Sea Dragon

Hey Everyone!

It’s been a bit since I have posted her, and even longer it seems since I finished a pair of socks.

Knitting has definitely slowed down since I started this job I am at. It’s OK for the time being since I do need to work.

I finally finished up a pair I had started back in November. This pair was knit up out of yarn from a small yarn dyer, who I found out about from one of you. The yarn shop is called Deep Dyed Yarn. I had ordered several hanks from her shop in two different yarn bases. The yarn base for this particular pair is the Figment yarn base, and I used the colorway “Sea Dragon”. I love how it turned out.

Sock yarn has definitely become one of my things. I love looking at it. All the different color combinations that people come up with is incredible. I love working with it, and feel it as I am working it up.

I have been told that I have enough socks and sock yarn, but really, can you ever have enough?

I know that the city life is not my calling and I am working hard now to get out of here, and live a life where I am outside more, and still living in a place that rains, or at least overcast, grey & misty / drizzling for nine months out of the year, where having good quality wool socks are a must.

How is it November already?

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I totally meant to write this post a couple days ago, but my weekend got away from me.

I had received the two yarns orders, that I had ordered in the mail earlier this week. One was from Deep Dyed Yarn, the other from SavvySkeins.

I got them wound up Wednesday morning, and I love how they look wound up into cakes.

I am definitely excited to get these knit up. Most of these will be knit up after the first of the year, since life is pretty busy right now with work and everything else going on.

Wednesday morning I also made my mom’s birthday pie. Her birthday is always the week of, or even on Thanksgiving, so I started making her, her favorite pie the first week of the month so she can enjoy it and pumpkin pie. Then I usually get her something else for her actual birthday.

Project Bag On The Go

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I had an interview this morning, across town. I knew where I was going as it was right on the route I took to one of my old jobs. I left early as usual, and took the sock I had cast on last night with me in my new sock project bag.

I got a couple rounds done while I waited for my interview time to get closer before going in. I have found that being early and getting a bit of knitting done always helps me be a bit calmer and not as nervous.

I started keeping a “purse project” with me when I went places I might have have to wait, or have down time where I really couldn’t go anywhere back, like a decade ago when I worked for a short time at a daycare. Days where I worked 6 hours or more, at that company I had to take a mandatory hour lunch. State Law only mandates a 30 minute meal period for 6 hours+ worked, but the company scheduled us such that if we worked over 6 hours we had an hour lunch. So I had started taking a dish cloth WIP with me to work on. Having knitting to work on helps pass the time.

Now that I am into working on socks, it is definitely my “purse project” or “on the go project”.

As I mentioned yesterday, I definitely want to try out different brands of yarn, besides for my own curiosity as well as for content. I have been looking at local yarn shops to see what they have. I know it takes money to buy the yarn, which is part of why I want and need a better job.

Crater Lake Socks

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I have survived the historic record breaking heat, Saturday we broke the old record (around 106) with our high of 108. Sunday we smashed the record from the day before with a high of 112, and yesterday we again broke the record from the day before with a high of 116. That is super abnormal for Portland, Oregon. Our official highs are taken at the airport, which sits along the Columbia River. Even with the tarmac, it sits along a large river, so the temp there is different from other parts of the metro area.

On Sunday, I had washed the Enchanted Socks I had finished up a few weeks back, so I could use the heat outside to dry them.

Last Night, I had finished up the pair of Crater Lake National Park socks I had been working on.

The Colorway is: Crater Lake National Park

The Yarn Base is: Sock

The yarn is from Knitted Wit which is a small, yarn dyer / independent yarn shop here in Portland. This particular yarn I had ordered a while back and is not currently stocked in the etsy shop.

I just washed up this pair of socks, once I took pictures, to take advantage of the lingering heat (today is supposed to be in the mid 90’s). While cooler than the past three days, still plenty hot to dry socks easily. I have also found that warmer days help air out the scent of wet sheep and the smell of whatever wash is used, whereas if I try to dry them in cooler weather or inside those scents are held in my socks, so you can still smell those once they are dry.

I definitely prefer washing new socks in the summer and allowing them to line dry outside. Since I haven’t moved yet, I still have the line that was put up at this house. Wherever I move to, I want to have a laundry line to be able to hang stuff out to dry on.

Autumn Is Calling

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Last night I finally finished up the pair of socks I have been working on for the past three weeks or so.

The colorway of this pair is called “Autumn is Calling”, from Forbidden Fiber Company, on the Pride Yarn Base.

I have been working through the autumn colored yarn, trying to get as many pairs as I can done before the cool weather sets in. The yarn I am working with is the autumn yarn that I had ordered last year.

I am still waiting for the autumn yarn I preordered from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. The yarn base I prefer from this company is thicker and makes super cozy socks.

Being back to work, definitely makes me appreciate my days off and having the time to knit and work on projects.

Over the past couple of weeks we have definitely crossed from straight up summer to that weird place that is between late summer and early fall, our afternoon highs are still summery, yet the nights and the breezes have a coolness to them, as well as the leaves are starting to turn which are signs of early fall, and the crickets, we have started hearing crickets in the evening as well. Summer is ending and fall is upon us.

Lavender Field Heather

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I got the pair of Lavender Field Heather Socks that I have been working on for a bit, finished up this morning.

Lavender Heather is the colorway, and it’s on the stroll tweed fingering weight yarn from KnitPicks.

It was one of the few spring colored yarns that caught my eye.

It’s crazy to me how fast the last three months have gone. In the earlier weeks of my furlough, I spent some of my time going and looking for toilet paper, and as the weather started getting better, I have been going for walks. Now, that it’s really to hot to be going for walks at a normal hour, I am definitely trying to spend more time working on knitting. I am trying to get as much done before I go back to work, and the holiday season is upon us again.

Quarantine Socks!

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In the past two weeks (Weeks four and six of quarantine) I have finished up two pairs of socks. Both of these pairs were completely knit up during the six weeks I have been off from work due to the pandemic.

The first pair that I finished, back on the 18th, was the grey pair with purple flecks I shared in my last post.

This pair I knit up was knit out of bounce sock yarn from Long Dog Yarn, in the colorway “Freshwater Pearl”.

The second pair, I just finished up this morning.

For this pair I used the “Healer” colorway (Outlander Inspired), on the Fortitude yarn base from Forbidden Fiber Company. This pair was a little on the rough side to get knit up, but it’s done, and I am glad for that.

I found out last week that my furlough has been extended at least until May 15th, though it will likely last longer than that, as I don’t see my state reopening non essential businesses any time soon, and lifting the stay at home order.

I have fully prepared myself for the long haul, and not going back to work for a bit, as well as that even when I do go back to work, that there could be another peak, and then be off again for a while.

I have plenty of yarn, and books, so, should I be off for a while, I have plenty to do and work on while I am off. Knitting is one if the few things I can do, since there is no place to go and nothing to do besides stay at home and go for walks.

While in Quarantine;

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I had started these socks back in January, and I finally finished them more than two months later.

The yarn itself was from the Christmas / Holiday Collection from Forbidden Fiber Company. This is the “Let it Snow” colorway and it is on the Fortitude yarn base.

Beings that I have been off from work for a week already because of the Coronavirus, and I will be off for at least another week, likely a bit longer though.

I went back, looking at my posts, and I have also been remiss to update about the other pair of socks that I finished earlier last week.

I finished the pair of “Maple Leaf” socks I had been working on as well.

The yarn I used for this pair is from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm, it was part if their Autumn / Fall Collection last year. This colorway is on the Coquette yarn base. It definitely makes me think of October, and some of the changing leaves, and the angle of the sun, and how it looks in the afternoon during “golden hour” during that time of year.

The Coquette yarn base is nice and thick, and creates thick and cozy socks without being too thick.

Yet Another Virus Update;

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This whole CoronaVirus situation is ever changing, and the only thing that is reliable is to take each day at a time.

Thursday morning, we were given a brief update by our operations manager (who was covering for our Logistics Manager that morning) on the latest as far as our company is concerned.

Things changed again two days later, and I am off work for a couple weeks, at a minimum. My company is paying us for the two weeks we know we are going to be off, after that, it’s still a day by day / week by week situation. While I am not surprised by the closer, I also have the gut feeling that it will be longer than two weeks.

Not to mention the next couple weeks are supposed to be cold and rainy, which means I will be stay in, not going for walks, and knitting a lot, as well as watching the TV shows I have on DVD. I have so much sock yarn that I am needing to get knit up, and socks to finish. I am going to try to see how many pairs of socks I can finish before I go back to work.

At this point I am fortunate, even though I am off, I will have an extra two weeks paid, as well as still having a job to go back to, many others are not as fortunate. I am also the kind of person who is OK staying home for a while, since I enjoy knitting and watching TV shows, I can occupy myself. I will be glad to go back to work when it is all over. There will be work to be done, there is a new set that will need to be set still, freight to come in and be worked, checking the food for expired stuff and all that jazz.

Even though work itself has slowed down the past three months, the rest of my life outside of work has still been pretty busy, and it will be nice to take a couple weeks, stay home (not because I am sick) and just slow down a bit.

Corona Virus Knitting

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I had ordered one more hank of sock yarn from Forbidden Fiber Company.

I ordered “healer” from the Outlander Collection, on the Fortitude yarn base.

I’m hoping we don’t have to go into quarantine or have a shelter-in-place go into effect. I still need to go to work.

Going to work, going grocery shopping once a week, and going for walks are about all I do anyway.

This last week feels like a year had passed. When I saw my coworkers this morning, it felt I hadn’t seen them in forever.

Should I have to stay home more than I already am, at least I will be able to stay busy, and I have plenty of sock yarn to work on. Ya’ll would be seeing a lot more posts should that happen.

I have been making progress on the socks I have been working on, and they will be done soon. These are the second socks of their respective pairs.