Knit Night

I made a rare appearance at knit night. The ladies meet every Tuesday around 6ish and there are Sunday afternoon meetings as well.

Everyone is so talented. Most spin their own yarn. One has a degree in textiles. They spent much of the evening ooo-ing and ahhhing over roving and talking about long spinning (I think.) And there I sat with my cheap-o Sugar n' Cream knitting a dishcloth.

Methinks I'm way out of my league.

This Is Going To Be a Problem

I have CIMLATWD.Computer induced memory loss and time wasting disorder.

I get on the computer to do one thing (in tonight's case, blog) and the next thing I know 2 or 3 hours have passed and I can't remember why I got on the computer in the first place!

So now it's two hours later and I at least remembered to blog. But now it's time to watch Big Bang Theory with Hubabdub.

Catch you in an hour (or three...)

An Experiment

For the next week, I will attempt to blog every day. In my fantasy I will blog every day and say witty, insightful or educational things. My knitting will be breathtaking and people will sigh and say things like "wow! this is a great blog."

Somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

And for all the folks that have commented in the last few months, I want to thank you. I promised myself long ago that I would respond to every commenter. I have been lax. Let this be a blanket statement that I appreciate y'all (and that doesn't even begin to cover my smarmy warm fuzzy feelings.)

Busy Busy

Thanks to early morning thunderstorms and a generally lazy feeling, I was quite productive yesterday.

I weaved in ends for Swish (making it an official FO):


I worked on Chinese Waves a bit:


I finished a hand towel I started months ago:


Started the Sweet Lorraine scarf in a finer yarn ('cause I wasn't really liking the worsted weight version I'd started.):


And then, right before the stroke of midnight I weaved in the ends for a the Pot of Jewels pot holder.


It's really not at wonky as it appears in the picture.

Since I was up past midnight, I will count the Potholder/Topflappen that I started as part of today's work.

Wonder what projects today will bring....I kind of feel like I'm on some sort of FO/WIP speed.

Speaking of Books A Million

I can't believe I forgot this on the last post...

Both of the Books A Millions in my town have TERRIBLE craft sections. The books are not organized at all and I don't think they've gotten a new knitting title in months. (It doesn't really matter, since the internet almost always has some free pattern I want to do, but sometimes it's nice to actually look through a book and get inspired.)

Also on my rant list, when I checked my e-mail an hour ago, there was a $5 off coupon from BAM in my inbox. This was two hours AFTER Hubadub bought some books. Just my luck.

And on an unrelated ranting note...

Remember this?




I bought a leaflet last June for this pattern alone. Well guess what ended up in the latest issue of Crochet! This pattern. Seriously. I'm not buying patterns anymore. They all end up recycled and eventually they end up online for free.

Ah! Friday!

Isn't Friday the most wonderful feeling in the world? I don't know why, but Friday night is my favorite part of the week-end. I usually stop at Books a Million or Starbuck's and grab a cup of coffee on the way home and then spend the rest of the evening knitting, reading or vegging in front of the TV. mmmm. Heaven.

Tonight I got home and started a pizza crust in the bread maker. While the pizza dough did it's thing, Hubadub and I went to Books A Million and he bought a few books and I bought the latest Interweave Crochet and the Fall/Winter issue of Knit 1. As we left BAM Hubadub said he was more in the mood for Chinese, so we stopped at our favorite restaurant on the way home and picked up a take out order.

I decided to go ahead and make the pizza for tomorrow night. Unfortunately, the dough stuck to the pizza stone and I'm afraid it's ruined now. :-(

But I don't want to dwell on bad things. Let me share with you some Dishcloth Therapy:

Yarn Over Cable Cloth

I don't know what it is about Dishcloths, but I love knitting them. I think part of it is most of the time they are short pattern repeats so I can sit down and do a repeat or two before I go to work. It just puts me in a peaceful frame of mind for the rest of the day. Also, when I am faced with the Crafter's Blues, a dishcloth can almost always get me out the funk. I feel like a confident knitter when I work on them.

I've been adding items to my ravelry queue left and right. I'm trying to keep "therapeutic knits" (dishcloths, baby bibs, quick knits) at the top of the list and "reach projects" (sweaters) near the bottom. I'm kind of becoming obsessed with top-down sweaters. I think it's the idea of not having to seam a bunch of pieces that appeals to me. One day I'm going to get over my "knitter's block" when it comes to sweaters.

Woe Is Me

Back in October I started a Sweet Lorraine Scarf from Interweave Crochet.

Recently I started thinking I might pick it back up...or at least frog it and re-do it in some fingering weight gray yarn I had. (Actually that info has nothing to do with the purpose of this post, but I thought I'd share.) Well, when I went to pull it out of it's hiding place I discovered that the hook wasn't with it! I'm so sad. It was a nice hook. So pretty. I felt so graceful and feminine when I used it. Boy I wish I knew what happened to it. Le sigh.

Fighting Back

I'm smack in the middle of Spring Break (don't even get me started on the fact that it's not officially Spring.)

I refuse to give into the crafter's blues. I started a dishcloth, a baby sweater and a baby blanket. While not the most exciting of projects, they are alleviating the symptoms. But here's what really worked:

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is one of the traveling scarves that came my way this week-end. Mind you, every scarf I've received on this swap has been gorgeous, but there is something about this one that makes it special. All the blues are perfectly coordinated, all the patterns have aligned nicely to flow right into the next. I really had some performance anxiety with this one, but the challenge is just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing.

As you may see from the photo, I happened to have a sport weight version of a yarn already used in the scarf, so my section will not clash with the others. Kismet? Don't you think? I also managed to find a stitch pattern that worked well with the previous one.

I've had some other things floating around in my brain as well. I've given a lot of thought to my Purlsonality (a lame attempt at naming my knitting style/preferences.)

• I am 99% process knitter. I could happily knit away on the same 15 stitches for days and days. If I get bored, I start another project.
  
• Finishing something doesn't matter so much to me. When the urge does strike to have an FO, I'll pick a dishcloth or baby sweater.
• I'm all about a cable or stitch pattern. Color, not so much.
• I'm perfectly happy with one sock or mitten (I enjoyed the process, right?)
• I prefer traditional projects. Not a fan of wild and crazy stuff.
• I cannot tell "good" yarn from "bad". I've knit with everything and a love it all (I'm the same way with coffee.)
• I'm not sure what it means to "grow" as a knitter, but I don't think I have and I don't really care.
  

Other random bits:

• I can't wait for Summer of Socks.
• I can't wait for Dish Rag Tag.
• Even if no one read this blog, I would still keep it.
• Part of my knitting process is writing blog posts in my head (even if I often don't get around to actually posting them.)
• As of yesterday, I have officially lost 27.5 pounds since October!
  

Must Be Contagious

It's the crafter's blues and I think I caught it from Kimberly. I don't know what's going on. I go through patterns on Ravelry. I fave and queue things. I even dig through the stash and find yarn. I just cant seem to cast on or start anything. I'm definitely restless and I want to be doing something. I just can't figure out what.

I've started a mitten, a scarf and a baby sweater in the last two weeks. But neither of them are exciting me.

oh! The frustration!

To Join or Not

It's National Crochet Month and Kaet is doing a Crochet Along. I am intrigued by the first clue...am I intrigued enough to play along?