I was at my LYS the other nite, with my favorite girlfriend’s doing what we love to do. Knit, drink tea, and of course talk about knitting with a bit of local gossip tossed in for good measure 🙂

The subject of finished projects came up. Many projects were “off the needles” but then had stalled. It is that “sewing them together” thing that was in the way of enjoying and wearing a beautiful finished project. So I asked how they normally assembled their projects. Needless to say, I now understand why it was so difficult for them.

They were trying to sew them by holding them in their lap, pinning them together, then crocheting or mattress stitching in thin air!

So all you struggling finish folks, let me help you simplify the process and get you back on track. First off, you need to sit at a table, you will need a couple of towels and be sure to block all your pieces before you begin.

Why towels do you ask? As you can see in the photo, I use the towel to create a bit of stickiness, it holds the piece’s neatly in place. You lay your pieces on the towel, aligning them to perfection, then pin them together and finally stitch your seams together. All while your pieces lay perfectly on the towel.

As you move up the piece you can slide the towel toward you, or left or right, whatever is comfortable for you. The stickiness of the towel is holding you seam line in place. Easy, quick, you are in control.

When I move to the sleeve, or in this photo a skirt, the towel is rolled in the center so it again will hold the seams in place, but also allows you to keep from picking up the reverse side of your garment.

Again you can slide it around on the table, to have your stitching work in a comfortable location for you and nothing falls apart.

OK enough hints, pull out those sweaters, grab a towel and get stitching! I am racing you to the finish line…..

I have a confession…. Ever since Sock Summit I have had a wee bit of a stash. It is highly organized and all is logged onto Ravelry so that I can cross reference to patterns and use when the yarn and the pattern are that perfect match.

I keep that stash in a cabinet under a window seat. All is neatly packed away in ziplock bags and out of sunlight. Perfect stash management right!

Also notice this is one door of two doors under the window seat. The other door is not mine, but belongs to a large bass speaker for the TV/music sound system, not a problem right…….oh so a problem!

While I am traveling, in NYC, shopping at Purl Soho…for more yarn of course…..himself decides to do a little work on the speaker set-up. Little did I know that the cables for the bass speaker run thru the back of my side of the cabinet. BUSTED!!!

Yup, himself had to remove “a hundred years worth of yarn” to get to the cable. He is “not sure what I was thinking as the colors were weird”.  “And I certainly don’t need to buy anymore yarn” Shall we say he lacks yarn design/vision, and truly no understanding of a little stash.

I have taken time to again put the stash neatly into the cabinet. And each time I pull from the stash, I let himself know that it is being utilized.  And just in case you read this blog……..a little confession……..a delivery from Catskill Merino Sheep Farm is coming this week.  My stash is running a little low……….LOL!

We finally got our one big snow of the year up here in the Pacific Northwest. Enough so that schools were out and roads were snow and ice packed. That means we were snowed in! The rule of thumb for our house is when the mailman makes it thru we know we can get out as well. We waited three days for the mailman………

The good news, we did not lose power and I had plenty of yarn! No bad news.

The Yarn Harlot must have known I was snowed in and wanted a little something fun to knit. I am certain she release her mitten pattern “Cloisonee” just for me…ya think?

It is the perfect stash busting mitten to knit. A dear friend had sent me some yarn bits for the holidays so I actually had some bright colors to work with. Karen, if you are reading this, the purple and red was yours.

The mitten pattern was fun to learn and to knit. A perfect little something to break up the monotony of staring at the snow.

In a couple of days, all the snow melted and life returned to normal. Mittens finished waiting for the next cold day and I finished my little Black Cardi!

Whats next? How about some pillows? Vogue Knitting just came out with some beautiful pillow patterns. I think they have my name on them.  I finished the afghan so now need to freshen up the pillows to blend with the new afghan.

I know, soon I will need to buy a new sofa to go with the pillows…….then will need a new afghan to go with the new sofa……we all know how the decorating saga goes………..

I made it!!! Even though I am a few days late…..I did it!!!! I finished all my UFO’s of 2011!!! The huge afghan is finished, to the delight of the cats. It is beautiful and when all was said and done worth the effort.

For those inquiring minds the pattern is from an old Leisure Arts booklet and the yarn is Vanna’s Choice. When you have cats the washability factor is a must. But….this is a really nice yarn for the price, and I will use it on other projects such as hats, gloves, slippers all that need that tough wearability.

So how am I beginning the new knitting year? Why in black of course. I had some black Sublime in my stash and it is becoming a beautiful little Maple Street Cardi from Interweave Fall 2009. I am thinking rhinestone buttons for this one.

And the first road trip of the year is taking me to NYC.  My take along knitting is the Ribbed Pencil Skirt from Churchmouse. In black of course, with a little dark brown edge at the hem.

Any yarn store suggestions near Times Square?

I promise to do a color change up soon. But for right now being “in the black” feels just right.

It finally feels like the New Year. The official begin of a new year for me is when I finally sit down and watch the Rose Parade. I know that to you all I am a day behind, but I am going to relax and enjoy my New Years Day moment with a promise to be back on track tomorrow.

What a year 2011 was! Lots of knitting, singing, cooking, traveling, and a successful work year as well. No complaints from me. I just hope the good karma continues for 2012.

A few 2011 photos for you,  my holiday cookie tray…..

.

my favorite sweater……..

my favorite mittens……

my favorite hat……

my favorite shawl….

the item I have worn the most a skirt….

and the joy of having only one carryover project into 2012….the afghan.

My promise to me is to finish it up in January. I am 80% there. I can do this!

I hope you too had a great year of food, family, friends, and knitting.

Happy New Year!!!!

It was supposed to be so easy, the gift knitting was pretty much finished. The first round of shopping complete. I even had a photo of that beautiful, calm, transition moment between Thanksgiving and Christmas

……..and then….the melt down happened.  No not me, not even himself, and the cats…well cats care but not that much. No much worse, My COMPUTER!!!

It became, angry, crazy, yelling at me….telling me it had been attacked my a major virus and I needed to BUY this software to fix it NOW!  Yep, that’s right the major virus was the software to buy.  Not only does it jam your computer, it also wants to steal your credit card information.

I did not buy into it’s request. I pulled out all the stops and ran every type of virus cleaning software I had to no avail….

I called in the big guns…corporate IT….we walked thru even more virus cleaning software. No luck, the ugly just got worse.  Then those horrible words were spoken “You will need to ship your computer to corporate”. Yup, had to pack it up and ship it over 2,000 miles and wait several days for the return of the computer.

Withdrawal set in, I am use to being connected and my Blackberry was just not enough. eMails were stacking up, blogs were now behind, as well as status reports, expense reports, budget reports……..

The computer finally arrives 4 days later, 371 emails later, every id and password needed to be reset, favorites needed to be located and reset.  But I am finally back and connected!

So, the melt down put me behind. By the time I received the computer, I was now beyond my week of calm. I was on the singing week. That’s right, I sing in a Chorale and a Women’s small group. The Christmas Holiday performances hit on the same weekend. One week of 4 rehearsals, one 4 hour dress rehearsal, and two Chorale performances and one Women’s small group performance.  Can I have a little knitting PLEASE.

I survived all and am getting back on track. For you, I have two patterns coming this next week.

Coffee Run, a fun poncho

and Frosty, beautiful fingerless gloves.

In the meantime, I have cookies to bake, gifts to wrap and a sweater to finish for me to wear Christmas Day. 

No more melt down’s I promise!

That’s right all my friends that don’t knit and even some that do have started the “you could knit that for me” hints for their holiday gifts.

I fixed them this year, sorry you are tooooo late! All my knitted gifts are finished!! Yah right….right….except maybe I will make just one more scarf or another pair of slippers…….

So without giving too much away,  here is what I began in June. Yes June. The weather was warm, I did not want heavy sweaters on my lap, but scarfs and slippers, and little gifts were the perfect summer knits.

I made lots of multiples of some items.  One for me, a dozen more for gifts. Not only was I able to perfect and scale the pattern by making it for me first, I got all my BFF’s feedback of the ” I like or don’t like, I would like one in blue please”.

Below are the photo examples of what I made for me and the patterns I used. Your gift is neatly hidden away until just the right moment when we both can share the joy of a knitted gift together. In the meantime, I get the joy of a little knitted stash!

All patterns are from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas just in case you want to knit a little gift for someone as well.

Shoulder Cozy

Turkish Bed Socks

Churchmouse Family Slippers