Friday Finish - Side Squiggles Sweater

      Finished Side Squiggles, my June Camp Loopy project, with a week to spare. Finished all the knitting on Wednesday and the seaming and sewing in ends last night. Floyd tried it on this morning and loved it. 

Put his hands right into the front pocket. And yes, he's still in pajamas.

Happy boy with his new sweater.

And silly Floyd.

Already several cars in the pocket.

Picture of the side squiggles.

Finally got it off him for some detail photos. Front pocket.

     Whole front. The squiggles go around the edge of the hood. My husband thinks it needs a patch/badge on the front. We'll see if I can find something. He suggested a dinosaur.

Love the squiggles on the back leading to the hood. 

     Overall, a good knit for a free pattern. I do like knitting sleeves separately instead of having the whole sweater on my lap while I knit them. I didn't really like how the short rows on the hood were worked but don't know enough about short rows to do something different. Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, Shire. I have almost 2 full balls leftover and am thinking of casting on this sweater for myself after receiving the latest Love of Knitting magazine yesterday. I'd need to buy a couple more skeins but totally worth it. (hey, knitting designers, put a leaf in your design and I'll probably want to knit it.)

Now I'm trying to finish up my Fogliame cardigan and Any Way You Want It shawl before casting on July's Camp Loopy project next Friday. 

Did you have any finishes this week?

An Almost Done Sweater and Getting Ready for July

     Summer vacation has started here. And so has morning swimming lessons. I think my blog posts will go down to 2 a week as my crafty time and my spare time to write blog posts has decreased. I am making some progress on my Camp Loopy project for June and my yarn has arrived for July.

     The Side Squiggles sweater for Floyd (size 4) is so close to being done. I thought I would have it finished by today but I think I was doing too much knitting and had some pain in my hands and elbow so I took a few days off instead of pushing it. Finally did a few rows this morning and things are feeling better. The sweater now has 2 sleeves, a finished yoke and the beginnings of a hood. Once the hood is finished it will be all the annoying things like weaving in ends, grafting the underarm stitches and stitching down the sides of the pocket. I just started the 4th ball which makes it over 660 yards used so far. We had to use at least 400 yards for our June project. The pattern says this size will use 1,000 yards but I don't think I'll use any of the 5th ball. Perhaps it will become a hat?

      Yarn and project for July's Camp Loopy. We have to use 600 yards and a pattern that has been in our queue for over a year (it's buried treasure, to go with the pirate theme this year). It's a grey and a purple, although the purple is impossible to get right in photos. I tried multiple times. I'll be making the smallest size of the Tempest cardigan. This will be my daughter's Christmas present. It will be nice to have 2 of 3 sweaters done for my kids. I think I'll be making another Side Squiggles for my 10 year old son but I don't think I'm going to use it for my August project. I'll probably use cheaper yarn from JoAnn's or Michael's, as he doesn't "appreciate" sweaters as much as the other two.

      And today is the beginning of the KAL for Jen's new book. I looked through it and put post-its on the patterns I'd like to knit. Have no idea what I'm going to knit first but I'm not allowing myself to cast on until I finish Floyd's sweater. 

Weekend Knitting Progress

      Meant to post yesterday but I was busy bonding with my daughter. Her grade 8 graduation was yesterday morning and then she was done with Middle school. We spent yesterday afternoon having a Gilmore Girls marathon. This morning she went to Chicago with most of her classmates. She gets home late Thursday. This is the longest we've been apart and I think I'll be using crafts to keep my mind busy from worrying about her. 

      Anyway, here is my knitting progress from the weekend.

     My Fogliame is growing. Above I was about 8 rows away from finishing the second wedge section. I finished it yesterday and did the set up row for the third and final wedge. Still loving it.

      And the Side Squiggles sweater for Floyd now has one sleeve and most of a second. Starting to get a little bored with the sleeves but so close to being done with them that I am forcing myself to work on them, instead of Fogliame. Then just the sweater yoke and hood will be left.

      But today, I'll be doing my bit for Orlando. There are no words to express the anger and sadness. And other than donating blood, there isn't something that I can really do to help. However, the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild has put a call out for heart blocks to make quilts for the survivors. I went through the stash last night and picked out some fabric. Tutorial being used is the 10 inch heart by Cluck Cluck Sew. Light background with hearts being the different colours of the rainbow. You can look at this blog post for more information. More info is suppose to be released tomorrow.

Moving the Stash Around

     I haven't knit in 2 days. Instead I've been moving living room furniture around and reorganizing the stash. I knew I needed to go through and get rid of some things and find projects that I've forgotten about. It's been fun but exhausting. I like the new arrangement and hoping it helps me get more work done. Only time will tell.

      Part of organizing was sewing batting pieces together and labeling them with the size. I saw someone else in blogland label the size of their scraps and thought that was a good idea. I'd link to them but I can't remember who it was. I also pieced together batting for 2 quilt tops that are now waiting to get basted.

     Shelf in it's new home. You can see where it use to be in this post. Everything got moved on Tuesday. Wednesday was spent putting stuff back on the shelf. The shelf of books is mainly my husband's - one shelf holds my library books (second from bottom). I had to take all his books off to move the shelf almost two feet. So much work but now I'll be able to use/see all the cubes of my white shelf. Before 4 cubes were blocked by my desk.

     I also did myself a favor yesterday by making these helpful lists for the binders that hold my printed off patterns. I use to hold everything in one but I split it up last year. This will make it easier to find what I'm looking for and to put patterns away.

     Here is the shelf this morning. Lots of yarn. Definitely need to do some stash busting. Once Camp Loopy is over I don't think I'll be buying yarn for awhile. I didn't purge much yarn but I did toss a lot of the scraps that were less than 10 yards. Not sure what I was thinking keeping so many small amounts. 

     My desk is now completely in the corner. We moved the couch back so they are still against each other. I split my desk into a sewing side and a writing side. The two quilts waiting to be basted are sitting on top of the cutting mat, along with the batting and backs. I finally started the first sleeve for the Side Squiggles sweater which you can see sitting between my computer and sewing machine. 

And since I can't seem to keep a plant alive, I've planted  some yarn hanks instead.

Camp Loopy and Bullet Journal

     I was going to do a post yesterday about my Camp Loopy progress but after spending 90 minutes dealing with the cable/internet company, I didn't really have the energy or the right mood for blogging.  Feeling better today, so here we go.

     The Side Squiggles sweater is coming along nicely. I attached the pocket Saturday evening thanks to the hockey game going into overtime. Yesterday I finished the body.

     Today I will start the sleeves. Have my DPN's and a new ball of yarn ready. Kid sleeves are small so they shouldn't take me forever, right?

     And I've been totally distracted with starting a bullet journal. You can go here to learn about the original idea and "proper" way to use it. However, if you go on pinterest, instagram or YouTube you will see that people get very creative with their journals. I've tried other planners and ways of organizing over the years but have struggled to keep anything going for more than a few weeks. Bullet journals use my favourite thing - lists! I think I might be a little known for making lists and having one spot to keep them all is kind of exciting. I've taken some lists off my bulletin board and put them in here. I'm only on my second day of using it, but this might be what I've been looking for. The journal above was gifted to me for my birthday last year by my best friend. People use all kinds of journals, but most people seem to enjoy journals with dots instead of lines but so far I don't have any complaints using lined paper.

     Here is one list (or collection to use the proper term). It's a wishlist of some of the crafty things I would like to make this summer. It's divided into knitting, quilting and other.

     This is a list I had on my bulletin board - Christmas 2016. I'm not ashamed to say I start working on this list in January. I tried to cover up some of my ideas since some family reads this blog.

     I also created this "tracker" of how many times I did yoga, exercise and didn't drink pop this year. My goals for the year are at the top, along with what I did last year. The yoga and exercise took an early hit this year when I hurt my back at the end of January and I've struggled with the no pop the last couple months but I still have several months to go. 

      And here's a peak at my list for today. Things with an * are important, such as buy stamps. I still need to buy 2 birthday cards for nieces and Father's Day cards today so I can use the stamps my husband bought this morning. And since I took this picture, I fixed my daughter's piano bag so that dot has an "X" through it now and she's ready for lessons this evening. Once I publish this post, I'll get to put an x through "S2W1", which is my short form for the blog. "Family" means I need to do a post on our family blog. I had to add find an optometrist to the list after my glasses broke this morning. I've been wearing the same pair for almost 10 years (yeah, disgusting) and my back-up pair hurts my nose. 

     Does anyone else use a Bullet Journal? I haven't really gotten into drawing, doodling or using different colored pens like others and I'm not sure I will. I'll try to do another post in a month or so to see if I kept up with it.

More Knitting Progress

     I don't have any finishes to share this week, but I have been making good progress on my Camp Loopy project and my Fogliame cardigan, so I thought I'd share.

     June 1st, was the first day of Camp Loopy and I cast on the Side Squiggles for Floyd. I finished knitting the bottom border and the pocket flap before calling it a night. 

     I took it outside to knit yesterday after supper. The back of our house faces west so we have lots of sun late in the day. Above you can see the stitches I had to pick up behind the pocket to continue knitting in the round.

A bunny snuck into our yard to eat some of the birdseed the birds drop on the ground.

     By the end of day 2 I had done 8 more rounds. Have over 20 to go before I attach the pocket. That's one of my weekend goals.

     And Fogliame is still addictive but the rows are getting long. I have finished the first wedge section. There are almost 250 stitches. Two wedge sections left to knit. Both will add 90 stitches. That's over 400 stitches by the end. 

Still loving the leaves.

     And if I need a knitting break this weekend, I am currently reading 3 books. The one on top is due back at the library on Sunday, so.... I really should get off the internet.

WIP Wednesday with Camp Loopy

     Today is June 1st, and besides being my daughter's 14th birthday (how did she get to be 14 already!), it is also the start of Camp Loopy. 

     According to all the buttons I've received from The Loopy Ewe this is my fourth year participating. I think I've completed the challenge twice to receive my free skein of yarn at the end.  I've started to think of Camp Loopy as a chance to get some Christmas gifts made.

     This year, is no different. June's challenge is to use 400 yards and you got to pick which group you were in based on what your pattern included - lace, cables, brioche or colourwork. I chose cables and the pattern, Side Squiggles, to make Floyd's Christmas present. I'm making him the size 4 since he'll be 3 1/2 by Christmas and the 2 would be too small. That size calls for 1,000 yards if you do the pocket and hood. I'm definitely going to do the pocket. Unsure about the hood. Floyd picked out the colour, Shire.

Cast on this morning and did the first four rounds. 

     There are no actual cables in the pattern, just twisted stitches that look like cables - which is close enough.

     However, I've really gotten into the groove with my Fogliame cardigan and it is going to be hard to step away from knitting it, to knit the sweater for Floyd. I think Fogliame might become my reward knitting after working on the Squiggles sweater. I finished the ribbing and started the lace over the long weekend. Here is what it looks like from the front.

And the back. For those who have knit the pattern or are familiar with it, I have finished the first leaf pattern repeat and started the first wedge. If you look closely, you'll see there are a lot of stitch markers. This is where the wedges go that increase the number of stitches.

The lovely lace leaves are beautiful.  And addictive. 

     I have three other WIP's that are now completely ignored. My Beacon Hill cardigan only needs sleeves, button bands and a collar but it will have to wait until later this summer or even September. My Avonlea MKAL  shawl has also been set aside. I've looked at the spoiler photos for the clues and I know I will continue knitting it, just not right now. And I cast on and knit the first two rows of my Any Way You Want It shawl, but haven't touched it since. Once Fogliame is finished, I'll pick it back up. Or maybe, I'll pick it back up this afternoon. Who knows. I usually try and force myself to finish my Camp Loopy projects quickly so I can relax the rest of the month and knit whatever I want.  We'll see what happens this month. This afternoon, I really need to ice a cake and then make a lasagna, since it is what the birthday girl has requested for supper.