A Little Yarn On The Side

Thursday and Friday were taken up with canning and exercise and all that sort of thing, but since I'm really, really, REALLY tired today, it's a sewing day! First I set up Jeeves to start on two denim bags for gifts,  and got this far before I remembered that I should change to a heavier needle for denim. I don't think I've embroidered on denim before, but it is a very heavy fabric for a regular embroidery needle.  Luckily, the last needle in this package was a heavy embroidery one, which never happens.  I'm a bit delighted to have used up another package of machine needles, because I have a stash of those as well, but that's almost mandatory.  Between the ones for different fabrics, different threads, and having 4 machines, I go through them regularly.  I don't always remember to change needles for each new project, but I try, and every time I have a problem, the first thing I do is to check the needle.  These are expensive machines, and I...

As you know, for the last few weeks I've been seeing a soft-tissue physical therapist (if that's the right way to describe it), and it is helping enormously .  I still have a long way to go, but I think this is finally going to get rid of the back issues for good (provided I continue to always exercise and that sort of thing).  So, it's all good.  However, if you have ever had a deep tissue massage, or a massage on knotted muscles, you'll know that it starts out hurting like crazy.  By the second session, I'd have spilled any state secrets if I'd had any.  By the time she's finished, I usually feel pretty good, though sometimes a bit shaky and always nauseous.  I don't know what exactly it is, but I've started just planning on not doing anything the rest of the day afterwards.  So, this morning I went for my appointment, she was thrilled with my progress, she made it painful to sit again, gave me a new stretch.........and I feel good.  Not perfect...

My little sidekick seems to have gotten back to his usual self, including one of his favorite games, which we refer to as "trip the human."  He's still on a de-stress medication and the glucosamine blend for bladder health, but the longer he can go without a relapse, the more likely it is that it won't reoccur.  So I keep a close eye on him, but it's harder than one thinks to de-stress a cat. Monday I had warned him that this   was a bad place for a nap.  But you know pets--you can talk until you're blue in the face and they just won't listen.  So Tuesday, he fell off.  He did actually land on his feet, which I thought was just an old wives' tale, but I wasn't sure if it was stressful for him or not.  If I fell 3-feet out of bed while asleep, I don't think MY stress level would be great, so we had an extra petting session.  All seemed fine and then.. Wednesday, he got locked in the garage.   Not realizing how much we would re...

This might be surprising, but I have actually been following my doctor's instructions to not do anything that hurts my back.  However, my back made no such promises.  Driving down to the physiatrist's office on Monday, it started to hurt, and by Monday night had wound up my muscles enough again to set me back about a week when I went in for therapy on Tuesday.  While the soft tissue work is quite painful, it really seems to be helping, but after pretty much two years of pain, I've made quite a knot in my muscles, and it's going to take a while to unwind it.  Especially if it's going to hurt for random things.  I am keeping the Valium close, just in case.  It can ache a bit from being tired (which it does), but as soon as the muscles start to clench up from the pain, I'm in trouble.  So, there's been lots of heating pad time, as well as,  lots of canning because it's August.  Canning gives one some "waiting while....." time, but not any lo...

I would be showing you the new scarf with a little spot of steam blocking, except My little sidekick has commandeered (and furred) the ironing board.  I thought I might get it back earlier today, as he almost rolled off, but he caught himself in time.  He seems to be doing better with the stress issues, but falling off the ironing board probably wouldn't have helped.  So, it isn't blocked.  I almost tried for one final pattern repeat, but I'm glad I didn't.  There isn't enough yarn there for a whole pattern, which makes me rather pleased with my guessing. I am back to working on the sweater now, which will be the most time-intensive WIP I have, I think.  I thought if I finished THIS one first, everything else would be fast comparatively, but monogamous knitting has never been my strongest point.  Maybe if I get some progress done on this, I can swoop in and finish off something else when I get tired of this, and then when I come back to thi...

There is a finished Ostrich Plume Scarf with beads! I have now knit up more than 5000 yards of yarn from my stash! I have finished TWO whole WIPs and only have 13 more to go............ Dang, that started out better than it ended.................

I probably need a different term for Fridays that don't really involve anything being finished, although I did finally make a lace ornament to feel like I've done something today.  The never-ending scarf with the magic ball of yarn continue to defy progress, so we are ignoring each other today.  Instead, I've been designing some Halloween trick or treat bags that are mostly overdue for birthday gifts and which could be redeemed if I get them done before Halloween.  I also did a bit of work on some new ornaments, which are ready for beads.  Unfortunately, I'm a little tired of beads right now.  So, I am losing my lead in ornaments, being beaten up by one of the smaller WIPs in my bag, and I've done as much sitting at the computer as I can take right now, so I am about to do the unthinkable:  I am going to go do laundry willingly.  I know--it's a sad, sad day here at Chateau Sutton-Goar..............

Okay--I really, really, REALLY hoped I would be showing you finished WIP number two tonight, but I have reached the magic point in the beaded scarf:  no matter how much I knit, it doesn't get any longer or the skein get any smaller.  So, while I have achieved a rather interesting achievement in physics, I have nothing to show you................. Do you think one can win a Nobel Prize in yarn????????????

.....but to add just a bit of variety, and to potentially finish something in the near future, I have been working on the beaded Ostrich Plume scarf: One good thing about having a lot of WIPs is one does have a lot of variety on a WIP marathon.  My new physical therapist seems to be really helping, but she's doing some soft tissue work on me, and it's a bit tender to sit, so I have been finishing sugar cookie ornaments.  Now that my craft table has been raised, it's the perfect height for someone with a tender derriere.  Now there's a description one doesn't see in furniture catalogs very often........ Still,  it has allowed me to get a few more ornaments ahead today.  I may be cookied-out for a while, but this last one makes ornament 236 and today is the 221st day of the year, so IF I were foolish enough to say such things within the hearing of the Crafting Gods, I would be bragging about being 15 ornaments ahead.  However, long experienc...

 .............and my mitten enthusiasm might be waning just a bit.  However, I'm in love with sugar cookies again!  Really, a few more of these and I will have made more sugar cookie ornaments than actual sugar cookies, at least as an adult.  We used to make them every December when I was growing up, but I haven't made sweets very often as an adult, and things that involve both frosting AND a rolling pin are pretty low on my list.  Now if they involved beads.................

This: is a picture of the sewing room in December of 2007--right before I started my first year of Cold Sheeping.  It doesn't accurately show the yarn stash by any means, and I know there were at least a couple fabric tubs not shown here, but let's compare that to the sewing room today: The yarn bins:  the Christmas fabric bin,  the closet,  more yarn bins (and a huge mess),  and the fabric shelf: Even though I know the first picture doesn't show everything, I think it's pretty clear that my fabric stash has exploded while I've been Cold Sheeping yarn.  It could be worse, I suppose.  It could be both yarn AND fabric, but still...... Since I have less than 90 days left before being able to buy things, I have been working on my list.  After this little wake-up call, I will definitely be signing on for a second year of buying nothing, but there are some things I genuinely need.  If possible, I am going to find some black pe...

Even after so many of these, I still find them just adorable.  And relatively fast--also very important.  231 ornaments down, 134 to go..............

I realize it's early--and even saying this will probably prompt the Knitting Gods to do something really hideous--but I think I'll be making my goal of 365 ornaments for the year.  I know--it's truly daring to say so this early, but I am just a bit ahead, and I'm more than half-way there and if worst comes to worst, I think I could still get there with the mitten ornaments or the machine embroidered ones.  I also cut out some more felt sugar cookie ornaments today, and I could always make more beaded hearts.  So, I think I'll get there.  So............that leads me to think what sort of crazy goal I will be setting for myself for next year.  I enjoy crazy goals--they sort of takes the focus off of my crazy stash, and they push me in new directions.  Interestingly, I'm considering shooting for 100 finished projects again.  I know I've already done it, so I could bump it up and do 118 projects, which I haven't done.  Oddly, in both 2010 and 2011...

While I have taken time to make a few ornaments to keep on track, but have remained quite dedicated to the Alice Starmore sweater: It might have made more sense to start with a faster WIP, but this is a fun pattern, and it's interesting.  I now have 3 and a half pattern repeats done, and at 4 and a half the next step happens, so even though it will take a while, I think it will stay interesting.  Speaking of taking a while, it seams that the stress of Andy's absence brought on a relapse for my sidekick, so Theo and I made a quick trip to the vet yesterday for another pain shot.  He's sleepy, but isn't hurting and is able to urinate in small amounts, so we're making progress again.   They think he's just more susceptible to stress because it's still so soon after the extreme stress of boarding, but I had no idea how stressed this little guy's life actually is.  Honestly, I was surprised that creatures that sleep 18 out of every 24 hours actua...

Okay--I was looking through my knitting pile, and have decided I'm really going to do this.  With only 21 WIPs now, it isn't the worst I've ever been, but there is some really good stuff in that pile, and unlike previous times, most of them are not there because of any problems,  The oldest is one is in there because since we moved into this house, I've never been able to locate the extra yarn and the sweater at the same time.  It's a quite adorable toddler sweater, and the yarn is lovely to work with, and I think this time I have it narrowed down where it all got to and--even better--think I can locate it. Two more: are actually the backs to the exact same toddler sweater, but in different sizes.  I think I still have the rest of the yarn for the cream one, but the green one is doubtful.  It's Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which is usually not too bad for dye lot issues for their major colors like these, but that still means the green one doesn't have muc...