Purl, Slip, Purl, Slip, Purl, Slip

It's possible I may lose my mind. I may never do the lovely Rank and File dishcloths again. I only have to make one more, I reason. I already have the seed stitch border done, I chortle. It'll knit up quickly now that it's been permanently embedded in my brain, I whimper.

I forget sometimes that I have a tiny knitting attention span, I like changing between several patterns. After this, I look forward to the sea of stockinette stitch on my dad'said Christmas hat.

I just need to finish one dishcloth for the woman at the artist guild. That's all. It's all I've knit for the last couple of days. Is this pattern.

At one point I changed the words to a Celtics Women song to involve the pattern. You know. "I'm purrrrrlllllling alllll the stitches, and then slipping them off the left, then doing a seed stitch boooorderrr, god I never want to do a seeeeed stitch border agaaaaaain" while waving my hands like I was swimming through the house.

The Husbando believed that taking my hands in his and saying "this is time you could be knitting, then you'd be closer to done" would be the best way of getting me closer to sanity. I said some not nice things about his fate and double pointed needles.


But in other news, out power was out for a few hours today. So I actually knit and finished reading The Yarn Harlot Secret Life of a Knitter. It was a really good book. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me want to knit. I highly recommend it, like you should go buy it and read it now. Now I'm reading the second seaside knitters mystery novel, since the library has the third one in for me and The Husbando said he would pick it up for me tomorrow.

For today's blanket square I'm still a bit manic. I tried the weird brioche rib Thing and it went bad.

I don't know what happened and my fingers hurt so I'm soothing my self by just doing stockinette for a square today.

Usually after mania there is a bit of a crash so let's hope that doesn't happen.

And now I go on my merry little way to knit more dishcloth. 

Dye Day!! (Tory Don't Read!!!)

Today is yarn dying day!!!! I woke up early, got the chores done and rushed out to the post office to mail some letters and stop by the farmers market to get Tory's yarn to dye. It's 100% alpaca and fingering weight.

The farmers market 

Yarn predye

And presoak!

I love the dying process. It's exciting and a little nerve-wracking. It's a creative process, so many things could go wrong. I'm a glutton so punishment. What can I say?

But I think things went off without a hitch this time. Since Tory loves Lord of The Rings I decided to dye Mount Doom colored yarn. Here is a progress picture:

Now I knew the colors wouldn't stay quite like that after the 30 minute simmer. They would darken and the red would take over some of the yellow, but I figured it would still look like lava and Mount Doom.  But the 30 minutes of weight was giving me stress ulcers for sure.

But I think it came out lovely, the colors darkened but to make a lovely slow gradient from orange to red with yellow in there, the perfect lava.

Outside drying, which will take forever in this overcast humidity. 

Isn't it so pretty??? I hope Tory loves it!! 

While it dries I plan to work more on the dishcloths for the woman at the artist guild. I also did the math with The Husbando last night and at the rate with with I knit now, my current planned Christmas projects should be done by April 2017. I only cried and laughed hysterically a little bit. I swear. I always bite off more than I can chew. But I work well when push comes to shove. So I'm not worried yet. Maybe a little manic, yeah. But not worried.

I also made triple chocolate cookies today.

Chocolate chips, chocolate batter, chocolate milk, nutmeg, and just a little sage. 

And I had all this done before noon today. So I am probably a bit manic.

But when the yarn was done drying I then rolled it into ready to knit balls, wrapped it up in pretty ribbon so Tory could tell where to beginning was, and attached pretty watercolor wash tags to it!!

I really hope she likes it, the package will be going out towards her tomorrow!!! 

I'm really pleased with how these dye colors turned out, they're a bit lighter in person and some of the blank alpaca shoes through which I kind of think lends to the whole "hot lava" thing. I wanted to make mount doom for her because it's the center of the books, the beginning and the end of them. Its the place Sam and Frodo go together.

And I finished one of the set of dishcloths for the woman at the artist guild today! It looks good in neon fleck. Mania is good for being overly productive. 

I decided to make a manic/wildfire blanket square today as I am a touch speedy, I did run around getting an awful lot done without stopping at all. But I will make sure to ground myself tonight and drink lots of water and relax and read more Yarn Harlow Secret Life of Knitter and work on the second of the pair of dishcloths. I chose to do this square in a Scallops Pattern because it looks a bit like a sunrise and I feel like that fit today overall! This also involved learning how to PSSO!

That's all for today!

Deadline Knitting for the Process Knitter

I made a good start on the dishcloths last night. I started one and got past the seed stitch border rows and the first 4 repeat row, so a pretty good start! And I knit all morning while reading Yarn Harlot Secret Life of a Knitter (which has been HILARIOUS! and oh so relatable!!!)

Also, this yarn is so soft. 

It's been rainy today so I also got some snail mail writing done. Rainy days are perfect for writing snail mail. I plan to plop them in the mail box on the way to the farmers market to get my blank alpaca yarn for dying tomorrow. Hopefully the rain let's up by then. Barn chores are miserable in this rain and drying yarn is miserable in this rain. Sigh. 

And I decided that since I'm so excited about dying yarn tomorrow and mailing Tory her package and knitting these dishcloths for the woman at the Artists Guild to knit the blanket square today in excited and the same same pattern as the dishcloths. The downside of this is that my eyes feel like they are bleeding with the pattern now. I will probably dream in the pattern. By the end of this I will never want to knit this pattern again. I asked the husbando if I was close to done with my blanket square at one point and he said I should probably do four more rows, I considered stabbing him with my sharp pointy sticks.

I kid, of course.

And now back to knitting the dishcloths. I'm learning that deadline knitting might not be my cup of tea since I may be more of a process knitter than a product knitter. I like switching in between patterns. Which is why I usually have so many WIPs going! But I will carry on, the dishcloths will prevail, pray for me and my eyeballs and sanity. Slipped stitches, awayyyy!!!!!! 

Artist Guild, My First Knitting Sale, Traveling Scarf, and Date Night In.

It's been a busy day. First thing first we went and bought a new fan, hallelujah! I should get some more peaceful sleep again at night. Then I got my glasses fixed. And then The Husbando and I went to the Artist Guild of Glasgow. We love it there everyone is so friendly and nice. I went there to get some of the locally made soap to send to Tory on Saturday with her care package and the spa clothes I knit her. I won't post her soap so it's a surprise in case she reads the blog, but I did buy myself a nice pumpkin spice one! I love fall and pumpkin! LOVE IT. OBSESSED WITH IT. Sane thing really.

It's been a good day!  Because then I talked to the mother of the woman working at Guild and she loved my washcloth I made for my sister and wanted several! So I offered to make her two or three. And she said she would pay me for them! How exciting is that??? I'm getting paid for something I knit!!!

And Tory and I are doing Traveling Scarves we decided today! Where I will start a scarf and send it to her and she will knit onto it and start hers and send then both back and I will knit onto both of them and on and on! With different yarns and stitchs. Isn't that awesome!?!?!?! I started mine in the car today:

It's knit in k1 p1 rib cause car knitting haha. The yarn is plant dyed Japanese Indigo and worsted weight. I got it from a local yarn seller who actually invited me to dye yarn with her!

And I downloaded more books to my kindle! Knitting, A Novel, the second Seaside Knitters Mystery, and a Yarn Harlot book. I'm pretty excited to read them. I have so many yarn related things going on in life right it's a bit out of hand!

I'm using a cheat day on my blanket because I need to work on the dishcloths! But it's also pizza night and movie night for the Husbando and I! Date night in! And we are going to eat twizzlers! I'm very excited. It's been a good day.

Boneyard Shawl lust, the start of Christmas gifts, and more oh my!

I know what I said yesterday. I said that I would finish a wip and be down to one project. But I lied. I lied terribly. I am going to start more projects. I can't help it. I mean, I probably could, but I don't want too.

I still have to knit the gryffindor scarf but I know if I finish it too soon I'll give it to The Husbando before his birthday so I'm kind of ignoring it.

I'm slowly working on the teddy bear surprise thing and have resigned that it will be gifted way before his birthday. Oh well.

And now I'm casting on two new projects. One is a hat for my dad for Christmas, the first of my Christmas presents that I hope to knit. An orange hunting hat. Knit in the round which I have always been terrible at so pray for me. And my seaside knitters mystery scarf.

I've also been eyeballing the Boneyard Shawl on ravelry and have picked out some yarn online that would look lovely with the pattern. It would be a huge undertaking for a beginner like me but its so pretty and it looks fairly easy. Has anyone knit it, what do you think? Here is a link to the boneyard shawl and here is the Beginner's seamless hat pattern I am knitting for Christmas. And in case you were wondering I am totally fueled to try this by WEBS yarn annual summer sale.


I love knitting it has helped me heal from hurts and grow as a person and make wonderful friends. Like Tory from ThePaupersCloest aka Shirefolk Yarns who sent me a lovely get well card. It made me smile so much today. I've never had a friend who sent me a get well card or was so sweet before. This community is so tight knit (pun intended) and wonderful.

Thank you so much. 

The card was beautiful too! 

And great news, after a failed attempt, I've successfully cast in AND knit a round in the round!

Failed attempt 

Successful attempt!!! 

Yay! I hope I continue well and don't mess it up at any point. Lol. 

And we got some good news today so it's been a very very good day!!!!

Tried The Four Row Cable Slanting Right again and it turned out much better, still not great bUT better! And it's been a MAGICAL day!!! And The Husbando is off for TWO DAYS!! WAHOOO!!! :)

Exhausted cables

I am exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well. I am so tired. Between frequently waking up, The Husbando waking me up when he gets off work at night, and no fan it's been tough. And then Lucy has started barking relentlessly in the morning, around 2am. My parents let her out, give her food, and cuddle her but still she barks. I am so tired.

And today I am going to see what I need to do to inform my insurance that I am married. So it's a day of busy stuff and out of the house stuff and all I want is a nap.

Luckily the insurance just needed to see my social security card and that was that. So it was quick and easy. And I got some car knitting done.

My project bag is from Joann Fabrics and was on clearance. I'm working the Furrowed Rib which is easy to remember in some soft alpaca yarn from the farmer's market in town. 

And when we got home mom made lunch and I finished knitting the back of the Furrowed Rib Teddy Bear Surprise Thing. Now I have a front and a back! And it's used all of my stitch markers!

The horse stitch markers were made by AJ aka KniCroManiac and the Harry Potter Gryffindor and Ravenclaw ones were made by ThePaupersCloset aka Shire Folk Yarn

So if I get the sleeves done and seem it all together and block it, I'll be down to.....

ONE SINGLE WIP!!! 

That's right folks, one singular WIP once I finish this! I know. I amaze myself.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves in excitement though. I just cast on for the sleeve of this project so. We will see. I'm just so tired today. And I just started reading The Girl on the Train. So far I don't understand what's going on and it's weird. Maybe it's because I'm exhausted. Maybe it's because it's weird. We will see.

Okay so it should be noted that I write these blog updates throughout the day. Slowly, little bits as my day goes by. I just read about half of this book. 

A little bit about me though: I wanted a baby. But the doctor told me that because of my bipolar disorder and the medication I am to be stable right now I can't have kids. It broke my heart. Like, shattered me into a million pieces and wrecked me three weeks from Thursday. 

This book is not a good book to read if you have been told you can't have kids. It's been very emotional and very distraught. And I'm much too exhausted for these kinds of emotions honestly. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish it. My brain feels soggy and wet and a little sad. This was not a cozy mystery at all. Blah.

Actually I just finished. The ending was lackluster and I didn't like it.

I'm really tired so I knit a tired square today. A four cable slanting right one. Or at least I tried but failed. Then I messed up my bind off. Obviously I need to go to bed. I'll try again tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Proverbs 15

I woke up cranky. The fan is broken so I'm not sleeping well, the dog got garbage out last night, the ash tray got knocked over in the wind outside last night as well and I was greeted with all these things before a "Good Morning" first thing. So I woke up REALLY REALLY REALLY CRANKY.

Livid is probably a better word. I was ready to burn some damn bridges. I think I even slammed a door at one point.

So when I opened my bible to do Sunday morning bible study, instead of using my bible promise cards as a compass point for where to start reading, I flipped to the back and found references of the word "anger" and flipped to Proverbs 15.

And it really took the umpf out of my anger. If I respond to harsh things angrily then I will just be adding to the fire, I need to try to step back, take a deep breath and control my tongue. 

I'm still cranky, but I'm trying to control the things I say and how I say them, as to not stir the pot any further.

So then I took a deeeeeeeep breath and worked on The Rank and File dishcloth for this week's dishcloth KAL on Ravelry. I worked until it was done. Because knitting makes me less cranky.

Knit with US size 8 bamboo needles and Red Heart Panther Pink yarn 

Finished and gifted to my sister.

It was a nice pattern, I like the texture and I learned a lot from it. Like I shouldn't use bamboo needles when a pattern calls for so many slips. My aluminum ones would have made it an easier and quicker knit. I messed up decreasing and ended up with 36 instead of 35 stitches, but k2tog on the next row seemed to fix this issue and my seed stitch border doesn't seem to suffer from it. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of it and my sister likes it so I'm happy. 

It feels good to finish a WIP! 

But overall, I'm still tired and I miss my fan. I'm grumpy and moody. But I have been minding my tongue. My mood square today is grumpy though. I tried to do Knot a twisted tie pattern for my square today and it doesn't show up, I think because it's too small, I'll try it again sometime because the pattern is so lovely and made by a friend of mine.

That's all for now, folks. I need a nap. And a drink, if only I drank LOL.