Saturday Stashbusting

Knoontime Knitting

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I’m working on busting my ginormous stash.  In order to do that, I need to work on the projects I started.

The Stash List

  1. Block the Jewel Scarf
  2. My hat
  3. The red cable bag
  4. Line the Uglii Bag
  5. Bind off the Uglii Afghan; decide if I’m adding to it
  6. Buttons to the red blouse

This was originally a list of 5 things, but I realized I need to block the Jewel Scarf too, and that’s something I can do on Sunday.

Oh, and here’s Boria keeping the Uglii Afghan warm for me.  I know, I featured him a couple days ago, but it makes me laugh so I figured I’d share again.

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What about you, Dear Reader?  What’s in YOUR stash?

 

Thoughtful Thursday – 3D and Writing

Knoontime Knitting

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No epiphanies this week.  Just a hat.  I decided to try making one with lace, rather than straight ribbed stitches, and like how it’s coming out so far.

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Boria and Kolya both keep sleeping on my Uglii Chair Afghan, which is annoying.  Kolya wants to chew the ends of my knitting needles.

I think I’ll make him into a hat.

Tuesday Tips – Sheet Protectors

Knoontime Knitting

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I know those really neat fabric roll-ups are a cool way to store needles and hooks.  But until I can afford one, or make one for myself, what I’ve been doing is using sheet protectors and a large binder.  I organized the needles by size, and put the crochet hooks in the back one (which you could reverse, if your primary craft is crochet).

I keep my circulars in a zipper pouch organized by needle size; I splurged one year and got a set with detachable needles.  I highly recommend this, if you can swing it, because it makes sorting out the circular needle mess so much easier.  I really like KnitPicks needles for their smooth joins.

What about you, Dear Reader?  Got any favorite storage tips?

Make Something Monday – The Jewel Scarf

Knoontime Knitting

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The Jewel Scarf is done.  It’s nice and soft.   I’m not sure what I’m going to work on next; maybe a top-down sweater.  For now, here are some more views:

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I like long scarves, but I think this will fit well on the person for whom I designed it.
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It actually drapes well, which is nice.  I haven’t blocked it yet; this is just off the needles.  But I like the flow of the fabric even without blocking.

What about you, Dear Reader? What are you making?

 

Stash Sunday

Knoontime Knitting

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Now that I’ve finished the Jewel Scarf, I’m at a loss for what to make next.  I want to do a top-down sweater, but I don’t feel up to something new and complicated.  I have a bunch of yarn left over from the Bryce Canyon Shawl, and I don’t like the hat I made with the leftovers.  I decided to take another shot and make another hat.

Top-down hats are easier than they seem.  The nice thing about making them is that you can try it on halfway through and make sure it works how you want it to:

  • Cast on 8 stitches; join to work in the round.
  • Increase in each stitch; 16 total.
  • Work 1 round even.
  • Increase 8 stitches in next round.
  • Work 1 round even.
  • Repeat last two rows until it’s round enough to cover the crown of your head.
  • Work straight for as long as you want it, down to the ears or longer, if you want a foldable brim.
  • Then bind off and you’re done.

I like Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewing needle bind off best, because it’s a nice edge, and isn’t tight or rigid.

  • Leave a long end of yarn and thread it in a blunt sewing needle.
  • Insert the needle into the next 2 stitches as if to purl and pull through, leaving the stitches on your knitting needle.
  • Insert the needle into the first stitch as if to knit and pull the stitch off the knitting needle.
  • Repeat these steps across the end of the row.

What about you, Dear Reader?  What’s in your stash?

Saturday Stashbusting

Knoontime Knitting

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It’s 2016.  A new year, right?  I saw something on Facebook the other day that made me laugh.  It was a meme about new years, where we focus on what we didn’t accomplish in 2015, and wanted to do in 2014, etc.  I do want to work on my stash busting, but I know better than to say “I will bust all my stash this year.”  I did that once.

Once.

So this year, I’ll focus on playing.  The shot, above, is of my jewel scarf that I’m making for Rachel.  I’d say it’s about 60% done.  Boria is sound asleep next to my spot on the couch, with the Ohio State afghan my mother crocheted.

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My craft shelves.  I installed them this year and like them a lot better than what I was using.  This has a whole bunch of projects to play with.  My biggest challenge is to work on making sweaters.

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This holds a number of overflow supplies, including my ivory yarn that I want to use as my first top-down sweater practice yarn.  I tried one with some colored yarn, (purple heather and pale pink), but it was too challenging to work with the color design and the new technique at the same time.

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This is my list of stash containers that live under my bed.  I had an idea, at one point, to go through the list and make stuff one by one.  That’s where things imploded, because I got too overwhelmed by the project.  Instead, this year, I’m just going to focus on one thing at a time.

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This is my mess.  I’m working on reorganizing my filing system.  This is actually more organized than it looks, because the piles are specific things, but they still don’t belong on the table.  I need to get them into the filing cabinets.

How come I can’t use a magic wand like Hermione?

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A little more close-up of the scarf, where you can see the pattern of the yarn as it interacts with the lace stitches.  I can’t wait to finish it and see how it blocks out.

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This is my latch hook rug frame, with the start of the peacock/firebird rug on it.  This is what I got away from this year, because I kept getting intimidated by how much I had left.  This year, I want to try applying what I learned in NaNoWriMo – meaning, do thirty minutes at a shot, make small daily goals rather than big giant ones.

We’ll see.

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And this is the cabinet I bought to organize our sewing supplies.  Obviously, I haven’t PUT the stuff in the cabinet yet, but hey.  Once step at a time.

That’s my motto for this year:  one step at a time.

What about you, Dear Reader?  What projects are on your list?

 

 

Thoughtful Thursday – 3D and Writing

Knoontime Knitting

20150913_0026Coyote poses in front of my mobile craft dalek, three drawers and a surface for dreams.

It’s strange.  As I look back on 2015, I wrote less fiction than I usually do, despite putting out several books and writing a short story for a podcast.  I’ve also knit a lot less than I’m used to, though I’ve finished more than I think I have when I take time to talley.

The nature of 3-D creation, things like making soap, knitting, and sewing, to name a few, is that they all operate in the real world, the three-dimensional space in which we physically live.  To an anorexic, this physical space thing is puzzling.  By and large, we live in our minds, and coming down out of the mind into realspace can be scary and unfamiliar.

Oddly enough, my three-dimensional experimentation this last month and a half has been at the gym, rather than my crafts.  In going to the gym everyday except holidays, I’ve learned a number of things.  I already knew that “showing up on the page” is the way to accumulate words, it never occurred to me to apply it to the gym and getting fit.  Now that I’ve made the connection, it seems obvious – I mean, if “showing up at the barre” works for dancers, or “showing up at easel” for painters, why wouldn’t it work for fitness?  I’ve been working to apply the same regularity that I have with morning pages to my gym-going.  It’s been working, if a lot less spectacularly than I thought it would have to be.

I suppose that’s the lesson, in many ways:  reality is a lot less spectacular than the echo chambers of social media and drama would have us believe.  The echo chamber wants us to be up in arms, heartbeats pounding, as we worry about the next crisis in some other place over which we have no control and no actual connection.  We need to remember that we are physical bodies, not just mental, and that as such we have our own realities.  The echo chamber is not reality.  On a good day, it’s a reflection of reality; most of the time, it’s simply a tool of drama llamas.

So, while my thoughtful Thursday is less about crafts and writing, it’s still about three-dimensional space and writing.  They relate to each other more profoundly than we realize.

What about you, Dear Reader?  How do you experience your three-dimensional space today?

Work In Progress Wednesday

Knoontime Knitting

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I’ve been coloring a lot this week.  I find it relaxing.  These are more from the Dover Stained Glass Coloring Books that I talked about earlier in the week.  I love the one on the right page, top left, with the two men.  Who knew the Celts were into m/m romance?  ~grin~

What are you working on, Dear Reader?

Tuesday Tips – How To Avoid Smudges When Coloring

Knoontime Knitting

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As much as I like the color of water color pens, they are still wet when you’re using them.  They don’t dry quickly and this can lead to smudges – from ink that gets on your hands while you’re coloring, or from ink that gets on whatever surface you’re coloring on.

Here’s what I’ve learned works for me:  I use a clean sheet of paper when I’m coloring.  If I leave the pattern in the coloring book, then I use two sheets, one on each side of the design.  If I remove the pattern piece from the book, then I use one sheet under my coloring, then I rest my hand on the other one so that I don’t accidentally transfer color with the heel of my hand.

The only thing you want to be careful of, is if you have a particularly wet pen, you don’t want it to transfer from your blotter sheet to the design.

What about you, Dear Reader?  What tips for coloring do you like to use?