Ravelry - YAYYY!

I'm in! I'm in!!.... Now I just need time and more photos, and I think this calls for photos of my stash. I really do. I have an over sized trunk which is our coffee table, and a LARGE knitting basket, and about 3 bags in the back of my closet. God knows what's in there. I keep dropping projects, frogging them and then trying to find new patterns for the yarn. It's sad really. I have numerous amounts of some weird green tweed color, which I thought would be so pretty, for Alice Starmore's Caledonia Sweater, but it looks eeeeeawful! So bad. Really yucky. Should I finish it anyway? Maybe i need another yarn? I don't know. The chances of me buying more yarn right now are slim to none. Maybe frog it and start it again. At the least I'll have to make it a size larger...god I hope I have enough yarn now. I'm Hinklebell on Ravelry. Looking so forward to more and more of it.
Oh - what I'm up to. I put down the lace for a while. I pick it up and do about 4 rows each time. i think I'm better off that way. I've been working on a cable scarf and finally finally cleaned up the dreaded stash a bit and pulled out my Dad's old Reynolds Lopi Icelandic sweater that I started for him..hmmm before I was married? Definitely before kids. Anyway, it's old. I finished the unfinished sleeve. Tinked back the one that was too long - joined in the round to the body and I'm up to the 3rd pattern repeat for the Yoke. Hurrah. I've forgotten how easy and fun and fast these are. No wonder it was my first sweater. Tonight no knitting - I'm working, but I thought I'd post my thanks to Ravelry for inviting me at long last!
Cheers -

I killed it! Yup. I did.

The very first sweater I wanted to knit. I will do it. I will!
The one I just bought yarn for.

I'll tell you what I killed but first...some pictures. I've shown these before. These are my two favorite Kristin Nicholas sweaters that I am determined to knit. I figured I'd better get some images on this blog soon. I've been so lazy I haven't taken any photos of the scarf. (Which is what I killed today, by the way).

I did. I ripped that baby out. This is the second time I've ripped it all the way out now...what is it they say? Third time's a charm? Here's hoping. I have ripped it all the way out and I'm going to cast on again. I even printed out a brand new copy of the pattern so I can start fresh. With no errors this time. Here's hoping! I had to, I really did. I was completely lost and no matter what I did, that next row I knit didn't seem to be the right one. Bad Bad me for not ticking off my rows on my pattern. I must have thought - "Oh, I'll remember!" BAH. I had completed the first 60 rounds, and had only to repeat those rounds, ohhhh 5 times more to finish it. Ok, so I wasn't really that far along, but you know I was reading that even amazing knitters only tend to do a couple rows on a lace project daily, because like me, they need silence and concentration. I am NOT alone!! Wheeee! I think it was the Yarn Harlot that wrote that. Oh actually now that I look again, it was her guest blogger that wrote that but still... she's gotta be a good knitter, if she's writing with Stephanie right? I have a lot of work to do. Yeah, not just on my knitting real work-work. So I'll just finish ripping out the scarf, and then I'll work. Or... maybe I'll just cast on and do the garter stitch edging...and maybe 1 or two rows so I don't feel so bad. Either way I have a lot to do. And did I mention I'm about 3 days behind in dishes and laundry? Sigh. The world is calling - better get back to it.

October Sales!!

I can't beleive it's October already! Fall is really here, and it makes me want to knit so many new projects! But if I start something new and don't finish stuff I'll never finish this scarf and I have to finish this scarf! I can only bore you so many times with my scarf saga, which I had picked up and fixed and put down again, and now... I picked it up and I hadn't marked off the last row that I did correctly, because I'm on a right side row and the next unchecked row is a wrong side row. Oopsy Daisy. I know I didn't do it last night because I went to bed early in a bad state. And I know I didn't do it Saturday night because Saturday night is the reason I was in a bad state yesterday. We went to dinner, and to the Boston Red Sox game, and then went to our local place afterwords, the Red Rock Bistro for drinks. That was a mistake. The wine at dinner, fine. The beer at the game, fine. The drinks at RedRocks baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea. My husband and I were like zombies all day yesterday. It felt like we were moving in slow motion while the kids buzzed around us like hummingbirds 120 miles an hour. I went to bed at 9:00. I couldn't even read. My brain was making cracking noises - or at least it felt like it. So now I'll get to work, and once again the next time I pick up my knitting I will have to sort it out. I just put it down mid row again. I think I'm going to have to rip out this last row.
I went to my local yarn shop this Saturday afternoon. There were sidewalk sales throughout Marblehead all day on Saturday. Unfortunately I had no cash with me, and it was cash or check only outside, so what did I do? I went inside. She's closing her shop, permanently on the 10th of this month, so she's selling everything anyway. I knew I wouldn't find anything for projects on my list because it was slim pickings. But I cruised around trying to find something. I found this beautiful lavender cotton silk blend - two skeins of 190 yards each. I have no idea what I thought I could make with it, but I picked out some purple fish buttons that matched nicely to use for decorative purposes if I had the right pattern for it. The only problem was this took me about 45 minutes while my kids were tearing through the shop creating havoc. Ok - it wasn't that bad, but when Laurie (one of the women who works there) started keeping an eye on them for me I got both flustered and embarrassed and so I was just trying to find something to buy - it didn't matter what. But, by the time I got to the counter I realized I was having a mild anxiety attack about buying this stuff. I was just buying for the intent of buying and don't I have a huge stash already of stuff I don't know what to do with? I told her forget it and I'll come back later and dragged my kids out of there. Oddly, I left feeling a bit better than I went in. I'd rather spend my money buying for the projects I really want to make, rather than adding to a stash that I am unsure how to use. I'm pretty proud of myself actually. Now if I can just get that same willpower to work for food.