I think the second biggest secret to being an adult is that time moves faster and faster the older you get. (The first is that you will never feel like an “adult” the way you expected to as a kid.)
Aside from the fact that we have had piles and piles of snow dumped upon us this winter, things have been good here. I have been keeping busy with a lot of good things, some of it knitting and fiber related.
Knitting has moved from must-do-every-time-I-sit to a relaxing in bed hobby. I’m fine with this right now, because I’m sure it will cycle around again soon. I’ve also been itching to spin lately, so I’ll probably to that soon. And sew. I’ve got a pile of sewing projects built up since I hate to drag out my machine and set it up for one little thing.
I’ve also been trying to read, exercise, and sleep more. See? Plenty busy.
One of my goals for the year (some may call it a New Year’s Resolution; I don’t) is to enjoy each day and not spend so much time dwelling on the future or the past. It’s working. I’m in a good place in my head and things are going well.
I’ve redone my craft room and added some new (IKEA) furniture. Once I get things picked up and organized a little more, I’ll share photos or a video.
I haven’t dumped photos from my camera’s memory card since Christmas, but I hope to upload them to Flickr soon and start post here more regularly again. I am starting to miss the knitting community and Ravelry – if you can believe it, there have been entire weeks where I haven’t logged in!
I’ve received a few questions on how to stop the Malabrigo Waffles scarf from curling. Since it is a stockinette based pattern, the edges do want to curl in as you are knitting and wearing.
Blocking is the key here. I’ll explain my favorite way of blocking below, but your preferred method should work just as well.
To block, I use the “steam shot” button on my iron. Find a long heat and water resistant surface, like your bathroom floor covered in towels. Lay the scarf out and flatten as much as possible by hand. If you like, pin the edges out flat. Pass the iron slowing over the surface, hitting the steam shot button repeatedly as you go. Do not touch the iron directly to the scarf. I typically don’t pin the scarf down, but use my hand to flatten and smooth as I go. Be careful not to pull it so straight that you lose the waffle texture.
Allow the scarf to dry and cool before moving.
While it is impossible to completely prevent curling, this tames the curl to a manageable (and for me, comfortable) level while wearing.
Once again I find myself woefully behind in my online life. I guess that’s a good thing – it means real life is going well.
I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas with their families. We had our last family party today, and I am a little sad that it’s over. The house always looks so empty when all of the decorations are pack up until next year.
Good news! I finished all (both) of my gift projects on time. The big one that I have been keeping secret since September is a Cobblestone Pullover for my Dad. For the record, finished on time means that I was sewing in the ends and steam blocking on my old bedroom floor at my parents house at 11pm Christmas eve, cursing how loud the steam shot was on my Mom’s iron and waiting for my Dad to knock on the door and ask what that weird noise was.
I forgot to take photos, but will definitely get some when I see them for New Year’s Eve.
I’m looking forward to my knitting routine returning to normal, and hope to have more to post again soon. I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately and the purpose of it. Really, I do it for myself. I must – I’m not sure anyone ever reads this anymore. I realized I started my first “Yarn Dreams” blog in 2003. Almost 7 years ago!! Is that possible?
(If you are reading this – leave a comment? Or send me a quick email? I’m such a terrible lurker myself, but I would love to know if anyone is still out there.)
Anyway, until next year, here is a scan of the front of the Christmas cards I made:
That pretty much sums up how I’ve been feeling the last few weeks. It doesn’t help that just about everything I’m working on right now (knitting and other things) has to stay under wraps and is unbloggable.
I don’t even have any cute cat photos to distract you with since my camera battery is dead and I haven’t bothered to charge it.
If I get my act together I’ll have one finished object post, an in progress post (the one thing I can share), and hopefully a few recipes and other holiday goodness later this week.
I hope all of your holiday preparations are going well!
I’ve been busy lately knitting projects that can’t be spoken of here yet, doing some paper crafts, and firmly ignoring the fact that there are only 29 days left in 2009.
Oh, and napping. Serious insomnia has struck leaving me wide awake most nights and napping after work. It’s a vicious cycle I would really like to get out of.
I ordered a box of goodies from Knit Picks about a month ago now, maybe longer. The idea was that I’d have plenty of time to knit up some small Christmas goodies like Alan Dart’s Gnomes and Snowmes or a felted slipper or two.
Of course, I haven’t touched a thing in this box since I took the photo except to move it off the dining room table. I still believe that I have plenty of time to do everything that I want done before the holidays but I might just be deluding myself at this point.
As I mentioned, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on paper crafts lately and I’ve decided to make my own Christmas cards for the first time. I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I tell you this has become much more time consuming and costly than I originally anticipated. But, I’m very excited to see how they turn out.
And because I take more cat photos than anything these days, here is a little montage of Reggie ‘helping’ me test some new stamps:
Since we moved last April and I wound up with an entire room for myself, I’ve been trying to find the best way to organize my craft supplies.
It’s been difficult because while I would love to have things in the perfect place, labeled, and in attractive containers, I’m paralyzed by my fear of putting something in the ‘wrong’ place. And what if I put it in the wrong place, and because it’s in the wrong place I never find the ‘right’ place?
I know. Crazy.
So I have been living with things still in boxes. Not very inspiring. After watching hours of craft room tours on YouTube and browsing IKEA and office supply stores for ideas, I present my first bit of organization:
I put each of my knitting wips in it’s own bag and tied a label on listing what the project is. It’s a small step forward. Eventually I do want to sew matching project bags and find a better storage container for them. I look forward to the day when I can photograph my area to show you!
I have been asked if I really was able to put a costume on my cat and how long he tolerated it for.
Well, the headband lasted all of 15 seconds (too bad, since that made him look awesome) but he really didn’t seem to mind the jacket. Here are a few more photos of Reggie sitting in his favorite position on the stairs in it as proof:
And a short, badly lit video of him playing with it on:
Now, I know what you want to ask. And yes. I am totally going to knit him a sweater for the winter.
So I finished a number of smaller projects in September, but got so far behind in writing about them that I finally gave up. I’m going to put photos and basic information on all of them here now so at least there will be some record of them.
Please feel free to ask questions if you’d like to know anything more about something. They can all be found on my Ravelry page as well.
I bought this adorable little sock blocker keychain from The Loopy Ewe a few months ago, and just got around to knitting a little sock for it.
(I realize that I forgot to put anything in for scale – it’s about 2.5 inches tall)
The yarn for this little sock was leftover from yarn I spun for my mom. (I still need to take some decent photos of her yarn.) I had some thin singles left on one of the bobbins and chain plyed it just to clear the bobbin for the Neapolitan yarn I wrote about yesterday. It turned out very soft and squishy, and looked a whole lot like sock yarn. I was very excited since while I’ve seen a lot of gorgeous handspun sock yarn, I didn’t think I’d be capable of it for a long time. Maybe I will give it a try sooner.
I have been home sick from work for the last two afternoons. (I’ve gone in for the mornings since some work just had to get done.) I hate missing work; I haven’t had to take sick time in over a year because I don’t usually get sick. I am feeling pretty bad and am just hoping I don’t have the pig flu. Ugh.
I’ve been itching to do some spinning since I purchased the alpaca fiber last week. I have a growing stash of nice fiber, but haven’t had the nerve to spin much of it for fear of ‘ruining’ it.
In my defense, it’s not like knitting – if I mess up, I can’t just un-spin it. (Would that be nips? Like tink?)
Anyway, my desire to make yarn took over and I got out some Neapolitan Blue Faced Leicester fiber from Spunky Eclectic. I tried spinning from the fold for the first time, in an attempt to get a little softer, loftier yarn than those I have previously spun.
It worked so well. Much easier than I anticipated, and it seemed to go quickly too. I ended up with around 114 yarns of semi bulky yarn from 4oz of fiber. I haven’t measured the wraps per inch yet, but I’m guessing it’s around 7 wpi.
I think I am going to make a cowl or short cabled scarf from it.
