Making Monday

I wish I could say I finished something but, nope. Still I like seeing progress. A couple things are getting close.

Tomorrow I’ll finish Starry Night. So few uncovered symbols (lower left, blues).

The next two hats are nearing the decreasing section.

The scrappy slipper socks are at the cuff stage.

I’m feeling more confident with my HiyaHiya Fliers. Half the cuff of sock number one is done. These are so thin, like wires. This is meant to be a small sock. I only have this one skein so this may be just a first try. I think I shared the YouTube a few days ago. The hard part of watching is the presenter is using continental knitting. It’s been a while since I tried that so I’m having to learn using my right hand against learning as she uses her left hand.

I hate/love following my passion. There are only so many hours a day and somethings get lost in the shuffle. Like recorders and pianos and singing. Like writing and editing. Like other artwork. I miss those pursuits. Like old friends and family. Yet the knitting is calling. I barely put half an hour on the diamond painting. I’m putting in about the same on the treadmill. It’s something! More than I’d get done otherwise.

Finishing Friday

This is the feet and pants of the bear I’m learning to knit. See yesterday’s blog for the YouTube.

By the way, see the end of the needles? These were part of a little box my mom gave me decades ago. I don’t know what the gob is. Maybe putty? Gum? And I’m not sure but that these may be ivory from the days when we did such horrors as chop of elephant tusks for our knitting or makeup supplies. Still, it is cool to have inherited my mother’s needles.

This will be another hat.

This little squiggly doll was made a year or so ago. I don’t like stuffing and sewing so he went into the WIP cave of lost souls. But my daughter’s new interest in knitting toys gave me a boost to try and finish him. I need to stuff and sew on the arms and give him a hat or hair and a face.

Two hats

Frogged and remounted socks.

A lapdog that wouldn’t let me knit.❤️

On my last third of the diamond painting.

Making Monday

Hope you had a wonderful three-day weekend and celebrated a thoughtful, safe Labor Day, for those here in the states. And for those elsewhere, I hope you had a great few days.

It is Fall here. 94-100 degrees during the day but leaves are littering the porch and driveway proving a huge drop at night. We have hit high 30s (F)! Can you believe it? Really, this time I’m ready to let go of what used to be my favorite season. With no chance to swim and overwhelming flies and moths, bring on the chill!

So what are my latest WIPs? Many will look familiar but believe it or not, much progress has happened.

This is new. I’m trying HiyaHiya Fliers to make a small sock. These are the sharpest thinnest needles I’ve ever worked with. I really want to learn this. I have to try in small bits. This is soft thin yarn so not the best for socks but easy on my hands as I learn.

This may look like no progress but I had to frog my last try so I’m actually 4 rows beyond where I was before. I’ll probably finish the cuff tonight by bringing up the loops attached to the markers to to pegs.

So these scrappy yarn slipper socks are my least favorite project. The acrylic yarn too thick to work on these fine-gauge looms. But I think they’ll be warm for someone.

These two look familiar, too. I’ve made no progress to the hat on the Flexee fine-gauge, on the left. I’m wanting to do the crown decreases at the same time. I had to frog the needle-knit hat on the right. As of today,  I’m two inches from the crown decreases. Maybe tomorrow?

Almost to the halfway point on my diamond painting, Starry Night. Sitting in the new office chair is far easier on my back and arms than the piano bench. I picked up some cheap sets on Wish that we’ll be getting from the post office tomorrow afternoon. I’ll let you know how good or bad it is.

I finished diamonding both sides of the mobile. Tomorrow I’ll seal them and figure out how the chains and jewels work for hanging. I hope they catch the sun rays through our north-facing living room windows.

I’m feeling much better having crackled my back by moving pillows. It quit hurting. The bladder infection seems gone. No more pain. No temp. Here’s what I took besides drinking tons of water.

What are your WIPs? Oh, and

Experiment in Knitting

With the shoulder hating me, I am doing less Diamond Painting.

The upper fourth(?) is almost done. The left corner will be finished tomorrow. I just have to be happy with small successes.

Meanwhile, the hobby that hurts the least is needle knitting. Even loom knitting hurts if I do too much.

I’m experimenting on two knitted hats. The one on the Flexee fine-gauge loom is an inch longer. I’ll need to make the needle hat longer to catch up. But each have the same amount of cast-on and stitches. Well, the Flexee one has two-by-two ribbing on the brim as opposed to one-by-one. Needle knitting is slower for me but I feel good about how it looks. I’m curious to see if they will be comparable in size when done.

Same yarn. Much more pure white than cell shows.

I do have a couple pairs of socks in the works but they’re a bit too painful. It is the yarn and pattern I was using before the shoulder thing that is making it hard. If it were a good sock yarn it wouldn’t be so difficult.

Scrappy slipper socks

The plastic markers need to be remounted onto the pegs. That will make a picot top to the brim. I like how the stitches look so far.

I’m feeling better. I haven’t had to take Advil or use ice all day. And I could do 22 minutes on the treadmill. Not very fast for a mile but something, ya know? Lots of shows to catch up on.

How I feel now. Looks a bit like the walking dead. But I’m just showing how the shoulder feel.

Progress

I’m having to go real slow in small bits on everything.

My other light pad wasn’t big enough so I’ve picked up an A2. I think this is too big. I’ll make it work. Meanwhile the smaller one will be put to use to trace art drawings for painting or coloring. By the way, this was the progress a few days ago.

That little bit in the upper middle is all I’ve gotten done since.

I am finding needle knitting hurts the least so I am doing okay with the brim of this hat.

I started this one before the shoulder/back pain. It should be the same size as the needle knitted hat.

I just got this book. It’s far more advanced in needle knitting than I am currently. But I plan to learn it. And compare with the following book methods for loom socks.

So much to learn. But healing first.

Finishing Friday

I’m grateful for my new laptop but have to admit my frustrations of starting over. All my writing in yWriter7 and WriteItNow and Scrivener are stuck in RTF form and tons of work awaits to bring them back to life. So that’s my time lately in a nutshell.

Sadly I have to report I didn’t get but half my word count goal this month. But I had a marvelous time with family and friends, so not really complaining. Just reporting.

Purple waterfall is nearly finished. Front lit.

Back lit

These charms are finished on both sides. I still need to apply sealant and then figure how to make the mobile out of them.

This is the next hand-held charm to work on. These are great for times when you don’t want to bend over the bigger pictures.

Barely made any headway on these. They are almost finished!

Started another pair of cotton spa slippers. I love this yarn my friend gifted me.

Today our three furries had a vet appointment. These two seem none the worse for the wear. Three hours in the non-AC truck can with all windows open. But their prognoses (is that plural?), Rosey, the black one is old but healthiest of the bunch. Not even considered overweight. Her seizures to be watched, nothing more to be done. Teddy, the ginger, has cancer sores in his mouth and had to get a steroid shot. And drops to take. He hates that.

Kali is old and has arthritis, is deaf, with cataracts. Nothing we can do but give pain meds. She is meandering as is her habit. That’s why the picture is blurry. It’s probably time for her meds . Poor babies.

While my brother and husband did the vet run. My son and I cleaned. He worked on the out of control mud room. I shampooed the carpets. It was nice not to have furballs in the way. We were successful in our ventures. Now I need to finish cleaning out the shampooer. Yuck!

Sad Tuesday

My friend had to go home today. I hate goodbyes, don’t you?

We had a lot of fun despite the 90+ heat. It was nicer inside, thanks to my daughter and her fiance, who sent us an air conditioner. It keeps it cool in our home. Sometimes it’s cold.

Anyway, we binged on The Umbrella Academy while knitting or diamond painting.

My friend finished her moon on side one. I finished the heart side one. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of her project but here’s mine.

I think I already shared this, sorry.

Here’s here knitting project to donate to charity.

That’s a garter stitch brim. She chose this yarn from my donated stash. I liked it so much I left it out to see if I could make slipper socks to go with the hat.  Oh, and she did this on the 36 peg Knifty Knitter loom using e-wrap. She  made it in one sitting.

So I started the slippers on the Flexee fine-gauge loom with 40 pegs. I used the following cast-on using the cuff-down rather than my usual toe-up.

After a couple weeks away I finally got the chance to DP. Here’s the progress.

The animals reclaimed the sofa.

But they miss her, too. No one to bug in the night. No one to stab with razor sharp claws. But also one less person to cuddle with.

Making Monday

Side one of heart, done. Forgive Kali hair. I thought I had brushed it all off. She missed me so much she left momentos on my chair. 😉

To the ankle of these. It won’t be long.

After a couple frogs and restarts on this pair, new toe on the right is nearly ready to finish the Kitchener cast-on. In fact, now that they are out, I think I’ll continue right now.

I have company still, who also enjoys diamond painting and loom-knitting so we are having fun watch shows, chatting, and hobbying. Two weeks of fun!

Diamond Painting Continues

I brought my little kit with me. My friend and I sat and DPed while watching The Umbrella Academy.

It’s been in the 100s so sitting around in the cool house made for quieter fun.

Here’s what I got done so far.

Bits of the kit. How the moon looked before the diamonds.

First side finished yesterday.

Back side finished today. I still have a couple more forms to work on. This kit is portable and easy to do in small bits.

I’ve got a pair of socks going, too.

Just a couple of rows and it’ll be time for the heels. This yarn is soft. It’s charity yarn so these will go to the giveaway bag. I need to take the bag to the charity. It’s getting full!

We took a little trip to see our friend. It was good to see her healthy. We laughed and enjoyed each other’s company at a park. Starting the visit with a COVID test to make sure the exposure she had from a previous meeting was negative is a weird way to start a visit. But we are rather in that vulnerable population so we have to be careful. She was negative. So we celebrated life.

I’m having a blast this week. Friends and my adult children on long visits are building my memory banks with love.

Finishing Friday

And that is how this hat came about.

In the charity bag.

Upper right corner purpled.

Strap is all that’s needed for the water bottle carrier for my husband.

A gift from a friend. A traveling Diamond Painting kit. Keeping it in the packaging until my travels.

Slipper socks to go. Bluish-white toes and heels. Purple foot and ankles.

61,048 words in memoir over three summer months.

Beautiful sunset.