Year of Projects #3 - A little progress is still progress

 

This will be a short and sweet update as I have been battling (and losing) with a migraine.  

I have made a little more progress on my 54 pickup lap blanket. 

and I started on my Contrapunctus socks.  It was a new shortrow heel construction and I really liked how intuitive it was. Now I am just knitting to the toe - which will be a shortrow  toe construction that is also new to me. 

I did take a 'me day' on Friday and was able to buy some yarn to try with the Wildernesse shawl. 

And yes, I did buy some more stitch markers....I used to have 60 of these little coloured rings, but while working on the 54 pickup I used what I had and couldn't find any more....Really, I do have a problem with buying stitch markers that you can read about here. 

I did the smallest amount of spinning - I am on the 2nd bobbin so I will have enough to ply, but it is slow going.  I just don't seem to have much spinning mojo these days. 

So that is my week.  I wasn't able to read everyone else's posts last week, so as soon as this migraine settles I will get caught up with everyone. 

  Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

Year of Projects #2 - Extreme Double Knitting

 

I have wanted to knit the wilderness shawl for a long time and finally chose the colours and wool and so I began this week.  It became apparent as I reached the second repeat of the chart that this shawl was going to be heavy - more like worsted weight because of carrying the second colour along.  In my mind I imagined the shawl to be more light - and so on Saturday night I frogged the whole thing.  

before the frogging...

I am glad I stopped myself from continuing the pattern.  It does look cool, and I will find a lighter yarn and start again some time in the future.  

I was brave enough to finally cast on my 52 pickup.  I am calling it 54 pickup because I am including the two jokers.  I did as the designer suggested and took a deck of cards and randomly shuffled them and intermixed them face up and face down to create a truly random and unique layout.  

my chart for 6 x 9 lap blanket
Alasdair has calculated that the chance of someone else knitting the same order as I have randomly chosen is 4.16 x 10 to the power of 87 to 1.

And here is my progress as of last night. 

Side One
Can you see the King, Jack and 4 emerging?

Side two
Can you see a Jack, Joker and 6 emerging? 

Each row involves carrying three colours and double-knitting each pair of k1p1 stitches to create the double-knit effect of the front of the card on one side and the back of the card on the other.  There are 135 pairs of stitches so each row is 270 stitches.  I use 6 charts for each row and have to remember that on every even row I must arrange the charts in the reverse order. I missed that instruction the first time and had to think back the 270 stitches. Phew. Definitely a mindful knit!

No wonder Alasdair calls it Extreme Double Knitting!

So today some time I will cast on some socks to have some mindless knitting on the go as well. 

Hopefully this week brings less frogging and more progress.  

Year of Projects - Year 15 begins

 

Well yes, Year 15 has begun, but I have not been Yopping for that long.  I will have to look back though my archives to see when I started....be right back.  

Okay. I started in Year of Projects 2016/2017 and was pretty consistent until part way through 2022/23 - So I think that makes this my 8th year.  

Enough with the facts - let's get down to the plan. 

I have had two patterns in my queue since the beginning of the year and it took me a while to order the yarn for them  

Wilderness Shawl and 52 Card Pickup 

The Wilderness Shawl will be a new-to-me construction of knitting a colourwork shawl in the round and then steeking it.  It doesn't escape my notice that the work steek has the word 'eek' in it.  I started this yesterday and so far so good.  Progress picture will happen next week.

The 52 Pickup is a double knitting pattern by Alasdair Post-Quinn and I will make the blanket version with each card of the deck, including the two jokers.  

I also have another of Amelia Archer's designs -  Contrapunctus ready to start.  I love her knit loop ideas, and in fact took her idea and designed a sock for this year's SuperSock World Championship. Me Too! Me Too! will be available for sale in September.  

This past week I finished two pairs of socks to celebrate Canada Day.  Amelia Archer's Charmed Diamond socks and one of the Supersock World Championship designs - Sassia by L'Atelier des Glènettes. 

Yesterday was the start of Tour de Fleece and I have over a pound of fleece to spin up - not sure how much I will get done, or what I will make with it, but it is great to be back on my wheel after such a long hiatus. 

The rest of my plan is as follows:

test knits for Supersock World Championship 2026

new sock design of my own

a gnome or two 

an animal/wild animal friend or two

knit something with my handspun

at least one dragon 

a toque to match my latest purple gansey

fingerless gloves - also to match my latest gansey 

Yes, I am back and looking forward to catching up on the other bloggers who are taking part in Year of Projects 15 on Ravelry. 

Home and Away

 

Well it finally has happened.  Thanks to being confined to home with the latest CoVid variant I was able to get my latest novel published in paperback form.  This is exciting as I can now give copies to my local libraries and have some on hand to sell myself.  

Readers can order it from Amazon.  

As this, my second novel, hits the presses I am already in final edits of my third novel, Saul's Swimmers. 

Who am I? 

I am a writer. 

CoVId

 Well, it finally happened.  Last week I tested positive and the past eight days have been most unpleasant.   Sure, after day five I could knit again, and watch mindless television, but doing anything that requires effort, like doing the dishes, or putting away groceries is e x h a u s t i n g!

On the plus side I did finish yet another round of edits for Home and Away. to have it published in paperback form, so that is exciting,  I just have to finalize the copyright page and then it is good to go. 

The weather has been amazing, and I have spent some time on the porch enjoying the antics of the young squirrels that are creating havoc on my back deck.  They have eaten all my primulas, and pansies, chewed off the blossoms of my toad flax and dug up and taken away my Amaryllis bulb.  Their latest antic is to get on top of the hummingbird feeder and lick up the nectar.  

I guess because we no longer have a cat they think they can do whatever they please.  Whenever my husband or I go out the back door and yell at them they fly off the deck into the surrounding cedar trees.  I have become a mad harpy yelling at them to get out of my plants and off the feeder. 

My son says I need an animatronic Owl.  We did look up remedies to stop them from getting into the plants and it seems they don't much like the smell of coffee, so I have been putting coffee grounds around all my plants.  Of course that is when I noticed the little buggers on the hummingbird feeder so I commented that I guess they don't like their coffee black, but instead with some sweetener. 

I know, I know - first world problems.  

My husband tested positive about four days after me, and then my daughter is home sick today.  She tested negative, but she has all the same symptoms so I imagine she is in the same boat. 

Tempers are running short but I think maybe tomorrow we could at least go out for a drive and maybe a coffee on the beach.  Something to look forward to. This virus isn't going to keep me down much longer. 

I am grateful I can attend church via live streaming of the service, but I am missing my choir, my swimming, and my journalling group.  

Caught in the act!

Also this week my sock design went live as a part of the Supersock World Championship on Ravelry.  It will be available for sale after the championship is over, but it is exciting to see it being knit by some of the racers. 

So ya, I got CoVid this week, but I still have lots to be grateful for. 

Patience

 Sometimes LIFE seems to be insistent on sending me a message until I pay attention.  The sermon at church yesterday was on patience.  It was about letting the other person finish their thought, and then pause, have patience before wading into the conversation. 

My Lenten reading today was on Patience.  Patience as in waiting for God to answer.  My CoDependent reading today was on....yup, patience. 

Patience according to one definition is: The state or quality of being patient; the power of suffering with fortitude; uncomplaining endurance of evils or wrongs, as toil, pain, poverty, insult, oppression, calamity, etc.

Oh my goodness - that is not at all what I expected, that sounds like 'the patience of Job', so I had to look up other definitions. 

From Merriam-Webster : able and willing to bear, not hasty or impetuous.

Hmm that seems closer.  I have always thought of patience as 'waiting my turn', or 'not trying to rush an outcome.'

 Patience is tough.  I am a CoDependent in recovery, and I am not always patient in waiting for the miraculous promises that this particular twelve step group reads to us every week.  

Promise 2:  I am no longer controlled by my fears.  I overcome my fears and act with courage, integrity and dignity, and 

Promise 11, I trust the guidance I receive from my Higher Power and come to believe in my own capabilities. 

Yes, after seven years (and a boatload of patience) I am coming to believe in those promises.  And I have plenty of examples of prayers being answered - in God's time, but I am first to admit that to me, God's time can be awfully slow. 

But patience, dear girl, patience.  

I am notorious for finishing my husband's sentences and assuming I know where his words are going, and it drives him batty.  Plus, I am usually wrong. 

So, I have received the message about patience LOUD and CLEAR.  I will allow others to finish their sentences, or even paragraphs and pause before weighing in. 

It's the least I can do while waiting for God to take care of my prayers. 

I hear the voice from that 1970s television show 'KungFu'....."patience, grasshopper, patience." 

Not something I am good at, but damn it I am going to try. 

Home and Away is finally published!

 

I know that I have been away from this blog for some time.  That doesn't mean I haven't been busy writing, journalling, healing. 

My latest novel went live today on Amazon.  Home and Away, follows the adventures of Sarah, a sixty-seven year old widow, who finds herself, in March 2020, locked down in Croatia as the world struggles to manage the pandemic.  It is a story of love.  Love of herself, her family, a little one-eyed cat, and a certain Croatian gentlemen.  

This read would be a great escape from the news of today.  Buy a copy.  Make yourself a cup of tea, and curl up with my new book. It is available as a paperback and an ebook. 

I hope you like it. Let me know in the comments. 

Oh, and now this is published I promise to be post more often about the this and that of my life.