34 and 35

My crafting has received a very big boost recently:  1) the weather is cold & rainy and yard work is pretty miserable, and 2) I'm supposed to be resting my arm and not doing yard work in the first place.  So....meet FINISHED project number 33:
34:

and 35:
which I promise has advanced to actual "finished bag" stage but somehow managed to miss the picture stage.  Theo thinks I'm cheating here
but I swear it's really & truly done.  In fact, project 36 is about half finished:
which is going to be a wall hanging for the guest room.  The shiny red will be a frame of sorts, and it actually matches the guest room bedding really well
Last week Joann Fabrics had a 50% clearance fabric sale, so I shamelessly stocked up on home decorating fabrics, as I had recently thought of some ideas for wall hangings & bags and other stuff.  So, that pledge to buy no fabric for the rest of the year?  Yup, totally blown away.  Still, I have now used up a whopping HALF A YARD of material, so I'll be able to fit all the new fabric in the closet in no time at all..........like maybe 2012.

You guys had my back!!!!  Thank you to RobinH and tinebeest for catching me before I combined a stretchy sock pattern with stretchy yarn--I could probably have put both feet & one knee into a single sock!  So, I either needed a new sock pattern or new sock yarn, which led to a delve into the "fingering bin," which turned up some fun yarn for monkey socks
4 skeins of the stretchy yarn that I hadn't accounted for on Ravelry
(this in addition to the 6 skeins already admitted to), and a HUGE amount of cheaper stuff that had never been added to my Raverly stash, which left even Theo dazed
Oh my.  There may indeed be a fourth year of Cold Sheeping on my horizon......

Comments

tinebeest said…
I do love Theo's expressive commentary on your progress :-)

Soooo... We'll have to find you something to do with those stretchy yarns? How about Jaywalkers? That pattern is unstretchy, it's even mentioned in the pattern notes. And having a pair of those on the needles, I can assure you it's true.

BTW, I loved knitting the monkeys, the pattern is nice and these were the fastest socks I ever knit- yes, even beating the plain stockinette ones.
May 3, 2010 at 2:00 PM
toni in florida said…
Congrats on the new FOs, Toni-not-in-Florida! And the fabric sale doesn't happen every week, so you're clearly listening to your fiscal fairy godmother telling you to stock up now. Smart girl!
May 4, 2010 at 2:15 AM
RobinH said…
I'll second the Monkey Sock love- lovely pattern.

And I'm wearing my elastic socks today for the second or third time and they seem to work fine. But that's thanks in part to you- I make a couple of design decisions based on your comments that I think helped. First- they're short, just covering the ankle. I much prefer short socks for summer wear anyway. (Given that I can't wear sandals at work- it's a factory, so closed shoes only.) And then, taking note of the problems you had with stretching, I did a regular cast-off at the ankle edge instead of my usual stretchy sewn bind-off. Result, they're a shade tight going over the heel, but the firm edge helps to stabilize them during wear.

So thank you! And glad I could return the favor.
May 4, 2010 at 7:45 AM
Janet said…
Great job on the finishing of the projects! You are certainly sticking with the program. I break the fabric purchasing every month, must have something to do with the embroidery machine and love of quilting, as well as the purchasing of yarns for knitting. One of these days I will have to cold sheep, but not yet. I don't think I can help myself, hehe.
May 5, 2010 at 8:17 PM
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