I went digging in my stash, and pulled out some possible yarns for more hats. I found a bag of Bernat "Haven" in buttery yellow. I also found a thin bright yellow mohair, and a soft off white mohair. I went with the soft white.
Last summer, I wrote about making some t-shirts, and struggling. Partly with fabric choice, partly with not acknowledging I might have grown a bit. Since then, I grew even more.
At the end of January, I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. It didn't come as a surprise. I'd been in the pre-pre category for awhile, and I had gotten lazy with diet. I cracked down, and this time Rob was more supportive, and it helped that the family is smaller now.
I've lost about 20lb now and now, those t-shirts fit! I wore this one on April Fool's Day.
It's been a month (in more ways that one), so time to update on the red scarves.
Crocheted from the yarn of the sweater I unraveled:
I think I am done with ribbed beanies for now. The total was 13. I need to get more red scarves done, and I bought a crochet afghan kit for a special gift. Turns out it's a type of crochet I've never done before! Yikes.
Rob just came in the room and I told him I spent less than $30 on yarn this year. He said he didn't believe it...and asked how much the afghan kit was LOL. Ooops. I'll do that in another post.
About two weeks before Christmas, I asked my middle daughter, Lucy, what we should get her boyfriend for Christmas. She mentioned wool socks, because he was working outdoors and complaining his feet were cold. Since we knew I couldn't handknit a pair of socks in two weeks, we opted to get some store bought wool socks of various styles, and to wrap up the socks in progress. Apparently, his first knitted gift was also a wrapped up work in progress (hat and mitts, a couple years ago).
I picked out this dark green from my stash. According to this blog, I bought it at the last Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair that I went to, in 2008. I didn't know at that time that I wouldn't be living in the area by the next show, so it was a good thing I went, AND bought yarn. This yarn was from the Boo-Boo Bin at Sweet Sheep. I can't find any indication they are still in existence. Although still on Ravelry, the links don't work. This yarn had obvious flecks of a bright green from where the skein ties were too tight. It was only $6. I didn't realize until I got into the socks that it was basically a two tone stripe! Bonus.
The project followed me around for 3 months. It was just a simple 2x2 rib. I actually used ChatGPT to help give me the stitch and heel counts this time, and it worked out.
I used the search function on my blog (top left corner on desktop version) to look up if I had any posts about my ball winders. I did! https://tracykm.blogspot.com/search?q=ball+winder It seems my beloved German one, I bought in 2004. Okay, should I retitle this blog post?
I posted a video on YouTube about my three ball winders. I said I would post about how I ended up with the last winder.
In late January, when I was looking for new crochet channels to watch, I came across a few channels reviewing a Caydo rechargeable yarn winder. One of these channels was Knotty Bear Crochet. He had just gotten the winder given to him, and he was also in Ontario. I decided to go ahead and order one, using a code from another YouTube channel, for a discount. They were on sale (pre-discount) for about $95Cdn.
About a week after I placed my order, I was thinking I should have a shipping notice or something. I looked on the Shop app and it quickly flashed up as in transit, then it changed to "awaiting information" and then something about arriving in September. WHAT?
I emailed Caydo. They responded saying it was out of stock in Canada, and "would not be available." Basically, none of the models were available. They said they could refund me. It was phrased like "if you want it, we'll refund you". Of course I wanted a refund. They suggested I buy it through their Amazon store. I took a look, and it would cost me $16 more. I was annoyed. I asked why I could buy it through there, but not on their website, which listed them as available. They responded that websites take a bit of time to update, but they can't move items from their Amazon store to their website.
Not feeling the love anymore, I opted to just order a different brand. I couldn't find one that was rechargeable (for a comparable price), so I pretty much just picked one that had good reviews, the description said it was an upgraded German motor.
It came, and gosh, it feels so cheap. It's so light. The instructions had some translation issues.
These are really piling up! I've also got one drying (I don't usually wash them, but it's an older yarn and a little bit on the skimpy side, and I was pretty sure washing it would let the yarn bloom), and I just started a new one.
