Building momentum and the next project

Usually I end up doing a series of posts that recap the Christmas knitting, but this year I'm feeling fairly blergh about that, so I'm going to move onward. Maybe I'll use them as filler over the next few weeks, but I'm much more excited about some other ongoing things.

I've been working alot recently on a shawl of my own design that grew out of the P3 retreat in October 2012. I first did a version in some lovely DK weight purple yarn that was in my goody bag, but after finishing that off I decided it needed to be a) bigger, and b) in laceweight. That particular bout of madness led me to a skein of Gleem Lace from Fyberspates, purchased at Unravel last February, and has landed me here, approximately ten months later, finally at the edging of this particular piece.

Some design projects fly off the needles. Some move in fits and starts, but make steady progress. This is/was a project that has been like pulling teeth without the benefit of anesthetic. I feel like I've been working on the body of this shawl forever, without any end in sight. It's more then a little demoralizing.

But today, o today! Today I finished the body of the shawl, and started the edging. And all of a sudden the inertia has shifted from molasses trying to flow uphill in the Northeastern United States right now (with some ridiculous polar vortex freezing the bejeebers out of everyone) to water flowing down the Thames at ebb tide. The 500+ stitches are flying along, and I'm optimistic that it's going to be off the needles very, very soon. I'm beyond thrilled. I can't show you any pictures yet, but it's going to be glorious.

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I'm also at a very dangerous point for any knitter - the end of a project is a weak spot, an opportunity for the knitter to suddenly resemble a frantic magpie, bobbing and weaving and investigating every shiny thing that comes along. I've been distracted by four skeins of Sweet Georgia Yarns Merino Silk Fine in "Mist". I've got enough for a sweater for ME!!!!!, and a deadline of this year's Unravel to finish it. But I'm having a lot of trouble deciding on what sweater to make, and here's where you come in.

Here are the current candidates (left to right, top to bottom): Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier, Smaragd by Svetlana Volkova, Myrtle Cardigan by Snowden Becker, Mendel by Carol Fellers, Leaving by Anne Hanson, Juno by yellowcosmo, Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau (I'd do the full length version, not cropped), Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnston, Afterlight by Amy Herzog, Abigail by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, Brigitte by Jennifer Wood, Cushman by Amy Herzog, Isabelle by Jennifer Wood, Atelier by Heidi Kirrmaier, Vitamin D again.

Clearly I'm leaning towards a cardigan, but a good friend of mine made Mendel and it is absolutely gorgeous in real life. The twisted stitches in Isabelle make me weak in the knees, but I'm a bit concerned about how long they might take. I have the pattern for the Honeybee Cardigan and Leaving already, but I am completely incapable of making a decision. Help? Please?...

Looking forward

It's always a bit of a struggle getting back to blogging when I've been away for a while. I don't know where to start, or what to focus on, or what direction to take. But what with the beginning of 2014, I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish over the course of the next 12 months, in my own knitting and with designing.

I listen to the Knitmore Girls podcast fairly regularly (if not always in a truly timely fashion), and one thing I like a lot is that they choose themes for the year instead of doing specific resolutions. It allows for focusing on one thing, but with the opportunity to find different ways to fulfill that goal. I like that a theme allows me to find new ways to address an issue, and perhaps will lead to new approaches or strategies that reach beyond the knitting and spinning world in to the rest of my life.

I have a large number of designs that I've been thinking about or working on in one fashion or another for quite a while now. But I've been frustrated with my inability to bring any of those ideas to fruition, whether in a print magazine format or as self-published designs. It always takes so much longer to get things ready then I think it will, and I find it very easy to get distracted along the way. So things flounder, unfinished. So my theme for the year is going to be Consistency.

Initially, that is going to mean a more consistent design output - I've drawn up a schedule with at least one design coming out every month this year. Most are accessories, but there are a couple of bigger projects in there too. The first up will be this set, which I wanted to get out before Christmas - sadly, as it does, life (and technology screw ups) got in the way.

The last sticking point is getting the blankity-blank charts to show up correctly in the final pattern pdf. It will be available by Friday at the latest.

So that's my very vague and general plan for 2014 - consistency. Consistent design work, consistent forward progress, consistency. We'll see how it goes.

So what are your plans for the upcoming year?

It's always darkest right before the dawn

Last year I finished the last of my Christmas gift knitting at about 1:00 am on Christmas Day (since I hadn't been to bed yet, it still counted as Christmas Eve in my world). This year, I'm doing a bit better.

That's the last of my Christmas gift knitting - a Copenhagen Hat for Himself, with ribbing instead of an i-cord edging. I'd forgotten how much I like knitting this pattern, and I think that since I am apparently sending off New Year's gifts instead of Christmas gifts, I may slip one in for the Wee Nephew as well.

Happy Christmas to all of you, from this warm and wet corner of the United Kingdom. May you receive the perfect yarn, the warmest wool, and many merry Yuletide moments at the end of this year. See you in 2014!

Wheel surgery

A few weeks ago I made a wee list of Holiday Crafting Goals (TM). I got everything set up to whip through my Christmas gifts in record time, got a few done, and promptly turned around a began spinning up a sweater lot of Hello Yarn fiber (Dark and Stormy Shetland, so glorious!). Predictably enough, the Holiday Gift Gods saw my hubris, and decided that it was time to give me a swift kick in the ass, because there I was, happily treadling along, when suddenly, I wasn't...

I don't know if you can see so well in that photo, but my footman and my treadle are no longer connected,

which means no more spinning!

I'll admit, a few tears were shed. And then a bit of money was spent on replacement parts from the lovely Morgaine at Carolina Homespun. After some back and forth about where to ship the parts, they were sent out, and arrived here in London yesterday*.

So this evening, feeling flush about having finished the overseas Christmas New Year's presents yesterday, I took the wheel into Himself's lair for some surgery.

Taking out the first bit of the broken connector was straightforward, involving one screw driver. Then things got a bit more complicated: the second end of the connector is held in place by a screw with a square hole in it.

No problem, thought I, and I pulled out the drawer of small wrenches for all sorts of things.

Apparently I need to rename this "The Drawer of Small Wrenches for All Sorts of Things that Need Hexagonal Wrenches".

No problem, I thought again, I live with a man who has more hand tools then I have skeins of yarn (no joke!). Surely there is something in this garage that will work. Some pawing through another few drawers and, ta da!

A square headed screw driver type-thingie! That is too big...le sigh.

Ok, I needed to bust out the big guns - time for the power tools:

Not one, but two square drivers. One the same size as the above screw driver, and one bigger. Bugger.

Now I am trapped at the point of having a half-way repaired wheel, with a spinning lesson tomorrow morning at 10:30 am, and no way to unscrew this damned teensy screw. The Holiday Crafting Gods are not to be messed with people, not to be messed with...

So I'm going to go drown my sorrows in Peter Pan pantomime (with The Fonz!!!), and see if I can't puzzle this out later. Or maybe just get Himself to do it - I'm sure he can come up with something, right?

* It should be noted that Morgaine sent them out immediately, the delay came from the fact that they went to Houston, then to Himself's office mailroom, and then to Himself (and, by extension, me).

Momentum

I have a hard time getting started with weaving. I think of it kind of the same way I think of going out to ride my bike: the initial activation energy is much higher (getting on the gear, pumping up the tires, etc, etc) so I'm much more likely to through on my running shoes and head out for a run. Weaving is on the same order of effort: there's getting the loom out, finding the right heddle, figuring out yardages and lengths. Then there's warping (OMG warping), which always seems like such a HUUUUUGE deal, that it's easier to do something else more accessible.

Of course, once it's set up, weaving is way faster then knitting or crochet. And I think I've figured out a solution to the activation energy problem: as soon as I finish one project,

I need to warp for the next one.

Finished: washcloths (that is, the weaving is finished), warped: table runner. As a complete aside, I adore hemstitching...

This brings the status of the holiday list to:
one table runner - warped, to be woven tonight/tomorrow
three washcloths - DONE
set of dish towels (3) 
four scarves - one of which is next up


2 scarves - 1 done, one may be woven instead
1 cowl - have yarn, will cast on and start today

one pair of adult socks - cast on, on leg of sock #1
one adult hat
four child hats
one child mittens - now fingerless mitts instead
one child fingerless mitts
two baby sweaters -- DONE

The number projects that have to be done in the next two weeks so they can be shipped to the States?

5/11, with 5 woven remaining (including already warped table runner), and one crocheted. Totally. Doable.