This is my last in a group of hand knit items I have finished recently. It took me time to block them so I ended up batch blocking them and then waiting until I was home during the light of day to take photographs. I’ve actually been working on this one for a long time as it was my work project. Now that it’s complete, I need to choose something else for work. Except that I am not working this week anyhow. This is a strider scarf which shows off the self striping of handspun yarn beautifully. This was a handspun yarn of Miss Marja’s.
We have a foster dog coming in a few days. I always notice that when we have foster dogs, I tend not to knit as I am too busy training, worrying, assessing, and intervening. So there will definitely be a slowing of all these things in the upcoming weeks while we have her. And yes, of course I will post a photo as I like to document our fosters at least once on the blog!
After finishing the handspun paintbox cowl I immediately cast on another one. I just had enjoyed the first one so much! This one was made out of two different handspun yarns. The grey was one of my handspun yarns and the accent color is one of Miss Marja’s handspun yarns.
I like the final product on this one even more than the previous paintbox cowl! This one turned out really interesting and pretty. I maintain that this pattern is a joy to knit and I will absolutely do another one.
We’ve had a lot going on this fall, and we are kind of just…not doing christmas this year. It was too much to try to plan for a family who is just on the struggle bus. Next year, if things are going a bit better, we’ll do it up right.
But as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been doing some knitting. I made a paintbox cowl out of a handspun yarn paired with a commercial hand dyed yarn.
The handspun yarn is comparatively chunky so it has an interesting effect compared to the evenness of the commercial yarn. I enjoyed this cowl so much that I immediately cast on for another one.
Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. Turns out when you can see your stitches, your desire to knit might increase again.
I knit this pioneer braid scarf out of Miss Marja’s handspun yarn at the beginning of the month. It knit up super fast but I didn’t have the opportunity to block it and get a decent photo until just now. This is such an easy and pleasant knit that I may do another pretty soon.
It’s less than a month since my last update but I was able to finish quite a lot of tiny items from my bin of small items. I need to continue to work on rearranging my craft room as I purchased a comfy chair for the room and need to get it to the point where it is ready to receive the chair. The chair is supposed to be delivered this weekend.
There are three full size products in this batch but they were both part of the original bin of products mostly because they were close to being done and I wanted to concentrate on finishing them. Everything else is sample/travel sized or sachets. I particularly enjoyed the Biore sunscreen, it’s lovely under makeup and very hydrating. I can’t say there were any other super stand out products. I do enjoy the Sunday Riley products but they are more expensive than I am typically willing to pay and I can generally find less expensive products that serve the same purposes.
Despite continuing to get sample sizes and sachets in orders, I have mostly been working through them immediately and I don’t have too much left in the bin. The project will continue but most of the remaining items are already in rotation being used so this’ll wrap up pretty soon.
Over the summer when I knew we were traveling to Idaho for a wilderness trip, I decided I needed a knitting project to take. I also knew I wanted something with the lightest weight yarn possible and a project that would take a good amount of time. I did not want to stress that I would be finished before the trip was done. And indeed, I did not have to stress about that.
Instead, it took me until last week to finally finish. To be fair, this got set down for multiple other projects since the trip. But I have finally pushed through to finish it up.
The yarn is handspun from a batt which I spun in a gradient. So I took photos of the scarf from both ends, plus one close up shot of the texture.
This is one of those knits where I am kind of like “Yep, good project, glad it’s done.” There’s not that much excitement over it, but I am glad it served its purpose this summer and provided me with a good deal of entertainment value.
I had so much leftover yarn once my mystery shawl was complete I didn’t want to just put it back in my stash as it would disappear in there and I don’t think I’d quite get to using it again. So I decided to use 4 of the colors and make a linen stitch cowl.
It was a pretty quick knit and I did indeed fully use up two of the colors leaving me with just a small ball of the other two. The shawl itself is rather soft as the yarn I used is single ply and soft. I think I may cast on another linen stitch cowl very soon. This was a very pleasurable knit.
My knitting production has gone back up quite a bit lately. It may be coincidence but it seems to correlate with the time I realized I needed reading glasses. I have a theory that I had just stopped being able to comfortably see my knitting but did not actually realize that is what was going on. I just slowly knit less and less and less. Only time will tell though!
You read that right! I am already posting about next year’s project pan. I am still working on my everything but the kitchen sink, and I am still working on my A to Z. But, I am also doing a full stash rotation this month in hopes to discover what I want to pan next year and I’ve already come up with 6 items. In my opinion, 6 items is a perfect number to begin. And I don’t really want to wait until January to begin.
These items will still be used sparingly this month since I am working on the stash rotation. But I really do not want to neglect them. By the time I finish the first item I should have a pretty good idea of what I’d next like to roll in.
At the top I’ve got some Bare Minerals Bare Pro powder foundation which you can see I’ve really worked at quite well over the years. I was keeping it at work and using it when I’d ride my bike or motorbike to work. But, during my stash rotation I found two more powder foundations, one of which I liked quite a bit more, so I think it’s time to get this one used up.
Next to that is an hourglass ambient lighting powder in dim light. It has been in a previous project, I had wanted to hit pan which obviously I did. This shade actually works as a pretty decent bronzer in the dead of winter so now is a great time to try to get it used up.
The CeraVe mineral sunscreen I want to love, but I like the australian gold one so much better. I kind of hate the smell of the cerave one and it also doesn’t really set down nicely for me when I use it on its own. I feel kind of slimy all the time when I use it. I have heard it performs pretty well under makeup so I have decided to try to finish it. I’ll mark this one as soon as this post is finished.
The mac studio fix fluid foundation is just not great for me. It does not hold on to my skin during a work day and mask wearing. This one may be harder for me to pan, but my hope is to use it on days I don’t need a long wearing foundation in my life. I have washi tape on the side to indicate how much has currently been used.
The juice beauty primer I’ve tried to pan before. This product is kind of a pain because there is so much skin care it doesn’t pair well with. It likes to ball up and look terrible. But lately I’ve been able to use it in certain circumstances so I am going to try to finish it. It is pretty when it’s working well! I still have another primer in the A to Z project pan so this may be slow going initially. There’s a silver line on the right hand side indicating how much I’ve used so far.
And finally, my Bite Beauty lipstick. It has been in a project pan before. And honestly, I wear the heck out of it in times of no masking. It’s just one of those formulas that feels quite comfortable to wear. And the color is kind of a neutral to cool toned pink. So any time I am wearing a mauve or more cool toned eyeshadow, this lipstick works beautifully. It’s so close to being finished though, so I’d like to just be able to get it finished and out of my stash. I may also try it as a cream blush at some point, because I think it would look really nice that way.
That’s it, 6 items to start working on in the upcoming year and even before. And while I am doing my stash rotation I am certain I’ll find more.
Suzy Sells Sea Shells 