FO Friday

If you are a FB friend of mine you would have already saw a preview.  The gifts were all gladly received yesterday and promptly ripped open.  My oldest son was the first to call and put me on speaker phone.  First thing he said was, "Mom, why did you knit humping deer on our hats?"

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He took a picture of the three of them and posted it to his FB page, stating they need sweaters to match their hats.  Yeah, he has high hopes.

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Left to right, Jacob (my youngest), David (their father), Avery (oldest son).

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Details:  These were knit with fingering weight superwash merino that I dyed.  Cast on 128 sts, knit 2 purl 2 ribbing.  Then I doubled into each stitch to create a double sided fabric.  Chart pattern: Fornicating Reindeer

My daughter called and hopefully she will get a picture of my granddaughter with her hat on Saturday.  I wasn't able to finish the afghan in time.  It will be an after New Year surprise for her. Mom got her cowl in time for her to head out of town today.  We'll see if my brother gets a picture of her.

All this deadline knitting, I've been lacking in my housework.  Courtesy of or borrowed from Hyperbole And a Half this is me today.

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I plan on spending the rest of the holiday in quiet solitude, as D has to work tomorrow.  D bought me this kit two years ago, so this is what I'm working on at the moment.  Over the weekend, I'll probably bounce from project to project like a butterfly on meth. 

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We hope you have a Merry Christmas and that you get to spend the holiday exactly the way you want to. 

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Random Monday- Weekend Report

It's me, reporting from Hat Hell.  Progress isn't going very well. Yeah, you knew it, FB games.  I did figure out what the attraction is for me. As you may know, I suffer from anxiety and PTSD.  With the stress of finishing stuff and it being that time of year, my anxiety levels are going through the roof.  Playing those games, I can kinda zone out for a bit, except it causes more stress as I'm getting farther and farther behind schedule.

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The blue is a shade darker than the photo.  More like a bright royal blue.  I really need to buckle down and just finish already.

Friday night D finally gave in and got me Netflix.  They don't tell you, or maybe they do. In the fine print, half way down the page, right at the point your eyes started to glaze over and the words become blurry.  They bill your card or bank account two weeks after sign up, not 30 days like the front page implies.  This doesn't work well with our budget.  So I will call, see if I can cancel then sign up again two weeks later when it will be better for us.

I'm really enjoying the streaming video aspect.  I just wish they had more available online vs. DVD. It really makes sense as far as expense for them with the postage. I'm sure it has to do with contracts and the copyright owners.

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Saturday, I broke out of Hat Hell and took a walk in a different direction up to the Dollar Tree and Wal-mart.  This is my little piece of the NE.  There are three huge sugar maples in front of this church.  Every time I walk by, I wander into the grass and wave my arms in the air at the trees.  Deciduous trees can be grown down here if their trunks are coated with a special latex like material when they are young to prevent the trunks from drying out and splitting.  That and constant watering.

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The leaves are starting to change from that cold snap we had right after Thanksgiving. However, we've been enjoying warmer than normal temps and supposed to have a record high in the 80's today.  Which will be nice when I take my walk for cat food later. This is what we moved down here for.

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Here is a closer view of the mountains I see from outside my apartment. These pictures were taken from the back of the plaza.

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Well, I have ton of cleaning and knitting to do.  Need to try to ignore all the distractions of the traffic going back in forth in front of my window, and the neighbors shouting to each other.  Makes me hate Mondays.

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Butterscotch says, Mom is so hyper today, I can't bear to watch.

FO Friday

It's me that crazy catlady in Tucson sitting in hat hell. I bet you didn't think I would be posting a FO today. Me either.  I had something I finished last year that just needed blocking but I couldn't find it.  So rather than make place look worse than it already does, I blocked the stole I finished last month, but didn't show you the finish.

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sorry for the blurry photo. The sun only shines in the bedroom very early in the morning to wake me up. Grrrr

The truth is I was quite disappointed in how it turned out.  The yarn I used on the ends didn't match as well as I thought it would.  This was going to be a gift but now, I just don't know.  Maybe I'll find something I can drape it over and hide the ends.  Or I'll rip it out when I'm in fit a boredom from everything else., like that will ever happen.

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The other end that I had started in provisional cast on, didn't work out with the feather and fan pattern.  I should have realized that when I started, but there you have it.  Sometimes even those of us who've been knitting since the very dark ages don't always think things through.  So after two rows and a some cursing, I just bound it off.

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I didn't take measurements as I was so disgusted with the thing. It's about 12 inches wide and the length of a queen size mattress minus pillow space.  Knit with alpaca lace weight that I dyed and spun.

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I finished the first hat at 4am.  Blame FB, I went on to check messages and got enticed by a new game Cityville.  Gah, I need to banned from that place.

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Two more to go.  I really might end up back in a corner of my closet sitting a tote crying and pulling my eyelashes out before this over.  Be sure that either the cats or the bunnies will be all to happy to come and report back to you.  I'll need to hide the camera so they can't video the evidence.

All comments of encouragement will be greatly appreciated or brandy.  Brandy will be good for when I'm in the closet.

Oh, that skein wasn't as badly tangled as I had feared.  I was able to fix it and wind it up rather quickly.  No, melbatoast the bunnies don't bother my yarn, except to nudge a ball on the floor when it gets in their way.  Bootsie and Butterscotch like to go tote diving for balls of yarn but they just carry it around for awhile.  They are past the yarn stringing stage. Thank goodness.

WIP Wednesday

I had hoped to have the hat I posted on Monday finished by now.  There is still 6 pattern rows left, then I'll probably do another 6 rows of solid color before I begin the decreases. I can't show you an updated picture as the pattern is too obvious.  I dyed more blue yarn for the second hat yesterday, then I will have to dye some red for the third.

This is day 5 on this hat.  Being that the first two days I only spent a few hours knitting on it and getting used to the tension, I'm still hopeful I will have time to do the other two.  I really wish you could feel the fabric it's quite squishy. It should keep a head nice and warm during the bitter cold Western NY winter, if not, they might should consider just staying inside.

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This is not my first time with stranded knitting, just double knitting.  My first stranded/fair isle project was in 95 when I was working nights as a nurse in a nursing home.  The hours between 2am and 5am were excruciating trying to stay awake with everyone else sound asleep.  I needed something interesting enough to hold my attention when I finished with my charting.

I found this magazine, and I still have somewhere in a box.  There was a pattern for a fair isle sweater that had  a lace stripe between the pattern stripes, made with soft, fuzzy mohair.  My 12year daughter fell in love with it.  So, I headed down to the yarn store a mile away all excited myself that I finally had the income to afford the yarn the pattern called for.  The lady talked me out of the pure mohair, they didn't carry it as she said it was too expensive and didn't sell well.  Instead she special order some Sandes Garn Kitten. I'm glad she did as my daughter later lost it. It survived our house fire but not my daughter's skatter brain.

She's been begging me to make her another one.  As much as I would really, really love to make another one, she's still not very good at holding onto things. I have made other things using a variegated with a solid, but they were all gifts and before digital or internet access.  Hope I didn't bore you with that little story.

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Do you remember my granddaughter's afghan I started this past fall? It doesn't look much different.  I could really kick myself for not sewing the second set of squares before now. I want to do one more set of squares to make it longer.  With the squares I have now it would be the size of baby blanket, which would be a good size for a 6 yr old to cuddle with while watching tv. I want it to last her for awhile, so I think a bit longer would be the way to go.

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While I was avoiding starting the double knitting Friday night, I cast on this cowl for someone who thinks I won't make him anything.  He said if I ever made him anything he would be so honored he would have it framed.  I'm really hoping he wears it and not frames it.  When I came across this pattern for The Guy Next Door Cowl, I knew it would be perfect for the guy next door. I'm using superwash BFL that I dyed and spun last year.   I can't show the other present I have going because the girl next door sometimes reads my blog on FB. She has promised not to show this post to the guy.  He doesn't go online, so I'm safe.

That's all that's going on here.   What are you working on and are you stressing the clock ticking down as well?

Monday Madly Knitting

It has gotten to be that time of year I dislike most.  When I have to add up how much to be finished against how much time is left.  On Saturday, I finally gave in and started the double knitting.  The only way to overcome the mental block that kept saying, Oh you're going to make a mess of that, was to dive right in. It took me three years of reading the directions over and over on heel turns, before I finally just did it with my brain shouting Danger, Danger, this will not work out.  (stop laughing)

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I worked the ribbing 2 X 2 in a single thickness of 128 sts and twisted the knit stitches to tighten up the ribbing a bit.  That meant I had to knit with one strand and purl with a different strand into each stitch when I started the double knitting.  This will make the hat solid color knit on one side and the pattern on the other, so they can reverse it when the need arises. If you click on the Rav link, you'll see why this may be needed.  Hopefully, the spy doesn't create a Rav account just to peak.  *waves* Hi Avery.

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As they say in the UK, I'm pretty well chuffed with myself on this first project.  It's quite fiddly going along.  I'm keeping the pattern side side strands on the top of my left index finger and the back side strand on the bottom. (Yes, I knit continental)  All the strands need to be flipped front and back of each stitch so the carrying yarns are hidden between the two layers. Because I'm using each strand at a different rate from the others, I have to stop every couple stitches to readjust for tensioning.

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It's taking me about an hour for each row, though by this afternoon my speed did pick by a few minutes.  Slow while paying attention is the key, as I did have to carefully frog one row and it took longer than it did to knit it.  There are two more of these to make besides this one and my granddaughter's afghan to get finished by Dec. 20 at the latest.  Not to mention the four gifts to knit that won't be traveling, then the ornaments I want to make.

Nippit was upset with me yesterday, she really wanted to blog. The chart is on my laptop, with me giving it careful attention.  She kept asking if I was done yet, then thumping her delicate little foot when  I said no.  It was after the fifth time of her interrupting me that I noticed a mistake and I thumped my foot back at her.  She tried to get Dammit and Betty to dictate for her, but from what I hear, Dammit was too busy surfing Zeppelin. He still has hopes of a reunion tour.  You know like they will actually let a bunny into the arena.

Bunday will resume when I finish these hats, unless I go stark raving mad.  Then the bunnies will be most happy to report on that.