SEA of Yarn

As you can see there are things going on that you will be filled in on, but just not today. Check back after this year’s big shop!

I had this plan. (I suppose that’s where it all starts to go wrong this having a plan thing.) It wasn’t a big plan or anything just more of goal oriented guideline. I wanted to have a self-imposed sock club like Yarn Harlot began last year. It seems many other people are stealing borrowing her idea for themselves, too. I had gone through the sock yarn and patterns and matched them up according to what I wanted to accomplish.

Santa thought I was really well-behaved last year and left these under the tree.

Who knew such a small thing could throw a plan so completely off course?

The excitement of such a perfectly matched pair of items swung me into a tail spin and I had to start my January socks early.

Without finishing the one gift I had left to finish, Mr.Man’s awesome socks.

Somehow this led me to the need for instant gratification, so I knit this

and this.

Then I found Snowflake and had to cast on almost immediately. It seemed to perfectly fit the yarn I wanted to use and so desperately wanted to have wrapped around me to keep my neck and shoulders warm and cozy.

Before I knew it, February was only a couple of days away and I still had not finished Mr. Man’s awesome socks or my January socks. Since my hubby was waiting ever-so-patiently (no really, not his usual self at all), I decided I would do my best to complete these by the end of January. Which I did, except for weaving in the ends. (That’s the real hard part anyhow. Ick!)

Next, I plan to complete my January socks by Valentine’s day. It will be a bit of a push, but I feel confident I can do it. Thus still allowing time to start and complete (I hope) the February socks.

Busy, busy, busy. Lots to do today. Cookies to bake, knitting to do and Hubby and I are cleaning out the downstairs office to put up the new treadmill.

Here is what I started my day with.

I am finally designing something of my own. I have slouchy beret style hat in mind with a little lace. Stay tuned.

At long last, Hubby and I are on the same page about getting fit and losing some weight. I did my best last summer to do it on my own, but it was difficult without both of us thinking about the food choices. Hubby would get big snack attacks and bring home ungodly amounts of chips and candy. Not helpful when you are trying to lessen the amount of crap you eat. I also tried to keep up with the Cto5K program. Being sore all the time got really frustrating and I wimped out when it started getting cold. I did feel a lot better when I was exercising on a regular basis, so I’m looking forward to starting up again.

I’m sure you are wondering how the cookie baking fits into all this healthy stuff. Well…it just doesn’t if you are thinking that we are going to be die hard healthnuts. We aren’t. The plan is not to completely deny ourselves sweets and fatty goodness, just moderate the amounts of it we eat. One or even two cookies is better than a whole candy bar and I get to control the size of the cookies and what goes in them. I like small bite-sized cookies anyway. Just enough to satisfy the sweet tooth, but not enough to feel too guilty.

I am having trouble sleeping tonight. There is a sense of anticipation in the air…

There is a storm over my little city tonight. It was expected to arrive this afternoon, but waited until dark. It has been snowing steadily for a few hours. We don’t get a lot of snow, maybe a couple of times each winter and it doesn’t last long. When we get snow here, oftentimes the power goes out or people have to stay home simply because they can’t get out of their driveway. We don’t ever get enough to warrant a snowplough. The main roads get sanded and are usually drivable, if you can get to them. I often think it silly the way our little city can shut down so easily by a few inches of snow, but it does.

Winter is often the time of anticipation. Will there be school tomorrow? Will we be able to go sledding? When will I be warm again? When will the flowers start peeking through the cold ground? What does the coming year hold for me? What’s next? When will it be here? On the dark cold quiet nights of winter you can almost feel it, that something that’s coming next.

Lately, my days have been filled with pushing to meet deadlines at work and pushing myself toward my personal goals. Earlier, I was anxious about whether or not I would be able to go to work tomorrow because there is still so much to be done. I couldn’t settle down. I was almost pacing from window to window and back.

Just before heading upstairs to bed, I felt drawn to go stand on my balcony in the cold. I put my coat on and slipped outside. I just stood watching the snow fall decorating my neighborhood like gingerbread houses. I listened to the soft breeze in the trees. It was quite bright out for this time of night. Every little light reflecting off the new fallen snow. What I love most though is the quiet the snow brings. I stood there listening to the stillness. Even the breeze in the trees was softened by the snow. I couldn’t help thinking how a blanket of snow is a reminder to stop, breathe, reflect, and enjoy, while it lasts.

We had our first basketball game of the season this weekend. We have had the same coach for a couple of years now and we have been lucky enough to have had a couple of undefeated seasons. Until yesterday. It was a good fight for the girls, but was just shy of keeping their winning streak that has lasted the past two years. We must be doing our jobs as parents and coaches because it was no big deal to our little monkey.

It takes a half-hour to get to the game, so of course I brought an easy project. I have a friend who had a baby girl last month and is in need of a hand knit sweater. Hence…

I plan to have it put together with a soft purple crocheted border and little flower.

Yea for the new year. So glad to see the old year go. Hopefully this year will be better.
(It’s early. I still have high hopes.)

Maybe it is the way I rang in the new year that helped with the optimism. I was just finishing the first one of these.

Here’s to a better new year.

Where have I been you ask? Busy, busy, busy! I didn’t realize just how long it has been since I wrote last. I will try to get you updated on all the goodies. A lot has been going on, I promise. I just have to get better at sharing.

I did my best to complete my Fountain Pen shawl for the Ravelympics, but I DQ’d. That’s right I disqualified myself.

I was going along just fine and on time, but when it came time to knit with newly spun yarn that I had just completed on my wheel I noticed that the yarn I was currently knitting with and the yarn I was about to knit with were NOT the same. Hmm, what is a knitter under a time crunch to do? “Maybe, I could make it a design feature and have two different thicknesses of yarn” or “I should probably scrap the whole thing and start again. If I do two repeats (or even three near the beginning) each night I could still do it!” I continued to knit as I thought about it some more as time ticked by.

In the end I decided to drop what I was doing and start again. While I was starting again (and realizing my gauge would be totally different so I would have to change needle size and really start maybe two or three more times to get it just right) I think I still had in mind that I could finish the shawl in the six (6) days I had left. Thankfully, after switching to the newly spun yarn of the same gorgeous inky color, I saw just how beautiful it was going to turn out and decided to skip on the deadline and just make it as gorgeous as I could.

It is just quite freaking fantastic! I am so incredibly proud of this you can probably feel my beaming straight through the computer. It sat near my knitting for a couple of days before I blocked it. I found myself looking at it and thinking “I-Made-That! Not just knit a lacy pattern in lace weight yarn and beads, but I, Me, I spun the yarn and then knit it into something magical!” The only thing more awesome was actually wearing it and knowing it was exactly what I wanted it to be. Exactly!

I am a cheap skate. We live on a tight budget and I make do with what I can sometimes. When it makes a big difference I will save up if needed, but mostly I find the cheapest way to accomplish the same thing.

One of my knitting friends asked me the other day if I had pictures of my swift. She had not seen it in action, but had heard of it’s greatness. My swift is made out of Tinker Toys. (Gotta love the internets!) I just looked around on those do-it-yourself websites to see what other people had done and designed my own.

I really like it. It cracks me up every time I use it, because it’s made of TOYS! Hee hee. I can wind hanks of different lengths. I can pack it up back into its container and put it away for easy storage. (Truthfully, if we didn’t have to eat off that table it would probably never get put away.) I also like telling the children that they can’t play with Mom’s toys. (I know. I’m an evil Mom, but hey I have to enjoy it while I can they will be teenagers soon enough.)

PSSST. I also made a niddy noddy from PVC piping!

Santa thought I was good and brought me THIS!

Been so busy playing, I almost forgot to tell you.

Up Next: Ravelympics!!!
Only 11 days left.
Spinning my own ink colored laceweight for the Fountain Pen Shawl. Much spinning to do before they start…

Everyone learned the number of days in the month in different ways. I learned the poem like so many other people, but it never stuck. I had to use the knuckle method until I finally remembered.

I have been going to knit night at my LYS. Every Thursday evening we get to gather and chat, knit, crochet or whatever. One of the lovely ladies there has been knitting fingerless gloves for a local nursing home. Her goal is to have 20 pairs by Christmastime. One of the other ladies at knit night, who only crochets, had a fantastic idea that has stuck with me ever since. Thirty days Hat September! Make a hat for every day of the month and then give them away to charity. I had been inspired and I love it!

While I have not stopped knitting and I have lovely projects all lined up, I had not felt very inspired to complete anything. I had only half-heartedly worked on the various projects going. (Half of a sock, 2/3 of a vest, a little bit of a garter stitch blanket, and some singles of my merino fiber for a shawl) I finally had a goal that got me motivated to get going.

Beginning September 1st I crocheted a hat everyday using yarn from my stash. Here are the goodies I came up with.

This was a lot of fun. While it did clear my stash of some yarn, a couple of people felt the need to share some of their yarn, so I didn’t clear out as much as I had hoped.

I took them all in to my LYS for the charity circle.