Challenges

To start with... here is the reason why I needed Maria's help with this scarf...I could not have been more dense when it came to reading the end of this pattern. I must have frogged the last section a dozen times before I cried "Uncle". Seriously...does this look like a triangle to you? All I kept getting out of it was something that looked like a sock heel.
Thank God for Ravelry! I was at a loss. I get it now. I saved Maria's instructions but I think it is stuck in my head for good/ We'll find out for sure when I make my next one.


My Baby Love blanket is finished. I completely underestimated the amount of yarn it was going to use. I ended up using four full skeins of Red Heart Soft Baby. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to knit with the last bit of yarn as I finished the blanket when I realized I did not even have enough left to make an IPod sock out of it. This one turned out to be a good stash burner for sure. I decided this one will be earmarked for the Linus Project. It was a quick enough knit that if I need a gift I can whip one up in a short amount of time. This project has put me over the mile and damn close to the two mile mark.
I see that a lot of the girls are close to their mile if not over it already and still with 20 more days left in the Knit a Mile Challenge.

Every one has started talking about the February Challenge but I think I am going to bow out of that one. I have even looked to see what it is yet.

I have a couple of other projects in mind that I want to make. Plus I have Sarah's shower to concentrate on.
Invites have been sent, and for anyone that cares, they do happen to have been made out of recycled paper :)

I finally got back to my Bagstopper too. I have only the four balls of Isabella so I modified the pattern a little and decreased by 10 so that the bag would be taller this time. Super easy pattern. I gotta say though, the cotton in this yarn is not very fun to knit with. It kinda drags on my fingers and makes them sore. Not like the Peaches N Cream I buy for face cloths. Good thing I am not going to be wearing this yarn.

So on Saturday night Kelp has a few of her co-workers over for a knitting party. Kelp is a fairly new knitter and is trying to teach these gals how to knit. Good luck with that I say. So I am on my way home, giver her a call to see how things went and she says, still knitting. EXCELLENT!

Well I am almost home (1100 pm mind you) when I decide to take a detour and run over there. Really, all I had waiting for me at home was the usual brother's Saturday night in witht the WII golf. Like I was going to miss that fun!

Of course I have some knitting with me, that is a given. Usually I am a solitary knitter, or maybe knit with one other person. I have never been in a knitting group before. Well I guess I am in one now!! We had such a good time that the girls all want to do it again. I love it when I can teach someone new to knit and In fact, both girls were so hooked they stayed up half the night knitting when they finally got home, and can't wait for the next time. Kelp had them on a good start by the time I got there, and boy oh boy, talk about some ambitious newbies, they are both making afghan's for a first project. Of course, given tonite's blizzardy cold weather, an afghan souds like a damn good idea!

Oh and by the time I got home I think it was 1:30 am and the brother's were just leaving. And oh shucky darns, I missed all that colorful swearing because they can't golf worth a shi-ot!...LOL

I think I will truly be looking forward to my own Saturday night diversion!

1 Mile and still counting

YAY!! I knit the mile - and with plenty of time to spare!!
I am almost done with the Baby Love blanket. I will do the math when it is completed, but it should be right around another 500 yards to add to the count. Such a lot of yardage for such a small item :)

I was going to put this away for when I need another baby shower gift, but I decided to add this to the charity basket for the next group of items to take to the homeless shelter.
I had planned on sewing up a bunch of fleece hats for the charity basket as well, but instead I slept away the first half of my days off, then I sat and made invitations for Sarah's shower with Kelpy (who happens make the bestest ever cards I might add). Needless to say I got no sewing done on my days off and very little knitting. And I probably should no cleaning or cookling either.

Last night I finished my multi-directional scarf! Boy that was a long time coming. I read and re-read those ending directions and that last half triangle was not going to happen right. I found this very nice lady Maria on Ravelry, who very kindly re-wrote the instructions and drew me a diagram on her own scarf to show me. I must be part-tarded because plenty of other people out there have made this scarf according to the directions posted on line. They just did not make a lick of sense to me. I am not usually so stupid when it comes to instructions, but for some reason these were just beyond my simple comprehension!

It turned out perfect thanks to Maria! Obviously I still have to weave ends, wash and block but here it is!


Of course, as if I did not have a host of other things to be doing, I decided I have to have another beaded scarf and while Kelpy and I were shopping for card stick, I also shopped for glass beads to string. Yes, you have to string the beads and then transfer them onto the yarn. I am not finished with the beads yet, no hurry because my Noro for them that I just ordered isn't here yet. Do you suppose it is a little backwards, buy the beads first then find a yarn to go with them?? That's me, a back- asswards Virgo... go figure.

I did the one thing I said I wasn't going to do. I was pretty firm on this too, so I thought. Not going to post my stash on Ravelry...well guess what..I did it. Ok, so not all of my stash but a goodly portion of it. And in doing the prep for it, ie; photographing, sorting and such, I realized that I have already made a damn good dent in it. All those hats and scarves I have been making for the last couple of years have depleted quite abit of my stash. How exciting is that??? Mind you, the following two pictures is not by any means all of it, but I am starting to get it down to a respectable quantity. In fact, I purchased some guilt free yarn just this week!

A few years ago, I ran out of places to put my stash, which I do try to keep centrally located in my craft (read to mean junk) room. So I bought these handy dandy wire baskets to load up with yarn (see how empty they are getting?). Great idea right? Well no not really. Over time as they sat up there not getting used, some of the velour types faded dramatically and yellowed from smoke (yes we are evil smokers, hence the reason I keep my yarn sealed in plastic and away from light) unfortunately, I never thought of the long term effects of my basket solution. Actually, I never even thought they would be hanging up there for several years. I am salvaging what I can, but some of it will have to me 86'd I'm afraid. Ah well, live and learn.

I think it is time to empty out the baskets, don't you? Maybe use them for onions or something.

Baby Love

I am on the downward slope of the Baby Love Blanket now, and feeling a bit more comfortable in my mile goal...I am so going over it.. I just know it.

Dawn called me the energizer bunny the other day. Oh how I wish that was true! In my younger days I could say I resembled that remark but not so now. There was a time when I could stay up late and get up early and keep right on going through out the day.

Working close to a hundred hours in a week was common place back in the day, and then go out and dance the night away. Now I am happy to be able to get through a 50 and sometimes a 40 hour work week, and still be able to crawl out of be the next day and function. And on top of being older (notice I did not say old) I have to watch what I eat so carefully that if I don't, I am laid low for an entire day. That was the case the other day. I have gotten so good at pretending that I feel fine, people (myself included) tend to forget that I am not until I have one of those days. Sleeping is such a waste of time in my opinion I feel like I am missing out on the rest of the world by sleeping. I always figure I can sleep when I am dead.

Hmmm, maybe I better not say that too loud.

Thank God for mindless knitting. I just don't feel right if I had not knit something every day! I happen to be one of those unusual people that like garter stitch! I like the mindless part, since I think most of my knitting is done when I am half comatose. And I like the way it looks. I am not surprised when I read reviews on this blanket. All the things that people disliked about it are the things I like about it. And to boot, this makes a great stash down project! Sure it is not a challenging pattern, but I have plenty of that going on too.



Knit a Mile Challenge

Now that I have knitted an acceptable amount of mileage, ( can now add an additional 1125 yards to my count) I can get to work on some finishing up that scarf. I can barely deal with the guilt involved in leaving UFO.

If you look to your left, you can see the Blog Roll I started for the people involved in the Knit Mile Challenge. I thought it would be a fun way to keep an eye on everyone else's progress. Not that this is everyone involved, just the ones that are, so far, keeping track of their progress online. Challengers- I highly recommend that nifty little knit meter button. It very nicely calculates everything for you!!

There have been a number of factors lately that have kept me from knitting as much as I would like. work, being numero ono on the list losts to do this time of year. Then there is Blogger. I have been doing a little housekeeping here too (or at least trying to), Blogger can be frustrating to say the least. When I have nights like last night that challenge me to figure out a way of faking Blogger out, (it is that whole button issue all over again, WTF!) I become tempted to move my blog .

Ravelry has been taking up a good deal of my time as usual. Another good reason for mindless knitting. I can browse the boards there and not worry about losing track of my project. Kill two birds-so to speak. There is so much to see and do there and a gazillion groups to check out. I am fast becoming a group groupie. And that Casey is a genius!!! See the nifty progress bars??? I wish I new how to write code, if I did I sure as heck wouldn't be using Blogger.. hehe

Happy V-Day to me!

Yup - I have bought myself a Valentines present. Yes I know it's early. No you can't know...it is a surprise... :) It is a really big surprise and you will just have to wait til Valentines Day to find out...lol a little suspense is good for the soul. I personally, can barely stand the wait. ;)

No ... it is not Red but, It probably could be.

Hopefully I will have some FO's to share next post.

FLITTING TO AND FRO

FLIT! FLIT! FLIT!

My ADD has kicked in again. I am suffering from the too many project in my queue syndrome.
I started Clapotis the other night, but this project (which at this point is an unexciting looking little triangle with a bunch of purty stitch markers). And it requires a bit of concentration so it is completely unportable at this point. And having cast this one on in a finger weight, I expect it to take more time that my self gratification gene will allow. Knit Picks Shadow in Heather Sunset, (Still knitting from stash) was actually purchased for this pattern in mind so now I feel like I am on my way to completing something I started. (Hey girls, it is on clearance right now) I have been wanting to cast this baby on for a long time but never got around to it.



I treated myself to a couple of books this week too. I bought the Opinionated Knitter, Elizabeth Zimmerman of course, which has been on my wish list for a long time. I used the gift certificate I had won from 25 Things for Charity towards that purchase :) aaaannnnnnd I also bought No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting because I am a geek ;)

FLIT!

Bam - here I go again! Oh sometime around two-ish am I was working on my unexciting multi-direction scarf when I could not stand to look at it any more and threw it on the floor. (The dog did not even lift his head because he is used to such unbecoming behavior from me. ) I am bored bored bored with and it and it is taking toooooo long to finish. I want it to be done. The yarn does nothing for me in this pattern, or anything thing else I have knit it into to later frog. I need instant gratification!

So I pulled up an easy baby blanket from Lion Brand and cast that on is some of the over abundance baby yarn I have laying around. (In this family someone is always having a baby it seems.) The pattern calls for a worsted weight but I am using double strand baby weight. Soft and yummy in New Mint and White Red Hearts Soft Baby yarn. Hey and each skein is 575 yarns! that will really boost my mileage won't it. Plus I am needing a quick knit to get over the scarf. See- I have all kinds of justification for this one!

No I am not giving up on this scarf, it just seems like it is taking for-ever to finish. It is currently my only take a long project, not that I have been able to take it along with me anywhere lately. Still, I will finish it is it kills me.

Maybe it is because this is such a busy month for me at work that I need to feel productive at home too. January is when we pack up all the files and start fresh. I love that! I feel like that is the point where I can feel free to stream line things, and it is easier for people to accept any changes because it is all fresh anyway. I need to feel like I am accomplishing something and this scarf is not doing it for me.

Oh well, one has to knit an ugh once in a while.

BUTTON BUTTON WHOSE GOT THE BUTTON

Well -I never understand Blogger, in my mind it does some crazy and unpredictable things. For the last several days I have been trying to get my Stash Down button to work, WTF. Blogger is seeming to want to add extra characters to my code and fudges up the button. I have removed element and redone the whole damn thing more times than I can count. I am almost ready to give up. I hate to let an inanimate object get the best of me. It just makes me even more determined to win.

You may have noticed I have been doing a little "spring" cleaning on my blog too. Adding stuff, moving stuff around, re-arranging the furniture so to speak. I have added a new blog roll for those of us that accepted the Knit-a-Mile challenge on Ravelry. There are a few of us ( as you can see- quite a few) that are going to be posting progress on their blogs too. No- that is not everyone in the group, just the ones posting their mileage in blog-ville.

I feel very good about making it to the finish line.

Knitting A Mile?

There is a Stash Knit Down 2008 group on Ravelry that is having a January challenge to knit a mile. A mile you say??? Yes I said a mile! That will be 1760 yards (holy crap) of yarn by Feb 15. Completely doable - I think. The challenge started Jan 5th and I have since knit a total of 280 yards. Not an auspicious start, but not bad none the less. And what a great idea!

Most of my week end was spent clearing out crap from of my junk room and turning it back into a craft room. What a feat! I had boxes of crap that had never been unpacked (I hate to admit we have lived here for 7 years). Stuff my dad sent me of my mothers after she passed away was in that closet along with a number of other mystery boxes. It was a wonder I had any room in that closet for my yarn stash! Which is probably why I had an avalanche nearly every time I tried to take something out of it. I repacked mom's scrapbooks and what not's. I went through every scrap of paper as well, old tax forms (more than 7 years old I might add), my 17 year old divorce papers, a few profit and loss statements from when I was a store manager, and training manuals from my old dispatch job. Talk about being a pack rat!

Needless to say most of that went into the trash. Along with a goodly number of dried out paints, some infinitesimally small pieces of material I had been saving for who knows what, and a number of other things that I am sure the garbage man was swearing about this morning...hehe

Things that needed to be stored went into Rubbermaid containers, condensed and repacked, and nicely placed in the bins. Plenty of room for fresh stash now!

I did do some knitting too. I have been plugging away at the multi directional scarf. I enjoy the pattern, and as long as I remember to go up-hill, it works out fine. I am getting bored with it tho because the yarn that so excited me in the skein is very un-exciting when it is knit up. The pattern has some wonderful possibilities, and I can see some of my stash being worked up this way, if I ever get through this particular scarf.

So naturally I started something else, as most of us do when a project becomes a chore.

I found another nifty pattern on Ravelry for this headband. I had two balls of Sugarloaf in burgundy that I also bought 2 years ago at Stitches but did not have a clue what I wanted them for. I loved this one, quick knit and the yarn is soooo yummy and soft. It was a dream on my head. Too bad someone has not invented feel-a-vision yet.

Of course I foo bared it and forgot an increase but it is still plenty wide enough. It took very nearly the entire ball of 81 yards. And since I had two, I immediately cast on my second one, which I intend to make correctly this time.

Most of Saturday was spent at the courthouse, waiting for it to be Sarah and Greg's turn to get married. For all that it was a civil service, the Judge was fantastic, and made it a very lovely ceremony. And even though we had to wait around most of the morning with a bunch of strangers, some wedding parties were in formal dress even, we had a blast. Sarah got a little upset when she lost my mother's ring (her something borrowed) but this nice lady turned it in and all was well.

The happy couple...Don't they look sweet!

A little New Years Bling

I see that everyone has been posting their new years resolutions so I thought I would jump on the band wagon. Generally speaking, I never make any resolutions, at least ones that I know I can't keep. Cheating? Yes well, I know, but it works for me.
2007 was a brutal year in so many ways. For myself, I had a couple of near misses which made me realize that life was very precarious, and very precious!


So I guess my New Years Resolutions is simply this: Live to get healthier to live a longer life and to love life more.

I have learned that I am mortal (damn, who made that rule), and as such, I really have no time to dwell over the things that I cannot change, but to focus on the things that I can change. Since change comes from within, that is something that I have control over. I shall be as happy and healthy as I choose to be.
2008 will be a year for me to try thing that I have always wanted as well. Not really a resolutions but goals. I always put things off, like learning to spin, I have wanted to since I was a child in my pastors living room and saw my very first live spinning wheel. I have always wanted to own one. Well, and learn to use it of course. I did buy a hand spindle kit but the one time I tried it all it did was keep falling on the floor. I need to keep working on that I guess...lol


I have already branched out of my usual lazy, safe knitting and tried a couple of new things.

I started the multi directional scarf I had in my queue on Ravelry, and it seems to be coming along quite nicely. Still a lazy project, but with a new direction, so to speak..hehe



And I finished my beaded shell scarf, twice actually. Yup it was so much fun I frogged it and did it again. Ok, so no-not really, but I did frog and I did want it longer and I plan to make another one with the 5 shells instead of 4, but longer that the kit provided. Surprisingly it was much warmer than I thought it was going to be with all those glass beads. Good thing too since it damn near got down to 0 degrees the other night.
It was a big hit at work too, (ok bragging a little) Even the Chief oohed and aahhed over it. :)

Dawn, you so need to make one of these!!! I think it should be in every girls wardrobe!

IN THE NEWS!

Tomorrow morning my little girl is getting married! No, this is not an after thought, and I am only telling you just now because, well, I am sad and happy at the same time. This means my baby girl has grown up. :(

It will be a small intimate wedding held at the Babcock Center (court house), but I understand they do a very nice ceremony there. My sister in law is already crying, and if I was off today and thinking about it too hard I probably would be too. It seems like only yesterday she was just a baby, and even though she have her own baby, the whole married thing makes her so adult now. does that mean I am old now? NOT!
Nothing fancy, she said she doesn't want a bunch of people gawking at her, and frankly I feel the same way. But they plan on having a reception of sorts sometime this summer so it can be out of doors and they can invite all their friends and family. I personally believe that most people could put a sizable down payment on a house with the money spent on elaborate weddings. Some times it is good to be of average income. ;)
The wedding shower will come after the wedding. I was not too happy about that but they chose tomorrow because that is the only Saturday I have off this month. I tried to talk her into waiting for another month, they waited this long already, so that it could at least give me a chance to give her a proper send off into grown-up hood. But then I decided, it is her day, her way and what ever way she wants to go about this is fine with me. I got the consession of making it happen on my day off and that is good enough.
I know I have been going on and on like she is some little kid, which she always will be to me I guess, and she thinks she is grown up already.... she is 27 after all, as she likes to reminds me. What - Ever! She is still just a baby!