Undisciplined

I have nothing to knit.

Other than a sweater, a sock (almost done!), various "hibernating" projects, and a colorwork hat. I was going to add the Jimmy Beans KAL mystery item, but it turns out I have to wait until tomorrow for the next clue, so I really can't knit that.

I guess the real problem is that I have nothing I want to knit. Nothing that's cast on anyway. And I'm very strictly trying to finish things, and casting on something new is not conducive to finishing old, BORING things. (They're not really boring. They're just not exciting right now. Even though I only have like 24 more rows left on that sock... I should really work on it.)

It's just, I got a pile of yarn in the mail, and the cowl pattern I ordered those for was free... and I saw a beautiful shawl pattern online the other day, and translated it from Portuguese with a lot of guess work, and now I want to see how that's going to work out... And I may or may not have accidentally purchased some yarn for that shawl when I was buying sock blockers for these socks of mine.

Oops. But I couldn't resist! It's merino/silk and it's such a summery color. Admittedly, this picture sucks. I blame the sun (or I would, if I weren't so thoroughly enjoying the sun).

So, I'm definitely not going to cast on a whole bunch of other projects, I'm going to behave and work on things that I've already got cast on.

Oops. That's the Uno, Dos, Tres cowl from Jimmy Beans. I'm currently enjoying the half-linen stitch pattern, but I'm sure it'll get on my nerves soon enough.









Don't look at me like that. I couldn't stop myself.

What's in this bag?

Man, I am a bad blogger. Admittedly, there hasn't been much to post about. But still, I could make more of an effort, right? I'll work on it, I promise. Perhaps when I get better internet, it will be easier to remember to post more often.

As a catch up, let me tell you that I'm officially employed as a full-time engineer. Which means that I've been working on finding more permanent housing. It's nice that I was able to stay with friends this summer, but I'm getting a vibe that they love me, but they'd love me more if they saw me a little less. Which is fine, because I think I could really get behind having my own place. I've found an apartment (I move in on the 30th), and I'm working on furnishing it. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much work has to go into equipping the entire house. I've always had roommates to share the burden. And all of the furniture I used to have now belongs to my sister... But it's been fun to pick out all new stuff, and visualize what I might want in my new place.

In knitting news, I've been working on decreasing the number of UFOs and WIPs. I don't have as many as some people I know, but there's certainly some that could use attention.

I finished my second pair of "work" socks. I call them that because I take them to work with me, in case I get some free time. Except I stopped taking these to work, since I offered to take the clapotis off of Caitlin's list.

Which reminds me, I finished the clapotis too. Yay! The colors were nice, and I found out that I wrap my purl stitches a little bit differently than Caitlin does. Which is why my stockinette looks different than it should. Always a worthwhile lesson to learn.

Last, but definitely not least, I finished the Highland Triangle! This is a terrible picture, I'll post a better one when I get it blocked. That might have to wait until after I move into my new place. But trust me, it looks nice. And it's great to have gotten one of my effing shawls off of my to-do list. There's 2 more (turns out), but only one of them is gonna get any attention any time soon.






Things that I'm avoiding? Mariah's chuppah (it's not doing anything bad, I just don't want it to turn into a hate chuppah. I'd hate to jinx their marriage), a lace sweater that I don't have the attention for, a chunky cabled vest which has a similar problem (both patterns have so many charts, I'm gonna need a whole table to keep track of it all), and the aforementioned shawl that is in disgrace.

On the list of things that will be getting attention: I just ripped out the start of a sweater that was going to be too small (points for noticing that before I got to the end?), some mystery fingerless mittens that I'm pretty excited about, except I'm pretty sure I can't take them to work (they're on double points), and some boot socks that my sister has requested (I just need to get her leg measurements... not sure how that's gonna happen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out). Alas, none of these are sparking my need to knit. I think I've just got startitis, but I don't want to indulge too much. Starting the mitts and restarting the sweater should count, right?

On your marks...

You know what tomorrow is? The Prologue for the Tour de France.

You know what that means? I need to come up with a Tour de Fleece goal. Other than "spin a bunch of the stash so you look like less of a hoarder." I mean, that's a good goal, but it would be good to be a bit more specific, right?

I've not been getting much done lately. I spun a few things.

Like the Oatmeal BFL-Tussah Silk from Frabjous Fibers that I purchased at Wool Market. Ohmygod it's luscious. I mean it. The fiber is lovely, the color is lovely, it was a joy to spin. Holy cow. I'm pretty addicted. I wish I'd bought more of the stuff.

Then there's the angora-wool blend that I bought from Woodlake Woolies last year at Wool Market. It's pretty, and soft, and a little bit sparkly. But not all that exciting. Thank goodness there wasn't all that much of it. Now what do I do with it?

More exciting, there is some bamboo something or other. Again from wool market. From Your Daily Fiber (I think). It doesn't have a tag on it. But it's lovely to spin. Like spinning clouds. And it's shiny, and soft, and I lurve it. Good thing, cuz there's a lot of it. I still need to spin 3/4 of a braid. Yeah man.





I have been knitting a little bit too. I got the yarn in for Mariah's chuppah, so I've been working on that. It's nice that the yarn is chunky, and goes quickly. The pattern is easy to figure out, and I think that she and her fiance are really gonna cherish it, so I'm pretty enthused about that. Except that it's gonna get huge and wooly, and it's roasting this summer.

I've been trying to finish my highland triangle shawl, but that's kind of slow going. It's pretty, but there are lots of stitches and the pattern is a little bit boring.

And then, I've been suckered in to knitting my 4th clapotis. That pattern is like a disease. There's a reason we call it "the clap." The worst part? Only 2 of my 4 were knit for me or someone I know. Caitlin's grandma wants one, though, and Caitlin doesn't really want to knit another one. So I volunteered. Cuz I'm a good friend like that.

And amongst all this stuff, I still need TdF goals... I'll think on those. And hopefully let you know tomorrow what I decide. We shall see.

"You should sell that!"

Don't you love when people ask you if you sell the stuff that you make? I do. Mostly because they have no idea what really goes into making the item. Not to mention that I think it would be harder for me to knit things for other people than it is for me to knit for myself. Or for gifts, you know. I'd have to make sure there were no mistakes, and that I made it up perfectly, and... well, take more care than I sometimes do when I'm knitting for myself.

Anyway, today I was spinning, and one of my brother's friends said "You should sell the yarn that you're spinning! You could call it... Lily's yarn stuff!" I just laughed.

Admittedly, it would be something to do with my handspun. God knows I don't know what to do with most of it. I've started packing up for my impending move back to Golden. It's a little alarming how much stuff I own. Especially the yarn and fiber stashes. They're not as bad as they could be, but they definitely take up 2 rather large bins. And there's a significant amount of stuff that I haven't packed... I think I need another bin.

Anyway, this is what I've been up to lately:

I spun up some Anzula BFL fiber that I purchased at the Fancy Tiger a while ago.

I turned this BFL/silk from Funky Carolina:

Into some rather lovely 2 ply. I really like how shiny it is. I really think I'll use this for something. Possibly a cowl?

















Then, in the process of packing up my stash, I came across 2 little bitty BFL rolags from Cloud City Fibers, which I brought home from last year's Wool Market.











Which I quickly whipped into some little singles, since there's not really enough to make anything out of them. They were really just for testing out the idea of spinning from a rolag, and for trying the fiber.







And, last weekend, I dragged Caitlin to Fort Collins on a yarn hunt for Tosh Merino Light for a Color Affection shawl, for which I blame the lust on the Yarn Harlot.

The stripes are abso-freaking-lutely charming. I love them. I keep making people admire them. Frankly, I'm pretty sure my family is trying to figure out how to deal with the craziness. Oh well. Screw them, they have no idea how clever little short-row stripes are. And the garter stitch is surprisingly zen, rather than obnoxious. I like it.

Tomorrow, I shall endeavor to obtain some more bins, and pack more things, and spin some more fiber, since it's become apparent that I really need to work on the stash.

Lust

The sweater is done. It's marvelous. It's long enough, it fits, the colors are marvelous... it's really warm. I've been wearing it a lot, cuz it's been kind of cold, and because I want to show it off, and because I'm worried that it may get stolen if I don't wear it.

Some people cannot be trusted around handknits. (I'm looking at you, Caitlin.)

Anyway, yes. I'm very proud of the sweater, and it's wonderful. The only problem is, I'm unenthused about most of my other knitting. I have a thrummed hat which isn't as exciting as it should be, a shawl that I started after I got back from London, which was fun for a while, but now I don't love it. Because I want to start another sweater.

I know that if I start another sweater, I will likely lose enthusiasm for it about halfway through, and therefore I'm trying to be the smart knitter who doesn't complain about second sweater syndrome. In order to not cast on another sweater (I just did the pocket linings, but those don't count, right?), I have started the shawl-along that Caitlin and I agreed to do.

It's a really nice shawl, and I'm mildly excited about it. The pattern is nice, the color is pretty, it's new...

But I really want another sweater.

What I've been up to

I realize I was going to post several days ago, but I kept putting off taking pictures. Anyway, here's what's been going on at my house:

The only knitting that I took to Europe was a shawl. A lovely pink shawl, made from Lush, an angora and wool mix. I started it around Thanksgiving, and didn't finish it until slightly after I got back, but I got a great deal of it done while I was gone. It still needs to be blocked, but isn't it pretty?

When I got back, and had finished the shawl, I restarted a pair of socks. Remember the pair that I started last semester and messed up? Well, this is the same yarn, different pattern. I love them. They're fabulous.

I made a resolution that I would make socks in my class this semester, but I've already broken it. I blame the package that came in the mail yesterday.

I got sweater yarn! The pattern is Velvet Morning, from the winter Knitty. It's in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I'm really excited about it. And I took it to class with me last night, because I apparently have some serious sweater lust.

I must also confess to some startitis... I have started another shawl, which I take to work with me, since it's not terribly attention-consuming, and I have had the yarn for a while. The yarn is Malabrigo lace, in Velvet Grapes, and the pattern is Off for a walk with Charlotte. It's going much more quickly than I thought it would, considering it's lace weight yarn.




I have also been considering casting on other projects, but I've been trying to channel the startitis energy into spinning, to try to get the spinning stash under control. It really needs to be got under control... wish me luck!