It was warm earlier this week, but I’ve needed a hat for my walk the past two days. Luckily I have a new sparkly hat. I love my new Magpie Darling hat from the Crafty Jackalope.
The cowl was a gift from a friend. It showed up this week on a day I really needed it. I’ve been wearing it since.
Did you finish anything this week?
This week I cast on my Arachne for the KAL that I bullied Marilee into hosting. I love this sweater, and find myself annoyed that I don’t have more time to work on it. I only have a few rows of the yoke done.
I’m using Harrisville Designs Nightshades in the Cinder colorway for the main color. The web will be knit in Barret Wool Co. Wisconsin Woolen in hazelnut. The Nightshades is a DK. The Wisconsin Woolen is a worsted. They weigh the same and have the same yardage, so I’m not concerned.
I’m going to make a few changes to my sweater. I’ve added extra stitches as I will be steeking this. I am not going to do the waist decreases, as my personal waist does not decrease. I’m debating adding pockets.
I’m kind of winging this sweater. I love the yarn, so if I have to rip it out and start again I’ll be OK with that. My goal is to finish the sweater by October.
I have two projects I want to work on all of the time.
One of them is mindless. It’s a vanilla sock in the Gothic Rainbow colorway from Two Sisters Yarn Co. I love striped socks. They fly. I cast them on yesterday. They are perfect for yard knitting while the kids play. They are also great for video calls.
I would like to have more focused knitting time to work on my Arachne. I haven’t had a lot of free time in the evenings, so I have not worked on this as much as I would like to. Has your social life taken off now that all socializing is on video calls? Now that we can hang out in pajamas in our own houses my friends and I are all game to hang out.
I’ll give you more details on my Arachne tomorrow for my weekly Arachne KAL post.
I’m still plugging away on my Throughstone. I knit a few rows this week. It’s fine. I’ll be happy to have it next fall.
First of all, I want to thank all of you for your kind comments yesterday. I am so happy to be part of this community.
This week I made sandwich bread with 2/3 white whole wheat flour, Buttery Sourdough Sandwich Biscuits with a flower biscuit as requested by Audrey, Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie for One which I made into two cookies and baked on a cookie sheet (thanks to Karen’s son for the recommendation), Salted Chocolate Caramel Knot, Sandwich Bread, Buttery Sourdough Sandwich Biscuits, and Chocolate Chip Sourdough.
This week my two favorite things I made were the chocolate chip cookies and the salted chocolate caramel knot. The cookies are crisp and chewy. I could easily make them into four cookies for dessert for the family. The salted chocolate caramel knot made me feel like a fancy baker. I had no idea that you could do that with sourdough. I’m loving exploring sourdough.
John and the kids love the sourdough biscuits, which means I can put whatever I want in them and the kids will eat them happily.
Have you been baking?
Have I mentioned I’m not doing super great? I’m getting by. I’m increasing my anxiety meds. I’m making sure my kids think this is a cool fun time instead of a terrifying time where we suddenly wear masks when we go out and we don’t get to hug grandma and grandpa.
One way I deal with stress is buying things. I am by nature a conservative person financially (not socially…dear Lord, send me your gays and your heathens and I’ll go out to dinner with them and start book clubs and shit), so when I say I buy things I mean things that I can afford but normally don’t justify.
Fiberpalooza was cancelled.
Knitting In the Heartland was postponed.
The festivals where I was planning on spending my yarn money were gone. I had yarn money burning a hole in my pocket. So I went on line.
First up? Some yarn from the Chromatic Yarns. Hannah had a special yarn dyed in support of social justice, with proceeds going to an anit-racism charity. I bought a sock set for me and a sparkly sock skein to make the kids socks.
Next up? Some yarn from Two Sisters Yarn Company. I picked some self striping sparkly rainbow yarn for the Pride Month KAL. I also picked up some Gothic Rainbow for the ittybitty self striping yarn club KAL that is Jess and me. I have to say, these feel like Gothic Rainbow times, so I predict next Monday will involve this yarn.
After those purchases I lost my damn mind.
I pre-ordered the Chormatic Yarns Advent Calendar. I love Hannah’s yarn….but also I think she is the coolest and have secret dreams of becoming her friend (but maybe not so secret if I just told Blogville….drat my chatty posts….).
I also bought a hat kit from the Crafty Jackalope. A hat kit with sequin yarn. Life as we know it feels like it is ending, so I’m all SMILE, SPARKLE, SHINE, there are sequins on my head!!
Have any of you lost your minds in a feeble attempt to come to terms with social distancing?
One week in to the craft tote, and so far it has been a success. I thought I would share what the kids picked as their crafts this week. You will notice that I use the term craft very loosely – I often use it for activities they love and I don’t enjoy (like painting fingernails).
The kids painted a tea set. The paints in the kit had dried up, so we used tempera paint. The paint won’t last, but neither will a ceramic tea set. I made playdough for the kids. I’m not a playdough fan, so this counts as a craft. They used chalk rollers, which only worked for about five minutes, but were worth the money spent on them because the kids fill them with water to “clean” things in the backyard. They did stained glass chalk – I taped out random shapes with tape and they colored them in. It was a huge hit, and we will do it again as soon as we have more tape. We painted their fingernails and toenails. They painted with water.
I’m surprised at what they picked. I assumed the teapot would be picked right away, but didn’t think they would touch the painting with water until we reached the bottom of the tote.
The kids love the tote, and tell me every day what they are going to pick next. It has been a wonderful addition to our time at home.
mildlygranola 