A Little Yarn On The Side

After finishing the long-awaited ball of yarn on the cable-yoke sweater, did I join a new ball and finish the back like a good, dedicated knitter? Nope. I am now obsessed with this: Wanna know why? I'd like to say it's because it's a Christmas gift for a friend and the sheer delight of making a gift for someone I care about is driving me on, but no....I want the 440 yards in that ball. That's it. That is what is keeping me going on this thing--to be able to say I used up 440 yards of yarn!!! Even Theo is embarrassed by my childishness....

Ok, as anyone who is remotely good with numbers can tell you: 1. In order to reach my goals for the year, I need to knit 2,083 yards of yarn and sew 12.5 yards of fabric each month 2. I am not even CLOSE to that right now. So....did I work on the quilt today? Nope. Not one stitch. Instead, anyone remember this: In July of 2008 I cut out a dress and a skirt from this wonderful cotton fabric. I finished the skirt sometime after the weather made it totally impractical (I'm thinking November, but that's just a guess). Today I decided to finish the dress. It's from McCalls 4444: and I'm making the green option. Now the problem with setting aside a sewing project is that one doesn't really "set it aside." One just doesn't get back to it. If one did "set it aside," one might be able to find the dang second page of instructions.... Out of sheer frustration, I did get much of it figured out--and was quite pleased with myself to figure out th...

Thanks to Herrschners, I'm back to work on the blanket for my niece, and I think it will be done in time to send off for her birthday in the first week of March. (And STILL no box from Joanns.com, by the way) My little sidekick is getting very bored with the indoor life, so we worked on a Christmas gift quilt which seemed to please him immensely I'm not doing the best job on this quilt, and some of the blocks aren't even lining up, and yet it's really not bothering me much--which is surprising to say the least. Usually I'd have to redo it--especially since it's a gift--but I guess 8 weeks of kitty sitting has taken its toll on me as well. Theo is back to kitty therapy tomorrow--and they have PROMISED to get pictures this time. He's walking on the leg almost without a limp, and it looks a little less chickeny every day! And the moss scarf has gotten more attention than it should have, because I'm enjoying how this stitch variation is looking. And of c...

At 1:00 tomorrow--or earlier if Theo can manage it--the cast comes off for good!!!!! The last one has finally defeated Theo, though if you notice how long his leg looks he has managed to slide it down his leg about an inch and a half now. The horrible pink cherry-flavored antibiotics ended this morning, which is just as well as the bandaids ran out today too: We thought we were through a few days ago as the original prescription said to give the blasted things for 10 days. Last week I had to get a refill because of all the medication that had been splattered on the walls, carpet, clothing, sheets, and floor, and when I double-checked that bottle it said to give it for 14 days. When I called the clinic, they couldn't reach the vet so they said to go ahead with the 14 days. Easy for them to say. Theo has been a great sport about all of this, but he finally really started to struggle against this one. I don't blame him. The doses were more than three times anything I'd g...

So, yesterday I went to my "Project of the Month" pile and pulled out Knitpick's Alpaca Cloud and beads for Ice Queen . I know the pattern calls for mohair, but I think this will be fine. So... I cast on with my waste yarn and have done 3 rows. The idea, of course, is to finish it during January. The problem is This is a blanket I started for a niece's birthday in March. The first part of March. So, I have 8 weeks to finish it, and February 1 will mean Project of the Month #2. Have you ever wondered just how important sleep is to the human body? Rather than finding a substitute for the out-of-stock Licorice yarn, I have decided to wait until it is available and order it then. Of course, that is all I can order as yesterday was my "window." I would feel a bit odd about setting such strict rules about buying yarn if I hadn't tallied my yarn up on Ravelry and found that I could knit from my stash for 10 years. Yikes! But, if global warming does b...

Friday night at 7:12, we still have the purple cast: It's about an inch lower on his leg, but the vet promises that this is still okay. Theo has eaten some of it as well, which the vet makes no promises about. This morning I threw all the stocking in the wash, dried them, got them out to iron, and discovered: You don't see a hanger loop, do you? That would be because AS MADE ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN the hanger loop is 2 inches shorter than the stocking cuff. AARRGHHHHHH!!! By this point, even knowing that the stockings would be completely useless, I almost sent them anyway. After a couple cups of coffee and the return of my pride, I cut the loops at the point where the cuff & leg meet, then reattached them BY HAND about an inch down on the cuff. 5 have already been finished and boxed up--totally spacing the picture--but I saved the latest three: There are still 3 more to finish, but they don't have to be mailed so I'll finish them tomorrow. Not that I think an...

So I decided that even though I would be giving the stockings away & would rarely see them, I couldn't live with the errors. (I know--if you can't beat your neurosis, join them) So, I decided that since it was just an outline design, I would simply rip out the problematic design and do something else. Two hours later: To be fair, that did indeed work, and there's no guarantee that I would have found something better to do with those two hours of my life, but I didn't want to do that twice. I am curious to try free-hand machine embroidery, but I try to keep "learning opportunities" away from things I want other people to see. It works better that way. So, I took a deep breath and: hand stitched the missing bits. It isn't perfect or even perfectly symmetrical, but neither is the vertical one which was part of the original design. This I can live with. Before his vet appointment, Theo came in to help me and his poodle-do is now just looking ...

The 14th WIP in a row is finished, washed, and blocking: and does a pretty mean "little teapot" as well. And--drum roll please--I have now used 18,106 yards or just over 10 miles of yarn this year! Oh my! Now if that only made a sizable dent in the stash...... I haven't cast on anything new, nor have I worked on Fleur or dem fischer sin fru today. Instead, I worked on the five red stockings: and all the legs are now embroidered, but tonight I noticed this: Notice anything? Part of the design didn't transfer through to the embroidery card, so the holly leaves look a little funny. Two stockings have this problem--though I didn't notice until I did the second one. My options are to rip out the design & put something else there, try to fix it by hand (and this would be a good time to mention that I am not a good hand embroiderer--I tried doing a pillowcase a few years ago and it looks like it was done by a five year old with the shakes), or ignore it...

Theo has finally figured out how to walk with the cast and thinks he's ready for the world--or at least the other parts of the house. He has gotten a couple field trips to the sewing room which really has nice afternoon sun for a snooze, and we're down to just one more dose of the last medicine, which is good as Theo has taken to sulking after medications. I can't say that I blame him. I don't think I'd enjoy someone shoving liquids down my throat either, though considering everything that's happened to him in the last week, medications really are the least of his problems. Between cat duties, I made some progress on Janet's WIP-contest knitting bag. About time, I know. I think she's up to 20 in a row now? Theo was feeling well enough to do the obligatory furring so I think he's feeling a bit more like his old self. I also managed to find the pattern for the alpaca cardigan!!! I haven't worked on it though, as I'm really pushing to get W...

So....last night when I was about halfway through the edging on the hat, it became quite obvious that I was going to run out of yarn. I ripped back, then thought I would just do a normal K1P1 ribbing rather than an edging so I could just stop wherever I wanted, but by the third round it became obvious that I had far too many stitches to create anything even resembling a hat ribbing. So, I ripped back again, then ripped back a few extra rows for more yarn, then started the edging again--this time using one less stitch. Which brings me to here: which is about where I was last night. Sigh...... Since all existing projects were basically thumping me, I moved on to an idea for an upcoming birthday gift--copying from a similar project I ran across in a book. I cut 3 circles of about 4.5 inches in diameter (turns out a vase downstairs makes a perfect template), then putting the right sides of two together, did small seams of about 3/4 of an inch (turns out it will need to be about 1/2...

It's late September, and about the time that the true crafter creates an insane list of projects that she really thinks she can complete by Christmas morning. Luckily, I am on a knitting WIP marathon and CANNOT cast on any new knitting. Boy, I didn't think I'd ever be glad to say THAT. I did, however, work on my part of the friends/family Christmas gifts. Andy and I have decided to alternate years with who makes the gifts, and this is his year. I did promise some nice bags to go along with his woodworking creations, so tonight I made this: It's made from a wonderful black & red brocade that ravels like crazy, and I don't like the gold ribbon drawstring, but aside from that, I think it's a decent prototype. I decided to go ahead and cut out the rest of them and Theo had claimed the lining. I got in about an hour of knitting today and he completely ignored me. I turn on the sewing machine and WHAMMO! Obviously, all crafts are not created equal in kittyl...