Iceland Sweater And First Woven Scarf

I think it is a tradition for me to finish a sweater just in time for the hot weather. I attached the last button on the last day of sweater weather we are going to have for awhile.

Pattern: Iceland from Rowan 42; Yarn: Naturally Harmony 10 Ply in color 803

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out though. I made quite a few modifications to transform the sweater being shaped like an oversized bag to something a bit more flattering. Most of the modifications I made had to do with the ribbed body portion of the sweater; I added length and shaping. The details are more in depth on my ravelry page.

I'm also pleased to say that I have managed to complete goal #4 of this year's goal list: knitting sweater out of stash. 

I also finished my first woven project: a scarf!

Pattern: Made up by yours truly; Yarn: Little Wool Company 4-Ply 100% Pure Wool in White, Oatmeal, and Silver

Connor immediately swooped in and claimed it as his. I suppose that is fair; I claimed his first knitted scarf.

I'm really pleased to have finally finished some big projects.... but I'm already looking at what I can weave and knit next. I think it might be time to give the ole' stash a good tossing (like a salad, not to the garbage... as I explained to Connor) and see what treasures I might turn up.

Has anyone else finished something that has been on your list for a long time? And how many of you have given (or thought about giving) your stash a good tossing?

Almost There

"Almost there" is how I feel about all of my projects. I've put time in to each, but none are quite finished just yet. Still, I'd like to share what is almost done.

I'm nearing the finish line with the Iceland Sweater. I was undecided on how long to make the welts for the body, so after doing around 60 rows of the front, I started on the back. I got a little nervous about the width. The ribbing sucked in so much that I went ahead and blocked it. No need to keep knitting if I'm going to rip it all out again. Luckily it blocked out great. Now I just need to finish the length of it before weaving in the many ends and attaching the buttons.

I tucked all the ends into the sweater when taking the picture, but there are quite a number of ends to weave in

I've been putting quite a bit of time into my new woven scarf. Connor has started playing Fallout 4, so I've been using that as my weaving time.... you know, when I haven't stolen the controller to play a little myself. (It's such a small part of the game, but I'm obsessed with collecting the magazines and displaying them on the rack at our home base.)
I'm nearing the end of the scarf and I've already learned what I would do a bit differently next time, but all in all it is a good first project. The only problem I've really run across is how to show weaving progress. It sort of looks the same as you weave.... so here is the big roll of scarf that I've woven.

It looks so small all rolled up, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a long scarf when I'm done

The socks are all moving along, too. The Haleakala socks (top) got put aside again because I forgot how complicated the gusset is. The test sock (right) is almost at the toe. My plain vanilla pair (bottom) is also almost at the toe. I wish some of these were second socks, but alas, they are all the first in the pair. I'm hoping that once I get one sock done, the match will knit itself.

Of course all these projects are just my yarn-related ones. I've been continuing on with my comic and figuring out how to best scan and process them for online and print. (I have no current plans to print them, but if I ever changed my mind, I don't want to rescan 160+ pages.) I've also taken a step away from the embroidery sachet/ quilt project. It all became a bit too much to maintain.

Who else has a bunch of "almost there" projects? If you love them all, how do you choose which one to work on next?

I'm A Weaver

Do you know the feeling of having so much to do, but having no idea where to start? Ideas and projects swirl around in your head and leaves you too tired to cross anything off of the list? That was me yesterday. Luckily, when I get to that point, Connor sits me down and has me list all the things that are overwhelming me out loud while he writes them down. Usually at the end of the list he'll say, Wow! That is a lot of things." This time when we finished, he looked at me and said, I think you need to start weaving.

I've wanted to try out weaving for quite some time. I've even been borrowing a loom for over a year (sorry David) but kept being too intimidated to try. So yesterday Connor helped me... alongside a book, youtube, and an online tutorial.

Originally I was going to weave a plain white scarf. I have a ton of white from when I thought I'd knit my wedding dress. But after threading the the first two threads, I realized I'd be bored immediately, so we wound up the white and I started to sketch out possible patterns. A little while back, Wei Siew had kindly send me some other colors by Anna Gratton, who also spun up the white. They work together so harmoniously, it was clear they needed to be in a scarf together.

After a few false starts, I was able to get going. So now I am a weaver. I've already woven and unwoven parts of this scarf, but I'm learning quickly.

I have high hopes to be wearing a new scarf soon.... unless Connor steals it. He keeps telling me it's "great man colors."

Captain Shiney's New Hat

I had been promising Connor to take him to see the tall ships that some times visit nearby; specifically the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain. We had missed out the last time they were in town. By chance I looked to see where they currently were and it turned out I had looked just in time because we were able to go see them the last week that they were close by. So early on a Sunday, we headed to the nearby marina.

Does the ship look familiar? It played the Interceptor in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

My Mum had volunteered on the Lady Washington over a decade ago. Whenever the ships were in town, we would go and invite crew members to the house for a hot shower, dinner, and laundry. Life got in the way, people we knew moved to different places, and we slowly stopped visiting. When Connor and I headed out that Sunday, I wondered if we might bump into someone I knew. Luck was on our side and as it turned out, I knew the captain. Shiney (James' nickname) had started volunteering on the Lady Washington the at the same time my Mum had. We knew he had worked up to being a captain on other ships, but it was great fun to see him be the captain on the Lady Washington.

We had signed up to be part of a battle sail. On a battle sail, the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain go out and under sail power maneuver around and shoot off cannons (with blanks) at each other. The captains on each ship keep track to see who wiped the floor with who. (We totally won.)

Our gunner firing one of the swivel guns

There are different kinds of shots that can be taken. You can broadside a ship when it is alongside you. You can shoot through the whole ship when it is pointed directly at or away from you. Shiney's favorite, however, is to aim for the stern because that's where the other captain and his officers would have been.

The Hawaiian Chieftain had moved all of its cannons onto one side so it could get four shots in

While we took our time to line up shots and the strategy was discussed, if it were a true battle, the shots wouldn't have been lined up. The goal would have been to damage the other ship as much as possible as fast as possible.

Shiney is catching the other ship's cannonballs with his hat

While we were catching up, I learned that the hat I made Shiney years ago that had "Shiney" knitted into it had been lost to time. As a knitter, I had to ask, "Do you need a new one?" The giant smile on his face was all the answer I needed. I knit like the wind and on a different weekend, we drove to a port that was further away from us to deliver the hat. It was a big hit.

Shiney is much taller than me. He was obliging and leaned down so I wouldn't be so dwarfed.

If anyone is interested in visiting either tall ship, there is a schedule at historicalseaport.org . The ships sail up and down the west coast of the US regularly. Also, when we dropped off the hat, they were taking a wedding party out for a pirate-themed wedding on the bay. I didn't know that was possible, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

I've Run Out Of Sock Needles

I've jealously eyed Gale's Art sock blanks for awhile now. Friends coming back from Rhinebeck had them... and at the time it was really difficult to get one on Gale's etsy shop. A year ago, around my birthday, I finally decided I was going to take the plunge, stalk her shop, and finally get myself a single sock blank in The Big O color way. The only problem was that less than a month earlier she retired the color. Oh the agony! And no one on ravelry was giving their's up. I did have a little sliver of hope though. She said that after a year, she might un-retire it. Well.... while sitting in the bathroom with my phone (like you do), I decided to see if the color might have finally been un-retired. And what do you know, she had exactly the one I wanted in her shop. I came bursting forth from the loo and shouted to Connor, who was sitting on the couch, I HAVE TO BUY YARN NOW. IT'S IMPORTANT. And now it is mine. However, I have run into a problem. 

All my sock needles are full. I know that some people would solve that problem by buying another set of needles, but that is not my way. (Also, I haven't been able to make it to the yarn shop...) So instead I am knitting furiously on all my socks to clear the needles. It might make sense to just work on one at a time, but after feeling really inspired to work on the Haleakala socks, I ran into a part that required lots of concentration, so I moved to my plain pair. Of course then I figured out the problem I was having with the test knit I was doing, so I gave my attention to that... until the weather turned cold again and I worked on my sweater instead. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to have more than three projects going at once; it prevents me from knitting my new yarn.

Does anyone else have a tale of yarn woe... and perhaps eventual triumph? Or is there yarn that you knew you should have bought and will never get your hands on?