Thursday, October 25, 2012

Goings On

It's been a little bit since my last post so I thought I would do a mini update of sorts, including a few sneak peek Holiday project photos and a few WiP's.

I'm not sure where October went; the other day it was October 3rd and I had half of the Wonka Club shipment dyed already and now it's the 25th and I'm scrambling  to get everything prepped and dyed for the other colorway but I plowed through half of those skeins yesterday which makes me feel a little better about being able to finish everything on time.  The weather, though nice for the most part, is starting to cool off again and it's been rather rainy and dreary so the yarn drying has not been going well.  It happens.

I did manage to take a few sneaky pics of 2 projects that will be gifted to friends of mine this year.  That's all I'm going to say about those right now - I am pretty sure they don't check the blog but just in case...

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I love stranded knitting; I don't know why it intimidated me once upon a time.  Of course so did heel turns...  I also love that these two projects are completely knit and blocked and ready to go!  I used my hand dyed yarn for the red flower (Mulled Colorway) and the rest of the yarn was from the stash - Hooray for Stashbusting!!!  On a different but related note, all I could think about when I was knitting the tree project was how splendid it would be to make a cozy cardigan out of the yarn.  It will happen.  I'm pretty sure it will be a replica of the cardigans the Weasley Twins wear in the Goblet of Fire movie.  2013 - stay tuned for my epic stranded cardigan 2.  Of course I have to finish the hubby's epic sweater first...  I suppose it would help if I picked it up again and actually worked on it....  Ahem.  I also had the idea to knit a sweater for each minion for the Holidays too.  Yup, the senility is setting in.  Still, it could be done...

2 other Holiday projects that I can show because they're not Sooper Seekret, are the Holiday Stockings I am making for the minions.  This is one of those projects that I have meant to get to for a few years but just haven't been able to fit it in.  Both minions sat down with me this Summer and mapped out what they wanted - the colors, the size, the motifs.  I decided (though it may have been a bad decision, I'll get back to you on that) that it would make more sense to knit the stocking and duplicate stitch the motifs because they weren't really suited for stranded knitting.  Actually, I had even completed about 5 inches of stranded work in little man's stocking and it didn't look right so I ripped it out and knit it plain.  Now I am faced with the daunting task of embroidering/duplicate stitching everything.  See why it might not have been such a good idea?  His stocking is knit, hers is mostly knit.  

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I'm still right here on hers because I am trying to decide if I want to complete the rest of her foot using the stranded knitting technique or duplicate stitch it, too.  It would be easier to knit it stranded, but for continuity, I should duplicate stitch it.  I just can't decide.

I am also working on a second set of minion "stockings".  They both need more handknit socks so I am making each a pair of Solstice Stockings.  Little man likes to dress fancy so I found a skein of Austermann Step (I think that's what it was) that will go with all of his "fancy pants".  

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This is my mindless/waiting in the car for the minions after school project.  I'm further along with his first sock since I took this picture, but it gives you an idea of the way it will stripe.  I have a few stash skeins that I can use for her pair - just need to decide which one to use.

This past month's Willy Wonka Club Shipment came from Krysten.  She included a crazy skein of handspun art yarn in the Everlasting Gobstopper colorway and I couldn't wait to see how it knit up.  So I started a scarf.  Yes, another project, but it's super simple and fun.  I'm in no hurry so I'll add a few rows here and there.  This is a simple twisted drop stitch scarf - wanted to let the yarn do the work. 

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I have a feeling it will go to little miss but we'll see how long it ends up being.

In other news, I got a call from little man a few weeks ago while I was at work and it was prefaced with, "Mom, don't freak out...".  o.O  This is always a good intro.  Evidently he was running around during recess and wasn't looking where he was going and ran into something and split his glasses in two.  I still haven't figured out how he did this because he would have had to hit whatever he ran into pretty hard to snap his glasses like that but he had no injuries or bruises...  Anyway, this was the catalyst that led us to switching eye docs.  I have not been happy with our Optometrist for some time now due to scheduling issues and such so when I called his office to inquire what our insurance would cover since he had his next appointment scheduled for November and found out that he was retiring and no longer accepting our insurance, I jumped for joy and made an appointment with another doc that I like much better.  I let him pick out his new frames.  He chose the ones "that he looked the best in". 

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I thought he made a good choice.  :) 

I had to work last weekend and my FIL had a few projects for the hubby to help with so the rest of the household went down to the lake and little man brought back a new friend - a roly poly.

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He had made a little "suite" for it in a plastic container and filled it with leaves and sticks and things so he could observe it for a little while before finding it a new home.  We have implemented a Family Reading Club and a Family Writing Club and he wrote a story about how he found his roly poly and how he made his "suite" and brought it home...  He even illustrated it :)  Then he did take it outside and let it go.

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Little miss also brought home a little critter recently.  Several actually.  Gotta love head lice!  The schools do not send out notes anymore stating that "someone in your child's classroom has head lice...", we're just supposed to check them regularly which, yes, I get it, but come on - how many people check their kids' heads regularly with everything else they have going on, or regularly enough?  Sigh.  What a pita.  Things have been bagged, mountains of laundry have been done (and are still being done because, bleh!), and heads have been checked and treated and rechecked and retreated...  My fingers are crossed that we are done with it at the present time because I haven't found anything in a few days but it seems like whenever I relax and think it's over I'll find one or two more.  Shudder.  Oh, they're so gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is also why I am a bit behind with my Wonka skeins because, out of sheer heebee-jeebee principle, I tried to quarantine all of my skeins and keep them away from wherever she might hang out.  Of course now I have a time-crunch...

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So yeah, dye and knitting and bugs and glasses and cold rainy weather, that's what we've been up to.  Oh, and Halloween Costumes.  Little miss will be trick-or-treating as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this year, and little man will be the Headless Horseman.  His costume is requiring a bit more work than hers and I have to get going on that today as well.  Costume pictures to follow before too long :D 

1 comment:

Mason & Karen said...

He looks a little bit like Harry Potter in those specs, eh? Maybe it's the hair...