The projects I was talking about frogging last week? I did it. Well, I’m done 2/3. The other one I’m doing tonight.

The projects on the chopping block were (click for big!):

• Cleo, my oldest UFO. As in started more than three years ago. All the bits were done, and I had a bathing suit top I wanted to cut up to make a lining, but I didn’t know how to do it, so it just sat. And sat. And sat. And looking at it the other day I realised that the fabric was much, much too loose for a shirt, and it was heavy and would sag, and the world would just be a better place if it went away.
• Simply Lovely Lace Socks. I started these over a year ago, in yarn I Kool-Aid dyed. I got just past the heel on the first sock, when I realised they were a bit tight. That was also before I realised that I don’t want socks with holes already in them. I wear wool socks in winter for warmth. Holes are not warm.
• Sidewinder Sock. A fairly recent project, compared to the other two. I think it was May? ish? I knit one whole sock very very fast, grafted the eleventy-thousand stitches, and then it was too tight. The pain was a bit too new to frog it earlier, but I’m okay with it now. I’m undoing the graft, and will measure and record my gauge properly, then try again.

Now, I don’t have a swift, and all this yarn had been sitting knit up for ages, so it was going to be really curly. Wrapping around my arm is tedious, but I came up with a great solution:

My chair, the swift! I just needed to spin the chair with one hand and hold the offending item with the other. It even worked for Cleo, which was two strands of yarn held together. I just made sure to keep my fingers between the strands, started them out at different heights on the chair, and twirled away. Can your swift do that?

Yarnage counter: 16.89km

The very first crafty things I ever did as a kid probably involved glue. That’s what kid-crafts are about: crepe paper, glue, glitter, big beads, construction paper, and other brightly coloured things. I’d get good and sticky and there’d be glue everywhere. I still like doing crafts like that, although I have been sticking to knitting recently. Knitting, that craft that doesn’t leave your hands sticky, and rarely leaves them dyed. I played with glue recently. Grown-up glue though, and for a grown-up purpose:

A spice rack!

Someone posted a project like this on craftster YEARS ago, and it has been in my mind since then. I finally got around to doing it!

The cases are 70mm watchmakers cases from Lee Valley Tools, and the magnets are 3/8″ rare earth magnets, also from Lee Valley. (How weird is it that the cases are only listed in metric, and the magnets only in American Imperial?

The labels that make them look oh-so-pro were just in the bottom of a kitchen drawer, hidden under the aluminum foil. They’d been there since we moved in, part of one of the boxes of random implements I got from my grandpa’s house.

Ikea sells similar things at $10 for 3. My set of 24 cost me about $36, including a gigantic tube of E-6000 glue that will last for years, provided I don’t glue the top on.

I did go to Ikea for the magnet board. They have a stainless steel kitchen wall panel (that’s also magnetic… isn’t stainless steel NOT magnetic?) called Imperativ that would’ve been $35, and I couldn’t see any way of attaching it to the wall apart from glue. The also had magnetic bulletin boards in almost the same size, for $12.99. I got that one.

I think I have too much yarn. I also think I need to go on a ‘yarn diet’. I’m not going to buy any new yarn until 2008. I also think I need to set an ‘ideal weight’ for the stash. Below is a screen shot of the graph I got my wonderful Excel yarnage spreadsheet to produce:

My stash, in kilometers. It’s at about 10 miles currently, for my American friends.

I think I would like the stash to hover around 8km, and to that end, I am going to try to knit only what I already have, re-sell, or give away yarn until I reach that goal. It will take well in to 2008 I think, because I have already given most of what I don’t want away. I’ll update monthly here, with a new screen shot around the first of each month.

I also want to get rid of most of my WIPs and UFOs before the New Year. I have the Capecho, and the $1.50 cardi hanging around right now. Once I finish the Millicents, those are my next projects. I’m also going to rip the UFOs I’ve had hanging around for years. The ripping is today’s project. Sadly, ripping out old projects means I add the yarn back into the spreadsheet, so my total will go up today.

And I love it.

Bright Leftovers Scarf, started October 4th?, 2007, finished October 18th, 2007
Pattern: Bright Stripes Scarf by Kristin Nicholas, Scarf Style
Yarn:
Main Colour: Cascade 220 Heathers, colour 2441
Stripes: Yarn Ahoy Handspun in orange, Dream in Colour Classy in Wisterious (purple), Fleece Artist BFL in red, my own handspun (blobby).
Needles: 4.5mm
Dimensions: 80″x10″
Pattern Notes: Cast on 300 stitches, although I didn’t realise it would be quite so long…

Would I knit it again? It’s a great pattern for using up leftovers, so maybe.

I didn’t have very much of my own handspun, so I started it like you start all the new colours, only I purled the row, to get the bumps on the right side of the fabric. The other colour rows are garter stitch, but I didn’t have enough for that.

I think it turned out well. The colours worked together like I thought they would, and after a good soak in some Eucalan, the scarf is drapey and soft.

There were a fair number of ends to weave in:

But I survived.

I used my camera’s timer and a tripod to get the pictures of me. My tripod is fun:

It’s a Joby Gorillapod Original, and it amuses me to no end.

So I just read all my morning blogs, in bloglines. My feeds were all empty, all read. I did a couple other internet-y things, then clicked bloglines again for one last look. For some reason, it refreshed ALL BLOGS. All of my 113 feeds had about 200 ‘new’ posts. I took a screen shot (shift+apple+3) it was so scary:

EEK!

This is the progress I’ve made so far on my days off. The rows all take a while because there’s something like 300 stitches. I am loving it, though!

1. DSC00078.JPG, 2. DSC00081.JPG, 3. DSC00084.JPG, 4. DSC00079.JPG

I may have to change my plan for the scarf though. I was hoping to have enough of the Cascade 220 (the wheat-coloured yarn I’m using for the main colour) for the whole scarf. Now I don’t think I will. Or I will if I make a thinner scarf than I was planning. My other option is some other leftover yarn I have, which isn’t the same colour, but it is just a deeper tan. I’ll have to think about that.

When I’m finished posting, I’ve got another wheat stockingette stripe, and after that, I get to use my handspun! I’m 99% certain I don’t have enough for a stripe the same width as the others, but it is just a nice accent. Here’s all the yarns together:

They go quite well for random things I’ve hoarded, don’t they? I think the leftovers (how ironic, leftovers from a leftover scarf) will become a hat. A top-down hat with random stripes.

The scarf will only have one red stripe, as I don’t have enough left. I’ve been keeping notes on the weight of each ball after I’ve completed a stripe, so I know if I can make another one.

I’m a lady of leisure now that the show is over. At least until the 21st.

I had debated about finding work for this in-between time, but I think I made the right choice. I deserve some rest, right? And it’s not like I’m totally not working, I had my first ever union call on Sunday, and I’m doing a day at a theatre this coming Wednesday.

The first thing this lady of leisure did was…. laundry. But after that, I knitted! I got quite a few more stripes done on my bright stripes scarf. Pictures tomorrow, because I knitted (and cooked dinner) until it was dark.

I do have some pics of my Millicent progress though. These pics are from a week or two ago. They are closer to the same length now, as since I took the pictures, I’ve only worked on the shorter one. These pics were also taken inside, at night. The new camera didn’t do too badly, but daylight is still better.

What I have left to knit is about the equivalent of a pair of regular socks. Which is heartening and depressing all in one go. I have to say that I’m looking forward to finishing them.

The show is closed, it went well. My mum was visiting for a few days recently, and that also went well. She left us with a very well-stocked cupboard and fridge. And me with some new clothes.

I’m planning on using my 10 remaining days of leisure time on knitting, tidying, cooking, and possibly even sewing. Having just had my mum here, I’m all shopped out for a while (apart from an HMV gift certificate burning a hole in my wallet) so I won’t be tempted to spend money. Which is good, as I’m not earning any.

I’m hoping to finish knitting a project or two (Millicents? don’t know) and maybe go through the stash again. I’m all about paring down, especially after the shopping sprees mum took me on. All worthwhile sprees, I now own a frying pan! And jeans without holes!

I started a new project, when it became clear that there was no possible way (bar knitting fairies) that I would finish the Millicents before October 1st. And I have a new camera to document it!

I am basing it on the pattern for the Bright Stripes Scarf in Scarf Style. I say ‘basing’, because it’s a pretty simple pattern, and I’ve changed the number of stitches because of my gauge. It is knit longways, so I had to cast on A LOT of stitches. Thus, it looks like a ruffle on my needle.

This scarf has been dancing around in my head for a couple weeks now, but I put off casting on. I am using up various leftover and random bits of yarn that just so happen to blend!

In the picture we have Cascade 220 leftover from my Two-Tone shrug. I had a whole skein left over, which is why that is the main colour.

The orange is a thick-and-thin handspun single from Yarn Ahoy. I had actually ordered some laceweight and some sock yarn from her, but instead of the sock yarn, the orange handspun was in the parcel. When I emailed, she was very very nice, and told me to keep this yarn, and she’d send the sock yarn right out! All the yarn I have from her is very nice, but I love the tonal colours in this orange stuff. And the thick and thin is just so amusing after working with teeny-tiny Louet Gems for so long.

The stripes alternate between different colours and the main colour. The other yarns I plan on using are Dream in Colour Classy in Wisterious (purpley), also from my Two-Tone Shrug; Fleece Artist BFL Aran in ‘Brick’ (reddy) from my thrummed mits; and my first handspun, which is purpley-orangey. I don’t know if I have enough for a full stripe of that, but I’ll use it all up as the centre stripe.

I’m not certain yet if I’ll repeat the stripe sequence as-is after that, or mirror it. We’ll see how much yarn I have.

If, when the scarf is wide enough, I still have yarn left, I’m going to make a matching top-down hat.

I got a new toy today! A shiny new camera with all sorts of features that I have promised myself I will learn. Look how clear that photo is!

And this is just me sitting at my desk fooling around, trying to figure it out! A-mazing.

Just for fun, here is my old camera, on top of my current book:

Excuse me, I’m off to photograph the neglected Millicents for you now.

PS: The new camera is black (oooh, sleek), and is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3. What sold me on it was the 10x optical zoom.