Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny this week...}

More sock progress in the last few days. I turned the heel on sock #2 Monday night and got a bit of time with the foot last night after the kids got to bed. A few more inches of stockinette before I'm all the way to the toe and can finish this pair. Maybe by next week? We'll see what kind of time I can find around the children.

I'm still deciding on yarn to take on our little trip. I think I'm a little nervous about taking lace in the car for that long without a back up project since lace can be mentally complex and I'm not sure I'm really up for mentally complex while on vacation. Maybe it's the socks and the mitts for me. 

Do you see why this decision feels agonizing? I obviously can't haul a sweater's worth of yarn with me (husband might lose it on that one) but 2-3 skeins for socks or mitts or lace might be okay... But it also has to be the right project so I don't feel stuck knitting it- or else I know exactly what will happen. I will end up not knitting at all because I would rather not knit than to knit something that is annoying me.

If you were heading out for a week or two, what kind of project(s) would you take along?

I'm not reading anything exciting right now- I'm taking another pass through The Well-Trained Mind as I start prepping for next school year with the kids. I do have Son by Lois Lowry on my nightstand though, waiting to go next. I'm excited to finally have some closure on the series.

Yarn Interviews, Part 2

More yarn to share today, along with potential projects.

This is a red lace weight, though it's actually a much richer wine colored red than shows up here. I had the hardest time photographing this color accurately, and this was as close as I could get to the true color. I have about 1300 yards of this red, and I bought with the intention of it becoming a shawl someday. I'm open to suggestions for it though, if you have any to offer.

This is a Claudia Handpaint that I bought with the intention of fingerless mitts to wear in the studio in the winter. I really love the colorway, but the pattern will be key to making the yarn work well.  Pooling in general bothers me, so I haven't been quick to cast on- I want to find just the right thing, but haven't found anything yet. Unless something amazing pops up in my search today, I doubt this yarn will be going with me, even though I love the colorway so much.


At this point I'm leaning toward taking the Regia for socks as a back up plan in case project A doesn't go as desired. But, what is Project A going to be?

Still no idea...

Thoughts for either of the lace weights:

Laminaria

Aeolian Shawl

Featherweight Cardigan

Yarn Interviews

A round of storms did us in over the weekend. Nothing like a message cancelling baseball due to "threat of tornadoes and severe storms."

So I made some progress on my yearly socks instead of spending the whole afternoon at baseball games. I finished the first sock a long while back and in my mind the second sock was somewhere around the start of the heel flap and I had convinced myself it would take a half hour or so to "find my place" when I opened the project bag. Sometimes I want to just get to the knitting, and having to think before getting started seems like too much.


I finally opened it up this weekend to find that I had actually only gotten through the 2x2 cuff and was ready to go on to the simple stockinette leg. Right to the knitting- love that. After spending Ellie's afternoon nap with the leg yesterday I'm ready for the heel flap if I get a moment today. I think our hopes of a little run-away trip are coming to fruition, so I'm spending today and tomorrow doing the things it will take to get us there.Terrible for the knitting time for a day or two, but ultimately a LOT more knitting time while we are gone.

I'm currently interviewing yarn for the trip:

Some pretty grey Regia with just a bit of coral for color in there. I hate to admit this, but I've actually never knit with this particular yarn before. I'm only a serious sock knitter in my dreams, so I guess it's not terribly shocking that I'm just now getting to Regia, but there is is- my first Regia. I'm thinking that socks are very portable, I have my sock pattern memorized and therefore don't have to take (and potentially lose) a pattern. If this is the only knitting I take for a week of vacation time I'm pretty much guaranteed a completed pair of socks when I get home (or pretty close to it).

Some gray heathered lace weight. I have a touch over 1300 yards here. Lace goes a long way for knitting. I probably wouldn't finish a project in a week of lace, but it would go a long way in getting me started on a pretty shawl.


There are other yarn options too, but today these are the two serious contenders.


I was also briefly tempted to bring 3 or 4 smaller things to finish out of my basket,, but I'm pretty sure vacation knitting time isn't really meant for seaming and binding off. I'm pretty sure knitting rules state that you have to start a new project on a trip and designate that one project to the entirety of the trip. The only scary part of it is if I find myself really wishing I was knitting something else-- and then I'm stuck with just the yarn I brought.


Hence the yarn interviews. It's important to have just the right fit so that the project will not go south and I shall not find myself wanting for different yarn. (Or maybe I'll bring the sock yarn as back up...)

Finishing

The studio is almost closed up for the break between the spring and summer sessions- I can see the finish line, just a few hours from now! The last few weeks have been craziness getting the last classes finished up and out the door, not to mention all the end-of-year things going on with my own kids. In the past week we finished soccer season and co-op for the year, we tilled ground for a small starter garden, and have been pulling things out of beds that died in the drought last year.

Ezra graduated kindergarten with his co-op buddies and as each Kindergartener crossed the stage the co-op director read off a few answers each child had given for a set of questions they had asked. Ezra gave me a glowing recommendation as the person he most admires. In his words- "because she bought me a toy yesterday." Ahhh... motherhood.

The next step forward is to get the house in shape so that we can maybe run away on a little trip (the kind with a beach) and have a sense of peace for a short period of time before diving full blast into baseball season with the boys.



It's probably hard to believe with the lack of evidence here on the blog, but I am knitting again, just still slowly and in short bits of time. I finished the knitting on a Looped Loop cowl yesterday and only have to kitchener/reverse kitchener the ends to form it into an actual cowl. I'm a little afraid it will take more brain power than I will have tonight to actually do that, but we'll see. That's the plan for tonight, but we'll see how it is when 8:30 p.m. actually comes around this evening.

This Week (or two...)

 

We woke up to this on Friday. It started with a bit of sleet Thursday night around dinner and just a few flakes, but by morning- this.

This is quite unusual for our area at this time of the year. We were literally wearing shorts and tank tops on Wednesday and then Thursday was hovering at 40F. We missed our baseball and soccer games today and I'm pretty sure tomorrow's games will be cancelled as well due to all the standing water and the fact that the weather still hasn't sorted itself out by now.

In the past 2 weeks we celebrated a certain little girl's birthday with cake (that she totally didn't like) and her favorite cut up fruits. She is *running* everywhere now and has quite a sense of humor now. Seeing her personality develop is such a treat.

On the Needles...

This is the fun turn in my crafting narrative. For the last month I have been dealing with a severe resurgence of tendonitis in my left elbow that pretty much keeps me from doing well, everything. I haven't been able to knit, or play my instruments or type 2-handed in ages. I'm finally recovering full feeling in my ring and pinky fingers, but working really hard to get it managed and get back to normal since I make my living as a violinist. I'm working 2 more weeks in the studio and then intending to fully rest my arm for the 4 weeks between the school year and summer sessions.  

I read...

The boys and I just started Trumpet of the Swan together. 

And this will be the place where I can let you know that Ender has read three short-ish chapter books in just the last week and I'm soooo excited for him- and at the same time trying not to let on to him too much about my excitement. He tends to frown upon anything I give more attention to than a passing "Oh, that's cool" comment, so I'm trying to dial it down. I have been seriously worried that he would never really be a reader, and over the last few months that has definitely been changing. LOVE it!

Learning all the time…

I'm working hard on plans for our next homeschool term (which we will start in July). We'll be finished with "regular" school days in about 2 weeks and from there we will just continue grid-work, math and reading until after July 4.

Inspiration...

I'm paying attention to Fiber Factor and wishing I had just a little more time lately (as well as a fully functioning arm) to participate unofficially. What a fun contest!

Watching (Spoiler Free, of course...)

With Brian: Big Bang Theory, season 2

On My Own: current Doctor Who (!!!)

and David Tennant's episodes with Ender a little at a time.

Listening...

to the lovely Knitmore Girls and many back episodes of the Nerdist.

Garden...

We planted a bunch of flowers in the front beds last weekend before we knew about the whole "snow in May thing". So that was a lot of... well, moving on. 

In Stitches...

I participated as I could for KCW: Spring and came out with cut pieces for 2 tops and a dress for Ellie and one completely finished dress that I need to try to get pictures of. I had to really try to remember looking at everyone else's work that while I know how to sew and sew sometimes, I'm not really a sewist when it comes down to it. I don't love sewing like so many others do- I truly am a knitter at heart. So for me? I got a heck of a lot done last week in my 7ish hours. Not a lot in the finished category, but enough fire in me to try to keep up at least an hour or two a week with the sewing machine.

This weekend... 

We spent today at home thanks to cancelled baseball and soccer. So a few chores, a bit of movie time, and I spent a good amount of time on planning school for next year. Great day. :)