Pikachu to 50%

It's felt like a total slog. I suppose in part, because I had over 30 hours of work in before I had to restart it. (Never really helps the attitude of 'is this ever going to end' when you do things like that).

And of course... just when I decided the head section was long enough... I convince myself it needs another half inch. Then after placing the eyes in when I thought I was done with the length I realized I placed them where I thought they should be from the top as if there wasn't going to be a good half inch to three-quarters of an inch taken up by the seam/top of the head section. And of course, being safety eyes, removing them to move them wasn't easily done. Sigh. So, I had to knit some more.

But, last night - I finished the head and body section and grafted the top of the head closed. Not my best grafting effort... but it's DONE. Now, it's onto the ears, the arms, the legs, and the tail. Then the embroidery and seaming....   I figure  I have about a week worth of work left to do on it... can't wait to show him off!!!!

Still churning away on Pikachu, start of a scarf

Working on the pikachu is pretty tedious, but finally progressing.Right now it's just stockinette in the round on tiny needles (so tightly knit). I've got about one more inch on the body/head section to do before I move stitches from either end off onto waste yarn (for the ears) and seam the top. Then there are the small diameter ears, the small legs and arms, the tail and the finishing embroidery/facial pieces.   I'm hoping to get him finished by the end of next week.

Since it's soooo tight knitting and slow and a little boring... I started a scarf for little 'a' to match his black hat. I'm using Red Heart With Love yarn which is dense and thick and really nice for an acrylic. I'm basically knitting a tube of stockinette, but with a ready made seam at the bottom and it will end up having a seam at the top. I'm also adding a single stripe at each end about 6" from the end... in part to help it match the hat and in part to help give me something interesting. I'm at about 10" now, so a good LONG while before I get to the next stripe. And it's basically stockinette in the round - but in black. Good news is that I'm using size 10 needles so at least the knitting is nice and loose and relaxing. I'm spending a lot of time while knitting it thinking about how the thick scarf is going to be very warn and sooo soft due to the yarn... and hoping it will help keep hims a lot warmer this winter.

Normally I have a half-dozen projects in play at any given time. I've got a couple of WIP projects that will either get frogged or worked on next month. In the meantime, I'm down to one WIP that I started a couple of months ago. It's a scrap yarn project to help me use up a ton of tiny 'ends'. I was using bits and pieces that were averaging around 1 - 3 yards to knit on the 3 I-cords and the braiding them... to eventually get wound up and sewn into a braided rug. Because it had been almost a week since I'd had any ends to add to it, I dug into my scrap basket... and found a couple balls of yarn that are probably 5 to 20 yards. I took the time to add three of them to the length... and have one more that I can add today... and I am sure that I can dig through the basket to find more. Funny enough - being I-cords... it's basically 6 knit stitches, repeated... which means that it's probably been a week since I've done a purl stitch (except in knitting classes). But by adding the variety of colors, and the unpredictability of working on a scrap I-cord braid with whatever colors I find next... I'm really enjoying it. I can't wait to see what the next section of braid is going to look like.

Fast

Or not so much.

I've been knitting and knitting on the Picachu Pokemon stuffie. And there is SO MUCH MORE to do.

It's a little hard on my hands knitting at a tighter than natural guage (so the stuffing won't show).

Last night I put in a good hour to an hour and a half and got another half inch done.

Set it aside and cast-on a scarf for my son to match his black hat. In about 45 minutes (BIG needles) I got about 4" done.  I so need to do more knitting like this! Let me just say how rewarding it felt to have the visible changes done before I set it aside before bed. The black is a bit boring... but I was enjoying watching some of the older shows on Misfits on Hulu Plus... and mindless and fast knitting was the perfect compliment.

Nearly there - but not quite done yet.

Oh, so close. But it doesn't seem like it's going to be quite the right size just yet. This is for the bottom bunk on my son's bunk bed - which is Full-sized. I don't want a lot of drape down either side... and my first thought before I seamed it was that I didn't think it would be wide enough. But, now that I've laid it out, I'm relieved that the width seems fine.

Of course? The height is too short. LOL. And my little 'a' is getting taller by the day. So, one idea I had was to add a third set of 15 blocks ... but I don't know that it needs to be quite that long.

Instead I'm thinking about blocking out some verbiage and creating a single panel all the way across the top...  "Mario" or "Mario & Luigi" across the top... and "know your mushrooms..." across the bottom.

I was thinking red lettering for Mario and maybe green for the "know your mushrooms"... but one look at the logos' and it's got a lot of different primary colors per letter... I'm hoping to sleep on it and focus on making the last two panels in December and finish the seaming before Christmas.

On the simple black hat

Little 'a' needed a hat that did not call attention to himself. I get it,  he's 10. Making yourself noticeable can make you a target.

The hat was made, was worn long enough to take a photo... then a scornful look and it got dragged off and thrown at me. Admittedly, he was grumpy, it was the first day of basic skills testing.

But then it got downright COLD. Hat got worn on Wednesday. Last night I got a hug... the hat was warm and cozy and did NOT catch anyone's attention. Today, he put the hat on without any comment and headed to school. Victory.

Though now I'm debating a black with red stripe scarf to go with the hat because it'll be getting even colder here before too long. And the only scarf he has right now is the one he stole from me when he was about 4... and it's bright blue fun fur. A little girly at 4; exceptionally so at 10. I'm thinking he needs a new scarf.

Charity Hat, NEWT progress, plus a family hat

The prompt for this hat was to make something you've made before. And yeah... I've done a TON of these two-color brioche hats. But, I had taken a bit of a break from them... so it took a little longer at each row change to remember, then muscle memory took over.

As I made this one (using DK weight yarn)... it seemed to take a really, really long time to make. Of course, while I was working on it at the KnitXMidwest retreat... I was spending some time socializing. I was also sitting next to someone who crocheted 10 baby hats in the same time it took for me to knit 4" on this hat. So, I was feeling a little 'inefficient'. But, I wanted to play more with the two shades of purple (dark and variegated) yarn that I had picked up at the shop the evening before... and this was hat #2 out of the yarn. Plus I should have enough for at least two more baby hats.... that will probably be simple stockinette with some striping. Fun colors, fun retreat... and whether or not I felt 'efficient'... I felt productive... and a little tired. Retreats can be exhausting. I didn't finish the hat until last weekend... I had set it aside to do other things and got back to it when I needed a break from working on Pikachu and the Mario blanket.

It may not seem like much - but there's a good 8" of progress on Pikachu (yeah... well, at this point he's a yellow 'bag' shape...lol) and a ton of progress on the Mario blanket (still to be revealed in more glory).

And then there was my son... who has MANY special hats made for him... going to school without a hat on a cold day. Why, you might ask? Becuase he's 10 and he wants to dissapear into the woodwork at school. So, I made him a 'don't notice me' hat, which he wore for about 10 seconds. Maybe when it gets a little colder. I used the lovely new Red Heart With Love Yarn for the black. It's oooooh- so soft, squishy and thick. It made quick work of the hat and I made sure to get it finished Sunday night so he could wear it to school yesterday (as if). I love him... I really truly do. But, sometimes one has to wonder what's in his head.

Actually, it's REALLY cold out today. But he's at home with a fever? Perhaps because he was outside yesterday in the snow and the cold and with no hat???? hmmmm.... perhaps. Little stinker. 

Mario Blanket progress

This has been a fairly long project.

I did 9 blocks in two months for my one and only successful Order Mission:

Then the plan was to do 21 more squares... the first 18 are here:

And now I've finished the last 3 that I had planned.

As I was working on these last few squares... I felt really good about my progress. The brick squares had started to get a bit tedious. But the questions and mushrooms go really quite quickly. The bright colors are fun and entertaining. Add that the mushrooms charts are quite symmetrical (means that chart reading is simplified as it doesn't really matter if you are on an odd or even row).  But, also a bit nervous. I cannot imagine what I was thinking when I bought my son a new bed... a full sized mattress as opposed to a twin. What was I thinking? I embark on a five month long project like this and change out the bed for a bigger bed at the middle of the project? I figure I'll get it all seamed and decide if I actually need to add another vertical panel to the whole thing to make it big enough. As it was, I was already worried about the length and had some thoughts to adding a horizontal band at the top (for sure) and possibly even across the bottom. If the length is also too short - I'll have to figure out what the next steps are and just how much bigger to make it and the best way to do it.

Either way, I'm going to try to focus my intentions onto my son's wonderful attitude improvements and try to stress less about how long it's taking. This blanket should be a really nice treat for his room.