Oogyknitter

Check out the weather that was headed right for me yesterday afternoon: Nothing happened, aside from a few drops of rain and a couple of gusts of wind.  It was the second round of cold fronts that were passing through here yesterday - perhaps all the drama went elsewhere?  (Do you see how green the Whatever is after all the rain??) Also yesterday - the yarn I needed to complete the GLC arrived, and then I had a crazy idea:  Oogyhubby was going out with friends that evening, including the intended recipient!  I certainly wouldn't have it done by the time he left, but what if he were to present it upon arrival home?  So I crrocheted furiously for the next few hours, then spent more time than I thought I'd need working in all the ends.  Here is the final pic, before I folded it up and left it for the later presentation: (It's so big that I couldn't get it to fit in the shot - but you get the idea) I felt a great satisfaction upon its completion, ...

OK, so Who Knew that these were actually a thing???? I looked out the window earlier this week, and thought - huh, who kicked a BALL into the garden area there?  We're quite out of ball-kicking distance.  Maybe the wind blew it there? So yesterday I investigated further.  It's the size of a soccer ball (I didn't have anything with me to show the scale).  That little dent in the front is where I poked it with my foot.  Then I googled it. Evidently - it's a mushroom.  A giant mushroom.  A giant puffball mushroom.  Some of these can be edible.  Not an issue for me, as I hate all mushrooms.  But - it's hardly a puffball at this point, it's rather solid.  Maybe as they dry up they puff out all the spores?  I'm inclined to wait it out - unless I did it in with my toe prodding!! The extra yarn for the GLC arrived today, so I can get busy and get that finished.  I also need to finish and block Waiting for Rain...

Here is August Hat, all finished and ready to join the hat pile: I sucked it up and ripped out the super cute socks, and will start them again in a smaller size: I was out for most of the afternoon today, and upon my arrival home the deer stared at me with some measure of disinterest - they were more concerned with what Oogyhubby was doing with that machine that cuts their grass so short!

Welcome back, all!  We're just back from a week's vacation on Cape Cod, where there were whales, seals, sunsets, beaches, mini golf, friends, sailing, a campfire, and a whole lot of delicious seafood!  The weather was awesome - even the couple of days that were cool and windy were enjoyable.  As you know, I don't take a lot of pictures - so I'll have to get busy photographing all the yarn here in the coming days! Yes, today is the first day of Fall, and we had the AC on last night - it was a balmy 86 degrees yesterday, and last night didn't get below 74.  We're expecting a cold front to come through later today with some wind and rain; judging by the color of things, we could really use the rain here. So what kinds of yarn projects did I complete whilst away for so long?  Well - none. The good news is that I have nearly finished Waiting for Rain - I saved the bind-off to do this week.  The bad news, if there is ever really any bad news when it comes t...

Neuro strikes again, this time sending me the most beautiful set of gradient yarns!! I couldn't stop thinking about what to make with it all, so I spent some quality time on Ravelry to get some ideas.  I ended up with a very nice list of possibilities, but this one made me exclaim out loud: (Photo credit goes to the pattern designer, verybusymonkey.  I couldn't figure out how to center the pic here, oh well.)  Here's a link to Luckdragon  so you can see for yourself!  It's got all kinds of cables and patterns - good thing I have a few cable needles to help out with that ;) Neuro had also asked what I was doing with all of the Month Hats.  When it all first started out, I was doing really well - I would make one, then I would find someone to give it to - usually a friend or colleague.  But I've now got a stack of at least four (about to be five) hats, without any intended recipients.  It's a little strange to be handing out wool hats i...

Not only are we expecting some unseasonably warm weather in the coming days, but August Hat emerged suddenly yesterday: Often times it seems with these hat patterns that an interesting design or motif results in - well, just one more row....  Until - poof!  It's nearly done. So - a couple of things.  First of all, and as you can see a little from this pic - the bottom braid tends to roll up from the bottom.  This didn't start to happen until I was nearly at the upper braid, and I wasn't about to rip it all out and start over.  I think it could be remedied with a purl row immediately following the braid, and this hat was so fun I might just make it again someday and try that.  I'm otherwise annoyed.  Yes, it will block out, but it will roll back up again with use.  Surely this was revealed in the test knitting, which makes me even more annoyed. You can also see that I'm not quite done yet - there are still some needles at the top.  I'm...

Once again, it probably doesn't look like much progress since the last pic, but I've added at least two more color blocks to the GLC: I'm going to add another two color blocks before seriously considering whether to start the border or keep going.  I'll definitely need more yarn if I decide to keep going, and it's possible I'll need more for the border anyway (which will be in that dark brown color). In the meantime, I've re-started August Hat.  I was working on the cast-on and Latvian Braid while listening to an interesting podcast, and somehow ended up flipping the first row over.  For most things I love to use something that looks like the Twisted German cast-on (but isn't actually twisted, so I have no idea what it's called), which essentially creates a knit row at the same time.  By flipping it, the first row appears as purl bumps instead of the smooth knit stitches.  I didn't feel like ripping it out again, and it's not a ba...

While I was rooting around looking for the Kidsilk Haze for my mom's Waiting for Rain shawl, I happened across this: There are a couple of stories here.  I want to say that this yarn was dyed by the grandmother of all indie dyers, Cheryl Schaefer of Schaefer Yarns.  She had a small operation, mighty but very manual, set up in the midst of her home and property within the Finger Lakes region of New York, where she would dye her yarns and sell them to wholesalers.  From what I can tell, she retired in 2012 so this was already some time ago, long before the current (and wonderful) phase of indie dyers who are now all over the place doing all kinds of cool things. I got to see her set-up, but it was long before I knew anything about dyeing - probably about 15 years ago.  It was a small field trip that a local yarn store had put together - our fee included the van rental, a box lunch, a nice little tote bag with their store logo, and a tour of Schaefer Yarns. ...

Today it feels like I'm playing yarn chicken with a bunch of my projects. All About That Brioche - I saw this one coming, so it wasn't a complete disaster when it happened.  I started with the appropriate yardage, but I went up a needle size from the pattern because I liked the plushier effect with this yarn.  Larger needles use more yarn; therefore - I needed to make a couple of adjustments in the middle section.  One of the brioche sections will be slightly shorter as a result, but I don't think this will affect the shawl's overall aesthetic or function.  Here's how much of the darker color I have remaining: The last section - all garter, using the lighter color - can just keep going until there's no more yarn.  That trick will be for me to have enough to do the bind-off on what will be a longer edge.  Not too much of a trick, though, so definitely do-able. Waiting for Rain - how did I not see that only one skein of the Malibrigo won't be enough,...

I spoke too soon the other day when I stated that I had the brioche set-up rows all set.  Since this scarf is asymmetrical, there are increases and decreases on the ends, along with slipped stitches (I really like this because then the edges look so neat and tidy!).  It's hard enough for me to remember to do everything correctly when just knitting along in one color, never mind attempting brioche in two colors.  And with such neat edges, even small mistakes stick way out.  Needless to say, I ended up ripping back to the end of the garter and starting over; I'm actually really glad I did this, it looks so much better now.  Here I am at the halfway point through the brioche, where the color scheme reverses: I'm liking the challenge and the look of the brioche, but will also welcome the return to fairly mindless garter stitch - mostly so I can work on it without having to count and pay so much attention! I'm still working on the GLC afghan; as this thing get...

So after all of my talk yesterday about working on the inbetween projects, I was compelled to keep going on the GLC: It's almost as long as our king-size bed is wide, if that provides any context.  I may need to take the next picture from the second floor, looking down on the first floor! I also started the two-color brioche on the All About.  I've already had to tink back the first two rows, but think that I've now got the first four baseline rows all squared away.  Fingers crossed!