wrapping up the summer of socks

I guess summer isn't technically over, but I feel like maybe the summer of socks is drawing to a close. As I said on instagram; the summer of socks is probably over when you feel the need to wear socks.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 12, 2015 at 8:28am PDT

What I feel most bad about not completing is the large scale darning project I attempted. I hate darning, but thought it might be a good idea. In the end, I fixed the worst of my socks, and really what is left are places where some swiss darning or duplicate stitch would work (thin spots). My attempts at it have been less than stellar, and I need some practice. This is always a clue that it probably won't get done.

I did finish the first of the "emergency travel" socks. One of my daughters (the one who is not extremely picky about socks)claimed them.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 18, 2015 at 4:50pm PDT

Second sock is underway.

Also in the underway category, Halloween costumes. If you have been following me for a while, you know I like to sew these and I like to get a head start on them, because I am not a big fan of night before runs to the store for blue paint or whatnot. I thought initially that there would be little or no sewing involved this year. One girl wanted to be Sadness from Inside Out. I figured blue facepaint, blue hairspray, blue leggings and a trip to some thrift stores for a light blue or off white turtleneck sweater and presto.
The other daughter wanted to be a three headed.... something. Again, not terrible, wig stands from the craft store, a toy football shoulder pads to attach them, maybe make a garment to cover it all and presto!

The three headed girl wanted to look at patterns. (no sadness patterns this year, still no Olaf patterns) Remarkably three headed girl changed her mind. She decided she'd rather be a princess. Perhaps like Glenda, but more grown up. (she was Glenda in kindergarten). We found a pattern that she liked and bought it (on sale--score!). She wanted to buy fabric RIGHT NOW, but I made her wait until I could read the pattern. This weekend we went fabric shopping. There was talk about scary blood stained lace princess, silver princess, fuscia princess. Imagine my surprise when suddenly she wants to be a minion.

Officially, I have no idea what to do. I gave her a deadline (October 1) and I guess I'm leaving it at that.

As for the future, aside from much shopping at thrift stores, and possibly attempting to make minion goggles from canning lids, I want to plan sweaters for the girls. It has been three years since I made them sweaters, and they have both outgrown them. I made a gray sweater and a purple sweater. The gray sweater replacement will be the same pattern, possibly in gray(!) or maybe pink, or maybe blue or maybe.... (Yes, she wants to be a minion this week). The purple one wants to look at celeb and gossip magazines to find a "fashionable" sweater. I think we will be looking at ravelry--easier to figure out if I can actually replicate. She is thinking a blue green that will "compliment her eyes." Never a dull moment when you live with tween girls.

I'll keep you posted.

peaches, socks, and school Oh my!

I felt like maybe I should title this post "what I did over my summer vacation" because I think that would make me feel more accomplished than a list of things I put off that I need to accomplish in September or even this week.

The kids went back to school and OH the list of things I put off while they were home is long.

Last year I did this whole write an entry every day as I slogged through my canning of both peaches and tomatoes. This year, I finished tomatoes so early. They were abundant this year instead of moldy. And then, peaches started coming in.

So here are the peach statistics so I don't forget. I made two batches of jam, one regular and one peach vanilla. I didn't really have enough fruit for the regular and so it is a little grainy, but the vanilla is OH MY. Then I managed to buy a half bushel of peaches from my regular orchard, even though they technically weren't selling them, And then a few days later I bought another (and they were selling them). So it worked out well and I ended up canning 24 pints of peaches. I didn't do any honey spice because it turns out that I'm the only one who likes them. I actually have enough peaches left on my counter to do another pint, but I think I'm going to smoothie them up instead. Maybe freeze them too.

I have been slowly slowly working on socks. at least the plain socks. until I ran into this

Yarn barf

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 8, 2015 at 5:02pm PDT

And so now I am busy untangling yarn so I can knit. It should have pushed me to work on the complicated socks, but I am having complicated feelings about them. I'm sure that once the newness of school wears down, and my kids get healthy again (yes, school started yesterday and my kids have head colds), I will not feel like such a zombie all the time and will actually (gasp) maybe even have time to knit during the day every once in a while!

And yes, Halloween is on the horizon. I think I have a plan. One girl picked something I can easily scrounge around at second hand shops and find (she wants to be "Sadness" from Inside Out), and while the other one was more complicated (she wanted to be a three headed... something), she has decided instead upon being a pink sparkly princess. The pattern I bought is a generic Glenda, but we are going to "un-Glenda" it by maybe choosing some fushia and gold or silver. Stay tuned on that one.

And in case you were curious--all the caterpillars are now cocoons! It was a fun process, and now one of my many September jobs is to get them set for the winter, safe so animals don't eat them, and exposed to weather. Then we wait.

Last of the birch eating #cercopia #caterpillars has pupated

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 8, 2015 at 4:11pm PDT

late summer

Summer is in full swing here. I've talked to the peach guy about the bushel and got a definite "maybe" so am still waiting on those. We finished out Tomatoes from last year the same night our CSA came with tomato palooza. So I ended up with nearly a bushel of tomatoes, which I have been steadily canning ever since. I did the last of them today (and tonight is more CSA pickup!) and ended up with 4 pints of sauce and 14 pints of crushed tomatoes.

There are signs of fall--the weather turned cooler, and the girls picked up their schedules for 7th grade. Michigan starts after labor day, so we are trying to squeeze the last juicy bits out of late August. To that end, we went to a baseball game where I knit a heel on the "travel" sock, then made a mistake and ripped out part of it, reknit that at the dentist and then dropped a stitch that made it so I had to unravel a bunch of the heel---it was a yarn over stitch that unravelled quickly all the way to origin and POP disappeared.

Am almost where I was at the end of the ball game.

I also started Neldoreth and am about done with the ribbing. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't hard but I KNOW I can't do it at a ball game or in the dentist's waiting room.

I guess the big news around here has been in the caterpillar front. If you came for the yarn, stop here. Well maybe not. The caterpillars are working on cocoons, so far half of them have spun one. Because Cercopia are related to silkmoths, their silk is similar. It is stronger than it looks and is really kind of fun to play with. As the friend who gave the caterpillars asked me: Are you wanting to knit with it? Maybe not, but I find it really fun to watch them spin. ,br>

Of course some of them are still just hanging out, doing their "thing"

matchy matchy

I'm going to try for a bug free update. The caterpillars are doing great--is all I'll say. They are still caterpillars, but I'm thinking that will change soon.

Nope, today I'd like to focus on the other things going on, namely socks. I finished my vacation socks. I ended up dragging these in multiple car trips, baseball games and even knitting on them during a sleepover. Sometimes it was great. Sometimes the team I was rooting for scored and I dropped multiple stitches (that once I didn't find until it laddered down 4 rows and I had no crochet hook). In fact, I finished these shortly before leaving on another car trip. More on that in a bit. For now--the stats:

Pattern: Based on Ann Budd's Knitting socks from the toe up published in Interweave knits--sometime I can't remember when, I have this puppy memorized.
needles: US size 0
yarn: Knit picks Felci

I did my best to match them up and I came close enough for me--they might be a row or two off, but nothing that even I'll notice after a while.

So, then we were set to leave for my mom's house (a six hour drive, plus 3 days of knitting with my mom, then six hours back) prime knitting. But it was literally last minute so I grabbed somme yarn I bought on vacation--Noro Silk Garden sock. And all my DPNs and off we went.

Well, about 20 minutes into knitting I noticed (for the first time because I am teh dumb) that this yarn is handwash. I am many things, but I am not a person who handwashes socks. Yes, it is a failing. After arriving at my mom's house I discovered many ravelry knitters also complaining that they felt with wear. Which if you want a felted product might not be bad, but it was clear this yarn was not getting made into simple socks.

My mom is a knitter though and she let me dig into her stash and I found yarn perfect to make NeldorethAnd so I printed out the pattern. Well, Let's just say Neldoreth and car knitting don't mix for me. Now that we are home, it probably will get started again.

In my desperation, I begged to go to Hobby Lobby. Usually I prefer Joann's or Michael's but neither store is near my mom's house. At Hobby Lobby my choices of sock yarn were um scant. I ended up with "wool free sock stripes." it is a sign of my desperation that I'd choose this. But I did and on the way home (yes, I *was* pretty twitchy) I cast on a simple sock. I think it might not be for me in the end.

Maybe you have a good eye and you have noticed something I have noticed. The stripe repeat on this is LOOOONG. Which in practical terms means one of two things a) the socks won't match or b) the socks will match because I will have manipulated the yarn in a very very major way. since they may be for one of my daughters--they may actually not match.

Are you a sock knitter who needs your socks to match exactly?

caterpillars

This is probably going to be a more caterpillar focused post than a knitting focused post, so if bugs and caterpillars creep you out, you may want to skip this one. I did work on the sock but not much, so you won't miss anything big.
So, the caterpillars are getting bigger. I googled and it looks like they go through 5 "instars". Each instar is after it sheds its skin. Each molting looks worrisome because the caterpillar will stop eating and moving, and will sometimes stop pooping too. I mean you think oh man it is dead! and then it wiggles out of it's skin and gets back to business (sometimes will even eat it's skin). Last week, the tiniest of the lilac eating caterpillars worried us all and then shed and the next day left us this heart:

One of the birch eating one shed yesterday for it's next to last instar. It will only shed one more time before spinning. One of the interesting things to me is that the caterpillars are all the same age but are at different stages. Here are the biggest and smallest birch eating caterpillars

I mean look at those feet!

I know that sometimes when I take close up pictures, it gives the illusion that these guys are HUGE. And they are bigger than they were a month ago, But the biggest is a little smaller than my thumb.

How fascinated am I? Well, I took videos of them eating. And I encouraged my daughters to take videos of them pooping (which is actually more fun than it sounds). My video gets a little unfocused at the end, but I decided that it was pretty cool anyway:

If that doesn't show the video--Go here
And oh yeah, the sock is coming along:

felici socks

Today I was thinking about summer and why I feel like it is just kicking my butt. I mean what's not to like about summer--it is finally warm enough that exposed skin won't freeze, you get to wear sandals, and you don't have to make your kids do homework or get up and get ready early. Summer has the best foods, with tomatoes and sweetcorn and fresh green beans. I love my kids being home, and not having to deal with the after school crankies (although now it is after pool crankies--but I don't have to make them do math in the midst of it). But MAN does it ever take forever for me to get anything done in the summer. It may be because stuff gets piled on. Currently I'm soaking lettuce and broccoli from the farm share, and I've made a year's worth of strawberry and sour cherry jam. The girls want to blueberry pick etc.

Case in point, I've been trying to write this entry for DAYS, before this sock picture got too out of date

I finished the first sock in the car on the way home from vacation and started the second. I even pulled out yarn so they could start close--and then had trouble casting on. Judy's magic cast on is a bear to do on a bumpy interstate. And so I ended up not being able to start exactly where I thought I should, but not bad matchup eh? I turned the first heel at a baseball game, ripped it out, knit more and turned it again at another that went into extra innings and it looks like that I may actually be turning the second sock's heel at another baseball game. I do love summer.

I wish I could tell you that I finished darning the last "socks of the week" and started a new pair, but alas that didn't happen. One sock is done, but the other still needs heel and some swiss darning.

I should also do an update on the caterpillars. I'll try to get a new picture for next time, as they look totally different now.

bright socks done!

Should I start every entry with: the Summer of Socks continues? Because it does!

The sock I started as a sort of emergency "trip" sock continues to travel, more locally. It has gone to two minor league baseball games. In face, I turned the heel in the 7th inning in the first one (on July 3) and then decided to rip out the heel and knit more foot length at the game last night. I did get the heel all finished, even though I had to stop knitting in the 9th inning because I was making a lot of mistakes and it was getting late. The game went 15 innings with the hometown heroes losing and with us getting in at midnight. At any rate, here is a pre heel rip out picture.

I also decided to try some swiss darning (or duplicate stitch) on this week's sock. I ended up having to go back to my tried and true weaving a patch for the heel because the stitches were so stretched out. One heel is done. I'll do the other soon and try duplicate stitch on the foot area. Might be next week though as I seem to be running out of week! I knit these in July of 2012 after taking them on vacation. They actually have worn pretty well for having an obviously too narrow heel.

I also finished the leftover socks, finally! All I really had to do was a few more rows and bindoff. I'm not sure why I need to look at instructions for the bindoff--Jenny's surprisingly Stretchy bindoff is incredibly easy once you have the process in your head. It has been a little hot to wear them but the things I do for this blog.

And last, but certainly not least, we adopted a few more pets this week. I do a lot of volunteering and it puts me in touch with a wide variety of people. One person that I especially like is an entomologist for a public garden. She is very cool and always is doing something fun and buggy. This summer she managed to breed a few wild moths and ended up with an abundance of caterpillars. Now some knitters might actually be horrified with this but this summer I am helping her raise moths. Many people think of moths as eating sweaters, but really it is larva both of moths and carpet beetles. These moths however are Cecropia and while they do eat a lot, they don't eat wool. In fact my nine eat birch, while my daughters each have 3 eating lilac. They are native to my area, and so releasing them in the spring wouldn't be an issue. In fact, I doubt these would survive if they were outside. Heck, they may not survive being raised by us. they are cute though:

They like to hang out together which is fun. And I love watching them. I don't actually have a birch tree though so I am roaming the neighborhood and knocking on doors. Well and hitting playgrounds--a surprising number of playgrounds have birch trees.

car knitting

The only problem with taking a long weekend is that it kind of killed both weeks. We left for a trip "up north" after a busy week and got back mid-week this week. About halfway through last week, I realized I had not started darning the socks of the week, and then I got a comment from Daisy that reminded me about swiss darning, and honestly that would be perfect for last week's socks. I need to dig out my magazine that explains it well and do some research. All of this is a long way of saying I took a two week break on the darning, but I'll be back to it next week.

And so yes, we took a trip which meant car knitting. And I had a slight problem, the socks I had been knitting were almost done and I had not planned another project.

And I kind of wanted to use the needles I had been using in this project. As you can see I am only like 5 rows away from the bind off. And since I've been using a bind off I rarely use (but should use more often--Jenny's surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off), I needed to have my cheat sheet along. So I decided to put in some yarn to hold stitches and take the needles with me, and finish the socks later.

This did not however, help when deciding, what do I knit on this trip!? The answer, I was sure was maybe a scrap yarn sock. I was thinking a purple pattern with solid purple toes and heels maybe? But purples are super hard to match. I was sure I had a solid purple that would go with ONE of these purples.

Alas, I could not find it.

I also tried seeing if any of my greens would go together (no), before deciding just to give up. I dug out my last knit Picks Felci and took it along.

I hesitated with this because I have several pairs of socks made from this yarn, and it doesn't hold up as well as many others (proof--I'm darning almost all of the ones I have already knit). But in the end, it was probably the best choice as it doesn't require much beyond a simple toe up sock.

Now to change needles again just long enough to finish off the other socks.....

socks, strawberries

Summer is officially kicking my butt. But the socks progress! Actually I knitted so much more than I darned this week, in part because I needed to catch up to the season finale of Game of Thrones, and sometimes I just need to focus on my knitting instead of the tv. So I turned a heel. Even though I can turn a heel while watching, let's just say I watched this heel turn.

I also got out my skein of Modeknit sock yarn

(in "no Spoilers--Merry Maids") and tried to imagine what it would look like knit up as Neldoreth. And sigh. While I could easily imagine the green ("no spoilers Sherlock's kitchen") in this pattern, I'm feeling that this isn't quite right for me in this colorway. And I hate to even say anything like this at all because I LOVE this yarn, and would love to have about 6 other colorways in my "collection" (ie stash) Merry maids is not quite the color I thought it would be. I looks pinker and muddier than I had thought it would be. I'm sure I'll find the perfect pattern for it, but Neldoreth isn't it. hmmm I may have to buy Lyanna blue and/or Daenerys Eyes if they become available in the sock yarn. Red wedding would probably also be good on Neldoreth. And I can not say enough about how lovely this yarn is to work with.
So, I guess the quest continues to find a yarn to go with that pattern, or a pattern to go with my modesock....
Meanwhile, the darning project continues.

So many of the socks in my darning pile are from Knit Picks. Either I knit them too loosely or the yarn is weak, but man they get thin fast, although according to ravelry I finished these in Feb 2012. At any rate, both socks needed heel and foot work. Because summer is kicking me you know where, I have only 1.5 of this repair complete at the end of the "week."
Looking at my to do list shows that while the list was long there are still three items on it--only two I'll try to finish today (as I start next week's list). And in case you are wondering--Change the little frogs' water and darn the socks get the attention while cut off capri's does not. Although to be fair, I did one pair of the 2 pairs of capris I promised to make into shorts for my daughter. After weeks of the "how short do you want them?" question, answered by a shrug, I cut measured a pair of shorts I knew she liked, asked if that was the right length and hemmed them to a 7.5 inch inseam. This is evidently too short. So second pair is on hold.
One item I did not put on the list but should have is: make Strawberry jam. Because boy did I ever. I made 4 batches of freezer jam this week--and 2 last week so 6 total. I'm done with (strawberry) jam (will make cherry and peach and have been asked for blueberry --yuck), and now moving on to strawberry lemonade concentrate this week. Maybe strawberry marshmallows. We keep eating them (the strawberries) though. And I can't imagine a scenario where we eat a whole pan of strawberry marshmallows. I may just freeze the puree needed for them and make them at Christmas when I can give a bunch away.

leftover bright socks

Because of the way that feedly and facebook show thumbnails, I'm going to lead off with the progress on socks I'm making. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I must finish these plain boring socks before I can start something complex. A smarter person would start the complex socks and have two sets going, one for traveling and places where a simple sock is best and one for times when you need complex knitting. I suspect I feel I must finish these, because I only have the one set of size 0 dpns. Ok that's not true, I think I have 2 or 3 sets of US ) but I LOVE these.

Ok the socks!

As you can see they are going to be more fraternal than identical. That is by design. This yarn not only has large color repeats, but I'm using leftovers of two colorways. The second sock is actually coming out more like how I envisioned both socks. No matter--these are fun and playful. And I take them places because they are just a simple toe up pattern, that I swear I could do in my sleep.

Sigh, I really should at least swatch for a complex sock.

Onto the darning project. This week's sock to darn are these:

Which I went to look on ravelry for when I made these, and I NEVER documented them. I tried looking for them on this blog and I can't find them. When did I make these? I have no idea. I know the yarn is Lorna's laces and so the fact that they are wearing thin on my heels surprises me, because I think of them as relatively new. Oh hey wait--found the entry from May 2013 so two years. Hmm, why did I not put them in ravelry? At any rate, I have one sock darned, and need to start the other.

I also went through ALL my socks and have a pile of those that need repair. Sigh. It is large. It will take one pair a week all summer.

And of course it is the last few days of school, so I've been tackling the constant influx of stuff from lockers. Failing of course:

summer of socks begins!

I declared this summer to be my summer of socks!

what does that mean summer of socks?  Well it means I'll be working on my socks this summer--both looking at making new ones and making sure the ones I have are in good repair so come fall, I have no big surprises. I did this in part because my handknit sock collection is getting older.  Sure, I add a new pair every year or so, but I don't think I've ever gone through and really thought about which socks might be beyond saving.  So far, I've pulled out four pairs that either are just beyond repair (old darning patches have holes!) or they have holes, and I just don't like them enough to repair them (like maybe they don't fit me right). I also pulled out four pairs that need some repair (And honestly, I need to go through them all and find all the ones with holes).  I hate darning though, so I'm making myself take care of one pair a week.  I started that last week, and promptly didn't do last week's pair. 

This week though, I did that PAIR and this week's pair.

This is this week's pair.  I did one sock already--this one needed both the heel and the ball of my foot.  Usually most pairs just wear at the balls of my feet.  I'm glad I'm not a 19th century maiden lady looking for a husband because my darning is quite simply atrocious.

And of course, I'm going to try to knit a few pairs this summer.  This has been my traveling sock, as it is just a plain sock pattern.  I was playing around with two different skeins of leftover yarn.  So the toes and heels are in one skein, and the rest in another. 

Further, I've been playing with something.  First, I know that tighter knit socks SHOULD be less prone to holes, so I am knitting these on size 0 needles.  Second, the gauge I usually use for socks means that when most sock patterns call for 64 stitches, they are way way too big on me. In part because I need a sock smaller than most sock patterns make and I think I'm always a little loose on my knitting. 

I'm thinking about fancier patterns though. Like Knitty's Neldoreth. Wouldn't that look just divine in Modeknit sock yarn?  Of course it would.  I wanted to do that pattern/yarn combination a while ago when I made some just plain green socks.

I also just lost about 20 minutes looking through knitty at all the other socks I'd like to knit.  That doesn't even dive into the two issues of sockupied I own or all the sock books I own.  I might just have a tiny little sock problem.... First though, finish the plain socks.

Finished: Indigo Cones

I finished it! I totally finished the indigo cones shrug in time to wear it to my nephew's high school graduation!

At first when I finished knitting I was all like--whew done, and then I realized, nope--ends to weave in, buttons to choose and block that puppy. So, I wove in the ends, went through my buttons and asked facebook and in person relatives about which of these buttons:

And eventually decided on the lower button.

Then I blocked it (and waited for freaking ever for it to dry) and got the button sewed on just in time to pack it. I wanted to photograph it before I left, but eh no time. So, I had my husband take pictures of me on the trip. And no, I have no idea why I al always holding my arms like that:

For the record:
Pattern: Indigo Cones from Knitty.
yarn: Nashua Creative Focus Linen (discontinued) color: bleach; 3 skeins
needles: US size 3 and US size 8
size: medium
button: totally forgot where it came from.

It was a totally fun trip and when I told my sister in law I had knitted it, she didn't believe it--one of the highest compliments, I think, is that people think your handknits are not homemade looking. And now I feel like the summer of socks might be upon me. I am having a serious hankering to make some fun socks--which means trying to figure out a pattern that I like that will fit my narrow feet (which is a story for another day).

light at the end of the tunnel

One thing you should know about me is this: I don't usually knit during the day. Even though I work part-time outside the house and am home a lot with no one really watching my every move to make sure I don't "waste time," I usually reserve knitting for after kids are in bed and I'm watching tv with my husband. For the most part it works. Oh sure it might mean that I only get an hour to knit or that I may have to spend my whole time counting or (could pause that show I have no idea why we need to keep throwing out numbers--this is a reality show about special effects!) maybe if it is late I'm too tired to knit. But I find it a relaxing prelude to sleep.

Well until I am not too tired to knit but too tired to make sense of what the pattern is asking me to do.

Which is why it has taken me so long to get what should be the home stretch of this shrug: the button band.

Ok, well there was the counting and generally trying to be sure I picked up the right number of stitches. and honestly, why do they yell out numbers so much on reality/contest shows. I get that they are timed, but it is frustrating to be counting along 30, 3,2, 34, and have the tv person yell: 30 minutes! Even House Hunters has numbers (22, 24, 26; This house is 2600 under our budget! the wife will scream). Heck even Game of Thrones has numbers (12, 14, 16, There are 4000 wildlings ready to shoot you in the back!).

Ahem anyway, it took 3 days just to pick up 159 stitches and figure out what the heck the directions were asking for. And then today I actually got to knit on it during the DAY as I got together with friends for coffee. Knitting during the day is so different. Things make sense, when you aren't tired. Mistakes are fixable in both the light and the clear of day. Or maybe that was just the coffee.

At any rate, button band is moving along:

Graduation is in 9 days. I think I'm actually going to get to wear this!

And none of it was yarn

I had this whole entry planned out in my head--it was called "and half of it was yarn" and it was all about the last few days. The things I had in mind were: Some new yarn I bought, progress on the shrug, my answer to a question proposed for a luncheon I was invited to ("bring an item from your shelf or wall and be prepared to share why it is treasured with the group") and My velcro project.

Sadly, I feel like the day is waning and dinner must be made soon, so I'm going to table three of those and just go with the last one.

I run. I would say avidly, but not um expertly. Let's call me an advanced beginner. And when I run, I like to have my gear: my fitbit, my road id, my heart rate monitor, my ipod, and my phone. I should figure out how to combine the ipod and the phone, but that's neither here nor there. Lately, I've been leaving my phone behind because while I can hang everything else off my body, I have no solution for my phone. I have an armband and while I feel like my arms are flabby, they must in actuality be tiny because I can strap that thing on all the way to the end and it still slides off my arm. As you can see, the sticky part of the velcro is only at the end, so if you pull it far enough, there isn't soft stuff for it to hang on to.

Anyway, today, I learned that sometimes you need your phone, even if it is just to feel safe. You see Every time I run or walk, I notice people who didn't learn to drive the way I did. I learned--stop before the crosswalk (marked or not), look for pedestrians and bikes, proceed into intersection as needed to see cars coming. I learned to do the same for crossing your sidewalk pulling into or out of your driveway or any parking lots---LOOK for pedestrians or bikes on the sidewalks. Every day though, I see multiple incidents of:

(and yes, I realize that as a pedestrian, I look like I'm pretty far away, but she never ever stopped before rolling into the crosswalk AND she was on her phone the entire time--I'm not suggesting she wait for me but really--she could have seen traffic coming from behind the crosswalk. I was a little afraid taking this until I realized she too was on her phone-- I don't think she ever saw me--despite my getting to the corner as she pulled out.)

I didn't pick on this ONE person, this was just the first of no less than 6 incidents I saw just like this on my 1/3 mile walk to get my girls from school. 6. And it makes me mad. Today I hollered at one while I was running (earlier in the day than the picture I took), he hollered back and we ended up having a screaming match. So... while I have vowed not to ever let another ahem bad driver ahem make me lose my cool so effectively, I also decided maybe I had better start carrying my phone every time I run. Which means--time to make the armband fit my scrawny (and yet oddly flabby) chicken wings.

I'm hoping this works, but I'm thinking I might need even longer velcro.

Indigo cones is a vest!

When I last left you the Indigo cones needed sides. And now--it has them! Witness:

and

I was kind of dreading the sides, because the directions looked a little complicated. I mean how was this going to work? Then I got most of the right side done (really fast because there aren't a lot of stitches compared to when you do the whole thing at once) but I wasn't sure if I had marked the pattern when I finished a chart repeat or not. It took me a whole day to decide that I had indeed marked it and had only done 2 chart repeats and needed a third. Then the decreases looked tricky--they weren't and suddenly the right side was done! The left side went much quicker. Now it only needs sleeves! Although I have a favorite sock that needs some darning and I need to figure out if I have the right DPNS or a smaller circular to do the sleeves on. Which requires me finding either my needle gauge or my notes to determine what size needles I'm using again. (THIS is why I need to document). At any rate, I have a month before the graduation I want to wear it to (REALLY??? I can't believe my baby nephew is GRADUATING from high school!!!).

Also, I slipped it on and in it's pre-blocked stage it fits. No pictures of that though because as I write this, I'm still in my jammies. I blame the snow (just very thick flurries).

Of course it wasn't in time for the "spring" banquet but I managed in my store bought shrug, Christmas dress, brand new shoes, and vintage purse. Behold:

And yes, I am wearing hose. a) If Princess Kate can so can I and b) it is COLD in Michigan.

spring break

One might start to wonder lots of things when a knitting blogger takes an unexpected hiatus. Specifically one might start to wonder what said knitter has been up to and if the time away from writing about projects has increased time spent actually working on projects, or if the knitter just spent hours and hours playing 2048. Well dear reader, wonder no longer.

Really the hiatus had to do more with Spring break than anything else. Children (even tween children) underfoot all day does sort of put a damper on knitting, playing ridiculously addictive games and basically anything else that is not directly related to surviving the day. Children it seems demand meals at regular intervals, and the meals must be not the same meal as the day before. In other words, tacos for dinner means no one wants tacos for lunch the next day. SIGH I say!

We also did not travel, meaning that there was no car knitting to books things forward. Instead we stayed home, and over break we volunteered 8 hours at our local butterfly garden. We also slept late, and visited with local friends. And I actually did spend some time playing 2048 and actually WON by getting the 2048 tile. The game suggested a new goal, but honestly, my desire to play has been easily cut by three quarters.

But I did also knit, just not as much as one would expect.

Indigo cones is moving along nicely. I have finished the back, and am about to start the right side. It is clear though that I will not finish it in time for the dinner, and it will most likely be too cold anyway. Now I am aiming for may when I have not one but 2 semi-formal events where such a garment will work well.

Besides doesn't it look more like a May outfit? Ok, maybe where you are it looks like an April thing, but 2 days ago there was snow on the ground here. And for Friday's dinner--it might be in the upper 40s. So May it is!

I also did manage to get the sock going and knit halfway up the foot. Although I don't have a picture. Trust me, more knitting in public. Also it helped with the very palatable tension one picks up on when one watches a middle school talent competition.

But of course it hasn't been all knitting. I made a batch of mango jam, watched the power company take out 4 trees in my yard, and hung out with the children. One of our days, we treated ourselves to TV dinners (we were at the store for something else--and BONUS tv dinners=easy lunch). My choice was something different than I usually get. I was so disappointed with the difference between the box picture and the actual, I took a picture.

Moral of this story--a good food stylist will get you at least one sale. good food might get you repeat business.

2048, shrug and a sock

This week, while waiting at the eye doctor, one of my daughters introduced me to the game 2048 , which should actually serve as a cautionary tale of how you should always have emergency knitting or books because man am I ever addicted to that game. Seriously. As a consequence (a sad consequence), I really didn't get much of anything done this week. It feels like Indigo Cones is going so so slow. I think in part because the rows are SO. FREAKING. LONG.

So, I have completed 3 sections of the chart--you do 5 before starting the sleeves. And I was thinking I might actually get this done in time for the banquet that I THOUGHT might be a month away.

Hear that? The sound of fate laughing at me?

Usually this banquet is towards the end of April, and the weather is warmish, hence the shrug. I didn't look too close at the calendar or I would have realized that when I am anticipating the banquet, my husband (aka the reason we go to the banquet) is out of town. He thought it was the week before--when my mom would be visiting (hey come visit AND babysit). BUT then he got an e-mail and the banquet is actually April 10 instead of the 24 like I was anticipating (or the 17th like he was anticipating). Now I'm realizing 2 things: 1) I'm probably not going to finish this in time. 2) even if I did, it will probably still be too cold.

Oh well--I'll just have to find an excuse to wear it anyway.

Knitting in Public

I know lots of people knit in public, and I tend to occasionally bring a sock here and there. I had two opportunities to knit while "chaperoning" an academic competition my girls were involved in. I toyed with bringing the shrug and then realized that even though the lace pattern is simple enough for TV knitting, that you don't much done if you have to stop, figure out where you are, and then start only to be interrupted 2 or 3 stitches later. So sock it was! The first week, I didn't get the sock out at all--instead ended up chatting with the other chaperones. The second week, I got out the sock and had several middle school girls surrounding me asking about my knitting. And then realizing that I forgot to bring the yarn I was switching to.

The girls were funny though because they all told me about people they knew that knit, asked me what I was knitting, asked who it was for, exclaimed over the yarn. Well, everyone except my children, who seemed to think I was knitting solely to embarrass them.

You see I started a sock out of the two skeins of leftover sock yarn from making socks for my two daughters. I thought I'd do heels and toes from the skein with the least yarn, and the rest from the skein with the most yarn. But then I didn't know if my sock was wide enough, and I didn't want to be THAT chaperone who took off her shoes and tried on her sock. So I stopped, put it away, vowed to work out the issues and then Tuesday when I have to go and sit for a few hours during the final meet, I'll work on it more. My girls will really be mortified if I am sitting in the auditorium (since I shouldn't have to chaperone) knitting.

So, I need to try on the sock, and start the blue. Before Tuesday. Better stop playing 2048. Except I got up to 512 and almost to 1024.

Indigo cones in progress

Before I get into the knitting portion of this entry, I'd like to take a minute to talk about technology. Specifically about how on some levels I need more and better and faster like yesterday! and how on other levels, why can't things just stay the same.

In essence my browser of choice is safari. In fact an old version of safari (version 5.1.10). And lately my sites aren't playing nice with it. It started out as gmail telling me it wasn't supported. Then Facebook wouldn't let me see notifications unless I was on MY page rather than the feed page. Then that went away and basically I go to some random persons page to see my notifications. Then yahoo mail yesterday started not letting me reply or forward message and forget about composing a new one. Flickr is flakey, but you know--as much as I say I like flickr better than instagram, I gotta admit flickr has always been flakey for me. I'd upgrade--I really would. But to upgrade safari, you have to upgrade your operating system. And the person I share the desktop with isn't yet convinced we need to do that.

I guess that's my long way of saying I'll probably start using chrome instead.

And just so you don't think I'm total luddite--yesterday I figured out how to online order from Panera and I swear angels sang. In fact, you know what I want? I want to be able to order everything online and have it brought to me by drones, instantly. I might just be feeling a little more on the introverted side today.

Onward!

This has kind of been a crap week for me. Last Thursday I started massively cleaning the house so the girls could have three of their nearest and dearest friends over for a sleepover. This involved me getting rid of lots of stuff too--mostly paper I'd let pile up. It did not however, leave me time to knit. I did however, make time to finish a pair of PJ pants (that ended up being too large because elastic is like that I guess) that I've been meaning to finish for well over a month. While I was doing that I thought--OH hey wouldn't THAT make a great treat bag after a sleepover--everyone has matching PJ pants? Then I slapped myself. Still, it lurks there for maybe next year's birthday sleepover.

And I'd pull it off by getting the majority of the work done ahead of time--saving elastic and hemming for later--then measure for elastic and waist, send kids down to watch a movie and voila! PJS by bedtime. Most guests I could eyeball for initial size based on my two girls. It could work! Yeah I just slapped myself again.

So, then the sleepover, then the time change, then a professional day off of school and I was totally wiped out. I think I knit a grand total of four rows on my shrug over 5 days. Most of those during the sleepover.

And then Tuesday I started to feel like I was getting a cold. I knew I needed to sit and rest instead of the other stuff I usually do during the day. And I tried to knit, and managed a row or two before it just was clear that stuffy head, achy body meant read instead of knit.

And then Tuesday night, or rather the wee hours of Wednesday it became clear one daughter was not going to school Wednesday. But I felt better. So Wednesday I stayed home, watched way more TV than I ever do, since sleep and watch tv was all my daughter was doing. And as a consequence I got something like 12 rows knit yesterday!

It still has a ways to go, but I feel like it is coming along. I also feel like it might be too big. But maybe not. Anyway, now I've got everyone back in school, and so I'm sure my knitting time will go back to the one to two rows a night version.

shrug in progress

This week I screwed up my courage and cast on for my Indigo cones. And got as far as this:
Do you see it as white? Maybe blue?

Not because it is hard, or because I hate the pattern or the yarn, just because that is a LOT of stitches. In fact I love the yarn. It is a cotton linen blend that I think smells really fresh and springy.

I also started my annual volunteer stint at the local butterfly house. The first day is always a day with no visitors--and really just butterfly care. Because I knew it would be boring (no people, 12 butterflies--as many had not emerged) I wanted to bring my knitting in case I got bored. Because there is a strict no plant material rule, I opted not to bring my Indigo cones. Instead I decided to start a sock in bright colors that would match the dayglo fluorescent green volunteer shirt. I don't know how much I'll work on it--as I am loving the shrug and honestly I'll never be that bored volunteering again (people + more butterflies= more work). We'll see. I may bring it to get a picture today. In the meantime, I did manage to photograph one of the few butterflies.

My goal between now and the end of butterflies is to figure out how to upload pictures from my desktop computer (where my good camera downloads) to my Instagram account. And honestly right now I'm adding many many things on my treatise on why flickr is better than instagram.

Indigo cones

I had set as my goal this year to write at least once a week, mainly so I could keep things updated and moving along. February has been a real struggle for me this year. I'm not sure if it was SAD, full on depression, the super cold winter, or some combination. I wasn't really feeling right with no energy not really wanting to get out of bed, not really wanting to move much after that and feeling like every day I was pushing myself really hard just for the basics. I know that I have a very supportive network of friends and family who would do so much for me to help. But honestly, I didn't know what help to ask for, so I just pushed on telling myself that if I still felt this bad in March, I'd go see someone. I'm gradually feeling better. Every day I feel a tiny bit more like myself, which is good.

We also had a huge chunk of time where for one reason or another (PD day, President's day wind chill day and wind chill delay) where the children were home and yet I had to work. This is so rare, the children did not even know how to deal with it--so the feeling like running through quicksand got ramped up 10 notches.

Because I really suspect that a huge part of this was the unseasonable cold we are having (really--the average high for today is 27F, the record low (set in 2003--how did I not remember that--I was hugely pregnant) was -4F and today is forecasted to be 14F Also side note, I mentioned this was the coldest February I could remember and someone tried to argue that LAST February was even colder. Whatever. We are 6 heating degree days higher than we were at this point last year so pbbbbt.), I decided to start knitting for spring. Specifically, I started knitting Indigo Cones in white Creative focus linen. Although I bought it at a much higher price before it was discontinued. The goal is to have this done by April so I can wear one of my springier dresses to my husband's annual work dinner. Because every year about a week before I think--MAN if I only had a shrug or something I could wear this sleeveless dress but it is WAY too cold to go without.

It may actually take that long to make it.

I started with a swatch, which is a good way to start with anything you'd like to actually fit. The gauge section says that the suggested needle size (which is where I usually start on my swatch) is a US 9 for the stockinet and pattern, and a US 6 for the rib. So, I did a big swatch and washed it and I'm really close on the stockinette and a little loose on the pattern but WAY off on the rib.

So I redid a smaller swatch on a US size 4 and it was STILLL too big. Then I swatched it on a US 3 and I am STILL too loose. However, I'm pretty close. Close enough that I feel like it will work. So, I have cast on, and started the first row (and then miscounted, ripped out and started again). Hopefully it can start to move along from here and I'll have more pictures to show off later.