Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Only three more days of NaBloPoMo!

Three more posts after today, and I’ll have posted every day for the month of November–woot!  My visitor stats have been very healthy during this time, so hopefully I’ll be able to maintain my momentum, and not fall back on the once-a-week style of posting I had before November.

I don’t have much in the way of yarn news today.  I’m still working with the Lion Suede, which, as I mentioned last night, works much better crocheted than knitted. Omigod yes. I’m even starting to like the yarn, although I still fully expect it to worm at some point. Sadly, I didn’t have the second ball with me yesterday, otherwise the project would be finished by now. Phooey.

I’ve been holding firm on the no-new-yarn-purchases, but it’s hard with that beaded Booga Bag sitting in a corner, pining for one more ball of mustard Patons wool. I try not to look at it.  I think my next bag will be a beaded Balloon, since I already know I have enough yarn for that, and I want to see a finished project with beads, already.

I’ve added a few more projects to Ravelry, including some of the yet-to-be-felted purses.  Yay! I have so many projects still to add, I’ll probably still be adding six months from now. 

Hmm. I need more tea.  Guess that means I’m done!

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Day five of NaBloPoMo

Starting to feel the pressure.  Not sure what to post today, unless y’all want to hear about my busy day at work or the coworker that pissed me off. Still hard at work on bag #2 (brick red and tan). Freezing in my cubicle, where my heater is doing little to alleve the chill. Almost done with the gazillionth viewing of season seven of Buffy.

I have not looked at any knitting sites or magazines or books today, so I can’t post about that.  Haven’t even logged into Ravelry yet today–horrors! Um, I did take two minutes out of my day to contemplate buying a knitting related Xmas gift for a friend. I showed my current bag in progress to a colleague, and explained what stitch markers are for.

Oo! I lost five pounds in the last week, does that count as news?

Shoot.  This is only going to get harder, isn’t it?

Ok, I just logged into Ravelry, and there was a group invite waiting for me, for a local yarn store.  Hmm, I wonder if the other local stores have groups?

Um, go Patriots!

And now, a picture:

Hats

This is the most popular knitting-related image in my Flickr photostream. We now return you to your regularly scheduled surfing.

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

My path is clear

For weeks now I’ve been trying to decide what to do about Christmas–do I knit/crochet presents this year? Do I really want to make myself that crazy? And what about the company’s charity auction at the holiday party? What would I do for that this year? I’ve done the scarf and hat thing to death already.

Yarn!  
The three boxes and the blue bin in the front are what I just pulled out. The white rolling drawer set and the two boxes in the back are filled with yarn I’ve already photographed and catalogued.
 

Well, I pulled out four boxes of yarn to photograph and catalogue for Ravelry, and now my path is clear–I have so!much! wool that obviously this is the season of felted purses! Most of the wool is secondhand, passed to me when my friend Kat decided to divest herself of most of her stash, and therefore the colors are not what I’m usually drawn to–lots of earth tones, to be honest. It’s doubtful I’d ever do anything with this wool for myself, so transforming it all to gifts is the only answer.  And maybe I can get some space back in my bedroom in the process.

I’m a smidge undecided on patterns. I have several books with lots of neat felted bags that would teach and challenge me, but really, I just want to make as many purses as I possibly can before December 25 (and really, preferably before December 18th, to give myself some time off to focus on other stressful parts of the holidays, like baking and shopping). This will probably mean using the patterns I’m already familiar with–Booga Bags, Little Cocos, Balloon Bags, and the clutch purse from One Skein.

In other news, I’ve finally photographed the 12 granny squares I’ve finished in the past week and a half, but I’ll need something to post tomorrow, so I’m saving it for then. Hey, it’s something to look forward to, right? 🙂 Until then, here’s a picture of my brother-in-law playing “zombie” with his and my sister’s kitty, Greta:

IMG_3928

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Ravelry, granny squares, and a little ghost

I’m becoming a bit obsessed with Ravelry.  This weekend I spent hours photographing yarn and entering their stats into my stash database–and still didn’t get to all of it! There’s so much yarn I forgot I had, or forgot the colors, or how much of it there was (30 balls of angora that I totally forgot about!).  I love how easy it is to see what projects others have done with the yarn that I have, and I’m inspired to do so much…so much that it’s actually kind of paralyzing, with the too!many!choices! aspect. Despite the paralysis, however, I got a lot accomplished this weekend, in addition to the photographing of yarn.

Boo!For instance, I started and completed my first ever project done completely with the evil double pointed needles–the ghost from September’s Creative Knitting Magazine. I was watching Saturday night’s game (woo!Sox!) and felt like doing something Halloween-y, so I picked up the nearest magazine–CKM–and voila! There was a ghost pattern right there on page 40! I spent half the game (plus an extra hour after the game) wrestling with the dpns until the ghost was finished (except for the finishing stuff–the closing and stuffing of his head, weaving of ends, and embroidering–ugh–of his face), and I came away being a little less scared of dpns.  They’re still not so easy when you get down to four stitches per needle, but when you’re dealing with 15 stitches each, it’s not so bad. The ghost (and leaving it in Gracie’s crib yesterday) was probably the highlight of my weekend.

Also, after browsing the Granny Squares group on Ravelry, I became inspired to try granny squares, and have so far made….I think eight (they are at home, and I am not) out of Plymouth Encore, with the intention of stitching them together for a granny square scarf.  They’re fun and easy to make, but I’m really not looking forward to weaving in all those ends!  Three colors each square makes for a lot of ends. Blech. I have no pictures yet, but will hopefully post some soon.

ION, I still haven’t given the silk/alpaca gift to my friend, so still no photos of that, but I haven’t forgotten.  Also, there’s a nifty sale going on at my favorite LYS, Handmade, A Needlework Studio–I am broke this month, still, so no sale for me, but if you’re in the general vicinity of Burbank, CA, you might want to take a peek inside.