This winter has had the worst weather I’ve experienced. One day the high is 65 F and the next it’s in the 20’s. Okay, maybe not that extreme of a jump, but the temps have been fluctuating by 20 degrees or more from one day to the next, which is more than my body wants to deal with! It’s been a constant up and down in temps. We haven’t had much snow this year and the snow we have had has been gone in a matter of days, sometimes hours. I’d prefer it just be cold and snowing than these crazy jumps in temperatures and mostly rainy weather. It’s been more like spring than the actual winter that I grew accustomed to when I lived in Connecticut and even a drastic change from last winter here (which I experienced the end of and was nothing like this). On the upside of that, though, this means that I spend a lot of time indoors not doing a whole lot, which means I have more knitting time!
I’ve been working on my mom’s Nine-to-Five socks and I’m nearly done with the first sock. I’ve been working on that mostly as my travel project that I work on it in the car or during my lunch break at work. I don’t have a photo of what they currently look like (my camera battery is dead and I keep forgetting to charge it), but here’s a photo of the yarn I’m using:
The project I’ve been working on while sitting in front of the TV recently has been Clapotis. I’m over half way done with the repeats for section 3. I absolutely love how it’s coming out! I’m using Noro Lily Multi and for the most part, I like working with it. The one complaint I do have so far is that in two of the 10 skeins I have (and I’ve used 4 so far), I have found knots in the yarn. I know that this is an issue for Noro Kureyon and probably other yarns, but considering how much the yarn retails for, it’s such a disappointment. I think I’m even more disappointed with this in the Noro Lily Multi than I am with the Noro Kueryon because the Lily Multi is a cotton/silk blend (it’s a braided yarn) and when you weave in the ends, you don’t have that wool to help "stick" it in place. I’ve tried to join new yarn on the edges to help with this and hopefully that will work out well. Sorry, no new photo of what it currently looks like, but hopefully I can get one taken soon. I’d love to get one in the sun to show the color better, however the weather just doesn’t seem to be cooperating lately!
I’ve been trying really hard to not start any new projects until I get some of the current ones done. In an effort to help this, I’ve decided that I will not have more than one pair of socks on the needles at any time. I’m thinking that I will go with a 1-only rule after I get some things off my needles for all projects so that I can actually finish things before running off and starting something new. I also want to start working from stash and not buy much yarn this year. I put all my stash into a fairly large bin (28 gallon maybe?) and realized that ALL my yarn fits into that small of a space now. Last year I sold off a lot of my stash that I didn’t think I would use. Right now I have a bin full of yarn (18 gallon) I will never use that I’m going to give away. I’m just not going to hang on to anything that I don’t see a need for in my life (be it yarn or anything else – if I’m not going to use it, I don’t want to keep it!). I have a picture of the bins on my phone, but I lost the little adapter for the mini SD card, so I can’t get the picture off of the phone to post it. Next time I’m at the house I’ll take a picture with my actual camera. When we moved here, all my yarn was in one large wardrobe box and a few smaller ones. Now, it fits neatly into one tote. I’m simply amazed at that, especially when I look at other people’s large stashes. What’s more interesting is that I don’t have any real desire for a big stash anymore – I just want yarn I will use.
Speaking of stash… I nearly caved last week when I saw the Dream In Color Baby yarn in stock at The Loopy Ewe. I even looked at it over the weekend, still wanting it and thinking of all the things I could make with it. I didn’t buy it, though. I reasoned with myself – "Do I need this yarn? Nope, but it’s really pretty! This is true, but I have really pretty lace yarn in the stash already that is waiting to be used. Hmm…. good point…. I don’t need this yarn and I’m not going to buy it only to have it sit in my stash for the next year or more waiting to be knit up!" I realized that I have lace yarn in my stash that I haven’t even touched and that it’s more than enough to keep me busy working with it for a good long while. So far, this year, I haven’t bought any yarn even though there have been a number of times that I’ve been sorely tempted. Each time I go through that same process: if I am not buying it for a project I’m starting right away, then I will not buy it. I’ve also been looking at my stash for yarn instead of immediately looking to buy new yarn. Of course, I’ve been doing this for a while now and last year I didn’t buy much yarn at all. There were a few impulse purchases, but then I sold most of those when I sold off a good chunk of my stash, so I think it evened out in the end.
These are the current projects on my needles that I’m working on (in no real order):
Nine-to-Five socks for mom
Clapotis
Starlight sweater
Lady Eleanore stole
Scarf for my sister
The Bag (from the book No Sheep for You)
Icarus shawl
Baby blanket
Alright… that’s about all I have to talk about for now. Oh! One last thing…. Vote for Dolores! ;o)
Ms Lindz - My little corner of the internet 