A Veritable Factory

I am on a roll!

I would say I wam becoming a veritable handknit factory...except for the fact that I am the machine...so maybe a handknit sweat shop is actually more accurate...

On my day off yesterday I completed:

Cable Car Beret
2 Coffee Cup Cozies

And cast on/started designing:

Avignon Beret

I also made significant progress on:

Fatigue Green Knox Beanie
Les Tuileries
Gotham Socks
Tilney Sweater

(Pictures to follow as they are taken...it was my day off...no makeup...hair in a pony...I was not going to model anything...)

And the Medal Goes To...

ME!

I finished the shawl...and most importantly I finished it ON TIME!!!

This despite the setbacks of intruding purses and felting, sickness, graduate school, and some semblance of a social life!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled project queue!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

My class is tomorrow...

...it's only a day away!

(Get Knittin' @ the Library: Felted Purse Session II is tomorrow night at 6:30...5 samples done...2, possibly, to go!)

The obnoxious thing is that I made a completely amateur mistake on one of the purses! It is too late to fix it properly, I should have noticed it sooner. I can "fix" it still, but it will involve changing the design a bit. I think I will leave it until after class so that I can use the sample as a sort of warning to my students.

And, after tomorrow night, it is all cinema shawl all the time in the Knitting Olympics!

Knitting Olympics 2010

The Knitting Olympics will begin tomorrow.

Here is how they work:

• Cast on a project that will pose some sort of challenge for you during the opening ceremonies.


• Finish said project by the time the Olympic torch is extinguished 16 days later.

This has posed a bit of a problem for me...I really want to participate, but with work and school pressing in on me I don't see how I'll be able to take part to the extent I would like.

I would like to be able to cast on a sweater, or an intricate pair of socks...I just don't have the time to devote to knitting that those types of things would require.

So instead I am making a bit of a compromise. Instead of choosing a project that is a time/skill challenge, I am choosing a project that I have been procrastinating on. I will knit something that has been in my stash for years. This is a challenge for me. I have a lot of back log in my stash. There are many projects that I was in love with when I planned, but being the fickle person I am, I dumped them and moved on without a backward glance.

Nominees for Olympic Knitting include:

• A cinema shawl out of some blue mohair I purchased when Sweet Stitch was still open(so...4 years ago...)


• A mobius cowl neck vest out of some blue heron cotton that I also purchased at Sweet Stitch.


• An earflap hat out of the periwinkle and white llama yarn that, yes, I purchased at Sweet Stitch.


• The Candleflame cashmere scarf out of the GORGEOUS cashmere yarn that...you guessed it...I purchased at Sweet Stitch! (In my defense, I was making a scarf out of this, but the stitch pattern didn't work with the variegation...)

Decisions, decisions!

Celebrating Sis-In-Law with 80's Dance

Sis-in-Law just had her birthday on Monday...and since I was seeing her last night, I decided that a day-late-gift-delivery was perfectly warranted. (I did call her on the actual day, and left her a message and everything. I even let her know that her present was arriving with me last night. I did my due diligence.)

But back to the subject at hand. She just had her birthday. And I have known for forever what I was going to give her, since she had asked me flat out several months ago if I could make legwarmers for her sometime.

Certainly.

I love knitting for people. And I especially love knitting things I know that they want!

So I made her:

The Misty Dawn Legwarmers!

For inspiration, before and during knitting, I watched:

Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Footloose, Fame, and Center Stage (which isn't 80's, but is very legwarmer friendly).

Gotta love the library's great DVD collection!

I also did a lot of knitting at the movie theater during Edge of Darkness, the new Mel Gibson movie. Since the Misty Dawns are in-the-round stockinette, they made for perfect knitting in the dark. Also, the action and pacing of the film made me knit faster...heart rate up, needles flashing!

I was thinking about writing up the pattern, but I think I'll wait and see how they work out for Sis-in-Law fit-wise...since I totally knit them on the fly...that way I can make any necessary adjustments before posting it.

How Did That Happen?

Somehow I have a pressing queue of time sensitive projects.

A queue which is bordering on the insanity of a Christmas queue!

It includes:

• Additional samples for the felted purse class


• Baby burp rags for friends who continue to reproduce


• The birthday gift for Sis-In-Law, which I am really enjoying making


• Commission wrist warmers and fingerless gloves (technically these don't have a due date...but it would probably be best to deliver them while it is still cold!)

In addition to these items...I also have several things that I would like to make for me!

I am only one knitter. I can only do so much.

(Breathe in. Breathe out. Remind myself that the fate of the world does not depend on my completing knitting projects. And be grateful for it.)

Packing...?

I have actually finished my knitting to-do list for Christmas. With two days to spare!

This leaves me with an interesting quandary...I no longer have any projects that I have to do...so what projects do I want to do?

I am heading to WA as we speak to be with the family. I needed to take at least 3 projects, one of each type:

1. Purse Project: Beret Pour Moi, which doesn't require a pattern, but does require attention.

2. Brain-free Project: Les Tuileries...which just keeps going and going and going

3. Pattern Project: Martinelli Sweater...I have the goal of completing it by New Years.

(I am also taking my Rivendell socks...they are small and portable, but totally require a chart. I figure they will be good for the car trip to my aunt's for Christmas, or the plane trip home.)

FINISHED

...kind of.

That is to say, I have done all of the knitting required for everything in the Christmas queue.

I still have all of the finishing up to do...such as weaving in ends, blocking, etc.

This is a continual struggle with me. I finish the knitting and my brain is creatively satisfied. I know what the finished product looks like, or will look like, so I have no more motivation. Also, I hate weaving in ends. HATE it. This is how I have, in the past, ended up with garbage bags full of projects with "tails".

I need to buckle down and bust out the darning needle.

I need to do it. Tonight. NOW.

The goal: by this time tomorrow the queue will be both completed AND wrappable.

Crisis Averted...Sort Of

Thought I would give an update even though it is an "even" day.

After taking a major chill pill last night, I re-evaluated my situation.

I could either unravel the whole project and start over, adjusting it so that the yarn I had would be sufficient. (So not going to happen...)

OR

I could go to different stores and try to find more yarn and hope that the dye lots were close enough that it wouldn't matter.

I obviously went with the second.

Without divulging what the project is, since it is a commission for a GIFT...I can say that it has stripes. So, I am going to intersperse the new skeins with the old skeins until the old ones run out. The new skeins appear to be identical to the old ones, but better safe than sorry. Luckily they should be separated by enough space that any minute differences won't show.

I hope.

(Postscript for my mother: I know I told you yesterday morning that I had purchased the rest of the yarn. But it turned out that it was the wrong brand. I hadn't taken the ball bands in with me at the store, and they had moved stuff around to mask how low their stock was. I grabbed yarn from the right aisle that was the right color, but the yarn I needed was wool/acrylic blend and the stuff I bought was 100% acrylic. I realized the error when I got to work. Called my friend, she told me they were out of what I needed. So...I got the right stuff at another store after work tonight, and will return the wrong stuff tomorrow.)

Crisis!

I started a commission project.

I went to the store and purchased the yarn.

It was on sale! Woo-Hoo.

I bought a bunch of it.

I started the project.

I knit faithfully on it every chance I got. (At work on breaks, at home during movies...it is a very handily brain-free project. Knit every stitch for forever and a day with an occasional color change.)

I am out of yarn.

The project is not done.

The project apparently eats yarn like I eat green beans. Voraciously.

The store, having had a sale on this particular brand of yarn, is out of my colors.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Insanity...Thy Name is Mine

I had a LONG Christmas queue this year. Long in quantity, but not necessarily in difficulty. A lot of the projects/gifts that I had decided to make were verystraightforward knits. They were things that, generally speaking, I could knock off in fairly short order.

The problem was that even if a project by itself is fast and simple, when you add a gazillion more fast and simple projects to it...well...

I am crazy.

I started planning and knitting the Christmas queue way back in October.

Still not done.

In addition to my own projects this year, I took on several commissions for the holidays. Don't ask me why. I don't know.

All of the commissions were also straight forward simple knits. When I was asked, I thought, "Of course! That is an easy peasy project. It will take no time!"

But again, get enough easy peasy projects in a queue and you have a huge mountain of knitting. So, these just add to the general insanity of my life. Not to mention the fact that commissions need to be delivered on time...and in my case, on time means early since I am going to my parents for the holidays. Unlike my own gifts, I can't IOU a Christmas commission.

Oh, and just to make myself even more loopy, or because I was already loopy...I actually knit 7/8 of a gift for a family member. Then I decided that it was utter rot and I needed to do something entirely different. Hours of knitting gaily abandoned and additional hours tacked on. (In my defense, the original project was a good idea conceptually, and I knit it perfectly according to the pattern...the pattern was just cruddy and not at all what I had envisioned...) Then the back up project also wasn't working out, so I have abandoned it as well. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm.

Now I sit here, on my floor, surrounded by project bags. I have put each project, its pattern, extra yarn, and needles into its own bag in order to stay organized. I am literally overwhelmed by organization. It is a huge ordeal to prioritize what needs to be knit now, what can be put off...if I put it off will I still be finished with it on time? Not to mention having to take into account who will be around while I'm knitting it. Oh the agony!

Thinking positively...I am almost done with the queue...I am almost done with the queue...I am almost done with the queue...

Finally Feeling Festive

Yesterday, my day off, I put up all of my Christmas decorations: the garlands, the wreaths, the tree!

(In order to do so, I had to rearrange ALL of the furniture in the living room...I actually like it better this way, so I will probably leave it like this...the fact that my couch is REALLY heavy has nothing to do with it!)

So, tonight I am sitting here knitting in my muck luck slipper socks and snowflake pj pants. My Christmas tree lights are twinkling, Karen Carpenter's voice is singing, and a mug of peppermint hot chocolate sits at my elbow (with marshmallows)...I finally feel festive! I might just put on the Muppet Christmas Special when the CD ends.

Part of my joyous mood might also stem from the fact that I am 3/4's done with my Christmas Queue! And that includes the crazy commissions I have taken on!

Recuperating

Well, I am over my fever...hooray!

I was able to get a little bit of knitting done yesterday afternoon, but it was hard.

I needed a project that required next to no brain cells.

I also wanted to make sure that it was one that was okay to knit while sick...one that would be impervious to germs.

I ended up making a dishcloth. For myself.

Today I went back to work, and am doing MUCH better. So, tonight I jumped back on my Christmas queue...actually finished one project that I had started last week, and did a second one start to finish. Unfortunately, these are not bloggable since they are gifts...

Productivity. It's a beautiful thing.

Gifts Given

I have, against my own better judgment, allowed a bit of a gift IOU queue to build up.

This is less than ideal for two reasons:

1. I hate giving IOU's instead of an actual gift...it makes me feel flaky.

2. With the holidays swiftly approaching I have lots of projects to finish NOW...I don't need to still be playing catch up with a retroactive gift list!

But...Frabjous day, calloo callay...I was able to almost catch myself up last week! (I would be completely caught up, except Psych still hasn't told me what she actually wants for her birthday...hint hint...not so subtle suggestion...TELL ME!)

First I finished Wiz's Whiz Bang Beanie. I know that I don't give Wiz nearly as much blog-attention as I give to his siblings, Spaz and Angel...but he is an AMAZING kid. He is genius smart, good natured, athletic, super polite, and (my favorite) a voracious reader. For his birthday I gave him a choice: hat or scarf. He chose hat, and asked for bright blue and red. I used a wool acrylic blend (all the warmth, none of the itch), but can't find the ball band so I don't know what brand/color it was. I made a simple 2X2 ribbed beanie, 80 stitches cast onto US8 needles. (I had to look at my Harry Potter knitting book to get an idea of juvenile head circumference, since I generally do adults or babies not in between.) I think he liked it.

I gave it to him Sunday morning. Knowing that a picture had to be taken for the blog, he wore it with a color coordinated sweatshirt to worship services Sunday night. We had a mini photo shoot in the back of the building, and he chose his favorite one for here!

Next up was Lady's scarf. She recently acquired a new coat that is a dark orchid color. She wanted a "fancy" scarf to match it, but one that would go with her other clothes as well. She specifically mentioned forest green. I know she wears a lot of jewel tones, so I chose a variegated wool that had the orchid, some royal purple, forest green, and turquoise mixed with a wee bit of black. (I think the black in the colorway offered a nice contrast and added some elegance. It kept the variegation from appearing rainbow-y.) My original intent was to use some sort of chevron pattern, or a mitred square. However, after casting on and knitting an inch or so I noticed that the pattern was totally obstructed by the color patterning. (Why put in all the work if it wasn't even going to show up?) So, instead I went with the lacy scarf pattern from Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair. The lace travels on the bias, and is enhanced by the color changes rather than obscured. I think it is marvelous.

This one was delivered tonight...and yet another church building photo shoot ensued. Now I can truly embark on my holiday knitting tomorrow with a clear conscience!

The Wearing of Handknits Begets the Wanting of Handknits

I loaned JoNo my handknit wrist warmer gauntlets during my brother's Halloween party for his rock star costume...the black ones that go all the way up to my elbows. As the evening wore on, a lot of us ended up around the fire pit in the back yard. I was in a toga, and therefore cold. JoNo, the epitome of a gentleman, gave me my gauntlets back to keep my arms warm.

Tenn was also out at the fire pit, and also dressed as a rock star. She was wearing black STORE BOUGHT wrist warmers that barely covered her wrists. We started talking about how much we liked wrist warmers. Both of us tend to get very cold, and the wrist warmers allow us to stay warm but still work/type/knit. The next day, as we were both shivering in the back of Brother's car, wrist warmers came up again. She asked about commissioning a pair, I quoted her a price, she accepted it, and we settled on a color. We also discovered that our hands/arms are the same size, so I didn't need to take measurements.

I delivered the wrist warmers stayed with Tenn last weekend when I was in town for the ultimate frisbee tournament (cheering/knitting...not participating...see the previous post). They are a lovely shade of dove grey. I think she was pleased, considering that she didn't want to take them off!

(Unfortunately, in all the weekend hubbub, I did not get a picture of her wearing them...)

It strikes me that had I not been wearing the wrist warmers on Halloween, Tenn would never have known about them, and never have asked for a set, and I would not have the commission fee to put toward stash building. (Especially since *GASP* I did not knit at all at the Halloween party...I know, the mind reels! How was that even possible?)

Conclusion: The wearing of handknits begets the wanting of handknits...sometimes my best advertising is me!

Warm Hearts Warm Heads

My friend Belle's mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She has already had the required surgery, but now must also undergo chemo.

Belle called me last week to schedule a time for me to come over and help her with some quilting she wants to do. (Yes, I quilt. I actually am probably a more skilled, though less frequent, quilter than knitter. Quilting isn't as portable as knitting...) While she had me on the phone she asked, in a plaintive manner, if I would consider possibly knitting her mother a chemo cap.

Here is the thing. I am very busy right now with school and work and life. Belle knows this. I am also trying to finish up my gift project queue. Belle knows this as well. She was very reluctant to request anything, but really wanted the chemo cap.

Here is the other thing. My mother had breast cancer. My grandmother had breast cancer. I knit mostly because I see it as a way that I can serve others. There were no grad school assignments, library duties, or social obligations that were going to keep me from making that cap.

I went to Knit This, Purl That on Sunday and purchased the softest yarn I could find. It is a cashmere, silk, merino blend. I found several patterns online, and had Belle pick out the one she liked the best. Then I put all other projects on hold till I got the cap finished. (I had a deadline set...tonight when I was going over to Belle's house for the quilting counseling.)

I got it done.

Here is Belle modeling it. (Please note...this photo was taken LATE at night after approximately 6 hours of quilting...)



Best wishes to Belle's mother! I hope that as this cap keeps her head warm, she is reminded of all the warm hearts who love her and are praying for her speedy and full recovery.

Incompatibility

I have a knitting blog. (Which you probably know, because you are currently reading it.)

On said knitting blog, which I committed myself to updating every other day, I discuss my current projects, successes, epic failures, and quirks.

I also have something called the Christmas Queue, which is the list of all the gifts I need to make by Christmas.

The Christmas Queue essentially devours all available knitting time from approximately September 1 through December 24. (And often later, since I tend to give out gift IOUs.)

The recipients of projects on the Christmas Queue have 2 things in common.

1. I love them
2. They are the vast majority of people who read this blog!

There is a definite incompatibility problem here. I want to blog about what I am knitting, I want people to read my blog, and yet I don't want anyone's Christmas surprise to be spoiled.

It is a conundrum.

Finally Got Around To It

When NorCalGal was in the process of moving back down to CA, she discovered a really neat little yarn shop in downtown Sacramento. She brought back some rust colored Baby Alpaca chunky yarn for me as an incentive to get me to move. (I figure her thinking was that she could lure me south with the promise of quality fibers...and apparently it worked cause here I am!)

I only had one skein, but that was ok. I had made kool-aid dyed beanies for Sister and Sis-In-Law out of chunky yarn, but never got around to making one for myself. I decided to use the alpaca instead of doing a dye job...the rust was the ideal color, and not one easily achieved with beverage powder!

I had used my swift to ball the yarn prior to the move down. I just hadn't cast on. Other projects kept cutting in the queue. (Besides, I didn't NEED a beanie...I lived in CA!)

Labor Day weekend, I took the ball with me to WA to use as a nostepinde demo. (I didn't want to take my swift, so needed a ball instead of a skein.)I impressed the aunts with my nifty notion, and got a more usable ball in the process. As long as I had it rewound, I went ahead and cast it on. It was a speedy knit, and I got it made up in a single night.

Not a needed item. Not even that impressive of an item. But still something that I can check off the to-do list, and one less ball in the stash!

(It did turn out pretty cute though...didn't it?)

Sometimes I Impress Myself

I took several projects with me to work on on my WA trip last weekend. Specifically: Les Tuileries, a chunky cabled beanie, the last of the Cousins Beanies...and the Rivendell socks.

I have been "working" on the Rivendell socks for over a year now. I purchased the yarn before I moved to CA. I begged my parents for the Eclectic Sole Book for my 2008 birthday. I even cast on once...only to second guess my yarn choice, rip them out, and proceed to knit several other pairs of socks instead of the Rivendells.

Finally, I decided that enough was enough. The original yarn choice was great, and I was not allowing myself to knit any other socks UNTIL I knit the Rivendells.

Truth is...I was scared of them. They have something called a "yarn cluster"...there is a ton of cabling...they REQUIRE a chart. (I can read charts, I just prefer to use written row by row directions...I am less likely to lose my place.)

Anyway...I psyched myself up and cast them on again this last weekend. With all of the driving we did, and with all of the sitting and chatting and drinking tea...I got quite a bit done.

In fact, I had the whole cuff done before the flight back to CA Tuesday morning.

Frankly...I am pretty stinking impressed with how they are turning out. That may not be a humble admission, but it is the truth!

I am proud of me.

(Since the picture was taken, I have actually finished the heel flap and picked up the gusset stitches...the rest of the sock is simple straight-forward vanilla knitting, easy, breezy, and beautiful...I'm just not thinking about the fact that I have TWO feet!)

Paid in Full

After a successful and industrious day of knitting yesterday, I believe I have now filled all outstanding gift IOU's. Finally. I was feeling a bit of guilt.

This doesn't mean that I don't still have a gift queue going, just that all items in said queue are for FUTURE events! (Christmas, etc.)

This also doesn't mean that the people who are owed the IOU's have received their gifts, completion and delivery being 2 very different things.

Still, I have a great sense of accomplishment.

...

(Also, if you are currently holding an IOU...let me know...because at this point I have no record of it!)