This week: on/off the needles/hook

I'm going to cheat and only put one thing. That's because I finished one thing, and I am so close to finishing another thing. Here it is:

Did I tell you? I joined up with this Yahoo! group for a dishcloth KAL (knit-a-long) and you get ten lines of a pattern each day. This is the first one I've done though I've been a member for a few months now. Anyway, I figure I can work on ten rows of a dishcloth every day. I'll have a lovely collection of dishcloths before too long! Each set only takes about 20 minutes.

still knitting, just without evidence

I wanted to assure any of you who might have been worried that I am still knitting. I'm finding that with working a new job, I'm quite pooped by the time I get home and the last thing I want to do is turn on my computer. I have been knitting though.

1) back in December I joined a Yahoo! group for a Dishcloth KAL. I figured I could manage that... ten lines of a pattern come out every day for about five days. This happens at the beginning of the month and again at mid-month. I figured I've been getting these notices, I might as well start knitting the darn dishcloth. I need more, I have plenty of yarn for it, and it seems like an easy brain-free way to go.

What I'm finding interesting is just how many brand new knitters are joining this group, knit a few dishcloths, and then think they can start selling them. It's shocking, really. There are several thousand people in this group, and LOTS of them post their photos to the group when they are done. I guess we all knit for different reasons.

2) I turned the heel today on sock #2 for Dan. I started this sock, O, in October? and am finally getting around to finishing. I cast on this second sock last Friday, so I figure at this rate I'll definitely have it done by Valentine's day.

3) I have done a bit more work on the Candy Poncho as well. I'm almost done the last ball of pink, will knit my way through a one more ball of red, then cast off. I want to wear it on Valentine's Day!

4) working on a test piece for a new designer. Cannot comment any further.

5) Have not been working on anything else. Feel pretty good about plowing through my current WIPs and looking forward to having all three of these projects off the needles in the next week or so. Then I can focus on my other WIPs:

- BMW socks (just above heel of first sock on a toe-up construction)
- pink & white stranded mitten (first one completed)
- a cotton tank top I started two summers ago
- Brother Amos Hellfire Lace socks in Malabrigo. Gotta get them done.

And THEN I will let myself work on my Cookie A socks.

I came to a decision about my yarn habit the other day. I'm not calling it a Yarn Diet, but I will not let myself buy any more yarn until the yarn I have has a specific project earmarked for it and they are knit. I'm going to give a lot of my stash away - including the mountain of recently acquired free yarn. There are tons of knitters around here that would be happy to pick over my free yarn, and as soon as I get that organized, I'll put up signs around town (after my immediate circle of friends has a look, of course). I just don't want to have to manage my stash. I feel guilty for the amount of yarn I have. How did this happen? I had such a tiny stash a year ago...

See, then we moved to this area and met someone who was just opening up a yarn shop, see and she had so many good things! I was powerless... Then the other day I opened up a rubbermaid bin and found yarn I had bought from her early on and forgotten about. That's when I knew I had a problem.

Therefore I am resolved. 2011 is my Serious Destashing Year. Now that I'm working almost full time, I will have less time to knit, but perhaps I'll get more streamlined with my crafting.

This week: on/off the needles/hook

Bulky Purple hat with pompom

 I am going to attempt to keep up with my knitting/crocheting (yes! crocheting! me!) and post regular updates about my progress. This is inspired by Ursa over at Dyer in the Rough  who has (until the Christmas/cold season took over) been faithfully updating her blog with her progress.

  So this here purple hat came together in an evening, twice. I received this yarn as a gift for Christmas, and as soon as the gift-opening bonanza was over, I set to work on knitting up a hat. I got out my 7mm dpns, cast on 60 stitches, and went in a 1x1 rib until I ran out of yarn.

  It was fun to wear as  a beanie, but it didn't cover my ears. A few days later, I frogged it and re-knit it with the same needles, but with only 48 stitches. This time it is a much better fit, and I had enough yarn left over for a pompom, which I didn't know I even liked until now.

   This Sideways Single Crochet scarf is inspired by Amanda from Nerdy Together.  I met her on a Twitter chat last week hosted by Natalie from the Cloudy with a Chance of Fiber podcast. Amanda has an ambitious project: to create 365 scarves in 2011, and photograph/blog about them every day. January 2nd's entry inspired me to bust some of my stash, as I am in desperate need of more scarves that match my growing hat collection. This is as it sounds, Chain something like 200 stitches or so, and keep going in single crochet until you have either run out of yarn or the scarf is as wide as you want it! I'm hoping to get done this today.

  I'm calling this my candy poncho. I got this yarn from Rosemarie, who is the aunt of Ursa (above Dyer in the Rough). Rosemarie invited me to come help her destash her attic last month, I came home with several bags of yarn. As in "it's a good thing we have a pick up truck" amounts. This yarn is called Fluff, and is 80% acrylic and 20% mohair. Normally I would scoff at such a high acrylic content (if at all), but as this is my first foray into knitting with mohair (I was very afraid), and the yarn came free, I have been knitting with reckless abandon. (Actually, the other night I had some friends over who came without their knitting. Lucky I had several projects on the go I could dole out my knitting! But that's another story).  

  I have miles of this blue hemp/wool yarn. It was almost a blanket. I had three strips of 6 feet by 16 inches - the third panel was almost finished when I decided I didn't like the way this blanket was turning out, that I'm a much better knitter than when I started five years previous, and frogged the whole darn thing. This yarn's fate is to become a million dishcloths. I must confess here that I only cast on and knit a few rows of this, as on the above mentioned evening of Stacey's Knitting Sweatshop, my friend T worked the majority of this. 

  The Socks that Took Forever. Are taking forever. The black one will one day be a pair of socks with a BMW logo on it. The self-patterning will be socks for Dan. I lost my sock knitting mojo a while back and it is only now returning. 

  I am at the point where I need to turn the heel. When I have a few hours of uninterrupted time, I'll do that. 

  Then I can get going on the BMW logo. I haven't charted it out yet, but I do have the blue and white yarn for it. I'll embroider the letters on afterward; it's too complicated otherwise.

  I forgot to get a photo of the slippers, but they are in the process of being felted at the moment. They were a hard grind to get done, which almost involved tears, and may therefore warrant a separate post of their own. Stay tuned.