FO: A bit of this, a bit of that

To be honest, I'm not sure what all went into this skein. There are bits of cashmere, a fair bit of unknown wool, some llama, a bit of merino, and probably a smidge of silk up in there. Beyond that, there could be unicorn fuzz for all I know. These batts had a bit of everything.

I've been reading up on the mechanics of spinning (of which there are many) and trying some different things with my wheel, so I wanted to use some fiber that wouldn't make me cry too much if I messed it up. Turns out I prefer double drive to Scotch tension, but my bobbins were backwards. I think I've got it sorted now.

So here's 3.6 ounces of about sport weight: A bit of this, a bit of that. I'm not sure of the yardage yet, but it's probably somewhere on the order of 250ish yards. 

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. 

Not bad for having mucous for brains all week.

In spite of a pretty bad cold, or possibly because of it, I've had a pretty productive week. I've been working to keep the house tidier so it's not a huge mess or stressful to clean before we leave for our trip and a ten minute tidy at night combined with the eldest's help in the kitchen has been quite effective. I finished both of Miss Bu's Florida shirts (the second of which has yet to be modeled in its finished state), made a little progress on my legwarmers, and figured out where I was on Louise-- the sleeves, in case you were wondering.

And I've started a sock for the Eldest, too. This will be more or less a plain sock with a stripe of 1x1 ribbing up the leg, toe up so I can use all the yarn, and using Lara Neel's Thumb joint hat top heel from the Fork in the Road pattern. It only took a little bit of turning my brain sideways to make it work and I think she's going to love them.

In other news, I kind of tossed "gardening" into the Project Make excellence salad, not really knowing a hundred percent what I'd do with it, but I did prune some of the trees today so that we could get under them to mow a little easier, so I'll throw in some tree-pruning in for this week's technique. The trees I pruned are quite large and I only worried about what I could reach today, so this is a little more information than I really needed, but might be handy again when the cherry and peach trees get to be a little more mature. I probably should be worrying more about this in the fall, but I hardly took down any branches at all, so today's pruning likely won't cause any harm.

Of course now I have a pile of perfectly good oak branches that could be turned into something, but no time to really do anything with them before we leave the state.

By this time next week, I'll be in Florida, chilling on the beach, but I do plan on posting from there so that the fun here at Lace Maze won't stop. And I'm alonging with Bekah, who has summed up better than I what I'm up to. I kinda feel like I'm Stash Ambling instead of Stash Dash-ing, but I'm sure this is just a lull in the finishing. Once I card and spin the rest of the black alpaca (spinning from the locks was a no-go today), I've got some gradient batts waiting in the wings and will be jumping into the gradient-along, too. In the mean time, I've got some serious planning to do.

And I plan to focus the awesomeness into a laser beam of awesome.

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. 

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. 

Love is: Pictures of knitwear in the snow

Looks like Elsa had a vendetta.

I am in a blanket fort right now. My dear friends up Nort' could make actual castle-sized snow castles from all the snow they have up yonder and even their normal unflappability when it comes to snow is currently being flapped. Our winter weather is by no means a comparison to being actually buried under snow, but still: My subtropical bones are cold.

We are effectively down to one car for the time being, since just the one has any sort of defrosting capabilities. That one, pictured here, was de-iced yesterday so Husband could go to work, which is fine, because I'm not going anywhere any time soon. School has been out all week and dance classes have been cancelled.

You don't know nothin'

And I am rediscombobulated. I was starting to feel well and truly combobulated again, but my routine and momentum are pretty much shot. I want to hunker down and eat everything. Tuesday was spent playing video games when I could have been doing pretty much anything else, but I did eventually manage some tidying and a bit of finishing and I've baked both muffins and cookies this week. Because cookies.

It's really very pretty outside, but I am (and have been) ready for Spring. I can tell that my plants are waiting to just bust out and be fabulous. So am I.

Summer's hanky got some attention this week and even though I've been having a little anxiousness about how it's not symmetrical, Summer was all awesome and beautiful about it and it's apparently fine. I've learned some very good lessons about symmetry, though, and how I'd do a similar project differently.

The biggest lesson I've learned is that the double herringbone stitch makes my eyes cross. The section I'm working on now is the biggest chunk of double herringbone and I can only really do it in very good lighting. Alas for old lady eyes.

I've also worked on the SoUP batts and midway through plying, the end of the bobbin was...

...no longer attached.
You can imagine my dismay.

Somehow, by the grace of blessed Athene, I managed to glue it back on without disturbing the yarn, assemble everything back again, and continue plying as though nothing had happened.

I like what the fractal plying is doing and I'm certain I can do something with an overdye that will improve the color, but I kind of want some warmer weather before that happens. I've got two ounces to go for this batch and then I'm on to the other half of the fleece.

In spite of this

This happened. 

I also finished the first link of the BFF cowl for Bekah and we're both now at the same place. I'd started the 2nd link, but it ended up being a false start. The pattern we'd chosen for link #2 was far too wide and I'm not a hundred percent certain I can fiddle with it so that it works out right. We may end up picking a different pattern altogether.

It's the color of love.

After vacillating about buttons for three days, I finally finished Baby Ruth's Classy Sweater.

Come visit, Roo's mama! 

There is nothing I don't love about this project. It was fast, fun, colorful, and for a little person I haven't met yet, but already love. This was an entirely self-indulgent knit, even though it's a gift for my proto-niece.

The pattern is Baby Sophisticate and it was knit in Plymouth Yarn's Fantasy Naturale Multi in the aptly named "Blue Purple Green" colorway. I didn't change a thing about the pattern, but I did contemplate pockets. Babies totally need pockets.

Since Roo is a summer baby, I worked the 6-12 mos size, so I'm hoping she'll get a lot of wear out of it.
This week's technique:

• The double herringbone stitch (embroidery). In the video below, Ms. Corbet does a fine job of showing how to make a beautiful double herringbone in a sensibly-sized yarn. I learned it from the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework and I'm using thread a quarter that size and stitches that are much, much smaller. I've always done small stitches because that's how I learned, but if I were to use this stitch again, I'd likely try to do it bigger than what's in Ms. Summer's hanky, just so I could see what I was doing.

I'm also working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn - I'm at the toe of sock #1
• Paisley Fabulous DPN case - I have measurements and a plan, I need to iron the fabric and get to cutting

And I'm down to 5 WIPs. I'm sensing a great casting on of things come March.

The Finishing Has Begun!

First, I have a couple FOs to report:

 This is the younger, more attractive brother to the first blue silk hanky: 100% silk, upcycled from a skirt, with hand-rolled hems and hand embroidered sashiko style in circular Gallifreyan that reads "Bad Wolf." More about this little gem when I talk about this week's technique.

I believe my French knots turned out better on this one than on the first one and I like the outer circle rather better in the running stitch than in chain stitch. I have yet more of this fabric and I may do a little bag or something out of the scraps that are the wrong shape and size for hankies. How fancy would a little blue silk bag be?

These have been sitting around, waiting for me to learn about afterthought heels. I absolutely love how they look, but I'm not a hundred percent happy with the fit of this particular heel. I want to try some different ones before I give them up, but I have learned that this one isn't my favorite.

These are Maryvillian Blue Heelers in Studio Avenue Six Self Striping Yarn (discontinued), colorways Just for Jess (she dyed it for me!) and 2 Lt. Blue, 2 Dk. Blue. The pattern is a modified Chevron out of Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

Other than the afterthought heel shenanigans, I loved this pattern and it was perfect for this yarn. It's really too bad that the yarn is discontinued because my other socks, OSU socks, have worn really well in the time I've had them with little to no felting in the heels and no fading through many washings.

I haven't picked up Ms. Summer's hanky this week, but I did make significant progress on my proto-neice's sweater. It needs sleeves, a button band, and a collar, which should all go pretty quickly, barring any knitting disasters. It's such a quick, satisfying knit. I love everything about it. I've started the sleeves, so it should be done by next week.


I've also been working on the privet dyeing experiment with the SoUP batts. They're out of the dye bath and currently drying in my bedroom. I'm not really convinced about the color, though. I'll have to see it in daylight when it's dry, but from what I can tell, the color is very subtle and in shades of blue to green to yellow.

They're still wet here and have since been washed. 

This has been a really good learning experience, if nothing else. Dyeing batts is a pain in the rear end and I'm still a little worried I've felted it, so I'm going to be dyeing either fiber still in locks or already spun into yarn. I've also learned that I could really use bigger pots and more than one pot. Stainless steel should be non-reactive and I should be able to pick a couple big ones up for not very much at a place like Big Lots. More plans for dyeing are in the works and it's going to be a lot of fun playing with colors. I was daydreaming about lichens and oak galls the other day and thinking about planting a dyer's garden.

Most of my other daydreams lately have been about garage doors, more gardening, and what life would be like if I lived on Sesame Street.

This week's Technique is:

Sashiko.

The link will take you to a very good tutorial on how to do traditional sashiko. Because it is my way, I only sort of followed some of the instructions and ended up not really doing what you might call traditional sashiko on the silk hanky at the top of the page. It's sashiko-ish. Instead of the fat thread usually used, I used a single strand of regular embroidery cotton. Rather than a geometric all-over design, I did something in circular Gallifreyan. I did pay close attention to how the threads met at corners and sharp turns, however, because I wanted it to look tidy and professional. Over all, I'm very pleased with how the second hanky came out and I may do more sashiko in the future.

And in honor of February is for Finishing, the Airing of the WIPs (a few days late):

1. Fork in the Garbage Disposal socks: One sock knit to just past the heel
2. Baby Ruth's Classy Sweater: See above
3. Louise, a seamless saddle shoulder pullover: Part of the body knit. Still love the Dickens out of it.
4. Besties 4-eva: One link "done," but really needs a couple more repeats, at least. 
5. Meditations on the Holy Mother: A "process" knit rather than a "product" knit. I'm not overly worried about finishing this one in February. 
6. Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend: Actually pretty close to finishing this one. Maybe a couple stripes of each color to go.

I won't finish everything this February, but it's nice that all the projects are things I love working on and I'm sure I'll finish quite a bit before it's all said and done. Nothing got frogged or flung this year. It's a nice knitting place to be, but I think it might be nicer if I lived on Sesame Street.

Happy Yarn Friends

This week has been pretty mild weather for a January and most of the handknits were shed around noon and put back on when the sun went down. Today, Wednesday the 21st, I'm wearing Durhamknits' Multnomah in a hipster scarf kind of way and it's been keeping the chill off my neck all day. I love the squashiness, the drape, everything about this shawl. I especially love that she was knitting it for me and sent it to me in a giant pile of woolly love from several of my far friends. It's just amazing to find such a pocket of kindness. Hooray for yarn friends!

The warm weather has also been great for getting some work done in the garage. My loom has lived there since we moved in and I've been itching to get her put back together and to have that space as a usable studio, of sorts. The lawnmower still has to live there, but the yard tools and I pretty much live in harmony. The big part is sorting through all the stuff that never quite got moved into the house, getting rid of what can be got rid of and putting away the rest of the things into their right places. I put up shelves and did some organization and it's so very close to being cleared out enough for my loom.

I made the shelves just high enough for me to reach and put things up and take them down again by myself. I need to replace the boards, but those are good enough for now. There's a ways yet to go and it won't be done until spring, but I did manage to find all of my fabric.

Some spinning got done, too, and I finished my very first gradient yarn as part of Project Make. I'd considered making the two skeins fraternal, but dear Bekah convinced me to spin them up the same. That's what friends are for, right?

I love this picture so much. It's the happiest thing and the colors are perfect for a winter-weary Jess. This is about 200yds of Z-spun, S-plied WTF?IDK batt with so much sparkle, that there is a German Sparkle Party somewhere that wants its yarn back. It's about 11wpi, or about a DK weight, though the yellowest parts may slide into fingering weight. It's Navajo plied, which isn't a new technique to me, but one that I haven't used very much. I like it for this kind of color gradation, but the WTF?IDK batt wasn't as evenly spun as other fiber preps, so sometimes the yarn got weird on me where the switchback was on the chain. I'm pretty sure nobody calls it a switchback, but I couldn't think what else to call the part of the chain that goes through the loop and back again. It's like a switchback road, Y? N?

Well, not much knitting has been done this week, though I did get past the heel in the Fork in the Garbage Disposal socks. I like the heel! Ding-ding-ding-a-dinga-ding-ding! But I may try to find a way to avoid the provisional cast-on in the middle. It did get a little fiddly. What I have been working on is the Ripple Afghan. I'm totally in love with it and I can't think of anything else right now. Though I'm cuddled up in its much older brother right now, Mr. Rippley has been my morning coffee friend, as has a far friend up Nort' who is a retired teacher and a delightful woman. We're stay-at-home bros.
So that's really about all that's been going on, though it's all been very intense. I did get my new glasses and I'm starting on a small sewing project, which I'll probably talk about next week. Until then, I'm going to peruse ideas for small projects to make with fabric scraps because some destashing has to happen there, too.

This week's technique:

• A provisional cast-on a la Lucy Neatby. I needed this one for the Fork in the Road socks and just picked a provisional cast on out of the proverbial hat. This one served just fine, but was a little fiddly. It could be user error because it wasn't a technique I'm terribly used to and I wasn't accustomed to stopping in the middle of a sock to cast on and re-join. 

I've been working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn
• Neat Ripple Pattern in Knit Picks Brava
• Solar Flare batt in WTF IDK fiber
• My garage

Yarn for Mama

This week started out colder than... a very cold thing and I was glad to have my Man Sweater and Nymphalidae to cuddle up in, among other things. I think I've worn the Honeycomb mitts that Bekah made for me more than I've worn anything else this week. Most of it is kind of a woolly blur, though. That, and the ripple afghan, which seems to be plugging along. I'm about halfway through the yarn I have for it, which should make it a goodly couch-sized blanket.

"This is a tag. It says, 'Yarn for Mama.'"

I'm already plotting other afghans (all the afghans) because the weather has just been that way. That and knee warmers and/or leg warmers, but there's some waffling about how I'd wear them: under the jeans or over the jeans? Both?

Color Affection has also been wafting in and out of my yarny fantasies. I already have the yarn and Bekah and Koren and I are going to do a little along using the same colors in several different yarns. I don't remember how that happened, exactly, because I bought the yarn some time ago before Color Affection was on my radar. It could be Fate or serendipity or... the Universe's odd sense of humor. IDK, man, I just work here. Anyway, I'm at the point where I want to finish some stuff up before I go casting on a bunch of things.

Movin' right along.

The EZ sweater is also plugging along, but unless you're interested in miles of stockinette, there's really not much to report there. I do love the color, though, and I don't mind having some knitting I don't have to think about.

It's also been rainy, which is pretty great for any dyeing shenanigans I may be getting up to. Rain water, while the slight acidity might affect the color, won't affect the color quite so much as our hard water. Certain minerals will sadden, or darken, the dye and I don't particularly want that. It's going to be an adventure since I only kind of know what I'm doing.

Between the many several books on dyeing with natural dyes and the internet, I think I can handle it. I am a scientist, after all, and we're trained for this sort of thing.

In Project Make news, I'm spinning the most fabulous of singles out of the most fabulous of happy warm colors (see above re: weather). I'd been saving it for when I needed a break from browns, blacks, and greys and the middle of a rainy January seemed like the exact right time to pull it out. I'd meant to do some fractal spinning, but I had a derp about how much fiber actually goes on my bobbins and ended up filling the whole bobbin entirely up. I don't have bigger ones, so I'll probably Navajo ply it to preserve the color gradation. I could do the second half of the fiber the same way or I could try something else with it. I'll likely end up doing it the same way so they can be yarn friends.

This Week's Technique:

• Invisible braided join: I've been looking for joins for yarns that don't felt and came across this little gem. As far as I can tell, it really is invisible and I'm very pleased with how easy it is to do, requiring no spit at all, and it's very very strong. 

I've been working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn

• Baby Sophisticate in Plymouth Fantasy Naturale multi

• EZ's Seamless Saddle Shoulder pullover in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash

• Neat Ripple Pattern in Knit Picks Brava
• Solar Flare batt in WTF IDK fiber

Including the Kitchen Sink

The New Year's cast-on a-thon went very well and I'm even a little ways into the socks now. The baby sweater had to be ripped and re-knit after having overlooked some of the increases and the sweater is going to make good tv/morning coffee knitting if I get bored with the crochet blanket I'm working on now. My dear Bekah has finished her blanket already, so I feel the urge to catch up. Of course, I'm ahead of her on the BFF cowl, so...

I had a rough day this week. Little Miss Bu is no more than two and, as two year olds go, she's about the chillest that you will find anywhere.

But she's still two. The confluence of a difficult potty day for her and a case of the crankies for me meant that there weren't nobody happy (to put it in the manner of my people).

While I was still having the crankies, I did manage to retreat to the bedroom where the drum carder is and did up one of the Sheep of Unknown Provenance (SoUP) batts. They are now all carded and ready for the next stage of their woolly adventure. Husband kept Miss Bu out of my hair and I worked on not being quite so grouchy. The scritch-scritch of the carder is kind of soothing, actually. The moral of this story is that Husband is awesome and fiber arts are necessary for mental health. Miss Bu has been pretty excellent the rest of the week and even went with me to see my former professor, whom we shall name "Mr. Andy." She loved the science building and was fascinated by his library of science books.

Unrelatedly, there was plumbing this week. It wasn't strictly necessary plumbing, but two parts of my kitchen sink have been annoying me since we moved in, so I replaced them. It's not the most attractive of design choices, but I'll take improved functionality over aesthetics when it comes to plumbing. Not that aesthetics don't matter, but this fix was under $20 and I hate my sink much less now. There's a certain sense of accomplishment when you successfully do plumbing things on your own. As you can see, I've also started painting spots with a sample of the color I want the kitchen to be. I think I'm in love.

The reclaimed silk also got washed and ironed. It has a lovely sheen to it and I can't wait to start on it. The first thing up for the blue silk will be practicing hand-rolled hems.

But before I do that, I'm getting my eyes checked. No lie, mere hours before I listened to the Knitmore Girls' Episode 314: Dessert First, I had decided to make an eye appointment. They both strongly urged us to get our eyes checked in the Mother Knows Best segment and I could not help but think, "How timely!" We go on Sunday.

This week, I've finished:

• Endpaper Mitts in Knit Picks Stroll
• Turkey Day Socks in an unknown sock yarn

I've been working on: 

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn
• Baby Sophisticate in Plymouth Fantasy Naturale multi
• EZ's Seamless Saddle Shoulder pullover in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash
• Neat Ripple Pattern in Knit Picks Brava