Didn't we just have this conversation?

Two weeks. Not even two weeks after my last post, we suddenly lost another family member. True, this one was of the grandparent generation so we can at least comfort ourselves with a long life, well lived, but the fact that it was again on my husband's side of the family just two months after losing his brother.....well. That seems extra cruel.

I packed mindless knitting (and crochet!) for our back to back weekends of the 4 hour trek back to my husband's hometown. I've photographed none of the progress. I wound up a magic cake to put a lot of new rows on my granny stripe blanket. I pulled from the outside of the ball, and have worked all the way down to the middle. (Here's a head shake at the day to day debris on my end table - nail clippers, as I use TV as a distraction technique, random foam rocket thing that does NOT go in our mouths, hat pattern that I referred to so long ago I can't even remember, crochet hook from a potholder loom that hasn't been worked on in weeks but I can't decide where to store so it won't get lost. The wine though, is fresh.) It's more than doubled in length from this before picture. I'll get around to snapping a picture one day to show you.

I don't want to dwell too much on this "real life" stuff. It feels crass to talk about on a knitting blog. It's life, however, and it's a lot of what's been going on. Prepare yourself for a fascinating transition (dammit!) as I abruptly change the subject.

Did I ever mention that I moved my spinning wheel to my bedroom rather than my sewing room? I feel like maybe I have. Now I see it daily, and even take a moment to spin on it now and then. I have those six balls of natural colored wool that I'm working through, two each of three colors. I'm....halfway through the second one. I should be ready to knit with it in forty years. (the top two bobbins on the side of the wheel are from the spinning technique class I took this summer, and are layers of random colors and weights and practicing.. Maybe when I finish this ball of wool, I'll chain ply them up. I'm not sure for what. Maybe a weaving? Not knitting.)

I have some grand plans to sew more of my clothes. (I'm ignoring the quilt I posted about last time because it misbehaved and irritated me. I'll get back there, maybe do a row or two after this project. By then I'm sure clothing will irritate me if it doesn't work out and I'll want something straight line!) I've been making several items over the past year and some have been ok, but many have been juuuuust off. I'm working through it, and trying to figure out what holes in my wardrobe I'd actually like to fill and not just what's pretty. I bought a couple patterns and a whole stack of basic and boring  but infinitely wearable gray, black, and white fabric at Joann's a couple of weeks ago, and I'm working through a wearable (lord, I hope wearable) muslin with some old fabric. It's taking me forever though. Forever in terms of start to finish, not in actual sewing. That doesn't take too long, it's just the getting to it that's the sticking point. I completed the cutting one day, and assembled it this far another weekend. I think one more weekend session should be enough to attach the sleeves and do the buttonholes, and then it's done! It looks huge. I cut the size according to measurements, hoping that Burda didn't run quiiiite as large as other brands.....but I'm not sure. I tried it on before attaching the collar and button bands (this is my first collar stand, I'm rather proud!), and it was a bit oversized but ok. I'm in a bit of a loose fitting place in my life, so it may potentially be ok. I also bought some stretch denim because it was on sale....and may someday attempt pants. I'm going to need a win on this shirt though first I think.

I went to the Knitting Pipeline retreat for the second time just last weekend. I took no pictures. I re-installed instagram on my phone to follow back a couple of new friends, but honestly, being out of the social media game for just a month has really atrophied already weak photography skills. Or at least the habit of taking very many photos. I did finish a pair of socks on the way there (not pictured....), and commenced ripping this pair out.

I decided that I really did hate the way they fit, just too short in the foot, not quite tall enough, and I didn't like the way I color blocked them. They were a total pain to rip out, and are sort of a pain to reknit as the yarn is all kinky from being washed and worn a couple times. I'm doing 1 row stripes for a few rows between each color, and I'm liking the effect much more. I left the toe and 2/3 of the purple intact, and am starting the gusset increases again. I'm going to stripe the purple heels in the body of the sock and use plain white for the heels, which should give me the additional length I wanted without going in for more yarn. Of course, I have no picture for you. I should start making a list of all the things I'd meant to photograph but didn't. Next post, my friends, next post. (I'd leave this post as a draft and add them in here, but then I'm unlikely to ever finish or publish this random stream of thoughts....and wouldn't the world just be emptier without it lol)

At least the knitting I did on my socks was time well spent. I put another 6 or so squares on my sock yarn blanket to square it off (actually pictured earlier in the post....but of course the before), and I thought, surely I can work through the three inches of ribbing at the bottom of my cardigan fronts. That's mindless, surely I can do that. (I finished the back by the way. Did I photograph it? Just guess....don't worry, I'll wait....)

Did you see it? Did you notice how the picture shows a cable panel at the front edges......and how my knitting totally DOES NOT?

I salvaged the cast on and the first two or three rows of ribbing. I decided I liked it, and then I started the cable pattern. I had stopped knitting where I did at the retreat itself because I didn't think I could concentrate on the one row buttonhole. (which I probably couldn't have, given the grave error ripped out above.) The pattern calls for actually cutting the buttonholes in afterward, but I didn't want to do that, and several other knitters have also used this technique so I felt pretty good about it.

You know what you DON'T need? Buttonholes on BOTH sides of the band.

At least I noticed it after just one row.