Queue is raging out of control

Pretty low-key week in craft world.

photo of the cute egg warmers:

Dad loved them.

Went to both knitting groups again, and this time KT came along to both as well. I had a good time, and I think she did too.

Worked a ton more on the baby blanket. Its nearly done--I'll hopefully finish this week. I'm so tired of it. Its just boring and taking soooo long. I know it will be appreciated, but I think I need to take a break and do some "me" projects for a little while. Or at least concurrently.

Have a ton of new books now, 3 of which arrived today. I do believe I now own all of the Stitch n' Bitch knitting & crochet books, and also got an awesome origami jewelry one as a surprise random gift. Went through the stitch n' bitches and went nuts adding projects to my queue. The list of things to make has probably doubled now, but there are so many neat designs! Gah! I wonder if I'll ever actually go through the whole list or if it will be a never ending list of things to create.

The origami jewelry book is really cool--most of the patterns themselves aren't anything new, but the ideas on preserving and using the paper as beads is very neat. Its given me the idea of making the flower corsage things for our moms/g-moms to wear for the wedding.

Plans for the week ahead: going to go to both knitting groups again, finish the baby blanket, crochet a cute tank/swimsuit cover, prep some origami paper for flower samples and see what preservation methods work best. Looks like a productive but fun week ahead!

Mama's a Yarn Ho

Not a big week in the world of craftiness...

Things I did:

• Worked more on Ada's baby blanket. This is taking a lot longer than I thought--next time I'll properly check gauge (by not checking this is 3" wider than anticipated) and use bigger needles to speed up the process. I'd like to hurry this up so I only have 1 daunting task (Bonnie's scarf) and can move on to more fun & exciting things.


• Cute little Egg Warmers for Dad's Birthday. I don't usually give Dad gifts, but since its on Easter this year and these were too cute I decided to send him a little something. I don't have a photo yet, expect that in the next posting.


• Ordered 20 packs of metallic origami paper and got a surprise Origami Jewelry book from Chuck. Looking forward to starting on some wedding paper stuff and think I'll make Origami Jewelry for the mom's to wear at the wedding :)

The big thing (which is so big its beyond the bullets) was I cataloged my yarn. All of it. Or, well, nearly all of it, as I know of a few balls of yarn that have gone missing but must be lurking somewhere in the apartment. Grand total? 370 skeins of yarn. 209 different types/colors. 6 categories for sorting/storing (including one "To Do" bag for yarn specifically purchased for a project in the queue). Wow. It took me a bit to realize the Ravlery total in their Stash is for the different types/colors of yarn, not total # of balls. Luckily a quick sum function in excel later I knew. Wow. What sucks is I had originally planned to really sort through and donate a good chunk of it to some of the charity knits around. 95% of it I don't want to, and most of the last 5% is just yarn remnants. I do have maybe 5-10 skeins I could part with. After sorting it all I realized most I *had* bought for a someday project (like, this would make a great sweater. Since its on sale I'll get it now) or had intended for a project but turned out not to work out so I had to get something else. Very little of it is completely random. I guess I'm just an addict :P I did learn that my stash is minuscule compared to the people at the knitting group's stashes. Doesn't make me feel any better. I think my new plan will be for the next x months I can only buy yarn for a specific project, and for each one I buy yarn for I have to make one of equivalent size using what I have. So when I get yarn for that dress I want to make I'll probably be making a whole bunch of egg warmers and do-knits ;)

Plans for this week: do as much baby blanket as possible, start doing sample origami flowers and animals.

updates & quizzes

Beth posted a fun quiz so of course I had to take it:

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
Take this quiz!








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I was hoping for something a bit more exciting, but I guess I'm not a very exciting person :P

The SKP2008 socks are finally finished!

(You can see a bit more of the detail here and here)

My co-worker also commissioned me to make her a baby blanket. Her 2 year old daughter has 2 knitted blankets that she adores, but a 3rd would be handy so there is always one available while the others are being washed. Co-worker's mom crocheted a blanket and the girl just hates it! The theory is its something about the feel of knitting that she likes, and since I knit I was recruited! So I picked up some pink yarn (as I have none in the house) and started on that after finishing my socks. Its going much slower going than I had hoped (thats what I get for being cheap and not getting the larger size needles to make this a little faster).


Hopefully I can go to both Tuesday & Thursday knitting groups this week. Its Spring Break for class so I should have the time. Woo! Now if it would only warm up & stop snowing I could go back to biking...

"I suffer the dreams of a world gone mad"

When we last left our intrepid explorer she was wandering the paths of a yarn jungle...

I only made small things the past few days so I'd be able to focus on the Sock Pentathlon.

I whipped up the Urchin beret:


and some dough-knits:


March is "Yarn Diet" and "Yarn Catalog" month. I will not buy any new yarn and I will try to add all the yarn I currently own to my Ravelry stash.

This week brought with it 2 yarn orders (that were placed in February): one with a ton of stuff from Knit Picks and one with just a few things to take advantage of the yarn sale at Joann. I was sad to discover the yarn I had specifically purchased for the sock contest has gotten horrible reviews as a sock yarn (it apparently wears out after only 7 or 8 wears!) This saddened me, so I had to get some new sock yarn. Its a nice blue, but not as pretty or soft as the other stuff. I guess I'll find some non-sock purpose for it. I ordered 2 new books so that should help.

The socks for the pentathlon have been started. The pattern went up at Midnight Friday/Saturday March 1. I had thought about staying up and at least starting the socks, but after a week of work I was too tired. By the time I got up at 9am on Saturday someone had already finished the pair! Wow! I've finished one sock and started on the second. I realized I made a mistake in the pattern on the second one so I'll probably go back and re-do it (luckily I haven't made too much progress on it). The bind-off on the first sock is a little tight so I'm going to go back & do a crochet bind-off to make it looser. Photos will be posted when they're finished ;)

I did go to both the knit-alongs at Knit One and Natural Stitches. Both have pros and cons. KO is within walking distance and on Thursdays (when Chuck has a game), but while the people were nice I felt they were a little cliquey and we didn't have much in common. NS is an annoying drive away (but not far) and on Tuesdays (one night when Chuck's free), but was very friendly and easy to talk with and instantly made me feel welcome. I plan to keep going to both for a while and may just do one or the other some weeks. It was my first visit to Natural Stitches and wow is it a great store. The prices were very reasonable and the selection--lots of practical but neat yarn. Not too much uber fancy or $50 skein stuff. More my kind of yarn. I can't wait till my March yarn diet is over so I can go crazy there! :D

This week I hope to finish the 2nd sock and then start (and hopefully finish) 2 water-bottle containers for Steph. Next up is a clothing/yoga mat bag for Valerie and then who knows what! Maybe inspiration will strike while sorting the stash.

In non-yarn news I've come up with a concrete idea of what origami to do for the wedding and ordered some basic paper to get sizing ideas for when I make the big order and go nuts with the folding. Woo!