"Legendary Stash"

I've officially crossed into "SABLE" status in terms of my yarn stash.  (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.)  I can hear my husband's eyes rolling as he's reading this, and probably nodding enthusiastically in agreement.  I finally put away all of my yarn from the Webs Tent Sale earlier in the month and made the mistake of telling him how many yarns I have stashed in Ravelry.  (Answer:  triple digits.)  He did some quick calculations to see how much I spent on all of it and almost fell off the couch.  Dude, don't do the numbers.  We don't wanna know.

This year's Tent Sale was on May 14th and was fantastic as usual!  A gorgeous day, not a whole ton of people the second we got there and a small group to boot.  I had been squirreling cash from yard sale items and things for quite a while and was pretty proud that I covered all but $10.00 of my yarn with it.  We had a fantastic lunch at Northampton Brewery and then Maureen and I headed home to get our knit on.  We've also picked out a new KAL project, "The Joker and the Thief."   (Photo courtesy of Melanie Berg, on Ravelry.)  mine will also have grey as a base color, but then varying shades of turquoise and purple.  Fitting, right?  :)

Anyway, I wish I could say that I'm going to go cold sheep (no yarn purchases until a set amount of time/stash is used) but I know that I don't have the willpower for that.  Especially since I'm making my first trip to the Maine Fiber Frolic with Maureen and Cindy this weekend!  AND Mom and I are trying to make plans to go to Rhinebeck in October.  Yep.  The stash will continue to grow, though no exponentially.

The Woman, The Legend, The Yarn Harlot

Poking around online a few weeks ago I saw that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka "The Yarn Harlot," was coming for a lecture series in Massachusetts!  And I was pretty excited, I've read most of her books and followed her blog for years.  She is a professional knitter, teacher and writer.  And to knit and yarn enthusiasts, somewhat of a rockstar!  She had come out to Webs last year but the tickets were ridiculously expensive.  (though I admit it I was still tempted!)  Plus the weekend that she was coming to Boston was already chock-full of activity:  my husband's birthday, a 5K that he was running, my nephew's first birthday....etc etc.  Sigh.....next time I guess.

Then I got a text from my friend Jenny, asking if I wanted to go with her.  Wheels started turning in my head....and then she told me the tickets were $20 apiece.  Yeah, I was sold!  We signed up for the Sunday morning lecture at 9am in Dorchester.  I was "gonna make it work."

Sunday morning I head into the city, and discovered one of the nicest yarn stores I had ever been to!  The Stitch House in Dorchester is decent sized, has wonderfully helpful staff and a great selection of yarn.  And more importantly....they hosted the Yarn Harlot.

Let me tell you, Stephanie is every bit helpful, gracious and funny that I had thought, and more!  She talked for three hours (while we all knitted, of course) about the importance of blocking, how to pick out yarn for sweaters instead of just the "OOOOHHHHHH SO SOFT" that many of us use.  (Guilty.)  Not only that, she named names when she was talking about yarn that's bad for sweaters, and she went over all of her tools in her knitting toolbag.  Needless to say, I've got a Christmas and birthday list going.  And the first item on it is a Wanda.  

This woman makes me feel like knitting anything is possible.  I left ready to take on charts and to buy enough yarn to start a really good sweater.  (I'm on sweater hiatus though, at least for myself.  I'm still working on losing more weight and there's no way I want to put all that time into a sweater that will be too big)

Afterwards she was signing books and I was thrilled that I remembered to bring my copy of "Knitting Rules!"  She was also kind to let Jenny take my picture with her, and here it is!

That Neverending Cleaning Thing

The Craft Room Cleanout marches on.  The floor is finally clear, but every surface is littered with stuff.  I've got all of my knitting needles tossed into a laundry basket, which is kind of pointless since they're all poking OUT of the basket.  I've put aside a bunch of yarn from leftover projects and single, lonely skeins (Looking for love on Match.com) that I'm putting to use in a new yearlong charity project.  I'm going to make hats and mittens for the local Youth and Family Services outlet, and donate them at the end of the year.  And man, do I have unfinished projects, a lot of cross-stitch stuff mostly.  Some baby blanket squares that just need to be sewn together, then donated.  Some things require more work, but many are just a couple of hours away from being a work in progress to a finished object!

two things I learned at Christmastime this year...to avoid excess stress, upload pics throughout the year instead of all at once and WEAVE IN YOUR ENDS, DAMMIT.

But now it's time for another game of:   Finish or Frog?

This damned, damned sweater.  I started it in March of 2012...at the wedding of my brother in law in Pennsylvania. Literally....I was working on it in the church during rehearsal.  All that's left is button and neck bands, and short sleeves.  Why is that, you say?  The sleeves have too many stitches to do them on double-pointed needles and FOR SHAME I have not yet taken the time to learn the Magic Loop method.  From what I understand it will take a Youtube video or two and I'll be good to go.  So....laziness?  It stays in the "finish pile."

This is a cute sweater.  I started it...oh I don't know, two years ago for my niece?  It certainly won't fit her now, and I screwed up royally on the lace bottom.  But for some reason I just cannot bring myself to frog it.  Maybe I'll put button bands on it and give it a good soak, then put it in a pile for gifts.  The only person that knows there are mistakes is me.  Well, now YOU know, but are you gonna tell??  :)

An adorable baby blanket that I started last year.  It's more complicated looking than it actually is, the hearts are pretty easy to make.  What happened with this project is that I started working on other things and didn't note where I was in the pattern......so I'm going to frog it.  Perhaps I'll start it again later, it seems less maddening to do that than try to figure out what the hell I am supposed to do next.

 My 2012 Ravellenic Games project.  The idea is to start a project during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, and be finished with it by the end of the Closing Ceremony.  There are people out there that start adult-sized sweaters during this time, AND finish!  I chose a shawl, the Marrowstone Shawl to be exact.   Major fail, I got the lace edging done and never went back.  I should've chosen a freakin' hat.  Time to frog, my dear, no matter how pretty the lace is.

Lastly....a pair of plain vanilla socks for me that I started in the old house.  I moved 18 months ago.  (Have you noticed that "Projects for me" always take a backseat?) I'm at the toes of the first sock.  Finish Pile.

And now, instead of "having to" buy a second bookcase, I have room for things!

Knitting: Goals and Progress

It's nearing the end of the year, so my inner geek is checking the knitmeter.  Here's the 2013 progress report:

Number of finished projects:  41  (at time of writing this, could possibly be 43.)

Number of miles of yarn incorporated in these projects:  9.38 miles.  If I finish Sean's sweater by 12/31 (and it's looking good, provided that Webs ship the additional yarn needed quickly) it will be about 9.70 miles.  Last year I had over ten miles, and the year before was 12.5 miles.  (I knit faster and more when stressed out, and 2011 was apparently a stressful year.)   Still, 9.70 miles is fantastic!

Did I learn any new skills this year?  Looking back at my projects, no.  But I did get better at other things, like seaming, cables and lace.

Goals and Ideas for 2014:

It's gonna be another great year, knit-wise.

First, and this one is a surprise:  starting on 1/1/14, I am only going to knit from my stash.  That's right, I'm going on a yarn diet, and I will not be buying any more yarn until the Webs tent sale in May.  I will attempt to stay strong, in order to save up for a big surprise family trip in April.

And then the big news, to me anyway:  Webs has a colorwork class that's four Sunday afternoons, and each session the student learns a kind of colorwork.  After the third try to sign up, I got in!  I'll be learning fair isle, intarsia and entrelac this winter/spring!   Yes, I know that I could learn these things at home, alone.  But it turns out, sometimes my teacher is a nut and gets easily confused.  :)  So this is sooooo gonna be worth it!  Hence, this workshop series is the reason why the yarn diet starts on 1/1...I have to order specific yarn/colors to learn the techniques.

MORE charity projects, starting with the Hats for Halos of Hope.   I've got two patterns ready to go right after Christmas, and yarn in my stash.  One is the "Dean Street Hat"  and the other is called "Foliage."  Both use chunky yarn so they'll knit up quickly.  And of course, hats and blankets for Stitches from the Heart.

I also say that 2014 is going to be the Year of the Sweater.  After Sean's is done, I have patterns picked out for both Will and Brian.  I really want to make a sweater for myself too, and we'll see what the year brings.

The Amazing Yarn and Charity Adventures

My friend Maureen is in town, so we of course went yarn shopping.  That is just what you do when you get two fervent knitters together, you hunt down fine yarns.  We headed to two stores in Central MA and came home with lots of great stuff.

The first one was a little shop that I had never been too.  It was nice, but there was nothing that screamed WOW! to either of us.  They did have some baby yarn that I love to work with though, and I'm always looking for ways to make baby hat knitting fun.  Making baby hats for charity is fun and a good cause, but making the same one or two pattern with one skein of the same-color yarn gets boring after a while.  Then....I saw a pattern that I've been looking for since last summer on vacation in Williamsburg, called "Babies and Bears."  I was so sorry that I didn't buy it last summer when I saw it so you can be sure I snapped it up at $6.00 this year!  I also found a book of 99 different stitch patterns, and there's a decorating idea on Pinterest that I want to try in my craft room.

When we got to the register, the cashier was having difficulty with debit and credit cards.  Apparently since it's a tax free shopping weekend in Massachusetts, a lot of people were shopping yesterday, bogging down the system.  Luckily the yarn shop is in a bank building so an ATM was nearby.  So while Maureen went to get some cash to purchase her finds, the woman started to ring me up.  The stitch book didn't have a price on it, and I was surprised when she asked how much I would pay for it.  I said "I don't know, twelve dollars?"  She gave it to me for ten.  While pretty cool, that wasn't the coolest thing that happened there.

She started to go through my yarn, which was five different skeins of baby yarn.  "That's an odd lot you've got there."  And I answered "Yeah...I knit baby hats for charity and this is how I keep it interesting."  She had a couple of questions, such as where I send them.  I told her about Stitches from the Heart, and how I knit 50 baby hats to commemorate my younger son's first birthday.  (I can't help bragging a little, I'm still  pretty proud of myself) And that I send Stitches from the Heart a box every six months.

She slides the yarn across the counter, and says "take it."  You could've knocked me over with a feather!  I said "What? Are you sure??"  She said yes, absolutely.  Then she went on to explain that the yarn shop owner's husband passed away from cancer last year and that the shop owner often donates yarn to charity causes to honor him.  And that they're a drop-off location for knit/crochet items, as she indicates over to a shelving unit brimming full with baby sweaters and hats of all sizes.  I had seen the pile when I had walked in but had assumed it was samples for the store.  She then told me that they have a hard time getting stuff out to the places that they donate items to, and half-jokingly asked if I would like to deliver some of it.  I said "You know what?  You've given me the yarn to make more hats.  If they're going somewhere local, I will give you guys a call and I'd be happy to drop off some things for you!"  I still can't believe this exchange happened.  I'm always thrilled to help out in a case like this.

The second shop was a small shop that just opened.   It was my second time there, and the owner is just so nice and personable.  Maureen and I left with out favorite sock yarn, as well as a few other things.  We're starting a knit-a-long today on a shawlette called "Hitchhiker."  Each of us chose our favorite colors, mine is different shades of purple and gray called "Lotus" and her's is a deep green and some blue.  I really like that place, it's small but the personality and coziness of it is what makes it great.

So another great day on the books for me and Moe!  I love getting together with my old friend and fellow yarnie.  And fun stuff always happens when we get going!

Reunited!

The weekend brought the emptying of our storage unit on Saturday, and with that, MY YARN!!!  

I put it in storage back in April, so when I started looking at the bins, it was kind of like shopping again.  Well honestly, I probably do have enough yarn to open a small yarn shop.  And I'm sure that my husband thinks that when he sees it (but is nice enough to keep it to himself.  We accept each other's "crazy" around here:  he deals with the yarn and I'm cool with the yelling at the TV when the Philadelphia Flyers are on.)  So anyway, you've heard of a "yarn diet" where a fiber enthusiast (I say this so I don't tick off the crocheters) insists that they're going to only knit down their stash?  I'm on overload, or perhaps a "yarn binge," if you will.    So many ideas, so many projects!  And I want to start them all at the same time!


On my needles:

A pair of gorgeous blue socks for me.  In fact, one of them is almost finished but I kind of got sick of looking at it so I put it in the "hibernating" pile.

A sweater for my niece's birthday in November.  It's proving to be a quick knit.  However, even the quickest knit comes to a grinding halt when you need to change needle sizes and don't have the one that you need on-hand.  (I know, but it happens)  So I ordered it yesterday and will probably see it in about a week.  Augh!

Simple baby blanket for charity.  I've always got one of these going, just something in garter stitch with an eyelet edge.  There's also a few baby hats for the December box for Stitches from the Heart.

I've printed out the pattern for Brian's sweater, and it's going to take some reading/measuring/swatching.

And who knows....the startitis is pretty bad right now and I might just give in on casting on something else.  Knit all the things!!!

Ready, Set....Socks

After 2.5 years of knitting, I'm ready to hike my Everest:  Sock-making.  

Socks, to me, are the ultimate, non-straight edge Knitted Item.  They are the one thing that I suck in my breath in awe in viewing someone's finished socks.  They mystify me somewhat, and I've always shied away from casting on a pair.    Not today.

 Pattern:  Easy Peasy socks on Ravelry.   Yarn:  Cascade 220 Superwash in a purple-y, heathered hue.

I'm out to prove that this pattern is indeed "easy peasy" and am going to become a sock knitter.  Yes, a sock knitter.  Purple socks seem like a natural choice, since purple is my favorite.  They're a shorter ankle sock, and the pattern is written as a sock class of sorts.

Casting on-----ready, set, go!

Fifty Hats = Fifty Warm Babies

For Will's first birthday, I came up with the idea of giving back for the blessing that we have received.  After some thinking, we decided to sponsor a baby food drive for a local council here in town.   Friends and family donated baby food to our home for hungry babies in Central Massachusetts.  We collected quite a bit and were thrilled with the work with we had done.

After Sean was born, we again wished to give back to the community.  This time, I wanted to utilize some skills and creativity, not to mention my ever-growing yarn stash!   Through a self-disciplined project, I pledged to make fifty baby hats for Stitches from the Heart.  This would allow for me to warm the heads of fifty newborn babies, and to practice some new skills and learn new stitches.  And to commemorate Sean's first birthday (which was on January 10th), the hats are now complete and will be on their way this week!

Why baby hats?  Babies need a little warm hat when they're first born.  As anyone who's ever lived in a cold-weather climate, you lose a lot of heat through an uncovered noggin.  And there are a lot of babies that are born whose parents can barely afford diapers, let alone "extras" like warm lil' baby hats and other things.    Plus, when I came up with the idea, I was a relatively new knitter.  I had done scarves and blankets and other items with straight edges.  I had just made two newborn hats for Sean and I was  tickled that I was able to create something that wasn't a square or a rectangle!  In the beginning, I vowed to use just stash yarn and bits and pieces from leftover projects.  However, I was easily seduced by the baby yarn aisle and bought a few skeins along the way.  Baby yarn is extremely alluring.  And luckily, fairly cheap and satisfying.

The hats are in all different sizes, from preemies to newborns with larger heads.  They are all variations of a basic pattern or two that I have used.  Some have seed stitch borders, some are ribbed, some are just plain stockinette.  Two of the hats are donated by my very cool friends, Kim and Kristina.  In the interest of washability, all of these hats are cotton, acrylic, or a blend of these two. Plus, newborn babies really don't like wool and preemies, who need hats the most, cannot tolerate wool at all.

A selection of preemie hats

I am so proud to have finished this project!  It feels really good to give back for the gift that we have received.

Mad Skills...

It's been nice knitting the few days, knowing that there's no hard and fast deadline for whatever it is that I am working on.

Two things that, when I started knitting a little over two years ago, that I never thought I would be able to do:


1.  Knit on double-point needles.  (dpn's)  I got two sets of square dpn's from my SIL for Christmas and after some fiddling and a fair amount of cursing, check it out!

Perhaps things like socks are now in my realm of possibility  :)  This is a pattern for a set of very simple arm warmers called "Toasty."  Basically it is just a tube, nothing fancy.  The yarn is Lion Brand Wool in cocoa.


2.  Garments!  Here is the sweater that I am working on for Will.  Well, the finished back of the sweater, anyway.

I've only been working on this since last week and it's really coming together nicely.  I picked Lion Brand Wool-Ease because A. the pattern suggested it and B.  if it's a sweater for a four-year-old boy, it damn well better be machine washable!!

The Old Gray Mare, She Aint What She Used to Be.....

Fabulous weekend at our house.  :)  Saturday night was my friend Alana's bachelorette party!  About a dozen ladies got together for dinner, a comedy show and after party at Twin River in RI.  What a place!  All the slot machines one could ever wish for, though we didn't touch any.  Dinner at a fantastic steakhouse. followed by a comedy show.  We tried to do a nightcap at a chinese restaurant/karaoke bar, but when we got there it was closed.  So we settled for a dance club in Worcester.  Hmmm.  This is how you know that you are old:  when instead of dancing like you did in college, all you can think about is how crowded it is and Good Gawd!  That floor is disgustingly dirty.  :)  We had rented an Excursion limo and had a cooler of drinks and even a Ladies' Night Soundtrack.  The maid of honor is the best party-planner EVER!  She seriously thought of everything and it was really a fun night for everyone!  I rolled in around 3AM, which in my world nowadays is unheard of.  Will bust into our room around 7AM and my darling husband got up to feed him and his brother breakfast.  Too bad I couldn't roll over and sleep though, my allergies were so bad I was up for good at 8:30am with coffee in hand. 

Mother's Day was very good, with cards from the boys and some books and my favorite:  peanut butter Lindt truffles!!   Then Will and I did a little bit of cleaning and Daddy mowed the lawn...and after that I got some uninterrupted knitting time while Sean gave me his Mother's Day gift...a three hour nap!  Later on we packed up the kids and Joey and went to visit Nana and Papa.  Then I had my afternoon crash and burn....where my brain started processing things more slowly until more caffeine was consumed.  By the time we got home at 8pm  I felt almost drunk from sleep deprivation.  We just don't recover from late nights out with friends like we used to, hmmm.  The fantastic weekend was well worth it, though! 

Days Like These

I've got a headache that's about a week old..  Sean's decided that sleeping in three hour clips instead of four-hour ones is the way to go, and it takes me a while to fall asleep because I anticipate him crying ten minutes or so after we lay him down, even if it's not my turn to go to him.  Brian and I both hear "phantom cries" at night too, when we think he's crying and go in there and he's peacefully snoozing.  Sleep deprivation does strange things to one's mind! 

But life goes on, despite being tired.  Right now I'm working on invitations for Sean's christening in April.  I'm kicking myself a bit, for not getting the ones that you print on your computer.  But these pale yellow ones were really cute, and they have little charms at the top.  Well, the charms seemed cute, until I opened up the package to discover that the first one is a model and you have to assemble the rest!  I should have guessed.

Knitting Olympics deadline is the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics this Sunday.  I think I'm going to make it!  I had a massive setback last week when someone showed me at knitting that when my sister-in-law taught me how to purl, she showed me it backwards.  No wonder why my stitches look twisted.  I have two projects on needles right now and I'm far enough into both that frogging is just NOT an option.  One is the Olympic Scarf and the other is a project bag for a group swap in April.  The bag is the only one really affected, and it just looks "artsy" with the twisted stitches.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself to make myself feel better.  :)  After these two projects are done, I'm hauling out my copy of Stitch n Bitch for some learning sessions. 

Chilly Monday

Why is it that even though I am on maternity leave, I dislike Mondays just about as much as when I had been working??   I love the weekends, when Brian and I are both home with the boys and sometimes we even get stuff done around the house.

Chilly out there today.  Actually, it was chilly all weekend!  I ventured out with Will to Walmart on Saturday, and pretty much the rest of the weekend we stayed inside.  My parents came over yesterday for a little while.  They recently put their house on the market and there was an Open House, so they had to escape with their two dogs for a couple of hours.  (Someday we want to sell this house and move to a bigger one, and very idea of of having to keep the house show-worthy with two kids AND having to pack them and the dog up for showings is intimidating at the least!!)

Oh, and I got some knitting in. I have a few project going on, because I like to have different things to work on at the same time.   Here is what I am currently working on:

This is going to be a baby blanket for an old work friend of Brian's and his wife, who is due in February with a little girl.  The squares have been knitted for a while, I just need to take the time to sit down and sew them together.

 

Another baby blanket.  2010 is a very big year for having new babies to knit for!  This is going to be another one of those "carseat" baby blankies, the one with a hole in the middle for a seatbelt buckle.  I originally bought this yarn for a shawl, but didn't like how it was turning out.  So I've re-purposed it for a baby blanket.  Grape-colored yarn for a little girl, I figure she's already going to get a lot of pink!

 

This is a keyhole scarf, made from Noro Kureyon yarn that I got at Web's in October.  I hadn't planned on working on this ribbed scarf yet, but while Mom was here yesterday she showed me how to do a 2x2 rib.  I've been having a hard time with this on my own.  Once she showed me what I was doing wrong, I was unstoppable.   Another inch of knitting and I'll be ready to make the keyhole.

And of course, I still have charity knitting.  I always have a hat in progress on another set of needles.   So far, in between projects, I have made seven hats!  And all of them are from yarn that I already had kicking around in my stash.

I am having so much fun, and I'm becoming knitting-obsessed.  People often wonder how one finds the time to knit.  Well, first of all, you make time!  But one of the things I love about knitting is that it's portable and doesn't require a lot of set-up.  Throw your project in a bag, and do a couple of rows at a time.  Two rows at the doctor's office.  Several more at the hairdresser's.  One or two in between baby changings and feedings.  I seriously think a couple of rows at a time is what keeps me sane. And all those rows add up and I'll have created something beautiful in the little bits of time that have been given to me.

Scrap Hats for Charity!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to knit baby hats and other items from some of my yarn stash to donate to charity during the holidays next year.  So far I've made FIVE.  I am impressed with how quickly they go, and really, I'm just making them between projects.  Four of them are just from leftover pastel cotton yarn from my "Cascading Colors Baby Blankie" and I still have quite a bit of yarn left to make more.  So that is four babies getting little hats at the hospital when they are born, with the hats from cotton scraps that otherwise would have gone to waste.  Damn, I'm proud of that.  :)  I wonder how many hats I can create from that leftover cotton yarn?  Tune in to see......

What Matters after a Long Day

Yesterday was a truly long day at work.  Auditors, deadlines, conference calls, general doom and gloom...and then topping it off I ended up staying late to run around town to get paperwork signed in order to make the ominous deadline.  I hate scrambling around, looking for alternative child care because I can't pick up Will and cancelling appointments, etc. 

I got home at 6pm, with a black cloud over my head.  Grumbling, I opened the front door and was greeted by a crossing guard.  Crossing Guard, you say?  Will, upon hearing me come up the stairs, came flying into the living room wearing a jacket, Phillies baseball helmet and carrying a Stop/Go sign taped to a drumstick.  "STOP, MOMMY!  I am a crossing guard!"  Black cloud instantly dissipated, and I stopped in my tracks to obey the crossing guard.  When he said it was ok to go, I laughed and gave him a kiss.  How do kids know how to do that???  Apparently, when Brian picked him up tonight, he said that he wanted to be a crossing guard.  He picked out the jacket and helmet, and asked Brian to make him a stop sign "with octogons" of course!  Know what else helped?  A big pot of spaghetti boiling on the stove...since I had forgotten to eat a snack like I'm supposed to late afternoon. 

So this is the way that  I am going to ease into a Thanksgiving post.  No matter what happens during the day,  I come home to the best husband and son a girl could ask for.   (And the dog is pretty fabulous too)  I'm thankful for a kid who dresses like a crossing guard, loses his Brown Doggie on a nightly basis and makes us scourage for him, and tells me that he wants turkey for dessert.    I'm thankful for my husband, who puts up with preggo hormones and has dinner waiting at the end of a long day.   He is truly my rock, my light at the end of the tunnel. 

Here are some other things that I'm thankful for:
-My family:  parents, brother and sister-in-law
-Employment.  It drives me crazy some days but I still love my job and there are still lots of people out there that aren't working. 
-Baby shimmies and kicks.  This little one in my tummy is really active! 
-A yarn stash and plenty of needles.  I'm glad that I found a hobby that keeps my mind and hands busy.
-The Public Library.  In the last year, many libraries in MA have slashed their hours due to budgeting, or closed altogether.  I'm thankful that I can get my fill of books for free still. 
-Blogging!  Sometimes I'm surprised at how happy I am to do that.

What are you thankful for?  What matters most to you at the end of the long day?

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Stashin' Fool

With Baby #2 making his debut in January and it being the end of October, I've finally gotten serious about cleaning out that back bedroom this week.  (Hey, I work well under pressure.)  The supply closet that held all my craft supplies has been packed up, and the cabinet was given away on Freecycle.  (Without incident, I might add!)  I redecorated a bit in our bedroom for free by reusing the IKEA duvet that was in the spare room, hanging some pictures from there and putting my collection of porcelain shoes on the dresser.  Next up is getting rid of the full bed by freecycling the headboard, footboard and rails.  (the mattress and boxspring are destined for the dump)  NO, I'm not going to attempt to do this myself at seven months pregnant.  Not only for reasons of pregnancy and sciatica by itself, but I have a bit of shortness of breath going due to the baby smacking himself into my diaphragm, making my lung capacity smaller and deep breaths not really attainable.  Me moving the bed would make quite a spectacle, get me breathing like a Janet Jackson track.  ("Control," anyone?)

In my attempt to become organized, I tossed all of my yarn into a laundry basket.  Holy crap...that sucker was full to the brim!  Now....how do I store this, and how do I know in the future what I already have so I don't buy more?  (Ha ha, like I'll stop buying more.  Sorry, Brian.)  We made a family trip to Walmart and I found some great storage containers with wheels that fit perfectly under the computer desk.  I'm SO glad I came home with two of them, because it was necessary.  I spent about an hour entering them in my "stash" on Ravelry.com.  Ravelry is a cool community of knitters and crocheters, where you can see what your friends are working on, browse patterns and show your own work.  The patterns are searchable, and one such filter is to use yarn from your "stash." So I believe this will be worth it in the end.   Or, at least I have the delusion of believing that I will be organized.  I'll hold onto my hopes.  :)

Produce for Charity

The past couple of weeks have been wet and rainy, so I finally got outside to the garden and MAN! Guess who forgot to thin the zucchini and cucumber plants?! I am going to have a ton this year, because there are not one, not two but FIVE zucchini plants out there! And booooyyyyyy do I need to weed!

I was reading an article in Woman's Day recently about a charity called Backyard Harvest. A woman in Idaho started Backyard Harvest when one year, she decided to plant a garden. She let her kids plant lettuce seeds and they planted the entire pack. At harvest time, they had 200 heads of lettuce!! And, as she put it, "nobody has that many friends that want lettuce from your garden." She contacted a local food pantry and asked if they acepted fresh produce, and they did! They did tell her that they don't get a lot of fresh produce to give out to needy families, though. So she recruited friends and neighbors to grow extra in their gardens and to donate the fruits of their labor to hungry families and a charity was born. It's going so well that the idea has expanded with people opening chapters in both Washington and California.

When I read the article, I immediately thought of my poor zucchini and cucumbers and thought about how many of my friends would want some when the plants explode with wholesome goodness next month. I thought it would be cool if there was a Massachusetts chapter. But for now, I'm happy to freeze some of my produce. Maybe someday there will be something like that here.

cross-posted at The Blue Plate Special

Working on it: Tote Bag

This is definitely my biggest knitting project thus far. I am working on this tote bag:


Mine is going to be sage and cocoa. It consists of making two panels of twenty-one stripes each. Then you sew the two panels together, and knit a handle. Then you sew on the knitted handle, and felt the bag. Sounds easy, right?

I've completed eleven of the twenty-one stripes on the first panel. I've been working on it on-and-off for about a month. (Slow and steady wins the race!) I can't get it to stop curling at the bottom though, and I'm told the only way that's going to go away is when I sew the bottom of the panels together. It's looking nice, if I do say so myself!

Trouble Spot

I like to think that my house usually is in pretty good shape. Sure, there's plenty of clutter, and I'm not as good about washing the kitchen floor or shampooing carpets as other people. But usually if I have short notice I can still plow through the house in fifteen minutes with a laundry basket and the vacuum if really necessary to make it guest-friendly.

Ever go to a party and one room is closed off? NEVER open that door! So much random crap will fly out at you, stuff that your gracious host/ess has stashed to make the house cleaner and festive for the party. Some people even go as far as throwing a laundry basket filled with clutter in the tub and pulling the shower curtain around the mess. Out of sight, out of mind!

Nevermind the tub, or a closet. My problem is the guest bedroom. It's the perfect place to stash stuff we don't know what to do with. I have an obsessive habit with craft items, especially yarn these days. Guest bedroom. My bookcase, crammed with books? Guest bedroom. Bed covered in stuff that I bought "for later" like baby gifts, old clothes, etc? GUEST BEDROOM!! Usually this isn't a problem. However, for two weekends in a row I'm going to have a guest. It's just my mom, who saw my bedroom growing up, so she's not going to care so much. But still, I have to at least clean off the bed! I have no idea where I am going to put all of this stuff, yet I don't want to part with any of it.

I guess all of this begs the question: What am I going to do when I have to face the music someday? Someday that room will be Will's room, and we'll have a second child. What am I going to do then?? Augh!

Presents in the Mail

Does it really count as a present in the mail if you ordered it yourself? I say ANYTHING in the mail that's not from a bill collector is a gift!
New Yarn in the mail today! I ordered the yarn to make this tote:

Hopefully it will be as easy as the pattern makes it look. Mine is going to be sage and cocoa. I have no idea yet if this is something I'm making for me, or as a gift. Can't wait to start!

Branching Out

More progress on the knitting front....I've moved up from making scarves! I know, I know, it's about damn time. I had made five or six, and though they were fun I got really bored. So for my Knitting Group's "Spring Swap" I tried my hand at this felted coin purse.

I originally bought this multi-colored pastel wool to make a purse, a small square one that could hold my keys and cellphone in the summer when I don't want to carry a big purse. But after several attempts to cast on and lots of cursing, I found this pattern on Lion Brand Yarn. It took a couple of days, and I got a little short on time at the end and didn't felt it. I like the size of it, though.

We have a few new skills here, folks. A bunch of Firsts, like following a pattern, for starters. Also, it's done in Stockinette Stitch instead of Garter Stitch. I also learned to decrease, which was tough at first, and this is the first knitted item I've ever sewn together. Hopefully the surprise recipient at the Swap tonight will really like it!

Now that I've done something different and it wasn't hard like I expected, I have my eye on another pattern. It's a striped tote bag, and I think I"m ready!