Socks and Shores

Unlike last month, this month's unfinished project was cranked out at an unbelievable speed.

I ended up finishing up the lavender socks I started last September. I had one sock fully done, and had originally started the second one right after, but I realized that I had screwed up the color repeat. And I was NOT about to have fraternal socks, damnit. So they got shoved into time out until a few days ago.

I was actually waffling a bit between finishing the socks or finishing Mystic Star, but laziness won out.

So I pulled them out, and got right to work.

And immediately had to rip everything out and start over AGAIN.

There was a knot in the yarn in a spot that would likely rub against my toe.

So after much swearing and cursing and frogging, I ACTUALLY got started. And I just started flying through it.

 It took me just two days to finish the second sock.

And now...

I've got TWO PAIRS OF SOCKS JUST FOR MEEEEE!

And as a bonus treat, we took these babies on the road with us to Cleveland on Saturday.

We went up to hang out with Mikayla at River Colors Studio, my yarn shop away from home. Her and Steph had so kindly gotten me a gift card for my birthday (it totally wasn't an excuse for us to go yarn shopping..... nope, not at all...) and I had a hankering for some yarn for a new project.

We'll get to that later, though.

First, I have to give an ENORMOUS thanks to the ladies at River Colors for having the patience to deal with this.

We were going to the bakery next door for lunch, so I asked if they would mind winding my purchases while we ate.

When John and I came back half an hour later, we saw that mess and I felt SO BAD!

Whoever tied the skein at the place where it was manufactured didn't do it right and it just turned into a giant mess as soon as the ladies tried to wind it.

It took over two hours and three different people working to untangle and hand wind it into a ball.

My other two skeins took like 3 minutes to do.

So, thanks again, you intrepid, wonderful women, for sorting that mess out.

After that, John and I checked out this little place called Rocky River Park which was a 5 minute drive from the yarn shop. It was just a wee little place, but you could walk right down on the little beach there beside Lake Erie.

There was so much driftwood washed up on the shore, it was incredible. And not little pieces. We're talking huge logs and branches. And in some cases what looked like the whole damn tree.

It was the perfect spot to grab a few (and I do mean only a few. It was freezing!) pictures of my socks.

I hadn't brought a coat because it was a little warmer that day, but that was a huge mistake. I nearly froze to death.

But just for you, dear readers, I suffered through it.

Really though, I was completely enthralled with the whole place. I had never actually gotten to be that close to the lake.

We even took a few pictures of Mermaid Lair because the scenery was so beautiful. (What? I HAD to wear a shawl to the yarn shop!)

I also brought home a few little treasures I found.

Yarn, friends, time with John, good food, and a trip to the lake... it was a pretty spectacular day.

Oh? You want to see the yarn I bought?

Now, the blue in the bottom is from the stash, but that bright pink and gold came home with me.

I know, they're not my normal colors. But I was absolutely blown away by a shawl I saw on Instagram by Pepperminta and the inspiration bug bit hard. (Go show them some love!)

View this post on Instagram

Blocking. I’d like to think I know what I’m doing... 🤔 #letsseehowthisgoes #knitting

A post shared by Diana (@peppeminta) on Feb 28, 2019 at 10:24am PST

I'll actually be doing the same Teroldego Shawl pattern as in the picture, assuming that I can get this icord edge to work out.

Anyway, there was another ball we ended up buying while waiting for the Great Untangling, but I don't have a handy pic of that. And I have other things to do, like show off how good my makeup game was over the weekend.

Guess I'll sign off for now and go play with my new pretties.

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Fates, Mistakes, and Great Lakes

It was a long weekend, my friends. Full of ups and downs, and barely a moment of rest. Most of it was enjoyable, but some of it...

Anyway, to get the bad out of the way first, a family member is dealing with a health crisis and things are not looking good. There are complicated feelings involving said family member, so it's just a big tangle of emotions and shit right now that's casting a looming cloud over everything. Add in some other family drama... yeah, John and I are about due for a goddamned break from it all.

*sigh*

But let's forget that for now and just focus on the fun stuff.

After dealing with the nightmare of Mojito, I decided that I needed a break from anything complicated and beaded. I settled on FINALLY doing a Find Your Fade.

And it's been everything I needed. Simple garter stitch, fun colorwork, no complex stitches...

We won't talk about how much I've managed to mess it up already and that this is the FOURTH(!) attempt at it.

I think I finally got into the groove and will enjoy the rest of it.

For those of you who don't know, this shawl is written to use 7 different colors.

After much deliberation, this was my final selection.

I'm proud to say that it's ALL stash yarn.

Yep, that's right. I didn't buy ANY new yarn for this project.

Which is good, since I bought a crapton of new stuff at Great Lakes and have to find room for it somewhere in my stash, but we'll get to that.

Friday, John took half a day of vacation because we were supposed to attend a pizza party as part of the class reunion celebration. We ended up skipping that and went searching for a new outfit for him instead. Which ended up being a lot of fun.

John, much in the same way I have, is finally coming into his own. He's figuring out his style, who he is, and what he wants from life, which has been amazing to see.

He's completely come out of his shell. Hell, he's even joined me on Team Emerald Hair.

Saturday was the day of the actual class reunion. My anxiety was riding high, especially because my hair would NOT cooperate with me. Plus, it was a billion degrees out with a humidity somewhere around 1000%. But my makeup came out absolutely killer, so at least I had that going for me.

My date looked pretty damn good, too.

Yes, we were taking a bunch of pics in the parking lot to avoid going in. That's how we roll.

The actual reunion itself was much more fun than I anticipated. Most of the people there I actually genuinely enjoyed seeing again. A few others... well, I'm glad that I only have to once a decade or so.

John and I got the award(? achievement? acknowledgment?) for the couple who has been together the longest. Which really isn't that surprising, seeing as I was only a sophomore when we started dating.

I also got voted "Most Changed" which was probably helped along by the fact that I had completely forgotten my Polite Filter at home. I was unabashedly myself, openly talking about my political views and the fact that I'm poly with an amazing girlfriend.

I don't think that some of them really knew what to make of me. Which is fine. I wasn't there to pretend that we were all the best of friends in school or now.

I was there because I was curious. I wanted to see how people had changed. And I wanted to show off how much better off I am than I was when dealing with the bullshit that was high school.

This may sound weird, but I feel like I had a giant weight lifted off of me. I have changed, for the better. I'm not the same person I was a decade ago. I am making progress in my life. It's not the same progress as others, but it's moving forward all the same.

Before we get into Sunday, I did want to give a quick shout out to my makeup for not only looking superb (as mentioned above) but for actually having staying power. This pic is from after I got home, nearly 7 hours after application, and through about a thousand gallons of sweat (it was so damn hot in the restaurant, ffs).

Sunday was, of course, the Great Lakes Fiber Show.

Okay, really it was Saturday as well, but as you saw, I was a little busy.

I had a minor meltdown, of course, because I had devoted so much of my time and energy into how I was going to look for the reunion that I didn't even THINK about what I was going to wear to the show!

I ended up with the same dress I wore last year, but topped it with Mermaid Lair.

I sadly went it alone this year (except for John, who, while lovely and wonderful, isn't exactly fun to nerd out about yarn with...) and I have to say, it's so much better when you have yarn friends to go with.

Next year, I'm dragging my yarn wives there, whether they like it or not.

Anyway, I was good and did what Mikayla always suggests. So, we made a lap of the whole place before I purchased anything. That took longer than expected because I swear I was stopped every five feet by people complimenting my shawl.

My first purchase was a couple of skeins from the wonderful Jeanne of Destination Yarn.

We had a lovely chat and I picked up two hanks of her First Class Single (a silk/merino mix that is to die for) in Witching Hour. This is actually the same color that Mikayla bought at the open house a few weekends ago, but in a different base.

I've already cast on Spellbound by Boo Knits (which is a complicated, beaded shawl... exactly what I said I didn't want to do...).

This yarn... my god, I want everything made of it. It's so lovely to work with.

Next up was a bulky wool/cotton blend that had an incredible 200 yards per hank for a measly $10.

I have an absurd goal in mind for this, but I think it's going to have to wait for cooler weather.

I also purchased a single skein from a lovely new-to-me dyer, Redbird Yarn Studio.

I'm not normally a single-skein purchaser when it comes to fingering weight hanks, but this color was really calling to me. The colorway is named Ink. How could I not get it?

I ended up purchasing these two mini hanks from the booth next to Redbird.

I realized later that I never even asked either of their names, so yeah... I'm real good at this whole people thing.

My last purchase of the day (besides some delicious fair food after handling the yarn) was another hank of the Fairytales and Fables collection from Morning Meadows Sundries.

They're the same people that I bought the Sea Witch yarn from last year that went on to become Mermaid Lair, which I happily showed off to them.

John actually picked this yarn out for me. And the fact that he looked up from his phone* long enough to actually acknowledge it, let alone make a comment on how much he loved the color, was enough to convince me to get it.

He also picked out the pattern for it. A shawl, of course, and the same designer of Mermaid Lair. Apparently, this is just going to be my new thing. Which is fine with me. I love having an excuse to make more lace.

*Don't read this as him being bored out of his mind and rude. It's his family that's causing all the stress in our life right now and I wasn't about to demand attention when he needed a break from his own head.

So, that's GLFS for the year out of the way. Is it wrong that I'm already excited about next year?

Monday was another "we have to be up early as fuck and this sucks" day since our house is the Prime Parade Watching place.

It's a bit of a tradition we started when we moved in. My grandparents and middle sister, as well as whatever friends are around (Vi, this year), come over to sit on our porch, chat, drink coffee and eat donuts with us as we watch the 5 minute Memorial Day parade that goes past the house.

We kept hanging on the porch after my grandparents left and talked about video games and D&D, like you do. I was working on my Fade and drinking coffee out of the new handmade mug that I splurged a little on.

Said mug inspired me to do something, but that, my friends, will just have to wait until another post.

This one is long enough, don't you think?

Besides, Vi's going to be here in a bit to work on D&D stuff. Which means that I should probably put on pants.

*sigh*

This things I do for my friends.

A Promise Kept

I'm the first person to admit that I have a commitment problem. It's very easy to start off a project with all sorts of energy and excitement, but it quickly peters out. I'm always looking with longing at other projects. Or I get inspired by something and will toss my current project to the side without a second thought.

So when I first got the idea to do this shawl a month project, there was a little voice that said that I wasn't actually going to be able to finish it. Sure, I'd do it for a while, but eventually my nature was going to catch up with me and I'd give up.

But I didn't. I actually didn't. I accomplished what I set out to do. Sure, it was hard. There were times I was ready to burn my projects in frustration. But I pushed myself through. And now I have 8 new shawls in my collection, and 4 that were gifted to people who love them. (Fun fact: I calculated how much yarn went into these 12 shawls and came up with nearly 4.5 miles of yarn...)

Each shawl taught me something about myself, my craft, or about the world itself. And I'd like to share those lessons with you. Starting with this monstrosity.

Orchid Thief, the wooly black hole, taught me to always pay attention to the damn pattern. Read thoroughly and carefully, lest you end up with a giant nightmare. When making changes, CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK, AND TRIPLE CHECK!

Rushing blindly ahead isn't always the best idea. Taking a moment to think about and consider what you're about to do can save you a lot of heartache down the road.

Art and Coffee taught me that just because you hated doing something once doesn't mean that will always be the case.

I had tried a striped shawl before and couldn't get past the first couple rows without getting frustrated. I gave it another go with this one and absolutely adore them now. It's an easy way to get an interesting color combo without having to do tedious color work. I have my 3rd striped shawl on the needles right now, as a matter of fact.

Grey Skies taught me the value of being able to improvise on the fly. 

I hit a bit of a roadblock when it came to adding the secondary edging on this shawl. My stitches weren't adding up and I wasn't about to rip everything out to start over. Being skilled enough to improvise a solution and make it work is valuable in all aspects of life and a value that I hold dearly.

With Rainshine I learned that sometimes it IS okay to choose to do a project that you love over everything else.

I had intended to do something completely different that month. Something that should have been done sooner. What it was, I don't even remember. But this yarn had been haunting me and I had to make something with it. So I said fuck it and went for it. And it made me so dang happy to do so. This shawl is definitely one of my favorites for a reason.

Yarn Wife showed me that I have a lot more talent than I think I do. 

Striking out and creating your own pattern from scratch is terrifying and challenging in so many different ways. Especially designing lace work. This shawl was my very first completely original design. It's not the most complicated one I've done, but I'm still very proud of myself for doing it and having it come out as well as it did.

Kelp was a hard lesson. I learned that I'm not going to love every single thing I make. 

Sometimes, I'm going to make things out of obligation, not out of any true excitement or wanting. And the finished project may be lovely, but it's okay if I don't love it myself. 

I always feel enormous pressure to be excited and happy and satisfied with my knitting projects. But that's not always going to be the case. And that's okay. Sometimes you do the things you need to and let them go afterwards without a second thought or regret.

If Kelp taught me that's okay to not like things, Steam Bells definitely taught me that I can also absolutely hate things.

I despise this shawl. I hate everything about it. The yarn. The way the pattern worked up. The frustration and rage I had when I was blocking it and had it rip. It's ugly. It's annoying. And I'm going to happily pass it off to someone else eventually.

Sometimes projects are going to get you angry. Make you hate everything about them. Finishing them becomes a way to defeat the damn thing. It's revenge. You beat it despite it throwing everything it possibly can in your way. 

It's okay to hate these things. Not everything is rainbows and sunshine. Let that anger out and move onto a much more pleasing project.

Gem In Eyes taught me that the best laid plans sometimes get smashed by the giant "fuck you" fist that is life.  And you're going to end up hella disappointed.

I had originally intended on knitting two of these shawls in August. I wanted Jamie and I to have matching ones. I had all these lovely plans of how it would be revealed and it was going to be so wonderful and romantic. (I'm a giant, mushy, lovey nerd... Sue me.) 

Instead, I barely got the one finished and sent out. I didn't get to post on our actual anniversary because my mental illnesses were kicking my ass. I was so disappointed and a bit angry with myself. But I can't control everything, no matter how hard I try. Life's gonna get you at some point.

Polar Bear in a Snowstorm showed me that sometimes simple is satisfying. And to take pleasure in unexpected surprises.

As I said, sometimes simple is what you need in a project. A straightforward, no frills creation. NO wild patterns, weird instructions... just some simple knitting. 

I just wanted something to look nice with the new dress I had bought, so I grabbed this yarn out of the stash and started improvising. I had no idea that this yarn was a gradient until I wound it up. As I was working with it, I was delighted how it looked. I never expected it to turn out like it did. It was a good, satisfying project and just what I needed at the time.

Mermaid Lair... oh, Mermaid Lair... it taught me that sometimes things are worth the effort. And that effort is going to show.

This was the shawl that took me the longest to do over the year. It was by far the most complicated shawl I've done to date. The amount of beadwork is only rivaled by Celestarium. I had a few setbacks, including almost running out of yarn. But when she was done and off the blocking board, I wept with happiness. 

It still astounds me that I made this with my own hands. But really, it's not that surprising. The years of knitting experience I have led me to be able to make such a magnificent piece. I put the time and effort in to learn, to understand, to grow. And she reflects that.

Flying Scotsman, well, I learned that sometimes it is about the process and not the finished piece.

I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I decided on this shawl for November's project. It's the opposite of everything I love to do. But I thought it'd be fun. 

I was wrong. I didn't enjoy making this shawl. But I was still happy that I did it. As I worked on it, it cemented what I knew was already true about my knitting. I will always love lace and beads and complicated charts more than anything else. Colorwork like this is just not for me, no matter how much I wish otherwise. 

I'm happy with this shawl. I like how it looks. My knitting was pretty solid. But I doubt I'll do anything like this in the near future.

And that brings us to Ashton. I think the most important thing I learned from her was that I can handle whatever life throws in my way so long as I'm willing to change the plan a little. And to reach out for help when I need it.

December was one of the toughest months I've dealt with in quite a while. And I didn't think I was going to meet my deadline. I kept having to change what I had originally envisioned for this shawl, which would have normally had me frustrated and in tears. But my loved ones kept me going. John took up the bulk of the work around the house to make sure I had enough time to knit. He stood on the sideline, cheering me on. He helped me to logic out what I needed to do to get through this last project.

Throughout the year, so many others told me how proud they were of me as I worked and worked. They were patient when the shawls took priority over some requests. And when I finished one, they celebrated with me. It really showed me just how much a good support network can change your life. 

So to them, I say thank you for everything.

Completing this journey has filled me with a confidence and pride that I didn't think was possible for me to experience. To some people, I'm sure that it doesn't seem like that big of an accomplishment. 

But for me, someone who has only recently learned how to have some self-esteem, it's a astronomically important accomplishment. It was a promise I kept to myself. One that I had to work long and hard to fulfil. 

And now, at the end of it, I can look back and smile. See what I accomplished. Wear my hard work. And get ready for the next journey.

It's a new year. And there's new magic to be made. 

Onwards, friends. 

The Siren's Swan Song

Well, she's done.

The most brilliant and amazing shawl that my hands have ever produced.

From such a humble little bundle.

Through trial and tribulations.

Not to mention some very real fears about not being able to finish.

But we got there in the end.

And, my god, is she breathtaking.

So many beads placed...

And so many stitches made...

This art was brought into being by my two humble hands. 

I'm left feeling a little lost.

Where do I go from here?

How do I possibly top this?

I mean, this is the most complex project I've ever done.

And, except for a couple of minor hiccups, it went pretty smoothly.

Is this it? Have I peaked?

Nah, I don't really think so, either.

This creative train ain't ever going to stop rolling.

Though I am *slightly* scared at what my next magnum opus is going to involve.

Guess the only way to find out is to keep going forward.