My Life in Stitches: Testing my Willpower

Photo by Anna H-G

This year I’m on a yarn fast. For non-knitters, that means I’m not buying any more yarn unless I need it to complete a project. It’s Feburary and I’ve only bought one skein of socks. But there are some yarns out there that are really testing my willpower.

•       Jimmy Beans Wool’s Micro-Brewed Series Chronicles of Narnia. This beauty is called Aslan for the majestic lion from the Chronicles of Nardia series. The yarn is drool worthy, especially for people who are seduced by gradients. The Ice Queen is great, too.
•      Verdant Gryphon Utopia in Bugga. This color way is too of my favorite colors combined. That, combined with the fact that it’s Bugga, makes me want to grab my credit card.
•       Miss Babs K2. I’m not a big chunky weight girl because knitting with big needles hurt my hands, but this would be worth it. I’ve been longing to knit Soho Purl’s Color Dipped scarf and this would be perfect. 

Hopefully I can stay the course with my yarn fast. Not easily with all this loveliness popping up on my FB timeline.

My Life in Stitches: Hey There, Cutie!

So I am now down to two projects. Yay, me! I finished the caplet I was working on, and yes, I am going to have to give it away or rip it out and make something else. I'm coming into the home stretch with my Solaris sweater and I'm frogging the baby blanket I was working on to start over with acrylic yarn (better for babies than wool). I've also been a good girl and started a swatch of the next sweater that I'm making.

All is well in knitting life except...

Okay, you know how you finish a project and you start thinking about what your going to knit next?And then after that, you decide to go browsing on Raverly. You know, you're just looking. Then, you spot something that catches your eye and your like, "Hey there, cutie!"And then you realize that you already have the yarn in your stash for the cutie you found and the next thing you know, you're reaching for your needles to cast on. Yes, I know it's all very If-You-Give-A-Mouse-A-Cookie-ish but I found myself browsing Raverly and falling in love. Here are some cuties that have found their way into my heart and my Favorites.

Three Almonds Scarf I have a Miss Babs Yowsa Whatta Skein that wants to be this.

Brick Remember the baby blanket I'm frogging? Well, tht freed up some lovely Shephard's Wool, enough to make Brick.

Juliana  I love the way this wraps. That's heaven for a chilly girl like me.

And last but not least: 

Downton Abbey Mystery KAL Okay, so I don't know what it is yet, but I love Downton Abbey. Lorne's Laces is offering an exclusive colorway called Christmas at Downton. If Santa doesn't bring it (l'm looking at you Brian Haynes), then I'll get it after Christmas. 

What new cutie projects have caught your eye lately?

My Life in Stitches: I Love Yarn Day

Today is I Love Yarn Day. Normally, I’m not a fan of random holidays, but this one is right up my alley.

Over the years, not only has my love for yarn grown, but I've turned into a bonafide yarn snob (and trust me, my stash confirms that). 

I think the thing I love the most about yarn is the possibilities. A 400-yard skein of fingering weight yarn can become a scarf, or a pair of socks, and in some cases, decoration (Don't act like I'm the only one who strategically places yarn in view simply because it's pretty). And now that cooler weather has settled in, I love yarn even more.

I tried to think of something to celebrate this holiday that didn't involve me going to a yarn shop. As much as I would love to go yarn shopping, I just did some yarn shopping last week. I decided to highlight some of my favorites from my stash. Also, this will remind me that I have some great yarn in my stash and curb my desire to buy more.

I bought this friend, Malabrigo Sock, colorway Stonechat, in St. Louis last year at a shop called Knitorious. The color just spoke to me. I have this slated to become a Woodland Shawl. I love the name. Stonechat. 

Yes, this yarn is pink, but I had a very good reason to buy it. One, it's Miss Babs and two, the colorway is called Jane Austen. One of my favorite things to do is to knit and watch Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth version, please). Jane doesn't know what she wants to be yet, but you must allow me to say how much I ardently admire and love it.

So I have no idea why this colorway struck me, but for about a month, I was totally obsessed with it. It's Lorna's Laces, Cornelia colorway. I have no idea what to make with it, but it's a cheery addition to my normal grey and purple stash. This yarn was home decor for a while before I actually put it in the bin. 

How do you plan to celebrate I Love Yarn Day?

My Life In Stitches: Feeling My Knitting

Last year was a very challenging year for me. My husband was deployed to Afghanistan. He was there for eleven months and it was the first time in our then sixteen years of marriage that we’d been apart more than four months. That deployment was our first and thank God, our last. I don’t think I have it in me to go through another one.

I expected the separation to be hard, but I severely underestimated how hard it would be living every day without my best friend. I had to find ways to cope with the sometimes soul-crushing loneliness, other than crying myself to sleep every night for the first three months. I had decided before he left that I wasn’t going to develop any bad habits while he was gone. No chocolate binges. No Coach bags (although, I’m really not a Coach or any other name brand type of girl).

During that time, I found comfort in two things: prayer and knitting. I expected prayer oft-used tool in getting through the deployment, but I didn’t expect knitting to play such a vital role. Something so simple, but it was my balm.

Because of that time, knitting is very emotional for me. Yes, I love knitting, but it pulls out other emotions, like contentment. Or determination (which you need when you block your projects on the floor. Ouch!). It brings out melancholy when your project isn’t going right and when you can’t find the right pattern for the right yarn. Knitting makes me feel life in colors as rich as the yarn I knit with.

And right now, writing this, my knitting has made me feel grateful. I just wound a cake of Miss Babs Yowza to start a Juneberry Triangle (by Jared Flood). I bought both the yarn and the pattern last year while my husband was deployed. Before he drifted off the sleep, my husband tried to help me decide what I was going to make next. And he did it from right beside me, not halfway around the world. Right beside me. And that’s worth getting emotional about. 

My Life In Stitches: Birthday Yarn Doesn't Count

Happy birthday to me...a day
early!

Last night, I went to Fibre Space, my wonderful local yarn shop, for some birthday yarn shopping. I have been planning this trip for the entire month. Since I was getting my birthday discount, I decided that I wanted to at least get one yarn in sweater quantity. I’ve also been seeing quite a few patterns in DK but I have very little in my stash. So I set off to get my birthday yarn, because birthday yarn so doesn’t count!

This should have been a simple trip but two things tripped me up. First was taking my husband. I love my honey, don’t get me wrong, but letting us both loose in a yarn shop ends badly. I brought him along for moral support, but he starts shopping (and he has great taste). The second problem was I ended up picking all sale yarn, so my birthday discount was useless.

Sweet Georgia in Riptide

My sweater quantity purchase was some just arrived Sweet Georgia Yarn in their Riptide colorway. Lovely. I plan to (plan being the operative word) to make Francis Revisited by Beth Silverstein, but this yarn will work for Ashby by Leila Raabe, too. I've been crushing on Ashby for a long time. I also bought enough Shepherd’s Wool DK (Plum colorway) to make a Mara shawl.

Shepherd's Wool in Plum

Good stuff, but all on sale and I needed to use my birthday discount. So my husband and I went through the store again. On the second go-round, I grabbed some Space Cadet Creations Stella in their Pride colorway. I have no idea what to make with it. My husband is steadily becoming a big Miss Babs fan. He bought Whatta Skein in Royalty colorway.

Space Cadet in Pride

I am pleased with my birthday shopping even if it turned out to be longer and more stressful than I anticipated. Now let’s see if I can work through my stash and have this knitted up before my next birthday.