WIP Wednesday: Mukluk

Although this may look like an FO...

... it really is a WIP:

It won't be done until I sew up the seam that runs along bottom!

I am really loving this pattern, but this first slipper took me forever to finish because the yarn is hard on my hands. It is Encore Chunky Tweed: 75% acrylic, 25% wool, and 3% rayon. I don't usually have problems with acrylic-wool blends, so I'm thinking that it's the chunky-ness that is hurting my hands. It is giving me the same kind of pain that I get from Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn.

I looked up the yarn on Ravelry, but couldn't find similar complaints! Knitters gave it 4 out of 5 stars, even. So then I looked up Sugar'n Cream, and it also gets 4 out of 5 stars. Which reminds me of my issue with reader ratings on Amazon. In both cases, these are not statistical surveys. Rather, the respondents are self-selected. I've realized that romance books that I think are terrible get high ratings on Amazon because the people who choose to read them like romance novels.

I would like to point out that Lion Homespun (possibly the most hated yarn out there, though not by me) gets 3 out of 5 stars. And Red Heart Super Saver Solids gets 3 stars, too. Now that is a yarn that I cannot stand the feel of. It's the kind of material that could survive a nuclear holocaust. Still, a lot of knitters like it.

Does anyone know of a yarn that got fewer than 3 stars?

Don't forget to check out other WIPs with Tami Amis.

Not Much Knitting Going On

There wasn't much time for knitting this past week.  I attended two school board meetings last week as part of an effort to convince the school board to extend our contract. Those were exhausting but also exhilarating evenings. The camaraderie of more than 100 union members is pretty amazing.

Then I drove up to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for the weekend to visit my niece and her parents. Rebecca is in a three-week program to help teens with chronic pain. She was diagnosed with P.O.T.S. a few months ago. (You can read about it here.)

Rebecca and my son, Seth.

This program is truly amazing. As you can see from the picture, she has energy and joy again!

The 3.5-hour drive up flew by because Seth was in the car with me. I don't often get that much time alone with him! BTW, he completed his bachelor's in biology from UW-Madison last week, which we'll be celebrating next weekend.

I had hoped to knit on the way back Sunday, but Seth got sick and slept the whole way!

WIP: Color!

I started these a while ago:

It is the start of my second pair of Hermoine's Everyday Socks, the free, viral pattern that has been popping up all over the Web. My friend Marsha knit a pair of these a few months ago, and I fell in love with the yarn -- Regia 4-ply, color 05048. Luckily, I ran into the yarn myself and snapped up two skeins.

My first Hermoine's were gifted, but I'm keeping these for myself. I need the color given the rarity of sunny days here. It's rain, rain, rain!

Only twenty more teaching days. Not that I'm counting! Actually, I have great kids this year and I am sad about saying good-bye to them in a month. However, I am looking forward to more time for family and creative pursuits. Besides, I got my list for next year, and it's looking like it is going to be, well, more challenging.

See what everyone else is working on with Tami Amis.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had the pleasure of hosting my mother and mother-in-law for my brunch. We had Baked French Toast:

We also had an asperagus quiche and fruit salad.

So, not too fancy, but enough for a small brunch.

I heard from both my kids and went to my drawing group in the afternoon as my treat to myself.

Weeko says: What? It's Mother's Day?

FO Friday: Not Quite Seasonal

I am thrilled to present "28's Cousin 53."

I just love this shawl. I don't always pick the right yarn for a particular project, but this time ... I did a great job (if I do say so myself). This pattern really lets the yellow yarn shine. I picked up the yarn a few years ago, but the Madison dyer is still in business: htNEVELE Designs on Etsy.

I wore it once, and then winter transformed instantly into summer and everyone had to scramble to get their summer clothes out of storage. I'll pack it away, where it will have to wait patiently for fall.

The pattern, a freebee by Lynn Ashton,  is pretty simple and would make a great first-lace project.

WIP and Weather

(Excuse the sideways photo as I'm having wifi issues this morning!)

I will have an FO (finally!) Friday, and I have somehow resisted the urge to cast on something new. Instead, I returned to some holiday knitting I started a while ago:

Although you can't tell, at this point I've knit the bottom and sides of the slipper and have begun the instep. Not the most exciting knitting, but I think the finished product will be worth it. I'm hoping so. If these turn out to be as cute as they are in the photo, I plan to knit a bunch for gifts.

The weather this spring has been wet! But we had a beautiful day yesterday and I got on the bike for the first time since I broke my leg in April 2013!

I had grown absolutely terrified of biking -- and no, that's not how I broke my leg! I'm reasonably famous for being uncoordinated. Add to that the fact that breaking my leg made me aware of how fragile we all are. So, I am quite pleased with the 20-minute jaunt I took around my very hilly neighborhood. I need to build up my strength if I'm going to bike with my friends.

I also may need to learn to tolerate biking in the rain, as the rest of the week is forecast to be wet!

It's Even Better When It's On Sale

Friday evening I went out for gallery night with a friend, and we had a great time. It turns out that there are dozens of artists' studios on Madison's near East side, so we spent ours wandering around. Some retired professors craft exquisite etchings using a press that is more than 100 years old! One studio produces striking glassware.

And then there was this:

This adorable yarn bowl was waiting for me on the seconds table at Nstar Studio. You can see that it's a bit out of kilter, but I think it will work just fine. For $15, I could not walk away without it.

Some Weeks Are Longer Than Others

This week was longer than five days. I can't explain how. Maybe there were more than 24 hours in each day this week. I don't know, but by this morning, our 8th-grade team felt the need to jolt ourselves out of the doldrums.

It worked. We got through the day. And now I have a couple hours at home before heading out for gallery night.

I'm going to spend a few of those moments apologizing for neither writing nor reading much in the blogosphere this week. It was a grueling week: long hours, IEP meetings, and challenging students. I spent time with both my parents and Keith's -- something I like's to do more. Doing all those things means less time for blogging.

And I really, really like blogging. The best part is meeting people from all over and forming friendships. The knitters I've met have taught me so much about knitting. They've encouraged me to try new techniques, helped me out of jams, and directed me to amazing patterns and yarns.

Having been a single mom for more than a decade, time management has dogged me for ages. Am I the only one who struggles to find time for other people and myself? I could hole up in my studio for weeks at a time -- but in the long run I'd regret not nourishing relationships. I'm always trying to set boundaries at work. There is so much I could do that teaching could take up every waking moment -- if I let it!

So, where does blogging fit in? Earlier this week, I emailed a former blogger.  She hadn't posted for a long time, but also hadn't said on the blog that she was quitting. I wondered if she was ill or dealing with a major problem. She replied that she stopped blogging because she often felt that she was knitting to "feed" the blog, a feeling I've struggled with, too. My monogamous knitting of the last few weeks has made blogging hard. And this isn't the first time I've felt like the blog was driving my knitting -- which does seem backward.

I really miss this blogger -- she was one of the best -- so we'll try to connect in other ways. Still, it won't be the same. I don't plan to quit blogging any time soon, but I am going to try to not feel pressure in the blogosphere. I know that none of us want that!

Monogamy Has It's Benefits

The downside of monogamous knitting is that it doesn't supply you with much variety for knitting. All I have is ANOTHER photo of my "28's Cousin, 53" shawlette. At least this photo captures the lush color of the yarn

The upside of monogamous knitting is that you finish a project in a reasonable amount of time. The 1x1 ribbing at the bottom (top in the photo) will be finished soon. I'm on row 7 out of 10! I want to point out that each row has more than 500 stitches!

My stitching activities have been more focused on embroidery. As miserable, cold and rainy weather persists here, I find myself fantasizing about spring:

These are about the only flowers blooming now!

I don't generally dread Sunday evenings, but I have a ton of meetings and paperwork scheduled for next week, so I'm feeling a bit of trepidation about the coming week. Still, it was a nice weekend. Dinner with my parents on Friday; vewing an exhibit on surreal art at a local museum; and going out drawing this afternoon. Now I'm off to get some cooking done for the week.

Yarn Store Art

I finally finished this sketch of the the new yarn store, Looped Yarn Works, in Washington, D.C.

Isn't this an adorable store? It's on a second story on busy Connecticut Avenue, the perfect respite spot in a busy city. And the staff is super welcoming. I heard them tell shoppers over and over that they are invited to come knit at the store even if they're not shopping!

I guess I should draw the LYS here that has a coffee shop.  But can I go there without buying any yarn???