Whoops - November left while I wasn't looking

Couple of sweaters to finish out the month. Both top-down. One a test knit for pipibird on ravelry and one a cowl-neck based on Barbara Walker's Top-Down Raglan. Details on my ravelry pages.

Christmas knitting currently underway.

Looking forward to starting my Yarn-of-the-month in January! I plan to 'draw' a stash yarn each month and knit with whatever it is. Here are my 'rules':

- 'drawing' takes place on the first

- eligible yarns are those listed in my ravelry stash but NOT those on the trade/sell page

- yarns destined to be afghans will not be included

- ideally I would finish before the next drawing, but I know things won't always work out that way. I will still draw the next yarn on the first though.

I think this will be fun - the downside to the knitting internet is the tendency to buy too much yarn, queue too many projects, and feel overwhelmed. This will cut the choices down to managable levels and I've made sure that I really want to knit with all the yarns in my stash! I think... maybe I'd better go take one more look.

Is November really almost half over?!

This may be the coolest thing I've ever made!

Using up the fabric stash! And I've hand-quilted every day for the past 10 days! Not a lot, but at least it will eventually get done this way. I have 2 projects that are being hand-quilted. One is 11 years old, the other is 10. Once they are done, I may never hand-quilt again! But there is still quilting hand-work to be done - a couple of appliqué quilts and an English paper-pieced Tumbling Blocks.

Still more knitting than quilting around here - output in the past 30 days:

Currently working on a sweater for DD and getting ready to do a sweater test knit for http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/atelier Yarn is heading my way to knit DS a scarf and I need to make my dad another pair of fingerless mitts. He says they are great for his arthritic hands.

Fall Always Feels Like the Start of a New Year to Me

Wrap up from September - 3 more FOs:

And a major face lift for my work room! Before: (pic from realtor's site just to show the wall color)And after! I put a folding canvas chair in front of the window until I can find/afford a nice one. And a nice standing light. I love how it came out! The color is called 'Dockside Haze' and is a blue-green grey. So much more cheerful - I used to hate being in that room, but now I love it. I bought the 2 tables at Lowe's and took out all the random tables and desks I had been using for sewing/cutting. I also got some foam panels that I covered with cotton batting for a 'Design Wall.' Now I can also get some quilts finished/made - tossing the fabric stash as well! Hopefully this month's update will include a pieced batik shower curtain that I've wanted to make ever since we moved here.

As far as Stashdown goes, I managed to finish in the green again by giving away a lot of yarn I know I'll never use! Last night I was browsing my yarn stash on ravelry - If I keep knitting at my current pace, I have enough stash to knit for the next 4-6 years without buying more. (That's IF I knit 12-16 sweaters and 5-10 shawls a year!) Starting next month, I'm going to try to limit yarn purchases to one per month (too late already for October :P) I don't need to be spending money on yarn - instead I'm going to try to tuck some away so Emma and I can go to NYC for her Spring Break.

And in the spirit of fresh starts, I'm going to start going to Yoga 2-3 times a week, walking/biking/hiking at least 5 times a week, doing some light work with weights after I walk/bike, and try to lose 5 pounds a month in October, November, and maybe December!

Summer's End

LOVE!

I'm trying desperately to get back in the green by the end of the month/quarter - back to knitting!

Late update for July

This is where I was when the month ended.

Here is my last July FO - it's Goodale in Bugga! in the Tulip Tree Beauty colorway.

I did lots of knitting on vacation, but it was on a small-gauge sweater so I'm still finishing it up. Here's my swatch -

Tosh Merino Light in Tern. Lovely yarn to work with - a single superwash merino fingering weight. Makes knitting a sweater on size 2.5 needles almost painless. The sweater is the Plain and Simple Pullover from Ravelry. Knit in the round with almost no sleeves and an awesome ribbed foldover collar. Can't wait to wear it this fall!

July is whizzing by...

Stash out -

Stash in -

Oops.

There was actually more yarn out than that - I destashed 6519 yards.

I can't wait to knit with all this gorgeous stuff. It should keep me entertained for awhile. And hopefully away from dangerous websites.

Mid-Year Checkpoint and How I Got Into Knitting

This was my reintroduction to knitting.

My kids were 7 and 9 (or maybe 6 and 8 - not sure if it was before or after their birthdays in May.) We spent a lot of time at the library. I was doing a lot of quilting at the time and not much reading, so I would browse the quilting books while the kids did their thing. Unfortunately - or fortunately - they didn't have many and I went through them pretty quickly. Then I started looking around at the other books in the same area. They didn't have many knitting books either, but they did have Barabara Walkers Learn to Knit Afghan book. I learned to knit as a child, but gave it up after a disaster involving scratchy aran weight yarn, a sweater pattern, and absolutely no clue about gauge.

I checked the book out, ordered some yarn, and so began my adventure with this awesome craft. Luckily I choose a very soft, beautiful yarn - Aurora 8 - mostly because it came in lots of colors and was washable. It was like knitting with clouds. As the squares became more and more difficult, I learned about increasing and decreasing, lace and colorwork, cables and twisted stitches. Oddly enough, I didn't make it to the short row square that was the basis for my Lizard Ridge pattern.

I wanted to make DD an afghan out of Kureyon to take to college. She loves Kureyon, and I thought if I used a bunch of different colors it would serve as her own personal color card. I started looking for a pattern but couldn't find anything that really made good use of the long color runs. I saw entrelac and mitered squares. but I wanted something different. I was flipping through my copy of Barbara's book (a gift from DH) and started looking at that short row block. I had some ideas about changing the color arrangement, came up with this on my first try!

I remember steaming it on the ironing board and thinking "I am onto something here!" My intention was to make a block every now and then as I came across new colorways, but next thing I know, I'm scouring the internet and yarn shops, snatching up skeins right and left, and knitting like a square a day! Needless to say, it was done way before she left for college, so it was her 16th birthday present instead!

Now for some more recent stuff -

More coasters for another knitting friend -

And I finished Maia - it's gorgeous. Wonderful pattern. Wonderful yarn.

Bigger and more pics on Ravelry. Uploading them here is kind of a pain :oP

In other news, I finished the second quarter in the green (i.e. more stash out than in) but will be in the red soon for this quarter - lots of yarn coming in. Hopefully I will get back in the green pretty quickly. I have 2 projects almost done and lots more knitting planned.