A Little Yarn On The Side

So....I didn't get all my Christmas cards sent before we left for California, so today Theo helped me send out a few more then watched while I shoveled the 3-4 inches of snow from our sidewalks and driveway.  Then I think he decided I was just completely crazy, because he left me for most of the rest of the day.  Taking advantage of the opportunity, I have kittyless pictures!  First, the finished scarf the alpaca sweater with buttons, which is a FABULOUS sweater.  I have already worn it about 10 times.  Love, love LOVE it!!! Then...... Ta-da!  The December project of the month!!!!!  So far I have two wine bags and one little bag done, which I have managed to make a seriously bizarre shape which I attribute to sewing while under the influence of cold medication.  Same excuse for that last sentence.  The cold is STILL with me and is beginning to make surgery recovery look both pleasant and short.  I rested a lot yesterday that...

And it's even blocking without kitty assistance!  How did I manage this amazing feat? It's on top of the ironing board! Not that Theo can't or hasn't gotten up on the ironing board many, many times.  He is just unaware that there is knitting on top of it.  Okay, I admit it....I REALLY enjoy it on those rare occasions when I can outsmart Theo.  It doesn't happen very often....

We spent the holidays with family in sunny California, and at the last minute I decided to cast on an easy-to-do scarf to take with me instead of Andy's sweater, so I have this  to show for my absence.  I'm doing a simple stitch--knit one row, then *K1, P1* across for the next row--which I really like because it makes an interesting reversible scarf.  I added a seed stitch border on the end & each side (3 stitches on each side) but the darn thing still wants to roll. I can't decide whether to be really annoyed with it or admire it's determination, but I'm hoping some severe blocking will help. I took the lace scarf down as well, but there was one moment on the plane on Tuesday when I had the most horrifying thought: I could run out of knitting OK, I think this on every trip--which prompted me to take two entire sweaters along on my honeymoon even--but this time I was traveling and only had two scarves with me .  What would I do if I ran out of yarn? ...

*  Deciding that the sport-weight yarn you found that you just love looks "small enough" for that lace-weight project you want to make. *  Spending hours making one of your first sweaters for someone who will absolutely never wear it. *  Presenting a mother-to-be with a precious, hand-knit baby sweater in a gorgeous yarn--only to have it meet it's death in the washing machine because no one with a baby has time to hand-wash anything except the baby *  Not checking gauge "just this once" because you always get gauge and ending up with a cabled tent *  Finding yourself with bags of the ugliest yarn ever that you just bought because it was more than 50% off *  Creating the king of snarls before discovering that yarn in hanks must be wound into balls before knitting *  Giving a knitted gift to someone (usually a relative) who feels the need to actually tell you that he or she doesn't like it *  Discovering that you twisted the cable the...

So, I have one mitten.  Granted, it's one really LARGE mitten and both hands would actually fit into it, but I think it still only counts as one mitten.  I can't get excited about casting on the second mitten.  I think it's the idea of felting--or perhaps that it is 40 degrees warmer than when I started the mitten, and 40 degrees makes a HUGE difference even to someone as naturally cold as I am.  So, I have one mitten.  It wouldn't even work for a golf-club cover as A) I hate golf and B) it has that little white part for the thumb trick, and even I know that golf clubs rarely have thumbs.  I'm going to give it a week, and if I can't get motivated to make the second mitten, it's off to the frog pond for the poor thing.  Why do I never have this problem with socks?

I've been thinking about this--which probably has a lot to do with the amount of cold medicine I'm taking--but I'm thinking Santa probably isn't a knitter.  I could be wrong, of course, but look at the evidence: *  Santa has reindeer.  If Santa were a knitter, his sleigh would probably be pulled by a team of alpacas.  After all, what yarn does one ever get from reindeer? *  Santa gives toys, not sweaters.  A true knitter gives sweaters to any small children that she can, because children's sweaters are small and fun to knit, and are about the only time a knitter can try out bobbles *  Not a single part of Santa's costume is knitted.  Not to say there aren't knitters who maybe don't wear knitted gloves or sweaters or other specific knitted items, but generally a knitter will wear SOMETHING knitted, if for no other reason than having run out of other people to give them to *  If Santa were a knitter, I think he'd hand out really splitty...

You know it's a bad cold when I don't even feel like knitting. Thursday night I woke up in the middle of the night to find that the cold I thought I had gotten rid of had returned and brought friends.  When I was still working, I admit that I wouldn't have minded so much--maybe a free day to knit and watch movies, but now it's just a big bother.  I have things to do, parties to attend--I even missed Finishing Friday!  Why is it exactly that we can't cure the common cold? 

So my goals for the year were to use up 150 yards of material & 150 skeins of yarn, and while I am nowhere NEAR being close to either one, I realized that I was really close to using up more fabric than I did last year, so yesterday--taking a break from the holiday party marathon--I rounded up and finished this which looks a bit like a circus tent, to be honest.  I really REALLY thought the material was nice & light and drapey until I tried this on....which incidentally left me with an odd craving for salted peanuts in the shell..... BUT Andy likes it, so I can wear it around the house, which is fine.  I used up 3 yards of material on it, so one more project finished should put me over the 75 yard mark--leaving me halfway to my goal and at least better than last year.  We've reached the "grasping at straws" part of my goals.... I think I'm going to try felting the mittens--largely because it would involve knitting 1 mitten and not 2, but we're enjoyi...

So, the mitered mitten pattern calls for a gauge of 4.5 stitches/inch, and knowing that I usually get 5 stitches per inch with worsted weights & size 7 needles, I opted to try size 8 needles.  I knit a little swatch, got out my ruler, found that I had just knit 4 stitches per inch, and said to myself, "Oh good, it will be just a little snug." ???????????????????????????????????? What happened???  A week ago I swear I could do basic math & count and everything.  We get arctic temperatures and I start talking about knitting pastries & think that somehow 4 stitches per inch is smaller than 4.5 stitches per inch. I hadn't realized that when people mention a "cold snap" that it referred to what happens to the brain when it gets cold.  I'm going to take my monster-sized mitten and go relearn the alphabet while hoping for spring......

Well, she was.  I'm doing her mitered mitten pattern and you know what that little bit of white is?  It's her "thumb trick."  When you get to where you want the thumb, you take a scrap piece of yarn and knit 1/2 the number of thumb stitches with the scrap yarn, then put those stitches back onto your left needle and knit them with the main color.  When you're ready for the thumb, pull out that scrap yarn & you have the live stitches to pick up for the thumb.  NO CUTTING INVOLVED!  I have survived steeks and will eventually steek again, but it's hard to voluntarily cut one's knitting.  It's just wrong and while I know EZ would never tell me to do something that wouldn't work, let's face it--the woman was tougher than I am.  She seems to have faced steeks undaunted.  I, on the other hand, am completely daunted.  I have spent a large part of my life trying to make sure that my knitting and sharp objects never get a chance to meet, and ...

Tonight while Andy and I were shoveling snow in the relatively balmy 23 degree weather and my fingers were tingling with cold, it occurred to me that as a knitter, I could actually make myself some warm items that might make such activities a little more bearable.   Amazed by my own brilliance--and that it only took me about 30 years for this to occur to me--when we came in I announced to Andy that his sweater was going to be back-burnered for a while because I was going to make myself a baklava.  Andy gave me the sort of quizzical look that one would normally give someone who had just announced that they were going to knit a very rich pastry, and about that time my brain unfroze and I remembered that the word would be balaclava .  Of course, Andy really wants to see me knit pastry, but I haven't yet ventured into the world of knitted food.  Not that there's anything wrong with knitted food--I just don't think it's going to do much to keep me warm.  So,...

Frogged.  Twice. As soon as I posted yesterday, I dug out the yarn for Andy's sweater and cast on.  Knit two rows, checked gauge, WAAAAAAAY off, frogged.  Dug out needles two sizes smaller and cast on.  The gauge is fine but You know how stockinette rolls if it doesn't have ribbing attached?  Well, the designer doesn't.  I was willing to give the designer and Interweave Knits the benefit of the doubt here since there is ribbing on both sides of the stockinette patch, but NO.  Like ALL stockinette, it rolls.  I have frogged it for a second time, and cursing all designers I cast on a lace scarf instead.  NO designer to mess things up or not double check.  Just a stitch pattern I like, a nonrolling edging, and I'm a happy woman. And it's NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So....I didn't have the cast-on frenzy I thought I would, and technically am only at 11 WIPS right now, and I might just finish this scarf before having another go at th...

Two--count 'em, TWO--WIPS done, leaving me with....... ONLY TEN WIPS LEFT!!!!!!! (I realize that for some, having 10 WIPS would be a reason to start a WIP marathon, not the conclusion of one, but I've chosen to be realistic) I have met the Double Dog Dare Challenge!!!!  I'm down to 10!!!!!!  And I'm off to cast on something new........

In the past, I haven't liked mittens because one can't really DO things when wearing mittens, and as a slightly hyperactive child (* cough cough *) the restriction drove me crazy.  However, as we woke up to NEGATIVE 3 degrees this morning, I think I can get over this problem.  The cats won't even go outside this morning.  Now I grew up about 2 hours north of where I'm at now, and we did get lots of snow and subzero temperatures, which has quite a bit to do with why I don't live there now.  Normally we here in Boise get to whine about it being cold when it's in the 30s.  This week our high temperatures won't even REACH the 30s.  What happened?????? The one bright side--Andy and I each have lovely alpaca sweaters that are so dang warm that we rarely wear them in normal circumstances.  Today I would be wearing alpaca underwear if I had it (sorry for that visual).  And I'm feeling better about the 3 or 4 sweaters' worth of alpaca I still have in...

If I were not on a WIP marathon, I would be casting on 387 pairs of mittens right now.  Normally, I hate mittens and have never bothered to knit any, but it's currently 8 degrees (Fahrenheit, or NEGATIVE 13 degrees Celsius) and frankly, it's time to rethink my mitten stance.  Of course, I really shouldn't complain because according to Accuweather, while it is truly 8 degrees, the "real feel" is NINE degrees.  Well, break out the bikini!  Why even bother to say that?  ( Wow, Martha, I wasn't going to go for that walk if it was 8 degrees, but since it really feels like 9, I just can't pass it up!)  How can it really feel one degree warmer?  I just shoveled 3 inches of snow off our driveway & sidewalk, and I'm pretty sure it feels like 8 degrees.  Maybe 5.  When I regain feeling in my cheeks I'll let you know.

I know I have raved about their yarn & customer service before, but yesterday I received an email from Elann.com saying they had credited my account for the skein of yarn--bought TWO years ago--that I just sent back.  In my letter, I had even told them that I could completely understand if it was outside their time limit for returns and that it really was more about letting them know about a problem, but one of the reasons I am a devoted fan & loyal customer is their commitment to customers, and it's nice to see a company that recognizes that little things can go a long way.  In reality, it was only about $5, but they could have stuck to a "policy" and said it was too late.  Instead, they chose to spend $5 to make a loyal customer happy--how many companies do you know that would make that choice? Of course, now I get to go through an entire year of Cold Sheeping knowing that I have a credit at my favorite yarn source........uh oh.......

Tonight is our Christmas party.  ORIGINALLY, I had planned to make little mitten ornaments out of felt for all the guests.  HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Thankfully, foolish optimism seems to be a character trait most people find rather endearing.  Or they're just waiting to see what crazy thing I'll do next......

Gift bags!  Or, more accurately, gift bags to be!  This is some home decorating fabric I found on sale one day, and I actually did buy it to make gift bags (since I buy so much fabric without ANY idea what I'm going to do with it, I'm always rather amazed when something DOES have a purpose......and downright shocked when I eventually remember what that purpose was ), which it should work really well for.  I haven't decided how many bags I'll be making, but considering how many gift bags I give away, the more the better.  Of course, I'll need to fit it in with making more of these which I just love.  Two have now found new homes, and I think we're going to need the other 3 for Christmas gifts (have to go back to my spreadsheet to check), so thankfully I bought enough material to make 10 more, as it looks like WE won't get one otherwise.  I have decided to alter the pattern slightly--namely to leave a hole in the bottom lining so I can stick the trim ends...

I'm down to 12 WIPS. The bad news is.... the green shawl is no longer with us.  See all those little bits of yarn that don't seem to be attached to each other?  Well, they aren't.  After my boasting about the first finished repeat last night, I noticed that the yarn had broken off.  No problem--sometimes that can happen when one isn't paying attention.  So I spliced and went on for another row....then there was another break in the yarn, and this one I was positive I hadn't done.  Unwinding, I found another--and there were ends sticking out of the skein in odd places. When I made the retirement shawl for my mother this summer, I wound the ball too tightly with the ball winder, so I had breakage everywhere--which was totally my own fault, so though I whined a great deal, I was willing to splice over and over to get the project done.  This yarn, however, was in the original skein and call me grouchy, but I just don't enjoy playing "knit the crappy ...

As many of you know, my goal for next year is to FINISH 100 projects during the year.  Anyone who is quick with math will note that I will need to average 2 projects a week....which I have probably never really even come close to doing.  But, it is time to unveil my secret weapon...... A freakin' huge number of started projects I have never finished Yes, there really HAS been a method to my madness all along!  I'm not just a flaky knitter with ADD who can be distracted by beads/new lace/basically anything except what I'm working on.  I have been stockpiling for the point when I would get so frustrated with trying to find yet MORE room for unfinished projects that I would strike out with a mad resolution! As I write, I can look around at all my well=planned preparations:  Two Rubbermade tubs FULL of sewing projects that have kicked by arse yet to motivate me to complete them, a third tub containing long-languishing knitting WIPS that may date back to the f...

*  Moths *  The moment your husband finds out you've been storing yarn in the sleeves of one of his unused jackets.... *  Knitting a sweater as a surprise gift and mailing it off in time for a birthday, only to hear "Oh, I didn't like it" from the recipient *  Moths *  A rash fit of optimism that persuaded you to cast on a shawl on size ZERO needles *  Really fabulous clearance yarn when one is "Cold Sheeping" *  Discovering that the two sweater patterns that have given you the most trouble are from the same designer and you weren't paying enough attention after the FIRST attempt at her psychotic designs to avoid the SECOND attempt *  Frogging anything made of mohair *  Frogging in general *  Moths *  Forgetting that your purse has velcro until AFTER you have put your nice cashmere-blend knitting project inside the purse *  Managing to lose your favorite cable needle in a freak lawn mowing incident *...

*  Express shipping *  Circular needles.  Not that I don't prefer dpns for socks and such, but could you imagine doing a pi shawl with 15 pointy sticks?  *** shudder*** *  Ravelry--bless them! *  The squashability of yarn, which makes one's stash easier to hide in say, the arms of a jacket that your husband never wears anyway.  Not that I would ever do that, of course..... *  Knitting friends who completely understand that one could talk all day every day about knitting *  Tetanus shots--those of us who have managed to impale ourselves with small knitting needles understand this one *  That airlines have finally realized that a knitter allowed her knitting needles on a flight is much less dangerous than a knitter denied knitting for 6 straight hours *  Husbands who like handknit sweaters, especially if they are relatively small in circumference.  If you ever see a large man wearing a hand-knit cabled sweater, the...

With the kimono shawl finished, I am down to 13 WIPS....or 3 away from meeting the Double Dog Dare Challenge.  I have THREE projects that are really, really, REALLY close to being finished: Fleur, which is down to sewing on the beaded band, and doing beaded neckband & cuffs--exactly where it has been for the last year..... The alpaca sweater which needs a sleeve cap & some seams and a few buttons and I could actually be WEARING the darn thing..... and one of the cutest baby sweaters EVER, which needs seams and maybe the neckband and one buttonband.  ALL of them could probably be wrapped up with 2 weeks of serious application. And what am I doing with myself? Working on the baby sweater I cast on THE DAY BEFORE the Double Dog Dare Challenge began.  I have finished the back, and am zipping along on the front but it still isn't as far along as any of the more "matured" WIPS.  The upside is that I am about to finish off another skein of yarn but as ...

A couple weeks ago, Qutecowgirl tagged me with the Neno Award: The Neno’s Award Rules and Regulations: 1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging. 2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging. 3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it. 4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award. 5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging. 6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like. 7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post. Aside from obviously missing that "as soon as you receive it part," I always like these (even though I'm about 5 behind right now).  I especially like this one because it is so amazingly positive.  So, why do I love blogging? Because of the people I meet through it. I wish Blogger would let me respond directly to all the comments--or I knew how to make it do so--because so man...

You might have been wondering where I have been for the last few days of my crafting week, and the answer would be getting my arse kicked by: That's right--the kimono shawl, which upuntil this week has been a pretty well behaved project.  Being a gracious and loving knitter, I was willing to overlook the insane amount of time it was taking to finish.  After all, good things come to she who waits.....or so I've been told because being a very impatient person, I have never really tried that theory out.  But THEN it had the temerity to force me to cast off FIVE TIMES before it stopped puckering. Okay, you can't really see it, but it was there.  This is a picture of the 4th cast-off using a needle two sizes larger than the 4 I was working with, and it STILL pulled the lace too tight.  On the 5th try, I made every stitch so large that I think Theo could have jumped through the darn things, and finally, finally FINALLY have a finished object! AND I'm down to 1...

Washed, stretched (because it turns out that among its many other bizarre qualities is a tendency to pucker right after being washed), ironed, and de-furred, the finished bridesmaid's quilt: So far I have even managed to keep the cats off of it and only laid it out for pictures when I knew they were both snoozing in another room.   I'm thrilled to have finally finished the thing, and I love the colors.....and my friend is going to be totally and completely surprised when she receives it, being three and a half years later and everything....but I can't say that I'm overly pleased with it.  I made the border too large--even with the embroidery, the back is a different shade of blue than the front because I didn't write down what I bought in the first place and "looks like the same color" is not the same thing as "IS the same color," and the embroidery pattern looped a bit in the back even though the design is one I bought from the sewing machin...

THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!! THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!!! THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! If I knew how to make it do it, my blog would be playing the theme from "Rocky" right now.......

I have 5 days, so after dropping Andy off at the airport and running a few errands to make sure I actually had some food this week, my sidekick and I settled down to some serious crafting. First, we flattened out the cool home-decorating material though getting the pattern cut out proved a bit more difficult than I had planned.... I did manage to work around Theo without cutting his tail, but a small amount of fur was lost.... though as his winter coat is truly in now, it's pretty hard to tell.  Mercifully, Theo decided to leave the room while I spray-basted the pieces and the batting together but he was back for the sewing Honestly, if he could ever learn to operate the sewing machine without me, I think my status as Most Favorite Human would be in jeopardy. What are we making, you might ask? Cornucopias! I still want to add braid or trim to the openings of each one, and I'm pretty pleased with the small braid here but I'm thinking some sort of black de...

Tomorrow Andy leaves for a week for business, and I will be embarking on a crafting marathon (and obviously a week of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches as cooking is no part of my plan).  I have some gifts to finish, but I am really, really, REALLY hoping to finish both the quilt AND the kimono shawl while he's gone.  And, of course, I'm also hoping that the cats don't think I have been abandoned and feel the need to shower me with vermin gifts as they usually do when Andy is gone.  It's really cold here now, so even if they have the intention to do so, I'm hoping all the potential "gifts" have either flown south for the winter or are hibernating.  We haven't decided exactly what this says about the cats' interpretation of what Andy does around here.  Do they think he normally keeps me supplied with mice & birds, or are they trying to bribe me to let him come back or to keep him away?  Theo sulks if I'm gone for any length of time, but h...

After much debate and hoping everyone else would think the same way, I decided that the yarn for Andy's sweater is actually overdue from my allotted purchases from January 1, 2009 and had already been "allowed" so it wouldn't be cheating.  So.......THERE IS YARN ON ITS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!! Being no fool--or at least not one right at that moment, I was flying through Elann's ordering process before I could be seduced by any other yarns so quickly that I didn't double-check the address and had to email them after I placed the order to explain that the address they had on file was no longer correct.  (And having a post office box where yarn can be sent so your husband won't see is a bad, bad idea....that isn't why I had one, but it's a bad idea nonetheless) I did allow a set of blocking wires, but I had been looking for a set so that was a little less of an impulse buy than one might think.  AND THERE IS YARN ON ITS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!! Since I am 4...