The Dog Days of Summer

This has been the longest knitting slump ever. All summer, I’ve been knitting this:

It’s a pink scarf for my friend Jen, that I was hoping to have done in time for her visit IN MAY. So much for that! I take the scarf with me absolutely everywhere, but over the last few weeks it’s only made it out of my bag a few times. I took it with me to dinner at the pool tonight, and I got THREE WHOLE ROWS done. Whoop-dee-do. I really need to find my mojo and get this project done! I had such good intentions. Don’t I always?

The sad truth is that my UFO pile is at least three times bigger than the pile of things I’ve actually finished. This has me wondering at times if I even like to knit! Oh, I know I do like knitting, but am I passionately in love with it? I don’t know. Probably not at the moment. I need to find a project that really excites me and makes me want to finish it. Heck, some projects even have road blocks to getting started! Such as:

• The Lace Yarn Sampler Shawl from Knit Picks. It’s even purple, people! My most favorite color. What’s stopping me? It’s knit on two strands of each yarn throughout, so you can drop one and add another color, one at a time. So it blends nicely. Cool idea! Except I don’t have a yarn scale and the idea of winding two little balls out of each hank seems like a pain in the butt. Stupid, huh?
• The Girasole Blanket by Jared Flood. I got some beautiful Eco-Alpaca to knit this in. It is SO soft, and so pretty,and I got it on a discount! But that ball winding thing again is getting in my way. Why oh why do I find ball winding to be a chore? Because my kitchen table is always a cluttered mess, that’s why. I seldom have enough room anywhere for my swift and ball winder to be set up. Sigh…
• The Tam of Doom. I don’t know why I call it that. But I never got past the cast on before having to frog. I’m trying to learn Tubular Cast On and I messed up. I will get back to this…someday.
• My conscience. This is my biggest roadblock of all. I have so many UFOs, so, so many, that really, honestly? I have no business starting something new. There’s a pink scarf to finish after all, and my February Lady Sweater, and let’s not even talk about last year’s abandoned afghan. It was for a sick co-worker. The co-worker is well now, thank goodness, and the afghan is just mocking me. It’s in my active project bin, snickering. Can you hear it?

Sigh.

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Back to Everyday Knitting…

…On what turned out to be a most unusual day. It seems hard or somehow inappropriate to even talk about my mundane knitting when there was such a horrific accident on our Metro system today. I am not the most praying person, but I am indeed praying for all of the victims and their families this day.

But, on to the knitting, even with my heavy heart. I realized earlier today that it’s been a while since I’ve updated Jen’s Hello Kitty Scarf. A solid 6 weeks of knitting, and this is what I’ve got:

It’s probably close to three feet long now. I figure I’ll knit until almost the end of the ball, then fringe. So it will be however long it is. Thankfully, Jen is small and so it doesn’t need to be hugely long. But it will, I am convinced, be quite long enough.

And ok, here’s a yarny confession:

Yes, I hit the Knit Picks yarn sale last week. I got 22 balls of Andean Treasure yarn, with which I am going to make Ysolda Teague’s Coraline Sweater. I met Ysolda at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year and she was wearing that very sweater. I was smitten! And totally thrilled when she said she had made the pattern in larger sizes. Wow.

Then today? I ordered small quantities of brightly colored sock yarn for another birthday card project. I’ll be rushing. Shhh… it’s a secret.

Oh, and Jon and Kate? I’m so over them now. So sad for the kids.

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FO Report: Halloween Scarf

Project Name: Halloween Scarf
Source: http://circe.canalblog.com/archives/2009/04/23/index.html
Yarn Used: Various, but featuring Vitreous Humor, by Insubordiknit
Needle Size: 13, for the eyeball yarn
Date Started: June 2, 2009
Date Completed: June 9, 2009

Notes: I knit most of this scarf on my Singer Cord Knitter, so each cord went fairly quickly. The eyeball yarn cord was knit by hand on size 13 needles. I actually have a little bit left over so I’m trying to decide what to do with it. I think I’ll keep it for decoration. I braided most of the cords loosely and tacked them together a little bit but I did not tack down the eyeball cord in case I ever want to recycle it for another scarf. I’ll try to get a photo of my daughter wearing it tomorrow. It looks much better on a person than on a chair!

Yarn Yummies

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

It’s Cascade Eco Alpaca which I purchased from The Loopy Ewe for 20% off. Sheri is hosting a knitalong for Jared Flood’s Girasole pattern, and well, I had to jump on the bandwagon! The knitalong is supposed to run through October 1, but I doubt I will finish in time. But, wow, the yarn is SO soft and SO yummy… I had to jump at the chance to get some at a discounted price. Oh wow, even though I know I can’t start my blanket just yet, I really want to! I can’t wait to have that yarn in my fingers. Yummy!

Well, I guess I better get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin… just wanted to share the day’s knitting news with people who I know would understand and share my joy. I’m sure most of you know what it’s like to live with people who love you but only tolerate your knitting? That’s what it’s like for me most of the time. Nobody here shares my excitement over the softest yarn ever or the joy of a completed project. (Though I do think my daughter is coveting a skein of the Eco Alpaca at the moment–guess I’d better be sure to count them before casting on for my project!) So, thank you for reading and sharing in the moments with me. It’s great having a community of knitters to share these little things with.

Until next time…

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As If…

Well, here it is, the Friday before the Sunday that I’m going to see my friend Jen for the first time in four years. I’m excited! We have lots of catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago, as I was staring at a ball of hot pink sock yarn on my ball winder, I immediately thought of her. She loves Hello Kitty and and all things hot pink, so this scarf was just the thing:

Except, what was I thinking? Of course, there’s no way I could have gotten it done in time. In fact, I’m not sure how people can get a whole scarf done in a few days or a week. On average, a single scarf takes me about a month, a pair of socks can take about two months, and even a simple felted hat takes me about three weeks. Clearly, this was not going to happen. But hey, I tried.

There’s going to be plenty of knitting time this weekend, though. Our pool opens for the season, which is prime knitting time for me. Plus tomorrow night is the Washington Nationals Stitch n’ Pitch, where I’ll be in good company with hundreds of yarny friends. If you’re coming to the game, look for the goofy lady in a wheelchair with spiky hair, knitting furiously away on a hot pink scarf. That would be me.

Oh well, that’s tomorrow! For now, it’s another day at work. I’m chanting already: Come on, 5 o’clock! See ya!

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Knitting Ruts and Why We Love Them

It’s true; I am a slave to my knitting habits. This week I realized in horror that one of my best friends, who I have not seen in FOUR years, will be in town for a visit in just two weeks. And I’ve wanted to do something special. But what?

Then I realized I had a ball of Socks that Rock in the Hot Flash colorway sitting on my ball winder. (OMG is this a discontinued color? If so, WHY oh why did I not pick up the skein that I saw in a bin at MSW??? Kicking self, now!) Fate stepped in. You see, my friend loves Hello Kitty so much that she even has a Hello Kitty tattoo on her leg. And the Hot Flash yarn is, well, Hello Kitty pink and red. What could be more perfect?

So I grabbed my copies of my red and blue Barbara Walker books, and began to look for a lacy pattern that would fit the bill for this yarn. In the end, I didn’t choose a lace pattern. I chose Twin Rib. The thing is? I always choose Twin Rib. But why? Well, it’s easy, albeit a little boring, and it does make a lovely fabric. In this case, I am knitting the mediumweight yarn on a size 7 needle, which for me, with my loosey-goosey knitting, makes a very loose, drapey fabric. Other times I’ve knit it much tighter, to make a very dense, warm scarf. But it’s almost summer now, and the yarn is shockingly pink. Loose, drapey and fun seemed the right thing to do.

I wish at times that I would branch out more. I have all of the world of knitting in front of me, and I tend to go back to the same, simple patterns, over and over. Why is that?

If there’s time, I’ll knit a red, Hello Kitty-shaped bow and sew it to the scarf, just for added cuteness. I doubt there will be time. But I can dream.

So, this whole thing has got me thinking. Am I the only one who is a slave to my knitting ruts? What are yours? Please let me know I’m not alone. Drop me a line and tell me all about them. I know you must have them. Please tell me that we all do.

Meanwhile, wish me luck in my quest to finish a whole scarf in the next 10 days. Sleep? Who needs it? Gotta Knit! Ciao for now…

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