The One Where the Ruffles Almost Kicked My Butt!

The weekend took an unexpected twist on the knitting front! Trying to finish those last few rows of Just Enough Ruffles was an act of patience and persistence. Friday night I was working away all jazzed at the thought of getting it finished and midway through my first row, my Knit Picks’ Options’ cable broke! You can imagine my horror at a broken cable and 600 stitches on the line – even worse, I was not at home so I couldn’t do a thing about it and still worse, I hadn’t brought any other knitting with me because I was so sure that I would use my Friday Night knitting time to finish the beast.

So Saturday morning I started another Kureyon Log Cabin square because I couldn’t bear to deal with the Ruffles, but eventually I did sit down and got it back on course. So Saturday night while watching the Panthers play the worst game of football ever, I finished it or so I thought it was finished. When I tried it on, I didn’t like the way it looked, but I thought “oh well another project that just didn’t make the grade.” I kept thinking about it and on Sunday afternoon I looked at other ones on Ravelry and I realized that I didn’t end it correctly. That’s what happens when you don’t have the pattern with you. I had read it the other day and remembered the 4 more rows of stockinette and bind off in purl stitch. I did that, but what I neglected to read and/or remember was that you had to do one more row of knit stitch on the wrong side and then bind off in purl stitch.
Normally this would not be a big deal, but with 600 stitches to deal with, I was not the happiest knitter in the world – it takes a really long time to pick up 600 stitches, but I reminded myself that I knit because I love the process and even if I was a product knitter, I would want the best looking project. So, the process began of unbinding and picking up 600 stitches. Yes, I keep repeating the 600 thing – it is a lot of stitches. In the end I am so glad that I did because the ruffle looks a million times better finished this way and I am now very happy with my finished product.

I also finished Argosy this past weekend. The actual knitting was done before Christmas, but I did not have time to block it before we went on vacation. I blocked it Saturday morning and it looks beautiful. I love the color changes and the construction was very interesting to knit which made this one work up quickly. I will definitely make another one just not sure if I will use Kureyon again or another yarn. I have some Kureyon in the stash that would work, but we will see. There are other things to finish first – like the One Cable Vest. Once I get it back on track it will be an easy trip across the finish line on that project.

Weekends aren't Long Enough

I have to admit that I got spoiled in December and early January. I took the Monday before Christmas off which was great because I finished a knitted Christmas present and I got all of my presents wrapped so I rolled into Christmas relatively stress-free. Then there was vacation so I had three extra long weekends. After a week back at work, I was excited when this past weekend rolled around. However, two days sure isn’t as nice as long weekends. It was a nice weekend filled with knitting, watching football and spending time with my guys. Tomorrow there will be a post about the knitting escapades of the weekend with pictures. The weekend ended up being half taking care of the necessities of life – laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, things that can’t be put off and the other half was just what I wanted. The real challenge is to figure out how to accomplish more of the necessities during the week so that I don’t have to spend so much time on those things on the weekends. I know a big part of the equation is simplifying the world around me. As much as I love my stuff, it creates an environment that requires constant de-cluttering. I have piles of books and piles of yarn and piles of stuff all over the place. I have to get rid of the piles and make a place for everything and keep everything in its place - another reason to work on major WIP and Stash reduction. Happy Monday everyone!

600 Stitches is Alot of Stitches

It is Friday after a long and busy week at work, but a productive one where we met our first deadlines of the year without blood or tears. Now, I can’t wait for 5:00 so that the weekend can technically begin because I am all about the weekends!

My knitting has been slow going this week between work and the fact that I am at the point in Just Enough Ruffles where I had to do the increases to 600 stitches and now I have to knit rows with 600 Stitches! I know that I probably knit 600 stitches at one time when knitting, but there is something psychologically daunting to have them in one row and it seems to take forever. Assuming that I can get through the four and half rows that are left, this baby will be done this weekend! What a great way to start the first full week of 2009 with a completed project. It seems that this project will only use a small portion of the second ball of Malabrigo so it would appear that there may be another hat in my knitting future. I am all about using up the yarn this year – no partial balls taking up space in the stash!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. As part of finding happiness and joy in my every day life, I have made the decision to make the weekends really special and make them the best they can be. See you on Monday.

The Yarn Bank

There has been a lot of talk on Ravelry about stash busting and in one of the groups one of the members talked about her “yarn bank” and that got me to thinking – what a great idea! I really want to remain true to my mission this year of knitting from stash, but it is unrealistic to believe that I won’t buy any yarn – especially since I am going to Maryland in May. So for every ball of yarn that I use up, I will put $5 in my yarn bank and for any partial balls that are leftover from a finished project I will put in $2.50. And in an effort to motivate myself to get my WIP’s finished, I will pay in $20. This will give me a good little nest egg for the Maryland trip and some leeway to make some purchases here and there locally. Since I am enjoying the mindlessness of the Log Cabin Squares I would like to keep moving forward on that project once the stash yarn is gone so that will require purchasing Kureyon from time to time. I am not going to be lured by any new projects unless there is yarn in the stash and god knows I have plenty of yarn choices in the stash for almost any project!! What are your plans for making yarn purchases in the new year?


On the living a happier, fuller life front – last night was great. The O&O and I met his dad for dinner. We haven’t been able to spend much time together since we got back from Florida and after being together for 10 straight days it has been a little sad to go back to life in separate homes, etc. So we had a fun dinner with a lot of laughs and I went home feeling really good about life!

January Knitting

I have debated about how to handle January. Besides being the first month of the new year, it is also my birthday month. I have been trying to decide whether to dedicate the month to WIP’s or just go with the flow. As I mentioned yesterday, I am working on the “Just Enough Ruffles” scarf with some of my stash yarn. Although I said there was no “going back” in terms of the way I picked up my wraps, last night I looked at it again and thought “I just don’t want this to look like this. I will know it isn’t the best it could be.” So I ripped back to the rows where I picked up the wraps and I am still not 100% pleased, but close enough. So I am now back to where you start the ruffle and then this project will be done. After that, I will go back to the One Cable Vest and get that done in short order. Then there is still Tribeca. I did not touch it all while on vacation. I brought it thinking I would at least figure out where the neck shaping has to begin, but because of having fun there was not as much knitting going on while on vacation. So I will proceed with these projects and then occasionally work on getting some time in on a WIP here or there.

Yesterday was a long day, but a good day. I have entered what we call “Book Season” in my professional world. My company develops affordable housing and our specialty is taking old mills, schools and factories and adapting them to be reused as housing. To do this, we apply for low-income tax credits available in each state. I coordinate producing the applications. It is right up my ally and I am glad when I have these projects to work on. Last night we finished a book for a mill conversion. It is a good project and it will create 75 really nice apartments for families. I didn’t go home until 7 last night, but when I headed home, I consciously left work behind and I had an albeit short night at home, but a pleasant and relaxing evening in the company of my one and only son (O&O).

I am going to post this without photographs and one of the things that I want to improve upon this year is my photography. I love pictures, but my time available to take them is short and being the perfectionist that I pretend not to be, I have a hard time just taking any old picture, but I think I have to accept that this is the way it needs to be if I am going to have photos to accompany my posts. Also, I need to use my time better on the weekends in terms of getting a variety of pictures in my “portfolio”. And one other thing that I am going to try to do in keeping with living a balanced life is get out of the office at lunch. Usually I stick around the office, but that is not the best way to live the kind of life I want to live this year. Here’s to finding joy and happiness in everyday life.

Focus for the New Year

I don’t know about all of you, but I had the nicest Christmas holiday and New Year. The best part was a surprise visit to Florida for a week’s vacation with my family, and even better, my ex-husband came with us and it was a wonderful time for everyone. My parents, grandmother and sister were very much surprised which was nice for me since that was my goal as far as they were concerned and since my ex had to unexpectedly take time off between Christmas and New Year I was able to give him a very relaxing and restful vacation after a pretty stressful year and we had the best time together. I am back at work today and all the goodness of vacation is evaporating, but I am trying desperately to hold on to the good feelings I started the new year with.

Knitting remains the constant pleasure and passion in my life and as I enter the new year and contemplate what I want to accomplish in 2009, I come back to the original focus of this blog which was to work through my WIP and Stash. I was not overly successful in 2008 and added too much to the stash column and didn’t really reduce the number of WIP’s, but I have a renewed sense of purpose and I am excited to work through what I already own.

I finished all of the Christmas knitting that I wanted to accomplish and I started a fun project while in the car on our way to and back from Florida. I started knitting Kureyon Log Cabin squares to make a blanket. I already have two done and I have enough yarn in the stash to make three or four more. I also got back to the One Cable Vest while in Florida. I was humming along and then realized I had miscounted my increases and decreases so I had to RIP, but I know what I did wrong and it won’t take me long to get this done now that I know what I am doing. I am also almost done with a stash project – Just Enough Ruffles. I hate how I did the pick up of the wraps on the short rows, but there is no turning back now and this project will be done in the next few nights.

This year I am also going to be focusing on bringing more joy, contentment and happiness into my daily life. I think this theme will also be a part of Great Knitspectations for the upcoming year. Great Knitspectations is all about expecting the best from our knitting as well as expecting the best from life. So you will see me talk about how I am working to bring more joy and happiness into my life and on that note, my first thoughts…

Yesterday ended up being a crazy day at work with the doom and gloom vibe hanging in the air. I went home feeling drained and irritated that this was the way life had turned around in less than 24 hours after my wonderful vacation. So I went home last night and really thought about what I want for my life. I decided that when I walk out the door of my office at night that I will leave my work life behind me, and I will go home every night and do things that make me happy because that is what I want for my life. My home life will not be a reflection of my work life. My home life will be the place where joy, contentment and happiness get the main focus of my attention. Happy New Year and here’s wishing you and yours the very best.

See You in the New Year

I know I have been silent for quite a while and there are numerous reasons – a couple of bouts of minor illness, crazy holidays, trying to get a lot of holiday knitting done and life in general. Yes, I have been having a life. I have been doing a lot of knitting and making progress on several fronts. There will be a parade of finished objects in the future. I don’t know if there are any of you out there reading this, but I wanted to let you know that I will be back after the first of the year with a whole new set of goals to conquer the Wip-n-Stash and lots of new ideas for the new year. In the interim, I wish everyone a joyous holiday season and I look forward to expecting the best from knitting and life in 2009 and sharing it with all of you.