Knitting Help video but that was for side by side and I needed top to bottom. Yes, it works out the same but my visual learning brain needed the live demo that she helpfully gave. ;^) She also let me borrow her 'gold' needle. I'll have to use a Jo-Ann's coupon to buy my own for future use.

As of Sunday, I have two strips seamed together. Another two strips almost seamed together and then it will be seaming the twos to complete. I will get it done today as a goal. Here's a picture of the blocks laid out before I started joining them in rows, the photo isn't the end layout though so you'll have to wait to see that.



I've also been spinning with Hydrangea and have this much to show for it:


Since they don't seem to be showing up in my progress bars because I uploaded them from my computer to my projects, I'll show the progress that I've made on Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf and the Honeydew Happy Hour Handtowel:




We're getting Romas rippening, I think our water melon is ready for picking so that all those flowers its throwing out can try to produce another one. The summer squash and zucchini are also producing. I noticed that there are a few peppers on the plants so jalapenos and romas will be getting together in a salsa soon. I seriously need to get out and deadhead the gerberas. I've also enjoyed handfuls of blueberries this week. We were surprised to spot some Asian Pears that survived the frost/heat early this spring. Apples will be good this year too. Yesterday a handful of figs were picked with more still on the tree. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. Turns out this is a fig that I don't enjoy eating fresh (it's green, I like the black ones).

Next couple of weekends have milestones/events - my dad and stepmom are celebrating 40 years together - amazing! Then the following weekend is a family reunion on Brandon's side of the family. Next weekend is the last one we'll have with Luke as he goes off to Moscow for college on the 21st (that's in Idaho). We're as a family working Hood-to-Coast (H2C). New team captain and so we have an (UGH!!) early morning shift on the 23rd before heading to the reunion. D&D Jesse is also turning 21 next week and is having a party the boys will be going to, she's doing a super hero theme so costumes will be needed.

This has turned out long, so I'll make sure that I don't go a week between events for posts. ;^)

Blocks are done!

I have all the Cascade Lizard Ridge blocks done and blocked. I've even gone back and fixed the three that I found were wonky. I learned that I shouldn't finish a block when I'm tired because I forgot to do the last little nine stitches that bring up the top point on three of them. Oddly enough two were the same color. Oh well, they're fixed now and just waiting to be laid out. Tomorrow afternoon I'll with Brandon's help try to figure out what order they'll be in so that I can start seaming them up.

I've also done some spinning on Hydrangea:


No pics of it in progress yet. Maybe tomorrow when I do the stack of blocks. I had fun spinning with it while watching Becoming Jane. Interesting movie, can't imagine never getting married though. ;^)

Norbert's nose is out of shape because Will's gone again. He looks for him during the week while he's gone. They'll both be glad when the summer is over and he's back home.

Quiet day due to a slight migraine. Lots of coffee and Excedrin Migraine and keeping out of the light. Didn't stop me from getting laundry and dishes done though. Darn house elves don't take the offerings left for them and the fairies also seem to be on strike.

Stab needles in it, it's done!

After plying for three days. Not all day silly. Karma Chameleon is all done and ready for debut starting from this:


Spinning for a several days to get these:


I really should have remembered to take a picture while plying it.....


The drop spindles that got me here:
The one that looks like its carved on top has been my plying spindle. The purple glass with the gold in it is the one I started out with Karma.

I'm being tempted by this:


But I have started work on Block 20 of the Cascade Lizard Ridge afghan. I'll finish that today, if I ever get away from the computer long enough not to be taking photographs and editing them, or reading forum posts, or writing posts (you get the idea). Then it will just be laying out the blocks and deciding which order they'll be in. Brandon will help out with that part.

So now to try to get away from the computer...... ;^)

Stage 19 & 20 and Challenge Day Prize

Stage 19 - Friday - I did an hour of spinning in the morning with Karma and then Will and I ran his errands. After dinner was made, homemade chili and cornbread, and eaten, and while watching Juno I spun for another two hours.

Stage 20 - Saturday - Time Trial - I got up and started spinning after doing the dishes. Spun for a couple of hours, got caught up on reading and also posting Deep Blue Sea in the Challenge Day Prize Contest in the Tour de Fleece 2008. The link is good if you're a Ravelry member. The contest ends on August 1st so I'll have a long wait to find out if we are good enough to win. Heck it was just cool to be able to enter, you had to have a completed yarn done.

I've spent another three hours spinning on Karma Chameleon while watching TV. I've only gotten two more blocks blocked today. Lots of cloud coverage and just a little bit of a breeze. The second one took hours longer than the first that had more sun. I'll wait to put out block 19 until tomorrow with hopes of more sunshine. Since this is a Time Trial day, I'm going to try for a few more hours tonight spinning. The left thumb is still feeling sore but I'm learning to hold it in a different position.

Another break to get dinner started, homemade chicken enchiladas, and starting some mustard. Yup, you read correctly, mustard. I made homemade mustards for Christmas last year, and they turned out well. I have some mustard seeds left and so I started two batches.

One is a German based one - dark beer is part of it. I did have a dark beer in the refrigerator, but it's Belgian and Raspberry flavored. I think it will still work. ;^) The other is kind of French, since it has sherry. Again, I didn't have sherry on hand, but I did have some Spanish sherry, Marsala. The seeds have to soak in the liquids for 48 hours and soften up as well as soak up the liquids goodness. Then they are blended with some additional seasonings and called good. You can use them immediately, but like other things, often taste better if allowed to age for a week or more.

I still have 27 Dresses and Atonement DVDs to watch, not sure though that the boys will be willing to join in though. The boys are currently playing D&D out in the garage. Something about more space, but there is a distinct lack of air conditioning.

Sometime tomorrow I need to get out into the garage. Brandon on Friday put legs on to my desktop. I now need to stain the legs and then put the sealant on. I'm going to add more to the desktop because I'm not happy with how it's not keeping the dust repelled. This I think will put us closer to rearranging the rooms where the computers are and my sewing/craft stuff.

Stage 17 finished plying, Stage 18 back to Karma

So Wednesday was a good day in many ways. I had a good day with my autistic student as school - yea! I also finished plying up the BFL and then with Brandon's help getting it off the spindle and on to the swift so that it could be wrapped for a wash set of the twist.

I just got that all done when it was time to head out for a busy evening. First stop was LaHaie's to pick up Will's lettermen's jacket. He'd gotten at the end of the year the wrestling patches and then also adding in his track patch. So the jacket is complete for his athletic career. From there it was a quick stop at the library to drop off movies and pick up books and then on to Judy's to drop off Brandon. I then headed over to the Jo-Ann Superstore so that I could pick up supplies to send off to my Dishcloth Swap Giftee. A quick swing through KFC for a few snackers and cole slaw and I headed over to Hagen's to meet up with the Sip n' Stitch ladies. I worked more on my Basket Rib Hand Towel as a nice easy not to mess up while talking and listening project.

I also finally have photos of what I received in the Dishcloth Swap Exchange:


Thursday I picked up my Karma Chameleon spindle along with some KC roving and took it to school to show one of the ladies there. She works in the Transitions Program through the district and from what I described to her thought it might be something that some of the kids might be able to do. So I gave her a demonstration, then ended up giving another demonstration again later to a few more co-workers. One lady was amazed when I told her that I had knitted the socks that I was wearing that day.

I came home at lunch and then finally got the BFL in a wash, swish out moisture then set it up to hang dry outside. There was just a faint tinge of blue to the water. I also set another block of the CLR out to dry/block. Down to just four left to do and the blocking will be caught up. I just need to finish the last couple of blocks this weekend. I spent a bit of time spinning more Karma too.

I snipped some fresh lavender for the Insomnia ladies and then headed over. We had a nice chatty session of knitting, beverages and discussions. Tammy had brought The Eclectic Sole and Little Box of Socks. Must have both of them! The 'box of socks' is cool. It really is a box that has the socks on card stock and one for each sock design. There are twenty designs so at just under $20 a really good deal, a great deal if you order through Amazon at the lower rate too.

I came home and rotated the BFL for drying in the sun to get all of it dry. Brought in the one block and setup another to start drying. I found out this morning that I forgot about it and left it outside over night. Thankfully no bird poop was found on it this morning. I did bring the BFL in and since it was still damp, popped it back on my swift to finish drying overnight.

It's all done and I introduce to you, Deep Blue Sea:


I scored last night at the library and picked up four movies: Sweeney Todd (boys liked it, me not so much, thankfully I could spin through a greater portion of the movie), Atonement, 27 Dresses and Juno. I've now spent the morning on sleeping in, photos, catching up on the blog. Still need to do banking, shopping, mailing my exchange package (after I photograph it all), drop off stuff at the library and I think a trip out to the financial aid office at PCC. We'll also most likely watch Juno tonight. I'm also going to try to get the rest of the CLR's blocked today.

Day 15 & Rest Day

Sunday I spent a lot of time spinning. I also spent a lot of time blocking blocks. Made use of the sun and any wind and had them dry a little faster I think. In between there was of course dishwashing, finishing up laundry.

Before it got too dark last night and while it was cooler, I popped Nessa up on the table on the patio and trimmed her now. She's looking good in her Schnauzer cut. Still need to do Norbert, but he'll probably have to wait until later in the week.

The last part of school this morning was interesting. I ended up being a punching bag for one of my students. He has behavior issues and had been a little bit more agitated today, but just lost it when it was time to go home. Sure knows how to pinch and luckily was keeping the hits to flat hand rather than punching. Probably won't know for sure about any bruising until tomorrow. I'm going to try not to hold it against him, but I'll have to come up with a new plan for how we do things.

Brandon does think he broke a bone on the top of his foot. Of course if we took him in for confirmation, they would tell him to stay off it as much as possible, possibly give him a walking cast or just do what we have done - ace bandage it. He has done better over the weekend about staying off it and icing.

Today was also the last Rest Day for Tour de France/Fleece. I though did not rest. I started the day with three bundles of sliver to work and managed to get two of them done before my hand started tingling. Tough as it was to do, I set it aside and rested.

I did do one more color row on the CLR, and started the next to the last color for that block. Just two colors left and block 19 will be done. Then one block left. I also got three blocks blocked today for a total of eleven of them blocked. I need to set a timer to go check them.

Tomorrow I should be able to finish the last of the BFL. Then it will be winding them off the drop spindles and getting setup to ply them together. I'm going to try using pots and pulling out of the center holes in the bottom to hold the balls of yarn while I ply. Then winding off the drop spindle again and setting the ply. I really want to know how much yardage I'll get.

Pictures of lots of things coming up tomorrow!

ETA: I keep forgetting to add, since it's summer, and there's a total lack of TV. I've taken advantage of the SCI-FI channel and have been loading up on Stargate SG-1. I think it's because, Brandon told me this, that they came out on like Showtime, that I never got started on it when it first came out years ago. It's interesting getting them in a hodge-podge sort of order. I've seen episodes here and there and then pieced what happened. We're trying to watch them now chronologically.

Tonight though the movie watching was Nick Cage's "Next", not bad really. First though we had watched "The Painted Veil", Ed Norton and Naomi Watts. I wonder if that's where Naomi and Liev hooked up? Interesting movie too.

Domestic Goddess & Day 14

Today has been busy and productive, all without leaving the house. ;^) A blog post in progress throughout the day:

Get up, wash dishes, see that the potatoes really need to be used up before they go bad. Only three left so add those and eggs to a pot of water to boil away for potato salad. Decide that I'm on a roll so make pancakes for breakfast. More dish washing.

Have towels that need to be washed so check the drier, those clothes aren't ready yet, so start another wash load. Since sink is now clean and empty grab one of the Cascade Lizard Ridge blocks and get it wet so it can be blocked. Pull out the fabric pad that I got for quilting and using the mini-iron that has handy grid lines on it to block the block. Set outside to sun/air dry. Please don't tell me this is bad for the yarn!



Grab camera and take pictures of some of the backyard, the dried first block, and the finished BFL from last night. Come back in and make up the potato salad and a pastrami sandwich. Get second block blocking.



Brandon had dropped a piece of wood on his foot Thursday. Doesn't think anything is broken. That night has a lovely bruise from where it hit that he does ice a bit. Spends Friday outside doing stuff around the yard and more time upright on the foot than he should have. Today, instead of gaming with Luke and Will, he's got his foot finally elevated and icing (RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). He'd been using his shoe for the compression, but totally skipping all the rest until I strongly suggested that he do that. Foot looks worse with the bruising around it that probably came from being on it yesterday. Men!

Since he's not gaming I'll watch some shows with him and spin. The boys are on the xbox gaming until their 4:10pm showing of Wall-e. Off to eat that sandwich....

A few hours later....I've done more dishes, the second block is done drying and I have a third one drying. I've divided up the BFL into eight little bundles and have spun up two and started a third. Good progress there.

ETA: sorry, the photo that was here was deleted to make space on Flickr, I refuse to pay for the Pro service when I'm already paying for a web site....

Put on my landscaping hat, really clippers, and finished up the bushes in the front yard and moved into the backyard. Trimming up berry bushes: blueberry, honeyberry and gooseberry, as well as the grape vines that were running rampant. Speaking of rampant vines the hardy kiwi was also running amok so trimmed it back as best I could. When Will mows the lawn tomorrow he'll mulch all that into the grass.

The CLR blocks are blocking out at 10"x15" so a little longer and narrower than gauge. Well the three so far, and since they lay like the others, I imagine they all will block this way.

I've heated up the leftover Papa Murphy Chicago Stuffed Pizza for dinner, off to eat that and continue spending time with Brandon and spinning the BFL. The boys are back from the movie and in painting their figurines.

Not a bad day.

Days 3 & 4 and more

Day three of Tour de Fleece I tried out another one of the new drop spindles. Not a lot put onto the spindle though. I just couldn't seem to get into a flow. I did finish all dishcloths though. Photos are up in Flickr and updated at Ravelry.

I also put in a couple rows on block 15 of the Cascade Lizard Ridge afghan. It's one of the blocks that I've actually 'tried' to do a color scheme with. I started out with my greens and flowed into blues and will end with the yellows. I'll probably do something similar with the purples.

Day four of Tour de Fleece I thought to try something other than the corriedale. I remembered I had some romney left of the little sample I picked up at Knit/Purl. I used that all up. So tomorrow it will be back to finishing up the corriedale.



More work tonight on blocks, finish 15 and start 16.

Yesterday afternoon I also found out that the job I interviewed for went to someone else. It was a 'Media Assistant' position for a new elementary school in Cornelius. It would have used my degree, but wasn't meant to be. The principal had suggested at the beginning of the interview that she had another full-time position that she thought I might be good for. I'm not sure if that was a subtle code for, I have someone else that I'll probably have to hire because they are already in district, but would like to hire you. We'll have to see when that other position comes up.

Day two of the new summer position working with developmentally delayed kids in the morning. I think one of the boys came to school with a slight cold because I came home yesterday with a sore throat, fell asleep on the couch and went to read in bed and fell asleep there too. Day seemed to go by quicker today too. Day is three and a half hours before noon Monday through Thursday, so short days.

I've started Damien, book four by Jacquelyn Frank and for some reason just having a hard time getting into the story. Thankfully, it is a library book. Brandon is finally reading the Jim Butcher book, Small Favors. It's one I'm looking forward to reading also. I may just bounce over to Kelly Armstrong's Personal Demon, since it too has been collecting dust as it gets bounced in the queue for library books.

Need to go do some dishes, cook dinner and get back to the knitting...

Day 2

Day 2 of Tour de Fleece and I finally have some spinning done!

My migraine is better today. I worked on the drop spindles - little steel wool on the finish then a quick wipe with the stain again. Let them dry. Brandon drilled little holes for the paper clip hooks that I made for them. Also added end caps to make them look nice. I still need to take pictures.

I had gotten some corriedale from Knit/Purl that I originally planned to send off to my Gemini swap person. Since the Habu really wasn't local, I opted instead to send some nice handmade chocolates that were made by Moonstruck. Still need to post pics of what I got and what was sent....

I pre-drafted the corriedale and have some of it spun. The drop spindle I was using seemed to work well. Very light! It seemed to have good spin. It's a little warm in here and the wool was making me warmer so before I started to felt things, I put it aside. I'll take photos tomorrow.

I finished two dishcloths for my swap, started another one too. I also hope to get over to the ceramics shop by The Knitting Bee this week to see how much a coffee mug would cost and how long it would take to get done. Stitch markers will of course be the easy part for me. She said no chocolate because of the melt factor.

I'll also need to get back to work on the Cascade Lizard Ridge. Hopefully these little projects will have been enough of a break to help me over this hump towards the end. When I check out the ceramics shop, I also hope to pick up the two skeins to do the binding for the blanket.

Did I share a link to the blue face? Mine looks like the blue-green up front. I have two of them. Still leaning towards getting this from Sharon too.

Notice I have the projects progress bars going? Got that working the other night working around the migraine. Took longer because of that to see that the code had an extra bracket that shouldn't have been there. You do have to be a Ravelry member to click the links and get more details, but you can click the button and sign up.

Talked to mom yesterday about starting her own business making liners for felted bags. Apparently this is a huge thing over the Bags, Bags, Bags forum. Someone paid a tailor $50 to have one made. Towards the end of the week when the budget can handle it, I'll ship her my tote that needs a liner to give her an example of what people are making and want linings for. Also suggested she become a Ravelry member so she can get connected. She hadn't signed up earlier but hopefully soon. Drawback will be her seeing my project page if I work on a project for her. So won't be able to use names sometimes. I know I'm not the only one with this as a problem. ;^)

Lizard Ridge Progress

Sigh. I've just completed block 14. That means I only have 6 more to make and then I can start the task of piecing it all together. After it's all pieced together and I learn how to do the mattress stitch, it will still need to have it's border. I'm leaning toward the mitered border that some people have done. I think I'll need to get one skein for the border, two if I do a multicolor. Leaning towards one though.

I've enjoyed this as a project, but I'm ready for it to all be done too. I want to do something new. Resisting casting on a new project is difficult. I'm going to do that tomorrow though. I need to get a few dishcloths done for the dishcloth swap I signed up for. Plus I told Jeanette I'd show her some patterns at knit group tomorrow. So I have a legitimate excuse for starting a new project. ;^)

There are a few dishcloths in my 'Nifty Knit Dishcloth' booklet that haven't been done yet in Ravelry. I feel as volunteer editor for it that I have a responsibility to resolve those gaps. Giggle, yea, right. I just want to try them out. I've done the left twist but haven't done the right twist yet.

Did something today, but don't want to talk about it because it has seemed like every time I have in the past it acts like a jinx and doesn't come through.