A Little Yarn On The Side

Scorching heat aside, I still love this project.  To be fair, it wasn't until after I started it that I discovered that the "yarn needed" notes on Ravelry aren't accurate, so I made a shorter shrug than the pattern called for, and if it looks odd on the right, it's because my mattress stitching there is so wonky that I'll be ripping it out and starting over, so it's only partially done.  BUT it still counts as finished sweater number FIVE.  Yay!!!!!!!!!!  When we get out of the perpetual state of sweat, I might even be willing to try it on.  It's supposed to "only" get to 104 today.  Whew!  Good thing I have wool in such a break from heat! Aside from having a new finished sweater, I am tremendously proud of myself for this sweater because I used gift yarn for it .  I struggle with using up any really great yarn in my stash--you know, because then I won't have the yarn any more--but I become a positive maniac over gift yarn.  RobinH ...

According to the news, Boise just set a record high temperature today of 108.  I know--that's a refreshing day in Arizona, but this is IDAHO.  We're a northern state.  We get winter and everything.  This is crazy hot for us. I am hosting my knitting group tonight, and I have already notified everyone that the air conditioner is on full blast and that the house is livable, though if it gets any hotter, I may have to relent and make it "clothing optional."  Meanwhile, I need to go find a non-wool project for tonight.  Even with the air conditioning blasting, it is STILL too hot to handle wool.  Argh!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I just say that??????????????????

Okay, so in one light: Tonight, however, when I was showing the sweater to Andy, it looked more like this: NOOOO!!!!  A cheap, mass-produced acrylic yarn had dye lot variations!!!!!!!!  I'll admit, I have gotten very lazy about checking dye lots on big commercially produced yarns, and this stuff is TLC Wiggles which was made by Red Heart--the kings of the mass produced yarn!  I don't imagine ANYTHING in their yarn process is done by humans--how does this still have dye lots? Sigh.......I'm going to send the sweater as a gift anyway and just hope they don't notice.   If they notice, I'm going to blame it on all the nifty drugs.  Or age--does 41 count as old enough to be "slightly batty" to those in their 20s?  Would it help if we got another cat?

Sweater number 4 and hat number 6 are done! That makes me still behind, but it is done BEFORE the birth of its destined owner, so still an improvement in my normal program. The Ravellenic games are coming in a couple weeks, and I'm going to try to finish a couple sweater WIPs during the games (which have nothing to do with any televised events of any sort), which will bring me closer to being on schedule, and maybe if there's a quick shrug in bulky yarn and big needles before the start, I could actually be on target for the 12 sweaters for the year.  OK, I didn't begin the year planning that 3 of the sweaters would be baby or toddler size, but I pride myself on my ability to disregard rules flexibility.  I didn't actually say they couldn't be baby-sized, though I'll admit that I do have enough pride to be unwilling to consider doll-sized.  One has one's limits........or at least until December............

Always have a very simple knitting project on-hand for the 4th of July, so when our nitwit neighbors are still shooting off illegal fireworks until well after midnight, I have something simple to do when I can't sleep.......

 Thanks to a rather persistent wake-up kitty, I was up slightly before 5:00 AM this morning, so I've had lots of time to do stuff today.  I even did an early morning grocery run and managed to be in, out, and home carrying groceries in by 7:30 AM.  Not that I'm agreeing that this is a good program or even tolerable, and I might have disrupted a few of Theo's naps today in retaliation, but it did give me some extra time today.  So, the 9th Christmas ornament is done, all the knitting on the new baby sweater is finished and I'm down to just sewing seams, I've started the matching beret, and.... a few more things are in the sewing room!  While not very attractive, this is the best way to get the yarn tubs in the room without blocking anything.  I won't swear how accessible that bottom shelf will be, but everything else can be reached.  And the top tub contains this which is all the yarn I hope to use up from stash before the end of the ...

Ahem.  The year is half over and my list of "twelve 12s" is not exactly at the half-finished point, but I have finally completed one: There are now fourteen completed pen sleeves.  I made them from some leftover micro suede, which works really well for these as it doesn't ravel.  Felt works well too, but it doesn't look quite as nice.  I still think I can get all 12 done--plus the bonus one--by December 31, but then again, I am known to be quite the delusional nutcase optimist.  Hey, it's the first one that's the hardest, right?