January: Banishing the UFO's

I kinda-sorta made a new years resolution to finish some of the crafty projects that I've had lying about for a while.

Now 'a while' ranges from a month (most recent socks 85% complete) to three years (a lovely spring sweater that has yet to be finished). And that's only the knitting projects. Only two of the knitting projects.

This weekend I finished a blouse for my mom. It took longer than planned because I had to redraft the pattern to fit her tastes in clothing. Also because the cats love taking the pins out of my pincushion, but that is another story. Oh, and I had to copy one of the redrafted pattern pieces because one of the aforementioned cats decided it was tasty and chewed it to bits.

Mom is planning on wearing it tomorrow, and if all goes well I will get a picture and post it. I'm really proud of the craftsmanship I put into this garment.

I guess that is why so many of my projects end up UFO's. I get frustrated or disappointed with the item and set it aside. Bordem is another cause of the size of my UFO pile. Like the nice green acrylic/bamboo sweater I just rescued from the pile. It's mostly garter stitch. Simple, but bo-ring. However as I un-buried it, I realized that in a couple of months it will feel lovely against my skin. (The high today reached a whopping -5*.)

Though I might set it aside to finish the toe on a sock. It's the second sock, and as it will only reach 0* tomorrow, a nice pair of socks will keep me warm on the bus ride to work...

Take two!

So you know how socks come in pairs right??

Well the trickiest part about knitting socks is getting the second to look like the first.  I'm currently working on Riff, from the deep fall 2010 edition of Knitty. (I love knitty by the way...)

I finished the first sock last week, and promptly cast on for the second- to avoid second sock syndrome. I picked up the pace for the second sock, because the first took way too long to knit and so that I can be done with them. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful pattern and I like knitting socks, but I'm itching to cast on something new, and I promised myself that I would finish a project before starting a new one.

The problems began when I had to start increasing for the gusset. The sock is worked toe up, so it's fairly early in the construction that gusset increases happen.  When knitting the first sock, I failed to note on which pattern row I started the gusset increases. After a close inspection, I was able to guess where the increases should start, or so I thought. Upon coming to the end of the gusset increases and getting ready to turn the heel and work the heel flap, I noticed that the second sock didn't match the first. The instructions state to 'Make a note of which Chart row you’ve just worked.' Well, my mental note (subject to error!) stated that I had just finished the last row of the foot chart. On the second sock, I was two rows from the end of the chart.

All is well, at least with the second sock I was able to get the instep and heel patterns to match exactly, the first sock was off by a row- which still has me confused... I have finished the heel flap and will now proceed to the leg.

Pictures will come at a later date, it's entirely to hot to consider modeling a wool sock.

FO's!!! In theory

Guess what?

I finished several projects in the past couple of days. Or weeks. I have had difficulty in keeping track of time (thank you retail!).

Pictures to come tomorrow, when I'm not all drugged- all completely legal and doctor approved.

Sleep now, new post later.

An FO, plus UFOs, WIPs and the delivery of yarn

So I actually finished a knitting project. Actually I finished it again. Its Emmaline, from knitty. I finished it for the first time toward the beginning of August, tried it on and subsequently tossed it back into the WIP basket. It was too tight at the underbust and to short. I have since frogged back to the widest point if the bust and re-knit the piece. It fits better now, though I still have to weave in the ends and maybe do a bit of blocking.

My grma was visiting this weekend. We made a point of taking her and her brother (my great uncle) to the Minneapolis farmers market. It was fantastic. They grew up on a farm, but shopping at the farmers market was an entirely new experience. I ended up with the ingredients for salsa- canned five pints. Plus got fresh veggies to make a wonderful soup. Mmmmm..soup.

Any way, while they were visiting, I got out all of my various projects, the quilts I'm working on, and my knitting WIPs. the corrie fair isle vest, skew socks, and others. I even brought out my computer to show them my next big project- the Yggdrasil Blanket. I have some sort of sock ADD. It's not second sock syndrome, I'm working them two at a time on a 40" circular needle. Anyway, I think I need something that knits up nice-straight off the needles.

In stead of doing it in the yarn called for-Nature's Choice by Lion Brand- I got a deal on Comfy, in sport weight from Knitpicks. It will produce a smaller blanket than the pattern specifies, but that's ok. I can't wait to cast on....

...Because I got the yarn yesterday... whee!!!

I've been busy...

Last night I sent my grma (that's how she spells it!) a text. Just writing that was wierd. My grma does indeed know how to text. I can thank my teenage cousins for that development. Anywho, all it said was "I've been busy..."

Oh, and it contained this picture:

From the left: pickles, strawberry jam, peach slices, strawberry-rhubarb sauce, blueberry jam.
Yup. I've entered the world of canning. It's actually kind of fun. As long as you don't mind standing in the kitchen with large pots of boiling water and cooking foodstuffs. Since I don't own a pressure canner, I've only been doing foods with enough acidity to preserve safely in a water bath. I'm kind of sad that I didn't start this sooner- when berries were in season. But as we enter fall, pears and apples will be abundant at the farmer's market. (That's where most of the produce originated, except for the peaches, they came from the nearest chain supermarket, but as peaches don't grow well in Minnesota you can't blame me for not buying local.)

And in the background is my birthday present to myself. A mixer. A five-quart bowl, assembled in Ohio, KitchenAid Artisan series mixer. In willow blue. :)

As I hauled it into the kitchen, I joked with my brother that I no longer needed to get married. I mean the whole point of marriage is registering for gifts, right? And as I now own the small kitchen appliance most requested by future brides, (according to Macy's anyway) what other reason would compel me to get married?

It's gotten quite a bit of use already, banana bread, zucchini bread, rhubarb spice cake... Wait until it's cool enough to bake cookies, or bread. I've been told that the dough hook does really well with kneading yeast doughs...

This might explain why I haven't accomplished much in the needlecraft department recently. Hmmm...

Failings... sort of....

Mostly I fail at getting my act together.

Case and point: I had grand plans to enter many of my knitted, sewn, and baked items into the Minnesota State Fair. I started thinking about this at last years fair when I saw a coat and thought 'my winter coat is more well constructed than that.'

So this spring came around and I looked at the information booklets concerning the registration, guidelines and judging of entries. I pre-registered for the baked goods categories (baked goods are required to be pre-registered) by the deadline.

......

However, everything went downhill from there. As I was baking my baked goods the day before they were to be entered, I realized that I missed the days marked for submitting needlecraft items. Then as I'm getting ready to walk out the door with my baked goods, I realize that I forgot to print out a copy of my pre-registration receipt. I don't have a printer at home, and it was too early to go to the library and use their printer.

What really bothers me is that this is a lasting symptom of the %&@?$?@ fibromyalgia. It is becoming a major problem. And I am so tired of always being late and behind. I want to live my life and participate in it, not hobble along behind, always a free steps out of sync.

Ba humbug.

I'll start planning for the 2012 MN State Fair!

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Startitis

I have come down with a wierd case of startitis. Actually, it's more like a case of designitis. The inability to stop designing things- followed by the need to immediately cast on. Except in the case of the quilt I should be designing. Suddenly the end of May is a lot closer than the last time I checked.... (Isn't it odd how that happens??)

All of my knitting projects of late have been on small needles, I have been craving a large needle project, but can't find anything in my ravely queue and yarn stash that make for an intriguing knit. On the upside, this frustration has propelled me back to my sewing machine- it's been neglected the past two months. I'm working on a quilt (not the one I need to be, but it's progress) and some more practical items: pants for mom, a shirt for myself, pants for me.