Knit Once, Purl Forever

Resisting the Urge...Mostly

I'm resisting the urge to join in on every knit along that mildly interests me. While I don't always join in, I have a tendency to join the knit alongs that target my interests. And I'm interested in experiencing all knitting techniques so that really doesn't rule out much.

But I'm trying not to overload on the knit alongs because I expect that my knitting time will be shortened a bit by the full workload at the office. We have several large projects kicking off this week and I have a bad feeling that work will start following me home more and more often until the projects are complete.

In all the resisting I've still managed to join two knit alongs recently, but only because they fit into my knitting plans.

Since I'm already knitting the famous dishcloths, I had to join the Mason-Dixon knit along.

The other knit along is all about the Trekking Yarn. If you love Trekking yarn as much as I do, you might want to Trek Along too. This was a no brainer because I've been waiting for the Trekking yarn I ordered last week to arrive.

Great sock yarn has been a scarcity at my local yarn stores as I think all the good sock yarn is already in my stash, but yet I still *NEED* more. Enter the Internet:

What we have here are two skeins of Socks that Rock in Ruby Slippers and Carbon Dating. And three skeins of Trekking XXL in the following colorways from the top down:  105 Autumn; 134 lime, turqouise & hot pink; and 133 pink, lavender, & light pink.

Makes me want to knit nothing but socks. Too bad I'll have to resist the urge for a couple of weeks as that's when the Trek Along starts.

It's a Hectic Life

And that's straight from the mouth of a babe. As we were rushing out the door earlier today, the Youngest Son grumbled that this weekend had been nothing but hectic.

And it had.

Even the cats are grumpy at chez Knit Once...

All this grumpiness is brought about by the fact that we're still on our home improvement kick. We pulled up the carpet from two more rooms. That's the last of the yucky old carpet. Wooooohooooo! I'm so relieved to have it out of here.

Of course, now we have a decision to make: purchase new carpet or restore the hardwood floor we found beneath the old carpet. The hubby leans toward buying new carpet and I'd rather restore the floors. I realize my preference leads to more work for us, but I think the payoff would be well worth the extra effort. We'll see what we decide.

This photo best represents the true color of Hopeful. It's not a perfect match of course as the true color remains a mystery. The mystically colored sweater has doubled in size, but it still doesn't make for an exciting photo shoot.

The Sunday night TV line-up is hectic too, so this is it for me tonight!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there! Of course, everyday is Mother's Day here at the Knit Once blog.

Failure to Commit

What we have here is a failure to commit.

That's the trend for me as of late. I've been unable to concentrate on anything and unable to commit to much of anything.

Things have been more than a little crazy at the office, but I'll spare you the boring details. Let's just say that things are so crazy busy that I don't know what end is up the entire time I'm there. I'm totally drained of all energy by the time I get to my daily knitting so it's really no wonder that I can't focus on anything for more than a few minutes days. Instead of focused knitting, I'm all about the mindless knits.

Mo' dishcloths, mo' dishcloths, mo' dishcloths. These are so addictive. This project is simple and fast to knit,  but it's not exactly a mindless knit. You have to pay a little attention to what you're doing.

The Wobbly Tote hasn't change much since its last photo op. I worked on it a little bit, but I don't think there's been any noticeable progress. Too many balls of yarn and too much pattern detail for entirely mindless knitting.

I worked on the New England socks a little, but lace knitting is definitely not mindless knitting for me. I have to mark the pattern lightly with a pencil in order to keep track of what I've worked and what I haven't.

Ding ding ding ding! And the winner for the most mindless of all mindless knitting is the simple stockinette stitch of the Hopeful sweater. I'm using discontinued Schoeller Stahl Hobby yarn from stash in color 4817 Heide. The color Heide is described as an orange color, but it's not orange. I know it looks pink in the photo. But it's not pink either. It's not a lot of colors. It's not orange. Not pink. Not red. Not salmon. Not peach. Not rose. Not mauve. What color is it? I have no idea. But I can tell you what color(s) it isn't.

A short while ago I didn't have any projects on the needles. Two weeks later, I have four WIPs. Just like that. Chalk that up to failure to commit.

Professional Knitter

Want in on a little secret?

Secretly, I dream of becoming a professional knitter. I dream of quitting my day job and knitting all day long, day in and day out. It's all knitting all the time in my dreams. I dream of posting all my knitting progress here daily as knitting and knit blogging would be my life.

Sometimes it seems that this dream could be a reality as friends and family are now taking my knitting a little more seriously than before. I think my knitting used to be considered mildly amusing--it was even considered to be a bit odd. However, lately these same amused friends and family members are now treating my knitting as a serious undertaking. On separate occasions, several of the same mildly amused people now view my hand knit goods as items of value and are suggesting that I try to sell said items via the Internet or other venue.

Want in on a little reality?

While I'm seriously flattered that they've had the sudden change of heart, I'm a bit perplexed that my act of friendship and/or love is so quickly connected to a monetary value. And I'm a little taken aback as some of my friends actually put a price on my items as in, "I bet you could get $20 for that hat or $50 for that bag." Of course, they have no idea the true value of these items as, to me anyway, it goes well beyond the cost of material or the time it takes to knit.

There's a little piece of my life in each item:  the hat I knit while on Christmas vacation. The Soctober socks that were knit throughout the fall soccer season. The French Market bags knit while recovering from Laser eye surgery (PRK). Each item takes me back to a different memory and I couldn't begin to put a price on any of it.

So, while I dream of knitting all the time and I really admire those who are able to make a living from knitting or working with fiber, I don't see myself ever making a living at knitting. I just want to make a life of it.

Up Next: Real knitting content.

Dishcloth Central

 
It's all about the dishcloths and other ramblings...

Typepad was having a bad day yesterday when I wanted to post something interesting. And today I'm having a bad day and just don't have it in me to post anything interesting. Wish there was such a thing as a blog entry generator. You enter a key word here or there and presto, a great entry is generated and posted to your blog. The Blog Easy Button if you will. And of course, the entry would be something amazing in that it would be kicky, fun, and interesting to read.

Instead, you get me and my pounding head, so I'll make it short.

KNITTING NEWS

This will be short because the only knitting taking place is pictured above. Just knitting me some warshcloths. That's about all I can concentrate on lately.

BLOG CONTEST

I finally sent the sock yarn out from my blog contest two weeks ago. The boys helped me draw names to determine who will receive what. And I still need two addresses

To Emy and Theresa,

I still need your addresses so that I can send out the sock yarn you won on my site! I've sent a couple e-mails to you, but I'm not sure if they went through. Please shoot me your addy via e-mail, so I can get your yarn out to you. Thanks!

Tam

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now I'm taking my pounding head to bed. Please 'scuse the bad grammar.

Can't think straight. Can't think crooked either. Just. Plain. Can't. Think.

Toughest Love

It's funny how the blog entries are sometimes linked or intertwined. It's not usually a planned thing, it just kind of works out that way. Sometimes one thought or blog entry flows into the next.

That's the case with the tough love thing. Recently, I've had a realization--actually  it was an epiphany--about another case of tough love that needs to occur internally. This realization concerns my weight. I've heard people who used to be heavy mention that even when they've lost the weight, they still see themselves as heavy. I have the opposite problem. I see a "skinny" person regardless what the image in the mirror reflects.

While I would never have classified myself as "skinny" or anorexic, I was always able to maintain a healthy size 4 on my 5' 2" frame throughout my twenties with little effort. My body seemed to maintain what I called my "happy" weight regardless to how much or how little I ate, or how much or how little I exercised. And I really took the whole thing for granted.

Now well into my thirties, I've managed to gain an average of 5 pounds per year for the last six years. That's an 30 extra pounds on my 5' 2" frame. I probably don't have to state this, but 30 pounds is a lot when one is only 5' 2".  Of course, I've been aware of the weight gain for some time and I've been on several diets and exercise kicks. The problem is that somewhere, in my mind's eye, I'm still a size 4 regardless to what is reflected in the mirror. The Skinny Girl I see in the mirror is good at sabotaging my weight loss efforts by denying I have a weight problem.

The Skinny Girl is clearly delusional as this is what she believes:

Skinny Girl tells me that I'm concealing the extra weight with careful wardrobe choices. I'm sorry, but with as much weight as I have gained, unless I'm concealing my ass with a tarp I don't think any wardrobe choices can be that careful. Especially since I've been holding off on purchasing new clothes for when I lose the weight. When I inventoried my summer clothes I was surprised to find that most items are at least two to three seasons old. Many of the items make me look like a stuffed sausage--a look that is so last season. Actually, as far as I know the stuffed sausage look was never in.

Skinny Girl tells me that the extra weight I've gained is distributed evenly; therefore, it's not so bad. Okay, just who the heck gains weight all in one place anyway? Do I expect to gain all the weight in my big toe or in my left butt cheek? Okay, left butt-cheek, check and right butt-cheek, check. How does the evenly distributed butt-cheek weight gain make it any better than any other kind of weight gain? Answer me that, Skinny Girl.

Skinny Girl tells me that I'm not THAT fat--it could always be worse. Well, yes. And it could always be better as well. Just because I could be heavier doesn't take away from the fact that this is the most I've ever weighed. In. My. Life. EVER. Weight is such a personal thing based on height, body frame, self-image, and one's comfort level. It doesn't matter that someone else weighs more or less, it's about the right weight for each individual.

Tough love. I thought it couldn't suck any more, but I was wrong. As wrong as the Skinny Girl.