UH-OH Daisy!

I've, as my son loves to say, had an "uh-oh Daisy" (oopsie daisy), and despite having enough projects on the go and need to be finished, I cast on something new.

I'M WEAK OKAY!????  Don't judge me.

I blame this on the Stampede blanket, which just sucked the life out of me.  I just wasn't excited about what I had to knit and so I cheated and cast on the mittens.  (The mittens were supposed to come once the border on the Stripey Blanket had been crocheted, plain socks finished and August hat knit.)  But I just wanted some excitement.  Something to be looking forward too, and so I cheated.

Pictures of this project will be vague, as they are for my MiL and I'd like to surprise her at the end.  But the mystery mittens are finally on the needles.

I wasn't entirely bad, I did make some progress on other projects.

Stripey  blanket is getting it's crochet (*sad sigh) border.  I wanted to keep the border "masculine" and after much searching and failed attempts at something else, I just decided to go with a skinny single crochet border.  I think keeping it simple was the right call.  I'm close to finished on this one.  A good "nap" (by the kiddo) should hopefully get me to "done".  It will need to be blocked again but it will be easier to block this time.

The socks are also close to the finish line.  I'm just about ready to begin the toe decreases on these and then, during another nap time, I'll teach myself to kitchner stitch and embrace it.  (Despite avoiding it like the plague all these years.)  God I hate kitchner stitch.  Sorry.  I said it.  I'm not taking it back either.  But, I will conform, and I will learn... I will just do so kicking and screaming.

I'm re-motivated to get these finished... mostly because I just found out that not one, but two charity blankets are making their way to me sometime soon and I need to knit a section for each.  It really drives me crazy when people keep the blankets past the 2 week mark so I try to "bang out" my section as quickly as possible and not be the person holding up the party.  Good thing both blankets are simple stitch patterns.  I did a bad thing for this today though, and instead of dipping into my stash, opted to buy a color(s) (there was a 2 for 1 sale) to add to the blanket.  I feel guilty because I really need to whittle down the stash, but it's a little tricky to get to my stash at the moment due to the Renno.  (Which is still happening... cupboards this week!)

Lastly- I stupidly picked up the wrong end of my DPN case of various, unmarked needles sizes, and dumped them all in an unrecognizeable pile on the floor.  I'd like to tell you I said "uh oh daisy"... but I did not.  (Thankfully Mr. Repeat-Everything-Mommy-Says wasn't around.)  I'm going to have to find my "needle sizer" and painstakingly poke these in every hole trying to decipher which size is which.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I don't want to do this.  Behold- DPN CHAOS!

Hopefully I will have some finished item announcements on here soon.  In the meantime I'm still here.  I'm still knitting.  I'm just lacking a little focus!

Summer Normal

Well, Stampede has come and gone and things are returning to their more normal pace around here.  I always find it's a little hard to concentrate on knitting in the summer.  There are just so many distractions!

I find knitting at night seems to disappear and nap time knitting only seems to occur when I finish doing 85 other things first.  That isn't to say there hasn't been some progress- it's just at a slower pace.

In a fit of productivity, I blocked the stripey blanket a day after I cast it off.  (I'm convinced my body has been invaded by something that actually completes things on time!)  Stupidly, I did not take a pic of the blanket blocking, (I've been blogging how long and I drop the ball on this!?!), but I did get my MiL to snap a pic of the yarn I purchased (and sent home with her to wind), to do the border.

I know it seems a little counter-productive to buy a new skein for a stash down blanket, but it was necessary.  There just isn't enough yarn to finish a crochet border on the stripey blanket.  And this blanket, it NEEDS a crochet border because it's going to curl, most likely even after blocking!  And so, I tried to get the closest yellow to my original that I could.  Given that I bought the original yellow something like SEVEN years ago... the fact that I even got the same color family of yellow, is nothing short of a miracle.  (Original yellow was Koigu, this yellow is Spud & Chloe- but same  weight.)  I hope that it won't be too obvious that the two are different.  It they are- I'm just going to have to live with it!  Um.... any suggestions on a MASCULINE style crochet border?  The blanket is definately more masculine than feminine and I'm struggling a bit to come up with the right "guy border".

I've also been cruising along on my plain Jane socks that I started way back in Maui!  As predicted, I finished the first sock on my car trip to Saskatchewan.  I've decided I need to learn how to graft toes properly, (I got dinged on it this year in the judging...) and so I've left the toes to graft some afternoon when I can devote my undivided attention.  Instead I cast on sock #2 and have already moved at a decent clip on that one.

In the hopper, and hopefully on the needles soon, (after the socks), I'm going to cast on some mittens that I promised my MiL back in Feb.  I've been throwing the grandkid at her as much as I can in order to hopefully deflect from the fact that these mittens are super, SUPER... S U P E R late.  ;-)  I also need to knit a couple of hats for August and September.  We are (fingers crossed) hopefully moving back into our place in mid Aug.  Getting unpacked and settled will be the priority... which means even less time for knitting!  It would be nice to get a jump on both of these projects!

My summer is certainly moving at a slower pace, but it's not to say that it's come to a full stop.  Small projects seem to be the right key to enjoying the weather and staying happy with my stitches.  Hope your summers are as pleasant as ours has been so far!

Circle the Wagons

Happy Stampede everybody!

(Me on the right, my sister on the left... I do not normally dress country, Stampede is a "country costume party" for 10 days in Calgary)

Now that we've sort of dried off, the flood waters have receded, we're all feeling a little bit like having a party.  Thankfully Stampede time allows Calgarians a little respite from the flood misery and opportunity to let their hair down.  (Or hat on... choose whichever applies to you.)

First off, because I know you'd hate me for dragging it out any longer... the results, for me, of the knitting competition.

It turns out the Misery blanket was worth the misery!  I'm very happy with this 1st place red ribbon.  This was a hard fought (with myself) ribbon and I'm damn proud of this one.

The socks also placed, just further down with a 3rd place white ribbon.

The competition was pretty stiff this year, and a 3rd in this category makes me feel pretty damn good about my socks and my skills.

This year I felt the "overall winner" was very deserving.  Their submission, (which they designed themselves) was outstanding and every bit a "#1 overall" piece.  It's lovely!  (It's also in my queue!)

And so with another Stampede behind me, it's time to start formulating a plan already for next year... hmmmmmm.  Any suggestions?

Progress continues to slowly... um... progress on the stripey blanket.  I'm nearly done the colorful section (1 color section of each left) and then I'll need to decide how I'm going to border this one.  Here's a progress photo... that probably looks like the same blanket essentially.

A quick trip out to Saskatchewan (wedding) this weekend means I'm going to have a bunch of knitting in the car time... so I'm hoping to progress quickly on the Maui socks.  It would be nice to have those off the needles this summer too.

This has been sort of a disjointed post- but I thought I would leave you a picture of my two favorite cowboys at a party we attended last week.  (Parker's first petting zoo... he loved it!)