A Little Yarn On The Side

I am down to 16 WIPS. For some, that might be overwhelming.  For me, having once been around the 40-WIP mark, this is almost knitting monogamy.  One project was actually started yesterday, so I was down to 15.  Without trying.  Remember when I worked for months just to get DOWN to 14?  Having these crazy finished project goals for the year might not be so crazy after all...........

I just finished the Rosemary and Thyme scarf, which gives me 67 projects for the year.  In order to get to 111 projects by the end of the year, I should be averaging 9.25 projects each month, which would mean that I would be ending August with 74 projects--7 more than I have now.  Oops. Thursday kicks off the next Ravelry "stash dash" challenge:  FILLING a basket with finished objects between September 1 and December 31.  I think I'd better go find a REALLY big basket..................

This scarf was inspired by the wonderful smell of herbs in the summer (in spite of the fact that I can't seem to keep thyme alive).  It is worked with a seed stitch border at the bottom and on the sides to prevent rolling, which will be listed as "ss" in the pattern.  Stitch markers are highly encouraged This can be done with any yarn/needle combination.  For my scarf, I used a DK weight mohair blend with size 8 needles. Cast on 31 stitches. Work 4 rows of seeds stitch border as follows: Border row 1:  K1, [p1,k1] to end Border row 2:  slip stitch as if to knit, [p1, k1] to end Border row 3:  slip stitch as if to knit, [p1, k1] to end   On the last row , work 3 stitches as established, place marker (pm), work 5, pm, work 15, pm, work 5, pm, work remaining stitches NOTE: The number of stitches in the center panel will vary slightly as you work.  No need to panic, unless perhaps it has doubled in size--then feel free to panic slightly. ...

6 (okay, 6 1/2 counting today) days left in the "dead heat" stashdash, and my basket is not so much empty...........   Not so much even close.  All the fun fur is pretty much used up: for 3 niece scarves and one doll scarf. Two scarves are getting close to the half-way mark, (or already half-way if I only had some pygmy friends). 6 days--do I accept reality and try to get ONE of them done, or keep deluding myself that I could finish both of them even with the pesky  wonderful bounty from the garden to deal with?

*  When one gets desperate enough for finished objects, Fun Fur stops looking so silly *  Putting velcro anywhere on the inside of a purse is evil *  The more you hate the very sight of a finished project, the more people will complement you on it. *  I'm apparently never going to learn that trying to knit with wool in August is miserable *  Buying yarn on a regular basis made me feel like I was knitting faster than I actually was. *  Knitting is pretty darn slow at times--like when one is playing on Ravelry instead of knitting......

I didn't garden today. I didn't can anything today. We didn't have company today. I didn't even make coffee today.  I CRAFTED!!!!!!!!!!!!! To be fair, I did start with a little mending.  Andy had ripped 3 holes in some pant he uses for camping, and my sewing machine actually has a mending stitch, which is really just short rows of stitching side-by-side, which sounds simple but until I saw it, I actually would never have thought about this being a good way to mend anything.  With small holes, it can blend pretty well, but with three big tears, it's noticeable--though perhaps not as noticeable as Andy flashing everyone at a campsite.   Then I decided to tackle some of the quicker projects in my "dead-heat" basket, so meet Niece Fun Fur Scarf #1: and Niece Fun Fur Scarf #2: which has to be a little bit longer than the first one as the niece in question is older and taller, and while I had 3 skeins of Fun Fur in the colorway "confetti," no tw...

It's August 17 and I have 49 projects to finish to meet my goal.  Which was starting to kick me into high "everyone-gets-Fun-Fur-scarves-for-Christmas" panic mode until I had the sense (obviously borrowed from somewhere) to check to see where I was last year at this time.  Last year on August 16 I needed 46 more projects, but needed only (I love that, "only") 100 projects last year, not 111.  SO, even with my current lack of interest in sewing, I am ahead of where I was last year.  And just because there's a real possibility that canning season will be MUCH more time consuming than last year is no reason to panic........... yet.............

I'd like to say I avoided the garden all weekend long, but I'd also like to be taller and able to knit 35,000 yards of yarn a year AND buy unlimited amounts of yarn AND have unlimited storage space for yarn, so I try not to pay too much attention to such wishes.  As promised, the finished socks: It's my standard toe-up sock with a very simple K2, p2 rib that shifts one stitch after every 4 rows, and I really like how it wears, as well as how it looks with the striped yarn: Of course, MOSTLY I like that it used up 460 yards from my stashdash basket.  YAY! The new hat got lots of attention, and is almost ready for top shaping.  The pattern calls for 5 inches on the sides, but I have one of these and it's just a bit too short to go over my ears for when it's REALLY cold, which is actually the only time I wear hats, so while I love how my hat looks, my ears are freezing which makes me cold and the hat completely pointless.  Which is the longest way I could find to ...

As it turns out, actually crafting  on Finishing Friday makes a BIG difference on stash progress.  I finished the grey socks last night (picture to come), which used up a 460-yard ball of yarn and pushed my total-yarn-used for the year tally over 10,000.  The first year of the yarn tally I crossed that mark in July, but since then it has been late August or September, so I'm having a decent knitting year I suppose.  It does create a problem with that 25,000 yard goal however.  Not that I'm ready to concede yet--I prefer to ignore reality until at least  November.  Besides, I still have tonight free.............

Down to the second sock, almost to the heel, and...............   not one, but TWO new projects.  Restraint?  What? The first is a scarf I'm calling Rosemary and Thyme.  I'm hoping it will be easier to see in future pictures, but there's sort of a leaf and spiky-thing motif going on......and we've been listening to lots of folk music recently.  As there was a white chocolate martini involved, I'm just happy that we weren't listening to anything stranger, as I don't want to have to continually explain why I'm knitting a scarf called "Puff the Magic Dragon" or "Bamboo Stick."  The second one is another slip-a-color hat, which is my current favorite hat pattern.  Both of these involve bigger needles than the socks or Foreign Correspondent scarf, so I'm hoping to get both of them done fairly quickly.  But then again, I think I said that about Andy's birthday sweater as well, and that took 11 months......................

......I made a lot more progress on the grey sock without Calisto's help, so I'm pretty sure I'll get them done for the "dead heat" stashdash.  Unless, of course, I am lured away by this: which is also in my "dead heat" basket and could either become a hat or mittens or both.  Part of me wants to try EZ's mitered mittens again since I have not successfully made a mitten and this time I know that I need to go DOWN a needle size to get gauge, not up.  BUT part of me is thinking that I might prefer to do a hat as a hat is a finished project after one thing is done, not two.  The responsible part of me--which isn't a very big part, unfortunately--is trying to keep myself focused on the socks or the blue scarf, but I'm not sure it's a battle that part is going to win.  Would I have over 50,000 yards of lace yarn if I were a responsible person??????

One CAN take knitting camping, but neither you nor your knitting are likely to come home very clean.......................

Okay--perhaps not, but it sounded better than "I've been so busy that I haven't been near the blog in almost a week."  There has, at least, been some crafting, though not always by me.... I wouldn't mind so much, but her gauge is all over the place.  I did manage to wrest the knitting away from Calisto long enough to finish the first sock, and get the second one cast on.  Theo is a different story, but Calisto can always be bribed with gardening or "kitty salon."  This little girl is a fiend for brushing.  The table runner has been finished, washed, pressed, and delivered to the recipients, who were thrilled.  I ended up drawing some simple shapes and just satin-stitching them in red and yellow.    Believe me, it was faster than embroidering them as I actually have no idea how to create simple shapes on the software.  It has been so long since Jeeves worked that I'm having to relearn just the basics all over again--much less things ...