A Little Yarn On The Side

 .............and my mitten enthusiasm might be waning just a bit.  However, I'm in love with sugar cookies again!  Really, a few more of these and I will have made more sugar cookie ornaments than actual sugar cookies, at least as an adult.  We used to make them every December when I was growing up, but I haven't made sweets very often as an adult, and things that involve both frosting AND a rolling pin are pretty low on my list.  Now if they involved beads.................

This: is a picture of the sewing room in December of 2007--right before I started my first year of Cold Sheeping.  It doesn't accurately show the yarn stash by any means, and I know there were at least a couple fabric tubs not shown here, but let's compare that to the sewing room today: The yarn bins:  the Christmas fabric bin,  the closet,  more yarn bins (and a huge mess),  and the fabric shelf: Even though I know the first picture doesn't show everything, I think it's pretty clear that my fabric stash has exploded while I've been Cold Sheeping yarn.  It could be worse, I suppose.  It could be both yarn AND fabric, but still...... Since I have less than 90 days left before being able to buy things, I have been working on my list.  After this little wake-up call, I will definitely be signing on for a second year of buying nothing, but there are some things I genuinely need.  If possible, I am going to find some black pe...

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...