Casa Ruby

  This last Wednesday Marie told us that The Reston Stitch & Bitch has been meeting for 13 years!  That is crazy cool.  My mom and I joined in April of 2009.  We have been with this group in four different locations and I'm so glad we have stuck with them.
  Before we started our White Elephant swap we had someone mention Casa Ruby.  They aim to help LGBTQ people in the Northern VA\Washington DC area.  While the LGBTQ community is more accepted than it has been in the past, there are still a lot of people who don't accept them.
  They are asking for some warm things because it is really cold out and not all of these people can get their own.  No one should have to feel ashamed because they can't afford to buy nice warm things for themselves when we can make things for them and help them out.

  This hat, while cute, is not what I was hoping for.  I saw a hat online and thought I could replicate it.  I got close, but not quite there.  Still cute though, so not a total failure.

  Elizabeth made a hat following this pattern and we all fell in love.  For some reason the pattern isn't on Ravelry, but it is on Lion Brand Yarn's website.  You can see closer to the top why they call it the Virtual Cable Hat.
  I didn't make the hat as tall as they suggested because I was hoping to be able to make two hats out of the yarn I had.  Elizabeth also made a cowl out of this pattern by casting on more stitches and adding ribbing on the end as well.
  Time for me to go and get ready for Bill's birthday, which is today!

Some People!

  Some people make me feel like a slacker!  First I saw someone knit themselves a pair of leggings (Cathy), and now we have someone else knitting wedding dress.  It isn't totally done, she still needs to add the edging on the shoulders.  That means it has been finished before you even are reading about it.

  My co-worker, Beth, has a friend who likes crocheting.  Kathy H D Kingsbury made all those bags, hats, and the mitten and hat/scarf set.  She wings a lot of the patterns but also follows a few.  I asked Beth if she has a Ravelry page, so we could look at all of her other things, but as of right now, she doesn't have one.

  I have a bag of hats and squares that I believe we got from Alison.  I put off taking pictures for way too long and don't totally remember any more.  Carola will make some really cool monsters out of the squares.

  I've finished this hat recently.  That's all I can say is really totally finished.  I finished knitting the sweater, but it still needs the two buttons picked out and sewn on.  I also have a couch crochet scarf that I keep working on, but haven't finished yet.  I'm really close though.

  I even started another hat this last Saturday.  It has been so long since I worked on the blanket that I forgot that I had to throw another skein of yarn in, so I only got one more row done before I had a short tail dangling off my project.  My knitting bag looks quite full because I have a bunch of yarn I want to use next in it.  I usually forget this and pick something else, but this time I was forced to use some of it. I also seem to have a color theme going on between the peach blanket and the coral/flamingo hat.
  I need to get busy!

2018

Here is a quick list of everything I got done in the year of 2018

Crochet: 2
~Scarves:

Blue and Pink Feather and Fan

Beadspread Scarf

Knit: 15
~Hats:

Copy CC Brown Hat

Striped Copy CC Hat

1x1 Ribbed Hat

Em-chan Decreases

Three Tone Brioche Hat

Sparkle Wish Hat

Leafy Hat

Shear

Not so Shear

~Scarves/Cowls:

Two Tone Brioche Not a Hat

Color Change CC Cowl

Leafy Cowl

~Sweaters:

Combo Corset-T

Ribbed Cowl-Neck Sweater

Leafy Dress

Other stuff:

54 Issues of Shonen Jump

Others Work:

Mock Cable Basket Weave

Crochet Monsters

Knit Monster

Purple Face Cloth

Faux Cable Mitts

Jack Frost is Making Some Warm Blankets

  This yarn appeared at K&CC at a perfect time.  I had received some green yarn from one of the ladies at Monday knit-night and was going to use that for a blanket I had in mind.  Before I cast it on I changed my mind on the pattern.  While trying to decide if I had enough yarn of another color for the first pattern, this one showed up on Saturday.  There is definitely enough and I love the color.
  I'm glad that I went with a nice and easy pattern right now.  The one problem with working on a costume and putting off some of your work is that it won't magically get done and it is easy to get behind.  Luckily it hasn't become too busy yet, so I'm not too far behind.  One thing that doesn't help is that we are trying some new things, but if those things go smoothly, it will be easier in the long run.  I'm also working on a How-To Guide for everything so I won't have to do what Linda did when she retired from the job and I took over.  She wrote me a list of things to do in order, but as she was getting to the end of the list she remembered things she had forgotten.  The list went from being in order to being a bit jumbled.  I am keeping a file going and as I do something I am making sure to include it.  Hopefully that will keep me from skipping any bits that I just do without having to think about.

  Dawn told me that I was going to teach a class using this new-to-Jo-Ann-Fabrics-yarn.  It is fuzzy yarn with loops built in so you don't need to know how to knit or crochet to make things with it.  I thought that sounded fun and looked at the pattern that I was supposed to teach.
  The pattern was to make an infinity cowl.  That sounded fun so I looked at the instructions.  The first instruction was to count 109 loops.  That is when I knew we were not going to be following those.  The class is only about 2.5 hours and I knew a lot of that would be to count to 109.  I also knew from playing around with it that someone would need to get a few rows in before it was stable enough to be moved.

  This was what I had them work on.  It is 12 stitches wide and I made them turn it over each row so they learned how to do both knit and purl stitches.  There were many instances where they had to take out some stitches because something went wrong and had to take some out.  One of my students got about half-way done, another got about 3/4, and the last actually got her whole scarf done.  This makes it a pretty quick project and only used about one skein.
  Dawn mentioned to them about the pattern that they were supposed to learn and they all agreed that the cowl pattern sounded like a cool idea, but that it sounded way too hard for a first project.

I Feel Much Better Now

  This is what I started and worked on during Turkey-day week.  Bill and I headed north on Tuesday and spend until Sunday in New Jersey.  I joked that I was going to hang out with the Jersey Devil.  Never saw him, but I did keep an eye out.
  A week of dinners with anywhere between 12-32 people probably doesn't sound relaxing, but it was what I needed.  We went to the spa, chased small children around, found some goodies while antiquing, cooked, ate way too much, drank a healthy amount, and laughed too loudly.  It was perfect.

Here is a quick breakdown of what all happened:

• Wednesday: Spa, cheese and champagne, pizza dinner
• Thursday: Mimosas and 3 soup lunch, wine and a whole buffet of options for dinner
• Friday: Bagels and lox lunch, antique shopping, beer tasting, distillery visiting (kitten petting), and 4 types of salmon and sides for dinner (accounting for the following dietary restrictions: Kosher, allergic to black pepper, vegetarian, allergic to turkey)
• Saturday: blueberry pancakes, hanging out, and smoked brisket, smoked ribs, and veggies for dinner
• Sunday: Eggs Benedict brunch, hike, beer, then a long drive home

  Now I feel like I can tackle the craziness of work and trying to find time to knit without too much trouble.  I'm a little behind because of the trip, but I'm not worried because we will work it all out in the end.  That just means less knitting time for me until I get caught up.

When It Rains...

  I have started this post about 5 times so far.  Everything has just been moving so fast that I can't seem to get my head around it.  At first I was going to ask for some warm wishes to help a friend get better, then things went downhill before I could start that post, then things fell off a cliff.  The last few days were a whirlwind of trying to get things moved out of an apartment in a gated community, getting work done, and dealing with everything going wrong at work.  I'm pretty sure there was some knitting in there too, but I might have just dreamed that.
  I am pretty proud that I was able to move Bill's truck in a small parking garage a few times and even backed into multiple spaces.  Back-up cameras are magical.

  Here is a picture of Tank being cute to keep you entertained until I can manage to get out of this whirlwind and get my feet onto more solid ground.

Time for Hats and Sweaters

  As you can see, Tank is also excited for autumn.  I am too!

  There has been some radio silence on here because a few things have been happening.  Work is starting to pick back up again, but that was expected.  What wasn't expected was that Bill suggest we do a couples cosplay for the anime convention this coming weekend.  We talked a little about ideas and how I was going to have to do most of the work for both costumes.
  I then did some research and found some pictures of the version of the costume I wanted to do for mine.  I started working on it and everything was taking a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.  I had planned on finishing the under-shirt and jacket the first week, the accessories the next week, and then anything for Bill in any 'between' times, weekends, and just his stuff on the last week.  Well, the undershirt somehow took me five days to sew.  The jacket only took about two and I made three samples for it before I found a pattern that both fit and I liked how it looked.  Everything else has both been pushed back a few days and also some of the things have also taken longer than I thought they would.  So some things got pushed back by a few days, and then a few more.  I know I won't be able to get everything I wanted done, but I think I will be able to get the costume to a place where I am alright with wearing it and having people see it.

 In knitting news, the blue sweater is almost done.  All it needs now is a good soaking, some blocking and drying time, then finally, the two buttons.  I have also started a blue hat for the Hat Not Hate project started by Lion Brand Yarns.  I know that October 1st has come and gone, but Shira from Lion Brand says that the project spans the entire month.