I was trying to figure out what the heck to take a photo of in order to post something, anything, despite the fact that  don’t feel like I’ve made much discernible progress lately. I mean, I’ve been knitting. Oh, I’ve been knitting. But plugging away on the same lace stole doesn’t seem picture worthy.

And then I realized that the last photo I took of my Lighter Than Perfume stole I was only about 1 repeat in.

So, I took an updated photo of that.

Because I am now halfway done. Naturally, this one is going to see the best transformation when it is done and blocked. However, I am pretty sure you can get the picture when it comes to the progress I’ve made.

We had our little storm yesterday. And, I really do mean little. School got canceled the night before. Miss Butterfly was at a friend’s house at the time, and they decided then to just go ahead and have a sleep over. Mr. Ink had the day off in order to go to the eye doctor, take a load of yard waste to the yard waste place, and get some new ink. It was nice that his day off wasn’t interrupted by having her home and bugging him. I had a faculty candidate on campus so I had to go in to work, no choice but to do so. Mr. Ink and I both woke up about 4:30, probably nervous about the storm. He cleared and salted the driveway so I could get to work at 6:30 knowing that since the last storm hit at rush hour and I spent two hours in the car, I’d better leave plenty of time. Well, when I went in, the storm still hadn’t hit. The beautiful part about that was that I got to leave about an hour early on a Friday. (Naturally, I promptly took a nap.)

We ended up getting a couple inches of snow, but the roads were fine, mostly just wet. It didn’t hit during rush hour, and by the time afternoon rush hour hit it had slowed again. I suspect it’ll be gone by the end of the weekend. But it was nice to sit at work and actually see some good snowing going on.

Our biking friend who got hit by the tree made the newspaper. Thankfully, local friends who work with city services have asked that the trail in that area be looked at for dangerous trees.

That’s about it from me today. It’s early, I am feeling surprisingly groggy and tired, and my coffee doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. Hopefully I’ll rally later in the day! Have a great weekend everyone.

 

The sweater is finally done enough to actually wear. Which is lovely. Except that it’s too warm here for a sweater! Next week looks better for sweater wearing.

I tried to wear the sweater yesterday, but maybe managed 10 minutes with it on, more as a jacket than anything else.

Nevertheless, I made Miss Butterfly snap a photo, which she did willingly while making me say the names of various pokemon, rather than the traditional “cheese.”

There you have it folks, one completed sweater with extra long sleeves. Which I love. I also love that after years and years, it got done! I didn’t rip it out, give up, or throw it out. I did actually complete the project, persisting through quite a lot of confusion and time away from it.

A few other things, this is my nephew! Isn’t he precious? I can’t wait to meet him this summer. Living so far away, I am fortunate that my sister in law is a photographer, so I do regularly get to enjoy viewing the most beautiful photos of their children.

Since we had some really fantastic weather this weekend, of course, Mr. Ink did some gardening. He worked on cutting down the spirea on the front bank. At some point, he came indoors with a branch from one of the spirea, and said “What is this thing on the branch?!?!?!” I was like “Oh, that’s a praying mantis egg sac, save those, people actually pay money for them. And so, he’s created small praying mantis nurseries all over my yard. For example, here’s my veggie garden:

All spirea twigs without egg sacs went in the truck for a load to the yard waste place on Friday when he has a day off. All twigs with egg sacs stay at home. My coworker is worried that raccoons may get to these an find them tasty, but my thought is that there are tastier things in the garbage can, and it’s never been bothered. So, I think we are safe. We’ll see.

Also due to the gloriously lovely weekend, we went on a nice long bike ride with friends. It really began to seem like we should not be on bikes though, or like some force was telling us that we shouldn’t be enjoying ourselves quite so much. Stories from one day on the trail. Before we left we’d gotten word that some kids had strung saran wrap over the trail at neck level as a prank. So…I dunno what they expected to accomplish other than hurting someone severely? Then, as we were riding, a tree fell on one of our friends. For real. That happened. Fortunately she was not hurt badly, though she ended up with a cracked and dented helmet, and smashed handlebars. After a trip in the ambulance to a local med center, she was found to have no broken bones and they sent her home. We continued on our way, as we’d gotten a bit split up due to that accident. We had to figure out how to get the bikes of the two that went in the ambulance somewhere safe. The contingent that waited with the bikes continued on their way to catch up with us, where they were scared by a guy on a bike in a clown mask. (Seriously, that fad needs to end.)  And then on the way home there were a group of kids rolling car tires down the hill at cyclists. One would imagine that when taking trails rather than roads, a cyclist would be safe!!! But, not the case for us all on Sunday. It was still a lovely ride though despite the obstacles.

That’s about it from here. I’ve got my cotton slub yarn project going quite well and I look forward to showing that off tomorrow. It’s a simple knit that I am enjoying immensely. And, while I’ve been blog quiet for lack of stuff to post about, I’ve also been enjoying keeping up with the adventures of blog friends in blog land.

About one of my absolute favorite independent business owners. Dyeabolical Yarns. I would say that at this point, 80% of what I purchase (Which, sadly, is NOT a lot, due to having really overdone it in the yarn buying department in the past) is from Rachel’s shop.

You can find her here or here.

I’ve been following this shop since the very beginning of 2009. In fact, I can show you my first project. I’d picked the fiber up from a destash, and that’s the fiber that sold me completely. Here’s the in progress photo. And the finished photo.

At some point, I struck up somewhat of an online friendship with Rachel that I feel has benefitted me so greatly. I’ve been able to do sample knitting for her in the past, and try a new yarn or fiber from time to time. These are absolutely wonderful fun things for a person like me who really enjoys trying something new. There’s one shawl in particular I never would have tried without it being requested as a sample knit. It had linen stitch, no problem, and it had dropped stitches, again no problem, and then these weird stitches where you passed a whole bunch over another whole bunch, and I can’t even remember how that worked now. I just remember knowing I wouldn’t have even tried them without the request, and they were indeed fun.

My current spin project is, again, a dyeabolical fibers project. I have taken Fate, PhD and Steampumpkin colorways and combined them. I just finished the first bobbin.

These are now retired colorways. I have to say that it’s always my goal to own every single one of her colorways at some point, though I don’t actually achieve that. However, if something is getting retired, I HAVE to pick it up lest I miss out completely and regret it for the rest of time. These were the two I chose from the latest retirement, though I could have filled my cart to the brim.

Since this is an 8 oz. project, it’s going a bit slow right now. Plus, you know, the whole weird and unexpectedly extra long sweater project.

But, another thing happened that involves Rachel this week. Way back when, she had this cotton slub yarn. When dyed in her wonderfully saturated colors, it made yarn that I loved so much!

Here’s an example in action, with a close up of a young Miss Bug.She wore this all the time.

This yarn felt great to knit, and had such an interesting texture. I loved it so much. But sadly, the mill Rachel was using quit making the yarn, and that was the end of the cotton slub yarn opportunity. I still wax poetic about that yarn on the regular.

And look what arrived in the mail for me yesterday!

That is…an incredibly generous gift from Rachel. It’s the last of her cotton slub yarn. I had originally thought maybe I could get a nice slubby stripy cotton sweater out of it. But, I think I’ve changed my mind. I want a nice big slubby stripy shawl instead. I just want to be able to wrap myself in it. I haven’t yet chosen a pattern, but I will! I think I’ll try to get a good handle on the yardage and then go from there. I have some ideas in mind, but such a sought after yarn should get a perfect pattern, so I don’t want to rush it.

I might also add the super cool knitting row counters she slipped into that package! You can get them here and I cannot WAIT to give mine a try!

Another thing Rachel is responsible for in my knitting career:

Inspiration. My epic queen sized Lizard Ridge blanket. I saw the beginning of her Lizard Ridge way back when. And I HAD to knit it. I began collecting colors, and I began knitting it. She set hers aside for ages. I set mine aside for ages. It was only when she finished hers and posted about it that I HAD to finish mine too. I am so happy I did! It’s beautiful, and it’s the one we use daily, and it always gets compliments when we have company over who haven’t seen the house before.

Suffice it to say, Rachel has been a huge influence in my knitting and spinning over the years, and if you aren’t paying attention to her, you absolutely SHOULD be. She’s a fantastic person, in addition to being a consistently kind, fair, and honorable business woman. And, in a world of yarn and fiber small business owner drama, she’s a person you can trust. Not a hint of drama in all the years I’ve been following along. Simply amazing artistry combined with the ability to run a solid business.

In addition to all of this, she’s got a ravelry group, a podcast, and recently began a facebook group called Wool Ewe Please? where you can join and post whatever lovely knitting or spinning you want, and enjoy the posts of other like minded crafters. Go find her, follow her, and be inspired!

 

After more than 2 years on the needles, and about 2 years in hibernation, I finished my funky grandpa sweater.

The buttons are on, the afterthought button holes are created, and it’s a done deal.

BUT, if I could have a do over, I’d make it longer. I knit it according to the instructions, but I should have known that I don’t love shorter garments. At this point, to change it I’d have to remove the ribbing and the icord, and reknit the bottom of the garment. I am not entirely opposed to that idea, and I do have plenty of yarn for it. But, for now I’d like to give it a try as is and see how it goes. To be honest, I often have to reknit a portion of a sweater to make it something I would really wear, so it wouldn’t be out of the question or even particularly strange. But I do need a bit of a break! (At least I wouldn’t have to reknit the sleeves, THOSE are absolutely perfectly extra long and I love them.

Yesterday was fairly low key. Mr. Ink had to work in the morning, so Miss Butterfly and I went shopping and then for a pokewalk. Except that as so often happens with a 12 year old, she was so moody that we didn’t walk much. She’s talking about a walk again today, so I think we’ll get a do over. Mr. Ink came home with a couple new fish for the fish tank, and then we realized that one of our newer swordtails had a baby. I don’t know if it’ll survive, but it seemed to be doing a good job hiding out in the plants and was eating quite well. Mr. Ink got more gardening done, and I got some knitting and spinning done. Then we made dinner and I grabbed a dirty cookie sheet that was unused in order to wash it, except it had been sitting on the stove and heating up without my knowledge so I ended up burning my hand. That pretty much set me back for the evening, no more crafting. We played board games instead. thankfully, the hand is much better this morning, and I can avoid the burned areas while spinning, much to my delight.

In any case, rather a quiet sort of normal day. Nothing particularly amazing or interesting happening. And sometimes that’s just the nicest thing. Enjoy your Sunday friends!

Yep, I am still working hard on the funky grandpa cardigan. I finished the sleeves this week, and started on the button band. That’s knit as well, and all I have left now is a tiny bit of icord bind off on it.

So, I’ll be able to soak and block tonight, and then by this weekend I should be able to search out buttons. The pattern calls for afterthought buttonholes, so that’ll be a new to me trick! However, I think I am up for the challenge. I decided that I probably had enough of the handspun for the icord bind off, and that would probably also draw everything together. I am happy to report that I really do have more than enough of the handspun, it’s now quite clear.

That’s about it for me, it’s all sweaters and grants around here, but no more sweater grant dreams thankfully. I am so close to being done with both! I really need to do some spinning for interest!

 

I don’t have a photo of a second sweater sleeve yet. But, I am CLOSE. I’ve finished the striping and am knitting with the handspun exclusively. I’ve 5 more decreases to complete, and then the ribbing and the icord bind off. I plan to be done with that tonight. I even brought it to work today. I am knitting in circles. Round and round on that sleeve. Stopping after each round to untwist my knitting. I think that’s the major thing I hate about sleeves. I’d rather knit them flat and seam them than have to untwist a sleeve after each row. No sense complaining about that now though, as I am so close to being done!

I took a photo, instead, of the circles of lace scarf I am knitting out of Marja’s handspun. It’s been getting some time during lunch time at work. Even though my lunches are desperately broken up right now, progress is still being made. So, I guess you could say, I am knitting in circles for a sleeve, and I am knitting circles in a scarf as well.

This is certainly not mindless knitting, and so when trying to find a netflix show to watch while knitting, I keep thinking a particular one looks good, click on it, and realize it requires I read subtitles. Now, I have NO ISSUE with subtitles, and I rather enjoy listening to another language while watching a movie and reading them. However, I can’t do that with this scarf. This has made me wonder just why I can’t figure out before I click on the show that it’s a foreign one. I guess I should look more carefully.

Yesterday we pushed a grant deadline right to the limit yet again. I stayed late to make sure it went in ok. It was another very busy day. That being said, I went home less stressed than usual, and I am not sure why. In could be, in part, my least favorite coworker had the day off, and so I didn’t have to deal with petty and constant irritations in addition to the grant deadline. The good news? One of the grants on my list has dropped off, to be submitted sometime in the future. That leaves me only two more to go, and a completion date of Monday next week. I can handle that!

The evening was spent knitting a sweater sleeve and being a bit pampered. The pampering is pretty much the usual situation on a grant deadline that goes late. Thank goodness! I am thankful that my family seems to be able to roll with the punches and realize that my irritation and unwillingness to deal passes quickly with a little TLC. I did come home to a kid with SO MANY words though. It’s probably actually the usual amount, it’s just that I feel bombarded after a particularly busy work day. Miss Butterfly did, however, acknowledge that I was far less grumpy than would normally be expected. She also went about entertaining herself quite well, even if she WAS talking the entire time.

That’s all from me, since grant deadlines leave little other stories to tell. I think I am leaving work early today, so perhaps today will be a little better in that respect. I am hoping to take Miss Butterfly on a walk!

I am just plugging away at my second sweater sleeve. It’s completely uninteresting at the moment, no picture to be taken. I have 15 decreases every 7th row or so, until I can begin the ribbing on the cuff. And, I have completed 3 of those decreases. Things will continue to be completely uninteresting until right before the 5th decrease where I begin the stripes. That being said, I am very pleased with my progress! It has slowed some, but that’s to be expected after knocking out the first sleeve in a day and a half. After all, I really DO need to do things that aren’t knitting.

So instead, I will finally show off the wool/flax cowl that I finished last week! You may remember this is out of handspun 2 ply.

It’s the duotone cowl, and it’s another knit in a tube then graft tube together cowl. This one was far more fun than the last one and I wasn’t nearly so bitter about it. The gentle changes of colors in the handspun were interesting enough to keep me moving, and the needle size was appropriate for the yarn.

Knowing that the yarn was a bit on the itchy side, I did wash this one very well and add conditioner in hopes to soften it up. It didn’t help much I am afraid. It’s still a scratchy one, and will only be able to be worn over something else. Perhaps a nice turtleneck or something.

Yesterday, Mr. Ink and I went to the local botanical garden to take a nice long walk and pick up our family membership for the year. I am thrilled with this, as Mr. Ink gets so inspired about his own gardens when we are there. He takes a camera and takes photos of trees and labels so that he can look them up when he gets home. All the while grinning from ear to ear. It’s hilarious. I am mostly in it for the walk, and it really is a lovely place to walk at all seasons. Very quiet in the winter and on game day. We enjoyed seeing the magnolias forming their buds, discussed various trees, discussed our own garden, and all the while I kept hearing something strange, something right out of my childhood. I thought that someone was using a turkey caller, and wondered about it. Then, we came upon this:

This is perhaps just 1/8 of the flock. They were everywhere! And not particularly concerned about us humans walking around them. I could get within 3 feet from them before they started moving away from me.

We did enjoy a trip through the greenhouse before we left, even though we were mostly there for outdoor activities. I found this amazing bloom:

It was hard to get a good photo, but do you see that blue bit in addition to the orange? It was really incredible.

It was a good relaxing weekend! Plenty got done, but there was also plenty of time to just be knitting. Now I am back to grants, another deadline today and I’ve got one that has to go in and while it’s not as late as usual, meaning in pretty good shape, I do get nervous when we push even the deadline of that day. Thankfully, this leaves me with only 3 more for the month after today. The end could be in sight now!

Maybe I am not so ingenious after all. I mean, when I’d set out on the sweater project 2 years ago, I’d set aside the correct amount of yarn for the project IF I were to knit it with those black sleeves. As I began to knit the main color into the sleeve instead, it finally occurred to me that I might have a yarn amount problem. I mean, I do have to knit a button band as well! But then I remembered that I had some more yarn in stash. So I pulled that out. However, I also wasn’t sure of the handspun amounts. I wanted to have the lower sleeve be handspun after striping it with the main color. I still want it to be “funky” after all! Just not funky with a black sleeve. I weighed my skein of handspun and knit like the wind just so I could figure out if I’d have enough yarn.

This morning, I finished a sleeve! And I have enough yarn. I’ll be fine. And even better? It fits. I double checked once the sleeve was complete.

I truly and honestly cannot believe that I am about to have a finished sweater! I mean, this is the first finished adult sized sweater in about 2.5 years. I am so pleased. And so glad I went this direction instead of casting on something new. Who knows, maybe this will inspire me to complete the other half done sweater in my stash. The one I literally don’t even know where it is in my home right now.

Unfortunately I cannot devote quite as much time today to the second sleeve. And I still have to wind the other necessary skein. But, we also have plans to go to the botanical garden and arboretum as Mr. Ink is itching to look at trees again. And, well, I like him and I like taking a walk. Plus, while I like to say I knit a sleeve in a day, it was more like a day and a half, considering that I started Friday night and completed this morning. Nevertheless, this one’ll be in the bag soon. I am hoping to just keep my momentum until it’s done now.

The rest of the day yesterday was devoted to dishes, cleaning, laundry, bread baking, and small home repairs. Basically all the things that make us love being at home. Mr. Ink gardened, naturally. It was a nice day, and I did get a walk in. It was almost too warm for my regular coat! I even noticed peony sprouts coming up. I think they are massively confused. But, even confused peonies are gentle signs that spring is coming, and since Mr. Ink hasn’t really stopped gardening that makes me so excited for this year outdoors. What are you anticipating for spring?