A Little Yarn On The Side

Yesterday involved almost NO knitting-- thanks to Julia Child and her boeuf bourguignon recipe .  Aside from perhaps Thanksgiving, have you ever spent 5 hours preparing ONE meal?  Well, now I have.  That doesn't leave one with much knitting time--and the frustration gives one a pretty wonky gauge anyway.  Mr. Flurry is making a bit of progress and the ostrich plume scarf is finished but not blocked AND I have not yet cast on the tweed yarn.  I'm rather proud of that unusual display of willpower on my part.  Theo does NOT enjoy cooking, so he refused to hang out with me yesterday, but like the smart cat that he is.... he decided to hang out by the yarn stash.  After all, where else am I more likely to turn up?

And I use the term loosely.  Not only did I not finish anything yesterday, I had to dig this out of the closet as a bribe to get myself to keep working on that darn scarf.  I have not yet cast on , but I have bribed my inner knitting child (who is frankly a serious brat who could use a real spanking once in a while) with the promise that I can cast on as soon as I finish this: The alpaca vacuum!  Actually, it's looking much better with a lot more knitting and my own secret technique.....................pulling on it really, really, really hard.  I think I'm one row away from starting the bottom edging--without having to set it aside for a really short friend, even. The majority of Finishing Friday was spent with the project actually farthest away from completion:  because somehow that seems like a good idea to me.  These are the first 9 blocks laid out--there will eventually be 35.  I admit, I am REALLY pleased with this so far--and probably not...

A finished scarf?                                --Nope The long-suffering Fleur finished?                                --Nope A finished quilt?                               --Nope Even yet another set of Christmas coasters finished?                               --Nope Know what we have?????? An overwhelming desire to start something new!!!!

This is a miracle of physics.  I work on it and work on it and work on it, and yet it never grows longer.  Ever.  It just exists .  And sucks up my knitting time--like a little alpaca vacuum.  We'd be looking at finished project number 30 if I hadn't stumbled across the black hole of knitting...... 

NOTE TO SELF:  If I'm going to try doing math for the blog post, it would be best to write it BEFORE the white chocolate martini........ 71 projects to go! (however, 31 does sound much better........) :) 

The GOOD news is, there was crafting on Finishing Friday.  The BAD news is, I broke my own rule.  Remember how I said that Finishing Fridays were for working on projects that had been in existence for at least a month?  Well............  my sidekick and I decided to start a new project Thursday night.  And not just ANY project.  A nice time-consuming and totally inappropriate for this year sort of project: A quilt!  And just in case you're thinking, "Well, that might be okay after her recent quilting success," this is the first block: Notice anything  unusual?  Yep--first block, first mistake.  I think that's a record even for me.   I did ultimately get it straightened out, and finally managed to get 4 blocks to come out correctly, which will look something like this: though not likely in the near future.... I did eventually decide that it would be a good idea to at least attempt the second elephant pillow case which turned...

She who is smug is about to get her arse kicked by a project. In today's sad little tale, we begin with the Christmas quilt.  Finished, quilted, the binding on....all that was left was to wash the obligatory cat hair off of it and iron it.  Which is when we discovered: a glass head pin that had been sewn INTO the quilt.  This picture was taken during the removal process--right before the small hole was created that allowed the head of the pin to make it out. Chastened--and somewhat encouraged by having finished two more sets of pillowcases, I thought I'd tackle the 5th and final set......and get a bit more creative. which is when the embroidery machine decided to get a bit more creative as well..... Yep--that's how the design came out.  Sometimes it is possible to bump the machine or do something that will affect the design, but this wasn't one of those times.  So, either the design is really poorly done (a strong possibility since it was a freebie) OR t...