Unraveled Wednesday

I have been enjoying mindless knitting this summer, possibly because I'm working to improve my sewing skills -- and that is no easy task!

I finished a Hitchhiker made from a series of very-mini skeins. I haven't blocked it yet, but it still looks fine. I like the crazy colors, but I'd hesitate before giving this as a gift!

 And I immediately started a Find Your Fade. The yarn in Fresh From the Cauldron Freyr Sock (colorway: A Rose by Any Other Name).

I haven't had much time for social knitting, but I did have lunch and knitting with my friend Marsha. She is so photogenic it's hard to be her friend!

I interrupted my reading when an ebook came through on my Kindle: Fascism by Madeleine Albright, which Marsha recommended. It's a pithy history of fascism, and I'm sure it links the past to the present -- I'm just not that far yet.

Scary fact: The term "drain the swamp" comes from Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. 

I'm linking up with Kat today for Unraveled Wednesday.

Nature and Messes

Do not be fooled by this sweet-looking animal. She seems to be driven by nature to play with yarn. 

I should have taken a photo. However, I was distracted by having to untangle miles of yarn and roll it into balls for my Hitchhiker.  She must have had a fabulous time winding so much yarn around the chairs and table on our screened porch.

Untangling it was not so much fun. Since she had gone into a knitting bag and dragged out the whole project with its many yarns, I decided that I needed some larger project bags that I could put in my tote. Shopping was fun.

I found these darling and sturdy bags on Etsy from a seller called Whimzee Stitches. 

Here you can see that a medium bag easily fits a nearly finished Hitchhiker and a good cake of yarn.

Nature -- as in the weather -- has been frustratingly unpredictable here, with scorching heat alternating with frightening downpours. I took my mom to the airport this afternoon (she's flying to Virginia to see my brothers). Much to my surprise, the sun was out as I drove back through town, so I stopped to do some sketching:

I ended up working even more slowly than usual because I was joined by three, talkative street people. They were passing around bottle of vodka, which I didn't mind; but they were also smoking cigarettes, which I do! They were very nice and told me I am very beautiful for an older lady. Is that a compliment?

Then I took a little stroll and saw this guy:

Last Friday, I was planning to meet up with Kathy B and Mrs. Macawber. Kathy and I agreed that the weather was too bad -- terrible storms, downed trees. But Sue (Mrs. Macawber) wasn't intimidated and she made it just fine. I should have gone -- the storms ended (which is not what the forecast said!) -- and they had a great time.

We'll have to try again soon, ladies!

Listen To That Inner Knitting Voice

I need to take my own advice!

The last time you saw my Hitchhiker, it looked like this:

I knew it was awful. I knew it. But I didn't want to "waste" all that knitting time, so I told myself that it would look fine when it was twisted around my neck. Still, a little voice in the back of my mind told me that I was lying.

Finally, I could no longer ignore that little voice and I ripped out the entire thing. Then I did what I should have done a long time ago. Instead of having big blocks of colors, I striped the sections, knitting two rows with one color and then switching to the other.

Much better, don't you think? It is still kind of random, but in a fun way. 

On Not Being A Yarn Snob

Full disclosure: I totally am a yarn snob. I don't mind paying $28 for a skein of good sock yarn if I really love the yarn. I'm a bit wool-sensitive, so I'm a sucker for wool mixed with silk or cashmere.

But I do get seduced by less expensive yarns from time to time, and I have to admit that they can be nice to knit with and wear. This hat was a pleasure to make:

It's just a simple beanie with a bit of slouch that I made with Lion Brand Cupcake. I saw these sweet cakes at Joanne Fabrics, and I had to try one out. I like the hat, but I would have preferred more graduatl color changes.

And then there was another Lion Brand product that I saw at Joanne's. The spring colors captured my attention and I added a cake of  Comfy Cotton Blend  to my cart.

Cupcake is 100% acrylic, while Comfy Cotton is a blend of cotton and polyester. I don't think any fiber is more pleasant to knit with, more reliable, or more hard-wearing than wool. I love that you can play around with the blocking and that it has memory.

But I know I'm not the only wool-sensitive knitter out there. These two yards were pretty enough to grab my attention. I'd love to find a non-wool yarn that works for sweaters. I have high hopes for Comfy Cotton. In fact, I'm trying it out on Hitchhiker #3:

And I have to say that these Lion Brand non-wool yarns are very easy on the bank account.

I worry about cotton stretching out too much. If you've used a cotton or other non-wool yarn for a sweater and it worked out, let me know! 

Hooked on Hitchhiker

It's been a dreary weekend: cold, windy, rainy, gray skies. I'm not complaining because I needed to rest and this weather definitely helps with that. I went to Torah study yesterday and then had a nice long lunch with my mom. Last night, Keith and I started the third season of The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), and it is as good as the first two.

Today I started cleaning up my studio and then went out to lunch and Urban Sketching. I ended up drawing one of our sketchers:

The blue sky is just wishful thinking. It was quite gray.

I'm pretty happy with this sketch. The woman sort of looks like Jean, the sketcher, which is a rare accomplishment for me! I need to find some time to just play with my watercolors. It's a challenging medium and I don't put enough time into it.

This is good knitting weather. I finished my first Hitchhiker, and I love it. It only has about 39 teeth (it's supposed to have 41), but it is long enough right off the needles. After blocking, it should be a decent length.

I like the way the gradient works out when it's around my neck. I think it came out well enough to be a gift.

It was such a fun and relaxing knit, that I just had to do a stash dive and start a second one.

I have no recollection of where I got this skein of yarn. It's going to be an adventure. It's a magic ball with 15 colors of sock yarn tied together with square knots and wound into a cake. I haven't come to a knot yet, but I'm hoping that I can just leave the knots in place and have a rustic sort of shawl. Strangely, there is no company name or brand. All I know is that there are 525 yarns of Merino superwash sock yarn. 

For dinner tonight I made a delicious red lentil dish from the Oh She Glows Every Day Cookbook. The dish called for homemade mango chutney, but I cheated and bought some. I'm not vegan, but I do make a lot of Oh She Glows recipes. They are healthy and reliably good.

I noticed that the photo of my most recent quilt in my last post was fuzzy, so I just had to go on record with a better photo:

How was your weekend?

Trying to Focus

I hope that everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. Keith and I made brunch for our mothers.

I've been trying to be more focused on fewer projects so that I can actually finish a few things. After brunch on Sunday, I finished this quilt, which Keith calls "the ugly one."

 It's not my favorite, either. I was trying to use colors that aren't in my usual palette. I learned how much color inspires me. I think that part of the problem with this quilt is that it didn't emerge out of joy -- and I think that shows. This was a useful experiment, but I don't think I'll do it again.

On the other hand, I am thoroughly enjoying my Hitchhiker. I have come to the place in the skein where the dark teal is beginning to occur more frequently.

I spent quite a bit of time working on it this weekend and listening to a fascinating podcast from Slate about Randy Weaver and Ruby Ridge.

And I'll leave you with a photo of my grandkitty telling Rachel that it's time to turn off the computer:

One Done; Two New

It's been a weird weekend. Snow on Saturday, but then a glorious walk on dry sidewalks with my friend Denise today -- didn't even need a sweater. Crazy! At least we didn't have to cancel dinner out with my Mom Saturday. She took us to a very nice Italian restaurant.

As promised, here is my finished quilt:

So, what I don't like about it is that it is largely based on commercial fabrics: the rooster, the eggs, the words. It was fun to make, but I don't get the kind of satisfaction that I would from something that was more original. 

The next quilt is already under way. This time, I decided to force myself to work with a different set of colors.

And do you know what this is? I bet many of you recognized it right away. It is a sprouting Hitchhiker. I didn't think much of the pattern until a saw a few of you do it with gradient yarn. Now I'm a fan. As you can see, I am doing the Line 6 variation (yo, k2tog) to spice it up a bit. 

It is going to go through quite a dramatic color change before I am finished. That should keep it interesting.

31 more days of school. Not that I'm counting.