Deadlines

Lately my spirit-guide, Tara, and I  have been putting a lot of time and effort into honing our respective crafts. I am a knitter, spinner, crocheter, and Tara is a knitter, spinner, dyer, quilter, seamstress-extraordinaire. Now, those are a lot of hats to change between, but we're managing it without losing steam, or dedication.

Part of how we're further focusing on our craft, is that we've started to go to festivals, crawls, and classes. About two years ago now, Tara and I decided to attend the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival  (OFFF) which is held in Canby, Oregon every September. We had such a blast with the fiber, and the alpacas, and the people, that we decided to make it part of our regular itinerary. In fact, we've already started plotting our bucket list of crafty events for the whole year!

One of our many friends from OFFF

March has us participating in the Rose City Yarn Crawl (which we attended and completed last year as well), April will bring us the Knot Another Fiber Festival, and September will bring us back around to the OFFF.

Each time Tara and I attend one of these crafty events, I find that both our friendship and our dedication to our craft just gets stronger and stronger. It's an amazing feeling to be surrounded by people who all have the same passion, and who know the struggle of dropping stitches, and not finishing projects, and dropping stitches, and running out of yarn, and DROPPING STITCHES!

But all that being said, I've had one insurmountable problem in attending these events... I can't bring myself to wear anything that I've knitted. Tara rolls up in wonderful hand-knit socks, and scarves, and dresses she's sewn herself, and it's wonderful to see her light up with confidence when people compliment her talent and skill, but I can't manage to put myself out there like her.

So in name of growth and furthering of my craft, I have given myself two deadlines to complete by the Knot Another Fiber Festival, which I will then wear to the festival. One of which is the Raglan Sweater.

I've now split off the sleeves and am just working on the body. 13 beautiful inches of stockinette stitch to complete before I come back to knit the sleeves. I know it looks a little bit... lumpy right now, but hopefully that blocks out.

The other one is another Clapotis by Kate Gilbert.

I'm using a beautiful yarn from Indie Dyer Collective In The Deep Hue Sea. I picked it up at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival (Which has been renamed as the Knot Another Fiber Festival) last year and it has been on my "to knit" list forever. This particular skein is the lace-weight version of the colorway Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Between the name and the colors, I couldn't not get it... I actually got one skein on one day of the festival (which I'm using for Clapotis now), and then went back to the booth on the last day of the festival and got myself another skein, because it was so pretty and squishy. I"m a sucker for pretty and squishy.

So I'll let you lovelies know how the progress on those goes. I'm feeling pretty good about their progress now, as I have another 89 days to make sure these are off the needles and blocked. Keep your fingers crossed for me...

P.S. Here are two things that made me stupid happy recently.

Digdug got a new dragon toy that's as big as he is.

My degree finally came in the mail. I'm officially a graduate.

Muscle Memory

Hello my lovelies!

Today I've been thinking a lot about starting new things. New knitting projects, new video games, new workout regiments, just "New". Let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with "new". I will never be the person to tell you not to try the new thing (unless the new thing is eating copious amounts of Taco Bell, that I simply cannot condone).

But there is something to be said for the old and the familiar. I have re-read the Harry Potter books dozens of times, I've watched Jurassic Park so many times that you wouldn't believe me if I told you the number, and I tend to make the same comfort food recipes over and over.

When it comes to knitting, my dears, the familiar pattern that I keep coming back to is a basic, top down Raglan sweater.

This particular pattern can be found here.

 There's something about the neat little shoulder increases and the uniformity of the stockinette stitches that just sends me to a happy place... I've knit many over the years, from sock weight to bulky, from toddler size to one large enough to fit a beluga of a man. They're just a peaceful little garment.

I've been working on a new one, just for me.

It's not much yet, but I think one day soon it might actually resemble a sweater.

Out of all the Raglan sweaters I've ever knit, I have never ever kept one for myself. I think it'll be nice, maybe just this once, to make something just for me... 90% of the knit wear I produce ends up going into the Christmas bin for gifts come the holidays. I like to knit fun, bright, exciting things, but I'm not one for wearing fun, bright or exciting things. I think an off-white pullover will suit my style just fine.

The point is, my sweets, that new and shiny things are great, but sometimes you just need the old and familiar. Sometimes your brain just needs a little break, and you can rely on muscle memory to take you to a happier place.

P.S. because he seems to be a crowd favorite, here is Digdug being adorable:

Stay well, my lovelies.

New Year, Same ol' me

Hello my lovelies, hope you all had a wonderful New Years celebration! I, myself, got to spend time with some of my closest friends playing board games, drinking, and eating good food (Cheers to Connor for the vegan burgers he made, they were amazing!). I didn't get much knitting done, but that might not be a bad thing. Knitting and champagne don't always mix well together...

With the new year, at least for me, there always comes a sense of wanting to be better. Wanting to do more and follow through on projects and just be more organized over-all. That manifested itself on New Years Day with me digging out my entire stash and attempting to get organized. The first step, of course, was to throw everything on the bed.

Digdug thought I was making a bed for him...

And once I started sorting and organizing into weights, fiber contents, project ideas and whatnots, I found something surprising... I had two projects filed away in the stash that were mere rows away from being finished. Of course I immediately had to stop cleaning and finish said projects.

The first was a cable hat that I cannot remember when I started or what the yarn is or who is responsible for this beautiful pattern.

Does anyone recognize this pattern?
I hate not giving credit when it's due...

This lovely thing was just lurking in the stash, all the cabling finished, just needing some responsible soul to close it up and give it a good blocking. So that's exactly what I did!

The second project just waiting to be finished is a bit embarrassing... I remember working on this project while sitting in Mr. Walker's chemistry class... Sophomore year... Of High School. For those of you not in the know, that would have been approximately ten years ago. TEN. YEARS. I have been sitting on this project for a damn decade. My procrastination level is over 9,000.

The project itself is none other than the wonderful Clapotis by Kate Gilbert. All I had to do was cast off and give it a block. So I threw that off the needles and immediately into the sink.

Post block, this thing is lovely.

It's squishy and bouncy and makes me feel very, very French. While I'm wearing it I feel like I should be on a balcony overlooking a Parisian market, chain smoking and day-drinking wine. Or maybe that's just what I normally want to be doing... Who knows.

And it just wouldn't be New Years without a start on a new project:

Any guesses on what it's going to shape up to be?