Not dead yet!

Sorry that I've been AWOL again. My camera's battery died and I didn't have any charged for a while. And, after all, what good is a blog post without pictures?

First up, a while ago I entered an organization challenge at Purplepinkangorange.com. We were supposed to have our photos of the space we were organizing on our blog by the 27th. Oops! I was too disorganized to even post about disorganization! The space I am tackling? My yarn/fiber corner.

I have a couple of goals for the space.

• Put all of the fiber in one place
• Put all yarn in plastic bags or containers
• Make a spot for all of the knitting accessories
• Be able to put a spinning wheel (an upright one) in the corner
• Make fabric boxes to hold yarn/fiber
• Unfortunately one of the fabulous fabric stores nearby is going out of business and everything is 40% off. There was a slight falling down episode. The fabric stash (though not as impressive as the yarn/fiber is still pretty impressive) just grew exponentially.
  

• As a side goal, get rid of some of the books I never look at nor will ever read so I can have more shelf space.
  

Now, I might have to move all of my fibery stuff into a different place but those are the major goals. I really want to become more familiar with the kinds of yarn in my stash before the fiber festival season starts up.

In order to reacquaint myself myself with the stash, I've started making things out of stash yarn. I told you about starting the Princess Mitts pattern last blog post. I still haven't finished the second green mitt but I got pretty far on it. Then my chart marker fell off the chart so I had to find where I left off. Let's just say that the result was "interesting" and a good portion had to be frogged. I'm letting us both have some time off before I try it again. The other pair of Princess Mitts, however, are finished and are ready to be sent off as a random gift for my cousin. (I still haven't finished her Christmas present so I'm feeling guilty.)




I got a pair of mitts out of the one ball of the Zitron Ecco so I have plenty of yarn to make myself a pair. The color was just so much fun!

There were problems, however, with the pattern. The left thumb gusset is a disaster. The right one is a k2p2 rib. The left one is a k2, p1 rib. The two look nothing alike! What were they thinking?! Anyway, I got out some chart paper and made a mirror image of the right gusset. It didn't work out perfectly so I have some changes to make for the next pair. The left mitt should start the ribbing with p2, k2 rather than k2,p2 so the chart on the left and the right mitts can both be centered.

The next stash project is Wicked, a sweater that I've been wanting to make for a while now. I bought the yarn months ago but I was in a bunch of projects that needed to be finished first. Then Christmas happened and I kept not starting it. Finally, last Friday, I decided to cast on. By that Sunday I had already reached the armholes and was 3 inches below it. Superfast!



I did have a couple of problems, though. Mainly it involves my inability to read directions correctly. First, I increased in a place that shouldn't have increases and did this for 4 inches. So I frogged it down to the ribbing and started again. I reached the point where you put the armholes onto waste yarn and I realized that I didn't do all of the increases that I should have done. Once again, had to frog it. Even after all of that, I still really like this sweater. It is simple but is fun to make.

The main problem that I had with it, though, is its weight. Now, I don't mean the weight of the yarn. I mean the weight of the sweater itself. This is the first project I've made in a while that has a big of heft to it. Recently it's been all lace, fingerless gloves, and other small projects. The weight of it put a strain on my wrists and made them hurt. So, erring on the side of caution, I haven't been knitting the last couple of days. Instead, I've been sewing. I'm almost finished with one of those fabric baskets. I'll post the picture tomorrow.

In closing, I leave you a picture of Lily looking adorable.