Wait a minute… What is this craziness?!? Posting my June post on July 1? This is insanity in the best possible way. Especially considering how late my May post was. Oh well, such is life and adulting. June was pretty good, I must say. More knitting, more socks. Further progress on the sewing front. So, yeah, it was a good month.
Finished objects:
Worsted weight socks for the Father. I knit these using some deep stash String Theory yarn that I won in Yarn Harlot’s karmic balancing drawing for donating to PWA. I believe I donated to Pato that year. I held this double with Kraemer Saucon Sock which may have been Sheila’s.
Left-over socks for me. I used the rest of String Theory and Kraemer yarns. They are short socks, which are not my favorite, but I used every last bit of yarn.
New cast-ons:
Vanilla socks
Works in progress:
Harris
Shatar
Blue Mountain Cowl
Possibly 8 pairs of Pajama pants/ shorts
Goals for next month:
Finish Harris
Cast on another summer top and use up some cotton
Sew the dress for Feebs
Well… I did some stuff in June. I did some serious stuff. I am still on my big sock kick and am still knocking out skeins of sock yarn. There is more to that story, but I will get to it shortly. I have completed the body of the Father’s sweater, I have reinforced it, and I have steeked it. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a cardigan! I seamed up the underarms and wove in all the ends in the sleeves. Next up is the zipper band, the collar, weaving in the other ends, and sewing in the zipper. I need to get this done. I want it done by the end of July when I see him. I will also need to block it and duplicate stitch over some of the shoddy areas that don’t quite match up. Originally, I planned to knit one of these for myself as well. I bought the yarn and was prepared to be matchy-matchy with my daddy. After knitting this and seeing how bad the raglan seams look, even if I hadn’t messed up, has changed my mind. It is a shame because I think with better planning on the designer’s part, this would have been my perfect sweater. I hurried to finish the body before he came at the end of the month so that I could have him try it on. It is too big, but I figure that is way better than too small. This way he can layer under it without it being too tight. Fingers crossed it isn’t enormous after washing and blocking.
With him coming to see us, I had to get the toy room cleaned up so that he had somewhere to sleep. And that is where we get back to the part about the socks and sock yarn. I had a slight (re: huge) epiphany while preparing for the Father’s visit. When I was cleaning up the toy room (I had the nerve to tell Feebs that she needed to clean up her mess in there when 87.4% of the mess was mine) I was putting everything into piles so that I could put things away. I had a huge stack of fabric and fabric-type stuff. I had between 10-15 bags and project bags of yarn. I had books, notions, patterns, and all the types of making detritus in piles around the room. I pulled out every yarn bin and fabric bag. I photographed and logged all of the yarn and put it away. I also donated quite a bit of yarn to charity. I took a hard look at all of the WIPs that were in the bags and got real about what I would finish and what I would wear once it was finished. With the help of the Mother, the Nordic Trail vest went to the frog pond. The Ram’s Horn cowl was frogged. The multi-colored Lapis top still needs to be frogged, but I will probably do that tomorrow. I also looked at my sock yarn bag and got mad at myself. I have more sock yarn than is realistic, and I keep adding to it. I collect it, then only knit with Paton Kroy. I am now being a bit ruthless about pulling out and casting on the “special” yarn. The “it’s too good to use, and I will never be able to replace it” yarn. Well, bullshit to that. I have a metric ton of gorgeous yarn that I won’t use because it’s “too special.” Not no more, devil! It’s time to use it. All of it. I want to make beautiful stuff with my beautiful yarn. Then I want to replace that beautiful yarn with other beautiful yarns. Damn waiting for perfection. So, as I was putting the fabric away, I got pretty disgusted with myself. I am completely ridiculous to keep buying fabric but still be too chicken shit to sew. For God’s sake, if I mess up, I have more fabric! I need to get the hell over myself and either get rid of some stuff or start using it. I won’t get better without working at it. In June, I did cut out the pattern pieces for the Feebs’ dress. I don’t know how cute this will be because I am unsure of the fabric combination. But again, I won’t know until I freaking sew the thing. And I don’t know if you noticed something, but the white denim skirt is no longer on the Works in Progress list. Why is that, you ask? Because your girl snapped and threw the thing away. Yes, literally threw it in the garbage. I was moving it for the eleventy-seventh time, and I saw that the dart markings were gone, the pattern was torn, and I couldn’t find the instructions. And then I snapped. I balled the whole thing up and threw it in the garbage. Actually, I may have kept the front piece for bag lining. Yeah, bag lining for bags that I don’t fracking sew. Makes total sense. I just didn’t have it in me anymore. In hindsight, I realize how wasteful that was, and I have had a stern talk with myself about it. But now it’s gone and is no more, and I am moving on with my life. I also have Possibly 8 pairs of pajama pants on the list. And this is simply because I have no earthly idea what pattern I used on these. I don’t know what kind of nonsense I was on when I put them away “temporarily”, but I have absolutely nothing to go on. The pants I can guess were the usual pattern that I use, but the shorts… No freaking clue. I figure I will try to work them out, but I may have to go medieval on those, too. I just need to get real with myself. Quit buying shit and not doing anything with it. Quit telling yourself you will make stuff and never make it. You get annoyed with a certain podcaster because she is always starting stuff and never finishing it. Well, guess what Heffer, neither are you! So… now the toy room is much cleaner…
The first week of June was the last week of school. Feebs has officially completed 3rd grade. We went beach camping at Lawson’s Landing, like last year. You know, because we have no imagination and always go on the same trips. It was fracking cold! It was really cold. Even the Husband was cold. I didn’t sleep either night because I was so cold. Feebs ended up in my sleeping back the second night because she was so cold. I think we got spoiled last year and just assumed that it would be that way this year too. Of course, we went with the O’s and at least had good company while I froze. I must say, though, I do love me an early morning walk on the beach. That is worth the cost of admission. On the second weekend, Feebs and I went to see the H sisters. We had planned to go cherry-picking again this year, but the season ended early so we didn’t get to. We talked about going to see the new Little Mermaid, but we decided against it. In the end, we watched 8 movies at their house. It was crazy, but we had fun. Feebs got to see movies that she had always heard about but had never seen. We started with Strange World, which none of us had seen. Then: Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Aristocats, The Great Mouse Detective, Alice in Wonderland, and the Wizard of Oz. Man, we packed in the classics. It was so exciting to watch them with her. I was really happy to see the ladies and note to self: Domino’s Pizza is really good. The next weekend was Father’s Day. We started making some plans for the backyard and started clearing it up a bit. I helped the Mother with some of her projects, and we did a dump run for her. On Father’s Day, we took the Husband to the King of County BBQ event. We hung out with his sister’s family, and he got to eat, drink, and be merry. After that, we had really good Mexican food and went to watch the sunset. It was a pretty nice day. The next day was Juneteenth, and we all had the day off. It was more errands and getting stuff done. That week was when the Father visited. Things are progressing with his lady friend, and she is going to be meeting the best friends. Not sure how I feel about that, but I have absolutely no say in the matter. I just want my dad to be happy. It was a lovely visit, and he loved his new socks and the fact that his sweater is almost done. The weekend after that was productive and good. We are starting to meet with the Sister-in-Law about the Mother-in-law. Things are getting a bit tense there, and it is time to start sharing some of the load. It was a very productive discussion, and I am happy with how everything is laid out. The next day the McC’s came to dinner. It was really great to see them and hang out. It has been a while, and I want to avoid that big of a gap in the future.
And then the month came to an end. I can’t believe that half of 2023 is over. The weather has been really odd this year, and June 30 was really the first hot day of the year. It has been getting warm (circa 75-80), but not hot. California is used to hot by May. I am not sad that it’s not hot, but it sure is weird. I am really excited about July and the end of the big work project. I am hopeful that my work life will get better and more cooperative. I want to like my job again. I will just keep chipping away at it and make some big decisions.
So, I am going to sew something soon, and I am going to use up more “good yarn.” I am going to finish Harris and get it to the Father. I am going to enjoy the rest of the summer with the girl, and I am going to enjoy my time off school. I am going to live and breathe and find joy wherever I can. Because I have only been finishing socks, I have no Bingo card update. Here’s to hoping that next month I will have several boxes checked off on the knitting one and finally an introduction to the sewing one.
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 