A Little Yarn On The Side

Drum roll please................... The cowl neck sweater is DONE!!!!!!!!! It should have been finished quite some time ago, but this stopped me.  Nope--it is NOT a ribbon loin cloth, in spite of what it looks like.  It is the original cowl neck. which I think looked pretty dopey.  It was possible to stretch & stretch the neck into being a bit more rounded, and I seriously debated about making myself go through the hassle of mangling it every time I wanted to wear it, or to grow a spine and just fix the darn thing.  Since the sweater has been languishing in the WIP pile for quite some time, you can see what a difficult debate this was.  Blame it on the short rows--which in general I think are just darn clever.  Tinking them, however, is about as much fun as elective root canal without anesthesia.  I decided to watch some old sewing television shows I had taped (back before the digital conversion stopped me from even knowing how to operate n...

We were a little more tired after the Ravelympics than I originally thought, but everyone is fully recovered now.  And even making a little progress.  The March Project of the Month is something lace with beads.  Obviously, I thought out some of the project bags a bit more thoroughly than others.  HOWEVER, I've been thinking for a long time about making a mobius scarf/cowl/whatever.  You know how regular scarves have ends that dangle, and a lot of cowls don't lay around the neck very well?  I'm thinking--what if, just for once--you actually ALLOW your stitches to stay twisted on circular needles?  For one, it would be really fun to do once, and I think it might work.  So that is the plan. Of course, the plan has lost out to some major cooking, housecleaning & yardwork so far this month, but I have high hopes for sometime in the next 27 days.  And--I hate to admit it--I did have a bit of a knitting fling during the Ravelympics: It is...

One of the things that I hoped the "100 Projects" project would do is to force entice me into finishing some of the sewing and knitting WIPS laying around.  I mean, let's face it--the idea of starting and finishing 100 projects in 365 days is a bit crazy....even for me.  While it seems to have had no impact on the knitting WIPS, this weekend I did finish I apologize for the rather bad picture--I didn't realize it was that bad until I had already thrown the jacket into the washing machine.  I'm about 50% happy with it.  The thing is supposed to have shoulder pads, but I have really broad shoulders for a woman, so that part looks fine without them, but the sleeves are unbelievably long--and not in a way that would be fixed by shoulder pads.  In stocking feet, I am 5' 8" tall.  I don't have short arms.  In fact, I have rather long arms.  So, what Amazon tribe are the psychos at the pattern company using for models??????? Not that I'm not thrille...

which Theo thinks is quite disgraceful. I did finish the front of the cowl-neck sweater and I think I moved the neckline up far enough so that the world will have to continue to wonder whether my belly button is an "innie" or an "outie." The sleeves have been started, so I'm hoping to finish it before the Ravelympics start on Friday.  Of course, I'm hoping to finish a whole dang sweater in 17 days, so I am hardly one to be trusted on such things. I was really hoping to finish this fleece jacket today but since this project had been started more than a year ago, there was a good hour devoted to finding all the various pieces and parts.  I think my original plan was to do some sort of decorative stitching on this somewhere, but now I'm almost wondering about some sort of embroidery? It's going to be a bit dull otherwise, don't you think?

So, the front of the cowl-neck sweater is one inch PAST where I'm supposed to divide for the neck: which, by my calculations, would be approximately just above my belly button. Okay......... Now, not that I'm a prude or anything, but there's a difference between wearing a low-cut sweater and just standing for a picture.... and wearing a low cut sweater in real life....and the odds are pretty good that the difference would involve randomly flashing people.  So, I'm thinking I want to add a few inches before the neck.  Maybe 3? 4?

In the future I'm thinking it would be a good idea to either A) combine all my button stash into ONE container, or B) remember that my button stash actually is in several containers.  Not to get all "organized" or anything, but this does seem somewhat logical..... All of that aside, I found buttons! And I think they are perfect.....aside from the fact that they're sort of pointy and catch a bit on the yarn but isn't cuteness more important?  Especially when I'm not the person who will have to button them.......? After swearing loudly about how long the BSJ was taking and how I was tired of working on it, last night when I was ready to cuddle up under the covers with a book I discovered--horror of horrors--that I didn't have anything to knit while reading! Now this might be a tragedy in my life at any time, but in a year when I'm trying to complete an insane number of projects, this was just an impossible situation.  So, after a brief check t...