2013 FO Round-up and a 2014 FO

In 2103, I finished 16 knitted, crocheted, and knotted projects. My conic sweater has no photo so it is not pictured below. I should remedy that.

I guess this is about my speed these days, since it’s almost exactly what I made last year. Although, some of these photos are of more than one thing. For example:

I made two bunnies and I organized, knit part of, and sewed up part of the blanket under the bunnies in this photo.

This photo is of two but I made five of these crocheted jar covers.

I only made one of these, but look how cool it looks with a color-changing LED candle in it…

I skipped calculating my stash total last year but here is this year’s: as of today I have 74,438 yards, or 42 miles of yarn. That is only (“only”) 3,000 more yards than at the end of 2011. I do have a confession that I went to ArtFibers for one last hurrah and came home with 700 yards of Tantra and about 340 yards of Ginko.

Aren’t they gorgeous? Lucky for my wallet they did not have sweater quantities of the yarn I wanted to use to make a sweater in a color that I thought would be good on me. Whew.

Moving on…

My most recent FO is not knitting but cross stitch.

I got the kit from Alicia Watkins on Etsy. It is so cute and was so much fun to do that I want to make all of her patterns now. I should mount this finished piece, frame it, and figure out where to put it before I do anything else, though.

Really, I should be knitting one of the projects on my needles. I might be time to cut my losses with a couple of projects and frog them. I have one sweater that I think is going to have to be totally rethought. At least the yarn won’t just sit in my stash that way.

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NaBloPoMo Day 1: Apparently, I’m a giver

It’s National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo for short) and I will be posting every day, or trying to do so. As Phoebe so aptly put it, my Novembers are well documented.

We’ll start, as I think we usually do, with a finished object round up.

There were teacher gifts…

A gift for my mother-in-law

A bunny for a new baby

Chemo caps (I only knit the top one and a couple others, a lot of those were knit by friends of mine. Thanks, friends!) donated, again, to The Breast Cancer Connection in Palo Alto.

A mouse for my son’s friend

A scarf in UNR colors for a friend whose oldest son is going there

And, finally, a couple of things for me…

A Lintilla scarf

And a Dark Side cowl.

Wow, seven out of the last nine projects here were gifts. I think the last two I finished before this were also gifts. I am either selfless or stupid or overrun with knitting. Anything is possible.

I am not making any promises for this year’s NaBloPoMo. Last year I wanted to post a picture every day but I started Project 365 this year and bailed on that, so no promises from me!

Here’s to a postastic November! Hopefully we won’t have to talk about dryer lint at all this year. Again, no promises.

yarmulkes for sale!

Let’s start with apologies: I’m a bad blogger, you know it, I know it, I just don’t do it regularly. Okay, I’m glad I got that off my chest.

Now, what have I been knitting? Not a lot, actually. My husband had a gallstone attack on Mother’s day and I spent that evening with him in the ER, knitting away on my blue Etesian sweater while leaning awkwardly in an ER chair. The next day, my elbow started to hurt. Then I did a bunch of data entry for my job and it hurt more. And my forearm hurt. And… it hasn’t totally gone away. A mom at school who is a doctor told me that she thought it was tennis elbow, I’ve had acupuncture three times for it, which has helped, but it still aches and my forearm muscles are still very tight.

It sucks.

(My husband is fine now, though gall bladder-free and on a doctor ordered low fat diet and kind of sad about that.)

So, I took a break from knitting, mostly. I have been crocheting quite a bit, though.

Dave, from Chub Creek, posted on Twitter that someone should make him a coffee carafe and mug cozy, so I did.

Completely by accident, it arrived just before his birthday. He sent me a thank you Chub Creek mug in return.

Which is enormous. I use it in the morning to pretend I’m drinking giant mugs of coffee, even though I can’t drink real coffee any more because it makes me insane. (It’s hell getting old.)

Next up in the FO parade: little bag for Brenda Dayne‘s A Memorable Yarn project.

I used yarn from Karen’s stash and embroidered a pink K on it since pink was Karen’s favorite color. The Memorable Yarn event that I attended at A Verb for Keeping Warm ended up being held on the anniversary of Karen’s passing, so it was quite appropriate.

Speaking of pink… I finished my impulsively started Annis.

I was knitting it one evening with my knitting friends and I said I didn’t think I’d ever wear this pink shawl with a beaded edge and my friend Teenuh said that she loved it. Her birthday was coming up so… problem solved! And the shawl has a new home with someone who loves pink and sparkly beads. Perfect.

When I was working on Dave’s cozies my younger son commented that he loved that blue color and would I please make him something with it? When I asked what he’d like he decided on a blankie for his stuffed dog, Snowball.

Stuffed dogs are easy to please. My son liked it too.

Last, but not least, my friend Pam’s son is having his bar mitzvah and at some point earlier in the year she mentioned that she might need help making yarmulkes. I decided that knitting them was a) too hard on my elbow and b) too time consuming. After knitting three I settled into crochet and made eight crocheted yarmulkes (plus the three knitted ones).

I stacked them at knit night and it reminded me of Caps for Sale, a book I loved as a child. I’m still thinking that I need to write Yarmulkes for Sale! I just need an illustrator.

Whew. Are you still with me? Good. I have more pictures. This time of yarn that I bought while visiting my brother and his family in NJ. Did you know that in NJ they don’t charge sales tax for yarn because (like clothing) it is an “essential”? A belief that yarn is essential: I like that in a state.

I got some Berroco Origami on sale for a sweater I’ve been wanting to make for two years.

And then I got some single skeins of Rowan Cotton Jeans that were also on sale.

I am not sure what I’ll do with those. I thinking maybe some crochet coasters or something similar.

There was also Rowan Calmer in the sale bin.

The colors are more different than they look in the pictures. I see hats and mitts in that yarn’s future.

I don’t know if anyone stuck with me through this long, picture-heavy post. Maybe if I posted more often I wouldn’t have so many pictures to share at once. Maybe.

quietly knitting away

I have been quiet for the past two months, haven’t I? I have been knitting (and crocheting) away, though. First I made a crocheted basket for my mom for her birthday.

It matches the washcloth/hand towel that I made for her for Christmas. I still haven’t given it to her, though! I need to rectify that.

Next up, a silvery scarf for I am not sure who. For the fun of knitting it, perhaps.

In the same theme, I made an orange Lintilla scarf, unsure if I would actually want to wear it. I didn’t.

I liked knitting it, and I liked the way it turned out but the orange didn’t work on me. Luckily, it worked on Kristi.

Sorry for the blurry faced picture. We were inside, at Stitches West! Speaking of Stitches, I bought some lovely blue Lisa Souza silk at Stitches.

I think it will become a cowl. But first, I am knitting a sweater from Norah Gaughan Vol. 10 called Etesian. I tried on the sample at the WEBS booth at Stitches and fell in love with it. They are now knitting up their garments in size 14 and size 4 so I was able to try on the larger one. I am pleased with this trend and emailed them to tell them so! I’m knitting mine in ArtFibers Chutney, a matte silk yarn. My swatches turned out nicely and I have high hopes for it! I didn’t take a photo of them, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

One last finished object: A binary cable hat.

I knit one of these for Cookie and on the way to Yosemite last week, I decided that I wanted one too. My plan was to knit it in the car and wear it there. Well… I didn’t start it until we got back but I have finished it and wore it this morning for school drop off. (That is when the picture was taken.)

Whew. I guess I have been busy! No time to type more, though, my new sweater project is calling.

crocheting like crazy

I have been neglectful of my blog… again. Sorry about that… again. In June a friend from my knitting group passed away from breast cancer. Her daughter saw on our group’s email list that we were having a yarn swap in the summer and asked if she could bring her mother’s yarn for us to divide up. I didn’t end up getting the yarn from her until after the swap and I was talking to Kristi about it, debating what to do when Kristi came up with a brilliant idea: crochet items for donation to Breast Cancer Connections. We are crocheting because it is fast and uses up lots of yarn but also because our friend was mostly a crocheter. She used to make bed-sized afghans and give them away. They were truly epic creations: so big that she carried them in a bag from Costco. Shortly after this decision, I went to visit Kristi and delivered some of the yarn to her so she and I (and Janice and Cookie) have been crocheting away. Teenuh has been weaving and I haven’t gotten a chance to see her woven scarves in person but the photos have been lovely!

In any case, here is what I have made so far. The charity only wants “hats, scarves, and booties” so that’s where I have been going.

The slippers didn’t quite work. I don’t think this pair is going to get donated because I don’t think they will stay on. I might try to find another pattern to use instead.

Janice designed this pattern with the yarn I delivered to her. I think mine is bit too big and I’m working on a second with a smaller hook. It’s a very cute hat though, huh?

I liked this pattern so much…

… that I made two in a row.

A very-not-tiny scarf.

This was actually the first project I made, although I got a foot into it and had to rip it out and restart because the hook was too small at first and the resulting scarf was, in Teenuh’s words, like iron. She was right to talk me into ripping it.

Potato chip scarf, so named because you can’t make just one, I think. I did, though, just make one.

This is Kristi’s pile so far (sitting on my bike just because it was there). She also made a tiny scarf, two flower motif scarves, and a big, cozy fringed scarf. I might have to make a fringed one too. That one is coziest.

There has been some knitting going on as well, with my own yarn.

I started this infinity scarf as a car project when we drove to Southern California. I really like it. The yarn is bamboo and is soft and warm. I have another skein of it that might need to become another cowly and/or scarfy thing. One can never have too many scarves, cowls, and shawls, right?

I hope not because this is also the very beginning of a shawl. This pink silk yarn ended up in my stash after the yarn swap with the BobaKnitters. I’m making an Annis but I opted for beads in place of the Nupps. I was really into that pattern for a few days but it’s 300-something stitches so I didn’t get very far. When I’m done crocheting, I hope to get back to it.

My final current project is a Giants Scarf “Zito Socks Style” as requested by my friend Sandy who is a Giants SuperFan. I am hoping to finish it before baseball seasons ends but she is such a fan that she wears Giants colors all year round so I know she’ll get use out of it even if the Giants are done playing by the time it’s done. Also, there’s always next year.

Whew. I’ve been busy, huh?

tiny scarf

When I went to visit Kristi in April she was wearing a very pretty, skinny crocheted scarf. I admired it and she told me it was a pattern called tiny scarf that she had recently finished. She even handed me the printed chart (it’s a free pattern, don’t freak out). When my shoulder was hurting and I was blaming knitting I wanted something to crochet so I picked up the pattern again and pulled out a skein of Sunshine Yarns sun silk that I bought at stitches with no particular plan.

It grew pretty quickly but I was distracted by my de-cluttering efforts. Still, just about a month later, my not-so-tiny scarf is done.

I even wore it home last night from knitting because it was chillier out than I thought. It was nice and warm around my neck. I look forward to wearing it in the fall and that’s another 400 yards of yarn out of my stash!

my poor neglected knitting blog

Here is an update on my knitting projects. I’ve been doing a bit of knitting but really the de-cluttering has taken over. So… pictures!

I made this and N claimed it. The pattern is called “bunny nugget” and N named her Bluebell, which I think is insanely cute.

I was having some shoulder pain from knitting so I decided to start a crochet scarf just like Kristi made. The yarn is so soft and I love the color.

I started Kiama, from a Berroco book, hoping for a quick, simple project. But I hate it and am going to rip it out.

Slinky Ribs needs sleeves but I’m also worried about the flippiness of the hem so I’ve been avoiding picking up the stitches for the sleeves. I could block it to try to fix the hem, but I just haven’t yet.

There you go, that’s where my knitting stands right now. Back to cleaning out the closets!

a non-post post

I have been knitting (and crocheting!) but school was ending, my life got hectic and then school ended for both my boys and me and my life got calm enough for me to focus on something I’ve needed to focus on for a while: de-cluttering! I am not writing a de-cluttering blog with my friend Julia. You can visit us at 2moms2boys2much.wordpress.com and see what I’ve been doing instead of knitting.

I do have a knitting post in my somewhere but first my WIPs need a photo session. Also, I have one FO I never photographed to post! For shame. Sorry about that!

monkey!

I went to another first birthday party today. (All the little knitter girls are turning 1!) This one was for Bella and her party invite and stuff were all monkey themed, so I decided she needed a crocheted monkey.

The pattern is just called Crocheted Monkey and is from a Japanese crochet site (Ravelry link).

I couldn’t get the arms and legs stuffed in a way that didn’t make them too stiff so I added pipe cleaners to both to make them bendable and beans to the legs (since they were bigger they squished too much with just the pipe cleaners). She can kind of hang from a tree, so I think it worked pretty well!

The skirt was my idea and I love how tutu-like it turned out to be.

I hope Bella loves her!