Knitting: Staying on top of 'things'

I'm starting with this photo because, A. I love spider plants and B. this one is looking great! Cath gave me a few little starter spiderettes way back last year sometime. I potted them and recently a month or 2 back added a few more from my mom's plant (the darker green). So now with the 2 of them together, this plant is just flourishing and I love it. It's a little bit of happy on my work desk!

This past weekend, much time was spent knitting and much time was spent organizing.

After work on Friday, I did some errands, went home and had a nice nap. Got around and headed west to Hilliard to meet up with Cath for dinner at Joey Changs. While my meal was okay, I didn't love it. I branched out and tried something different and while it wasn't BAD really, it just wasn't what I really expected and therefore didn't like as much. It was edible, but on the blah side. I think I would try the place again and get something that I typically get at other places to give it a true test. Cath had the Pad Thai which she enjoyed.

After dinner, we headed back to her place to do some knitting. I got quite a bit done, until I ran into a snafu with one project, so I picked up another... and then, well I cast on for a new sock because I needed something that didn't require paying attention. She also assisted me with measurement taking and now I feel quite able to try my hand at just casting on any ol' sweater and making mods so that it will fit ME. More to come on that, I do have a project in mind... but other things need to be done first. I'm talking to you Vivian!

And you to Every Way Wrap.

Anyway, we also watched some True Blood (season 1 - Cath is catching up) and the latest episode of Merlin (on syfy - LOVE it).

Saturday morning we had breakfast at First Watch. I had a great meal, eggs and a waffle - yum all the way around. Cath had some amazing french toast and fruit, it was very pretty.

Next I met up with Audra and we did some knitting and chatting. We moved on from coffee shop knitting to lunch at Baja Sol (Lennox area). While I did not enjoy my meal, cheese enchiladas... very bland and lots of spice, like pepper, but no actual flavor (weird I know). But the chips were good and I made my own salsa concoction. I will go back and try the tacos, they sounded good and I probably should have ordered them, but I love cheese enchiladas, so I had to try. Obvious mistake.

We did quite a bit of chatting on FB, old friends, crazy friends and family and everything else. We also discuss that we are both in a similar state with our CLUTTER. We want to get rid of things and organized, so we discussed starting a plan, some sort of tracking worksheet to map out what we need to do. We want to share with each other and hopefully motivate each other to finish our projects. Hopefully we can come up with something. Maybe we need to have an incentive, like one person buys/gives the other person something like a reward. Who knows, sometimes friendly competition spurns motivation? It could work.

Then I went home. I had the urge to WORK on things. I had boxes in hand and I cleared the book shelf in the computer room. Brian helped and carried the boxes to the basement. I threw some stuff away. Then I got the sneezies and was pooped anyway, so I took some allergy meds and relaxed with some knitting.

Sunday, I woke up much too early. Met up with Cath downtown because I forgot my shoes and she was in the area. Then I popped out to Easton. Brian had an appt at the Apple store, his phone was coming apart at the seams... and drum roll please... THEY FREAKING REPLACED IT!!!! I have had so many problems with Apple Care over the past 2 years, I cannot even tell you. So much so that we had to BUY him a replacement phone awhile back because they wouldn't honor anything... so now they replace the phone. Well, I'm glad and was shocked and glad. Then he went and bought a HOPEFULLY better case so his phone will last longer. It has little covers for all the "open" spots. We are hoping this will prevent so much dirt and dust from getting in.

While he was doing that, I popped into the container store. OMG, I could be in there for days figuring out ways to organize things and spend money!!! I did buy a few little basket type things to help organize my pantry. So often, I don't know what I have because things get shoved to the back. This basket has a handle sort of like a pitcher, so you can just pull it out. Handy, I think. We'll have to see if practical or not. Next I travelled over to the trash can area. I knew they were expensive going in, so I had an open mind.

Brian caught up to me, so I showed him the cans. There was one I really liked that was on sale. There was another I liked even more, but it was $50 more and NOT on sale! Anyway, we walked out with hopefully a new DOGGIE PROOF, slightly pretty trash can. This one will sit flush against the wall, it has a removable liner and an air vent is stainless steel and has a foot pedal with a slow close mechanism and a little switch you can flip to keep the lid open. Basically everything I wanted in a trash can. If it was a little bit taller, I'd be even happier, but that's all. Oh cheaper would have been nice as well, but it's done. And I shouldn't have to buy another one in a very long time!

When we got back home, I started in on my room. I had to make space for the bookshelf to come in. While doing this, I realize the yarn tower, might have a better location on another wall. I measured it's depth and the depth of the space I wanted to put it. It was perfect and I even had a couple of inches to spare! So I slowly moved that over to the other wall. And re-orged some of the yarn while I was at it. Then I got the bookcase in, went through magazines and put them in order. Pulled out pattern sheets and pamphlets and put them somewhere else. Started stacking the knitting books on the shelf. And then I had other areas to clean up and get laundry started. SO I did not finish the bookshelf, but most of the books are on it although they will need to be sorted into the appropriate areas. But it's a start and because of this switch, I have much more usable floor space in my room, therefore making that area look very clean! YAY!

Since I started the post with a pic, I'll end with one 2. This is a not so great iphone shot of the yarn tower. FYI, each section contains 7 wire baskets. And they are probably 2 feet deep from front to back, so in a nut shell... a LOT of yarn here. There is some roving, too. Oh and guess what.... this isn't the entire stash! Oh yes folks, I have a lot of purging to do... be ready for a sale sometime in the near future!

Knitting: The freaking stash...

So... a few folks have recently posted of their stash and I did some cleaning and re'orging this weekend and can I just say HOLY crap! I knew I had a lot of yarn, but seriously when you see it in one spot (or almost one as project is not quite done yet)... it is really mind-blowing, even for me.

So now I really have to figure out a way to make more stuff or just make it faster! I made a resolution not to cast on NEW stuff this year, but to finish more stuff. Well... I have half/half stuck with this resolution. I have casted on many new things, however I am working at finishing them as well.

I am still losing the war with socks though... I just keep trying out new patterns and not finishing even ONE sock, let alone a pair... so I must make improvements on that area.

Anyway, back to the stash. I have enough yarn for SEVERAL sweater and by several I mean 13-15, really!

Sock yarn, I have enough sock yarn, RIGHT now to knit probably 50 pair of socks (I really wish I was exaggerating here, but I'm not).

And I recently aquired some roving to spin up, but that would just give me MORE yarn?! Good grief. I should have done this at the beginning of the year and maybe I wouldn't have been so tempted to buy more stuff. Oh well, it will all get used eventually, right?!

I know you might just be dying to see pics, but the project is not quite completed. My organizing system is in need of a few more pieces from Ikea to be complete. Sarah is bringing those with her on Wed. when she comes. Then I can finish putting things away and will photo and you can all see the madness.

I am going to the fiber fest in Wooster in a few weeks, I might buy a little, but it will seriously have to be something that you can't pass up cause I REALLY don't need anymore yarn... for a good long time. Shew!!! After that... nothing until Portland (if I can still get there). Oh but we are going to Boston, june/july, so I might have to buy some east coast yarn... but that's it! Really!!

I can quit anytime. LOL!

Knitting: 365

So I'm wondering if I can knit every day in 2009? Maybe I should do 2 project 365s. One for every day I knit and one for just random photos. HA! Pace yourself, Kristie.

Anyway, took a trip to Heavenly Creations yesterday. Met Lindsey there. She didn't buy anything, but I sure did. It's an obsession. Seriously though, that is IT. I'm cutting myself off. Cold Turkey!!! REALLY I can stop anytime!

I specifically went in for these elcheapo little short 5 inch bamboo sock needles. Needed to replace my zeros and ones. But they didn't have anymore. While there I saw the 9" circs by Chia Goo or whatever the name is. My sister and I saw them at Yarn Cravin in Perrysburg a few months ago. Of course a week or so later, she asked me to get her some if I saw them. So I called and she said she still wanted them, so I got those for her. Although I am very tempted to open the pack and try them out on the socks I'm currently working on!

I also picked up the super cute Fiber Trends pattern called Felt Flock. It's cute little sheep. I'm kind of wanting the alpacas, too. But let's face it, what the H am I going to do with them. Ah well, they are all super cute anyway. I also got another pattern for felt fishies. Again, not sure what I'm going to do with them. But maybe if I ever have a kid, these things will come in handy. I could see doing a fish tank type baby room. That'd be up my alley. Oh and of course I bought some yarn too.

Malabrigo lace... YOMYOMYOM! OMG, this stuff is so amazing. And at 8.95 for 470 yards, that is the cheapest I've seen it. So I bought this variagated blues color. It's for the waves and dolphin lace motifs I put together for a scarf. I drew up the pattern several months ago before becoming frustrated with lace. Well, now that I have soft gorgeous malabrigo, maybe I'll try lace again this year. BUT, I WILL NOT CAST ON UNTIL I FINISH AT LEAST TWO PROJECTS! I promise. I think lace is really one of those things you just have to keep going on. It's easy to lose your spot and with all the Y/O's things can get tense. So, as I said... finishing some stuff first, for sure!

Speaking of fnishing. Lindsey and I worked on our socks yesterday. She worked on the 2nd sock from the November Mystery Sock-Butterfingers. I worked on my Sophie Socks that I started the other night. It's a 6 stitch pattern from the More Sensational Socks book called Crosshatch Lace. It's coming along well, but SOOOOOO slow! OMG! I've only finished like 4 repeats so far. Then I was having a bit of trouble seeing and stuff cause my eyes were hurting. I thought it might be the color of the yarn contributing, so I picked up my Butterfingers sock and worked a couple of rows before realizing my eyes were just plain exhausted. I could barely keep them open. So I came to bed (6:30) and ZONKED OUT! I first woke up around 9, then crashed back out. Woke up around 10, got up, put eye drops in, took some more pills and back to bed I went. So of course at 4AM, WIDE AWAKE! But that's ok. Brian will be gone all day which means I can get a bit of cleaning done and then nap.

Oh and I'll be doing some knitting as well.

So my plans for the week are to work more on the sleeves of the green sweater and the socks. Lindsey and I discussed yesterday how many people are going to try and do a pair of socks each month and she thought if she did nothing else she could do socks, but then she wouldn't be able to work on anything else. And I was thinking depending on yarn weight it would obviously be faster do to worsted weight socks... but who wants that, right?! SO of course we like the delicate fine yarns for socks which in turn take for freaking ever. But I did more thinking on it in the wee hours of the morn today and I thought having a goal of getting at least ONE sock of a pair done would be doable. Especially for me considering I work on a multitude of things at the same time. SO, if I did at least ONE sock per month for the rest of the year, I should end up with 6 finished pair. That's a good goal I think.

And since I don't have an updated picture of my current sock WIPS, I leave you with a shot of the ever adorable Sophia!

Stash: More sock yarn

So, in doing a favor for a friend yesterday, I was tempted by the gooey sock goodness at the merc and bought another skein of Tuscan Grove yarn! :) I heart it, so many pretty colors.

And when I got back to my car, I realized I had a couple more skeins I bought recently and hadn't posted about.... So I brought them all back in to work with me and photo'd them. Please see below.

Beautiful purple Wildfoote


Pretty purplish Tuscan Grover


And lastly the newest Tuscan Grove...


Interestingly enough, the two purples look very close to true color on screen, but that last one is much brighter in person. Anyway... I keep buying all this darn sock yarn and I'm working on sweaters... what the heck!

Maybe I should add to my 2009 resolutions to make and FINISH more socks, too!

Bringing up the resolutions... good pal Lindsey pointed out the other day that since I was resolving to finish things in 2009, that maybe have a resolution to learn cast on's might be counter productive cause then I might be tempted to start MORE stuff. And I whole-heartedly concur with that statement, however I had decided with learning new cast-ons, I was just going to make swatches of them. Probably in a cheap ol' acrylic or some "waste" yarn. I just really want to do them, so I can understand the method as well as the different feels of the cast ons and why they might be useful for different projects.

And just so you know... I'm a big fan of doing my crochet cast on lately. This is where you make a crochet chain over the knitting needle to cast on. It goes so quickly and when you are casting on for like 200+ stitches... makes things go much faster and you don't have to worry about not having a long enough or too long tail. The downside of this cast on is it leaves kind of a chunky edge. I'll pic-post that later as I don't have it with me right now. But for ease and speed, I'll take it.

In real knitting news... I cast on the sleeves for the Green Verena Cable sweater the other day. I decided to do them at the same time on one cable needle. They are back and forth and it's pretty easy. Plus, now I don't have to worry about them being sized differently and I don't have to be as concerned that my row count is off and I'm cabling in the wrong place. So bonuses all around. Of course with the good, now the bad... it's taking for effing ever! Seriously! Each sleeve is a 54 stitch cast on and so in theory it's 108 back and forth and it seems forever to get through a row. But.... I have a long weekend and hopefully I can get some good knitting done, dependent on the eyes and how they are feeling after surgery.

I might start a mindless sock that I don't need to "see" this weekend. that I could probably do by feel. LOL!

Happy New Year all! Brian and I will be out tonight and I'll update for project 365 tomorrow! Be safe!