A Little Yarn On The Side

Over the last two-three years, I have been adding my yarn stash to Ravelry in order to manage it a bit easier.  It obviously took quite a bit of time, but when I do get the urge to buy yarn, I can go online and browse my own stash, which does feel quite a bit like online shopping, and of course it helps to remind myself how much yarn I already have to knit with.  This is all good.  And when I use up yarn, I can move it to the "used up" tab, which means my stash is always current. Since I started doing the chemo caps, using one ball of Elann Esprit yarn for each cap, I've been moving a lot of formerly "in stash" yarn to the "all used up" tab.   Each time, it feels like an amazing accomplishment, and I'm now up to 30 items in my "used up" tab.  Being able to see my stash progress every day in such a quick and easy manner is pretty exciting.  Not all the yarn I've knitted up in the last 3 years was even on Ravelry, so it doesn't r...

It's official.  I am OBSESSED. I have now done 9 pattern repeats on the edging, so if we ignore the whole grafting-yet-to-come part, I am 28% of the way through the edging.  Whoo hoo!!!!!!!! I admit, I have become obsessed about seeing how this turns out.  I'm now far enough along that I can sort of stretch it out a bit over the ironing board, but the part I'm most curious to see is this I tried blending two designs over the last increase section, and I am hoping they'll blend fairly smoothly when blocked.  Pi shawls do take some severe blocking because of the way the increases work, so this may or may not work well when stretched, but I will find out soon! And tomorrow is Finishing Friday, and STILL no word from Jeeves, and unfortunately I just saw someone on the Husqvarna Facebook "fan" page post that she had been told a MINIMUM of 6 weeks to get a part for her machine as well, and hers is brand new and still in production.  So....it looks like it is...

Actually, I'm on the edging.... but as today marks 5 weeks since I took Jeeves in to be fixed for the second time , the first one may be pretty accurate as well. I'm using an 18-row edging pattern, so I'll need 32 pattern repeats total, which leaves 30 left to do.  That sounds SO much better than saying I have 1152 rows of edging to do total--of which I have done heartbreakingly few....There are times when being ABLE to do math and it being a good ideaI to do math are just not the same thing........

The magic of the Pi shawl is in its simplicity.  You start with a certain number of stitches, which can actually be any number though single digits make the most sense.  Then after one row, you double the number of stitches.  Then after after a couple rows, you double it again, doubling the number of rows each time as well.  It always sounds so simple...... ....... and I always forget how freakin' many stitches that last increase turns out to be!

Okay, not a lot of knitting, but some.  Mostly this week has been gardening and socializing.  Which is all good--especially the socializing--but it does sort of cut into the knitting time. After playing around with different ideas, I decided to go with the original pattern for the final Pi shawl section, largely because it was based on the same number of stitches and I thought would "blend" well: Since I now have double the number of stitches as the last section, it's going much more slowly, but I think this will make an interesting effect when done.  If not, I have LOTS more yarn........:)

I am just finishing up the last rows of the 48-row set on the Pi shawl, so I'm about to start the what-would-be-96-row-set-if-it-didn't-make-a-monster-sized-shawl part.  I'm trying really hard to NOT have to take it all off the needles, so with the aid of some stuffing, here's where I'm at Everything so far has been sort of V-shaped, though the center part looks more like a flower than anything else.  I'm thinking of using this for the next part, or is it a little too much "V" happening?  I could do something in more of an over-all pattern like cat's paw, or even something really open like faggotting.  Thoughts?

Andy was gone this weekend, and since I couldn't spend the weekend sewing, I decided to sort through my sewing pattern stash and match up a few with fabric--you know, like I actually remembered what I bought material for in the first place........ And, after only about an hour of rummaging around in the closet, I found................ THE MISSING PAJAMA TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You know--the one that has been missing for two and a half years.  Of course, now I don't know where the rest of the material is, but as Andy pointed out, if all else fails, I could just bind the edges of the armholes & he'd have perhaps the first EVER wife-beater flannel PJ top.  It was underneath several yards of green suiting, which has now been "assigned" to Andy's next Halloween Costume...... A Zoot Suit!  I told him not to hope for the costume to be done by this Halloween, but since he's been waiting for a PJ top for 2 1/2 years, I doubt he was really ...

Sweaters?  What sweaters? I wish there was a good way to photograph a Pi shawl without taking it off the needles--which I am far too lazy to do--but this isn't too bad for an in-progress picture.  In some ways, this is a lot of the fun, because I don't even know exactly what it will look like when it's finished and blocked.  At least I picked a really pretty way to fall dreadfully behind on the 100-projects-a-year goal.......

It's July 8, and I have just under half the year to go and just under half the projects to go.  So what am I doing with my spare time today? Working on the new Pi shawl.  As I need a little over 8 finished projects per month, what could be a more foolish idea than launching into a 1500-yard lace project--except, of course, starting a new quilt, which mercifully I haven't done.  I'm not using Elizabeth Zimmermann's suggested pattern.  Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I've seen so many Pi shawls on Ravelry that I needed something different.  AND, since I'm making it up anyway, it makes a great portable project:  no pattern means no pattern to cart around.  The color is actually a bit more accurate in this picture but the pattern so far might be easier to see in this one Not that I shouldn't be working on Andy's birthday sweater--or cleaning the house, for that matter--but Pi shawls are amazingly addictive.  I don't know why--pi as ...

Sometimes it's possible to love the yarn, be enjoying the knitting, love the feel of the knitted object, and...... dislike the results. This is my Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl. I am using a yarn that I have hoarded for several years because I love the colors so much that I didn't want it to be gone from my stash. I am making the pattern up as I go and loving the experience & how it is looking as a pattern, but now that the shawl is getting big enough to see the result.... Tie dye lace????????? This was going to be a surprise 40th birthday gift, but I have a thing about not giving gifts that I don't particularly like (so no one should be holding their breath for the MS3 stole as a birthday gift--even if I ever finish the beaded-knitting-abyss), so I finally sent pictures of the shawl in progress as well as some other options to choose from. Admittedly, I might not be "thinking outside the box" enough on this one, but for what occasion would this shawl be eve...

Well, monogamy lasted 10 days. That's something. I think it's all a matter of perspective--I joined the Victorian Lace Today Yahoo group several months ago, and had yet to start one of the shawls, so in one sense I'm just getting caught up and NOT being fickle and being too much of a child to commit to one project for more than 10 measly days. Side note: I have not gone colorblind--the green stripe will be removed when I put the border on. The January cardigan is progressing--the back, both fronts, and part of one sleeve are done. And the Pi shawl greatly enjoyed the trip to Disneyland and may actually be finished by its February target date. If so, that would probably be a knitting first for me.