One Hot Mess

For my third post in as many days, I bring you not a lovely project in progress, but on sloppy bit of brilliant string waiting for something some clever idea to happen upon it.

This little pile is six skeins of a summery blend of unknown fiber. I actually have another skein lying around here somewhere, but who can be bothered to look for yarn when the summer sunshine beckons you to the front porch? Oh, we were also hosting a three family yard sale, so that probably had more to do with my lack of time than any romantic gesture.

I purchased these skeins back at the beginning of June at School Products in NYC–thank you Kirstin for the wonderful recommendations–and of course, I was convinced I would never forget the fiber blend, so now I’m left wondering what the heck it is that I picked up. I believe it’s linen/silk but it could be cotton/silk. It’s soft, shiny and has absolutely no give, so at least I know that no sheep ever blew kisses in its general direction.

I have been sifting through my patterns, waiting for something to jump out and smack me, and I’ve spent way more time than is healthy on ravelry. I have a few ideas, but I think the major problem is that I’m not really excited to knit up anything I can’t wear this summer, and since my belly is swelling at an alarming rate it’ not as if a slinky cami is realistic right now. At the same time, this is likely the last kid we’ll have, so knitting up a maternity tank is also not so exciting. Hmmm…. unless, perhaps, I seam in two gussets on either side… that would be easy to remove next summer, right?

The Problem with Ravelry…

…is that it is sucking up all of my time. The little precious time that I have to knit between squalls of temper and myriad diaper changes and endless meal preparation and story book readings is now spent clicking on newly finished FO’s and searching for new patterns and finding folks with similar tastes in projects, colors, shapes, etc. And the little ads in the sidebar? Unfair, unfair, unfair. I have been really good and have resisted purchasing any of the gorgeous fibers I’ve seen online so far, but today almost broke me as there was a 10% off for Ravelers coupon code. Oh! What strength I possessed to have passed up that bargain!! And the number of projects I’ve seen that I’ve wanted to add to my queue… as if I don’t have enough lined up already. At the moment, I only have two projects on the needles, but almost all the yarn in my stash has been planned away… maybe I should break down and purchase some extra with that coupon.

One of the projects I’m working on is a Baby Surprise Jacket. I’m loving the yarn so far, and we’ll see how the striping works out… I’m thinking one garter ridge of a “base”color then one of the other yarns, then back to the base, then back to a different yarn… we’ll see how things shape up.

And at the risk of sounding blasphemous, and raising the ire of all devoted Elizabeth Zimmermann fans, I am not finding the pattern all that easy to work with. I’m still willing to consider that part of the problem is unfamiliarity with the actual sweater, and that once my first is finished it will all magically make sense, but at the moment I’m finding that it takes an awful lot of concentration and thinking ahead to make sure I’m staying on track. And that in and of itself is not such a problem, except for the fact that I decided to work on the sweater over knitting up my first pair of socks because I was looking for something a little less of a mental challenge. Maybe then this wasn’t quite the right choice. BUT, the online cheats I’ve found have been fairly helpful, and I’m still excited to see it develop, so I’ll stick with this until it’s finished.

Of course, I could’ve started a little hat, but the fact is that I’m really bad at having several projects going at the same time. I like to start one and see it through, and it very rare that I have more than two projects at the same time. It’s the same way with books; I can’t really stand not finishing one book before I start another. I have one sweater that’s been hibernating for a year, that I’ll start again in the Spring after I finish up all the baby knitting I have planned. I definitely see how it would be helpful to have more than one project going at times like these when I’m so tired that thinking is out of the question and I need something relaxing to click away at…

maybe if I bought more yarn…

Frogged Again

Snowman hat number–ahh geez, who’s counting–has been ripped it out again… I’m loving the colors and the butter-soft yearn is knitting up beautifully, but I just haven’t settled on the right pattern yet. The texture of stockinette and garter stitch is really doing wonderful things with the colorways, but the short repeats are making it seem a little too choppy. I think I knowhow I’m going to fix it, so hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be well on my way. Have to take the kiddies to the doc’s tomorrow, so it’ll be a nice little project to toss in the tote.

In other news, I’m getting ready to upload my entire stash into ravelry… woo-hoo! I’ve found a great spot to photograph the yarns, the light’s relatively diffuse but plentiful, and I can crawl up into the window to shoot from any side. I’ve been taking lots of little snaps these past few days and I have to say that I’ve been pretty happy with the results!

But back to ravelry… I am really excited to have a place to catalog my stash. Now that I have a cosy little set-up in our bedroom and have found some time to organize a bit I’m starting to realize that there have been some great yarns I’ve overlooked that would’ve been great for a few projects already completed. I also am amazed at how much I’ve amassed, and how much bigger the stash looks when it’s all in one place. Make me think these stash-storing suggestions made by Clara Parks might come in handy in the near future. And there is an old defunct washing machine down in the basement…