Yarn Along {January}

In case anyone wondered, the rules are roughly
 these: on your own blog, post this "button,"
seen here. Tell everyone what you
are reading and what you
 are working on right now. 

Hello, all! I haven't posted in the Yarn Along for the blog Small Things in a while, so here is my January post!

Right now, as part of my to-do list for my 50th year, I am working on list item #3: make birthday gifts for my two youngest daughters by the end of February (their birthdays are the 21st and the 25th). Amy Rose, turning 10 this year, will receive the Professor Meow sweater, designed by Claire Slade and seen on the Knit Picks website. I originally got this pattern (and bought the Wonderfluff yarn for it; a lovely mix of baby alpaca, merino and nylon fibers)  at Vogue Knitting Live in Bellevue, Washington in 2017, and in true procrastination fashion, I have been sitting on it until now.



Amy's sweater is my first real try at Intarsia and I have watched Sally Melville explain how to execute this technique on Craftsy (now becoming Bluprint) about 50 times. After a while, you just have to give it a go and stop living vicariously through someone else who can neither hear, nor see, nor really interact with you. I have learned that intarsia isn't insanely easy, but it also isn't insanely hard. You must be willing to blindly do as you are told, go very slowly, and it works out okay. Even so, I can tell that Professor Meow will do better with a bit of blocking once we are through!

Annie, turning 19 this year and living on her own for the first time, will receive a cowl that is taking an e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y to knit, with 400 stitches in the round (Okay, that number was my choice. The cast-on stitches were fewer, but not by much. I just started out with too much yarn tail, and there's no way I was going to remove 320 stitches just to start over with a smaller tail!). Those 400 stitches work together in a squishy slip-stitch pattern, and boy do those little guys love each other! They insist on hugging together in a pebbly, cushy way, so that after hours of knitting you feel like no progress has even been made. Have I already complained about that? Sorry. I can't hear you above my self-pity.

The cowl pattern is free (Is it? Really? Or is it an eternal sentence in hell?) and it called Array by Shibui Knits. I am using Lion Brand Wool Ease for Annie's and I plan to continue the eternal slip-stitch pattern for another couple of inches and then go off the rails a bit (for even more excitement) and switch out for stripes for a few extra inches, and then finally sew aaaaallllllll those stitches together for a totally closed cowl. Annie had better wear this thing.  Or else.

My reading is varied these days between audio and hard-copy books. My audio book right now is The Stand by Stephen King. I have never read one of his books and I've always wanted to read this one. I do so love microbes, and the mayhem they can cause is incredible. They are amazing and terrifying little buggers! For those times when children are in the room and I cannot play the audio book due to not-so-kid-friendly-language-subjects-otherstuff, I can quietly read my paper copy of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Thanks to Annie, my almost 19-year-old daughter for that one! I loved American Gods and I am so into this book.

Yes, I know. I know. You can see I am fascinated by apocalyptic storylines and the more supernatural the themes, the better for me. In fact, you as you get to know me on the blog here (or if you already know me in real life -- you know who you are), you will find I have a dark streak (humor, mostly...) that sometimes even freaks out my adult kids. But I like to think of it all as good, clean, end-of-humanity-as-we-know-it fun. After all, if we explore our fears, don't we totally control our worlds? No? Oh, well. "What if...." is still a good game, if you ask me.










Next up on the blog: I have no idea. First, let's make sure we make it to next week. ;)