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.