A knitter stumbles

I sent an email this evening:

This is impossibly silly, but you do have the context, as it was discussed at large at ____________.

I gave myself a 12 month knitting challenge. I am two days away from the end of my second month deadline, and I won't meet it. The rules of the "challenge" were that I must somehow dispose of the project, a thing I doubt I could ever do. I altered the rule for myself to mean that I must give away an equivalency of yarn.

I just can't face pretending that I'll do nothing but knit an entire sock in the next two days. That'd be fine for a weekend, but not these next two days nor even this particular weekend ahead. A self-driven challenge is a challenge all the same.

You mentioned that you were learning to knit. Would you like to be the somewhat random recipient of some yarn? What colors are your preferred colors? Would wools be okay? Should it be sock yarn or can it be any yarn?

Sometimes you have to be clear about deadlines. I don't need two days of self-imposed knitting anxiety. The challenge was to move the yarn along, one way or another. I'll move the sock along, but as Elizabeth pointed out in the comments some time back, I couldn't just abandon a project I was enjoying just because of a silly challenge deadline. The real stash challenges for me were to get yarn moving and to try to perhaps move a few things out.

Meanwhile, I sent along a little mohair with sparkle to another knitty. The zip bag fell on my head from its shelf, so I looked around Ravelry until I found someone who'd liked using the yarn and had commented that it was no longer available. I decided the yarn had just made itself available to her, so off it has gone in the post.

There are extra reasons (beyond life & work) why I haven't made it into the second sock. I'm at the last stitching for the Drops sweater. I've also been making headway on the afghan my grandmother had been making for my aunt and uncle. My mother asked me if I'd mind finishing it on behalf of my grandmother.

It's a family thing.
I don't mind at all.

Business - Trips and Usual

Business as Usual:
I've been very productive, but not the sort that lends for blog interest.

Business Trips:
I went to Boston and met up with Batty, from Knittyboard, who met me for a nice little walk to the nearest local yarn shop. Very kind of her, that was. I bought just a little bit of yarn. Very restrained.


Usual Knitting for Trips:


More Business as Usual:
I bought one little extra bit of sock yarn.

One domestic Saturday

From a pair of cotton pants summer that were happily worn in grad school, pants that would pass for great pajamas these days, pants in which the elastic was shot and I just couldn't pitch them because I'd enjoyed the print so, faded as it is now, and it would make such lousy rags, tight and crisp a cotton as it was, why finally, some progress was made.
(Phew. Withstand that sentence, did you?)

I made a bag for bags. Even though I'm doing better with every passing day to shop less and to carry a bag, once in awhile there are some plastic bags. I save them for my trash bags. I have not purchased plastic garbage bags for years.

I also made a clothespin bag. It was a fitting set of little moments in a very productive, very domestic Saturday.

When is Stash Busting not actually Stash Busting?

Stash Busting:

I started out with a batch of sale yarn (Misti Alpaca Chunky, as it happens), determined to make a sweater out of the exact amount I happened to pick up.

Stash:

I became nervous and picked up a skein of charcoal heather, same yarn, to coordinate as backup for collar, cuffs, whatever.

Stash Busting:

The sweater moves along swimmingly, and I've made it through all but the seaming and the collar. It may be possible that the grey may never appear as contrast on the sweater. Or I may have left over, and then what?

Stash:

I need some needle replacement, and I ogle some yarn while in the shop. Same type of yarn. It comes home, as it would be just the thing with that leftover (or not exactly leftover) grey.

Stash busting:

I really like the swatch in moss stitch, so a modified-for-yardage-&-gauge Le Slouch, only less slouchy is the plan.


Note the grey. I expected I'd run out of the multi before I finished at the top of the crown. Not so.

STILL STASH:
In fact there is a multi oddball, and there's still the bulk of the grey. I'll see what remains when I'm done with the sweater. There may have to be mittens, but I swear it can ONLY be from stash, no matter how they look!

Progress!

A GIFT!

I finished up the baby hat from stash. There is still leftover. It hasn't been put away. I think I can eke out some booties - or make it part of another hat.

A KEEPER!

I've selected my choice of button for the Drops cardigan. I picked up these vintage buttons some time ago in a small town Minnesota antique shop. I filled small paper bags of them actually: most of the buttons were very large, so some have made their way onto costumes. These I kept, at least for the moment.

Had to go back and re-do the front because I forgot to make buttonhole room. Thought about loops, but it wasn't too painful to go back. Watched an installment of Pride & Prejudice and delighted in how painfully and heart-tuggingly awkward was Colin's Mr. Darcy. Zoom, unknit and reknit.

Also finished up a hat I zipped up for myself this week, but this is all the blog time I can afford today.

Having Fun

I wish I could help with that. I'm not helping the couple of people who've strolled past here have any blog reading fun.

Life is moving effectively here, even if the snows and the potholes and the black ice and the communities that run out of road salt and moneys for plowing seem to throw us into less effective moving.

There's been knitting. I finished a gift baby hat. I've started a hat for myself. I'm making progress on the sock. I've done all the pieces of the Drops sweater, except for some backtracking now because I overlooked buttonholes. I'm even rehearsing button options, and I've yet to block, stitch, and tackle the collar.

Work and its projects move apace. I'm even having a little fun. I'm enjoying some collegial team work. I'm enjoying the projects we're working on. I'm even enjoying getting a bit of regular sleep.

There's just not time for the blog fun of sharing.

Hope to catch up. Thought I'd pop by for good manners and say hello. I've been impressed with the work and the weathering and the writing others are doing with their winters (or summers, dependent upon your hemisphere).

Have some fun, however you measure it.