A Little Yarn On The Side

 I'm a bit sore today, so I've been resting on the heating pad and working on the Begonia Swirl:  which is REALLY close to being done.  I'm on the last row of the pattern, though there's still a really long purl row to be done, then the elastic bind-off, but I'm still really, really close to being done.  Then I'll have used one entire ball of yarn for this month.  Whew!  What will I do with all the freed up space????

My day off was mostly spent with the cats alternating custody of me:  Calisto is still new at Sewing Interference, but Theo is nothing short of a pro.  As soon as I looked like I might grab something else, he was ON IT.  I think they miss me.  I did manage to get the new blocks sorted pinned, and ready to be sewn:  I'd hoped to finish the chiffon jacket, but there's a part that isn't working, so I think I'll be hand-sewing that part into place.  Maybe I can get that done tonight or tomorrow. Eventually (because this was Theo's favorite part), I got this ready for quilting.  I think just a little stitch in the ditch is in order here--I don't want stippling to distract from how much I love this print. I even finished the day with my table mostly cleared off, so I almost started cutting out the next project, and I have this BIG container of fabrics prepped and ready to go right outside the sewing room door, but I reall...

Theo has discovered my secret morning crafting time, darn it.

While I'm struggling a lot more with not buying fabric than yarn, today marks 9 months since my last yarn purchase.  Not that I'm knitting enough to shrink my stash or anything, but in the past, being busy actually encouraged my yarn buying.  I'm not sure how that works out, but perhaps buying yarn (which does take MUCH less time than knitting) made me feel like I was knitting when I really didn't have time to do any knitting. Maybe on Friday I'll line up some traffic light knitting--I once made almost an entire baby sweater while waiting at stop lights.  Sure, it was over the course of an entire year, but it certainly beats sitting there.  I don't have to wait in traffic very often, so I think it would be more of a sock or hat sort of thing, but all knitting is good knitting.  Except maybe mohair........

So I get home from work between 6:30 and 7:00, which doesn't leave much time for crafting, especially because I'm tired and we try to get at least a one mile walk in after dinner.  Last night I was so tired that I was in bed by 9:00. Since I'm a morning person in general,  I'm getting up early so I can get my stretches and physical therapy exercises done, and if I don't take too long to get ready, I think I can squeeze a bit of crafting in before leaving for work. Today I got two more strip sets sewn, and I'm ironing a few before I need to leave.  The cats haven't yet caught on to the morning program, so it's possible I could actually get a fair bit done this way.  15 minutes without kitty help is probably as productive as one hour WITH assistance,  right?

Some of us can sew.  Some of us can take decent selfies.  I've decided I'm really better off with the former because I get clothing out of it.  However, that means that while I did figure out something to wear for Me Made Monday today,  I don't have a picture yet and I have to leave in a few minutes.  In 2007 I made the long version out of yellow gauze.  This is the skirt that prompted the pattern comment, "Cute skirt, but pattern written by sociopaths with dyslexia," so I think it was so traumatic that I never took a picture of the final skirt.  Anyway, the more accurate picture would be of me continually tripping over the blasted thing anyway, but action shots are hard for a knitting blog.  It is suddenly 75-80 degrees, which is unseasonably warm for us, so the two remaining jackets and the new yellow cardigan are sort of pointless right now, though it might cool off a bit later in the week.  That doesn't help for Me Made Mondays, but ...

So while there is still a black tank top to be finished, I started my morning with this: I had read that to preshrink precuts, one should steam them with the iron.  I have also read that wizards use owls as a postal system and that true princesses can feel a pea underneath any number of mattresses, and while I'm not exactly sure about the pea thing or whether owls really would ever carry packages, I am pretty well convinced that steaming strips doesn't really shrink them.  I could have paired the unshrunk strips with cotton batting and just hope for the best, but I have enough trouble with quilting without throwing unpredictable shrinkage into the mix.  So, I sent them through the washer and dryer in a lingerie bag, which works pretty well as long as you don't mind ironing a bunch of VERY wrinkled strips and have a pattern that doesn't require strips to be exactly 2.5-inches wide.  Oh yeah--what could possibly go wrong here.  The strips are set for a...