Yarn Collecting and Occasional Knitting
Long time readers will recall this project from last spring.
Sadly, my friend’s bike was stolen. Thieves stink. But, it inspired my friend to make a little tribute video/commercial of the project with footage she took during our consultations and fittings!
Check it out…
It’s great, right? Someday maybe it’ll even run on the local access cable channel…a girl can dream! Bwahahahahahahaha.
My Christmas weekend got derailed by a stupid cold. Needless to say, all that talk of starting a new sweater was just talk. I’m on the mend and making such good progress on the old projects, I can’t bring myself to start something new just yet. Instead of new knitting progress, I’m walking down memory lane and looking at all the things I have finished this year. It’s been a good year for FO’s!
According to Ravelry, I’ve finished 57 projects so far, that’s 23 hats, 2 cowls, 5 sweaters, 11 shawls, 3 blankets, 6 stuffies, one set of baby mittens, a pair of socks, two pair of leg warmers, a flying pig and a yarnbombed bicycle…it sounds like a lot when you say it that way!
Of course, quantity doesn’t matter if none of it is useful or appreciated. A lot of what I knit is gifted, this year, that means my new nephew Marcus! So far, he’s been pretty appreciative…happily stuffing everything I’ve sent him into his mouth. Most recently, it’s been this guy…Rebecca Danger’s Lil Love Slug.
Those eyeballs are perfect for teething on! After that, came Mom. Of course, she appreciates everything too. Her current favorite is this Pebble Beach Shawl in yarn she dyed herself!
I really liked knitting Pebble Beach and it’s great to wear. I definitely want to make one for myself. My favorite piece of knitwear in 2018 was probably the lone sweater I finished for myself.
I liked it enough to start a second one right away. Unfortunately, it’s been ignored for months. Any day now, I’ll pick it back up!
Despite all this knitting, I’m pretty sure my stash grew this year. I tried as hard as I could to use it all up but I managed to visit new yarn shops in four states, adding yarn at each stop. (Not to mention Vogue Knitting Live and Stitches West.)
Certainly my shopping this year tended towards the green family. And like always, I’ll say 2019 is the year of no yarn shopping. I made it until February 1st in 2018. Hopefully I’ll make it longer in 2019. I take yarn collecting very seriously but I’m running out of places to put it.
And oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned that Mom dyed me a new batch of lovelies for Christmas.
The left is a set of colors on a merino-yak-alpaca base and one the right is a set of colors on Miss Babs Kunlun base, a merino-cashmere-silk base! Wooo! Turns out Miss Babs sells partial naked skeins for a steal! I’m guessing it’s her version of mill ends, little odds and ends that she can’t use but thanks to Mom’s penchant for finding sales, I will definitely use this skeins for something fun!
Now, it’s time to think about goals for 2019. More Sweaters! Finish my current sweater. An RBG Sweater. A Pebble Beach. Lots more nephew toys. AND NO YARN SHOPPING! (ha…yeah right. wish me luck!)
Here’s my adorable little nephew Marcus visiting Santa and wearing his special Christmas sweater!
I love it! Despite being very different people, my sister and I do share a sense of humor! I just wanted cute nephew pics…this is above and beyond though, cracks me up every time.
Now to brainstorm ideas for next year’s naughty sweater??
I’m also thinking about what to cast on for Christmas. It’s an annual tradition for me to start a sweater on Christmas Day. This year I think the theme is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There are two new patterns on Ravelry that are super: The Knitorious RBG by Park Williams, and Dissent by Andrea Rangel. Of course, I can’t do anything the simple way and just follow a pattern but I love the idea. An RBG-inspired collar can be inserted onto any sweater! Step one: Stash Dive. I should have enough lopi to make this happen!
Stay tuned next week for progress pics, hopefully I’ll have some! And hopefully a year in review post. It doesn’t seem like it right now, but I got a lot of knitting done this year!
Happy Christmas from my family to yours! Hope you all have a great long weekend and Christmas!
I could spend this time telling you about the cute little raglan pullover I started for my nephew. It’s fall, that means tweed time.
I could rant against the designer who called it a ‘simple raglan’ but then used a highly modified version of raglan increases. Only a problem because the pattern is so jumbled with other useless information like this gem ‘NOTE: sl markers as you come to them’ that I didn’t bother to read the actual pattern. The 9 other ‘NOTES’ about things such as the definition of work even and the fact that this is a top down pullover cluttered the page to the point that I didn’t bother reading any of it, until it was too late.
Sure, it might be my fault for not reading it, and subsequently assuming that a simple raglan meant 8 increases, every other row. Obviously, I should have read the pattern and discovered that the author meant for me to do 12 increases every 3rd row with twice as many increases going into the sleeves. On a different day, I’d be pretty annoyed with that convoluted bullshit being called ‘raglan shaping’.
That’s not actually my problem today, though. Today’s problem is stupid wordpress. Anyone else having a heckuva time getting photos to display in the editor properly? I’ve been having trouble with my account for a couple weeks now. The photos just aren’t loading properly when I need them too. I suspect it’s because I’m at 90% capacity for my photo storage. I can upload photos no problem but getting them from the upload stage to the posted stage is driving me crazy.
I’ll start a draft of a post, return to it a few hours later and the photos, while still in the post as they should be, just don’t appear. Unsure if a picture is where I want it, I’ll return later hoping it shows up…sometimes it does, sometimes I’ll have to fight with it for another hour to get it to work.
I like to post a lot of photos and I use the mosaic arrangement a lot. That’s pretty dependent on being able to see the photos.
It’s incredibly frustrating and it certainly doesn’t inspire confidence when it comes to giving wordpress more money to upgrade my account to the unlimited plan. I’ve tried avoiding high traffic internet times, hoping that would make it easier for photos to appear as they should but nothing seems to be helping.
I’d contact wordpress help, but have you ever tried to email them? They aren’t exactly helpful. It seems like they copy & paste useless info that I could have found myself in the help files. And given the email nature of it, it’s not exactly rapid communication.
So, dear readers, I turn to you, anybody have difficulty with photos appearing in the editor? Can anyone confirm my suspicions that it’s due to being near capacity? Anybody upgraded to the unlimited storage plan care to speak highly about it?
In the meantime, I’ll be sulking in the corner and ripping out my sweater progress.
My Dragon Fade shawl is finished and it’s gigantic! I love it! It’s been off the needles since Sunday. I promptly wore to the park…ends dangling and all. I don’t care. I like it anyhow.
I have managed to get about half the ends woven. Yes, I’ve continued to wear it. Fringe is in right now. I’m going with it! Of course, I really should get around to washing it and blocking it. I’d draped it across a lot of Mother Nature’s offerings this week.
Here’s a few details: The pattern is Match & Move by Martina Behm. I used 17 different yarns…no wonder there are so many ends to weave – those details (minus 1 mystery yarn) are all here on my notebook page. My only modification, aside from gauge changes and the fade, was to increase the size. I added about 10 extra rows…it’s giant. It drags on the ground, if I don’t wrap it a couple times. It’s definitely for cold & windy days.
That is not today. Today appears to be a sunny day, which is good news for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass! I’m heading to back to Golden Gate Park again so I’ll leave you with this shameless self promotion. Just did a big fall shop update! Check it out at www.FogKnits.Etsy.com!
Happy Friday and Have a great weekend!
Happy Friday! It’s time to put this week to bed! I’m ready — I feel like I’ve been focused and productive. I got a good start on my interview prep and my pile of handmade nephew goodies has really grown! It’s the perfect time for a weekend!
Because nothing makes one feel accomplished, quite like listing those accomplishments, here’s what all my procrasticrafting got me this week…
I finished up the leg warmers – two pair, one small, one large, one that matches, one that doesn’t. The large size might become a pair of matching arm warmers for Mom.
I really liked working with this yarn, KnitPicks Felici. It’s soft but still has a bit of structure to it. I’m still thinking about the worsted weight version and a sweater with stripey sleeves. Maybe my recently cast-on Newborn Vertebrae will cure me of that. It’s grown since yesterday, I’m up to the sleeve divide already! Baby sweaters are the best!
What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good stripe. I’m also a sucker for a cute animal toy, these days. My Tubby Wubby stitch & stuff felt toy subscription has come to an end. Mr. Giraffe is the last to join the menagerie. I stitched him up, in about an hour, last night. He’s extra goofy. I couldn’t resist.
3 Months was the perfect subscription length for these cute little kits. They were well put together and the results are super cute but I’m ready to knit critters now. Knitting is really my thing. I can see myself stitching more of these Tubby Wubby kits, in the future, but for now, it’s back to Rebecca Danger cuteness.
I whipped up this little Hippo from ’50 Yards of Fun’ for an instant gratification fix. I love her designs. Rather than knit pieces and sew them together, you pick up stitches on the body and knit the limbs out from there. It can be fiddly but definitely worth it. I’m always pleased with my critters. I didn’t even have to fuss too much to give this guy a cute face!
And so, he join the growing pile for my next care package…
I’ll send this stuff off when I finish his sweater. Maybe a few more stuffies too…my goal is definitely to re-create that scene from E.T. with knitted toys! :)
And, now, I’ve committed to doing some real work this afternoon. Nothing boosts the confidence like putting the time in. Back to interview prep for a few hours and then, it’s the weeeeekend!!! Wooooo!
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
I finally finished knitting something! It’s a Hitchhiker.
I could tell you (again) how the Hitchhiker is the best scarf pattern ever. I could tell you I love the color. I could tell you about manually striping a solid and variegated yarn to break up the pooling even more.
I could tell you how happy I am to have frogged this yarn from a different project to reclaim it for one. I could sing the praises of neon green. I could tell you it’s perfect timing because Fogust is arriving in style, it’s super foggy this week.
I could tell you it took me 15 movies to knit this. I could even give you reviews of those movies.
Unfortunately, I’m short on time, heading to another movie. With no knitting?!? For my next trick, I will be crocheting in the dark! I’ll let you know how it goes!
