Idle hands do not live at my house

The state fair is less than one month away. The three sweaters are registered. Two in the machine knitting category (green Amande and dancing elephants) and one in the hand knit (cloudberry). Photo below.

Since I finished the big summer knitting I've kept occupied by baking (some of which occurred with Belgian beer in hand).

But didn't the bars turn out beautifully?

The cookie bars are the chocolate oat bars from the joy of cooking. I'm modified a few things: I use 1/2 of the dough on the bottom not 1/3 as the recipe suggests and I added 2 drops of orange extract to the chocolate mixture. You couldn't identify that the extract was there, but I've made these enough times with the same ingredients every time to notice something was extra yummy about this batch.
Then there were the gnomes I made for the gnome gift exchange. My random giftee liked miniature cartoonish things. Did I succeed?

And finally some mandalas I've been working for cards. A future design might be the final inspiration for my tattoo. Or a variation of this one.

I have this thought in my head. I'm slowly honing my ability to get this idea out of my head and put it on paper. The ability to extract an idea from my head and create is so much easier with knitting. Practice makes capable.
Keep your hands busy!
Be excellent to each other!

That darned hemmed button band

Cloudberry cardigan is ready for the button band!

My first try I had picked up the outermost edge of the front piece - which meant that I wouldn't have the other side of that stitch to pick up to Kitchener and finish off the edge. Start over.

The photo above shows me picking up every right side of a stitch on the right side if the garment. That leaves the left side ready to be used in the end. And because of the gauge I did pick up every stitch - 2/3 going down would not have given me the correct length for the button band.

Every stitch is picked up and I knit some rows.

Then I placed the buttonhole stitches on waste yarn.

How to provisionally cast on for all eight button holes?

Super long crocheted chain.

And picked up every 13th and 14th loop on the chain for my provisional cast on stitches. As you can see in the photo this created the hole for the buttons. I knit 8 rows, did the picot row and purl row, and then 8 more rows. I then placed the two stitches from my live stitches and the two provisionally cast on stitches on a safety pin to hold then while I finish the hemmed button band.

After placing those on a safety pin I picked you the two stitches from the waste yarn. This created a seamless edge for one side of the button hole.

I kept knitting until I have the six rows in between the button hole and the edge of the sweater.

This is when I picked up the other side of that original stitch. I kitchenered the live stitches with the picked up stitches to create another seamless edge.

With the kitchenered edge done I just had to resolve the other side of the button holes. See all those safety pins? I put the first two stitches from the safety pin on a needle and the last two on another needle. I then kitchenered these stitches together to create another seamless edge for the button hole.

This means that both sides of the button hole have seamless edges. I craftily used the same yarn all the way down the button holes for doing kitchener, just knotting it along the way to ensure it can't be undone. This saved a lot of weaving in later.

With a completed button band it was time and weave in all ends. AND BLOCK! I was so ecstatic putting this sweater on the blocking mat. It has been on the needles since November, 8+ months of being continually in work. Uffda.

Here's a sneak peak without buttons.

I feel accomplished.

Be excellent to each other!

 

Planning gone awry

Sweaters are best knit in the winter. Hopefully, you can finish them in a timely fashion to be worn while the weather is still cold. And as they near completion that large knitted object acts like a blanket in your lap!

Sweaters should not be knit in the summer.

Plans can go awry. This is why I still have the button band to finish on cloudberry cardigan when the temperature is starting to rise above 80 degrees. Best laid plans.

But isn't it starting to look done? The deadline for completion is August 5th. That is the date by which I must drop the sweater off at the state fair for judging.

Notes on how I shall finish: a hemmed button band with scalloped edge and button holes is not something I've made before. It's intimidating, and I'm not sure I can explain how to do it well enough to put it in a pattern. Oh well. The gist is: knit a few rows and place the button hole stitches on waste yarn. Finish the row, as I go the other direction (probably the WS) I shall provisional cast on for the stitches on the waste yarn. Once I finish the RS of the hem I shall do the picot and turn. On the wrong side I will pick up the provisional cast on to bind off those stitches. Picking up the stitches on waste yarn I will use those as live stitches on the following row.

I fully intend to embroider around the button holes to reinforce them. I'm also crossing my fingers that this method works.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

Ball pit assemblage & maintenance

Quick notes and then the meat of this post:

-Cloudberry cardigan continues to go slowly. It shouldn't surprise me (but of course it did) that making those Estonian flowers is time consuming (3into9 lace stitches are hard).

Are there too many cookies?

-This weekend was much better than last to turn the oven on. There was definitely the first world problem of too many cookies.

 

Now, to the ball pit!

Rules of the ball pit

1. No jumping (we have downstairs neighbors)

2. No throwing the cat into the ball pit (for obvious reasons, but of course he decided he was totally cool with the ball pit all on his own.)

See the cat that went into the ball pit of his own accord.

3. No food or drink. (Again, obvious)

4. No hanky-panky. (Um... This could just say no bodily fluids. Ew. I've told a few people that asked, if they really wanted to ... They may so long as they wash every single ball by hand.)

After the rules are all the warnings. And they are serious. (My roommate did the math for how tall.)

The rules and warnings of the ball pit were easy to divise. Maintenance?

Apparently, once the balls are in the room ... They go everywhere!

When we first planned the ball pit the idea was to use the furniture as the barriers to the ball pit. This works great. People can sit on the chairs or in the ball pit! You can lay down and use the chair as a head rest.

But what about balls escaping underneath that lovely chaise lounge? Last weekend I did this ...

It was so much fun, and so tedious at the same time. Perfect morning chore. First I pushed most of the balls to one side of the room. Then I placed the window screen in the middle carefully wedging it down past the balls until it rest on the floor. Then all balls on the wrong side of the fence got moved. As I put more balls on the right side (in the picture) tons and tons of balls started rolling out from under the chaise lounge. I would guess 100-150 had gotten lodged up underneath the lounge. There is now a large rectangular rubber maid bin beneath the lounge ... I'd wager that the ball pit is a good 4" higher with no balls hiding.

In a few weeks we'll take the ball pit down (or bag it up). It really isn't as much fun as the weather gets hot. The practice of shoveling balls from under the chaise has shown us the best way to clean up ... Just shovel the balls into bags. Plus, as Minnesotans we've had plenty of practice this winter. We're expert shovelers.

Finally, what everyone wants to know. What does this kind of adventure cost.

There are multiple places on eBay and amazon that sell ball pit balls. Luckily I live in a large metropolitan area close to a large chain of toy stores that all carried the 250 count balls for around $30 a bag. I bought out two stores (4-5 bags each) and picked up a few more from a third store. I have 3,250 balls in the room. Depending on your location and what's available at the time ... You could spend anywhere form $200-$800 on balls.

But this experience has been priceless.

 

Be excellent to each other!

 

 

Perspective

Happy dancing elephants!

See that beautiful unblocked sweater?! The only steps left are blocking, buttons and seaming the armpits. HURRAH!

The last row was done right before the ball pit BBQ: and sadly the blocking room is the library, whose floor is still covered in brightly colored balls. I promise myself, it will be finished soon.

Cloudberry is also nearing completion. The sleeves were finally long enough to attach and yesterday I began the lace charts for the yoke. It's felt like an extremely long haul with this sweater, and I have to remind myself that I have been working on this sweater for a long time! I finished the first version of this sweater in January, took it apart and started over. That means this current version has been on the needles since February. Perspective, it's a good thing.

Two purl rows setting up for the lace.

Ah, perspective.

At 18 I chose to travel across country for college. It was a small school in Bar Harbor, ME called College of the Atlantic. I chose this school for no reason other than, I wanted to go to Maine and it sounded like a great place. (Most of my big life decisions are made this way ... And somehow life seems to work out.)

The location was idyllic. The student body was eclectic, dedicated and all around marvelous human beings. The friends I made were for life.

I remember being so happy.

This is the view from the lawn outside the house in which I lived.

Even when I was in a knee brace for 6 weeks in January.

Especially when we swam in bioluminescence in February. In the frigid cold ocean. Awesome.

Definitely when I would read and nap on the lawn right by the ocean.

 

Recently, I've felt like I did when I was 18.

Last week a friend asked if I was happy. This winter was incredibly hard. My marriage had ended and I was trying to reorient my life.

Now, yes, I'm happy. I've probably been telling people this too often. But in perspective, I'm so much happier that I have a hard time believing my life. I have to reaffirm with myself often that it is so good. There are wonderful people in my life. A group of friends that I really should call family.

Everything is in perspective. No injury has yet been as painful as appendicitis. Nothing has hurt so bad as a marriage ending. And no year was as bad as when I was 10-11.

I hope that you also find happiness.

Be excellent to each other.

 

We're grown-ups now

I began reading XKCD in college. At the bottom of the page are five links to some of the most popular comics. One is about a ball pit.

This comic resonated within, hitting on some basic need. The need for pure and simple pleasure. To smile for hours.

This weekend, we built a ball pit.

There are 3,250 balls in a space about 4.5 x 6' and only 1.5' deep.

Luckily we had a third bedroom that was fairly small and being used as a library. To create the space we blocked off a small section with a large black chair. We left the other furniture in place, a chaise lounge and desk.

In front of the doorway I put a folding rectangular table. Whenever I set up the ball pit again I will get a baby gate.

Once the room was ready we dumped 13 bags of balls (250 balls per bag) in the room.

A bunch of balls rolled under the chaise lounge, but otherwise they have stayed in place.

They definitely rise higher when people sit in the ball pit.

Sadly, the cat has lost his favorite afternoon nap location. I made sure to put him on the chaise lounge the first night we'd built the ball pit.

He may look fine, but a few seconds after the photo was taken he was trying to walk across the balls and freaking out because the ground (aka ball pit) was moving beneath his feet. He hasn't been tempted to enter again since.

Over the weekend my roommate and I hosted a BBQ for friends and got pictures of them falling backers into the balls.

Everyone smiled.

I love being a grown up.

Thank you Randal Munroe for the idea.

Be excellent to each other.

 

Love is in the air

The sheddening has begun. This is the family phrase for that special time of year when the cat loses his body weight in hair. Look at the photo below, look how much he loves this time of year!

What you can't see is the hair that was flying off his rear end while I was brushing him 5-minutes before.

The sheddening coincides with one of my favorite times of year... Getting the bicycle out of storage! A few weeks ago I made the trip down to my local bike shop and had it checked out. Since then I've ridden a few times (when the rain has ceased long enough) and as always I come home with bicycle slobber all over.

These palms have been washed once already. See how much my bike loves me! Often the grease is confined to a smudge on my calf or a little bit on my hand as I hang by bike in the front hallway. The picture above is from a ride to the grocery store: the gear shifter got nudged on my way out the door, the chain fell off as I tried to ride (hadn't realized the shifter had moved) and then I had to touch the chain to put it back on. My bike just wanted the attention.

The knitting also wants attention. I've been trying to give the projects a little love everyday. Earlier this week the shawl got the most love. Now it is finished!

The elephant sweater is also sitting in my affections this week. I made the button holes last night and intend to finish the button band by the end of the week. The whole band is only 16 - 18 rows, and I'm on row 10 now. If i do 2 rows a day I'll have it finished by Saturday!

Plus, this Friday night is drunken knit night at Merlins Rest. I will definitely be feeling the love for another project as I sip a beer and finish those gosh darn white sleeves that are taking forever! Feeling the live, feeling the love. Besides, don't we want to feel the love forever?

I'm with the Yarn Harlot on this one, I'm ready to move onto another field of love.

 

Be excellent to each other!