Photos

Yesterday I got together with my parents and my dad took pictures of my knitting while Caleb slept, which means I have five patterns that are very very close to being ready to be uploaded to Ravelry.

The photos turned out remarkably well, my dad has a really good eye and a really good camera and the combination is pretty stellar.

I'm hoping to have at least one pattern uploaded to Ravelry by the end of next week.

The blanket is still delightful, and I'm going to go knit it some more as soon as I've done some laundry.

My husband is hilarious

We were driving home from church yesterday when my husband nonchalantly asked me if I like gorfing.

"What's gorfing?" I asked.

"It's knitting really really fast."

"Why?"

"Because it's to frog backwards."

I laughed and laughed.  I think it's pretty awesome that my husband made a knitting joke.

Ever so blessed

A couple of weeks ago at crafternoon (which I still think is an awesome name for a knitting group) I was talking about my blanket and one of my friends asked if I had enough scraps to make an entire blanket.  I replied that I didn't think so, but the nature of this blanket means that when I run out I can just buy a ball or two at a time until it's big enough.

Two of them looked at me like I was nuts then told me not to buy yarn, because they had lots and lots of little leftover balls they didn't know what to do with but didn't want to throw out.  I now have one substantial bag of such little balls, which means every time I run out of one colour not only do I get to pick new yarn but I get to pick yarn that's a present.

I don't think the creator of this pattern had any intention of anyone making it in leftover sock yarn and having this much fun, but man do I love this project.

A never ending blanket and some charts

I still love the blanket.  I thought maybe I would get bored, it is entirely garter stitch, after all.  Perhaps I will get bored eventually but not yet, right now I love it.  I love picking a new colour when my yarn runs out.  I love trying to figure out how far I'll get before my current ball runs out.  I love trying to figure out which yarn to use next and changing my mind.  I love how you can really see how colours play off one another when you cover up parts of the blanket and just look at two yarns side by side and how one of those yarns can look completely different beside a different yarn.

I have been diligently working on the charts for the patterns I want to get done. I've been spending much more than 10 minutes a day on it, but I've finally figured out how I want them to look so my progress has sped up considerably, I expect the subsequent charts will go much more quickly than this one.

Eating ice cream makes working on charts much more enjoyable.  I have finished my housework for the day (except the laundry, but that's in the machine and it's not at a stage that needs my attention) so I will eat ice cream and work on charts.

Designing and Planning

Someone bought the pattern I have up on Ravelry, which I'm pretty excited about.  I've been organizing the ones I wanted to release in the fall and I've discovered that somehow my plan for 5 turned into about 10 and I was still trying to get them all ready so the photos could be done together.

Yesterday I had a realization that this plan was not going to work and revised it.  There are six that are almost done, my goal is to have them ready for September.  The others aren't far along that my original timeline is going to work for them, which is fine, they will be ready sometime in the winter.

In the last year I've learned that one key to my sanity is making plans that actually make sense.  Planning to clean the entire house in one day while taking care of a baby?  Not going to happen, so I minds well make goals that are feasible because when goals aren't feasible it's just demoralizing and then I don't want to do anything.  Getting these 6 patterns ready for September is feasible, so that's the goal.  Three are typed, three are typed but need major editing, and one needs just a tiny amount of knitting to be finished, then they need photos.

Funny how they don't write themselves

I've said I wanted to have several patterns done for the fall.  I've done a fair amount of work on them this summer.  I have five finished objects and one almost finished object.  The charts are done but need to be tweaked and a good amount of the pattern information has been typed.  Mostly it's editing and other finishing touches, plus the photos.

It's amazing how time flies.  This summer has been crazy and amazing and I can hardly believe where we are.  A year ago things were really busy, because we had a newborn, who is now a little boy.  Nine months ago we were getting our last home ready to sell, and working long hours to make it happen.  Six months ago we were keeping everything perfect for showings.  Four months ago I was packing while Joshua was at work, and we moved and then I was unpacking.

But now it's like I've been holding my breath for almost a year and I've finally exhaled.  There has been so much pressure over the last year and it's like we've been going with ur heads down through a tunnel and we've finally gotten to the other side.

All that to say, that working on patterns no longer feels like one thing in a list I can never get through, which is so great.

In Love With It

The blanket is coming along swimmingly.  I've decided to make it five feet square, it is over one foot square now.  (I realize that means I'm 4% of the way because one foot square is one square foot whereas five feet square is 25 square feet, but it still feels like it's going really fast).

One thing I didn't realize is that each time I run out of one ball of yarn I get to pick another and this feels like I'm starting an entirely new project, because of the picking yarn business.

I may be addicted.

It's just the thing

It seems like I'm forever starting new projects because the one I'm on is at a fussy phase that's not good for knitting group or watching TV.  I don't mind having a couple of things on the needles at once but it's more fun to start something because I want to than to start something just so I have something to knit.

I was thinking about this and then thought about how the Yarn Harlot always seems to have a pair of plain vanilla socks on the needles, and I had this epiphany that those vanilla socks, or something like them, is what I needed; something that I could always work on but without necessarily having a deadline, something I could knit when I got to the fussy parts of other projects but wanted to knit something simple.

I'm not a huge fan of knitting socks, I don't mind them but I don't love them (I think it's because no one gets to see them...).  I was also thinking about the fact that it would be best if whatever I choose could use up some of my stash because I have all these balls of yarn that are leftover from other projects and are taking up space for no good reason.

I was looking on Ravelry and I came accross a pattern for a baby blanket that I made for a friend a couple of years ago.  It's this, and it's absolutely perfect.  It only has 20 stitches on the needle at the time, so I don't need long needles, it's simple but not boring, I can use a bunch of different yarns to use up my scraps, and when I run out of scraps in the right weight I can just buy a couple of balls at a time.

I've started and I'm loving the way it's knitting up.  The narrow stripes really show off the self-striping yarns and I love the way the various colours look together.