A Little Yarn On The Side

Which theoretically means that I regain my crafting sanity on the first of April, right?  I will make a note to remember how that feels.  As a woman with over 50,000 yards of lace yarn alone, it's not a sensation I'm overly familiar with..... So, yesterday I hemmed and hawed and looked at the patterns and the yarns, and this morning went a completely different route.  This has at least been in my queue for at least a year, and is DEEP stash--another colorway of the alpaca I've hoarded stashed in so many colorways.  I bought this in 2006 to make a sweater for my husband while we were on our honeymoon, and still have 17 skeins of it left.  It doesn't take up quite as much space in the closet as the Lion Brand yarn, but it takes up a lot of mental stash.  When it came down to it, almost everything else I was looking at would require alterations of some sort, or longer needles, and after 2.5 years of a LOT of knitting, my hands get tired faster w...

Mostly of the really bad sort.  I did manage to get all the buttons sewn onto the new dress, which is when I discovered I put the buttonholes on the wrong side.  To be fair, I was partaking of a white chocolate martini while sewing the buttonholes, but I'd marked the silly things BEFORE the martini, so I have no excuse.  I really did look at the picture on the pattern and think I was putting it on correctly.  Oh well--it's certainly not the ONLY thing in my closet with buttons on the wrong side....... I am finally ready to show you Saturday's project.  For once, Husqvarna's website posted a free pattern that did not require buying a whole new machine or $500 accessory, so I decided to make their striped bag . I should have known better.  If Husqvarna can't get money from customers, they're not really interested in anything, so the pattern isn't great.  There's an 11 by 12 piece required, but they didn't mention which way the stripes were to g...

 Finally!  Blogger is uploading pictures again!  So, this  is the first finished piece of the March Madness Sweater, and this is the progress on the front piece.  Isn't this just a marvelous sweater?  Love, love, love it--even if it is now May and the idea was to finish it in March.  Of course, if reality and I were well acquainted, I wouldn't have 64,000 yards of lace yarn....... We had a busy weekend with hosting a dinner party here on Friday and attending a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday, so I didn't have a Finishing Friday, but I have finished a new ornament today, which gives me 132 ornaments, and  I'm making some progress on the blue gift bags.  I would like to get a new summer dress cut out this week, but with all the socializing--and a whole lot of gardening--I'm a bit sore and am resting a fair bit today.  Maybe this Friday, though...............?

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...

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...