Where are they now? And why I have 6ish single gloves

My track record for WIPs and FOs is pretty good. I chat with some of the girls at work and they have upwards of 15, no, 20, sometimes 30, things on the needles at a time. While I do knit a lot of different things, many of them gifts, a few of my WIPs have been lost along the way.

As you've gathered from this blog, I am a bit of a mad hatter. I love me some hats and a lot of hats look good on me. My second love is fingerless gloves and mittens. The first skein of yarn I bought from my LYS many moons ago was used to make a fingerless glove. Yes, just one. Doing a quick sweep of my room I managed to dig up one Panache mitt, one Memento Mori mitt and one Fetching (with fingers!). This isn't exactly terrible, per se, but I can also remember making one campfire mitt, one reading mitt, one wishbone cable mitt and, I think, one Bella's mitt.

The Lone Rangers

This is not good. And does not bode well for my knitting track record. To look on the brightside, which I try to do from time to time, if I ever do complete these mittens I will have at least 7 pairs of fingerless mittens. Rock on!

I don't like to have too many WIPs on the needles at one time and I try to draw the line at four, with three being very active (meaning I work on them at least once-twice a week) and one dormant, lonely guy sitting in a project bag beside my desk. This current sad fellow was supposed to be a gift. The holiday has been shoved around so much that maybe he'll get it for Arbor Day.

Well, hello there toes

 I fell in love with Jared Flood Jared Flood's Urban Aran Cardigan the moment I saw it. It is an intense piece of knitting, but I knew at some point I would have to make it. When Matt got offered a job with 100% travel last year, I started planning our last meals/trips/etc. together. And made the first steps towards actually knitting the damn cardigan (I had bought the yarn and pattern the Christmas before, haha). But then travel plans were put on hold (he's been "traveling" in about a 30 miles radius, thank goodness) and so was the sweater. I made plans to REALLY start the sweater for our four year anniversary  (December 14) and, when that passed, Christmas. Finally, when I conceived of my resolution for something new every month, I decided that February was the perfect month for a cardigan AND it could act as a Valentines Day present...except not. I knocked out the back in record time (five days? a week?) and was sufficiently sick of it after that. Now it lives in a bag next to my bed. Happy Arbor Day, dear! Here's my project page for more information.

Matt's three year sweater

Not all of my gifting has gone awry, though, and Matt has reaped the benefits of having a knitting girlfriend several times over. I guess I was more motivated to impress on our third anniversary ;) This is an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern and my first completed garment. I fudged up the shoulders a bit and think I should have maybe selected a better first garment pattern. I'm really in love with this color combination and so is Matt. The sweater has held up well over the past year and he still wears it all the time. I even embroidered a three on the cuff.

And the last gift I would like to share before a dash off (eep! Meeting a friend for a walk on this glorious, glorious day) is one I made for Matt's mother two years ago as a Mother's Day present.

A Hemlock Ring Blanket for Mother's Day

My second Hemlock Ring Blanket in two-three months, I think. As I said, Matt's mom loves to knit just as I do. When I gave this to her, she almost cried and told me it was the best and most beautiful gift she had ever received. It stayed on the back of the couch in the family room, a very "prestigious" spot, for over a year until they got a puppy that eats everything. Also, I don't know why but I always knit pink things for Matt's mom.

Stay tuned for a yarn pornz post either tonight or tomorrow!

A tale of (the evolution of my) twoish yarns

Yay! It's Knitting and Crochet Blog Week! When I logged onto Ravelry this morning, I realized that I had plum forgotten about all of the blog week goings-on. I do believe that a good half of my friend bloggers are participating.

It was terribly difficult impossible to narrow my yarn tale down to just two yarns. The obvious choice would be to write another blog about Tosh (Tosh, Tosh), but I'm sure my dear readers are getting a little sick of my tosh-y banter...and I'll try to reserve that for this week's yarn pornz. Another reason I couldn't choose is because I haven't worked with all that many different yarns. I decided, instead, to use this post as a reflection of how I came to be the crazy yarn hoarder I am today.

First of all...some context.

I haven't been a hardcore knitter for all that long. My mother taught me how to knit, just knit, when I was a wee lass in sixth grade. I focused on it enough to make scarves for myself and my BFF at the time (and she still has it! After tennish years!). But I soon grew tired of having to wait for my mother to cast on hundreds of stitches for me and I wasn't as resourceful then, so I had no true desire to learn how to cast on/bind off by myself.

Flash forward to 2006/2007. I'd started dating Matt and was starting to turn into the eager little crafty lady you see before you. After high school, I started stalking the Craftster forums and my eyes were opened to so many different creative opportunities. I discovered Etsy and the T-Shirt Surgery community on livejournal, and I remember that some of my first conversations with Matt, the ones where we started to fall in "like" with eachother, were related to my crafty endeavors.  Crafting and knitting also offered me the opportunity to bond with Matt's mom (she knits) and Matt's dad (he draws and take photos).

Danica Scarf, my first "real" project

I decided to take up knitting again and made myself a Danica scarf from Knitty's Winter 2005 issue. My first "real" project was an entrelac scarf! I didn't understand why people were impressed, but, looking back, I think my mother cast on and bound off for me. I taught myself how to do those things later on.


Ok, now on to the yarn deetz...

The yarn I used for my Danica was Patons SWS in Natural Earth. I feel in love with it after seeing Tragicheroine's version posted on a Craftster knitting forum. And, for my first twoish years as a "new" knitter, that SWS was the best yarn I used.

Wool Ease, Patons Classic Wool, Vanna's Choice

I guess I really got into knitting in Summer of 2007, but that is up for debate. And from then until just recently, about 7-8 months ago, I bought ALL of my yarn solely from Joann, Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Anna Lisa, I can hear you screaming at me from here. And I still have it all! Even as I average a skein of tosh per day or two, I still use acrylic blends from time to time. Some of it (especially Lion Brand Wool Ease and Vanna's Choice) are very soft. Out of the two, I would rate Wool Ease a little better in terms of feel, but Vanna's Choice offers a lot of better colors. I've also used Simply Soft a few times, but it has a little too much sheen or my preference. As I try not to be a yarn snob (which has become harder since working at my LYS), I will NEVER use Red Heart Super Saver. But I won't judge you if you do :)

My first splurges: Eco Wool & Noro Kureyon

I didn't "splurge" on yarn until 2009. It's funny to think of Eco Wool (for my Hemlock Ring Blanket) as a splurge, but it definitely was. It was the first online yarn purchase I ever made. Noro Kureyon was my second splurge, coming a year later. A year! I bought the Noro to make a Counterpane Carpet Bag, which looks absolutely STUNNING in Kureyon, but I still haven't made it. The woe of a knitter, am I right?

Stitch Nation in Full of Sheep & Bamboo Ewe

One of the major turning points in my fiber fixation came around last year, when Debbie Stoller's Stitch Nation yarn line hit Joann and Michaels, my yarn suppliers. After having worked with acrylic/wool blends for so long, this line offered up something new: bamboo and alpaca. I started stockpiling the stuff, snatching up a skein or two of this yarn every other day. The colors were rich and the yarns felt so nice. I must have ended up with 4-5 of each color and it soon became the only think I knit with. Well, that and Vanna. If you take a peek over at my Ravelry Projects you will notice that about a third of my projects, not including the hats I knit for charity, were knit using Stitch Nation.

Cascade Eco+ & Malabrigo Sock

The thing that really turned on my yarn hoarding (and constant splurging) happened last September: I started working at my LYS. When you spend 20-25 hours each week surrounded by beautiful yarns and enablers (coughCHRISTIE/ANNALISA/KATEcough), it's difficult to resist temptation. While this can be a bad thing, especially on the 25th of each month when my credit card bill is due, it is also a beautiful thing. I'm constantly inspired by all of the beautiful colors and patterns that I have access to each and every day. And it's an even more beautiful thing when I get to help people make their yarn selections and you can tell that they're just as crazy/inspired/irrational as I am.

Knit Picks Palette

So, there you have the yarns of my past. In addition to this Knit Picks Palette (I think I'm the only person in the world who hasn't knit with Knit Picks yet), this year I'm making it a point to test drive more yarns. Yarns I'm craving include: The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! or Skinny Bugga!, Rowan Kidsilk Haze (or KP Aloft, which is a decent doppelganger), Classic Elite Firefly, Wollmeise (I still think this one may be an urban legend ;p), and Habu of some sort. Oh! And Quince and Co. most definitely.

I guess I just need to learn how to splurge more ;p