A Restless Mind

I'm behind.  I've been behind for a while.  I was only a little behind until jury duty week.  Now, I'm way behind and can't seem to catch up.  This weekend I picked and bagged blueberries until my fingers were blue.  That meant that the green beans didn't get picked.  I also found this in the garden.

Surprise success!  It has been 6 years since my last good crop of corn.  And I found this.

11 pounds.  I think it may be the only one I get but still, it's still pretty cool to get it at all.  Alas, I picked it way before ripeness (I thought hollow sounding = ripe).  Taking care of the corn meant there was no time to process the tomatoes or turn the plums into jelly.

Luckily though, at some point one of my troublesome projects disappeared (oh, darn).  But on the plus side, I freed up some time to finish one side of my sweater.

This has been a terrible summer for crafting.  There has been a lot going on that has conspired to take time away from crafting.  As a result, it has been slow.  Very, very slow.  Everything is getting worked on but time has been limited.  There is the diaper bag.

It should probably be about double the height to allow for shrinkage when felted.  The kid is a month old.  So now I've missed his original due date.  New goal--before kindergarten.  Aim low, I always say.

And there is the sweater.  Maybe by Christmas.  The short sleeves should come in handy then.

Look, I'm not one to fling around accusations, and generally I like to believe the best about people.  But I call it as I see it and here it is:

What is the point of a standard, people, if no one follows it?  What you see on the left is a ball of 100g/223 yard worsted weight yarn.  What you see on the right is 100g (both balls together)/ and 222 yards worsted weight yarn.  Um, no.  I have to call BS on this one.  One thing is not like the other.  

My picture does not fully conveyed the difference in the thickness of these yarns.  Is this the equivalent of vanity sizing for yarn?  Are we basically saying, "You're not bulky, Patons. You're just worsted."?   

1.  Craft on diaper bag.  I don't know how a beginner project can give someone such fits.  I mean I'm a reasonably intelligent individual, and I'm using internet and book resources to make sure I'm interpreting these directions correctly.  It isn't a matter of errata.  It's a matter of semantics.  When you use the phrase turning chain, I assume that means the work should be turned even if you don't spell that out.  Yet my stitch markers keep moving rather than staying in the corners which would imply I'm crocheting on a slant.  If the baby hadn't come early, I might feel more kindly about the amount of experimentation that is having to take place here.

2.  Catch up on house chores after working through last weekend.  I was behind, but now have the laundry done, house cleaned, and pantry stocked.

3. Make more bread.  Honey Wheat, my new favorite. 

4. Garden.  Pick and process green beans for 5 pints.  Pick zucchini weighing 3 lbs.  (It was hiding).  Discovered that my zucchini plants have beetle borers and will likely be dead within the week.  This happens to me every year and only to zucchini and squash plants.  Try eco-spray anyway.  Dig up garlic.  Got 14 inchelium reds and 25 chilian silvers.  I will not use the chilian silvers again.  The growing circumstances were ideal and those "bulbs" are barely the size of nickels.  The flavor is good but they just aren't big enough.

5.  Finish second panel on the sweater.  Until my needles come in from WEBS, I'm in a holding pattern on this one.Thankfully, I seem to be able to manage a beginner sweater pattern.  Apparently, stockinette I can do.

During vacation, I finally made it back down to one of the best fabric stores in our area, Sew Bee It.  They recently added a yarn to their selections, not just a shelf, a whole room full of yarn.  But I didn't go for yarn though, I went for fabric.  I bought a great beginner sewing/quilting book and was going to buy some fabric for some small practice projects.  The search was on for fat quarters, preferably in pre-coordinated bundles.  Well, they didn't carry but a few bundles and they were all jelly rolls.  A few minutes into trying to mix and match a few on my own but not having a definitive project in mind, my brain cramped.  To relieve the strain, I wandered into the yarn room.  $84 dollars later I had 5 balls of yarn and a sweater pattern in the car.  Now I already have a project going but the cat sat on the pattern.  So, I told myself I'd just swatch a bit.  Previous experience has taught me that I'm going to need a smaller needle than suggested in the pattern.  So I started with a 6, knitted for a while, and measured.  Not even close (which since it was only 1 needle size smaller than suggested didn't really surprise me).  Apparently you can drive a Mac truck through my knitting, so large are my loops.  So I sucked it up and pulled out some 2s, knitted a while, and measured.  Still not right but much closer.  I ended up with 3s.  What am I going to do when I try to knit socks?  Those patterns call for 2s.  By the time I size down my customary 4 sizes, I'll be knitting with fishing line.  Anyway, since I already had the swatching done and the cat was still sleeping on the pattern, I knitted a bit on the pattern.  So now I'm working on a sweater.  Whatever.  

Stephanie at the YarnHarlot.com has decided to host her version of the knitting olympics, and I want to join in--except I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take long for me to manifest some seriously irrational behavior, sobbing into a pile of ripped back yarn, calling up the publisher to rant over the clarity of pattern directions, and well, you get the idea.  The stress of busy season brings it out.  I want to take on the challenge and lay down some serious yarn, needle, pattern smackdown, but alas busy season is laying down its own smackdown on me.  I haven't worked on orphan project #1 (see June 2009 posts) in a week and am 2 chapters behind on my Pulitzer book, Age of Innocence (which has turned out not to totally suck like the movie did).  Unless I find another job, my best bet may be knitting a bathing suit for the Summer Olympics.  After all, I have a pattern for that.  :)

Christmas is over.  We've stuffed the house and our bellies.  Now that the gift giving is over I can show pictures of the completed shawl.  It is the Fern Lace pattern from The Little Box of Scarves, knitted in Schachenmayr Alpaka (which is really how it's spelled--I checked it 3 times).

The shawl is done.  Washed, blocked and wrapped.  I'm so pleased it's all I can do not to just stare at it while rubbing my hands together and cackling.  This is how much yarn is left.

That is 10 feet of yarn.  I was getting a little concerned when I got down to the final rows.

Furthermore, all the baking is done.  The Christmas bags are assembled.  I feel that now would be an appropriate time to rest on my "laurels."  At least for a few days...

Even though I compiled my 2009 projects last night and was pleased to see that I've managed four decently sized knitting projects (counting the one I'm working on now) and one itty-bitty knitting projects, I also noticed a trend in what I've made this year--simple and square.  Sure I learned a few things like how to do a ruffle and knit front to back.   And I'd never made booties (though these were not knitted in the round, which feels a bit like cheating).  But apparently I need to step it up, go for something not square or at least different.  This is a bit discouraging because I've already been thinking about my busy season project.  I'm a CPA (certified public accountant) and my crazy time at work is from February to April, during which nothing hard or complex gets done at home.  I just don't have the brain cells to devote to it after working 60+ hour weeks.  What's discouraging is that I was contemplating one of two throws--one is a series of squares (all the same-a cabled pattern) and the other a series of rectangles (all knit--it's the log cabin throw from Mason Dixon knitting).   Um, so they are simple and square.   So I have to pick out a project now that I will work on after the simple, square projects just to make sure I plan on breaking out of my rut and doing something different.  Suggestions?  Keep in mind that 1)I'm still relatively new to this so fair isle socks with a twisted cable will defeat me in a heartbeat, and 2)I'm slower than molasses in January so the harder it is, the smaller it needs to be or see comment 1 about defeat.