Year of Projects: Week 14

Good morning!  I am planning on vegging at home today.....last night, I had a great time at a get together at my friend Maureen's house.  She invited the knitters/crocheters that go to Knit Night on Thursdays and a few more friends....

So much fun!

Since this past week was super busy and exhausting with parent conferences and then I had a wicked flareup on Wednesday, not much got worked on.  But this week is Spring Break, so I'm sure I'll have better update next week.  I know I missed last Sunday, but such is life....

This week, my goals are:
- to finish the Zombie Valentines
- finish or close to finish the Kiss Me, I'm Irish
- Finish the first sock on Hudson Bay
- figure out and work the Fish Kiss Lips heel on Keep Swimming
- wind the yarn for the two sweaters planned
- possible start moving yarn totes up to attic room, after logging what's in each tote

In addition, I have to make a poster for my friend, do the taxes (last year I can do the simple form on my own), clean the house.

So we'll see how far I get on these...wish me luck, as I am a procrastinator!!!!! 

2018 Finished Projects:
Millennial Slytherin Mitts - Jan 6, 2018 
KG AMi - Jan 10, 2018
Shamrock Hat - Jan 20, 2018
Snowflake Hat - Jan 20, 2018
Elephant Reserve - February 11, 2018
Bunny Hat - February 12, 2018
Blue Wave - February 12, 2018
Folding Chairs - March 4, 2018
Jessica Jones 2 - March 7, 2018
Chicken Scratch Sock (test knit) - March 8, 2018 (only one sock)

Works In Progress:         
WIPS: Crochet:
Round Ripple: (Started 2006 (?) Aiden)-not sure he'd want this anymore, being a high school freshman and all, but I think I'll finish it for him. He is now a sophomore.
Around the World Afghan: (April 2010): about ¼ done - I looked at this recently and I'm still liking it, so I'll keep it...maybe make it a baby blanket instead.
Sunrise Sunset Afghan: this has been hibernating awhile, 6 squares done. I still love the look of this.
Tabard Tunic (NW Diss 2/1/14) - Haven't made a final decision on this yet.
Throwback Poncho 2/19/17
Fortune's Shawlette - 5/20/17 - Finished ball 2    

Knit: 
Learn to Knit Afghan: (started 2010): 3 squares done, I put this in the giveaway yarn bags..not thrilled with colors....will use squares at school for water bottles..
Shark in the Woods (11/27/14)- I really love this, but it's a lot of cabling and I'm not a fan..about 1/2 done.
Vanilla fingerless mitts (12/25/15) - Think I'm going to frog and do different mitts or crochet them.
Zombie Vixen mitts (10/17/15)- why I may crochet the others...have these and still working on them, again cabling
Garter Path Shawlette (5/30/16)- I have frogged this a couple of times...
Swinging with Winkle (6/4/16)- I love this so much!  Just need to finish it! Added a few rows
Meandering Top (5/20/16) - Totally forgot about this...could get it done to wear in spring...I think I was debating whether to do the bottom ruffle...it's not a good placement for me...
Multnomah (8/21/16)- stuck on feather and fan edging, have too many stitches, in timeout. Stitch count continues to be off.
Bulky Cowl - this hurts my hands to work on...think I need slippery needles...
Splediferous Blanket - (4/15/17) Roald Dahl club, mitered blanket
Selbu Mitts - 3/26/18

Socks:
Kai-Mei: (April 2012) - has not changed, 
Carlos and Arne socks (July 3 2015)- using a 9" needle...keep losing stitches. 
Espalier Socks (Jan 10, 2016) - started and stopped...
Zombie Latte Socks - (6/27/17) - need some zombie socks come Walking Dead premiere!
Just Keep Swimming - (6/16/16) 
Hudson Bay Socks - (6/21/17)
Muertos - 8/13/17
Games Socks- 2/15/18
I'm Irish - 3/3/18

Scarves/Shawls:
Splashy Flowers: (May 2011) - add a motif scarf, don't see that being finished soon...
Light in Shadows (1/14/14) - I love this so much...need to start the new direction, so need to sit down and figure it out.. 
Willow Fields (9/6/14) - ran out of yarn, waiting on yarn 
My Shelly Valentine (2/10/16) - should finish for this year's Valentine's Day, yeah, that did not happen


Bags:

Beach Bag: (started May 2010)  Just needs lining sewn in, I used it this year without the lining...so may just call it a day on this.... 

 KAL/CALs: 
Fire and Blood (5/4/14) - not anytime soon
Outlander MKAL (8/8/14)  - possibility of finishing this..the yarn is so yummy

Stash Acquisition Saturday

Good morning!  So I have not posted about my stash in a few weeks, so I have a bit to update you on...

Obviously there is my Stitches acquisitions to actually post about...I have mentioned them but not done a proper post.

Pansy self stripe from Biscotte Yarn, it was carried by The Wall of Yarn(The Yarn Guys) booth

And two skeins of Rauma Gammelserie for the Selbu mittens (sorry the picture is crap)

Alexandra's Crafts in Winter Berry (Merino/Silk/Cashmere)

Leading Men Fiber Arts in Mother Earth (merino/cashmere/nylon)

Leading Men Fiber Arts in Christmas at Green Gables (swBFL)

Canon Hand Dyed in Dragonfly Yarn (swmerino/nylon)

Destination Yarn in Elizabeth Park (last year's show color) (DK 100% merino)

A set of minis from Hobbledehoy in Ghost (merino/nylon/stellina)

Various minis from Leading Men Fiber Arts

I also got some Malabrigo Rios from my LYS for a cancer cap for my BFF.....

She requested light green with a flower of mauve and dark green leaves,

Also picked up some yarn to make more Enough headbands

And I ordered "Lellow" from Quaere Fibre...with a couple of minis

And I think that brings me up-to-date...have a knitting dinner to go to tonight at my yarny bff's house....must decide what to bring....

Once Upon A Sock: April Edition

So I heard about this linkup last week...and since I have 10 sock WIPs, I figured I'd join up! So it is hosted by Katherine at Fiber and Sustenance, Paula at Spin A Yarn, Kat at FelintyKnits, Steph at My Making Do Adventure, Kathy B from CompassionKnit, Liz from Knitting From the Hip, Reanna from Knit, Reanna, Knit, Meg of Intergalactic, Lynn of Minding My Own Stitches and my friend, and where I heard of it, Stef from  Stefaniecraftswithwoolpaperfabric.  Whew!  That is a lot of people to tag!

So the picture is of six of my ten sock WIPs....I am on a self stripe kick....and I keep buying self stripe yarn....today I got my Lellow from Quaere Fibre....

My Zombie Valentines are the closest to being done..

Just have the decrease and toe to go.  I am experimenting with contrast heels and maybe cuffs and toes, at some point....This is a vanilla sock in Brazen Stitchery's My Zombie Valentine. They are housed in a Walking Dead bag that I think I got from Brazen Stitchery...It's a small drawstring bag with no tag.

Another pair of Brazen Stitchery socks in the Kiss Me, I'm Irish colorway.  Both are on her Harmony Sock base which is 75% merino, 25% nylon.  I am knitting Vanilla Latte and knitting them concurrently....I am in love with 9 inch circulars and have bought several pairs.

My Hudson Bay socks, knit on Fishknits Yarn Strong Heart base.  It's an 80/20 mix and is so soft!  I am following Susan B. Anderson's recipe from when she made these same socks. It is not published, but on her blog. These are housed in a Gilmore Girls cube bag, I'm not sure who the maker is...

Dia de los muertos by Desert Vista Dyeworks on her Viso base, a 75/25 mix.  These are housed in my Jessalu sugar skulls bag, because.....this one has been on the needles quite a long time...so need to put some work into them....

These were inspired by the Olympic Games flag.  It is Eat, Knit, Dye in Flags and Dreams on her self stripe, a 75/25 base. These also are the Vanilla Latte pattern.

Also Eat, Knit, Dye....a ribbed sock.  I want to do a Fish Lips Kiss Heel, because well...why not, but have to sit down and figure it out....

I also have a Christmas stripe sock, another sock from a KAL, that only has a cuff, an Arne & Carlos sock and my oldest sock, my Kai-mei.....

Next week is my spring break, so hope to finish up at least two pairs then...Thursday night is parent-teacher night, so I will catch up with everyone over the weekend.....

Stitch Along: Week 13

Good Tuesday evening!  How is everyone doing?  I am doing okay....actually in A TON of pain today because of the weather...very cold and rainy all day.....it's going to rain into tomorrow, so I expect to continue to be in pain until Thursday, at least.  But since being diagnosed and being put on the medication, the pain is so much less....I mean I'm still in pain, but there were days when I could barely walk before I was diagnosed....

In addition, my best friend has been diagnosed with cancer.  They thought at first it was colonrectal, but it is anal....and she is very sick...stage 4....going onto chemo and radiation within the next week.  So dealing with that, trying to be strong for her, but having moments of such overwhelming sadness and anger....

So what have I worked on?  I have been working on my Zombie Valentine socks....and so I have almost a complete pair...

Just really the decrease and toe left.....but haven't been much in the frame of mind to work on anything...
I do have a commission from my friend for a hat...she's not paying me, but asked for a specific type of hat...I did get the yarn for it...but have not worked on it yet....

So how about you?  What have you worked on lately?  Please link in and join up....

Stitch Along: Week 12

An unusual Stitch Along start.....but it does tie in...read on.....

So we bought the house (finally) where we have rented the first floor apartment for 26 years!  The apartment is too small for us, but my husband will be inheriting his family home some time in the future...So we will move out there eventually.

This house is two family.  The upstairs apartment has been empty for two years.  We have a little updating to do before we can rent it.  The Hubs is going to be in charge of all of that....

BUT! in the attic, there is an extra finished room....and he said the other day, I should take it for my yarn/craft room!  I'm so excited!  It's a little rough around the edges, but some paint, a rug, some shelves...a comfy chair and a table and I'm all set! The Hubs is going to paint it a fresh yellow for me....It will be hot in the summer, but I have options for that....

We will move the tubs of yarn up there, he suggested I take photos of what is in each and label them all so I know (they do have labels, but they need to be updated)....I'm so excited...

There is a larger window to the right in that first picture.  It's going to let in a lot of light. Plus I'll finally have some place to block my knits...as right now I am using the living room floor of the empty apartment upstairs! LOL!!!

I also bought yarn at Stitches for two sweaters.  I had some of the yarn, but I needed the yarn for the body of the sweater....I had also ordered yarn for the yoke of another sweater...I better get on those...

As for stitching this week, it's been pretty much a dud.....but with a three day weekend coming up, I see myself getting my stitch on....we don't do much for Easter since my stepfather passed away and my Mom relocated to Florida.....but I am enjoying all the Easter candy, which in my opinion is the best candy out there!

So what have you done this week?  Link up if you would like...

Stitches United 2018

Well, this year the vendors were promised crowds...and I don't think they showed.....I was there twice, on Friday night from 4-6, it was dead, dead, dead....and again Saturday afternoon, not so dead, but yeah, not so crowded either.  So I'm not sure what the actual number of attendees was.....and I'm sure it didn't help that Franklin Habit was grounded by the weather and wasn't able to make it...

Stitches East/United has struggled in Hartford...I don't know what it was like in the places it was at before Hartford, but I've worked or attended it for 3 or 4 years....The first year was fantastic and it was well attended, but attendance has gone down every year since (with a break 2 years ago).  Last year, they changed it from Stitches East to Stitches United, bringing in quilting and other fiber arts, such as cross stitch, etc.

I've attended most of the fiber festivals in and around the northeast.....from my small Connecticut Sheep and Wool (next month) and which shared the weekend with Stitches last year, upsetting many locals.....to Vogue New York (so massively crowded all three times I've gone) and Rhinebeck...I've also been to shows in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and upstate New York.

So I just counted and it looks like there were about 79 vendors...I don't quilt and I gave away all my cross stitch stuff, so I'm only interested in the yarny vendors...and it looks like about 59 of them were geared toward knitters/crocheters.

I was happy to see a few new vendors...Leading Men Fiber Arts...I'd heard a lot about them from YarnHoarder....Makers Mercantile...they were suppose to be there last year and had to pull out last minute. I got to meet a Facebook friend, we are in a yarn group together, Alexandra of Alexandra's Crafts...got a pretty lilacy colored skein from her....We had a talk about the show.  She is from the Northwest, close to Portland and as she said, "the mecca" of yarn....and they never have attendance issues at any of the many festivals out there.....so I'm not sure what it is......

She had awesome yarn the color of her hair, and I wish I had picked it up...but I like the one I did grab.....

I also talked quite a bit with Lisa Bass of White Birch Fiber Arts.  I have posted before of the amount of her self-stripe I own...sigh...I purchased a gradient, speckled hat kit with a pompom from her....

also talked with her booth neighbor Amy of CanonHand Dyes.....got a self stripe from her along with a t-shirt......we were talking politics, as my friend and I had just come back from the March For Our Lives at the capitol in Hartford.

There was a lot of talking going on, as it was easy to do because the crowds were so small....

I also took my first class, Selbu Mittens with Jeffrey Wall of The Yarn Guys.  It was interesting...I only got to the cuff before I had to leave about 20 minutes early to catch the shuttle to the march.

He really helped me hold the two yarns in my left hand for the colorwork.  I had been struggling with that....it'll be easier, once I practice more with it....

All in all, an enjoyable weekend for me....my friend Maureen went on Friday with our friend Diane and they had a good time too...Then she joined me on Saturday and hung out while I took the class in the morning.....Yes, I spent money and I know others did....but just worried that there wasn't enough attendees for the vendors to make their booth fees and expenses back....(I helped out in a booth the past couple of years, but she chose not to have a booth this year)

My haul? Not great pictures, as the light was bad...

 From bottom left: Leading Men Fiber Arts in Christmas at Green Gables for the body of a cardi, the White Birch Hat Kit, Elizabeth Park from Destination Yarns (last year's show color) minis from Leading Men, a mini kit of Hobbledehoy I bought at Madison Wool, the lilac skein, Winter Berry, from Alexandra, Pansy self stripe from Biscotte (at The Yarn Guys booth), Dragonfly Inn from CanonHandDye, and Mother Earth from Leading Men. The green kit is from North Shore Lights and is raising money for The Southern Poverty Law Center.

 A new bag from Erin Lane...the new Larry bag...Nevertheless She Knitted from CanonHandDye and superhero knitter leggings from Makers' Mercantile

I participated in this, when I remembered....

I'll have better pictures on Saturday for Stash Acquisition.....with some other acquired stash

oh and a funny picture, I noticed this in the toilets of the Convention Center, pretty handy!

Year of Projects: Week 12

Good morning!  I am having a lazy Sunday morning, before I finish up correcting and grading.  Report card grades are due tomorrow.  The next two weeks are crazy....this week, we have a 1/2 day on Wednesday for PD, and no school Friday for Good Friday.  Next week is conference week, so 3 1/2 days, then the longest day - night conferences, then it'll be TGIF and the following week is spring vacation week...Can Not Wait!!!!!

So I really didn't do much this past week....was sick two days and then working on the aforementioned correcting and grading....

Yesterday I did take a class at Stitches United about Selbu Mittens...it was the first class I've ever taken and it was pretty good.  I left a few minuted early to head to the March for Our Lives at the capital in Hartford.  It was awesome...I'll have a post about it later this week....I'll also post about Stitches and the haul...but here is a picture of my mitt(s) before I left class...

Oh I did also put a couple of rows on the cowl of my Throwback Poncho, but not enough to take a picture of it...

and I pulled out my Kai-mei socks the day I stayed home sick...yeah there is a dropped stitch quite a few rows down, I'm going to have to rip it out...it's back in time out...

So I guess that is about it...not too exciting this week...come back and visit me later in the week....

2018 Finished Projects:
Millennial Slytherin Mitts - Jan 6, 2018 
KG AMi - Jan 10, 2018
Shamrock Hat - Jan 20, 2018
Snowflake Hat - Jan 20, 2018
Elephant Reserve - February 11, 2018
Bunny Hat - February 12, 2018
Blue Wave - February 12, 2018
Folding Chairs - March 4, 2018
Jessica Jones 2 - March 7, 2018
Chicken Scratch Sock (test knit) - March 8, 2018 (only one sock)

Works In Progress:         
WIPS: Crochet:
Round Ripple: (Started 2006 (?) Aiden)-not sure he'd want this anymore, being a high school freshman and all, but I think I'll finish it for him. He is now a sophomore.
Around the World Afghan: (April 2010): about ¼ done - I looked at this recently and I'm still liking it, so I'll keep it...maybe make it a baby blanket instead.
Sunrise Sunset Afghan: this has been hibernating awhile, 6 squares done. I still love the look of this.
Tabard Tunic (NW Diss 2/1/14) - Haven't made a final decision on this yet.
Throwback Poncho 2/19/17
Fortune's Shawlette - 5/20/17 - Finished ball 2    

Knit: 
Learn to Knit Afghan: (started 2010): 3 squares done, I put this in the giveaway yarn bags..not thrilled with colors....will use squares at school for water bottles..
Shark in the Woods (11/27/14)- I really love this, but it's a lot of cabling and I'm not a fan..about 1/2 done.
Vanilla fingerless mitts (12/25/15) - Think I'm going to frog and do different mitts or crochet them.
Zombie Vixen mitts (10/17/15)- why I may crochet the others...have these and still working on them, again cabling
Garter Path Shawlette (5/30/16)- I have frogged this a couple of times...
Swinging with Winkle (6/4/16)- I love this so much!  Just need to finish it! Added a few rows
Meandering Top (5/20/16) - Totally forgot about this...could get it done to wear in spring...I think I was debating whether to do the bottom ruffle...it's not a good placement for me...
Multnomah (8/21/16)- stuck on feather and fan edging, have too many stitches, in timeout. Stitch count continues to be off.
Bulky Cowl - this hurts my hands to work on...think I need slippery needles...
Splediferous Blanket - (4/15/17) Roald Dahl club, mitered blanket
Selbu Mitts - 3/26/18

Socks:
Kai-Mei: (April 2012) - has not changed, 
Carlos and Arne socks (July 3 2015)- using a 9" needle...keep losing stitches. 
Espalier Socks (Jan 10, 2016) - started and stopped...
Zombie Latte Socks - (6/27/17) - need some zombie socks come Walking Dead premiere!
Just Keep Swimming - (6/16/16) 
Hudson Bay Socks - (6/21/17)
Muertos - 8/13/17
Games Socks- 2/15/18
I'm Irish - 3/3/18

Scarves/Shawls:
Splashy Flowers: (May 2011) - add a motif scarf, don't see that being finished soon...
Light in Shadows (1/14/14) - I love this so much...need to start the new direction, so need to sit down and figure it out.. 
Willow Fields (9/6/14) - ran out of yarn, waiting on yarn 
My Shelly Valentine (2/10/16) - should finish for this year's Valentine's Day, yeah, that did not happen


Bags:

Beach Bag: (started May 2010)  Just needs lining sewn in, I used it this year without the lining...so may just call it a day on this.... 

 KAL/CALs: 
Fire and Blood (5/4/14) - not anytime soon
Outlander MKAL (8/8/14)  - possibility of finishing this..the yarn is so yummy