Catching up with the times

After a lot of kicking and screaming, I have joined Pintrest.

As such, I have decided it would probably be a good idea to revamp this blog, just a bit. Which is to say, I will be posting cooking and recipe things now as well as knitting things.

Stop laughing.
I expect this will help increase posting frequency.

Seriously, you are going to hyperventilate if you keep laughing that hard.

Anyway.....

I have been knitting lately. In fact, the weather is cooling off and I am itching to start more projects. Alas, I am afraid to let the current project get any downtime. It is a blanket. These things usually take years for me to complete because I get too bored. I am tying myself down to finish this one before starting anything else.

Laughing yourself to tears, now? Really?

Stop laughing and admire the blanket:

Knitting, where have you been?

The surprise stuffed toy, the blanket, the airy scarf and the drop stitch scarf which is awaiting a decision about the stitch pattern and the possibility of frogging for a different pattern, are still in the same stages that they were back in July.

The Icarus Shawl has been going along pretty well and I restarted my toe up socks for tension reasons.

Then I had several projects to knit for the classes, which ended up being this month instead of last month.

The entrelac class went fairly well. No one quit and every one seemed quite happy with my offer of continued assistance if needed.
The MultiDirectional Scarf (pattern by Ann Norling) class started last week and concludes this next Tuesday. This one is going even better, mostly because it is a bit easier of a technique.

I have finished my knitting for classes, but now I have knitting for family. I have a pillow front (in entrelac) and a purse/clutch.

After that I hope to get some Me knitting in, but let us not hold our breath yet. We are coming up on the holiday seasons and I still have a hat to knit to match a scarf I already did. Oh, and a summer weight willy warmer. And I have a stuffed toy to complete.

Good thing colder weather is coming on!

Random bits about my yarn....

Right now I am more interested in yarn than in knitting.

It is a good thing I am on a stash diet right now, or else I would be in trouble. This is the kind of mood that leads a person to buying a bunch of single skeins of yarn that don't go together and have no immediate projects to pair with.

It is precisely this mood that got me with the stash I have now.

Ravelry shows me at 109 currently stashed yarns, but Ravelry doesn't know about the 6 unlisted yarns that are arrayed beside me. Nor the bags of unidentified yarns from other people destashing label-less fibers.

Since my roomie is an artist and I have taught him to knit, I think I shall eventually spread out those yarns (after locking up the cats for the duration) and play a game of Mix and Match the Yarn!(ntm) to see what we can come up with.

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I cast on for the Windmill Bag, as mentioned on my twitter feed, and am almost done. Mostly this has been an at work project.
New trick learned with this project: I-cord bind off
New lesson (re)learned with this project: Sometimes 20 stitches of one yarn is wider than 20 stitches of another yarn.

The good news is that this project totally counts as destashing! I am using up yarns that I have had lying around. They are mostly partial skeins and at one point I ran out of yarn for one panel, so I had to frog a finished knit to reclaim the yarn. It was painless since the finished item in question was a limited use single mitten to go over a wrist cast for my roomie. He certainly did not mind the deconstruction.

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I still have not quite decided what to make with my 100% Alpaca yarns. I bought the two skeins together, a perfect pairing of color and weight, and every time I think I know what to make with them I think of something else.
They are so soft and cuddly that I want to make a pillow from them, but then I think a cowl would be better since the weight is light enough, yet if I make gloves I will have them on my hands and rub them against my face anytime I want! Oh, the possibilities!
It can be hard to have such nice yarns, le sigh.

--

The secret surprise knitted stuffed toy has stalled yet again. It has grown to an awkward and bulky size, and I really just need to admit to myself that it is not going to get less awkward and bulky as I reach the body area and then the legs. It will always be awkward to knit, but that is part of the challenge. I should embrace this fact and knit on. Really I should. But wouldn't it be easier just to knit some nice lightweight lace?
At this rate, my friend will be getting this gift in time for Christmas. Gah!

--

A while ago I tried laying out my stash and sorting it by color. I then packed it pretty much away in the color groups. While I can appreciate art and make correct suggestions about colors, I do not yet grasp the color wheel theory. Re-organizing my stash was a step in this direction. Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.

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I am still trying to work out a way to store and display my yarn on my walls without having to make a bunch of holes. I am thinking of trying to find some of those coffee cup wall racks, replacing the posts with thinner and more fragrant woods so that I can ball yarn and stick them there.

I think it would work really well.
Where do you find those racks now-a-days?

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I actually have not gotten my spinning wheel out yet since MSW. I know, bad me. It is just that I have been so busy or cranky (and we know we shouldn't spin when cranky) or feeling too self conscious to spin in front of my roomie.

I will get the wheel out today. I promise. If only for a little bit. I was doing good last time and I intend to keep up that progress! I will not hold myself back any longer!
Just as soon as I finish this post.
And catch up on some blogs.
Oh, and there is an Indian Fest going on down the road....

Theoretical Knitting

Lately I have been proving myself very talented at a new skill, Theoretical Knitting.

Theoretical Knitting is the art of thinking lots and lots of knitting thoughts, (design elements, yarn qualities, needle sizes available/needed, how the FO should look, more complicated design elements, things we should be knitting and how we would knit them, and so on), but no actual knitting time.

I have thought about casting on. I have considered putting needles and yarn together.
Long hours have been spent mentally knitting.

No physical effort is required for 332 Theoretical Knitting. One does not have to find the yarn choice lacking, or the design flaw, or rip out complicated elements that did not work, or rue the failure of the FO to look like it is supposed to, or become frustrated at the lack of correct size of available needles for a given project, or actually produce knitted items that were requested or something.

Why, through the practice of Theoretical Knitting, I have been able to branch out into Theoretical Crocheting! There are only two crochet stitches I can actually do, but I am limitless in my Theoretical Crocheting skills!

I have Theoretically Crocheted an entire couch.
It looks a lot like the one I sit on while I think about the fiber arts.

With a bit of practice, anyone can become good at this.

Eventually, I will get back to knitting stuff.
I mean, people have been requesting stuff again. Someone even gave me a request with a deadline, so I can't rely on theory forever.

Right?