A Little Yarn On The Side

About one hour ago, I finished the last seam on this baby..... and it's a bit big.  I think I'll eventually redo the collar seam at the "V" and I'll see what blocking does for it.  If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll be frogging and making something else with this yarn.  I've hung onto it for possibly 10 years now--I'm getting a sweater out of it, dang it! Of course, it might be fine once I fix the neck.  It was 95 degrees yesterday and today, and thanks to a mouse that Theo brought in and lost when it crawled into a crack underneath the bathroom cabinets where we can't get at it, we have eau de dead mouse permeating the upstairs of the house.  If we close the windows so we can turn on the air conditioning, the stink is unbelievable.  So, we have all the windows open and roast, we're hot but it doesn't stink.  I wouldn't have automatically guessed it, but it seems hot beats stinky hands down.  So, I had this sweater on for ...

And I'm onto the seams: which is really the worst part of the whole thing, and if I didn't have an absurd goal for the number of projects I can finish this year, there's a good chance this sweater would be remaining in this stage for an extended period of time.  Partially to reward myself and partially to preserve my sanity, I cast on a pair of socks last night: They're going to be relatively plain toe-up socks for Andy.  The yarn has been in my stash for at least 5 years, and I think could be accounted for in my I-just-learned-to-knit-socks buying frenzy.  It's not bad yarn (Schachenma  Nomotta Regia Strato), but I'm not wild enough about the colorway to explain why I had enough of it for 3 pairs of socks.  Thankfully, one pair was made some time ago, so I'll make a pair for Andy and one for me and can get to that "44 all used up" mark in Ravelry.   I am going to give myself credit for reaching my stashdash goal.  I went from this to th...

The pink sweater.  Still.  And I'll be working on it tomorrow as well.  The same pink sweater I worked on yesterday.  And the day before. NOW I know why I work on so many projects at once.  It's not really  my knitterly ADD.....it's really so I don't bore my blog readers to death. See, isn't that nice of me?

Yes, it really is sort of painful to say this, but Martha Stewart really does have some good ideas: Portable Picnic-Utensil Roll - Martha Stewart Sewing Projects

I finished the last of the dishcloth yarn in my stashdash basket last night, so now with 8 days left to go I just have the pink sweater.  BUT I'm doing the 3/4-length sleeves two at a time, and I just switched from the 3-inch ribbing to the main pattern.  It is possible.  The REAL challenge, of course, will be to see what gives out first--my desire to finish a project or my new project lust that makes me want to cast on ANYTHING but this pink sweater!

I have finished the front of the pink sweater, and have cast on for the sleeves--which means I'm showing some dedication to a single project.  Obviously, this is not normal for me, and perhaps it may be said that when I get bored I am at my most dangerous for coming up with purely idiotic ideas.  Of course, coming a close second could be when someone lays down a challenge--that does account for both the current 111-project mania and the Double Dog Dare WIP mania from a couple years ago.  I'm not sure who should take the blame for the Ravelympic madness , though someone besides myself would be preferable.  So, with this past history of maniacal behavior, and my recent spate of project monogamy, something was bound to snap.  So there I was, probably barely clinging to reality--and there might have been a glass of wine involved--and Andy and I were on the patio having dinner, and Andy asked how the progress on the sweater went during Finishing Friday, and asked...

So, the "Spring Stashdash" challenge I'm leading on Ravelry ends on July 1.  I started with this: and everything is finished except maybe 2 more dishcloths and the pink sweater.  I've almost finished the front, though and might actually finish it today, thanks to a mysteriously early start today......... like 4:30 AM.  I'm feeling slightly less guilty about everything we had to put him through during the broken leg episode ............. So I have 13 days to finish 2 sleeves, the seams, and the neck.  I think it could happen.  It won't technically empty my basket as I'm positive I'll have pink yarn left, and I have almost 3 balls left over from Andy's sweater as he didn't seem to think the idea of a sweater and matching hat combo was particularly "manly" once one is over the age of 5, and he might have a point there.  I haven't exactly seen Antonio Banderas or Brad Pitt walking around in sweater and tam ensembles .  Yet. I...

Almost 11 months late, but Andy's birthday sweater, is finished!  And the picture is even right-side up (thank you RobinH ).   Now that Unix, F-Spot, Blogger, and I have reached a truce, it's time to see more pictures--especially since I am not quite ready to discuss the first zipper experience....... More of the primary colors placemats and napkins: with my helpful assistant, of course.   We don't even pretend that I can get sewing pictures without him anymore.  He did need to go outside to tear up the garden for a while, so I got a quick picture of the latest chemo cap: AND.....what Andy made for me for my birthday (which was in September, but Andy was running a bit late this year as well, though not quite as late as moi): A writing desk!  It's made from walnut from his grandparents' farm in Indiana, and I now have an official  desk for writing thank you notes and letters.   So far, Theo has shown no interest at all in the writing desk--poss...

*  Yarn does not have a monitor that will suddenly decide that 30 seconds should be enough time for anyone  to wish to see whatever it is they're trying to type. *  Buying yarn doesn't involve any cable specifications, except the kind with the cool needle *  New yarn rarely costs $200 to replace, and if it does, it's cashmere and I pretty much want to roll around naked in it anyway, which I wouldn't be sharing that on the blog *  If I want my yarn to be sideways, I turn it.  If I don't, I can turn it back.  I do not have to wrestle with computer programs that may or may not be compatible with whatever Blogger is doing today in order to see my knitting right side up. *  Unless one bought really silly yarn like Fun Fur, yarn is never outdated and "not forward compatible" *  When new yarn arrives, there are never instructions written by a 5-year-old Chinese translator that can only be deciphered after 3 glasses of wine and 4 wrong atte...

There's still no word on Jeeves yet, but I have a lot of faith in the new dealer and I know he's actually looking for the problem, so I'm not too worried about it.  I did, however, finally find an answer to a question that is bouncing around the internet. Husqvarna sewing machines have changed drastically since the VSM buyout.  They used  to be made in Sweden.  They are NOW made in Shanghai, China.  So, it doesn't just feel  like the company has changed and that the machines one used to be able to depend on are total crap.  When was the last time you heard of a product made in China that wasn't cheap unreliable garbage? The good news is that Jeeves and Emma are both old enough to have been manufactured in Sweden, so I'm set for a while, but I would never buy a Husqvarna again.  Thousands of dollars for junk produced in China?  Not likely.

With less than a month left in the stash-dash challenge, the pink sweater now has a back, there's another shower cloth, and the last chemo cap is in progress,  leaving me with just this: left to use up. This weekend I hope to work on Andy's sweater and maybe even finish it, but I don't think it will take all of the remaining black yarn. I'm not sure exactly how to account for that as far as the stash-dash challenge, but maybe I'll see if Andy would be interested in a matching hat..... There has finally been actual sewing: and Theo is just beside himself with joy over the new projects to fur. The placemats and napkins are either 1/3 or 1/4 of a gift for some close friends coming over on Saturday.  They recently redecorated their dining room using primary colors, so I'm making 2 yellow, 2 red, and 2 blue placemat/napkin sets (and will throw in green if I have the time).  This is the first real sewing I've done since cleaning the sewing room, and ...

According to this article from Threads magazine: Color Coordination - Threads I predicted the "Color of the Year." Apparently what I have often referred to as "Pepto-Bismal pink" may in reality be "Honeysuckle" and THE color for fall. Um, yeah. I knew that.....

So some months doing the stash tally is quite exciting. This, however, isn't one of them. For May, I have the following sad, little, pathetic report: Projects finished: 3 Yards of fabric used: none Yards of yarn used: 1543 skeins of yarn used: 6 May was only 2 weeks long this year, right?

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, though I guess I should have explained that I actually turned 40 in September, and Andy's sister and her family had lined up the birthday adventure for when we joined them in Colorado for our niece's graduation.  We were there 5 action-packed days, and I think I just caught up on my sleep last night.  :) It technically wasn't my first white water rafting trip, but it was certainly my first one involving Class III or Class IV rapids.  I believe the technical classifications involve something about water per square foot or speed, but for we laymen, I'd say Class III is when you start thinking you could die, Class IV is when you think you really might die, and Class V is when you start converting.  We were with a brilliant guide who didn't tell us until we were through it that one of the first rapids we went through was a Class IV, so that made it much easier to do the rest of the trip.  I'll admit, I was quite nervous ab...