Oogyknitter

We received a (non-yarn) delivery yesterday, and when I went outside to get it from the front walk, I saw a couple of these along the edge of the house: I thought - what silly little hand prints!  There must have been a raccoon wandering around last night! I got out the footprints book that Oogyhubby gave me, and I looked through it.  Nope!  Both raccoon and possum prints have long, skinny fingers - not paw pads like these.  Cat, dog, and foxie all have roundish prints and short little pawpads, not toes like these.  So I've narrowed these down to two things:  1) skunk; and 2) mini Sasquatch.  The skunk is the closest match in the prints book, but I haven't seen or smelled any skunks around since we moved here, so... In yarn news - work continues on all items in the queue, but I don't have anything interesting to show you today.  I'm about to block Version 2 of Goat Hat, and I don't like it as much as I thought I would.  I made it d...

As eagerly anticipated, the emergency Goat Milk yarn arrived yesterday: I'm already halfway through the next section, and hope to have some preliminary pics to show you soon! You can see a bit of the CWA in the background.  After I finished the required daily 1/11 of Phase III last evening, I kept the blanket on my lap whilst talking on the phone to Oogyparents.  It was very warm and soft!  I always enjoy taking the afghans I make for a "test nap" or similar (before washing/blocking, don't worry - LOL). I made the decision that the Plum Cozy Gussets will be fingerless; I've completed the first one and the second is well underway.  More to come on those! So - we live in a wood house; a log home, to be more specific (I find that if I say "log cabin", some people immediately think of one small room with a wood stove, and an outhouse, and then fret about visiting.  Not only do we have indoor plumbing, but some of our floors are heated!).  As such,...

Literally. This is two face cord.  Which is technical country-speak for two stacks of wood that are each 4 feet tall, 8 feet long, and about 16 inches (one log) deep.  (A full cord is the same height and length, but is 4 feet deep.)  In essence, a measure of volume. It's funny how two seemingly smallish stacks of wood can make one giant pile.  You might recall when we got four face cord back in September - it seemed like we were stacking that for a week!  This particular pile got covered, since it was a rainy and muddy mess yesterday, and Oogyhubby was determined to stack a bunch of it last evening whilst I completed the next 1/11 of the CWA (Who got the better deal there?  I did offer to help him, but there's surprisingly limited space in there, and he's very particular about how his wood is stacked).  I realize this isn't very green of us, but we need to burn wood or oil in our boiler to make heat and hot water.  We try to compensate for ...

I've been (ironically) thinking a lot about cognitive load the last couple of days - mostly because I have, more frequently lately, these ideas blasting through my head that won't go away; nothing dramatic, just things like tasks to do around the house, notes to send, knitting ideas, etc.  I've taken to carrying around a to-do list, as well as my "ideas and projects" notebook, so that I can jot these things down and not continue to obsess about them (or, worse, forget them!), thereby decreasing cognitive load and allowing room for other thoughts or learning. Some of these ideas are pretty good, or at least fairly helpful - and, to be honest, a lot of them tend to happen when I'm mindlessly knitting and not doing much of anything else (this includes watching a movie, listening to a podcast, or reading).  Which I've actually been doing a lot more lately.  This makes me wonder how many good ideas I've displaced while engaging in these other activities!...

I'm not about showing you pictures of my food here, but I thought I'd share a couple of non-yarn things I made yesterday - especially since you probably would not be interested in seeing yet another pic of the CWA incremental progress (BTW - Phase III is now 4/11 complete!!). Since the inputs are way more exciting than the output (which is just brown, LOL), here is the beginning of the chili I made in the crock pot: (Yes, those are raisins - and there's coffee in the measuring cup.  This recipe is mostly savory, with a bit of sweetness and some smoky bitterness in the background.  No beans.) Then I made a double batch of these, most of which will go in the mail to Oogydad: I did a bunch of yarn stuff between batches, mostly starting the latest Cut The Scrap cowl and completing the knitting on the green mittens.  I started the next pair of mittens as well, but I hate them and will be starting over.  I tried to get fancy with two-color cuffs, but the yar...

The next pair of mitts to emerge from the pile of damaged socks is complete and awaiting its destiny: Long-time readers of this blog might recall when I first made these socks.  At the time, I should have asked myself - what was I thinking???  This yarn is great, but look at the pooling.  This often happens when a skein of hand-painted yarn is combined with a pattern that is close enough to the size of the skein that the colors don't distribute - they stick together like they were on the original skein.  There are some ways to minimize or even avoid this by disrupting the pattern somehow, either through the use of slipped stitches or other techniques that mess with the diameter of the row.  I should have chosen a different pattern for this yarn.  It wouldn't necessarily have changed their outcome - the heel still had a giant blow-out - but I think this yarn deserved better somehow. That being said - these will make fine mitts.  The yarn is soft ...

One of the most important and enduring things I learned in business school was that the answer to ANY question in business is - IT DEPENDS.  What is your objective?  How much do you want to spend?  What are the other factors that need to be considered?  Etc. Evidently the same holds true for some knitting questions.  Take the one I posed recently: which is preferable for a thumb gusset - KFB, or M1R/M1L?  Guess what - it depends.  Take a look at a side-by-side comparison: This is really a terrible example.  If I'd used KFB for the green mitten, the increases would be a lot more obvious.  The KFB increase creates a small horizontal bar - which is barely visible in the brown mitten due to its patterning and slight fuzziness (both yarns are Wool-Ease, go figure). So, the answer to which increase is preferable is - IT DEPENDS.  If using a solid color and/or a yarn with high stitch definition (smoother), then you may want to use the ...

(I am laughing at my post from yesterday, where my title indicated it would be about mitts, and the first pic I included was a pair of socks!!  Talk about burying the lead!) Today I began Phase III of the CWA - working in all those ends.  I'm deliberately going to do this in smaller batches, so I don't get completely frustrated - most of the time, I find this work incredibly dull and trying. I did manage to clear one full row of blocks, however (bottom of pic): Here are the resulting trimmings: I also finished the mitts today; even though Wool-Ease is mostly acrylic, with some wool, they had a good soak in Eucalan and are now drying: As I've mentioned, this is a fun and straightforward pattern; so much so, that I'm going to cast on for a second pair later today - but in Hunter Green (more Wool-Ease).  I'm also going to change the increases for the gusset from KFB to right- and left-leaning M1s.  I think that will give a smoother line, especially ...

I have some progress to report on the February Gift initiative: The small repair has been made and these are as good as new!  And - I'll likely wear them later today! Here is a closeup of the Voodoo Mitts buttonhole thumb opening: Instead of binding off along the bottom edge, the pattern has you slipping the next stitch and then passing the first stitch over it; this makes for a very firm edge.  Along the top, stitches are cast on using the cable method, and inserting the needle between the two previous stitches in order to make the new stitch.  This also makes for a very firm edge!  The fail was the actual yarn - it wore right through at that part, although that was after a hell of a lot of use. Now that they're done, I gave these a good soak - less for blocking purposes, and more for cleaning them up! I'm nearly done with the first mitten.  I have a bunch of leftover Wool-Ease and may make another pair or two - it's fun and not at ...

No worries - I'm not going to count down the next four weeks each day for the February Gift theme, but I did spend some time with these items yesterday and I have a few updates. This first pair taught me a great lesson: socks without heels just don't work, especially knit ones.  There's otherwise absolutely nothing wrong with these, so I ripped back a few rows to the start of the toe decrease, then bound off.  They're ready to go in the laundry now (unceremonious yet effective): I'm going to keep these for myself - mostly because I have worn them on my feet a few times, and it would feel weird to give them to someone else after that (I'm sure they'd appreciate it as well).  The others will get the foot parts removed, so that's a little less creepy. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with this next pair, which is also a favorite of mine.  The yarn wears like iron, is very comfy, and they have kept a crisp look despite having been wor...

I had some competing priorities yesterday that took up most of the afternoon, and I forgot all about stalking the Kelbourne Woolens page on Ravelry to find out what their February Gift pattern was until last evening! It's a pair of mitts !  They look lovely, and I hope they sell lots of copies of the pattern as well as their kit. Given the mitten theme, I've decided on the following three initiatives: 1)  Take the (ever-growing) pile of knit socks with holes in them and convert them into wrist sleeves - basically, fingerless mitts without the thumbhole.  Neuro showed me a pair she'd made for herself and they look BadAss as well as trendy!  All I have to do is cut off the feet and heel, pick up the stitches, and bind off.  Here's what I've got: 2) I also have this pair of fingerless mitts that I made with GMS 's Mountain Mohair (yes, possibly one of the cones they tossed down to us from their attic) and that I really love - except they are fraying aro...

We had a bit of bright afternoon sunshine yesterday that seemed to boost the spirits of ungulates and men (OK, so deer and me!).  Somehow this happened: Just in time for Spring, LOL - slippers for me!!  As a reminder, I'd done all the knitting on both slippers before admitting that doubling this fat yarn made my gauge huge, and that even felting couldn't fix that.  I re-knit them both, and then yesterday completed all the finishing - some seaming and working in ends.  They are now ready for felting.  There's a quarter on the upper slipper just to provide some sort of scale. Also, here is BadAss Pawprint Jr., drying after going for a swim: It's shorter and narrower than the first one, and probably doesn't call for a cuff - but it's still BadAss with all those toes and pawpads!! As far as the ungulates go - I'd seen the deer grazing around in the woods throughout most of the day, but later in the afternoon a small family of them - maybe about 6-7...

I thought it might be kind of fun to line up all of the finishing that I'll be working on in the coming days: To be honest, I've already completed the work on BadAss Pawprint Jr., which was considerably less daunting!  It is ready for a swim today. I need to do some planning for the next Goat Hat prototype, as well as for the next cowl.  I expect February Gift pattern will be released tomorrow, so whatever that ends up being will require some planning too (unless it's a hat or cowl, LOL!). I don't have any wildlife updates to report - all is calm for now!

One of the best lessons I've learned as an adult is that the right tools will make many jobs sooooo much easier and better!  Everything from a torque wrench extension to a sharp kitchen knife!!  Of course this is also true for knitting - where would we be without our circular needles, wooden DPNs, ball winders, or stitch markers?  And so of course the same is true for some minor metalwork.  Yesterday I completed the experimental cowl cuff for the latest BadAss Scrappy Cowl: I'd gotten a pile of inexpensive leather bracelets from Amazon to experiment with, but they all have that slidey knot thing instead of a closure of some sort.  That's great if you want them to be bracelets, but that won't work for a cowl cuff!  I had to get inventive.  First I trimmed the ends; then two YouTube videos, one blood blister, and a bit of frustration later I got this: Additional things I learned from this experience: - If I'm going to make any more of these...

It's not blocked yet, and I pushed all of the ends out of sight for this pic, but the knitting for Viking Hat is done!!! There's so much I love about this hat!  The colors are bright and cheerful, the Viking faces are equally cute and spooky, the pattern looks complex but is very straightforward - I could go on and on!  I also think this might be my first official Fair Isle hat!  Working in the ends will require a special kind of patients (likely scotch-assisted!), but that will definitely happen (although perhaps not before Tuesday, when the next Gift of the Month pattern will be released). I have to confess though - I didn't do any work on the CWA.  I'd like to get that last seam done before the end of the weekend, and then prepare myself to deal with all of its ends (which is Phase III!).  Instead, I produced a couple more baby mitts! It was 4 degrees (F) outside when we woke up this morning although, which is unusual for us this time of year, the su...

Happy Valentine's Day!  (or, for those of us who are skeptical of these sorts of commercialized celebrations - TGIF!!!!)  It's very cold and a bit snowy here today, which is perfect weather for hibernating activities such as knitting and reading! CWA Phase II is progressing, with only one seam remaining: I'm not exactly excited to start Phase III (all those ends!), but it is nice to see this coming together, in more ways than one! I've also made a bit more of progress on Viking Hat, up to where I need to change to DPNs.  I thought I'd thrown some in the project bag, but all that was at the bottom was a bunch of yarn labels and the smaller needles I'd used for the brim.  I didn't feel like digging around for them, so I set the hat aside and finished a pair of baby mitts.  It's possible I could finish the knitting on this today! Thank you, Neuro, for your comment yesterday about starting the Goat Milk text further down, in the brim.  I think tha...

It turns out that the competing priorities from yesterday were a good rest from my recent knitting blitz; however, I did spend a little time working on the third motif for the Viking Hat: The next phase is all the decreases; I'm going to add a little "flame" at the top as well.  I love how this hat is turning out - it's so colorful and has been super fun to knit (even with all those ends glaring at me!  I continue to ignore them).  It's possible this might happen today, but since I missed working on the CWA seaming yesterday, that should happen first. Now for some reality:  I'm very disappointed with the first prototype for Goat Hat.  Here are a couple of pics, courtesy of Oogyhubby's head: I don't like the shape of the hat, and it's too tall (I'm extremely partial to beanies).  I could bring the designs down further, and start the decreases sooner, but then the brim gets in the way.  It's possible that a fingering weight ver...

I went on a knitting blitz yesterday, thinking that I wouldn't get much done today due to some competing priorities (which themselves might be shifting, so it's possible there will be a couple of mini-blitzes today, LOL).  I completed the Viking faces: (I have to hold the work like that because it keeps curling at the top - that yarn is powerful stuff!) I'm starting to believe that having this hat done by next Tuesday is a reasonable goal, even if "done" in this case means "off the needles".  Even though they're willing felters, there will still be a lot of ends to deal with.  One of the great aspects of Fair Isle knitting is that there are only two colors in each row; even though you might be carrying a couple more along for the ride at the beginning of the row, they don't get too tangled, even with this sticky wool.  It's of course even easier when you have a friend (thanks, LW!) to show you how to knit two-handed, which for me inv...

I spent some quality time with Viking Hat earlier this morning, and have completed the first set of motifs!  Didn't Neuro pick some great colors??? The Viking faces are coming up next, and I expect I'll be zooming through them shortly.  I'll leave the eyes as they are for now, but I'm planning on making another in the future (I'll have tons of yarn left over!!) that will have some beads or similar for eyeballs instead!  (Although I think they're too dignified for googly eyes, LOL!). Neuro raises a good point about embracing the process (within my own context today, it's the seaming and finishing for the CWA).  I found that working in all the ends for the Cut the Scrap cowls wasn't so bad once I got started.  My goal for the CWA seaming is to do one seam per day - that way, I won't get too sick of it, but I can still make progress.  Working in the ends will be another thing, but we'll worry about that later. Speaking of working in t...

Phase Two for the CWA is underway: The bottom two panels have been sewn together.  Now there are only three more to do! You know how non-yarners are always saying things like - I don't know how you have the patience for that!?  And we think to ourselves - patience?  Who needs patience?  I love to knit, even when I have to rip it out or go back to fix a mistake!  But I sort of get it - this is how I feel about finishing - seaming, working in ends, etc.  I have no patience for it, and it's not fun.  It's a means to an end, for sure - but I really don't like it.  (And I know that there are sewers and quilters and others out there who are thinking - what's she talking about??)  BUT - this seaming is the perfect activity for taking a break from BadAss Pawprint Jr.  I finished the first row of paw motifs today - but I do have to rest for at least a few hours inbetween - this combo of yarn and needles is a bit rough.  It's loo...

This morning I finally remembered where all those partial balls of Wool of the Andes came from.  It's so obvious now, because hats, charts, words, and made-up figures were also involved! I went through a "Keep Calm" hat phase, where I designed and made three hats in the series:  Lift Weights, Do Wing Chun, and Brew Beer.  This was some time ago (2014/2015), and I'm pretty sure I deleted the charts inadvertently when I was getting rid of a bunch of old Excel files.  There are pics of two of these in the blog back then, but for ease of reference here they are again: I suppose I could recreate the charts using these pics if needed.  The Chinese characters took me forever, I was attempting to replicate them using one of Oogyhubby's t-shirts, LOL.  I'm not sure why I never took any pics of the Brew Beer version, but it was for Oogybro; maybe I was under a serious deadline? I see from one of the earlier blog entries that I made these in two lay...

I showed Neuro the bloopy issue with the BadAss Pawprint cowl during our Skype conversation last week, and she immediately knew what I needed to do: make the top border a lot smaller. So I did.  And of course it worked.  Here's a pic, all complete with its BadAss cuff: I'd gotten the pawprint bead shortly after we lost Kylie (amazing dog and former knitwear model) in 2018.  I'd been thinking of ways I might incorporate it into a chain maille bracelet or necklace of some kind, but it ended up inspiring the design for this cowl as well as its cuff.  Here's a closeup: Here's a picture of Kylie (taken at our former cottage on the Big Lake): Sigh. I've decided to make the Special Request BadAss Pawprint a little narrower as well as shorter.  We'll call that the small size!  I'd like to say it was underway, but I messed up the count on the ribbing and am starting over.  Hopefully today. I'm also connecting the brim parts for the Goat M...

I feel like I've been knitting on this thing forever, but here we are at 100% completion of all the squares: There are three more phases to this project: sew the four big squares together; work in all the ends; and knit on a border.  You might recall I'd originally intended for this to be a wedding gift for an Oogynephew, who's been married for three months now!  This is working out so much better for a June wedding gift for Oogyhubby's cousin! (If you're in the mood for some arithmetic: there are 100 small squares, and each square has (49+49+47+47+45+45+43+43+.....+5+5+3+3+1) stitches.  Yikes!!) (I'll have a ton of yarn left over, because I had to buy more of everything in order to get it finished, but I've got some cowl plans for it already!) I immediately cast on for the first version of the Goat Milk hat; the Wool of the Andes is lovely to work with.  I'll be making a doubled brim for this version, which means five inches of ribbing before ...

No sooner than I'd made my earlier statement that there weren't many more surprises lurking in my diminishing yarn stash, I found something that it still a mystery to me: a small bag of mostly partial skeins of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Superwash.  This is a very good thing for the Goat Milk prototypes that I have in mind (which is what I was rooting around in there for in the first place), but for the life of me I can't figure out what I'd made with them!  It was obviously a gift, and hopefully a nice one, but I have no idea.  I'll continue to rack my brain and search my notes for clues.   Speaking of Goat Milk - I think it will take me less time to knit and post a pic of the completed hat that will to figure out how to get the image from an Excel chart to this blog.  The latter would certainly be a handy skill, but the former would be so much more fun! I don't have any pics to post today - all my recent knitting has been on the CWA, and the last ...

While I'm glad that the worsted version of Sky has arrived, I was a little disappointed to have to step back a bit from some of the other projects so I could finish the CWA (the afghan I'm making for Oogyhubby's cousin's wedding in June).  Then I had a thought: there really isn't much knitting left!  Here's where I'm at, as of this morning: (The block in the lower right corner has the worsted Sky - I think it is working very well!) Once the remaining (12.2) blocks are done, the four large sections need to be sewn together (ugh), all 8 billion ends worked in (ugh worse than sewing!), and the border knitted on.  This means that I can actually knit on the other things during these ugh-ey sewing parts!  Everyone wins!!!! I'm still tinkering with the Goat Milk? chart - I think I've got the vertical space covered for a worsted weight hat, but I may need to add a small motif to fill in a blank horizontal blank space.  I'm contemplating ab...