Dear Blog,

Hi! How have you been? Good? Good!

I cannot believe it’s been so long since I last posted. Phew! I have always been a rather lazy blogger, but a couple weeks ago my friend commented that I had been blogging even less lately since I started the 365 Project on Flickr, and I realized she’s right. So I’m trying to make a conscious effort to take more photos of everything (not just me!) and pop over here to blog about them now and then.

(We recently went on an awesome fishing trip in BC, Canada, and I’d really like to blog about that before we go on our next trip up to Anchorage, Alaska… but I don’t have all the photos or videos uploaded yet! Hopefully soon - and then I’ll share some pics. It was wonderful.)

So! In the meantime, I wanted to share what I decided to do with my sweater. Here’s a hint:

When all was said and done, I was left with this:

I am so much happier with this sweater and I’m actually breezing through it this time! I decided to make a basic raglan (bottom-up, Elizabeth Zimmerman-style) and while I thought I’d be “bored” making yet another raglan, I’m really enjoying trying to decipher Elizabeth Zimmerman’s pithy instructions, and I’m super pleased with how it’s turning out (it’s knit in the round, so it’s pooling less, miraculously!).

I’m already back to where I was - I knit up the body and one sleeve and will be starting the other sleeve tonight. Woot woot! (And can I just say, knitting goes SO MUCH FASTER when you’re not second guessing yourself every 10 minutes???)

I tried to take a photo for my 365 project the other day, but it turned out like this…. I’ll take a better photo when i get a little farther along.

OK, that’s it for now! Hope you are doing well - give the kitties a kiss for me. heh.

Love,
Vanessa

I am totally stuck on this sweater I’m working on.

I’ve knit the body and one sleeve…

but I have a few issues with it so far:

1) I’m not sure how I feel about the “camo-ness” of it.

2. I don’t know where to start the ribbing? (I’m thinking maybe a few rows ago?)

3. I also don’t know what’s going on with those vertical stripes in the front.

4. The back is even worse, so it’s not like I can just switch the front and back panels.

5. I’m wondering if it might be a smidge too tight for a big bulky sweater?

6. I sewed it up (two times!) a couple weekends ago, and both times the sides were TOTALLLY off! (I should’ve taken a photo, but I was so frustrated with it, I didn’t think to. But the back was 2″ longer than the front on the left side and only 1/2″ longer than the front on the right side. ???) (I even painstakingly counted off 10 rows down each side, marked with a stitch marker, and sewed up very slowly. I am thinking I might want to just frog it and knit the body the round? (This would also gain me 4 more stitches (1″).) (But then, I don’t know how the yarn will pool!)

7. I’m afraid the sleeves might be too big.

(this was one of the photos for my 365 project)

8. But I’m worried that if I adjust them to be narrower, they won’t fit in the armholes!

9. I’m also worried that the armholes are (and I don’t really know how to describe this?) too far in on the body. I think maybe there should be more stitches between the armholes, so they sit out further?

10. Last, and this is kind of a big one…. I don’t know how to finish off the neck. Crewneck? Funnelneck? Boatneck? I knit the crewneck version of the pattern in this book, but now I’m worried it might be too HIGH up on the neck? Should I rip back a few rows and re-do it? But if I do that, I’ll have to re-do the back panel too. And then will that screw up the armholes?

11. One last thing! The weather is getting warmer, and I kinda want to work on something I can wear NOW. I realize I will still probably have plenty of opportunity to wear this this summer, but I also keep thinking maybe I should make a sweater that is more seasonally appropriate?

It’s been a while since I’ve been THIS stuck on something. And it really sucks. It’s totally thrown off my knitting mojo. (Case in point - I picked up my dad from the airport this week and I didn’t even BRING my knitting bag! ) I really miss knitting, I just don’t know what to do with this. I keep telling myself I just need to put it aside and work on something else, but alluvasudden, without me even trying, I’ve become a monogamous knitter and I don’t really want to start something else. (I can’t even work on my sock.)

So, if you have any advice, I’d really appreciate it. Or, thanks for reading this and listening to me whine helping me straighten out my thoughts.

Remember Sea Baby? Well the beautiful little recipient wore it to my Stitch ‘n Bitch yesterday and I fell in love with it all over again. (And she DID wear it home from the hospital (Awww!) and apparently she wears it all the time - this little one has good taste! LOL!)

I am working on a few projects, but my dad is also in town for the weekend, so I probably won’t get around to blogging about either until next week (by which time I’m HOPING to have made some real progress on either of them!).

So, until then, I leave you with some yummylicious yarn from See Jayne Knit I picked up to try my hand at the Nutkin again (hopefully this won’t pool as badly as the Shibui Sock did).

“OK, this has got to be the WORST SHOW EVER…. And I think the thing I hate about it most is that everybody else LOVES it!”

“Oh yah?”

“Yah.”

“But what if you ever have to make an acrylic bathtub?”

“…”

“Exactly. Meanwhile I’m gonna be like, ‘First….’ ‘Next…..’ ‘And finally…..’”

OK, so I have to share this. Last night I did a new Flickr meme and I just love the concept and I’m really pleased with how mine turned out.

Flickr game:

the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

the questions:

1. What is your first name?
Vanessa

2. What is your favorite food?
Lou Malnati’s Cheese & Sossich Pizza. This is how I eat it too.

3. What high school did you go to?
Elk Grove High School.

4. What is your favorite color?
Purple. (Or brown or red.)

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
Alan Alda.

6. Favorite drink?
Coffee.

7. Dream vacation?
Flamenco Beach, Culebra, Puerto Rico. I was fortunate to go here a couple years ago on the company dime, but now I want to go back. (My favorite photos from this little trip are here and here and here.)

8. Favorite dessert?
Lava cakes!!!

9. What you want to be when you grow up?
Happy. (A bit of a cop out, yes, but I am struggling with this right now.)

10. What do you love most in life?
Trixie, Triskie, Trixie Cat, T3k, Triscuit, Biscuit,…. Yah.

11. One Word to describe you.
One word: Loud.

12. Your flickr name.
funessa. (I get more hits on Flickr and my blog for this blanket than anything else.)

I recently read in Knitting Rules that Stephanie referred to an old neighbor as a “Martha” because she was totally organized. Now, I’m no Martha, but I do have all my yarn, books, patterns, and other knitting paraphernalia organized out of necessity more than anything. Or, at least, I have a SYSTEM, which admittedly needs to be tended to and tidied up more than I can probably get to it. But at least there IS a system.

It all started with my pattern binders. When I first started knitting I downloaded A LOT of free patterns from the internet (I was ALWAYS searching for more patterns - I think I spent more time surfing than actually knitting!) and before long, I had more than I knew what to do with. So I went to PaperZone and picked up some cute binders and sleeves and made myself some pattern binders, just like they have in the yarn stores.

I can be just a little anal sometimes.

Then my friend Heather made me this gorgeous needle holder for my straight needles. (And I was so struck by the beauty and functionality of it, I made one for my friend Abby - it makes a great gift!)

(I would say this is a simple project, but it totally isn’t! (Or at least, it wasn’t for me, a totally novice sewer (seamstress? see, I don’t even know)

But basically you can buy pre-quilted fabric (or use old drapes, as my grandmother did) and some wide ribbon and you can sew one of these in an evening. The trouble is, working with the thicker fabric (my sewing machine nearly choked) and sewing on a straight line. If you can master that, though, you’re good to go!)

Once I had this, I realized I needed a storage solution for my circs, and I didn’t like anything else I’d seen out there. So I went back to PaperZone (don’t you love repurposing materials from other crafts for knitting? I think that may be the sign of one of the signs of a true knitter) and picked up yet another binder and some large Ziploc-type bags. I punched holes in them, shoved my circs in, and voila! No more mess and I can ALWAYS find my circs when I need them (if I remember to put them back when I’m done and don’t leave them in an old knitting bag somewhere)

Finally, I needed a way to store all my yarn! Luckily I stumbled on a HUGE Rubbermaid tote set at Costco one day and it just perfectly fits into my “knitting bookcase.”

One of the things I like most about this yarn storage system is that it seals up the yarn and protects it from light and moths, AND it really limits the amount of yarn I can have on hand at any given time. I do not allow myself to keep any more than can fit in this cabinet.

Which brings me to my little yarn giveaway! I have recently purchased a lot of yarn for a couple of sweaters I have planned, and I can no longer fit all the yarn in my Rubbermaid tubs. In honor of sticking to this system, I am giving away ALL the following yarn for free. Please email me if you’re interested in any or all of it!

(Please click the photo for more info on the yarn.)

Thank you!

“So I’m considering doing the 365 project on Flickr.”

“Yah?”

“Yah, I think it would be a good challenge.”

“I think it would be a challenge for you to not take a photo of the cat everyday.”

(And then later…)

“So, do you have to take a photo of yourself at the same time everyday?”

“NO!”

“I’m just trying to see what the limitations are.”

“The limitations are that you have to take a photo of YOURSELF EVERYDAY.”

“So…. Could you keep some generic photos of like, say, your foot, on hand and backdate them?”

“Well, it’s not a contest, or a competition, you’re doing it for YOU, as a way to track your life.”

“So you totally could?”

“Yah. … And actually, I was totally thinking of doing that too.”

(Here’s my first photo.)

I read a blog entry a while back about why that knitter liked to shop at yarn stores, and she was asking her readers why they didn’t feel the same (if they didn’t). I didn’t comment, because I didn’t want to just rattle off all the different times I’d been insulted, ignored, and confused at yarn stores (even though that certainly plays a part). I needed to think about it more and stew it over.

And it comes down to this: I have no self control. And I don’t often have the confidence to stick up for what I do or don’t like (or think will or will not work) and I end up being persuaded to buy whatever it is they think I should buy.

Case in point: I recently wanted to knit myself another sweater for camping - it was originally going to be loosely based on this sweater:

I picked this up at Goodwill a few years ago and I just LOVE it. I love the fit (not too crazy about the colors - I was originally thinking of making a new one in dark grey and purple), but the neck is too tight and scratchy. So I was basically going to copy the fit of this sweater and knit up a new one in different colors. So I went to a yarn store a couple months ago that was just HAPPENING to have a sale that weekend (woohoo!) an after talking to the sales woman about how I wanted a bulky yarn that was not scratchy AND not pilly, she showed me some Cascade Pastaza (that was on sale…), and I thought maybe getting a variegated yarn would allow me to play with color without having to do any fancy fair isle? Anyway, I walked away with 7 skeins of this:

Now, I know it wasn’t her fault that I bought yarn in colors that were VASTLY different than what I was originally looking for, and I know that she was truly trying to help me find something warm and cozy, and I know she didn’t know it was going to pool like it did… But I knew as soon as I bought it that I probably shouldn’t buy a variegated yarn (at least not a yarn with THIS MUCH variegation?) for a sweater. And when I knit up a swatch over the weekend, I fount out I was right.

The pooling is killing me. So now I have to figure out a way to unload this yarn and also decide on a new yarn. But that’s the beauty of shopping for yarn on the internet… You can browse Flickr or Google or Ravelry and see what yarn other people have used and how it knits up and really get a sense of what the finished product will look like, instead of having to try and gauge from a 4″x4″ knitted swatch. And then you know that all mishaps are yours, and yours alone.

*OK, technically 2 days, since I started on Friday night.

1. Get a nasty head cold that you can’t shake.
2. Have your boyfriend leave on a weekend camping trip.
3. Call for sunny weather.
4. Drink lots of coffee.
5. Pull up a comfy chair with your knitting, a liter of water, and an endless supply of juice.
6. Sit outside and knit all day, stopping only to tackle the mountain of laundry that has piled up while you have been sick.
7. Move inside when the temp dips and commence watching really bad TV because you’re too tired to seek out more entertaining forms of entertainment.
8. Knit until midnight.
9. Behold the fruits of your madness.

I’ve been sick all week with “the crud” (as my friend Doris calls it) and my mom was ALSO in town visiting all week (bad timing!), so I’m taking it easy today and I’m going to knit a sock. (Not technically in one day, because I started it last night.)

I’m knitting up a Nutkin with my new Shibui sock yarn in Peacock. The color is photographing MUCH bluer than it actually is (more accurate pic of the color is here), but I am already totally loving the pattern. It’s one of those patterns that you can memorize after the first row! I had forgotten how much I love knitting patterned socks!

Although I did just finish up these pair of “basic socks” for T with some Lorna’s Laces, and I love how the simple stitch pattern really shows off the “stripes.” These were the first socks I knit for T, but they will not be the last! After he was able to try the first one on, he started calling them his “butter socks” because they feel like butta! They might be a little too *warm* for everyday wear, but once the weather gets cold again, I’m sure he’ll be wearing them on many chilly nights (especially during winter camping!).

OK, back to my knitting!