A Little Yarn On The Side

Okay, to make a quilt with 35 blocks, I need to make it through 840 triangles.  I have 162 to go.  I know I'm on the downhill side, and REALLY have comparatively few to go......but I need a break.  So..... It's new project time!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Really, you seriously didn't think I was going to be all responsible & pull something out of the WIP pile, did you?) Actually, I wanted to get started on this while I still had the idea in my mind.  I'm making a mitten garland--or at least that is the plan.  I have 4 colors of felt to use--3 blues & a white--and since only one side of each mitten will be visible, I think it will be a great time to experiment with some ideas & techniques. Theo, of course, is thrilled and did his very best yesterday to make cutting out the mittens as difficult as possible: I couldn't even distract him with a little scarf blocking so I think I have my very first furless scarves EVER.  I'm still in shock.  In s...

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...

I made the mistake of doing all the large triangles first, so now I'm slogging though the 24 little triangles needed for every single block.  I have been doing a few at a time so that I have blocks moving forward in stages so I can at least see them--and so I don't find myself banging my head on the table (which would of course be cushioned by a pile of triangles) Of course, I have my sidekick with me.... and has lost a little fur here & there to the rotary cutter, but otherwise  Yesterday I thought I was getting close to being done, and decided to figure out how many more triangles I needed before I cut out the next strips.  Now, there are SOME points when doing the math is a good idea.  I don't think this was one of them.  After carefully counting the blocks & figuring out how many more I needed, I discovered I still needed one hundred and eighty-six squares , which would need 372 more triangles.  Oh my. I think I have met the fabric e...

.....and I need to finish 3 projects to stay on track for my goal. What do we think--more coasters or towels???????  Or throw caution and sanity to the wind and cast on the tweed yarn for the sweater I keep lusting over.............. (And why is that last one the most likely????????)

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!!!!