Slow Sunday Stitching (and August Blackbird Weekend) - August 7, 2022

I missed the last two weeks, sorry about that.   But work was the usual end of the fiscal year crazy with my big annual project filed on July 25 and an audit came in, and month end close.   It was a madhouse.   I am having to go into the remote office only occasionally right now, but there were two days in there that were required.   I hate that commute more each time I have to make it!   Work keeps me from the important things - like crafting!  On the other hand it PAYS for the important things - like crafting LOL.

Since the last time I checked in I did have a couple of finishes - the USMC Seal and the Blue Fuzzy Hat.  I also cast on a new hat.  

 I'm having a bit of a 'Cinnamon Toast' issue with these hats.   I think it might have been Stephanie Pearl-McFee that described this knitter's dilemma.   You know how it goes with cinnamon toast - you need two things for that nostalgic treat - buttered bread and cinnamon sugar.   Often one gets to the last piece of bread with a lot of cinnamon sugar left, so you toast more bread, but run out of the sweet topping before you get the last slice.  So you make more cinnamon sugar.......   These hats are the same.   I came up short on the main yarn for the Blue Fuzzy Hat.   It's not standard weight sock yarn, but Opal Sport Sock, much heavier.   I do not like making or wearing sport weight socks.  Though I have several pairs in the finished sock drawer, they are only worn in the depths of winter.   So I did not want to purchase any more sport weight sock yarn.  But I did find a nice sport weight (non-sock) yarn, and ordered it in blue and tan - plenty to finish the hat.   I reserved one tiny ball of the original Opal yarn for the upper stripe and merrily used it all up, with the new blue for a big stripe and the crown on that hat.  But then I had this leftover......

So I cast on a simple colorwork hat with the tan as the main color and the blue as the contrast color.   Let's hope I don't run out!!!

This week is Blackbird Weekend.   I've selected Loose Feathers #32 "Beyond My Heart" as the next BBD project.

It was part of my old kit subscription from a semi-local shop.   Now, most of these kits have been pretty nice, but this one had an issue.  You can't really tell in the photo, but the fabric was cut off grain.   Now I don't expect stores to pull a single thread and cut along the channel as they used to.   It's tedious and quite time consuming, though it does give you a piece of fabric that is perfectly on grain.

But I also don't expect to loose almost an inch in dimension when I square it up myself!

the remains of pulling threads and getting on grain

I was so frustrated that I put it away yesterday and went back to my Plaza Sewing Bag.   This is about seven hours in and only the dome and rotunda on the clock tower is done so far - lots of persnickety stitching in that area!  As estimated, this building will take several rotations to complete.

 After I check out the SSS crew (link to current roundup), I'll get back to getting the BBD project set up.  Set up counts!

ETA:   Ended up starting at the center bottom instead of the center top on the BBD piece because when I took a closer look at the pattern, I saw one potential issue - there's one flower in the bottom basket area that overlaps the border.   I know myself.  Once I got into the border rhythm, I would have run right over that part and hated myself when I got to the flowers.   So I headed it off at the pass and now I can work around the rest of the border, which is totally consistent, without any worries.   And, even with the trim, there's just barely shy of three inches on each side - like maybe one or two threads shy!!  So relieved.