RAR MADE THIS!

Celebrating Fiberlicious Friday

Rio de la Plata sock yarn

Garnstudio Camelia Superwash

Louet Gems in Baby Lilac

Hand Painted Knitting Yarns Sock Merino Superwash in "Tosca"

... and now back to knitting the Clapotis. I'm aiming for a weekend cast-off.

Clapot-this!

So, I realize that I am very late to the Clapotis party. The patter never really appealed to me, especially reading all the accounts of people who sent this one into hibernation out of the need for anything but stockinette stitch. One thing I noticed, though, was that these sleeping beauties always somehow made their way out of the darkness of bottom of the WIP pile.

It isn't so bad really, the knitting. The knit stitches through the back loop every few stitches break up the monotony a bit, and my decision to go with a larger gauge was definitely a good one.

The yarn is also a plus. Wool in the Woods' "Frost" has a hint of nylon that lends a very subtle sparkle which did not translate to this photo at all. I'm not really a sparkle kind of a girl, but week after week as I worked at the knit shop, this yarn kept talking to me. When the shop owner gave me a gift certificate for Christmas (!!!) it came home with me.

It's the perfect thing for keeping my mom's shoulders warm at church, I think, and after only a week of work, I'm on the home stretch on the sucker.

Oh... and the kitty really likes it, too.

New year, new yarn

So now that we're eight days into the new year, I've finally found myself with the time to take stock of my life, knitting-wise. I've been more prolific already this year than was in 2007... I'm on the home stretch on a pair of socks and I'm a few inches into a fair isle hat.

The Ravelry queue is nice and tidy, with deadlines and stash yarn picked out for each project. I've got a lot of fun projects planned, and I'm excited. You've got to love a clean slate.

Currently, the socks on the needles are the Merino Lace Socks from Interweave's Favorite Knitted socks. Just before I sat down to type the post I had finished the third gusset decrease on the heel of the second sock, and I'm loving it. The first sock is beautiful, and it's currently resting on the new sock blockers I picked up from The Loopy Ewe. I'm knitting them out of Fleece Artist's Sea Wool, which has been an interesting experience. The yarn just feels like luxury with it's 70% merino, 30% sea cell content. However, when knit up, it's not as soft as I expected. The yarn is also a bit splitty which sometimes makes me bonkers. The yarn and the pattern are a nice fit, though. I'm sure the feel of them will be much improved after their first wash.

In my element

I keep hinting about change.  There has been a lot of it here lately, which tends to be almost a constant in my life.  These past few weeks have been scary, exhilarating, freeing, and prolific.  I have been knitting on a more consistent basis than I have in years.  I've been dyeing yarn like a crazy person.  I've been spending time with friends.

Three weeks ago, I quit my job.  "The Job" as I always referred to it here, consisted of working as an inbound customer service representative for a major wireless phone service.  It was awful.  I did it for just over a year, and I cannot begin to express to you how thrilled I am to be out of that place.  I feel, oddly, like I got myself back from some dark place that I was trapped in.  I spent my days doing something I hated, and each morning as I arrived there, I had that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that can best be described as the way it felt to show up at high school without having done your homework.

I walked out on a Saturday and only went back to turn in my letter of resignation.  I have since gotten my job back at The Knaughty Knitter (best LYS ever) working a few days a week and teaching scattered classes.  I'm also working at a bookstore, and have finally found the time to set up my own Etsy shop. I've been having a good old time over at Ravelry, and I have finished several things. 

Sometimes I can feel people not understanding when I try and tell them how much I love knitting, yarn, and the rest.  My goal now is spend a bit more time with people who get it, and spreading the love as much as I can.

These have been some of the best weeks I've had in a long time.  Welcome me back.

No more nesting on the couch!

I signed up for Weight Watchers today.  This is something a bit foreign to me, as I've always been one of those people who claimed not to care about weight. Turns out I didn't care because I was happy with the way I felt.  That's changed.  I stepped onto a scale today for the first time in months and it was quite the eye opener.  I've got an initial goal of losing ten percent of my body weight which equals to about 17 pounds.  That seems like such a huge goal for me right now, but I'm going to try it.  Consider this my first official leap into the world of dieting.  Wish me luck.

In other diet news, I am officially on a yarn diet until the end of the year.  My stash has been sitting stagnant for months now, and I've become more of a yarn buyer than a knitter.  I've got too many projects in the works to count, but as soon as I find the charger for my camera's battery, you people are going to start seeing some progress.

I'll probably attempt to document the weight loss effort here as well as the stitching progress.  Right now I'm trying to focus on getting out of the funk I've been in where all I do is work and complain about work.  Somehow I've let The Job become my life.  The problem with this is, I hate The Job.  I would leave, but the benefits/pay are something I couldn't find anywhere else.

So... I'm going to do more things for me.  I'm going to start going to knitting group once again.  As soon as I get a firmer hold on my bank account I plan on starting up with some yoga classes.  I am going to knit for at least one solid hour a day.  These things aren't hard, they just demand that I shed the layer of laziness that has been covering me lately.   I'm pushing it off, though.  I'm knitting lace, socks, and sweaters.  I'm getting off of the couch more often.

I'm listening to more music.

Funny how easy it is to forget yourself sometimes, isn't it?

In the meantime

New yarn! Clockwise from left: Skacel Lace weight merino being knit into Fiber Trends Seascape Shawl, Trekking XXL (color 100), the ball of Karabella's marble I needed to finish my sweater, and All Things Heather sock yarn in Vacation.

I think my knitting mojo is coming back. Here's to hoping.

The incredible growing collar

Do you ever knit and knit and knit and find yourself unable to see progress? Mhmm. Yeah. That's where I'm at. I've been focusing most of my energy on the Shawl Collared Sweater that I started ages ago. I just recovered the pattern after having lost it for quite a while, and I quickly finished up the front and sewed it onto the previously finished back. Now I'm working on the collar, and it just doesn't feel right. It seems as though the collar, which is created by picking up two new stitches at the end of each row, is going to be hoodlike if I don't do something about it. I'm in that strange limbo place where I can't decide if it's time to rip the collar out and try again or if I'm worrying over nothing. Troublesome.

The picture at the top is of an impulse buy I made at the store after teaching my class on Saturday. We've got a skein of Schaefer's sock yarn, "Anne" in a lovely green variegation which I'm thinking is going to turn into a pretty pair of Baudelaire socks. I also picked up the current issue of Knit.1 (which has an interview with Project Runway's Kara Janx!) and the Berroco pattern booklet for thier new yarn "Keltic." There's a vest in there that tickled my fancy.

I'm going to go dig into that sweater again. Expect progress photos tomorrow.