A Little Yarn On The Side

All 5 table runners are now done, and as much as I like them, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to work on something--anything--else!  I love how they turned out, and we'll keep one for ourselves, but as soon as they were finished, it was time for something different.  Like a shirt for Andy for Valentine's day.   I haven't sewn very much clothing in recent years, so after making sure Andy liked the look, I opted for a shirt pattern with fewer pieces than my usual.  The key piece missing is the dratted button band for the top button--the bane of my existence with shirts.  It's not as nice of a pattern, but as I've mostly made pajamas in the last few years, this is not the time to be tricky.  I might even finish the shirt today, as I'm trying to stay out of trouble with my back.  I was achy yesterday, which is unusual.  I walked in the pool for an hour on Monday and was actually a bit sore before I started, but the water helped and I felt better ...

Crafting has lost out to exercise this week--I was able to walk in the pool both Monday and Wednesday, which is very exciting.  The pressure of the water definitely makes it harder than regular walking and helps build strength, but it does wear me out.  Tuesday I set out for a short walk and felt so good I went 3 miles.  Yesterday I was just worn out, so there was some VERY simple knitting and rest.  The great thing is that I was just tired and a bit sore from exercising--NOT from the back pain. YAY! I finished the Eleanor Cowl earlier this week, and finally remembered to take a picture of it today.  It still needs to be blocked and have the ends woven in, but this brings me to 13 finished projects for the year already!  I'm scaring myself just a bit..... Of course, being ahead is a nice change and if I get too worried, there's always this: I don't even want to TRY to estimate how far behind I am with these.  I think this is the 11th kit I...

Then I could have walked across the street to find out what the Sara Lee truck was delivering to my neighbor today: I don't know if I've ever even tried Sara Lee, but obviously some of us love her more than others....... On the crafting front, I'm still working on table runners, and I'm getting better, I think:  It does help that the top is very busy and I'm not that stressed about anyone seeing my stitches.  We'll worry about that for another project.  And speaking of another project, I've been digging through my pile of Christmas fabrics to find the eight coordinating fabrics I'll need for the Spicy Spiral table runner.  They are supposed to go from dark to light to dark, and I keep changing things out.  Oddly, the red side was easier than the green.  I'm still working on it.  Of course, I probably need to take a break from table runners and work on the shirt I've promised Andy for Valentine's Day.  Oh, and some knitting...........

Two more stippled table runners done!

I walked 4 miles this afternoon.  Doing math again--which is really not working out for me lately--I would have to walk almost 4 miles every day to walk my stash in a month.  Heavens!!!!!!  Surprisingly, I didn't grab the first project with big needles that I could think of after THAT horrible realization.  Instead, I dug out the Eleanor Cowl , which I started in December of 2013.  It got sidetracked quickly because I couldn't read the charts while doped on pain pills, and has been languishing in my pile of WIPs ever since.  It is going pretty quickly, so I might be under 20 WIPs soon.  Have I mentioned that I used to be a single project knitter with NO stash?  And speaking of uncontrollable and insanely large stashes, I have been doing some sewing!  In fact, the first stippled table runner was finished just minutes ago!  So far, I stink at stippling, and this one even had tension issues, but it is REALLY difficult to s...

I did the math, which is NEVER a good idea when talking about one's stash.  I have 114 miles of yarn in my stash   I think I need to lay down now...................

I had debated about this, and had originally planned to place one yarn order before climbing back on, but that STILL adds yarn to my sewing room, so instead I have just decided that for the next SIX MONTHS, I'm not buying anything.  Yarn, fabric, patterns--nothing.   I decided on 6 months because on my Joann's excursion on the 5th, I only bought 5 yards of muslin because it seemed quite different than what I'd been getting before, and I wasn't sure it was good enough to use for much.  I'm trying it out on the table runners, and I'm very unimpressed, so I'll need to find something different by then.  UNTIL THEN, time to use what I have! I used up all of the Patons Metallic yarn on two keyhole scarves, and ended up having to make one shorter than the other.  It will be fine once blocked, and I hated this yarn so much that I was not ABOUT to go buy more of it.  It's lovely and soft, but snags on everything--even dry skin, which is sort of hard to avoid...