Knit, knit, finish

One of the side effects of working on many projects is that they may all get finished at about the same time.

• Sunday - cotton jacket
• Tuesday - Mystery Socks
• Thursday - Swiss Cheese Scarf
• Saturday - Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf
• Monday - fingerless mitts
• Thursday - mitt covers

That's it for now. Work has been slow, and I'm the boss, so I've had more knitting time at work.

The Mystery socks were stash busters., using little balls of left overs. The swiss cheese scarf is cone yarn from a mill. I like it so much that I have started a sweater from the rest of the yarn. It is top down. all available yarn will be used and there are so many colors ot tweedy bits in it, that I can choose another color for finishing if needed.

Last Saturday was a guild yarn shop hop. We went to Columbus, OH, about 3 hrs south of us. We did have to meet up at 6:15 AM. I didn't drive, so was able to knit.I chose a simple scarf that had been sitting for over 6 months. It is the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, knit from 2 balls of Noro Matsuri that I received as a holiday gift. On the trip, needles, sock yarn, a pattern, and a sock yarn needle gauge were purchased. Much fun was had.

One of my daughters had taken up running for exercise. She asked for fingerless mitts with thumbs. The yarn I chose is partly purple, her color, but it is also cotton stretch. (Patons Stretch socks). I decided to make mitt covers using Wool-Ease. If she runs when it is colder outside, she can use something else. All pieces were adapted from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns

Today is family day picnic gathering. DD #1 is in town from Florida. I gave her a book on historic American quilts, since that is her main hobby. She loved it.

Present sock on the needles is Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Feet, knit from Patons Kroy 4 ply sock yarn. Plan A was to use muslin as the solid, but it was knit into something else and is not available. Norfolk blue was substituted. Kroy is heavier/denser that many sock yarns, so I stuck with the same brand. Boy is this a lot of work! I made the leg longer, because I like winter socks to meet my long underwear. Nothing worse than a gap for the cold air to find. I've waited years to knit these. When I finally got to it, I couldn't find the pattern and had to buy a new copy. That wasn't so bad, as the first one was a copy a friend gave me. From her complaints, I thought she was sending me her original. When I used the muslin yarn, it was still available for repurchase. Oh Well. First sock is finished. Keep knitting!

Quick cast on - a fruit hat for grandson to be born in Sept. Stash yarn says he gets an apple. I bought a fruit phat pattern on the shop hop, thinking I only had the flower hat pattern. WRONG! I can't find a flower hat pattern, but already had the fruit hat. DD #1 was happy to take one of them off my hands. I should finish the hat tonight, started about 4:00 this afternoon. It was easy knitting at the party, round and round and round.

It's finally finished

I've been working on this jacket, off and on, for over a year. That's a long time for one of my projects! I accepted a challenge involving unfinished projects, figuring that it could be finished by September. Eek, the deadline is August 5. Knit faster, knit faster. Make mistakes, re-knit. Find that sleeves are too long. take out and shorten. Sleeve cuffs want to unroll. Remover and attach differently. Knit some more. Finish bottom band. Go to sew it to jacket bottom. Undo bind off and lengthen bottom band. Knit front bands, re-knitting the mitered corners several times.

Finally, success. It may look better buttoned. It may hang differently after washing/drying. But it's done.

One of the yarns has been in stash for maybe 20 years. It's good to finally find a good use for it.

Weekends have been busy. Last week there was a graduation party for a granddaughter.Today I saw her again and she finally has a full-time job.

This week our knitting guild picnic was held. That's always a good time. One of the members has a house with a large amount of land and a swimming pool. It was a little chilly for swimming, but the knitting, talking and eating went well.

My small garden is doing fairly well. I haven't had one for years, and started small; 2 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants, and some basil. The pepper plants had their leaves eaten, so I moved them to a window box on our porch. Survival was iffy, so I bought more pepper plants. All have had flowers. I'm waiting for peppers. One green tomato so far. Basil has been pulled and is drying. Next year I'll do more variety. There are only 2 of us and the cook still has a job, so I didn't want to overwhelm myself.

Moving along

Mystery Sock
I seem to have missed posting about the SKA Mystery sock challenge for this month. It is a Chrissy Gardiner pattern, which at the moment is called Progressive Sock Party. The name may change now that all the clues are out.

This is how clue #1 looked with all the yarn. Most of it is left overs from other sock projects. Clue #4 came out this morning. Since this month the clues come out on my day off work, I can get right on them. One sock finished!

Cotton Jacket
Another knitting blog started a dog days of summer challenge to finish unfinished projects. This jacket was started over a year ago. That may not be long for some knitters, but it is one of the few works in progress for me. I'm doing lace now. We have a collar and one sleeve cuff. I may need to shorten the sleeves, but I'm going to wash and dry it first. It still needs the other sleeve cuff, bottom band and front bands. It won't be done by the August 5 deadline, but I can wear it when the weather changes.

Baseball All-Star
A certain grandson is a 7 yr old all-star in his 7 & 8 yr old baseball league. Grandpa and I watched his game. They play 5 innings with the coach pitching and the kids doing all the fielding. MB got a hit!

Birthday
His younger brother is 3 and had a birthday party last Sunday. PJ pants have been a big hit as gifts, so I made him a pair with trucks on them. He put them right on. I guess I'll have to keep sewing pj pants. I have a Butterick pattern in all sizes.

Guild scarf project
The goal is to have the scarf finished by the August meeting, August 9. The pattern is called Swiss Cheese Scarf. I decided how long I want it, trying to allow for stretching, and marked the middle. Now all I have to do is count the side bumps. When I get close, I'll try it on. Current figuring has it 65% complete.

Fiesta Feet
Lucy Neatby wrote this complex pattern a few years ago, and I put it on my wish list and in my cache on Ravelry. One of the options for Ravelry's SKA group this month was stranded color work. The time had come. The thinking was to work on these4 socks while waiting for mystery clues. Reality said that I had a few other things to work on, but I've made some progress. The deadline for prizes for both pairs of socks is August 31. My chances of winning are slim, but I should finish both in time.

Misc. Catching Up

July 5 was family day. The gang gathered at our son's house for the holiday. There were fewer than last year, but we got everyone who was available. We have more family out of town now, and there was a death in the last year.

Tuesday morning my employee showed up for work. Unexpected, but she helped me catch up on the backlog. She usually works on an as needed basis and has only been working a couple of days a month recently. I actually had a little time to sew for the family. I need to do some more of that this week, We have two more birthdays to celebrate and another party to attend. Flannel pj pants have been a big hit, and the flannel stash is being used up.

The knitting project list had 7 projects on it. The orange socks are now finished. The pattern is a vintage one from 1944. It was designed for a man, but I downsized it. Yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Arizona knit with US #1/2.25mm needles. The color goes with a lot of my clothes.
Only 6 projects left to knit, 3 of them are pairs of socks!

Happy Holiday

I've been working too hard. I have one employee, and she has been ill, so I have to do everything myself. Good news/bad news I had a lot of work come in for delivery in early July. Today is the 4th and I'm NOT working.

Thursday was yard day. I had pulled out some Tiger Lilies and wanted to fill in the space. We now have another iris and some cone flowers. Our son wants Tiger Lilies when more get pulled out. We just have too many! Variety is the spice of life and I'm slowly getting some in our yard.

This jacket was started last summer. It's 3 color seed stitch from dishcloth cotton. It will have lace borders. The pattern is adapted from a Vogue sewing pattern. The variegated yarn was bought about 20 years ago. Finally most of it is gone. The rest will become part of a baby sweater.

The orange socks are nearing completion. Translating the pattern from 1944 has proved interesting. It's a fairly simple pattern with cabled "clocks" down each side of the leg. The cable pattern was written out; Rnd 1, rnd 2, rnd 3, rnd 4 like rnd 2, rnd 5 like rnd 1... for 12 rounds. I charted it so that I could see how many rounds between cable crossings. There are no ssk decreases, but the gusset does have skp decreases, so the same thing essentially. The heel flap is short for all sizes. Did I say that the pattern was for men? I downsized it, shortening the ribbing from 5" to 1 1/2". I needed to do more cables that written to make them the length I like. The toes are a typical wedge toe, but all decreases are k2tog. The yarn is from Lana Grossa.

When I went to TNNA in Columbus, OH, I made contact with Cascade Yarn Co. They want me to design a shawl and sent me some yarn. They have a new sport yarn coming out and was the shawl from sport weight.

First I have to finish some socks for Plymouth. They also want a shawl. More stealth knitting for money.

Our knitting guild has a Knit Along of a scarf. The chosen pattern is a free one called the Swiss Cheese Scarf. Mine looks like this, but now it is twice as long. The pattern consists of garter stitch and buttonholes, lots of buttonholes. I'm using cone yarn. which has a gray base and the second ply has lots of other colors.

Today is the first day of summer

It's summer, and all the baby knitting is finished for now. I will need to knit another girl sweater for the future, but not yet. This one is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Tomten Jacket. I used a cotton cone yarn as the base yarn and a number of odd balls to carry along. There is fuzz, there is glitz! All the yarn I used is gone from my stash. It really feels good to use the odd balls!

Some Sewing
I recently made a wedding dress for a client from beaded lace. A simple dress that came out nicely, copied from another dress she brought me. It has a very low back. I did not make the train,it came with the original dress but I had to find a good way to attach it.

She had a wedding dress made when she first got engaged. She didn't really like the dress. She didn't pick the fabric herself, and I'm not sure about the fit. The original dress was beaded all over, and the train was attached with hooks and thread eyes. The thread eyes had broken without the dress being worn. A bad choice, as there is too much danger of catching the beads with the hooks. I removed the hooks and attached two large tabs. "Whopper poppers" were sewn to the tabs and the inside back of the dress. Simple, effective, and strong.

I'm Back!

In addition to life getting in the way, my computer had a nervous breakdown. It was only 1 1/2 years old, but it appears that the mother board went crazy. We'd been having trouble getting online after rebooting. Then the keyboard started recording gibberish, I lost my sound, the computer started shutting down on its own. Two days later and much work by my live-in computer expert and things are much better.

Landscaping
The front yard looks good and will look better when plants mature.
The bushes on the upper level are blooming. Intersector Socks in progress recline by the Wintercreeper bush. This bush will top out at 2 feet high. These socks are now finished, in spite of pattern problems.

The orange socks are from a Vintage pattern, copyright 1944. SKA has a vintage sock challenge this month. I'm ready for something easy after the "bark" socks. Cabled clocks translated from an old pattern still makes for easy knitting. The flowers are Stella D"Oro day lilies.

Baby knitting
Girls are popular this year! Two neighbors had girls recently. I had two girl sweaters put aside, but I need one more, and I need to finish it in time to give before July 1, when the mother leaves town. The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Tomten Jacket, using cone yarn and a selection of odd balls. I'm using pattern instructions from both Knitting Without Tears and Knitting Workshop. Knitting Workshop has great instructions and a diagram for grafting garter stitch. Find the join. Time to knit sleeves.

Current secret project is some socks for South West Trading Company in their new solid TOFUtsies. The flowers are part of my "Little Henry" Sweetspire bush.

Illusion Knitting
I tried illusion design again, following instructions by Woolly Thoughts. The idea was to start simple, and maybe it could be a class sample. It worked! Something like this could also be a scarf.

Sewing business has been crazy. Prom dress alterations are finished, but bridesmaid dresses and wedding dresses are still rolling in and out.

I made a dress for a customer's daughter, who designed the dress. Here's the sketch. The proportions changed from sketch to dress, but the eighth grade designer is happy. The photo sure shows the tilt of the dress form. Many years ago, it had a collision with the floor, and has walked with a limp ever since.

Stitch and Pitch
The annual Knitters Day at the ball park was in late May this year. The Cleveland Indians lost, but it was a beautiful warm spring night and we all had a great time. The silly guy in the photo is our mascot Slider. I guess most mascots are silly, but we love them.