A Little Yarn On The Side

Yes, there has been work on the eternal table runners, but no, it doesn't look like it.  Did I say knitting was slow? Yesterday I signed up for one of the teams for Mad Dash 2015 in the Stashdown Group on Ravelry .  I believe this started with some wildly ambitious knitters who set out to knit 12,000 yards in 6 weeks (February 15-March 31).  As I have had YEARS when I haven't knit that much, I've never been remotely tempted to join in, but it's always fun to cheer for knitters crazier than I am.  However, now there are TEAMS, so I have committed to 3,000 yards in 6 weeks--probably more than I've ever done in 6 weeks, but not totally crazy--though, perhaps, mildly.  So this morning, while Theo kept an eye on the neighborhood, I sorted through a bin of worsted- and aran-weight yarn that might have moved just outside the sewing room door without ever moving back in....( Ahem.......) This is actually yarn that mostly wasn't on my Ravelry stash page unt...

......and it looks a lot like a table runner. I'll just let you know if there's anything remotely resembling progress, shall I? In the meantime, I have finished Andy's Valentine shirt--and it was a week early!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Almost makes up for a quilt that is now 8 years late, right?)  I even had some cool buttons in the stash that work with the general motif, and it's been washed and is now waiting for nice weather.  Aren't we all? While continually sewing strips together for the table runners, I had sewn pieces together for 12 new kimono ornaments, and have 6 new ornaments to keep, and 6 for the gift bin.  The six we're keeping are all new color schemes using fabrics I dug out for the spicy-spiral table runners, and the red fabric is now out of the stash.  It was probably only a yard to begin with and one yard doesn't make the slightest dent in the fabric stash, but it's exciting all the same.  I sometimes hesitate to use some...

And it's been 30 days back on the sheep.  I know I've told people this many times, but the first months really are the hardest...............

Holy cow--er, sheep--it's been a week since my last post.  What happened? Obviously, January ended, and were I making any attempt to use up 100 yards of fabric for the year, I'd be a bit behind already.  Andy's shirt is progressing, and is now at the hem, which will leave just the buttonholes and buttons, so I'm hoping to finish it up this week.  The smart thing to do would be to move on to another clothing project immediately, so of course what I am doing is the spicy spiral table runner.  I would have said it took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to pick out the fabrics, but then I entered the strip-cutting phase and learned what forever REALLY feels like.   It would have been faster had I correctly measured, of course, but really--how likely was THAT? Of course, it did take a little longer on purpose as well.  While cutting, I cut a few strips from each fabric for my do-it-yourself-jellyroll bin, as well as: my kimono ornament bin, which is getting a b...

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...........