Ishbel Completed

The past weekend was spent in the company of 13 stitching friends in the Derbyshire countryside. While away in between all the gossiping; giggling and eating I did manage to get some knitting and stitching done. I finished my Ishbel shawl; finished the stitching on Monthly Musings (it is now being washed then once dry & ironed I will put the buttons on and it will be completed); made progress on my Ribbon bag (one of the 4 balls of yarn has now been used up) and started & finished a small stitching project; which is also being washed.

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Wendy Happy in Virgo

Started: 25th April 2010

Finished: 12th June 2010

I think I will definately be knitting another of these as once I had got the hang of the pattern it was a really enjoyable knit. I think the next one I do will be the larger size and maybe in a lace weight yarn.

New Addiction

Last night was the first night of a 3d felting class that I am taking at the local arts centre and I already think I might be addicted. I have never done any felting before, although I have cast-on for a knitted felt bag, but even after a single 2 hour class I think I might be addicted. When I got home last night instead of doing the sensible thing and going to bed I spent several hours looking at supplies; project ideas etc. and then went to bed to dream of felting. I am going to try and not buy too much in way of felting stash until I have finished at least a few projects. But have allowed myself a trip to the bookstore during my lunch hour where I purchased a felting book; I nearly purchased several but managed to limit myself to just one. For the time being I am going to try and limit my wet felting experiments to the class as I really need to make progress on some knitting, stitching and sewing projects (and I am not even thinking about my beading supplies & WIPs).

Best Laid Plans

As always seems to happen to me as soon as I decide on a new plan to tackle my of WIPs and my stash mountain something comes along to put paid to them. This time the need for change came a lot sooner than expected and from an unusual source. Last night my mother called (not in itself an unusual occurrence) asking if I would mind doing some knitting for her. My mother very very rarely asks me for anything and usually is the first one to encourage me to reduce the amount of knitting stuff that I have lying around the house. A charity that her church supports which provides aid to street children in South America have been offered some space in a shipping crate so need lots of hats; scarves & mittens for children up to the age of 5 years. They also want to send out cot blankets. So I am going to be adding Charity Knitting as an 11th project in my rotation.

WIP Overload

Following my knitting stash organising I decided to make a start on organising the pile of knitting WIPs and the stitching & sewing WIPs & stash. Well quite quickly I decided to stop as I became rather overwhelmed with the amount of projects I have part down and also with the amount of stuff I have lying around untouched. Instead I have decided to pack everything away in boxes and to start a rotation of sorts. I am throwing out my monthly goals and the new plan is to select a maximum of 10 WIPs to work on each month (everything else will stay packed away). I then have to spend a minimum of 2 hours on each project. If I manage to get 2 hours done on each WIP I will then reward myself by starting a new small / quick project. If I manage to finish a project I will add in another WIP, if I manage to finish more than one project I will reward myself by starting a new project.

This months WIPs are going to be:

1. Deirdre Shawl (knitting)
2. Ishbel Shawl (knitting)
3. Lime Vanilla Socks (knitting)
4. Tapestry Ribbon Bag (knitting)
5. Monthly Musings (cross-stitching)
6. The Big Zipper (cross-stitching)
7. Their Song (cross-stitching)
8. Needlecase (stitching)
9. Stitch Marker Holder (stitching)
10. Jelly Roll Bag (sewing)

Tonight I think I am going to work on either the Lime Vanilla Socks or the Deirdre Shawl.

Stash Busting Time

Well I have finally gotten around to organising my considerable yarn stash. All the yarn has been sorted by type & weight. A large suitcase jammed full of winter yarn & acrylic has been shipped off to my parents for storage and the rest has been put away in crates and a chest. I have even gone so far as to put about 2/3rd onto my Ravelry pages, I might get around to adding the remainder at some stage or may just add it as I knit it. Now that I have all the yarn organised I really need to get a lot of it knitted into something rather than just have it taking up space. It does seem that a side affect of having organised my yarn is the uncontrollable urge to cast-on dozens of projects as there were some forgotten gems among the stash. Along side the gems there are a few (make that several) yarns which I am not sure why I purchased them or what I will ever knit with them but I can not bring myself to throw them away.

The first project I have cast on is:

Pattern: Jessie Ribbon Bag from Rowan Felted Collection
Yarn: Rowan Tapestry in colour 174
Cast-on: 02-June-2010

I have slightly deviated from the pattern by knitting the first 3 rows (and I will knit the last 3) as I do not like the way the bag appears to roll at the top even after felting in the pictures I have seen of this bag. Also in the dye-lot I have cast-on with I only have 4 balls while the pattern calls for 5. I have another 10 balls in the same colour way from a different dye-lot. As the bag is constructed from one large knitted panel my plan is to knit till I have used up 2 balls then if I think it is going to be too short I will use a ball from the other dye-lot then use up the two remaining balls from the dye-lot I have cast on with. There does not seem to be much visible difference between the dye-lots and I think it will be even less noticeable once the knitting has been felted.

As this is a very easy (read potentially boring) project my plan is to try and knit at least 6 rows every day till it is done. If I don’t knit at least a little bit on it each day I can see myself getting so far then putting it away for a long time although, at the moment, I am excited to get it in the washing machine & try out felting for the first time. Hopefully I will not get diverted from my plan to knit through my stash by any new yarn purchases or by starting too many projects. The next thing I am going to organise is my pile of knitting WIPs and maybe create a rotation (with slots for new starts of course) in order to try and actually finish some projects.

May Report and June Goals

May Report

Well as predicted I made virtually no progress on my May goals only managing to complete one goal (knit a pair of socks) although I have made a start on organising my knitting stash. So June's goals are going to be a repeat of May's with the exception being that I have decided that I am far to behind on the KA KAL that I have absolutely no chance of catching up so I have dropped out.

April Goals

Stitching
1. Finish Monthly Musings
2. Make progress on The Big Zipper
3. Finish Knitting Goddess Needle Holder
4. Finish Knitting Goddess Stitch Marker Holder
5. Start one small project from stash
Knitting
1. Finish Mae's yellow cardigan
2. Make progress on lace long sleeved cardigan
3. Make progress on cabled jacket
4. Finish Ishbel Shawl
5. Cast-0n and finish a project using yarn from stash
Other
1. Organise my knitting; beading; stitching and sewing stash
2. Finish at least one quilting /patchwork / sewing project
3. Decorate my bathroom