Has your hobby turned into an obsession?

If someone asked me that question, I would adamantly deny it. No I'm not obsessed, I'm a knitter!  My son, Aiden claims I have gone yarn crazy, that I turned our living room into a yarn shop, and that I don't need to buy another skein of yarn for at least a year. I would say that's not possible - I have so many patterns on my list of to-do's and I can't possibly have enough yarn to make them all... or so I thought!

Just to see how much yarn I really had, I decided to lay it all out in my living room.  I took a long hard look at all the yarn I've amassed over the last two years - most of which was accumulated in the last two months.  And I can tell you amassed almost covers it!  Am I obsessed? Maybe just a little. "Hello my name is Stacy and I'm a knit-a-holic and I'm addicted to buying yarn whenever I can get my hands on a little spare change."  The pictures below only covers about three quarters of it, I have a three drawer cabinet in my upstairs closet along with another Rubbermaid bin stuffed with yarn - I got so overwhelmed with what I had stockpiled downstairs that I just couldn't bring myself to haul it all down from upstairs.

I don't think I have come across a skein of yarn that I don't feel the need to buy - if that's obsessed then I wholeheartedly admit, my hobby has taken me over and I can't seem to stop. There have been times I have gone into a JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts store for something other than yarn and have walked out with a bag full of yarn I never intended to buy - but couldn't seem to help myself.  I suppose a psychiatrist would say I'm making up for something I lacked as a child or some middle-child syndrome pycho-babble nonsense.  But I'd say, I'm a KNITTER/Crocheter and I love seeing what I can magically create out of this fiber we call yarn, that comes in so many wonderful textures, colors, and designs.  Do I need an intervention? Not really. My son would probably disagree, but he'll be going off to college some day and I can convert his room into my very own yarn shop! Shh...don't tell him I said that.

I'll admit, I can't stop in a yarn or craft shop without buying at least minimally three skeins of a new yarn that I find interesting - I tell myself, "I wonder what I can create with this?", and in most cases I find a pattern for the yarn but usually I don't have a clue as to what I'm going to make at the time I'm buying it - but I must have that yarn (compulsive shopper? Nah), and then I stash it away in the closet upstairs, or the Rubbermaid tub next to my loveseat or just have bags of it cluttered in corners all over the house!

And here is what my yarn obsession has gotten me? A living room filled almost to the brim, not that I'm complaining, although when guests come over I think they might complain about having to sit on the floor. So much yarn and so little time to knit!

Wow, look at all that yarn!

So much yarn, so little time for knitting.

 

Trying out different patterns - hats that
haven't found a home yet.



My work area - the loveseat where I knit and
watch Law & Order SVU marathons



New yarn accumulated for holiday gifts in the last
two weeks - on top of a tub that has even more
yarn stashed away that I've had for about two years
and still haven't started any projects with.

Pattern books I hoard from the library for as long as I can.

Coffee table in front of work area where finished
projects accumulate and all my tools of the trade.

Really cool round basket a friend found at a garage sale
and gave to me to keep my yarn in. I stuff it full with
all my Lion Cotton yarn. Reminded me of a snake
charmer's basket!

Spud & Chloe (superwash 65% wool, 35% organic cotton),
pattern (hooded, sleeveless sweater) for my niece.

The Holidays are almost here! Do you know what you're knitting?

Only seven more weeks (OMG is that correct?) until Christmas! Do you know what you're knitting and giving as gifts this year?  I have so many nephews and nieces I have to start knitting for the next year right after Christmas. 

Well this year as always, I have procrastinated and now am behind on my gift projects. I've been concentrating solely on making items for the Pre-Black Friday Holiday Bazaar that I'm participating in that I have completely neglected my family's projects.  My consolation is if my items don't sell then I can give them as gifts, which in my book is a win-win situation.

Last year's gifts for the fam were felted slippers - I made twenty-two pairs and was still mailing off slippers in March of this year. They were such a big hit that I have back orders that I still haven't filled.  So this coming weekend will probably be devoted to back order items and finishing those pesky unfinished projects hidden in my upstairs closet (you know the old saying..."out of sight, out of mind").  Well that's where they've been for a couple of years, out of mind - but not anymore, it's time they saw the light of day once again and finally get finished - no more putting it off...well that's the plan anyway.  Can you tell I'm trying to psych myself up for this endeavor?  Is it working?  Not really...but I know it must be done.

So last night I went through the bag I had hidden away upstairs and found that I had no reason to be intimidated - there seemed to only be crochet projects in the bag and only two knitted caps that I cleary had intended to give as a gift but never did.  Apparently this is my MO, I get excited about a new hat pattern, knit it, and then squirl it away in a bag in the back of the closet.  Well no more - these cute little caps will find a new home, once I make a nice matching scarf or fingerless gloves to go with them. So I pulled them from their hiding place and right now have them lined up across the back of my couch settled on styrofoam heads like the one you see here that a friend of mine is letting me borrow to display them at my table during the holiday bazaar.  They look really kind of cool - but my son thinks that I've really gone off the deep end when he saw the heads sitting on the back of the couch with all these hats on them!  He says I'm turning into a knit-a-holic, and that's a bad thing? 

Well it looks like this year, hats and scarves and/or fingerless gloves are on the agenda for the fam - my first attempts at making hats was when I first began to knit several years ago. I only knew how to work on straight needles and had to sew a seam up the back of my hats. Well I certainly hope that I've advanced a little since then.  When I discovered patterns that showed you how to make hats without seams using circular needles I was doing the happy dance - my hats now look so much better without the seam going up the back - as my mother (who was a seamstress that did piece work for a big manufacturing company) would attest I'm a terrible seamstress and I am very happy not to have to sew anything if I can help it.  Thank goodness for circular needles!

So I'd like to hear from you about what's on your needles for the holiday gift giving season, post a comment and tell me what about your favorite pattern or item you like to give as gifts.

Rolled brim skull cap - 1st time using
circular needles

back view: 1st time decreasing on double-pointed
needles (dpns)

What's on my needles, you ask?

What's on my needles - geez I have so many WIP's that I don't even know where to begin.  Honestly I guess it would depend on which needles you were looking at because there's a little of this and a little of that and a whole lot of yarn! And this weekend was another knit-a-thon weekend!  My goal though was to get as many of my unfinished projects done as possible.  There are so many, even I was a little intimidated by how many projects I started and didn't finish.  When I started pulling them from my knitting bag I almost decided to pretend they didn't exist and just start something new.  But alas, I'm a bit anal when it comes to having something unfinished laying around - so I got to work on getting some needles cleared off.

It began on Thursday evening - sorting through all the projects and checking the stage of development for each one, and figuring out how long each one would take to complete.  Luckily I work a flexible schedule at my regular 9-5 job, where I work eight 9 hour days, one 8 hour day and get every other Friday off.  And this Friday (November 5th) was one of my off days so I of course what did I do? I knitted until my hands cramped and then I knitted some more. I fell asleep watching the SciFi channel with knitting needles still in my hands on Thursday night which is scarier than anything you would ever see on the SciFi channel - me sleeping upright in front of the t.v. with my hair sticking up all over - not a pretty picture!  I'm very glad my son didn't have a camera on hand when he found me the next morning.

Aiden, my son who also had the day off from school, came downstairs at 8:30 Friday morning to find me asleep on the loveseat buried in needles, patterns and yarn - lots and lots of yarn.  He says I turned our living room into a knitting/yarn shop with all the yarn, patterns, needles, and did I say yarn? Piled all over the place. When I have a chance I will post a picture of my loveseat and coffee table where I'm surrounded by my work.  I love it, but it is very messy and I've tried to organize it many times, but I always end up pulling out yarn, or searching for a paticular pattern and/or needle and it all ends up all over the place again - so now I've given up and leave it strewn all over the floor next to my seat, on the loveseat, on the back of the loveseat and of course all over the cofee table.

As Aiden put it I was a "knitting fool" this weekend. He couldn't believe that I had finished so many projects in only a couple of days.  He was very impressed with the end product and he decided to try on several of the items and I got a real kick out of seeing him model them - unfortunately he wouldn't let me take any pictures - he didn't want to see them posted on Facebook (he knows me so well!).

So some of the WIP's I completed this weekend included a pair of socks - one at a time pair that were on dpns that I started 3 months ago (man I'm so glad I now know how to do two socks at the same time - no more one-at-a-time socks on dpns for me!), a drawstring backpack that I started last week, and I worked a little on my NaKniSweMo project that I began last week - I've gotten as far as the armholes on the backside.  And after putting in a good effort (good effort being the key words here folks!) on finishing up some unfinished projects (I didn't dare look in the closet upstairs where there is another bag full of unfinished WIP's) I started and finished a few new projects that include a pair of fingerless gloves and a bath set that has a face towel, washcloth, and soap pocket. I like to pair my bathsets with this really great handmade soap and bathsalt that I get from the Pink Sugar Shop, which I discovered at my local Farmer's Market.  I've given these as gifts to family and they absolutely love them.

And below you can see some of the finished projects, enjoy!





Personal Bath Set - made with 100%
mercerized cotton by Saucy paired with handmade apricot
scented soap &  mango madness scented bathsalt

  


Front view of drawstring backpack
made with Lion Cotton in Seaspray. You can find the pattern at:
Super Summer Backpack pattern #80401AD

Side view

Back view

Fingerless gloves made from Lion Brand
Jiffy in Fisherman & Fun Fur in Ivory



So you CAN teach an old knitter new tricks!

So I was on Ravelry yesterday trying to scope out a new knitting circle to join.  Because I live in between Seattle and Tacoma a lot of the groups are located either in the South end or the North end and poor me is stuck in between with no place to go.  So I happened across a forum that has a knitting group "The Renton Knitters" that meets locally (well Renton local) once a week and I figured that was going to be as close as I was gonna get.  So I joined the forum and asked if I could join their knitting circle. 

I'm happy to report that they were very welcoming and it just so happened that they were meeting tonight (last night) in Kent!  Well I was exstatic to be joining a new knitting group - they were even showing a few new techniques that I just so happened to want to learn - knitting two socks at the same time, toe-up socks (two at a time no less), and the magic cast-on - being a self-taught knitter some techniques are not so easy to learn by reading instructions and looking at pictures. 

I prepared my knitting bag with what I thought I would need and made my way to the designated location.  It was a small group - a few people had already left by the time I made it there at 8:40 p.m.  But those that were still there welcomed me and I'm sorry to say that I never did get to learn everyone's name - but hopefully next Wednesday I will get introduced to everyone and will be happy to remember their names.

So the lesson was quick and seemed to be easy, well anything is easy when you have someone standing right there instructing you on what to do.  But I've been wanting to learn how to knit two socks for a while and I was eager to learn this technique, I only hoped that I would remember what I learned when I got home.  I so didn't want to go back to knitting one sock at a time on double pointed needles (dpns) or even circular if I could help it, because everyone knows that knitting one sock at a time (even on circular needles) is very time consuming and from my own experience they take so long that I end up not even doing the second sock - I have at least two different socks still on dpns that have not seen the light of day for a very long time and forget about starting a second one!

So I listened diligently and followed the magic cast-on instructions from Knitty and with guidance from the instructor, I had two toe-up socks started on my needles - how cool is that?  I couldn't wait to try this new technique out on this really cool yarn [Rowan - Calmer 75% cotton, 25% acrylic/microfibre 50g/175yds] I bought about a year ago intending to make a pair of socks for my nephew - at that time was two years old - but never got around to it, well now he's three and I still intend to make him his socks and now I can make them both at the same time.

I went home excited to put my new knowledge to work and after much trial and error, because of course I couldn't remember all the instruction and I kept having to pull my work apart I finally got the toes started and at 12:59 a.m. I finally put my work down and called it a night. Here is what I've got so far:
 


Yep those two triangular shapes are the beginning of
a pair of toe-up socks!

 

NaKniSweMo - Knit a Sweater in a Month!

Have you heard of NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month] where you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November? Well Ravelry is hosting a NaKniSweMo [Knit a Sweater in a Month] where you knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in the month of November.


Basketcase Jacket - Men in
Knits by Tara Jon Manning

Well I've signed on to particpate and I just started last night.  Only one day late, but hopefully that won't deter me from getting it done by the end of the month.  I've chosen a men's sweater Basketcase Jacket for my project from Men in Knits by Tara Jon Manning.  Here is a picture from the book and below is how far I've gotten. I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky in Walnut and sizes 13 & 15-29" circular needles.

Of course the basketweave pattern has to be in a chart.  Charts and me just don't mix.  I'm still learning how to read charts, and even though this one is pretty simple, I've found that it's easy for me to make mistakes, which of course I've already done.  Hopefully it's not too noticeable.  I'm such a perfectionist though so I'm debating on whether I want to pull it apart to where I made the mistake and restart from there.

 

How far I've gotten last night (November 2, 2010)

I just picked up my yarn last night at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store.  I love going to the craft/yarn stores.  I'm a tactile person so I like to feel the yarn before I buy and even though as a child I hated the feel of wool, now there are so many wool blends that takes the itchiness out of the traditional wool I remember as a child and I enjoy feeling the fibers and making my decision based on how it feels against my skin. Because let's face it, you can spend a lot of energy creating a really wonderful piece and find that the person you made it for doesn't like wearing it because they don't like the way it feels.  I know I'm always looking for comfort and why wear something that makes you feel uncomfortable? 

And on that note, to all the knitters out there participating in the NaKniSweMo good luck and happy knitting!

If I didn't have my knitting to keep me sane...

I saw this t-shirt that said, I Knit So I Don't Kill People and I thought... that is so me! Have you ever felt that if you didn't have a hobby you love that allows you to get away from the craziness around you that you would go on a killing spree?  Well maybe not exactly that far, but there are times when I feel like the people around me are so annoying that I just want to smack them right up side the head! Ugh - particularly the ones who seem to be so helpless when standing in front of the copier machine and you have a twenty page document you have to have ready for the boss in like five minutes and the person in front of you can't figure out how to work the damn machine!  Shouldn't that be a requirement of a person before they are hired?  Know how to use standard office equipment, i.e.: copier, fax, computer, printer? Hmm...just a thought.

Well thank goodness for my knitting, it's allows me time to de-stress at the end of the day after dealing with the daily frustrations of stupid people on the job, raising an oftentimes annoying teenager, really bad drivers in Washington, and everything and anything in between.  Have you ever felt that way?  If I didn't knit, I think I'd probably go stark raving mad sometimes - because people can be so annoying at times and other times even more annoying.

Patterns don't talk back, or cut you off in traffic, or make you do a letter over five times before it's perfect!  I'v found that knitting can bring you a lot of joy and when you finish that handmade creation and see your friend or family member sporting the end product you can't help but smile and think life isn't so bad after all.

And since life can be overwhelming at times for me to keep my sanity I pick up my needles [no not to stab that annoying person in the check-out line who can't find the right card to use to pay for a lousy pack of gum and a gallon of milk] and block out the stupidity around me and bask in my world of colors, textures, styles, patterns, and designs.

Ladies small - machine washable-gentle cycle
& dry-low heat

And with that I just finished another shrug last night - this one was a little longer in the making because I used a less bulky yarn and smaller needle [Berroco Comfort Chunky 50% super fine nylon & 50% superfine acrylic in Beet Root, size 9 needle].  It took a little longer but I think the end result speaks for itself.  What do you think?

I also completed the Fun Fur & Jiffy scarf and hat.  All the ladies at work loved it, maybe you will too!

Me modeling hat and scarf
I'm all set for the holidays!

Weekend Knit-A-Thon

My needles were flying this weekend.  I'm getting ready for the Pre-Black Friday Holiday Bazaar in two weeks on Saturday, November 20th -  from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Kent Memorial Park Bldg [850 N Central Avenue; Kent, WA] and I'm working frantically to get as many projects done as possible to have on display at my booth; because of course I agreed to participate before really thinking through the time I would need to prepare for the event.

So I went into overdrive this weekend and practically knitted non-stop from Friday to Sunday.   I worked on two scarves - completed one [using Lion Jiffy in Fisherman & Fun Fur in Ivory], still working on a green and black striped one (using this really soft yarn: Beautiful by Sensations in mint green and black - working with this yarn has been a joy because the softness felt great against my fingers as I worked), I also made a matching beanie hat to go with the Jiffy & Fun Fur scarf (I will have pics up soon - still searching for a model). 

I also started a mesh drawstring backpack as well. I have one side done and will probably have the other side done tonight and then it's all about assembly. Can you say cramped and tired fingers.  I took a break on Saturday to watch my son play basketball and I spent most of the game massaging my fingers and hands!  I'm not complaining though - I'm having a lot of fun with my projects and hopefully the customers at the bazaar will enjoy them too.

Another reason why I'm not complaining because after a long hard week at 'the day job' going home and knitting - creating such nice handmade items is very relaxing for me and I can watch t.v. while I work - bonus right?!  So during a Halloween Law & Order SVU marathon on Sunday I was able to get a large portion of my green and black striped scarf done, and when I got bored with that I decided to try my hand at making a backpack [using Lion Cotton in Seaspray].  Variety is what it's all about ya know and as soon as I'm done I will post a picture of all the items I described above. 

Well the day job is calling so I will leave you with a photo of a light blue shrug I finished last week made with chunky yarn that was a breeze to complete using size 15 needles!

Light Blue Shrug with three quarter length sleeves
model: my friend Sandy