The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Long post ahead, so settle in. (This is what happens when I don't blog for over a week.)

The Good
Lolly's Project Spectrum 4.0 began this month. Project Spectrum is a project-along (does not have to be knitting) in which the primary goal is to celebrate color. The theme of this cycle of Project Spectrum is the cardinal directions. Did you know that many cultures see a relationship between each direction on the compass rose—North, South, East, and West—and color, season, element, and natural material? For March and April, the designated direction for the project-along is North. Green, winter, earth, and stones/gems/rocks are the associated color, season, element, and natural material. Below is the inspiration for my first project.



The photo in the upper left corner is what my backyard looks like in late winter. Branches and leaves that fell last November were buried under the snow for months and now lie wet, waiting to be cleaned up. Among these are small signs of leafy green new life.

The photo in the lower left corner was taken at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior a few summers ago during my trip to the Upper Peninsula. The blue-green color in the rock is oxidized copper.

The yarns are Pagewood Farm Denali in Maple Leaf (upper right) and Navajo (lower right). I just love this yarn. I'm using it to make Joelle Hoverson's Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.



Another good thing is that progress has been made on my selbuvotter mitten.



Yeah, remember that? I went to mitten group on Monday and wunderinstructor Janeen taught me a new way to hold the yarn in my left hand. The trick is to keep my index finger low; I was holding it too high up off the needle, so my left hand and forearm were aching after only a few rounds. Not fun. No fun = no work on the selbu. But now I've gotten up past the first star in the pattern. One star to go, then I meet with Janeen again on Monday to finish the tip and do the thumb.

Progress has also been made on my sock yarn blankie.



This progress is primarily due to a new tradition we have going on at ThreadBear: Beer o'Clock. Well, really it's called the Memory Keeper Throw Group, but I like to call it Beer o'Clock. Those of us working on the blankie (and a few of us who are not) meet at ThreadBear on Friday evenings to swap yarn, knock out a few squares, partake in food and drink, and have some laughs. Good times.

The last good thing? New hair color. Needed a pick-me-up.



The Bad
Stash acquisition. Part of this has to do with several trips to ThreadBear for mitten group and Beer o'Clock. 'Nough said. I'm too embarrassed to say more.

I am still knitting with the yarn that hates me.

I have two projects that have to be finished. Literally, I am within 80% of them being done, but I just can't bring myself to finish them. Seven projects on the needles = too many.

I am losing my family's NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket competition. I fear that my bragging rights may be gone. Y'all need to rally for me.

The Ugly
Second day of spring in Michigan.



Scooter, however, could care less about ugly dead foliage and yard clean-up. For him, spring is about one thing and one thing only:

All Is White in the World

It's white again.



For those of you who can't fathom how life moves forward in the Great White North, here's a picture:


Snow removal is easy when you use a bulldozer outfitted with monster truck wheels and a plow the size of a pachyderm.

Scooter apparently wants to ship himself somewhere warm. Anyone want to host him for a while?



The first pair of mittens for NaKniMitMo are almost finished. There should be a finished object post tomorrow. Then it's on to a hat for a certain birthday girl and reknitting some too-tight sleeves and finishing a pair of pants. Will knitting for Small Children ever end?

A New Year's Declaration

Happy New Year, everyone!

I've never been one for making resolutions, because I tend not to keep them. The problem, I think, is that they tend to be too specific and therefore set up for failure. I resolve to lose 20 pounds this year. I resolve to repaint the house. I resolve not to buy yarn until I have used up at least 30 skeins. What if the above person loses 17 pounds? Repaints 3 of the five intended rooms? Buys a single skein of Dream in Color Smooshy on sale because it is a colorway she has been admiring for a long time, but otherwise does not add to the stash? Has this person failed? I say no. After all, she is 17 pounds lighter, has 3 freshly painted rooms, and has reduced the stash by 29 skeins.

So this year, I am making a declaration rather than a resolution. I declare that the following is a list of things I would like to work on this year...

Get Healthier
I have to face the fact that I'm approaching... um, well, let's just say I am now closer to 40 than 30. And my body is telling me that I can't treat it the way that I treated it in my 20s. Weight doesn't come off the way it used to. Gluttony now results in indigestion. Two beers make me sleepy, more make me drunk. Yes, I'm such a lightweight. Ideas to work on this part of the declaration:

• Eat more locally produced foods. I'm not going to adhere to a strict 100 Mile Diet, but I would like to be more mindful of where my food is coming from, eat foods that are in season, and support local producers of food. Shop as much as possible at farmer's markets, the Lansing City Market, local farms, and join the Locavores group on Ravelry.
  
• Eat out less, and when I do eat out, make reasonable choices.
• Save "blowing it" for special occasions.
• Fully utilize my cookbooks and Cooking Light magazine.
• Go on more walks.
• Get my bike restored so that I can use it this summer.
• Join the Runagogo group on Ravelry.
  
• I'm not giving up Diet Coke, so don't even think about it.
  

Improve the House
I've lived in This Old House for over five years now, and much of it is the same as when I bought it. Yes, dollars were being spent on going back to school for my social studies endorsement and the front porch rebuild, but now that those are over, I need to move on some other things. Here are some ideas:

• Organize closets, drawers, cupboards, and storage area.
• Work on the breakfast nook to make the kitchen more usable.
• Reorganize the side entry.
  
• Replace ugly light fixtures.
• Paint.
• Work on a landscape plan, even it if doesn't get carried out this year.
• Work on a plan for a backyard deck/patio, even if it doesn't get carried out this year.
• Have the dead tree removed from the back yard.
• Fix and finish the fence.
• Switch the bedrooms (guest bedroom becomes my bedroom, and vice versa) and get better mattresses.
• Area rugs before next winter would be a really, really good thing.
• The bathrooms? Ay, ay, ay.

Reduce the Stash
I've been knitting for a little over a year now. Over the past year, friends and family saw me purchase yarn and books and tools. They reminded me (sometimes gently, and sometimes not so gently) that when I start a new hobby, I usually go full speed ahead and then burn out in a few months. They saw it with scrapbooking. They saw it with genealogy. So their concerns were not unreasonable, but I have one thing to say to them: Fooey on you! You tell me that I am like a little old lady with my knitting needles and that this too will go by the wayside, and yet you covet my knitted goods! I laugh in your face! Did you see the list of things I knit in one year? Knitting is not going away, and neither is this blog!

Rant over.

I tend to have the Yarn Harlot's philosophy when it comes to the stash. We wouldn't tell a budding artist not to buy paint and canvas, would we? So why do we feel guilty for the size of our stashes? I don't, not one bit. I do, however, wish that a bit more of the stash would be turned into the projects that I had in mind when I purchased the yarn. (Yes, I'm one of those knitters. Rarely do I buy yarn if I don't have an idea of what it will eventually be. Unless it's sock yarn. Or unless Rob is pushing again.) I also wish that I would use more of the patterns and books that I've purchased. And so... here are some ideas:

• When a new project crops up, consult the stash first before immediately running out to buy yarn.
• Half-used skeins are a problem. Organize the stash so there is a specific place for half-used skeins, and label them.
• Join Stash Knit Down 2009. Log your progress.
• When a new project crops up, consult the patterns and knitting books as well as the free patterns on Ravelry before buying a new pattern.
• Do not buy any more knitting books. Ask for them as presents or participate in swaps, but do not buy them for yourself. You don't really need them.
• If there is a single pattern you want out of a knitting book, see if you can get the book from the library.
• Read your knitting books so you know what's available in them. Sticky possible future projects, especially gift projects.

So that's it. My three declarations: get healthier, improve the house, reduce the stash.

And this has been an entirely too serious blog post, and way too text heavy, so I now leave you and turn over the blog to Scooter.

Favorite Things Friday—Scooter

Need I say that Scooter is one of my favorite things? He has more personality than some people I know.





I came home early today and learned a lot. The urban squirrels are back, this time not to eat my pumpkins and gourds, but to taunt poor Scooter.


About four inches of air and glass separate the noses of my Scooty and this evil vermin. Look... its eyes are literally glowing. That's just not right.

You can't tell from the picture, but Scooter was literally shaking. I can't believe he didn't try to go through the glass. After I chased the squirrel away, it climbed up the maple tree and sat there chattering at us from the end of a branch as if we had wronged it.

I hold the deed to this land, buster, not you. This yard ain't big enough for the both of us.

Kid-Friendly Close Knit Hugs Square

I finally finished knitting the "model" square for my students' Close Knit Hugs afghan. It took me three tries. First I knitted a square using a worsted weight yarn. Too many stitches, too many rows, too much frustration for kids. Hobby Lobby was having a sale on Lion Brand Jiffy yarn, which is in the bulky/craft weight category. I bought some and knitted another square using the recommended needle size, size 10. Again, too many stitches, too many rows. I upped the needle size and tried again. Voilà!



Yarn
Lion Brand Jiffy in Paprika

Needles
Size 13, 9mm

Pattern
Cast on 20 stitches. Work in garter stitch until piece measures eight inches in length (about 37 rows). Bind off.

Scooter had fun helping with this one.

Happy New Year!