Woven scarf is done - yay!

The woven scarf is done..Ta Da!

Even though I warped it up on the 20th, the majority of the weaving was done the last couple of days. I'm guesstimating 7 hours of weaving with the overshot technique. I now thoroughly understand how it works..you need a 2nd shuttle doing an alternating tabby after every row of weft so that if there are multiple rows stacked up one after the other, they stay there instead of pulling back out.
Here it is in the sun today pre-block:

Still have to do the hemming, which I wish I'd done while the scarf was still one the loom. I was so excited when the warp hit the back of the heddles, that I just cut the scarf off the loom, and now, I have to do the hemstitching on the end, so I can block it. This might have to wait until I can get a clear picture how to do it to match the nice stitching that Kathy made on the other end of the scarf.
It looks gorgeous - hope I did not beat too close so that the yarn has a chance to plump in the right places. This is one scarf that I wish I'd done blocking of the sample before I continued.

I discovered that I tend to make stupid mistakes like dipping the shuttle down and under threads instead of through the open shed when I'm tired or hungry. yuck. lots of twisting and untwisting going on. I think it took me about 45mins to do each pattern repeat. Since the tie-up was the spaces, I really should have been putting the pattern sheet on my loom upside down so I could see the pattern as I was weaving it in the right direction. Now, I understand why the previous owners numbered the pedals 1 to 4 from right to left, to match the shading of the squares when the pattern is upside down. It actually made it a lot easier to weave from, rather than numbers, since I'm visual, and much easier than trying to put the pattern on a post next to the loom.
...
Lots of end of the year sales on yarn..see my Yarn enabler tab for updates.

weaving in the works..

Trying out the overshot technique now..

This ia a laceweight black 100% Jaggerspun Merino, and the weft is Verdant Gryphon Bugga (Sportweight) in Orchid Inspiration 07 which is a variegated pink. It is weaving up like velvet.
Pattern is from the Miniature Overshot Pattern book by Bertha Hayes.
Really lovely.

Sportweight Cardi Water and Stone has been split at the armholes, and I'm working on the waist decreases/increases now. This to be tried on, as I'm not sure how well it's doing. I'm only knitting on fridays these days.

Christmas is coming...

I have been a busy gal. I've been exploring weaving on a borrowed loom. Mostly yarns from my stash - sportweight and made a couple of scarves. I'm very happy with them. They take a couple of evenings, plus time to wind warp, warp the loom, and finishing, including twisting the fringe (which is quite a thrill).

Halcyon yarn is having a Win your Wishlist contest through Dec. 12th.
Here's mine - mostly weaving yarns and equipment for my new love. Any jeweltones for yarns and laceweight (since I don't have a lot of lacweight knitting yarns).

Of course, I still am slogging away at my old love...Water and Stone Cardi. I unknit and re-knit about 2-3 cable repeats, and ended up dropping ends down and picking them back up in cable pattern to fix the hiccup. Now, I've split for the armholes, and I've knit 1.5" of 3". Pretty much very slow going.

My tree is up and sparkling, and I am also interested to explore a bit of painting over the Christmas holidays..Also, doing some destashing on Ravelry...hope to have a page up here shortly.

mid-October

Two weekends ago, I went over to Vancouver for Knit City. Class with the Yarn Harlot on Knitting for Speed and Efficiency was a lot of fun. I think I will try out the lever knitting technique.

I bought some yarn (pics to come later) from Sweet Georgia 2 Skeins Trinity Worsted (MCN base) in Mulberry a lovely red-purple...surprising ? haha, and also a couple of bulky skeins of Superwash Skein - 1 in mulberry (can't resist the colorway...) and Deep Cove (a lovely dark teal) which I really love.

Also visited with a friend, and tried to do some shopping with my mom, and had some good food there. It was a beautiful clear day both going over and coming back on Harbour Air - these were my 2 free tickets from a year ago.. What a treat!

For knitting, I'm in a bit of a funk. One one hand, brimming with ideas, but not as motivated to knit them, and not motivated to knit anything on my queue. So...last weekend, I started weaving again. I am borrowing (likely buying) a loom from a friend at the Handweaver's and Spinners Guild. It's a table loom (up to 15" wide) with a stand. I dug into my stash, picked out a pattern, and made a simple scarf in a couple of evenings. Well, not a plain weave, but an arrow-like chevron design, and some waves. Yarn is Verdant Gryphon Bugga in Wales (Dark Gray-brown with blue in it) as the warp, and VG Bugga Eye of Newt (pink, orange, and black). I also added some in VG Bugga Blue Stick Insect (which is a brilliant turquoise, and navy blue) for some watery-like bits.

I sprung for a Tassimo coffee machine with the Sears points I'd been accumulating..yum!

In yarny news,  my Tri'Coterie Luxury Yarn club arrived. It's a camel-silk blend - red and black together, with a shawl pattern, solid perfume (roses), and a beading needle.

pics to come.

October

My brain is somewhat fried these days..i've been enjoying life and have overscheduled myself just a bit too much. Work is going well, and I'm enjoying that very much.

I've been doing some swatching and playing with yarns, and I volunteered to do a newsletter for my guild, so that's been keeping me busy. I started socks with a Tri'Coterie Sock Gold Dust yarn called The Girl who was on Fire, after the Hunger Games theme. I wanted to make socks like these..

 

but my feet are narrower and smaller, so i'm getting a striping look on the toe up - i'm not sure i'll keep this. I'm wondering too if I'm getting a bit of lost mojo...or just was too tired the last few weeks.

 

September

Capricious is done and blocked and looks great on me..now, just to get some photos.
The weather has been cool in the mornings and evening, but nice hot summer weather during the day. Arms might be a bit snug again so I might have to re-block those with towels inside. The i-cord edge still rolls a bit even after blocking, but I don't have my silk pins handy, that was just from soaking and laying out.

My mind is brimming with ideas, so I've started to just wind yarn to play a bit for the next little while. I want to just knit for me (which I've been doing the whole way along) but also to just knit some of my own ideas rather than knitting ideas from others. I might revisit this..but for now, it's what I want to do.

As someone in my group mentioned as well..I've gone away from the churn of 12 projects in 2012..I think it was actually 14 in 2014..which means you either push yourself to be crazy and put a lot of strain on your hands and arms by trying to knit faster, or you end up knitting a lot of simple projects like hats and shawls..or you have way too much time on your hands and you're doing knitting to the exclusivity of all else.

I volunteered to take care of the newsletter for my guild - Victoria Handweavers and Spinners Guild.
There was a bit of finagling to get my formatting to work in Word, but it was fun to put together. Also busy with the home stuff that occurs for me in fall. I'm settling in again as well to my life and just being flexible around events and spending time where I like.

I also started dreaming about travel again - I'd like to go to Italy in the next 3 years...and perhaps France..someday a Mediterranean cruise.

Capricious shots - cabling detail and contiguous sleeves

Early Pics:

with close-ups of the contiguous sleeve and cabling - I'm alternating between twists at 7 Rows and 9 Rows.

I've completed one sleeve, and I'm more than half way through the second, and the hem is done on the body with the i-cord edge (substituted for the garter in the pattern).

August Days.

Mid-August and the weather is still deliciously warm. There were a few less than 70s days, but the weather seems to have bounced back now.

Capricious is humming along..I like the contiguous sleeves, but the pattern is exceptionally long and over-written - 13 pages with the chart, and copyright info, and no schematic. Pics are available, but it's best to look at finished projects on Ravelry to check out what the cardi looks like. I followed another raveler's lead by doing an i-cord edging instead of the garter. I think it'll make it look a bit more elegant. I also added some rows to the front edging to bridge the gap a little better, so about 8 Rows total. I had already added the i-cord edging to the hem all the way around when I realized I hadn't picked up and done the fronts, so there was small piece where I had to pick up and join the i-cord to make it continuous. I really like the look, and I think it will look great once blocked.

So, I'm about 66% on this project, and will be finishing up the sleeves. Used 2 full skeins (400 yds) Cephalopodyarns Bugga in Man of War, so far.

I finally went into Origins Bakery (gluten-free) on Friday. I buckled and bought 2 cupcakes - one chocolate with cherries, and one with lemon and blueberries. the lemon one was really good, the other one, was good but not as good as I expected. Also, a loaf of pepita bread which I'm cautiously eating, as I've been avoiding yeast, as well as wheat. It tastes really good, and I broke into my fig jam from the Maison Preserves who sells at the Moss St. Market on Saturdays. Mmmm.. Also, at Origins, I picked up a package of homemade marshmallows..wow, these things are really to die for.

Had some recent  lovely yarn deliveries..but I've misplaced my camera's battery charger, so I will have to hunt for that and post pics when  have them. I think I took some pics earlier of Capricious, so I'll take a look for those, and load what I have.

Almost forgot to write about the fabulous day I had today - I went to Fibrations (local fibre fair in Victoria). A lady was leaving right when I pulled onto the street where the fair was being held, so I snagged a great parking spot, opposite the gate. I only had a half hour to zip in and get some stuff, so I dashed over to Melissa's booth, and snagged a large box bag (pink glasses), and a smaller one of shopping ladies. Then, over to the raffles, and 10 minutes to zip around the rest of the booths. About the only thing that caught my eye was a lady who was making needle felted hangings. she had this gorgeous hanging of a octopus in the sea. If it hadn't sold already, I probably would have snagged it.

Then, over to a lovely massage, which I was on time for, and then, over to my storage unit to do a bit of reorganizing. I found some yarn I'd been searching for, and reorganized another box for my friend Kim who does fundraising. It was really one of those glorious sunny days when you just wish you could sit on your porch and eat ice cream..which I would have done, except I was out and about enjoying the sun. Here's hoping it stays through October.

Larch is finished

My Larch cardi is finished..as a colleague of mine said yesterday,"Great - just in time for the hot weather..." as it was 78F on Tuesday for Canada Day. yep, probably too hot to wear a long-sleeve bugga cardigan. The collar turned out lovely.

and I swatched this yarn - Cephalopodyarns Bugga in Discontinued colorway Man of War.



The yarn really puffs up with washing.

My swatch measures 23st and 32R on US 6 after blocking.
My target gauge is 22st and 28R on US 7 for the pattern Capricious (which is a 3/4 length sleeve cardi with a twisted cable running down the outside of the arms, and contiguous set-in sleeves (first time I'll be trying this technique). I like the material on the US 6 and know it would be way too loose on a US7, so I'm going to try to knit the S2 size. There's no schematic though so that's kind of annoying.

Larch collar

ok, yay..i'm finally (drumroll, please) on the collar of my Larch cardi..the one i've been slowly, diligently, and patiently plodding along on since February (!) yep, lots of changes in my personal life since then. Still in a transformational period pretty much..and I'm holding back a little from my normal yarn splurges. Need to save.

I am on the last few pickups on the front bind-offs, and then, to pick up the entire twisted rib edge for an inch. so very close. Then, to seam.

I've been wearing my other larch quite a bit, since the evenings cool off after the sun goes down.

Second round of csm socks

My second round of CSM socks arrived and they are amazing.

These 2 are from White Birch Fiber Arts - they're her rainbow gradient stripey yarns...

(a) Nothing Says Screw You like a Rainbow:



(b) Does this Rainbow make my black look big?



These are the others from the yarn I sent to redknitz

(c) Verdant Gryphon Eidos in The Morrigan (Universal colorway is Eye of Newt)





She added black from Wandering Cat Yarns for the Heels and Toes, and the color is very striking!

(d) Canon Hand Dyes MCN Jane in valentine 2012 colorway:
“When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew” ~ Hamlet.”
which is a Black with orange, purple and pink stripey..



(e) Wollmeise in Verhext and Verratzt
(redpurple and dark gray together)



(f) Wollmeise in Igor:
(redpurple and gray)



and here



 (g) Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in Milkweed Beetle
(blue-green teal colorway):



(h) Tri'Coterie Sock MCN In Finnick (Hunger Games colorway series):

June

I've been kind of awol, I know.

I've been superbusy in the last 2 weeks and haven't had time to post.
My other cranked socks are in the mail and I hope to see them soon.
I'm still working on my Larch Cardi - and now, I have the body done, and Sleeve 1 is done.

I've started sleeve 2, and after that, still the collar to do.

My socks arrived ::happy dance::

Woohoo! - My cranked socks arrived...Look at these beauties...

The Wollmeise Pure 100% in Mon Cheri:



This was one of the first skeins I owned..that I convinced a longtime WM-hoar to part with.
The socks are very very comfy..and I'm very pleased with them.

Ribbed body (5 x 1) with a ribbed cuff:





Sanguine Gryphon Eidos in Nuit (Blue Poison Dart Frog equivalent):



One sock is more red-purple, and the other has more green.
The body is plain stockinette; and the cuff is a picot cuff.



Here's a close-up of the feet:



Third pair is Verdant Gryphon Bugga in Blue Stick Insect:





Plain stockinette body and ribbed cuff:





and I re-discovered that my feet are indeed smaller in the eve/late night than morning.
The ribbed socks fit the best, and the others fit better in the morning, and become more loose as the day wears on.

Small detour: Beautiful Brass & Steam Shawl

I took a small detour by signing up for a contest to fast knit a shawl using a particular colorway in the Verdant Gryphon Group. The colorway - Orchids for Miss Blandish.

The yarn looked like this -



It's a lovely combination of blues, turquoise, and redpink / redpurple, with ranges of pastels in between - lavender, and periwinkle, light blues, and light greens. Really, a very pretty mix.

Based on this inspiration photo:

The planned project The Age of Brass and Steam Shawl with an additional section of 14 rows.
Mods: 7R, 10R, 12R, 14R, and jssbo for bind-off.

It ended up taking more like a week than a couple of hours. I guess I'm just not a fast knitter anymore..and I need to focus on other things these days..

Here's the finished pic (pre-block, as per the contest instructions). Unfortunately, my deck door was casting an odd shadow:

April

First few days of April and the weather is gorgeous today - low 50s..and very pleasant. I could have worn short sleeves. I frogged back to the first stitch marker yesterday and re-wound the yarn around itself. I determined I had only knit 3 of the 8 decreases I was going to do, hence way more fabric than intended. Hopefully, second time is a charm. On the decluttering front, I went through and recycled/shredded the contents of 3 file boxes, and 2 small boxes on Sunday..and packed 13 boxes for Kim's fundraising work. I am letting go of a lot of old baggage which is great.. It's weird the stuff I kept for so long. Next to review clothes for donation, and do some organizing. Also, more yardage out, as I've sent away some skeins to be cranked into Circular Sock Machine (CSM) socks. Postage was reasonable (!). It'll end up being about $3 out of pocket for postage for a pair of socks. I'll post later a pic of the pretties.

Larch II in a lurch..

So, I measured my Larch II this week. It was going along pretty swimmingly..until I re-measured, and measured it against both my first Larch, and also my normal felted wool jacket. The good news is that I followed my previous mods exactly. The bad news is that I knit looser now than I did back then. So, this...

must now be re-visited. I think I'll have to rip back about 1/2 of it, and re-knit so that I follow the designer's plan for the decreases. for some reason time, although my gauge was closer to 24st/4" instead of the 23st/4" called for in the pattern, there was a slight growth, and so it just fit. Now, as per the gauge calculation, I'm dead on with an extra 9st/4" 9 of 24 is almost 1/2 of the 4", so almost 2" of extra. ok, I should just believe the math, next time. and..I'm not really working on anything else for knitting. I did today though go through and get rid of a bunch of old stuff that I've been moving around from place to place. these are the last few boxes that always get moved with my move. essentially old files and there was a lot there..now, it's in recycling and set to be shredded. Also, I packed 4 more boxes for Kim for her fundraising efforts, 1 more bag of plastic bags for recyling, and 1 bag of books for our United Way fundraiser at work...and onwards and upwards.

Come back spring!

Whew - weird weather we've been having...It was just beautiful Sunday, Monday this week, then, yesterday morning, I was scraping my windshield. Luckily, it warmed up in the afternoon.

I can't believe it's been a month since I put Rapunzel aside. I have made some measurements but need to get back to the designer's instructions to make sure I got them all. I have almost lost my knitting mojo..except that yarns still call to me to make lovely things.

My yarn buying is definitely slowing down though..thankfully. Although one can never have too much yarn, I think I'm heading towards SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)..well, maybe more like SANLE, with the N being for near. I imagine I'll be knitting into retirement years, and I don't have that much yarn.

I am still clearing stuff at home. My work is doing a mini book sale as a precursor to the T-C book sale that occurs in April-May timeframe. I brought 3 grocery bags full to work of books for donation, and fundraising. Destashed a bunch of older Interweave mags last week, and culled my needles the month before. Will go through again before my birthday to see if there's more yarn to destash. I have been getting rid of the lys yarn to Kim to sell. For a lot of things, I'm just closing my eyes, and putting it in the boxes for Kim. There's a lot I can't access right away, so that's an indicator of what I really use. I finally got rid of boxes of photo paper as I long since retired the hp printer that uses the photo paper. I'm not printing as much these days anyway.

Everything Old will be closing soon (see her blog here), and will be taking a last custom order following Fibres West. It's nice to have a dyer in the group, and I think there will be another one starting again, so there will be possibilities for more yarn (heh, which I definitely do not need).

Larch II is continuing but boring stockinette. I am about half way on the stockinette rows before I am decreasing. I need 36 to match my other Larch. It looks beautiful. Will have to take a better pic. I too a couple photos on my ipad and they turned out great - much more accurate once the photo was loaded to iphoto than on the screen, as there is no light meter. I have an older model, so there's no adjustments. I will have to check out if Yarma is available for ipad.

For ebooks, I read the "first phone call from heaven" by mitch albom..I would say skip this if you are thinking about it..not as good as his "five people you meet in heaven" book. Feels like I got ripped off, actually. I don't like feeling like a manipulated reader. I am mid-way through the biography on Steve Jobs. It's interesting to read the historical parts. Compelling People was a good read, and I also read "The Night Circus" which was a fascinating-couldn't-put-it-down read.






 

Starting something new...

I blocked the body of Rapunzel yesterday and need to settle down and count stitches to see if the designer can recalc the sleeve cap. It's a lot of work but will hopefully be worthwhile since the body is so beautiful and the yarn is just scrumptious. Bugga. Strawberry Crab.

In the meanwhile, it had been 2 or so weeks since I'd knit since I was busy with other activities. Although my job is good and stable right now, I feel like I'm in flux in the rest of my life, and it's definitely a transition period. It's 2 weeks in on the Year of the Horse, and it shows.  I'm going through my stuff and getting rid of stuff to my friend Kim for her fundraising efforts ($3K they are trying to raise this year for chicken farming in Cote d'Ivoire)...and still outstanding for me to work through some old grief work, and get rid of emotional and physical baggage. It's been really freeing.

At Christmas time, I let go of some older hobbies - silk painting, some scrapbooking, rubber stamping, confetti I'd collected over the years; also, pared down collectibles, even some old LYS yarn. I'm no longer keeping tins. I also took my tree down which freed up some space.
I also reduced my addi needle collection by destashing to one of the gals in my group. I had collected a lot of odd sizes of needles and shorter ones before using the Magic Loop Method.

February's work is about clearing paper clutter. in a big way. I have moved so many times, and just shoved paper in boxes. It's probably the most expensive paper collection on the planet - old bills, old reference sheets, printed patterns etc. It will have to be sorted, recycled, shredded. My eyes are open now...and I'm loving the space created from being freed up. Mostly what's driving it is that I can't find things when I do need them; so, that makes it easier to let go of them.

I also expect I'll be getting rid of books for the T-C book sale when that rolls around as I am just moving like a lot of people towards e-books. I'm currently reading "Compelling People" which is a very interesting read, and I'm loving getting the latest news and tech. news through Flipboard. It has changed the way I approach and read news. I'm also thinking of finally cancelling my newspaper (I know, it's so old school). In my previous job, I was forced to be extroverted for 90% of my day, and I had no control over my time at work, so I found it was soothing to read at lunch and restore my energies. Now, I'm in a position where I'm using my skills to work more cross-organizationally which suits my abilities and needs, and I have more control over my time.  Way fewer and more productive meetings. I'm much happier in it. It's the one thing I hope will stay constant in the next few months.
People comment to me at the office about how they can hear me laughing, it's pretty amazing.

I also have started wearing more of my sweaters - Larch which was made from SG Bugga Blue Stink Bug. It's pilling a lot, and I've been using the Gleener to reduce the pills (essentially fine sand paper on a handle),

and Audrey which has turned out to be a very flattering sweater. I'm not sure I'm too keen on the arms not being set-in sleeves, but they seem to be ok. Ironically, of the 2 sleeves, the left one is kind of tight which was the instructions I followed from the designer (who probably has different arms than me), and my right arm seems ok (which I adapted from instructions on the web for a top-down sleeve cap). On wednesday, I wore Audrey buttoned up and I had a lot of compliments about it. A friend mentioned that it looks "store bought", so perhaps I've arrived. I joked about it being a luxury cardi though...no cheap chinese labour, since I spent probably 6 weeks knitting it.

The something new is that I decided because I was getting so antsy from only bare minimum knitting at knit night to swatch and cast-on a new project..while I was waiting for Rapunzel to dry and to be motivated to count the stitches etc. I broked into a stashed Sweater Quantity (SQ) of SG Milkweed Beetle. Here is a pic that shows the skeins in natural light (looking very variegated):



Inside, the yarn is very much a teal colorway and so beautiful.

So, progress on that is that I've swatched, and knit the first twisted rib rows. I'm ready to bind-off and pick up for the bottom of the cardi and I'm re-looking at the mods I made the last time. I think I didn't do a lot of decreasing at the waist last time but it's a very comfortable sweater, so I'll have to do a try on and see what's going on. I'd weighed myself in January, and the last time I think had been summer..seems I dropped 10 lbs..but I think it was a bit of stress and running around. 
I feel more energetic these days and I'm generally sleeping better.

The milkweed beetle skeins are all over the map in terms of weight. One skein is 150g, one is 125g, and the other is 130g, so I hope I'll have enough yardage amongst the 3 skeins to do the larch. I do have a fourth skein but it is more green. So, I'll have that as stand-by. Last time, I had to break into the fourth skein for seaming.

I'm also under no illusions this year for any competitive or KAL knitting. The olympics is on right now, but I'm just too busy to try to control that aspect of my life or put myself under more pressure to get things done. It'll happen as it happens, and I'm enjoying the fruits of my labour in a lot of ways these days. I have a lot of SQs and I'll start them as I'm inspired to do so.

Add-in Victoria Film Festival is on right now...so I watched Linsanity last Monday, and caught up on loony tunes at the Jammies and Toons show. Both feel good films.

February

I was kicking along with my Rapunzel quite nicely..I had knit the chart of sleeve 1 then, pulled it out to re knit 2" smaller because I have small wrists. I increased up to the armhole..trying it on, taking into account the fact that the arm stretches out and becomes shorter. Then, forgot that following the instructions for the cap sleeve wouldn't work because I'd mod'd both the arm hole (4 stitches smaller because of the pointy triangles), and the 10 stitches smaller on the sleeve.

So, to console myself, I knit the chart for the 2nd sleeve, and I'm ruminating. Need to block the body, and do measurements. The designer has kindly agreed that I can send her them and she will try to calculate the cap sleeve. It's so beautiful. I hope I can finish this before the end of the Olympics.


January just blew by. Lots of activity, clean up, getting rid of emotional and physical baggage; also, playing with devices, and doing reading. I have read books for a long time - went through the Shades of Grey series (way too sappy and romanticized) but a light read; also Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahnemann, and now, Compelling People. There is a comment in there about women in HR not wanting to hire attractive women..could explain the number of attractive guys in my office.

Sun is out, but it's very cold here.

I'm in a bit of a knitting funk as my knitting has stalled. hope to pick it up again soon.

Rapunzel progress pics Jan 6

Sleeve Detail:


Body Back:



Front Detail (will not be likely wearing it over another garment..and I expect the yarn to bloom..so it hopefully won't end up looking so pulled in the middle):



Front (yep, with my stitch markers still attached hah!)



Two more pics - flat in natural light:



and side lacing cable:



Status:
Body done; I'm up to the elbow on sleeve 1 of 2.

Mod on sleeve: 
For second size, to accommodate my smaller wrists, I reduced the stockette stitch count to 15st before/after the chart. This makes a snug-er sleeve, and eliminated 2" in the wrist area (compared to the pattern).

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all !

Rapunzel is on its way - body is done, and it fits nicely...this is pre- block. I'm hoping it doesn't grow too much. One the second try with the sleeve. After knitting the chart, and part of the wrist, it was just too big for my hands. I have small wrists, so I had almost 2" extra at the sleeve area and it was too floppy and that was with the chart being relaxed. So, after blocking, it would be way wider. I re-checked the designer's pics and the chart is smooth around her hand with no floppy. so, I ripped back 70-80 rows..and did a re-start and I'm on row 8.

The tip with this is to try on your swatch and use that to figure out how many stitches to use for the cast-on. I ended up with 15 stitches and 15 stitches of stockinette around the 25 stitch chart, instead of 21 and 21 for my size. 12 stitches ends up being 2" according to the gauge swatch.

I'm putting this at 72% done, as 70 seems to be where I usually stall.

The SG bugga is really soft and it's a gorgeous colorway - Strawberry Crab.

I had a wonderful Christmas. It was the first Christmas Dinner where everyone was pleasant, and I received amazing gifts.  New Year's was low key and it's so quiet this morning..the whole world is asleep.

ETA: If you didn't read the sale tab - Verdant Gryphon is having a free shipping sale today until Midnight Eastern time (9pm Pacific) - just enter the code "free" without the quotes into the coupon field with your order.