It seemed extraneous at the time...

Happy New Year!

What else can you call a Jan 1 post? This is the year of many things;

• the year of the second sock
• the year of taking responsibility for my health and well-being
• the year of saving, saving, saving!
• the year of finishing what I start

The only difference between try and triumph is a little bit of umph! Right now I have umph to spare, lol. I joined Weight Watchers in early December and am now less 5.5kgs of unwanted blubber (thats 12lbs for my American friends) with a firm focus on the future. Some might even accuse me of being a little militant at the moment, but I have to make the most of it while I'm trying to move permanently into a new head space, lol.

On the knitting front I am kicking off two new projects, both for KALs. First up is a pair of Leyburn socks in Socks That Rock lightweight for the Ravelry STR group Leyburn KAL. This KAL is unique in that no colourway will be repeated so at the end we get to see how approximately 65 pairs of Leyburns look in different colourways of STR.  My colourway is Pebble Beach (as selected by the little guy).

Second, I am about to cast on for the Ravely Loopie Groupies group January KAL, which involves knitting my very first Clapotis out of fabulous Numma numma Saucy in the Bare Gossip colourway;

And last but not least, i will be attempting to chronicle  my year better by blogging more regularly. To that end, here's a pic of my favourite little guy enjoying the sunshine and refusing to pose 'normally' for his mama!

Eureka! I haz it...

I am finally on my way to conquering the second sock syndrome with the help of this fab book i bought on a recent Amazon spree,

and an afternoon knitting with some of my favourite people produced this;

Yes, you really are seeing the untangled beginnings of two socks on one 40" circ! I have previously attempted two socks on two circs but found it so frustrating, constantly tangling the yarn balls and knitting with the wrong needles, that i gave up at the cuffs! But these I am actually enjoying (at least until i get to the heels, lol).  Yarn is Shibui Knits and the bag is a gorgeous Piddleloop project bag in the colourway 'Gidget Goes to the Beach'.

Time for a Change...

We recently changed round the purpose of some of the rooms in our house and in the process my craft room was relinquished to my mother (something we had been trying to achieve for 12 months!) and my new craft room relocated in our son's old bedroom (we have 5 bedrooms but only need 3 of them to house actual people).  Moving your entire crafting stash is not a recommended way of staying oblivious to ones acquisitive nature, lol.  My new crafty room is about a third of the size of the old one, but I am enjoying and using it far more.  It's size has forced me to be quite ruthless with myself about how much I have and how much i need and I have come to a radical decision.  I am going to knit and quilt from stash as much as is humanly possible for the next 12 months.  I will be keeping my existing sock clubs 'cause a girl has to get some mail and I can buy fabric needed to finish existing projects (backings and bindings etc) but apart from these exceptions I am going to try my hardest to craft from stash.  This should not be a hardship.  I have a beautiful yarn stash and some wonderful quilt projects to finish (or even start in some cases!).  I also know I am fairly weak but if I can limit the occasional skein of yarn to an absolute must have purchase I will be happy.  And the money I save will be going towards attending Spring Fling 2010 - definitely worth the sacrifice!

In the meantime I am knitting up this luscious lovely from Numma numma, in Pumpkin Butter;

For a while the incredibly lovely and generous Allen from Numma numma was including a 'mini' taste-of skein with orders of 3 skeins or more.  This is my taste-of Pumpkin Butter and it is more than enough for a pair of US10 Charade's with a longer than usual (for me) leg and picot cuff.  I can't say enough good things about Numma numma yarns - soft and squishy and absolutely beautiful!

Long time no blog...

I do admire bloggers who manage to post regularly and include photos. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (alas, true for many parts of my life not just blogging, lol). However, I have decided to once again try for some regular blogging as a way of keeping a running record of my crafty stuff,  family stuff, and other assorted endeavours. Maybe i'll even try for a regular schedule. I am definitely going to go for the less is more approach - better to have shorter posts that are more frequent than to feel overwhelmed by the need for more frequent catch-ups.

Today i want to highlight a couple of current WIPS.  For fuller details see my Ravelry projects page (if you are a Raveler - if not, why not?!)click me!

This pattern, Aquaphobia Socks is fantastic for yarns that pool (assumming you don't like the pooling!).  I love Socks That Rock colourways but I have had trouble getting the Lightweight to knit into anything that doesn't make me want to puke.  But so far so good with this pattern;

The colourway is Rooster Rock.  The side cable doesn't look like much because it's not stretched out in this shot, you'll just have to trust me that it looks great in person.  Since this shot I have turned the heel and am now doing the instep/gusset decreases.

And this bit of brown garter is the start of a February Lady Sweater, an adult-size version of the classic Elizabeth Zimmerman February baby Sweater.  I have wanted an adult version of this sweater since I first saw a finished baby version on Ravelry.  I am knitting mine out of Dream in Colour Classy in November Muse, which is just a pleasure to knit with. However, there is a lot more knitting to be done for a sweater than a sock (or at least it seems that way to me!) so who knows when I'll actually get this finished!

And just as an aside, the blogging seems to be far less of a pain on my macbook than it was on my pc laptop. The photos are uploading faster and everything is coming together more smoothly. Oh how I love my macbook!

Box of Socks

Box of Socks, originally uploaded by marmys.

Another instalment in the 'more photos less knitting' blog. The front row of this sock holder are all happily partnered. Alas the remaining 15 socks are all alone in their little cubbies (and I am not even going to mention the First Socks currently on the needles). Clearly I have a problem.

In this past week I have started knitting a new sock. now, in my defense I had to start a new one because all of my current WIPs are fingering weight and I'm not ready to hold the tiny needles just yet. So I wound up some Socks That Rock mediumweight in Rainforest Jasper and cast on a 48 stitch Thuja on 2.75mm needles - much more user friendly. Normally I would have finished the first sock and have cast on and knit some of the second by now. But this is not normally. I have about 3.5" toe-up to show for my labours *sigh*. At least it's knitting.

Sock stash

sock stash, originally uploaded by marmys.

This is the torturous sight that greats me in my crafty room at the moment. I love to just steal a few minutes to sit and look at my stash - it makes me feel very happy!

I cut away a bit of my cast (between the thumb and first finger) because it was annoying the crap out of me, and now i can do some knitting. It is very slow, somewhat painful knitting but at least it's knitting! I decided to knit a Thuja in Socks That Rock mediumweight because 2.75mm needles are more 'comfortable' than 2mm ones at the moment. It took about three hours of on and off knitting (not all on the same day) to get this toe-up sock to 56 stitches! The worst part is that while I am (literally) painstakingly knitting this very basic sock I can remember the feeling of meditative calm and mental freedom I used to experience while knitting and it is very frustrating (can you tell I'm not the most patient person in the world? lol). I will get over myself eventually - it's not like it's a permanent affliction for goodness skaes!

Rubylicious

Rubylicious, originally uploaded by marmys.

Photo courtesy of the 2 and 3/4 year old. Don't ya just love that delicious muzzle! Not much happening on the knitting front thanks to my broken wrist so i shall have to entertain with pictures instead.

Ruby-7wks

Ruby-7wks, originally uploaded by marmys.

How could this gorgeous little creature (a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier to be precise) be the cause of my current incapacitation?

Well, because she is now this big;

and i was stupid enough to trip over her, resulting in this;

Yes Debbie, that is a broken wrist. Clearly the fates thought it had been too long since my last major medical incident, et voila! No knitting for me for a while.  And considering I knit so I don't kill people, I may be in a spot of bother.

Blank Canvas Child's Vest

Blank Canvas Child's Vest, originally uploaded by marmys.

Wow, thought I better make a start on blogging July or it will be August and there will be a big pile of nothing in my archives!

This is Cari Luna's fab Blank Canvas Child's Vest pattern (www.dogsstealyarn.com), knit in Jaeger Baby Merino (contrast colour) and Miss Bab's Superwash Merino Worsted Weight (colour Saturn) for main colour (www.woolgirl.com). Size 3 years (with extra 2" added to bottom) My little guy is 26 months old and tall with a long torso! Not to mention heartbreakingly cute ;o)
I'll definitely be making more of these!

Bad blogger...

It's been a mad house around here. All I can say is do not attempt to sell and buy houses at the same time as your workplace is being restructured. I have still been crafting, otherwise I would have gone completely bonkers by now! On the knitting front I now have 5 socks requiring a friend. I have a partially completed sock project patchwork bag on the machine and today I made a slip cover for our ottoman - here is the photo especially for Carol;

and just to prove I still knit, here is one of the 5 mateless socks (although I am just about to turn the heel on number 2). Also for Carol, in Trekking XXL;

And now it is late and our 2 year old is still resisting bed (while we, his poor parents, are`ready to drop!). Fortunately this is not a common occurence. Would definitely be bonkers if it was. Sigh.