A Little Yarn On The Side

For those of you who enjoy doing math, it might have occurred to you that for me to stay on track to finish 365 ornaments this year, I should be at 90 ornaments by the end of March.  Ahem......... Which explains why this morning was spent working with felt: A second ballet slipper ornament set, though this time I forgot to add the stuffing or, more accurately, I was feeling too certain of my memory and didn't check the pattern.  Some things overlap in the knitting and sewing worlds..... I spent a few minutes looking through my Christmas books to see if I had a template for a Christmas tree ornament, but not finding one I decided I could probably make one without too much difficulty, so, I have designed an ornament!  The idea behind this year was to force myself to try all the ideas I have running around in my head but which I haven't ever had the nerve to try because they might not work.  I was counting on the desperation factor pushing me over tha...

We're finally (mostly) getting spring, so I've been catching up on gardening and some long overdue cleaning, but I did have a little time today to try a new ornament pattern I've been wanting to try: They're felt ballet slippers, and the bow there is supposed to be in gold cord--which I don't have.  I do have SOME gold cord, but it ravels and can only be used when the ends won't show.  Small matching pink ribbon would work as well, but I don't have that either.  Pink felt with white ribbon could work as well, but I think I have those either.  I took ballet for 10 years and taught for 2 or 3, and I tended to wear black or white slippers, but black wouldn't look very festive.  Ideally, I would now make the matching Mouse King ornament to go with the Nutcracker theme, but I don't have gray felt either.  This is going to be a long year. Theo didn't feel inclined to help today I think he's saving his energy for Finishing Friday.......

Be vewy, vewy quiet.....I'm hunting WIPs. I have, right at this moment, 21 knitting WIPs.  I got to count the new socks as a WIP for the Spring Flower Basket Dash, so I earned an azalea:   That motivated me to continue on with the lilac baby sweater, AND to dig out a scarf   that has been languishing since January for no good reason.  These could be finished WIPs 2 and 3, and I'm hoping that finishing 3 WIPs in a row might just allow me to catch that very illusive fever known as finishitis .  It's the most rare condition known to knitting world, but I know it exists--I was lucky enough to catch it once , and finished 14 WIPS in a row.  If I can manage to catch even a light case, it would be marvelous, and I'm starting to feel that little finishitis twinge ........... If I'm vewy, vewy careful, maybe I can catch a wabbit finishitis..........

I finished my Waterfall Rib socks, and without even trying, they are as close to identical as I have ever gotten with variegated yarn: I had actually given up on the whole idea as it never seemed to work, so of course the Knitting Gods decided I shouldn't get off that easily, so now I will be haunted by how very close these came.   Of course, my first impulse would be to grab another ball of yarn and see if I can repeat my success, but luckily that involves moving many bins of yarn and I have distracted myself by this:  The Spring Flower Dash has entries for 3 WIPs, and the socks count as 1, this baby sweater is close enough to be within striking distance for the second AND would count for "Lily" as well because the yarn color is "lilac," AND it's a gift so it would fill "Carnation" as well.  The fact that I have crept back up to 21 existing knitting WIPs may also be a factor in my new-found finishing determination..  Well, that and the fac...

Last night I cut out the interfacing pieces for the jacket, so I could start on it bright and early this morning, but not earlier than Theo.  Apparently he's rediscovered the joys of sewing, or at least the joys of interrupting sewing.  This is why it's best to craft multi-task.  Even when they're both with me,  the cats just can't be everywhere.  Even when it seems like they can..... I was able to distract them long enough to get three more icicle ornaments made: and a gold snowflake: I decided I didn't need to be a purist about appropriate color choices.  I get a LOT more open-minded when I'm really far behind. The socks got a bit of action today while I was embroidering, and Theo had the other machine occupied, and the jacket did finally end up with some progress before my back got tired, and since we had snow when we woke up this morning, I could actually get this finished in time to wear it this year.  Unless Theo has other...

It's supposed to be "Flash Your Stash" time on Ravelry, so meet the lace yarn.  You're right--it's probably not at all smaller than it was a few years ago.  Remember that self-pity purchase over my back in 2011?  Let's just say I seem to believe that lace yarn has magical healing powers.  Ahem.. This: is the yarn I'm either currently supposed to be using, think I will use soon, or just want easy access to.  Or we could also call it, "two containers of yarn I was just too lazy to sort."  That works as well. This is about the time that my back decided it wanted no part of lifting pounds and pounds of yarn around, so we're just going to see pictures of the three tubs under the stereo: and the bags of yarn that love to drop on anyone crazy enough to get close enough to the closet: and the less-threatening lower shelf: and these are the worsted weight (non-feltable) tubs and the fingering weight tubs: which is all ...

As you know, I am trying to buy nothing from my personal account for one year (which, incidentally, will be up at 12:01 AM on November 1, just in case you were wondering).  Today I almost blew it. I've mentioned the Great Decisions group I'm in, and every-other week we meet in a library very close to a fabric store.  For the sake of my credit card, I've been trying to avoid even being NEAR anything too tempting..bookstores, fabric stores, anything even remotely resembling a yarn store.  Really, home and the gym are sort of my world right now.  But, today I was really close to a fabric store, had a little extra time, and was trying to rationalize buying more white machine embroidery thread.  And believe me, as someone who has been both a professional fund-raiser and spent a long time in sales, I can be very persuasive at times.  It was so close, but luckily I decided to get myself some coffee before the meeting, and apparently I've been getting out far les...

It's spring, and time for another basket-dash on Ravelry..or in the blog world.  Really, it's just a way to make spring cleaning about yarn, but isn't everything really about yarn anyway, or is that just me?  Anyway, Between March 16 and May 31, find the cheeriest bag or basket you own and fill it with: Azalea – finish 1 WIP Poinsettia – complete one holiday decoration or gift EARLY Carnation – make one gift Daffodil – finish a second WIP Tulip – start and finish 1 project Jasmine - make a project you’ve wanted to make for at least one year Columbine – donate one item (yarn or otherwise) to charity Aster – finish a third WIP Crocus – try a new technique Rose – write someone a real letter or notecard Lavender – do something nice for yourself that DOESN’T involve buying yarn Lilacs – take a 30 minute walk somewhere you can smell flowers Poppy – contact someone you haven’t seen or talked to in at least 6 months Daisy – finish or frog one item Hyacinth - try something...

In the past few years, I've made quite a few lace scarves.  I kept a few, gave a few as gifts, but had started wondering what on earth I'd done with them: Turns out, they've been long-time residents of the Bin of Needs-Blocking Knitting.  Yes, you do see 6 scarves, 2 baby sweaters, and part of a baby hat.  That was the first project this morning.  I'd like to say that the bin is now empty, but then again, I'd like to be taller and I'd like potato chips to be good for me.  Let's just say that the bin is slightly less full now. What prompted such responsible (and, frankly, uncharacteristic) behavior this morning?   "Flash Your Stash" is coming on Ravelry.  This is when you take ALL your yarn out of the bins, photograph it, then share the pictures on Ravelry.  Personally, I think it's the knitting equivalent of a horror marathon.  Technically, a less-full bin of finished projects really has no impact on the size of the stash, but it wil...

As most of the knitting world knows by now, if you have purchased anything from Knit Picks in the past few years, your credit card might have been swiped and been receiving fraudulent charges in the past couple months (this in spite of the fact that their web checkout SPECIFICALLY says they don't store your credit card information).  They weren't actually hacked--it sounds like the server was sort of unsecured.  Now, if you are aware of this, you didn't hear it from Knit Picks themselves.  Nope. You would have found out from someone else, most likely Ravelry.  That is because vigilant knitters finally found a security breach announcement on the California Attorney General's office, here:  https://www.privacyrights.org/node/55899 The California notice says that the breach was made public on February 11.  It was cross-posted to a group I'm in on Ravelry on February 15.  Knit Picks customers were notified by email or mail...........NEVER.  In spite...

How many times do you have to fail the "prove you're not a robot" test before you start to wonder?

Okay--as I'm knitting the mistake-ornament while having my morning coffee (having had to undo one row already because I did one too many increase rows), I was beginning to get a bit nervous about the 365 ornament plan, possibly because it seems that I will be knitting THIS particular ornament the rest of my natural life.  Between kicking myself for not getting a bit more white embroidery sewing thread and trying to think of other colors that could be used for the snowflake and icicle ornaments without it looking too stupid, it finally hit me: The spending ban will end November 1 - NOT December 31! I can BE a little behind, because I will have two whole months in which to make icicle ornaments with newly-purchased thread!  Whew--so if I'm still working on this stupid little stocking in JULY, I might still be able to catch up!   Whew!

I'll bet you thought there might be a picture of a newly-knitted ornament today, didn't you?  Nope!  It turns out it wasn't enough to do it wrong and have to start over again.  Nope!  I had to restart it a SECOND time, and frankly, we're not on speaking terms right now. Instead, I decided to "sew" for Finishing Friday, which is in quotation marks because MOST of the crafting time was spent laying out and cutting pattern pieces, which is always the most frustrating part of this jacket.  Or used to be. It's my own fault, really.  Having made this jacket from this same fabric before, I knew that the regular metal foot was very slippery on the fabric as it's usually treated with something.  Luckily, when I bought Emma on Ebay,  she came with a couple feet I didn't already have, including a Teflon foot: Under normal circumstances, this is supposed to BE more slippery on things like vinyl, but as anyone who has ever made a garment from home...

So, you know how embarrassing it is to be 5 rows into a project only to discover you misread the directions?  Well, imagine doing it on a Christmas ornament you've already made three times.  When one has been THAT clever, maybe it's time to get some sleep...............

Okay--I really only joined March Madness the night of the first, but I was hoping to have used up the first ball of yarn by now.  I'm really, really, REALLY close, but I am obviously working with magic yarn, because I've been almost at the end of the ball of yarn for an entire day.  Not that a never-ending supply of yarn is anything to sneer at, but I sort of already HAVE that.  It's called the stash.  If something were going to magically never be all used up, why couldn't it have been my bank account?  Sigh.......... Aside from being mired in the never-ending-ball-of-yarn, I love this sweater.  The pattern is interesting, but not so complicated that I have to be checking the chart on every row, and I love the shaping.  The only concern is that while I am getting gauge, gauge is measured over a pattern involving cable and ribbing, so I think I could have gotten "gauge" with about 4 different needle sizes.  I suppose the good side to th...

I'm glad I had a big yarn-stash-busting year last year, because this year is likely to be dismal.  I did know that when I decided to make 365 ornaments, and because so many ornament patterns are improvised, I have no idea how much yarn they're using so will just count the entire skeins when they're finally used up, but it still makes for some very embarrassing February numbers: skeins of yarn used:  2 yards of yarn used: 689 yards of fabric used: 15.875 ornaments made: 18 I guess as long as I can see a visible dent in ONE of the stashes each year, that's something, isn't it?

This is not my fault.  It's Barbara's fault.  Today is March first, there might have been a bit of spring fever in the air, and I think we all know my weakness for playing along.  So, I am now participating in March Madness and will be attempting to knit this entire sweater before April.  Totally not my fault.  The fact that I have been wanting to start a new project for weeks and would jump at any excuse has nothing to do with it.......... Andy's been gone again this week, but I wasn't able to do as much sewing this time, though I did manage to finish his Valentine's shirt, except for the buttons, which I'll let him pick from the stash.  I also made some progress on my patchwork squares, though I'm thinking I have a long way to go.......... A long, LONG way to go...... I did get one final ornament finished for February, putting me slightly behind at 53.  I think the sewing mania needs to ebb just a bit, but not before: This mi...