Tackling UFO's ...

I ran across a great post on JoanKnits' blog, Joan's Wacky Dot System, which is a technique for prioritizing and finishing UFOs ... while still dreaming up future UFO's (grin!)

Me, personally, well, I'm still knitting mini sweaters; sometimes I do a stitch pattern on the front but lately I've knit them plain except I put some beads along the bottom border. Tres' cute and it helps cut into the bead stash, LOL. I must have beads on the brain because I've been spinning alot of beaded yarns lately too!

I did finally finish a fingering weight scarf on size 9's ... nice and drapey. It's a bit wider and shorter than I wanted, so maybe I will block it out. Hmm, does that mean it's not finished yet? I think next up is actually some weaving, as I joined a local study group and will be trying to keep up!

Well, no pictures, sorry(!) but the camera battery died and it's still in the charger with a red light.

Happy holidays all!

Not much progress, unless you call dreaming of new UFO's progress...

I just haven't had much knitting "me" time! I'm working on a huge custom order sweater (size 7 needles...not a big deal, but we're talking 58" chest here ladies!!!) so there's that...I've been working on a big, run-outside-and-feed-the- creatures sweater for me, which may end up being huge (I'm in the Everything is Huge rut these days ~ intentional or not!) and the wool is kinda "eh" ~ I got it free from my Mom and it's from the mill where I work. It doesn't felt so I'm thinking this is a wash in the washing machine sweater and since creatures will be part of it's daily life, that's a great thing.

I'm knitting it loose and hoping it felts up just a tad and softens up that way. It's from Weekend Knits by Melanie Falick and is just a plain, simple, sweatshirt type pullover. Mindless which can be a wonderful thing :)

BUT...on the right there is my newest fantasy ~ Annie Modesitt's latest, the LL Swing Jacket....isn't it marvelous? The pattern is available right now on her site ~ I'm trying to think if I have something in my stash that'll knit to 4 stitches per inch and is 1320 yards or so. Wow...tough call! There *might* be a rose grey alpaca only I'm thinking, since it's 100%, that a garment this size would really stretch and be heavy out of 100% alpaca (and please, alpaca people, do NOT hate me forever for saying so!!!). Not sure if I have enough of anything to spin in stash but I could always dye up some of the wool/silk laps I sell and dye the yarn...I mean, I never save any for myself and maybe it's time I did!

My stack of magazines/books with post-it marked pages of crap I NEED to knit is embarrassing and so is my UFO basket, which is NOT a wimpy, tiny little thing with a handle. No. It's a tall, waste-can sized handmade basket, of which I must take a photo to share. Everything in there is all neatly zip-loc bagged and labeled though and all the mags and patterns and books are in a drawer. Sheesh ~ at least I *touched* all of them recently, eh?

I just have these several things that are so near completion and it's horrid that I dont' seem to have the mojo to just sit down and finish them! We're talking simple little finishing details on at least two of them...one is threading a ribbon through the front and back and tying beads onto said ribbon. I mean, C'MON GIRL....it's a summer tank so that's my excuse. Lame. Really. Lame. Sigh...

Anyway, I'm off to update my list and maybe try to work up the mojo to take on one of those little projects tonight...

Back on the face of the earth

Just in case everyone thought I fell off the face of the earth, I'm back. It has been a busy summer (the usual stuff) and fall (my Dad was sick). On the up side, I did get the back of my cable sweater done. I'll post a pick next time I have my camera out.

Currently I'm working on a hat and mitten set for my husband. I have the had done and most of the first mitten. I think winter may be here permanently, at least for now, so I had better get cracking on that.

Karen in northern MI

OMG...did you all think I'd died and went to knitter's hell or something?

Well, I didn't! But life has been unbearably crazy for me over the summer...I ended up closing my brick and mortar shop, taking on another 30 hour a week job and deciding that I needed to do fiber shows this fall. And...ahem...the house...

BUT...things are slowing down a tad and it feels good to be able to breathe again without crying because I want to crawl into bed and give up :) I got through it and I'm feeling pretty good. So good, in fact, that I FINISHED SOMETHING!

Nevermind that it's something weird...remember that Knit 1 funky scarf vest thingee out of my very own first handspun? There it is. I think it's a little big but I can live with that. The yarn was a challenge to work with a bit...different thicknesses and all that. And I had to spin up some merino/silk to make the collar. It's kinda cute and my best friend says she LOVES it (but isn't that what best friends are meant to do?)

And, since our house is still not even remotely close to being finished and we're in pretty-much-almost-winter and I"m freezing my a#$ off right now, I really really need to make a big cozy pullover that I can wash all the time because I'm gonna live in it this winter, lemme tell ya. I have some acrylic (egads...don't let me go there!) but I want WARM WOOL so I'm gonna thing about a blend of something. I could maybe spin up some superwash but I don't have that kind of time right now. Soooo.....anyone know of a killer washable kinda bulky wool or wool blend yarn that doesn't cost an arm and/or a leg??? Hmmm?

I organzied my UFO basket the other day and thought of all of you :) I have 2 projects that are sooooo close to being finished I can do it this weekend. That will bring my total to about ... oh...
7???? 8???? Sigh...and I have a ton of customer knitting to do this month.

Anyway, it's good to be back and I hope we can get this ball rolling again...I'm so sorry to have been away so long :( It's off to dinner and the CSI/Without a Trace mega tv viewing night!

Yayyyy! (Ancient UFOs within radar range)

After a long knitting drought (maybe it's just one of those summer things), I finally picked up the needles again, and three of my dormant UFOs are now active again. Woo! Alas, I have only one photo, but that'll have to do.

The first is the sleeveless Sahara I started for a Sexy Knitters' Club knitalong a few months ago. I finally managed to get it to the point where I've joined the front and now I'm knitting in the round till the finish line, a.k.a. the bottom hem. (Well, I'm counting that as a finish line, anyway, even though it'll still need the armscye and neck edgings knitted on after that.)

The second is my long-put-off first pair of Big Black Socks for Socks for Soldiers. I discovered when re-swatching for the third and final item that I was knitting tightly for once, which gave me the right gauge on the needles I have for the BBS. Yayyy! I now have eight inches on the leg of the first sock ... four inches to go till I start the heel flap!

The last resurrected UFO is Brian's Duel sweater ... which I admit wasn't actually even into the knitting portion of its progress yet. But hey! I hand-dyed the yarn and had even managed to swatch, so that counts as being started, right? Anyway, now I have about five or six inches of the back done ... Exciting. ;D Here's the Duel sweater:

Duel sweater in progress 1.jpg, originally uploaded by JeweledClaws.

Oh, and that's "duel" as in, "I challenge the boyfriend curse to a duel," because this sweater is for my boyfriend. ;)

Anyway! Thought I'd post, since I had an update. Hope everyone else is getting some UFO-banishing goodness done, too. :D

Summer FO's!

Boy we're a quiet group! I have a few things that I've finished recently that I wanted to share. The scarf wasn't on my list of UFO's. It's a gift for my friend Stephanie's birthday. Since I have an ever multiplying stash of sock yarn, I figured it was time to use up a little bit of it! The shawl has been a long term project. I spun the wool from a sheep named Ernie and then knit the shawl from the Lacy Prairie Shawl pattern from Folk Shawls. It's not quite as big as I'd like it to be but it'll keep my shoulders warm at night. The socks are for DH. He picked the yarn himself - quite the flashy guy! He knew I'd finished the first sock, but had given up hope that the second one would get done. I have bad cases of Second Sock Syndrome!

A couple of finished projects to share

I had a wild hair and decided to knit something for my daughter. This is the first time I just sat down and knitted without a pattern. I think I turned out really well. Although I would make the skirt longer next time.

this is my shawl from the mystery shawl knit along yahoo group. I spun this yarn myself and that was a chanllenge becasue I am not all that great of a spinner yet and some sections were thinner than others. The boader was much thicker than the rest of the shawl so it does look heavier. Oh well, I like it so that's what matters




I have never made a hat before so one day decided that I was going to make hats. well the first two pictures are of Trinity in her lion bran mohair look yarn and the last two pictures are Autumn in here hat made with my very first spun yarn. 100% alpaca.

I still have to work on some of my ufo's from my list like Hunters train blanket and the scarf for my sister in law. but that darn sock went to the pond (rip,rip). My alpaca long cardigan is on hold right now since I'm using those needles for one of my new shawls that I just started last week. I guess you could say that right now I'm in a shawl craze. Well back to some knitting.