Crafts

I changed the order my links display in the sidebar and added some new ones. There are probably more I should add, but since I was working on it late last night, my brain stopped working before I finished.

So, does it count as starting a new project if you just swatch for it? What if the intention was to start a new project, but you didn’t have the right needles – does it count then? If so, I have serious start-itis issues right now. And there’s a new local yarn shop opening up tonight…

Here’s my justification, though: we’re going away for the weekend, and most of the knitting I’m doing right now is secret Christmas-present-type-knitting…which I can’t work on where we’re going. All of the other projects I have going and/or planned are very pattern-intensive…not good for car rides or conversation. So, I think I might have to start something new just to have a project to work on this weekend. :)

…Yarn shopping, that is! After all, I finished a project! I actually finished Janda at Sit & Knit on Thursday, but I had to wait until daylight and free time coincided to have Denis take pictures. He’s still not so sure about this two color thing, but I like it!

Of course, I celebrated finishing a project by working on finishing all of the other in-progress projects…well, not really. I started another one. (Big surprise there, right?) But, really, honestly, I’m working on Christmas knitting now. No more distractions! Until the new yarn shop opens on Tuesday, anyway…

Yippee! I’m finishing Janda just in time – the new Knitty is out! Well, OK, I’m not quite done yet…one more side/sleeve seam to sew and 9 more inches to knit on the hood. (I’ve been doing the icky finishing work in between knitting the hood, so when I’m done with the knitting I’ll be completely done!)

What’s this?!? Both sleeves of Janda blocking on the guest room floor! Yay! I spent all day Sunday watching football and knitting. At first I had to force myself to work only on the sleeve, but then as I got closer and closer to the end, I couldn’t put it down! All in all, I knit about two-thirds of the sleeve yesterday…kind of makes you wonder why it took me so long!

I also felted my Kureyon bag, which has turned into a little itty-bitty purse. I think the 6+ feet of i-cord I knitted has become too short for both handles…I may need to go buy another skein of the yarn, in which case I’m going to buy enough to also make one of these multidirectional scarves!

Other than these little projects, most of my knitting from here on in is going to be somewhat secret…after all, Christmas is coming, and I have a lot of projects I should be working on. Unless of course I decide to start more projects for me!

I finished the knitting for the Kureyon tote Wednesday evening. Here it is in all of its unfelted glory! I’m going to try to felt it this weekend, but it’s shaping up to be a busy one, so we’ll see.

I also made up and knitted a tie pattern…my mom knitted a dress, and had extra yarn, so I made a tie for my dad to wear. Of course, I don’t really expect that he’ll wear it, but I’ll take pictures and put the pattern up sometime soon.

I have serious “second sleeve syndrome”. Granted, I had to finish the wedding cross-stitch, but I’ve been “working” on the second Janda sleeve for almost a month now. (Well, it’s been traveling in my knitting bag, anyway.) I only managed to put about 20 rows on it at Sit & Knit last night. Grr. It’s just this sleeve, a hood, and a couple of seams away from being done. Time to crack the whip I think!

So, how the heck does this work?

This is how! I’ve been in a sort of crafting slump since finishing the wedding cross-stitch – finishing big projects that I’ve intensely worked on does that to me – so I needed a quick project. Thankfully, I had a spare skein of yarn and just this morning found the perfect pattern for it!

I’ve also started another cross-stitch. (It’s pretty much impossible to bring a finished piece to the framer’s and not come home with the materials for a new project!) This one’s for me, with no deadline, so it won’t be nearly as stressful.

I got my hair done this morning, and brought my knitting along (of course) for the inevitable waiting. It amazes me how magnetic knitting is. Every single person who entered or left that lobby while I was there had a question or comment about knitting, even if it was just asking what I was working on. (For the record, I split my time between the Kureyon bag and the second Janda sleeve – I got there quite early since my mom and I had back-to-back appointments.)

And to think, each of those women would have been sitting there, bored and silent, were it not for a ball of string and a couple of sticks.

It’s a lovely cool 60° out there…time to pull out the long-sleeved shirts and light-weight sweaters! And as soon as I’m done with this wedding gift (soon, very soon) I can pull out the heavy-duty knitting! Yay!

I love September. And October, too. Well, Fall in general is great. And Spring. Actually, I really like all of the seasons, and the fact that we have them – I don’t know if I’d enjoy living somewhere where the weather is essentially the same year-round. Although, if you ask me that at the end of February, when it’s been snowing for months, I might tell you differently!

I finally made it to sit & knit last night…and cross-stitched the whole time. I think I’ll be able to get this wedding gift done in time, but it’s going to be close. No knitting for me until it’s finished. <sniffle>

Well, maybe I’ll put in the random row here and there on my kureyon bag and the second sleeve of Janda. I’ll have to set a timer, though, or I’ll end up with a finished bag, a sleeve, and an IOU to give as a wedding gift.

My allergies haven’t killed me yet, although they sure are trying! We had a fun visit with our twin nieces and twin niece and nephew this weekend – four kids have way more than four times the energy of one kid…it definitely follows the rule of the sum being greater than the parts. We went to the Strong Museum for part of Saturday with Lisa and Henry, which the kids definitely enjoyed!

I did manage to get a little knitting done, too – I finished a pair of socks, and (you guessed it) started another little project.

I’ve been in kind of a knitting slump lately – I don’t know if it’s just that I’m bored with the projects I have, or if it’s just allergies, but I haven’t been knitting nearly as much as usual. Or blogging, for that matter! Plus, I’ve been pretty bummed about missing Sit & Knit for two weeks in a row now.

The other thing is, I’m actually spending most of my crafting time on my cousin’s wedding gift – he’s getting married in three weeks, and I have to finish stitching it and have at least a week left for framing. The race is on!