A Little Yarn On The Side

Even after so many of these, I still find them just adorable.  And relatively fast--also very important.  231 ornaments down, 134 to go..............

I realize it's early--and even saying this will probably prompt the Knitting Gods to do something really hideous--but I think I'll be making my goal of 365 ornaments for the year.  I know--it's truly daring to say so this early, but I am just a bit ahead, and I'm more than half-way there and if worst comes to worst, I think I could still get there with the mitten ornaments or the machine embroidered ones.  I also cut out some more felt sugar cookie ornaments today, and I could always make more beaded hearts.  So, I think I'll get there.  So............that leads me to think what sort of crazy goal I will be setting for myself for next year.  I enjoy crazy goals--they sort of takes the focus off of my crazy stash, and they push me in new directions.  Interestingly, I'm considering shooting for 100 finished projects again.  I know I've already done it, so I could bump it up and do 118 projects, which I haven't done.  Oddly, in both 2010 and 2011...

While I have taken time to make a few ornaments to keep on track, but have remained quite dedicated to the Alice Starmore sweater: It might have made more sense to start with a faster WIP, but this is a fun pattern, and it's interesting.  I now have 3 and a half pattern repeats done, and at 4 and a half the next step happens, so even though it will take a while, I think it will stay interesting.  Speaking of taking a while, it seams that the stress of Andy's absence brought on a relapse for my sidekick, so Theo and I made a quick trip to the vet yesterday for another pain shot.  He's sleepy, but isn't hurting and is able to urinate in small amounts, so we're making progress again.   They think he's just more susceptible to stress because it's still so soon after the extreme stress of boarding, but I had no idea how stressed this little guy's life actually is.  Honestly, I was surprised that creatures that sleep 18 out of every 24 hours actua...

Okay--I was looking through my knitting pile, and have decided I'm really going to do this.  With only 21 WIPs now, it isn't the worst I've ever been, but there is some really good stuff in that pile, and unlike previous times, most of them are not there because of any problems,  The oldest is one is in there because since we moved into this house, I've never been able to locate the extra yarn and the sweater at the same time.  It's a quite adorable toddler sweater, and the yarn is lovely to work with, and I think this time I have it narrowed down where it all got to and--even better--think I can locate it. Two more: are actually the backs to the exact same toddler sweater, but in different sizes.  I think I still have the rest of the yarn for the cream one, but the green one is doubtful.  It's Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which is usually not too bad for dye lot issues for their major colors like these, but that still means the green one doesn't have muc...

Anyone remember this? It's an Alice Starmore (she of the lifetime-commitment sweater patterns) design on size 2 needles started in September of last year AND it is the WIP getting attention today.  While I'm incredibly pleased that I am working on an existing WIP, it's not a WIP that I'm going to be able to finish soon.  Unfortunately, that means I am unlikely to stay committed to finishing WIPs.  But I am pleased to say that I finished the sweater yesterday, so one WIP is finished.  My WIP-finishing record is 14 and I have 21 knitting WIPs and a huge stash of unlimited sewing WIPs.  Could I finish 14 WIPs of any sort in a row?  I'd possibly have to make an exception for ornaments so I don't fall behind, but could I do some serious WIP wrestling for the second half of the year................?

Though, to be fair, I haven't relaxed quite as much as Theo. My little sidekick is finally his old self again.  I'm still giving him two kittty meds, but mercifully they are capsules that can be sprinkled on his food.  Of course, being a cat he can still make that extremely difficult, and has pretty much decided that if he has to eat wet food, it must be the most expensive one I can find (Fancy Feast Appetizers but ONLY the fish flavors--can you beat that?), and there are days when I chase him around the house with the container to try to get him to eat enough to get the drugs down, but it's still better than the continual trips to the vet or the antibiotics.  Andy is away on business for a couple days, so there are some new ornaments.  My freehand embroidery skills are still rather poor, but as we have TWO Christmas trees, we also have two backs of trees, so felt ornaments seem like a good way to practice. And--brace yourself--after the ornaments ...