Oogyknitter

OK everyone!  We've hinted at it a bit before now, but here on the eve of the New Year (and New Decade!!), I'm happy to announce our theme for 2020 - Year of the Badass Cowl!! What does this mean? Well - both Neuro and I have had all kinds of ideas swirling around in our heads since we landed on this theme just a few days ago.  We're both rummaging through our stashes and already imagining all the possibilities.  I don't think we have any hard and fast rules (at least just yet), although we did want to include some of our own designs (which, for me, means that I actually need to come up with some of my own designs, LOL!!). I think a soft rule might be that each cowl needs to have something badass about it - so that, when the intended recipient is wearing it, they feel like they can conquer most any adversary they encounter; for example, they fly out the door with their head held high, walk into meetings with a slight swagger, or impress the other coffee shop custo...

So far, my short-term "Yarn Project List" (aka The Knitting Queue, although some of it is not knitting) has 15 items on it!  I've probably mentioned most of them to you at some point, but there are two brand new ones that deserve some special attention - they are gifts from Neuro!! The first will require some advanced planning: These look even more amazing in person, and the colors are just extraordinary!  The planning will involve what sort of project I'd like the eventual yarn to be, before I get to spinning it.  I'll need to do some research too - about exactly how to spin this stuff as well as what kind of yardage I might expect from the weight.  Each hankie is a flattened-out silkworm cocoon, and rumor has it that you just grab from the center and it unravels.  We'll see about that! The next is something ready for me to dive into, which could be any day now: Neuro dyed these awesome colors on a sock blank with this exact pattern in mind!!...

Neuro and I have settled on our theme for 2020, but it feels a little premature to announce it just yet.  Suffice it to say that I've started my first project, let's call it a warm-up for what's to come: This is the Ten and Counting cowl pattern that I'd mentioned previously, along with KnitPicks Shimmer, doubled.  It's an easily-memorized, 8-row repeat following the 2x2 ribbing, and with all of the stitch markers in place there's no counting.  I'm already into the second pattern repeat, and it continues to be a pleasure to knit. I had lunch yesterday with a friend; I gave her April Hat, which she loves.  She is definitely a hat person, and later sent me a text saying "This looks super cute on me!"  That is the best feedback I could imagine!  She'd brought me a bottle of wine (in a lovely wine bag that I immediately recast as a knitting project bag!); a hat for wine - the best exchange ever!  It's a lovely Pinot Grigio - which is alw...

I've gone as far as I can on the fourth large square for the CWA: It's a cool construction, as each small square is created by picking up and knitting stitches at the edges of the previous squares.  But now I'm stuck.  I ran out of green, which means that the square that needs to be in the upper left corner has to wait until I get the order from KnitPicks - which will also contain the cream I need for the square next to it (at the top).  I'll be able to get these two squares done at that time, but then will need to have a second hiatus whilst I wait for Sky to be available - which I need for the beginning of the third column and which starts at the lower right!  Good thing the wedding isn't until June! I did manage to accomplish most of what else I'd set out to do yesterday - casting on for December Hat, and balling up (half of) the yarn for a cowl.  I'm going to make Ten and Counting - I've got 880 yards of alpaca/silk laceweight yarn (KnitPicks...

Oogyhubby and I spent yesterday cooking our butts off - he smoked a turkey, and I made cranberry relish, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, and a pumpkin cream pie.  And there was wine :)  We had quite the feast, although it was a bit disappointing that, after several hours of preparation, we were finished eating within a matter of minutes!  We'll have leftovers for weeks, and a grand soup some time in the future, so there's that. Inbetween, I worked on the CWA, and finally got to the point where I'm 100% certain that I'm going to run out of yarn, probably for all colors.  This morning I headed for the KnitPicks web site and ordered 10 of the 12 skeins I need to finish (yah, guess this kit wasn't such a bargain after all - but think of the cowls I can make with the leftovers!).  What of the remaining two, you might ask?  Well, Sky and Black are currently unavailable.  Knowing KnitPicks, they'll be back soon.  I'll soon be at a stopping point,...

Happy Winter Solstice Holidays to all!  It seems that our typically cloudy and depressing winter weather here has been (likely temporarily, but I'll take it) replaced by strange warmth and some sunshine.  Which makes my optimism even more exuberant.  It only gets brighter from here!!!  I hope you all enjoy spending time with your friends and family - even phone and Skype can be enriching! Spurred by this optimism, and Neuro's 2020 Cowl Theme suggestion, I went a little mad yesterday.  First of all, we have the CWA at 75%: Here is a close-up of the latest (and third) large square: I will definitely need another skein of the black (not sure where the second one went - it's needed for the border, but perhaps I borrowed it at some point, just like I did with the mitts kit and Cold As?), but even the prospect of having to order more of everything is undaunting.  The yarn is still in production, is not terribly expensive, and leftovers can be used for...

You may have had a hunch that this was going on, but I didn't say much about it.  But now the time has come! It wasn't all just Cousin Wedding Afghan (CWA) and baby mitts here for the past few weeks - there have been other things going on as well that I can now reveal to you! The Oogys and The Neuros spent some quality time over Skype the other evening, during which we shared many laughs, enjoyed adult beverages, and opened the gifts we'd sent to each other - which included some of this mystery knitting!! I made not one, but two, Cut the Scrap! cowls with the yarn remaining from the Perfect Blend KAL.  All that was needed was a neutral color for each: I'd divided the leftovers into two separate colorways, then coordinated with a base color.  (I still have leftovers from all of them!!)  The gray/reddish version went to Neuro, and the purple version went to LW (you might recognize the wedding shawl yarn here; that stuff is the loaves and fishes...

In the midst of yesterday's snow squalls (during which it felt like the entirety of Lake Ontario was redepositing itself upon us in frozen form), I took the opportunity to assess the state of - for lack of a better name at the moment - Granny Baby: Here's what I've decided: - Make 9 more small green squares to fill in the blanks - Use the multi-colored yarn (extreme right corner) to join them all together, and perhaps create some borders around and/or between the colored square sections - Use the remaining green (lower right corner) to finish off with a nice outside border All that I needed to do next was remember what size crochet hook I was using, in order to match gauge.  This yarn is all worsted weight acrylic, so I grabbed what I had immediately available, an I and a G, and set off to work.  Long story short - The square with the I was too big.  The G was way too small for the yarn.  I realized that needed an H.  I dimly recalled using an H -...

You guys!!!  It wasn't until I was in bed last night, with the light out and the ocean* on, when I realized that I'd forgotten all about it - the pattern for December Hat was released yesterday!!  And it's a goodie**, with lots of pudgy cables and the possibility for gender neutrality.  I'm going to make it with a male-appropriate color but, if I like it as much as I think I will, there will be a second one in the works before too long!  *The only thing that beats this noise on our sleep-sound machine is the actual ocean itself!! **No wonder it's the #1 "Hot Right Now" pattern on Ravelry this morning!!! Also - in spite of all my earlier work on the holiday knitting, realizing all along that there is less time between the November and December holidays this year, and spending Monday afternoon baking cookies, I'm quickly running out of time to get these last cards and packages (cookies!) in the mail.  When did that happen?? No pics today - all I...

This week I absolutely cruised through the knitting for the slippers I'm making for me: This was the fun part, especially since I've made this pattern so many times and therefore have a good awareness of how the whole thing comes together.  The less fun part - although no less critical - is all the sewing, working in of ends and such, and of course the felting.  The weather isn't getting any warmer, so I'll want to have these finished sooner rather than later.  More to come! (I also have a bunch of yarn left over, since I'd bought enough to use it doubled - I'm thinking hat?) Most of you probably already know by now that, earlier this week, I published my first pattern on Ravelry:  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/unplanned-extubation-prevention-mitts This is the pattern for those little mitts I'm always making; I'd written it out for the NICU staff so they could hand it out as they wanted, and Neuro had tested it at that time.  Def...

Done!!! I'm enthusiastic about selecting the yarn for December Hat, but will need to wait until the pattern is out next week before doing so!  These hats have all been (mostly) fun and lovely, but only a few have spoken to me as clearly unisex; I'm hoping that December will lend a hand with that; otherwise, I may need to go rogue and make some more hats for boys! Speaking of which - I think I need to start making some mitts in the coming year.  Perhaps a self-imposed mitt-of-the-month club, so to speak?  I find 12 mitt patterns (different ones!), match them up with stash yarns, and pick one out randomly each month to make.  As with the hats this year, before too long there will be a nice pile of gifts just waiting for their recipients!  Any suggestions for patterns?  One will definitely be from the Woodland Winter Mitts kit I mentioned recently. I also think I need to start eyeing Paris's Brioche  once again.  The actress who played Paris (...

I finished the knitting for the second (of four) large squares last evening: I also cast on for the third large square! A few observations: - I'm super glad that I changed my mind about making this for the Nephew's wedding!  I don't know how I could have worked on it any more than I already have, and the wedding was nearly a month ago already! - Even though this is taking forever, and is a sea of garter stitch, I'm not yet bored with it.  There are enough color changes and things going on that it has held my interest.  Also, each square is started on the sides, at the longest row; with the decreases along the diagonal, each successive row is smaller, so progress seems to increase as well! - I read from some others on Ravelry that they ran out of yarn in this kit.  Based on what I am seeing, it's possible that might happen here as well.  I'm pretty sure I'm getting something close to gauge, but maybe that's why these kits are always on sale. ...

The Cold As mitts are finished and had their photo shoot this morning.  Here is a demure pic: And here they are in their two-handed, F-bomb glory: If you look closely, you can see the subtle design differences between the two! I had so much fun with these that I went back and looked at the Year of Mitts that Kelbourne Woolens , of the Year of Hats fame, did last year.  I thought - why not?  Well, they're all lovely mitts, but if I'm going to make any as fussy as that, I've got a kit in my stash that I should work on instead: (Except I took a skein of the Bright Lilac for the Cold As mitts - so I'll need to replace it at some point.)  This is another Knit Picks creation - I must have been on some sort of crazed kit spree at one point! (OK, so they have Hue Shift and Woodland Mitts kits on sale if you're interested!!) I'll have to wait and see if Kelbourne will have a Year of SomethingElse in 2020; in the meantime, November Hat is ...

We're back from visiting my family over the T-giving holiday where, in spite of my bringing a bag full of other projects (it was a bummer that we left early because of the weather and didn't get a chance to visit Neuro - waaaah!!!), I spent all my knitting time working on the Cousin Wedding Afghan.  I'm now 17/25 through the second of four sections (or 42% of the total squares): I didn't work on the Cold As mittens while we were away, but I did spend some time with them yesterday, and made a couple of changes.  After grafting the tip on the right hand mitt, I decided I didn't like how pointy it was - so I ripped back several rows, just to the top of the charted design, and will graft it from there.  I also made the thumb, and same thing - too pointy, needs grafting.  Pics to follow when they're complete - hopefully later this week! Other projects in the immediate queue - November Hat (just finishing), baby mitts (ongoing), and felted slippers for me (not ...