Fiberaddict's Fiber Fumblings

Yesterday we took Auntie out shopping. She's having car trouble, and has *refused* to let anyone take it in to get it fixed. She says she doesn't need it, she can "go into a home and not bother anybody". :sigh: Not. Happening.

Instead, I volunteered to take her out once a month for shopping/etc. I don't mind; she's easy to get along with, and I am humbled by her faith - I wanna be more like her when I grow up! :lol: She won't consider moving in with us (yeah, it'd be a bit of a bother to shift things around, but it's do-able, and we'd work it out. But....no, she won't do it. :sigh:), so this is the next best solution.

Anyway. Got home and made 3 batches of soap (darn it, I forgot to mail out samples! Crap - they're boxed (no labels, just messy hand-writing.....but they're free and same recipe as the rest of my soap, so it'll work!) and I'll get them out today. I'm actually glad I forgot - 1 batch, Grandma's Flower Garden, is a total scent-fail; there's NO scent at all to it. :sigh: Need to tinker with that one! Oh, well - I have more laundry soap! :lol: (And yes, that's where fail-batches end up - I grind it up and make laundry soap. Why not?) - 1 batch of Chimera (Dragon's Blood scent), 1 batch of Grandma's Flower Garden (Rosehip Jasmine; I put in more scent this time - hope it sticks!), and 1 batch of Lavender Milk (Lavender, duh! No buds this time - just a softly swirled violet/natural bar.) My kitchen smells DIVINE - as does my dishwasher. :lol:

If we have time today, I'll make a few more batches - not sure of scents yet, but I need to use up milk and I am SICK of making cheese. :lol:

Not much else to report. I'm at the crown of Himself's hat - I downloaded the pattern, re-jiggered the decreases, and realized that it's easier than I had thought. Oh, well - it was worth the $5 for the light-bulb moment. I also have the kid's Hanukkah prezzies almost all purchased...this year, Himself wants Lego Star Wars sets. Oy! It's been a couple of years since he requested Legos - I had no idea they had gone UP so much in price (on eBay, I mean - I remember I used to be able to get them for 40 - 60% off. Now? Most of them are maybe $10 cheaper - when you figure in shipping, it's cheaper to get them directly from a Lego store. :sigh:) Herself's been easy.....but she's getting 1 "big" present, to make up in price for all his Legos. She's been wanting a Nintendo 3DS.....I talked to the guy at GameStop yesterday, and it looks like I'll be picking one up for her on payday. IF I'm lucky, she'll get a special edition one...if not, just a regular XL one. :sigh: Still cheaper than it could have been...but OY! Teens are expensive! :lol: (Not really. This is the one time of year I do go all-out to indulge them. MUCH cheaper to buy 8 semi-expensive things 1x/year than it is to spoil them all year long. And I've been able to get some things earlier in the year, which helps.)

Shabbat Shalom!

I've promised photos, so photos you shall have. :lol: I've been a bit busy lately, so not much knitting has occurred, but there's been *some* - and even 2 Finished Objects! :insert happy dancing here:

First up, the first FO's - Herself's Monkey Socks:



Yarn is JL Yarn's Salvia in...some bright color way. The yarn's been in the stash for a good 4 years, so I'm not sure it's even still available - but she LOVES it, the socks turned out great, so all's good.

Next up, the never-ending hat project - SG's Chullo:



This bloody thing's been in production for....4 years? 5? Ever since I did mine (points at avatar), SG's been agitating for one of his own...but he couldn't settle on the motifs. Last year, I put my foot down pinned him down to 3, and started work.

And promptly stalled in the orange/red horses, because the colors didn't amuse me, the pattern wasn't intuitive (I had to flip every other horse, and I didn't graph them out, and....:ugh:). I picked it up a few weeks ago, though, because I figured it'd make a nice prezzie, and I wanted it DONE. It's done now, and it looks great, and he loves it, so - win/win!

I'm currently working on Himself's chullo-style hat. He requested one not so long - more watch-cap like - with his own designs worked in. I handed him a yarn catalog, some graph paper, and colored pencils and turned him loose. He chose 4 colors (I had 2 in appropriate yarn - how great is that? :lol:) and had fun.

And now I'm having fun, turning his graphs into a hat. Photos of it will be forthcoming - it's not at a point conducive to photos yet. (The earflaps are done as is the first motif, but....you can't really *see* it yet. So, I'll give it a bit more knitting before staging a photo shoot. :lol:)

The socks are still going - but they're my travel project, so they only get attention when we're out and about.

Need to go get school together - this week's ALL messed up thanks to FA and his.....not very friendly (nor competent - when you've been there a year and STILL can't get the routine stuff done as you're supposed to, you're not very competent. Add in a switch to new software that I wasn't made aware of - a 5 second email would have prevented me sending slightly stern emails, y'know?) staff. :big sigh: As a result, Herself is all ferhoodled, our schedule is shot all to Hell, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit everything IN that has to be done, in a schedule that was already modified to include 1 day in the Office. Yeah, I'm still only in the Office 1 day, but it's a DIFFERENT day, which means my previous mods are no good and I have to figure out how to reschedule a rescheduled schedule. (Don't mind me, I'm just pissed. Especially since I've been told *I* have to deal with it, because MY time isn't as valuable as theirs is. BS...but never mind me. I'm just the one who writes the checks - I'm not important at ALL.)

1. SG bought a new car this weekend - a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. In RED. Not just red - this thing is RED. :lol: Long story to the acquistion - but God's Hand was in it. (I was OK with it - he drives 120+ miles every day, and his truck gets - on a GOOD day - 20 MPG. This thing? 35 MPG - so far. If I did the math right, he'll be saving over $100/month, even WITH the car payment.)

2. The Affordable Healthcare Act isn't. Turbo Tax has a rate finder (and it wasn't swamped yesterday!), so for fun I went and put in our info. Granted, I only used SG's income (because as your income goes up, so do your rates.....and I wanted to see the lowest cost scenario.)....but. Our family of 4, on his income, would have to pay $502/month for the LOWEST cost-coverage (AFTER $840-something in FEDERAL subsidies - wait, isn't our gov't broke? So...how are all these subsidies going to be paid???). IF I understand things right, the lowest coverage = only 60% covered, the other 40% is out-of-pocket. And I can't see where prescriptions are covered....so, for %502/month (which is MORE than my car payment, and almost as much as my mortgage payment!) we get.....very little actual coverage. Right.....and this is affordable, HOW?

2a. I am fully aware of how much insurance actually costs. When DH1 was killed, I had to scramble to get coverage for the kids and I. At that time (7/2002), the CHEAPEST coverage for the 3 of us was $1,200/month - for the bottom of the coverage list. Mr. Boss said that was CRAZY, and immediately put the 3 of us on the company policy (Cyn's DH was already on it, and Mr. Boss said it was only fair to add the kids)....when Mrs. Boss cancelled the policy a few years ago, it was $1,750/month for the 3 of us. WAY out of reach for someone who was only making $1,900/month in NET pay. :shakes head: So....yeah, $500/month isn't *bad*, per se, but it's still not affordable in any way, shape or form for us. (Before anyone points to the new car payment - my Jeep will be paid off in December, and we are currently all on SG's work policy - for less than $300/month. For AWESOME coverage that includes dental/eye/mental health/prescriptions. The dental policy, in fact, is the best I've ever seen - makes sense, because of who he works for, but still - it's not bargain-basement! If he lost our insurance, we'd be in a pickle - because the $300 only covers the 3 of us; he's "free".)

3. Almost done with the 2nd set of motifs on SG's hat. Finally! I.....hate the yarns I'm using, I'm sick of his hat, and I want to do something...well, more FUN. :lol: Himself's hat is up next...all geometric motifs, which will be fast to knit (no counting! Easy-peasy!), in a worsted-weight yarn. Should be a relatively fast knit - good thing, since Hanukkah is early this year (Nov. 28, if I'm remembering correctly. ACK! I gotta get cracking!)

4. The biggest hit of our HS year (so far!) is Horrible Histories. Not only do the kids love it, but SG has been watching them in the evenings, too. This is HUGE - he's not a History lover at *all*. :happy dance:

Today is Orthodontist-day, so I gotta go gather stuff up. I think Herself has decided she wants to do her brackets in Orange, Black, and Glow-in-the-dark for October. :giggle: Why not?

The rain quit yesterday AM......it's all humid and squishy and damp out, but we NEEDED this. It's supposed to start again tomorrow.....I hope so.

Anna, WE use coasters all the time. It started when we bought our dining room table....it cost a LOT (for us....and we got it half the retail price, thanks to my internet skills.), and we didn't want it to get marked up. So, I made coasters. Then I started insisted that coasters be used on the coffee table...and now, we use them everywhere. I have a bunch of mis-matched ones for "every day" use, and "themed" ones for Feasts and Shabbat.

Ali, thank you! Interesting reading....I need to think on it before commenting.

And, the world IS coming to an end - I have proof! :lol: Wednesday afternoon I started another ch'ullo - this one for SG. I finished mine Dec. of 2009...and he's been nagging me ever since to make one for *him*. The problem? He couldn't make up his mind about the motifs to put on it. :bangs head: I *can't* knit something without knowing WHAT I am knitting into it. He started out wanting all Celtic designs, wait, no - dogs/cats/horses! Wait - goats, dogs and......horses. Yeah. Goats, horses, and beer bottles! No, wait - and on, and on, and on. :sigh:

So. Wednesday I pinned him down - I NEED to know NOW, so I can get this done! He said, "I TOLD you! Dogs and horses and....some kind of Hebrew letters - my name! No, wait - (runs and grabs his prayer shawl) *this* (pointing to the blessing on it. :sigh:)" "Um. It's TOO LONG. I only have 192 stitches to start..and that? Will take MORE." "Oh. OK, then just the Messianic symbol."

I graphed it out......did some math..."OK, I can get - at most - 3 repeats. What about the other 2 patterns?" "I want MORE than 3!" :bangs head: After a lengthy discussion of math and the intricacies of knitting, he accepted it....but still couldn't make up his mind on the other 2 pattern.

So yesterday, I took matters into my own hands - his ch'ullo will have running wolfhounds, then horse heads, then the Messianic symbol. He said he was happy with that, so.....:grin:

Into the breach I go, knitting stranded patterns on size 4s. My ch'ullo took me about 3 weeks....I'm trying to beat that this time. And get my husband off my back...:lol: And since I had said I would NOT do this again....therefore, proof that the world as we know it is coming to an end. :rofl:

Shabbat Shalom - may your day be blessed!

This all started with the KnitPicks Andean Chullo pattern from their 2008 Winter catalog (I think..it's been a while!). The moment I saw it on the page, I *knew* it was the hat I had been searching for. (Don't look at me like that - I'm sure every knitter, at some point, has had one of those moments.) I thought about it, dreamed about it....and went to order the kit.....but Knitpicks was backordered. So, I saved it to my cart, and went on about my life.

I kept thinking about that hat....and the more I thought about it, the *less* I liked it. The shape wasn't correct - it was basically a multi-colored watch cap. The colors weren't right for me (even the alternate colorway they had was...not me)...but I still wanted it. I even called KnitPicks and asked them if I could create my own kit - but they said no, it ONLY came as the 2 kits, you couldn't (at that time) buy the pattern separate.

Well, OK then....I started looking for an alternative. I looked at a TON of chullo patterns...and finally hit pay dirt with the Blossoms Chullo by Deja Knits. THAT was the perfect hat.......except for the motifs. :lol: I immediately bought the pattern....and started trying to figure out what I was gonna do with it.

( What I did with the pattern - it got long! )

I had to share this with someone - since you really can't go out and accost people on the street to show them your latest project. And my husband was really getting tired of my "Isn't this the coolest hat EVER? I love the earflaps - isn't it *cool*! I'm glad it's cold....." :rotflmao:

Here ya go - today's progress on the Chullo:



It would go SO much faster if I didn't have to strand Every. Single. Round - even the solid-color rounds are knit from both ends of the ball. Tedious, yes - but warmer. :shrug: I'm on the shaping rounds now....1 more motif to go. Then I get to knit the earflaps - won't be done *by* tomorrow.....but soon.

OK, here's the progress made today on the Chullo. This equates to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Commentary! The Musical, Phantom of the Opera, 1 episode of DS9, and half of a Clone Wars episode.




The 2nd motif is 6 rounds from completion. I had to quit - I can no longer count to 3 accurately. :lol: (It's a handspindle - I adapted Sarah Swett's Spin-Off Sweater. LOVE the motif...I was gonna do the yarn in a 3rd color, but sanity struck. NO more 3-color rows! If I can help it, anyway.)

The 3rd motif.....has changed. It was *going* to be a stylized weaving shuttle....but I really don't want to have to explain it to everyone that sees my hat. So.....I'm going to sit down with the colored pencils and graph out a sock. :lol: From sheep to sock - that's my hat!

I'm going to pick it up again tomorrow - I wanna get it done! I *need* to wear this hat out in public....soon! :lol: Why yes, I am obsessed...and cold. A front is supposed to hit tomorrow...from 68* to 32*. This hat will fit over my hair bun......and the ear flaps will keep my ears warm.

fun stuff. Found out we *are* getting a bonus this year :huzzah: Only, it's 2/3 of last year's bonus. :sigh: At least it's enough to pay the property taxes AND buy Sweet Geek's aunt a much needed stackable washer/dryer. It's NOT enough to replace my washer/dryer...:sigh: I need a new dryer - this one takes 2.5+ hours to dry 1 load. Oh, well.....I can wait. Guess I don't need it as bad as I thought I did.

I posted part of yestereday's entry on knitting - the part on the sock surgery. I guess I am a much better knitter than I thought - seems everyone is impressed. All I did was fix a mistake.....I think the amputation part is what gets people. :shrug: It was the easiest (and fastest!) way I could think of to salvage the socks.

I need to do an "Evolution of the fingerless glove" report - I am on V.4.0 now. The first one, I Cast Off for the thumb opening, the 2nd, I simply turned the knitting around to make the slit. V.3.0 had an actual thumb.....V.4.0 has an actual thumb gusset. I think we have a winner, here - I'm at the top ribbing of #1, and this one fits better, my thumb will be more protected (won't hurt that I'm going to knit a full thumb, instead of a tipless one. It's bloody COLD out here! 24* as I type...:brrrrr:). I'm still noodling around with the convertable top....the one on V.3.0 works, but is UGLY. (Himself doesn't care - the mittens fit *him*, and he's agitating for me to put a top on the 2nd one. :lol:) I've got a few ideas - I printed off a copy of Knitty's "Broadstreet Mittens" and am going to see if I can modify that top to my stitch count. (After the sock surgery, THIS will be a walk in the park! :lol:) I should do pictures, too......:grin:

Oh, yarn report: Wool Ease's Fisherman's Wool is suitable for fingerless mitts. The wrapper calls for size 9 needles....no. 7s work, but 6s seem to be perfect for this. 9s make the fabric too damn floppy...not at all warm enough. I think, if I were to knit boot socks from this, I'd go down to a 4...maybe a 5. Looking at the fabric from the 6s I'm using right now, though, I think a 4 would be best for socks. (Why yes, there ARE socks in this in my future. I don't even need my spinning wheel for that! (1))

Not much else to report - I spent most of yesterday rebooting the laundry and working on V.4.0. I'm hoping to have the time to work on my chullo this weekend - I NEED a hat!


(1) - running joke from the last 2 demos I've done, where a really bizarre lady asked me, in all seriousness, if I used my wheel to tell the future. No shit - I have witnesses! :shakes head:

Spent yesterday...shopping and cleaning. Fun stuff, fun stuff. We hit Wallyworld, and the kids are now pretty much equipped for the cold. As am I. :lol: The big thing was boots for me.....it was almost impossible to find short, slouchy boots in my size. And when I did....I had to pay $$ for them. :sigh: Payless was completely out, as was Thrallmart. Weird.

That took 3 hours of our morning...we came home, had lunch, and began the cleaning spree. The Master bath is now spotless, the family room is better, and the laundry room...well, we quit. Mice had gotten into the cabinet somehow :ick:, so we trapped 2 in there and locked the door. Caught 1 on the sticky trap; the snap-trap was still un-sprung this AM. I hate mice...

Got FF sock #1 DONE. Looks good, fits better. :lol: I put a glass sheep/goat's head on it - which works and will last longer than the felt one the pattern called for - but I need to find some jewelry findings and make the heads pin-on. The glass is a little too heavy for sewing on. Looks fantastic, though. :lol:

Worked a bit on my chullo...got involved with Star Trek, so.....you know how that goes. Mindless knitting and movies work great.....2-color knitting is not mindless. For me, anyway.

Need to feed the critters, but it's 35* outside, and looks like snow. I'm all toasty warm.......what to do? (I know - the animals need to be fed. I'll do it in a minute. :lol:)

Let's see.....the other day someone posted in one of the forums a question about stranded knitting, and then yesterday my mom asked about it....so. Since I'm in the middle of a stranded project, might as well talk about it. :lol:

Stranded knitting - or multi-color knitting - is NOT hard. If you can knit with 1 yarn, you can knit with more. It's just fussy. You have to work to keep your tension even over all the yarns - but it comes easier the more you do it. You have to *gasp* read a chart! Oh noes! Listen - you're reading *this*, right? Reading a chart is no more difficult.

Plus, stranded knitting is just plain fun! You're painting with yarn - and I get a kick out of watching the design develop. My chullo is going fast - mostly because I have to knit just One.More.Round to see the pictures. :lol: (I'm almost done with my sheepies - 3 more rounds to go! Then it's on to....well, you'll see. When I get around to taking photos - I'm too busy actually *knitting* :lol:)

Other knitting.....I need to finish my Fiber Festival socks. The first one is done except for the cuff; the second one is at the toe decreases. Those have been stalled, not only for the Boring Gray, but...well, they have (basically) short row heels. SR Heels do NOT fit my foot. I've tried.....they always migrate around. I'm a heel-flap-and-gusset girl - they fit my foot perfectly, the gusset cradles my high arches, and they DO NOT MOVE in my shoes. The FF socks? The gusset area is a bit baggy (but I can live with that), but the heel just doesn't cup my foot. I'm going to knit them again - in green, I think, with a stranded heel flap (I'm thinking green with a short-repeat multi, so it looks like flowers), and a stranded toe. We'll see - I need to find (or spin!) the perfect yarn. :lol:

I brought a ball of LL's Shepherd Sock in "1776" - her Liberty colorway. I'm thinking I need a pair of Monkeys out of it.....or maybe Feather and Fan. We'll see. Want to finish the FF's first. (Then I can wear my sheepie Chullo and my FF socks to the barn. :lol:) I don't have a small travel project - just Sweet Geek's sweater - so...socks. You can never have too many hand-knit socks. :lol:

Enough rambling.....I'm hoping Ms boss doesn't come in. I have socks to knit work to do!