Plugging Along

It's summer.  Finally.  I judge it not by the weather but by when I no longer need to wake Renee up for school.  For us, that first day was last Tuesday.  Amen.

I am nearing the end of my year of being on hold.  It all started with Erick's wedding party last July and it will end August 1, when a chapter in a different part of my life will close.  Literally it will be one year and about 4 days or so.  As a disclaimer, Dad died in January and I have all of 2014 to handle grief, so I don't declare it all done and over with but I feel like I can move forward.  Kim is feeling the same way too.

So for this week I made a list of things to get done.  Not all of them will be and that is OK but I am now ready and garnering the energy to tend to my house.  It's bad.  Clutter and paperwork everywhere.  I need to deep clean and purge and we seriously need to paint and decorate.  This is the longest we've stayed in a house and we have no desire to move.  So we need to get on this.

I have also committed to my health and I am starting with a chiropractor.  I know some people are suspicious of their work, but I just view them as another type of specialist.  As I figured, I ache all the time because things are out of whack.  So now that's taking up 3 days per week after work.

OK back to crafty things.  I am working on my Camp Loopy project.  I am halfway through by row count and I just joined the second ball.  I'm supposed to use 4.  However, each RS row has increases by 4 stitches so the rows I'm doing now are using a ton more yarn.  I may also make it a bit bigger because I am a larger person.  I finished the red socks.  I made the mandala.  Yarn projects are going well.  (Finishing and blocks, not so well.)                  

Quilting is at a standstill.  I took the machine to the doctor today and it will be at least a week and the doctor is 2 hours each way.  I am not sure how quickly get it picked up.  That's OK.  Nothing is urgent.  I am thinking of cleaning up the area thoroughly.  I am cutting up the scraps that are out (why put them away?) into 1.75" thimbles (the tiniest little ruler thing OMG), 1.5" x 2.5" mini bricks and 2.5" squares.  I want to cut with abandon with my Baby Go cutter!

I need to rethink my 4 Fab 4's.  (Yes, I have 4 going.  Do not judge.)  7 or 8 are done, leaving half of them to go.  I want to see what I am eager to sew and I will let myself go in that direction.  I am looking forward to that time, whenever it happens.  It might not be until August.  I have only 1 deadline item between now and then.

Meanwhile, I have a few really old machines, including a Singer 99, to get into working order.  I'm scared to plug them into my electrical despite everything looking fine.  I have decided to use a power strip until I can have the plugs redone to 3 prong ones.  If I can get these old machines working that would be wonderful.  All 3 old machines are in cabinets.

So that's how it's going.  Plugging along.  And life is good.

Still. Cannot. Stop. Knitting.

Yes it's true, I cannot stop knitting.  I am enjoying it so!

Today is the start of the first challenge for Camp Loopy.  I am making a shawl that is very simple and very bright.  I want it to stay at work for those times that the building folks cannot regulate the building temp correctly.  This happens more than you know.  And if I got back to the ITS building, that place is a meat locker year-round.

I have also set a yarn challenge for myself for this year.  I want to finish 12 items this year, so about 1 per month.  I have a manageable stash right now and I'd actually like it to reduce by half, if not more.

So here are the first 3 finishes.  I'm very excited!

These are handmitts for a girlfriend on her birthday.  Renee is modeling them.  Yarn is The Loopy Ewe's solid series in barn red.  Pattern is Kujeillen.

These are my handmitts, which are larger in diameter because I'm a larger person.  Yarn is The Loopy Ewe's Loopy Legends series in Tamra's Day Brightener.  How can you go wrong with a yarn called Tamra's Day Brightener?!?!?!  Same pattern, but I put a braided cable in my pattern section.

And here are some socks. Same yarn.  Pattern is Basic Ribbed Socks.

In the queue for June:

More socks in that red yarn up there.  I finished them today but the sock blockers are in use.
A mandala for Attic24.
Camp Loopy June project.

That would get me to 6 projects completed in the first 6 months of the year, which makes me right on track.  So yay!

(And yes, there has been some quilting going on too...)