Lack of photos and a random generator

Have you noticed a sudden lack of photos on my blog? And if you are on Ravelry, i'm sure you've noticed the same on there too. the reason is that my mom has the one good camera and the other camera i have is just...CRAP. no worries though, i'm getting an early Christmas present in the form of an awesome camera - even better than the one my mom has "spirited" away. it should be here by the end of the week so expect an explosion of photography on this here blogging space. i am especially looking forward piling up all my yarns and rovings on the bed to take a pic for the Stash Knit Down 100 skeins challenge. I fully intend to jump on them and roll around after the photo op. LOL.

I have 4 really pretty drawstring WIP bags at home that i purchased from various sellers on Etsy and they are seriously awesome in keeping my organized as well as helping me avoid unnecessary puncture wounds from scattered needles. i like using them so much that i've decided that i'm going to use these bags to help me control the number of WIPs i have. I have 4 drawstring bags so i am limited to 4 projects (large projects like blankets and sweaters are obviously an exception). I currently have more than 4 WIPs so those don't count until they get transferred to a drawstring bag. All this may seem odd but it works for me - it is like a pnemonic for controlling number of WIPs instead of for memory...if that analogy makes sense.

I'm bringing this up because i'm pretty far along on my jaywalker socks; i've discovered the secret to finishing projects quickly - TOTAL FIXATION! LOL. The socks are absolutely all i've been knitting for the past few days and i'm done with the foot and the heel and am at the leg part now. the let part is going to go up until i've run out of yarn. I forgot to change to larger needles when i got to the heel part as Sherri had suggested and now that i've gotten about 1/2 inch into the foot - i can feel how tight the sock is. I may just rip back to the top of the heel (because the sock felt pretty comfortable when i tried them on after i finished the heel) do the leg again in larger needles. another thing i could do is what Karen does - make the leg part larger than the foot part so i could go up to 76 stitches for the leg part. i think i'll knit about 1 more inch on the leg before i decide.

wait that was another tangent. The reason i brought up the drawstring bags controlling the WIPs was to actually talk about what happens when i finish a project (such as the jaywalkers that i'm FIXATED on). I checked the number of items i have in my queue (171!), went to some online random integer generator and generated an number between 1 and 171 - as soon as i landed on a number/project that i have the yarn for, i moved it up to the top of my queue and as soon as i have an empty WIP bag, that is getting cast on next. In this case, it is a pretty crochetted lace shawl pattern that came up. Now i have to decide what to do with my WIPs that aren't already in the bags - do i finish them first?

FO Rage!

Okay, i was planning on try to punch out a pair of socks over the holiday weekend but i was looking at the number of UFOs i have and i've decided to instead finish as many of them as possible. FO Rage commences now!

Finally!

Socks are done!

100 Skeins Challenge

One of the suggested challenges on the Stash Knitdown 2009 group was to knit 100 skeins in 2009. It doesn't matter what weight or yardage of the skeins, just do 100 in the year. Of course, this means you have to average 1 ball of yarn per 3.5 days! A daunting task indeed! I'm cheating and starting early - the diamond lace sock yarn skeins take the first 2 spots in this countdown of mine. WOOT!

Most of my sock yarn is in 1 skein so i'll get at least 12 skeins done from socks alone. I'm double knitting that DK weight alpaca for the hat, scarf and gloves so that will also expedite my coundown. I'm also counting spinning a roving into yarn as 1 skein used. Then when the handspun yarn is used, that counts as another skein (or 2 if i made 2 skeins but my skeins will be of reasonable size).

Socks from HELL!

These freakin' diamond lace socks are the socks from hell! i've been working on these since August and by now i even hate the colorway of the yarn (which i was totally in love with when i first started these socks). They will never end!!! I've been staying up late every night this week knitting on these stupid things. FINALLY, i'm at the top ribbing part. God i hope i get these done in the next day or so. I'm going C-R-A-Z-Y! How the crap am i going to be knitting 1 sock a month if just the leg part takes over a month! GUH!

First Fleece

EEEEEEEE!!!!!

Pretty, pretty Cormo!!!

Stash Knit Down

I just found a really cool group on Ravelry called "Stash Knit Down 2009". The group is centered around the idea of using up as much of your stash as possible in 2009. One fabulous idea is to create a personal sock club where you bag up your sock yarns along with patterns and treats (just like a real sock club) and pick a bag up every...whatever frequency you want.

After reading this great idea, i decided to organize my stash by weight of yarn to figure out how much of everything i had. As i went through my bags and boxes and baskets and watched (aghast) the pile of sock yarn rise higher ...and higher...and higher and then i thought about the yarn i have ordered with Karen that hasn't even arrived yet...well, "i'm freaking out" does even begin to describe my feelings. Clearly the personal sock club is the thing for me. I promised myself the Rockin' Sock Club membership a while ago so i am still definitely getting this whenever it opens up but i'm thinking that in addition to this club membership (and the Sunshine yarns Harry Potter club that i already have) i'll do the personal sock club.

When i went to the NYC knitting group, i met a girl who punches out 1 pair of socks a week. A WEEK! this is my goal! well...first baby step is 1 pair a month. I'm trying very hard to finish those Diamond Lace socks and i'm almost done. I'm a few inches into the leg (finally!) so when the balls of yarn are just a little bit smaller (i'm thinking just a couple more repeats of the diamond pattern) i'll start the ribbing and finally be done with them. After that, i'm not going to start a pair of socks until December and my goal will be to finish the next pair of socks (which will probably be the Baudelaire socks from Cookie A) in December. This is also a chart sock pattern so i'm not sure if i'll be carrying these around.

So, goal for 2009: Finish 1 pair of socks per month.