The Stash is Out of Control

I have a yarn store in my house!  I have so much yarn now.  I didn't realize it could get like this.  And... I want to shop for more.  I find myself searching on Ravelry for more, more, more.  It will be next.  I remember some of my lovely things were going to be next.  They were all going to be next at some point.

I really want to blog about dealing with my stash.  I want to make a concerted effort to knit only from stash and see what happens.  A few of my skeins of sock yarn I won during the Knit.Sock.Love KAL on Ravelry, but that only accounts for about 5 skeins or so.  I have a bunch of sweater amounts of yarn, they all had a plan when I bought them.  They should be knit.  I am going to go through my stash and really look at it.  I bet I could knit for 2 or 3 years on the yarn I have. 

Ok, let's go a month at a time.  My goal right now is to make it until December 18, 2013 knitting only from stash.  I will re-set this goal in December.  My ultimate goal is to go an entire year.  That may be a tall order considering how much I LOVE yarn.  Just for today I will try a month.  I do want to really look at the stash and prioritize.  Maybe I could even put some up for sale.  They have that feature on Ravelry.  I should know, I buy from other stash's all the time.  I'm helping them out, right?!?

I have an entire bag of sock yarn that hasn't even been accounted for on my stash page.  My page is definitely not up to date.  That will be part of the first month goal.  I really want to know what I have.  Really, really see it for what it is.  I think I have been downplaying the amount of yarn I actually have.  I have A LOT!

All right, so first month will be to account for it all, prioritize it, possibly sell some, and only knit with what I have.  On your mark, get set, go!!!!

Startitis

Something funny happens around my birthday. Which was a big one by the way. I am officially 40. That being said, I also received a bit of yarn for my big day. I am also in 2, yes I said 2, sock clubs. I also had an "Embrace the Lace" club shipment come. Wow, that's a lot of new yarn. I was just getting in touch with all of the yarn I bought at Stitches. All I've wanted to do is start every project that all of that yarn is intended for.

I have been knitting with the Knit.Sock.Love group on Ravelry. Each month we start another Cookie A. pattern, but we have 2 months to finish. I finished one of my March socks and have the second on the needles. It's now ok to put the April socks on the needles. Crazy!! I had to frog my January Socks that Rock club socks, they were too tight. Before I could do that my March STR shipment showed up. I also joined the Woolgirl sock club for the third year in a row. I did pretty well last year, I only have 2 projects left to knit from last year. It always sounds like a good idea when I join these clubs, I forget that I have a stash of yarn from the first year. I want to knit through it, but new stuff always comes along.

I tend to get startitis and it never involves my club yarn. Ahh well, it is yarn and I love yarn. In and amongst it all I do finish some things. I just finished a beautiful Nicole from http://www.chicknits.com/. I a thoroughly convinced that Bonne Marie Burns is a genius. It is so flattering and I love it. So, things do get finished even if I can't stop starting things.

Working on Manu, Dealing with Dad's Birthday

It's funny how I just can't stop knitting when I'm sad. I pick up the needles and just go. It is so much better than picking up the ice cream though. I'm sad because Dad's birthday is this Sunday. It will be the first one without him. It is extra difficult because I had my younger son on my dad's 49th birthday. So...I have to be able to celebrate for the boy and not be a depressed mess. It is a hard balance.

My son, Nathan Howard, is named after my dad who was Howard Nathan. He is the sweetest most understanding child in the world, so he gets it. I warned him that I will be sad, but I will do the best I can.

To bring this back around to knitting. I am working on Manu by Kate Davies. A beautiful, soft cardigan that is mostly stockinette stitch. It is knit out of sport weight and I'm knitting it on size US4 needles. Therefore there has been a lot lot lot of knitting. I knit the body to 19.5 inches. I am also knitting a size d (which is a 40" chest.) This works out to be a million stitches on the needles. I had a lovely break when the body was about 15" and I knit the sleeves.

Now, I'm not complaining, but...here it goes, that is a lot of stockinette. I love, love, love the look of stockinette. It is simple and beautiful. I will be thrilled with the finished object as well. So, I work through. I guess it's the purling back that is the killer. I thoroughly enjoyed the sleeves because they were knit in the round.

I added 3" to the body. I have a really, really long torso. I added the length before the waist decreases. I also have the longest arms EVER. I knit 17" and they are 3/4 length. That's always good for me because I shove my sleeves up anyway. This time I actually knit the little puffy part. On my Ruby Red I omitted the puffy sleeves. I love all of the details of "Manu" so I am going to knit them all. Puffy sleeves, puffy pockets, pleats. It's amazing. I can't wait to finish.

Since the beginning of September I have been pretty exclusive to knitting Manu. I have finished the body and have attached the sleeves. I am working on the short-row shaping for the yoke. The pattern calls for "Sunday" short-rows. This is where you use snips of contrasting yarn as a place holder for the short-rows. I did this for the first 15 short-rows. I took my sweater to work and was knitting on it and realized I forgot my contrasting yarn, so the second half of the short-rows will be wrap & turn (Cat Bordhi style.) I can not wait to finish the short-rows and close the gaps.

I am looking forward to finishing this sweater. I will keep you posted.

Eating Clean

On February 3, 2010 I lost my dad. It was the hardest thing that I've ever had to go through. I know people go throught things their own way. Well, my way was to stop exercising and eat what ever was closest. The result is my weighing more than I've weighed in about 10 years. Now it's time for a solution.

Part of the deal is that my dad weighed 403 pounds when he died. He was only 62 years old. He had been fighting cancer, but it's really hard on a body to weigh that much. My struggle is not the same extent as his, but I do not want to go down that path. He would fight it, but it was so daunting.

That being said, I'm going back to what I know. I headed back to the gym and I hired myself a trainer. This was about 5 weeks ago now. I have been hitting the weights with her twice a week for an hour each time. She handed me a book about nutrition and told me it's not a diet, but a new way to live. All right, I'll give the book the once over. It's the Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. She talks about being prepared and having good things to eat ready to go. She also talks about how you need to cut out sugar and white flour.

I feel like I'm getting better at this each week. I started out just cutting out the big offenders. That's processed food, things with white sugar and white flour. I added in some more fruits and vegetables and was on my way.

I really want a place to journal my food and I thought a public blog was as good a place as any. I want to figure this out and be accountable. My trainer really wants this to be a lifestyle. She asked me today if I felt like I was on a diet. It still sort of feels that way. All I know is I feel a million times better. My little black cloud has lifted. I have energy, my body isn't hurting. I'm starting to lose a little weight. I think it will feel less and less like a diet the better I get at it. It just isn't second nature yet.

I have goals and I really want to achieve them. I want my clothes to fit again. That's the motivating factor. But I really want to gain health and wellness. It's easy to keep going when you feel a million times better. I want to blog and journal my food just to stay accountable.

Eating clean is my new way of living. I want to give it a chance to work in my life.

Totally Addicted

I don't know how it happened. Everything, and I mean everything, has taken a back seat to knitting. I know that I have an addictive personality, but this is ridiculous. I have stopped doing everything else. All I do is knit, hang out at ravelry or knitpicks.http://www.ravelry.com/people/Lisaduzhair, http://www.knitpicks.com/Knitting.cfm.
I have pushed aside cleaning, exercising, balancing the checkbook. It's like I totally hide from all of my respbosibilities by knitting one more row. It has gotten ridiculous. I need to find balance again. I just finished cleaning off the kitchen counter and I'm about to do my bookwork from my business. I am behind by three months. Crazy!!! I have gotten totally out of control with my fiber addiction.
I have that obsessive streak to a fault. I want everything perfect. I will do that thing where I work on my project until 1:00am. If I make a mistake I can't function until it's ripped and re-knit correctly. My projects are getting better and better. I am turning out beautiful stuff, but at what expense. Everything else it seems.
I've added a picture of my latest FO. I am very happy with it. I am now working on Ruby Redhttp://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/PATTrubyred.php from Knitty.com. I am adding bust darts. I will write about my adventures with that as I go.
I hope that I can find some balance and re-prioritize my life. I love knitting and I love being a knitter, but I need balance again. Knitting shouldn't cause guilt.

The Bust Line

The last couple of projects have all been about fitting me properly. I have a good sized chest, a small waist and some substantial hips. If I connect the bust to the hips with no shaping I might as well be wearing a garbage bag. So, my mission has been to figure out how to fit and to flatter.

I just finished Wicked by Zephyrstyle. I cast-on for a medium and did vertical bust darts and some waist shaping and wittled it down to an xs at the waist. It worked out very well. I love how it fits.

I am working on Green Gables also by Zephyrstyle right now. My Wicked is a little big at the top, so I cast-on for a small this time and added short-row shaping at the bust. ITR I couldn't figure out how to pick up the wrapped stitches on the second side. The first side was fine, it was like a short row heel of a sock, but after coming around the back and picking them up it was funky. I frogged back and tried again. It was better, but still funky. I took a crochet hook and at each wrap undid that row of stitches and made it flat and pulled the stitches back onto the needle. I know there is a better way. I've been reading blogs and posts on ravelry about Japanese short rows. That is the way to go ITR it looks like.

I'll post pictures of Green Gables soon.

Knitting Away

I haven't posted in such a long time. I have been knitting away. I am totally addicted to knitting socks. I am having so much fun and learning so much. They are so much fun to knit. I also knitted tams for all of the girls at work as well as my step mother. Sometimes knitting a handful of small projects can be quite satisfying. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

I made fair isle tams for the girls at work. They are so fun to knit. I used Noro silk garden with natural color Ella Rae. It gives them fabulous color and looks very complicated, when in reality it was pretty simple to do. I just had to throw with the color hand and pick with the natural undyed hand. Fun, Fun Fun!!

My mother-in-law bought me some fabulous hand-painted yarn for Christmas. It's a sweaters worth too. I am working on the "Hot Lava" cardigan by Jennifer Paulousky. It is a very clever design. All of my sock knitting has really helped work this sweater up. It is done magic loop, which is the only way I know how to work in a small diameter. I do all of my socks with magic loop. Anyway, it is a shrug where you pick up the stitches around the entire thing and add a bolero type front and back too it. It also has directions to accomodate a busty front. It is almost finished and I cast it on only a week ago. I will also have enough yarn left over to make a scarf and tam. I won't wear it altogether however because it would be total turquoise over load. Pictures are posted on Ravelry. I will post pictures when I finish on my next post.

I have joined the "Woolgirl Sock Club" this year, so I plan on doing more posting. I have also started my skating again, so I want to gab about that too. I want to talk about all of my endeavors in knitting this year along with the rest of my crazy world.

Whew, It Fits

All of my worrying, and my Kaleidoscope sweater fits perfectly. I am so excited. If I made another project that was too small I might have hung up my knitting needles. Probably not, but I would have been so sad. I blocked my sweater and it was just right. Yeah!!

My new yarn for my next project arrived today as well. It was sort of strange not having anything on the needles for a day or two. I was going to start the Rusted Root by Zephyr, but I really want to make a bulky sweater. I am going to make a simple top down raglan with quite a bit of ribbing. I need to swatch now. I think I'll make both. I am starting to feel like a knitter.

I keep trying to figure out what to make next. I pour over Ravelry all the time. I think my brain my pop. I want to make everything I look at. I change my mind all the time. I add to my queue. How do you know what to make next? It is hard for me to decide. I am also trying to keep the stash at a minimum right now. I try to only purchase yarn that has a designated project. That may be a joke later, especially because I keep changing my mind about the projects. I am going to start my project now. Yeah, it fits!!

I Think I Will

I've been doing a little more reading, about knitting of course. It's become all I do, eat, sleep, think about knitting. That is when I'm not knitting. I digress. I was reading a little bit about yarn fiber content. I've discovered that cotton yarn stretches out. One of the articles I read said to prepare for that ahead of time. The first tank top I made for myself came out huge. I had gauge and it was Huge. When I read that article I thought for a moment and realized that may be why my tank top was too big.

Let me explain the first tank top. It was made out Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. It is the Mud Flap Girl Tank from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I blocked it to the measurements. Everything went pretty well. I sewed the pieces together and it was so big that I had to fold a tuck in the waist and armpits on both sides and sew them down. It fits ok after I did that.

I began working on the Shapely Tee. I used Rowan RYC Silk Merino. I lost gauge and ended up with too many stitches per inch. I also remember thinking about my tank top and how huge it was and probably also cast-on for a size too small as well. That poor tee has a double whammy. It was probably going to be a bit tight at first, but to need a larger needle also. It's way too tight. I keep thinking maybe I'll wear it. Probably not. It was a great learning experience. It all went together so well. The seams and the sleeves. I felt so good about it. I love the yarn so much too. What to do?

I keep going back to the whole "knitting is a process" thing. The Yarn Harlot said that yarn is reusable. I guess what I'm getting at is that I am going to frog the tee and recycle it. I found a cute pattern for a lacey tank. I may do the tee again. The yarn wasn't cheap. It was my first step into yarn snobbery. I now can't go back. The yarn needs to be worn. Not sit there because I made a mistake. It needs to be harvested and made to wear. I think I will frog it.

The whole point of my post today was to see how I was feeling about it. I think that yarn deserves to be something I'll wear. I will frog it today. It is the right thing to do. Sweaters are made to wear.

Here We Go Again

I'm about 2/3 of the way down the first sleeve of my "kaleidoscope" sweater. It is so cute, it is really cute. Then my doubt starts creeping in. It's going to be too small. I've done it again. Knit myself something too small. I made the neck too high, the sleeves are going to be too tight. I hope that I'll get past this someday. I have such high expectations of myself. I see all of the beautiful sweaters on Ravelry and want to accomplish some successes myself. I'm not even sure yet if I'm right or wrong on this current project. It may be the perfect fit. I've slipped it on, I think it'll be fine. I just have doubt because I've had trouble so far on all of my projects.

I've been listening to past episodes of "Cast-on" with Brenda Dayne. Listening to her talk about "Today's Sweater" in each of the episodes is giving me hope. It sounds like I am going through the growing pains of passing from a total beginner to a more advanced knitter. I have been bitten by the knitting bug. It is my new obsession. I really want to be good at it. I want to make beautiful things that fit properly. It's funny how this just grabs you and won't let go. Creating things from fiber is amazing.

Back to School

My boys just walked out the door for the first day of the new school year. I am really sad about it. It almost feels like the day they each started for the first time. My oldest boy starts high school today. I never thought it would make me cry, but it is. Soon it will be time for him to become a man and be on his own. That's only part of it, I had a lot of trouble during my high school years and he reminds me so much of myself. I can only hope for now that he has a better experience than I did. I don't think my parents had any idea just how hard it was for me. I am going to do my best to advocate for my child as well as to teach him to be his own advocate. It'll be better for him.

Now the other boy, on the other hand. He's starting seventh grade. I admire him because he's not driven by what other people might think or say. He's popular and funny. He has the attention span of a flea, but it's ok. He drives his poor teachers absolutely batty. I only hope that we can contain his energy long enough to get through his homework. The boys are two totally different animals. I think sometimes that the things about each of them that makes me craziest are the things I love the most.

For our last summer hurrah yesterday, we went to the beach. The boys also have a three and a half year old sister. It was fabulous to watch them able to make sand castles and sift for shells. Having her around allows them to let down their "cool" for a bit. Especially that older boy of mine. He tends to be painfully cool. He's my kid that worries about what people will say or think. He's like I was as a kid, I would've rather died than be embarrassed. The problem was that everything was embarrassing for me. I was twenty-five years old before I realized if people were looking at me that closely, maybe it was their problem. Kids are so quick to point out flaws, mistakes, or laugh for hours at an accident that you'd rather forget. It's the nature of the beast I guess. It makes them forget how worried they are about their own selves for a few minutes.

Looking Good, Feeling Good

I have just finished the waist decreases for the second time. It is so much cuter this time. I am doing my best to knit loosely. Sarah said that the pattern calls for loose sock yarn knit loosely. My gauge is staying steady, it's not getting tighter and tighter like it did on my pink tee. Anyway, alternating the two skeins has been just what this project needed. It looks nice and variegated, no crazy pools of color. I noticed that with all of the messing around I did on the poor first hank of yarn that it's color isn't as brilliant as the second. You see, I had only ever wound chunky yarn from a hank into a ball, so the first hank of my beautiful Lime n Violet turned into a bit of a birds nest towards the end. I then used it on the first attempt at my "Kaleidoscope," which in turn was frogged. Alternating the two skeins is blending all of these color variations quiet nicely. It's actually looking like I had envisioned. I will keep you posted. It is really fun for me. Knitting has really been good for me.

Knitting is a Process

I was cruising right along. Flying as a matter of fact. Totally excited by my new project. I was using my sock yarn on a cute sweater pattern. The further I went along, the more decreases I did, the more the color puddled. All of a sudden my lime n violet "kaleidoscope" was green spots with purple and white stripes. Not so cute anymore. I finally admitted it wasn't going to be something I would wear, with the big lime green dots and all. Can you see where this is going? Frog city. I went to a few websites and learned a few things and thought I would try again.

I also received a wool-winder in the mail yesterday as well. This made frogging a quick and fairly painless process. I cast on again, this time with a cable cast-on and not the long-tail. The long tail makes the bottom of the cast on have the variegated colorway go in reverse, it wasn't cute. Cable cast-on kept the color that was being cast-on the needle together and was all ready much prettier. The other decision I made was to alternate my skeins of yarn every two rows. I am hoping that this keeps the "puddles" down to a minimum and keeps the variegated look to my sweater. I am going to keep going and I think it's going to be much better.

I also have been studying the provisional cast-0n as well. This sweater is a bottom-up raglan cardigan. I have made one top-down and am slowly wrapping my brain around how it will work in reverse. The provisional cast-on seems simple enough. I just going to follow the pattern, maybe adding an inch to the length, and a few extra stitches to the armpits, and see what I end up with. Just keep knitting.

Just Keep Knitting

I've cast on my "Kaleidoscope." It's going well. I have finished the waist decreases. I have to say I was quite encouraged when I got a message on my ravelry page from Sarah Sutherland about my gauge issues. She wrote this pattern and had some good advice for me. It really meant a lot to me and wiped away my fear of having something I worked so hard on not fit AGAIN!! I have to remember that this is a process. I am pretty new to all of this. I have no experience putting garments together. I am learning on the fly.
I felt energized to keep knitting after I read my message from Sarah. The song from "Finding Nemo" that Ellen DeGeneris's character Dory sings "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" popped into my head only I sing "Just keep knitting, knitting, knitting!"

Swatching

I have just finished checking my gauge on my new swatches. The swatches are for two new projects. I want to be very careful because so far I am having trouble getting things to fit me. I got gauge on both of these projects with one size larger needle than suggested. I just cast on for one cardigan. I will get it going and then cast on for my next project soon. Wish me luck.

Gauge Trouble

So, I am having trouble getting things the right size for myself. The first tank top I made for myself fit my chest, but was way too big everywhere else. I just made myself a shapely tank, that became a tee because I had enough yarn for short sleeves. I tried it on and it is pretty tight. Part of the problem was that I lost gauge. It is too tightly knit. I knit my swatch and I knew it was a little tight, but I am still not quite sure what to do when I'm off a bit. In this case I think I should've knit with one size larger needle. Live and learn. It is supposed to be a process.

I don't have a single thing on the needles right now. I have to admit that I'm a little nervous to start something new, with the last couple of things coming out suspect. I hope to figure out first of all how to get gauge. Second of all how to fit all of my shapes and sizes. I have long arms, big chest, small waist and a not so small hips yet not so huge either. I would love to make the "Kaleidoscope" sweater from Parallax knitting by Sarah Sutherland. It is made with sock yarn and to get gauge, it either has to be doubled or very loosely knit. I am not sure the best way to go about this. I'm about to set out on this journey to find out.

My hope is to figure the math out for fitting a sweater perfectly for me. That obviously is the goal when we start a project for ourselves. I will just keep on my journey to nicely fit knitted garments. I love to knit and will be happy to keep practicing until I figure it out.

Lots of knitting

I went on my big trip to the skating Nationals and I did pretty well. I placed second in my dance event and fourth in my figure event. Pretty good since it is the National championships. I'm really proud of myself. I held my composure and just did my thing. While I was there in my down time I did tons of knitting. That was the best distraction to keep my nerves in check. It was great. I also got most of my "Shapely Tee" from www.whiteliesdesigns.com finished. It was great.
I had watched a great video of Cat Bordhi doing short rows on "youtube." It made me feel quite smart when I was attempting the short rows in my sweater. It didn't trip me up at all. I sailed right through the sort row shaping at the bottom edge of my tank (that became a tee because I had such great yarn and plenty left for sleeves.) It is made out of Rowan RYC silk wool dk. It is fabulous feeling, especially after blocking.
I was noticing in a lot of podcasts and knitting blogs that a lot of people spend a lot of time trying to avoid seaming. It was making me nervous because my sweater is in four pieces. When I didn't know better, the first sweater I had knit for my daughter was in pieces and had four colors worth of stripes, it seamed together beautifully. Anyway, I thought am I crazy for doing this in pieces. I seamed it up today a little differently than the pattern, I did it like the first sweater I made. I sewed the caps of the sleeves, leaving the sides of the garment open. I then seamed up the side and the underside of the sleeve. It worked out great. Oh yeah, I had also found a video of Kelley Petken of knitpicks doing kitchener stitch on youtube. I used the kitchener for grafting the front and back of the garment. It made total sense. I sent her a message telling her how great her video is. She told me to go forth and let all knitters know that kitchener stitch is actually pretty easy.
I have two projects off the needles and none on. It is time to set forth on another knitting adventure.

U.S. Roller Figure Skating Championships

I have been knitting like crazy to keep my mind off of my competition that is happening this week. I am almost finished with the big blue coat. I kept thinking that I was making a mistake on the chevron lace, but I wasn't. It took me until I finished one repeat of the front and collar that I realized the last couple of rows are staggered by starting each row with one knit more than the last, which makes one or two less at the end. It looks just right. I am excited about how it's coming out.

About the skating, I fly out tomorrow for Lincoln, Nebraska. I have a practice day on Wednesday and then I start competing on Thursday morning. I wasn't really feeling that nervous about it until yesterday. I am one of the top few from last year and I am hoping to do really well. I will keep everyone posted. I plan to knit my shapely tank while I am away. There should be a lot of spare time for knitting. I will be able to knit at the auditorium while other parts of the competition are happening. I even hope to get pretty far on my project while I'm there.

After the competition I am headed to my dad's house in Missouri. While I am there, I will definitely have time to knit. There's not a lot to see in Missouri except my family. I am also going to give my grandmother a perm while I'm there. She's pretty hilarious, the only time she gets her hair done is while I'm there. I haven't been there since last August. She should be good and shaggy for me.

Yeah for me

I am so excited to be blogging. I am so busy lately that I think I need a place to vent. I knit whenever I have a few minutes. Yesterday while each of my clients was processing, I worked on the sleeve of my big blue sweater coat. I think it's going to turn out better than I thought. I'm kind of excited about how it looks. I will post more later.