suddenly, posting again...

Okay, finally updating after 8 months....

I finally decluttered my stash by giving it away! I sent a box full of yarn up to an old high school friend who teaches in NYC and happens to be in charge of the knitting club at her school. It felt so nice to get rid of yarn that I had no desire to make anything with, plus the added bonus of knowing that it's going to good use.

I'm currently working on a shawl for Reformation Sunday. It will be on October 30th this year. Traditionally, you wear red that day, so I figured I would make a lovely red shawl to wear to church (and then I will have said lovely red shawl to wear all winter because it gets rather nippy in our church during the winter months). I'm about half-way done, so there is actually hope at me finishing it before Oct. 30.

I also have two commissions for berets. I had given one to my co-worker and she went and showed it off to other co-workers and let them know how easy it would be for me to stitch one up if they would like to purchase one. I just hope they turn out nicely; it's one of my biggest fears of giving away something and then it unraveling the first time they try to wash it (especially when I give away baby blankets - so far I've only had two recipients comment on how much they love theirs...and I can't help if all the others are thrown away, in some deep recess of an attic or worse - fell apart within days and they're just too nice to tell me the truth.)

Other than that, I have a ton of projects I want to do and just not enough time to do them all. But isn't that every knitter's dilemma?

yarn overload

My yarn stash is out of control. With a one bedroom apartment, there just isn't much room and I try to keep my yarn contained to one canvas bin. Which is currently overflowing. With more yarn on the way. I've been trying to bust through my scrap yarn granny blanket, but it gets old crocheting in rounds over and over. And I still have a ton of yarn left even though I'm on my tenth square.

I keep getting bombarded with ideas of things I want to make for others, which of course, means buying more yarn. There's the wedding ring blanket for a soon-to-be wed couple that I would love to make, but that's 8 more skeins to buy. Plus I've been commissioned to make a vest (hence the more yarn on the way). That's not to mention the bright, summery blanket I want to make for my husband and myself. I'm seeing bright, dark blue, yellow and white yarn with fresh, just bought light-blue sheets - because really, I have two sets of sheets and I need a change. In my mind, I'm seeing a Better-Homes-and-Gardens-esque scene with bright summer sunshine pouring through clean windows onto my lovely homemade creation - but the sensible side of my brain sees the stacks of skeins piled around the house while I struggle to finish yet another project.

I'm torn between wanting to wait until I use up my surplus and running out an buying a ton more new yarn. Crochet/knitting is definitely a struggle in self-control.

a good idea

Every Christmas I'm surprised at how much I spend not on gifts, but gift bags. Christmas Eve I dropped $25 on wrapping alone, and that was only for one side of the family. Not to mention finding the right size bag for the gift is impossible. I inevitably have several gifts that are too big for medium size bags but too small for the large. And with the whole "go green" movement, I cringe at thinking of spending so much on paper bags that are going to be thrown away and fill up a landfill somewhere.

So, my husband came up with a clever idea. Well, he might not have intentionally come up with the idea; I think he was teasing me about my yarn-addiction. However, he suggested that I knit/crochet bags - they would be reusable and could count as part of the gift.

I'm going to take some of my stash yarn and try to think out some easy bag-like patterns. Even a year away, I'm not sure if I have the discipline to make all of my gift bags for next year. Still, I might make a gift bag or two for a birthday and see how it goes.

attack of the stash

I'm getting desperate to cull down my stash. I'm working on a granny square blanket, trying to use up all the extra yarn I have. So far I've done five complete squares, each 8 rounds, each round a different color, with a size K crochet hook.

And I've only used up one leftover skein.

I haven't made a dent on my stash. And considering I was only going to make a lapghan for church, it looks like this little endeavor is developing into a full-blown project.

Now, in addition to figuring out what I'm going to do with all the excess yarn, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all the granny squares. Bah!

WIP it good

I am now officially doing too many projects at once. Seriously, my WIP list is a little out of control. It runs as follows:

* fingerless, gauntlet-style gloves for my sis-in-law

* knit shawl for my mother

* crochet shawl for my sis

* cap/beanie for my husband (for our trip to the UK in December)

* knit scarf for myself

* a mini-blanket made from all my scrap yarn (because it was freezing at morning service on Sunday)

That's not adding in the sweater pattern I've been eyeing over at Lion Brand's website. Plus I'm feeling the urge to purge my stash. It's overflowing the sides of the bin I keep it all in. I was able to use up some of my baby yarn stash yesterday making cute little beanies for an expectant co-worker.

I just can't help starting new projects.

abort mission...

Okay, I'm putting my knit baby blanket aside for two reasons:

1) Because I couldn't get the gauge right. I have only been knitting for four months, so I'm still not the best at it. I tried doing separate squares but it was hard to sew them together. I'm also not good at sewing knit/crocheted fabric together, so it looked rather hideous. I then got the bright idea of knitting in strips: sort of like knitting a scarf, changing the colors as needed to form a row of blocks. For some reason the green section was shorter than the white section. Ugh.

2) I found out that the baby shower for the girl I'm making the blanket for is in two weeks. The group is throwing an early shower for her and I want to have the blanket done in time to present it to her. I can crochet faster, so I've change my plan over to a crocheted baby blanket. Which is something I've done a dozen times. Pretty fool-proof. Of course, I'm itching to try a new pattern, but I just don't have the time to experiment or to hunt down the right yarn. The local craft shops only have the bare basics type of yarn (it took them six months to start carrying Debbie Stoller's Stitch Nation brand). I'm kind of quirky about wanting the yarn that the pattern recommends. Plus I'm just not good at substituting yarn.

So I'm back to the tried and true method. I have to say, it's getting dull, but on a strict time line, it's do-able. I'm still going to be pushed, but I can crochet up a baby blanket by Oct. 14.

I think....

knitting a baby blanket

I'm getting ready to embark on my first large-scale knitting project. I've knit a little pouch and a scarf, both fairly basic, easy-to-do sort of things. Now I'm going to try a baby blanket. I'm modifying the pattern from one I found at Lion Brand's website. I'll keep the basic blocks (about 3 x 3 in squares), but I'm changing the color scheme. The girl that I'm making the blanket for doesn't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl yet, so I'm doing the typical white/green/yellow color scheme. Ideally, it will end up like this:

G Y W G Y W G Y W

W G Y W G Y W G Y

Y W G Y W G Y W G

G Y W G Y W G Y W

W G Y W G Y W G Y

Y W G Y W G Y W G

G Y W G Y W G Y W

W G Y W G Y W G Y

Y W G Y W G Y W G

The real kicker will be the fact that I'm going to have sew all the little blocks together. I hate having to sew pieces together. Almost as much as I hate weaving in the ends. Those two steps seem to give me the most trouble.

But there's nothing like facing your fears and challenging yourself. And sewing all these little squares are going to be a challenge.