Call me Mrs McMatchyPants

A few weeks ago I had dinner with a good friend of mine, who also happens to be a knitter.  Knowing that she would appreciate them, I took special care when selecting my winter woolens.  I had just completed the Neon Ski Bonnet, which I showed you a few posts ago,  so naturally I grabbed that first.  I paired the hat with my (yet-to-be-documented) Different Lines shawl, and my (also yet-to-be-documented) Wood Hollow Mittens.   The shawl is knit out of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in a rich pink and black combo, and the mittens are in a pinkish/blueish/greyish wool.  And, in case you missed it, my Neon Ski Bonnet is, well... cranberry. Bright red.

Being a knitter, my friend honed in on my new hat right away, and dutifully oohed and aaahed.  Being a fashionable knitter, she also remarked, albeit affectionately, that my accessories were somewhat lacking in the coordination department.

It was true.  Despite my best intentions, I had fallen into the knitters' trap.  There I was, proudly showing off each individual piece as testaments to my knitterly skill and general awesomeness, but I had completely forgotten the fact that they were no longer knitting projects but articles of clothing.  If I had gone to work in an outfit as uncoordinated as that, I might have been mistaken for a patient in the psychiatric ward.  Just sayin'.

I really did love that hat though.  And I still had about 250 yards left of that never-ending Shelridge.  So I set about knitting up some matching accessories.

 Clockwise, from top left: Neon Ski Bonnet, Wood Hollow Mittens, and Ziyal Cowl.

I had knit the mittens before, and I figured the cables and twisted stitch border pattern would be a good match for the headband of the hat.  I was wondering what I was going to do for a cowl when I happened upon the Ziyal cowl, by Allison Goldthorpe, a free pattern on Ravelry.  It uses the same smocked stitch pattern as the ski bonnet.  Score!

Matching, coordinated winter accessories, using leftover yarn that's been marinating in the stash since 2008.  I am living the dream, people.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Leftovers

Thanks for the kudos on my knitting goals, friends!  I tell ya, there's nothing like hearing back from your peers to make you realize that you might maybe be serving yourself a nice big slice of crazy-pie, heh.  15,000 yards!  15 pairs of socks!!  12 shawls!!!  Ooh, boy, this is going to be good!

One thing having a yardage goal has made me aware of is my leftovers.  This is the first time I've kept track of the amount of yarn that actually gets knit up chez Dear.  Before this, I tended to think of my output in terms of FOs rather than quantity of stash yarn actually USED. 

Up until now, when a project was done, well... as far as I was concerned, so was the yarn.  I didn't throw it out, of course, because it was still yarn after all.  I don't think you can develop the kind of relationship we as Knitters have with yarn and just THROW IT OUT (unless we're talking about acrylic.  But that's a debate for another day).  No, I just put it in a bag and sort of, just... forgot about it.  The project was finished, the yarn was done.  Out of sight, out of mind, and definitely out of the stash.

Here's the thing though.  That bag?  Where yarn leftovers go to die?  Turns out there's, um... a lot of yarn in there.  Like, A LOT, a lot.

Does this count as stash?!?  I'm already finding it challenging to find projects for the yarn in the stash, should I be trying to find projects for the leftovers as well? 

What do you do with your leftovers?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Resolutions

A couple of years ago I started this "Running for Rhinebeck" thing to save money for my annual pilgrimage trip to the New York Sheep and Wool festival.  The idea was that, for every kilometer I ran, I would put a dollar into my Rhinebeck Fund.  So I created a little "Running for Rhinebeck" widget thingamabob and smacked it on the sidebar of the blog to keep track of my progress.  Whenever I run, I boot up the blog, click on the widget to log onto Ticker Factory, and enter in my distance (and cash).  Simple!  I figured it would a) encourage me to keep up with my training, and b) give me a fair whack of guilt-free yarn money by the end of the year.  Bingo, double-whammy.

Yeah... for the past month and a bit, logging the progress has been... shall we say... difficult?  Embarrassing?  Not because I haven't been running (I have.  Not as much as I probably should, but I have).  No, the problem is that I have to face The Blog to do it.  The Blog.  This space that I haven't contributed to for months.  MONTHS. The SHAME.  Ugh.

Here's the thing.  My evenings are short and my ME time is precious.  When faced with the choice between knitting and writing about knitting, I'm going to go with knitting, you know?  Hence, no blogging.

But every now and again, I catch myself thinking about a project or a pattern, or hatching some crazy scheme, and I think "this would make a good blog post".  So I guess I haven't really gotten this whole blogging thing out of my system after all. 

I'll try to fit it in.  Somehow.  

So what have I been up to lately, you may ask?  Well, I've been knitting.  And thinking about knitting.  And thinking about what I want to DO with my knitting this year. 

I love setting myself up to fail goals for myself.  They give me a real sense of momentum, of moving forward.  Work is hectic (stupid money... grumble grumble), kids (God love 'em) are demanding, and time is in short supply.  But making lists makes me feel like I'm doing the things I want to be doing, even if I never ultimately get around to it all.

So!  Here are my goals for 2013:

• Knit up (drum roll please) 15,000 yards in total.  Yup.  Just over 13km worth of yarn.  I can totally do it.  Right?
• Knit 12 shawls.  To this effect, I've joined the 12 Shawls Forever group on Ravelry.  'Cause, you know... Peers are good :)

Shawl the First: Wendell Holmes, by Corrina Ferguson.

• Try to use some of the vintage stash.  Also in the "Peers are Good" category, I'm participating in Stash and Burn's Use It or Lose It project.  

 Neon Ski Bonnet, by Lacey Volk.  Knit with some Shelridge Farm W4 Soft Touch I purchased at Rhinebeck. In 2008!

• Knit all the shipments from the Cookie A Sock Club (oh yeah.. I signed up for the Cookie A sock club!)
• Knit an additional 9 pairs of socks, for a total of 15 pairs in the year. 

I also have a few stash enhancement goals, but they're more "guidelines" than strict rules.  Basically, I want to make sure that more yarn makes its way OUT of the stash than in, heh.  'Cause, yeah... I've got a lot of yarn.  Ahem.

What are YOUR goals?  How are you doing so far?

Happy Knitting, my friends!

It's coming

I don't mean to alarm you, but... have you noticed anything particular in the past few weeks?  Something's in the air, something is AFOOT, people.  Something BIG.

At first it was subtle and - come to think of it - rather charming.  Quaint, even.  Something in the light, a welcome change of colours after an entire season of cheap fabrics and bright neons.

Then it was more... insistent.  Whatever it was, it wasn't going away, and I had to actually, you know... DO stuff.  Like, for instance, get next year's garlic planted.

And THEN.  Then, well... even at the grocery store, the truth was staring me in the face, and I couldn't deny it any longer.  There was no espace.

Christmas is coming, my fellow knitters.  It's only 50 days away.  For realz.


Luckily, I've been a good knitter and have been squirreling away gifts all year long.  Victory will be MINE!  Booyah!

Happy Knitting, Everyone.

Journey

I just got back from Rhinebeck, and I want to tell you about how awesome it was.  I mean, of course it was awesome because - duh - it's the freakin' New York Sheep and Wool Festival, but I think that the fact that it has inspired me to decloak and actually write something really says something about what a fabulous time I had this year, don't you think?

I mean... first of all, there was the weather.  The sun was shining, the trees were decked out in their finest colours... What can I say?  It was absolutely magnificent. 

Then there was the excellent company.  Sadly, my fabulous peep Kate the Enabler wasn't able to attend this year, but my good friend Marie-Michele graciously stepped in and - it has to be said - as a Rhibeneck newbie she did amazingly well.  It probably had something to do with my finely tuned mentoring skills (hah!).  The fact that she got stopped approximately every 11 minutes by someone who wanted to ogle her Color Affection probably didn't hurt either.  Sheesh.

Of course, it is the SHEEP and wool festival, so one musn't forget the animals.

 (I don't think this gent was enjoying his haircut too much!)

Especially when they make such yummy fiber.

This was the first time I went to the fleece sale.  Not to buy a fleece of course, since I'm pretty sure turning fiber into yarn is easier when one knows how to spin.  But just to have a look at the different breeds and see/feel what different fibers they produce was pretty cool.

The rarest breed of all, of course, is the elusive knitwear designer.  They're a famously shy breed, but with the right mix of patience and audacity, one can usually manage a sighting. 

(Yours truly and the fabulously stylish, friendly and gracious Stephen West.)

And then, well... I can't quite explain this one.  Let's just say it involved a scarf, a Robert Frost Poem, and a pretty kickass blogger.  Um... you had to be there?

Of course there was yarn, lots and lots of yarn.  Some of it even came home with me.  But ultimately, Rhibeneck wasn't really about the yarn for me at all.  This year, it was all about the journey.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Something completely different

The last week of summer break, before the beginning of the new year and the craziness that ensues, I took a day off from work and had a girls' day with Émilie.  Truth be told, I was a bit worried about what we were actually going to DO together.  Around here, Dad is the "fun guy", and Mum is the one who buys the kids new shoes and takes them to get hair cuts.  All well and good when your toes are feeling pinched and your hair is in your eyes, but not exactly fun city, you know?  So what were we going to do for fun?  Sure, there were things on the To Do list that we could tackle, but that really wasn't what I wanted our day to be about.

I made a few suggestions (movie?  pedicure?  crafts?), but nothing seemed to spark her interest.  Finally I just asked her: what would you like to do today, Émilie?  "I want to go to Céramic Café, Maman."

For those of you not in the Montreal area, Céramic Café is a café where you can paint your own ceramics, and they'll take care of the glazing, drying and (baking?  cooking? whatever.  They take your piece and make it all shiny and nice).  Well alright-y then!

Émilie chose a frog figurine (I swear, the house is full of frogs and unicorns!), and I walked in fully expecting to paint a mug or a bowl or something, but... well... that was before I knew they had garden gnomes. 

GNOMES!!!  OhMyGah.  Simply Had. To. Have. One.  Honestly, is he not the cutest gnome EVER?  So cheery and happy-looking.  And puh-lease.  Who could resist that face?

 

So yeah... I had a great day with my daughter, got to get my craft on, and got a gnome too.  I wonder if Maxime would like to join us next time?  After all, Gnomeo here needs a girlfriend :)

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Wondering about this week's muffins?  Here they are!

Peach Butter Muffins, from the Messy Baker.  Absolutely delicious, very light and fluffy, and a good way to use up my homemade vanilla peach butter, which nobody in my family seems to particularly enjoy but me. 

Oh yeah... that's the stuff right there.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Going Random

This past Saturday night, I had one of those Bizarro World knitting moments where the knitting was just going super fast and I finished everything.  OK, technically I only had 2 projects in active rotation, but STILL.  These are projects I'd had on the needles for weeks.  Evening after evening, I'd plunge into a thankless knitting abyss and nothing would get done, and then Saturday, *poof!*  Both projects were finished.  On Sunday, just as we were heading out to apple country for the day, Phil suggested I bring something to knit and I had nothing I could bring with me. Chew on that, my friends.

The first thing off the needles was the second of the Eyelet and Flame Chevron socks.  I finished these on September 1st, so technically I was a day late and a dollar short for the Solid Socks KAL, but that doesn't make these babies any less awesome.

Knit with Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Candlewick colourway.  The stitch pattern is the Eyelet and Flame Chevron, on page 68 of Vogue Knitting's Ultimate Sock Book, and I sort of fudged the cuff, heel and toe to make a sock, heh.

I mentioned last post that I'd talk about how I came to settle upon this particular pattern for my next sock.  WELL, here's the thing.

It recently came to my attention that I have... drumroll please... 446 sock patterns in my Ravelry library.  That's FOUR HUNDRED FOURTY SIX, sock patterns that I've either bought (paper of electronic) or downloaded since I first joined Ravelry.

I've got 2 words for that: In. Sane.  And the killer is that, when I want to knit a sock, more often than not I'll just download a new pattern rather than try to choose one from my books/PDF library, because honestly... How am I supposed to decide when I've got so many options?  How do I choose?

There's just no way.  The only solution was to bust out the random integer generator.  And that's exactly what I did, and what I'll continue to do for the next little while.  I've allowed myself a few outs (I don't have to knit it if I don't like the pattern; I have to use stash yarn), but this was the first one Mister Random Number Generator selected for me, and it's none too shabby, if I do say so myself.

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In closing, lest you think I wussed out on my weekly muffin commitment, here are the muffins for week 2!

Strawberry Balsamic Jam muffins.  Not as "healthy" as last week's (who are we kidding at this point?), but really, truly delicious.  Ask me how I know.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!