Oogyknitter

Hello, Saturday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. Continuing with the slow roll of the dyeing projects, today I'd like you to meet Fruit Pie: I'd started grabbing dye colors when I realized they were all fruit names: Strawberry, Blueberry, Grape, Pomegranate.  Hence the name.  I continue to be predictably heavy-handed with the speckle dyeing, but I'll blame that on what was in my adult sippy cup that afternoon. This is going to look smashing once it's spun.  Oh, and the yarn is a cormo/bunny mix that I bought in, um, 2002 at the Hemlock Sheep and Wool Festival.  Which just goes to show that fiber and yarn are willing to wait for their true purpose.  This yarn is super soft, and will make great next-to-skin items - cowls, perhaps?? Check out  Neuro's blog  for pics of her work that day - it's awesome! Modest amounts of knitting continue.  I assembled the ingredients for a new project, but haven't started it yet.  I won't...

It's Huuuummmmmmmmp Daaaaaaaaayyyy!!!  I hope you're well; we're good here. First, I'd like to show you what I'm going to dub as the "Commemorative Colorway" series for our Annual Memorial Day Dyeing Weekend tradition.  We started this last year when Neuro had first visited us at our new home and the Ws were here for the afternoon as well.  Mostly out of laziness, I kept the jars of the dyes we had mixed for that event.  This year, I used parts of each jar to do this: I think this one should just be named "Premiere".  It will probably take me 14,000 years to spin, but don't be surprised if it then gets turned into a few cowls or something - just sayin'. (I don't necessarily recommend keeping jars of dye for a year, but aside from a few clumps of whatever at the bottom, these worked fine.  I will be disposing of them, however!) I also think that Neuro's interactive roving should be the official colorway for this year...

Happy Monday and Memorial Day!  I hope this finds you well; we're good here. I'm still giddy about the "virtual" dyeing session that we had yesterday - me, Neuro, and LW, courtesy of Google Meet!  I lined up every possible dyeing project I could get my hands on, Neuro made her session so very awesome by making it interactive, and LW finished yet another pair of socks whilst watching us duck in and out of camera with our potions and things.  It was so much fun!!  While it would have been much better in person, as we'd intended when we started this annual tradition a year ago, it was definitely the next best thing!! I don't have any pics to show you yet - for some reason, the cold water wasn't working at the sink where I was (another fun project, LOL), so I'm re-rinsing and drying all four projects.  I may even try to stretch their eventual photos out over a period of a few days - I've been knitting as well, but nothing new: Switching Modes Cowl,...

Happy Thursday!  I hope you're well; we're good here! I was pretty computer-busy over the past couple of days, and didn't really have too much to report, so I decided to skip a day.  Which turned into two - yikes!  The time just flies some days.  I also have to keep reminding myself that June is coming up soon too! I thought I'd talk a little today about repurposing - yarn, that is, although it certainly can pertain to other things as well!  The fact that I now have both an upstairs and a downstairs yarn stash, and that the upstairs actually exists in two parts, says that I have plenty of opportunities to repurpose yarn.  (The stash hasn't gotten any bigger since we moved, it's just sort of naturally sorted itself out into active use, partial or proto-projects, and deep stash). I went through a phase a few years ago when I was absolutely obsessed with lace knitting (if you can imagine that!) - shawls, mostly.  At one point I even joined a lace sh...

Hello on Monday!!  I hope this finds you well; we're good here. Just as I started making preparations for dinner last evening, I happened to look outside, and who did I see on the hummer feeder but - our hummer!!  Little green guy!!!  He came back a few times after that, at least those are the ones I saw.  Who knows if he'd been tanking up since earlier in the day!  He's back again today as well.  We'll have weeks of hummer fun watching them all! I thought you might like to see a picture of the Squircles, all completed and - I guess ready for next year, along with the newly-felted slippers, LOL: So I'm expecting the pattern May Gift to reveal tomorrow, it will be fun to see what new ideas we'll get from that!  I'm still contemplating casting on for something new in addition to that, although I definitely need to spend some quality time on My Corona! Meanwhile - I've finished the knitting on Pretty Thing, so hopefully I'll have that to show...

Hello on this sunny Sunday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. I got most everything done yesterday that I need to, but not all that I wanted to.  I even stayed up late to get one thing finished, that was interesting!  I still have a lot I want to do today, and a few things that I need to do.  I'll be ready for a day off soon, LOL! I told Oogyhubby that I shouldn't operate any heavy machinery today - not that I would anyway, but if someone approaches me with a backhoe I should refrain from taking the controls.  This morning I made a mess of the waffle preparation, dropped a fork, and this also happened: This lace isn't difficult, and I haven't been running any lifelines.  But I really screwed up about 2-3 rows down such that the counting worked out for a while but the YOs were in the wrong place and I couldn't figure out how to make it work from where I was.  So there will be an elective surgical procedure going on later today.  I'd ra...

Hello on this Saturday, the perfect day to catch up on things!  I hope you're well; we're good here. Our local area is beginning Phase I of re-opening, so there is a bit of a manic vibe about.  Oogyhubby was thrilled to dash out for his first golf lesson of the season, be-masked and prepared for distancing.  I'm thinking that I'll be maintaining my sanctioned solitude a bit longer. As much as I'm enjoying being busy, I found myself falling a bit behind at the end of the week.  While I realize that this calls for better planning and structure, I'm spending today catching up to where I should have been yesterday.  The good news is that I have next week to practice on! Knitting has been more of a break-time activity lately, but I did want to show you my progress on Pretty Thing: The photo is a bit over-exposed: the yarn is a much deeper purple than that.  But hopefully you get the idea.  I'm just past the halfway point in the pattern, so it's s...

Hello on this Thursday!  I hope you are well; we're good here. I didn't post yesterday, I had lots to do and really not much else to tell you about! Today I can post a picture of the developing orchid situation; the flowers on the lead plant are beginning to emerge: Last year, the plant in the middle flowered, and the blooms seemed to last for weeks.  I'm hoping that all four of these plants will present a resplendent scene indeed! I did some knitting on the Nelkin Pretty Thing (not sure what to call it yet).  It seems I'm unable to follow a simple lace chart; I spent most of my knitting time last night fixing the row below.  The yarn is very sticky so that's annoying most of the time, but at least when I try to move things around it doesn't ladder by itself all the way back down to the beginning! The beads at the bottom look pretty awesome, and I think I might have enough to put some at the top as well - if I ever get there, LOL! One quick story:...

Greetings on this fine Tuesday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. I had an idea the other day about how to approach the latest Nelkin kit - the scarf I don't want to make for so many reasons.  I'd made one of Yarn Harlot 's Pretty Things a while ago, and was pretty sure the last time I'd seen it was in the finishing pile.  So I dug it out: Um, it's finished. What was it doing, then, hanging out with all of the slacker projects??  No idea. (The little things are wristlets; a different pattern, but matchy!) Here's the story:  I had a bunch of 10g balls of WHITE ANGORA.  They're from my grandma, and they're OLD.  How old?  They're Lion Brand.  I'm pretty sure LB hasn't made these in forever.  The yarn is  35% angora, 25% wool, 25% nylon, 15% casein.  White, you say?  Yes, one of my earlier dye experiments was to dye all of this white yarn bright pink.  It is so much more fun this way. AND - I don...

Just another Manic Monday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. The Squircles are ready to go swimming today: They're obviously not blocked yet, but I thought their cheerful colors would brighten up this otherwise gloomy day! I'm starting to get the point where I'll need to cast on for another project!  I still have My Corona to work on, and Pure Joy to finish, and of course a pile of finishing to finish.  May Gift will be released next Tuesday, but I can't wait until then.  We'll see what leaps on the needles next! I've been to and from Weggies already today; things were fairly uneventful.  It's nice to see some of the scarce items still on the shelves - cheese, chicken, bacon, rice.  Fake syrup, liquid hand soap, and household cleaners still appear to be in high demand, however! No wildlife news to report, except that I saw either deer or trees down along the treeline early this morning.  The birds continue to be busy and noisy!

Happy Weekend on this sunny (so far) Sunday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. I had such a giddy day off yesterday!  I knitted my butt off, finished my audiobook, made the face mask for Oogyhubby, took a lovely nap, and did this: All of these objects are now shrunk to their intended size and are completing the drying process! I think I've finally figured out a pretty good formula for using the appliances that came with the house fo felting.  The washing machine is one of those low water use ones (we're surrounded by water here, go figure), so it's virtually useless for felting.  What I've been doing is running through a couple of cycles of hot wash (with some old jeans that would otherwise get thrown away), and then turning it off after a couple of quick spins.  Then I throw everything into the dryer on a timer - usually 20 minutes or so at a time, as many times as it takes to get them to the right size. The thing to be really careful of is not l...

It's Friiiiidaaaaayyyyy!!!!  Get ready for the weekend!!!  I hope you're well; we're good here. So what if the only distinction between weekdays and weekends these days is that we don't set the alarm clock for 6:15 a.m., and sometimes we have a delicious breakfast of waffles and occasionally bacon.  That's something, right?? I have some small progress to report on the second Squircle: (This writing stuff is definitely interfering with my knitting time, LOL!) I'm hoping to make Oogyhubby's face mask tonight, so will have a pic to show you soon. The only wildlife update I have is that we were visited by another hopeful turkey hunter yesterday.  Get your own woods, you guys!

Sure Happy It's Thursday!!  I hope you're well; we're good here! I disappeared into a flurry of productivity yesterday, and I'm feeling even more morally superior than before, LOL!! As far as the knitting goes, I finally finished BadAss Spring Scrappy: OK, she looks huge.  But - she is light as a feather and very soft.  Perfect for the light breezes and graupel of Spring! I also cast on for the second Squircle: The 40" Addis are already poised for action! I also cranked on my new work: finishing the editing process for my first article, sending my second article to copyediting, and preparing for my third article.  Additionally, I had another transcription assignment and I continue to improve my skills with their software.  I'd love to rest on my laurels today, but I've got to get that third article well underway; it's a revision, but still - I like to fuss with them! I forgot to mention the awesome soup I made the other da...

Hummmmp Daaaaayyyyyyy!  I hope you're well; we're good here! Last evening and this morning I finished the second cannibal yarn bag made with leftover slipper yarn: All the yarn I have remaining is that small bundle of gray, with maybe a yard of the purple.  It's probably not enough to make anything on its own, but it could be a stripe in a felted potholder or wine bottle cozy or something, so I'll put it with the rest of the woolen bits and not try to fish around for a separate project for it. I also have no excuse not to felt the slippers - these two bags can come along for the ride, and we can have a big felting frenzy!!  Maybe this weekend?? My next knitting tasks are to graft the Squircle toe and start on the second one!  I'm also feeling morally superior about doing so much finishing lately, and might even dig one of the scrappy cowls out of the pile and finally tuck the ends in and send it for a swim! Not much other news going on, but I have a pile...

Happy Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo!  I hope you're well; we're good here. Last night I finished the knitting on the first leftover slipper yarn cannibal bag: I kept changing my mind about the dimensions and then had some re-do once I "found" the "extra" ball of purple yarn.  Even so, I've started a second one: I may have enough of the gray left after this to make something else - but smaller, like mitts or something.  Stay tuned for that update! So - those lovely beading projects I've completed recently - the Cassio Collar and Presto Cowlo?  That were so pretty I flew through them and then promptly gave them away?  The third project has just arrived and it's - well, not something I want to make.  Ever. Two major reasons:  1) It's a laceweight scarf and will just hang there.  I see it curling inward on itself, flaring at the bottom, and stretching.  Yuck.  2)  The pattern calls for two-sided lace.  I respect two-sid...

Hello Monday!  I hope you're doing well; we're good here. The first Squircle is done except for the toe grafting and working in the two ends (so much better than changing yarns to make all those stripes and having 8 million ends to work in!): Um - It looks huge, but it fits amazingly well (although, with those needles still in it, it's like trying on a porcupine).  I have a wee bit of yarn left, which I'll plan to use for preemie mitts! (Check out the cuuuuute DPN holders - turns out they work for these skinny needles too!!  I think I got these from Neuro!) Um - It turns out I do have more of the purple leftover slipper yarn - this is what I get for peering into a large, dark bag during non-daylight hours: I'm going to be able to make a whole other bag with what I have - AND it can be two colors, woohoo!! (Although I'm still wrestling with the first one - more trying to get the proportions right than anything else; I keep saying this but I sho...

Happy Sunny Sunday to you!  I hope you're well; we're good here. This morning Oogyhubby and I got up early to do some work - and also have a delicious breakfast and, as it turns out, to enjoy the beginning of what looks to be a lovely sunny day! I happened to glance out the window on my way downstairs and spied a turkey scooting behind the shed!! I've been on the lookout for the turkeys - I know they're around here, but I never see them.  Except for last year - in mid-April.  I took some bad (of course) pictures then; there was a lot of wind, I saw them a few times over the course of a couple of days, and then nothing. So maybe today's sighting was just a chance encounter.  Anyway - happy Turkiversary! In knitting news, I've been a bit busy over the past couple of days, in spite of doing some actual work in-between. The Squircle is looking awesome: Neuro's colors are fabulous, aren't they??  I'm not yet ready for toe decreases, and w...

Helllooooooooo Friday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. I managed to get back on track with Squircle yesterday.  I know this because I've just passed the point where I had to wrap the yarn that I'd used on the failed attempt back around the ball.  Now it's pulling from the center once again, the yarn sock is back in place, and it's almost starting to look like a sock again: (You can ignore my hair that's to the left of the sock.  You can't get away from my hair in this house, it's everywhere in spite of my keeping it combed and usually bound up in some way.) But - aren't these colors fun??  Neuro picked some nice ones!  I had no idea the brown was tucked away in there, and it looks great!  I can't wait to see what color is next, and I'm not peeking! Yesterday I learned about my new gig, editing AR-generated captions for a broadcasting company on the West Coast.  It involves a caption editor, video footage, and specially-co...