Paralyzed by indecision. Again.

I went to the Madrona Fiber Arts "Festival" (for lack of better word) today. I didn't take any classes, but went for the yarn market. I wrote up a list of the projects I'm most interested in making, their yarn amount, weight, etc. and took it with me so I'd have some focus. Well. I didn't find quite what I was looking for and after about 2 hours of wandering (this is the paralysis part) and petting beautiful yarns I finally purchased my two skeins of yarn and scrammed. One is a beautiful lace weight 100% Alpaca handpainted in deep blues, burgandy and greys. I started to wind it into a ball by hand. Naive me. I'm afraid this means it's time for me to buy a swift & winder.
The second yarn is 60% Merino 40% Angora in a natural "tortie" color. It's super soft, wish I had bought more and also makes me want bunnies so I can love, pet and shave all in the name of fashion. It's sick I know.
The Marcia sweater swatching is taking the wind out of my sails. I haven't made much progress with it and haven't finished sewing the green poncho together either. I'm buying more yarn in hopes to fill the void Marcia isn't filling. The more I swatch, the more I am unfulfilled, the more yarn I buy to fill the void. I see a vicious cycle being born.
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Knitting: Mary Janes, Complete With Cats!

The finished Mary Janes! They are very comfortable, knit up super quick and fit perfect. My favorite of course is the cute kitty cat button. Call me the Crazy Cat Lady. I don't care. 


My sweater swatches were killing me so I had to start something I could complete quickly. I'm making a poncho for my cutie patootie god daughter Lulu. It's this horrible fuzzy/bumpy green Blossom yarn with flecks of color. It reminds me of Oscar the Grouch, but in green. It's uber soft and will be adorable on her. Just need to stitch it together today and then I'll post some finished pics!
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Knitting: K2P2 Swatch; Nothing To Write Home About


After the LYS trip, I'm working on a k2p2 swatch with much greater tension than I'd had before. So much in fact that it's hard to slide 20 stitches across an Addi. I'm not thrilled with the result, but it's better than what I had before, so that's progress.
Thanks to those who anwered my post on the Knitty Coffeeshop. I hold the yarn in my right hand when I knit, so that's not continental, but the other way. I don't usually drop the yarn, just carry it forward on my index finger and adjust the tension if I have to. I thought I'd found a nice relaxed rythm with my knitting, but this has me all out of whack.
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...more FO pics

Yikes! They are gianormous!


15" long before felting.
Luckily they shrank quite a bit. Tomorrow when they are dry we see how they fit!
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Misc Pics., WIP, FO & On the Needles


I finally got the Rowan 34 magazine with the sweater pattern I'd been lusting after. My LYS didn't have it, but had a knit sweater sample in the store, I tried it on, fell in love and that's how I got the idea of knitting this one. It took much work to track down the magazine, but alas, it is in my collection.
I've done my guage swatch, thought I was ready to go, then dang it! It appears that the I'm having difficulties transitioning between knit & purl. Go figure, I haven't seen this problem on anything else. I've tried knitting looser, tighter, counter clockwise, clockwise and tomorrow I'm taking this mess to my LYS to see if they can help me figure out the problem. It really is frustrating.

Taking photos of socks on your own feet is terribly difficult. Besides the gapping holes in the sides where I missed in the pattern that I was supposed to wrap & turn, I'm really happy with how they came out.

The photo of the toes shows where I messed up my counting on the left sock, but I'm still thrilled they came out as good as they did. The pattern is from from the new Debbie Bliss home book.

I blocked, wrapped & sent them off to dear mom who upon receiving them gave me the praise I was seeking and then asked me what they were made of to which I replied "Merino wool, cashmere, blah, blah...". DO'H!!! How come I never new she is allergic to wool???


My dear friend Jo'dster gave the girls fabulous Xmas presents: a catnip knitted frog & poodle (not shown). They LOVE them!

Here are a few photos of the blocked & finished Pinwheel blanket and of course, my trusty helper monkey.













You can see both the RS & WS in this photo. I like the extra stripes that were formed on the WS.




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Knitting: Knittin With J'odster

Today I started on a new project with my dear friend J'odster. She and I are knitting the Fibertrends felted ballet slippers. (the link is to the crochet version since I couldn't find the knit one on their site, but basically the same thing.) I guess you can call it my first knit-a-long.
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Knitting: On The Cusp Of Craft

I just started swatching the Rib & Eyelet sweater and am in love with the feel of the Rowan Polar! So far so good, maybe I'll redo the waist ribbing with a bigger needle, just so it's not clingy.
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All atwitter

I've been lurking on the web for months seeking out knitting advice, tips, patterns, ideas and such, and now here I am. The idea behind starting this blog is, of course mainly for approval and props, but also to relieve my husband of that responsibility.
It started in September with an innocent "how to knit" class and has progressed to a full time obsession. Thus far there have been 5 scarves, 2 purses, 1 pair of socks, a teensy sweater ornament, 1 pair of mittens and today I'm very excited to present my most labor intensive project to date... the pinwheel blanket!

I used 6 1/2 balls of RYC cashsoft on size 6 needles. It's yummy soft and will be ready to present to the mother-to-be as soon as it dries and gets those ends trimmed off.

As good as I feel now, I will likely be knocked down to size as soon as I start the next project, my first sweater. The pattern is the Rib & Eyelet Pullover from Nashua handknits. Since the suggested yarn is a bit scratchier than I'd like around my neck, I'll be knitting it in Rowan Polar instead. Wish me luck!







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