UFO's
Because torturing myself is fun…
I have issues.
I could totally fix this situation, but I choose not to…because I like to torture myself.
I work in a bitterly cold office. You would think that, because I am a knitter/spinner/crocheter, I would be able to fix this situation pretty easily. Knit or cro something up and wear it up in this icebox I call “work”. Do I do that? Of course not.
Back in our old building, what seems like ages ago, I had started the Office Blankie of Doom. I pulled that sucker out of hibernation in March. I am knitting it on something crazy like size 17’s or something. No, I am not done yet.
So, I started a couple of shawls. Aestlight is one of the patterns I started. I worked on it today at lunch…and this is where the torture begins…
Look at me! You know you wanna...
Here she is…three repeats of edging left to do. I left her sitting on my desk all afternoon. I am rubbing my nose in the fact that I am freezing here and this 100% superfine alpaca shawl is still not done. Take that Ice Girl! Not even your knitting gives a crap that you can’t feel your extremities.
Sidetracked? No.
Today I had posted a picture of a project I am working on to my Twitter account. I immediately got a message from a friend telling me to get back to my blanket!
Let’s crunch some numbers, shall we?
In my yarn stash, I have enough skeins of sock yarn to complete somewhere in the neighborhood of 26 pair of socks. No, I’m not joking. If I want to have scrap yarn for my blanket, common sense dictates that I best get my ass to knitting!
So, in the last week in a half I have finished my Tudor Grace scarf, which got me a nice ball of shiny purple yarn…then I did my first Simple Things with some Socks That Rock in “Fire on The Mountain”. Nice scraps there too. Now I am working on second Simple Things that will eventually be a gift… even more yarn for my Insanity Blanket.
Simple Things alongside my Strappy Tank
More knitting...
I have started to make plans for the other sock yarn in my stash. The stash has yet to include my Wollmeise acquisitions… but I am planning projects for those too.
I also snagged some of the sock yarn out of the stash to put up for trade on Ravelry. So far, so good. I actually traded four balls of Knit Picks Palette for sock yarn scraps. Yes, I am *that* determined to get this blanket to work.
I have also gotten some great donations from friends of mine at my LYS!!
So, blankie update time…
So far...so good.
I am 49 squares in. 2 are not attached. One more to the 50 square mark! I am moving slowly right now, but once I get a few more projects under my belt I can start to devote more time to this. Plus I will have more colors to choose from once I get some of my swap stuff. I am hoping for some yellow.
Solid. Yellow.
I never knit anything for myself in yellow and there is spot in the blanket that looks like it wants it.
Slowly…things progress
I haven’t been sleeping much lately and that seems to leave me with a lot of time for crafting. I mean, God forbid I do the dishes or vacuum the house. Not that it would be a wise thing to do at 11 o’clock at night. I mean…what would the neighbors think? What? I don’t have downstairs neighbors right now? Um…yeah…well…
Crafting is pretty quiet.
Except for the sewing, which I try to keep to a minimum after 9 p.m.
I finished two skirts recently. Yay, something to wear this summer for work! The hand sewing hook and eyes with black thread was a real treat for some evening fun in low light. MY EYES! MY EYES!
I had some fun with a hot glue gun after knit-a-long last Sunday and made some cute hair flowers.
My daughter is thrilled with Mommy's attempts at girlieness
Then there is the knitting…all the knitting…
I have slowed down a little on my strappy tank, but it is pretty much all stockinette at this point. So it is more my mindless knitting. It’s “I’m half asleep on the couch watching bad t.v. shows” knitting.
So. Much. Stockinette.
Then my baby for the moment, the Insanity Blanket. It is coming along nicely. I got some great yarn from Vilma and Camille this week!
Vilma's contributions.
Camille's samples: noro from her poncho, and some of her koolaid dyed yarn from a class she took
The new stuff is amazing, and it is hard to get sick of knitting the same thing over and over when you get to try out all kinds of different yarn. It is really starting to grow.
I am going to knit some more squares as soon as I am done blogging.
I have been making sure to keep track of where everything is coming from. I have been tagging all of my flickr photos and labeling each square. Yay me!
Also, in a “hell must have frozen over” moment, I have started spinning again! My wheel and I have not had the occasion to spend much quality time together since the new year. It feels good to get reacquainted.
Of course I have been spinning all of my fiber samples for use in my insanity blanket. Man, ulterior motives!
I spun them end to end...
Later I will break the ends and ply them on themselves.
Now, off to knit some squares!
Go ahead and say it…
I am clearly insane. I *know* this and I really can’t help it.
This week’s craft update is just stating the obvious, because what would I be doing if I *weren’t* crafting?
Oh yeah, probably cleaning my house or something…
So, my WIPS (”works in progress” for you non-knittahs):
Classic Elite Strappy Tank.
Faerie Mountain Fibers spinning (drop spindle, this may take awhile).
2 skirts I am currently half-done sewing. I have waistbands and hems left.
Grey, my little alien friend.
An Insanity Blanket.
<insert screeching tires sound here>
What the heck did I just say? An Insanity Blanket. Yes that is right! For the record, I am not the first one to make one of these…you can see the original, and find directions on how to make your own on The Heathen Housewife’s Blog. That banner at the top….that’s it. The one that pushed me over the edge belongs to The Other Side of The Pom. Really, click that link…you may fall prey to it’s magic too.
So what is an Insanity Blanket? It’s a blanket made up of mitred squares. Sound crazy? Not really…until you throw in the fact that it is knit up of stray sock yarn…and I am knitting it on size 2 needles. It is sure to take me a very long time to finish, given that I don’t even own enough sock yarn to complete it, but we’ll see what happens.
I am also planning an taking it an extra step further and journal/blog my progress and chart where each square “comes from”. I figure there is a story in just about everything.
So here is a little example of what I have so far…
My squares.
The attached ones on the end there are the foundation corner of my blanket. Now to figure out how many 2 3/4 in. squares I will need to make a Queen size blanket. Eek!
Someone’s been a busy girl!
The slippery slope of my latest crafting phase started like this…
A Special Order...
My sister-in-law works for an entertainment union that…oh screw it, I’m not using names…the girl works for Screen Actors Guild and needed some fancy jewelry for the latest SAG Awards. I made this. It is a crappy photo, I know, but they turned out really pretty.
Stitch Markers Galore!
While I have been in my whole “trying to make lemonade” phase, I’ve decided to start getting my act together and start selling stuff. I haven’t gotten all of my photographs taken and color corrected yet, but for a girl who works a full time gig *and* has preschool aged twins, I think I am making pretty decent progress.
I am also attempting to get a little knitting done. While waiting to get the Manos I ordered for my Clasica Coat, I broke down cast on a new sweater. I had some Asland Trends Invernal in my stash to knit February Lady so I started it. It’ll be freakin’ awesome and so far it seems like a pretty quick knit. I anticipate I will have it done in time to wear to Stitches West.
Coming along nicely...
The buttons will definitely make this sweater extra awesome. I got them from happysilence on etsy.
Holy *@!%! It’s Christmas already?
Man have I been a busy girl! It seems like December just flew by!
Well, as much as I said I was going to avoid Christmas giftie-type knitting, I just couldn’t. I say it every year and I always make *something*. This year I was prompted to get off my butt by my son. Even at 4 years old, that boy can appreciate Mommy’s crafting. He came up to me one night and flat out said “Mommy, I want a hat!” Thank goodness he asked for something easy! I walked him back to the stash and let him pick out his own yarn.
Of course, this also means I have to make a hat for my little girl too. She also visited the stash for some yarn.
So, in the midst of the Christmas knitting…I was working on my own projects. I finished my Vaya Shrug first…
Vaya Shrug on the duct tape form
Then I started and finished my Whisper Shrug…
The Whisper, in an unfinished state...
I don’t have any pictures of it completed yet, but it sure looks awesome blocked. I even bought some Habu Silk to make another…
Then I started a sweater that has no name, because it has no pattern. I am mixing and matching and making it up as I go along. I am knitting it with True Love Fiber yarn in Bruise that I got at Unwind. I am needing to get creative because I have two balls in one dyelot and one ball in another. So far it is looking pretty good.
I love this sweater!
OH….and that etsy shop I keep promising to start? Well, I am working on it, despite my not having put anything up online yet. I have been carding batts like a mad woman. I am sure poor Wendy would love her drum carder back…one of these days I will have to get one of my own.
The Drum Carder of DOOM!
I have gotten my fingers injured a few times while cranking these things out, but they look oh so pretty!
Alpaca and wool with a little glitz
Wool with a little carbonized bamboo and some glitz
So much to do this week. I am sure I will have more completed projects before Christmas actually gets here!
Making progress at lightning speed!
Ok…now wait a minute! I am lucky if I can get a pair of socks done in a month, but a whole sweater? What? That is crazy talk!!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love stockinette?
There is more done at this point, just no pictures to back it up!
At the rate I am going, I could very well have this sweater done in three weeks. Not 3 weeks from now, I mean 3 weeks TOTAL! As a matter of fact, as of this writing I am done with the body of the sweater and am working on the sleeves.
It’s gonna be the best sweater ever! But it’s still hot out…I may have to wait a little while before I am actually able to wear it. I should have pictures soon.
Boredom, in real time…
I hardly ever really blog just because I am bored. I guess it is because I have so many projects that I can hardly ever say I’m bored. Mostly I blog after an event, so I have time to think about it and get my pics together and so on and so forth. Not tonight…
Tonight I am blogging because the playstation froze while I was trying to rock out to Guitar Hero.
How do I have time to even play Guitar Hero, you ask?
Because I was blowing off doing the dishes.
And I was so close to getting 100% playing “Take it off” by The Donnas!
On “Easy”…I am not that big of a video game nerd…nor am I that coordinated.
Then I put on television and immediately saw this:
What the heck was she thinking?
Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean you need to walk around in a garbage bag.
Oh, didn’t I promise yarn porn?
Swamp Thing!
I spun the last of it Labor Day weekend and it didn’t take me long to get my sweater game on. I cast Wicked on 3 times, just to get the right color for the collar. So far it is looking pretty good!
Looking good so far...
So I am going to go do some more work on it now that I actually got the dishes washed. The fact that I am working on a stockinette project is so nice! It is relaxing to knit and not have to look at what I am doing most of the time!
Creating deadlines…and not meeting them.
What was I thinking? I just *knew* that the last sentence of my last post would come back to haunt me. I haven’t even done any knitting for two whole days! So where am I in finishing the thing? In about the same place I was last time I wrote about it.
So, what have I been doing? I’ve been working…..I work a lot…..sometimes I take a break here and there to do something fun….like helping to wallpaper a co-workers office with pictures of people with moustaches. Don’t look at me funny, it’s his thing…
Window 1
Window 2
Window 3
It really is a thing of beauty. Like stained glass, but with moustaches!
He basked in the glory that is facial hair...
Honest, I really do get work done…
So, my plan is to try and slog through finishing my sweater this weekend. I really would like to wear it at least once before summer ends. I do get a little extra time for it here in Southern Cali. Then I have other projects to start. Gifty-type projects for wee people. Luckily wee people are smallish…those projects should fly off the needles. Oh wait, there I go getting cocky again.
Marching Forward…
Ok, I am determined. I am determined to finally get my shit together and start doing what I need to do. I keep putting things off because I need to deal with real life, but real life is overrated. So I am buckling down…working on logo ideas…trying to knit and spin as much as I possibly can. Come on! I know I can do it!
So, on the agenda:
Finish the Kusha Kusha Scarf.
The lavender Stainless steel/silk and taupe wool look good together.
Finish my True Love socks…
Mmmm. Bubble Gum pink koigu
Maybe get this sweater done?
I really suck when it comes to actually working on sweaters...
Learn to dye roving and maybe a sock blank…
I have almost all the supplies I need...
Maybe start selling some things on etsy perhaps. I have only been talking about it FOREVER! Over the past week I had people ask why I am not selling my needle protectors or stitch markers online. Why am I not selling them, who knows?
In other news, I also recieved a lovely package from Stashymama on Ravelry. She sent me some batts from the fleece she bought at Stitches. All cleaned and fluffy. I can’t wait to start spinning them. Lucky me, now I can because I actually cleared my bobbins off last night! I finished spinning and navajo plying the last of my pink and brown Merino/tussah that I purchased in November from Bee Mice Elf. Go me!
Yay! New fiber!!
Merino/Tussah before plying the second bobbin...
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