Home is where the knitting is

I love Mexico, as my previous 10 trips there would attest to, but this time around, I discovered that I don't maybe love it quite as much at the beginning of October as I do in January or February. The 30+ degree heat and high humidity was hard on me, especially since we were staying in a place without AC. And the bugs were out of control! I think I got a thousand mosquito bites. And then we got sick, which was a drag, but which spurred Tim to decided we should move to a hotel, on the beach, with AC and a bathroom 6 feet from the bed, for the last 2 nights. More my style.

I did manage to get a little knitting one, even in the heat. I did 2 Windschief hats, one for Josh & one for Dad. Mostly knit under an umbrella by Greg & Mary's pool or sitting on the bed with a massive fan blowing right on me. On the plane home, I also finished the second Turkish Bed Sock for Mom, between bouts of air sickness (which I NEVER get, what's up with that??)

In other progress, the Austin Hoodie main body is finished and currently blocking. It just needs sleeves and the hood. And one Crooked Wheels sock is done. These are the two projects that need to be finished by the end of October. Can I do it? I start back to work on Tuesday, which cuts in to my knitting time, so we'll see.

I cast on 2 new pairs of socks. Another Opal Van Gogh pair for Tim, which will be purse/work knitting, and a vanilla self striping in Desert Vista Dyeworks in a 5 stripe called Peter Max. Love, love, love this yarn. No work on the Hitchiker or the baby sweater. But I did make a cute tiny baby hat out of some hand spun art yarn I bought at Stash, and I sewed the second sleeve on my Bailey Cardigan. Now I just need to decide whether or not to rip back the sleeve cuffs and shorten them a little. I think I'll block it again first and maybe give it a couple of minutes in the dryer.








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Learning to blog from my iPad

Let's just see if this is really as easy as it looks.
Here's what I did on vacation in Mexico.
It's a Windschief by Stephen West. The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, in Azules.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

P is for progress

I think maybe I've figured out something about this monogamous vs. polygamous knitter thing. I thought I was a polygamous knitter, but I think really I was functioning more as a monogamous knitter with a bad case of startitis and a short attention span. Meaning .... I would cast something on, work pretty much exclusively on it for a while, get bored, cast something new on and rarely return to the old project. Hence the out of control pile of unfinished projects. If something took less time to complete, there was more of a chance I would finish it before I got bored.

But now I think I'm actually figuring out how to be more of a true polygamous knitter by moving between projects on a regular basis, making littler bits of progress on numerous things. It's less likely that I will get bored, plus I feel better about my pile of UFOs, plus stuff is actually getting finished! That's the best part.

This week, I moved between a few different items. I finished the baby sweater I started for Charlie in July. It just needs a button sewn on and some ends woven in, which I plan on doing today so that I can get it in the mail on Monday. And I finished the striped socks I started in August. Plus, I finally made some progress on my Sept SKA socks, the Crooked Wheels pattern, which I am loving. I'm past the heel turn on the first sock and despite all the cables, it's a pretty quick knit.

I did also cast on something new. I couldn't resist the siren call of the Hitchhiker any longer and I cast on using my last ball of Cakewalks Yarn. It's going to be gorgeous! And it's pretty much the potato chips of knitting - just one more "tooth". I'm already about 1/2 way through. I also cast on a pair of socks for Tim, but nice I finished the Stray Cat striped socks, I needed a new vanilla pair for my purse. I'm doing another pair out of the Opal Van Gogh, since he loves his first ones so much.

No progress on the sweater, but I think I'll pull it out later today.

Instant Gratification

Well, I guess I'm doing okay with my goals for WIPs, even though I have to confess that I did cast on some new things this weekend.  I wanted to get started on planning my Christmas knitting, with the hope that I can get it done in good time this year and not feel really rushed leading up to Christmas, especially since I'm working pretty much straight through.  So I cast on a pair of the slippers I'm planning for the women in my family and the hat that I'm planning for the men.  I wanted to check how quickly they knit up, sizing, etc.  I made a pair of the slippers for myself.  The pattern is Turkish Bed Socks from Churchmouse Yarns.  It's quick and easy and will be perfect.  I like my little pair a lot.  The pattern uses one skein of Koigu, so I went and picked up some other colours (okay and maybe I might have picked up a sweaters worth of MT Pashmina that Sharon just got in the store a few days ago ...)

Then I knitted up a Windschief hat (a lovely little Stephen West pattern), using about 3/4 of a skein of Malabrigo Rios.  The test hat is for Tim.  I made the largest size and it's kind of big (good thing he has a fat head) so for the rest of the family, I will make the medium size.  I also picked up some more Rios to have a good range of colours to choose from.

So, two FO over the course of the weekend.  The sweater hasn't been worked on since Friday, but I felt like I needed to do something I could finish quickly.  And this way, I have the Xmas knitting sorted and ready to go.  The hat takes about 6 hours, the slippers about 4.  I am planning to take yarn for a couple of hats and a couple of pairs of slippers when we go to Cabo at the beginning of October.

I also started something for a long term project.  I've been wanting to do something with all my many, many left over small balls of sock yarn and I finally found a sock weight blanket I like, made up of little 3D squares.  I can knit one up from time to time and eventually at some point I'll have enough for a whole blanket.  No rush to finish.  But it's nice that the square itself only takes a few hours and feels like a finished object. I knit two of them today.

Next up, the plan is to get back to the sweater and get the fronts finished.  That's what I'll work on this week.  And I have a 3/4 finished pairs of striped socks as a purse project.  I cast the socks on in August.  They just about to the heel on sock #2.

So, even though I did start a few things, I feel like I'm still on track.  It was hard though.  My startitis was going full bore this weekend and I had to resist the urge to also start a lace shawl and a new striped shawl (I've been wanting to make a Colour Affection for ages).  But those need to wait until at least two or three more things get finished!

starting over .... or again ... or whatever

I really am one of the shittiest bloggers ever.  I have a hard time because I can't think of what to say (which seems odd for someone who really doesn't have that problem in real life - as in, when I'm talking).  But I guess I just haven't figured out what I should be blogging about.  Who am I writing to?

And then I had an idea .... maybe I could just be writing to myself.  I was thinking about how I want to conduct myself a little differently in terms of my knitting. Basically, I've started watching several knitting video podcasts and it's made me think how those ladies seem to use their podcasts to help keep them focused.  Now, I don't really see the need for yet another podcast (as in, doing one myself) but I'm very drawn to that aspect of getting focused with my knitting, so I thought maybe I could use my long dormant blog, a little bit like a podcast for myself.

Here's the thing - I used to think I was a big time polygamous knitter.  But watching the podcasts, I realized I'm not very good at working on several projects simultaneously.  I'm basically monogamous, but I have a short attention span, so I work on something and then I get bored with it, or I have problems, or I just start hankering after a specific new project and I set down what I'm working on and start something new.  And too often, I don't go back to the last project, unless it's socks.  The UFO challenge that SKA holds in August has really helped me there.  In August of 2012 I finished 8 pairs of socks that had been sitting around for a while.  This past August, I finished 7 pairs.  I still have a bag full of old, unfinished pairs of socks in my office for August 2014.  I would really like to NOT add to the pile over the year.  What I want to do is finish at least as many things as I start, so that I'm not adding to the huge pile of half finished knitting projects.  And the reason for that is because it causes me guilt and stress.  Not placed on me by anyone but myself, but it's there and it takes away from the fun and relaxing aspect of knitting.  The plan is to try to go back to at least one unfinished thing and compete it before any new cast on.  And hopefully to finish the things I cast on without letting them sit in the pile.  Following on how good it felt to finish those socks in August, I tried to finish my Pashmina Sweater.  But it's still sitting.  The knitting got done, which is good,  but there's still some sewing up left (reminder to self - seamless sweaters are a MUCH BETTER idea for me).  And I blocked it and I think the silk made the sleeves really grow and they're too damn long.  So now I think I should rip back from the cuffs by about 5 inches and make them shorter, which doesn't seem like fun at all, so it still sits.  But closer to being done at least. 

Then I cast on an Austin Hoodie out of some of my gorgeous Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering.  So far, I'm really loving this knit, and I've been sticking to it.  I did take a break in the middle for a few days, and I dug out the Different Lines shawl I started for Patti last spring and finished it, so that I could give it to her while we were still rehearsing Shopaholic.  Mission accomplished there, so yay me!  One thing off the WIP pile.

I want to finish my Austin Hoodie without letting it languish and then I want to finish at least one more UFO, probably the sweater I started for Charlie in July.  And I need to do the September/October SKA socks that only have one cuff so far.  Then I will do some Christmas knitting.  I ordered some skeins of various worsted from TLE for Windschief Hats and I'm also doing some  little slipper socks.  I plan to take yarn for a couple of hats and a couple of slippers with me to Cabo and work on them that week.

So, that's the plan.  Maybe if I can blog about it here, I can help myself stay on track.  There are several things I really would like to cast on - A Hitchhiker, an Atelier, some of the Cookie A socks from past club shipments, etc ... but I need to wait until at least the Hoodie, the SKA socks and Charlie's sweater are done.  And I probably should pull out and finish the Skein shawl I started last year as well.  It's a simple striped garter stitch pattern, so other than the high stitch count it's pretty easy.

I will check back in here next week and report on progress.