Oogyknitter

Hello on this barley and spinach stew Sunday! You might recall when Neuro and I were contemplating what to do with a set of UFOs each of us had lurking about.  We had a show-and-tell over Zoom one day and helped each other determine whether to rip, finish, or repurpose these projects.  I've been making my way through my pile (it wasn't small!) and have the first of four (perhaps five?) to show you! This was the first square I made for a pattern called The Great American Kids Afghan .  It was part of a series that Knitters Magazine was doing way back in the late 1990s and 2000s; having completed most of the original pattern, The Great American Afghan (and having since sent it off to Portland with a former co-worker) I thought this would be a smaller, fun project. This may be the first and only time I've embroidered onto knitting.  I think it's a great effect, and I think it could be kind of fiddly - but I honestly don't remember!! Anyway - I'd finished about 3.5...

Hello on this Freezer Bingo Wednesday!! I happened upon an amazing sunrise the other morning when I took Daisy out: This was a couple of weeks ago already, and before the time change.  It was also probably just before one of the two recent snowstorms we've had during this otherwise strangely warm and rainy winter season! Contrasted with this morning, which began with a robin singing its absolute head off.  Today is supposed to be very warm (mid-50s!) and sunny.  There will be rain tomorrow, however, so the robin's delight will be brief. Believe it or not, there is actual knitting still happening here - but lately I've worked on a couple of test knits, no pics allowed :)  I'm using cashmere for the latest project, and it's like knitting a cloud! I managed to get in a small amount of spinning over the weekend as well - although nothing like Neuro's recent production!!! Stay safe and well!

Hello on this tomato and bean soup Friday!! I wanted to share another FFO (Finally Finished Object) with you - one that languished in the "to-be-finished" pile forever!!!  And it only needed to be blocked - everything else was done!!   Here's why.  Neuro and I dyed some amazing yarn a couple of years ago - and one of them is a beautiful, vibrant, bright blue.  I probably added too much dye, since it ran when I washed it and turned my fingers and wooden needles blue when I knit with it. And, silly me, I combined it with undyed yarn!  Both a lovely and soft merino/cashmere blend (evidently I created a project page on Ravelry, otherwise I'd never remember the yarn or the name of the pattern -  Pure Joy , by Joji Locatelli).. It turned out beautifully.  And I was afraid to block it due to the bleeding. Yesterday I decided to give it a try.  The blue ran like crazy!!  And I thought I had most of it under control.  But then it bled as it ...

Hello on this Personalized Pizza Thursday!! It's been quite some time, hasn't it?  And of course I continue to work on all kinds of projects, but I don't seem to have finished many as of late.  Yesterday I decided to do something about that: This is Mountain Musings , a MKAL that I worked on last summer!  It's been waiting to block for some time now.  I went a bit easy on the blocking, since it's already a good size and mostly garter-type stitches. This was super fun to make and I had no idea that it would end up as a large rectangle!  My Ashford Traditional seems glad for the company. Neuro and I have been revisiting some languishing project this year, so I've been doing a fair amount of un-doing as well as rejuvenating some others that were thought to be hopeless.  I also have a small pile of pillows that started out as an afghan project, and once those are done (soon!) I can show them off.  I keep wanting to do more spinning but somehow the fully-fo...

Hello on this lemon garlic salmon and green beans Thursday!! By way of food updates - Oogyhubby got me an InstaPot for Xmas, so I've been taking it for a test spin this past week.  So far I've boiled water (to practice releasing the pressure - which scared the crap out of Daisy!), made carrot/ginger soup (was OK), and made a shawarma (delicious but I added too much curry powder; can't wait to make again!).  I've ordered a cookbook full of InstaPot recipes, and will look forward to exploring that too! I completely forgot that I took a picture of Sharon Air while it was drying (I've since worn it 2-3 times already!): There's tons more things in the works but nothing quite yet to show for it all; as usual, more to come on that!  In other news - I came home the other day from running an errand and heard this strange noise in the background.  Upon further investigation, it was coming from a kajillion birds all perched in the tops of the trees nearby (those little dot...

Hello on this Baked Salmon (with lemon!) Saturday!! A few more things are starting to move out of the finishing pile and onto the next part of their journey!  Here is a pair of slippers made from that terrific pattern, Felted Clogs , that I keep re-making for various people because they wear them so often that they put holes through two layers of double-stranded wool on the bottom!  (Oogydad has taken to duct-taping the bottom of his, preferring any slipperiness over hold prevention!): And here is Sharon Air, taking up all four blocking squares and most of the Yarn Room (and too wide to photograph without somehow swinging from the ceiling!!): I've still got some stuff on the finishing pile and of course tons in process, so stay tuned for more! Stay safe and well too :)

Hello on this Freezer Bingo Friday!! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted something here.  While I still have a ton of projects in various stages of completion, I haven't finished any until fairly recently.  Now I have a few to share! First up - a hat for our physician who is retiring at the end of this year: Closeup of vintage button I used instead of a pom-pom (or nothing): This gentleman has been our PCP for about 30 years, and I thought we'd all retire at about the same time.  We'll both miss him for sure!! This hat gave me a ton of trouble at the end.  It's knit in brioche stitch, which can be a challenge for a brioche semi-newbie, but that part was OK and even the crazy twisted cable cast-on worked out great.  I hated the double-sided brioche decreases, which created a kind of open-work wedge at the top, so I tried to experiment with other patterned decreased (fisherman's rib and such). In the end I gave up and just used a vanilla incr...