stash WIPs

So, sometimes it just gets to me. The pregnant potential of all this freaking yarn. Why do I have so much yarn? I don't knit fast enough for it all! And I can feel it there. On the shelf in my closet, in the shelves in my closet, on the three or FOUR bags in the closet, in the hidden insides of the ottoman in my bedroom. It is just there. WAITING. I can't fit anything else in this house. So I'm starting projects just to get rid of some of it.

Well, one in particular.



Isn't that a lovely shade of orange? It's the exact shade of a traffic cone! I got one ball of this stuff in the goody bag at Stitch and Pitch 2007, and traded one of the other balls to my co-worker Constance for her ball of the same, so that I'd at least have two of the same. I keep seeing it in my stash (how could you miss that?!), so I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and start another WIP. Right now, I'm pretty low on WIPs. I only have the ripple blankie, which I'm not really motivated to work on right now. Maybe someday when I'm home sick from work...



Anyway, so I dug out those two balls, and I've cast on for the single cable scarf from One Skein. I'm using size 10.5 needles, and these balls only have 60 yards, so I don't think the scarf will be too long or too bulky. It's thin, the way I like scarves to be, and with a black coat and hat, the orange shouldn't be too hideous. I bet it would even go with olive green. You know, like a hunting outfit!

That just leaves my one main project. I'm sure I mentioned the second rash of babies in my life. My friend Amy went and had another one without me even knowing she was pregnant again! Based on Beth's beautiful example, I decided to knit the Fred Textured Sweater from Natural Knits or Babies and Moms.




It's coming out pretty well. Don't you think?

FO #6-9

These next FOs go together. I debated about whether to really count them as 4, or as 2 (2 versions of two things). However, they took up so much of my time, that I finally came down on the side of counting each thing separately. They are, of course, for a co-worker's baby shower. I'm counting them as done, but the bibs need to have buttons put on, as well as the cute little patches I'm going to sew in the corners of each. One's going to have a butterfly and the other one a tractor. The lucky couple, of course, don't know the sex of the baby, which is why this can work, and also why I went ahead and knit one burp cloth in blue, and one in pink (that also happened to be the colors of sugar/peaches-n-creme that I had in my stash. No extra yarn purchased for this present!



Pattern: Mason-Dixon Baby Bib O'Love
Yarn: Peaches & Creme, bits of left over for the green/yellow/blue bib and 1 regular skein of Lemon-Lime for the other.
Needles: Size 6 Susan Bates straights. I know the ball band says size 7s, but I've always found that size 6 needles gives a firmer fabric, which I think is better for scrubby things like dish cloths or bibs/burp cloths.
Notes: Like I said, I am missing the buttons and patches, but honestly, I'm so done with this project and sick of kitchen cotton, that I'm going to wait until someone actually organizes the baby shower before I finish up the last details. I was a little ahead of the curve on this present.



Pattern: Mason-Dixon Baby Genius Burp Cloths
Yarn: Sugar'n Cream Super Size skein, 1 each, color Patio Pinks and Swimming Pool
Needles: Size 6 Susan Bates straight needles
Notes: I made these two a little longer than the 60 rows called for in the pattern, simply because I had more yarn, but I think I like them longer, because there's less chance of the baby actually spitting up on you.

Sugar helped with the knitting.



She's such a good kitty.

FO #4 & 5

Well, just a quick post to wrap up this unfortunately brief three day weekend. On Thursday, I was able to finally give my assistant his Christmas present. It usually takes me a while to finish his gift, since I'm usually rushing to get everything done by the end of the year for work, but thankfully, he doesn't mind too much, and it gives me a little extra time.

Last year, I made him the Interlocking Balloons scarf from Scarf Style, so this year I wanted to make him a hat. I settled on the Koolhaas hat:



Pattern: Koolhaas hat from IK Gifts 2007--this pattern was fantastic. I made the "man" size hat, although I thought it was a tiny bit too big. Matthew assured me that he was really glad it was longer, since he wanted something that completely covered his ears. I used a cable cast on for a stretchy edge, and the pattern was just so squishy!



Yarn: Cascade 220 in a black heathery color. It was LOVELY. I don't know why some colors of 220 seem softer than others, but this black was great, and I even went back and bought more to make myself a vest later. I also want to make my own Koolhaas hat someday. It looks really good. Don't tell Matthew I tried it on before I gave it to him! :)



Needles: Boye circular size 7US, and size 7US Clover DPNs



All in all, a success! I'm going to make him matching hand warmers for his birthday in March.

******


Most of this weekend was taken up with a family obligation. My cousin's wife is pregnant with their first baby (she lost two pregnancies previous--they've been trying a while!), and they had this big baby shower at their house. I made a sweater a while ago, and last week, I finished some cute little booties to match.



Pattern: T-strap booties, by Claire Montgomerie from Easy Baby Knits--the pattern for the booties themselves was very easy, but the part of the pattern that described how to do the straps was really strangely written. I was able to figure it out and/or fudge it a little, but the result was pretty cool. Everyone at the shower was impressed that the buttons actually worked on the shoes.



Yarn: I held together two strands of the Lane Cervinia Calzetteria I used for the sweater I made earlier.

Needles: US 5 Susan Bates aluminum straights

It was nice to celebrate with them and to hang out with my cousins and my extended family. I don't get to do that very often, so the fact that I had to do 5 loads of laundry on MLK day and clean up the house and do all those other chores that you usually do over the course of a weekend on that last (extra) day was a small price to pay for seeing them and doing what I could to help make the party a success (mostly staying out of the way!). I'll leave you all with a shot of their snowy house. I have two more baby gifts to finish, and then I'll be back to regularly scheduled knitting for myself! YAY.

FO #2 & #3

Well, this weekend has been much needed. I've had a chance to finish up a couple of things that have been languishing through xmas break, since they were too far done to take to Florida.

The first one is one I started right after I finished Spanky's sweater.



Pattern: Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher (rav link).

I originally wanted to make the little silk shrug from Lace Style, but I didn't have enough yarn, and I really wanted to just use the two skeins I had to knit myself a little shrug to wear over my strapless black dress for our civil union. I think the lace will look nice with my dress, which is simple.



Right now, it is too cold to model with the dress. We didn't even end up going outside for the photo shoot. The pattern is really well written, very easy to make, and is really fun to knit.



Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton. Love this yarn! It is so soft, and two skeins made the whole thing. i even knit the collar ribbing a bit longer, just because I had a bit of yarn left over and didn't want it to linger as a tiny ball in my stash.

Needles: I think I used size 9 needles, as per the yarn, but I can't remember now. The whole thing was finished and just needed to be seamed up, but I wasn't able to get that done before the holidays and work panic set in.

I love it, and can't wait to wear it later this year!



Next up, a sweater I finally finished for Stella:



Oh, just LOOK AT THAT FACE. She was miserable and freezing. She doesn't like peeing on the icy grass.

Pattern: Everyday Turtleneck from Knitting with Dogs by Kristi Porter

This is the second pattern I've knit from this book (although first garment), and I have to say, it was very easy to follow, although the armhole directions were a bit confusing. I had to rip out and re-knit them once, because in the book she says the hole should be two inches wide for the size I was knitting, and for an armhole, that's just absurd, so I made them a bit smaller, which made the steeks easier to cut, because with one snip, they were done. I did find that they started unraveling though. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen! I caught it, but sheesh, did I have a moment of panic.

Yarn: Noro Kureyon

This was the yarn suggested for the pattern, as the whole point of the steeks was to have the stripes go all the way around without having to stop them at the armhole. I bought these two skeins on sale when ordering some other yarn from Webs without having anything in mind for them, but they worked out beautifully, don't you think?

Needles: Size 8. I actually used the free 5mm needles I got with an issue of Simply Knitting magazine that I bought during my last trip to London. They're really cute--blue and white swirly plastic. I never thought I would use them, but they worked well for this project--smooth enough to work with the nubby Kureyon.



Gorgeous.

FO #1 Kerns baby dress

Actually, this FO was one of the last I finished before the holidays, but I'm going to count it here since I'm the only one who really cares about this anyway.

As I may have mentioned, I try to give all new babies at work a little hand-knit goodness. I love the people I work with (most of them, anyway!), and I love having an excuse to show them. I think it would be weird if I just started giving out random presents (I know because I tried it once, and it definitely was AWKWARD.), so I like to show off a bit when people have babies, because you get an excuse! Anyway, when I decided to do this, I didn't realize EVERYONE would start having babies at the same time. I think within the last two years, I've made ten or so baby presents just for people at work. Maybe more! Then it died down for a while and now it seems to be cranking up again, or at least there are a few stragglers from the first group. Anyway, I'm back in production.



Pattern: Knitted Dress by Claire Montgomerie, from her book Easy Baby Knits, which Sue gave me during her big destash 2008. Size 6-9 mo.

The book is really simple stuff, but for quick baby shower pressies, who cares? A lot of the projects are in garter stitch, and have simple shapes with clean lines, and I think if this was the only baby book you owned, you'd get bored pretty quickly, but it is great to dip into every once in a while. Sue helped me re-jig the numbers one night at knitting, because my gauge was completely wrong, and the first time I started it, it was sized for a four year old!

The book also shows the dress with a ribbon around the waist, but I really don't think that's necessary or even desirable in a baby dress. Anyway, this is more like a jumper, and I figured that the kid could wear it later over pants.

For maximum wear, I left little vents in the sides of the bodice:


Also, check out those sweet doggie buttons I got in Salt Lake at a craft store that was near the hotel and going out of business:


Yarn: Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton in pink and white, obviously.

I'd gotten this yarn during my second trip to Utah at a Joann's in Provo, just to see if it was any good. I have to say, I think it is almost as good as Blue Sky's organic cotton, although when I washed it (in Soak), it did end up with this REALLY IRRITATING STREAK right across the back that wasn't there before:


You may not be able to see it too clearly in the photo, but it is in the pink section right under the bodice. I told the recipient that it was just because of the dye in the organic cotton not taking right, but what the hell do I know except that I spent a long time on this project, just for it to be f*d up when I'm finally finished with it. So I would say, be wary of the dye doing weird things when the garments are washed.

The yarn also ate the paint off my cheap metal size 9 straight needles, but I don't really care so much about that.

Needles: Size 9 US straights

The dress was for one of the other editors' babies, and he did send me a picture of her wearing it:



I don't think she likes being held that way, but the dress looks really cute!



I have a couple more FOs almost ready to go (one just needs pictures, and one needs to be seamed up (both will be done by the end of the weekend), and I'm almost through with part of Matthew's Christmas present, and then I need to start planning my next few projects. I know the first few: 1) booties to go with the sweater I made for my cousin's baby (shower next weekend), 2) sweater for my friend Amy's second baby, that I didn't know about until I got her xmas card family picture, 3) bib and burping cloth for next work pregnancy, for someone I'm not as close to (in other words, no garment for her). After that, I'm free to start working on other things.

Happy New Year!

Have you had your black-eyed peas today? We did, much good it did. I can't say I'm sad to see the end of 2008. This past year was hard, for a lot of reasons. I reached a lot of goals, both professionally and personally, and I realized some hard truths about my life and my abilities.

On the personal side, I did a lot of traveling--to Australia, most importantly.

On the way back we got to see my brother in Los Angeles.

I also took my first cruise to the Caribbean, with my mother and brother.

I traveled for work too, all over the US and to London.

I went to the wedding of my good friend Salwa.

Stella got very sick and spent four days in the hospital for pancreatitis.

And Spanky and I did register for a civil union license, although we didn't actually go through the ceremony. Sadly, that's still unresolved, but it was still a moving step to take. Finally, my friend Kate moved to the UK, and left a big gaping hole in my work life.

I miss her a lot.

On the professional side, I finally met my goal! I haven't been able to do that for a few years now, but it really made it obvious to me that the stress needed to actually keep going at this pace is just not worth it. I know this is a really bad time to be dissatisfied with your job, but I have to figure something else out.

I don't know if I expect that New Year's resolutions should come true, but I do think it helps focus your mind on what you want to accomplish going forward. This year, I really want to figure out my work situation. I can't keep going the way I have, and I'm not happy. I also want to keep saving money, in case I need it for a down payment on a house, or to move. I want to continue to go to the gym and to try to eat healthier. That's it. I am pretty satisfied with everything else in my life for right now.

As far as knitting goes, I think I did pretty good this year! I finished a lot of outstanding projects, like my niece's intarsia sweater, and Spanky's sweater.

I knit a lot of baby things, and crocheted my first baby sweater.

My rough count for FOs is 26, but I'm sure I'm missing a few small things here and there. The other thing I've noticed from looking back at my FOs is that the complexity of what I'm knitting has definitely increased, and that's great! I've got two more sweaters that I actually wear, and one shrug, a few pairs of socks, and I made a lot of gifts. In 2009, I would like to tackle fair isle, but I also want to work on and from my stash. I want to actually use some of the fantastic yarns that I've collected, instead of always buying, buying, buying. Just looking back through my Flickr stream, I can see a bunch of things I really loved when they came out, and have disappeared from my consciousness. It's time to start matching up projects with stash yarn, and just going for it. I'm not going to set any sort of production goals for myself, because with my job, I just don't have time, but I really hope I can keep going, making things I like knitting and wearing.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping the future holds delights that have yet to be dreamed of.