Mot-less Monday: Pieces of Halloween

Things I Knit While Furloughed

From October 1 - 16, the US Government was shut down due to lack of funding; I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were effectively laid off during this time.  With no known date for work resumption and no paycheck in the meantime, I applied for unemployment, looked for temporary jobs (guess what? they don't exist!), and did a boatload of commissioned knitting to ease the stress.

My green monster baby blanket grew by leaps and bounds, from 50% to 76.3% complete:

at 50%, off the needles for maximum purtiness

no room! nooo rooooom on the needles!

These legwarmers were so nice, I wanted to keep 'em... but I didn't:

Hanging Out on a Limb [Rav] by JM Cobb; knit with 2 skeins of Spud & Chloë Sweater in colorway Skydiver

action shot modeled by the happy recipient

MODS: 97 rows between CO and BO to achieve 16” length; used a climbing eyelet stitch pattern in place of every other knit rib

I'm also in the process of baby sweater-ing for a pair of twins and their older brother!  Two 3-6 month sweaters down (minus the buttons, of course), three more sweaters in various sizes to go...

There was non-commission knitting as well!  I started an Olive Branch [Rav]... then thought better of the yarn/pattern combo...

Nope.

...and ultimately cast on a simple eyelet triangle shawl from the world's softest yarn:

Much better!

And there was a gigantic chill pill... because I totally needed one:

Chill Pill [Rav] by KnittingPony; knit with less than 15 yards each of Universal Pace (discontinued) in 19 Yellow and Cascade Heritage Silk in 5619 Christmas Red

MODS: used a provisional cast-on of 34 stitches and knit the decrease instructions twice, once for each color

And now I'm back to work, with a mountain of email to dig through with relief.  Let's hope this doesn't happen again in a couple of months, when the stopgap "debt deal" expires.

Say, Do You Remember

Start the music and join me on a journey to last month!

"September" by Earth, Wind & Fire

There was a flowered hat for my friend's birthday present...

Blooming Spring Hat [Rav] by Muraka Mari; knit with half a skein total of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in colorways 87 Neptune Blue and 80 Vintage Denim

There was a set of boot cuffs for my daughter's teacher...

Basic Boot Cuff [Rav] by Mindy Lewis; knit with half a skein total of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in colorways Fisherman and Blush Heather

There was a cabled coffee cozy made of sneeze-inducing llama yarn...

 

Cabled Coffee Cup Cozy [Rav] by Kate Atherley; knit with 30ish yards of 100% Suri Llama in colorway Waverunner, from the Edinburg Gap Llama Company

There was a pretty pretty pretty pretty shawl:

Lagune [Rav] by Sue Berg; knit with less than a skein total of Knit Picks Gloss Lace in colorways Natural and Port

MODS: added contrast striping in stockinette section; increased until 273 sts per row before beginning lace edging

 

 

I used up the very last of my Evenstar yarn to make this beauty!

And then I got furloughed.  Thanks, US Congress, it's been real.
More on that tomorrow.