A Little Yarn On The Side

TWO scarves, washed and blocking: and we're just going to pretend like they're lying flat, okay?  I've been happier with finished projects, but I am really happy they ARE finished projects.  In fact, I was so excited that I cast on a new Begonia Swirl shawl in the yarn I'd put in my birthday box: One thing about trying to work through stash before buying more yarn, I'm hoping that by the time I make it through the 10 skeins of this I started out with (an incident involving the end of my first year of cold sheeping and a discontinued yarn--we try not to talk about it much.....), I'm hoping that I will have learned that variegated lace yarns almost ALWAYS look better in the skein than in the finished project.   But maybe it will look good on THIS scarf.  I'll wear it anyway because I love the colors, but there were probably better choices of yarn to stockpile...... I also spent a little bit of time with the latest colorwork ornament.  Being October,...

The good news:  The grey scarf is done. The bad news:  it rolls BADLY.  I altered the pattern to include 2 rows of seed stitch on the sides and to eliminate the dreaded tubular cast-on, so for a while I was kicking myself that my version had somehow caused the rolling, but I started doing Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind-off on the maroon one, and it is rolling as well, so it's just the pattern.  I'll block them severely, but blocking never stops rolling due to how a pattern is done. But it's too late to do anything about it, so I'll just hope they like tubular scarves.  I bought the yarn because it was a silk blend with lovely drape, but I might add a scrap from my washaway stabilizer (which is starch) to minimize the rolling a bit.  In other project-going-badly news, the top-stitching is looking pretty messy when it crosses over the wales of the corduroy.  I think a second row of top-stitching will even it out, but reinforced stitching wo...

Yes, the wedding for which the scarf is intended is indeed this month, but I'm trying not to stress today.  Tuesday I went to the gym, THEN made and canned 20 pints of chicken soup--plus freezing some--so yesterday I really needed to rest, which involved a mind-numbing amount of knitting.  Or maybe that was the pain medication.  At any rate, I'm almost done with the 4th 24-row pattern repeat (out of 5).  Of course, I still need to fix the first scarf as well, but I am trying to talk myself down from the ceiling here.  After all, one has a year AFTER the wedding to still get a wedding gift to someone without being a complete twit.  Emily Post said so, though maybe not the "twit" part. So this morning,   Theo and I are having coffee in the sewing room while I finish the first batch of top-stitching on the new jacket.  This isn't a very accurate picture of the color, so let me just say that I'm really pleased how the pink thread is looking ag...

When faced with project monotony monogamy, I can apparently be persuaded to do ANYTHING.  While resting my back yesterday, I sorted through my existing sewing patterns, added them to a Pinterest page, and even located a vest pattern I was looking for.  Then, when more mobile, I worked on this: which does indeed look mostly like a wrinkled purple blob, but which is actually another very deep stash fabric.  4.5 yards of a 60-inch wide cotton fine-wale corduroy, probably from 2007?  Definitely something I bought on clearance, because I bought what was left on the bolt.  I'm sure I thought it would make a great shirt for Andy because I've already made him a purple corduroy shirt.  Or maybe this was going to be a skirt and shirt for me?  Of course, it's always possible that I just bought it because I liked it--which isn't a bad reason, probably, considering it's a useful fabric in a useful amount.  I'm still aiming to do Me Made Mondays in 2016, so...

Two identical scarves in light fingering yarn and size 2 & 3 needles with a fairly short deadline to a person with issues with project monogamy.  What could possibly go wrong with this? In spite of a serious case of new project lust,   I have finally completed the first ball of yarn, and after a mishap involving splicing to the tail of my cast on, I am now knitting with the second ball of itty-bitty yarn and am ALMOST one long row into the second half of the scarf.  Almost... Tonight I shall dream of chunky yarn and big, big needles..............

Today is our 9-year wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe it's been 9 years already, but that's a good sign.   We always exchange perfume and cologne for our anniversaries, though rarely actually on the day.  We've been very, very late a few times, so this year we picked them out early for a change.  In February when we were down visiting Andy's parents, Andy and I went to a mall, and since I actually heartily dislike malls in general and try for once-a-year visits at most, we decided to pick out scents while we were there.  So, the nine-year fragrances ("artistically" arranged with a dusty engagement photo and some birthday flowers): For Andy, L'Homme by Yves Saint Laurent For me, Acqua di Gioia by Giorgio Armani For the credit card, life support, as fragrances have just about doubled since we got married. These are actually our 10th fragrances, as we exchanged them as our wedding gifts to each other, and it has been a really fun idea.  I...

Andy took a 4-day weekend to go camping, so I used the time to take a little mini-vacation of my own. First up, the fleece pullover!  Finished and washed Thursday, delivered to our friend on Saturday.  Then things sort of stumbled a bit. My fabric stash is not all accounted for, but I really am trying to stay focused on Me Made Mondays for next year as well as the idea that I need to use my fabrics before it fades in the sunlight or a vole gets loose in the sewing room and CAN'T be found.  This  is 4 1/2 yards of microsuede.  It's early stash, so rather than one of my nice little index cards, it just had a torn paper saying it was 4 1/2 yards and no suggestion as to what it might have been FOR.  Of course, there probably wasn't a purpose as much of the early stash was bought on clearance when the 2 small Joanns stores here were getting ready to combine into the terrible "Super" store, which has never had a great selection of apparel fabrics.  ...