A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

 Work (supply [substitute] teaching) has been crazy busy. I don't get any time to sew, and only bits of time to knit. And not much left over to blog! So I'm combining a few things here today because who knows when I'll get to blog again.

These three bikini bottoms are all I have sewn (other than repairs) since....summer 2020? I don't even remember. 

Top was the first one. I couldn't decide on black or brown for my first pair. Opted for brown because I did have some RTW black bottoms, I just didn't like their fit. I wasn't sure on the waist band but compared to the other two, I think I prefer it. I used the Scrundlewear underwear pattern with my modifications. I didn't add leg bands, just folded back with elastic. They seem cheekier than my underwear! Much cheekier than my one piece suits! The bottom right are a reversible pair. There's no waist band, or any elastic. Theoretically these sew up very quickly, but realistically, nothing in my life is quick, except time. The left pair is hot pink and leopard neon print, reversible. I think I'm going to open them up and add some elastic to the front waist. They kind of puff out in the hot tub. 

More tiny hats for the hospital. I found a third. They are baby blue Bernat Lollipop Sparkle. I used a lot of that yarn (mostly in white) twenty years ago. Very nostalgic. The mitts are not that dark in real life. So, you see, I'm really not knitting a lot. I'm not watching TV much in the evenings anymore.

I did buy some dishcloth cotton when I was visiting my mom in her small town after Canadian Thanksgiving. We didn't go on a trip this summer, so I never made my vacation keepsake dishcloths. My older ones are starting to look pretty grungy. Staying at my mom's for 3 days was my holiday, and I figured it might be easier to get the yarn up there since all the stores down here have stock issues. Not a big colour selection. I'm almost 20 ridges (40 rows) into the first dishcloth. Slow going. 

What does keep me busy is making art on my iPad Mini, using the Procreate app. If you're interested in that, I'm on Instagram, tracykmvetzal and my account is public. 

Yarn In:  340gr + 2769gr = 3109gr

Yarn Out:  60gr + 4526gr = 4586gr

Balance: 1477 gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $14.66 + $30 = $44.66, 304 days, $0.05/day

It Happened!

I haven't been knitting much. Work has been so busy, mothering has been very busy, the TV has been busy by others (so I don't have a place to sit and knit). I finished another pair or two of little mittens. I'm up to 5 pairs since I started this summer. They don't use much wool for each pair, 35-45 grams. It adds up though!  It seems I only posted about the first pair. Pairs 2 and 3 weighed in at 89gr total, and pairs 4 and 5 are 73gr.

Not too exciting to photograph, especially in summer/fall. 

What IS exciting is that I finally bought some yarn! Megan and I went thrifting, and I hid a jackpot at the Salvation Army store. 

All worsted weight yarns, and except for the yellow and blue I can probably use them all together. The balls of pink in the middle are different than the big skeins.  All together this weighed in at 1369gr. This is the first yarn I actually paid for this year! I can make more charity blankets....if I ever get to use the TV again...

Yarn In:  1400gr + 1369gr = 2769gr

Yarn Out:  4364gr + 162gr = 4526gr

Balance:  1757gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $30, 275 days, $0.11/day

Sewing?

 I was working today at a high school. My classroom door was locked but a lady in a beautiful dress approached and was able to unlock it. Turns out she was the sewing teacher in the room next door. Imagine that! We chatted and I passed on my info so she could request me. I thought I’d take a look back at what I’ve seen lately. 

Uh….scrolling…..scrolling….scrolling…..

November 2020 was my last sewing post and it was just a new mask? I know I’ve sewn since then! I’ve just done a couple bikini bottoms, I might photograph those…what about slippers? Some sort of bag? Something for a kid? More underwear for Rob? 

I know this past year has been crazy—surgery, then my LTO (long term occasional teaching job), not being able to sew while Rob’s home for work. I haven’t been browsing Fabricland or Value Village, I delete most emails from fabric stores after a quick scan (okay, I did just succumb to some wovens from Fabcycle). I do look at the emails from pattern designers, though I have been great at not purchasing any new patterns (there was one recently that did grab me because it was nothing like other patterns I have). 

I usually sew a lot during the summer but this summer I seemed to spend all my time driving kids to jobs, or working on an AQ course, or hanging out on my deck because the basement (where I sew) was too cold. I thought once Lucy got off to school and things got into a rhythm here, I would get back to the machines. Instead, I’ve gotten a full week of work LOL. In fact,I have another bikini bottom started on the serger (I started, then second guessed my seam allowance and never got back). Hopefully this weekend allows me to finish those. Then I want to start on the new shirt. I’ve moved all my cutting tools upstairs to the office/guest room/dorm room/Hugh’s room. Here’s hoping!

Memorial Blanket

 In 2019, my Dad died, and then less than 5 months later, my brother's dog was (accidentally) killed and then a week later, his wife died. Nancy had PKD--Polycystic Kidney Disease and had been on dialysis for a long time (7 years?) while waiting for a transplant. Shortly after, I found a bag of purple Bernat Softee Chunky (I think. I can't seem to find any of the labels) at my favourite store in my Mom's small town. I wanted to make a blanket to donate to the dialysis unit where Nancy spent so much time. Purple was her favourite colour. 

I started with corner to corner crochet. I found a graph to make a heart in the corner, where I thought I could somehow add her info. However, I had no yarn that worked well with the purple--too smooth, too thin, wrong colour, etc. Then I tried numerous things on the SK155 knitting machine. Nothing was making a blanket that would be big enough to be useful. 

I finally settled on a simple tuck pattern, making three panels. It's still a little narrow. It could be used as a wrap too.

I decided against the Bickford Seam because I worried that it could lose it's shape. I did a mattress stitch, using half a stitch on each edge. It doesn't show too badly on the wrong side (though no side is really the wrong side with tuck).

I gave it a heavy steaming, to flatten the edges and stretch it out some. It relaxed the texture a bit (no pictures), but I think it's still nice.

I have thought about how to add her name or info. I looked into doing heat transfer with my Cricut. I don't have any experience and I don't know how it'd hold up to be in a hospital facility. I thought about embroidery, but then I'd have to sew some sort of patch on because the blanket can't really be embroidered right on to. Probably expensive. And in the end, no one except maybe some nurses would even know who she was. So I'm leaving it purple; that says enough.

I haven't gotten to donate it yet. I'm not sure if they'll take anything right now. It's ready though, when the time is right. Sign your organ donor card and let your family know. Nancy was in her mid-40s, her daughters were in 16 and 21. An organ donation would have changed their lives.

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 600gr + 3764gr = 4364gr

Balance:  2964gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

It's Coming...

 A few years ago, I made wool mittens to have spare mittens for the kindergarten classes I supervised at lunch. They were a hit. I had stocked up on wool (I also liked making felted slippers). Then I quit. Now I have a lot of smaller balls of a variety of wools. The gnomes I made used up some (and now there's another mystery gnome knit along! Do I join? Give Gnathan a sibling?), but there's lots left. When a pair of toddler/kindie size mitten only takes 34gr of wool, it's going to take quite a few pairs of mittens to use up the wool. Why not? I have six charity blankets ready to go, but they're not accepting any right now, and I don't really have any acrylic worsted yarn for more (I do have some pastel coned yarn but it speaks more baby than senior). 

I used Ann Budd's pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. This is an excellent book if you don't mind not having your hand held every row. I used the second size, and I think 5st/inch. The cast on was 30st. I've started another pair with 32 stitches. I do them two at a time. If I get low on yarn, I'll do the thumbs before the tops, and then I can add stripes in the upper part.

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 34gr + 3730gr = 3764gr

Balance:  2364gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Finally

 Last summer I knit some newborn hats on my Singer 327. I cast on for more, got part way into the 4th, and got busy. It was bugging me to see them hanging on the machine, waiting to be finished. I've been thinking about selling my Singer 500, which is on the same table, so I wanted to tidy up to take pictures. I finished up, then sat outside to sew them up.

I don't have details, except that I had jotted down 75 rows, which is too many, I feel. 

The four hats weighed in at 73gr once finished, but I did have a lot of waste because of winding a small bobbin off yarn off the cone at the end of each hat so that I do a couple decreasing rows by hand and sew up. I used a strand of navy and a strand of green. 

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 100gr + 3630gr = 3730gr

Balance:  2330gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Blankets

I mentioned a few posts ago that I got a big donation of yarn. I've pretty much used it up! Two more charity blankets off the needles. 

The first one was the bottom one. It has bands of white/cream separating the colours, and I tried to alternate green and brown. Sometimes I don't settle into an idea until I've knit a bit, so it doesn't always look intentional.  It's 558gr. 

The second one was the darker one on top, because I had a lot of dark greens left. It weighs in at about 485gr.  It ended up a bit smaller. I was going to do a border, but I hate doing that.

What's been keeping me busy was an AQ course (Additional Qualification) for music, Primary and Junior. That ended, and I've gotten to finally play with my new camera. I spent a lot of the time working on the course outside, where I got to know a cardinal couple. 

This is after she chased off a starling. It was fun watching her when she collected twigs for her nest. 

I didn't get good pictures of the baby. The first time they came around, it was mostly beige and very fluffy. The next time it was showing more red. Years ago I kept seeing a cardinal that was half beige, half red. So I think it takes time for the boys to get their full colour.

I really really like this photo. Click on it, and zoom in. He has an alder seed in his beak. 

They brought their baby around, and then they started a new family. Apparently they don't use the same nest each time. There was a couple days that when I went out front (I knew the nest had been in a skyrocket evergreen at the front corner of the house), the mom cardinal was chirping like crazy from the pine tree next to the walkway. I decided to investigate, and found a baby bird perched on the edge of a nest! I ran in for the camera, and came back out to see it flutter down to a lower branch.

Oh, was Momma ever ticked! She spent a long time chirping, hopping from branch to branch, encouraging it to return. The baby went the wrong way around the tree, towards the front, rather than the short trip to it's left. I had to leave. Just then Daddy came back and there was a discussion. I can just imagine Momma telling him the headaches his offspring had given her that afternoon while he was out having fun LOL. 

When I came back, I saw Daddy chirping madly. I looked up and saw a large bird, about the size of a mourning dove (which we used to have in that tree). It wasn't a dove though, because it was sitting upright on the branch and it had a hawk bill! Daddy chased it off and I think every cardinal on the street was chirping loudly! We couldn't find baby, and I haven't seen or heard it since. I don't know if he was a snack for the hawk, which was likely a sharp-shinned hawk.  

We've also had two litters of bunnies since June. Most have scattered, one got eaten and this guy is in trouble if he doesn't stop munching my plants. The pictures of the newborn bunnies are really adorable. It was great to see the progression. This was the first time there was a nest in the grass instead of under the deck.

I've been growing a hops vine in the back yard for the past few summers. This is the first summer it produced hops. I think it's cool that they mimic the lights Rob put up on the fence.

Now, I'm spending most of my time driving kids around. Megan got a job, and is back skating, and has physio, as well as Lucy working, so I'm busy, busy, busy! 

 Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 1 043gr + 3730gr = 4773gr

Balance:  3333 gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0

Gnice to Meet You!

 I was scrolling Instagram in May and saw something about a mystery knit-along to knit.... a gnome. I don't think I've ever knit a mystery knit along. And I've never knitted a gnome. It was post-winter accessories season, I was bored of charity blankets. So, of course, I had to knit a gnome! Why not?

It'd been a long time since I've used Ravelry, and even longer since I've actually bought a pattern. And how long since I've done cables? I got my wool (didn't knit a swatch), found a cable needle, and got ready. 

This was the first pattern to put on my new iPad Mini. That taxed my brain a bit. How come under Downloads, ProReader says there's 18 files, but when I open it, there's only 4? Anyway, I got going, not always right on schedule, and I struggled with the written instructions and reinforced my love of graphs, but I did finish and post a picture before the deadline to be entered in the draws. I don't think I won anything, except ownership of Gnathan. 

At first, everyone was like, "Why are you making a gnome?!"

Once done, requests started coming in. I knew though that I had to make a Tricolour Gnome. 

This is Alfie, meeting Jase. Poor Jase. He came to use with one blue eye and one brown eye and over time, lost his hand. But we love him. Alfie is named after the ArtSci nightclub at Queen's University when we were there. The new name is The Underground, but that doesn't work for a gnome.

Lucy wasn't all that impressed with Alfie, and I got the impression she didn't want to adopt him for her new house in Kingston. She showed him to her elder sibling, and they thought he was awesome and wanted one too. So, Clark was born. Clark is named after the Engineering Pub at Queen's. 

I couldn't remember which needles I used for the various parts, so they're not exactly the same size. Clark's tassel shows the hardships of engineering student life, I think something happened at the Greasepole. He's a little bit scrawnier, and his beard is covering up his pocket protector :)

Gnathan used a total of 214gr of the Condon's Yarns, but I don't know how much Tricolour yarns were used. Some was from Topsy Farm, some was some other random wool from my stash. I'm pretty much out of Tricolour now, and Rob thinks I'm going to make him for work too. I'm just going to estimate the same for the Tricolour.

On Instagram, I post pictures of drawings I do in Procreate. The first thing I actually drew was a little gnome. Later, I started adding Nomie to newer pictures I'd draw (cut and paste style). Megan thinks I should knit a real life Nomie and take him on real adventures. Maybe. 

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 642gr + 2988gr = 3630gr

Balance:  2230gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Another Charity Blanket

I wonder how many blog posts are titled "Another Charity Blanket"? 

I'm not sure exactly when I got this yarn compared to when I started the blanket. I don't like to add new yarn once I've gotten deep into a project. But then I started another one and did pull from this big yarn donation I got from Freecycle. I weighed it all, but I'm not sure where I wrote down the totals. I'm going to say 1400gr. 

So, this blanket weighed in at 505gr. 

And this is the only picture I took. It's just a simple garter stitch corner to corner rectangle. I didn't even do an edging. I just slip the first stich purlwise, then yarn over. 

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 505gr + 2483gr = 2988gr

Balance:  1588gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

 

Hello June!

 Work is keeping me so busy!! Even though my position is "only" 2 afternoons a week, there's a lot of prep for a new teacher, and I'm supply teaching almost full time as well. Add in spring work in the garden, physio, life in general, a new camera... we may be in a lockdown but I am sure keeping busy!

Because we're not going places, my "travel project" projects have come to a standstill pretty much. I did finish up this little yellow hat to add to the collection of newborn hats. 

I got a new scale but it's hard to see the numbers sometimes. It's 25grams. The last of the yarn I bought last summer before we went to the cottage. 

 

I do have a couple more projects to share, but I'll give those their own posts.

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 25gr + 2458gr = 2483gr

Balance:  2483gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Hello May

 What was going on in April that I only made one post?! Work, physical therapy, yoga, drawing in Procreate... if you want to see what I'm learning on Procreate, check me out on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/tracykmvetzal/

I do still knit and crochet! I finished another pink blanket for the seniors! This one was knit, corner to corner, in garter stitch. 

Such an easy, mindless pattern. Just make sure when you start the decreases on the first side, you mark which edge you're doing it on. 

I picked up two bags of donated yarn on the weekend. I need to weigh it, so I'll calculate that this weekend.

I have another blanket in browns/green/beiges on the needles, but I'm going to start a Gnome Knit-along today!! So excited. It's a mystery gnome. I haven't done a KAL in so long!

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 530gr + 1928gr = 2458gr

Balance:  2458gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Pink and Pretty

 I dug out all my odd balls of worsted weight again, trying to get inspiration for my next charity blanket. I had a lot of pinks, it seemed, so that became the next plan.

Corner to corner crochet. Changing yarns as I felt like it. 

Nice to work on something that can also keep me warm LOL

This took me about two weeks, using worsted weight and 5.5mm hook (or maybe 6mm), 35"x48"

Not much else to say. It didn't wash up as soft and limp as the last blanket, which was an unlabelled Red Heart yarn from Cambridge Fibres. Some of the yarns in this blanket are very old. A couple were from White Rose Nurseries, which closed the last of their stores in 2002 (doesn't sound that long ago, until I realize it was 19 years LOL). 

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out: 1279gr + 649gr = 1928gr

Balance:  1928gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Outside My Box

 I wanted some new mittens for my winter/spring coats. One is plum-ish, the other is bright pink. I found some superwash wool in my stash and at first, I was going to play it safe. Stripes, maybe black. As I looked at the balls of yarn though, I started to think---why not get a little crazy? I have the pair of fingerless gloves that I wear all the time, and people often comment on how cheery they are. Why not do something like that? I thought Fair Isle would be good because the floats on the inside add to the warmth. 

I dug out my stitch pattern books and got looking. At first, I liked some large scale designs but I worried about having enough yarn, and wanted to incorporate several colours. And I didn't know how many rows I'll end up with, and didn't want to have them look like they ended abruptly.  I settled on this simple 4st, 3 row repeat. 

I started the cuff, and I wasn't sure what my direction was going to be. I thought let's go random stripes. It's usually hidden inside my coat anyway. I do kind of wish I had gone more basic though. 

Then I started the pattern after the ribbing. I really got into the stitch pattern and kept forgetting to start the thumb gusset!! So the mittens end up being rather long inside my coat--have to put them on before my coat LOL. 

For the increasing section of the thumb gusset, I kept the stitch pattern to every other stitch, rather than try to incorporate the hand pattern. 

 

It got up to my knuckles and I really was afraid of running out of the pink. It was kind of an awkward length. So I made the end cuff long. They're almost mittens. I thought I might make them as convertible mittens, but there's not enough yarn to keep with the pattern. 

These will keep me toasty through much of the winter. I can tuck my fingers inside for those "didn't know I'd need mittens" times. 

Yarn In:  0gr

Yarn Out:  83gr + 1196gr = 1279gr

Balance:  1279gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day