Catching up

I feel like I'm catching up today. Yesterday was kind of crazy and I didn't finish either an Ice Drop or two sections of Joanne's cowl.

I received my newest shuttle from Grizzly Mountain Arts today.

I do love Dave Stanbrough's doodle art!

This is the Doodle Ice Drop I started yesterday. I was happy to finish it today!

I didn't quite catch up on Joanne's cowl. I finished section 9 today. Earlier in the week I had hoped to finish section 10 by today. Still, I've made good progress. Once I finish the nine rows in section 10, I'll be ready to start the second side. This is going to be one cozy cowl!

Progress

I'm making progress on two fronts. First, I'm rebuilding my Ice Drop stash, and I'm having fun doing it!

I also managed to knit another two sections on Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl. Next I need to make progress on another front... organizing my craft supplies!

Sneak a Peek

Today was my first day back at school after the Christmas break. Teachers had to be back yesterday for a day full of meetings, but I only need to be at school on days when students are present.

It felt good to get back into my routine, and I even managed to tat an Ice Drop while supervising students in the Learning Commons!

Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl is coming along nicely. I now have four sections completed. There are ten sections on the textured side of the cowl. When that's complete, I'll knit the striped side. I think this is going to be one beautiful cowl!

Knitting day

A couple of weeks before Christmas, daughter Joanne asked if I would knit this cowl for her if she bought the yarn kit. I said yes!

By the time I finished my morning chores and caked the yarn, it was lunch time. I really do wonder where the time goes!

The pattern has been easy to follow, but as I was finishing round 7 I realized that I had knit round 3 incorrectly. So, I carefully frogged out rows 3 through 7 and reknit them correctly. I really had planned on getting some tatting in today, but I was determined to finish two sections of this cowl today. Tatting will have to wait until tomorrow!

This and that

I did a little of this and a little of that today... laundry, putting Christmas decorations away, tatting, knitting, visiting friends.

I managed to pack up three boxes of Christmas decorations in the morning and rewarded myself with some tatting time.

I needed to do one load of laundry before we left to visit friends, so my second Ice Drop was tatted while we were on our way to visit.

We watched a little of the Vikings/Saints game, and while that was on I did a little knitting. All in all, it was a great day!

Busy day

We had a lot to accomplish today. Dave had a truck to unload for work, and he was scheduled to help daughter Carol work on the set for the upcoming high school musical, Back to the 80s.

While Dave was gone, I worked on the undecorating process. We have a lot of decorations to take down and put away! Dave was surprised at the progress I made, but we have a long way to go.

I made sure I took lots of tatting breaks today. I was playing with the one pass method of tatting an Ice Drop. There are advantages to the one pass method. The main one for me is that it's easy to fit the tatting to a larger or smaller glass gem. However, I do get easily confused switching from front rings to back rings. I really need to concentrate.

The glass gems that I crackled a while back are a little larger than 3/4", which meant that I needed seven rings to fit around the gem when using 6 ds between each picot. The rings are all 6-6-6 and the chains are 6-6. I usually like odd numbers, but for Ice Drops I prefer six points for a snowflake look.

I played around with the stitch count, and by changing from 6 to 7 ds I was able to get the six points I wanted.

I really think that Lizbeth Snow White is a little thicker than the Christmas Green. Using the 7 ds count was a little too loose for the crackled glass gems, but this cat's eye gem fit pretty well. I think I'll try the 6 ds in white tomorrow.

I have about 2" to go to finish my scrap yarn cowl. I thought I had a little bit of dark brown yarn to add, but I can't find it, so I plan on moving on to the light rose color.

My yarn arrived today for the Sanditon MKAL from Kristen in Stitches that starts next week. I chose the blue colorway... surprise, surprise!

Lazy day

I really was pretty lazy today. We didn't take down any Christmas decorations. I did do one load of laundry, but the rest of the day was spent sitting in my chair tatting, knitting, and reading.

I played with Edda Guastalla's design again, combining it with my Doodle Ice Drop pattern.

The sides did not wrap around the glass gem as nicely as the last one did.

I think that may be because of the rings I added to the back side. I sure am having fun playing!

Today was blocking day for the cowls I've finished knitting. These two are out of Wool-Ease that I purchased nearly 13 years ago. I guess it was about time I got around to using this yarn!

These two are out of Caron x Pantone, a lovely bamboo. Daughter Joanne has claimed the one on the right. The other three cowls are up for adoption!

My current cowl is going to be a scrap buster. I used all I had left of the medium rose and the blue, and I'm hoping to have enough of the burgundy color to finish it off. If not, I have some light rose that I can use. Now that I'm on a roll, all I have to do is make room for a gift closet just like Aunt Helen's!