Catching Up

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted last. Life went just a little crazy (okay, a lot crazy) and I lost track of time. So sorry about that.

Anyway. Hubby took me to Black Sheep Gathering last month, and we had fun. There were a few things I missed from other years (no Angora bunnies on display, nor were there Alpacas, bar two out front). I noticed there was a huge increase in fiber for sale, compared to actual yarn for sale, which struck me as interesting. I guess spinning's becoming more and more the thing to do. Too bad I can't do it (no, really, I tried. My hands hurt like crazy when I use a spindle, and since I have neither room or money for an actual spinning wheel, I'm not likely to find out whether I can do it that way instead).

Random Act Of Kindness

A friend from Ravelry sent me a care-package! I couldn't believe it when I opened the box and found all these goodies! Check it out :-)

A lot of yarn, chocolate, a card, DPNs, and a UU-stitchmarker (UU is the acronym of the group we're in on Ravelry). So cool!

 These two are designated to (hopefully) become Endpaper Mits, by Eunny Jang.

 

 I have no idea what I'm making with this yet.

This, however, I already know what I'm making with. Next on my to-do list. We'll do a crochet-a-long in the thread for the Eva's Shawl.

Thanks you again, Amber, for the lovely gifts. It made a crappy week a lot brighter. I look forward to show off the projects as they come along.

Showing Off WIP

Well, I frogged the first attempt at the Feather and Fan scarf (yes, scarf. I read the name wrong, earlier. It is, in fact, a scarf), but have made some good headway with it now.

The pattern itself is fairly easy to memorize. Less easy is not accidentally adding stitches. Oh well.

See? I know it's not easy to see, given the lighting and the backdrop of my laptop screen, but you should get a fair idea. I like how it's turning out. At first, I was iffy on the combination of yarn/pattern, but it seems to be working out well enough. The yarn itself is yummy to work with. So soft. *sigh* Love it. Almost don't want the scarf to come to an end. Lucky for me, I still have a ways to go before it's done.

Oh, I found a picture of the yarn pre-wind (though no longer all nicely rolled up. It gives a better idea on the colors, though).

Isn't it lovely?

Selfish Knitting

Going to cast on for something for me. Maylin gifted me with two specially dyed yarns, inspired by At The Deep End. The first, as you have seen, I made into a crocheted shawl. The second (which was actually the first version of the yarn) took a while longer to talk to me.

I think I have finally figured out what it wants to be. At least, I hope so. I'm going to try to make this simple Feather and Fan Shawl. Since it's a rectangular shawl, I should be able to knit until I run out of yarn. It looks simple enough, but I'm a lace-novice, so we'll see.

Wish me luck!

So...

I didn't end up blocking my shawls, since I was far too scatterbrained to do it when I had the chance, to that is waiting for another day.

I've been working on Danny's blanket again, which is coming along nicely, even if I do say so myself. I really like the idea of having a blanket in the works at all times - they're great mindless projects to have around. Must take that into consideration once budget allows for that sort of thinking again.

It Sucks...

When you run out of yarn before the project is complete. It really, really does. I am using a new (to me) yarn for the shawl I'm working on. One that I've knit a hundred times (well, not quite that many, but I've made it a lot). I took into account that I would need a little more. Even went so far as to compare it to what I normally used and made an attempt at calculating the difference.

I went up a needle size, and reduced the amount of stitches in order to compensate for the difference in the type of yarn and how it was knitting up. Technically, this should have meant I was using less yarn than I'd anticipated.

Destash Alert!

Gah! I wish I had the money to spend for something like this, but since I don't, I'm more than happy to pass this along anyway.

Alaskan Purl is destashing her yarn, big time. She's putting yarn up for the next three days, and her prices are pretty good, I think. Here are the details of the how, and here is the link to the actual yarny goodness. Seriously, I'm drooling over some of these *wistful sigh*

Tinkering

As you can see, I'm still tinkering with the blog. Just how I, of all people, ended up with a pink template to tide me over is beyond me, but there you have it. I just wanted something other than white, and this came up. *shrug* It won't be staying, but it'll do for the time being.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this blog, since - in all honesty here - I've quite forgotten most of the things that I had going on with it to begin with. I know I want it to be solely for my crafting related stuff, so that will remain. Just what, or how, that'll happen, I'm not sure yet.

I get it now...

I finally get why a lot of people become yarn snobs, and why they do not make clothing items with acrylic yarn. I made the One Skein Wonder for myself with Caron Simply Soft, right? I love it, and I love how soft it is. One thing I don't love about it? It stretches a bit and won't stay on my shoulders properly anymore. And since acrylic has no memory to it, unlike wool.... it won't "bounce back" after washing. *sigh* No fair. And I just (well..."just") bought yarn to make myself and Treanna cardigans with, too. Now I'm not sure I want to use it anymore. I think it may get re-purposed for afghans or something. Means I won't be making cardigans for a good long time, and definitely not for both of us, which peeves me a little. I don't know. I feel deflated now, which sucks. Using nicer yarns means more money spent and I can't afford that for as much as I would like to make (since I intend to do gift knitting next year). Bah. Can't I win the lottery or something? That'd work, right?

Yaaarn!

So what have I been up to? Well, not a lot of knitting. I'm still stuck, I'm sad to say. So instead, I've been winding the yarn I have around the house. Dustin even helped me out for a while, which was sweet. Next step, sorting it all out and taking pictures. Why yes, this is for my Ravelry page, why do you ask? ^_~ I'm itching to do some knitting though, so I'm hoping to get help this week *crosses fingers*