A Little Yarn On The Side

but there is NOT a finished project number 3.  Well, it was a fun streak while it lasted.

With my right arm strained and a toe on my left foot broken, I'm a rather sorry state of affairs right now, and because I am a seriously impatient person, I have pushed until they both hurt quite a lot today.  So, having virtually guaranteed that almost every other activity in the world would hurt, I have spent today crafting.  And What do I have to show for it? Finished project number 1: (which really should have been finished in 2010 but I was being super lazy about the hand stitching stuff), finished project number 2: (which is EXACTLY like the last black chemo cap down to the button, but why mess with a good thing?)  and quite a bit of progress on the socks for a friend's birthday in February which look better than either photograph would lead you to believe.  I'm really just playing with designs here.  I have cables running up both sides and will split them to make the short row heel, which could look quite cool or be hardly noticeable.  We shal...

364 days left and 111 projects to go.  Oh my. The new year has started, and I'm back on the sheep.  No new yarn or new fabric in 2011.  I've already done my gift list planning, so I can't imagine any scenario that would qualify as a legitimate exception, so this should be a good decreasing the stash year.  Speaking of which, yesterday I added the identifiable skeins of Red Heart to my Ravelry stash hoping to get the truest picture of the size of my stash that I could, and as it stands currently, I have: 148,704.1 yards of yarn 760.43 skeins of yarn Ahem. It may SOUND scary, but since I've started using Ravelry, I have reduced my stash by 30,939.4 yards 174.27 skeins or about 18%, so there is progress being made.  This was certainly my best year on fabric stash used, but only my second-best on the yarn stash.  My best year was knitting up just over 19,000 yards, which I'm hoping to get close to in 2011.  If I could manage that pace, I would have...

This week's lesson learned: Just because a broken toe feels better after three weeks, it is not really healed.   Since it will be 4 weeks tomorrow and there is STILL bruising, it probably shouldn't be surprising that walking around on it can still really, really hurt, but AMAZINGLY I was getting a bit impatient, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was out running errands and "catching up" on things that I hadn't been able to do very easily.  By Wednesday night, the real catching up seemed to be being done by the pain.  My foot actually hurt more Wednesday night than it had at any time since the x-ray fiasco.  So, figuring it needed a day of rest, I moved my to-do list to today and used yesterday as Finishing Thursday. First, a finished chemo cap: Then casting on for a new chemo cap:  and the scarf is so very close to being done that I think I'll have it doe by the end of the day--to-do list not withstanding.  I decided my desire to raise my "s...

It all started innocently enough.  My youngest niece received an 18-inch "American Girl" type of doll for Christmas (the ones that aren't $100), and my sister would like for her learn to knit, and asked if I could make matching hats & scarves for my niece and her doll as an incentive.  Which is fine, because I used to love to make doll clothes & am ALL for recruiting new knitters.  The problem is, I didn't have the right shade of pink in sportweight or DK yarn, so I decided I could have one more yarn purchase before the next year starts.  All good so far.  Then I remembered that I actually haven't knit anything for my next-to-youngest niece, and she's been quite thrilled with the socks I made for her mother, so I thought I would knit a hat and scarf for her as well....or maybe even an afghan because I'm getting just a little cocky about my ability to finish projects quickly, and.... "just in case" I got enough (I think) for the afghan, ...

So in the knitting world, Christmas is traditionally a time of knitting like a freakin' maniac into the wee small hours of the morning in an attempt to finish a marathon of gifts that a knitter would have to be on crack to attempt at any other time of the year.  So what happens when the knitter has ceded all most of the gift-making to her loving spouse? There has still been a crazy amount of knitting going on.  Two more chemo caps and a scarf from the newly-acquired yarn that is moving in & out of the stash so quickly that maybe it really didn't count as stash anyway.  There was even a fleece baby blanket sewn & embroidered in one day, but I seem to have given it away before getting a single picture.  And since there's no photographic evidence to contradict me, let me just say that it was THE cutest and most creatively designed baby blanket ever.  Um...yeah.  That makes 16 finished projects so far for December, with 4 days left to go.  Th...

So with 8 days to go, I have now completed 115 projects for the year.  Wow!  So in theory, I should be able to pull off the 111 projects next year, but in theory  one buys yarn only as one needs it and patterns always make sense.   In reality, there MAY be some hedging of my bets for next year.....like maybe a scarf just started today that could  make some serious progress but not actually be finished until January 1.......