A Little Yarn On The Side

Alison over at Yarn in my Pocket recently presented me with the "Sunshine Award."  Ta-da: (Or, in the spirit of my spell-checker , tuba!) The award is "for bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blogging world." Awww...* blush* Of course, I am well aware that I often inspire people in sort of a reverse-sort of way....like discouraging them from placing that late-night yarn order because they don't want to face 3 years of Cold Sheeping just to be able to get their closet doors closed (which is still impossible, by the way...).  But we who dig ourselves in to strange and often humorous situations grasp at what we can.... So, the rules of the award are: Put the logo on my blog or within a post Pass the award onto 12 bloggers; Link the nominees within your post ; Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog; Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award! Alison ...

Originally I had intended to assert that I had not yet actually decided to attempt an entire sweater for the Ravelympics, when I found myself scrounging in the closet for the appropriate yarn.  This means that I have apparently committed to trying to knit one entire sweater in 16 days.  I haven't actually forgotten that in the past I have called Elizabeth Zimmerman a few purls short of a ribbing for suggesting that her January aran pattern could be completed within a one month time-frame--especially since it took me 4 months just to whine about the steeks--but I think yarn must emit certain fumes that erase all rational thought.  Think about it--this would explain the existence of size zero (or, heaven forbid, size 000) knitting needles.  It is such a powerful force that I actually caught myself thinking, "Hm....should I also enter a WIP just in case I finish the sweater early????" I was relieved to see that projects could be entered in more than one event, so I w...

For Valentine's Day, Andy and I have made it a tradition to make each other gifts.  So far the tradition is also that we don't actually manage to get them done BY Valentine's Day.  BUT, in a fit of forward-thinking and being-on-top-of-things (which I can only guess is a leftover effect from the cold medication as it is so obviously not a part of my nature), I started Andy's gift yesterday.  Any guesses? That's right....pajamas AGAIN!  I promise, I really don't have a monomania for pajamas...well, maybe...but these are cotton and will be short sleeved, so they should be nice for summer.  My little sidekick felt the need to help as usual, until I distracted him with an organization project that must have looked like more fun to interrupt The pajamas are all cut out....and I haven't lost any of the pieces!  I hope to distract Theo enough to start sewing them tonight.  After all, the Ravelympics start on February 12, and if I'm going to do something cr...

The signups for the 2010 Ravelympics are in full swing.  I have joined "Team Stashdown" and now I need to pick my events.  The choices are: Aerial Unwind   (Frog those poor unloved projects to reclaim that yarn. (This event only: requires a WIP pic and frog pile pic) Bag Jump   (Bags, totes, pouches) Beading Biathlon   (All things beaded and embellished) Bobsled   (All things pets) Cable Cross-Country   (All things cables) Charity Curling   (Projects for charity) Designer Biathlon   (From a swatch to published pattern in 17 days sample completed and pattern released on ravelry - swatching allowed before torch lit) Designer Original Dance   (Create your own design sample from scratch in 17 days {swatching allowed before torch lit}; pattern need not be written) Designer Pattern Skeleton (Create a publishable pattern (sample can be already knit); do what you feel is necessary to produce a publishable pattern testing, edit...

A badly finished project is still a finished project, right? The day started off well.  With my enthusiastic sidekick to cheer me on, I finished the snowflake runner which I am immensely pleased with.  I call it a table runner because I can't think of what else to call it.  It's to go here which is a shelf halfway up the stairs (the picture is looking down from the top.  Fully decorated, it looks like this now from the top--hoping not to give anyone vertigo and from the part-way up the stairs view.  I am REALLY pleased with how it looks--not to mention it is finished project NUMBER 8!!!! Then I decided to embroider a set of towels while I did some knitting, and towel number one turned out perfectly: I thought they'd be cute for the guest bath for spring.  Towel number two I'm not ready to talk about yet.  Let's just say it's done, and it will probably be used in the master bath because Andy will have the sense not to ask why I spelled...

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...

I didn't get to work on the table runner today either... It seems they're taking turns now. So instead, I finished the BSJ..YAY!!!!! I'm thinking navy blue buttons would look fabulous...which of course I don't have in my stash.  And, just to spite the cats, I made a towel today as well: The stabilizer still needs to be washed off, but I love how it turned out.  Unfortunately, the coffee cup is embroidered with REALLY long satin stitch, so I need to see if I can change that.  Otherwise, it's not a great design for a towel because it won't hold up to many washings.  Now, if I had ever read the instruction manual that came with the software, I would probably know exactly how to do it--and would possibly even know how to check what it will do BEFORE stitching it out.  As it is......I'll be lucky to find the manual.  At any rate..... 7 down - 93 to go!!!!!!!