A Little Yarn On The Side

Just in case you haven't tried it, walking in a pool for an hour is exhausting.  Or it is if you've spent the majority of the last 7 weeks laying on heating pads.  I think, though, that it is helping my back, so I have been able to do another small sewing project: Music coasters.  I've made two sets of 6--one for us to keep and one to go in the gift bin.  They aren't very elaborate, and I could only sit long enough to sew one set at a time, but somebody was very happy: I think he might have enjoyed "get well kitty" status, but nothing compares with sewing.  Taking advantage of a day without any need for even the smallest bit of Valium, I finally did the math and laid out the plans for the Valentine's basket vest, and have almost completed the ribbing.  I've decided on a pattern that will have the ribbing stretching into a ribbing and cable pattern, so I think only two inches of ribbing with the smaller needles will be necessary.  I haven...

After two years of frantically completing as many projects as possible, it's still odd to be working on something as large as a sweater--which might explain this: Another men's mock aran hat!  At least this time it was actually from yarn that was already in my Valentine's stashdash basket, but it did leave the mohair jacket neglected and alone all day yesterday.  I have determined, however, to not be seduced by any more hats for at least a week, which should give me time to finish the back and start the fronts of the jacket. If it takes me an entire month to finish a sweater in bulky yarn, I am indeed in trouble this year!

....but not to anything in my basket.   Actually, I'm probably not being "monogamous" as that probably means only one project and I am working on two, but announcing that I am being a bigamist just doesn't sound right.  But it is sort of like progress to be keeping myself committed to just two projects.   It's somewhat easier to not be seduced by anything else in the stash, as I don't think the stash is playing nicely today.  Remember this? The 1375-yard hank of cobweb yarn that wasn't on my Ravelry stash?  It has a friend.  At least one.  I had finally steeled myself to dig in the laceweight bin to see how much of the green yarn from dem fischer sin fru I really had, and ran into a second 1375-yard hank of yarn that isn't on Ravelry.  It must be breeding.  I decided that perhaps I didn't really want to play with the laceweight after all if THAT was the sort of behavior I could expect.  As a consequence, the mohair jacket has...

The Valentine's Stash Dash challenge, which I am leading, kicked off on January 1.  In less than 24 hours, I was cheating on my basket: I think that might be a new personal record.  I'm not sure if I just wasn't in the mood to design a vest, or if I'm just in a selfish mood and wanted to make something for myself, or if I was seduced by the idea of making a sweater in bulky yarn so my sad little "used up" tally could actually have some numbers on it, but whatever the case, this seems to be helping me get past the "must finish as many projects as possible" mindset and transition to "sweater" mindset.  At least it has for the past 24 hours, but that obviously means nothing.  If I have cast on a new shawl by this time tomorrow, then I think there might need to be a bit more transitioning.... I'm making the Maggie Rennard Jacket from Knitting Today's Classics , but there's an odd pocket detail which would be (from what I u...

So I did manage to finish up the second sock last night, but that left me with total yardage of 15,835.55--short of 16,000 yards but not by too much.  (And I'm not sure if I really thought this was going to work, but I did start this   last night "just in case.")  It was still my second-best yardage year ever.  Not to mention, it allowed me to end the year with 117 projects--exactly the number I made last year.  How weird is that? Now, on to 2012 and the "12 12s."  To jump-start the year, I'm leading another basket stashdash on Ravelry--this time back to the fill-the-basket and knit only from it, and this "dash" ends Valentine's day at midnight.  That's a month and a half, so I need a sweater and a half--or a sweater and half a shawl.  Or, I could finish this poor, neglected Pi shawl so I can finally see how the darn thing looks, and have shawl/sweater #1 done without too much effort, then I can start on number two, which will a...