Oogyknitter

So Happy It's Tuesday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. I just left myself an "unknown" comment on my own blog, which is hysterical.  I have three different Google IDs that I use for three different purposes, and evidently I wasn't logged into the right one when I responded to Neuro's kind comment.  Too funny. Yesterday, a project from the mid-stash jumped out at me - a proto pair of socks that I've had my eye on for a while, so it has joined the others in earnest: You can see my dad's slippers over on the left there.  I've had some competing priorities the last few days, but I'm hoping to make significant progress on these before the end of the upcoming weekend. The farmer returned last evening.  We got up from having dinner and saw him cutting the rest of the fields.  He had it done in like 5 minutes, it was crazy.  He also left with that tractor, so now we are just down to one tractor, the thresher.  But once

Hello Monday!!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. Here is the latest cowl to begin its emergence from the finishing process: This is Neuro's Switching Modes pattern, knit with repurposed cashmere laceweight yarn (doubled) and my first (heavy-handed) speckle dyeing attempt.  The two go together very nicely, I think.  I loved making this, and will be scrounging around for more yarn candidates for another one very soon, I'm sure.  I get to use my lovely size 5 bamboo straight needles.  I knit the "purl" sections backwards (because my knit and purl gauges are so different), which was also super fun.  Even the 75-stitch kitchener edge wasn't too bad (ever since I learned the mnemonic "King Phillip's Purple Knickers".  As LW said, even though she has knit so many socks now she doesn't have any trouble remembering the order, she won't be able to get this phrase or image out of her head any time soon! I've cast on

Hello on this sultry Sunday!  I hope this finds you safe and well.  We're good here. Any of you who have been abroad, specifically to Western Europe, might recognize the meaning behind today's blog post title.  Typically tourists who are whisked through the countryside of England, Wales, Ireland, or Scotland inevitably end up learning the phrase "Another Bloody Castle".  Because they're everywhere.  And, oftentimes, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Well, there are exceptions.  We saw many lovely and unique castles during our trip through Scotland many years ago.  I specifically remember the castle ruins at Loch Ness, which was such a beautiful lake and area - and it reminded me of upstate NY's Finger Lakes.  We also spent a lovely time at Eilean Donan castle, which is a pretty famous one.  I don't remember if I ever went inside, but I did spend a lot of time sitting on a bench and admiring its exterior.  It's right on the water, wh

Happy Friday!  I hope this finds you all safe and well; we're still good here. I thought I'd take a short break from the parade of finished objects to show you some more partially-finished objects.  I had enough yarn for two complete warmup felted coasters: This yarn is so pretty, and I have a wee bit left that might make its way into yet another coaster, we'll see what I can concoct.  I've started a third coaster, so I'll have that to show to you soon enough as well. And then, look what arrived in yesterday's mail: They all look like they're shy and hiding their ball bands; they're Valley Yarns Berkshire, which is alpaca and wool.  My dad wanted to stay with the brown color theme - his slippers, his color choice! I don't have any new wildlife news to report, aside from a couple of strange bird calls I heard earlier this morning.

Happy Thursday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. Next up on the blocking board of completion, we have the BadAss Autumn Handspun cowl: I had spun all of these yarns at some point or another, and tried to gather up as many of the warmer colors I could find.  The cowl is light as a feather, and looks a bit less like a rugby shirt when it's on. I'm starting to fill up some of the project bags that I emptied during my parents' visit.  This is a warm-up felted coaster (of course, not felted yet, LOL).  I have no idea what I made with this yarn before, but it's very pretty: These are the yarns I'll be using for the next one - no idea what that will look like just yet though.  Most of these were Brown Sheep Bulky that I used for the bag that holds all the wool yarn oddballs: And this is another skein of repurposed lace (merino/silk) that will become a cowl with cabled owls and beads for eyes: I'll also be casting on for

Guess what day it is??????  I hope this finds you well!  We're good here. Continuing with my march through all things finished over the long weekend spent with my folks, may I present the blocked version of Neuro's Fire Festival Hat : This was super fun to make, even if there were 8 million ends to weave in at the end.  And it only took me about a year and a half to make my way through it!  You know, this chart would make for a really fun cowl, and I've got all that yarn left over, hmmmmm..... Speaking of yarn - I've got a big bag (ironically, felted) of wool odds and ends that I think I'll make into felted coasters.  I rummage around in there so often that many of the small balls have unraveled and tangled, so I've got a bit of sorting to do first.  I think I'll make a bunch of coasters using all different colors and styles.  Who says that your felted coasters have to match, anyway? Our blazing hot and humid weather has departed by means of a fie

Well, for my parents anyway!  A couple of weeks ago we made plans for them to travel here for a long weekend visit.  Little did we know that it would be miserably hot and humid the whole time, so we pretty much stayed inside and entertained ourselves. I did contribute some to this puzzle, but most of the time I hung out at the table and did a whole pile of finishing work on yarn projects.  I have so much done that I have enough to show you over the coming days! When I wasn't making preparations for their visit, I had several deadlines I needed to make.  It was nice to have the long weekend "off", even if I did a whole lot of meal prep (and eating!!). I see that the Kelbourne Woolens people, who skipped the month of May entirely (maybe because of their KAL?) have released a washcloth/dishcloth pattern for June Gift.  I'm not a huge fan of knitting with cotton, and I don't really enjoy using these cloths, but it seems we are in need of some wee felted coast

TGIF!!!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. I had a small worry here this week - I hadn't seen one of the goaties in a few days, and I was worried that something had happened to her.  I'd been peering out at the goats so often that Oogyhubby proclaimed that I am the wife who stares at goats. (For all you Jon Ronson fans out there - it was a great book and a great movie as well, you should definitely check them both out.) I just caught a glimpse of the goat I call Oreo, so all is well.  The one I call Nilly has been out there all week, so no worries there. I thought I'd share a status photo of My Corona.  I've finished all of the beading, and am quickly approaching the top border: These borders are so pretty, and they definitely keep the sides held together very nicely, but they do make me a little cross-eyed to work on them! Wildlife update - not really.  So the yellow whatever - is it hay or is it canola, I have no idea - is now a fiel

It's Taco Tuesday and all good here!  I hope you're safe and well.  (We're really having tacos for dinner, too!) I've been pretty busy, but I don't have a whole lot of yarn stuff to report.  Work continues on the current projects, and I still haven't started anything new in spite of all my threats.  I've otherwise been cooking, doing some work outside, staying in touch with friends virtually, and generally adjusting to having something resembling a schedule. I also wanted to show you this, before too much longer: The plant in the middle with the smaller white and purple flowers is the one that blossomed last year.  This is my first time with the two on the ends with the large flowers; there's also one in the middle who is sending up a flower stick but who might miss the trend and flower after everyone else is done.  These blossoms tend to last a really long time, so hopefully I'll be able to see all four of these blooming together.  If not,

It's Huuuummmmmppp Daaayyyy again!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. I thought I'd have one more project to show you from Dyeing Weekend, but it turns out that it didn't work out.  I had this small bit of laceweight merino and thought - wouldn't this be perfect with my current obsession with doubling the laceweight, I can make something pretty with this.  I sprinkled on some light purple, a bit of black, and some yellow - iris-like, if you will. There was a lot going on that afternoon: day drinking (what else do you put in your adult sippy cup?), good friends visiting virtually, stuff boiling, gloves and masks, etc.  I popped the small bundle into the microwave to set the dye, and didn't even think about not setting it to the same time as all the other (um, larger) bundles - 5 minutes to start, followed by another 5.  The small bundle smelled a little weird when I took it out after the first 5, but it's dye, it all smells weird. Well,

Hello on this bright and sunny Monday!  I hope you're well; we're good here. Once upon a time, probably about 18 or so years ago now, some work friends and I ran out for a fairly typical lunchtime excursion - walk around the mall looking for great sales, get a giant salad from one of those salad places, and get a giant iced coffee from one of those coffee places.  I'm not really a big shopper, but it was always fun to find super bargains, and this whole trip always took less than an hour. One of the best finds I had was a set of wool scarves at The Gap.  They were this lovely gray color, but had this ugly yellow stripe at both ends.  No wonder they were on sale!  I think their original price was about $20, and they were marked down to $1.97 each.  I bought them all - there were about 8, I think.  I originally thought I'd just cut off the offensive yellow parts, and re-knit the ends.  Instead, over the years I've dyed them and given them away.  I had one left,