Some Progress

The first thing I do when I am preparing for a new post to this blog is to update my excel spreadsheet for the progress made on the entries.  Most of the time there is very little to change on the worksheet and I feel let down.  I just love colouring the spaces in green to mark my progress.  Today I was tickled green as I updated the spreadsheet.  There was  lots to colour in and percentages to change.  To me this was even more amazing since I had very little knitting time these past two weeks.

Last weekend was spent dealing with family stuff.  I went to see my mother and help my brother with chores that needed to be done before my mother's house is put up for sale.  Again I came home with a car full of stuff.

I have been having bouts of diverticulitis and suffering a great deal of pain.  This week was so bad I could not go to work.  I couldn't knit either.  I ended up in emerg at the Leamington hospital which greatly sped up the time it took to get a cat-scan.  While waiting for the scan, I started a new project.  I should have realized that I was in no shape to knit on anyhing.  I failed to fully read the pattern and started the cuff of a Christmas stocking in the round.  It worked fine until I got to where there were short-rows and the colour blue added.  If I was feeling better, I might have been able to figure out how to do this in the round and have it all work out but my brain was not functioning well and I came home and ripped it all out.  I started over, this time following the pattern.  It worked just fine going back and forth.  The main sock part is knit in the round and knits up quickly.  There was only a short seam on the cuff to do.

The knitting is almost all done on this stocking.  Just the loop for hanging to add.  I am now at the fussy bits - adding the snowmen and doing the embroidery.

Here is an almost completed Christmas stocking.

The white yarn is Galway 100% wool.  I bought it at the Little Red Mitten before they stopped carrying this brand.  The blue is Paton's Classic Wool picked up at the 2014 Listowel Tent Sale.  It is in a discontinued colourway.  The red for the scarf is a bit of left over wool from my Gansey knit earlier for the Fair.  The black for the hat is just some leftover yarn from my stash.  The orange for the nose is some yarn I dyed with flowers from my garden and is left over from some project knit last year.  The stocking pattern is Winter Wonderland from a Leisure Arts book - The Stockings Were Knit.  I picked up the book in the fall on a trip to the Mary Maxim store in London (Ontario).

On one of my pain days, I was unable to sit for any length of time.  So I puttered about the house to cope.  I had a bit of a blocking party.

The dresser in the background above is one I brought home from my mother's house.  The drawers are large and deep.  I had a smaller dresser in this spot for storing my knitted items in.  This one holds so much more.  The other one was full and most of my entries were being stored in a plastic tub elsewhere.  Now all my entries are in this dresser with room for still more.  This dresser was originally a gift to my father from his mother.  The gift was made in June of 1969.  I know because it is written on the back.  I feel my Babcia would be pleased to know that I have this dresser and that it is being stuffed with hand crafts.  Her crocheted doilies and embroidered dresser scarves are in the top drawer.

On Friday, I was home and not feeling up to doing much.  My pain levels are back to the normal aches and pains of a woman my age but I am still tired.  I had a finishing up day.  Four more items to go into the dresser drawers.

The button on the above hat came from my button collection.

The tea cozy doesn't quite fit any of my teapots.  I blocked the cozy using my basic round flat-topped teapot. I thought the camel pot would be a better fit but no it isn't.  A few years ago I had a party and put out tea in several teapots.  Everyone wanted to drink the tea from the camel pot.  I had to refill it several times while the other pots went untouched.  Same tea in each but the camel was the most popular.  I think I will have to make a trip to the Blimey store in Harrow soon to get a small brown betty pot for this cozy.

The Luella shawl still needs to be blocked.  The cushion requires a trip to Fabricland in Windsor to get a grey zipper and a cushion form before I can finish it.  The child's sweater is still on the needles. The Christmas stocking needs some final touches to be finished.  It is time to cast on something else.

I now have 24 complete items.  This is more than I have ever entered in the Harrow Fair before so that is an accomplishment in its own right.  2 projects are almost done.  1 is in progress.  3 are chosen but not yet started and 12 are untouched.  My gut tells me I won't finish 42 items in time but I am going to bravely carry on.  It ain't over until Wednesday August 31 when the entries have to be delivered to the Harrow Fair.

Just a reminder that the Fair starts Thursday September 1 and ends on Sunday September 4 at 5:pm.