A Little Yarn On The Side

You may wish to sit down, as this might come as quite a shock.  Meet Finished Project number 19: which still needs buttons because I'm still debating about what sort of buttons to use.  I like the pinkish buttons, but I only have 6 of them and I need 8, and while I have enough of the rose-shaped buttons, I want to see if I can find something that matches better, using the roses as back-up if necessary. And.....seriously, are you sitting down yet?  Meet Finished Project number 20: Fleur is finally done!!!!!!  Forgive the lousy picture--three years at the bottom of the knitting basket gives sweaters a LOT of wrinkles, so it still needs to be washed and blocked, but after more than 3 years, the thing is finally done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  See, I told you it would be quite a shock.  Let's be honest here--did you even think I would ever finish Fleur after all this time?  

With the kimono shawl finished, I am down to 13 WIPS....or 3 away from meeting the Double Dog Dare Challenge.  I have THREE projects that are really, really, REALLY close to being finished: Fleur, which is down to sewing on the beaded band, and doing beaded neckband & cuffs--exactly where it has been for the last year..... The alpaca sweater which needs a sleeve cap & some seams and a few buttons and I could actually be WEARING the darn thing..... and one of the cutest baby sweaters EVER, which needs seams and maybe the neckband and one buttonband.  ALL of them could probably be wrapped up with 2 weeks of serious application. And what am I doing with myself? Working on the baby sweater I cast on THE DAY BEFORE the Double Dog Dare Challenge began.  I have finished the back, and am zipping along on the front but it still isn't as far along as any of the more "matured" WIPS.  The upside is that I am about to finish off another skein of yarn but as ...

After three attempts and much swearing, I am finally finally FINALLY putting the edging on Fleur in the right place, in the right way, and unless it spontaneously combusts--which I don't think cashmere generally does--I may actually get the darn thing done. I think in a small act of atonement, the edging is actually laying flat this time, so that has improved my knitting mood somewhat. The edging strip is a little longer (12 inches "little longer") than necessary, and I'm debating whether to rip it back, or simply cut the darned thing where I need it. This would be a VERY big thing for me, as I am not generally a cutting knitting sort of person. More of a cut-that-knitting-and-there-will-be-bloodshed sort of person, if truth be told, but I always hope that I'll experience Personal Growth while knitting. And then I wake up. I also finally admitted that I had gone a bit overboard on the back of this toddler sweater: being at least 3 inches PAST where I should ha...

But not so much knitting. I did finally buy myself a little reward for finishing 10 WIPs in a row: The Yarn Harlot's latest book, Free Range Knitter . Her writing is so witty and charming that I wish she could rake in the kind of money Danielle Steele or Stephen King does, but I don't suppose the movie rights are worth very much. Any knitter could, of course, appreciate the horror potential of a Hitchcock-esque "The Moths," but I just don't think the general public has that sort of fear of fiber-eating bugs. I did sit down to work on Fleur, and let's see if you can spot the problem: That's right--I started attaching the edging IN THE WRONG PLACE. I started here: thinking a join would be less noticeable at an existing seam. I ripped back the seam--chastising myself for having been so proud of myself for sewing the edging on while knitting it because then I wouldn't only have sewing left to do--then reattached it here: Which is the shoulder seam, whic...

OK, I admit it, the blouse is kicking my a**. It has 2 pages of instructions aside from being a silky-slidy material that I must have been out of my mind to select. Today it has driven me to the lowest depths...... I cleaned. Not just any cleaning even--bathroom cleaning. Now there are some bad projects, but when you would honestly prefer to scrub toilets than work on the project, that's a whole new level of "bad." Battered and beaten by a yard and a half of polyester, I needed stockinette stitch, so I dug out this which I'm not sure has even been granted photo space on the blog before. It's a chemo cap made from Elann Esprit, which I started at least two years ago. The yarn is elastic & stretchy and a nightmare to work with until I sort of got the hang of it. It's based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl, and I'm just a few rows short of the sides. When the stretchiness of the yarn got to me, I switched to Fleur, and have started sewing on...

So Theo and I have been working on the checkerboard baby blanket and using a joining foot and a zig zag, I sewed 6 strips of blocks together. As rectangular didn't require cutting more blocks and square did, we opted for the rectangular blanket. The problems started when I started trying to sew the strips together. If you haven't worked with fleece before, it doesn't stretch at all in one direction, and stretches like a maniac in the other. After several attempts using various setting on my sewing machine--not to mention lots of "quality time" with the seam ripper--I used my quilt basting spray to stick little bits of water soluble stabilizer to hold the blocks together, and zigzagged them together: It's still a bit puckered, but not nearly as bad as it was. The biggest problem is that there is no way to spray little strips of stabilizer with basting spray without getting basting spray all over one's hands. You can blame any typos on the fact that my ...

CRAFT WAREHOUSE IS NO LONGER CARRYING THE BEADS I NEED!!!! I have almost a full yard of the beaded trim done and I'm going to have to rip it all out if I can't find these #*(@*$%&@! beads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess after the pajama episode , I should maybe have seen this one coming, but those little tubes really look like they hold a whole bunch of beads, and I haven't even been projectiling these around the house. So tonight I have been frantically emailing internet bead stores looking for the following: Toho 8 Round #166 Transparent Lt Amethyst AB Anyone live near Craft Warehouse????? I did at least find the yarn I need for the birthday poncho, but haven't gotten around to it yet this evening as Andy's sweater was really close to using up a second ball of yarn & we all know what kind of a sucker I am for adding to the tally. Whoo hoo!!!!! 83 balls of yarn used so far this year! OK, now I'm off to start a new audio book (Jane Eyre--...

While not mentioning any names, there has recently been a little smugness on this blog--using up stash (perhaps a tiny victory dance at passing 13,000 yards--but just a teeny, tiny one), finishing WIPs, finishing a birthday present early. This sort of behavior is rarely tolerated by the Knitting Fates and today was their day to smite me the offending knitter. * I started to finish WIP number 8--the very late birthday poncho--only to discover I am out of yarn for that project as well. It wasn't discovered until I--I mean "The Knitter"--was already in pajamas for the evening and not about to venture out again. * I picked up two tubes of beads to finish Fleur. Unfortunately, they are the wrong color. When I went back to Craft Warehouse to get the right color, they didn't have them. I--I mean "she"--will try again next week. * The yarn to finish Fir Cone is en route , but only in Denver as of tonight. The Denver US Postal Facility is the only place I...

The Ravelympics started yesterday, but I didn't get to start on my entries for WIP Wrestling until today. Bright and early this morning, I cast on the second sleeve for my nephew's sweater and it's making great progress. It could possibly be done this weekend, which would be WIP number 7 in my WIP marathon, and 1 completed for Ravelympics. YAY! The poncho got a little attention today as well. Then as a reward, I got to work on Fleur This is the beaded band that will go all around the edges. I am still totally in love with beading, but I've reached a bit of a snag: I can't get more beads until the spending ban is over, so I might start showing a little more loyalty to the WIP Wrestling entries. I might only be capable of project monogamy under extreme circumstances, but when a gift is already 6 months late, I'll resort to pretty much anything.

Tonight I've been working on Fleur because the edging has beads and I am positively loving how it looks. The pink is a bit paler than I would normally choose, but I wanted something that would go with almost anything so I'm ignoring the "Barbie-ish" quality. The beads are pinky-lavender and look quite fabulous. I had a couple options, but the darker purple beads, while looking quite fabulous in the container, looked like a bug infestation on the sweater, so I chose Barbie over Bugs. Fashion requires lots of tough decisions.

Today I blocked my MS3. I like the beads, like the draping effect of the yarn (Skacel Merino lace), am thrilled that it's finished, and still dislike the shawl. I have knit much larger lace projects, but I have never knit anything that felt larger. It proves something that I should have realized long ago--don't knit patterns you don't like. Seems sort of self-obvious, but under the influence of yarn fumes, I forget this one pretty regularly. Still, I think I will have learned my lesson with asymmetrical shawls at least. I am not an "artistic interpretation" sort of lace knitter. I'm more of a "those-two-sides- of-the-shawl-darn-well-better-match" sort of lace knitter. Probably good to know for future reference, and in case I am tempted by "mystery knitting" projects in the future... This weekend I started the beaded band for Fleur, which now has me terribly excited about the whole project, and the right front was brought through the f...

I keep trying to count my remaining WIPs, and keep coming up with a different number. After the Finish-itis contest, we will be embarking on a "learn to count" campaign. So, let's see if I can list them: 1. Magikal Earth Shawl (photo to come when the camera battery is recharged) - more than halfway through the mind-numbing edging (what is it with edging?????) 2. Plum baby aran: front in progress: 3. Poodle mohair: body done to sleeeve join, one sleeve in progress 4. Blue toddler sweater - back not quite done. Nothing else finished 5. dem fischer sin fru - still not quite halfway through the first clue. Out of 6. 6. Fleur - just missing the edging and the right front 7. Toddler sweater: needs seams, edging, and one piece knit 8. sleeveless sweater - back mostly done 9. Alpaca cardigan: back, one side, and most of the second side done 10. Glitterspun sweater - back finished, front half finished 11. Pi chemo cap - no picture yet. 12. Fir cone shawl - 40% d...