Pick Up Sticks

Keeping Sane

For years I have said knitting is my therapy. 

It helped me with the long months when my sister was ill...prompted me to learn to knit hats so I could make her soft chemo caps.

It helped as a diversion when my boys headed off to college and the house became so very quiet.

And while I do not have as much time to knit right now, it has helped relax me before bed when I sneak in an hour or so of knitting after a very long day.  I find myself searching for projects that are mindless as my head is spinning most days right now. 

I have a sweater on my needles right now - knit in one piece with rows and rows of stockinette - perfect for mindless knitting at the end of a 14 hour day.  I have knit this pattern before - Tea Leaves Cardigan.  I made one in very soft wool silk blend City Tweed from Knitpicks and now am making one from a sturdier wool yarn - Wool of Andes - also from Knitpicks.  I just have the sleeves to finish and then need to find buttons that will look good with the chocolate colored wool. 

I have told many friends that knitting is my therapy - and they almost always state - well it's chepaer than therapy.  Not neccessarily.   They haven't seen my stash.  HA!

Unusual Weekend

I had a very unusual weekend...I did not work!  It has been months since I had a totally free weekend.  And it felt fabulous.

I spent Saturday housebound as I was watching my son's 2 dogs...and it is almost impossible to leave three dogs alone in my tiny house...so I watched movies and knit all day long in my sweats.  It was weird to not sign in to work or even think about it for a change.  The dogs were reasonably well behaved  - other than a lot of barking - my son's dogs are not use to being in town and all the activity in a neighborhood so they barked at every person and car going by all morning until they settled down for the afternoon.  I watched movies and college football and worked on my latest sweater - Tea Leaves Cardigan.

 Dallas - our dog.
 
 

Gracie                            Cody

Sunday I cleaned, grocery shopped and spent 2 hours winding yarn...ugh...  I have way to much yarn and have decided to wind each skein, keep a running list with pattern ideas so I know exactly what I have.  I am hoping that by being able to see what yarn is in my stash it will keep me from buying new...we'll see.  I started an excel spreadsheet which lists the yarn name, weight, yardage, color, pattern ideas, etc.  I can easily sort the spreadsheet by color or weight to find what will fit with any pattern I may have in mind.  I LOVE excel...it is the accountant in me.

I had planned on doing some work in the afternoon...but for some reason my remote access to work was not working.  My husband said it was a sign...that I needed time off.  So whileI felt a little guilty - I still have items to finish for our audit - I happily puttered around my house and knit.

But I will pay for it today as despite having a holiday off at work I will head to the office and work in the peace of an empty building.

 

Inspiration

I have come to the conclusion that Ravelry is a blessing and a curse.  I love to be able to pick a pattern and then go see how others have made this pattern…what yarn they used…what changes they made…complaints…kudos.  That is the great side of Ravelry. 

But I also find myself cursed by it…call it peer pressure…I see something that others have made and just HAVE to have the pattern.  Because of this my queue is long…my pattern collection is huge and my stash is overwhelming.  I may never have to buy another knitting item again…but of course you know that won’t happen!  Because tomorrow will bring a new idea…a new design…a new example…if only there were more hours in the day.  I have talked to my husband about the need to stop working so I can work on my stash...but he does not seem to agree..............

Some of my favorites on Ravelry right now…the textured shawl…photosynthesis shawl…ondule cardigan by Anne Hanson, just about anything by Stephen West or Jared Flood, Dipped Infinity Scarf by Laura Chau.

 I also get inspired by certain people’s collection of knitted projects.  Patrice on Ravelry has an unbelievable sense of color…her knitted projects are so warm and cozy looking…especially Ravelry: Patrice's Prairie Pebbles.  She uses simple patterns teamed up with wonderfully variegated yarns.

I love all the black and grey projects of mustaavillaa.

I also am inspired by colors I see…I have never been a fan of yellow but lately that is a color I am drawn to.  The textured shawl by Selkie is wonderful and inspired me to buy the same yarn – City Tweed by Knit Picks in the same color – Lemon Curd.  The yarn was heavenly to knit with - a contrast of texture - tweedy yarn that has silk in the blend - making it so soft.

My search for yellow yarns has also led me to a yummy color of Cascade 220 called Straw – a mustardy yellow color.  This will be come a cardigan – just haven’t picked the pattern yet…maybe Ondule on Anne Hanson.

 Inspiration………………….

Getting Organized

We live in a tiny house...really tiny house.  It is a Cape Cod that has 2 bedrooms on the first floor, a living room, bathroom, kitchen and a new addition - we call the sunroom.  The second floor has two bedrooms - a large master bedroom and a tiny additional bedroom we once used as a nursery and then as an office.

As our boys got older and moved out - well one is out and has his own house while one is at college - the use of the 4 bedrooms has changed.  Our oldest son's room became our youngest son's room.  The youngest's room became the guest room/office.  My husband expanded the closet in the small bedroom upstairs for himself while the rest of the room became a storage area by default.  I decided to switch closets with my husband and claim the whole small bedroom for myself. 

We started decluttering the room and switched out closets - which forced us to go through clothes and shoes.  We donated quite a bit to the local thrift shop.  Now the room will become my craft studio.  I am so excited...to have a space to get all my supplies organized in one place.  Right now things are stored through out the house.

I started by painting the tiny room a sunny yellow...just the perfect color...not too bright.  I LOVE it...the room glows...and since there is only one window...it needs all the brightness it can get.  I found a floral fabric that I also love...it is very modern and graphic looking...with large flowers in various shades of yellow and black and grey.  I plan on using it to create panels on the doors of the armoire - which right now have a wire mesh...and you can see all the bins of yarn in it.

This past weekend we had our new bed delivered - a king size to replace the full size we have had for years - and share with our dog - ugh.....  Now our upstairs is all torn apart - as we had to move furniture around to have the bed delivered.  The progress I was making on my craft room has been displaced with lots of items temporarily moved in there - that coupled with the need to drag out some bins of warmer clothes has made for more clutter - it never seems to end.

It is a work in progress...but is getting there....more to come.

Obsessed

I realized- after looking through my stash and queue - that I am slightly obsessed with shawls and wraps at the moment.  Maybe it is because after knitting scarves for so long - and finding that while I love to knit sweaters I HATE knitting them in my size - that shawls were the next best thing.  Hey-they always fit!

Shawls/wraps work for me because there are so many patterns I love but know I won't wear - like hats.  LOVE all the fun patterns...but my hair just does not allow me to wear a hat...unless I am going nowhere after taking it off...can you say flat frizzy hair!

For the longest time I would only consider rectangular shawls...I did not want the point of a triangular shawl pointing at my rather large behind.  But I have gotten past that...as well as the notion that I should care what others thought of me wearing my  handknits.  As cooler weather approaches I truly look forward to wearing all the shawls I have been knitting.  And my queue keeps growing...which is fine because the majority of my stash is laceweight or fingering weight yarns...perfect for shawls.

Some of my favorites at the moment:

Lacy baktus

Brandywine shawl

Obstacles - by Anne Hanson of Knitspot

Spring Leaves

Woodland Shawl

Boxleaf Wrap - also by Anne Hanson

Simple Yet Effective Shawl - I wear the two I made a lot.

Citron - made one in laceweight and have another planned in fingering weight.

 

Fall

Acer
Originally uploaded by hearts812

I love Fall weather - when we actually have it. Lately it seems like fall weather is only here for a few short days - we have fairly warm falls. But there is nothing like a crisp fall day - bright sunshine, cool weather and gorgeous colors.

This past weekend we had two full days of fall weather - and I loved every minute of it. Monday we woke up to cold, dreary rain...which I don't mind too much because we really need the rain. Not as bad as my parents in NC - who have had drought conditions for months - only to get 22 inches of rain in 4 days last week.

This morning I woke up to 45 degree weather - the heat actually kicked on this morning as the temp in the house was only 60 degrees. I turned it off but goodness it was cold and damp. I dressed for work and actually wore SOCKS - as well as a handknit sweater. LOVE this sweater - Acer from Kristen Kapur of Through the Loops. I knit it last winter but really only wore it once as it was a little snug. I have since lost some weight (from working so much) and it fits nicely - even a little loose - but oh so snuggly.

Wearable Knits

 
I love to knit - it is my therapy.  And lately I have been on a shawl knitting kick.  I joined the 10 Shawls in 2010 Group on Ravelry and have completed 8 to date.  But the problem is I do not wear them very often.  I do use them mostly in the winter but tend to wear as a scarf.  My problem is I am self conscious about wearing them.  I think it has to do with being "chubby" and not wanting to look like a matronly old lady wearing a shawl.

But I recently completed the Forest Canopy Shawl in a new to me yarn - Madelinetosh Sock.  When I completed the shawl it was a lumpy, bumpy ball.  Because I have been knitting lots of lace I know the benefits of a good blocking - but can I say this shawl came out amazing - if I do say so myself.  I ADORE this shawl!  The pattern was so easy to follow and intuitive so you know if you made a mistake fairly quickly.  The yarn was a dream to knit with and blocked beautifully.  The color - Tart - is a rich true, semi-solid red with great depth of colors.  It is soft and drapes so well.  I can not wait until it cools off to wear this - and I will wear it!  And I definitely will be using this yarn again.

 
 
ETA:  We have been having some Fall weather - wore this shawl all day Saturday!!!