This first part will be light on details as I still need to rewrite my instructions. EZ’s percentage system uses gauge, size (bust in my case) plus ease. When you have that number, the other parts are done by percentage. When I did my gauge, it measured 4 stitches per inch. But working the sweater, it came in at 3.5 so I used the first set of numbers.

More calculations. I would need to adjust my stitch count for the pattern. I worked both sleeves, then the body.

I did the same for my patterned yoke. I’ll talk about that on another post. I’m very happy with the finished sweater. I’ll do another post with the construction pictures.

I own a utility trailer! I ordered on the end of March. The plan was to use it for a vardo. I ordered a heavier axle, electric brakes and a spare. It was supposed to take 4-6 weeks. But it didn’t come up for the build. I would call and was told it could take another 2-3 weeks. At one point, they told me they were telling folks that new orders would take 3-5 months! I told them that was great because it had been almost five months. I didn’t want to cancel the order but started looking at trailers for sale. I found a 5×8′ cargo trailer that had been turned into a small camper. I didn’t have enough money but knew I would on payday. So I checked it out and told the guy I would buy it, if it was avaiable on Friday.

I got a call on Tuesday that they were ready to build my trailer. And it would cost an additional $400. I canceled the order. I no longer trusted the company to build it. Then the cargo trailer sold on Wednesday. I was upset. I knew it wasn’t big enough and that I was giving up my dream of the vardo. I just wanted to finally see some progress.

Thursday night, I checked Facebook marketplace and found a 6×10′ utility trailer. Price was fair and it looked good. I contacted the owner and asked to see it Friday. He told me he’d had some calls trying to lowball the price. I told him I was serious. I knew I would buy it, if it looked as good as the pictures. And it did! I offered him $100 less than his asking price but told him I’d give him full price if he’d hook it up. He laughed and took care of that for me.

It has higher metal sides than the trailer I ordered. I’ll have to figure a way to use that in the vardo design. I drove it home. And I backed it into the driveway. My neighbor said I did pretty good for a first timer. And I unhitched and secured it. Pretty happy about all that.

I thought I’d actually done a post here last week. Oh well.  Not a lot of progress being made. The yard looks better but we still need to clear out the house. I am trying to get things wrapped up here and get out of here before winter sets in. I am looking at moving to South Dakota at this point. No particular reason. I can’t take the heat any more and I don’t know how much I’ll wind up with from the estate. I need something with an affordable cost of living and a house I can afford.

Still waiting on my trailer. They can’t get axles for it. I ordered it the end of March. I’d planned to use that to stay in while house hunting. At this point, I’m ready to buy something sight unseen. I would have a house inspection of course. But we have a mask mandate yet again, which means I am stuck at home and I’ve had enough. This is insanity and I want to move to where people are allowed to have a life. I am so done with this.

Thought I would do a quick update. No pictures in this one. Life is really an awful mess right now. The house has been cluttered with things to be packed for going on three years now. We had a lot of things packed up and stored in the big truck. I decided that I was not going to use that, so had to have everything brought back in the house. And I’ve gone through it multiple times. I had to plan a new way to do this. My problem is that I am moving to a new area, with no place to stay when I get there. I looked into covered trailers but they seemed expensive. Then I found this: Paleo Tool  I have always loved vardos. It dawned on me that I could do one, leave the inside unfinished, load it with my things to move, then unload to a storage locker. I could then finish the inside and camp using the vardo till I found a place.  The more I thought about it, the more it resonated with me. And while I have info on making a different version, primarily out of plywood, this vardo design is what I want. I like pretty much everything about it.

I have ordered a utility trailer to build this on. Mine will be 6×12 ft. My stepson finds it a really interesting project, so he has said he will help me build it. He has a lot of construction experience. I have been ordering things for it. I have the same wood stove he uses and it is a wonderful little stove. I plan to keep my systems as simple as possible. Every time I deviate from this, it just gets complicated. I decided to get a small fridge, which meant getting a small generator to charge batteries to run it. I intend to put a bathroom area into mine. I am to the point of buying lumber, which has gone sky high while I’ve been planning this. It’s a small structure and I’ll manage somehow. I will post pictures of this, when I finally start work on the project.

And the more I thought about it, the more I thought about not buying anything at all just yet. It would be great to travel a bit, while I’m still able to make those drives. The problem for folks that are full time RVers is that they don’t have a permanent address. But there are states that will let you establish yourself as a resident. And South Dakota is the easiest state for that. So my plans are a bit different. I will rent a UHaul and move the things I want to keep there, for storage. When the vardo is done, I’ll go and switch my residency to there. And then, I’ll decide what I want to do and where I want to go. It will be an adventure. I am getting rid of a lot of stuff and giving away some things I thought I might keep. I am looking forward to a snug little home with a wood fire and kerosene lamps. Just like old times.

It’s been over a year since Lon died. I am coping, but ready to make some big changes here. I just hate it when I get held back now. I have also figured out the problem with posting my pictures, so will try and do something to fix that. Most of my energy goes towards trying to handle work. I am so ready to retire. Will try and post something longer here soon.

Just a quick post to wish everyone Merry Christmas. I’ll try and do a longer one over this weekend.

I had to put my good dog Gary down last week. He was diagnosed with a very malignant fast growing cancer on the tonsils. They removed the tumor but it grew back within a month. His salivary glands were swollen hard and he was having problems breathing. He just ran out of good days. I really loved that dog, so this has been a sad time for me. But I do have some news to report and will update soon.

I’m trying to put together a post on Spindlitis too, but having issues uploading pictures.  This has been a pretty awful month too. I had to put down Lolo on the 8th. I always considered her to be Lon’s cat. When his second wife, Kate, died, Lolo was a kitten. Lon was out back, grieving, and Lolo jumped on his lap. He told her she would always have a home with him. Still don’t know what happened. It was some sort of intestinal blockage. So I’m down to just one cat, Fanny.

Lon’s 70th birthday would have been on the 12th. And the 20th would have been our anniversary. Of course, there’s still so much stuff locked down, I can’t do anything but sit at home. I take the dogs out for a drive on Sunday. I’ve been going to Carson lately, so that I can get the dogs used to their long leads.

I am still planning to move to Tennessee. I am trying to pare down the things I want to take. There’s going to be a lot left behind for Quinn to deal with. I’ve made him an offer on the river place, and am waiting to see if he wants it enough to put the deal together. I am also waiting for the probate to worked on for the house. I want to be bought out, so that I don’t have anything left here to deal with. I am planning, in the next month or so, to buy an older Suburban. Then I’ll have to buy a covered trailer for the move. Just having the Suburban gives me options. I could rent a trailer if needed. It’s all very hard because I want to be gone now. I just need to finish up here and go to a new place. I need to start my new life and I feel like I’m in a holding pattern. I do still plan to take all my treadles with me 🙂

Won’t hold this post up for pictures. I’ll try and post again soon.

One of my cats died the first week in January too. Every week this year just seems to get worse. But we will either live through it or we won’t. I take the dogs out for a truck ride on Fridays. I seem to still wind up going out for groceries weekly. I have plenty long keeping stuff, but I keep running out of oranges. I’ve been eating two a day for breakfast. I should just eat the frozen and canned fruit I have, I guess. I have things I’d like to be doing. I may put in a couple of small garden beds. I don’t know how long I’ll be at the house, so why not? It’s not that big of a loss if I have to leave it behind. And I am still planning to sell both places and leave. My pulmonologist says I need to get out of the house. I trust this doctor. And I want to live out in the country again. I just get overwhelmed when I try to go through stuff. I think, when we get past the lockdown, I’ll get someone to help me. Then I can just put the keepers in one bin, stuff for Quinn in another, and load the truck up with things to donate. I will get rid of a lot more stuff, since it’s just me.

Miss Lon. Don’t much feel like spinning or knitting, even though I have lots of supplies. I take the dogs out a lot. Pretty much everyone at work is working from home. It’s not so much that I mind being by myself at the house. It’s just stressful when I do decide to go out. And we are headed back to wet weather, after a really lovely sunny March. I just hope we can find a new normal soon.

It was the time I was stressing about. Saturday, I picked up Quinn at the halfway mark. We drove to Tacoma and Point Defiance. We waiting at Owen Beach for awhile, until all the nephews showed up. Dean brought Dewey, Lon ‘s macaw, and his new cockatoo, Ace. I had to keep my distance. We couldn’t find a good spot to spread the ashes on Five mile drive, so decided to do it on the Vashon Ferry. Lon used to live on Vashon and took the ferry to work at the shipyard. And we spread his mom’s ashes from that ferry too. We found out that they will slow the ferry to let you spread the ashes. The problem was that they have a different idea of what that means. I opened the bag and let them fly. I was supposed to just heave the bag overboard. I’m glad I didn’t know.

We drove home, after eating lunch. Quinn had Abe with him, which was nice. The baby got a bit cranky, but it’s a long drive. Sunday was the memorial. I’d picked up Lon’s favorite cookies. I bought a small coffee maker and had milk to go with the cookies. The boating friend, the Coots, showed up, as did two of the nephews and a lot of Quinn’s friends.  I had that list of songs Lon wanted to be played. I ran those from my phone to a bluetooth speaker. And I had posters of him, taped up in the room. I think it went off pretty well. Quinn’s sister picked up him, so I didn’t have to do the long drive to the coast.

There’s no easy way to say goodbye and I miss him, every day. Here’s a picture of him from happier times, when he could still go boating, in the time before we met.

My husband Lon died a couple of weeks ago. It was unexpected and quick (liver disease). I am just overwhelmed right now. It could be a couple more weeks before I feel like working on this blog, so thought I’d do a quick post, in case anyone still reads this.

I got involved with Christmas knitting and just didn’t get around to posting. I have a bunch of things that I completed. Still need to take some pictures. Everything has been good around here. The kids came up the weekend before Christmas. Always good to see the grandson, although I didn’t take pictures this time. He is very headstrong and at the age to get into everything. Little Knits has had some great buys on yarn, so I have a much larger stash now. It’s interesting that I didn’t really get any presents for Christmas, but I didn’t miss them. Managed to knit a watch cap for Lon’s nephew that fits his big head. He was happy with it. I need to start some projects for Lon, now that I have time. I am starting a new project for me, PNW cardigan. I’m using West Yorkshire Spinners, Fleece Roving in BFL. I like the yarn a lot. I started the PNW pattern in some Eco Plus but I’ve lost two balls of the yarn. This should be a quick project. And I can knit socks for us, finally.

Still trying to finish up the house. We ran into two major projects to do. We did get the roof done. The guy that was working for us is in jail. Will likely be at least three months before he gets out, if then. So maybe, we can get back on it this spring. It’s so frustrating. And the river place is a mess. It’s been cleaned back up but I’d really like to get all those folks out of there. I want to sell that more than anything.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and plans for a Happy New Year!

I took a week of vacation time last week. And I’d thought I could do some things around the house. As always, I just wasn’t up to it. We are making progress on the house. Half the roof has been re-shingled and it looks much better. The other half will be done in a couple of weeks. And we didn’t go anywhere or do anything. The reason is this week, when Lon went to the ER then hospital. He had sepsis from the broken skin on his legs. I’d tried to get him to have a doctor check out his legs and he wouldn’t go. He had the shivers Monday night and I was able to talk him to going into the ER on Tuesday. They admitted him and gave him IV antibiotics. He was released yesterday. I am totally beat. My knee has been problematic and having to hike around the hospital hasn’t helped. I have an appointment at OHSU next Friday with a rheumatologist and also with my pulmonologist. I suspect I’ll need to have surgery on this knee at some point. But we need to get Lon healed up and I have to start using compression on his legs once they have healed.

Anyway, I did make a lot of progress on my projects.

This is A Hap for Harriet in new, lighter colored yarn. It’s a lot easier to work and I think the pattern is clearer. I grabbed it and my Swift for the hospital visits, so I’ve made a lot of progress. I don’t know what I’ll do with the one I was working on. I hate to throw away that much work, but it is so dark that it’s hard to see what I’m doing.

And my handspun yoke sweater looks like this:

It’s not exactly how I envisioned it. But it will be a nice knock around sweater. If not, I’ll rip it back and make something else with the yarn. I’m almost done with the body and am considering what to do for the ribbing.

I have been buying rugs from Esales. I don’t seem to have pictures of the rug and runner I bought for the living room. The hardwood floors are too slick for the dogs and the rug we used to use still looks dirty. The new rug looks old, sort of an art nouveau design. I decided to buy one for the bedroom but Lon didn’t want to use it there. So it’s in the office:

It’s been too hot for the dogs to lay on it. I need to take the kilim I’ve been using outside and give it a good shake. I will be picking up a few more things for the house, just to dress it up. We really want to get this place ready to list. And I should have some sewing to do over the long weekend.

Thought I’d show how I’m tracking projects and stash these days. I am using the Notes app on my iPhone.

The screenshots make it look a bit disjointed, but I can save the note as a pdf or print it out. I saved a template for both knitting and spinning and I can copy that, whenever I create a new note. I am working on how I move from a fiber stash entry, to a spinning entry, then finally a knitting entry. It’s working but I am still tweaking the system. I like it so far. It’s easy to do and I can see what I have and what I’ve been working on.

We picked this up yesterday. It’s supposed to be from Norway. The woman selling it said it was given to her when she was 16. She is moving into an 800 square foot home and downsizing. Now, I don’t care how small a space I move to, I’m keeping storage items. This trunk is in nice shape and I plan to pick up the fiber that’s covering a lot of the office floor and put it in this trunk. If I fill it up, I’ll bring in another trunk. And I plan to get my treadle and the Fashionmate out where I can use them. The other machines are in a different room and are about to be moved again. I want access to my machines again.

Two days ago was Jake’s Gotcha Day. I believe we’ve had him for four years now. I don’t want to say he’s slowing down, but he is such a good boy. We both love him.

The parrots are happy in the new home. I’ll try and bring some pictures over so I can post them here.

Got the monthly email from Folkwear today. She says “Ravelry came out with clear rules about posting support of Trump and equating it with white supremacy. It got some press. I am glad they did this and I fully support them.”

I’ve been buying Folkwear patterns for some time, back to the original owners. I used two of their patterns for my wedding skirt and blouse. I am not surprised by this stance as they did a big BIPOC email, then started using black models for their patterns. Now, there is nothing wrong with black models. But perhaps they might want to take a look at the demographics of their customers. And this owner has not owned the business all that long. I think I’ve seen maybe four different owners, since they started.

At any rate, any business that wants to call people racists based on their political affiliation will not be getting any more of my business. And that “clear rules about posting” is more BS. They are banning and suspending people for anything they feel like. But everything is acceptable if you are anti-Trump. Ravelry has had new subscriptions locked down for three weeks now. Estimates are around 20,000 members lost. And we are all sure that 8.5 million members number is bogus. I believe R was hacked and several thousand new bogus accounts created. I don’t really care. But it seems strange that some business owner would risk their own business and the jobs of their employees to virtue signal for someone else’s website and business. I’ve seen good companies go down for a lot less.

UPDATED:

Right now, there are a lot of folks at Ravelry, trying to download patterns they purchased. And many seem to be saying, “What was I thinking?” So here’s a little story to go with that. This is Inglenook Fiber’s Violet Teacup.

I like their fiber and have spun several different blends. This one is merino, silk and sari silk. Let me say, up front, this is nice fiber and there’s nothing at all wrong with it!

I hadn’t been participating much at the Jenkins forum. They decided to have a Mad Hatter Spin Along. It sounded like fun. I saw this fiber and thought it would fit the theme, so I ordered it. I also ordered some of their Obsidian colorway. When I ordered this, I didn’t ask some critical questions. Is this a fiber I like to spin? What are my plans for the yarn? Is a Jenkins spindle the best choice here? I started spinning with the group and quickly ran into trouble. I did not like spinning this at all. In fact, I started randomly picking up other fibers and spinning those instead. I tried a few different Jenkins turks, but couldn’t find a good match. I even tried peeling off some of the silk but it didn’t help. It was not fun. I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to complete this one. Then I tried some of my Hatchtown high whorls. I still didn’t like spinning it. I just sat it aside and figured I’d deal with it some day.

I got the notion today to try spinning it on my Bosworth butternut skinny midi. I really like this spindle and think I can spin almost anything on it. While this will never be my favorite fiber, I can actually spin it. And I’m spinning finer than I was on the other spindles. So yeah me! I may actually finish the two ounces of this. I still have no idea what I’ll do with the yarn.

No one twisted my arm to buy the fiber or participate. I know that I don’t like merino and that clumps of silk in a blend can cause problems drafting. But I also know that I wouldn’t have even thought about this fiber, if I hadn’t been on that forum. I was focused on what the group was doing and was interested in, not on what I like to do. And that has happened to folks that bought patterns. They may have heard about something on a forum or seen it in a pattern search. They probably didn’t take the time to ask those important questions. They just bought another pattern. Now, because downloading the purchased patterns is so time consuming, they are having to decide if they spent their money on something they want to make. Some are deciding that they have enough patterns to last for a long time. Escape from Ravelry seems to be encouraging people to use the patterns, fiber and yarns that they have and most importantly, to use their own creativity for a change. I think you are going to see some truly wonderful things created during this time. But you won’t see them on Ravelry. We’re already gone.

UPDATE: I was thinking about this and the SAL was actually in the Spinning Circle group, not the Jenkins group. So not as restrictive as to equipment, as long as it was done on a spindle. I finished spinning the fiber yesterday. Am plying it today.

Picture of the spindle I’m plying with and my plying stick:

And here’s the plying stick in action, so that you can see how easy it is to control the twist at the end:

It’s at https://slippedstitches.com

I am keeping this forum politics free. I want us to focus on the things we have in common and give us one small area where we don’t have to have politics intrude. This will be a small forum and I hope we’ll have some interesting discussions.

The parrots are being loaded up, and will be leaving for their new home in Utah. I’m not sure if he’s also taking the cockatoo, which has a home with his brother in Florida. We are letting the two brothers sort it out.

Lots of interesting discussions about Ravelry on the Walkaway group at Facebook. There seems to be some agreement that Ravelry lends itself to mindless pattern searches and working on designs that we might not do otherwise. Folks that have left have discovered that they have more patterns than they will ever use. And I do believe we will see a return to creativity. Ravelry doesn’t really lend itself to more complicate projects that take time. It’s too easy to get swept up in some KAL. I deleted my account last week. I’m actually getting a lot of spinning done. And I really love all my new Bosworth spindles! I started what will be a spindle spun sweater. I’d already been working on one of the yarns but I don’t really have enough for the whole sweater. So I’ll do a circular yoke sweater, my own design. It’s already fun!

The new site is just about ready for traffic. I’m having some more testing done tonight. This will be a small (I hope) politics free crafting site. My opinion is that we’d be better served to have a by invite only mailing list for political discussions. I’ll see how it goes.

We had a nice Fourth. The dogs took it pretty well. We always have the Austin Airs going, which put out some noise. Didn’t really do anything special to celebrate. I’ve finished the projects I was working on. Just need to block the baby sweater and sew on buttons. The socks are done too. I’m leaving it at that for now. I still have a teddy bear to knit.

I am having a lot of fun with the spinning project. I’ve been doing some small projects just to get a feel for the new spindles. I posted them on the Spindlitis blog, but will post here as well:

Bosworth Butternut Maxi with walnut shaft, Midi with walnut shaft and Skinny Midi with walnut shaftSide view

Two Skinny Cherry Maxis, cedar shaft and one Skinny Cherry Midi, Birch shaft

Side view

I wanted to have two spindles close enough to use on the same project and two that could be used for plying on the same project. The Butternut Maxi is 40 grams and heavier than the cherry maxis. And the skinny cherry midi is lighter than the other midis. It’s working out well so far. I haven’t started my sweater spin yet. I am still at the sampling stage.

We had a load of shingles dropped off on the 3rd for the re-roofing project. I don’t know yet when that will actually take place. It is so nice to have time off from work this week. I need to schedule more time. I usually do it in August and the weather turns too hot to do anything.

As you know, I was banned for 10 days over a week ago. I have not been able to post anything at Ravelry. This morning, I received an email from them, banning me for 30 days! What this means is that I am being banned for posts on the internet and on my own websites. I feel certain I can go on Discus and be told this is perfectly acceptable.

But this is not acceptable. My posts on the internet are not under their control and violate nothing (unless they are unhappy that I’ve called them liars over their new policy. I think this pretty much proves that.) I have other things to do right now, so I’m going wait and see if they decide to perma-ban me, based on my online posts at my own site and others.

The internet is full of dead links. Make Ravelry one of them.