My resolution for this year is to tackling some of the long-overdue items on my To Do list. Since being off work, I have been working very hard to get the house organized. I feel that the main living areas of the house are in good shape, but the basement needs attention, particularly my craft area. Getting that space in the basement organized is #1 on my To Do list.
I'll admit to being an impulse buyer when it comes to yarn. I walk into a yarn shop and the fumes from the fiber overwhelm me. Even if I'm going in to only browse, I walk out with at least a skein of something yummy. The yarn gets brought home with all good intentions of casting on. But the reality is that it gets placed aside with its predecessors to wait for me to rediscover it. While organizing the rest of the house, I moved all yarn to my craft room to be sorted and catalogued. Last Sunday afternoon I went downstairs with my laptop and camera, ready to tackle the task. Boy! Did I underestimate what a chore this was going to be! I've since modified my plan to focus on sorting and organizing. Cataloguing the stash on Ravelry will have to wait. The magnitude of my fiber addiction is becoming quite clear. I am too embarrassed to show you a picture of the state of things right now. It is total chaos. I'll post a pick once I get it to a happy state. I can't promise when that will be, but it will happen some day.
What I will show you is what I have been working on. Each project below is also related to a To Do item.
To Do: Make a pair of socks that fit! This is a Basic Ribbed Sock from the book Custom Socks by Kate Atherley. I've not had much success knitting socks. They usually end up with a cuff that is too tight and feet that are too loose for me. I'm following the recipe in this book to see if I can get a pair that fits me. So far so good. The cuff is stretchy but not tight. It's too soon to check out the feet, but I'm hopeful it will fit nicely.
To Do: Work on a project that has been sitting in the queue for a while. Relax has been sitting in my queue since August 2014. I bought the yarn and pattern over a year ago, but never cast on. Part of my procrastination is related to indecision about what size to make. After scanning projects on Ravelry and chatting with my friend, I decided to knit the Medium. It will still have a lot of ease, but not the yards of ease that the model seems to be wearing in the pattern picture. This may take me a while to complete. It is a lot of stockinette stitch.
To Do: Get back into quilting. Years ago I was involved with a group that made crib quilts for at risk children. It was a service project sponsored by my place of employment. As my kids grew and became involved in activities, the quilting got set aside for knitting, which is more portable. My involvement with the group tapered off. With my girls off to college and my son able to drive himself anywhere he needs to be, I find I have more free time. I've started attending the once-a-month Sew Ins and have re-discovered my love for this craft. Below are blocks for a Block of the Month project. 11 of 12 blocks are sewn.
To Do: Spin more. I had fiber on my wheel for over a year. It was some basic cream-colored wool that my sister gave me. I didn't have any particular plans for it until I discovered that Kristin had borrowed my hand knit gloves. I quickly plied the wool and knit her a pair of gloves. Once I found the spindle free, I decided to spin some luxury fiber I bought last year: yak. I bought this fiber at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival. It is super soft and has a lovely sheen. I divided the fiber into two equal piles. The intent is to make a double ply yarn. Once I see how much yardage I get, I'll decide what to knit with it.
The last picture to share isn't really a To Do list item for me. It is Kristin's, but she asked me to help. A couple years ago she asked me to teach her how to knit. She wanted an Infinity scarf. I made up a pattern that wasn't too complicated and showed her how to execute the stitches. She worked on it for a while and got pretty far along. But like her mother, she set it aside and didn't return to it. While she was home for break, she asked me if I could finish it for her. She wants another 12 inches or so knit on it and then the ends grafted together. Before I pick up the needles I will need to figure out the pattern again.
Time now to get back to some of these projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment