Where are they now? | 2KCBWDAY4

Write about the fate of a past knitting project.

Ghost of Knitting Past: the Citron Cardigan

Somewhere in the late spring months of 2009, I had this idea that a bright bulky sweater would be the perfect item to take to Italy in October.  Never mind that all the travel guides suggest packing black, black, and more black... never mind that the average temperature at my destination would be in the 60s °F (and the actual temp turned out to be upper 80s°F, but never mind that, too)... never mind that a bulky sweater takes up way too much space in the one piece of luggage I intended to take... and never mind that I'd also planned to knit two other garments for the trip.  NO, I defy your logic, Future Me!  NO, I will rationalize like the pro that I am!  NO, a citron cardigan it would be, and I set about finding the perfect pattern and yarn.

Found: bulky cabled cardigan coat pattern, Josephine by Melissa Dominguez!

Knitty image: it's bee-ewe-tea-full!

Found: twelve skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Lemongrass!

twelve of these bad boys

Found: Lantern Moon Blonde circular and straight needles in cah-razy non-U.S. sizes!

7mm and 7.5mm AKA 103/4 and 107/8

Created: the back of the sweater!  Glorious cables!

Yeah, there are mistakes... so what?

Created: the right front panel of the sweater!  Check out that armhole shaping!

it's not really this color

And then... July hit.  For those who have never been to the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, we have a humid sub-tropical climate with the average high temperature peaking at 88°F in the third week of July. Given those conditions, it's a wonder I got as far on the left front panel as I did...

That's, like, two inches.

And there it sits, in pieces, waiting for me to pick it back up.  It's been very patient.

patient and stylish, thankyouverymuch

I still really like the color.

Tidy mind, tidy stitches | 2KCBWDAY3

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised?

I got this bright idea (a dorm-dweller's mentality? from moving several times? I dunno.) that the best yarn storage system would consist of temporary items that could be 1} easily moved and b} very quickly converted to another purpose should the need arise.

Behold: the stash!
in the spare room, using hanging shoe organizers, sweater shelves, etc.

small planned projects and acrylic leftovers

large planned projects, unplanned stash, and wool leftovers

"in process" bucket

Behold: the needles!
contained in large resealable baggies, one each for most sizes

needles in a haystack made of needles

This system needs improvement, buuuut I don't quite know how.  Maybe a big binder a la Grumperina?  I like keeping all needles of one size together.  Suggestions welcome!

Behold: (most of) the books!
in my cubicle at work; don't you judge me.

just some of the many tomes

Behold: the... patterns?  Where'd they go?  I know I have a bunch of printed-out and copied... oh, there they are!

the box is marked "knitting needles" -- it lies.

This system needs improvement also, possibly a binder with tabs

Behold: Ravelry!
this site has saved my life, as I spend a good 85% of my waking non-car hours in front of a computer.

best.thing.ever

Skill + 1UP | 2KCBWDAY2

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

I present to you
My Year in Yarn: a Journey in Photos

February-March 2010
Single color simple lace

A Noble Cowl [Rav link] by Emily Kausalik

Pipp's Openwork Eyelet Scarf [Rav link] by Jennifer Pace

Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery

Blanket in the round, simple striping

Round or Pinwheel Baby Blanket by Genia Planck

Blanket in the round, complex cabling

Serenity by Laura Wilson-Martos

April 2010
Baby garment with simple shaping

Seamless Baby Kimono by Jacki Kelly

May-July 2010
knitting hiatus

August-December 2010
Heirloom lace, baby items

Lacy Scallops Christening Gown by Judy Lamb

b18-12 Bonnet in ”Alpaca” in wavy pattern by DROPS design

First stranded colorwork, knit flat, shaped baby garment

Tulip Yoke Baby Cardigan [Rav link] by Jennifer Little

First garterlac, with simple striping

supersized Garterlac Dishcloth by Criminy Jickets

Current project: March 2011
Two-color stranded colorwork, knit in the round

Starstuff by Amy van de Laar

A Tale of Two Yarns | 2KCBWDAY1

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

~~ Schoppel Wolle Zauberball Crazy ~~

A good 98% of my yarn is bought online with specific projects and amounts in mind.  The most memorable exception?  Crazy Zauberball in Little Fox.

I was minding my own business in a LYS, patiently waiting for my friend to make important fiber decisions while clutching the items from my pre-planned list, when I saw:

yarn images from WEBS, Eskimimi Knits, Create and Knit, and Skacel (clockwise from top left)

And I had to have it.

I can generally contain my yarn lust, but this was more... this was truly love at first sight, made all the more laughable by its impracticality for my stash.  Sock yarn?  I don't do socks.  Teeny tiny needles are so fiddly.  And $20 a skein.  HAHAHAHAhahahaha  you're funny!

But all of a sudden it was mine!  Just one skein.  And then I had to figure out what to do with it.  Not socks.  I did this, while in Italy:

Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr

<3

~~ Lion Brand Wool-Ease ~~

My friends adopted a three-year-old girl after a three-year process; if she doesn't deserve a handknit something, I don't know who does. :)  To celebrate her homecoming, I wanted an interesting one-size-fits-most sweater and found the perfect match with a Pinwheel Sweater [Rav link] by Shelley Mackie.

So when I bought seven skeins of Wool-Ease in seven varying shades of requested pink, it made a lot of sense.  The yarn is machine-washable and -dryable, comes in over 50 shades, and packs a bang for the buck ($4 for almost 200 yds!).

The sweater turned out really well...

...and now I have all these partial skeins of pink 80% acrylic sitting, languishing.  The very same yarn that made so much sense for this project makes no sense in my stash.  I generally avoid acrylic for cool weather projects, but the yarn's texture does not lend itself to warm weather projects.  And I generally avoid pink.  Desperate for inspiration with this!

Saturday Night's Alright (for fighting? Let's not be violent.)

Saturday night's alright, alright, alright...

NCAA Badger basketball:

Even my infant has a bracket.

Chianti Classico DOCG:

Glass # -ahem- not telling.

Progress on the Principessa blanket:

Pank

It's progress, I promise!  You can even see where I joined a-whole-nother ball of yarn!

Not bad for a week with pinkeye in both eyes.

Nothing new under the sun

The sun's not even out.  Everybody at my house is sick sick sick sicko.  No knitting.  I can't even be bothered to eat, I'm so tired.  That is all.  I hope to have more knitting done next time I post.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week will be here soon and I'm going to participate, so there.

For those who dunno, it's a “week of blogging for knitters and crocheters, where individual bloggers could all simultaneously post about the same topics over the course of seven days, so that for one week readers might be able to read from blog to blog and enjoy a community of bloggers all talking about elements of their craft in their own unique way.”

 Thank you to Eskimimi for running the whole shebang!

Check it.

For those keeping score...

one down, one to go

1. taking photos of my knitting progress
   check!
2. installing camera software on my computer to upload said photos
   check!
3. further knitting on either of my current projects
   check!
4. forming a simple sentence without archaic syntax, tangential asides, and a plethora of commas
   check!
   

Booyah.

Inertia

Pile of Failure by the incomparable Natalie Dee

 When a knitter isn't knitting, can s/he be called a knitter?  I have performed the act of knitting more recently than my most recent post suggests, and yet I have spent many an evening without yarn in my hands.  The rigors of this past week have rendered me incapable of

1. taking photos of my knitting progress; 
2. installing camera software on my computer to upload said photos (Sammy's computer, alas, lacks the memory, due to age and full-of-stuffness; all attempts to get pics and videos off of the camera have been met with "Insufficient data space" or some such nonsense); 
3. further knitting on either of my current projects; and 
4. forming a simple sentence without archaic syntax, tangential asides, and a plethora of commas.  

What can I say, it's been a week.

 

So I promise sometime in the forthcoming week to accomplish all items on the list (beginning with that last one? Alas, no, for I'm in a mood.).  The first order of business will be the camera software; it's taken me a good long time to realize that, as network administrator of my household, I am obliged to complete any and all installations.  My husband, while wonderful in many ways, has a tendency to respond to all computer issues with "Something happened. Fix it."  And so I will.

It'll happen soon. <-- list item #4: check.