A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Willpower? Willpower? anyone seen my willpower?

Yeah, I can’t find it either. I was suppose to finish off DH’s gloves before I started the shawl this month . . . but after finishing 6 things (5 of them were UFOs) I just couldn’t help myself. First I broke down and allowed the handspun yarn for the shawl into the house . . . it normally lives with the rest of the stash in the “barn”, a safe distance from my work basket. Then when it begged to be wound into skeins during the baby’s nap I just couldn’t help myself, I gave in and wound it. Afterall, it isn’t like I can wind yarn when he’s awake, right? My swift and ball winder fit perfectly on the two arms of our futon frame and keeping him off things that spin around, not gonna happen in this lifetime . . . so why not do it while he’s asleep, what could it hurt?

From there it was only a matter of time before it snuck over to the needles and began to cast on the 3 little stitches that start the project. . . . how much trouble could 3 little stitches cause? Next thing I knew I had several rows, just to see how the yarn will look knit up . . . and at last check I’d worked the beginning of the shawl to the start of the “repeats” of the lace pattern and then worked the first 10 repeats of the lace.

See:

I don’t think I’ve ever finished this many things in one month before, ever!

Last night I finished off two more projects, Alison’s Sweater (which I only started Wednesday) and Megan’s Cardigan which I started in December but needed to put buttons on. This puts my total for the month at 6 things so far! At this rate I’ll have an empty work basket (and room for new CO objects) in no time!

This is Alison’s ballet sweater, done in wool-ease, not my favorite yarn to work with but its easy care so we gave it a try . . . A little over one skein made this sweater. Pattern from the Lion Brand website.

And this is Megan’s carigan. I’m not thrilled with it. The Wool ease isn’t something that blocks well so you can’t clearly see the lace pattern. I would have been better off with the suggested yarn of Patons wool but I was going for the easy care thing . . . so sweaters of the same yarn for the girls but not the same sweater. I figure their annual sweaters will be either the same yarn or the same pattern but not both since they are, afterall, individuals.

Happy Monday!

Its going to be a long day here . . . its raining and grey so we’re stuck in. And we’re really stuck in because DH is on a double shift today and tomorrow. Leaves about 9:30 am and gets back well after baby is in bed. Means we don’t have the car to go anywhere . . .

And to top it off, my main contact with the outside world on days like today, Knitters Review Forums, are down for database maintanance! Going to be a long day indeed.

Last night I was too tired to work on sewing up baby sweaters and deal with buttons so no progress there . . . but I did do 3 more repeats of DH’s scarf. Its now at the unoffical 1/2 way point. I had figured it would take about 60 repeats to reach the suggested length and I’m at 30. I haven’t quite used up the 2nd ball of yarn yet and I have 4 so I figure I’ll just keep going till the yarn is gone . . . looks like it will be a few more than 60 repeats that way. Its a good project for nights I’m too tired to do much else since its a 7 row repeat and the first 6 are k3, p3 ribbing; makes for good tv knitting.

Well, off to get some laundry done I guess . . . fun, fun, fun.

More FO photos, updates and a Blog Contest

Here is a picture of the socks that were finished on Wednesday, in use that same day. They just fit so the next pair will need to be even bigger!

This is the Lavold Sweater, not the best photo of it but it will do for now. If I can get to it I’ll dig out Molly the Manequin from the barn and have her pose with it . . .

Its been a busy few days around here with some knitting getting done but not as much as I’d like. I am basically done with the baby sweater. It just needs to be sewn up. And since I finally got to the fabric store I have buttons for the older niece’s sweater so we’ll hopefully have both of those finised and photos taken soon.

I must confess, Yesterday, I bought yarn. I bought yarn for the baby gift I’m working on for the step-niece’s June baby and I’ve decided on a log cabin style blanket. Its done in squares so I’m going to start it sooner than April and do a square here and there as the startitis hits. Hopefully, that will both keep me from starting extra things for now and get the blanket done sooner.

I also realized yesterday that we have another friend who is expecting the end of next month. They are really friends through the baby’s Godfather, but someone we see from time to time and I want to knit something for their new little one. I haven’t decided what that will be, perhaps a blanket, perhaps just a sweater . . . not sure yet but I’ll have to decide soon and get started. Perhaps the stash and I need to spend some time together for me to figure that one out.

Last night I made the startling discovery that the last remaining undamaged socks need to be darned. All the heels of my socks have worn thin recently and it seems all at the same time. One pair is the Encore pair that I knit on our trip in October so I haven’t even worn them very much. And I’ve been washing everything by hand and line drying/blocking them so they aren’t seeing any hard washing time either. Some of these socks existed around here for years before showing any wear at all and now all of a sudden its an issue. After careful consideration I believe the culprit to be out rugs. Shortly before we had the baby we got area rugs for both the living room and his bed room. And since they were going to see hard use with a child we didn’t exactly go for good, high-end wool rugs either. These are relatively inexpensive nylon carpet. And since I wear my hand-knit socks constantly without covering in the house I’m guessing that the nylon rug is taking a toll on my socks. Guess I’ll have to start wearing my slippers more often . . . and I’ve got a lot of socks to darn. Does darning socks count as a UFO? Or just Mending pile?

There is a reason my knitting calendar is written out on a dry-erase board for the next few months worth. My mom came for a visit earlier this week and while we were talking about my projects (she’s a quilter so she “gets it”) we realized that since she and my step-father are planning to move to Northern Maine before the end of this year, the shawl that I’ve been spinning yarn for is probably not going to be her most immediate need.

We’ve been planning for a pretty lacy number done with an ocean theme both in stitch and color. It will be nice for getting dressed up to go somewhere but not the warmest thing. She mentioned that for more immediate use she would much rather have something a little thicker and warmer. We looked through a few things and decided on the Praire Shawl from Folk Shawls. She’s going to wear it more as an everyday type shawl so something relatively simple was what she wanted and that fit the bill. And since I had told her about my not buying yarn this year she has asked that I may every effort possible to knit it from the stash, provided I have a weight that fits the bill and we can find the right color. So the lace shawl has likely been postponed to a 2008 project and we are going to do the praire shawl instead.

Which leads me to this:

That photo above is a picture of the Lace yarn I plied today for Mom’s Lace Shawl.

Since I’ve been working on the yarn for a long time now I’ve decided to finish spinning it even though I won’t likely use it this year. That way we can move on to other spinning projects without leaving this one as a UFO.

I’d actually forgotten how magical plying can be. Watching the way the colors form and change in the yarn as the singles are plied together. It can be really interesting, though sometimes the interest level can wear thin when it takes a long time to get the yarn plied as it did with this.

While I was working on it I had an idea. . . .

Blog Contest

This is a very simple contest. All you have to do to enter is take a guess at how many yards of yarn are on the bobbin in the photo above. Rather like guessing how many jelly beans were in the jar in school. To keep it simple, here are the rules.

1. To enter, leave a comment in my comments area from this post with your guess as to yardage and a way for me to contact you. One entry per person please.
2. Each number may only be used once, like on “Price is Right”, so guess early to have the biggest selection. If someone else has guess that number please choose a different number.
3. Closest guess, in whole numbers only, without going over the yardage will be our winner.
4. If I am unable to contact the winner within a resonable amount of time (like a week) then the next closet guess will be contacted . . .

Ready for the prize?

The winner will receive their chose between the following: Either 1 oz of Cashmere spinning fiber or 60 yds of handspun, lace-weight Alpaca. Both are shown in the photo below, Cashmere on the left, Alpaca yarn on the right.

Entries will be accepted through Thursday night and I’ll announce the winner on Friday.

Okay, off to knit.

Update: I gave M the three options for the sweater neckline and, bless her, she chose the “do nothing, option. I mentioned that meant I would be starting the baby sweater today and she suggested that I at least pick open the fingers on the gloves that need finishing first. Well, okay, she let me off easy on the other project so sure, I can do that. . . . turns out I probably should have waited. I must have fixed them already because after I had them open DH came home and it turns out that with the exception of what I unraveled, the one that was done already fits him. Okay, so that will be a quick fix and I just need to finish the hand and do fingers for the second one and he will be all set.

That means I’m up to 4 UFOs that have become FOs. I should have pictures to load tomorrow sometime . . . and I’ve started the baby sweater. I’m a couple of inches into the back so far. I worked on it while sitting in the yard during toddler play time.

He was having a ball, playing in his car, chasing the dog and a neighbors cat that braved the yard (seemed more afraid of baby than dog) and collecting acorns and rocks to give to Mommy. I got cold long before he did and when I finally couldn’t take it anymore we came in, after about 40 min outside. Not too bad for January!

Okay, off to work on the sweater before its time to start dinner.