Well I’ll Be Damned

It’s finally a sweater! At least it will be once I get the sleeves sewn in. I finished the hood today and couldn’t wait for the sleeves to take a photo or two.

 

The cable grafting on the hood was also fun. When I knit this before, I just grafted it straight across like they were all knit stitches. It looked OK, but up close you could tell the difference. I got out my knitting references and figured out how to graft garter stitch. Once you can do that, you just graft stockinette for the knit stitches as they face you, and garter for the purl stitches as they face you.

In progress–

And done!

 

The sewing needle is just below the grafted seam.

And here is my grafting cheat sheet.

 

Winter is Coming

It’s still very much summer during the day here, but there are signs that it’s nearly over. Some of the leaves are starting to turn, and it was only 52 degrees here early this morning.

I am almost done with the knitting on Rogue. I have 19 rows of the hood left, then I can sew in the sleeves and call it done.

And Miss Ripley helping me this morning.

And Another New Project

There really isn’t any limit, is there? Knitters seem to fall into two camps, those who have numerous things going at once, and those that just work on a few things at a time. I know knitters who have thirty or forty projects going at once, and I know a very few that only do one at a time, finishing it before starting something new. There are even a few rare ones who only BUY YARN for one project at a time. What’s up with that? What if you finished and the stores were closed? That’s the stuff of nightmares right there.

I sort of fall in between. I like to have a simple sock going, maybe a sweater, a lace project, and at least one simple thing that’s not a sock. But I’m not opposed to having more than one of each of those categories if I’m getting bored.

Here’s the new thing. This is in the category of “simple but not a sock”.

It’s another Hitchhiker, one of the most popular patterns out there. There are nearly 30,000 projects listed for this on Ravelry. The yarn is from deep stash, a skein of Wollmeise Pure that I bought before Wollmeise was as popular as it is now. The yardage with these skeins is huge, 525 meters, so it’s great for a little “shawlette”.

And yes, I should be working on that CME and not starting new knitting projects. I can only answer so many multiple choice questions before I’m ready to stab myself to death with my knitting needles.

Onward.

Home Again

And back to healthy eating. I think we ate enough meat at the beach to feed a small village. I’ve been trying to eat a more plant based diet, which is challenging when you live with a confirmed carnivore.

I’ve lost about twenty pounds over the last few months, but need to kick things up a notch to get the rest of the extra pounds off. Steak and cheese don’t help. Neither do vodka martinis (sob).

Here’s my breakfast today.

It’s a healthy version of migas.

Migas

4 scallions, chopped

Handful of baby kale, sliced

Small tomato, chopped

2 eggs

Ground chile, about a teaspoon

Small handful of tortilla chips, broken into pieces

Salt*

Salsa

I sautéed the scallion in a tiny bit of olive oil, then added the tomato and kale and cooked for a half a minute. I scrambled the eggs with the chile and salt and added to the pan. As soon as the eggs start to set, add the chips and continue stirring until the eggs are done. Serve with salsa.

Usually migas are full of cheese and things like refried beans, so aren’t all that healthy. The veggies bulk this up quite a bit so you don’t need as many chips. I couldn’t eat all of it, John finished it off and pronounced it good. Next time I’ll add more veggies. Spinach and bell peppers would be good as well. If you made this with three eggs it should be enough for two people.

* if your chips are pretty salty, don’t add extra to the eggs

Mind the Gap

Another finished project!

Project Details

 

Pattern: My own jerry-rigged pattern. 72 stitches, flap heel and gusset

Yarn: Trailing Clouds Nimbus sock yarn, color Mind the Gap. It has all the colors on the London Tube map. You can also get this in the Etsy shop.

Needles: 2.00 mm

For: Me

Started/Finished: Started 1/17/18, finished 7/18/18

Modifications: none

What I Learned: This isn’t really new, I guess, but I still love knitting socks, and I love self striping yarn. “Oh look! Another red stripe!”

And I have already started the next pair.

And Done

I’m not doing a whole “finished project” post here. This is a big rectangle with ribbing on either end, then the sides are sewn. I used Cotton Ease in Bubble Gum pink, and 4.5 mm needles. I started this two days ago, and finished today.

It will be a good chemo hat, the yarn doesn’t have a lot of springiness, but it is soft. I think I’m going to do another one a little smaller.

And that’s that.

Sidetracked

Of course, as soon as I posted last time that my plan was to finish about six months of knitting by the end of the month, life took over. I’ve hardly had time to touch my knitting since then. So there was only one thing to do. Start a new project!

A friend is starting chemotherapy and requested a hat. Not just any hat, but a pink pussy hat. I dug through the stash and pulled out a couple of balls of my hoarded Cotton Ease stash. I think that is quite pink enough!

We’re on vacation for the next week at the beach with the kids and grandkids, so hopefully I’ll get some good knitting time in. I’ll leave you with a sunset photo. John took this last night.

Project Update, July Goals

I haven’t done one of these in a while. I’m hoping that by posting my monthly knitting goals, I’ll actually get something done.

Here are the projects that are in the current rotation:

First up is Rogue

I’m done with everything but the hood, then sewing in the sleeves.

Longest Night Shawl

That’s gotten to that unfortunate not very photogenic blob stage.

Balvraid Hap

That’s basically a big garter triangle, when it’s big enough you pick up stitches on the sides and knit a big lace border.

Mind the Gap socks

I have two other lace shawls in the pile that are on the back burner until the Longest Night one gets finished.

July Goals:

Finish the socks

Finish Rogue, if the weather doesn’t get too warm around here.

Finish the Longest Night Shawl.

The hap will be easy TV knitting at least until the lace.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Trillian

I finished this a few weeks ago, but keep forgetting to post!

Project Details

 

Pattern: Trillian, by Martina Behm, part of her Hitchhiker series

Yarn: Schaefer Anne, 560 yards

Needles: 3.25 mm

For: Me

Started/Finished: Started 9/15/17, finished 6/3/18

Modifications: none

What I Learned: These little shawls are like potato chips. They are fun to knit, and very versatile to wear. I’ll probably make this pattern again. It uses sock weight yarn, and God knows I have a lot of that.

Sparkle Plenty!

Well this just amuses me to no end.

I haven’t used nail polish in years, but one of my nieces is a stylist for Color Street nails. They’re basically stick-on nails, in lots of fun colors! These are a pretty close match to my knitting. Go check them out.

Ripley has definitely made herself at home. She and Zoe have become good buddies.

That’s a rare moment of quiet. They’re usually galloping around the house after each other.

Finishing

I realized this morning that I haven’t actually finished a knitting project since late January. That is somewhat embarrassing for someone who claims to knit all the time.

On the needles currently:

Rogue sweater. I need to finish the hood and sew the sleeves in.

Mind the Gap socks, one done, second about a third done.

3 lace shawls in various stages.

Trillian:

I think the problem, if you wish to call it that, is the three lace shawls. I’ve gotten sucked up by the shiny and started too many, so I’m not finishing any of them.

I’m going on a marathon to finish Trillian. It’s a brainless knit, all garter stitch except for the lace edge at the end of each row. I need to knit until I have about 8 grams* of yarn left and then do the lace border and this is done.

23.1 grams left. I’ll post updates along the way.

For those of you who don’t follow me on FB, we have a new family member.

Meet Ripley. We rescued her from the Humane Society about 10 days ago. She’s probably about 8 months old. I think she’s settling in nicely!

*I’m not stupid. I’m going to give it a bit of a cushion, maybe stop the main body section at 12 grams or so.