YOP: Dec 2-8, 2019

It’s been a lovely week, I have very little accomplished and I don’t mind at all, as I’ve been doing some mental work with a design and planning to revise my view towards my knitting/stash/projects. (There’s more about this down the page.)

I’m trying to become a more minimalist knitter. Ok those who know me can stop laughing or gasping whichever way you were overcome 🙂

Here’s my FO. Per usual, the new shiny took precedence over other things on the needles. This is my design I have named “KnitFlix”. It’s just a recipe really as you adjust it with your own favourite heel, toe and lengths. It’s perfect for watching or bingeing on your episodes on the large screen.

I also have a FROGRESS event in the works, I’m not going to do the the Advent Scarf. As one of my minimalist knitter projects I’m spending my knitting time pursuing only knits that make me happy and that won’t end up as a project bag and lonely needle & yarn wip. I had knit only two days so my time loss was nominal, besides its firmed up my desire to knit only that which gives me joy.

It has become clear to me that I don’t enjoy knitting flat. On one cardigan in fingering I added a steek panel so I could knit it in the round, I ended up frogging it anyway due to gauge, but I saw a sign then. The Advent Scarf is totally worth the knit but I’m going to fashion it (with the designer’s permission) into a series of cowls. I’ll change my yarn to some KP sport in the colour green and gift them for Christmas or birthdays. Voilà!

The green is so very seasonal. My eyes are in love with it.

My wips are where they were, minus the scarf, no new cast ons, but I feel the pull of a hat or 3, we’ll see if I resist in the coming days.

No lights on the house yet, but the bins of decor and lights are ready to go by the front door, fingers crossed for a day of sunshine in the coming week.

Tomorrow I get my pathology results and these blasted itchy stitches removed. Finally!

I hope you had a great week.

To see what we do in A Year of Projects, pop by Ravelry and check us out

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

~Happy Trails~

YOP: Nov 25 – Dec 1

Even though I missed a week, or the more honest..skipped a week, I still have little energy or motivation to get a week’s activities blogged. I’m waiting for a pathology report on a mole; maybe I’m a little worried but there’s not a thing I can do until Dec 9th. That may be why I’ve done my ostrich impression, ack!, who knows?

But I’ll give a go and see if my story telling mojo appears.

Weather wise we’ve had 2 weeks of overcast and minus temps which may account for some of my hunker down, gloomy, hermit feelings. When the sun does break through it’s gloriously clear & bright but so dang cold! We had our first snow, nothing spectacular and it didn’t last even all day but it bespoke the season’s name- Winter is Coming.

It’s the first day of Advent, I’m knitting an Advent Scarf, for any interested the thread is here

https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/sock-madness-forever/3975506/1-25

I’ve got many sock pairs on the go, but instead of working on the cool patterns and nice yarns I chose, I’ve been muddling away on a very simple pair and also a new design that’s in testing. I need to do a toe on the first, turn the heel and foot on the second and then write it. A dear friend is testing them for me and her progress photos are so encouraging.

Yesterday we did a 4-location craft fair blitz in the small halls, churches & community centres of the valley we live in, and then went to a musical program by an 80-person choir group. It was uplifting. Not Christmas based but spiritual. The intertwining theme was “home”. We heard “On The Road Again” “Country Roads” “Home” and other traveling songs “Route 66” “Ol’ 55” it was very nicely done and about 90 minutes. After that we lifted a glass or two at a brew pub and had a nosh.

I think I’m done with those two scenes for the holidays… boom!

Hopefully today I’ll get the lights on the house and hedge but if I don’t I’m not fussed, it’s still -6°C with no sun to help it get it warmer..brrrrr. I’m not able to put the hooks on the gutter with gloves on so today may be a pass.

Football is the the background as I tidy the house, I may bring out the first clue and work on my scarf. Knitting will happen of some sort, just depends which project has the loudest sirens call.

Here’s a teaser of the new design, simple but elegant.

If you’d like to see what other YOPpers are up to, join us on Ravelry via this link

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

Have a wonderful week, and be careful out there …..the roads are treacherous.

~Happy Trails~

YOP: Nov 10-17, 2019

FROGRESS!!!!

I had a great week, full of resolve and strength to forge ahead with a few things that were backburnered by technique or errors. I made scary large calls to tink back TWO different stranded projects. The first was my Aurora Polaris cowl which I started on reclaimed yarn from a sweater Sweetgeorgia in Nightshade & Valley Yarns multi just wasn’t making me happy…not the gauge, not the matching of yarns so I frogged it -Yep all 45 rounds.

The second frogress was my Djamila cardi…I had made a colour error at round 7 but I didn’t find it until round 14, left it and knit 2 more rounds, but it was bugging me, so thought I’d just do a duplicate stitch, but I don’t know how, so that went into hibernation. I brought the cardigan back out with YouTube at the ready to learn how to do duplicate stitching and saw a second error…gah!, only way I’d love this would be to frog to the 6th round. Holy Crap! So I cleared the kitchen table and set to it. I survived, the yarn frogged nicely and I’m 2 rounds to the good and much happier with the whole sweater again. FROGRESS became progress.

Weather-wise we’ve been overcast and rainy (I could copy and paste this for every week lately) so the dogs and I tried to sneak hikes in between showers, suffice it to say the pickings were slim. I did score a find, the tail feather of a red hawk to add to my collection.

The photo below is everything I’m knitting with any regularity all in one place. I knit a slipper to eventually felt, only my second felting project, (link below) I’ll display once that process it photogenic, lol. I have done the 4 set-up rows for an Advent Shawl KAL being done in Sock Madness but there won’t be any clues until Day 1, Dec 1st. I’ll blog it from then. The red Cascade Heritage sits in a cake waiting for “the Perfect Pattern” -sigh.

My projects are linked in case you’re curious

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/plan-b

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/too-pretty-to-knit-yarn

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/vanilla-latte-socks-2

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/aurora-polaris-cowl

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/marsh-felted-slippers

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/FitznStarts/advent-scarf-2019

There are lots of other YOP-pers, we are part of Ravelry, you can follow along here:

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

Happy Trails ~

YOP: Oct 28- Nov 3, 2019

I spent part of my week over on the mainland visiting with friends that I haven’t seen in nearly a year. I traveled home on Tuesday via ferry on a glorious fall day. The weather has brought us several mornings of frost but the days are bright as if to make up for the bitter start.

I’m making progress on several projects, the funniest being these fingerless mitts. I adore stranded or fairisle knitting, in this case I got all engrossed and voilà forgot to begin the thumb gusset.

Yep, had to rip 12 rounds out but I also got to re-knit them, which is the best of the silly situation. All’s well now I and I’m where the white squares are on the progress meter.

I have sock cuffs from the Kinfolk but no idea of a design yet so they’ll hibernate until I decide.

I’ve also got a charcoal grey Kroy pair for boot socks for myself in Vanilla Latte, K6, P2 which I can do without a lot of light since these are a bit tricky to see in the autumnal days. No photo, I’ll fix that soon.

We’ve been making progress in decluttering the outdoors, I’ll take another load to the waste management facility today. The Shelter-Logic storage lacks only the front door, we ran out of steam yesterday and daylight. We’ve lined the inside with a 15′ x 20′ tarp to add a layer of dryness. This “deal” my wife found used at a local sale isn’t as pristine as the seller claimed. I saw a very similar one on sale in Canadian Tire for $350, we haven’t run up extraneous costs to match that but I sincerely wished we’d just bought a new one. We’d have run into the same location snags and ground cover issues that had us hacking down errant Oregon Grape bushes and a few self willed saplings. That’s why with the added trip to town 45 km we gave up before it was all done.

We also were ready for Halloween but not a single ghoul, ghost, or superhero graced us with a visit. We had zero last year, and the year before…hmmmm…why do we buy 60 pieces of candy to divvy out? I did not carve my pumpkin as a scary or jolly creature because this is what we do with them.

This corner setting was my only other nod to the season and it will stay up until I decorate for the red/green winter holiday that’s still 7 weeks away so no mention needs to be made at this time. (I did remark that since were spending so much time on ladders maybe I should put up the Chxxxxxxs lights and received a withering frown as a reply.) Ha!

That winds up my week. I hope yours was as productive or not as you desire and that life around you continues to provide the joy you seek.

Stop by and see what other YOPpers are doing here.

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

YOP: Oct 21-27, 2019

Not a lot of crafting this week. Since I did finish my Nogardaton socks, I languished five days without any socks on the needles. I couldn’t make up my mind which pattern to knit in what yarn. I finally let the calendar’s events take my days and finished clearing the garden, running a 900 pound load decrepit unburied 6x8x8 wood timbers to the waste management facility, going to some appointments and a few dog hikes.

This cowl was all that’s new on the needles until Thursday night when I realized I was going out of town and had no small projects to work on while on the ferry. Since then I’ve cast on two very simple pair of socks so life is in balance again.

The first I cast on in Kroy dark grey for myself, I have no grey sox! I’m doing Vanilla Latte which is 6 stitches knit then 2 purled, nice and easy. No photo yet.

The second pair is in a yummy Kinfolk Fibre called Castle Leoch. It’s truly been marinating for 3 years because I loved it too much to knit. But I broke down and I’m glad I did. The first is at night but the earlier (lower) photo shows the true colours.

I’m still travelling so I’m a bit out of step with what day it is, so late once again 😦

Hope you had a great week and that next week surpasses

Check out our group at link https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/a-year-of-projects/topics

Join us on Ravelry if you knit, crochet, want to, to just like to play with fibre.

We welcome y’all!

YOP: Oct 14-20,2019

I have FO’s and fo’s to share…read on!!

Last holiday long weekend I was traveling, I must say I am glad to be home, as I settle into this stage called retirement I find I like my space best.

After spending a few days sorting through my wardrobe so I could easily find the warmer clothes and stash away the tees & shorts I feel as if I can really get into this autumn thing happening so fast out my window. I have been on my own at the farm since we returned Tuesday. It is so quiet and peaceful here. We have bird feeders in view from all aspects, hummer nectar dispensers stuck here and there too, we really are seeing a huge contingent of lovely feathered friends. I’m happy to report the blue jays are back, our doves still visit, the juncoes and chickadee abound.

Here’s the first of the “fo’s” in this case: found objects

We are within walking distance of MARS a wildlife rescue facility so on the way home from my hike today (below) I stopped in because I thought there was a creepy situation with paintball gamers shooting up the birds…..😢 or perhaps I found parts of an ornamental garment that had neon orange decor. I was delighted to be informed that these were from one of our Northern Flickers, probably plucked in an attack by a predator bird. Ok I can live with Mother Nature’s acts, a huge sigh of relief it wasn’t some whack-job in my vicinity harming birds. Here’s my trail, I use a lovely iPhone app called TrailForks to record my path via gps.

And for the other FO, Yep I am sockless again, no socks on the needles at all.

The design is Nogardaton by Adrienne Fong in Sea Turtle Fibre Arts Ridley sock-base in the Pete’s Dragon colour.

Next up undetermined!

My cardigan is calling, the solo fingerless mitt is starting to whine and I’m going to visit the recipient of the 3CCC in a week so it would be brilliant to have her hostess gift finished before I arrive, lol. I’m planning to spend the rest of the day with “Knit-flix” and whichever project seems manageable for the movie I pick. I also have an audible book I could start if I’d get pulled into an intense concentration knit.

I’m throwing a new design together but I need to cogitate on one portion of it before I throw it on needles, it might be that next sock project. Here’s a sneak preview

I think I’ll continue on WordPress but maintain my logon with Blogspot so I can comment, I’ve finally gotten the hang of WP and like this side much better for writing.

Hope you had a great week, I’ll be by to read all about it soon. Happy Trails!

This is a Year of Projects update.  If you would like to find out more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, or you’d like to join in, please follow the link for details.  To read what the other members of the YOP Group have been getting up to please click on the latest weekly folder and follow the links to their blog posts.  This is a friendly group with a wide mix of skills and crafting interests.

 Thanks for stopping by…

YOP: Sep 30- Oct 6, 2019

I had a bit of a low-key week. Spent more time in appointments for Chula at the vet and me in acupuncture & chiro than anything else but I do have a few things to share. (The dog and I am are both much improved)

This little gift set for my bestie in Dawson Creek who’s family will be expanded by her first grandchild at the end of this month.

………And of course I can’t go very long without a sock project I started a pair of Nogardaton in the colour Pete’s Dragon from Sea Turtle yarns.

The poke hole is back too, which has seriously cut into my knitting of socks. I did it doing a CDD two times!

In my defence the cloth & booties were done in fingering, and probably amount to the knitting of one adult sock. But I held it double for the tasseled hat. The design is just my own tossed together textured stretchy 4x4x4 checkerboard.

Crafting….hmmmm…no but definitely fruit (or vegetable) of my labour’s below:

I keep thinking we’ve seen the last of the taters, but happily not yet.

Thank you for stopping by, drop in again next week & for more crafting news by more of the YOPpers, check out the link below on Ravelry, it’s a Facebook for fibre crafters.

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

YOP: Sep 23-29, 2019;

Happy end of summer here on Vancouver Island. The leaves are turning, the temps are dropping, but luckily enough the rainy days took a hiatus.

I’ve raked the yard three times and swept our deck clear as many, at the first snow I will give up. The garden is going into winter-over mode, there’s still a bit of tidying to do and we have a few tomatoes still hanging in there. We haven’t had a frost but this morning it was only 5°C so I sense it not far. The hardy gourds and melon/gourd cross-pollination crop are clinging to their vines and glorying in these last 5 days of sunshine. Oh and the eggplant has seen such slow growth now has 3 healthy fruit a little larger than lemon-sized.

I got the dogs out for hikes a couple days, this new forested area has so many trails it will take many months to become familiar. We have met a horseback rider and her 2 dogs on two occasions. The first time I saw her in the distance and quickly leashed us Luci and Chula since they’ve not met many horses, let alone horses and dogs and a stranger and I didn’t want a kerfuffle. This second meeting we were all the sudden in the same wide area of the treed path and my dogs were such good pooches. They were well behaved & I was able to chat a bit with her. She has a 15 pound chihuahua that has the worst disposition; it made my pups look good….hehehe. Here are my 3 being good dogs. Gorgeous trails.

The paths are marked with surveyors tape at the visual height of a rider. It’s so cool! I feel just a bit safer wandering when I can glance around or up trail and spot any colour just so I know I’m in the same general hiking area of the 3 km square grid.

But it wasn’t all hiking and wandering new forests, I got some knitting done.

Voilà! I have an FO! My Stray Cats are complete. I used two different techniques on the toes. One sock has a true stray cat in messy brown intarsia (intarsia novice here) and the second I simply purled the stitches of the cc so I now have a shadow cat too 🙂

I’ve been spending time outside other than gardening, getting our outdoor area ready for winter. We built a simple canted tarp extension between the workshop and the tool shed to create outdoor storage for patio furniture, wheelbarrows, kayaks and eventually we will park the utility trailer in there for winter. Anything with a motor, gears, or delicate parts stays in the tool shed, but at least we can move around in there. It’s mandatory on the island to have winter tires mounted from Oct-April and now their racks are accessible.

I would have had a second FO but I had dinner out with a former dragon-boating teammate who has her soon-to-be-retirement home in Comox. My lime green Kalajoki socks need only grafting on one and 5 more decrease rounds then a graft to be finished. Ah well ……photos next week. I have plans for a few more cast-ons in the Bellybuttonknits/Adrienne Fong, designer tribute KAL https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/sock-madness-forever/ and will be updating my YOP list next week too.

I’m back outside today because we have chilly but sunny weather and there are always chores! But first I’m going to finish my socks 💕

Edit to add, (why not right?) the finished socks taaaadaaaaa! I currently am without a sock project!

I hope your week was lovely.

This is an update as part of A Year of Projects, if you’d like to see what my fellow Yoppers are up to, please join us in Ravelry, a crafting social area of the web. Here’s a link:

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/a-year-of-projects

YOP- Sep 15-22, 2019

I’m late with my update, I’ve been mired in grief. There I’ve said it, maybe I can move on.

My week was trotting out just as planned, Monday & Wednesday I took the dogs out for a long hike. I returned home after Wednesday’s run to find a note from a friend on Ravelry saying as I had feared a mutual friend has passed away. Not sure if this news crossed your desk but Adrienne Fong, bellybuttonknits, lost her fight to cancer on Wednesday morning. I’m really going to miss her. We never met, yet we talked together all the time. She was a designer, knitter and friend for 6 years all on line. She was a huge part of my drive to design, she gave encouragement, support, and loving critiques sometimes even unasked for 🙂 she was generous, creative, and kind. She was the chief of the Singleton Sock and Queen of Bling, putting beads in many of her sock designs. She made all her patterns free as one of her last wishes, and asked only for those who chose to -make a donation to cancer research.

She has left a huge hole in the knitting community and caused my world to come to a slow stop. I don’t know why her death has affected me so strongly but it has. I muddled through the rest of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with no urge to knit. Several memorial KAL’s are being planned in many groups I participate in, I will be joining in once my life mojo returns. It’s picking back up, I missed Friday’s planned hike and although I normally don’t take the dogs out on the weekends due to higher pup traffic in our spots, I did take them yesterday.

I’ve discovered a new place to walk and I’ll show you why it might just climb to a “fave” rank. I call it the 90° Acres but that’s not it’s true name. (See photo) Nirmally when I’ve driven past the entry into the woods there have been horse trailers parked around and since my dogs aren’t used to the equine we’ve driven on by to another good rambling area. It’s been very rainy lately and the trailers with their huge occupants haven’t been in evidence, in fact, no one was parked at the entry! Score!

The paths are marked with surveyors tape at 12 foot height in the trees. The major trails themselves are old logging roads and the tributary routes worn by the many hooves and paws and shod feet that have traversed.

These are a few pics of the way.

So it’s now Monday again, it’s pouring rain, I’m off kilter in my MWF hike schedule already so I shall tackle some knitting. I’d really like to finish the 2 sock projects on the needles before October, the Stray Cats, 40 rounds left, easy-peasy. The Kalajoki socks are coming to a finish with one at toe and the second 25-30 rounds to toe. Before I heard about BBK’s passing I even knit a bit on my Go Faster Stripes, I was on a real productive streak…..

When I wasn’t able to knit, I was able to plan which of her designs I would knit in tribute to her, I chose her oldest pattern, since I’d just finished the last one she designed & published before losing her battle, Shield Maidens. I will cast on ‘Round Robyn’s House but I’m undecided on my yarn. I see a stash dive in my very near future.

The other will be Time In A Bottle

both with beads but probably just a few, not tons. The photos are from her pattern pages. My yarn & beads for Time In A Bottle will be this..

I hope you had a wonderful week, I’ll be by to read blogs at some point, take care my friends online, you are all precious.

YOP – Sep 8-14, 2019

Lots of fun on the knitting front, I’ll let the photos do the work.

An FO

A lot of progress

And a new start of a self-designed socks, mitts, & bib set for a friends soon to arrive first grandchild

On the slowly winding down garden, we pulled these

I think my garden is appearing here for the last time until spring. The only good coverage we have going right now are the nasturtiums which are happily taking over any empty soil.

Next week will see more of my Go Faster Stripes shawl and whatever else jumps on my needles.

Hope your week was as pleasant as mine, back to the second Stray Cat sock I go.

Only three cats until it’s finished. Whooohooo!

YOP: missed week

Nothing to see here, yep…just mosy along y’all

YOP: Nov 4-11, 2019

Mindset

Turn your mind to

Have it in your mind

Wrap my mind around it

I was having my first cup of coffee, my thoughts were on my outstanding wips & sips as I was planning a huge Knitflixing day. I know I only need to weave in the ends on my Brunswick mitts and I shied away from the task..thinking “I just don’t have the right mindset” ….but what does that mean? Why don’t I? Can I get in it? Can I coax it out of whichever cupboard the thought of weaving in ends has sent it to hide? Does mindset know that the self-imposed deadline for these is end of November so therefore has stuck it’s fingers in it’s ears and is wagging it’s butt and making a fool of me? Does it know that I detest weaving in ends?

Such a dilemma, I’ll turn my mind to other things….that goals, wips & sips list from my first post in July is below, I’ll edit it with –>

1. Knit design by the months – challenge myself to get into print 6 new design- ->Nyet!

2. Knit items I have already started by the week – listed below*

3. New cast ons as they happen- huzzah for spontaneity!

4. Completed projects – celebrations ongoing 💃🏻

5. Dyeing efforts

Here’s a list of my #2 works in projects – wips, and socks in progress – sips.

WIPs: by age

1. Squares on a Roll blanket- no progress started 2016

2. 3-Colour Cashmere Cowl, designer Joji, at 80%–> 90%

3. Brunswick Fingerless mitt, (test) designer JoHt, at 50% –> 99%

4. Djamila – steeked cardigan 10% no deadline

5. Go Faster Stripes shawl -designer JoHt -30% deadline end of January

6. Aurora Polaris cowl – designer mtlaise – 60% no deadline

SIPs: by age (socks in progress)

1. Amber for the Tree Speaker, designer Heidi Nick, (test) – 50% –> FROGGED

2. Three Twenty One, designer Cait Bellon, 50% –> FO

3. TAAT Vanillas- cuffs done –> became Monkeys -FO

4. Vanilla Latte – Kroy charcoal, 2.50mm needles, 64 stitches

5. Kinfolk Castle Leoch..I haven’t made up my mind…which pattern but Bamboo Forest by Adrienne Fong/ bellybuttonknits is winning, 2.25mm

6. Cascade Heritage in real red for the December challenges, no pattern decision, I’ve just caked it.

I need a category for just FO’s….hmmm I can’t turn my mind to the format right now (oh look I have it as #4 above) now I have it in my mind

What I have learned is that I’m a relatively focused and monogamous knitter. I have finally wrapped my mind around it. I’ve also rubbed elbows a lot lately in a purely online way with knitters who claim 35-50 wips – this is not me, and it feels good to know that over the 7 years I’ve stayed with this craft that I’ve settled into this diversity and it’s remained constant.

I like a minimum of three pair of socks – vanilla, lace, & a DIY design on the go, a shawl or scarf, a hat or cowl, a sweater, and my sock-yarn remnant blanket. The different size needles, the various weights, the simplicity or complexity of pattern, and glorious colours all add to my enjoyment of my craft.

So to turn my mind to wrapping this up and getting knitting going I’ll hit save draft. No photos this week, I’m sure next week will be back to riotous photo bombs

If you’d like to read what other Year of Projects bloggers are doing, you can join us over in Ravelry at https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/a-year-of-projects/topics

Happy trails