Unraveled Wednesday

February 2, 2022January 10, 2024 Vicki10 Comments

Joining Kat & the Unravelers today for Unraveled Wednesday… but no reading. I am on hiatus, I guess. It's happened once or twice before.

This is the start of my Temperature Blanket! That knitting represents about the first two weeks of Rusty's life — December 1947-January 1948 — in Southern California. The daytime high temps are on the left and the nighttime lows are on the right… in a few more rows, the days will start becoming noticeably longer! It's a little fiddly, but I'm finding a groove, and it is SO SATISFYING! Look at that!

What I really need to do is streamline my information — the number of day/night stitches is on one page, the temperatures are on another, and the colors are on a third (color chart)… it's a balancing act and I am constantly counting. (There might be a color/temp mistake in there, but I won't tell if you won't!) All I know is that I'm really glad I didn't follow through to the end with all five charts just yet.

I'm still wondering how I can pack a project with 20+ balls of yarn for vacation, but more "realistically" pondering packing Hexie Love…

…one ball of yarn, but one big project… made of wool. It'll be 80+ degrees. The sane option would be to cast on a pair of socks or something.

I've been online and on the phone for much of the day trying to figure out how we can arrive in Puerto Rico… not in the dark. The original booking back in September had us with only one connection (at O'Hare) and arriving mid-afternoon. The airline made a couple of changes, adding another connection (Houston… not good memories of Houston), with less than an hour for each connection, and arriving at almost 9 p.m., which means we'd be lucky to be on the road by 10 and it's a 2-hour drive to our destination, across an island that we've never visited before!

NOT WORKING!

I am currently texting with an agent (this is new, and I like it!) and we're this >< close to re-booking departure on the last flight out of here the day before. I've already booked our overnight stay, and we'll catch an early flight to San Juan the next morning, arriving in… daylight.

Stay tuned…

Random January Weekending

January 31, 2022January 10, 2024 Vicki10 Comments

So… buttons on your underwear!?

That’s not how I intended to begin this post, but once I wrote, “So,” it just came out. Have you ever heard that expression before? My brother-in-law finished someone’s “So…” in this way over the weekend and could not believe that none of us had ever heard it before. It must not be very commonly used by him, either, because I’ve known him for going-on 20 years and never heard him say it before… surely, in all that time, there must have been opportunity!

Anyway…

So, as of this Wednesday, we won’t have to test to enter Puerto Rico! The (non-returnable) tests I ordered will be here today were just delivered, and I had notification that the government tests will also be delivered today, so we’ll be prepared!

I packed up all my yarn-y stuff at the coffee shop yesterday! We have begun packing up the laundry (and-so-much-more) room in order to lay the new floor and I couldn’t think of a single place to put it all, so took it right down to the storage unit (where mostly Kate has stuff).

I’ll be bringing the wall-mounted grid wall home and will use it in my hopefully-somewhat-soon-to-be revamped dye studio; I also have legs for it, so options!

Meanwhile, if anyone needs/wants an MDK Field Guide or a tote bag from the defunct Fringe Supply, I’m your girl.

The boys walked over Saturday prior to their departure to Madison for the week. Their 99yo Nana is moving into a rehab facility today, having fallen & broken a hip earlier this month, and they head back to Lima on Friday. While they wrestled with each other in the living room (boys!), I made my color card for the Temperature Blanket.

Then, having found myself with a little time yesterday afternoon — after my nap and before a coffee shop “transition” get-together — I cast on!

I worked about the first week of Rusty’s first year of life! And I am already in love with this project… and wondering how I can pack a project with 20+ balls of yarn for vacation!!

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the start of Fiberuary!

I had so much fun doing the Fiberuary Challenge on Instagram last year, I’m going to try it again!

This month FLEW BY!! I’m sure it had to do with my sister & her family being “here” for most of the month, with everything surrounding Ali’s sale of the coffee shop, and with BIRTHDAYS! Junah’s, Annie’s… and today would have been my mom’s 84th! (That’s baby Junah in the photo with her!)

I’m looking forward to February, which is usually my least favorite month, but at least it’s short — I’ve already flipped that calendar and there’s a vacation in plain view!

Family Temperature Blanket · Right Now...

Right Now… February straight ahead!

January 28, 2022January 10, 2024 Vicki11 Comments

Anticipating… the arrival of virtual-visit Covid tests.

Celebrating… my mother, and what would have been her 84th birthday on the 31st.

Enjoying… my sister's visit! It's been so fun having her family all so close by, able to walk over for a visit or to have dinner, swinging around the corner to pick her up on the way to the store. They've been back & forth between here & Madison a few times… tomorrow they head back down there, and we won't see them again until summer. They are flying back to Lima a week from today.

Hoping… just… holding on and HOPING! Y'know that the end finally comes into view.

Knitting… I've been quite lackadaisical about knitting/crocheting all month. Recovering from holiday hoopla. Enjoying my sister & family. Being quiet.

I am in the process of ripping a couple of rounds of the border on Hexi Love… maybe all the way to the beginning. I'm just not happy with it, so I'll keep doing it until I am. It would be nice to have that project finished, though (so close).

I'm not doing the actual knitting yet, but I have been deep into planning a Temperature Blanket project (whenever I find a spare minute)!

Those are spreadsheets with hi/lo temperatures for each of us (from birthdate to first birthday, in the location where we were at the time), a simple sketch/worksheet, a not-to-scale mock up on paper, and Rusty's chart and row-by-row instructions.

The idea is a 12" x 60" panel for each of us with hi/lo temps for each day. It'll be garter stitch, so two rows/one ridge for each day, with a little bit of intarsia — the curving line represents hours of day/night. Rusty was born in Southern California the day after Christmas, so his "day/night" chart is close to symmetrical. I was born in Milwaukee and lived most of my first year in Escanaba, MI, so mine is a little different. The girls are basically all the same, with their birthdays falling between April 16-25; the temperature/color is where differences will be interesting! Kate represents the Oregon Coast, and Ali & Maddy are NE Wisconsin. They'll be sewn together in the end, probably with Rusty & me flanking the girls. But we shall see. There's a lot of knitting to do — but the data already exists, so I am not limited by current/future events.

Inspired by a bunch of people:

Cara/January One, the most creative, colorful, obsessive (in a good way) knitter/crocheter I am lucky to know (and who is giving a talk on this subject next month on VOGUE KNITTING LIVE!), and author of A Temperature Project on Modern Daily Knitting.
MDK! Kay is doing her own inspiring temperature blanket projects (garter stitch FTW), and it was a post by Ann that I found Stitch Fiddle, which is invaluable in planning my project.
And Tara, because THIS BLANKET (Rav link) is just the bomb!!!

So those are my rainbow-y colors, above; Rowan Felted Tweed (mainly because I already have at least one ball of each color, and dye lots are not going to matter if/when I need more) for a large garter stitch throw; coldest (-19F) on bottom left, warming as you move right and follow around to the top row and hottest (97F) on top left.

Looking forward to… 85°F (or so) and a week in Puerto Rico soon. I'd booked this vacation back in September when things were looking pretty good for travel, and PR was an "easy" destination. Omicron changed that, however, and now PR requires a negative Covid test within 48 hours of arrival, and I've been getting increasingly worried about securing said test. I stopped at Walgreens last night to talk about it… and learned that they'd administered their last in-stock test yesterday morning, tests are now on back order and they have no idea of delivery. GREAT (not!). At least we won't have to test to return (knock on wood!).

Needing… to find a travel project that is more portable than a rainbow blanket! I am thinking socks for Viv, but I know me… and I'm going to need more than one project, even if I actually work on neither!

Organizing… my workroom/office (always!) is a complete disaster. But at some point in the near future, I will be removing/archiving all of the coffee shop bookkeeping/records, and that will give me room (even if it's just head space).

Planning… a trip to Denver with Kate at the end of April! She'll be here for a couple of weeks April-May, and she just told me this morning that she's been approved for an even longer vacation in July — when Maddy & Viv plan to be here, as does Ann & fam! A regular ol' reunion in the works!! (Can we adopt the UK vacation/leave policies please???)

Reading… I've been as lackadaisical about reading as I have about knitting/crocheting.

Sewing… I'm not sewing anything yet, but when I saw this fabric at Target the other day — on a pair of knit bellbottom pants — and discovered that each leg has only one seam — my gears started turning. There isn't a particular pattern/garment in mind yet, but they'll eventually transform into something for the girls — a top, a skirt, a dress… I don't know. On a whim, I tried them on when I got home and was surprised that they actually fit (yay for stretchy knits), even if they're a bit long. Annie bought a pair two and want us to wear them together! What a sight! Maybe I can make a headband or something out of the waistband for myself. I just can't get over that print — so simple, but so much to love!