A Little Yarn On The Side

Bob:  In a surprise move yesterday, Ms. Sutton abandoned the expected cornucopia-finishing and instead surprised us with a flurry of scarves. Ron:  How right you are, Bob!  We were predicting all 11 cornucopias to be necessary for Ms. Sutton to hit 100 projects for 2010, but seemingly out of nowhere came project 98: a pair of scarves that no one predicted.  Bob:  This certainly is getting interesting.  These scarves were a complete experiment for Ms. Sutton.  She was attempting to use a combination of threads on a rolled edge  and I think it would be fair to call the results only moderately successful as the edge doesn't have that nice finish that Woolly Nylon would have given it, but as Woolly Nylon has become almost impossible to find in Boise, I think she was a bit too desperate to finish the scarves to wait until she could mail-order the missing thread.  Ron:  We are certainly seeing a slight relaxing of project standards ...

Ron:  Here we are at Chateau Sutton-Goar and with cornucopia number nine being finished today, the question now is what will give out first:  cornucopias, quick knitting projects, or Ms. Sutton's sanity. Bob:   It's looking like an even race at this point. Ron:  It does indeed, Bob, though Ms. Sutton did manage to complete the Ravelympics sweater even after completely parting with her sanity, so anything could happen now. .........

*  that not all yarn behaves like mohair when one needs to frog *  that my husband has a 40-inch chest, not a 48-inch chest *  that Theo's favorite craft is sewing.  He can do so much less damage to fabric than yarn. *  that I didn't make the 100-Projects goal "knitting only." *  that today, with a tryptophan and carbohydrate hang-over,  I have a very simple project to work on *  that one can replace broken knitting needles for relatively small amounts of money, and one doesn't have to wait months for defective parts to be replaced *  that I have great online knitting buddies, even if I may never meet them in person *  that I have already learned that some people are not knit-worthy, and won't be wasting my time on them *  that I have almost reached the 100-project goal, and could be a normal person again in the very near future.  (I said "could.")

The good news is, towel number 3 is done which finished project number 94. The bad news is, Jeeves is definitely having problems--not the card or the design.  See the little "jag" on the inside curve there? That isn't supposed to be there.  Nor is the line of random stitching BELOW the solid orange.  These are problems caused by Jeeves randomly resetting his location.  He still did it in the place he did on the other two towels, but this time he expanded and did it several other times.  Luckily, I was ready for it this time and was able to readjust him so that it wasn't too obvious. Now, want to know what makes this even MORE fun?  THIS IS HOW THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM WITH JEEVES STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE!  You know--that first repair that took two weeks, which then spawned the much LONGER repair because he came back with more problems than he went in with. It is just two months since I got Jeeves back.  Oh, and just in case I didn't hate ...

Unless something goes majorly wrong (or I finally snap and Andy finds me running around the house with an unfinished cornucopia on my head yelling "I'm an elf!  I'm an elf"), the next 5 Finished Projects are likely to be cornucopias.  That will leave me just two projects short. No promises, but possible contenders are, a new scarf, using a clever but somewhat boring pattern by the Yarn Harlot . It is going quickly, and is good for multi-tasking--like while embroidering with Jeeves.  My trusty side-kick and I   have been making towels as prizes for our upcoming Christmas party & cheese tasting.  I need 3 and just finished the second one tonight.  There's a problem, happening with the design--it keeps moving at a certain spot.  On the first towel, you can see the black, which is supposed to be the shadow of the cheese, quite a bit lower than the cheese.  I had enlarged the design on the machine, and thinking that might be the problem (no...

Things to be thankful for:      1.  There is a finished project 93      2.  It is a cornucopia, and it looks like the preceding FIVE cornucopias, which is just as well as that is actually what I'm aiming for.      3.  The cornucopias really make nice gifts      4.  We actually get to keep one this year, which is nice because I ended up giving away all the ones I made last year      5.  The decorative cord is half-attached to cornucopia #7      6.  When all 11 of the darn things are finished, I will have used up just over 96 yards of fabric for the year, and have finished 98 projects so far this year      7.  There aren't 12 of them

Meet project 92: It's a much cuter hat that the picture might lead you to believe, but in the final scramble to get to 100, it's the projects and not the pictures that are getting the attention.  That I stayed up late on a Saturday night to finish it is open to interpretation.  I prefer to think of it as "showing extreme determination to reach goals," versus "pathetic and sad and well on the way to being a batty old lady."  So, 8 projects left and if I use up 9 more yards of fabric in the next 40 days I will have hit the new secondary goal of using up 100 yards of fabric for the year--which really won't make much of a dent on the fabric stash as I haven't been on a purchasing ban for fabric and have recently been lashing out with my poor little Visa so often at Joanns that my poor credit card can be heard whimpering in pain at the bottom of my purse.  BUT it will at least make me feel good to know that I might have used up more fabric this year ...

Bob:  This just in:  with 42 days left in the year, Ms. Sutton has finished project 91  and has made astounding progress on the next 6 cornucopias.   All 6 are ready for the hand-stitching to close the opening and add the decorative cord. Ron:  That's  quite a bit more progress than we've seen from Ms. Sutton lately.  What prompted the recent burst of productivity? Bob:  Obviously realizing that Ms. Sutton was slacking off a bit, her newly self-appointed coach woke her up at 4:30 this morning to get cracking on Finishing Friday. Ron:  Theo's hard work has certainly had the desired effect.  Can we expect the same tenacity tomorrow morning. Bob:  Hard to say, Ron.  Rather than expressing gratitude for his help, Ms. Sutton has threatened to lock Theo in the garage for the night tonight.  Coaching certainly is a thankless job. Ron:  How right you are, Bob.  Poor Theo had to nap all day to recover from ...

Ron:  Things are still holding steady with 90 finished objects and only 10 to go.  Bob:  Frankly, Ron, we really haven't seen much crafting happening here at Chateau Sutton-Goar.  It seems Ms. Sutton has been temporarily derailed by Christmas decorating. Ron:  Christmas???  It isn't even Thanksgiving yet.  What on earth could she be thinking? Bob:  When I asked, I received a very stern look and no reply.   Ron:  This puts an entirely new angle on things.  We were expecting output to slow down over the Christmas season, but if Ms. Sutton begins the holiday season a full week and a half before the day-after-Thanksgiving kick-off, what will this do to the 100-project challenge? Bob:  It's hard to say, Ron.  With "Finishing Friday" coming up tomorrow and two half-decorated Christmas tree, anything could happen...........

Bob:  It's an exciting moment here at Chateau Sutton-Goar today.  Late last night, project number 90 was completed leaving just 10 projects left to finish in 45 days. If Ms. Sutton can manage to finish a project every 4 and a half days, she'll make her target!  Ron:  A real breakthrough for Ms Sutton certainly.  though the fifth cornucopia was, in fact, the last one that was so very far along.  To finish the remaining 6, Ms. Sutton will have to spend some dedicated time in the sewing room, and her behavior yesterday leads me to wonder if her dedication isn't slipping just a bit.   Bob:  I think you may be right, Ron.  Ms. Sutton will have to stay focused, which is going to be a real struggle for the woman who managed to rack up over 35 WIPs at one time.  There was a bit of a "mohair incident" this weekend which makes one wonder if she is indeed slipping.  While the lace jacket will someday be a lovely project, to get sidetr...

Bob:  We're here at Chateau Sutton-Goar to bring you continuing coverage of the final push of the 2010 100-Project Challenge.  With 47 days and 13 projects left to go, it may be down to the wire here. Ron :  That's right, Bob.  As things stand, Ms. Sutton needs to average a finished object every three and a half days to get there. Bob:   And what would you say her chances are at this point? Ron:   I'd say better than 50-50 if she sticks to the hat regime.  It goes without saying that lace or cables would be a tragic mistake at this stage in the game. Bob:   Now wasn't there some expectation of Ms. Sutton finally tackling some advanced WIPs--such as Fleur--to make her goal? Ron:   There certainly was, Bob, and I can tell you that I've been surprised at Ms. Sutton's obstinacy in ignoring almost-finished-projects in pursuit of new ones.  A smarter game plan would have been to skip the two quilts and go straight to the Project Ti...

The GOOD news is, the hat with the 'manly" leaves is finished.  The bad news is notice anything about the top of the hat?  Like the color not matching the rest of the hat?  Yeah, I noticed that too.  The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, and since both skeins would have been ordered at the exact same time, I guess I assumed that they were the same dye lot.  Obviously not.  Oh don't get me wrong--this is November 12 and I'm counting it as a Finished Project no matter what--the truly desperate having no shame at all--but I will either be keeping the silly thing or finding a not-too-observant person who would like to give it a home no matter what it looks like.  The winter pillow covers took a bit of a detour.  I decided they would look better with beads which is, of course, a great way to REALLY slow down progress on them.  So is this: Thank heavens he picked the washable project to shed on.  I spent the day working on cornucopias...

 I'm guessing you might have noticed that the "days left" number is moving a lot more consistently than "projects left" is.  I keep hovering right around that need-a-project-every-three-days-to-make-it mark, but I'm not really getting projects done every 3 days.  The manly-leafy hat is getting close: but if I were a bright person I would have remembered that colorwork really slows me down because A) there's a chart involved, B) I am too lazy to put the yarn on bobbins to spend large amounts of time undoing big multi-colored yarn snarls, and C) I don't care much for colorwork, so I won't work on it with much dedication.  Thankfully, I have about 4 rows left then it's a stockinette free-for-all to the top. Of course, since the chart makes it a not-portable project, I have started a new tweed hat and will hopefully have the sense to only use one other color for the tweedy part, which should still make it an easy project as only one color is...

It occurred to me today that there probably are people who do hobbies just for the fun of it and don't make up bizarre challenges in order to drive themselves completely crazy. Hm.  To each their own..............

Finished project number 82: which is a fall table-runner type thing to go underneath some stuff, so the fact that some of my embroidered leaves stand out a bit too much really won't matter. Finished project number 83: the absolutely adorable purple tweed hat. The new hat project:  which is at the "manly leaves" part and keeps loading sideways for unknown reasons, and finally, after lots and lots and LOTS of time over the last 2 days (like almost all of it), we have finished project number 84: The Christmas quilt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Done AND done early enough to be mailed off in plenty of time for Christmas.  I sincerely hope the shock wasn't too much for anyone, though I could certainly understand if it was.

I have a new chair pad!  Neither Andy's desk chair nor my office chair are the greatest chairs.  Which makes sense, because unless you are really going to spend about $600-$700 on a desk chair, it's going to hurt your back or backside in a few years.  Not being independently wealthy, we of course do not own $1400's worth of chairs.  However, we ARE now the possessors of $25's worth of foam pads for our cheap chairs.  We went to a local foam place--believe it or not, there are such places--and got the foam that would be IN the $700 chairs.  My butt is in love!

I have finished the purple-tweed hat! I have taken pictures of the finished purple-tweed hat! I have misplaced my camera after taking pictures of the finished purple-tweed hat! I know.  Sometimes I even amaze myself.

Remember the bobbin cover that was missing from the new sewing machine?  I stopped into my local dealership to see if they had one--which of course they didn't--but they found a used one in the back that they sold to me for half price.  That was fine--except that it was the wrong one.  To be fair, Husqvarna discontinues & redesigns their machines so often that it would be very hard to keep track of everything, so I simply called them to ask if they could order the right one for me.  "Sure thing."  ONE MONTH LATER, I hadn't heard from them, so I called and spoke to the repair guy.  He didn't bother to look to see if it was in--just assured me it must be, or that he probably had one on-hand.  I know--at this point I should have reminded him that he was the one who sent me home with the wrong part in the first place, so he obviously "didn't just have one," but one thing I have learned about dealing with him is that he's so absolutely sure that h...

.....and I've decided NOT to pick a Project of the Month bag.  I have 19 projects left to finish and two months in which to finish them.  I think it's time for a little project selectivity, or in other words, HATS!!!!! Meet hat number 2:  which maybe wasn't the brightest hat to select since it takes THREE rounds of knitting to get each of those tweedy-looking rows, so this is not a true project for speed, but it is getting a lot of attention because I just love how it looks.  This is hat number 3, and also my new portable project.  It's going to be a stocking cap with a teal design of some sort--maybe leaves?  I am told by the resident expert on manly attire (aka Andy) that leaves are more manly than snowflakes.  Glad he feels that way, since he's out there raking some manly leaves right now......  :)