A Little Yarn On The Side

Tonight I finished yet another  chemo cap, so I am ending April with a monthly tally of: Projects finished:  11 Yards of fabric used:  15.75  Yards of yarn used:  1772 Skeins of yarn used:  11 for year-to-date totals of:   Projects finished:  43 Yards of fabric used:  36.25 Yards of yarn used:  5839 Skeins of yarn used:  36.25 We're now one-third of the way through 2011, and if I keep up this pace, I would end the year with: Projects finished:  129 Yards of fabric used:  108.75 Yards of yarn used:  17,517 Skeins of yarn used:  108.75 Everything looks really good except the yards of yarn tally.  Ideally, I'd like to reach 25,000 yards, but I would still be pretty pleased with 20,000.  Of course, some  knitters would be pleased with ending up with a bunch of knitted stuff at the end of the year.......Go figure.

An entirely different project: I was "cleaning" the sewing room (I use the quotation marks so that you don't expect the sewing room to actually BE clean when I'm done--just less  messy) in order to have more room to work with the quilt, and I couldn't decide where to put this lavender fabric, and then it occurred to me that if I used  it, I didn't have to find a home for it.  So, I have a new spring pant set.  That works. I finished it up this morning, then was in a bit of a dither about what to work on in my last few bachelorette hours, and then there was that silly naggy voice that I've been ignoring all week that insisted  on doing some laundry and a bit of cleaning, so while I did some of the boring stuff, I set up Jeeves to do a couple towels: and the first half of a bag set I've been planning to make to put with our picnic supplies: Obviously, there will be a "clean" bag as well, though I'm not sure how much use it will get.  T...

Andy gets home late tomorrow night, so I have all of today and tomorrow to craft like a maniac.  Part of me--the one that caused all the stash issues and spends most of her time in "time out" for bad behavior--is so delighted with the floral jacket that I'm having to restrain myself from starting one out of a green home decorating fabric in my stash.  Oh sure, I  know that working with home decorating fabric was really hard and I may never want to do it again in my lifetime, but Problem-child Toni doesn't seem to know that.  To be fair, it really is a cute jacket, and the green would  make a fantastic jacket, but I think I need to pick something else for today.  Andy shouldn't have to come home to a wife who is in desperate need of sedation. So, I had decided earlier this year to try to make one thing for each season.  I decorate the house for seasons--spring, summer, fall, Christmas, and winter.  I started doing it when we first bought the hous...

Is it wrong that my own project makes me laugh every time I see it?

Today's lesson learned:  If you're unclear whether you need a 26-inch zipper or a 28-inch zipper, buy them BOTH and then return the one you don't use.  Unless you're trying to strike up a relationship at the returns counter for unknown reasons.

Riding on a high from finishing this  and this yesterday, I thought today would be a good day to start a new sewing project that I've been planning for at least a day or two.  But to do so, I needed to clear off some space on the sewing table, which meant finishing up some felt gift bags that were still in progress, or finding a place to stash them to get them out of the way, but where I would still be able to find them.  As we're all familiar with my track record on THAT score, it seemed wiser to finish them. Some younger friends of mine are having a baby, and they're sort of non-traditional.  Everything on their baby registry is black, so a cute little baby sweater seems a bit inappropriate.  Instead, I think I might be making the first baby "smack-talk" quilt in existence.  The first finished squares: If you can't quite read them, they say: No sleep for the big people My other stroller is a Porsche I'm with the band Dude, where's my binkie...

This a very simple scarf pattern involving exactly one pattern row.  This pattern is not copyrighted and you are free to share. Materials:  Pick the yarn and needles of your choice.  I'd recommend a large needle in relation to the yarn.  For example, for the example scarf I used a DK weight mohair blend with a size 8 needle.  For a worsted weight, I might use a size 9 or 10 needle.  For a fingering weight, maybe a size 6 needle.  The idea is to create a very drapey fabric.  I prefer lighter colored yarns for this scarf, but that's just my personal preference. Cast on 31 Rows 1 through 4:  Knit Rows 5, 7, 9, 11 - Knit 4, *(k2 tog) twice, (yo, K1) 3 times, yo, ssk twice, k1; Repeat from *, knit 3 Rows 6, 8, 10, 12 - Knit 3, purl to last 3 stitches, knit 3. Repeat rows 1 through 12 until desired length.  Finish by knitting 4 rows.  Bind off all stitches.

I view it as a personal victory that I have even been able to make headway on the April project of the month, since I've had more than my share of "help"  They're obviously taking it in turns to "assist" me.  Actually I shouldn't complain.  Andy is out of town on business right now, and they have taken it upon themselves to entertain/protect/instruct/snuggle me--mostly at 3:00 AM.  A little sewing help is a small thing compared to trying to convince two cats that it is NOT in my best interests to have anyone sleeping on my head.  Even with the obvious case of insomnia, the floral jacket is now 99% complete, and has just been hanging a bit before doing the final top-stitching and the 4 front buttonholes, and I even have buttons that I think will work nicely:  They are some extremely pointless buttons I bought some time ago before realizing that the silly things are dry clean only, but since this fabric is dry-clean only as well, I thought they were...

*  Learn to consistently check gauge.  30+ years of knitting still  hasn't taught her this? *  A bit more dedication.  A day all to herself and her crafting and what does she do?   Sewing . *  A bit more respect.  We exercise no control over which knitters can pass themselves off as "designers."  Even if well-respected knitting magazines occasionally get hoodwinked into publishing completely insane designs, it has nothing to do with us.  We do promise to consider punishing such designers with plagues of moths, but we reserve all discretionary rights no matter what  curses you choose to throw at them. *  Enough with the darn chemo caps already *  We respectfully disagree with the Cold Sheep movement you have started.  Until one actually has yarn in every single room in the house, you're not even close to maxing out your stash potential. *  Stop blaming us when you "know" a pattern so well that you don't ...

*  That just once I find a project that actually takes less  time than I think it will *  That after 100+ hours of knitting, I'll look exactly like the 12-year-old model in the knitting magazine does while wearing the sweater *  That I can block something without kitty assistance *  That 5 years from now no one will even remember what the word "errata" means because editors have actually started editing patterns before publishing *  That if someone publishes a bad or confusing pattern, every knitter who has attempted it gets to line up and give the author one of those top-of-the-head knuckle-thumps that all older siblings learned how to do. *  That knitting would burn as many calories as cross country skiing *  To see a yarn label that actually says "Crappy yarn that will pill like crazy and has big freaking knots that we tied using a blender in every single skein" *  That just once, when someone tells me that they "could never"...

Meet the first stashdash finished objects: That's 691 yards used up from stash on these two, which doesn't count the yarn used for Andy's sweater, which now has two sleeves and is waiting until I exchange the zipper (not scary) and cut the remaining steek (pretty much scary) and figure out how to attach a zipper to knitting (definitely scary).  Which is why the socks got all the attention this weekend. Speaking of scary projects, the spring jacket is moving along.  I've gotten used to the fabric sliding around, and I figured out a way to mark the buttonholes without marking on the fabric, though my bright idea to hold the tear-away stabilizer in place using quilting basting spray didn't work.  I bought the home decorating fabric I'm using on clearance, and I'm only now sort of positive that it was normal home deco fabric and not something meant for outdoor use, as the material has very obviously been treated with something.  I'm hoping that it means...

When the iron starts spitting brown water onto your fabric, it might be time to clean it. Thankfully it happened before I got out the dry-clean-only stuff.......

...but we survived the steeking.  To be fair, so far I have only cut the armholes because I thought it would make more sense to figure out the zipper length before steeking.  Obviously my first guess  was a bit wrong.  The 26-inch zipper it is. There will be a collar, but not a 3-inch one.  One of the great things about making up a sweater is the ability to alter on the fly as needed.  Of course, one of the great drawbacks is the need to do so.  In spite of daily fantasies about other yarns, I am holding firm on my Stashdash challenge, and when I was in dire need of purse knitting for a day of running errands on Monday, I started a new scarf from one of my stashdash basket yarns.  I'd purchased this stuff years ago from Elann.com specifically to make scarves, and it's only taken me about 6 or 7 years to get around to doing so.  I think in the knitting world that might be sort of speedy.  There are (were) 3 balls of this stuff in...

Andy's sweater has a body! Andy's sweater almost has a sleeve! Andy's sweater needs to be steeked! This blog will return to its normally scheduled posts when its owner stops hyperventilating.

Knitting through one's entire knitting stash is a bit daunting if one has a large stash, but what if one had a small, manageable stash?  Or, in my case, lots and lots of small, manageable stashes? To sort of re-motivate myself and my Cold Sheepers, I have challenged them to a second quarter "Stash-Dash."  The idea is to fill a box, basket, or bin with the amount of yarn one feels one could reasonably knit by July 1, and knit it all up by July 1. Yesterday I put together this: which, aside from the skeins already in progress (which will be about 1250 yards of yarn when finished), the basket contains 3226 yards of yarn to be used up by July 1.  It's not as much as I need to be on target for 25,000 yards this year, but it's more than I'm currently averaging, so it is still a challenge.  And if I'm successful, all of this will be out of the knitting stash! And thanks to some dedicated knitting today, the body of Andy's sweater is done,  I've ...

So, I'm only half participating because as my back allows, I'm catching up on all the things I didn't get done over the past week, but when my back does NOT allow, my projects for the knitting retreat are: Andy's birthday sweater.  The one for 2010.  As he is about to finish my birthday gift for 2010, I thought it only fair. and I even have the sense to NOT try knitting him anything for this year's birthday.  I'll also hopefully get the baby sweater sewn together: but the latest chemo cap was finished last night, so it doesn't really count for the retreat.   Yesterday I also finished my monthly thread on the cross stitch  so I think I'm closing in on the 10-year plan for the thing.  The shawl has also received some attention this week and is actually moving slightly faster as I'm working on one of the "arms" so have fewer stitches to contend with.  Of course, I'd be much farther along if it hadn't been for this A new project...

I think it will come as no great surprise to anyone who has ever visited this blog in the past that I can think up projects faster than I can complete them.  (Hello...146,160 yards of yarn in the stash as of this morning). Not that I don't complete projects--I do--but my "projects to make" list can get a bit daunting, and I keep inventing ways to keep myself slightly balanced.  Well, balanced for me.  The 3 1/2 years of Cold Sheeping has helped, and I have high hopes for this year's fabric ban.  Last year's 100 project challenge also helped, and hopefully this years 111 project challenge will also help carve down the number.  My biggest ace in the hole, however, might be my personal allowance. When we got married, knowing that money was the number one source of marital fights, we set up personal accounts for each of us, and we each get a personal allowance every month.  This money we can spend without any input from the other.  We both have hobbies t...

 There have also been some pain pills. Last Wednesday while pulling weeds in a flower bed, I managed to throw my back out.  Obviously, my body has taken the turning-40-means-old thing rather seriously. Some days have been better than others--meaning I didn't hurt much but couldn't sit, so I made a lot of progress on the socks and am just about to turn the heel, which I thought should be left for a day without pain pills, so there has been some chemo cap knitting and the new baby sweater is all knit up and being sewn together (number 35 in the "all used up" tab) Theo, of course, has been thrilled with my lifestyle this week:  Normally, I don't sleep on my back much, but lately that's almost all I've been doing, which means Theo can stretch out on top of me for a cuddle & to suck his toe (or back of his paw, actually).  He's not a lap cat--possibly because neither of us have laps big enough for a cat that we think is part Main Coon--but he does ...

Okay, so I didn't get either the shawl OR the socks finished, so the month didn't finish that strong in any category: Projects finished:  8 Yards of yarn used:  1057 Balls of yarn used: 9 Yards of fabric used:  6.75 Doesn't that make you wonder what exactly I was doing with myself last month?

For those of you who are interested in the Ravelry "increase your stash" group, it seems to be my Cold Sheeping thread in the Stashdown group on Ravelry.  I've actually had a member of the group respond to a new Cold Sheeper that she thought the total ban on yarn purchasing was much too harsh.  On the Cold Sheeping  thread.  So it may be possible after all that I am leading a group that is advocating refrigerating one's pet ewes. :)

*  Announce in a sock knitting forum that kitchenering the toes is passe , and that you prefer to dining room yours. *  Tell everyone that you aren't actually knitting, but doing a lesser-known two-handed method of crochet. *  Email your favorite lace designer and ask if there are any instructions for adding a few pom poms to her most popular shawl design. *  Announce to your local stitch and bitch that you don't really have much of a problem with Second Sock Syndrome, but that third sock really gets to you sometimes. *  When you hear a fellow knitter say, "Oh, I could never do that," agree with her wholeheartedly and suggest that she stick to garter stitch scarves. *  Start a group on Ravelry solely devoted to INCREASING one's yarn stash.  Adopt such slogans as "Global Warming affects sheep too," "Sharing is Stupid," and "Get it before someone else does."