Oogyknitter

It's Thursday!!  I hope you're well; we're good here. I had hoped to have some updated pics of Squircle to show you today, but disaster struck yesterday and I'm pretty much back to where I was two days ago. I didn't take any pics of that, because I did something that is really unlike me - after ripping back to the place where the issue occurred, I immediately picked up and continued on.  What happened?  Well - I knew something seemed off when I was picking up the stitches and ended up finishing the first row with a K3 and it was the same three stitches that I'd started the row with.  Sure enough - the heel increases wound up off-center and definitely needed to be re-done. In the process of fixing all of this, I realized that I'd neglected to subtract the six stitches for the garter stitch strip from the "pick up half of the remaining stitches" instruction.  So the whole thing was shifted over, with three of them overlapping.  There was no f

Guess what day it is???  Happy Hump Day!  I hope you are well; we're good here. I'm putting this pic here first because Blogger will make it look humongous when you first land on this blog, and I find that incredibly amusing: I got this fabric (it's no larger than a fat quarter) some time ago when I fancied myself an eventual quilter (that may yet happen, but fortunately my fabric collection remains modest).  I took a class at JoAnn with a friend and we made quilted table runners - mine is very proudly displayed and I love it.  Quilting does seem like an exercise in futility though - I mean, you spend all that time cutting the fabric up into little pieces, then putting them all back together again, with sewing??  LOL. Anyway - I should have led with this fabric when presenting my selection to Oogyhubby, because he rejected everything I picked, then everything else I rummaged through, but then finally he laughed when he saw this one and liked it.  So I'll be mak

Hello, Tuesday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. So there was a bit of an insurrection this morning, as the 40" Addis suddenly and unexpectedly overtook the entire Squircle and insisted on Magic Looping: Fine.  The Karbonz are already plotting to overthrow the Addis, anyway, as soon as all of these gusset stitches have been worked! I also spent some quality time with my M's Day gift yesterday, and am nearly done.  I'll hopefully have a pic to show you tomorrow! I've had even more surprising and good news since I posted yesterday.  My article survived the peer review and has what I estimate to be about another hour's worth of work until going into formal editing.  So far, so good! And, when it rains it pours (especially in the springtime!).  Two organizations that I thought had ghosted me contacted me yesterday.  One of them has a part-time transcription editing position; the orientation is on Thursday, so I can tell you more about that one

Hello on this Monday!  I hope you are well; we're good here. The Squircle pattern has been calling for using Magic Loop since the beginning, but I ignored that part until things got a little out of hand and the Karbonz had to send out their version of the Bat Signal: There will be a bit of transition whilst we move from the DPNs to the circs - I'm going to try this on two circs rather than on one (I guess I'm really avoiding Magic Loop!).  I expect we'll return to DPNs once we get back to 64 stitches around, somewhere just past the ankle. So today has been very exciting for me.  I made my weekly trek to Weggies this morning; I went a little earlier than my usual and the crowd was a bit sparser - so I may try to aim for this going forward. It should probably come as no surprise that the chicken shortage continues.  I understand there are issues with the chicken supply, and that it will probably be some time before we see that start to ramp back up again.  So I

I hope this Sunday finds you well!  We're good here. I ended up thinking that this weekend is a good study in contrasts.  What got me started was casting on for the Buttonhole Bag with the leftover slipper yarn.  The needles are "only" size 11s, but they felt like baseball bats in my hands after all the smaller-needle knitting I've been doing lately.  They also look ridiculous next to the Karbonz: This pic is a little dark, but what these items seem to have in common is their color - at least so far!  Those are the Squircles on the right there, and you can see that I've started on the off-shoot garter tab thingey that will become the basis for their unique gusset.  They're going to change color soon, and the Buttonhole will have a purple body, so everyone will have their chance to stand out in their own way! (As a complete aside, when I jumped over to Ravelry to get the links for the above patterns, I noticed that our friend, Casapinka, has a new pa

Hello on this sunny Saturday!  I hope you are well; we're good here. I finally cast on yesterday for my Mother's Day gift: This will be a version of the Cassio Collar .  Oogymom likes purples; I had some of this silk and wool (left over from something?) and I dug around in my bead supply to find some nice beads to match.  The clear ones are left over from the shrug I made Oogymom for Xmas, so I'm pleased about that subtle connection. This piece is posed on yet another Buttonhole Bag made with formerly ugly yarn that now looks super cute when felted into a bag.  I know I have some fugly wools in my deep stash (in the basement); one of these days I'll start to fish them out and make a bunch more of these bags (right after I make a bag out of the leftover slipper yarn?). So - this thing needs to be finished, wrapped, and packaged for mailing in time for one of my scheduled journeys into the "outside world", likely Monday May 4.  Which seems a long tim

Happy Friday!  I hope you're well today; we're good here. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm trying hard every day to acknowledge which day it is, and at some point will also make a better delineation between the weekdays and weekends (aside from the alarm clock that is set for Mon-Fri!).  Otherwise, I think I'll end up with a weird kind of jet lag when all the days start to blur together and I get out of sync with the rest of the planet. I did a bit of Squircle knitting yesterday: Things are going to get really exciting when the other colors start making an appearance!! I may also have finished the knitting on my mystery project, and started another.  I only tell you that so that you know I haven't stopped knitting altogether over here! I definitely need to cast on for my M's Day project as well - that's coming up quickly, especially if I'm going to be mailing it. Today began with a couple of wildlife sightings - a lone deer wandering ar

I hope this Thursday finds you well!  We're good here. Remember that catch-all category on Jeopardy?  I think today is going to be a bit of that. I don't have any new knitting to report, but I did locate a yarn sock for Neuro's yarn: Literally.  A.  Sock.  For yarn.  This is a pair of ankle socks that I think I wore once and found them to be a bit short on my feet.  They also have a logo on them, so I've hidden it (no free advertising here, LOL!).  These socks will hold the center-pull ball tightly and hopefully continue to compress it as I knit along.  This will prevent the ball from collapsing on itself and causing a tangled mess! Earlier today I read an article about a bunch of museum curators in Europe (it's now gone global) who are having a contest on Twitter to see who can post a pic of the creepiest object in their collection.  Check out hashtag "Creepiestobject" on Twitter if you want to see them for yourself.  But you can't un-see

Guess what day it is???  I hope you're well; we're good here. (Answer: Hummmmp Daaaaayyyy!!!!) I continue to be obsessed with the secret project, but I did cast on for the first of the Squircles this morning: Thankfully, Neuro told me which end of the ball to start with (center!).  I'll want to secure the rest of the ball with a sock or something before too much longer; otherwise, the whole thing will go all black hole on me, collapse on itself, and somehow eat large segments of yarn in the process.  Last night's dinner was awesome, but there was a bit of an incident with the crockpot - all my fault.  This recipe absolutely filled it, and for some reason I thought that the laws of physics would be suspended during the cooking process.  It was no surprise, then, when we kept finding it bubbling over and sitting in a puddle.  I'll need to add a note on the recipe to hold back a cup of liquid until closer to the end of the cooking process, when the beans hav

Hello on this Tuesday!  I hope this finds you safe and well.  We're good here. I'm pleased to report that the April Gift pattern was released this morning, and it's socks!!!!!!! Well then! I just happen to have a sock proto-project all ready to go: This is a super special one.  Remember Squircle, that awesome yarn that Neuro dyed for me??  The Karbonz needles jumped right on it, and I'd put it all in one of my cannibal yarn bags, but I hadn't gotten any further than that.  That's going to change!  Onward!! (I think Neuro had been working on a pair of Squircles as well!) I don't have any additional knitting content to report today.  Let's just say that I'm working on a surprise project at the moment ;)  I do need to start casting on for some of these other things, so I'll have something to show you in the coming days! OK, so about my adventure to "the outside world" yesterday - The couture face mask made its maiden vo

Happy Monday!  I hope this finds you well.  We're good here. The other night I had just gotten into bed when Oogyhubby came in the room and told me that he'd just found a violin in the basement. A what?  Where??  What does it look like??  Huh? Yes, I was curious - but it was late and cold.  I did, however, check it out the next morning. The poor thing - it's old, dry, dusty, and in need of significant repair and restoration.  And it looks like it's been repaired in the past as well.  The resin is fossilized, the bows are broken - well, you get the idea.  You might ask - how is it that you just found a violin in your basement?  You've been in that house for more than a year now! Well, let's just say that our move-in was a bit chaotic, made even more so by the seller not actually moving out of the basement until several weeks afterward (we got to be friends, so while it was abnormal and annoying, it worked out fine).  And it's a big basement.  W

Hello on this (originally sunny and now raining and getting colder) Sunday!  I hope you're well, we're still good here. I thought that this might be good for a laugh today - one of my very old UnFinished Objects (UFO), and no denying its age because the freakin date is right on it: (Yes - I screwed with the part where my first name is.  No sense in blowing my cover at this point, LOL!) I probably didn't know what to do with it at the time, so it got tucked away with a bunch of things.  Now I think it would look super cute in the log house, with a rustic frame of some kind.  I don't have any on hand, so it will need to hang out a bit longer. Although I still plan to cast on for a bunch of new projects, I haven't done so yet.  That will give me something to look forward to this week.  Also, April Gift will appear on Tuesday, so that might spark some more ideas! Not much wildlife news to report, except that I definitely saw a bluebird outside my window yes

Happy Saturday!  I hope you are well and enjoying the start of your weekend!  We're good here! I realized yesterday that I'd put off making a face mask long enough; as a matter of fact, our governor just made mask-wearing mandatory in public places such as grocery stores, so I needed to act quickly! I followed the pattern here .  It's more of a couture face mask pattern, but it wasn't too difficult if you have any prior experience with sewing.  The only change I'll make for the next one is to eliminate the interfacing - it made for very bulky seams and pleats.  I may need to make the elastics longer as well, but I'll see how that works out when I have to wear it for real. Here's what it looked like when things started getting serious: (Note the serious-looking scissors and the cuuuuuute Snoopy pincushion.  I need to be sure to tell Oogymom this when I talk with her tomorrow, but she really set me up to be a great sew-er (if I don't hyphenate t

Happy Friday!  I hope you are well; we're good here :) I realized yesterday that I've reached the unceremonious end of a couple of long-term projects, and that I should provide them with a proper conclusion here. First is the latest pair of preemie mitts: What makes these extra-special is the fabulous yarn that Neuro dyed a while ago.  She'd sent me this lovely little box full of squares from a sock blank she'd dyed, all lined up and ready to be turned into preemie mitts!  I tried to ration these as long as I could.  I may be able to squeeze out the ends for another pair, but I definitely don't have enough left for the ties.  These colors were so fun, and they really jazz up these little mitts! The next is the last of the Only One spinning - I'd plied it but for some reason hadn't skeined and washed it: As a reminder - Neuro had given me TWO POUNDS of lovely roving that she'd dyed in the colors within the Georgia O'Keeffe painting &quo

I hope this Thursday finds you safe and well!  We're good here. Work continues on all of the usual projects, so I don't have any new stuff to show you today.  What I thought I'd do instead is talk a little bit about yarn irony and cannibalism. The major yarn irony I've experienced most recently is my love for cowls (and howls!).  Prior to late last summer, I wouldn't have touched a cowl with a 10-foot pole!  But I had all these leftovers from Perfect Blend, and Casapinka made a scrappy cowl pattern just for that purpose!  So I made the cowl. How did I not know before how useful and flexible cowls can be??  They don't flap apart like scarves and shawls, you can slip the longer ones over your head and not look like a babushka, and you can knit them in the round, so no purling unless you're doing fancy patterned stitches or for some reason want reverse stockinette. So here I am, at least 10 cowls later - including about 4-5 different variations o

I hope you are safe and well on this Hump Day - we're good here! In case you haven't already noticed, Neuro has a new blog post!  Check out her blog here .  She and I evidently have the same "start-itis"; I've been gathering supplies for some new proto-projects so I might be a couple of days behind her: On the left is what will become a face mask; on the right will become part of a Mother's Day gift.  (I realized with a shock yesterday that M's Day is less than a month away - time to spring into action, LOL!!) I may have spent most of my knitting time yesterday working on Pure Joy; I've just finished the main section and am about to start the last section, which is all in the contrasting color.  I have only a few yards left of the Bare!!  I am starting to gather some of these small bundles to do some micro-dyeing (I just made that up - what do you think??).  I can use these small amounts in preemie mitts, and who's to notice if I chuck a s

I hope this Tuesday finds you all well - we're still good here! Although I haven't made any dramatic yarn progress recently, I am at the halfway point for My Corona, and thought I'd share a pic here: I'm ready to admit that it's not going to be done before the April Gift pattern is released (and we're on to another fun project adventure!).  I have a couple of reasons (not excuses) for that: 1) my new competing priority; and 2) the weight of the beads gives this thing some heft, and I'm finding that working on it too much (more than 3-4 rows/day) is reminding me to take care of avoiding repetitive motion issues (I may have blitzed on it a bit over the weekend!).  I'm going to aim for completing a couple of rows a day, which will take me to the end of the month.  Kind of like how our sheltering in place is going on for longer than some of us originally thought.   Anyway - I love the beads, they are super cute and really add a special quality

Happy Sunday!  I hope you are safe and well; we're good here! Now, for the moment we've all been waiting for - Neuro's adaptation of her famous Switching Modes scarf pattern, now available in cowl and howl options!!! Check out her pics and patterns !  I'm headed right for the cowl version very soon!!! Here are some of my pics of the howl I was test knitting: This is the same item - it's convertible from a hat to a cowl and back again!!!  Brilliant!!!!! (I still need to finish off the long dangle/tie, so this is still officially in my finishing pile!) Also - Neuro's gone international - her original Switching Modes pattern has been translated into Italian!  Impressive! In other news - Oogyhubby is making some strange Easter eggs this morning with this: Someone is having smoked egg salad sandwiches for lunch today!!  (Evidently, this is an egg-worthy experiment.)

I hope you are well and enjoying your weekend thus far!  We're still good here. I don't have a lot of new knitting to show you - work continues on My Corona and Pure Joy, primarily - so I thought I'd share a pic of what the orchids are up to these days: Three out of five orchid plants have sent out flower stems; the one at the top of the pic is the furthest ahead and is also the one that bloomed last year at about this time.  The other two are new to this, as far as I can tell, but are doing a great job.  I can't wait to see what colors they are, and how long this whole process will last.  I'm trying to convince the other two to join in the fun, and one of them is budding something interesting so we'll see what becomes of that (they also shoot out air roots). I am an accidental orchid caretaker.  When we bought this house, the seller had indicated that he wanted to leave an orchid plant for me; evidently he decided to leave the whole bunch of them.  Oog

I hope that today finds you all safe and healthy.  We're good here, and are glad it's Friday (among other things!!). Of course, by this time of day I'm also counting down the time until "5:00 Somewhere", when I can concoct a judicious cocktail and contemplate cooking dinner whilst knitting something relatively mindless (Pure Joy fits that bill these days!). Fortunately my current obsession is starting to align with my self-imposed deadline.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through My Corona, and I'm totally loving the beads: Presto Cowlo is now dry and super soft as I'd hoped.  I'm actually going to send it off in the mail on Monday as a thank-you to a new friend; it will be just perfect for that. In wildlife news - there is no news today.  We had blowing snow earlier today, and now it's just cold and windy.  At one point I was ready to start knitting tiny little hats for all the daffodils - they must be totally stunned with this weather!

Once again, I hope this find you all safe and well.  We're still good here! It has, indeed, been a most unusual week for me - even amidst the extraordinary events we're all experiencing. I don't mention much about my non-knitting activities here but, to make a long story short, over the past few months I've been trying to make a significant career change to that of a scientific/technical/medical writer/editor after my (now-previous) employer eliminated my position.  My biggest hurdle was not having enough significant/direct experience, even with a substantial and quality amount of business and academic writing. I'm happy to say that I now have a competing priority - a part-time, freelance, technical writing job, with opportunities for increased hours and upward mobility.  And - it's remote!  I'm very impressed so far with the precision and clarity of their onboarding processes and documentation and, while it's not yet my dream job, I can see myself

I hope you are all safe and well; we're still good here! You might conclude from the blue background that Presto Cowlo has been for a swim this morning: I really couldn't put this project down, and now I can't wait to see what it is like once it's dry!  The yarn was super soft yet rustic - and felt like it still had enough lanolin that it would fluff right up once soaked.  We'll see!  I may have an intended recipient for it as well, depending on how it all turns out! Back to My Corona and Pure Joy in the meantime!  The pattern for April Gift won't be released for 2 more weeks, so I'm going to try to finish My Corona before then (it was originally begat as a March Gift project).  I'm not going to list off everything else in the queue, but I might add two items and will tell you more about that as they evolve. In wildlife news - the robins continue to sing their lungs out, I just saw a Northern Flicker fly by, and a few deer were in the

I hope this finds you all safe and well - we're still good here :) I was hoping that my visit to Wegmans yesterday would yield some fun stories.  It did not disappoint! A lot of new signs and floor diagrams have appeared since last week, all helping me to measure a 6-foot (or, in Florida, one alligator) distance - along the shelves, along the major aisles, etc.  There were already lines and boxes to help with the spacing at the registers and deli counter.  The store is still crazy clean, and the shelves are mostly very well stocked.  Wegmans continues to rock it! Rationing continues - and it's working.  I know this, because there is enough milk, pasta, eggs, and toilet paper (still bilingual!) for me to choose from.  (Still no paper towels, though - but there were napkins!) The biggest weird thing this week:  there is no cheese.  I don't think cheese was on the ration list (perhaps they should add it??).  Well - all that was left were 5-pound bags of shredded

Happy Monday!  I hope that you are all safe and well; we're still good here. I got a little obsessed yesterday working on the two beading projects I told you about. The first one, Cassio Collar , is finished and ready for wearing: It's an elegant combination of sparkley seed beeds, laceweight yarn, and - believe it or not - double knitting (what an unintended theme!!).  I've already got some ideas on other things I can do with this basic framework. The second one, Presto Cowlo , is well underway: There is a total of five of the bands that you see alternating here - so I'm just about 30% done already!  The pattern is easy to memorize and it tells me very quick when I've made a mistake.  It's also very forgiving - it's easy to add or remove a yarnover, or to detect if I've worked the wrong pattern block for some reason (both of these have happened more than once already!). I'm still happy with my decision to add the beads as I go (ove

Happy Weekend!  I hope this finds you all well and enjoying your weekend, even if the days are all starting to blur together!  We're still good here, even if we do need the occasional reminder about what day it is! I spent most of my knitting time yesterday working on two projects; they are part of a club that I joined at the beginning of the year as a holiday gift to myself.  Doing so, when it's affordable, is a fun chance to try new things.  I think I needed some focused time to get going on the first one, and then I was off and running: It needs some finishing before I show you the final product, but that shouldn't take too much longer. For the second project - I always think I can wind a simple hank of yarn into a ball without using my umbrella swift; and, of course, they always end up getting tangled beyond belief.  Especially this yarn, which is a woolen-spun merino - it's very sticky.  So making the ball took way more time than I'd thought: This

Happy Friday!  I hope you are all well and had a good week!  We're still good here :) I finished the first of my three library e-books yesterday, and also got Pure Joy well underway (which I have re-named Joyful Isolation for myself): It's very Switching Modes-ian, isn't it?  (It's also upside-down, but this was the best way to pose it.)  I keep thinking that the two colors are too stark in this presentation, but there will be a large sweep of the blue at the end so that should tie it all together nicely. This pattern involves the use of short rows in order to produce the shaping, and it suggested the use of German Short Rows with the garter stitch.  These are the easiest short rows ever, and they blend right in.  Check out this link for a great demo. The book I finished yesterday was The Lotus and the Storm, by Lan Cao.  It's literary fiction, which is far from my go-to genre, but it was for an online book club and of course I need to venture out of my

I hope you are all well and safe; we're good here today! I cast on for Pure Joy last night: (The stitch marker is reminding me which side is the right side!) The best part so far: the pattern starts with a garter square, and I was sure mine was going to be a hot mess.  Amazingly, it looks - well, amazing.  It was quick going at first, but now it's taking a while to get through each row - perfect for readingknitting!!  I hope to get to the first blue section very soon, so we can start to see the design coming together. In other news - it continues to be quiet although, from the level of activity that I can see from the neighborhood next door, folks are starting to get restless.  Ironic, since there is more virus now than there was a week ago, when everyone was hidden away.  The sunny weather doesn't help much, either! There also continues to be a lone deer grazing around in the woods; this morning she's out in the field next to the woods.  I'm not exactl

I hope this finds you all well and safe; we're good here. One of my First World problems got worse yesterday.  I'd had some library e-books on hold, and thought I had staggered them out sufficiently so that they wouldn't become available all at once - and many days, perhaps even several weeks, out. Nope - all three of them have appeared over the course of the last two days.  I have 21 days before they all disappear into the e-book ether, and then I'd have to wait again for who knows how long. So, in spite of my having a huge to-be-finished pile, I'm going to cast on for a new "mindless" project, with these: You might recognize the blue from the 2019 First Annual Memorial Day Weekend Dyeing Extravaganza.  The other is just a Bare version of the blue; both are KnitPicks Capretta, which is very squooshy.  (I've got some ball winding to do - this job calls for The Swift!)  I had selected the pattern Pure Joy for this yarn, and will see if the y