Committed

I checked my Ravelry project page and I started Midsummer Night’s Dream on January 19th. I’ve knit on this project exclusively since then with the exception of a week’s vacation where a sock project made more sense for traveling. Tonight I should finish the first full pattern repeat. Let me repeat, first pattern repeat. I never thought of myself as a slow knitter. Maybe I’m just enjoying knitting this so much that I’m not rushing? With the decreases each row now I’m averaging about 3-4 rows a night which is up from the max of 2 per night when I was knitting the border.

I’m definitely not going to finish by March 21st. I’m looking forward to my first knitting retreat later this month and then maybe finishing this project by June? Good thing I really, really like knitting lace – and that my friends have stopped having babies for the time being

What’s really crazy is that including this one I have 4 Shakespeare in Lace kits from 2009, 4 from 2010 and 2 already for 2011. I’ll be knitting these well into retirement and loving every minute of it!

Long Road Ahead

The stars have aligned and I’m finally able to participate in my first season with my first Shakespeare in Lace shawl. I joined the club each year since 2009 but never had time to actually knit one. I picked the Midsummer Night’s Dream shawl kit because there was no grafting required. The last project where I tried to graft lace was horrible looking so I need more practice in that area.

Ravelry Pattern Link

The yarn is 1300 yards of Wooly Wonka silk/merino lace weight in the “Love in Idleness” colorway that was dyed for the club.

I starting this on January 19th which was a bit late for Selfish Knitting Month but still counts in my book! I’ve got all 439 stitches on the needles, knit the 2 garter rows and just finished row 8 on the border.

I do know how do place beads with a crochet hook and I’m really enjoying the process:

I don’t expect to finish this in time for this Season of Lace but I saw a category for spanning several seasons so that might be it for me. I’m getting about 2 rows done a night so far and I should speed up once I can start decreasing. It feels so nice to finally be knitting something just for me!

35,843

That's the number of remaining yards in my stash that's up on Ravelry. It doesn't include my charity yarn or left over balls from projects.

Yeah, it's a big number but I'm thinking I can double it in 2011 if I try real hard. Most people may be looking to knit from their stash and reduce what they have. I'm looking towards retirement when I won't have an income. I've got about 25 more years of stashing to make sure I'll be comfortable. I heard another knitter call it our 401(k)nit savings plan :)

I like it!

I'm in both 2011 Shakespeare in Lace subscriptions so my lace and fingering weight yardage will increase from those. I'm also on the look out for some funky sock yarn from festivals. I don't ever seem to have enough sock yarn. I knit almost every day so it's just a further investment into my happiness!

Whoa

I can't believe it but my yarn is packed up in bins and ready to be moved. We should be moving into our new house before Thanksgiving. I have enough yarn to get me through the month but it's just difficult now seeing my yarn cabinet all bare.

I am still working on the Warm Up America rectangles each night. I should be able to finish that project up by the first week of December. I have 1 more row to go on a chunky hat for my husband so I grabbed enough yarn to knit him up a pair of socks. It's a horrible feeling having your yarn all packed up and trying to figure out if you have enough to get you through the month. Total addiction talk craziness . . .

New Favorite Hat pattern

It started out as a pattern (Subtle Twist Hat) that was perfect for some leftover yarn from a sweater I made for my father-in-law. When I asked my husband to try it on to check the fit, he loved it so much that he wanted 2 for himself. It's a very easy pattern up until the last 12 rows where the cabling starts. I'm not saying it's difficult, it just slows down and you have to focus after rows and rows of mindless knitting.

DSC03488, originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald.

My husband swears that this is the best pattern for hats that he has ever tried on - fits him perfectly once I added 3/4 of an inch to the length. I'm actually working on the third hat so far now.

Warm Up America Project

DSC03462, originally uploaded by Angela & Gerald.

While this is a picture of an upside down cone (thanks to my Ravelry peeps who pointed that out before I started winding it into balls) you can still see the quantity of yarn. This has since been wound into 9 large balls of yarn and as of last night I have finished knitting 9 rectangles. 2 balls were given to my mother so that she and her neighbor could help out - also helping my mom get her knitting mojo back.

I was excited to work on this because I've always like the Warm Up America group and what they do. My only reason for not knitting for them before now was that previously if you knit up rectangles you had to drop them off at a store and there were too many stories of the store managers just throwing them away instead of mailing them to the appropriate place to be seamed up. This time, I was contacted through my membership with The Knitting Guild of America. For sending me free yarn they asked for my commitment to knit 51 rectangles before December 15th AND they included an address of a real person for mailing them in. I figured this was perfect timing for me to crank out some mindless knitting and help out. I need this too since I've got a ton of work and personal stress all around me.

I worked out the stitch and row count for 4 separate patterns so I don't have to keep measuring all the time. It's a great little system and I haven't gotten bored yet. The yarn is a very loosely plied 4 ply with a heavy cotton component - not exactly the most stretchy but it is soft on my hands. I have to pay attention to knit split the yarn with my needle occasionally but that's pretty much my only complaint so not bad overall.

I plan to knit this monogamously during the evenings until all of my yarn is used up. My calculations have me finishing with plenty of time before December 15th. During the days when I have meetings I've been working on a few warm weather items for my husband - more about those later.

Finally Finishing

Some people say that a project isn't completely finished until it's been blocked. If that was the case, I did a bunch of finishing this weekend. Two projects I can show (Mystery Stole & Dainty Bess lace scarf):





The other one I can't but it was a great feeling to finally get these out and finished. No clue what's going to happen to them next but I see some gift giving in my future since my finished projects drawers are over flowing!