Trying something new

Two posts in less than a week?  Who does this blog belong to?  In an effort to settle myself and maybe feel just a little bit in control of something, anything,  I am trying some new things.  First is the blog, I have every other Friday off, so I am going to make that my blog day - hopefully earlier than I'm getting to it today, but things got in the way.  So, fingers crossed, I will be posting twice a month.

The second is my rotation.  I had a crazy rotation set up and I wasn't following it - at all.  It worked a bit for the commuting me, but it wasn't working so well for the working-from-home me. I'd been mulling over a change, but couldn't come up with anything, so while listening to Just Keep Stitching over on YouTube, I heard Stephanie discuss her rotation and my ears perked right up and my brain yelled "THAT'S IT!!!" and then I thought, "That's not a revolutionary rotation, why haven't you thought of it before" but anyway...  So instead of the crazily convoluted rotation I had, I am now going to work on Goldie for 10 days, Zen Garden for 10 days and a randomly chosen WIP or whatever I'm feeling at the time for the rest of the month.  Simple and easy to remember.  My wheel is all set up in Decision Roulette for the random WIP pick and even though I didn't put any knitting or crocheting on the wheel, I do try to get a few rows in each night.

Two simple changes and I am feeling energized about my making again and a little settled.  The changes pull me away from "then" and put me in a mindset of now and now has got to be better.  It's not going to make for real exciting blogs as I'll only have one or maybe a few days of a second project, but everything is flexible and maybe this will get me back into weekly blog postings.

I can FINALLY show the making I did for Christmas this year.  I think everyone has received their card and the last of the boxes arrived at my sister's Tuesday.  

Here's my 2020 Christmas card:

The stamp is the Hydranea/Poinsetta PUNCH-INS stamp from Make an Impression.  I did a search for the company but it looks like they are out of business (my papercrafting stash is only about 10 years younger than my stitching stash).  Lots of punching, cutting and some watercoloring but I like how it turned out. 

And here are all the things I made for Christmas:

The four bags on the left were used instead of wrapping paper (I really don't like wrapping so being able to put the gift in the bag and zip it shut more than made up for the additional time it took to make them).  There are also a couple there in the background in different sizes.

There were two more hats (this is before blocking and prettying up) finished after the main picture the hats are knit in SplashOfColorYarnsUS's colorway Smoke on the Water:

And here is a close up of the finishing of the ornaments I showed a while ago:

The little bit of Spam fabric you can see is a mask for DSon.

and here's a closer look at the shawls.  It was one of the few VERY sunny days we've had so the colors are blown out.  The front one is deep greens and blues, the middles is teal and berry and the back one is rich, fall colors.

Now on to more recent making.

Before I started my new rotation, I worked on By the Bay Needleart's Time for Seasons.  It was here when I put it away last:

and it's here now:

This is a full-coverage piece - well, in the areas that are stitched - so it's going to be a long while before it's done.

Goldie (as a reminder since it's been ages since this was out - Goldie is my in-law's dog and I had HaED convert a picture into this Christmas stocking pattern that I hope to give to them this Christmas) was the first of my focus pieces in my new rotation.  She started here:

and today she's here:

I am still working on how to tone down that blue in her nose - I'll finish stitching before I do it just to see if it suddenly just works which happens a lot with HaED charting.  If it doesn't, I do have dyes that I can dilute and strategically place.  I'm very happy with my progress and will be working on her through Sunday.

I also started a throw and a shawl.

This is my version of the Habitation Throw by Helen Stewart (the pattern is available on Ravelry).  I say my version as I have already used a fair bit of "artistic license" especially on the edge as it's an i-cord edge and it is, at times, getting the best of me.  I'm using the Tour de Tolkien 2020 Advent calendar (although it's really a countdown to Christmas not an Advent) yarns from Bumblebee Acres Farm & Fiber Shop.  I was fortunate enough to snag one at their "we have a few left sale" in November.  This year's colors were based on the The Two Towers.  This is the colorway Smeagol.  I waited until they were all unwrapped and then made three yarn cakes with 8 days on each (my baller wouldn't handle all of them).  This is their Squishy Sock base (75% SW Merino/25% nylon).  They didn't have any on their Coquette base (75% SW Corridale/25% nylon) which is what I usually buy from them but this is a nice yarn and I'm enjoying trying something different.

Next up is my version Heavy Metal shawl by Shireen Nadir.  The pattern is available on Ravelry and from The Blue Brick shop.  

Again, my interpretation as I could not get the "slip with yarn in front, yarn over, knit" to look right, so I changed it (and you can see where on that left edge) to "with yarn in back" so I didn't drive myself crazy. I'm using the Winter Berry colorway -

- from WendysWonders127LLC on Etsy - gotta love Christmas money.  She does amazing gradients and offers large skeins - the one I bought is 600 yards and that's a medium.  The yarn is a wool/silk blend and hopefully I can do it justice.  

I also had an issue, with both of these projects, with the circular needles.  I'm used to a 9" circular for socks but not the 24" and 40" these use, so had cables in the way, yarn tangled around cables, etc.  I finally decided to start them on double pointed needles and once they're too long for them, transfer to the circulars. That seems to be working, but I am still having an issue with the yarn tangling.  I suppose some of it just comes with experience.

Speaking of yarn - I placed an order with Ravenswood Fibre Co and was expecting to wait forever as they are in Nova Scotia, Canada.  The other day I received a 9" x 13"manila envelope in the mail.  I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what it is as I hadn't ordered any patterns or books from Canada.  I open the envelope and it's my yarn!!!  To reduce shipping costs, they vacuum pack it!

That's a full 100g skein!!

I don't know how long I can keep it in the bag, but I am tempted to do this with the rest of my yarn.  Keeps it clean and sure makes storage easy.  This also shows how much air yarn fibers trap.

Thanks for reading this longer than anticipated post.  Hope everyone is well and see you in a couple weeks.