Curses..

Last week I was saying how much I loved the "Friend’s Blogs" feature on Ravelry, and don’t get me wrong I still love it, but it does become very overwhelming when you are away from your computer for a day or two or five. I came back to nearly 5 pages of updates. And technically I haven’t been away from my computer I have just been extremely busy.

It all started last Wednesday when a friend and I went shopping at Ikea. If you have ever been to the store you know how you can get sucked in and time just flies by and before you know it you have spent more than 3 hours shopping. Okay, in my case window shopping for accessories for the basement, but it still amounted to more than 3 hours. And to top it off we also made stops at a LYS, Target, Joann’s, Circuit City, and Game Stop. Boy was it a busy day, 11 hours of shopping can really tire a girl out.

After 11 hours of shopping on Wednesday, I just couldn’t really get motivated to do much of anything on Thursday. I didn’t even do much knitting.

Friday was another long day, but it was all about knitting. Another friend came over for a marathon knitting session, which have been taking place weekly for a few months now. We knitted and knitted and then knitted some more, and then we made some crochet flowers. I am not one to like crochet garments as much as knitted ones, but I am coming to love crochet flowers. And maybe I am not a crochet convert because I have yet to find crochet patterns that I love as much as knitting, but I do like the change from two needles to one.

The busy schedule didn’t stop there. Saturday brought more shopping, but this time it was for furniture. Steve and I went looking for the seating for the basement. After just two stops we found what we were looking for and we even got a great deal. We scheduled delivery for Wednesday this week, which meant we needed to hurry up and finish some of the projects that were half done, which leads me to Saturday evening and Sunday.

As soon as we got home on Saturday I started working on the basement. Organization was top on my priority list. Steve seems to think that it is easier to just throw things around and wade through the mess than it is to take time out to straighten things up. On the other hand, I can’t function with all the mess, so I felt the need to do some organization and purging of stuff we don’t need in the space, like 3 power drills, 2 electric saws, 3 hammers, left-over laminate boards and underlayment, concrete mix, drywall mud, and god knows what else had accumulated down there. We were being overrun by stuff that was long since needed. Sure I understand you need to have the right tool for the job, but come on, once you are done using it can’t you just put it away. I guess that is why I have a hard time going out to the garage to do anything (that’s Steve’s domain), because everything is always strung all over the place. I know some people function better that way, but I am not one of them and obviously Steve is, and I don’t think either of us are planning to change. Oh well, one can hope.

Once the area was more organized and there was room to work I began the painting process. I had hoped to have all the radiator covers and all the baseboard molding read to paint at one time, but with the rush to finish things up before the furniture arrived I didn’t have that luxury. I did however have the trim on two windows and two bases for my paper racks ready to paint so I felt like I would be somewhat efficient, and I painted, and painted, and painted. In total I painted for twelve hours in two days, and I thought 11 hours of shopping was tiring. Sunday evening I thought my body was going to fall apart. All I could think about was how out of shape I was, and how happy I would be when the basement is fully functional and I could really get my workout program started again.

Needless to say I didn’t have a chance to read any blogs or write one of my own for that matter, and I don’t think this week will be much better. I still have a long list of things I would like to get done, and we are headed back to Ikea this weekend to actually make a purchase. I just hope it doesn’t take us three hours, but Steve is going this time and he will probably want to look around.

I have made some progress on all my projects since the last time showed pictures. If I can find the time today I will take some pictures and post them tomorrow.

Basement - Almost Finished

If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know we are in the process of updating our basement. The process has taken longer than I would have liked, but the light at the end of the tunnel is now becoming visible. We still have quite a bit of work to do, but I am hoping it will be livable within the next few weeks. The idea is to get the new radiator covers built and the floor molding in place before we purchase the reclining couch and loveseat. After that we are planning to build a few more pieces of furniture to house my yarn stash as well as the mini refrigerator and the coffee maker, and we will also need something to put the big screen TV on when we get it, but those are things that can be done at a leisure pace. Here are some pictures of what the basement looked like as of this morning.

Below is the new exercise area. We will be tweaking this area a little once the radiator covers and baseboard molding are in place, but at least I can get on the treadmill and get a decent workout. With the space redesigned, I am also hoping we will be able to add a new piece of equipment, either a recumbent bike or a elliptical machine, maybe both eventually.

Next is the main area of the new family room. See that big box in the middle of the room. That would be the new fireplace we will be placing on the brick wall to the right. With all this cold weather we have been having, I can’t wait to turn it on and to sit mesmerized in front of it knitting.

Back in the corner the new crafting area is just about complete; I have even set up my ball winder and swift. There are still a few finishing touches that need to be completed in this area, like painting the window frame and molding, but it is fully functional, although I haven’t done any stamping lately.

Here is the first of three radiator covers you have heard so much about. My husband is a Woodworking God. It still needs to be painted, but it is just amazing what you can do with a few dollars worth of wood, a saw and a router. Oh and that handy dandy little brad nailer I bought for him with some of my craft sale money.

Check out all those little slits he routered out, I have even started to help out and took my hands to the router this morning and worked on the second radiator cover.

Tomorrow, I will give you an update on the current WIPs, and maybe some new projects.

My Stash

I have been on Ravelry since last June, and I have added all my projects and have been keeping track of all the new projects I have started, but I have yet to log any of my stash yarn. Every time I think of doing it, it just seems too overwhelming. I think to myself that I really should log it all so instead of having to open some 25 plastic bins to look at all the yarn I have, I can just login to Ravelry to see everything in one place. What a concept.

So my plan is, over the next few weeks (and it will probably take me that long to get through it all) I will log in my stash yarn and assigning it to projects if one has already been determined. Maybe all the documentation will keep me from buying any more yarn, at least until I use up some of what I already have. YEAH RIGHT!

I started today with some yarn that I purchased because the price was so unbelievable and too good to pass up. I marked most of it as trade or sell only because if someone really needs it for a project and I have yet to determine what I will make with it I would be willing to let it go to a good home.

Another project I hope to have fully updated is my list of knitting books on Ravelry, which brings me to another feature that I found recently, “You’ve used” and “Need for your Queue”, another great concept. So if my husband ever complains about all the knitting books I can show him that I am really using them and not just stockpiling unused books.

Ravelry ROCKS!

Either I am completely blind, or Casey continues to add fantastic new features to Ravelry. I am hoping for the latter. Anyway, I just found the “Friend’s Blogs” feature on Ravelry, and I am totally blown away. Please tell me that this feature has only been available for a short time.

I had been going crazy trying to keep up with all my friends, and going to each profile and then linking to their blog to check for updates. Let me tell you, that is very time consuming. Little did I know I could just check the “Friend’s Blogs” tab in the “Friends section of Ravelry and could be linked directly to all updates. How convenient.

Now I am sure to stay abreast of what everyone is up too.

RAVELRY ROCKS!

New Projects

With so many of my WIPs completed I decided to start a few new projects. Although I have mentioned in the past that I wanted to focus on only one or two projects at a time, I ended up starting 3 new projects. So it is only one more than I had planned, but I just couldn’t make up my mind which project I wanted to do first. I definitely wanted one of the projects to be the pink scarf, but I was torn between starting a sweater for me or starting a sweater for my niece.

I had already purchased the yarn for my niece’s sweater and if I waited much longer to start it she would out grow it before it was knit so I decided I really should start that project, especially since I want to make a matching sweater for her twin brother too. But after so many months of Christmas knitting and not finishing anything for ME I wanted to be a little selfish too, so I also started a Central Park Hoodie for myself.

I plan on making the scarf and the two baby sweaters my top focus, but I also wanted to have a sweater in progress for me too.

Beach Baby

Cabled Scarf

Central Park Hoodie

I also have my Motherlode socks in progress, but I like to keep a simple project for those times when I might get distracted while knitting, and don’t want to be working on anything that could possibly get screwed up.

Motherlode Socks

I will post pictures of the nearly finished basement soon.

Stay warm.

Suggested Needle Size

Who comes up with the suggested needle size for each yarn?

I have been finding with some yarns, even when I use the needle size suggested on the ball band my stitches are wonky and irregular. Sure I get the gauge also given by the ball band, but I don’t like the look of the stitches when they are not neat. This doesn’t happen with all yarns so I am sure it has something to do with the fiber content more than anything else. But, this is causing a real problem when I want to use the same yarn called for by the designer, or when I buy yarn with the same suggested gauge, thinking it would work for the pattern, only to find out I don’t like the look of the yarn in that gauge or with that size need, which leads me to having to rework the entire pattern.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me? Am I missing some unknown magically secret that makes the stitches neater?

Finished

One year and nearly two months in the making and the Brown Ribbed Sweater is finished.

It fits perfectly, and I love it. It is soft, warm and very cozy. I haven’t blocked it yet, but I couldn’t wait to wear it.

The cuffs of the sleeves are meant to be rolled up, but I like the extra long length and probably won’t roll them.

Brown Ribbed Sweater

Have you ever had a project that just seemed to hang in limbo on the needles? You found the project was more complicated than you anticipated, the yarn too difficult to work with, or you just lost interest in the project. I am sure most knitters have experienced this. Maybe not those who typically only do one project at a time, or those who don’t have a yarn stash, but we all know those knitters are few and far between. Although, I do envy them, and wish I had that sort of self-control.

Well, I too have UFO’s that have been around longer than I would have liked. I have only been knitting for about 2 years, but when you have a UFO that has been 85% done for more than a year why not just finish it, which is exactly what I set out to do.

I started the Brown Ribbed Sweater in December 2006, and worked on the project regularly for several months. During the same time period I also worked on and finished a lot of other projects, but could not bring myself to finish this one.

I had finished both the front and back pieces, and was working on the sleeves when I came across an error with the pattern. I knew I could easily figure out how to correct the pattern mistake by simply lining up the front and back with the sleeves, but at the time it just seemed like too much work and I had so many other projects I would rather work on. So the project was sent into hibernation, where it stated for many, many months.

Once all the gift knitting was done after the holidays I vowed to myself to finish up a few of the UFOs on my needles before starting yet another project. And sometimes we just need the right motivation to do that, so I went out and bought yarn for a scarf project I have been wanting to make, and I told myself I couldn’t start that project until the sweater had been completed, including the seams and the weaving in of the ends.

I have kept that fabulous pink yarn next to me so I can be reminded of the fun that awaits me once I finish the sweater and it has been great motivation. I haven’t even allowed myself to knit up the gauge swatch, because I know once I get the yarn in my hands I will want to keep right on working with it. So I have looked at it and pet it every now and then and kept right on trucking with the sweater.

Now, after more than a year in the making and a slight hiccup with the pattern, the brown ribbed sweater is nearly complete. With only a few seams to sew up this sweater will be complete in the next day or so, and I am so happy to finally get it off the needles, and even happier to be able to start the pink scarf project. Here is how the sweater looks today.

Now don’t get me wrong, the sweater isn’t the only UFO I have been working on. I have also been trying to get the Yummy Watermelon socks completed too. These were started in August 2007, when my friend, Miranda, from knitting club dyed some yarn for me. I love these colors and couldn’t wait to make some socks with them.

When I started this project I was planning on making long socks, or knitting until I ran out of yarn, but while trying them on just after the heel I realized I really like them as short little anklet socks. Now, they have been finished and I have yet another pair of hand knit socks.

I have also been working away on the Lorna’s Laces Motherlode socks. I am ready to do the short-row heel on one and working up the foot on the other.

42 projects completed in 2007

At the beginning of the year, when I started reading blogs and writing my own, I noticed some knitters seemed to produce finished objects like there was no tomorrow. I wondered to myself how in the world were they able to knit so fast. I envied them for their ability to produce FO after FO and wished I could be like them.

When I rekindled my love for knitting in February 2006 I did knit a sweater in about a week, but after the second sweater was started I sort of slacked off again until late 2006. And in the end my finished object list for 2006 was all of one item. Not very impressive!

In early 2007, when I discovered the local yarn stores and all the knitting blogs, I went crazy making list after list of all the projects I wanted to knit. Looking at the list I was totally overwhelmed and thought it just might take me a lifetime to knit them all, and at the time I there were only a dozen projects on the list. Since then the list has grown exponentially, and now it is well over 150 and continues to grow, which I thank Ravelry for. It seems that every time I go on Ravelry I seem to find two or three more projects that I would like to make.

During the first part of 2007, almost every project seemed to take forever to complete. This was primarily because I was working on 5 or more projects at the same time. I found, for the most part, I did work on each project equally and so it took 5 (or more ) times longer to finish a project because I would only work on it for a little bit before I switched to the next project. I have since realized when I focus on one or two projects at a time they seem to go much more quickly and it keeps me motivated to finish the item. I guess I have learned I can get into a rhythm the longer I work on a project and the more quickly I can get it finished.

In the end I finished a whopping 42 projects in 2007. How in the world I did that I couldn’t even tell you. As you can see from my previous post, sixteen projects were completed in the last three months of the year. You can see all my 2007 finished objects in my photo album, but here is a break-down of everything I made.

11 sweaters
8 pairs of felted clogs
8 pairs of socks
5 felted bags
2 scarves
2 shawls
2 fetching - fingerless mittens
1 baby blanket
1 cat bed
1 dog sweater
1 hat

Gift Giving

During the weeks leading up to Christmas, I was busily working to finish all the Christmas presents, and by golly I did it. There were a lot of late nights and multiple 12 hour plus knitting marathons. Here are all the Christmas Gifts I made in 2007, and they were all completed between October 1st and December 25th.

In addition to all these gifts I also made the following items during the same time period.

Now you can see why I wasn’t blogging much during this time. I guess you could say I was a knitting fool for 3 months. I can’t believe I was able to get so much done. I amaze myself sometimes.

Even though I was able to get everything done, including some additional projects, I don’t want to put myself under that kind of pressure for 2008, so I am planning ahead and will hopefully start Christmas knitting in the next few months rather than waiting until October to get started.