FoF: Getting Back To It, part 2

So I decided to pick up a small project after finishing that earlier frogging.  It's a hat.  One that, according to my project notes, I actually finished once -- but it was too small so I frogged it back to where the decreases began with the intention of knitting more rows straight. ... The notes, however, didn't specify how much more I thought I'd need to do. And looking at where I had placed a lifeline, I'm guessing that I've knit about an extra inch (maybe a little less) in pattern before the decrases.  Not sure how much longer I need to go at that.  I wish I'd done enough hats to have gotten a sense for how much I'd need to do to get the right size for me, but alas no...

Anyway, this is my "Dreaming of Berets" (pattern: Reverie by Amy Swenson):

It'll look better once it's finished and blocked, of course.

And as the baby has just woken from her nap, I'll have to put this project down and resume another time.

FoF: Getting Back To It

So, um... nothing has happened since that last entry so far as Finish-or-Frog is concerned.  Nothing until today, that is.

I saw my husband frogging his socks -- he wants to restart them and do them differently.  He hasn't knit in years.  ... so I decided I should do at least one thing on my Finish-or-Frog list while my daughter is napping.

So I grabbed the Forever Shawl and ripped!  Felt good to finally find an end to that eternity of wasted yarn.

Here's the photo I took in Feb 2012 before letting it hibernate:

... and it looked pretty much exactly the same when I pulled it out today.

But now, it's just a nice, compact ball of yarn.  Yay!  Only took a couple minutes to do as well as I hadn't gotten very far into the shawl before deciding I despised working the pattern.

Now I have a gorgeous skein of 100% Merino laceweight yarn that's slightly more purple/pink than the red in that photo above.  My cameras have never been good at capturing the color of things for me.

And I can't decide whether to hunt down a pattern in my queue that would be good with this yarn, or move on to another FoF project...

FoF: Starting Early

Sometimes it's best to get started on things when the inspiration hits rather than when you pre-schedule it.  I was feeling like I needed to accomplish something, so I went into my WIP closet and looked for something small that I could rip out or finish quickly.

Lo and behold, I stumbled on the learning piece I started for an entrelac class at Stitches West in 2012.  The pattern was supposed to result in a scarf, but I was never going to finish it because it required cutting the yarn (and therefore weaving in ends) far more frequently than I'm ever comfortable with.  Unfortunately, this also meant that the portion of the yarn already used was going to be useless if frogged.

So I slipped the live stitches back to the other needle, and retroactively bound off the stitches I could, leaving only 2 live stitches mid-row.  I then wove in the ends (all gazillion of them) and with an extended piece of scrap yarn, I wove in the 2 remaining live stitches.

And voila... a "finished object" that's about 8" x 5".  I have no idea what to do with it, other than give it to my toddler to see if she's interested in playing with it.

So that's one down ... 19 to go.

Now to put the remaining yarn back with its mates in the bins in the closet...

Goal for 2015: Finish or Frog

So I've got a bunch of unfinished knitting/crochet (mostly knitting) projects (aka "Works in Progress" or WIPs).  Many of these have been sitting untouched ("hibernating") for more than a year... some for far longer than that.  I can blame pregnancy complications and early motherhood for the past year (I wasn't able to work on anything between about August/September 2013 and September/October 2014), but not for much of the time before that.

Anyway, the time has come.  I am sick of having so many unfinished projects around - so I have decided that by the end of 2015 I need to go through all of those hibernating projects (currently 19 -- though possibly adding the 2 that are currently active WIPs) and make a serious decision: finish it? or rip it out (i.e. "frog" it) to reclaim the yarn?

If I choose to frog the project, I have to commit to doing that and actually get it done, or it'll keep sitting in my closet taking up space, using up a set of needles or a hook, possibly holding on tight to stitch markers or other notions.  

With 19 projects to sift through, I'm going to set a minimum pace of reviewing 3 per month, so that I will have gotten through (almost) all of them by the end of June to decide how I'm going to proceed with each.

Knowing me, I'll be somewhat paralyzed by the "what if" ... specifically "what if I regret frogging that?" though I can't think of any scenario off-hand where I might wish I still had a specific project on the needles when I hadn't worked on it in so long.  The other factors that may slow me down with my decisionmaking are sentimentality and my dislike of wasted time/work.

For example, some projects are ones that I think of fondly as "firsts" and I really would like to finish them, especially with the amount of time I put into them, but there are other circumstances that get in the way -- such as the shawl/wrap that I'm about halfway through but that is so heavily and intricately cabled that I can't figure out what row I left off on, and being the perfectionist I am, I don't dare try to restart work for fear of starting in the wrong place in the pattern.  I'm sentimental about this project, being also that it's the one that got me started with serious cabling (which I've since gotten over entirely), and it was the one that got me out to a specific local yarn store for the first time.

Hopefully, throughout the year, I'll be posting these various projects here with discussion about my thought process in deciding whether to finish or frog, and then progress photos.

As many of the projects are small, I should have no trouble finishing them if I choose.  However, some of the projects are significantly larger in size (e.g. blankets, sweaters, etc) and I'm going to allow myself leeway on finishing those.  Rather than requiring myself to finish them (if that's the option I choose), I'm going to require myself to make steady progress.

In the meantime, my goal for December is to finish the two crocheted blankets I started on over a year ago (one July 2013, one November 2012) and have already picked back up this year.  I'm close to finishing one of them, and the other might end up as a 20th WIP for the 2015 project... but at least I already know I WANT to finish it!

This is going to be a tough goal for me, but it should be doable.  Wish me luck, and keep me accountable! 

Quick Update

Tuesday night I experienced a wonderful manic episode in which I made the living room in our house presentable to the guests who were going to be visiting on Wednesday while I was at work. As a result, we now feel we can be ready to have an actual housewarming gathering within the next couple weeks.

Wednesday night, after getting home from knitting and having the house to myself (with DH being out and social with those friends who'd visited earlier), I spent nearly an hour catching up on financial stuff that desperately needed doing. I didn't finish on Wednesday, but it sure felt good to get through so much of it.

Tonight, I finished entering all of our receipts and making sure we had records of everything my credit cards were saying we had spent. Still more work to do to reach the level of completion that makes me giddy, but I've reached happy.

I'm beginning to think that lots of stuff might actually be "put away" before our tentative housewarming (on August 8), as opposed to merely "hidden away". This makes me contentedly satisfied. :)

Now if I could just get myself organized enough that I feel like knitting again...

I'm Back!

That's right, I'm back online. We've moved, and all our utilities have been connected (internet and TV were the last, and those came in today), and most of the boxes have been unpacked... all that's left is reorganizing, moving around some furniture, and settling into a groove. It feels like home. Even the kitties love it. ... though Graham has found it difficult to smell or hear dinnertime approaching. I had to call him no less than 5 times for dinner tonight, and usually the sound of the dishes clinking will bring him. Once he made it to the kitchen, I had to direct him to his food dish -- it took at least 3 attempts! Poor guy. He'll get used to it. He's just not used to having such a big, soundproof house. :)

My knitting has been put on hold -- haven't knit anything since Wednesday -- not even a single stitch! And my new 'craft room' is completely in disarray right now... all the yarn shoved into the closet, with the exception of a couple large boxes filled with yarn that wouldn't fit into the closet... the floor is covered with magazines and patterns and books... and I have no shelves or any sort of organizing stuff in that room. I'm going to get to claim a bookshelf from Silas' Game Room / Office, but that's really only going to take care of the books. I have no idea what will become of my yarn... but at least I've been emptying binders recently so I should be able to organize loose patterns better than I had been...

I've suddenly discovered an ability to toss out some of my old magazines and newsletters! It's amazing how much space I'm gaining by recycling old periodicals from bar associations I'm no longer part of or that don't have articles of interest to me. Amazing. Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of any of my (very limited collection of) knitting magazines yet. I have yet to actually knit anything from any of them that I can recall (I'd have to check my ravelry project page to be certain of that, though... I'm so disorganized without my external organizational tools!), but the reason I bought each of them was because I wanted to knit at LEAST one pattern from each... so I'm definitely holding on to them all for now. And if I do get rid of them, it'll be by letting them go to someone else who'll appreciate them -- NOT recycling. ;)

OK... enough typing... back to organizing. Moving is oh so much fun. ... la la la

Me? A sock knitter??

stockinette socks
Originally uploaded by Niwikki

I've been seriously resistant to knitting socks. I don't know why... probably because my anxieties don't play so well with cuff-down or with one-at-a-time... you know -- fear of non-conformity or with running out of yarn before finishing the toe... and I didn't have any circular needles appropriate for magic loop...

But I had to take pause this last week... remind myself that I had this set of HiyaHiya circs in a size US2 (2.75mm) that I'd received as a sample from my favorite LYS owner (who was considering stocking them, and was wanting opinions)... and I'd been trying for ages to come up with an idea for what to do with the skein of bamboo/nylon sock yarn my mum-in-law gave me for my birthday last year...

When I stumbled upon the knit picks 2-at-a-time-toe-up-magic-loop pattern again (I'd seen it before long ago, but dismissed it due to lack of proper needle), it all started to make sense.

So I've got these stockinette socks on the needles now. They look long, but when I try them on they barely cover the ball of my foot... so it'll be a while longer working it. But already I can tell that these are going to a very comfortable, lightweight, breathable sock, great for warm-weather wear. :) Wonderful timing!

Now I'm finding myself daydreaming about having a few more sets of sock-worthy magic-loopable circs so I can get a few pairs of socks going at once... all sorts of different patterns I want to try out (all magic loop, toe-up, 2-at-a-time, of course... yet different nonetheless) :)

I guess I caught the bug. I have to say that going forward, I will be very happy with any gift of fingering-weight yarn of 400yd or more... ;) I'll always be able to find something to do with it. :) :) :)

Sanity Check

I'm dropping out of NaKniSweMoDo09, for my own mental health.

NaKniSweMoDo (National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon) is something one of my knitting friends talked me into joining this year, as she wanted to knit 12 sweaters this year and wanted companionship in doing so. I was doing well to start with -- finished my first sweater in January, and nearly finished Silas' sweater in February (finished it finally in March), and I've started the third... but I've found myself dreading working on sweaters, especially as it's getting warmer here.

Plus, I have this little nagging voice in my head saying "why knit sweaters when you're trying to lose weight? They won't end up fitting right unless you fail at your goal..." ... and that nagging voice has won.

Instead, I've given in to the joys of knitting shawls/wraps. I'd been avoiding this as it takes about half the yarn needed to do a sweater, but the only yarns I had in quantities enough to do shawls were in sweater quantities and I didn't want to break them up.

But now I'm working on Cozy using Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn on size 8 needles, with an apparently discontinued colorway ("Camel Hair") that I had 4 skeins of just laying around. ... No photos yet, but I'll post some once I get a bit further through. I'm LOVING this. I can't seem to get enough of knitting it. :)

I must really love him, or something.

So I've been working on this sweater pattern for DH.


Finished the body a few days ago ...


and seamed it this weekend - fits him wonderfully.


I had also gotten about 2/3 of the way through the intricate sleeves. I started seaming them up to eliminate dangling ends and to see how they fit.

...

he complained that the sleeves were a bit too snug for his liking.

I'd made a couple mistakes in calculations early on and had started the increase rows a little late, but I didn't think it'd make that big of difference. He insisted, however, that he would really really like me to redo the sleeves properly.

Instead of smacking him upside the head for not appreciating all the work I'm putting into this sweater he requested (hehe, that thought actually never occurred to me until just now), I simply sighed and started ripping out the yarn. ... and found I was perfectly OK with doing so. Can I admit here that I'm actually going to enjoy redoing those sleeves? :)

I worry me sometimes. :)

I still hope to be done with the sweater so he can wear it to Stitches West this weekend. I think it'd make a great anniversary present. :)

Considering Stash

I've decided I need a new outlook in regards to handling my stash. This whole embargo thing, while it may sound good on the surface, and may be well-intended... well, it's not really making me happy.

I've found the big problem with the embargo is that I have a whole ton of yarn taking up space that doesn't make me happy and doesn't inspire me to knit. I've only got a little yarn that inspires me. Of course, I was good with the embargo conditions, that it doesn't require me to use up my stash before restashing... but it has gotten me into a mindset that's not helping my overall feeling toward my stash.

A couple threads on Ravelry pointed me toward this article on "Slow Stashing". I've already started reviewing my stash as listed on Ravelry and moving a few more items over to the Trade page (for trades only, not for sale) that otherwise I'd be keeping in my stash simply because I didn't feel like I could ask dollar amounts that'd make the shipping cost worthwhile.

This in part came about because I just completed my first BIG trade. Or, rather, I just delivered a huge box of yarn to the post office and I expect to receive one in return in about one week's time. I'm getting rid of around 8 pounds of mostly acrylics (as well some cotton blends and one wool) that I was probably never going to get around to knitting, and getting in return a bunch of alpaca and a skein of superwash wool. Doing this made me happy in ways I never would have expected. So the ideas brought forth in the "Slow Stashing" article just made absolute perfect sense to me.

When I get home, I'm going to physically sort my stash and make sure I've got everything listed (and listed accurately) and sorted into "happy" and "unhappy". I'm also actively looking into Yarn Wanted listings, peoples' wishlists, etc, to see about re-homing some of my yarn to people more likely to appreciate it. Over the weekend I'll probably also try to look into trades (which are more complicated to get started)...

I think I'm also going to try to overcome the sweater anxiety and actually cast on a cardigan or pullover. Just have to decide which of my (already planned) projects to do... :)

Thinking on Gifts...

It's holiday season, and Silas and I have come to an understanding.

1. we've bought everything we're going to buy for each other this holiday season. We just haven't wrapped it yet... don't worry, we picked up a bunch of stuff during the big shopping specials on Friday, so we're not going to be disappointed with our unwrapping options on the 25th. :)

2. Looking into the future, I've made Silas promise he will never buy me yarn (without an explicit shopping list from me, I guess) cuz too much is reliant on how much I need/want for a given project, what colors I'd prefer, and all that fun stuff. Of course, an exception could be made for sock yarn (would just need ~400yds of one colorway in a fingering / sock-weight) or for interesting other yarns that could have usages for a single skein... likewise, I won't be purchasing gaming supplies (books, etc) for him without an explicit shopping list, primarily because I have no clue what he'd like or what he already has. ;)

As for other family, I'm trying to do hand-knit gifts this year -- possibly combined with other small goodies. We're running a bit short on time for making stuff for our overseas family members, but I hope we'll be able to send stuff in time. :)

If anyone is wondering what to get for me, I have a few wish lists set up on amazon.com... one with knitting books/patterns/etc, and a couple others. Using these wishlists could help prevent duplicating a gift someone else gives. Then again, I very much enjoy hand-made stuff, or something personally selected. Heck, I very much like receiving cards. ;)

I think Silas and I are going to be a bit bad about sending out holiday cards this year. We haven't even chosen cards or anything yet (except one set of cards that's been ordered but we don't know when we'll receive them)... let alone determined a mailing list. Plus the fact that we only sent thank-you notes to about half our wedding attendees... ... heh. Oops. We'll get ourselves organized at some point, but if we're completely disorganized this year, please don't feel it was intentional!

Anyway, enough rambling. On to knitting.
I'm having a LOT of fun with the stuff I'm knitting right now. I'll post photos and updates once I've made a little more progress. I really want to show off this shawl, but it's still on the needles and I think it'll look MUCH better once it's blocked. :)

Embargoed!

Well, due to an unintentional weekend splurge, I am subject to a self-imposed (husband-enforced) yarn embargo until certain criteria are met.

Criteria for lifting the embargo:
1. All projects on needles at the time of setting the embargo (Saturday, 8 Nov) must either be finished or brought to some other satisfactory conclusion;
2. All projects I purchased yarn for on Saturday, 8 Nov, must be completed, or at least given a fair shot at being completed (e.g. ultimately frogging in despair due to discovering major issues after getting 80% is OK -- giving up and letting it sit around gathering dust is not);
AND
3. All planned Christmas-Gift knitting must be completed.

Only exception is if specific more yarn is required in order to satisfactorily complete any of the criteria above.

The hardest part right now is avoiding even looking at yarn sales online.

Any commiseration, distraction, or tips on how to be satisfied with the stash I have (and figure out what the heck to use it for) will all be welcome. Pointing and laughing will make me cry. ;)

*cough cough cough* ow.

On Tuesday, I was starting to feel allergies coming on.
On Wednesday, I picked up some much needed allergy medications, and that night I slept in the living room on the big black "moon chair" so I could sleep sitting up.
On Thursday, I could barely breathe and spent much of the day wondering whether it really was allergies or something more serious. That night I tried to sleep sitting up in bed (as the moon chair really hadn't been all that comfortable)...

I was woken a couple times per hour with the need to cough. Each time I woke up, I was rather pleased to see that Graham was curled up around my foot (which had come out from under the covers at some point). However, each time I coughed I was dismayed to notice my DH roll over. By choosing to "sleep" in bed thinking that it'd improve my sleep, instead I managed to disturb my DH's sleep.

Finally, at about 5am, I grabbed a tissue to blow my nose. While my nose-blowing is nowhere near as loud as my DH's, the simple act freaked out Graham and the poor kitty went scurrying from the room. So I got up, went into the bathroom, and took some expectorant and got a cough lozenge. As I came out of the bathroom, I noticed both kitties were sitting outside the door with worried looks on their faces. I reassured them both, then came out to the computer.

This cough has very quickly developed into a severe chest cough. I want to hope it's short lived, but I seem to have a history of downplaying coughs only to discover much later that it was a serious issue. For example, in law school, after about 3 months of coughing (without ever feeling sick that I could recall by the end of it) I finally went to the doctor and learned that I *had* had bronchitis, but had recovered with the exception that nobody bothered to let my lungs know that they didn't need to cough anymore... so I had to go on a prescription cough suppressant (actually, something that numbed the cough reflex)... So of course, now I'm worried that I may have bronchitis or similar, or am on my way to being similarly ill from all the congestion dripping down into my lungs.

So, of course, now I'm worried, I can't sleep, I'm in pain, I'm tired, and I don't know whether I should stay home from work to rest and try to get better, or whether I'm just overreacting to allergies that aren't going to get better from rest. Gah.

At least I finished knitting my warm socks last night. Maybe I'll wear those for a while this morning to see if I feel any better. ;)

Knitting update

Jean reminded me with her comment to yesterday's post that I've been neglecting putting my knitting updates on here (probably because I've been keeping my Ravelry account so compulsively updated instead)...

As most of the people I want to keep updated on my knitting are actually *not* on Ravelry, I should probably go back to posting regular updates here.

I've had a bad habit of starting lots of projects before finishing others. I know it's good to have more than one project going on at a time, but it's probably better to have a manageable number of projects going on... ;)

Recently Finished Projects
I've been knitting hats/scarves for homeless teens in the San Francisco area. This is something near and dear to the heart of one of my friends in my Wednesday night knitting group, whose daughter spent time being homeless in San Francisco.


Afghans & Blankets in Progress
This afghan was the first I started, and is nearly done. Only thing left to do is pick up and knit the border. Easy enough... if I had 3-foot long needles. ;) I've got good circulars that'd do the trick, but they're the wrong needle size, so this one is on hold until I have a good set of US 9 circulars at 36" or above.

This is my first time working with cables. I absolutely love this blanket, and so do the cats. It's wonderful that they love it so much, but it makes it difficult for me to finish it while a cat is making biscuits on it. I've gotten about twice as far as this picture shows, but I don't have any recent photos that aren't mostly blocked by a very happy cat... :)

A "drop-stitch blanket"... should be very nice for cool evenings, but the cabled one above would be better for cold nights. It's a simple pattern that requires little thought, and as it's so light-weight it's better for taking on the train... but this one gets ignored most of the time.


I'm also working on a simple baby blanket as an experiment and practice for making gifts for my friends and family who are (or will someday soon be) expecting. Unfortunately, I have no photos of it yet.

Various Other Projects
I'm making a tote bag that I'm going to felt. I'm using scraps of feltable wool that I received from various people on Ravelry who had no use for their scraps. As you can see, it is its own project bag! I love making bags bottom-up. :)

I'm making socks! These ones are for me. They're alpaca. Yum! Silas is coveting them. I may let him have them as my calves are a little big for this pattern. We'll see.

These are the socks I'm making for Silas. If I like them for myself, then I'll definitely let him have the others instead. ;) These are a washable acrylic/wool blend, and will have a shorter leg on them. Silas chose the pattern and the yarn.

This was supposed to be a one-skein purse. Apparently, one-skein wasn't enough. I frogged it once, changed needles, and got back this far only to discover there's not enough yarn left. I'm going to frog it and do something else with the yarn - probably a purse, but a different one.

I was also working on a baby blanket with some interesting cabling going on. Unfortunately, the fabric was coming out far too stiff and it was painful to work with. I've frogged it and now am re-using the yarn for the simpler baby blanket I mentioned above.


... and that's it for this edition of "overwhelmed with knitting updates!" Check back in another couple months for another overwhelming edition! ;) Kidding, of course. Hopefully I'll be better at updating as I go along so I can avoid having to do these massive catch-up posts... :)

ugh...

either I'm sick or I swallowed a huge allergen last night cuz my throat is clogged beyond belief and I think it's dripped down into my lungs. My lungs hurt. :(

On a positive note, however, I've done a whole heck of a lot with my knitting over the past couple months. I still haven't finished that winter night afghan (I still need to pick up and knit the border), but I have finished 2 scarves and 1 hat for homeless teens in the San Francisco area. I've also gotten about 60% through my first-ever sock (next time I'm doing toe-up cuz I'm getting really nervous about whether I'm going to have enough yarn in the skein to finish it), and I've got a beautiful and soft cabled afghan about 40% done that the cats have already decided they thoroughly approve of (which simply means I'm going to have to make a couple more with those yarns).

I also have a few other projects on the needles, and supplies of yarn to last me through whatever natural disaster may occur causing the extinction of all fiber sources. ;)

insomnia?

so here it is, 2:30am, and I'm not even remotely tired.
I've been fully awake (no naps today) since about 8am.
But I'm not tired. And I don't feel like going to bed.
And I really should be up in 3.5 hours to shower before going to work.

...

Possible explanations for the insomnia:

• I thought I was feeling better after the stomach ailment that claimed me after the wedding reception. Around midnight tonight the stomach pain made itself known again. Thankfully it's merely pain, but it means I really should call that specialist my doctor referred me to.
  
  
• Right after Silas went to bed, I went to work stitching another set of blocks onto the Winter Night Afghan. That took longer than expected... and then I noticed I had a lot of loose tails that needed to be woven in but had somehow hidden themselves on the incorrect side of the stitched squares, so I wanted to take care of that... then I decided that I should avoid that problem on the remaining squares by weaving in the tails *before* sewing the squares together... I have 8 of those squares remaining to weave tails into. ... ignoring the 6 squares left to be knit (waiting to see whether I'm going to have enough Deco to finish the sewing-together steps on what's already been done)...
  
  
• I've had the TV keeping me company, playing episodes of Forensic Files that I'd had the TiVo record...
  

... I don't know why I'm not tired. Any of the above (or any combination of) could be a hugely contributing factor, but recently I've been known to fall asleep on the couch with the TV on and knitting on my lap -- even since the stomach issues began.

I'm feeling like I *should* go lay down in bed and sleep... but it feels like I'm going to just be waiting there, awake, for a few hours until my alarm sounds.

... and then I'll fall asleep at the office in the morning, or something.

I think I'll go pretend to sleep and try to trick my body/mind into actually going to sleep. Heck, who knows... might work...

Deco Dilemma...

So I received my new Deco (LB Homespun) yarn in the mail yesterday. It's beautiful and in good condition -- but it's very obviously a different dye lot when set near my older Deco.

The question now becomes the following. Do I:
1) Keep the new Deco for another project and hunt out more Deco from the same dye lot as my old one? (not difficult to find -- apparently LB Homespun dye lots are huge and get distributed all over the country before a new dye lot is needed)
2) Frog the Deco from the last square of my afghan (which had gotten exactly half-way through the Deco portion before I ran too low to continue) and use the new Deco to complete the afghan?
3) Remind myself it's my first afghan and imperfections (which I already have several of) are to be expected... and just continue on with the non-matching-but-similar color?
Newly Added 4th Option! 4) Ignore the square I've started but not finished -- maybe bind it off or slip it to a stitch holder -- and start a new square fresh. It'll mean I may be short on the blue yarn (unlikely but possible), but it'll mean no frogging or need to hunt for more of the Deco dye lot before I can get back to finishing the afghan...

I could really use any suggestions people have to offer! Maybe I should cross-post this to Ravelry... though I'm sure I'll get opinions across the board, and I'd rather get opinions from people I know/trust/etc...

What have I done?

Today's Purchase
Originally uploaded by Niwikki

Probably best to never ever let me loose in a Joann store -- especially with projects in mind and a shopping list!

Winter Night Afghan - beginning to sew

Winter Night Afghan - beginning to sew
Originally uploaded by Niwikki

Well, I've started constructing the new afghan... I've completed 14 out of the 35 squares, and as I was running low on the cream color yarn (Lion Brand Homespun Deco), I figured I should put those parts together first so I could make sure to have enough of that dye lot to stitch together the white parts. If the new yarn I get to finish the contrast stripes is a different dye lot, it shouldn't be noticeable considering the two dye lots won't be touching each other at all ... well ... with one exception.

I'm most of the way done with the 15th square. I have all the blue done on it, and half the Deco... and I'm out of Deco.

The good news is that I have 3.66 skeins of Deco that should arrive on Monday, so I should be able to finish the afghan and have lots left over for other projects. Bad news is that I don't know what the dye lot is, or whether it'll be noticeably different from the rest of it.

Then again, it's my FIRST afghan.. and imperfections are part of what gives hand-knit items their charm... ... right? :)

If that's true, then all my knitting must be exceptionally charming... ;)

I promised photos

The stack of squares -- contains 10 out of the necessary 35:




The squares, in the basic layout they'll be in once stitched together, which they aren't yet: