I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Knitting Boutique in MD, the store that would be my local yarn shop if I didn’t live in Kenya, has recently started a podcast called the Saturday Morning Breakfast Club. The hosts are the shop’s owners, Joyce […]
Today for you I have a baby sweater that I knit and gave away more than a month ago: the wee Cria by Ysolda Teague. Some dear friends are expecting their second baby this month, and I wanted to get the sweater to them before […]
Like every other blogger and their aunts, I set some goals for myself for the year back in January. Now that 2015 is halfway done (what what?), it seemed like a good idea to check in. Cause, umm… I don’t remember everything I wrote.
1) Spin More – done. I bought a new wheel at the turn of the year, specifically an Ashford Kiwi 2. This was after test driving several brands of wheel and deciding the Kiwi just felt right. My first big project was some mistreated Cormo (post about that process coming sometime in the future). Right now I’m working through some practice fiber that came with my wheel before I dive into the good stuff in my stash – namely Unwind Yarn Company and Hobbledehoy fiber.
Handspun Cormo – complete with a Gusler Designs Mother of All Tags (available on Etsy)
2) Knit with Handspun – nope. I thought I had two sweater quantities of my handspun in my stash, but when I actually washed it and measured it, it turned out to be about half an adult sweater in blue and half in pink. Since it’s not superwash, I don’t want to use it for sweaters for my sons. I can’t escape the feeling that the blue would look nice with a chocolate brown in nice, wide horizontal stripes in a very basic crewneck sweater. This means I need some brown. I *think* I have some naturally brown alpaca fiber high up in a closet somewhere? However, I also have houseguests in that room, so no searching until they leave and life gets back to normal. The challenge, of course – at least for me – will be making sure the yarns are the same weight. The alpaca might also need washing. Sigh.
3) Complete the “My Library” Section in Ravelry – done! There may be a few Interweave Knits magazine sprinkled around the house that didn’t get added, but it’s nice to look in my Ravelry library and know that I have 2,678 patterns readily available to knit. If SABLE is Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, maybe I’m at PABLE?
4) Continue Designing – done. I’ve released four patterns since writing that post: the Circuits hat, the Sweet Faux Hawk baby blanket, the Sailor’s Warning cowl/scarf, and the Four Points socks. When I wrote the goals post, I had submitted Circuits to the Knit Picks Independent Designer Partnership – and it was accepted! I’ve been submitting some so-far secret patterns for actual publication and have gotten some rejections, as must happen, but I’ll keep plugging away. If all else fails, I’ll continue to self-publish. It’s ridiculously satisfying to wake up and tell my husband, “I made $3 in my sleep last night!”
5) Participate in a KAL – done! This has been so much fun. Part of the fun for me is to be part of the group. The other part of the fun is to try to figure out just how many KALs you can say apply to the same project. Sneaky, sneaky! In fact, I’d say I smashed this goal to smithereens, since I even hosted my own KAL, the Graduate Your Stash KAL. I sort of finished my own project 3 days late (ahem), but I was just wearing my completed Green River Shawl in the garden, and that 10-year-old yarn is gone, gone, GONE.
Green River Shawl
6) Test Knit Someone Else’s Pattern – nope. And I’m not as excited about that anymore. Even though I’m very goal-oriented as a person, I have no problem letting this one go if that’s how it works out. I have so much on my to-knit list that I’m not sure I want to take this on.
Happy 4th of July! We’ve spent the day relaxing and having fun at a 4th of July picnic, despite being in Nairobi. Part of the festivities was a kids’ bike parade, so I decided last-minute to bling out my son’s bike a little. Last Christmas […]
How shameful is it to not complete my very own KAL? Starting in early May, I hosted my first very own knit along. The concept was simple – find the oldest yarn in your stash and help it graduate to become and FO by June […]