Monthly Archives: December 2008

New Year

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Rum

My little New Year’s Eve treat, some Tortuga Mango rum with a little orange juice, it’s yummy.  I’m home alone tonight which is depressing but I’ll live.  I’ll have my one mixed drink and then some cheese cake and that will be good enough.

This is also my last picture for Project365.  I didn’t quite make my goal of a photo a day, I missed around ten, but that’s pretty good, better than I expected.  I don’t think I’ll do it again, even though I’ll miss it, but I do think I’ll do some once a week project, maybe a self portrait a week or something.  I’ll think about it this weekend.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the coming year and some things I want to accomplish.  I never make resolutions because I get bored with them and give up but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making a few realistic goals.  Here’s what I’ve been thinking about:

  • I need to declutter on so many (not just physical) levels.  I have to work through some of my personality self-esteemy issues and I really need to clean out my (physical, bedroom) closet.  I have a ton of clothes that will be going to Goodwill and a bunch of crap that I need to just pitch.  I’m a terrible packrat and I have to stop it, this stuff is weighing me down (in a spiritual and physical way).
  • I need to get back in the habit of working out again and not in the obsessive beat myself up way that I did in 2007.  I’ve been feeling really tired and sluggish and I know that getting back in to either walking or running (I’d love to try out the couch to 5k thing but I don’t know if my injured foot can handle that right now) and doing yoga again.  I haven’t had any time for exercising regularly since mid-October and I miss it.  My weight has been creeping back up but that really doesn’t bother me, I don’t care, I’ll always be fat but I’m starting to feel out of shape and my muscles are tight and that I can work on.
  • Get better at the ukulele.  This is just something to give me a break from all the knitting that I’ve been doing for work.  I’ll be ordering my new uke in a few weeks and I’d really like to be able to play good enough that I feel comfortable playing in front of people.
  • Get a loom and weave.  I’ve had plans to get a rigid heddle loom for years and I’m doing it this year.  I need to branch out some, explore some other avenues with my crafting, especially since I’ve started knitting as a job.  I love knitting for KnitPicks but sometimes after knitting on a project for them all day I want to do something else for myself.  Weaving seems like a good break and it will give me something else to do with my handspun.
  • Spin more.  Make another quilt.  Knit a fair isle sweater, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but haven’t.  Block Irtfa’a.  Do more comissioned knitting.  Look in to going back to school.

That seems like a managable set of goals.  I’m working on most of it already, so I guess I just need to keep at it a little more.  I really want this to be a good year, a year where things actually start looking up instead of more of the same.

Happy New Year!

A Bit of Progress

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Sweater

Would you look at that, I’ve actually been knitting.  The body of my sweater is finally done!  I can’t say how excited I am to have hit this little milestone, mainly because it’s taken so long to get here.  I’m mostly a process knitter, I knit because I like to knit, I don’t really care what the end product is (for the most part), which is why I love knitting for KnitPicks.  But I’m also an impatient knitter and I like it when things are done fast and this sweater has been on the needles since October which is entirely too long.  The yoke was fun to knit, I liked all the irregularities in the yarn and knitting with your own handspun is always a treat and to move to that boring stockinette in the round body was kind of a letdown and very monotonous.  But all sixteen inches (at 46-ish inches around, I can’t remember how big I made it) are done and I just need to work up the motivation and find the time for the sleeves.  I had originally planned on knitting the sleeves straight with no shaping but I’ve decided to do a little shaping instead, I don’t think I’d like the bigger cuffs.

Pouch

I’ve had my work knitting (which is just about done) to keep my busy but I did take some time Monday to weave up a couple squares and make a little pouch for my camera filters (a circular polarizer and a UV filter).  I used my four inch Weave-It loom and some KnitPicks Comfy, a cotton/acrylic blend that is very smooth, soft and drapey.  I just wove two squares and sewed them together and I think I’ll use a button and loop closure or some velcro to keep it closed.  This was a quick little project, it took just a couple hours from start to finish (with a lot of distractions) and used barely any yarn.

Spinning

Here’s the start of my big project, spinning for my mom’s scarf.  This is still the Rambouillet/Llama blend, natural colored, and the first of three bobbins.  I have about half of my second bobbin full now and I’m getting ready to do some more spinning now.  I think the yarn is going to turn out a little thicker than I wanted, which is fine, and I’m happy with how consistent and even my spinning is considering how long it’s been since I’ve done any spinning. 

As soon as I get paid for my last KnitPicks project I’m going to buy my new ukulele.  I’ve decided to go with a cheaper model to save a little money, that way if I don’t owe any taxes I’ll be able to order a loom with my saved up tax money (or I can be sensible and save that money towards next year’s taxes).

That’s it for the year!  Have a happy and safe new year everyone!

Since It’s Officially Christmas Eve

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Here’s my favorite non-traditional Christmas song, Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

This song reminds me of the winter of 2000, right around Christmas.  I was snowed in, we got 18 or 19 inches but it drifted up to around three feet in my road and a friend got stuck at my house.  We spent a week or so snowed in, playing the original Sims, drinking cheap bourbon and listening to the Pogues all day.  I miss those days.  2001 was a terrible year for me but that little bit, right at the end of 2000, was as close to a perfect time as I think I’ll ever have.

Decisions

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Forbe's Forest

I’ve decided to hold off a bit on knitting a scarf for my grandma (you can still vote, though!) and make one for my mom now.  My idea of making Forbes Forest out of the KnitPicks Merino Style that I already have isn’t going to work, I just don’t have enough of the yarn.  So I came up with two alternate ideas.  The first is to stick with the same scarf pattern and spin a three ply yarn with this natural Rambouillet/Llama (from a farm that’s just a couple miles from me).  The hardest part of that idea is finding enough time to spin and the fact that I only have two bobbins.  But, for the cables to really look good, the yarn will need to be at least three ply.

Aria

Or, my second idea, go back to my favorite scarf book, Knitting New Scarves, and knit Aria with this handspun Cotswold.  My first instinct is to knit this.  The only problem that I see is the yarn, my mom is the type of person who thinks any natural fiber is itchy (I can’t even get her to touch such soft things as cashmere, she likes stuff made out of nylon and acrylic or cotton) and I don’t know if she’ll wear something around her neck that’s made out of wool, even if this yarn is extremely soft and puffy and not itchy at all.  I would use some of my Zephyr wool/silk and make her a lace scarf but she won’t wear lace because it’s cold(sigh, she won’t listen to me when I tell her that a wool and silk lace scarf will be lightweight and trap in warm air, it has holes, it’s cold).  Sometimes I think she just likes to be difficult.

Those are my choices, unless I can think of something else, and I’m going to ask her later what she thinks.  Hopefully she’ll like the blue Cotswold (she did buy the wool and tell me she wanted something made out of it) since that is the easier option.

Sweater Update

Oh, look, more blogable knitting!  I know the sweater looks exactly the same as the last time I posted about it, but it really is longer.  I only have about two or three more inches left on the body and then I can start the sleeves.  I’ve decided to do the edging around the hems in plain ole garter stitch to match the neck.

That’s it!  I probably won’t post any more until next week, the rest of my week will be spent doing Christmasy things with family.  I’m never very excited about Christmas, my family doesn’t get along very good anymore and holidays are always stressful.  The only thing I want this year is a Moonlight Fluke ukulele and I’ve already been told what a waste of money it is, so I know I’m not getting it.  I did get a pair of Keen Presidio shoes (I got mine for $35 at a local store) and they are the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn, that makes up for the ukulele a bit.

Hope you all have a happy holiday!

Back to Non-Bloggable Knitting

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As soon as I started blogging about knitting, I’m back to knitting that I can’t talk about.  I’m knitting another sample for KnitPicks, this will probably be in the Spring or Summer 2009 catalog and I think it will knit up pretty fast.

I do have knitting in either the wip or planning stages, though.  There’s the poor handspun yoke sweater that I can knit and knit on and it never grows though the yarn is running thin.  Luckily I’m using Paton’s Classic Wool and I can easily run to Joann’s and pick up some more if I need it.  I’m in a scarf mood, for some reason.  I think after the never ending work project I’m just wanting some instant gratification and, well, people need scarves, like my mom.  She needs a big warm cozy winter scarf and I’m thinking that Forbe’s Forest out of some KnitPicks Merino Style in Moss (leftover from my Tangled Yoke Cardigan) will fit the bill.

I picked up a copy of Victorian Lace Today (Ravelry) over the weekend and now my lace bug is back.  My grandma’s birthday is next month and I found out she lost her Trellis Scarf that I gave her, so I’m thinking that it’s time for a new lacy scarf.  I have some Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace in shades of purple that I think would make a beautiful scarf in just about any of the patterns from the book, I can’t pick one.  I’m leaning toward either (sorry for the Ravelry links, I’d scan in pictures from the book but my scanner isn’t working) the Double Bordered Scarf, Scarf with Edging 21 & Insertion 25, Scarf with Open and Solid Diamond Lace, or Scarf with the No. 20 Edging.  Gotta love those names.  What do you think?  I’ll post a poll below (you’ll probably have to come look at the post on my webpage to see it).  I’ll leave it open until Jan. 1.