Me Made May: Stuff Around the House

I've been absent a couple of weeks, as you may have noticed, and for little other reason than because I'm having a bit of trouble getting my act together. The blocks I started when I left off are still sitting on my ironing board, waiting to be assembled. There's nothing for it but to start again as best as I can and see if I can't get back into the swing of things. I've also started an online teaching certification program, which has been taking a good chunk of my time and attention, but it's worth it.

So, officially, Me Made May is a challenge to wear the things you've made every day in May. I am, in fact, wearing a shirt that I'll talk about another week. Here at Lace Maze, I'm totally using it as an excuse to catch up with some of the things I started at the beginning of the year.

This week, I want to show you some of the household things  that get a lot of use around here. To the left is an action shot of Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend. Everyone loves a cuddle on, under, or near this one, and it was totally worth the time and effort. I chose the colors to match the couch and we picked the couch to match the art, which all seems to have worked out very well.

An older, funkier afghan was done up in scraps of Red Heart and lives on the rocking chair. It gets less use, not being on the couch most of the time, but it does lend a bit of homey cheerfulness to the living room.

We also have a large assortment of pot holders, washrags, and towels for kitchen use, as well as a fancypants cozy for my French press. There's a lot of crochet, but there's some knitting, weaving, and quilting in there, too. About half of what you see here was made by someone dear to me, which delights me to no end. There's more than what's pictured here because a lot of it is in the wash. Again, these get daily use and a lot are stained, worn, and/or faded from use-- which is not a bad thing! I'm not going to save these for a special occasion. Washing my dishes or scrubbing my counter is sufficiently special.

There are a few similar items in the bathroom, including a linen hand towel that I love, and one of my goals is to work up some more delicate towels and washcloths in finer cottons and linens. In fact, I've got a collection of such yarns for that purpose. The linen hand towel has gone dingy and has developed holes, but I still love it.

Some may eschew knitting/crochet/etc. for the home, but I like making things that everyone can share and I like seeing handmade things all around the house. It feels more like home when the house is dressed in things we made.

February is for Finishing: Taking stock

As you have likely noticed, I've finished a whole whack of neglected projects in the past few days. February is for Finishing is a fine tradition here at House of M and something I've done with my two dearest friends, Bekah and Koren, for some years. Usually, it's knitted things, but this year, I wanted to look very honestly at all my soft arts projects and see if I couldn't get some things out of my sizable pile of projects in progress.

The first thing to do is to tidy up.

To the left and below are what my crafting areas looked like a couple of weeks ago. I don't generally like to show my messes, but these are the result of rampant creativity.

I have lots of ideas, lots of inspiration, and it all just kind of physically accumulates in these two spots.

Before February began, I made a concerted effort, not only to clean up, but to list every project in these piles so that I know what, exactly, I have going on.

I found my end table.

I've also discovered that I can actually put my coffee there and I can put my computer there when I want to use my sewing machine (off camera to the right is my desk where both computer and sewing machine sit).

My other desk is a fold-up number, which is super handy for a small space, but not when it's so full of stuff that you can't actually fold it up. 

Once that was done, I had a complete list of every project I'd started or gathered the materials for and ended up with thirty-one. The greater majority of those are only in the planning stage, but I'd gotten as far as collecting the materials for the job. One or two were only in the idea stage. 

Four, as you've likely seen, have been finished since the beginning of the month and two pairs of socks have been frogged to reclaim the needles and to start again at a later date. That leaves me with twenty-five total projects on the pile, approximately half of which are in progress. Following the tradition of the Annual Airing of the WiPs, they are as follows:

1. A 9-patch pastel quilt that has several blocks sewn, but not enough. 
2. Stjarna, by Karolina Eckerdal. My goal is an even dozen stars for purposes of Yule ornaments and I have two finished.
3. Laurelhurst by NW Foraged. This is the second hat in this pattern that I've made, the first was for 25000 tuques and this one is for me. I'm just to the bottom of the color work pattern.
4. The art jeans. You've seen me work on these off and on. I don't expect to finish any time soon. 
5. Ballet Bear's steeked cardi. This is an experiment that is no skin off my nose if it fails. It might take a couple of days to finish. I haven't steeked before and a tiny cardigan for a bear seems like the way to go for experimentation. It isn't wool, though, and may be doomed to failure.
6. Crocheted Bed Scarf, inspired by the architecture of Chicago. I've done a goodly stack of blocks, but have a fair amount of yarn that I want to put into still yet to go. I might make some progress this month, but don't plan to finish.
7. TARDIS bag, which is a lot of fiddly stitching, but will probably look awesome if I ever finish it. I probably won't get to it this month.
8. Blackwork Bird Pillow that I started last month during the Month of Mending. I'm well into the snowflake border and the center is sketched out
9. Two small blackwork samplers, which were started at the same time as the pillow. One is nearly done, the other sketched out.
10. White silk spinning. All but about an ounce has been spun up into singles. This has a high likelihood of getting finished since I like to spin a little just before bed if I have time.

That's not too bad of a list, really, and some of that is certainly to be worked on this month. I may even finish a couple of those things, but there is one final project that will be the focus of my efforts:

11. Iris' quilt. "I'll finish before she goes to college" is less funny when the child in question is in high school. As it stands, I have 16/81 blocks quilted, which works out to about 20%. 

It was deeply satisfying to knock off several FOs early in the month, but now that I've started back on this behemoth, that's going to slow down considerably. It's harder to take this one to work on during dance class, though, so several of the smaller projects have hope of getting finished before the month is out.

Good luck in your finishing endeavors this month, my fellow makers. By next week, I hope to have whittled down the list of WiPs even more and I'll share some pictoral updates on my progress. 

Year in Review

 This year has been wild ride and I'm really rather pleased with the amount of making that's happened in a mere 365 days.

I got some big projects done from start to finish. The Sheep of Unknown Provenance was one of my biggest spinning projects to date and I learned a lot about how to process fleece, dye wool, and spin with color.

 Some projects were abandoned entirely and I'm not a hundred percent sure why. It could be that they were too fiddly or that I was distracted by something shiny or that it just wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

 Simple, but well-made seems to make me happy. I loved the challenge of learning new things like matching plaids and incorporating that knowledge into something I could share.

I knit or crocheted over 7,600 yards this year, which is the most I've done since I started keeping track. I couldn't tell you how much I've spun, but I'd wager it's more than I've spun in the past. I feel productive... and warm.

My baby has gone from a toddler...

...to a little girl. (Cue sentimental Mama sobbing).

And my big one...

A beautiful young woman. (Cue more sentimental Mama sobbing).

I've learned a lot, made a lot, been lots of places, worked hard, hung out with friends, and generally have had a lovely time of it. Parts of this year were difficult, but I'm surrounded by a lot of love. 

I've changed my mind and moved toward more compassion and more love. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be more room for that, more room is just there. 

Thank you for making me better.  

In 2016, I look forward to more challenges, more beauty, more making, more love, more focus. I look forward to the new shape of Project Make and to learning more about what I can do and what I can be: Faster, higher, more betterer. 

It's gonna be great. See you in 2016.

P.S. The Etsy shop is open now, if you want to take a look. 

P.P.S. Just a reminder that January will be the Month of Mending for the new and improved Project Make: a year long -along of -alongs.

Woo!

I have or had a cold. I'm not sure where we are with that right now, because some of what I'm feeling is a bit "frazzled mom syndrome" and some of it might actually be some rhinovirus shenanigans happening in my face. I spent much of yesterday trying to both take it easy and wrangle a certain little monkey. It was an exercise in patience.

As you can see, I've been doodling and sketching, though nothing spectacular. I'd love to brush up on my more basic drawing skills, but really what I need is to just draw more. I can, I just need to practice. 

 I finished the hexagons, though. Here they are blocking. I do still need to get a good FO pic of these, but I do rather like it and I think it'll be nice on our holiday table.

That's about 200 yards of deep stash handspun from approximately 2009 and 2011-ish. I can tell I'm a better spinner now than I was then.

And speaking of spinning, I finished the silk singles. They just need to be plied and washed and they're done, but I kind of want to finish the singles for the merino that's next in the queue, so I can ply it all at once. 

I'm strongly considering investing in a bobbin winder.

 And here's the merino. It's a gradient that fades from black to blue to orange and it's got some sparkle in there, too. I did a good chunk of the blue while I listened to the Cubs play the Pirates in extra innings last night.

You may be able to see some of it there at the top that was spun a little more tightly. It was a bit of a nailbiter of a game, but they did end up winning. Hooray!

The playoffs are a real possibility this season, so I may randomly say things like "...games behind" and "Wild Card standings" and "GO BLUE GUYS!" Just go "Woo!" when I seem happy and pray to your deity or deities of choice (if any) that I'm not back to normal about baseball until November.




I also finished a wee little bear sweater because Ballet Bear needed something to wear when it's not time for his dance class. I'm already working on bear sweater #2, which is a long sleeved fall sweater with an intarsia butterfly on the back. I figure a teeny bear sweater is a good opportunity to practice technique and I'm already contemplating a steeked fair isle cardi.

This one is about 30 yards of Plymouth Yarn Fantasy Naturale Multi in a pattern of my own devising, which is conveniently spelled out on the project page, should I or anyone else so desire to make another wee aran weight bear sweater. The second one is basically the same, but in worsted weight acrylic with about ten or so more stitches at the cast on. I'll tell you more about the second sweater later.

I tried to get a better picture of Iris, but this is the best I could do this week. She's been doing very well en pointe and I'm super proud of her. Bu, on the other hand, could do well, but she's got some work to do on listening skills first. 

Only a Half Dozen Different Things

First, an arctiid moth, because they're cool.

Second, an FO. This is Meditations on the Holy Mother, Leto by Diana Rozenshteyn. I used size 3's and lace weight, so it ended up being more scarf-sized than stole-sized, but it drapes beautifully. The brown is Misti Alpaca Lace in NT-304 and the green is Knit Picks Shadow in Lost Lake. The Shadow was deep stash from 2009 and the Misti Alpaca was from 2013. That's 819 yards out of stash, bringing my annual totals up to 6,287 yards in 14 projects. The sizing and yarn choices were the only modifications, but if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have done the provisional cast-on since the ends of the scarf/stole aren't particularly directional.

 Third, a cake! The eldest wanted a Steven Universe-themed birthday party, so of course I made an appropriately themed cake. This is a show that I would recommend to just about anyone. It's goofy and silly in a lot of places, but there's also a complexity to the characterization that's slowly revealed over the course of the show. You can watch this one with littles, but some of the more emotional parts might even make the grownups cry (ONLY A LITTLE! ::sobsobsob::).

Fourth, some crochet. This is from the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework and if you clicky that link, you'll find that there's a familiar photo under this particular pattern. Turns out that one wasn't in Ravelry's database yet.

This is going to be something for the holiday table and I'm using some ancient and venerable handspun stash that was too skritchy for pretty much anything else.

I also finished the drawing of Princess Luna I'd been working on. The app has been updated since I finished, which I hope means more versatility. I'm still learning how to get the most out of it and I hope to be drawing more-- not just fan art, but just more in general. 

Lastly, something for Mom. She's pretending to crochet here and wrapping the yarn around the hook several times, but she kind of has the idea.

March is for Making Lots of Things

February is for Finishing was a resounding success. The month ended with just four projects still on the needles and four freshly off the needles/hook. Predictably, this means I felt the need to cast on a bunch of new things. This week, I've cast on a pair of wee socks for Miss Bu, using the Knitmore Girls' Genevieve's Tube Sock pattern and some ancient Maizy from stash. I'm nearly two inches in now and they seem to go pretty quickly when I'm not watching Sesame Street. I try not to knit things where I need to count stitches when Sesame Street is on.

Which, brings me to Brickless. There's more counting in this one than is safe for Sesame Street knitting, but I've been wanting to make it in my Alisha Goes Around: Tracks of Bison for some time. I'm one repeat in after two false starts and wrestling with the yarn to get it wound into a cake. There were several breaks in the yarn from previous insect damage and there were crosses and tangles in the yarn. All of this is my fault, of course, and if I'd taken proper care of the yarn, none of this would have happened. But it's going to be beautiful and match half of everything in my wardrobe. I'm already in love.

An alarming amount of spinning has been getting done, too, and I can see the end of the SoUP batts from here. 

Fluff...

Became singles...

Became yarn.

All that happened in the space of a couple of days and I can definitely see myself finishing this one up either next week or the week after. 

It's a space helmet.

I've been very productive this week, so far as knitting goes, and I'm starting to feel much more like my normal, healthy self. I've made a commitment to try to get my step count every day this week and I've done so every day since Sunday. The checklist has helped considerably and I'm hoping the warm weather will help take care of the cabin fever.

I've got it bad this year. I'm ready to frolic in the flowers and run around outside in my garden. Tomorrow is another OMGWTF, WEATHER?! day, so the biggest kiddo is out of school and I'm theees close to spending the day in my room like Achilles in his tent or Janeway in her ready room. I want the kids to be able to play outside, but I also really want me to play outside. I'm tired of cold, rain, snow, and cold.

Did I say cold? Because that can go now. I'm so done with cold. My most sincere sympathies to those farther north than we.

This week's FO is Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend, because I wasn't quite done with him last week before blogging time. He's 2,487 yards of Brava Worsted. That's nearly 12 skeins and as much yardage as I have knit and/or crocheted on average each year since 2007. He's cuddly, warm, and matches my couch. All these are good qualities in an afghan and finishing him puts me in a mind to do more crocheted afghans for all the beds in the house. This is the delightful Neat Ripple Pattern by Lucy of Attic 24

So much love in this handsome fellow.

No technique this week, but quite a bit of knitting love. 
I'm also working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn - I'm at the cuff of sock #2. Guess who's WIP picture is featured on the Ravelry pattern page! This made my whole week. 

• EZ's Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes superwash

• Leto in Knit Picks' Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace

The Garage Project is still underway. Our new door has to be special-ordered and it's going to cost us a wee more than anticipated, which is fine because we have the budget for it, but my fabric stash and various supplies are buried for the time being. Turns out you're not supposed to attach a garage door to drywall. 

Recombobulation

Most of this week has continued to be covered in ice and snow, but at least the kids are back in school. We were all craving some normalcy after last week's icy shenanigans. It's snowing now, but snow isn't nearly as much of a problem as the ice. Snow is fine. Ice is treacherous. 

Bekah took some really great pictures of ice at her place. Her picture with the bell pretty much says it all. The one to the left was taken from my bedroom window and you can see that our street is clear, but our driveway was a solid sheet of ice. 

I've spent the greater majority of this week under blankets with hot beverages and my step count shows it. The past two weeks have not been good for my exercise and dietary habits, but I know I'll get back in the saddle pretty soon. I've got a treadmill and I know how to use it. 

On the bright side, I'm a stripe and a row away from being done with Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend. A little bit of weaving in ends after that and he'll be ready to adorn the couch in all his crocheted glory. I can be done by the end of the month. I'm hooking like I've never hooked before.

I also took a break from my current WIPs to do something a little bit goofy with some ancient novelty and acrylic stash. I rather like it and enjoyed knitting it, even though these days, I most likely wouldn't go out and buy yarn like this on purpose. It's cute, much like a really ugly, but very sweet dog. 

This is twenty some-odd stitches alternating in garter stitch and (RS) k1, sl1 (WS) P across, with a 4-stitch garter stitch border. Cast-on and cast-off ends are seamed together to make a little cowl that befits a toddler if she decides it's not too fuzzy or an adult who is a little bit bold about color choices.

I also have a sewing FO and some learning happened here.

 This is a DPN roll, which has since been washed and pressed, so it's nice and classy looking and without its markings showing. The fabrics are a combination of a vintage 1970's? cotton print and some scraps from garments long past. A bit of red 3/4" grosgrain ribbon ties it all together in a neat little roll that's tall enough for 8" long needles.
All in all, it was a great project and I love these fabrics together, but I could have done a better job on the pocket. When I can get to my fabrics again, I'm going to try this again, but with a little refinement in my technique. As a prototype, it's not bad. I think I have enough of these fabrics to do a matching project bag, but some definite fudging is going to happen to make that work.

I also finished spinning first half of the SoUP batts, but pictures will have to wait.

This week's technique:

• Ripping a seam. No video today, but here's a picture.
  I don't ever remember being taught how to rip a seam. It seems self-evident. Pick up the stitch with the pokey bit, cut it with the curvy cutty part, repeat ad infinitum. Mom might know whether anyone actually taught me how to rip a seam or if it seemed obvious enough that actual teaching wasn't necessary. I was very young when I started sewing. (Mom, if you're reading, let me know in the comments, willya?)
  Upon reading The Dressmaker's Technique Bible, rather than skimming through the little bit on seam rippers, I actually read it. The author suggests cutting every third stitch on one side of the fabric and zoop! pulling out the thread on the other side.
  This is far more efficient than cutting every single stitch and the zoop! is very satisfying. You can even do this pretty quickly with a good pair of embroidery scissors.
  Learning this was a lot more about letting go of certainty than acquiring skill. Project Make is teaching me not to be so prideful about what I think I know so that growth and progress can take place. Also zoop! is fun to say.

I haven't been working on anything else, aside from a checklist of things to do when I'm feeling off-kilter. It's got crazy things on it like "Drink Water" and "Exercise." Other shenanigans include "Spend Time Outside" and "Fluff the Stash." The list is intended to help me put my own little red wagon back on track by doing things that are healthy and good for me. I'll let you know how that goes. One of the things on the list is "Practice good sleep hygiene," so I'd better hop on off to bed before it gets too late. 

A lot of blue in this post, it seems.

I haven't been knitting all that much this past week because I'm still working more or less monogamously on Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend. Remarkably, when you keep working on something, it tends to get closer to done. I'm probably two and a half pattern repeats (Four rows each of three colors) from being done, though I suspect some of my yarn has gone missing because I'm not using it up evenly. The persimmon (brown), which resembles no persimmon I've ever seen, is being used up faster than its paprika (red) and peapod (green) brethren and it's entirely possible that I'm using more of that one
or that there's a little ball of it under the couch somewhere. I would not rule out the latter. There's no telling what's under there. I'm a little afraid to look, actually.

Leto got a little bit of attention while I was at the doctor's office and I worked on the Fork in the Garbage Disposal socks last Thursday night while both children were dancing. Little Miss Bu, who is no more than two, wanted to go into the room where Fluffalo dances. The clogging teacher said it was okay for her to stay and the whole time, she tried to do what the big girls were doing. She had fun and I got some bonus sock-knitting time. Everyone wins!

Now that I have my new progressive lenses, I've been starting back to embroidery and hand-sewing. Miss Summer's handkerchief got some love and I can see/remember more or less what I've done on the first wing, but I'm afraid it's not going to be as symmetrical as I'd rather. Doing the same thing I did the first time, only in reverse, is about as easy as it sounds.

Privet soup: To dye for.

I even dipped my toe into some natural dyeing, but I seem to have wandered off from it and left the privet berries soaking in the pot in the garage. The thing is, I have one pot. I need to transfer the dye bath to another container so that I can mordant the fiber and then do another switcheroo when the mordanting is done. I got so distracted by the crochet and the silk hankies that I... forgot that I'd already started the dye bath. A good soaking won't hurt anything and may make the color deeper, but I don't want to leave them so long that they go rancid on me. Bleah. Nobody wants that. With any luck and if I'm paying any attention, I'll move the dyeing forward this coming week.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the hand-rolled hem, which is:

This week's technique:

It's a long-ish video, about fifteen minutes, but Ms. Simms' voice is really very soothing and she does a good job of showing you the technique. I'm still having a little trouble on the corners, but it's going fairly well on the two dainty little hankies I'm working on for Project Make. Naturally, the second hanky went better than the first and practice will make success.

First one done, and a little bit of snow.

Both hems done. No snow.

They've since had a brief date with the iron and look a little bit neater. I decided that, because these are what you might call TARDIS blue, I'd do something a little bit special. I have one FO for this week:

A Rose by any other name...

100% silk hanky with hand-rolled hems and hand-stitched embroidery in Circular Gallifreyan that reads "Rose." Upcycled from a thrifted silk skirt.

I've been working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn
• Neat Ripple Pattern in Knit Picks Brava
• Leto in Knit Picks Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace
• Two dainty silk hankies 
• Miss Summer's hanky