Another 5k – Rock n Roll Running Series San Diego

I first ran this in 2019 and was so psyched by it that I immediately signed up for the 2020 run. Not surprisingly it was “cancelled” but earlier this year they announced it would be taking place as usual and then a day later the date was changed to October.

All these changes made it hard to train and get enthused for the race as there was no way to know if the date would be changed again and the race was not exactly the wonderful experience I had in 2019 but I ran and it was faster than 2019.

The 5k course was changed this year. Previously the start and finish lines were close to each other and the way the course looped, it was easy for spectators to see most of the race. This year they changed the start line so that it was a good walk to the finish line. This meant that there were no spectators along the course to cheer us along and as the one road we ran up was only half-closed, we were not cheered on by the residents.

Having said that; I am glad I ran it and that it was faster than previously, and my husband was there to stop the negative self-talk. But I am not sure if I will take part again. The downside is that I have to drive to San Diego twice, once to pick up my bib and then again for the race. One way to San Diego is longer than the actual race and with the change of course, the excitement is missing.

I have a 10k race in February that was supposed to take place in October last year. I am going to wait until I have completed that to decide what I want to do regarding what distance I want to participate in and where I want to do it.

 

Finished Hats

This year as well as making hats for Operation Gratitude I made hats for Hats for Sailors. This is a group that makes hats for US Navy members serving on board ship. They provide hats for a different ship each year and this year they were asked to provide hats for the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier with at least 6000 personnel. As it was such a big undertaking and the ship is based out of San Diego I thought it would be a good cause to support. There is no limit on pattern or colour but you have to use superwash wool. As I did not have any I approached my friend Heather, owner of Ewe Ewe Yarns and purchased various colours and weights of her yarn. I liked that I was keeping it local. Although I didn’t think about keeping the patterns local.

I ended up making five hats. I do have enough yarn to make one more hat but I wanted to make sure that these hats were labeled and mailed in time.

 

 

I have numbered the hats in the order I made them.

1.      Pattern Tamarugo Yarn Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted

2.      Pattern  Freshwater Yarn Ewe Ewe Fluffy Fingering held double

3.      Pattern  Sailors Rib Cap Yarn Ewe Ewe Yarns Heather’s Heathers

4.      Pattern Barley Yarn left over from hats 1 and 3.

5.      Pattern Ankers Hat  Yarn Ewe Ewe So Sporty.

I also finished another hat for Operation Gratitude. I needed an easy project and I had these partial balls of yarn that I had been given and Angel Hat is an easy pattern that I have knit before. The yarn is Extra by Blue Sky Fibers and is deliciously soft. 

 

It will keep a serving or retired military member warm. I had not remembered that I had posted photos of my other Operation Gratitude hats as I finished them otherwise I would have posted this one sooner. I thought I would be posting photos of them altogether.

This year I have made 10 hats for charity which is equal to one per month. I am now going to take a break and concentrate on WIPs.

One Down

I was a little disappointed not to have finished my projected two projects in September. But I have now finished the socks I started on 1 September. I did finish the hat, but when I tried it on it was small for an adult. I could have left it and given it to one of my nieces or donated to a different charity but I really wanted this to be my last hat for Hats for Sailors. I pulled out the knitting as far as the first decrease row and then knit another pattern repeat before starting decreases.

We are at the start of a new month and time for a new sock knitting challenge but I am being very sensible and not starting any so that I can finish my WIPs; one of which is a pair of socks left over from July’s challenge. I am only on the foot of the first one but they will be my knitting for this month and maybe I can get them finished.

One of the challenges for September was the theme literature. I chose Bertie Wooster’s Faux Pas by Becky Greene.

I now have quite a few skeins of sock yarn following the “little” shopping spree earlier this year when the yarn store closed. I looked at projects on Ravelry and saw that it worked in dark colours and chose Theodora’s Pearl Fingering by Dizzylettuce. The colourway is Purple Haze which seemed very appropriate as the pattern is inspired by Bertie Wooster wanting to wear purple socks.

The pattern had been originally published as a mystery and then the clues combined. In the combined clue the designer has four rows of cuff pattern but does not say to repeat those therefore my project does not have a cabled cuff. As these socks included cable stitches I started with a size larger than usual to make sure they fit on my muscley calves When I got to the foot I could not easily change the pattern to a smaller size so I changed to a size smaller needle. 

 

It’s That Time of Year Again

Time to work through the WIPs. It’s amazing how they build up even if I am working on them with plans to finish by a certain date.

I was surprised to count up 11 works in progress. Although that number includes two blankets which I don’t include in my list of projects to be finished anytime soon. But this number (including blankets) is the same as this time last year and includes two of the same projects. How many of these projects can I complete by the end of the year?

As previously mentioned two of the projects are long-term blankets and one is a shawl that is vacation knitting. That leaves eight projects. Two of those have been year-long personal KALs and are on target to finish in December. Two are projects started this month – socks and hat which should be finished this month. Which leaves three months to finish all the other projects. Gulp. One is a crochet project, which I really want to finish soon; but it is a toy and rather fiddly. I should set time aside each day to work on it. I also have an unfinished pair of socks which are not hard but are patterned on every row. I could work on that when I have finished the crochet. The remaining two projects are garments. One is very lacey. I have completed the body up to the armhole and am now working on the first sleeve. I haven’t been working on it because I was working on the complicated lace shawl and didn’t feel like working on two lace projects. With all my other projects, it is unlikely that I will finish this year, so I am not even going to think about it. The other garment is easy knitting and I can concentrate on that after finishing the hat and socks.

I actually think this is doable if I don’t start anything else. I can’t promise that as I want to make some Christmas presents but I need to not look at the sock knitting challenges for October and November.

Considering I started the year with three WIPs, how have I ended up with nine projects and as I ask every year is that really my magic number? 

 

 

Metaphorical Lemonade

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had visited Jo-Ann’s for fabric purchasing. What I didn’t say was what an awful experience it was. Prices shown on the shelves were not what rang up at the cutting counter. They tried to convince me that the knit fabric for the pink dress was $20.00 per yard. On my last trip there to purchase the fabric for my granddaughter’s PJs, there was someone having the same problem with shelf pricing not matching the scanner. Part of me was relieved that it wasn’t just me who had this problem but mostly I was annoyed that Jo-Ann’s couldn’t get a simple thing like showing the correct prices on shelves. This is more time wasting for the employees than going through the store and removing the out of date signs as every time a customer questions the price the employee has to check. I am sure the moral of the staff is a reflection of how they are treated by management.

Anyway, there was no problem with one of the pieces I purchased. The shelf price and the scanner price were the same. Except – yes you knew something had to be wrong – when I laid out the fabric it looked really short and when I measured it the length was not what I had asked for. I checked the receipt and I had only been charged for what I had been given. But what was I going to do now? I could have taken the fabric and got a refund but before resorting to that I had a look at my other patterns to see if there was enough to make a different top.

A while ago I had got a free PDF pattern online and printed it out thinking I would turn an old skirt into a top. That didn’t happen but as I had the printed pattern it was easy to check if it fit my fabric – and woohoo – it did. The pattern is a simple sleeveless top with a pleat down the middle. I am not a fan of that style as the pleat tends to bulge out so I made the pleat at the top and sewed down for about two inches and did not sew down the pleat at the hem. The pattern says to make your own bias binding from the fabric or use pre-made. As I was not expecting to make this top I had not purchased any binding so make my own it was.

Oh my gosh, this was not the best fabric for the first time for making bias binding – slippery and frayey and barely holding a crease. And then sewing the narrow strip of slippery fabric onto slippery fabric – ugh! No wonder I sewed one edge per day and for the armhole edges I placed the garment on parchment paper to stop the slide of the fabric on the machine.

Despite that, I love the end result. The fabric works really well with the pattern. 

 

 

A Couple of Finished Items

Although I’ve been rather quiet over here, I have been knitting away. Life has been a bit hectic. Usually I have both grandchildren every other week, but I wanted some one-on-one time with each child so I have had three weeks of child care. I took advantage of working various crafts with my granddaughter. I really wanted to teach her how to sew but she was rather nervous so I left that project to last. First there was looms and Lego and baking.

We had prepared at the beginning of the week by purchasing a pattern and fabric for PJs. Once she started sewing, she loved it and when the PJ bottoms were finished, she was going through my fabric stash and sewing pieces together to make bags.

The items I finished were a sewn dress and a knitted cowl. The dress was the one mentioned in my last post.

The fabric and pattern have been sitting for two years. I had been putting off making it because I was worried about what size to make, I think this was also a subconscious thought of being unhappy with my body. (This is entirely my own thoughts and nothing to do with anyone else.) Having lost some weight last year I decided to just go for it and am pleased with the outcome although having made two dresses with the same pattern I am likely to make some minor changes next time. And, yes, there will be a next time as I purchased some fabric when we went shopping for PJ fabric.

The knitted cowl I finished is not really a cowl but one of those drapey items that sit on my shoulders. They’re not a shawl or a poncho so I don’t know what to call them but they mostly come under the cowl name. Having finished the large pink shawl I needed an easy project and this fit the bill. I can’t remember how I came across this pattern – Across the Waters – but it seemed perfect for yarn that I had had in my stash since 2017 and was waiting for that perfect pattern. The yarn is Astoria Berries from Candy Skein and the stripes are left over from this project. I did swatch and used 4mm needles which I have used for this type of garment and yarn previously but I think I could have used 3.75mm as stated in the pattern.

As is often the case, although these items were finished a little while ago it took time for photos to be taken. In the end I settled for selfies so that I could get this blog post written.

 

 

 

European Pi Day

I have actually fully completed a shawl that I started on US Pi Day – March 14 - in time for 22 July.

This shawl is a half-circle but not a Pi shawl as the increases were not made by doubling the stitches as the rows were doubled but I really wanted a pattern that would not be obscured by the yarn that I was given way back in 2016. It is a lovely colour but the variegation and the black could easily obscure most patterns. It is lace weight from Tempting Ewe Yarns.

The pattern is Knitting by the Pool by Romi Hill which I have had since 2019. I’m guessing it was one of the patterns she gave away in her Easter Egg hunt. I used just over 500 metres of the yarn, my skein was 800 metres but I did not feel like making adjustments to this pattern to use more yarn. The end result is the main thing. I love the loops on the edge of the shawl, they were worked by making stitches into a yarn over on the previous row, neater than usual way of working picots. And a looped edge makes it much easier to pin out when blocking.

I cast on this project specifically for Pi Day but I will not be casting on anything new to replace as I have a few high concentration projects on the go.

 

A Pink Dress

You would think with a title like that I could just show you a picture of a dress I had made with details of the fabric and pattern.

But, no. There is a story, of course. A story of an, as yet, unfinished dress.

When I finished the last quilt, I decide that I should get around to making clothes with fabric I had. I cut out, sewed back seam, side seams, shoulder seams and neck band of a dress; tried it on, loved the style and decided I needed more dresses. A quick trip to Jo-Anns before coupons expired and I had fabric. I cut out the fabric and did all the serger work and now had two dresses at the same stage. I decided not to add sleeves to this one and add sleeves to the first one, which was the opposite of my original plan. I quickly neatened and hemmed the arm openings and violà, a dress.

Jo-Anns is my only local option for in-person fabric shopping. I had wanted a printed knit fabric but they only had knit in plain colours. So I purchased this jersey knit. I am pleased with the end result, it is very different from the “first” one although it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. 

 

I Like Big Shawls, I Cannot Lie

Yes, another post from me. A couple of reasons for posts being so close together. 1) I finished two projects within a day of each other and 2) I had a post mulling around in my head and then typed out that I ended up not posting but in the meantime nothing else got posted either.

Now for my latest finished project; which I love. It is a shawl design by Stephen West using five different skeins of yarn. Three of them are from two projects I frogged last year, one was yarn I had been given – Dancing Leaf Dyeworks and one was yarn that I had purchased to support a small business – Evergreen Fiberworks - and ended up working really well with the other yarns.

I decided to knit this pattern because I had seen one on a podcast in shades of pink and thought that would be ideal for me and I had two projects that I liked but never wore because they were not big enough. There was the dark pink yarn (Candy Skein) from this project finished in 2017 and reading my post it is obvious I was not sure how I was going to wear it, so I didn’t. And then both yarns from this project, also finished in 2017. The light pink is another Candy Skein and the bright pink is malabrigo.

In my last post I said I didn’t want to start projects just to get yarn on the needles but that was the case with this project. Having frogged two projects to get yarn for this specific pattern, I didn’t want to delay in getting it started. And I’m glad that I did as this became my easy project. This is why it took me six months to make, but as I was getting near the end and near the end of June I was determined to finish it. Even with my husband saying “I thought you said, this project was never going to be finished.” I must admit it felt like it at times especially when faced with picking up stitches around the edge. But here we are. And there is a much better chance of it being worn unlike its predecessors.

Complete with sneak peek of a dress I made.

 

Mid-Year Round Up

I usually do an end of year review and a start of year plan. I’m not sure if I have written a serious review during the year before.

The reason for one now is that I am feeling relaxed about my stash. It’s almost as if adding to it made me less stressed, not more. Also when discussing the recent LYS sale with my husband he said: it will get knit eventually. So now I don’t feel obligated to knit it all up quickly and not buy anything else. And the yarn I purchased for specific patterns has been used so I have no pressure from those.

I still have not used all the previous closing sale yarn. But I did start and finish one garment with such yarn this year and have chosen a pattern and gauge swatched for another cardigan. The yarn won’t all be used by the end of the year. I am OK with that as I would rather have fewer projects on the go and finish them than start projects just to get the yarn on the needles.

I still have two works-in-progress that were started before the beginning of the year. One of them I turned into a year-long project, so, obviously, no expectation of being finished before December and the other one gets pushed aside every time I start a non-easy project. Looking at you Pi Shawl. Speaking of which, that should be finished on time towards the end of July. It turns out that it is an easy lace pattern. Also, that project is my oldest 2021 project. This is encouraging because that means I am finishing projects that I am starting. (Yes, crochet project, even you will be finished.)

I have ten projects in progress. Hmm…haven’t I said four is the ideal number? Let’s see if I can justify this number down. Two are year-long projects, two are long-term blankets and one is vacation knitting. That brings it down to five. I have one easy project and one crochet project, which means that three projects are not so easy – i.e. require concentration. That is actually better than I was expecting.

Having written this out, it is not too hard to keep my WIPs in check. As long as I have some variety I should be able to keep it that way.

What’s Going on in the Knitting World

In my personal knitting world I have two finished items to show and have been working away on my long term projects. But, still, there has to be hypocrisy and nastiness in the crafting world. Three things happened last month that I was going to write about; I actually had an almost complete draft of a blog post. But I am not going to publish it at this time as it is actually quite negative and am I any better than the people I am writing about if I am pointing out their shortcomings?

In this post I will show off one of my finished items. As you might have noticed I have started knitting socks again and enjoying it, even if there is only a small window where I wear them. And in the last closing down sale I purchased quite a bit of sock yarn, to be used for socks or shawls.

For June I chose the designer Rose Hiver and the pattern Charivari as I had purchased some self-striping yarn. I followed the pattern as written including the short row heel, even though short row heels are not my favourite to wear but this was worked in a different way. I didn’t like the finished heel but when I worked the second sock I realized that I had worked the heel incorrectly the first time. Worked properly it is quite neat and I am repeating it on my Advent Socks.

This yarn was quite difficult to photograph, the website showed it as pink, on the two cameras I used, the red showed as orange. The yarn is darker than shown in this photo which was taken outside.

 

What To Make Next or Why a Stash Is Not Always a Good Idea.

I feel like this will be one long run on sentence/stream of consciousness so I will try for this to make sense.

I have been making socks again and each month I check the challenges in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group. Some months the challenges have not appealed to me so I have not cast on; other months more than one option has appealed to me but I have restricted myself to one pair. The next month’s challenges are usually published about a week before the start of the month which gives me time to choose and get yarn wound if I want to start on the first of the month. One of the challenges for July is “previous mysteries”. I have chosen my pattern and yarn. Easy right? So what is the reason for this post?

I am working on a pair of socks for this month’s challenge. I chose the designer RoseHiver as I like her patterns and have knit a few of them. I remember when she first started designing socks as part of the Sock group and I said she should charge for her patterns but she said she wasn’t comfortable doing that. I am pleased that she has become more comfortable on that concept.

So… I have socks on the needles for this month and chosen for next month, what is the problem? One of the other challenges for this month was working a pattern whose first letter is the same as the first letter of your Ravelry name. I thought this sounded a fun challenge except I really wanted to knit the designer challenge. (I have found this quite frequently this year. Either I don’t want to work any of the challenges or I want to make a few of them.) I only want to work one pair of socks each month but August is a finishing up month so I could cast on something now and finish it in August. Decisions! I chose a pattern and decided on yarn. Yarn that has been in stash for a while. But then……

When looking at patterns that I had saved to look at later I saw a pattern for a drapey cowl – a style I like – and thought that would work perfectly with the yarn I had just chosen for socks. Added bonus, it is an easy pattern and I haven’t got anything easy on the needles right now.

Next step; wind the yarn and gauge swatch.