Sheep On My Stuff

I'm getting close now — really close!

Most of the backstitching is done — there's a bit of blue border for the blue flowers, and around the edges of the kimono. The vast majority of what's left is background, but that's fine — I like the background work, as it's mostly stitches and half stitches. Yay!

Until this weekend, I thought I was doing really well on my goals. I was at about 1.4:1 in terms of completed/started projects — not the 1.5:1 I was going for, but not too far off. And I was at something like 3.2:1 on stashed/new projects — well above the 2:1 I was hoping for.

Then I did something terrible.

I started counting yarn I'd bought and stashed — but hadn't worked up — in the goals.

Oh boy.

Counting each instance of stashed yarn as a "started" and "new" project, I am now at 1.3:1 (eek!) on completed/started projects and… 1.7:1 (ACK) on stashed/new projects.

In other words, I have bought a lot of yarn.

*hangs head in shame*

On the bright side, when I actually begin working the newly-stashed yarn into projects, I will then be able to count it as both stashed AND new, and if I finish those projects, they will go into both the completed AND started categories.

Srsly, I may not be buying any more yarn until the end of the year. (Yeah, that seems incredibly likely.)

Also, I hope that buying cross-stitching patterns doesn't really count. I mean, I've only bought one (with sheep) and two booklets (one for one specific pattern, one for the whole thing) this year, plus some fabric that was on clearance. And I'm working up one that was in my stash, and have only three WIPs (including that one) and four "want to do" and one "will do for yearly Christmas ornament" projects on tap, and that's all I've had in the house for ten years, excluding finished projects, of which there are five unframed, four in the framing process, and ten framed and on display in the house. That makes a total of 29 — 14 completed through framing, 5 completed through stitching, 3 in progress, 4 kits bought, 3 patterns planned, and the 2009 Paula Vaughan Quilt project. I am not crazy. I think. OH HELP. I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE.

ETA: OH JOHN RINGO NO. I had a math error in my spreadsheet. I'm not down from 1.4 to 1.3. I am down from 1.4 to 0.9. Is it even going to be possible to get up to a 1.5 ratio again? Clearly I need to be knitting more projects from the stash. And quickly.

The cross-stitching is still going well, but I couldn't take too much time off from knitting. I started up a Prismatic Scarf, from Feather and Fan. And it's looking nice!

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Yarn used: Comfort by Berroco, color 9810. Needle size: 5mm.

The sheep in question is a small sheep who lives in the library. She is a sturdy and stable sheep, standing easily on her four hooves! (A noteworthy talent in plush sheep.)

I've been curious about acrylic/nylon yarns for a while. It's much, much, much nicer to work with than straight acrylic, but I don't know if I'd want to do anything bigger than a scarf or a hat with this particular yarn!

Oh, backstitching, how I hate you. But you sure make things look pretty.

The problem with working primarily on cross-stitching is it's hard to see much change (especially if you play WoW instead of crating, ahem). So instead of showing you what I've done on the Elegant Kimono pattern, I bring you some blasts from the past:

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I have many, many more things… which aren't framed. One of these days we'll get around to framing and hanging them. Eventually!

Well, the Powers of Two blanket is just not enchanting me right now! It's been a chore working on it, and when that happens with a project, it's time to put it in the craft room and move on to something else.

So I've picked up something I haven't worked on in a very long time:

This is a kit from Dimensions ("Elegant Kimono"), and it's lovely. I actually have a few large-size kits I've bought, fully and entirely intending to make them, but haven't gotten around to it — if crafting, I tend to knit! But I do love cross-stitching. My house actually has a surprising amount of cross-stitched artwork in it, so on Thursday I'll be adding some pictures of finished projects that I have around the house. :)

(The sheep, by the way, is Ovistine again! Hi, Ovistine!)

Right now I figure — rather than boring people with the same Powers of Two blanket I've been working on for weeks — I'll talk about how I learned to knit. :)

I'd always been interested in learning to knit, but the closest I'd ever gotten was making big floppy loose I-cord on my fingers, something I learned in elementary school. (And man, that's fast. If I ever need big floppy loose I-cord, not that I can imagine why I would, I'll do that instead of knitting it.) My mom didn't knit, although she did do counted cross-stitch. I'd done plenty of cross-stitching over the years (and eschewed stamped in favor of counted, which just looked nicer to me), but knitting and crocheting had always intrigued me.

So one day I picked up a booklet called 10-20-30 Minutes To Crochet, and gave it a shot. It didn't take long to figure out what I was doing. I bought a ton of acrylic yarn, made blankets and throw rugs, and for a few months was pretty much obsessed with crocheting and very pleased with myself.

At that point, we moved from our apartment to a condo, and I picked up another book — The Complete Idiot's Guide To Knitting And Crocheting. I bought — and wow, big mistake here, which I wish I'd had someone around to tell me — a pair of 14" aluminum straight needles. With which I proceeded to try to knit slippery acrylic yarn. HORROR. Oh, man, what a terrible, terrible idea that was. I remember throwing my needles against the wall at one point as I tried to learn how to cast on. For some reason I was trying to learn the cabled cast-on method first… another horrifying mistake!

But I perservered, and eventually I produced a peach-colored acrylic dishcloth. After that I had a little more confidence, bought some better needles, and turned out hats and dishcloths and blankets for a few years, using mostly bamboo needles and acrylic yarns — although I quickly reserved Red Heart-style yarns for crocheting, as I realized it just wasn't as good for knitting as Wool-Ease and other such things. It crocheted up fine, though!

A few years later I taught myself how to knit socks, and I've probably made more socks than anything else — it's the only thing Grant will let me knit for him (well, this is not strictly true, I just have yet to design a sweater for him that would look good on his body shape and would be comfortable for him to wear; I think if I made him a zip-up cardigan he could take to work and wear when he's cold, he probably would), so most of his socks have been replaced with wool socks at this stage.

It has never occurred to me not to knit in public. I get a lot of comments from strangers on it — mostly they just want to know what I'm knitting — and it's an interesting ice-breaker, although when I'm not really feeling like being social it can be kind of frustrating having my knitting thrust social contact upon me. But you know, c'est la vie — I'd definitely rather take my knitting places and have it to occupy me rather than being bored or having an activity that I can't do and talk at the same time. (Okay, the awkwardness of that sentence's construction makes me hurt, but it's early in the morning, whaddya want.)

As you might remember, but likely not!, I have two goals in terms of stashbusting for the year:

• Complete, frog, or throw out 1.5 projects for every 1 project I start.
• Work two stash projects for every new-yarn project I start.

As of right now, I have completed/frogged/tossed 38 projects this year, and started 26 new projects, putting my ratio at a solid 1.5:1. Hooray!

I have ten projects currently on needles, and at this stage, I have also tossed or frogged every ancient WIP in the house, as far as I know. On one hand, this helped my organization immensely; on the other hand, it means no more easy ratio-bumping. But that's a good thing! It means I have more incentive to work on projects until they're done.

The only unfortunate thing is that I'm kind of stuck on larger projects for a while. I don't have anything I could polish off in a weekend — I suppose maybe a pair of socks. But it's kept me going on that Powers of Two blanket even when I'd have much preferred to cast on something new (like a felted sheep or somesuch).

As for stash-to-new, my ratio is currently a very solid 3.7 — I've worked 37 projects from the stash and only 10 projects with new yarn.

However…

In terms of new yarn purchases, things I have not yet knit up, I can think of at least five that I've made this year (although, now that I think about it, five is not so very many — those purchases just involve a LOT of yarn). Two of those purchases have definite uses in mind; three of them don't. It might be a good idea to start adding new yarn purchases to the ratio just so I have a better idea of how my stash is growing or shrinking. However, I've gotten a bunch of new storage containers this year to help store the yarn (yay!), and if I would just gather up my yarn and PUT it in the storage containers, the sofa in the guest room would not be covered in yarn. Alas, I have not done this yet (and anyway, piles of yarn seem like happiness-producing objects to me and not clutter, and it's not like we have pets). But perhaps someday soon!