A Little Yarn On The Side

This week's lesson learned: Just because a broken toe feels better after three weeks, it is not really healed.   Since it will be 4 weeks tomorrow and there is STILL bruising, it probably shouldn't be surprising that walking around on it can still really, really hurt, but AMAZINGLY I was getting a bit impatient, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was out running errands and "catching up" on things that I hadn't been able to do very easily.  By Wednesday night, the real catching up seemed to be being done by the pain.  My foot actually hurt more Wednesday night than it had at any time since the x-ray fiasco.  So, figuring it needed a day of rest, I moved my to-do list to today and used yesterday as Finishing Thursday. First, a finished chemo cap: Then casting on for a new chemo cap:  and the scarf is so very close to being done that I think I'll have it doe by the end of the day--to-do list not withstanding.  I decided my desire to raise my "s...

It all started innocently enough.  My youngest niece received an 18-inch "American Girl" type of doll for Christmas (the ones that aren't $100), and my sister would like for her learn to knit, and asked if I could make matching hats & scarves for my niece and her doll as an incentive.  Which is fine, because I used to love to make doll clothes & am ALL for recruiting new knitters.  The problem is, I didn't have the right shade of pink in sportweight or DK yarn, so I decided I could have one more yarn purchase before the next year starts.  All good so far.  Then I remembered that I actually haven't knit anything for my next-to-youngest niece, and she's been quite thrilled with the socks I made for her mother, so I thought I would knit a hat and scarf for her as well....or maybe even an afghan because I'm getting just a little cocky about my ability to finish projects quickly, and.... "just in case" I got enough (I think) for the afghan, ...

So in the knitting world, Christmas is traditionally a time of knitting like a freakin' maniac into the wee small hours of the morning in an attempt to finish a marathon of gifts that a knitter would have to be on crack to attempt at any other time of the year.  So what happens when the knitter has ceded all most of the gift-making to her loving spouse? There has still been a crazy amount of knitting going on.  Two more chemo caps and a scarf from the newly-acquired yarn that is moving in & out of the stash so quickly that maybe it really didn't count as stash anyway.  There was even a fleece baby blanket sewn & embroidered in one day, but I seem to have given it away before getting a single picture.  And since there's no photographic evidence to contradict me, let me just say that it was THE cutest and most creatively designed baby blanket ever.  Um...yeah.  That makes 16 finished projects so far for December, with 4 days left to go.  Th...

So with 8 days to go, I have now completed 115 projects for the year.  Wow!  So in theory, I should be able to pull off the 111 projects next year, but in theory  one buys yarn only as one needs it and patterns always make sense.   In reality, there MAY be some hedging of my bets for next year.....like maybe a scarf just started today that could  make some serious progress but not actually be finished until January 1.......

....or has anyone else noticed that I'm finishing projects much faster now that I've already reached my goal for the year?   Did it seriously take me 11 months to figure out that  small  projects  worked better??????  I have finished FOURTEEN projects so far this month, and there are still 11 days to go.   Sort of makes you wonder what I could finish in one year if I had the sense to stay away from quilts, doesn't it? Speaking of which, I have a new goal for 2011--for which I  am not the one responsible.  That instigator of this little endeavor is Qutecowgirl , and of course I am even more attracted to craziness that is not of my own doing.  The goal for 2011? Finish 111 projects by the end of the year Thankfully, they do not all have to be knitting....which would probably have left me a broken woman weeping in the corner clutching two dpns and a fistful of superwash merino.  Nope, it can be any craft (though please  may I hav...

An article from the Vancouver Sun:  Beware the curse of the 'love sweater'

And I actually finished LOTS of things.  First, I decided it would be nice if the wands Andy made for a niece and nephew had something to be stored in, so Then I decided to see if Jeeves had problems using one of the embroidery cards he originally came with, or if it is just designs I transfer to a writable card, so I made gift bags I had actually intended to make only one, but I loved the design so much that I just kept going.  I also "just kept going" with making handles   so the little heart bag finally got them and the rest have been put into safe keeping for my next bag marathon.  I loved the design so much that I dug out some home decorating fabric and used it on a wall hanging Currently it is just pinned up because I was trying to decide if it needed something extra, but I sort of like it just plain.  Still, I'll think about it for a week or two, then either add loops to hang it from a rod or just tabs on the back to hang invisibly from pins. Appare...

I believe I made 35 of these little felt tubes (I did count, but have already forgotten and now several are wrapped, and Andy just brought me a white chocolate martini, so a guess is as close as we're going to get tonight.)  Even Theo was exhausted by the time we were done: I do like how the nine I did today look: even though I wasn't initially very pleased with this decorative stitch.  I think these guys qualify as the "most work for least amount of yards used" project for the year. Speaking of which, I have resolved to buy NO yarn or fabric for the whole of 2011.  If I make it, this will be huge, because the last time I tried this I did make it without buying any yarn, but only made it to October on the fabric front.  To do this, however, is going to require some careful planning as 2011 is also my year to make the Christmas gifts (I'm not really getting credit for those darn tubes).  So I've been making a list, checking it against my stash in Ravelry a...

Earlier this year, Andy found a really nice lathe for sale on Craig's list, and has been hard at work producing pens for Christmas gifts:  They are extremely lovely and so far everyone just loves them--which is all good.  Because they are such lovely pens, we decided they needed to be presented IN something, which is where I come in: These are just the ones we still have.  There were more.   And, just in case you were wondering, repeatedly making itty-bitty fabric tubes is sort of boring.  I've been trying to liven it up a bit with my new decorative stitching possibilities: which helps a bit.  I have one more set to mark, stitch, and cut and then I think I'll call it good for a while.  I was trying to use odd bits of scrap fabric from other projects, but I have to leave bigger seam allowances for regular fabrics, which makes them a bit bulkier, so I have switched to using felt.  SUCH useful stuff.  If I do all the stitching before cutt...

Normally, there isn't much yarn I don't love.  In weak moments, I have even been known to purchase bright fuchsia Fun Fur, so my standards are obviously not too high.  However, this yarn might be completely without temptation for me. 55% New Zealand Merino Wool 20% Nylon 15% Alpaca 10% Possum Possum????????  Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I can't even hear the word without images of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies , and when one is trying to think of classy knitting projects, it's best not to picture someone with string for a belt serving up a stew of your yarn source . 

A friend has sworn that the next time I mention that I am going to make two project simultaneously, she will remind me to stab myself in the leg repeatedly until the urge passes.  This is a good thing. The problem with doing two projects from the same pattern AT THE SAME TIME is that if you make a mistake on one, you're more than likely going to make it on the other one as well.  Another problem is that if the pattern was written by psychotics who leave you with two unexplained pattern pieces, you have TWO projects with unexplained pattern pieces.  According to the pattern, the red one belongs somewhere on this apron: and the black one on this one:  which doesn't make any sense.  Since I had them, I decided to go ahead and use them as facings for the top yoke, but decided to actually match them up color-wise so they would make sense.  Of course, by the time I decided this, it required mostly hand-stitching them in place, but it would really irritate m...

Okay--no funny drugs today.  I had my toe x-rayed on Tuesday just in case I'd done something more serious than a clean break (I haven't, but it is broken), and the x-ray process was so painful that when they offered me pain pills, I jumped at the chance.  (Or lunged, I suppose, since my foot was propped up on the table at the time.) Oh.  My.  I'm glad pain pills exist. I truly am.  And when I actually broke my toe Saturday night, I was probably in enough pain to take one of them.  I'm not now.  I'm now at a point where pain is preferable to 4 hours of comatose.  And now that I can operate things again, it's picture time!!!! The black pi topper chemo hat:  A new blue hat:  and the latest pi topper: The blue one will be on it's way to another friend who celebrated her 40th birthday by undergoing an operation to remove a brain tumor, but the green one will hopefully be in the gift bin a VERY long time before it gets an owner. ...

New lesson for the day:  If a medication says "Do not operate machinery while taking," one probably can't operate a sewing machine either.  In fact, knitting needles might totally stump one if the drugs are strong enough.........

Andy wasn't all that wild about Gaidig's suggestion that Andy be my cabana boy while I recuperate, though I was all for it.  He did make homemade pizza tonight and mix a large white chocolate martini for me, so the life of the stupidly-injured isn't all bad. Not to mention.......the final cornucopia is done, allowing me to chalk up another 5 yards of fabric to the tally (note to self: home decorating yards of fabric are depressingly large compared to yards of 45"-wide cotton), and the black chemo cap is done!  There will be a picture of the chemo cap tomorrow as there is something in the combination of me/digital camera/linux operating system/laptop/blogger that generally results in "orientationally-challenged" pictures appearing on the blog.  And that's even when I DON'T have a martini.  If I tried it tonight, I'd probably sprain my wrist or something..............

So, the GOOD news is that there will probably be a lot  of knitting going on tomorrow.  The bad news is, that's because I broke my stupid toe last night and we are hosting a Christmas party tonight, so I have been on my feet waaaaaay more than I should today.  Theo thinks I'm trying to recreate the fun of having a cat with a broken leg for Christmas two years ago.

Remember how I said my cousin wanted a black chemo cap as well?  I didn't have any of the yarn in black, so I needed to order more from Elann.  And, I thought, since I was already going to be placing an order, I could do my reward-for-another-year-of-cold-sheeping purchase a bit early.  I had decided that I would allow myself to spend $100 on yarn as a reward.  What I wasn't prepared for was Cyber Monday.  $100 went a tad bit farther than I had expected. In addition to the new supply of yarn for chemo caps, they had some great fingering weight merino that will be perfect for an Alice Starmore pattern I've been wanting to make, and some really soft worsted-weight yarn that is probably destined for this sweater and a few scarves.  The good news is, I didn't buy more yarn than I've used up for the year so far, though I wasn't too far off.  However, there is another finished chemo cap (I had to be doing something while waiting for the 2 1/2 day...

To be honest, when I dreamed up the idea of doing 100 projects in one year, I had doubts about whether or not I would be able to pull it off, or whether I'd be doing a 72-hour knitting marathon during the last days of December to meet my goal, but I just cast off project 100.  And it's my favorite of the entire year: It's not a great picture, but on Monday I received an email from a cousin who is currently battling cancer.  I'd sent her a chemo cap about a year ago, and she asked if she could hire me to make her two more--one in chocolate brown and one in black--because the other one is currently about all she can wear right now.  As most of you probably know, when someone you like is going through something horrible like cancer, what you wish for most (besides their full and rapid recovery) is the ability to do something to help.  I told her I would be more than thrilled to make her more and that she is to consider them a Christmas gift, so I could think of no proj...