January Goals

Fewer goals for this month:

1. Finish Grandma's blanket
2. Finish spinning and plying wool/silk blend
3. Finish Damson
4. Spin sample of Yak
5. Finish 2 Squares for Basketweave Blanket

The first goal absolutely has to be done and in the next two weeks as my parents are hand-delivering the blanket to my grandma in India.

The wool/silk blend is from Rhinebeck purchases of 2008 so its about time it gets spun up.  Its two 4oz rovings of this dusty rose color roving so I probably won't keep it for myself.  Or I may knit it into a gift for someone.

The Damson is being knit out of Malabrigo Sock in the Persia colorway - absolutely gorgeous!  This will be the first shawl I knit for myself so am very excited to finish it and wear it.

The Yak fiber is for a sweater but I have to spin up a couple of sample yarns to decide what I like best.  I've never spun for such a large project.

On a completely unrelated note, I watched Avatar yesterday.  Amazing movie!  Such wonderful imagination on the part of the creators.  What was most amazing to me was the absolutely stunning use of colors; there were so many shots where I could have just freeze-framed and if possible, copied down the colors into yarns...ooo I want to go see the movie again already! LOL.

December Goals Update

I guess I did not have as much crafting time this month as I only managed to accomplish 2 of the goals I'd set out for myself for the month.  I finished spinning up the bag of alpaca (from hell, might I add) and I finished the Peaks Island Hood (from heaven, might I add).  Smaller goals for January, I think!


Spin up:

• Bag of Alpaca - FINISHED
• 1 skein of meriboo
• 1 oz of yak fiber

Knit:

• Finish blanket - more strips sewn together but not finished
• Start and finish Peaks Island Hood - FINISHED
• Start and finish Convertible Mittens
• Work on Handspun socks
• Work on Cashmere leaves scarf
• Finish setup edging of Aeolian

Binned

I’ve been working on the Peaks Island Hood and nothing else for the past few days.  I’m almost done too!  I’ve finished the long length of the scarf and the entire hood and have started the short length of the scarf and am on my last ball of yarn.  I have a feeling I may run out of yarn before the end so I’m going to knit and knit and knit on it today and see which one I finish first – the yarn or the pattern.  The shop is open today and early on Thursday so I can always run out tomorrow if I do run out of yarn first.  

I also organized the stash – took all of it out of my living/thinking space and put it in storage upstairs.  I have only one bin of yarn that I want to work on next and all my WIPs (which attacked me from every corner when I was organizing) in a space that is visible to me.  This has made life so much easier – no only is everything very decluttered but I find that I can knit far more easily now.  It seems weird I know but I think what was happening is when I could see all the yarn I have all the time, I was starting to build up guilt over it and it would actually make me not want to knit.  Now that I have one small bin of yarn and some WIPs, I can just focus one or two projects and a time and get them done.  It is even more relaxing as a hobby now. 

[Pictures of bin pending]

Laptop

Forget the damn Pleo, what I really need is a new laptop - this one is on it's last legs!  I'm changing my prize countdown to indicate laptop instead.

Need for simple project

I haven't had anything to knit in the car with me since I finished the HWL scarf (remember the red neon?); the reason being the two projects i'm focusing on now are my grandma's blanket and the handspun socks.  Both are in stages not conducive to car knitting (not while driving, of course!).  The blanket is too big and the socks are too high maintenance with the delicate Lantern Moon DPNs.

I need another simple project to work on in my car during lunch breaks.  I've been looking through my stash and i don't have any yarn that i have as yet designated to be another simple donation scarf.  But I do have a bunch of that Rumor yarn for the blanket from this past weekend splurge.  I threw a ball of it and some needles in my bag before running out the door for swatching purposes.  I've been having trouble coming up with a good pattern for the yarn partly because an adult size blanket has the issue that a simple garter stitch will start to fall apart on you (as I discovered with that Homespun blanket I knit many years ago).  there are adult sized blankets i do like, like the sock yarn blanket, barn raising blanket and such but these do not look good with just one color yarn.  they need variety in color.

Lois is knitting a lovely afghan right now and it is a seed stitch design - i like the look of that.  I'm not sure if that is a stitch that will fall apart or not - maybe the knits and purls will give it more stability.  I'll swatch when i go out to my car today - maybe both seed stitch and stockinette.

Yak blend spun

I finished spinning the Yak blend fiber:

 

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on the blog before or not but this stuff spun up very badly - very uncooperative and lumpy.  it was the way the fiber was blended - i guess its my own fault for buying an "as is" bag of fiber.  the stuff is incredibly soft, don't get me wrong, but not easy to work with.  Either way, it is a finished 3 ply yarn and I got about 340 yards of it.  I'm thinking of making a hat for sure and then i'll decide what to do with the rest.

I also finished my Handmade With Love Especially For You scarf:

The picture did not come out well at all.  the red is a far more pleasant red and the green is a darker green - it looks more Christmas-ish in  life than the neon in the picture.  Will be mailing it out tomorrow.

I got my spinner!!

I got my spinner but haven't had much time to play.  Will be posting about it soon.

In other news, total yarn diet fail at the Smiley's Yarn Sale!  Will be posting pics of the new acquisitions soon too.

100 Balls Knit up in 2009!

I did it!  I knit up 100 balls of yarn in 2009.  Remember, when I started this challenge last November because I thought I'd need to cheat in order to make it to 100?  Well, turns out I didn't; I finished knitting my 100th ball of 2009 last night!  YAY!  I'm definitely doing this again next year. 

Looking back at how I did with the challenge, I have to admit, knitting with 2 or more strands is clearly the key to success here!  Not only does it use up stash faster and create a thicker fabric faster, it also creates absolutely beautiful colors and fabrics that are indeed quite a surprise! 

  

Also, I remember not knitting much at all for about 3 or more months during the spring and summer - I'm sure if I had knit during that time, I'd have reached the 100 balls goal even faster!  I'm debating whether or not to up my goal from 100 to 120 or 150.  I am planning on doing more lace knitting next year and that certainly takes much longer than knitting with worsted weight or something else.so.maybe I should stick to 100 for now. 

Something else I noticed last night as I pulled out the Malabrigo worsted from it's bin: I don't have to force down the lid of that bin to close it anymore.  In fact, I see open space at the top of the bin! I'm getting there, folks!  I'm getting there!

Update to Ten410

 I thought of 2 more things to at to my Ten for 10 or Ten410 list.  I'm reordering it because i realized that certain things go together.

Socks #1:
1) Provisional Cast-on (believe it or not, i've never done this one)
2) Short Row toe
3) Afterthought heel

Socks #2:
4) New sock construction (HatHeel)

KP Vest:
5) Do colorwork
6) Steek something

Market Squares bag:
7) Entrelac
8) Felt something

Mittens:
9) Thrummed Mittens

Lace:
10) Block something (Aeolian)

Broken out into 6 projects makes the goals seem not as overwhelming.  The Lace and Market Squares bag projects are probably the longest projects but the rest should go pretty quickly.

I just had an idea about the malabrigo set I’m going to be making in this yarn:

I want to make a hat, scarf and mittens set but am thinking that the variegated colorway might be too much for my head.  So I had an idea: I make the scarf and mittens in this color and get a skein of solid color malabrigo worsted for the hat; then I’ll run around the rim and flaps of the hat with the variegated so it’s a nice pop of color and the whole thing looks like a set but isn’t like “WHOA!  What’s that on her head?!?”

Resolutions

I posted a draft of my 2010 resolutions on ravelry and here's what i said.  I'll be working on this and figuring out what's best:

Crafting related:
1) Use up 14 of the 18 items purchased at Rhinebeck
2) Limit purchasing of yarn or fiber to 1-2 items per month if at all
3) Spin up 2 of the 4 bags of sweater quantities of fiber
4) Knit 10 pairs of socks
5) Knit 2 sweaters
6) Knit up 100 balls of yarn

Other stuff:
1) Continue to exercise 6-7 hours a week
2) Continue vegetarian diet
3) Declutter/organize at least once a week


Another thing i read on ravelry is a Ten for 10 plan which basically encourages you to list 10 new things you would like to try in 2010.  I thought this was a very clever idea so here's an initial list for that as well:

1) Do colorwork
2) Knit an afterthought heel
3) Make thrummed mittens
4) Block something (most likely the Aeolian when it gets done)
5) Felt something
6) Entrelac?
7) Steek something
8) Try a new sock construction (probably a Cat Bordhi pattern...HatHeel?)
9)
10)

I can't think of 2 more right now.  that's a lot to do in 1 year regardless!

SQUEEEEEE

Screw all that thinking and planning.  I ordered the spinner!