Catching up and Planning

Howdy, y'all!!

Seriously, where did that come from? I guess I'm just so happy to be blogging again, I couldn't help but let a little country girl exclamation escape.

2015 has been C.R.A.Z.Y. Work has been super busy, kids have been doing all kinds of stuff, hubby and I have been trying (pretty successfully) to do more things we enjoy together (like going to concerts!). Life has kind of gotten in the way of the blog. And that's okay!

But, through it all, I was definitely still knitting. During the winter, I couldn't get enough of Lea Viktoria's designs that feature fun directional knitting using short rows. Below, you'll see

Steilküste cowl,Waterkant socks, and the Strandwanderer scarf.  Yes, I knit the socks twice (once as the pattern is written and once toe-up). This technique is so fun, I couldn't stop doing it!

I also may have become a little obsessed with the Polos Headband, which appeared in the 2014 issue of KnitScene Accessories.  It's a perfect accessory for covering up those nasty roots when you desperately need a dye job! It's also darn cute.

I've also knit or finished a fair number of shawls and scarves this year. From the top, Diamenten (which I actually finished, even though this is an in-progress photo), Tibetan Clouds, Endsleigh, Sprig of Hope and Tubularity. I actually started several more than this, but these are the ones that I've actually finished this year.

So, yeah, I've been knitting a lot.

Right now, I'm planning travel knitting. We're going on another Disney Cruise in October. I can't even tell you how excited I am! The trip is less than 2 months away, and I am beginning to plan the knitting I will take along. It's a 7-night eastern Caribbean itinerary. 2 days at sea, 1 day in St. Maarten, 1 day in St. Thomas/St. John, another day at sea, then a day at Castaway Cay. We have port adventures (shore excursions) planned for port days, so I don't envision getting much knitting in on those days. BUT, the days at sea!!  Three days of relaxing, knitting, and reading. Maybe catching a movie or two at the on-board theater. Absolute heaven!

So, what kind of knitting do you take with you when you travel? I think I'll definitely need a mindless project for knitting during movies and stage shows. Something I don't have to look at.... On our last cruise, my mindless project was a moebius scarf. It was perfect, but I want something different this time.  I also want a more complicated project--like a lace shawl or fancy socks or something like that--for times when I want to be challenged. And, of course, I'll need in-between projects, right? Like some basic socks to put in my bag when we are on our port adventures because you never know when you'll have to wait on something.... Is it weird that I'm thinking more about my travel knitting than I am about what clothes I'll pack?

Gifts: how to get what you want

Yeah, I know that title sounds really selfish. But, let's face it, knitters are super generous this time of year. We love knitting for the people we love. We spend more money on yarn to make gifts than we would spend on just purchasing a gift at a store.  On top of that, we spend tons of time and energy making the gift. Every knitting thing we give away takes a little piece of our heart with it.

So, here's how you help those who love you to get you something you love.

My kids and hubby know I really like yarn, but they really don't know anything about yarn. Fortunately, River Knits allows people to put together a wish list on a little note card.

This is great! However, it still requires my socially anxious husband (bless his heart) to interact with people. So, I decided to make it really easy for him this year.

One day, I went into River Knits and just started snapping pictures of the stuff I like. Then, I took those pictures and used Insta Picframes to create collages and add text. Yeah, I even played around with the colors and fonts and stuff. Like this:

I even did this:

See the "NO" on top of the one little cubbie there in the bottom left corner. There's nothing wrong with that yarn, I just don't enjoy it as much as the others.

If I had taken more time, I would have put together a little map of the shop to show exactly where everything could be found. But, I didn't have time, so he still had to experience a little human interaction.

I know this looks really...um.....presumptuous? Entitled? Demanding?  But, hubby said he actually really appreciated it. His reasoning: "If my wish list involved a vacuum tube store, you'd be just as clueless as I am walking into the yarn shop." Truth. Although, honestly, I don't think pictures would even help me in a vacuum tube store. They all look like weird lightbulbs to me.

Please also note that I have absolutely no expectation to receive all of these things. I just like to give him a lot of variety to choose from.

On that note, Happy Holidays to all of you wonderful fibery folks out there! May your stockings be filled with everything you need to knit your next fabulous project!

Getting there...

I'm still way ahead of schedule--just over 8 days at this point. I also surpassed the 50,000 stitch mark yesterday. I've completely 53,008 sts, which is 68.82% of the total. Not too shabby!  No picture today. It just looks like a bigger pile of yarn. I'm still hoping to be able to start the edging by the end of the week--which is tomorrow. I completed 5 rows this morning, and have 9 more rows to go before starting the edging. Maybe I'll get an edging repeat done before the end of the day tomorrow. If not, definitely Saturday.

Halfway

I hit the halfway point (of the stitch count) for my NaKniShawlMo project over the weekend. I haven't been taking pictures daily because, frankly, that would be really boring for all involved. Here's where I am at the end of Day 9. See what I mean?

You can tell it's bigger than it was on Days 1 and 2, but you still can't tell how much progress has been made. So, let's put it this way:

I am 7 days ahead of schedule.
I have completed 53.76% of the shawl (based on stitch count).
This means I've knit 41,408 stitches so far.

I'm pretty impressed with myself, if I may be so bold. Right now, the rounds are 580 stitches long. That's quite a slog, but I'm persevering. I think by the end of this week, I'll be able to start working on the edging. Honestly, that's where I usually fall apart when knitting shawls. I knit a couple of repeats of the edging, and I'm ready to be done. 71 repeats of anything is tedious. 71 repeats of a 16-row edging that is 224 stitches per repeat is exhausting. I just get bored after knitting a couple of repeats. That's going to be the big challenge. Can I do it? Sure! Will I enjoy it? Well...... I'm trying to have a positive attitude.

NaKniSHAWLMo

Hello again! Long time, no see. Just 3 months, right? A lot has happened. I've lost a total of 33.8 lbs so far, I've been knitting a lot, plus all the same ol', same ol' of work, kids, family, etc.

A couple of years ago, I participated in NaKniSweMo--National Knit a Sweater Month. Designed after National Novel Writing Month, it requires participants to knit a sweater of at least 50,000 stitches during the month of November. (Novel writers write a novel of at least 50,000 words.) I skipped it last year, but on Friday (October 31), I decided I wanted to do it again this year. Nothing like planning ahead, right?

Here's the problem: I've been on a sweater-knitting hiatus since I started my weight loss journey. I'm hesitant to spend time, energy, and good yarn on a sweater that might not even fit me anymore by the end of the winter. So, I started looking for patterns for very loose-fitting sweaters, which really aren't my style...  and I ultimately decided I'd create my own challenge:

NaKniSHAWLMo.

National Knit a Shawl Month.

I chose Leaves of Grass, designed by Jared Flood. It's a shawl that follows Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl construction, uses fingering weight yarn, and has more than 77,000 stitches. Perfect!

Here's the other thing: Progress photos of sweaters are much more impressive than progress photos of shawls. With a sweater, it's very obvious where progress has been made. With a circular shawl, it just looks like a bunch of yarn scrunched onto a circular knitting needle. See?

That was at the end of Day 1. Despite knitting more than 7,000 stitches on Day 2, it doesn't look much different:

(The color difference can be attributed to the fact that the top pic was taken at home, using incandescent and natural light. The one on the bottom was taken in my office, lit with fluorescent lights. The color is actually more accurate in the top pic--olive greens.)

So, anyway, Day 1 looks like a pile of yarn, and Day 2 looks like a slightly larger pile of yarn. Not very impressive.

To really see the design, shawls have to be stretched and blocked. When I stretch this bit (end of Day 1) over my hand, you can see one bit of the motif. 

Still not particularly impressive. Sigh. You'll just have to trust me as I report back on my progress.

I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday putting together a spreadsheet of how far I need to get each day. At this point, I'm a couple of days ahead of schedule. But, I worked an entire row wrong this morning before work. That will teach me to knit lace before I'm really fully awake.

Are you participating in NaKniSweMo? Would you like to join me for NaKniShawlMo?

40

So, a big thing happened last week: I turned 40. When my husband turned 40 in February, it nearly killed him. He absolutely hated it. I, on the other hand, am excited! This is going to be my best decade yet. Life is good!

Every year on my birthday, I start a new project. This year was no exception.

Pattern: Interpolate. Yarn: Misti Alpaca Tonos Carnaval in Surf Blue and Truffle. I expect to have it completed by the end of the week. It's really fun--the perfect balance between mindless and interesting. The yarn is fabulous and soft and gorgeous.

My birthday also brought some fun entertainment.

I used to be a HUGE Tori Amos fan, but I had never seen her live. So, we got together with some friends who are also fans, and had an amazing evening, which included dinner at McCormick & Schmick's. Sooo good!

It was a really fun way to start a new decade--great music, great friends, great time!

Wow...ok....

Hey, peeps! It's been a while. This has been an amazing, wonderful and busy summer. The afghan class is going really well, and there are more than 100 people on Ravelry who are knitting along too! This absolutely floors me. I am humbled by their enthusiasm for this thing that I designed.  I'm still working on the scarves to go with the afghan squares, but I'm taking a little break for some other fun stuff.

This is the Blooming Stitch Shawl. The yarn is Louet Cottolin. When Elizabeth (owner of River Knits) ordered this yarn, she was envisioning it being used for weaving. I saw a lovely, light summer shawl in my favorite color.

I'm also working on the Tibetan Clouds Shawl using Fiber Optic Yarns Footnotes Gradients. I love this so much! It's fun to knit and exciting to see what color comes next.The back of the stole is knit from the center out. Then, opposite edges are bound off. Finally, the live stitches are picked up and the ends of the stole are knit from there. I think this projects highlights this gradient yarn in a really unique way.

I'm also knitting this shawl. It's called Ashburn. The yarn is the brand new Classic Elite Villa. This might be my new favorite yarn. Well, second favorite. I don't think I could love anything more than Malabrigo Sock yarn....but this would be a really close second.

I have a couple of other shawls in my queue, but I want to finish at least the Ashburn and Tibetan Clouds before I start something new.

What's with all the shawls? I've put a moratorium on sweater knitting. I've lost 21.2 lbs so far, and, while I would LOVE to knit myself some sweaters to wear as soon as I hit my goal weight, I don't know what my measurements will be. So, there's no point spending good yarn and good time on a sweater that might be way too big by winter. So, for the foreseeable future, I'm knitting accessories. Shawls, socks, mittens, hats. And I'm happy with that. Here's the current progress pic. I probably should have taken some time to make myself look nice for the photo on the right, but I was just so excited when I discovered I had crossed the 20-lb mark, I jumped off the scale, got dressed and demanded my daughter take my pic. I promise to make more of an effort next time. :)

In other news, last night brought a completely unexpected event!  Back story: We got a minivan in 2003 or 2004.... it was a 2001 Pontiac Montana, affectionately referred to as Vannah Montana. She served us well for the past 10 years, but for the last 5 years or so, she's been slowly going down hill. First, it was little things: LEDs went out in the radio display, alternator needed replaced, back windshield washer stopped working, gas gauge stopped working (I have to use the trip odometer to know when it's time to get gas). Then, there were some really big things: some gasket I don't know anything about needed replacing and it required Tim to hoist the entire engine up to get to it; the head gasket started leaking, and lots of other stuff I don't remember. For 2 years or so, I've been cursing her and whining about wanting a "new" car. But, it was never the right time. I looked halfheartedly at lots of things. I even test drove a Kia Soul. It was kind of nice. Then, last fall, a colleague invited me to try her Nissan Cube. I instantly fell in love. I know it's definitely quirky and not for everyone. I spent all winter and spring talking about wanting a Cube. Every chance I got, I'd say, "Yep, Vanna Montana will be replaced by a Cube."

Then, a few weeks ago, another colleague informed me that Nissan has decided 2014 is the final model year for the Cube. They will no longer manufacture it. For a short while, that ramped up my search, but nothing seemed quite right. Yesterday, my wonderful hubby sent me a link to a Cube at a Subaru dealership in Indy. We went down last night after work and drove home with the newest addition to our family: Cindy Lou Cube.

I love her. We didn't get home until almost 11:30 last night, which is way past my bedtime. And, I have to be at work all day today because responsibilities. I can't wait to get home tonight and spend some quality time really getting to know her. Isn't she just the cutest thing?!