The little swatch that could!

Yesterday I was talking about my swatch, and here it is:

This is the third one I did, and is the correct stitch count per inch at long last! I slogged through the rest of the collar and got started on the body. I only did a couple rows of the body, enough to establish the increases. Those couple of rows were enough to make it easier going now that I'm using the larger needle size. 3.5mm needles and worsted/ aran weight yarn don't mix all that well, no matter how good your needles are! I'm not sure how much I will get done on this daily... I'm sorta aiming for around 10 rows, but since it will be over 300 stitches at the underarm before dividing for the sleeves, that number is definitely negotiable! I'm taking this project and Raith's socks with me on the drive to the airport, so I will have 3 solid hours of knitting time, and possibly more if I wait with Derek for his flight!

I want this project to be one of my "mindless" ones, which means that I don't really have to think. Follow the directions on the pattern, and "just do it"! I like these kinds of projects for the break from the brain-busting that some of my designing does. It's a treat to be able to just sit and knit and not have to think about what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and getting it written down in a way that resembles English. It's relaxing and soothing in a way that is hard to describe. I enjoy designing... I really do, but I also like to zone-out and feel the rythym of the stitches being formed by my fingers. All that being said, I am changing the type of increases that the pattern calls for. It calls for all eight increases to be standard m1 increases. While this type will serve the purpose, I really prefer to have mirrored increases, especially in a place as visible as a raglan sleeve. The increases I do are a type of lifted increase that I saw in a book once, and they give it a very nice look IMO. They don't take any more time, and I do them without really thinking about it anyway... kind of like how I do a ssk for any decrease paired with a k2tog, or a sl1 k2tog psso for any centred double decrease.

In unrelated news, I found the other missing pattern for my UFO afghan. I was searching around Ravelry a bit when I remembered a printed pattern I had found in the craft room by "SAG55". Searched a little bit more, and found the pattern I wanted on the Internet Archive. It's called Basketweave Afghan, and I remember it being a completely brainless project. It was my "bus project" for some time until it basically out-grew the shopping bag I carried it in. When I was looking at it, I guess-timated it to be around 50% done, and that's how I've entered it into my projects page. I also entered Derek's Popcorn MAM into my projects, but that pattern isn't linked in Ravelry either. I get started on that one Wednesday night!


Nicole =o)

Facing it... and avoiding it...

Anybody who knows me, knows that I find different ways of avoiding things when I can. When I'm very stressed out about something, especially something that's out of my control, I tend to "escape" and typically that's into my video games mostly. It's the easiest way for me to occupy my brain with something brainless. That's why I was playing my games like nuts on Facebook Friday night... keeping my mind off of our loss.

During the day I did a ton of searching and such for my queue, and project plans for next year. It was a great way to focus my attention away from what was going on around me, and getting something accomplished as well. If you go back through my blog archives, you will find that quite frequently, my "avoidance days" are often my most productive days... just in other things!

So just what did I manage to accomplish?

Firstly, I discovered that any search for a cardigan pattern on Ravelry can not include "free" patterns unless you have about 4 days to go through all of the possibilities! I narrowed my search parameters to just what I already have in my vast library. With the selection of a few criteria, my choices were now down to just over 250 (from the well over 3000 when I included "free"!). This was a much more manageable list to go through. All of the ones that interested me enough, I added to my Ravelry favourites listing, along with a few keywords to help me sort through them later. After a few hours were spent on that, the 250-ish was down to about 30 realistic options. I tend to keep very few things saved in my queue and favourites, mainly using them for a "true" listing of what I want to make. Next, I went through the remaining patterns, and refined it all... adding yarn, size info; suitable Knit Picks yarn choices and the like. I ended up adding 5 (I think) of these to my queue, leaving the remainder in my favourites for the time being.

I am extremely serious about becoming more focussed in my projects this coming year. I want a sweater a month, a shawl a month, a design a month, a pair of socks a month, and an afghan a month! Those are pretty lofty goals, but since I already have some of these in progress, and the design can go hand-in-hand with one of the other categories, it isn't completely out of my reach. Now that I had quite a few sweaters and shawls in my queue, the next order of business was to get it all sorted. I added the tag "2012plan" to the projects I wanted to concentrate on the most... the sweaters and shawls... many in kit form just waiting for me to start them. After a lot of fiddling around with project order, and tags, and what still needed yarn to be purchased, I now had a game plan for most the first six months of 2012.

Nicole's Project Plan - January-June 2012

• January - Sweater: Tweed Cardigan (Mary Maxim kit); Shawl: finishing the Denise design; Afghan: finishing Derek's Popcorn MAM; Socks: finishing my Felici socks (Caprica colourway).
• February - Sweater: Melissa's Cute Knit Cardigan (Mary Maxim pattern/ Bravo yarn); Shawl: Diatom Shawl (Knit Picks kit, purples colourway); Afghan: finishing the Melissa design; Socks: finishing the Texaco design.
• March - Sweater: February Lady (Swish in Lemongrass or Swish Tonal in Kindling, which needs to be purchased); Shawl: Wandering Lace Wrap (Mary Maxim kit, Wood Rose colourway).
• April - Sweater: Melissa's Girl's Lacy Cardigan (Red Heart Soft, fuchsia colourway); Shawl: Season's Shawl (Knit Picks kit, fall/winter colourway).
• May - Sweater: In the Green (Bernat Cool Crochet, Tie Dye Shades colourway); Shawl: Nightsongs (Alpaca Silk, lavender colourway).
• June - Sweater: Primrose Path Cardigan (unknown yarn bag of mill ends, or Knit Picks CotLin, or Knit Picks City Tweed DK which would need to be purchased); Shawl: Chinook (Knit Picks kit, neutrals colourway).

I realize that I haven't planned afghans or socks for March and beyond. I have the rose-coloured afghan, and Wayne's afghan to finish, as well as a new design that's intended for Alex that I need to work on a bit and see if it will be accepted into the KP-IDP. I also have several other UFO/ WIPs in various states of completion. When it comes to socks, I'm never at a loss for projects! Derek is in desperate need of work socks, and I have several designs that need finishing up. As the end of February draws near, or I complete my January/ February goals, I can then decide what projects to spend my time on next.

Since beginning quilting and starting to sew again are also goals of mine for this next year, I am strongly considering creating a weekly plan... this day is for sewing... that day is for afghans... this day is for sweaters... you get the idea. I won't be able to purchase any of the quilting and sewing supplies I want/ need until the end of the month at the earliest, so whatever day I choose for sewing will be a "craft room organization day" for the time being. Sundays used to be for end-weaving, and that's what I want to do again... weaving in ends, and other project finishing details including photography. Monday is traditionally my "heavy cleaning" day, so working on the craft room fits in well there. That leaves me five more days to "assign", and I can work on that once the kids go back to school on the 9th (or is it the 10th). By that time Derek will be gone too, so I should have a couple of weeks to work on this "system". Fingers crossed that I can have that all sorted by the end of the month.

Wish me luck... oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


Nicole =o)

You ought to be in pictures!!!

First of all, please excuse the poor formatting for this post... I'm a bit out of practice with my HTML tags and such!! In any case, I'm happy to showcase a couple of recent design photos. Below is the official photo for the sock pattern Walk in the Garden. It's worked in sportweight wool on 2.75mm needles. It was originally designed for Ram Wools' footworks 1.0 design contest.

Below is the baby afghan I've named Manny. I created a new stitch for this design that gives it a thermal quality.

Below is a photo of one of the knitted MAM strips for the pattern Melissa. It's knit with a soft worsted weight yarn on 5.0mm needles. I'm really liking how it's turning out.

WTH?? Where's Nicole???

It's been a tumultuous time for me lately. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of the details, but suffice it to say that things have finally started to turn around for us. With all that turmoil over {or nearly so}, I've been able to get back to thinking about myself and what I'd like to accomplish. Part of this is also blogging again. I've joined a multitude of groups and "alongs" to try and get myself motivated, as well as follow a few of my interests. Now what I need to do is sit down and actually establish realistic goals for myself, that includes taking care of the house as well as my projects and stash. Of course, this will all need to fit into my typically harried lifestyle/ work schedule. I will post my goals for the month on the first day of the month, and I will start draft posts for the end of each month to upload on the last day to hold myself accountable for those goals.

My stash: This needs serious reduction in the worst way. Part of that will require actually inventorying it so that I know what's there, and can congratulate myself accordingly when milestones/ goals are met. I want to have an inventory listed in Ravelry of what's currently inside my craft room by the end of January. I think that's realistic considering just *how* much yarn there is in there. As an added bonus, it will help organize the room better. Once I know where I'm at, then I can start setting goals towards working through it.

My current projects: I have more projects on the go right now than I possibly know what to do with. I've been trying quite hard to focus on one project at a time more lately, but I have yet to make any *real* difference in my amount of WIPs/ UFOs. I am progressing faster on individual projects since I'm not switching back and forth constantly, but I am still finding the lack of FOs to be discouraging. I need to figure out what to do about this.

My wish list of projects: I have several shawls that I would like to make in the new year, as well as a few a-month groups that I've joined. I'll need to find a place to organize all that, as well as set goals so that I'm not overwhelmed with WIPs. In the case of shawls, I want to finish my Snowdrop shawl, and then start on my Mystic Waters shawl.

Photographic proof & accountability: I am seriously behind in taking FO and stash shots. I want to have all of my FOs photographed by the end of the year, and all stash photographed as it is logged into Ravelry. Part of this will also be making sure that my sidebars in here in Blogger are up-to-date.

My home: Between insane work schedules and a serious case of the I-don't-give-a-damn's, my home has been seriously neglected. I have decluttering, redecorating, and yard/ garden plans that I'd like to institute here. I intend to start this by decluttering the living room, dining room, and kitchen, as well as redecorating them. I have already made many of my redecorating decisions, it's just a matter of budgetting them to make them a reality.

---

In closing, I just want to {re}state my goals for the month of December.

1. Photographs of all FOs listed in Ravelry.
2. Blog sidebars completely up-to-date.
3. Decide on first three projects to focus on as of January 1st.
4. All a-long's and a-month's listed *somewhere*.
5. Computer desk and bookcase in living room completely decluttered.

It's done, done, done!!!

Yes!!! The three-day table topper is officially finished! I did the last few stitches on it when I got home from work this morning, wove in the ends, and washed it. As soon as I'm done this post, I'll be blocking it out and then going to bed. I'll get pictures of it up tomorrow probably. I won't be making a matching one after all... we don't carry the DMC Traditions at this store... that makes *that* decision a little easier!!!

Derek went digging in the store yesterday and found all kinds of goodies for me! I now have the power cord to one of my sewing machines, so I can finally get started on a bit of that! He also found a bag with a few balls of sock yarn in it... why wasn't that in my sock yarn bin? In any case, that's giving me the motivation to finally post some more of my stash on Ravelry.

I've started the heel turn on my Tofu socks, but I don't know what I want to work on here at home now that the table topper is finished. I joined a group that has you pledge to work on only three projects at a time. Well the Tofu is one, and I can't decide on the other two since I've got about seven different projects in front of me here at the computer, all in differing stages of completion.

Here are the choices:

• Lissa's cardigan - nearly done
• Lace shawl - barely started
• Blue shawl - about 25%
• Sheri's socks - just started sock #2
• New sock design - about 4" knit of sock #1
• Derek's socks - just started sock #1
• Ripple ghan - 25%-ish

What do you think my choices for #2, and #3 should be? Leave me a comment and let me know!

You oughta be in pictures!!! Part Two

Part two of today pictorial... this one has my scrap yarn projects, namely the Ripple Afghan and the Cotton Floor Mat.


This is an overhead shot of the afghan. It's currently around 20" in length. I haven't decided yet how long I will make it. It's hard to tell how wide it is due to the relatively short length of the circ I'm using.


A closer shot to highlight the pattern that I'm using for the afghan.


This is the current status of my cotton floor mat. It's about 10"x16" at this point. I haven't decided how large I'll be going, but at least twice this size for sure.

Random Wednesday

It may be Wednesday for you, but it's Friday for me!!! I'm *really* hating the stupid days off I've been given. I guess I'm just frustrated because I was *so* close to getting *real* weekends off back in Winnipeg, and I was counting on getting day shift out here. Anyhoo... off with the rant, and on to the randomness!!!

I'm knitting again in bits and pieces. I can't handle very long at a stretch, but some knitting is better than no knitting. Crocheting is still off-limits for the time being. I've been playing on Ravelry, and adding groups and working on my notebook. I'm gonna be taking some pictures on my weekend of my WIPs and getting them up here and on Rav. Sheri's socks are still on hold until I find out her shoe size. Henry's second sock has been started, and I should be turning the heel during my weekend. I'm about 60 rounds down the foot of Tofutsies #1, but with the tiny guage, I can see my usual 60-65 round foot easily becoming 80 or more. *sigh* I've resisted the temptation to start another pair of socks, and have been knitting away on my afghan.

The yarn shop is still a WIP... having two mortgages is a *HUGE* drain on the finances, and I need that money to put in my initial yarn orders. Cross your fingers for me that the house sells soon!!!

The other thing I've been working on is *finally* getting around to working on my podcast. I have gotten majorly side-tracked on that project, and it's beyond time to get it going. I'm looking for topics, and have a few essay ideas to work on.

And now for something completely different!!!

Yes... something completely different... a post where I don't spend 99% of it bitching about my crappy interweb!!!

First the bad news... I've developed a repetitive motion injury from using my boxcutter at work. That means I'm not supposed to allowed to knit. That only caused a temporary stop to my work, and I'm back knitting again, albeit carefully choosing projects, and limiting my time on them.

I finished another dishcloth at the flea market. I managed to sell a little bit, but not enough to pay for my first B&L order like I had originally hoped. No fear though, I am damned and determined to get that order in!!!

I've gotten the first work sock done for Derek's boss, and finally got through all the gusset decreases on my Tofu socks. I started a pair of plain stockinette for Sheri {boss' wife} out of some stash sock yarn; Dazzle Super Socks in a blue/teal/green jacquard colourway. I've just finished the gusset decreases on the first one of those.

I've gotten a few more colour repeats done on the ripple afghan for the living room. It measures about 14-16" now. Once my wrist can handle more knitting, I'll be able to get back to my goal of 2-4 repeats a week on it. The kitchen floor mat out of my cotton yarn leftovers is currently stalled. I use pencil hold for crocheting, and that's just *not* doable right now.

And now, the best for last... I'M ON RAVELRY!!!! Yes, I *am* yelling! There Lyz... you can SHUT UP NOW!!! I'm on there... I'm *still* not spinning though! *sticks tongue out at best friend*