2010: A Year in Knitting

For the fourth year now since I've been knitting hardcore, I feel the need to do an accounting of and document my year's fibery achievements. Actually, I feel the need to create a spreadsheet about them, but it being nearly midnight and I'm on my second glass of Saki, it's best that I just blog about them.

In 2010, I finished 52 WIPs! I originally thought this was a record, but in doing a quick calculation (because I can't find my calculations for past years anyplace...though I know they're around) based on my Ravelry projects page, I see that in 2007, my first big knitting year, I amassed 53 FOs. (That was the year I did a LOT of the same project, over and over...mitts, hats, felted bowls...that had to bump that number up.)

Still, 52 is nothing to sneeze at. It means I averaged one FO per week. Considering the year that this was (adjectives I might use: stressful, chaotic, unsettled, aggravating, scattered), I think that's pretty good.

Just for the sake of comparison, in 2008, my FO tally dropped to 46 and stayed there in 2009. Those years, though, I also was doing larger projects, and I'd also started spinning, which vied for some of my knitting time. So, still, pretty respectable.

(Just a note here that I realize I'm coming at this as if it is some Olympic-grade competition, which it clearly is not...at least not anywhere but in my head, and I'm only competing against myself.)

Because I know you won't be able to sleep unless I give you the specific break down of my FOs, I've done the math for you (because I care, dontchaknow ;))...

This year, I knit:

8 Shawls
8 Pairs of socks
8 Stuffed things/toys
7 Hats
5 Sweaters
4 Scarves
3 Cowls
2 Cozies
2 Baby sweaters (both test knits)
2 Dishcloths
1 Dog sweater
1 Pair of mittens
1 Mutant blob of a blanket

Numbers aren't everything. I like to think I'm also becoming a better knitter, not just a prolific one. In general, I feel confident that the more I knit, the better I get at the craft in general. I've definitely become a far better continental knitter this year, to the point that I hardly ever throw anymore, unless I'm binding off. As far as techniques, I learned how to do applied i-cord and got far better at cabling without a cable needle. I'm much more confident in my lace knitting abilities, and I am more sure than ever that I hate feather and fan. (I'm not sure that last one counts as an achievement, but it is most certainly a fact.)

I did some test knitting this year, which I enjoy doing. And I continued to spin, though I didn't have the time to spin as much as I'd have liked. (Tour de Fleece was a big fail for me this year.)

One very big achievement this year in my knitting world wasn't even directly related to the craft but instead facilitated it: my new knitting room/office. Right now, it is doubling as my grandson's bedroom while he's visiting, but I'm looking forward to much more creating and inspiration from that room next year.

Looking head to 2011, I want to continue to challenge myself with the projects I choose to make. I want to be more selective in what I knit and what yarn I use, because life is way too short to knit things you don't enjoy, and there's too much good yarn out there to knit with fiber you just aren't loving.

I'm planning to do a stashdown the first four months of 2011, leading up to Spring Fling at the end of April. (Yes, I got in again! Third year! Yeay!) Except for special circumstances, I really want to be good and knit only from my stash. I've joined Stashdown 2011 and Year of Stash Socks on Ravelry to help me with this goal. I'm also going to be more active in putting yarns up on my trade/sell page at Ravelry. I know I'll probably always have a stash of SABLE proportions, but I'd really love to get it down to a little more manageable size.

I also want to make better use of my pattern resources. I have so many books and pattern PDFs that I have never knit from, and I want to change that. My goal (not just for this coming year, but ongoing) is to try and knit at least one pattern from each of the knitting books and magazines I own, and if I can't find even one pattern I like enough to knit, or if the book/magazine doesn't have something else meaningful in it, then I'm going to get rid of it. (That said, I'm not going so far as to say I won't be buying new books and magazines. If I'm not allowed to buy yarn, I have to have SOMEthing to get me by, ya know? ;))

Lastly, I intend to put more energy into designing this year. Check that. I intend to put more time and energy into writing up my designs and publishing them. I actually did design a fair few projects this year, and I managed to get a few of them up on the site. But I have so many more I want to release. I really want to focus more time and attention on that. I said that last year, and it didn't really happen. I hope to change that in 2011.

So, those are my reflections on 2010 and my thoughts toward 2011. I hope you all have some good things you can carry with you from this past year (I know that for a lot of people, 2010 kinda sucked, but still, you have to find value in the small, bright points where you can, you know?) May 2011 be good to you all...health, contentment, and always lots of fibery goodness. :)

Happy New Year, my friends!

It's that Time: Finish or Frog?

Every year around this time, I get the urge to purge...my knitting, if nothing else. I like the idea of starting a new year with a clean slate. If I can't do it in every area of life, I can at least do it with my WIPs.

A couple Januaries ago, I dedicated that month to finishing up a whole bunch of WIPs. At the time I had something insane like 17 WIPs, though, so it really was called for. Right now, I technically have four active WIPs, plus eight in "hibernation" mode. (Two of those can barely be considered hibernating, though, as they were either not actually cast on, just planned and never gotten to, or JUST cast on and then never worked.)

So, today I'm considering the fate of these projects. Three of my active WIPs will remain...the Buttoned Up cowl (which I will hopefully finish before the new year rings in), my MIL's white shawl of doom Haruni (which I'd planned to have finished first for Christmas, then for her early January birthday...she's been informed her birthday project will be late) and my Caldavos cardigan, which, for some unknown reason, I cast on right before I went into high gear on gift knitting.

One WIP, a pair of plain stockinette socks I started in some Opal Harry Potter yarn (Harry & Ron colorway)...they're going in the frog pond. I'm just not feeling them. I think the colorway is weird.

I keep trying to figure out what the different pattern sections represent. I mean, I get the blue & white is sky and clouds. OK. But the Orange and yellow and green? Quiddich field? Is the orange supposed to be Ron's red hair? I can't remember at which point in the movie sequence this yarn came out, so I can't figure out if the patterning is significant to a particular movie's plot. See, all these questions would just make these socks incredibly stressful to me if I wore them, so even though I'm through the heel turn on the first sock, I'm frogging. I have way too much beautiful sock yarn to waste my time knitting socks I don't like.

Moving on to the hibernating projects. Let's start with the oldest...

This is a Tube Shawl I started for myself back in May of 2007. The pattern is by Leigh Radford and is out of the book AlterKnits. I made the smaller scarf version that year for my mom out of some beautiful red Douceur et Soie mohair and silk, added beads to the edge and sewed a chiffon insert, as the pattern suggested. It was pretty. My mom had already moved to FL by the time she got it that year, though, so I doubt she's ever used it. This larger version I'm making with Ovation kid mohair and silk, and it it very pretty. The shawl takes three balls to make. I'm not even through the first. Even though I love the yarn and I think it would make a beautiful shawl, I don't love it enough to finish it. So, my compromise to myself is to knit through the remainder of this first ball and bind off, creating a lofty, soft and warm cowl. And! Changing it from a shawl to a cowl means it is actually about 70% finished! Score! :)

Next is a Traveling Woman shawl I started for my mom earlier this year. Again, being in FL, she doesn't need heavy wool things, so I started this out of some Misty Mountain Farms Highlight, a merino/tencel blend. The colorway, though...meh. Really not liking it at all, at least not for a Traveling Woman, which I think looks much better in a solid or semi-solid. I stuffed it in a drawer before I started my Christmas gift knitting, and I think then I knew I'd never finish it. Time to frog.

I have a pair of socks I was casting on for the girlie, and I think I cast on the first sock and got a couple toe rows done before I set it aside, working instead on other Socktoberfest socks. Since my Riff socks ended up fitting the girlie instead of me, I didn't feel quite the same drive to knit her another pair of socks. I like this yarn well enough, but since I've got a pair of mittens to make for her yet, I think I'll frog that little toe and put the yarn back in the stash.

I also have a Rowan Lima sweater that I queued up to begin knitting, and then I never got around to starting it. I can't even frog it since it wasn't yet on the needles! LOL So, I've deleted the project. To be knit another day!

Yeay!

That leaves three projects in hibernation. My Norwegian Rose socks, of which I still need to knit the second and will indeed do...some day; an afghan I started back in June 2008, that I'm pretty sure I won't have enough yarn to make as big as I would have liked, but I'll finish it at some point...it's a good pick up and work on project when I need something mindless; and lastly, an Olivia stuffed toy, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, I'm not so sure. I have to dig her out and see how far I really am on her. I may just frog her. Knitting tiny stuffed things? Fun. Larger ones? Not so much.

See? That knitterly housekeeping makes me feel so good! If only all other housekeeping could be as easy. ;)

Now we're reallllly into it!

(Head's up...spoiler ahead...I'm posting a picture of my Soctoberfest Mystery Socks at the first clue stage later in this post. If you're doing them too and don't want to see, scroll ahead really fast when you get to that part!)

Fall, that is. The definite drop in temperatures, especially at night, is a sure sign that we are fully entrenched in fall. And I LOVE IT!!! It actually went down into the high 30s the other night. Awesome! :)

The daytime can still get a little warm, if the sun is out and cooperating, but I've worn a sweater nearly every day this week, so that says something because I usually run warm. I was very happy to finish this sweater the other day (please bypass the rain-frizzed hair and jump on down to the knitted yumminess)...

This is my finished random cardigan (I really need to think of a better name for it now that it's done). I'm really pleased with it. It fits well, and it is very soft and squishy. I know I'm going to get a ton of wear from this sweater. All those colors go with so many things! And I had the most PERFECT buttons for it in my stash! Seriously, it's like they were made specifically to go with this yarn.

I love when things happen like that. :)

In other knitting news, yesterday ushered in SOCKTOBERFEST! Woohoo!! This is my third year of celebrating Socktoberfest, and I'm very much looking forward to a month full of sock knitting (though there will be some other items worked on too, I'm sure...but mostly socks!) I'm almost done with the first Ampersand sock that I showed you in the last post. I'm planning to cast on #2 right away instead of one of any number of other sock patterns I'd really like to start. Must stay focused on these gift socks for now!

I did, however, cast on for the 2010 Socktoberfest Mystery Sock KAL. This is also a Kirsten Kapur pattern, as she graciously has designed a mystery sock pattern for several years now to celebrate Socktoberfest. I'm using some Needle Food sock yarn, the Berry Fruits colorway. Needle Food is no longer in business, which makes the two skeins of their yarn that I have in my stash very special to me because they are just awesome colors. Kirsten recommended using a solid or semi-solid for the mystery sock. Berry Fruits is more of a variegated yarn, but I'm hoping it will work out because I really like the colors. The first clue was the cuff. I cast on and knit both cuffs for the pair the other night as soon as the clue was released...I was excited to get started!

Picture...

coming...

now...

The color variegation definitely hides the stitch pattern a bit, but I'm going to continue on and see how it goes.

The other celebration coming up is, of course, Halloween! I'm not usually one to go all out to decorate for Halloween, but this year I just got the bug to do it up. I made the mistake of going into Pat Catan's yesterday looking for just the cobwebby stuff and a new scarecrow, and I came out with a buttload of other fun Halloweeny things. :}Even as teens, the kids are quite excited that I decorated. Heck, my oldest who is in his mid-20s still loves Halloween, so I guess you're never really too old, eh?

Not sure if I've complained about the stink bug problem we've had this year -- they've been everywhere! And now it's pesky fall gnat season too. But those are NOTHING compared to the spider problem that has developed...yeesh!!

BAHAHAhahaha!!! Ahem. ;)

And just for the record? That cobwebby stuff is WAY FUN to play with and put up on the bushes because it clings and sticks to everything and really does look like cobwebs. However, in a month, when I'm ready to undecorate, it will be a major pain in the arse because it clings and sticks to everything.

And as a side note...those orange twinkle lights that you can't see very well? I forgot we had them from a past year until AFTER I put up the cobwebs. So today, I decided to retrofit them under the already in-place cobwebs. Heh. Yeah, that worked great. Oh well. They may not be on the bushes as nicely as I'd like, but they add color nonetheless!

Tomorrow...

...we start our new school year. Our 11th year of homeschooling. I think I'm ready. It's been really interesting, figuring out how to do high school. After a lot of my own learning and researching and talking to more experienced homeschoolers this summer, I've made some big adjustments to my way of thinking about the kids' learning at this level, and I think it will serve us all well. I feel good about things, and that's always a nice way to start off the year.

In general, I finally feel like I'm able to breathe a bit lately. It's been such a relief to be done with the house stuff. I'm still arranging and organizing things, but that will be an ongoing project, not one to stress over. We enjoyed a really nice weekend these past couple of days, friend time, family time, outings, down time, all in balance. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a great way to end the summer. I feel so thankful. :)

Now for the real pictures...

Since no one was else was home at picture time, model-less pictures of my Berry Berry Citron will have to suffice for now! ;)

Citron, knit with 654 yards of 3-ply fingering weight handspun created from 4 oz. of Tempted merino/silk, "Positivity" colorway. I Navajo-plied it to maintain the nice, long color changes.

This is so soft and light and yet cosy and warm! I may have been a little overzealous in my blocking, as the ruched areas aren't quite as dense as I've seen them in other versions of this shawl, or it could be that my gauge was just looser. No matter, I do love how it turned out.

I often wonder what my neighbors think when they see me outside taking photos of my knits. Especially when I'm outside on a Sunday morning, still in my PJ's, zombie socks and gardening shoes...

Oh, and wild hair and no make up! Yep! That's got to be an attractive thing to watch. Or at least mildly amusing. I suppose I could have really put on a show and set up the tripod to take pictures of myself modeling Citron...

Um...yeah. Maybe not. ;)

Instead, my pretty Morning Glory vine was more than happy to play model!

Speaking of pretty plants, I think this Coleus is one of the prettiest things growing in my flower beds this year! I've always loved flowery flowers and never used to be a big fan of variegated greenery, but it's really growing on me lately (no pun intended!).

And I've noticed something else this year. The Butterfly Flowers I planted? They have been attracting more bees than butterflies. And some big bees at that! Look at this dude!

Lastly, let me just say that I am loving - LOVING - that it is starting to feel fallish. Being able to open the windows at night and have the air conditioning off...wonderful! And having the need to put on some hand knit socks and wrap myself in a shawl or afghan early in the morning? Fantastic! Our new school year is going to start two weeks from today, and I'm by no means trying to rush these last two weeks of summer, but weather-wise, give me fall and I'm a happy, happy girl! :)

Tough choices...

...like: do you post NO photos or CRAPPY photos? Today, I'm erring toward the latter, since I'm tired of not blogging since I still haven't bought a new monitor to do photo editing to post good photos...

This is the first bit of a Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl using the Femme Fatale Wollmeise we got in our TLE Spring Fling goodie bags. The color is really an intense red/burgundy/burnt orange colorway, which is hardly discernible in this photo from my camera. But let's not focus on the crappy photo, 'kay? Let's focus on the project. Another shawl! This will be my 6th one this year. Now, note if I'd have decided to participate in a shawl-a-month challenge, I'd never do it. So, I'll just keep on doing my shawl thing and not consider it a challenge.

I will say that I managed to totally get about 1/3 of my wound ball of Wollmeise tangled into a huge mess. No idea how. Took a good 20 minutes to get it straightened out. LOL But it's good now. 

This pattern has been in my Rav queue for ages. It's a lace knitting pattern (all purl WS rows, as opposed to knitted lace, which has patterning on both RS and WS rows, as per Anne Hanson's description in her advanced lace class), which makes it move along quite quickly. I don't know if it is truly just an intuitive pattern or if I'm getting better at reading lace as I work it, but it's going really well and seems pretty easy so far. 

I finished up my Autumn Shawl -- the entrelac project I started late last year. The cobweb frill edging looks really cool. I still need to block it and then I'll take pictures (hopefully good pictures) and post them. 

I'm trying really hard to not have more than a couple active projects going at a time. I've never been much of a monogamous knitter, but I'm finding I want very much to actually FINISH projects...and that happens easier when I'm not working on a dozen things at once. So, I've got the shawl going and a second sock (toe up, I'm slowed down at the heel because I have yet to truly grasp the construction of a heel flap when I'm going toe up). And when I finally finish that sock, I'm thinking I'll move on to my Vesper socks, that I plan to do toe up and with an afterthought heel, which I've not done before. 

So, that's what's happening here! In non-knitting news...we are thiiiiiiis close to being done with our school year. Can. Not. Wait. to be done this year. Really ready for summer break! It looks like we're going to be playing musical bedrooms soon, too. I agreed to let the boy child move to the basement bedroom, which is currently my office/craft room. And THAT means I get to move my room up here to the main floor...where I'll have windows! Woo! I have to somehow convince him that he does not want his room painted black, though. It's a basement room. Seriously? It'll be a cave in black. I told him he'll start to look like Gollum. So, we're negotiating. Stay tuned. :}

Pretties...

Hubby and I went to dinner last night for Valentine's Day. He told me he'd ordered me something but that FedEx seemed to be holding it hostage. He said it was perishable. I thought, great! Come Monday I'll have a lovely basket of rotted fruit to look forward to! LOL But no! FedEx came through today with a Saturday delivery.

Behold, two dozen pretty roses in the loveliest shades of pink, coral and cream...

Actually, it was 23 roses in those colors, and one yellow rose, which didn't really fit into the color scheme, so I tucked him into his own little vase to look pretty all on his own!

And also in the box...chocolate! Mmm!

Yeah...one was missing pretty quick. Tonight, there are only three left. I think that shows incredible restraint, frankly. ;)

I have to say, in our 16 1/2 years of marriage, I think I've probably gotten the better end of the deal. I'm married to a man who is a terrific father and good provider. He willingly gets up and goes to work every single day, whereas if it was left up to me, we'd likely be living under a bridge in a cardboard box within a month. And he takes care of things around the house pretty well, too, even if his priority list and mine don't always jive. More than anything, he puts up with me. My moods, my craziness, my (ahem) bitchiness...and, without many questions, he willingly funds my obsessions...yarn, tattoos, travel. Sometimes I wish he'd be more romantic or be interested in more of the same things as I am, or try and "get" me better than he does, but when it comes down to it, I know he loves me. I know we're in this marriage together for the long haul, and I feel pretty darned blessed by that fact. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow and a Sweater

Otherwise known as an account of the past week of my life. First, here's our house last Saturday morning after 22" fell on it in less than 24 hours....

And here's our road looking to the east...

And to the west...

And here are my front shrubberies...

Did you say shrubberies??

And here is our neighbors' back yard...

Our neighbors are retired and are spending two months in Florida. Our neighbors are smart.

And here is my 5' 6" daughter standing in snow up past her knees...

She looks...happy. Kids. Sheesh. :}

And here is my husband doing his best to plow out the driveway, using our daughter as ballast to keep the tractor from slipping. (It should be noted that our son was actually an hour away, up in the mountains, for SNOW CAMP with the youth group. Ha! They picked the right weekend for that, lemme tell ya!)

She was having fun here, too. Him? Not so much.

And here is a car-shaped lump that would in fact be formed over my car...

And here is my actual car after I spent two hours Saturday afternoon digging it out from its snowy tomb.

Yes, digging...with a shovel...because there would have been no way for the husband to get the tractor in and around my car up there in its spot. But hey! All these months of kickboxing have definitely paid off because it turns out I'm in GREAT shape! Didn't get too tired or sore at all from the shoveling experience!

Indeed, by mid-afternoon Saturday, the snow stopped coming down, the sun came out, and it all looked very pretty...

No? Yes!

Being snowed in makes for excellent knitting time, and knit I did, finishing my Eyelet Cardigan...

I lurve it sooooo much!

Even though I have a slight linebacker-ish look to me from behind...yikes...

My butt! My butt! Where is my butt?? Alas, I inherited the buttless gene that seems to pass down to females on my mom's side of the family. We are buttless women, we are.

Had the perfect pewter buttons for it in my stash, too. How awesome is that?

Pay no attention to the fact that I cannot evenly space buttonholes to save my soul.

And look! I was not the only red thing outside! I finally got a semi-decent picture of a Cardinal with a snowy background (this has been an ongoing quest of mine for a long time)...

All in all, it's been a good week...other than the fact that I am now going stir-crazy and really MUST get out of my house SOON if I am to salvage what sanity I still possess.

The snow is either smiling at me or sticking out its tongue at me. I'm not sure which.

Big blue blob...

Yep. It's a big, blue blob of snow.

Mega-snow.

Snowzilla.

Snowmageddon.

And we're right smack in the middle of it right now. In the past ten hours, we've already gotten twelve very heavy, wet inches. Poor Muffin gets buried every time we take her out to do her potty thing. Sounds like we could get at least six inches more before it ends sometime tomorrow. I'd be far more excited about the prospect of being snowed in if it weren't for the fact that I have PLANS for tomorrow night, people. Plans I've been looking forward to for weeks! Really hoping I don't have to miss.

I'd post actual pictures of this snow event, but all of the ones I took tonight mainly show up as big shiny white dots in front of everything because it's coming down so heavily. I'll try again tomorrow once it stops. If it stops. Please stop.

On the up side, the boy child is away at the high school church retreat -- snow camp. At least the weather cooperated for them!

ETA: Snowfall as measured on our picnic table at 1:30 a.m....about 11 1/2 hours after it started...

Crappy camera phone picture of yard stick...a yard stick, people! Sheesh!

Twenty-Ten

Or two-thousand ten? How are you saying it? As long as you aren't saying "twenty-oh-ten," you're good. ;)

2010 has clearly started out with a blogging deficit on my part. Ten days into the new year before there's a blog post. That's just sad. By looking at my WIP list in the sidebar, you might be led to think I've been so busy knitting that I have no time to blog. That would be wrong, but I'll explain the much-pared-down WIP list a little later in the post. In the mean time, let's catch up, shall we?

First, there is snow. Lots of it.

Mind you, I am not complaining. I love winter weather. I love being snowed in. I don't even mind driving in it, as long as it isn't icy. And it looks so very, very pretty!

And the birds don't seem to mind it either, especially if I keep the feeders full. This female cardinal was pleased to pose for me, while her bright red boyfriend continues to elude me. As God is my witness, some day I will get the photo I've wanted forever: a red cardinal in a snowy background. I will.


And Muffin LOVES the snow! Oh my gosh, she jumps around and frolics and buries her whole head in it. It's so amusing to watch. She does these very balletic leaps and jumps over the large piles of snow to get to her favorite potty spot. The fact that it is now above the level of her tummy doesn't seem to deter her, nor has the fact that we got her groomed as week and she is no longer furry like this. She just loves being out in it.

And of course the kids are loving it! My grandson is up visiting from North Carolina for a while too, and he's thrilled to have lots of snow to play in, as you just don't get that in coastal NC.

Onto warmer topics, such as knitting! I thought I'd share a few Christmas knits with you now that the recipients have them. For Angela (but modeled here by Emma) there were mitts:


and a matching scarf:


Both were made from Lorna's Laces Worsted...sorry, I don't remember the colorway, but I got both the mitt pair and the scarf (narrow though it be...about 3" wide) out of one skein. The mitts are my Fast & Easy Fingerless Mitts pattern, though I did them in the round. (I've rewritten the pattern for circular knitting...hopefully I'll get it edited and added to the blog soon.) The scarf was from the Dec. 18th page of Yarn Harlot's 2009 Never Not Knitting Page-a-Day calendar...just a simple garter stitch scarf, worked lengthwise.


The scarf pattern was so fast and fun that I opted to do it again for my niece, this time out of some purple Malabrigo worsted, which picked up the accents in her hair perfectly! :)

Being on top of my game this year, I started a birthday gift for my mother-in-law before the day of her birthday (early January birthdays always creep up on me and smack me in the back of the head). We haven't celebrated with her yet, but at least her gift is done!


This is the Chevron Scarf pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (Rav link) done in Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino (colors are Lagoon and Arboretum, from the Pick of the Knitter yarn club).

A couple things about this scarf. First, to me, chevron is not the same as feather and fan, and this clearly is a feather and fan design. Chevron patterns have more definite points to them, such as the V-shaped insignia from which its name is derived, I assume. (Here's a baby blanket I did a couple of years ago in a chevron pattern.) The fact that I feel this pattern is misnamed bugs me far more than it should. I need to get over it. That aside, my second comment about this scarf in its feather and fan pattern is that, while I love how it looks (though I'd have liked a true chevron better!), I can only knit it for so long before I want to die of boredom. Thankfully, the awesome colors of this yarn carried me through the first two-thirds of this scarf. After that, it was simply willpower and the knowledge that the scarf had to be longer than three feet to be useful that got me to the end.


Finally, on Friday night, I deemed the scarf long enough because I just could not bear to knit on it one more inch. Thankfully, it was quite long enough at that point, and blocking gave it a few extra inches as well. Whew! With that out of the way, I decided to challenge myself with a new project. (I know, I know...what about all those WIPs??? Hang on, I'll explain in a minute!)

Part of The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling fun is all of the activities we do on the SF Rav list in the months leading up to Fling. Among them, monthly KALs. This month, it is an Anne Hanson KAL. My initial thought was to try and finish my languishing Caricia shawl (which never got much bigger than it is in that picture) and just not have it count toward a prize for the actual KAL. At least it would be done. But no. Why do something that makes sense when you can do something crazy instead? To that end, I pulled out my Wing-o-the-Moth pattern -- which, to this point, has intimidated me to no end! -- and I wound up the ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud yarn (ivory) that I'd just purchased from TLE last week (like I need more yarn, yeah, I know) and cast on:

Silk Cloud is a 60% mohair, 40% silk yarn, similar to Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It is fabulously soft and has a lovely halo and subtle shine to it. Because of the mohair, though, it is a bitch to rip. So we must ask ourselves: was this a good yarn choice for Lisa's first ever lace-weight lace project? Heh. Remains to be seen.

Wing-o-the-Moth is written for both a full-sized shawl and a mini-shawl or scarf. My original plan was to do the scarf, as I didn't have enough yarn for the whole shawl and didn't want to buy more, and also because I have a dismal record of actually completing full-sized shawls (I reference the long-languishing Caricia again). However, I did have more yarn (by about half) than what the scarf called for, so I'm doing something in between the two. A large scarf. So, instead of doing two repeats of Chart A as the scarf pattern calls for, I did five. And then I realized that I was going to have to do some crazy calculating and modifying of the pattern to get Chart B to work out, since it was set up to work off of two or fifteen repeats of the first chart, not any random number some nutty knitter chose.

Yeah. Following patterns as written is for sissies. ;)

I think I have it figured out now, though, so I am hopeful it will work. I intend to spend my afternoon today finding out. Cross your fingers for me, 'kay?


Oh! About the WIP list...yeah, I decided to move most of my WIPs to hibernating status for two reasons. One, having that many WIPs was starting to make me nervous, like they were creeping up behind me and breathing down my neck. Changing their Rav status doesn't change the fact that they are still WIPs, but it does make me feel less stressed, and that is good. Two, I'm going to participate in the Ravelympics next month, and my plan is to do the UFO event. To do that, WIPs need to be in hibernation for at least a month prior to be considered UFOs, or so I understand it. Thus, I hibernated everything I wasn't planning to actively work on between now and then and I can make them active again as needed or use them for Ravelympics, whichever comes first.