WIP Roundup - The Active

I keep thinking about writing here, and I keep not doing it.  So I've decided it doesn't matter if I have nothing "important" to write about, I'm just going to write about what I'm crafting, and if something more exciting happens, I'll write about that too.

As a starting point I thought I'd start a run through of all the various projects I have in progress.  As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a monogamous crafter, so there are a lot of them. Today I'm talking about the ones I've been actively working on recently.

The Cayambe poncho is the one I'm closest to finishing, and plan to have finished in the next couple of days.  When I went to Carolina Fiber Frolic in November, someone was wearing one and several of us decided to make it, so I want to have it finished before the spring Frolic the weekend of March 24th.  As soon as I finish the knitting I'll need to block the piece before I seam it up into the poncho and since I'll be busy the whole weekend of the 17th, I need to get it blocked this weekend.  I'm making this in Miss Babs Yowza in the Forever colorway.When I started this post yesterday I still had about 3 repeats of the pattern left to do, but I worked on it a good bit last night and finished the big rectangle.  I'm not going to have enough yarn to do the neckline as written (despite having almost 150 yards more than the pattern calls for) so once I get it seamed I'll have to decide whether to do something different at the neck, or nothing, or maybe I'll raid the stash to see if something I have would blend well or be a good accent at the neckline.

The other project I'm trying to get finished in time for the Frolic is my Sweet Chilly sweater that I'm making out of the Neighborhood Fiber Company yarn I won at last year's spring Frolic.  The yarn is their Studio DK base in the Dupont Circle colorway. Neighborhood Fiber Company will be vending at this spring Frolic, so I want to be able to show off what I made with the yarn.  I'm not quite half-way down the body on it, but once the Cayambe is finished this will take priority and I should be able to finish it up in time.

Also seeing some action this week are my March socks for the Desert Vista Dyeworks year long KAL. These are just vanilla socks for me and this month I'm using the Secret Life of a Snowflake colorway.  I chose this color for March hoping it would bring on at least one snowfall this winter despite the 70 degree days we've been having, and it looks like it might have worked, they're calling for snow here Sunday!

And I have a second pair of socks on the needles.  These are for a friend at work who is an ECU fan and I'm using the Hermione's Everyday Sock pattern although I'm doing them toe-up and will use a different heel.  The yarn I'm using for these is sock yarn dyed by the Friends and Fiberworks yarn store near Asheville in the Happy Ripper colorway.

So that's it for what I've been actively working on this week.  Tomorrow I'll show you what's waiting in the wings.

2017 Crafting Goals

I've set some new crafting goals for 2017.  I'll do an update on how I did on 2016's crafting goals later, but here are the new ones for this year.

• Knit 1 pair of Desert Vista Dyeworks socks/month
  
• 2 projects with handspun
  
• 2 projects with laceweight
  
• 3 projects with yarn added to stash before 2016 (this can cross over with handspun or lace goals)
  
• Reduce total number of stash entries (including trade/sale) to 540 or less (currently 554)
  
• Spin at least 12 fiber stash entries
  
• Reduce fiber stash entries to 65 or less (currently 70)
  
• 3 sewing projects of some kind
  
• Stay on track with Frosted Pumpkin Happily Ever After monthly pattern
  
• Aim for more yardage out than in on a quarterly basis (handspun created does not count as yardage in, but handspun knit counts towards yardage out)

I've got a few other goals that aren't crafting related, but they're still in generalizations at the moment, so maybe I'll talk about them at some point.

As usual, I'm going to try to start posting here more, but we'll see how it goes.

WIP It Into Shape Wednesday

Knitting WIP
This week's knitting WIP is the pair of socks I cast on New Year's Day.  As I mentioned, one of my goals for 2016 is to knit at least 12 pairs of socks.  I don't know that I will do exactly 1 pair per month, but I know that if I finish at least 1 pair each month, I'll hit my goal, so these are January's pair in progress.

I'm just doing a plain "vanilla" sock, toe up.  The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in Rainbow. I will do the Fish Lips Kiss Heel when I get to that point.  I prefer to knit my socks two at a time on two circulars if possible.  There are occasions when doing certain types of patterned socks where that's not possible, but if I can, I do.

These are being housed in my Dr. Who Tardis bag from Erin Lane Bags.  This is a small sock bag that has a divider inside to keep two skeins of yarn separate.  I love the fabric and I like the interior design.  I'm not a big fan of the way she does her drawstring on this bag.  The bag is very well constructed, it's just a personal preference thing.  I prefer one drawstring coming out one side with a tension clip or something.  This one has two ribbons running through and you pull from both sides. This is the first of her bags I've bought, so it may just be this particular style of bag.  I bought this one at SAFF, so I'll have to look at her others next time.

I'm using a Poke Me Not from JanBSmiley to not only keep my stitches from sliding off the needles, but to keep the small pointy needles from poking through the bag.  I have about 7 of these things because I use them on just about every project.  Highly recommend!


WIP Me Into Shape
I've decided to add weightloss progress to Wednesday's as well.  After all, I'm a WIP too.  I don't really want this to become a weightloss blog, but I don't want to ignore that part of my daily life either, so I will attempt to strike a balance between sharing some of my efforts to be healthier with you without going overboard.

I may do a longer post at some point with a little more of my lifetime battle with my weight, but suffice it to say it's not the first time I've made an effort to lose weight.  I've tried tons of times, and even been successful a couple of those.  I can lose weight when I set my mind to it.  I just need to make it stick at some point.  But for now, I need to focus on losing.  Hopefully by the time I get to where I want to be this time, I'll figure out how to maintain it too.

I'm a lifetime Weight Watchers member, but I'm way over goal.  I've tried to get back into WW the past few months, but it just wasn't clicking and with the changes to the new program, it's not going to work for me.  So I'm doing this without an official program of any kind.  I need to make lifestyle changes that are just that, my lifestyle, and not work this program or that, or this eating plan or that.  So my current tools are my Fitbit Surge and the Fitbit App to track my food intake.  I'm trying a couple of different online groups to find the right fit for support, but mainly I'm trying to eat healthier and move more.

I "officially" started last Tuesday, January 5th and I will record my weight every Tuesday morning.  Doesn't mean I won't weigh myself other days, but the weight I will record for tracking purposes will be whatever I weigh Tuesday morning before I get into the shower.  So yesterday was my first weigh-in day and I did really well this week.  Of course, the first week, when you go from eating a bunch of junk to actually eating somewhat healthy is always good, but it's always a nice boost as well.

I have a lot of weight to lose, and I haven't decided yet whether I want to share actual numbers here or not.  I have a feeling that if I'm actually successful in making some progress this time I will get more comfortable with sharing the details, but until then, I'm sorry if I keep that part vague.  I will say that my first goal is to lose 5# by February 2, and in one week I'm well on my way to that goal.

Happy Hump Day!

Crafting Update

There's been too much knitting, spinning, and overall crafting happening this year to completely cover what I've worked on this year.

You may remember that my crafting goal this year was to avoid any goals or deadlines and to just craft what I wanted when I wanted.  I've been pretty successful, although it's resulted in quite a few more works in progress (WIPs) than I usually have. 

I usually have 5-6 WIPs, sometimes venturing up towards 8 or 9, but right now I have 13.  Three of those are long-term scrap blanket projects and one project is the beaded lace shawl I've worked on off & on for the past 4 years (hint, no progress made this year really, but it's going to become a priority in 2016), so I guess that's really only 9 WIPs, but still a lot.  I'll share some more info on most of those soon.

Despite the "no deadlines" goal for this year, a couple of the WIPs are items I'd like to finish for Christmas gifts.  One of them will most likely get finished, the other probably not, but that's o.k.  I don't really consider these violations of the no deadlines rule since I'm not going to feel guilty if neither of them get finished. The one that probably won't get finished in time for Christmas is for my grandson, who's not quite 5 months old, so I doubt he'll notice.

I did participate in a couple of knit-a-longs (KAL) this year, because KALs are just fun.  It's fun to work on the same project at the same time as other people and share info on where you are in the pattern, ask questions, etc.  Most of the ones I did this year were with the Carolina Fiber Girls.  The did a KAL in the spring where everyone made something with Jones Street yarn from The Copper Corgi.   The KAL lasted a couple of months and I actually finished 2 sweaters.  I made a Hiro out of Jones Street Worsted and a Triticum out of Jones Street Sport.

I don't have a modeled shot of this one.

 

Looks great with my sweatpants doesn't it?

 

 

 

 I also couldn't resist the competition of Socktober with the Carolina Fiber Girls, and I completed 7 pairs of socks in October.  There were points involved for different things and I actually came in 4th place and won a skein of (you guessed it) sock yarn.

Collywobbles

Fireweeds

I was spinning pretty regularly the first part of the year, but not as much since work started getting so busy.  For some reason I just lost my spinning mojo.  I've spun a little here and there, but right now, the project on my wheel is one I started September 12th and I'm still not done spinning the singles.  I'll get back to it I know, it's just not what I've felt like doing as much lately.

I haven't done any weaving since March really.  Just haven't made the time to set up the loom with a new project.  I bought some yarn at SAFF specifically for a weaving project though, so I'll definitely get something started in the new year if not before.

While it's been nice not to set any rules for my crafting this year, I think I'll be going back to setting some goals for 2016.  I'm still going to try not to get too over-committed on things with deadlines, even if they are self-imposed ones, but I like to have a bit of a plan for my knitting, and I like checking things off a list.

January Crafting Recap

I can't believe it's February already, so I guess you get the last 3 weeks of January crammed into one post.  Not that there's all that much to tell really.

So far the "no goals" thing is going well, although as I mentioned before, you'd be surprised how hard it is NOT to set goals.  It's made me realize how often I set little goals and make bargains with myself..."if I do X, then I can do Y".

On the knitting & spinning front, I've enjoyed just working on whatever I feel like in the moment.  It means that I didn't finish a lot in January and I have a lot of works in progress (WIPS), but that's o.k.  The flip side is it means that I'm actually enjoying working on whatever I'm working on at that moment, and not feeling like I just "need" to work on it because I haven't in a while, or I have to finish it for a deadline, or some other reason.

I did finish knitting this pair of socks for me.  I also did a little weaving and wove a scarf. My edges are still really bad and uneven, but I haven't practiced much.  I'm taking a couple of weaving classes at Carolina Fiber Frolic in March, so hopefully I'll get better.

I've cast on a couple of new things, and I won't show you all of them, but one item is a reknit of the Water for the Elephants socks in the exact same yarn & colors as I knit them before.  I wrote here about the laundry tragedy that killed my last pair, so I won't repeat it now, but fortunately I have more of the same yarn, so they can be recreated!  Ann, one of the Carolina Fiber Girls recently started knitting herself a pair, and it inspired me to get started remaking mine.  So far I have a little of one leg done.

In spinning news, I finished my Sweets Off the Wheel group  "Squatch" SAL.  This was 3 different colorways of 2 ounces each of fiber from Three Waters Farm.  I ended up just spinning all 3 into singles and then plying the together as a 3 ply.  I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out, although I had no idea what to expect. 

I also practiced my woolen spinning a little with some mystery fiber from last year's Carolina Fiber Frolic.  I plied some of it with some other random fiber I had on hand, and then when I ran out of that, I just chain plied the rest.  The result is just evidence that I should probably practice my woolen spinning more.  Or maybe not, I can't decide.  I really like the smoothness of worsted spun yarn, so that's kind of my preference.  On the other hand, woolen spun is much lighter, so would make a lighter sweater, etc.

I have no idea what I'll do with either of these.  They're only 87 yards combined.  I'm thinking about knitting them up into some squares and then felting them for coasters, although the blue/green I added to the one has some silk in it, but I think I don't think it's enough to keep it from felting enough to be dense.

That's about all my crafting since my last post.  I spent the weekend sick, and didn't knit a stitch or spin at all.  I still didn't feel 100% this morning, so I took the day off in the hopes that a little more rest, Vitamin C and ibuprofen would get rid of the last of the icks.  I felt a lot better by this afternoon so I did one productive thing and washed the pile of handspun that has been accumulating since sometime in October. It's a crappy picture, but you can see I'm not kidding when I say PILE of handspun.

I feel like I should have some sort of ending statement here, but I don't, so until next time....

FO Friday

I've been trying to add more hand knit socks to my sock drawer and here's my latest pair.  I like the way the yarn striped around the foot, but I got some pooling on the legs because I had to increase the number of stitches to fit my calves. Just a plain vanilla sock with a 3/1 rib, but I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel for the first time and I think I like it.  I've started a pair for Rob using the same method, so we'll see how it works for him, but I think it may become my "go to" heel for plain socks.

I used to think I'd never really be a sock knitter because I had the hardest time making a pair that fit.  But I seem to be getting better at it, and really, once you wear hand knit socks in the winter, you really won't want to wear anything else!

Getting Stuff Done

Rob and I had a nice day Saturday just running around doing a few errands and having lunch.  I needed to go to a fabric store in Southern Pines to see if they had something appropriate to make a table runner for the baby shower my mother & I are throwing for my sister, and I wanted to go to WalMart to look for a couple of picture frames to put some stuff up in my craft room.  So Rob went with me and we had lunch at Mellow Mushroom and also stopped a couple of places he wanted to go.  He bought a new circular saw at Lowe's and I found the frames I wanted at Michael's finally.

I bought a print at Carolina Fiber Fest a couple of weekends ago of a painting by Ken McNeill.  He's a local artist, and his artwork was chosen to be the cover for this year's Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. He was extremely nice and was more than happy to take a picture with me and my two friends Michiele and Peggy, who also bought the same print (no wonder we get along so well).

One of the frames I bought Saturday was for that print, so it's finally up on the wall above my desk.

It's called "B-ewe-tiful Family".

Yeah, I know it's not perfectly centered, but I can live with it.

I love to do swaps on Ravelry, and one of my favorite every year is the birthday swap. One of the requirements of the swap is that you include something handmade in your partner's birthday package.  A couple of years ago my partner was from Estonia, which is well known for its knitted lace, so I asked her to knit me a small piece of traditional Estonian lace in the "traditional" yarn and she did.  I can knit Estonian lace, and I have, but it's just cool to me to have some knit by an actual Estonian.  I'm geeking that way.

Anyway, I had it stored away because I couldn't figure out how to actually display it, when it dawned on me I could just frame it.  So that's the second frame I bought Saturday, and I really like the result.  I also needed a place for Swatch, Rosie, and Bobbin to sit, so I put up a little shelf that had been just sitting in a corner of our bedroom and put the framed lace on that as well instead of actually hanging it.

I like it, although if I end up with more sock monkeys at some point, I will probably actually hang the lace piece a little higher so it can still be seen.

Sunday was a day of finishing.  I finished my niece's first communion veil late last week, so it needed to be blocked so I can drop it by their house this week because the first communion is this coming Saturday.  (No, I didn't cut it close, whatever do you mean?)  You'll have to wait until after the event for pictures though.

I sewed buttons on the little tunic/dress I just finished for my granddaughter.  It was supposed to for Easter, but I just got around to buying the buttons last week, so she'll be getting her Easter basket a little late.  Hopefully I'll get it and the other Easter items I have shipped to Texas sometime this week.

Cute little button

I killed a pair of socks today.  I'm wash my hand knit socks in the washing machine with other clothes and then hang them to dry.  That's the whole purpose of superwash in my mind, and I'm just lazy that way.  For some reason I decided today that if I washed my lovely stranded elephant socks inside out, then the outside part wouldn't get as fuzzy.

Aren't they lovely?  This is what they looked like going into the wash.

What I didn't think about was how turning them inside out would expose all those lovely yarn floats to snag onto anything and everything else in the wash with them.  I'm guessing that's what happened, as there were a couple of items with small zippers in the same load.  This was the result.....

Insert sobbing here

I am so sad.  It's all my fault, and I can't even face fixing them.  This is the worst part, but I found a similar smaller place on the other sock.  I'm thinking at this point that I'm not going to try to fix them, but just knit a new pair.  I actually have more of these exact yarns in enough yardage to make an identical pair, so that's what I'll do....when I can face it.  Looking on the good side, when I wore them the other day I was thinking that I'd made the cuff a little too lose, so now I can make it better right?

In an effort to end this post on a happy note...I finished the pair of socks I've been knitting recently tonight.  I made these a lot taller than I usually wear my socks because I wanted to get to all the colors on this yarn.  We'll see if they actually stay up when I wear them, but at least I have a new pair to add to the drawer.

Resting Up and Gearing Up

Wow! I can't believe it's been three weeks. This has been a month of resting up and gearing up for the fun that begins tomorrow, otherwise known as legislative session.

On the resting up front, we spent a weekend with friends down in SC and have otherwise been enjoying some down time. This past weekend was spent laying around the house partially due to the ice outside and the rest a combination of Rob being sick and me being lazy.

On the gearing up front, work has been steadily increasing and I've just been trying to leave at a decent hour every day because I know that soon that won't always be an option.  I've also been trying to work on some personal goals for 2013.

I've decided that 2013 is "The Year of Knitting Socks", so one of my knitting goals is to knit 13 pairs of socks in 2013.

Aren't they lovely?

My other personal goals all relate to my recurring two goals to lose weight and write more.  At least I   keep trying right?  I'm trying a new tactic this year.  I have a "goal notebook" and once a week I set specific goals for each day of that week.  I also have "to do" for each day for things that just need to get done, but aren't really goals.  I give myself a star, yes a real gold star sticker, for every goal I meet each day and a smiley face, yes a sticker, for each "to do" I get crossed off the list.  At the end of the week I total up my stars and smiley faces.  Sounds silly in a way, but it really is fun to see a bunch of stars in one day!  So far, I'm only getting about 50% success per week, but once again....keep trying right?

I had something else in my head to write about today, but once again, trying to post a picture here from my ipad has ruined my mood, and now that I've finally come to the laptop to post the picture and finish this post, I can't remember what I had in mind to say.