Week Five: Quantum of Progress

This week I’ve stayed busy, but until a few minutes ago I didn’t think I was getting anything done. Then I looked at what I did today:

• Went to knitting and drank one chai latte. (This list gets more impressive, I swear.)
• Turned the heel on one sock.
• Finished one blanket square.
• Knitted one repeat on a scarf.
• Gave away one of my typewriters.
• Worked on calculus homework for about an hour.
• Read one more chapter of Plato’s Republic.
• Left some cookies on campus for friends.
• Filled up the gas tank.
• Thrift-bought the shirts for tomorrow’s Spirit Day.
• Went to the bus service to look for our lost mittens.

The list really does go on and on. And if you look at the whole week, you’ll see more of the same. Had a new washing machine installed. Had the old washing machine hauled away. Baked a batch of cupcakes. Mixed a batch of frosting. Caught up on “Castle.” Applied for one job. Made a pot of chicken soup. Swapped out the rear axle on my bike. Little things that didn’t take much time to do, when considered in isolation.

In my fantasies, it would be really nice to spend the day doing one thing all day long. Like, read a whole book, reorganize the whole upstairs, give away all the clothes that need to be donated, sew up a complete quilt, write a whole short story, watch a complete trilogy. But I don’t get that kind of time, and I suspect my brain doesn’t work that way. Besides, when I do try to spend a day that way — if I don’t almost immediately get a call from somewhere, saying someone has been hurt, and I must come and get them Right Away — I can no longer see the tree I’ve gotten done through the forest of neglected tasks.

My task is to keep spinning the plates. Not even all of the plates — spinning most of them is fine as long as they are the right plates. Some of the plates deserve to crash or be replaced with new ones. And I need to forgive myself and move on when I think I’ve broken the wrong plate, or am not spinning enough of them.

• Wrote one blog post.

Greater resolution

It’s time again to reinvent myself — to move forward, to learn more, to do more, to be more.

To blog more. Let’s make that #1.

Thusly, I resolve that, in 2013 (!!!) I shall:

1. Blog on Chocolate Sheep again, and regularly. Dare I say, weekly?
2. Finish the Doctor Who scarf I’m knitting for my friend Ginnie. COMPLETED!
3. Complete my calculus class.
4. Learn one new cast-on.
5. Find a Most Excellent Job in my chosen field of technical and scientific editing.
6. Learn one new cast-off.
7. Help my kids be awesome.

Seven looks like a good number, don’t you think?

The Shortest Yard

Then there were seven.

Last night I utterly dedicated myself to finishing 198 Yards of Heaven. To translate, that means I really wanted to finish my toque, but Dale-Harriet was held up doing “other” fun things besides knitting and wouldn’t be to Knit Night until, well, later.

I told myself I’d just do a few rows until she showed up with the toque yarn.

I pulled the lace project out of its bag, looked at it carefully, and realized the removable purple tape I’d used to mark the pattern row had fallen off.

I asked the Sow’s Ear staff to pull up my Ravelry project listing on their computer so I could see what row I was on, and realized I hadn’t been very specific about that lately.

However, I had been kind enough to leave a cyber-note to myself that the stitch count was now accurate, and that was enough for me to be able to resume work.

Then I knit and knit and knit. Six long rows of pattern. Six more rows to the ending. Four rows that made an eyelet row and a row of 1×1 ribbing.

And then it was eleven o’clock at night. Time for the store to close, and not enough time to work a lace bind-off with what I was beginning to believe was not enough yarn.

“Just buy some more,” someone suggested. Well… that wasn’t possible, since the yarn I used for this project were the only two remaining skeins of it, purchased from this very store at least two years ago. 200 yards of it, for a pattern titled “198 Yards of Heaven.”

So I packed everything up, and turned a 60 minute drive home into a hair-raising, no-caffeine-needed 90 minute drive home in the first snow of the season. The roads weren’t slippery, really, it was just that I couldn’t see them, or very much of them, most of the time. That’s all.

This morning I ordered the children to watch television (it’s a rough life, but they woke me after four full hours of sleep and I wanted to reward them somehow) while I took the project into another room to bind it off.

I carefully measured my remaining yarn before starting the bind-off row, and I had 7 yards. Surely, seven yards would be plenty for working a four-foot edge.

(You already know the answer, don’t you?)

But you don’t know the solution — I used the yarn leftover from the first skein of yarn, which I had made into a little bobbin with a twist-tie.

Ha ha ha, one more project finished, and I have three whole yards left over from the 200! 198 Yards of Heaven, my ass! More like 197! Bwahahahahaaaaaaa!

And after I bribe the digital camera with some new lithium batteries, it will release my photographs and I will insert them in the appropriate positions in this post.

P.S. Dale-Harriet DID bring the matching yarn. You’re next, toque!

To the left, in the shadows

I’m still here and still knitting. I have been finishing projects, but not remembering to take pictures of them. I have been wanting to start some new projects, but I really should take care of the current lot that’s been hanging around for a while.

Here are the Notorious Nine (as seen on Ravelry):
1. Mystery knitting for a friend — might be able to finish this weekend.
2. Million Dollar Blanket — a long-term project for myself that will take at least another year. It will be a pieced blanket with 225 garter-stitch squares.
3. Vulcan gloves — intended as a Christmas present, but we’ll see. I’m about half done with the first one.
4. Toque — waiting for the rest of the wool, then it will be a quick finish for a gift to myself.
5. 198 Yards of Heaven — 26 rows to go, but each one needs concentration. I can only work on this in good light under the right social circumstances. Places where I need to refill juice cups don’t count.
6. Tilting Tardis Scarf — this is an adaptation of a wonderful cowl pattern. I put this on hold before July’s “Mitten Madness” and haven’t restarted. It should be simple to do after 198 Yards. However, I don’t have very much of it done.
7. Tyrone Sweater — no comment.
8. Sapphire Scarf — Good car and TV knitting. I have been plugging away on this recently, but it’s sock yarn on US4 needles, so it might never really end. For myself or whatever, no deadline.
9. Adipose — Poor thing just needs to be stuffed and Kitchenered. It’s adding the eyes and “nose” that have me stymied. It’s been waiting for me for about, what, two or three years now?

Gah. No wonder I am craving new projects.

As far as Christmas knitting goes, only my mother and my future sister-in-law have asked for anything specific. Everybody else gets cookies, which I hope won’t be much of a letdown. Life’s too short to knit for people who don’t appreciate your time and love.

294 to go

I have finished knitting the latest Doctor Who scarf.

I have cut 294 foot-length pieces of yarn in all seven colors in order to make 42 fringe sections, 21 for each end. Forty-two always seems like the right number.

I have not attached them to the scarf yet.

I will not post again until I have done so.

And I am going to start, right now.

Meeting expectations

I always knew I was my own worst enemy. No sooner do I vow to Get This Doctor Who Scarf Done No Matter What, I decide I just have to make matching hats for the mittens.

One hat down, another hat started, two hats to go.

But tonight, I swear, I will work on The Scarf. After tonight’s Top Chef and a round of playing the home game (eight key ingredients, two cooks, one dish each, no desserts). I mean, I only have 190 rows to go before I add the tassels.

So, of course, I started on some Secret Holiday Knitting too. That shouldn’t slow me down a bit, no sirreeeeee!

But other than that, the order should probably be Doctor Who Scarf first, Adipose, Tilting TARDISes Cowl/Scarf (did I mention that one in the last list? it’s lovely lace), Gigi’s Triangle Shawl, 198 Yards of Hell, and then whatever’s left. With, of course, Hats of Hilarity and Christmas Knitting tucked in between each of those projects.

Did I mention there is a birthday and a wedding coming up? And that I thought when school started I would be able to work on some quilts when I wasn’t studying for my Apple Hardware and OS Certification? Oh crap. I might find out I’m human after all.

Time/spacewise, I started reading the introduction of my scholarly edition of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, only to discover his primary influence for the work was a book called Flatland published by Edwin Abbott in 1884. Well lo and behold, I have already bought Flatland, so after finishing the Time Machine intro I will read Flatland first. This is all because I finished Cosmos a couple of days ago, yay me.

It’s all part of the plan. Hang on tight.

Four of Ten

After I stared at the red mittens for a few days, I finally got my act together and knitted their thumbs. After the sad experiences of my previous mitten-making stints, in which the second mitten invariably emerged from the needles as a 10 percent reduction of the first one, I wanted to be able to concentrate on what I was doing, keep careful track of my rows, and make sure the two mittens were as darn close to identical as I could make them.

So, I packed them off to Late Night Knitting at the Sow’s Ear last Friday and went forward. With the help of just a touch of Chocovine and some bites of panko chocolate. (Seriously, a dark chocolate bar with panko bread crumbs and sea salt. It’s hard to express just how yum this is.)

In the end, I was pleased with my efforts.

So, I went on to finish knitting Zoom, a swiffer cover made from dishcloth cotton. I haven’t seamed it up yet, but the Actual Knitting ended about 15 minutes before Late Night did. I was pleased with how that turned out, too.

The impetus for knitting Zoom is that last month the thin carpeting in our rented farmhouse was replaced with laminate flooring in the kitchen and dining room. And while I’m no longer obsessed with the thought of a rotten carpet, pad, and subfloor every time one of the kids spills a Capri Sun, I did quickly realize I was going to have to make something to help me keep it clean and dry. I’ve had a Swiffer broom for years, but I hated having to spend so much money on the little wipes. And they always dried out in their packages before I got to use them all. A reusable cotton cover made so much sense to me. Now, I almost have one. There are several patterns for this kind of thing; I selected Zoom because it had a little texture to it.

Anyway, then I pulled my 198 Yards of Heaven project out of the bag. It stared me in the face. It taunted me. You don’t have time to work on me properly, just enough time to start a row and thoroughly screw it up. What’s the matter, can’t you count? I put it back in the bag. There were more mittens to do.

Sort of. When I asked my daughter if she still wanted brown mittens, she said no. She had wanted brown woolen mittens with decorated backs that looked like either horseshoes, or initials made from yarn that looked like a cowboy’s rope. I don’t remember exactly. It sounded pretty complex to me, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was relieved to hear that she had changed her mind.

“What kind of mittens do you want, then?”
“Ones with fingers.”
Oh crap. “Gloves?”
“Yes! Gloves! In purple.”

Now, the closest I’ve come to knitting gloves would have been…. oh, let’s see. The red mittens in the picture in this post. Well, I did want to please, and it was time to stretch and challenge myself a little bit, so I looked through my pattern files.

What I ended up doing was combining the measurements I’d taken for Jack’s hands (Colleen is older but slight, and Jack is younger but robust, and most times they measure identically) for the Fittin’ Mittens pattern with the recipe given in a Winter 2003 article from Interweave Knits called “Progressive Gloves.” There will be plenty of new things for me to learn, including the way the thumb is allowed for (you knit several stitches with waste yarn to create a provisional cast on you’ll pick up later).

I picked a pretty variegated purple yarn from the stash (Rhapsody from Dark Horse Yarns, a Merino Wool from Turkey of all places, an orphan skein I adopted from the Sow’s Ear last year), cast on last night, and immediately modified the pattern so her gloves would have ribbed cuffs. That I already know how to do.

I’ll need to measure her hand this morning to determine how far to knit before I put in the thumb stitches, and I need to know where her “finger line” is, but so far it’s been good knitting. The yarn measures out at 205 yards for 100 grams, so it’s big fluffy Merino. So nice to knit with after the Bernat sock-weight nylon/acrylic blend I just wrestled into a pair of mittens.

In other news, UNWIND registrations are starting to roll in. By the time I log in the new ones there should be about 15 out of 200. It’s all more real every day. Please, if you’re planning to come, do help me out by registering as early as you can so we’ll know better how much we’re planning for.

And, oh. Top Chef. See ya, Tim!

Let the games begin!

It’s Mitten Madness!!

After last year’s failed attempt to make timely mittens for everyone in the family, I decided to adjust my game plan. Waiting until people actually need mittens does not grant enough time to make a pair for everyone. There’s also the problem of Christmas knitting backing up into the early fall knitting schedule.

“Hmm,” I thought, “I should have made these mittens in July.”

The more thought I gave it, the more sense it made. Mittens are pretty quick projects, and unless you’re making woolen gauntlet-length versions, they’re too small to ever even hit your lap. (And I made the Dragon Scale Gauntlets last year, so we already have those.) You wouldn’t want to knit a woolen afghan in the summer, but a little mitten? Or even a big mitten? During a road trip in an air-conditioned car? No problem!

I cleverly told all my friends about my plan to knit all the family mittens in July, and they’re ready to call me on it.

Now. I didn’t say that mittens would be the only thing I would knit. So you may see me working on one of a few different projects, such as the ill-named 198 Yards of Heaven shawlette, or my Tilting TARDISes Cowl (which I’m making as a scarf due to neck-based claustrophobia issues), or the Doctor Who Scarf for my brother…. you get the picture.

But the mittens will have priority, and I’ll strive to provide a progress shot every time I publish a new blog post.

First up: “Blue’s Clues” mittens for Tommy.

In other news, this year’s Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival Saturday Night Afterparty has been cleverly renamed “UNWIND.” The cost is just $10 per person and includes a professionally cooked hors d’ouvres buffet. Remember last year’s party on the Festival grounds? How the doors were open for air and let in the flies? How everything smelled like sheep? How we had to put away our own folding chairs? How some people’s cars got accidentally locked in the parking lot? Well. THIS year the party is being held at the ballroom of the JC Plaza Hotel and Conference Center (formerly the Johnson Creek Comfort Suites). We are going to be all fancy schmantzy and even have access to a cash bar. Bring your wheel, bring your needles, show off your purchases, maybe win a door prize.

Here is where you can download your reservation form!

Any questions? About anything? Comment away!

It’s good to be blogging again.

WFBK

Baby, if you’ve ever wondered
Wondered whatever became of me
I’m still on the internet at Facebook
Facebook and a site called Ravelry

Got tired and tired of writing and reposting
Uploading three times didn’t make me smile
I’ll be back to blogging soon, just wait and see
So you can check back here once in a while
Until then I’ll be at Facebook and at Ravelry…..

Search me!

You may have noticed that the blog looks a tiny bit different these days. I guess the housecleaning I’ve had to do lately has rubbed off on my cyberlife, and I finally did some tidying up.

It started with Twitter. I resisted the Facebook “temptation” (why do I need Facebook if I already have a blog?) but I did join Twitter. My account is set up so I need to approve every “follow” request, which should cut down on the spammy stuff. But it’s amusing. I did try to set up a widget here that would show my last five tweets, like on the Yarn Harlot’s blog, but since my account is set to Private it won’t let me broadcast it on my blog. Which makes sense, now that I think about it.

But since I was messing around with WordPress widgets anyway, I did make some other changes.

The Calendar seemed to have disappeared, so I put it back.

The Blogroll got trimmed. I apologize for any hurt feelings — none were intended. But I have not been able to keep up on my blog reading, so I wanted to keep the blogs I go to most frequently. I do have some blogs I need to add, but haven’t made a list of those yet.

I also added a Search widget. Now that I’ve finished a square for Paul Newman’s cause, I wanted to re-read my post about Robert Redford. Bingo! Easy peasy.

I adjusted the Recent Posts section to show the last 5 posts and no more. It was just taking up extra space.

And…. I also added the Category Cloud. That should be fun to play with.

Somewhere in all this, the spam counter got reset. Wonderful Akismet has actually blocked thousands of spam posts (Mary-rk, I’m looking at you), not just 43 or whatever it says now. But gone is gone!!

Knitwise, I did finish my square for the Double H Camp effort. It was supposed to be all red, but I got bored and it turned out like this instead:

Don’t worry, Shawn said it was okay to do that.

But now I’m kind of knitted into a corner. With that project done, my other options on the needles are a lace scarf, a Doctor Who Scarf, and a Doctor Who Scarf. I have tagged a few WIPs for the Ravelry WIPs Wrestlemania event, so I’m not starting on those until July 1.

Hello garter stitch my old friend…..