Another DaVinci Disorder* flare.

I'm happy to report a finished object this week. That's 356 yards (326m) of Cascade 220 in a lovely coral with the compelling color name 7830. This is a variation on the BFF cowl by Ysolda Teague and tiny owl knits. I did the first link as written, but the second link is one of my own devising. There's a tight cable braid up the middle, flanked by... I forget what the stitch is called. It's a 1x1 rib that shifts over one stitch every two rows.  The border is the same as in the first link, three stitches of ribbing: purl, knit, purl on the right side, followed by three stitches of stockinette that curls over for a nice rounded edge. It's already been delivered to the BFF in question and I'm just waiting on my link to really finish the whole shebang. That would be a not-so-subtle hint if said BFF hadn't been working on a sweater for her darling and delightful youngest child, but now that it's finished (it's really awesome work, BTW)...

Where my link at, woman?

I will wait patiently. No rush. When you get to it, you know.

I also finished a stack of small project bags. They're about sock-sized, I think, and I'm rather pleased with them. All they need is a little bit of ribbon to close them up and they'll be completely finished.

I love that the plaids are matched on the side, but my favorite part is the liner and the shirt pocket inside.

I'm not sure why that tickles me so, but it does.

These were made for Project Make as a companion piece to the plaid shirt that I made for the Outfit-a-long, where I learned to match plaids and when not to bother (such as with the shirt pockets).

I also finished plying some merino? from a sheep named Sophia that was dyed for me many moons ago. It's about 145 yards of two ply about fingering weight or so, Z-spun and S-plied, as is my custom.  So that's three FOs from three different crafts this week. Golly. Unless some miracle occurs in the next day, I've got a little over a thousand meters to go in Stash Dash to reach 3k. I'm not going to "win," but I'm pleased with the finishing I've done anyway.

It's been a busy week of crafting. I even started to cut my t-shirt, but then realized I wanted to do some alterations and needed a little help.

I've started and nearly finished a ballband dishrag out of Mason Dixon Knitting. This one is the inverse of the one I did before, which has now faded so that the colors are about indistinguishable.

One end of the Leto is about done and it's been getting some love as my travel project. These two have been my most active projects and were the ones I took to the Yarnspinner's Bee at our local library. I regret not getting a picture because these ladies were pretty great. Other than the announcement on the library's website, there's no actual presence on the web. They're not on Ravelry at all, which is a darn shame, because I think they'd get a kick out of all the free patterns available there. Ms. Nancy made some adorable pirate-themed stuffies from fleece, Ms. Vera does some amazing beadwork, Ms. Lorna who directs Children's Literature there is content to make simple scarves, and Ms. Cara is the quiet one. They all had about forty years on me, but I don't think I've laughed so hard in a month. I'll be going again, for sure.

And here you go, Mom. Phoebe hugging my elbow:

*DaVinci Disorder is not a real disease. My sister and I made it up to describe our crafting polygamy. 

The beginning is understanding

Knitting is not all that exciting this week. I'm plugging away at the BFF cowl and Leto gets some attention while I'm out, but other than that, there's nothing to write home about. The BFF should be done by next week, if I continue at this pace, so that'll be another 400 or so yards toward Stash Amble.

I've made a little bit of progress on the sewing queue, having moved the project bags on a little bit, but I haven't got all the way to cutting out my t-shirt yet. It's harder to find time to sew than anything else because the sewing machine is in the room where the Husband sleeps before going to his job in the afternoon and a certain toddler person likes to hug my elbows and will sometimes refuse a nap.

 And Iris got her pointe shoes. This is my favorite picture because there's Iris en pointe like a brand new fawn trying out her legs and there's her teacher holding her arm and the lady from the store holding her foot and leg all together in a way that expresses the idea of "support" both literally and figuratively. The knee brace is for a kind of tendonitis common in young athletes (it's a minor thing she'll probably grow out of) and shows another, more behind-the-scenes kind of support.

Little Bit got new dance shoes, too. She starts in just a couple of weeks, though she's been informally joining other kids' classes and practicing with her big sister for a year already. She knew the dance they did at Disney as well as some of the kids that were in the show because she'd practiced with them almost every time.

In other creative news, I did a short series of drawings with quotes from Captain America, Spiderman, and Thor using Paper by 53. I think I could be a little more precise if I had a stylus or pencil, but it's not bad for what amounts to digital fingerpainting.

I'm also spinning a few minutes before bedtime and even ::gasp:: reading fiction books (aside from comics). It turns out that a romance story appeals to me more when the protagonists are two ladies in the South who also happen to be biologists. One is an entomologist who studied moths. This is not a book I deliberately looked for. I just picked it up at our very tiny library and it happened to have a lady entomologist in it. Coincidence? I think not. I've been writing some, too, and working on theological ideas.

Between all of those things, I'm still studying on Khan Academy for the GRE on Sunday. I was going to sit here and complain about how I didn't finish all my July goals, but really I'm doing quite a lot. I've just not finished anything this week, which is fine. Some weeks are like that.

For August, I'd like to:

1. Post a new technique here on the blog
2. Make that t-shirt! Really!
3. Move the spinning queue
4. Do the carrot dye test
5. Start an embroidery project

So far, my Project Make goals seem to be all over the map. I don't really have a schedule or even an understanding of what creative projects I tend to work on when. It's partly seasonal, mostly because quilting in July is just not going to happen, but things like Tour de Fleece and the Outfit-a-long are contributing factors, too. One thing that regular blogging has taught me is that there is an ebb and flow to my creative projects, even though I'm not certain of what its whole shape of it is. Perhaps next year, I'll have a better understanding of it so that I can use that to my advantage. 

For of all virtue, I say, and I repeat it, the beginning is understanding and the fulfillment is courage; by the one it is judged what ought to be done and by the other this is carried to success
-Demosthenes, Funeral Speech 60.17

En Pointe

I made those feet. She made them be awesome.

Iris gets her pointe shoes this Saturday. This is a big deal for a dancer, like getting your wand before you go to your first year at Hogwarts. The shoes and the dancer's feet have  to be just exactly right for each other or disaster follows. She could be injured or worse-- expelled!*  At any rate, I'm proud of how hard she's worked to get to the place where she has the opportunity to work even harder. Here are some Australian dancers explaining this a little better than I can:

The best way I know how to express my joy for her is with knitwear, so a pair of rainbow socks seemed like just the thing. The socks pictured above are called Beautiful Feet and it's Lara Neel's Fork in the Road socks, toe up version of my own devising, in Knit Picks Felici: Rainbow and Studio Avenue Six Self Striping sock yarn: 2 light blue, 2 dark blue (discontinued).

I made some headway on the second link to the BFF cowl as well and I seem to be hitting my stride. The first part of the cabling is a little wonky and I'm going to leave it because I'm a little wonky and my BFF knows it.

Leto, on the other hand is stuck in the black hole of being made out of lace weight and longer than is strictly necessary, but I love the drape of a finely knit fabric and, frankly, kind of want to have a big wide chunk of that border pattern. It's a process knit, anyway, and not a product knit. Its lesson is patience and persistence.

 The black alpaca got a little bit of attention this week, too, and finally got carded and spun a little. Tour de Fleece wasn't going to happen this year, but I'm glad to move the fiber queue up a little.

In ballet, to be en pointe is representative of skill, persistence, dedication, and strength. Taking point in the military means to be up front (where the danger is). Being on point in other contexts could mean to be at the forefront of an issue or to be someone who exhibits competence and style.

Sometimes I feel like I'm running to stand still, but I've had a good week. I feel on point/en pointe myself, and you can take any of those meanings you like except for the one where I'm literally standing on my toes.

Because that's really Iris' thing.

I only do it to reach things on tall shelves.

Which, frankly, is kind of often.

This is this year's Colors of Fall Outfit-a-long all finished. One plaid casual men's shirt from stash flannel and one Trillian by Martina Behm in Silky B Cashmere in a navy sparkle, bringing my Stash Dash total meterage up to 1,462, about halfway to the 3k line. I deviated from the official OAL patterns, but I'm going to get a lot of wear out of both of these, so that's a definite win. I feel competent, in front of things, skillful, and maybe even a little stylish.

Iris is definitely all of those things and more. I'm proud of her. Good job, kiddo.**

*no one is getting expelled. Chill, Hermione.
** I also realize that the only picture of Iris in this post is the one of her feet. She's elusive and difficult to photograph, like Bigfoot, but more graceful and with better eyeshadow. She's certainly less hairy. I'm also very proud of Bu, who is full of so much potential energy and deserves much more than a footnote.

Busy times

It's actually too warm for flannel shirt shenanigan, but I'll be ready when it finally cools down. I ended up using a men's/boy's shirt pattern and initially cut it much too large. Thanks to my experience with the boys' dance shirts, though, I was able to cut it down to a more sensible size. Miss Lladybird's tutorial helped me match the plaids and last week's buttonhole video helped me make neater, more even buttonholes. The next shirt will fit a little better, but for kicking around in cool weather, this one is just right. Successfully matching plaids is pretty darn satisfying and I can totally see me doing up another one in the future.

Pattern, fabric, buttons, and thread came from stash, so all I had to buy was interfacing for this one. If I were to do it again, I'd get a woven plaid instead of a print, but the whole project only cost a couple of bucks (and a ridiculous amount of labor).

So that's one half of the Colors of Fall Outfit-a-long all done and ready to wear. The knitting on Trillian is done, but it still needs a wash and a block. I'll try to get some shots of both together next week. It's done enough for Stash Dash, though, so that puts me at 1245m and still moseying along.

I'm doing up some project bags in this same fabric, which will go into the Project Make bin as representative of the aforementioned plaid-matching shenanigans. The next bit of sewing after that will be a t-shirt for me out of some discount jersey. I'm picking through my neglected projects and I've worked on Leto a little bit this week, but I think the next thing will be the BFF cowl. Aside from the purse socks, I'm pretty sure that's the closest project to done, so far as yardage goes. That means I've checked off three of this month's goals:

1. Finish the plaid shirt
2. Finish Trillian
3. Find a neglected project and begin working on it before month's end
4. Sew a t-shirt for myself
5. Card the rest of the black alpaca and finish spinning it

I'm also studying for the GRE again and getting Miss Fluffalo ready to start high school, so it's busy times at the House.

Rainbow-themed Jubilance

This week has been a pretty darn productive one and, looking back on June, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. 

Thematically appropriate mug choice for this week.

I just want to knit and sew rainbows all over the place, but I have a shirt and a shawl to make for OAL shenanigans and will not be distracted from my goal. You will be mine, plaid flannel shirt, Oh yes, you will be mine.

Cutting continues at a slow pace and, wouldn't you know it, I didn't have enough interfacing. It's always the interfacing. I think I have some, but "some" always turns out to be maybe a quarter of a yard if you were to line up all the scraggly little pieces into a sort of rectangular shape, between which no actual pattern pieces will fit. 

It's fine. I bought more. 

I also came home with three new patterns because McCall's were on sale: 6613 is to replace the one I'm currently cutting, 6964 is for... because t-shirts, and 7141 is for my sweet otaku Fluffalo. 

I do still have some rainbow socks on the needles for the aforementioned Fluffalo, though, and that satisfies my need for rainbow-themed jubilance pretty well. They're my purse knitting, though, so aren't seeing much action. 

What is seeing a lot of action, though, is Trillian by Martina Behm. It's the second half of the OAL and my morning knitting. I'm well into the 2nd of three balls of yarn now and knitting with laser focus. I want to be done and I'd like to step up the pace on the Stash Amble/Mosey (aka Stash Dash for those doing more finishing than I). 

I did finish Die grünen, Easy Ribbed Legwarmers by  Carol Wells:

And those ended up being over 300 yards of old stash. I really love them, even though they're about the simplest thing you could knit, and I'm hoping to get quite a bit of wear out of them in the cold months. 

Then there was jam:

The observant among you will notice that my floors are really clean. Generally, while I wait for the jars to cool, I use the water from the canner to mop the floors. Most of these jams will be retained for us to have through the year, but some will end up given away at some point. There's still jelly to be made in the fall, so I'm sure there will be plenty to share. I'm toying with the idea of selling a few jars, but I haven't decided. What I may do is offer a few jars at the end of 2015 as part of the culmination of Project Make, but at this point I'm just thinking out loud.

This week's technique is processing jars of jam for safe storage. The best resource is the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and I'm a big fan of federally funded science that results in the common good, but I'll also outline my method here as simply as possible. 

• Before you start, sanitize your jars on "Heat Dry" in the dishwasher or in boiling water for about five minutes
• Make the jam or jelly, put the jam in the jars with about 1/4" head space (the gap of air between the jam and the lid).
• Heat lids in warm water, not boiling, five to ten minutes, until the plastic seal is soft. Use new lids. They're a couple bucks for a dozen, which is a bargain for food safety.
• Carefully wipe the rim of the jar clean as clean can be
• Place a lid on each jar and secure with a metal ring
• The metal ring should be secure so that the lid stays on and in place
• But not so tight that air cannot escape
• Submerge jars in boiling water that covers at least an inch to two inches of the jar for seven minutes
• Remove from the boiling water, you'll want a jar-grabber thingy, and let them cool until you hear a POP! from every jar. 
• The jars that don't POP! can be re-processed in boiling water or refrigerated and eaten right away. 

Looking back, I like what I'm seeing. I feel good about the things I'm making and because I want to continue this trend, I'm going to be bold and set some goals for this month:

1. Finish the plaid shirt
2. Finish Trillian
3. Find a neglected project and begin working on it before month's end
4. Sew a t-shirt for myself
5. Card the rest of the black alpaca and finish spinning it

Those are completely doable goals, I think. It's okay if I don't get all of that done before the month's out, but I'm so focused on the few things I am doing that I think I can get much of this short list done.

Wise Friendship, plus tiny socks

I finished a wee little pair of socks this week, Bu's Short Socks in some leftover Crystal Palace Maizy Print. They were only a wee squidge over a hundred yards and it's likely she'll grow out of them before the month is out, but she loves them in other capacities as well. Here she demonstrates that they make superb mittens, but they might also serve as a hat for a monkey. She's a happy customer and really, that's about all I can hope for.

Nothing sweeter than a little hugging a sock

I've shifted from sewing back to knitting, mostly because it's recital week and my afternoons are occupied with hauling kids around and practices and whatnot. That leaves precious little sewing time, but I'm hoping I can pick it up again when the recital is done. 

The Apollo test is still underway, but I have discovered that I'd been knitting a ruffle instead of a neat dodecagon. The increases were too rapid. I suppose it would help if I'd ever knit a circular shawl before, but I'm going to put the learning in my pocket to use later and then move along to the next stage of design: rip the darn thing and start over. It wasn't very big to start with and I already have more, new, better ideas about how to shape it, so it's not really a loss at all. It's part of the process.

I am not sorry about any of this

I've been spinning, too, and I've finished half the black alpaca singles, which is a good thing because the Middle TN Fiber festival was last weekend and I may have come home with a pound of polworth that I intend to dye and a couple other things as well. The best part, though, was hanging with my friends from near and far and discovering that they are awesomer in person than they are online. The whole weekend was delightful and I really wish the far friends weren't so far.

After the black alpaca gets spun up and plied, my next two spinning projects are this:

And this:

The first one is 100% silk from Rain's Obsessive Stitchery, which I've never spun before, but it's a gorgeous coppery color that doesn't quite come through in pictures. The batt is a lovely gradient from Lunabud Knits and I have two similar in purple, turquoise, and black. The above two beauties aren't even mine (honest!), but I am afforded the joy of spinning them for my very dear Koren, who won a "spin some fiber for me" prize during our last round of stashdown. She picked out the fiber this weekend and it came home with me and my polworth (&etc.). 

This is what it looks like when I run

I've also been running and I'm stuck on week 5 of couch to 5k, but I'm hoping to conquer it this week. It's only a matter of time. I shall wear week 5 down with persistence and determination and then proceed to give week 6 the hairy eyeball. I'm comin' for you, week 6. You're next.

I do love a good flow chart

I decided to make a skill tree so that I can figure out some specific things to do toward my Project Make goals, namely "Produce excellence" and "Become skilled." Those goals are pretty vague, but learning to warp a loom is a specific skill I can acquire and/or improve. I've since added to this particular chart and will probably need separate charts for each craft, but this has been a good exercise in turning vague goals into specific actions. I can't remember why I wrote "wise friendship," but I feel like I've had a lot of that going on this week and that it's not irrelevant to achieving my Project Make goals, so it's timely and appropriate. Good friends are certainly supportive of your crazy ideas in ways that help you be better. 

No techniques this week. There's been a lot of switching back and forth between current projects, which I hope results in some more FOs during Stash Dash. I'm participating in a completely unofficial capacity, but there's a spreadsheet nonetheless. Dress rehearsal is today (Thursday) and the recitals are Friday and Saturday, so I'm hoping I can get some FOs by blogtime next week when things have calmed down a bit.