Survived

So, the spring show is over and it went so well. I had some pretty modest goals heading into the show and blew them away in the first day. The second day was painfully slow, but I am still really happy with what I accomplished. I am pretty sure that I will be able to put myself in the black now. It is such a relief knowing that I should be able to pay back the money owed to our personal accounts and that the business can stand on it's own moving forward.

Needless to say, no pleasure knitting has gotten done recently. I'm still working on the same projects I have been; ribby cardi and the Hedgerow socks are still both on the needles with pathetically little progress made.

But, I have decided to take 2 weeks and do some research for E's residency applications and then I am off to the races to get ready for the fall shows. I am hoping to do two of them, both near my hometown. There I will be able to focus more on doing knitted items. I've consistantly sold out of felted hats and am hoping to have tons available for the fall.

Final Countdown

All is well here Chez Wool. I have been sewing like crazy to get ready for the craft fair next weekend. In the last couple of weeks, I have cranked out an average of 5 bags a week. I realize it doesn't sound like too much given that there are 24 hours in a day, but given the following constraints, I think I'm doing pretty damn well.

• I do have full-time employment which guarantees me a paycheck, provided I show up (they are sticklers about this point). Not to mention health insurance. (-8.5 hrs: 15.5 hrs)
• Said employment requires a commute of nearly an hour each way once I factor in dropping off the kiddo at daycare. (-2 hrs: 13.5 hrs)
• Sleep. This one is important as I tend to get a bit, um, grouchy if I don't get my beauty sleep. (-7 hrs: 6.5 hrs)
• After such a restful (*snort*) night's sleep, I must go through my patented beauty ritual in the morning and get the aforementioned kiddo out of bed, into presentable clothes and out the door. (-1.25 hrs: 5.25 hrs)
• Dinner. For some reason certain people in the house do not think fending for themselves is an appropriate strategy for a 5 year old. Where is Darwin when you need him. (-.75 hr: 4.5 hrs)
• Housekeeping. You in the back. Shut. Up. Even using this term loosely, I need to scrape the top layer of crud off the horizontal surfaces of our home at least occasionally. And do some laundry. I draw the line at reusing certain articles of clothing. (-.5 hr: 4 hrs)
• Childcare. Caleb seems to think that he needs to have parental attention every so often. Greedy child. (-2 hrs: 2 hrs)

That leave a whopping 2 hours to check email and do everything that I deem necessary to my sanity. Oh, and sew.

Let's not mention that for some reason every craft store in the area has stopped carrying magnetic snaps in the last 2 weeks. So, yesterday after going to 3 separate stores and calling others, I was searching frantically online trying to find someplace that would be able to ship them to me via 2 day service and still be reasonably priced. Luckily, I found a place, but I feel sick thinking about how much it is costing to have it shipped. Blech!

But, honestly, things are going well. Eric got back his grade for his last rotation and he got an A. He is done with one of the rotations from hell. Only 3 more months before he gets a couple of "easier" rotations.

We were even able to squeeze in an honest-to-goodness, real-live, no kids allowed, date on Saturday. You know, where the restaurant has glass glasses and candles. There are no play structures or cartoon characters involved. Just dinner, a movie and a drink afterward. A very nice time was had by all.

Set up for the show is on Friday. After it ends on Sunday, I am planning on taking a couple of weeks to start researching some of the locations we are looking at for residency. I am both excited and nervous about this next step. It is an awfully big decision to make and we get so little say in where we finally end up. I just hope that we end up someplace family friendly.

See you all next week and hopefully I will be able to do some knitting of my own!

A very good day

I am so excited today. I met up with a local woman who makes handmade soaps and took 26 bars on consigment to sell with my washcloths. I am pretty excited, they smell great and are reasonably priced. I think I will make up a couple of quick drawstring sacks that can accomodate both and sell the sets for $10 bucks. To me it seems like a great end of school year gift for teachers.

And, today I love the mailman (or at least the service he provides) because this arrived at my door bringing yarny p0rn to my home. Thank you Carrie! She custom dyed this lovelyness and I don't think she could have gotten the colors any more perfectly. There is enough variation to provide interest, but not so much that it will obscure a pattern. Now, I just need to find the right pattern!

I am a knitter, honest!

I keep starting every post with an apology and a promise to start posting more after I finished the craft show.


The craft fair went really well. I sold out of the adult sized felted hats by mid-day on Saturday. They were so popular. I will be working really hard to get more of those done for next year. I will also be including a few accessories for them as well to make them more appealing. (I took one and pinned a broach on it so it looked like a cloche from the 20's. It was very cute!)


I received a couple of custom orders as well, so I've been scurrying to finish those up. The first hat I finished up already and when I called the person who ordered it, she canceled. I hate it when people are flaky like that. I put a lot of effort into getting it done quickly and then I get nothing for it. (Well, not nothing, since I can put into inventory for next year. But, still, it is pretty rude if you ask me.)

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I have an announcement.


Brace yourselves.


I have finished a pair of socks.

Not just any socks.

The socks that sucked the soul from me.

I have finished the Pomatomus socks.







I started these last summer. But I had a few problems with the yarn. It was knotted in at least 4 places and when I went to return it to the store, the hours on the card that I picked up when I purchased the yarn that week were wrong. Then the clerk was rude to me and said that I couldn't possibly have gotten the card there recently. She didn't even have the class to apologize when proven wrong either. (It was the last time I shopped there.)

Then, Eric got so sick and life fell apart. I knit on these while he was in the hospital and ever since they have left a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.


Then, when I decided that it was not fair to the yarn to let it languish in my WIP basket forever, I found this. I finally screwed up the courage to try and fix them this weekend. I decided to reknit the 2 rows that were damaged and just run a strand through all of the remaining loose stitches. I think it came out pretty well, all things considered.


Honestly, it is as if I was not supposed to knit these socks.

Fini

So, the big craft fair starts on Friday. I'm working it on Saturday and Sunday and am really looking forward to it. For me, a huge perk will be seeing my friend, Nicole, who recently moved back from Germany. But, I am hoping to get some solid information on what styles of hats and bags sell well. This will really help me determine what types of materials to purchase for the coming year.

I've started the application process for fairs in the spring and summer and a lot of them require photographs of booth displays. This will also give me the opportunity to snap some pictures of my stuff all set up. When I sold bags at the Granary in October, the owner took a birch branch and wound white Christmas lights through the twigs. She is kindly letting me use the same display for the show and I am hoping that she might let me keep the branch. If not, I will try to go for a hike at my parents and get another.

I have just a few more items to finish up. One hat still needs felting. Over the weekend, I did a felted bag that I need to attach the handles and line. If this sells, I am thinking of adding it to my website. They are not cheap because of all of the time that goes into it, but using the knitting machine makes it much easier.

Once the show is over, I am planning a complete revamp of the website. Hopefully, there will be enough sales at the show to pay back all of my personal money that has been invested as well as purchasing a new digital camera.


I have been working on Ribbi Cardy, which has been a welcome relief. The back is done up to the beginning of the arm hole shaping. I have both fronts on the same circ and they are about half way to the beginning of the shaping. I fully intend to have it done before Christmas.

I will try to snap a few pictures and post my progress on the cardi.

So far so good

I stopped to check out the sale at the Grainery this weekend and as of noonish on Saturday I had sold four bags from the main building. I’m not sure what sold from the other buildings because it wasn’t tied to their computer inventory. My sister had sold some aprons and my mom sold a Flying Geese pattern quilt for $250.00. Not to bad considering that there had only been a day and a half of sales. There are still 4 more days, so I am hoping to get at least $500.00 gross sales. I am being very good and resisting the urge to call up every hour to see if anything else has sold! I am guessing that this would be in very bad form and that she might not invite me back next year.

I also took a bunch of stuff up to LaCrosse for the Holiday Fair Sale in November. I had 18 hats ready and over 35 wash cloths. The woman who runs the Grainery should have some hand made soaps left over from the sale and she is willing to let me have them at cost. I think it would be a great pairing to have the cloths and the soaps in an old-fashioned washbasin. I think my mom even has an antique washboard… hmm. I am also planning on hanging a rope and pinning sample cloths to it. Now I am on the home stretch of finishing off some more bags and just a couple more hats.

I am officially declaring Bloglines Amnesty. If something momentous has happened and I haven’t commented, please accept my sincere apologies. In a generic, blanket statement, congrats on all FO, new babies (which I guess is the ultimate FO), pregnancies and birthdays. My condolences for all tinking and frogging that may have occurred as well as any illnesses.

Dreamin' large

I was reading through my bloglines this morning when I came across this post that intrigued me. Over the years, I have given my dream home lots of thought. Mostly when I buy a losing lottery ticket and am waiting not-so-hopefully for the actual drawing.

For the most part I don't want anything too extravagent (unless we win the lottery - then all bets are off). Honestly, I would rather live in a smaller house and be able to do more things then be saddled with a mortgage that strangles us. That, and I am not keen on cleaning. Give me one or two extra rooms - these can be converted attic space or a finished basement - as long as it is clean and dry - I'm good.

But my ideal crafting room is pretty clear in my mind. It would be sunny and well lit with full spectrum lighting. Yarn and fabrics would be displayed beautifully in cubbies and shelves along a wall. In plastic to keep them clean, of course.

I would definately need both a sewing machine and a serger. The work space for sewing would also have a table with a permanently mounted self-healing cutting mat.

This would also be where I would have my spinning wheel and drum carder. Yes I know I don't spin yet, but I've tried it a couple of times and I enjoy it so much. It is another of the things that my hands just seem to know how to do. It just makes so much sense to me. Of course, I haven't done much and the fates will smack me for sounding cocky.

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I haven't been knitting much for myself, but have been whipping out the washcloths and felted hats. My goal is to have have about 30 hats for the fair and at least that many washcloths and handbags. Right now I am currently at about 25 washcloths and 7 hats. I've also have an inventory of about 15 bags. It doesn't sound like much, but it is quite time consuming to get all of them made.

Not much progress has been made on Sizzle, but I am feeling the need to get working on it. I really want to get it done before the end of the month so that I can wear it during the summer.

desperately seeking mojo

As I am sure is obvious - I have lost my blogging mojo. If found, please let me know. Rewards available.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record - life has been crazy. I finally reached my breaking point and left my job last week. This is good and bad. I get to spend some time with the family before Eric goes back to school at the end of June - good. But, we don't have health insurance at the moment - bad. I have more time to interview - good. None of my suits fit properly anymore - bad.

Overall, I am SOOOO much happier. It really is the best thing for our family even if the next bit could be a wee bit scary.

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Most of what I have been knitting of late has been for profit and I have been sewing quite a bit also. To date there are over 20 washclothes knit for the craft fair in November. I have also been working on a few other things. Now that I have a bit more free time I will try to post more regularly.

bagatelle

I have started to launch my new handbag business and I am so excited because I made a great sale this weekend. One of the local, funky, boutiques bought a total of six bags! Granted, it isn't a huge number, but it is a great needed influx of cash.

I have also started uploading photos to the new shop website.

In my effort to sound like a broken record, I have to admit that I haven't done much knitting that isn't related to what I can sell. The creative juices haven't really been flowing unfortunately, but hopefully, the knitting mojo is just on a short vacation, instead of a long term sabbatical. I've finished several more washcloths and three more hats.

Yet another picture free post

Still not much is new on the knitting front. Mostly it is just washcloths and felted hats. But really, as drained as I am by work, I don't have the creative energy for much more. Soon I will have to drag out the yarn again for Sizzle. I am looking forward to making it, but finding the time to knit what I want is hard, harder than keeping a four year old quiet. Yup, that hard.

On the sewing front, we found a store that is willing to take 4 each of a couple of different bags, so I am burning the midnight oil trying to get them completed. The thought of making a couple of sales and recouping the burgeoning costs is beyond delightful!

I promise that I will take pictures of them once we get a few more nice days. I will then need to use the ol' work computer (which has Photoshop) to edit them. After that, it is the whole issue of getting the website up and running. I do have a tax ID number, but after much consideration, the name just isn't working for a handbag business. I am thinking that I will make is much simpler so that I can use it for either endeavor.

I'm tired just reading the to-do list. What I wouldn't give for a quick nap.

Yikes

I am constantly amazed at how busy life is. Apparently, I am either a slow learner or just plain stupid because I feel harried and hurried every day. At work and at home. And I just realized that I haven't posted in a month.

I swear I haven't fallen from the face of the earth, but am working diligently on a TON of projects. All fiber related, but very few involve knitting.

I know that I have mentioned the craft fair more often than is probably necessary, but I was moderately sucessful at it and will be displaying again in the fall. To that end, I have been working like crazy to create stuff that will sell. I know that the hats will do well and I have been picking up Patons Classic Wool on sale to make them.

But, I have also decided to do handbags. For a non-sewer, this is quite a challenge. Overall, I have been doing okay. I sold one to a friend at work and a shop in my hometown bought 3 of them. I have a couple more on consignment there and a shop in Milwaukee took two more on consigment as well.

If we ever have a nice weekend, I will take pictures and post them.

Check this out

I found this on Unravel Me. I think I know what will be on my Christmas cards. Is it wrong to be disappointed that they are machine knit?

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In other news, I have convinced Eric that 60 inches is plenty long for a scarf that will stretch. If I knit it any longer, it will end up hanging out of his coat in a month and will be chocking hazard. Now to bind off and weave in the ends.

I am left with half a ball of black 22o superwash and no ideas on what to do with it. I have a couple of balls of 22o superwash in a different color and they might look good together... I originally bought it to knit a sweater for Bubba, but once I got it home, I wasn't feelin' the luv for the color for him. It is more periwinkle than it looked in the shop. So, 660 yards plus ~100 ish yards in black. It might just have to be for me. Knit in the round, I might be able to squeeze out a sweater.

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The bag-a-thon continues chez knitter. It feels freakin' weird to be sewing, and actually producing something that doesn't cause me to hang my head in shame. I like this pattern, but have a tough time getting the round bottom sewn into the sides. I have sewn 3 together so far. The first one is completely done. I have a second one that I did in the same fabrics and that one just needs a bit of hand finishing.

The third will be a bit trickier as I have added some trim to the bag. I managed to get all of the pieces lined up with each other, but I realized that they are at a slight angle on the bag. I can't decide if it is worth ripping it all apart. I think I will just let if fly and see what happens.

One of the other patterns in the package has square sides and I thinking that I will try that one next. It should simplify the whole sewing on a curve problem.

I have included a link to the sale page of a new website I am creating.

Branching out

Eric and I have been going back and forth over the wisdom of knitting for a craft fair and the consensus is that, economically, it doesn't make sense. The reality is that a washcloth takes one night to knit and I can sell it for about $5.00. Not a great return on investment. Felted hats take several nights to make and I can sell those for about $30.00.

On the other hand, sewing is fast. I mean really fast. So fast that I (and my professed hate/hate relationship with the d@mn machine) whipped this beauty out last night.


I might be hooked. I love this fabric, it is the most beautiful chocolate color with the bright blue and coral patterning.

#########

As promised, I have a picture of Eric's scarf, finally. I still have about 8" to go, but we are rounding the final bend and I am glad.

It's an illness really

Honestly, I should just know better.

$14.00 and 2 pounds of Peaches n Creme later and the wash clothes are flying off the needles. Three are already finished with a fourth on the needles. Since Saturday afternoon. And I found this website. I like that most of the patterns have pictures so you have some idea of what you are knitting.

Seriously, could you resist something that cost $0.65 worth of yarn to make? Didn't think so.(Figuring 1.5 oz. per washcloth, roughly) The Daisy colorway - cutecutecute. The blue isn't doing it for me so much but someone out there will like them.

The best part, to me, was the following conversation with Caleb (who just turned 4).

Me: knitting furiously
Caleb: Whacha knittin' Momma?
Me: A washcloth.
Caleb: For me?
Me: Would you like it?
Caleb: Oh, yes Momma *imagine a wistful, little sigh as it is said*
Me: What do you like so much about it?
Caleb: 'Cuz it's special, 'cuz you made it.

Is he trained well or what?

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I have joined the second ball of yarn for Eric's scarf. I swear on all that is holy that scarves are the knitters version of purgatory. They go on forever and no matter how simple or intricate the patterning, you get bored. This one is simple, but the opportunities to mess it up are endless. That is, they occur on every wrong sided row.

What does intrigue me about it is that the fabric is not behaving at all how I expected it would. The pattern is straight out of one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries (number 2, I think). Nothing fancy, just a simple 12 row repeat, repeated until your eyes start to bleed. It is based on a P3, K3 ribbing and it moves 1 stitch over every right sided row.

I expected that it would scrunch up like the Wavy did when I knit it. But, I am fascinated by the fact that this scarf lays completely flat with no scrunching up or curling at all. Granted, it looks just like the sample in the book, but somehow I was thinking that she must have blocked the snot out of it to look that way.

Once I have decent lighting, I will post a picture of it.

It is done

I won't be posting much in the next few weeks most likely. My personal life has gone to hell in a hand basket and I don't quite know when it will be better.

Because of the icky personal stuff, which I won't burden you with, my folks came to help for a few days. I priced and labeled the items I have for sale at the craft fair. I think I ended up with about 18 items. Not as many as I would have liked, but better than none. If all goes well, I should sell a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff. Mom will take care of the sales tax and I told her to take a bit more to cover her income taxes. So, my hope is that I will come away with at least$150 after all is said and done.

Next year, I want dishcloths. Cheap and easy, no long term project commitment.

I have also been working on a hat and am depending on response, I am thinking of selling the pattern. Pictures will come once it is completed.

I feel kinda guilty...

I hardly had a chance to work on my Socktoberfest Socks. (These will definitely be the plane knitting for an upcoming business trip to Orlando after Thanksgiving.) Yet, through the magic of random number generators, I won this great needle case.



I love the colors and can't wait to have such a pretty way to organize my dpns.

At long last, the new hire at work will be starting on Monday, just a week before the first of two huge tradeshows in the month of November. Stress is my name, crackin' up is my game.

I have a few new finished pieces for the craft fair and will snap some pictures before they get sent off.

I have also been designing a hat that was originally intended for sale, but I have fallen in love with it. I may try to sell it to The Garter Belt... If that doesn't work, then maybe knitty.

Long time no see

You would think that eventually I would learn that life just isn't going to settle down. Work has been beyond crazy, so much that I wake up nauseous from the stress. But on the up side is that my boss told me on Friday that they made an offer to someone. I used my contacts in HR to see if she had accepted yet, but she hadn't yet. God I love working around the system sometimes!

In knitting news, I am still blowing through the stash. I finished 5 items in the last couple of weeks. All of them for the craft fair. There are 2 garter stitch scarves, one reminds me of indian corn, the other is variegated reds. Both were knit lengthwise because the thought of doing 754 short garter rows made me want to drink. However, 15 long rows wasn't so bad. The striped hat is from Regia sock yarn, just over 1 skein. The blue marled is from the yarn I bought from the neighbor's estate and the blue beaded hat is another Odessa.

I am thinking that I need to do up a couple of lacy type scarves from some more of the blue alpaca. It is a light sportweight so, a lace pattern will knit up fairly quickly (I hope). I might just have to make a set for myself.

Busy, busy, busy

Ugh, the broken record thing again.

Anyway, this is what I did this weekend. I am pretty happy with the results even if it took 2 trips through the dyepot. This yarn sucks up dye like crazy. The first trip through ended up looking like the very first batch I did even though I added significantly more dye to the pot. Instead of just using Kool-aide, I also picked up some Wiltons, burgandy, but needed to add more Kool-aide because it wasn't dark enough.

This will be for the soles of the felted clogs.

I have started yet another hat for the stinkin' fair as well as another garter stitch scarf. This time I decided that I would knit the length of the scarf so it is only about 10-15 rows instead of 753 soul-sucking rows. Hopefully the pooling won't look stupid. No pic of this yet as it is all scrunched up on the needle and doesn't look like much yet.

Finally knitting content

Life has been crazy of late. (I feel like a broken record - someone please tell me that eventually life will settle down.) Thankfully it looks like there might be improvement on the horizon on the job front. My manager finally got around to interviewing candidates for the open position in our department. I believe she has narrowed it down to 2 people to have the VP interview. Hopefully before too long we will have a new hire. I cannot wait to pass off some of the piddly stuff I am doing. Nothing is hard, but there is just an overwhelming amount of work to be done. Yesterday, Eric was able to take Caleb to daycare, so I went into work at 6 am and I didn't leave until after 6 pm. It was a horribly long day, but I felt like I made some progress on the things I HAVE to get done in the short term.

For work, we have a huge trade show in Orlando in November and I am planning it. We are taking key customers to a fancy schmancy dinner at Wolfgang Puck's and yesterday, I was invited. I don't really want to go, I just want a piece of the dessert. One of my favorite colleagues from work is also going and I would really rather hang out with her.


On to knitting news. I started a pair of the Fibertrends Felted Clogs. These are made from Fleisher's Big Spice. This is a yarn that I acquired from the my neighbor Marie's daughters recently. Actually, I got a bunch of yarn from the estate, but some of it was rotten (the fibers are dried and break very easily) so they got tossed. The pattern calls for 2 strands of worsted held together, and the Fleisher's is a bulky yarn so I am using just one strand. I overdyed the yarn with kool-aide for the body of it, but I don't really like the look of the slippers in just one color, so I am thinking of trying to find some Wilton's so I can experiment with a darker color for the outer sole.



This is such a clever pattern. As I was knitting the inner sole, I had no idea of how the shaping would look, but it is great use of short-rows. And it is super fast. I got about half of one done in just one evening.

I also have another hat going for the craft fair. This is from some Regia Crazy Stripe 6 fatig. I got it ages ago because it was on clearance. But, I could never bring myself to make socks from it. It was just too wild for me. I got a bit inspired and decided that it would make a decent hat to sell. I am not using a pattern. I cast on 140 stitches and did a K3P1 rib. Nothing fancy. The down side to a hat in sock yarn is that it takes forever to make any vertical progress. But I love these stripes in a hat.

Hopefully, today the needles I ordered from Knitpicks will arrive. The gremlins in my house have taken all of my US 3 needles. The only one I can find is a 29" Susan Bates which just won't work for a hat. Honestly, how does that happen. I don't have them in any WIP and am pretty anal about putting the needles away when I am done with them because I don't want Caleb to break them accidentally or get hurt by them.

Like everyone else out in blogland, I LURVE them, the super pointy tips, the smooth joins, the flexible cables. I bought a couple of longer lengths to try magic loop for socks. I have never tried socks that way before. I am not a huge fan of 2 circs for socks because I invariably end up knitting onto the wrong needle. I have a feeling that eventually I may just end up purchasing the knitpicks set because some of the larger needles I have are old Susan Bates that I got before I learned much about needle construction. They just don't feel comfortable in my hands any longer. This definitely goes on my wish list.

Where's the Maytag man when you need him?

I finished another hat this weekend and was going to felt it yesterday but the washer crapped out in the middle of a load of puky sheets. (I love having a kiddo who is under the weather, don't you?) It washes and agitates just fine, but it won't spin out at all. Thankfully we still rent while Eric is in school, so it isn't really my problem. I am a bit nervous that it could be from felting. I use a zippered pillowcase but it is possible that some of the fuzz escaped at some point. I am crossing my fingers that the repair man won't find a hunk of fibers in the pump, not so sure how to explain that one to the landlord and get out of paying for the repair.

I cast on again for the Pomatomus socks. I just love the design but an struggling with the gauge. Actually, that isn't true. I'm struggling with my cankles.

I decided to go up a needle size to see how it looks. This yarn and this pattern together really need to be knit on a US 1.5 (2.5mm) but it ends up a smidge too tight on me. The socks look fabulous until I put them on. I won't describe it, wouldn't want to sear any one's eyes. It probably won't look the best, but if they fit I will be happy, because no one, I mean no one will get my first pair of Koigu socks as a gift. I love this yarn in all of its purply goodness.

While in the hospital on Monday, I worked on this hat for the craft fair and I have decided that I MUST get my hands on some more of this yarn because it is the absolute best. I am endlessly fascinated with the color variation. Yes, I realize this is a commercial yarn, not hand crafted, but it rocks. I can so see a kid's sweater done in this. What a twee little sweater. Have a friend having a baby. must. get. more. yarn. Baby bolero from One Skein, or MDK...

The ball band on this says 3.5-4 and I knit the cap up on a US3. Dense as hell, but it should make it warmer. I never understand knitted caps that are knit loosely. The wind whips right through them and defeats the purpose of covering your head.

Is it a bad thing that I had to buy another contain for my yarn? I didn't think so either. I currently use these and love them because I can pull out just the one I need and I don't have to dig endlessly. My collection of sock yarn has expanded exploded recently and I needed to add another drawer for just that. It works well because I can endlessly sort and resort how the yarn is organized. (Mind you, it really needs to be reorganized, not just petted.)

How do you organize your yarn? As I said, most of mine is in the drawers, but then, there are all the WIP in the baskets next to the couch. This area is in a sad state, because I have a bit of a problem with startitis, but never really finish a lot of the projects.

Current WIPs

• Purple Cotton Fleece tank - headed for the frog pond, destined to become Sizzle, I purchased the pattern already and just need to frog.


• Lace scarf from recycled mohair - this is from the shawl I had given to my grandmother, one of my first knitting projects. I will most likely pull this off the needles and try another variation on the same lace. This has sat for nearly a year.


• Pomatomus socks


• Stork Cap - you haven't seen this yet. Nothing fancy, just a beanie for the craft fair


• Felted Hat - just need felting, which requires a functioning washer


• Chenille scarf in broken rib to match the cap. While I love the look of the pattern, it is killing me to knit it. Mind-numbingly boring. Oddly, I don't find plain stockinette in the round to be boring at all. The vagaries of a simple mind never fail to amaze me.


• Peacock Feathers shawl in Merino Oro

My intention is to finish a few more items (I need to get to a multiple of ten to print off the labels) for the craft fair and then I will start working on cleaning up the WIP pile. A lot of these will be sold, but they don't take much concentration and so get left for riding in the car or watching TV.