Recycle Success Grey Sweater Version

Over a year ago, I sat down in front of the Olympics and took a part a sweater. Ravelry called the event "Aerial Unwind" in their version of the Olympics. I had loved the sweater when I was a bigger person. I loved the yarn, so soft and squishy. It was my TKGA Masters program challenge, which means I designed it. I had the pattern in my computer.

I started here.

At the end of the Olympics, it had became a basket of yarn. I did a little bit each day and it was very freeing.

The yarn needed washing, which required a session with the yarn swift.to turn the balls into hanks.

After hanging in the basement to dry, it went into a laundry basket, and one hank at a time was put back on the swift and run through the ball winder.  Luckily I have acquired a lot of yarn toys like this over the years.

I had to rewrite the pattern in a much smaller size, leaving out some of the cable patterns that didn't fit, but all is finished. Yesterday, I finished the sweater, complete with buttons.

Today, I am wearing the sweater. It feels just as good as I imagined. I wound up the last of the yarn and put it away. There is over 500 yards of beautiful yarn, enough to do something with eventually. 

As with many people, I'm tired of winter and tired of wearing the same warm clothes. It's nice to have a new cuddley sweater!

On to Jacksonville

Joyce took me to two yarn stores. The first one was called Wooly Bully, and mainly carried natural fiber yarns. I found some mink yarn there which will be a scarf. I also got some stitch markers and dp tubes there.

We also went to her favorite yarn store near the Florida State University campus. I bought some bulky yarn and a pattern. I've already knit the vest.

One of the other things we did was make more stitch markers and copper jewelry. She had taken a jewelry making class and wanted to show me what she had learned. The solid earrings are the cut out piece from the beaded ones. We made the necklace the next day.

After three days with Joyce, Julie came and drove me to her house in Jackson ville. I don't have many pictures (camnesia?), and many of those are on my iPhone. I did see the ocean, although it was cold and cloudy. I only visited one yarn store in the Jacksonville area. I got a pound of Great Adirondack wool in sport weight. It will make some sort of a sweater, a small one.

We were able to spend a little time in St. Augustine, not nearly enough time. I guess I'll have to come back again. We'll do the tourist bus thing next time.

I have phone pictures of the new calf that was born ro "Jim the cow guy's" bossy, but they want to upload sideways from my phone. Julie lives on  a secluded street near the Jacksonville airport. Jim and his wife Nancy have a couple of cows, chickens, turkeys, and sometimes a pig. Julie gets fresh eggs from Nancy and meat from Jim.

No more knitting was finished on the trip. I'll talk knitting on the next post.

Rain, rain go away

Graduation (PhD style)
It rained on my son's graduation party! He had reserved a pavilion in a local park, so it wasn't a total washout, but at about 50 degrees and misting, it was RAW and uncomfortable. Hamburgers and Hot dogs were served, along with chips and cupcakes.

Winter coats were the fashion of the day. The setting was beautiful, but we didn't stay long. It was just too cold.

We have grown a large crop of mushrooms, due to the continual rain. They are starting to die off with a day or so of dry weather. Here's a close up.

We had breakfast with son's family this morning, and DH was asked if he had thawed out yet. It was the last breakfast of the season at the Marine Corps Gunny Hall (his father-in-law is a long time member).

Socks
The blue socks are finished. Beads show up better in real life. The didn't qualify for Ravelry's Solid Socks group although the color reads as semi-solid. It also reads as blue and green. The do count for the Crystal Palace Knit With the Palace challenge. They also count as a sock/yarn combo that has been in the pipeline for a couple of years. I'm glad to get them finished. They also are part of the Spring Stash Dash. That finished 2 of 6 original projects for that challenge.

The next pair of socks is a SKA mystery project by Janel Laidman, in an earth color for Solid Socks. I actually have clue #3 done on one sock and am waiting for clue #4. This is a fun pattern, partly because Janel included lots of interactive links. the pattern was originally titled 5-22-24-13-7-12-19-15-9. If you followed the key on the pattern (literally a key picture) you were led to a clue that said A=5. The title translates to Artichoke. There have been a number of artichoke links as well as links for her cast on and the wrapping technique.

Work
It's been rhinestone week and my fingers are glue covered. This year I'm adding rhinestones to prom dresses. Glue on stones gets on to my fingers, even though I actually apply the glue with a toothpick. I'll try to get a photo or two when I go to work tomorrow.

Problem?
We got a photo from our neighbors as well as a request. Could we feed their dogs? It seems they've been raptured! The rest of us are still here and have to do laundry and mow lawns as usual, at least until the Mayan end of the world next year.
How God is Managing the Rapture.

Scarves
I'm up to 12 scarves and I still have bulky yarn odd balls. I'll keep going. The September guild meeting is the collection deadline. I don't do a lot of charity knitting but this one appealed to me and the timing was right. I used up about 650 yards of yarn and finished 9 balls. I'm also donating 10 balls to another guild project, freeing up much space in my yarn drawers.

Skirts are finished

The Spanish skirts are finished. Skirt #3 took almost 1000 inches of ruffle fabric, edged on both sides. That's 27.5 yards of fabric run through the rolled hem foot. The customer is very happy! Part of the reason for the yardage amount is that the fabric was thinner, so the gathering foot gathered it tighter. The dress form does lean, the result of a fall a long time ago.

I finished my green socks Sunday night. I've been writing about skirts instead of socks. The pattern was interesting. I like entrelac as a technique, but I don't think I'd knit these again. They are too fiddley.

I keep knitting the shawl. Black lace forever.

Today I got a box of sock yarn from Plymouth yarns. I need to contact them to see what they have in mind.