Finished projects, at last!

We were snowed in this weekend (not seriously, but enough that we didn't want to go out), so we did a ton of housework. And I knitted my fingers off! On Friday evening I fastened off my Tea-Sippin' Pansy Scarf:


Pattern is the Boteh Scarf from Interweave Crochet.
Yarn is Sheepy Time Yarns' All Your Base, colourway Pansy Ass.
Size F hook.
Mods - gauge was way off. The pattern calls for 16 curlies with sock yarn and an F hook; I made 23 curlies and could probably have squeezed one more out of my yarn. Reading reviews, it seems that a lot of people have issues with the recommended gauges in this magazine. Fortunately I just bought the pattern as a one-off.

On Saturday evening, after a long day of cooking and file-purging, I finished the first socks of the year:


Pattern is a modified version of Thuja from Knitty.
Yarn is Lion Wool-Ease.
Mods - fewer stitches, longer cuff, shorter foot, totally different heel and toe. They fit perfectly, and will hopefully keep my feet warm at Coronet Tourney next month.

I spent Sunday spinning on my seaglass fiber. I've finished the first bobbin and started the second. I had planned to finish the singles this month, but at the rate I seem to be going I might ply it this month too! I managed to wash a couple more bags of fleece yesterday evening in between episodes of Bones, so my flat smells like a wet sheep.

Franken-Mei Socks in my handbag, spinning at home until I finish, then I'll bring a shawl out of hibernation. I like finishing old WIPs!

Oops!

Nearly a fortnight between posts, naughty me. I've been busily knitting away on Christmas gifts. And this morning I enrolled on a part-time MA programme! Between those things, and the fact that term starts on Monday at my workplace, well, I've been kinda busy. :D

I finished up a scarf for a friend last night. No pics just in case, even though I'm 99.99% certain she doesn't even know I have a blog. The squares project is moving along nicely. The remaining gifts are doing well, so much so that I've added in another gift to my list. Optimistic, moi? Still, it'll be nice to get all the gifts done and delivered so I can get on with some other things!

I've been taking advantage of the new year feeling I always get in September to have a good sort out. Lots of domestic projects like cleaning out closets and finally getting around to lining our bedroom curtains for warmth and darkening. (Well, I've gotten as far as buying the fabric, anyway...) And I spent a goodly chunk of the afternoon going through my stash, tidying up, sorting and making sure it was all on Ravelry with pictures. Quite a few things had snuck past the camera, but it's all up there now. And I feel like I'm ready to go back to finishing projects.

Flashbacks, part one

While I was visiting my mother, I took the opportunity to photograph many of my pre-blog needlework projects. Most of what I have there is embroidery, but there are some exceptions!
A few years ago I was helping mum with one of the perennial rounds of organizing, cleaning and purging, this time in all of her sewing stash. We found a bunch of little kits, things that had been freebies with some of her embroidery magazines. Since at the time I wasn't knitting and had very little in the way of embroidery supplies, I swiped them!

A free embroidery needle case that I use to store my sharp quilting needles:

A scissors fob:

A little framed jobbie that mum has hanging in her sewing room:

It fits!

I met up with the friend for whom I'm crocheting the wedding dress. It fits and she loves it! Time to crack on and get it done. I'm thinking that since the top of the dress is in two pieces anyway, I may just have that as my handbag project until it gets too big to carry around.

I've got two new projects bags that are perfect for carrying small knitting and crocheting projects. I took full advantage of the John Lewis clearance sales and got som new pillow covers*. Very nice, very cheap. And they came in little zippered clear plastic bags! They are just the right size for two or three 50g balls of yarn, some notions and needles or hooks. And because they seal shut and are very sturdy, I can use them to transport lace as well as socks. I may yet get through all of my laceweight stash!

*I also got new pillows and some yarn. The yarn will be disclosed in a post I'm planning to write on 'Yarny things I got for Christmas'.

making progress

Having finally finished the socks, I spent most of the weekend doing odd-jobs around my knitting spot in the living room. Tidied up, got rid of the odd things that had migrated onto the table, even cleaned under the couch! Fun fact - dust bunnies get a lot bigger if one feeds them with spinning fiber and thread ends. My patterns are now back in the right folders and the ones I'm using for my current WIPs are in the cardboard file I use to carry them around in my bag. It's much nicer!

The wedding dress is on a break until tomorrow, because I need to measure my friend. I got gauge, and I know she's skinny, but the extra-small looks a little too small, if you know what I mean! Don't want to get swathes done only to discover that I need to make the next size up. So for the time being I'm working on my ripple afghan and a Totoro for a friend. I'm always amazed at how quickly the afghan goes when I actually work on it. Usually I keep it by my bed for a few stitches here and there while I'm waking up or going to sleep. The Totoro is a quick crocheted toy, made in pieces. It's very cute! I have a pattern for a matching small white one, so if I have enough white yarn left over I'll make one of those too.

I went to the post office today and destashed some more cotton yarn. There's a lady in Italy who makes baby blankets with it, so hopefully the five skeins I sent will be useful. I'm not just giving away yarn. I get 'nice points' for offering yarn that I can use later to claim things. I really don't need any yarn right now, but I like banking credit for the future!

I had a delightful email this morning from Jennifer, asking me my colour preferences and other bits of trivia for my new membership of the TsockFlock Sock Club! Six kits of the most amazing artistry and creativity imaginable, spaced out over the coming year. I'm thrilled about this. I was lucky enough to receive a kit for the Vintage socks for Christmas (no, I'm being good and getting my compulsory knitting out of the way first!), so the thought of a whole year of these is just fab.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas! Other half and I had a lovely and productive weekend of cleaning and organizing, resulting in a much emptier office and a new arrangement of furniture. My dining table is no longer a home to armies, my teapot collection is out and useable, and my Christmas tree has a home.

The pile on the floor is books that I found in the office that I need to read and return to the library at some point. I'm hoping that having them out will make me take breaks from knitting to read. Maybe. :D

The ornaments on the tree are a rather special collection. It's our first tree, in honour of our first Christmas at our own home rather than either set of parents. Some of the ornaments are from my childhood, bargained away from my mother. Like the gold harp from a family holiday in Scotland, or the Pisces disc that I made in pottery class and which matches the ones I made for the rest of my family. Some are from friends. The angel topping the tree, for instance, was a gift from my best friend. She gave it to me when I went on my year abroad, to remind me of home and keep me safe while travelling. And there are the newest ones, the Hallmark ornaments that are from my mother and grandmother in honour of our marriage. It's a very special tree, and I think that it's good to start our own holiday traditions while keeping the old ones.

I'd like to make a tradition of holiday swaps on Ravelry for certain! I received a parcel in the post the other day from my Posh Secret Santa, and it was lovely! Beautifully wrapped in coloured tissue and brown twine, and smelling gorgeous. A set of pattern tamers, long strips of magnet with ribbon attached to keep my paper patterns from escaping in the breeze. A bottle of perfume and a bottle of gorgeous bodywash for pampering myself. And some badges and bubble solution, just for fun! My swappee has her parcel, but is saving it for Christmas. I hope she enjoys hers as much as I do mine.

Another state of the WIPs

I really, really dislike having so many projects on the go. I just ripped one the other day, but cast on something else. Finished 2 projects for Christmas, but one gave me leftovers and the other was tiny and never got photographed. ARGH!

So, as a note to myself, here are ALL of my WIPs. Oldest first.

• The Coatigan. Needs 1.5 sleeves and a collar, plus some seaming. I could almost certainly finish this in a weekend if I sat down to work on it properly.
• Ripple Bedspread. About 1/3 done. It goes quickly when I work on it, but I rarely do more than a few stitches in the evenings. I may bring this out as my tv-watching project.
• Pomatomus Socks. I am actually working on these on and off. I finished the gusset of the first sock a few days ago, but haven't worked up the energy to do the foot.I'll finish them someday!
• Silky Mittens. These are on hold. I only cast them on out of frustration, and I don't really need them urgently. And they are a bit boring, if quick.
• Leafy Manos Hat. I packed this away while tidying, which was a mistake. I could probably finish it in an evening. In fact, I might work on it tomorrow morning before work and see if I can get it done this weekend.
• Mum's Wool Peddler Shawl. I'm working on it. It's a whole bunch of garter stitch for a good long while yet, so not hugely interesting.
• Rock and Weave Socks. I love these tremendously. They are in my bag waiting for a dinner break, in fact. I'm slightly putting off really working on them because I will need tofind buttons at some point.
• Test Mittens. These have thoroughly been tested now, so there's no rush to finish. I had to rip out most of the first mitten because it was too small, so they are hibernating until I can face reknitting all that colourwork.
• Replacement Noro Triangle. I had a cast-on itch, so succumbed. I'll work on it when I'm finished with some of the other stuff.
• Gifts for people who read my blog. Yeah, so not giving away what those are!

Actually only 2 really old projects. Everything else is from this summer or later. But there are many, and they are annoying me. And most of them require 2 items to be knit, for such is the nature of the mitten and the sock.

Perhaps I shall restrain myself by not allowing myself to cast on the beautiful tangerine-coloured laceweight I got in the post this morning until all of these WIPs are done...

Plotting and scheming

In one week and 48 minutes, the Ravelympics will officially start. I have my yarn, I have my needles, I have swatched. I will be attempting to make Pomatomus Socks in 17 days. I have never made a pair of socks that quickly, and this is a very fiddly pair of socks! Wish me luck!

I've also been reevaluating my stash. It's amazing what a moratorium on new projects will do for one's forward planning. I've got two skeins of pink-and-purple Posh sock yarn that I'm thinking I'll turn into a Pi Shawl, a very clever pattern based on principles of Pi. My remaining 4 balls of Rowan Tapestry will become a snuggly warm cowl. And the rest of the ball of Rowan Calmer from which I made my Odessa hat will become a baby hat for someone. Don't know who yet!

I've very nearly finished the first of my Monkey socks. Will do that over lunch. Just 3 more rounds, grafting the toe and sewing in the starting bit of yarn! I've also brought the rest of the yarn with so that I can start on sock 2.

For the weekend I'm planning a blitz on the flag. I'm hoping to get it finished so that I can mail it off on Monday. I'm also planning to go pick up the needles I need to make my Ivy League Vest! If I manage to finish the flag, I'll do my swatch for that. Definitely need a swatch, since I want this vest to fit perfectly. Also, it involves steeking, and I'd really like to practice that on a swatch before attempting to cut up my vest!

bit by bit

I did quite a lot this weekend. Not as much as I'd hoped, but then I do have a very clean and tidy flat and I got to spend a whole afternoon with a baby and her parents. Baby L is just about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! I'm still astonished at how small they are when they are first hatched.

Because I spent so much time bouncing a baby, most of the knitting I did was small bits of things. A few rows of the mitts for Weaving Friend, a few rounds of Monkey Socks, a couple of inches of afghan, a stripe on my flag... Lots of useful progress. I've already met my completion goal for the month, so I'm feeling fine with not pushing to finish anything else. Of course , the last time I said that I ended up with 2 more FOs, so I'm not making any promises!

Inspiring progress

No, I'm not making vast amounts of progress and inspiring people. Rather, I'm doing rather a lot of unexpected cleaning and organizing of crafting things and it is inspiring me.

The great clean and organize on Sunday resulted in my husband's painting corner becoming a lot tidier. We've ordered a new shelf unit to sit next to the wine-rack, which will give him a lot more storage for his miniatures and paints. We also made a shelf for the top of the wine-rack to hold some of the millions of aloe vera plants that are taking the place over. And because we were doing all this rearranging, I also did things like scrub the floor and dust the windowsills, which I somehow always manage to put off doing. It looks so much better now! Another result is that my enormous tapestry frame now has a home behind the couch where the army boxes used to live.

There is an additional shelf for our bookcase on order too, which will give me a home for all my tablecloths and some of the DVDs that don't fit on their shelf. And finding a home for the cloths means that my garb chest now holds nothing but garb and our Scrabble board. Easy access to Scrabble board is very important. :D

Then last night when I got home I was planning to have a general tidy-up of the place. I'd been playing with my stash, which meant that the living room was covered in yarn and fabric and magazines. Well, we tidied. But we also went through the entire contents of the trolley/sideboard thing and cleaned it. No more dust bunnies. No more Warhammer* living in one of our serving dishes. And I went through all of my fabric stash and figured out what I'm going to do with almost all of it! So now I have sorted piles of stuff, all the things I'm currently working on are easy to get to, the stuff I'm not planning to do any time soon is at the bottom, and my living room is much cleaner.

The result of this is that I'm much happier about working on my current WIPs. Mostly it's because I know what I've got waiting for me, and I don't have to worry about whether it's going to be where I can find it when I want to work on it. I'm also getting over my urge to cast on or cut out a dozen new projects, because actually, I'm happy with all the ones I'm working on right now!

I'll put up photos once the shelves arrive and everything is done. We're expecting them next week.

*This particular Warhammer stuff was mine, I can't blame everything on the spouse!

Truly a Knitter-with-a-capital-K

This morning I woke up early, and it being Sunday I decided to let my spouse sleep. So I thought I'd indulge in a little me time and work on my Monkey socks. I got all comfortable and curled up on the couch, me at one end with my socks and the laptop at the other end, and knit a heel flap without looking while scrolling through blogs about knitting with my feet. It was great. I had a really pleasant morning.

And now I'm going to spend the rest of my afternoon cleaning, organizing and rearranging to make room for the tapestry frame that has now made it home and been assembled. (We met up last night with the people who were kind enough to drive it home for us after Coronation.) This is going to involve much discussion, planning, cursing and many cups of tea. Hopefully at the end spouse and I will still be on speaking terms and the living room will look less like a teenager's bedroom. Did I mention that in addition to the tapestry frame my living room holds a regular set of furniture, our dining table, all of my knitting, yarn and fabric stash, my husband's complete collection of wargaming stuff, two laundry racks and all of my little brother's worldly possessions while he's in between college and his first job in September? This could be fun. Or not...

Lack of blog fodder

The real trouble with spending so much time sewing rather than knitting is that it really isn't all that interesting to blog about. Until I get myself a much better camera, I'm really not going to do that much more photography simply because taking pictures is such a hassle. And really, a pile of fabric just keeps looking like a pile of fabric until it's done and turned into a garment. And even then it only looks like something once it's being modelled.

One good thing about it is that it's giving me lots of time to think about what I want to work on next. And in fact, to think about needlework in general. I resent having my knitting and sewing time taken up by things that aren't knitting or sewing. So, I've been thinking a lot about organizing my supplies. Not my stash - that's pretty much as organized as it's going to get until I've reduced it more. No, I mean things like my tools, books and accessories.

My crochet hooks have their own case, and so does the set of bamboo straights that my lovely grandmother got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I'd like to have a second case for hooks because the one I have now doesn't have spaces big enough for my jumbo hooks. I'd also like to have a case for all of my other straights that will keep them sorted and safer than the vase on my table. I've got fabric to make a roll-up case for my DPNs, but just haven't had the time or energy to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. My sewing needles live in a beautiful embroidered needlecase made by my mother, so they are fine where they are.

Something else I've been meaning to do is sort out some jars for all of my little oddments, like stitchmarkers and beads. I'd love to make embroidered jar toppers, but then I'd have to figure out how to attach them.

It's all so frustrating - there are many, many things that I want to do, and I just don't have enough time!

The problem with garb-making...

...is that once it's done, you have to find somewhere to keep it! I'm obsessive enough that I want all of my SCA stuff to be in one place, and currently the only place big enough in our flat that is suitable is one of our two blanket boxes. Well, the blanket boxes are both full. One contains the out-of-season duvet and the guest bedding, and the other one is full of all my tablecloths, plus a couple of vases, some board games, things like that. Or at least it used to be full of those things. The other big storage place in our flat is the hall closet. The back half of said closet is where our boiler is, so it's not a good place for anything that could be damaged by heat. Like, say, my leather shoes. It is a good place for things like the millions of scarves I've accumulated.

(As an aside? I swear I don't remember making this many scarves. They must be breeding or something. Ignore the one I have on the needles and the couple in my queue. And let's not even talk about the shawls. Just drop it, ok?)

So in a fit of genius (!) I decided that cleaning out the hall closet would allow me to transfer the contents of blanket box 2 to the closet, thereby creating a home for all the garb. Simple, right? Wrong! First problem - I didn't have any decent storage containers for the "stuff" in the closet. Enter one trip to Argos for a set of three seagrass baskets. Basket 1 is now full of hats and gloves. Basket 2 has all the first aid stuff, and Basket 3 has useful odds and ends, like string and a flashlight. I've cleared an entire carrier bag full of things out of the closet, too. And the rearranging means that I can now get all of the original contents (minus the purged stuff) and the board games into the closet. Woohoo!

Unfortunately, the tablecloths don't fit. And neither do the vases. And neither does the extra set of guest bedding I'd forgotten we had. So right now the really fancy tablecloths are still in the blanket box at the very bottom. (They are too big for our table, so don't get used.) The bedding should just about fit into the other box, but the other box does double-duty as my needlework table. I really need to clean off the top of that so I can get to the box contents. I may give away the vases, since we have loads, but I really need to find a better solution for the tablecloths than layering the lot onto the dining table...

Plans and lists, for I'm obsessive like that

I have a bunch of stuff that I'm making or going to make that has an external deadline on it and needs working on. Plus I have a bunch of projects that I'd really like to get finished just so that they are done. So, I'm going to do a calendar run-down with deadlines and things to help keep track of what needs doing.

May 22-31: Finish enough garb that the hub and I each have an outfit to wear to the revel on the 31st.

-finish hemming bottom of chemise ASAP
-sew up seams of green tunic, teal gown and red gown on 24th with E's sewing machine
-hand-finish tunic and teal gown once machine sewing is done
-hem veil
-if time allows, apply trim to teal gown and cut out and assemble a pair of braies

ALSO work on mum's birthday present and the bedspread when not able to sew.

June 1: Camden Green Fair. Today I can work on anything I want, and may buy up to 100g of yarn providing I have a plan for it.

June 2-9: Cut out, hem and embroider handkerchiefs for Coronation. Keep working on mum's birthday present when not sewing.

June 10: Day trip to St Albans - birthday knitting on the train and in the purse.

June 11-17: hand finishing on red gown, repairs on red tunic, cut out blue court tunic for the hub, birthday knitting as and when, hopefully finished by June 18, swatching for silk gloves

June 18: pack before going on holiday, no needlework!

June 19-26: visiting mum, finishing up any remaining handsewing plus making blue court tunic and possibly pink gown, Socks on Vacation for SoS

June 27-29: Coronation - knitting silk gloves, maybe finishing some inside seams if I can be bothered.

June 30-July1: Bugger all. Two days off playing in London!

July 2-18: SoS will start properly for me at this point, since all the sewing will be done. Also knitting flag for the 198 Countries Peace Project

July19-31: SoS continues. Other priority project is the Swallowtail shawl

August 1-7: break from socks prior to the Knitting Olympics - will work on one of the Mission:Possible outstanding projects. Probably Interlocking Cables.

August 8-24: Knitting Olympics, during which I will attempt to knit an entire pair of Pomatomus socks in 17 days.

August 25-31: Interlocking Cables sweater and last few days of SoS

September 1-5: finish Interlocking Cables

September 6 - iKnit Day and the great wearing of the sweater to meet the Yarn Harlot herself! A small amount of stash enhancement is also permissable

September 7-10: anything I want to work on or cast on for

September 11-15: Raglan Ffair - silk gloves again

September 16-30: very little of anything, given that term starts and I will be exhausted from freshers.

October-December: finishing up as many WIPs as possible - ideally I'd like to start the New Year with no unfinished knitting, crocheting or sewing projects. NB sewing not embroidery - I'm ambitious, not clinically insane!

Husbands - Help or Hindrance?

Discuss, citing examples to support your argument.

After going through all of my sock yarn the other day and choosing patterns, I discovered that I really needed some more DPNs - 2.25mms and 2.75mms. I've thus far been fudging things with 2mms, 2.5s and 3s. So yesterday when the hub rang me over my lunch hour to say he was in a yarn shop with a knitting mutual friend and did I want anything, of course my answer was "Yes!" And he very kindly picked up the 2 sizes I needed.

And being the sweet man that he is, he decided I needed something to cheer* me up. We met up that evening and he handed me a bag containing a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock! The colourway is Dusk, a lovely deep blue-purple-green with flashes of hot pink that is ever so yummy. I'm thinking that it is destined to become a pair of Coupling Socks.
And of course, this means that my stash is now one skein bigger than it was, although I love the yarn. Whoops.

And I have just arranged for a couple of hours' access to a sewing machine this weekend for the making of garb. Thank goodness for kind friends!


*Originally I typed shear. Clearly I am warped and in need of taking up spinning.

Le Weekend

Busy, but not as productive as I'd hoped.

The chemise is coming along nicely. I did almost all of the seam finishing that needs to be done before hemming, and hemmed one of the sleeve cuffs. I've got 4 seams left to finish, the second sleeve cuff and the bottom of the chemise to hem, then it's done. The green tunic basically didn't have anything done to it at all bar pressing the shoulder seams. I decided that finishing one thing at a time would be better for my moral! Having the sewing machine out all weekend really did help, though. Even if it was a pain.

In between rounds of sewing I worked on the bedspread, which is motoring along. I love it, and I'm looking forward to having it done! I also indulged in a little Summer of Socks preparation. All of my sock yarn is now in a bag, I've dropped some bad yarn off at a charity shop and made more space that way, and have been working on using up my scraps of sock yarn leftovers before I start generating lots more. I've been making korknisse! These are little trolls made by knitting a sweater and a pointy hat for a wine cork. Very cute, utterly quick, really good for using up scraps. I'm going to make half a dozen or so for my friend's birthday on Friday.

I've also been planning which sock patterns to make with my yarn. Here's the list, although it will be subject to change:

• Jitterbug in Bright Charcoal - Butterflies and Bees Socks from the Six Sox Knitalong
• Wool-Rich in Fruit Fondue - Bellatrix Socks
• Wool-Rich in Green Pumpkin - Aquaphobia Socks
• Matchmaker 4-ply in Grey - Austrian Socks
• Wool-Ease in Rose Heather - Hiking Socks and Cabled Footies
• Bulgarian Cotton in Orange - Fishnet Knee-Highs
• Kroy Socks in Easter Egg - Wendy's Feather and Fan Socks (pdf)
• Laura in Chi-Chi - Petticoat Socks
• Lucia in Ruffled - Kaibashira Socks
• Regia Semisolid in Blue - Baudelaire Socks
• Schoppel Admiral Dark - Conwy
• Schoppel Admiral Light - Monkey Socks (again!)
• sKnitches Kettle Drum in Aegean - Pomatomus Socks
• Wisdom Yarns in San Diego - Anne-trelac Socks

I'm going to be busy this summer!

Something new

Last night I was feeling like savouring finishing the neverending project for a little while longer, so I decided to play with my stash instead of diving into another project. My stash is currently rather scattered (6 bags and a tub), so I thought I'd only get part of it out. The tub, since it's the most moth-proof of my storage, is where I keep the most precious yarn and the yarn that I'm not planning to do anything with in the near future. All of my laceweight is in there, for example, as is most of my birthday yarn. (The sweater yarn has its own bag.)

For whatever reason, I also decided a while back that the tub would be the best place to keep things that I was trying to decide what to do with. I was given a pair of knitted colourwork slippers years ago that I wore out, but I'm keeping them so that someday I can reverse engineer them to make a new pair. I also dug out the pink socks I finished back in August. They fit perfectly, it wasn't as if I needed to reknit them, but I'd managed to put my toes through them. Oops. So they'd been sitting there while I figured out whether I wanted to throw them away, as I'd normally do with holey socks.

And then I figured that, since I was prepared to throw them out anyway, I really ought to try mending them. Worst case scenario, I'd waste a foot of yarn and end up throwing away already ruined socks.
But it turned out that all of those years of sewing and reading my mother's sewing books sank in, because I made a pretty good darn on both toes, if I do say so myself! And now they're ready to be washed and worn again, and I am very happy. Yay for sock rescues!

Once I'd mended the socks, I wound up the green Manos in preparation for turning it into a Foliage hat, and then decided to work on the cabled sweater. I'm a quarter of the way through my list of 12 projects, and well underway with the remaining 9, so why ruin it with cast-on-itis?

That was weird.

Due to errands and chores and grocery budgeting, I did no knitting at all yesterday. Not one single, solitary stitch. I did a little crocheting on the afghan, but that was it!

So today I am hoping to make up the time. Peanut butter sandwich and mitts in the park, methinks. Although tonight's plan is more housework and chores - I need to iron a shirt and polish my shoes in preparation for an interview tomorrow. And give myself a manicure. So knitting will be minimal tonight. Fortunately the spouse is cooking, so I don't have to worry about that. Maybe I will indulge in some Pom time while he cooks for me! I love my life sometimes...

Mess can be productive

I had a party a week ago, which meant hiding all of my needlework stuff in bags and putting it in the bedroom so nobody spilled beer on it. I know my friends well. (I also hide the throw rugs for the same reason. Handwashing woollen rugs? Ick.)

Of course, because I was in a hurry and was in the middle of a baking session, I didn't put things away in any particular order. Which meant that when I went to look for my lucet this weekend, I couldn't find it. This meant pulling every single scrap of needlework stuff that I own out and putting it all in the living room to sort it out. I found the lucet in the bottom of a bag of yarn when I thought I'd put it in the tin with all my oddments. Oops. It, its instructions, and all the string I'm planning to use with it now have their very own bag to live in, and I've finally got a use for the bag. It was a freebie that was too small for any knitting projects, but I couldn't just throw it out. The reason I was looking for it was that I finally bought the sandpaper to sort the edges out and make it useable again.

While delving in the depths of my stuff, I was inspired to finish the crocheted pillow. Mostly so I could just get rid of the naked pillow form that had been lurking on top of the wardrobe. It turned out I was a lot closer to being finished that I thought, so I just got that done. And I've now met my 2 projects goal for March! Woohoo! I also found the lime green baby jacket I started ages ago, and decided to fish it out and finish it. It's so small and was going so quickly, and in fact is still going quickly. I finished the body, sewed the shoulder seams, and did half of the first sleeve. I've got it and a darning needle in my bag for the lunch hour, so hopefully that plus the pub tonight will allow me to get most of it done. I haven't brought a circular needle for the edging because picking up stitches evenly is a task that requires good light and sobriety. If I finish everything else, I shall work on the alpaca neckwarmer.

I went through my Mission:Possible stuff again this weekend too. The biggest project in the pile is the crocheted ripple afghan, so I think that's going to be the at-home priority. It's not the most complicated or the one that'll take the longest, but it needs an entire bag for all of the yarn that goes with, so it needs to go!

Other goals are making progress. I started the pair of mitts that will use up most of the green and yellow Dr Who yarn. They are looking good, although corrugated ribbing is really, really fiddly to do. They will take longer than I had hoped, but they're still fun. (Remind me I said that in a month or two when they are making me nuts.) I did a couple of rows of the silk shawl, but it's really not something I can do in company. Conversation makes me lose count, and then I screw up. And tinking silk laceweight is right up there on my list of not-fun, somewhere around the point of getting chewing gum out of hair. I can do it, but I'd really rather not. I did some more work on the Dr Who yarn mini-scarf, too, but that's obviously not something I can finish until the mitts are done. I thought about knitting the black shawl. And then I decided that on the not-fun list, it's well above the chewing gum mark. So I left it in the bag to marinade for a while longer.

I changed one of my goals, too. I told the Ravelry group, but I don't think I ever posted it here. I think I might turn the Kaalund laceweight into a very ornate Pi Shawl, which will probably take me much longer than a year. Especially since I don't want to rush it (and since truthfully? I don't want to use the yarn. It's the first really great yarn I ever bought, and I'm emotionally attached to it.). So, replacing that goal is the coatigan. When I started making it, I loved it. I loved the yarn, I loved the way it was turning out. And then I had to buy interfacing, and then buttons, and then I couldn't get the right size needles, and gradually I came to resent it. Which is silly, because it's about to be the perfect weather to wear it, I've now got everything I need, and it'll take a couple of days, tops, to knit a sleeve and a half, a collar, and finish the lapels. So my replacement goal is finishing my coatigan. I rounded up all the stuff that I need to finish it, and I think I will work on it over Easter on the days when the spouse is home and I can't work on the shawl. Maybe I'll even finish it!

And we also sat down and figured out exactly what he's going to need in the way of garb, and how much of that I'm going to be doing. It's not too bad, actually, and he's keen to learn to sew well enough to help out.

So, as you can see, sometimes making a big mess can be really helpful.

Ah, the delights of organization

First - I worked on the fingerless glove last night. I am getting there, slowly but surely.

I was having one of those evenings of fidgeting, where I can't really settle into knitting on any one project. So I got down all of my bags of knitting and started reorganizing yet again. And this time I grabbed the biggest bag and put all of the yarn and WIPs for my Mission: Possible into it. So now I can have just that one bag, work on anything in it, and still be making progress! There is still a little bit of M:P yarn in the tub, but the bag was full and I didn't want to induce a yarn-flavoured panic attack.

I also spent some time working on the long abandoned drop-stitch shawl. Not knitting on it, mind you, but cutting and attaching fringe to the part I had already finished. I loathe fringing about as much as I do weaving in ends, and I was having visions of finishing the knitting and never doing all that fringe! So I just did some of it. I'm planning to spend a good chunk of Thursday morning working on it so that I can get some wear out of it before the weather gets too warm to need a heavy shawl.

I had a few moments on inspiration yesterday too. My mum very kindly bought me four balls of Lion Brand Incredible ribbon yarn over Christmas, and I have been racking my brains trying to figure out something that would make the best use of its qualities and the amount. And finally it hit me - I will make a beach cover-up! One of those drapey, lacy wraparound skirt things that you wear over your bikini. It will be perfect, and I can use up every bit of the yarn.
I also found a really lovely scarf pattern for the Suede yarn too - very simple to show off the yarn, but not so simple it will be boring. Woohoo!

I really, really need to get some photos taken. My Ravelry account is looking shoddy and I haven't had a new picture on the blog in about a week!