Monday, January 24, 2011

Freeeeeezzzzzing

It's been a good week for knitwear. I find myself wrapped in afghans and I used the Advent Calendar scarf as a cover while I was knitting it. The kid's school has been delayed for 2 hours so they don't have to walk in the -8 ° cold. Which, of course, makes complications for parents who have to go to work. DD#3 is going in to work late, so I don't have to schlep to her house or have the kids brought here for a bit before I take them in to school, or have them miss the whole day.

It was a blustery winter day yesterday so it was good to hunker down, knit and watch football. Nowhere to go, just perfect.
My knitting hasn't been pleasing me, lately and I think it was because I was locked into finishing the Advent Calendar Scarf. Which grew to gigantic proportions, as I was using fingering weight instead of lace weight. I ran out of yarn at day 19 which was fine, as after blocking, the scarf? measures a hefty 20 in x 100 in. I felt like I was listening to Jacob Marley's ghost telling me mine was a "ponderous chain". I spent all last week diligently working on just that project, to the exclusion of every other project, until the last bit of yarn was left and I could cast off and block.

The wonderful thing (miraculous really) about knitting lace is the results when you block it. Like labor, you forget the pain when you get that baby in your arms. Maybe not forget, exactly, it just seems very worthwhile.
I'm going back to my monogamous ways and knitting one project until it is done, before beginning another. This is what makes me happy and it gives me the time to really know what I want to make before I start it, rather than throwing myself into a number of things I lose interest in.

So right now the push is on to finish the three projects I have on my needles. DH's first socks are #1.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Taking It Easy

This has been a very quite week or so. We have been taking down the Christmas decorations and getting the house back to normal, watching playoff games and just kind or recovering from the holidays.
There hasn't been much knitting getting done. I think I seriously hurt my fingers and wrist knitting too much, maybe too many projects on magic loop and tighter tension were the culprits.
I have to remind myself that this is what I do for fun, it's not my job and no one is going to care if I don't get miles of knitting completed in a certain amount of time. It's not a race or a competition. By not joining in any knit alongs, I avoided this last year and think I need to hold to this resolution this year. I do like to make mittens in January for the NaKniMitMo on Ravelry, but I do this just because I like knitting mittens and this group gives me a lot of great ideas and patterns for them. I don't enter the prize drawings and just do it for fun. I made one pair already and am working on a pair of fingerless mitts for DH. I am still knitting the Advent Scarf but, again, not racing to get it done (obviously) just enjoying the knitting and the beautiful patterns in the sampler.
It's been very cold here and we have had a bit of snow almost everyday, so there is a clean white covering on everything.
I made a new hat for DH, the Turning Square hat which came out great and hugs his head, which his other hats didn't do.