A Little Yarn On The Side

My father has been in the hospital with a staph infection, and our house has been turned into a family hotel for the past week now, so things have been hectic.  He's going to be fine now, but it will take some recovery time.  The stress of having permanent house guests, a parent in the hospital, the driving (he started out in a different hospital and was moved down here), and too much sitting has demolished my back, so I'm back to where I was in February I think.  So, it's been stressful around here.  Luckily, he's out of danger now and really mending quickly, so at least that part of the stress is gone.  The socks have been great hospital knitting: and I'm nearing the heel on the second sock. Yesterday I had a little bit of quiet time (known around here lately as time with drugs on the heating pad), so I tried out some of the new Christmas yarn:   It's so soft!  All the other Christmas glitter acrylic yarns are pretty scratchy, or at least ...

Actually, since there were size 11 needles involved AND double-stranding, it's rather sad that it took so long to finish, but in my defense, there WAS come major canning happening today.  At any rate, this:  has now become this:  which will look a whole lot more like a hat for a human once it has been felted, but it used up lots of odd ends of yarn.  From past experience, I know the hat takes about 350 yards of yarn, which is the good part.  The bad part is that the dark red--which is now completely gone--seems to have never been on Ravelry in the first place, so I didn't a stash decrease on Ravelry, but I did in person, so I guess that works.  And there were 5 partial skeins of black wool that are now gone, so my stash feels tidier.  I just wish it worked like that for the rest of the house...........

I have started leading odd little short knitting challenges on Ravelry that we refer to as "dashes," and now that everyone has recovered from the Ravellenics, it is time for another one, so, it's time for: Mad Scare Yourself Halloween Dash! Halloween is just over 2 months away, and what better way to frighten a knitter than to do one or more of the following: Knit 4,000 yards before Halloween Knit up the most challenging pattern in your queue. Use the most difficult yarn in your stash--mohair, splitty, so black you can’t see even the biggest garter stitch--whatever is most difficult. The personally-scares-you challenge of your choice. Complete one, two, or all as the mood takes you! There are people who just knit..........really?

It's hot, it's smoky, it's dry--so I'm of course thinking about Christmas.  More specifically, Christmas ornaments.  I'm VERY excited about 2013 and trying for 365 ornaments.  I really want to push myself to try new things, so they won't all be knitted mittens or felt mittens--I need to branch out to at least SOMETHING besides mittens.  Growing up, my mother made lots of felt ornaments, and I've always wanted to try them, but just haven't ever gotten to anything besides mittens.  So when a sale came along online: There's only 6 of them (thank heavens), but they're cute and certainly things I couldn't come up with without help.  The cutting lines are printed on them: which is probably going to be the most challenging part, but I do have one year.  And valium. I also bought:  a beaded cross stitch ornament, which I debated about--believe me--but I think I could do this in one year. There are beads involved--which is always crazy...

Never underestimate the determination of a type-A knitter: 2 washcloths and two tribbles later, I have now used up a whole CONE of dishcloth cotton yarn, and have one more entry on my "all used up" tab on Ravelry. Now, on a new yardage-burning high, I've become a bit of a knitting schizophrenic.  What can I work on that will increase my yardage fastest?  The epaulet sweater is in worsted on size 8 needles, so it got some attention yesterday.  I decided to disregard the pattern and knit the sleeves in the round, which leaves a visible line on the sleeves as I'm working in garter stitch and there's a clear line where I now switch from knit to purl, but I'm not sure I could do a seam that would be any less noticeable, so I can live with it.  I think I've gotten past the "interesting shaping" part that I was curious about and am now in the "boring all-garter-stitch" part, so I worked on it as long as I could stand it, then cast o...

So, I have finished my 12 washcloths for the year, but I am now working on number 13.  Why, you might ask--for the fun of it?  Because it's a new pattern?  Nope--it's to try to finish off that cone of yarn, which will give my tally an 800-yard boost in one shot.  There is also a wee bit of motivation to get my hands on that cardboard cone inside for some sort of Christmas tree decoration, but 99.9% of my reason is the yarn tally.  I am nuts.  Truly and certifiably.  But it IS 800 more yards.......which would really help right now, as my latest knitting obsession, is a shawl with blasted lace weight mohair yarn on size 4 needles and 540-yard balls of yarn.  A good idea for NONE of my goals for the year.  So, of course, I'm doing it.  At least I'm also embroidering some napkins: Two years ago I had embroidered  7 napkins to match our plates and some placemats I made several years ago: The original idea was, of course,...

To make up with an inexcusable flirtation with the new lace shawl, I made another wine towel--which looks like the last 4 so I didn't take a picture--which brings me up to eight of twelve towels finished.  Then, while I made the 12th washcloth, I set up Jeeves to pump out 4 new stand-alone lace ornaments, which adds to a "12" I've already completed, but will look nice on our tree anyway.  Two years ago we bought a huge 9-foot tall tree to go in our entryway, and while it's a lovely tree, dividing our ornaments between 2 trees requires some creativity--especially since I refuse to buy packs of ornaments.  For years I've brought ornaments home as souvenirs from travel, and Andy and I have continued the practice.  I also have a wonderful collection of ornaments from a girl's ornament exchange party that has gone on for simply ages with my book club friends, and we also have a great collection of ornaments people have generously made for us, so ther...