Yarnaholic

Since it hasn’t been till more recent times that I got serious about knitting and crocheting, my stash hasn’t had as much time to grow, but let me tell ya! It’s definitely apparent that I am a yarnaholic. I’m also a slightly ADD yarnaholic in that I like to start projects, flit from one to the other and back again, and leave partially completed projects lying around hiding under piles of yarn.

So, here are the stash stats:

• 21 balls of yarn de-cluttered
• 59 different yarns in my stash (types and colors – does not include multiples of the same yarn and color)
• 92 total balls of yarn (this includes leftover partial balls)
• 6 projects re-discovered (actually more, but I’m not counting the ones I’m ripping out).

Here are the project stats (not all were buried – I’m pulling this off Ravelry)

• 12 hibernating projects (ie: haven’t been touched in months, possibly years)
• 7 current projects (ie: have been knit on within the last month, or being picked up again)

The sad thing is that I’ve got a couple projects that I could easily finish in a day or two with where I’m at, including the very first knit project I started once I re-learned how to knit at my Santa Barbara knit group. It’s just a basic 2×2 rib scarf – I can’t believe I never finished it! I could certainly use it now, that’s for sure.

I rediscovered yarns I forgot I had, so I’m glad that I can put pictures up on Ravelry so I don’t forget in the future. Based on the numbers above, I’ve got about 55 pictures to upload to Ravelry between my stash and old projects. Yikes!

Now to finish getting the yarn all packed up again – whew!

 

Updating…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I’m working on simplifying and streamlining my life at the moment. That’s translated to my blog here as well.

I’m most likely going to do a series of posts on my other blog, and since some of my readers here might want to see what’s up on my other blog, I added a feed under “about me” to you can see what’s going on over there. There might be some posts that really could fit in either of my blogs, but the other one needs a little love as you can see haha!

I might eventually just combine my blogs, but for now, this should work.

To finish off this post, I leave you with this:

Yes, I lied. I started another project (the mesh bag pattern on the Sugar & Cream wrapper thingie). But in my defense, it is for my mom for mother’s day. And it worked up REALLY fast. And it’s crocheted, so it could be said I didn’t lie (Ok, that’s another lie). I’m nearly done with the mesh part (one or two more rounds), and then I just have the top edge and the handle to finish. I’ll put a few things in the bag when I give it to her (like chocolate).

Here’s another picture so you can see it in all it’s glory:

It feels good to be working on a crochet project again. My poor neglected crochet hooks. *sigh*

 

Bad Day –> Good Day

(Warning: This is another “stream of consciousness” kind of post.)

Yesterday was not such a good day (if you couldn’t tell by my somewhat depressing post), but today has been MUCH better! Last night I pretty much took it easy (I skipped out on choir! *Gasp*), even though I ended up staying up late to finish studying for my test today. But mostly I just chilled and “watched TV” (in our home, that means either watching TV shows off the network website or iTunes, or a Netflix DVD). Oh yeah, and I had fun texting Tracy back and forth for a little while…oddly it helped me focus on my homework (and made me feel better).

At work I’ve been kicking butt (nailed one account I’ve been trying to get, and nearly have another one for an airplane – first one of those! – that my dad’s been pressuring me about. Hopefully tomorrow.) and I’ve got like 5 other clients that I need to quote new policies for. I might delegate a couple of those, though. If I can get all of them booked this month, I’ll exceed my goal for March!

This coming Sunday Nathan’s working, so I’m going to just take it easy, at least in the afternoon. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do Sunday AM. The current plan is to go to Christ Presbyterian with Chaun & Tracy, but I found out that the pastor at my parents’ church (the one I grew up in) is leaving and his last Sunday is this coming Sunday. I’m not *super* close to him, but enough that I might feel kinda bad not going to my parent’s church this week. *sigh*

But anyway, I’m gonna try to take the afternoon to just relax at home and do what I feel like doing…or not do anything at all. I might work on the crochet blanket I haven’t worked on in forever. For some reason I thought about it today and thought it might be nice to do some crocheting since I haven’t done any for quite some time now.

 

Knit is the new black

Black is the theme today. My New Wristies are black (and therefore make me feel slightly badass when I wear them, especially with the black long-sleeved shirt I’ve got on….though I am completely aware that I could never be 100% badass). My poor crochet hooks are crying. The poor lonely, abandoned hooks.

In other news, we have a new kitchen table and chairs (read: we have a REAL kitchen table and chairs…gone are the card table and uncomfortable folding wood chairs that no bum should ever have to endure sitting upon).

It’s so perty! I wasn’t sure that I’d like the pub-style height, but I actually do. I think it looks better in our small kitchen and it s comfortable to sit at, despite my short legs. Plus, even though the table is small, it has drop-down leaves, so we can put it right up against the wall like it is in the picture and it comfortably fits 2 place settings.

Back to a somewhat-knitting-related topic, I am in love with the square canvas tote bags (bottom right of picture) that Tracy owns. I did a somewhat quick search on Google to see what I could find and the closest thing I could find are these canvas box thingies from LNT.

So not the same.

I have half a mind to make some of my own, but then I’d have to spend money on zippers, plastic stuff for the little window to display the name of your projects, etc, etc.

I’ll just have to scrounge around Random, Ross, and the various thrift stores around town for other cheap and hopefully comparable organizing thingies. Cause my knitting area (aka, the space between the keyboard, the wall, and the couch) is in desperate need of organizer thingies considering how often poor Nathan is attacked by skeins of yarn, needles, and wayward pieces of paper alternately displaying my scribbles or any one of the million patterns I’ve collected (barely any of which I actually USE).

 

I’m gonna be keeping myself busy in 2007!

I got a set of circulars thanks to my dear hubby!

I LOOOVE these needles! I switched the sweater over to the Boye needles so I can see all my work stretched out as I work on the sweater.

I’m still getting used to having the wires attached, but I like that the actual needle part is shorter and doesn’t get caught on blankets/pillows/couches/husband/person that are near my elbows.

Speaking of the sweater….I am DONE swatching! I don’t have it down 100% perfect, but as long as I’m paying attention to what I’m doing, I can get it right and usually fix any mistakes I do make. Plus, since I’ve got it mostly down, the mistakes aren’t as noticeable.

After Chauntel & Tracy’s help:

Finished! (the extra mini-swatch was done on the circulars to make sure the gauge was still right because ny straights were *slightly* larger even though they are supposedly the same size):

I stopped by Chauntel’s house on Saturday to say hi and borrow some knitting books. She gave me a TON of yarn (yippeee!) and so far my favorite is this mill-end cone that is a beautiful lavendar color. I already started on a scarf for MIL’s (other MIL – not the one I made the belt for) birthday in January. On my new circs of course!

(The ball is the largest center-pull ball I’ve ever done – and by hand!! LOL)

Lastly, a non-yarn creation

Christmas Breakfast!!

I hope you all had lovely Holidays! Hooray for a short week

PS: Oooh, I almost forgot….the last crochet project I did was the java cozy for my mom. I love how it turned out and she loved it too!

 

Updates and Patterns

I’ve been tweaking with my sidebar (so easy in the new Blogger!) and notice that there is now a FREE
PATTERN section!

Which means…..*drum roll please*

I finished writing the pattern for the purse!

Also, I’ve been meaning to check out Google’s relatively new Document & Spreadsheet thingy, but I haven’t really had a reason to. Turns out that it’s very handy for publishing patterns or other documents (plus, if you use the new Blogger or gmail, all you have to do is sign in to use it).

Here’s the pattern, courtesy Google’s fantabulousness. (PS: check out the knitting Kangaroos on this holiday Google Doodle).

If you make the purse, please send me a link so I can see! And if you find any pattern errors, let me know.

 

The Purse!

Here it is! Happiness!

I love how well the crocheted scallop edge adds the perfect feminine touch, but the wide ribs give it structure. I am kinda amazed that I actually made this!

Everyone really liked it at knit group, so I will post the pattern for everyone! (I’ve got a good chunk written out already).

This was SOOO much fun to make, it went pretty quickly (it’s a really nice yarn to work with), and it looks so great. Even though the blocking took for-freaking-ever, I’m super happy with how well it worked. YAY!!!

I can’t wait to see how my sister likes it

 

Necessity = Mother of Invention

Projects

My original holiday gift plans have been totally turned on its head (thanks to over-estimation and sickness) and last night I had a near panic attack about how I was going to manage getting everything done in time (this unfortunately involved yelling at my husband, but he’s much better than I and forgave me and even did the dishes for me when he had already made dinner).

So, I have a new plan.

Unfortunately, the beanies-by-Hannukah got tossed out the window. Nathan and his step-brothers don’t typically exchange gifts anyway, so they’ll get beanies after the holidays “just-because”. And this after all my agonizing. Oh well. At least I’ll know what I’m doing this time!!

The shawl for MIL was not going to get done in time, so it became a large belt (she likes them). The “shawl” wasn’t really long enough anyway, so this is what I did:

I borrowed the corset lace-up idea from a pattern in SnB Happy Hooker.

I’m quite please with how it looks. I just hope it fits. If not, there’s enough holes in it to make it tighter. Or she could also wear it as a scarf.

Now, on to my last two fiber projects… Sis #2 gift and Mom gift. I decided to knit these two items since I’ve made crochet gifts before and I wanted to add a different feel (plus, I think I made a scarf out of the one of the yarns I’m using and I don’t remember for sure who I gave it to, so if it’s the same person, at least it’s a different pattern).

For Mom: A ribbed skinny scarf using Homespun yarn (2×2 rib).

I decided to make it ribbed to give it a little extra texture and thickness. Plus, I know how to do that already.

For Sis #2: A ribbed purse.

I’m branching out on this one…..it’s a 4×2 rib! This is actually a yarn I bought pretty much cause it was on sale (and it looked cool and fancy). It’s an Italian yarn made of 60% virgin wool, 30% Alpaca, and 10% acrylic. I’m not making a scarf because the yarn does irritate my skin a little and I don’t want to risk it irritating my sister’s skin. I can work with it without too much irritation, though, so that’s good. I am making a simply pocket purse with a flap and I think I’ll add some sort of border to the flap using crochet.

This project is also going to be interesting because it will by my first project with… *gasp* …a decrease! I’ll need to decrease a bit once I get to the flap, especially since it will have a border. The only thing I haven’t decided what to do about is the handle. I think I may buy one, or make one out of something other than knit. If you have any ideas, let me know! (If anyone reads this anymore…I’ve had a comment dry spell lately).

Patterns and Pattern-Writing

Lastly (and slightly un-related to the rest of this post), I have been wondering about patterns and pattern-writing. When does an altered pattern become your own? Case in point: MIL’s Shawl-turned-Belt/Scarf. Since it is now a completely different item (even though I followed the pattern exactly except for excluding the beads, making it shorter, and adding some chains), can it become my own pattern?

I wouldn’t call a pattern my own if I changed something simple on a complicated pattern (ie: altering a border on a detailed blanket, or excluding beading). On the flip side, if a pattern is simple, and I make a couple alterations to spice it up, I would call it my own (ie: changing the patterns on a basic granny-square blanket pattern).

I’ll have to look around some more and see if there are any websites that address this (maybe crochetme.com or knitty.com will have something about it…). Again, if you know anything about this, please let me know! I’m curious about it, before I start posting my patterns.

 

The beanie saga continues…

Thank God for Chauntel! Seriously, if not for her help (and moral support), I would probably have given up by now.

BUT, I have finally figured out what works for me. It’s a combination of the “Secret Method” and Chauntel’s Beanie Theory. I crochet a bit tightly in my single crochet stitches, apparently, so I had to go up a hook size and add in some all sc rows for the beanie I’m making out of Caron Simply Soft.

So, I started one beanie in woolease. The gauge is a bit tight, but it evens out when I try it on my head, so I changed up a hook size when I got past the increase rows so that there’s enough stretch. If it turns out that it’s too small, well, my brother is getting a beanie for Christmas and at least one BIL will have to wait a little longer.

The beanie I’m working on now is definitely a good size for a man (although I hope it’s not *too* big). The only thing is that I’m realizing that in-pattern, this yarn may not really be either BILs style. So, I can either risk it and give it to the one who might like it more, or else I’ll add a girly embellishment and give it to one of my sisters.

Also, yesterday I made it over to Knit & Pearl downtown for a book-signing. Mel Clark (who wrote Knit 2 Together with Tracey Ullman) came up to our little hamlet and signed books and chatted away with fellow knitters. I bought the book and chatted with her for a few minutes. I wish I had been more familiar with the book beforehand because I’ve been reading through it and it’s delightful! I’m so glad I splurged on it (and supported K&P in the process) because it’s got a TON of great patterns (in other words, I would actually make and wear almost all the items in the book, rather than just a few of them) and it’s definitely going to inspire me to expand on my knitting skills once I’m done with Holiday projects (especially if I get some circulars for Christmas!)

And finally, I am feeling better! I’ve still got a little bit of congestion hanging on, but not too much. I also ended up getting food poisoning or something Saturday night (and slept it off for 16 hours), but that seems to be over as well. My tummy is just being a little sensitive since I didn’t eat much since then.

Man, what a week THAT was! *whew*

 

It’s DONE!

Behold, the blanket is done!

I’m really pleased with how it turned out overall. The picot edging is perfect and I’m sure the mom-to-be is gonna love it