busybee again

Making graphs. Graphs are nice. IDL is behaving itself for once (maybe I've tamed it? I suspect only this little corner of it. and it'll probably bite me for saying that).

I had my graduation ceremony for last year's Ph.D. completion. It was delightful and I got to see some of the best people. Also had hangings out with my friends who have produced a smaller version of themselves. This visit means I ripped out half the baby sweater as it needs to be both wider and longer. No problem, I've got the yarn. I also almost finished the shawl, made it even a couple rows longer to try and use up more yarn.

All in all, things are pretty good here. And Stash Dash is coming!

Stash Dash is an event hosted by The Knit Girls podcast, my absolute favorite knitting video podcast to watch. They talk a lot about yarn and projects and spinning and crafts, and a little about books and life, and they are funny and delightful. Every year as Lala gets the summer off (she works in the US school system), they have this event where you try to meet certain goals for yourself and if you do you can enter to win a few prizes. The point is to use up stash, and you get to count the yardage from any project you complete between May 27 and August 13 (or something like that, whatever Lala's summer vacation is).

The reason I love this event so much? It's very much open to interpretation. You can aim for a slew of different, achievable goals; you can knit what you want; you can use free patterns or paid for patterns, patterns from stash or new patterns, any sort of pattern you desire; and WIPs you get to count the whole yardage if you make them into a FO, even if 90% of the knitting was done three years ago. This motivates me to polish off lingering UFOs and to tackle at least one big WIP that I would normally ignore for tiny things like socks. I don't always meet my own goal (usually I aim for 5km worth of finished-up yarn) but I always like trying.

This year, I have a whole pile of WIPs from the past 6 months that have sort of been malingering and that I intend to finish:

1. Ashburn shawl, which is 2.5 skeins of different colors of yarn in a fun pattern. Right now I'm maybe 10, 20 rows from the bindoff, so it's quite feasible, even though they are long
2. Yellow-gray striped socks. These just need an afterthought heel, but I've been avoiding that last one like the plague
3. The little socks for mom. I blew through the 50g ball of yarn and these both just need toes in an alternative color
4. Night Sky stripey cowl. I started this two or three years ago; got the yarn in 2014 at Maryland Sheep and Wool. It's a tube cowl that I'm going to graft so it'll be a long skinny stripey thing that I can wrap around my neck twice, but I've bogged down on it occasionally because it's not eating up the colored yarn as fast as I thought it would. I think, though, that I've figured out the last two combinations of stripes I want to do before I finish with the gray and do the fancy kitchener in the round
5. Orange baby sweater. I want weePatrick to have this for fall, so I had better work on it, but both the body and the sleeves need to be lengthened so it's a bit of a slog. Not too hard, though, a good weekend should do it
6. Flowers in Her Hair hat. Started this for fun and Robin likes the colors so she's getting a hat and maybe mitts if I have enough leftovers (maybe I can make mittens with an alternative color for the cuff and use the whole ball up. That would be nice). The hat is nearing its decreases (slightly slouchy, extra long so you can fold it up over your ears) but the mittens are a twinkle in my eye
7. Vibrant purple mitts. I got this incredibly violet yarn a long time ago, a single 50g skein. Not enough for socks or anything, and it's 100% merino so it's soft but wouldn't hold up well anyway. I finally cast it on into a pair of little mitts with, perhaps, a lace pattern over the knuckles if I feel like it. These are both started but not anywhere near finished
8. Myliu Lino--the linen tunic. I've mentioned this one before because I've really fallen for it and think I would wear it a lot. It's been ripped out twice since I started it and I don't know if I can handle it if I have to rip it a third time, but hopefully the measurements are correct now. We'll see how it goes. This is the big project for the summer and I have no idea if I'll be able to finish it or now, but if I do I'll be very happy
9. Handspun: 2ply falkland combo spin. I have 2 braids of Falkland seconds from Three Waters Farm, one of my very favorite indie fiber dyers. I decided to spin them up into singles, each braid, and then ply them together as a 2ply and use that to make a baby sweater for weePatrick if there's enough yardage. First ply is 2/3 done but I haven't touched the wheel in quite some time
10. Handspun: Snake Agate. This'll be, like the one above, a 2ply from 2 separate braids from TWF, one merino and one BFL (hopefully they play nicely together; the colors certainly do). I am hoping this will be a nice tonal gray-brown when I'm done with it that I can use for a contrast color with any other handspun to make a bigger shawl, but we'll see, it might be its own thing
11. Handspun: Lingering Light. I have 2 skeins of this colorway on Targhee from TWF. Not sure yet how I should spin this. I would like a 3 ply but I want to maximize yardage, too. hmm.


That's all I'm sure I want to work on and would love to finish, though I have no idea of the yardage this would produce. But I certainly have an exciting summer planned!