I know… I’ve been MIA for what almost 3 months now?  Gasp!  Knitting has been uneventful for blogging purposes.  I’ve been knitting like crazy yes, but they were all test knits.  And OMG I love the yarn Unique Sheep sells.  So if you ever need to go binge, I highly recommend.  If you google The Unique Sheep you should find them.  I’m too lazy to toss a link up right now.

What else is new?  Well I did get a job, and it was in SC, so I packed up all my junk and moved down.  Well, not all my junk, just enough to get by for a year.  Currently staying with my aunt down here, so really didn’t have the room to bring the entire stash.  For that reason a good chunk of it was left at home in Ohio.  So, when next summer rolls around and I have some free time, I’ll probably head back home and pack up the rest of the stuff I *need* to survive.
School starts next week, so life is very very busy.  The current test knit needs to be done by the end of the month, and it’s fair isle so I’m really pushing myself. hehe.  Shouldn’t take too long, just so busy with life and all.  Once that’s done I think I’ll be taking a break from test knitting that way I can focus on school and knit my own stuff for a bit.

I promise to write sooner rather than later!  If you ever need anything just toss an e-mail or I’m on AOL Instant Messenger, so send me an e-mail if you want me to add you on AIM.

Oh! And although I’m still in the red as far as yarn stash is concerned it is down 47g!  About 33 of that was from a washcloth I never photographed when finishing, and the other 14 came from tossing a small minuscule amount of dishcloth yarn when I was cleaning in my room.   There was so little there, it wasn’t even worth keeping.  Yay for de-cluttering a bit!

Ooops.

So I went on vacation, applied for some jobs while I was down there, and of course did some knitting as well.  I finished one of the washcloths I was working on and worked a lot on one of my UFOs.

So first, lets talk about the stuff I finished!

Finished up the garterlac washcloth.  Still haven’t entered this into Ravelry.  lol.  Life has just been so  busy with the never ending job applications and stating back wit work.

Then shortly after I returned home I finished this scarf, so there’s one of my UFOs that is now an FO.  So now I’ve got 5 more UFOs that I want to get finished before May 1st of 2010.  We’re making progress, even if it’s slow progress!  haha.  Speaking of the UFO list, here it is if you’ve forgotten.  Of couse the Charity Scarf is now complete.  Next up is the Widdershins socks.  I’m not even sure if I’ve ever blogged about these babies, although I probably have at some point.  Right now I’m at the heel flap/gusset part, so in a few weeks to a month they should be done! yay!

1. Charity Scarf  (December 2008)
2. Widdershins  (December 2007)
3. Essential Stripe Sweater  (December 2007)
4. Popcorn Ripple Afghan  (December 2006)
5. Baby Blanket  (October 2006)
6. Candle Flame Shawl  (July 2006)

So after finishing both of these, the stash was at an all time low of 198g for the year!  So then of course, the Great Lakes Fiber Show is this weekend, so I ran down with my boyfriend and stumbled across the Creatively Dyed booth.  In all honesty, it was one of two booths at the show that really caught my attention.  So I grabbed two skeins, of sock yarn and figured oh, only two skeins, I’ll just be over a little.  Haha… wrong.  What I didn’t realize was the new skeins I bought are 184 grams each.  Oops.  lol.  The good thing about it, is that I can probably get 2 pairs of socks out of each skein so I’m definitely getting my money’s worth.    Part of me is temped to make a scarf even from the extras.

Of course, ths mean I’m now back in the red as far as stash is concened.  Oops.  Good news is that it’s only 70 grams into the red, so it’ll be easy enough to fix, but it does set me back as far as goals go.  haha.

Well, I guess technically the one on the right was the one I blogged about last time, but the other is new. Same pattern as before, the lovely 4-Corners Dishcloth. If you google “4-Corners Dishcloth, I believe the first link that pops up is the pdf of the pattern. Love these things! The color for the one on the left is Rosewood, in case I hadn’t mentioned it before. And the yarn for the one on the right is Over the Rainbow. Both are made from Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton.

As much as I love them, I have moved on to other wash cloth patterns. I printed off a Garterlac Pattern which I think I may be falling in love with. Although I could easily finish it in not time, I am only working on washcloths when I’m not at home. The reason? Part of my yarn diet goals. Yup, I’m making crazy yarn diet goals again in honor of summer.

So we all know I cannot buy yarn unless i use up what I’ve got. So far I’ve used 148g for the year. Woot! I really want to buy some cones of cotton so that I can make Christmas gifts for friends and family this year. I would like to buy at least 4, so I have some variety in colors, and each cone weighs a pound. This of course means I would have to use up at least 4 pounds of stash. Which means, this summer I will attempt to stash bust 4lbs of yarn. If I count the months of April, May, June and July in this “summer” that means I should be using up approximately one pound each month. So far this month I am down 148g, which means I would need to use up another 306g. It probably could happen. Really, the 1lb a month is an average. Another goal, is to finish up a lot of the UFOs that have been lurking in my stash. I shall give you all a list of UFOs:

1. Charity Scarf  (December 2008)
2. Widdershins  (December 2007)
3. Essential Stripe Sweater  (December 2007)
4. Popcorn Ripple Afghan  (December 2006)
5. Baby Blanket  (October 2006)
6. Candle Flame Shawl  (July 2006)

I also have a washcloth cast on, and a scarf warped on the loom.  I’m not counting the washcloth or scarf as UFOs cause I’m pretty actively working on them.  Part of me wants to be completely monogomous with my knitting until all the UFOs are gone, but many of my UFOs aren’t very portable, which is probably why they’re UFOs to begin with.   So here are my rules:

• Washcloths as my travel project.  If I need to cast a new one on for travel reasons, that is completely acceptable.
• Washcloths cannot be knitted when not traveling.  (this way I can’t cheat and cast on tons of “travel projects”)
• Scarves on the loom can also be started.  Weaving will give my hands a break from all the knitting/crocheting.
• I will pick one UFO at a time, and work through it till it is finished.
• The next UFO will be selected when the previous is finished.  There is no special order in which I will finish UFOs.
• A UFO can only be thrown back into hibernation due to it being uncomfortable to knit in that particular season.  Aka, I may not knit a wool sweater in August if I chose not to do so.
• NO NEW PROJECTS TILL UFOS are GONE!

Yay for having goals.  So the short term goal is to have 4lbs out of the stash by the beginning of August, so that I can buy some yarn to make scarves for gifts.  A long term goal, is to get all these UFOs done.  I’m really not sure how long I should give myself to finish them.  The knitted scarf should only take 2 weeks at most.  I think I’ll give myself a month for Widdershins and a month for the baby blanket.  Two months for the sweater perhaps?  You know, scratch that, I’ll give myself a year.

By May 1st 2010, I will have the above listed UFOs FINISHED!  And I’ll try not to have another 10 UFOs started.   I do like having multiple projects, but the current ones I’ve started have been on the needles for way too long.  I think in the future I’ll aim for 4 projects at a time.  That way I can have a weaving one, a spinning one, a knitting and a crochet.  Of course, I’ll just have to make sure one of those is a travel project.  Or perhaps I’ll only let myself have two projects, a travel and a stay at home?  We’ll see.  Right now I have way to many projects that are “stay at home” projects… and there are multiple knitting ones.

I heart dishcloths. Love the things.

Finished another 4 Corner dish cloth, the pattern is on Ravelry for all those interested.

Of course this used up another 40g from the stash which means I’ve used up 110g for the year. Woot!

I think my ultimate goal is to try to use up as much as possible so I can get some yarn to make scarves on the loom for x-mas this year.

I’ve been eying the pound cones that webs sells, and of course if I buy 4, I qualify for the 20% discount. But, I could also buy 7 and qualify for the 25% discount. But of course, I’d have to use up that amount in yarn in order to buy cones. So the goal is to use up as much as physically possible this summer so that I can get some stuff to weave with. We’ll see how it goes. The current goal is to use up 1lb of stash stuff a month. If I can push closer to 2lbs a month, it would be even better. The more I use up, the more cones I can get.

I swear… I’m totally not addicted to weaving. I’m denying everything! I can stop whenever I want to.

I realized that way back when I finished a scarf, but never took a picture and posted it, so first off, here’s that crocheted scarf. Crochet was quick, and the yarn was some of the stuff BF added to my stash without my permission. I was very glad to see it go.

The next picture, is the three scarves I have finished thus far. Obviously they look a lot alike. The one on top is the first one I finished. Of course I tried to get fancy with color on my first one. Then I realized that the pink and white were too close so it really didn’t stand out much. The bottom left was the second one that I finished. Definitely better than the first, and the third is the best by far. My edges are much nicer on that one, and my warp was nice and even. I realized that my biggest issues with the scarf getting all wavy was due to my warp and my laziness in actually putting paper between ALL the layers. For some reason at the end of warping, I just give up and don’t bother with paper for that last round or two. *stupidity*

Of course, I thought I could get away with the lack of paper for those last two or three wraps on the warp, but it definitely made the right side of this scarf curve quite a bit. This of course angered me and I spent many minutes cursing. I was so annoyed that I was *finally* using nice yarn (and not crappy acrylic BF dumped into the stash) and it was looking not so nice. Of course, after getting the first bit done, the tension evened itself out. But one funky end isn’t going to be horribly noticeable.

Of course, I am knitting as well. Although the loom is fairly portable, it isn’t easy to drag around. I’ve been hauling around lots of cotton in my purse cause I’ve just been in the mood for dishcloths. More 4-corner dishcloths. I made one before and loved it, so I thought I’d whip out a few more.

Oh, and if you didn’t notice the stash total for the year is -70g! I’m down 70g for the year! Of course, it’s not enough to let me buy anything yet. I’ve been drooling over the giant cones of cotton from webs, so I’m thinking I’ll try to use up at least 4lbs of stash so that I can order 4 – 1 pound cones from webs. It would qualify me for a discount too, so of course I’ll need to buy 4.

It came!!!! *woot*

Of course it was set up immediately, warped, and weaving soon followed. Finished the first scarf (yes first) last night. Warped the loom again at 11pm, and finished the second scarf this morning. The warps were a bit off, which makes the scarves a little wonky. That’s my own fault though, because I thought I could disregard part of the directions. Of course, only I would assume I could ignore those important things.

Oh, and my edges aren’t the nicest yet. It’s defintiely getting better as I weave, but hey, that’s why I’m practicing on acrylic. I’m not horribly attached to the yarn, so there’s no heartbreak over it looking funky. I still have more of the same acrylic that was used for the first two scarves, so I will try to get another scarf out of it. Then maybe, I’ll start exploring my fancy yarns.

I have pictures, of woven stuff and the loom to post, but flickr is not behaving, so pictures shall come later. Hopefully.

ETA!: Pictures!

Ta DA! picture on the bed. haha. As you can see, I don’t make my bed. I’m such a bad person.

Also with the loom, are the first two scarves I wove on it. They both used the random white and pink acrylic the boyfriend brought for me earlier this year. Also, this evening I’ve gotten weaving tips for fixing my edges, so I can’t wait to try a third scarf. The third scarf will also rid me of the remainder of this acrylic. If all goes well, I’m whipping out the sock yarn! WOOT! I’m almost done warping the loom for the 3rd scarf, so I’ll ttyl.

Yup, finally finished those socks I started for my sister for LAST x-mas.

Started them the first week of December when I finished with finals, and finished them tonight. I’m not in the mood for a long bloggy post. The yarn was noro kureyon number 182. I used 61 of the 100g in the skein, which means I’ve got 39g left. tons left.

My sister, loves them. Of course. They’re bright and obnoxious! haha.

So of course, this was another 61 g outta the stash. Not much, but it’s an improvement. I’m still up 306g for the year, but I’m hoping that will drop quickly once the loom shows up. Of course, the loom still hasn’t shown up. I’m trying very very hard to be patient.

I finished the acrylic scarf for charity, so another 141g of yarn came outta the stash. (YAY!) I have two huge portfolios due on Tuesday so no time to take pictures and do a proper blog now.

Also… I may have bought a loom. (eeek!) So freaking excited. lol.

Shocking isn’t it?  I have actually found time in my schedule to play with my spinning wheel.  YAY!

And a close up picture! Mmmm..

This yarn is a buffalo blend. Not 100% buffalo, cause I’m cheap, but it does have other exotic type fibers in it like alpaca, etc. Lovely stuff to spin up. Feels really, really nice. I bought this 3 summers ago at the Great Lakes Fiber Show? Not sure, but I do think it was 3 summers ago. Finally got around to spinning it up. And just last summer they were still selling this stuff, so if anyone local is interested, I say you check it out. yummy stuff.

One skein is 58 grams and 83 yards, the other is 46 grams and 70 yards. So of course this knocked some weight from my fiber stash and added it onto my yarn stash. Somewhere in there 100g of yarn disappeared. Not sure how, but I think I might have had the total weight on the roving wrong. But still, I’m definitely in the red for the year, so no new stuff for me until more yarn goes bye bye. Shouldn’t be too long though. The scarf I started with the yarn brought back by the BF is almost done. That will knock out a good chunk. I’ve definitely caught the knitting bug. A few more inches of a sock and even more will come out of the stash, and I’m DYING to cast on a washcloth cause i’m in the mood for something bright and fun. I will get the stash down so I can go to Great Lakes Fiber Show in May and actually BUY stuff.

Oh, for some newer puppy pics! Puppy is 5 months old now so obviously he grew.

We dressed him up for St. Patricks day, obviously he loves it. haha.

That St. Patricks day pic HAS to be my favorite. He just looks so dashing. lol.

A pic of the big boy. Looking cute as hell.

There are a few more on my flickr account. Clicking on any of the photos above should take you there. Gotta love the puppy pictures.

Where the heck did January and February go?

More puppy pictures were requested, and I have a few more for ya today.  These were from back in December after we got him.  So he was about 8 weeks old in these photos.  I haven’t gotten any more recent ones because my camera batteries suck and don’t stay charged for more than 10 minutes.  However, my boyfriend came to the rescue and gave me two new batteries.  hehe.  YAY!

We put him on the bench that sits on the fireplace.  We were being cute. 

Of course he didn’t stay on the bench very long, and he proceeded to jump OFF the fireplace after this photo was taken.  You can see my spinny wheel in the background off to the right.  Should help give you some idea of size.  Tiny, tiny puppy.
He weighed about 2.5lbs when these photos were taken, and since then he’s grown to about 6.5-7lbs.  He’s definitely getting bigger.  We attack the cats now, and jump onto the fireplace all by ourselves.  He is also completely and utterly terrified of cars, and because of that does NOT want to go for walks outside, especially when those walks are in the street.  HECK NO.  It’s so funny.  If it’s nice and hasn’t rained, he loves walking in the back yard, but that road is scaaaaaaary.

I’m hoping to get some more pics of him soon so you can see how much he’s grown.  He’s definitely still a puppy, but he’s growing into his body a little better.

My new years resolutions are still going well.  My weight has gone down, and I have been skating when I’m not sick.  For some reason I’m getting sick ALL the time now, but that might be because of student teaching.  All the kids are sick one week, and I’m sick the next, then the pattern just repeats and repeats and repeats.  The yarn diet?  Well I haven’t bought ANY yarn.  I’ve been good.   HOWEVER, my boyfriend has been driving to Pittsburgh to pick up things his great grandfather has been getting rid of… and somehow my yarnstash has increased as a result.  (picture an annoyed smiley)  So I have 3 skeins of acrylic that popped into the stash.  Really it’s not too much, but seeing as how I’ve had like zero knitting time, it’s a big jump, especially when I’m not allowed to buy anything till I’ve used stuff.  This yarn is like a step in the wrong direction.  So what am I doing?  Well, I’m going to crochet it into charity stuff.  muahahaha.  I’m going to start a scarf out of the one skein today, and just work down that stuff first.  It’ll be nice to work with some worsted weight stuff.