Friday FOs - Twofer Edition

Hello on the last Friday of September, which is sounding like it will be a rainy one here in Philadelphia. But fortunately, it's just rain, not like the terrible hurricane/tropical storm that those south of us are facing.

I have two FOs for you, and I'm combining them into one post for a few reasons. Firstly, they took way too long to finish. Not because they were hard, but because there were weeks when I didn't knit a single stitch, so they just kept sitting there waiting for me. Second, I decided I wanted to finish them before the first day of fall, and that was able to happen. Finally, I decided I wanted to do the FO post for them before the end of September. I know I could have saved one for Monday, which is the last day of September, but I decided to show you both in one post instead.

First up, a pair of socks.

Project: Scrappy Shortie Socks

Pattern: Vanilla sock pattern, just shorter in the leg

Yarns: KnitCircus Spectacular Sock, in The Orange & The Green Speckle colorway (the variegated yarn); and, Yarn Addict Co. Free Range Fingering in OOAK (the green yarn)

Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm

Notes: I originally started these because I thought it would be nice to have shortie socks for the warmer weather. And it will, but it didn't work out for this year. But I've been wanting to get rid of some of my scraps - I was able to use every little bit of the variegated yarn, which made me very happy. I have about 50 grams left of the green, which I know I'll use for things, so no worries there. If I was a conscientious knitter, I would have weighed my yarn and tried to use equal amounts in each sock. But I am not, and did not, so one sock has more green than the other one. Since they are my socks, and the foot part will be inside of shoes anyway, I really don't care.

I did decide to put a little cable motif on the cuff of each sock, just for something different. 

So into the sock drawer they go!

Next, a hat.

Project: Two Color Ribbed Hat

Pattern: Classic Ribbed Hat, by Purl Soho

Needles: US size 3/3.25 mm

Yarns: Purl Soho Cashmere Merino Bloom in colorways True Turquoise and Red Mulberry

Notes: Months ago (a lot of months ago), Purl Soho was doing a hat-along, and offered this yarn at a discount. At the time, I truly thought I would participate, so I ordered the yarns, and then of course didn't participate. But I had wound it a while back, and every time I would grab something from my knitting supplies, I would see the balls of yarn. So near the end of July, I decided I would start the project and then have it for when the weather was cold.

The pattern is very straightforward, and I did wonder why I had decided to knit a 1 x 1 rib project again, but to be honest, since it was just a hat, it didn't bother me as much as with an article of clothing. The pattern is written for a wide range of sizes, and gives instructions for stripes, colorblocking, and of course just a solid color hat. 

If I had not had my non-knitting hiatus, this would have flown off the needles, but such is life. The yarn is lovely - I mean, it does contain cashmere! - and the resulting hat is just luscious. One of the best things: I have enough of each color if I want to make another in reverse colorblocking for myself, The Tim, or someone else!

Of course, you can use any DK weight yarn you may have, but I would say to keep an eye on Purl Soho's sales, because this yarn does make a really nice hat. It would be an especially nice gift for you, a family member, a dear friend, or anyone who is especially knitworthy.

*****

So there you go. The last "summer" projects that I had, now officially done and dusted. I have already started two of the projects with the yarns I showed you in the post where I did a lot of winding all at once, so my fall projects are underway - I just hope my knitting mojo hangs around, since I would really love to get them finished.

Nothing else much to report. After I post this, I'm going to scrub the bathrooms, so it's done and out of the way. I'm meeting a friend for lunch today, which should be a nice way to end the week. It hasn't been an awful week, but it's been one of those weeks where I've just felt off the whole time, so I'm glad it will be ending on a good note.

Enjoy your weekend, and I hope wherever you are, you can stay safe if you are faced with bad weather.

... And Boy Is My Arm Tired!

Hello and HAPPY FALL to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere! I am more than happy to say farewell to summer. I guess it's climate change/global warming/whatever but summer seems longer and hotter every year. I'm ready for something else. 🍁

Anyway, you know the old joke, "I just flew in from [fill in the blank], and boy are my arms tired!" Well, take out the flying part, but after Saturday afternoon, I have to tell you, my arm was tired! I finally finished two overdue projects (overdue in that they should not have taken me so long), and it was time to wind some yarn for the next things coming. I was originally just going to wind the yarn when I was ready to start each project, but getting out my swift and winder, and setting them up, etc., is a bit of a project, so I decided it would make more sense to do it all at one time.  Theoretically, this would also encourage me to actually work on the projects if the yarn is wound and staring me in the face. We'll see.

So while The Tim was snoozing away, I got to winding.

First up, some but not all of the yarn for a sweater. I want to give a try to knitting a sweater with a yoke design. This is some Kelbourne Woolens Scout (the natural color) and Life In The Long Grass Twist DK (the green, which is actually a lighter shade than shown here). You may remember the green yarn as what I bought during my birthday trip to NYC in March, when we visited a shop in Greenwich Village.

Next, some Kathmandu Aran for a slipover/vest I want to try. It's a pattern that I may not have looked at twice, but I saw a podcast where the person was wearing hers, and decided I really needed to make it. 

Then a Micro Sock Set from Legacy Fiber Artz, which will be - SOCKS! I've actually already cast on and knitted the cuff of the first sock during the Eagles game yesterday afternoon.

Another skein of sock yarn, this time from Nox Yarn Co. (no longer in business) I'm hoping to make this into a pair of Halloween socks.

And finally, all of this yarn is Patagonia Merino DK, and I want to try knitting the Artus by Natasja Hornsby. This will be a challenge for me, but I would really love to have a big, warm, cozy shawl, and this pattern just stuck out to me. It will be challenging because it's quite large, has a lot going on, and relies for the most part on charts, which are not my strong suit. But I'm hoping that wanting the end product will help me learn to improve my chart-reading. It could happen - I knit a hat using a chart earlier this year, and though it was slow, it turned out. Time to try and get my brain wrapped around things.

Such are my big plans. In theory, I would love to get the all done or mostly done by the first of the year. But in reality, if I end up with one pair of socks and one article of clothing, I'll consider it a win. 😊

But if you look at all of this yarn, you can see that my Winding-Palooza took quite a bit of time, and in fact, my arm did hurt once I was finished. Of course, by Saturday evening it was fine, but the thought did cross my mind that I may have wound so much yarn, I wouldn't feel comfortable knitting for a while, and that would be just my luck! But all is well, and I'm looking forward to giving it all a shot.

And that's it from here. Our weekend was quiet, trying to at least get started putting the house back together after the floors were finished - I think that will take a while, but it was a start. Saturday was warm and a bit humid, but yesterday, which was the first day of fall, did not disappoint! 

I hope your week goes well. I have to share my overdue FOs with you, so I'll be back with those in another day or so. 

Friday Funny

Well, it's been a week, let me tell you. But the floors are done, but not after a lot of, shall we say, "issues." And, it's the last Friday of official summer, and I'm more than happy to tell it goodbye for this year!

So what better than something to make you chuckle? This just cracked me up when I saw it, I hope you'll enjoy it as well.

And enjoy your weekend, I'll be back with knitting and non-knitting fos next week!

Well Here We Are

Today is attempt #2 at having our kitchen and bathroom floors replaced. I am hoping that it means that later this week or early next week, I can share a post about the project being successfully finished. Working with this group is already head and shoulders above the first guy, so I'm feeling hopeful.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed, OK?

Memory

September 11, 2001 was a day much like today in Philadelphia - sunny, a nice breeze, a day that promised that fall weather would be coming soon, but summer had not yet said goodbye. 

And even though I know what happened, and saw it with my own eyes, and still feel it pierce my heart every single year, it still somehow seems like it couldn't have possibly really happened. 

God bless the families and the souls of those who did nothing more than just go about their lives on a nice day in September.

We'll See What Happens Next Spring

Remember my story about Paulie Walnuts, Jr. and the gang coming to demolish our collapsed planter in front of our house? Well, they showed up a short while back and got the job done in only a few hours, and they did it very well! But I swear that it was like living in a local version of "The Sopranos" because the work crew could have all been related to some of those characters!

Guess what though? Even if they were, I don't care because they did a great job!  I think I'd posted a photo of the collapsed planter, but anyway here is what it looked like: 

Now granted, after it collapsed, I made no effort to pull the weeds there, etc., since I knew that before long it was all going to come out. But if you look on the far left of that photo, the first two areas of the planter actually had plants in them - asters, that were getting ready to return. I'd planted them about three years or more ago, and they loved it there! When they were in full force, they looked wonderful.

So before the workers came, I pulled up as many as I could with the roots attached, so that hopefully I could save at least a few. I planted them in one of the empty huge plant pots in the garden, hoping that if any survived, I could re-plant them next spring. So far, they seem to be doing OK so I have my fingers crossed.

Anyway, this is how it all looked after the work was done - we are really pleased with it!

It's also good because we know that sooner rather than later, we'll need to get the bricks pointed, so this way, nothing will be blocking anything else.

Our plan is that next spring, we'll get some planters/large pots/whatever, and put some flowers and plants in there, so we still have something nice in front of the house, and also so our new tree doesn't get too lonely. A lot of houses in our neighborhood have that kind of set up and it looks really good. Of course, I'm so picky, The Tim told me to start looking at things now, so that I might find something I like by next spring ... he's not wrong! 😊

So we're moving along slowly but surely with getting everything fixed up, repaired, replaced, etc. This wasn't really something we had planned to do or have to do, but at least it wasn't another major project.

We have even found a new guy and his crew to replace the kitchen and the bathroom floors - I *really* hope the second time works! This person seemed much more together than Floor Guy #1, and I had created a document with specific requests and questions, and he addressed all of them in great detail. Of course, it's costing a lot more, since the kitchen floor put in partially and poorly by the first guy has to be redone, but if we end up with what we wanted, it's all worthwhile. They are supposed to start a week from tomorrow, and he said that there will be three of them and they will likely need most of the rest of that week. I'm feeling good about this and hope that Floor Guy #1 was just a fluke for us. And yes, it's a pain in the neck to have workers in the house for a week, but if after that week the floors are really and truly finished and we are happy with them, a week is no big deal.

******

The weather has been so lovely here, and yesterday was the first No-Car-Sunday of this month in Center City Philadelphia. For yesterday and the rest of September, the city is closing off a group of streets in Center City to cars on Sundays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. There are all kinds of special events, offers from stores and restaurants, etc., but mostly there are just no cars and no traffic so you can walk around and just enjoy it! We went out, in the afternoon for a nice stroll, and there were a lot of people out and about, but it wasn't crowded anywhere, so it was just a nice way to spend time and people watch. 

That's about it from here. This should be a relatively quiet week for me, since the only specific thing going on is my volunteer shift tomorrow morning. So I've made a list of some other things I'd like to do, and have told myself that even if I just manage a couple of them, that's OK.

Right now, it's time to spend time paying some bills. Not my most favorite thing, but necessary and if I do it now, it's over with for a while. So I'll check in again soon, take care.

Tuesday FO : Kakigori Summer Shirt

Hello and Happy September, and for those in the U.S. I hope you are enjoying the last day of the Labor Day weekend. The Tim had to work today, so it was just kind of a regular weekend for us, which is fine, because our Labor Day is generally low-key even when both of us are home.

I was finally able to get a somewhat decent photo of an FO that I finished a while back, so this is an overdue post. But here you go. 

You may remember that I started around the end of May, and showed you how the yoke was coming along:

Project: Kakigori Summer Shirt

Pattern: Anker's Summer Shirt, by PetiteKnit (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Noro Kakigori, Color 23

Needles: U.S. size 6/4 mm

Modifications: I made it a bit shorter than the pattern called for in my size.

Notes: This is the second time I knit this pattern, and though I am still not in love with knitting 1 x 1 rib, this time around the whole thing was easier. I knew what to expect, and I was able to get a rhythm going doing the ribbed yoke, which made a HUGE difference. 

The previous one that I knit is something that I wear fairly often, and is really comfortable, so I knew that down the road I'd want another one. At the end of last summer, there were two colors of Kakigori in the sale bin at Loop, and when there were two of each left, my co-worker at the time, Kate, convinced me that we should buy them ourselves. She bought a pink shade, and I bought this greeny-blue that I love. I had this pattern in mind, but knew that since I wasn't going to do anything with it right away, I could consider other things.

But by the time I was ready to knit with it, I either didn't have enough for anything else, or didn't like the other choices. So I thought, why not just go with my original plan? And I'm glad that I did, because I love the result! 

This past Saturday, we went to see the Mary Cassatt exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and it was finally not a bazillion degrees, so I wore the finished top, and because I have no one else to do it, asked The Tim to take my photo in it when we were leaving and on the way back to the car. Now, even if you have never visited the museum, you can probably guess that there are lovely grounds around it. I foolishly had visions of a nice photo with an especially nice background. You probably know what's coming ... 

The Tim said, "Let's take your photo now, and I turned around to say could I at least stand somewhere where I wouldn't be squinting into the sun, and he started taking the photos. As usual, he thinks that a photo where I can't properly see is a good idea, because "you want to sunlight to show the item well." Which yes, is true, but I'd also like to look somewhat normal ... Oh well. To his credit, they did all show off the FO to an advantage, so why am I complaining? 

And I'm not doing anything else weird, so I'll take it!

I really like this pattern, and once you figure out what size you need to knit, it's pretty straightforward - though I have to say that knitting a PetiteKnit pattern is not something that you should do if "size" is something that trips you up. Because both times I've knit this, I've made the size that fits the measurements in the pattern, but not a size I would normally buy from a store. So just know you might be in for a surprise! 😊

I really love the finished top. It's comfy, and once it was blocked and soaked, the yarn softened up so much, it feels really nice against the skin.

Which brings me to the yarn. Noro yarn, to be exact. After using it a grand total of three times in my knitting life, I have to say that each time, it is so aggravating to knit with that I almost give up before finishing the item. I love the colors they have, but man is it unpleasant on your hands while you are knitting! But if you can get past that, go for it, because once it's soaked and blocked, it's wonderful.

I started with two balls of Kakigori, which are 200 grams each. This is what I have left.

It's roughly 122 grams remaining (please don't ask me to do math to figure this all out because it won't end well for any of us). Anyway, if anyone would like to have this to use for their own knitting, please let me know. I'm more than happy to send it to you. I'm finished with Noro yarns for now (probably even forever?) and would like to pass it along to someone who could give it a good home. So feel free to claim it in the comments!

So there you go, an FO and an offer that maybe one of you won't be able to refuse, who knows? In any case, have a good day and if you do want the yarn, please be sure to include your e-mail address in the comments if you have never heard from me before, so I can contact you.