Clint is looking good

I just finished weaving in the last few ends on this tonight. The body is finished! Weaving purgatory took a few days - there were SO. MANY. ENDS. I am glad that my past self decided to take care of that in the center panel before I let myself start on the rest of the shawl because I may have perished if I had to do them all at once.

I have to do some thinking now to understand the rest of the journey. I am pretty sure there is an i-cord border that comes next. That seems like it will be a pain, so I can feel myself distancing myself from the effort but I really want this done so I should just jump in and see how it goes. I bet it won't be as bad as I think. After that there's some long finishing rows and a fancy border/bind off at the bottom edge. Those rows will be long, but at that point how does the motivation die when you're so close to the end? We'll see! I don't think it will be done before Halloween, but November feels totally achievable. 
 

prodigal mitts

These have been in hibernation for years. Years! I remember that I bought this yarn at Stitches West the first and only time I went in February 2020. Post anxiety attacks, pre-covid. That was a long time ago. I remember feeling very brave for even leaving the house and going on my own. But yarn is a great motivator. Ravelry says I started them the summer of 2020, so I wasted no time in getting started, but they have sat tucked away while many other things have been finished before them. 

When I picked these up again, I will admit that I had the yarn and wip tucked into a travel makeup tote that had so many pockets (it makes an excellent project bag) that I forgot I already had one mitt done. I had this cuff done up to the second braid and was looking at the yarn thinking "Hmmm I should probably do the body of the mitt in pink and blue because I certainly don't have enough brown to do TWO the way the pattern is written. What was I thinking?" 

Well. You'll notice that the body of the mitt is in fact pink and brown. I got an inch or so into my blue and pink solution before realizing the second mitt was tucked in an apparently secret pocket of the bag. I was chagrined. I am however proud of myself that I did not hesitate to pull my needles and frog back all the rows I had just knit. There were many and it was annoying but here we are now recovered and on our way again. 

It's not an easy knit for me to read as I go which makes for slow going but I think I am going to love how they turn out. I still might not have enough of this beautiful fawn brown to finish, but I do have other fingering weight brown that is probably close enough. These are for me, and you probably won't be able to see the difference just walking past. And my friends and family won't judge if they do notice because they'll all think it's magic that I even made them. :) 

wing stripes

The pace of crafting has slowed down as I get used to my new work schedule - still so tired! I'm still avoiding my vest, but I have returned to Clint. The wing section was much easier to pick up and start knitting than anticipated, and it's just flying by. 

The overall 'southwest' impression of the pattern that appealed to me so much when I saw the pattern in the Wool & Company newsletter is now taking shape. The stripes are fun to knit "just one more", and the decrease repeat is easy to remember so it's been smooth sailing. I have a soft goal for myself of finishing the body of this this month and then hopefully getting the borders on in time to wear it some time in November. But don't tell anyone :) 

more nesting

Since I'm a little stuck on my vest, I wanted to get into something simple and less demanding of my brainwaves. I made a set of nesting bowls for my mom in April and I had another set of yarn to make some for myself. I ended up making a few for a friend, which I forgot to photograph as the finished pair, but here is the larger of the two. She came by one night and off they went to their new home. 

As I thought about what I liked and did not like about the baskets, I realized I would like them much more if they were a little bit shallower. I had some extra yarn, so I decided to make the two smallest sizes one row shorter than the pattern called for. They turned out great and are now at work perking up my desk. They're handy for holding post-it notes and ear buds! 

There is a bit more yarn left because I did not make the larger size like I did for my mom, so I might make another small one, or perhaps enjoy the leftovers in something else like a dishcloth or a chicken. Stay tuned. 

spooky improv tote

I made this bag on a whim on Sunday afternoon and I just love it. It started with sitting down to clean up my scrappy mess which obviously did not happen. Instead I decided I would do more improvisational sewing. I had the half square triangle blocks already made as "offcuts" from the Halloween quilt I made, so I just sewed them up into a pinwheel figuring I'd find a way to use it someday. After that, I sorted out all the little leftover pieces from making pumpkin coasters and figured I could improv piece them into another block for fun. I challenged myself to use up as many of the smaller pieces as I could, and I did end up using every last one. Ha! 

The bag form ended up coming from Pinterest photo inspiration. I was perusing my saved sewing finds and that led me to a pattern for a quilted tote that I loosely used for inspiration (and gut checking approximate size) when I realized I had enough of that crow print to make it happen. Why not? I did not measure anything, I just went with what seemed to look ok and then worked in parallel on each side to make sure they were approximately the same in terms of the pieced block placement. I don't know that I'd be able to repeat the effort with results quite as good!

I quilted the panels using scrap batting and orange thread. I found an orange print for the lining that I didn't quite have enough, so I added a couple pieces of the crows to make it work. The candy stripe straps were a relatively recent amazon purchase - it's a set of like 8 or 12 colors of nice quality webbing and it's way more fun to use than making quilted straps. Those have their place, for sure, but this is one less step or two to get to awesome straps. The bag ended up being just the right size for my work computer in an old laptop case I made forever ago which pleases me to no end. Sometimes I wonder what on Earth am I going to do with more bags. Well, if they have this much personality, why not use it to cheer up the commute. 

I am really proud of myself for being able to improvise my way through the construction. I felt especially accomplished having little things in stash that made it easy to add in some interesting touches like the contrast quilting and the stripey straps. And I used fabric I've had for a while, no purchase necessary. I'm glad to see those crows put to use where you can really appreciate the negative space and the quirk of the geometric details in the print. This one feels really good! I have already used it for work and I can confirm it is a perfect tote for the purpose. 

my first vest attempt

I am doing a solid job of sticking to my intention to both knit garments this year and use the yarn I bought on the yarn crawl. This is another one of those projects. I started this on the 4th and this is the progress I made through the Sunday. It's been quite fun to work on, if slow going because I have to actually read the chart. I have now run up against the arm hole decreases which require more attention than a weeknight with YouTube (or knitting while waiting for my car to be fixed) can provide so I'm a bit stalled. I really want to wear this once the weather gets cooler though so I am motivated to find my way through. It's going to be an oversized vest, and I am hoping it turns out as edgy and hip looking as I imagine. 

The color changes of the Noro are surprising and beautiful. The unexpected color shifts are going to make this quite a statement piece! I like the navy I chose as my background, though I was not anticipating that it would blend in with the Noro quite as much as it is doing. That makes it harder to knit, too, because at night I just can't see the difference very well in the darkest sections. Aging eyes - SIGH. I will soldier on! Maybe just in the daylight. 

pumpkin coaster reprise

I had a great day of making on Monday. I finished up a chicken in the morning and then spent the afternoon in my sewing room playing with scraps. I sent my mom this picture and asked "want some coasters?" since my scraps were still out and ready for play. Happily, she said yes.

I had a nice time playing and ended up with another two pumpkins that look festive and fun. Mom likes bright colors, so I chose the brightest pieces I could find. I also made sure the fun cats and owls made an appearance. 

For the back I fussy cut a Disney haunted mansion print. I would use these with this side up too! I just love this fabric. It's so creative and quirky, and the mansion was one of the rides I remember liking the most at Disney as a kid. Pirates of the Caribbean was another favorite. I ran out of the felt I was using for the stems after cutting only three pieces (I needed four) so I pivoted and used a grayer green for the back of the stems and the original more olive toned green for the front. I actually quite like the way it turned out; in fact the grayer tone works very well with the colors in the print. 

I'm going to pack these up in a little envelope and send them off to mom, hopefully before October gets underway.