Quick note

ust a really quick note to say--I finished the Central Park Hoodie. And even though it is currently 85 degrees F outside right now, I made people model:

Central Park hoodie #finished

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jul 7, 2016 at 10:16am PDT

Other people also wanted in on the action. Why yes, we do have AC.

#knitwear on a hot July day

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jul 7, 2016 at 10:17am PDT

June update

So so much has happened since I last posted so I'd better get right to it.

1) My mother in law: Better. She's home now after 3 weeks in the hospital and 2 weeks in a rehabilitation center/nursing home. Yesterday they gave her permission to walk without a walker or a cane, so progress continues!

2) Strawberry season: Underway! I have purchased 2 flats, then we went and picked yesterday and I picked 6 pounds--and I was trying to go light. Here is what I have made so far from all this strawberry goodness:
Jam of course. So far I have made 4 batches. I might be done. Last year I made 6 (plus 1 each of cherry, peach and peach vanilla) and I ended up with extras. I may make one more to be safe. Hey future me--5 might be the sweet spot!

Strawberry lemonade concentrate. I've made this the last few years. Ball's recipe. I find the squeezing of lemons to be the biggest pain in the butt, but worth it. I never get 7 pints out of it though. 5 full canned pints and about 3/4 of a pint that you need to use immediately. This year was no exception.

Strawberry Marshmallows! This was my first year making these and here's the verdict. They were delicious the first day. Then not so much. They got soggy REALLY fast. I can't decide if it was the advice to grease the pan with cooking spray (IF I make this again, I'll use butter) or the humidity. I still am toying with freezing the puree and making this in the winter.

Strawberry marshmallows #yum

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jun 16, 2016 at 12:47pm PDT

A fresh Strawberry pie! No verdict on this yet as I JUST finished it. This is my mother in law's recipe, as she is the one who usually makes it. She's better, but not THAt much better and I would have hated to say--ok, now that you are up and about could you make me a pie? Instead I said--I'll make the pie, where's your recipe. Since her eyes lit up at the mention of pie and she smiled big when she realized I'd make the pie I knew I'd made the right call. Then when I told her on the phone that it was dinner dessert she told me she couldn't wait--this from someone building their appetite back so good news all around.

3) Sweater knitting!

I've been plugging away (in 90 degree heat at a baseball game even) on the Central Park hoodie for my daughter. I am ready to pick up the ribbing stitches (minimum 300) and because that sounded so exciting, I decided to sew in the sleeves first. Picture? yep:

Octo-sweater.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jun 23, 2016 at 8:21am PDT

Yes, it looks like it has 3 arms, because the sides aren't sewn in and so the sides look like arms. MUST MAKE MYSELF PICK UP STITCHES. The pattern claims 300 will do it for this size, but I made it a little long so the plan is to Pick up as many stitches as it takes to get through one side, try for the same number on the other and be sure it is divisible by 4--easy peasy! (eyeroll) Ask me in a week how that went.

4) Landscaping. We had this hairbrained idea to replace the backyard pond we ripped out a few years ago--ok a dozen years ago. I'm attempting to spend at least 30 minutes on pulling up rocks, and weed barrier fabric every day. Failed yesterday. Trying to get the kids to help is hard because they are more scattered than I am. Stay tuned though as I have been taking progress pictures.

Lazy update

Progress continues on the cream sweater. In fact, I am so lazy I didn't want to set it all up for a photo shoot and instead, just sort of snapped it in it's natural habitat.

What you see there is a back, both fronts AND a sleeve. That sort of makes me feel like I am NEARLY done. But it also forgets finishing the other sleeve, sewing it all together, and adding a buttonband AND hood. Good thing it snowed yesterday! (Didn't stick but STILL).

Still so much sleeve to knit....

I have been taking this every where I go, and that usually is a bad thing when you have a sleeve (increase every X rows Y times!), so this time, I made a chart of which row numbers to increase on. And when I took it to the ball park for our first (really cold) game of the year I improvised.

I did end up with 3 too many stitches at the end, but in the interests of finishing, well I just bound off instead of trying to "fix" it.

The other project that is progressing is our caterpillar project. You do remember the caterpillars right? Well the cocoons have been in a tank in the garage over the winter. And last week I moved it outside in case sun was the deciding factor. No action yet, but I understand May is their month.

Cream central park Hoodie

So, I didn't mean to take more than a month to update. And to my credit I didn't just rest on the laurels of a finished sweater either. As I said--I was swatching and thinking about size for the next sweater.

In the end, I decided a 36" Central Paark Hoodie would fit nicely and started on it. To date, I have the back and one of the sides done. I'm at the point in the second side, where I need to set up the patterning. Just to give you and idea though:

Almost to the armhole! #sweater #knitting

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Apr 19, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

That's the first side, nearly at the armhole. Like I said, that side is done, and the second side is started (ribbing is finished).

My problem is...
This is where people usually interrupt me to nod knowingly and say--yep, summer is fast approaching. Which is not the issue at all. I mean we live in Michigan. And while not Upper Peninsula, still north enough that I'm sure we'll be wearing sweaters at most evening events until Mid July at least.

No, my problem is that I'd rather be knitting socks at the moment. You see I have 4 new (since I started the sweaters) skeins of sock yarn and two more coming (which is not my fault because I'm in a sock club so some yarn just comes to me! and the other is ModeKnit in Purple rain and did I mention that it is PURPLE? I mean, clearly this is not my fault). I think part of the reason for this is that we've reached the time of year when I am a little sick of my current socks AND I have a pile that need to be darned.

So maybe we are fast approaching another "summer of socks"? I don't know. I do think I'd like to try some new sock patterns this summer. I may need two pairs going at once, so I can have something complicated and something easy. I just need to finish this sweater.

I am not sure why, but it seems that I am always making sweaters in May. Or finishing sweaters in May.  At any rate, I know I always think about making sweaters in fall and winter, but it seems that by the time the temperatures start rising, I'm sitting there dreaming of how people in this house will look in their new sweaters.

Last May I finished my all wool Central park hoodie in time to wear it maybe twice before putting it away for the fall.  And this year I'm on track to finish two sweaters in time for memorial day!

I am feeling better about the purple sweater.  We've had a good weekend with little eyerolling and huffing and sighing, so perhaps we've turned a corner.  In the mean time I started in on a sweater for her sister.  She requested "something with twists like this" while pointing to my blue central park hoodie.  I looked around to see if anyone had done any smaller measurements to that pattern, and on ravelry, most of the kid sized sweaters had the helpful information of "I just scaled it down." Gee thanks.

I measured the girl in question and realized she's only a few inches away from the smallest size in the pattern.  I also know from the two I knit that it runs a bit small.  So I decided that I'd make her the smallest size and my "scaling" down would mean that I'd make 3 instead of 4 inches of ribbing, and I'd watch to make sure the length was appropriate.  I may have to shorten the sleeves a bit too.  

I have the back done, and about 3/4 of the left front, so it is zipping along pretty fast.  After I finish the left front, I'm going to finish up the purple sweater sleeves and then I'll need to find a day or two when I can sit and think WHILE I knit and figure out the button band*. 

*I want to do all the edging in seed stitch as one long piece (pick up 2 gazillion stitches) and put in the button holes as I go, so I need to a) decide which side to put the button holes, b) figure out which method to use, and c) mark where the button holes should go.  Given that most of my knitting is done after a full day of stuff, this gets to be a bit much to ask of my regular knitting time. 

I'm having a bad case of starter-itis though that I am having to fight. It seems that all I really want to do is knit something I can felt.  The sweaters are winning based solely on not having enough feltable yarn to make anything.  So I've been promising myself that after the sweaters are done, I'll be making a felted bag (maybe) that is lined (maybe) in some funky fabric.

Central Park Hoodie!

Last Monday as the temperatures soared into the upper 70s, I finished my all wool Central Park hoodie.

I did get a chance to wear it for a few hours at work, where the air conditioner made it comfy. but I didn't really get a good picture until Sunday when the temps went back down into the 50s.



It fits! And I have one skein of the beautiful Lark (in leek!) from Quince and Company left. I can not recommend this yarn enough. And when I had to get more (I would have been one short in my original), Pam Allen was gracious enough to make sure I had the right dyelot. It is so sproingy and was such fun to work with.

I was going to say, I can't wait to wear it, but I am really looking forward to summer. Instead I'll say--I'll be taking every opportunity to wear it. Or maybe I'll just have it out this week. At any rate, I loved knitting with this yarn so much I bought the pattern Estelle and enough yarn to make it (for my birthday).

not done yet.

The last time I wrote I had a bunch of stuff I had deadlines for and I was feeling a trifle overwhelmed. I actually haven't finished anything.

I've finished all the pieces for my Central Park Hoodie, and they are all blocked. But it took me 2 days worth of knitting to pick up the 308 stitches for the button band. I haven't even finished knitting a single row of that one, but we'll see the weekend is almost here.

I started my second Harry potter sock in time to take it to book club. I like having a sock going all the time, and I think after I finish this one, I'd like to start another pair. I may have you guys help me decide what to do.

I also got a big chunk of the first halloween costume (kimono) done. I had this big mental block on sewing the lining, but I got it sorted out. Then I had this epiphany on cutting out the sleeve lining that was supposed to save me a bunch of fabric. And it did! A whole sleeves worth. Of course I only managed to cut out one sleeve lining instead of two. The sleeves are on the agenda for today. I can't remember if I had bought the fabric for costume #2 (clown) when I last wrote (and am too lazy to go back and read) but it is now purchased and washed and pressed. I'd like to start on it this weekend.

I feel like everything is going so much slower than it should. I had a girl stay home one day this week and I got NOTHING done that day. Next week there is a field trip one afternoon, and an online training one morning, both of which will kill about a day of my time "off."

Well I'd best get back to it.