I have an unconfirmed case of WIP-itis

I feel that it is time to start up the blog again.  Personally, I have been all over with my knitting this year and have been having a horrible case of WIP-itis.  My cast on has been greater than my cast offs this year.  Since I have moved my knitting organization (or what little I had) has been in limbo.  I have a room where it is all currently stored in totes and well that is about it.  Except for the skew socks sitting in my car and the twisted flower socks in the bedroom.  I also started a worsted weight acrylic eater project AKA the Hexiflat Blanket.  Even though I have just started I have already lost 2 sets of bamboo knitting needles.  The puppy, Klaus, has found the joys of knitting.  This weekend I am also going to look into ways to repair knitting needles so I can have a backup.  Luckily, there are only a few gnaw marks.

~Sandy

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Today I would like to share a little knitting humor.  I know my day could use it.  Enjoy

Sandy

Finally some FO's

Happy Sunday everyone!  For me it is my day of Craft.  Lately work  has been cutting into this time a lot.  However, I do have some finished projects.  Ok well two in the last 2 months.  I started and finished the Birthday Cake Cowl out of Patons SWS in Natural Plum.  I am excited for the temperatures to hopefully dip down a little so I can wear it.

I also finished a pair of nutkins socks out of the patons kroy fx in clover colors.  Photos of the socks will be updated later.  Honestly,  I am finishing this post on my new tablet and have not looked into how to add hyperlinks.  I think those were the quickest socks I have ever made.

Now I am off to work on the next pair.   They are a basic sock with ribbing down the side and an afterthought heel.  Happy knitting! 

Sandy

Neverending Cycle of Mediocrity and Failure

There's a project I've been working on for a while. Well, maybe "working on" isn't the right way of putting it. Over the years, I have knit probably over 100 pairs of socks, and I thought I needed to do something with the leftovers. Thus began the sock yarn blanket of doom!

I have crocheted a bunch of hexagons and attached them together as I go. But I haven't done any work on this blanket for about 2 years. 

Here is the problem: I get very frustrated by the lack of progress (I am a product knitter, not a process knitter), so I work on it even less, which makes for even less progress and so on and so forth. It truly is a never ending cycle of mediorocity and failure. 

It is just like the piano. I used to take piano lessons as a young girl. When my family moved, and in became more involved with after school activities, I stopped taking lessons. Ever since then, I have wanted to take up the piano again. So I get out my keyboard to practice, and I sound so bad and out of practice that I stop, and then I practice less and less, and when I do practice, it is so bad and there you have it! Another cycle! 

So to try to remedy this situation with the blanket, I am gathering up scrap sock yarn and starting a second section which will later be attached to the first section. I would really like to turn this long term project into a finished object sometime this year. And who knows, maybe I will get that keyboard out again and do a little practicing soon.

Kelly

Winter is Here

We are currently in the elusive Florida winter.  It normally is only a few days over a month maybe two if we really try to stretch it out.  As a knitter it is the best time!  I try to pack on as many of my knitted items I can.  My knit item for this winter day is my Irish Fishermen Sweater.  

Happy New Year!

I am having a quiet New Year's Eve this year.  I am just watching some TV and knitting.  I finished a slightly less slouchy sockhead hat.  I used a little over one skein of Knit Picks Felici yarn in the Time Traveler colorway. I still have about 3  more skeins in my stash (I might have gone a little overboard on this limited edition color,  especially since I e already used 2 additional skeins for a pair of socks!).

Here's to hoping everyone has a fabulous 2014!

Kelly

Tis the season for giving

I am happy to say that I finished all of my work Christmas gifts.  I decided to crochet ornaments mainly snowflakes.  This way us Floridians can get some of the snow too.  Below are the majority of patterns I used.  Next time I will have to remember to set them sooner.  I set them twice using a glue water mixture and pinned them to dry.   I did this twice because the first application still had these rather flimsy.   

I also finished the BF's mom's wrap.  I started this sometime last year with the directions that she wanted something red to wear for when she goes to church.  During the Great Yarn Organizing of 2013 I found the project just barley started.  I dug down into my memory (which is sub par at times) and some how happened to find the pattern was the Lacy Wrap.  As you can see by the photos my cat (Charlie) has claimed it as his own.  Every photo I took had him in it, and on the FO.  Now all that is left to do is pry it away from Charlie and ship it off....well that and figure out what the address is.  I made this out of Premier Yarns because it was acrylic and the label indicated that it would not pill.  So far it has kept it's promise.  I went with acrylic because I know she will be a little rough with it, like throwing it in the washer and dryer.  There will be no blocking to show the pattern.  All in all I am pretty happy with it. 

The last few days I have been knitting extra on my snowflake blanket.  I am still trying to determine if I want this to be a throw size or a bed size.  After I have all the knitting done I will be backing it with felt.  I would get a lot more of this blanket done but this is what I have to compete with....


 

Three adorable cats that are behaving themselves.  One is laying on the half finished blanket so I can not add any additional squares, one on my lap which I am knitting around, and the third laying on the yarn organizer.  Funny thing is that a few years ago a coworker bought this yarn organizer for me.  I have used it mainly for plying my handspun but it has come in extra handy for this project.  It has 6 compartments inside that I have stuffed with worsted weight scraps and the solid white yarn.  This weekend it has been the place to rest for my Mage cat with only minimal interference with the yarn. 

 

I have been putting off the next bit of my knitting organization.  I want to organize all the patterns I have printed out and throw away the half printed out ones.  I keep finding page 4 of 8 but where are the other 7 pages!!  Back when I first started knitting I was pretty good at keeping them all together.  But that was also when I had 5 patterns and 2 magazines.  I can honestly say that has increased significantly.  On my to do list will be finding my page protectors and a three ringed binder.

 

I want to try to end 2013 with a clean slate.  I don't know how many of you feel but I can say that the last part of this year has really kicked my butt.