I'm Back

     I'm back both in both the literal and figurative sense  I'm "back"writing a blog post and I feel "back" to my old self again.  The wonders of modern medicine and talk therapy!

     It feels wonderful to be enjoying knitting again.  Since I last posted, I finished that scrappy linen stitch scarf as well as a shawl (shown above) called Areas by Martina Behm.  Areas was a very simple and soothing knit with no purling at all.  Because I didn't do a gauge swatch (I know, I know, bad Ann.) it came out smaller in length measuring only 72 inches instead of the patterns stated 84 inches. I am a tight knitter by nature and should have gone up a needle size, but in the end the shawl turned out to be perfectly fine for how I would like to wear it come cold weather.

     The yarn I used I've had in my stash since Mother's Day of  2015, so it's high time I used it up.  It's called Charlemont by Valley Yarns and consists of a blend of Merino Wool, Silk and Nylon.  I used their colorsways natural and navy blue as these two colors represent about 80 % of my wardrobe and as I mentioned earlier they were already in my stash.  I enjoyed the feel of the yarn while knitting and adore the sheen when it catches the light, but it is rather a splitty yarn.  That said, I am already planning to use it again as it's such an excellent value for the yardage and fiber content.  Of course, there is the fact that I still have 2 more skeins of the navy blue left in my stash.

     Yes, I am already off planning a new project.  Yay!  I love the planning stage.  My wardrobe lacks any summer short sleeve sweaters or dressier tops so my plan is to next knit Tegna by Caitlin Hunter to fill that gap. Tegna is a swingy oversized short sleeved sweater which consists of a lacework hem, stockinette body, dropped shoulders (I been seeing these everywhere on knitting patterns lately) and snug short sleeves.  My 2 skeins of navy blue yarn will not be enough to complete the pattern, but then I thought of adding stripes to the stockinette sections and I think it will work out.  I landed on the colorway called fawn which is a warm light brown shade.  The lace, neck edging and sleeve edges will be knit solely in fawn and the rest of the sweater will consist of narrow 2 row stripes of navy and fawn.  I think it will look smashing!  So, I have purchased two more skeins of Charlemont from WEBS and now am anxiously awaiting the mail.  After having downsized my stash I was a bit loathe to buy more, but it will help lessen my stash in the long run.

     This method of first accessing my wardrobe to see where there are gaps, second to view my stash to see if I can make what yarn I have on hand work, then third picking out a pattern is how I plan to go about my knitting in the future.  In this way I am hoping to only make what I feel I need and not just getting pulled in by a the latest patterns excellent photography/model/yarn and making something that doesn't suit me or my lifestyle.  I'm hoping to slow down my knitting and I think this method will help me do just that.  Why am I wanting to slow down my knitting you ask?  Well, I've decided to get off the producing treadmill and focus more on the enjoyment of the project in and of itself.  Because really, what's the rush?  I'm not a designer with deadlines to meet.  I've gifted so much to my mother that she has told me to stop knitting her sweaters.  My own closet is already pretty full so I don't need much more.  Why speed through the knitting simply to have something new to photograph?

     This documenting of knitted products I find good in that it's enjoyable to see your past knits and your progression as a knitter, but I think it can cause stress too.  As much as I enjoy Instagram I feel it is one of the culprits of this stress to produce more so you can share new photos of what your working on and thus feel part of the knitting community.  It's this feeling of more, more, more that I want to rid myself of , instead focusing on that I have enough already and I'm only refining my wardrobe here there.  Do you know what I mean?

     To keep myself in check of accumulating endless amounts of yarn for endless amounts of projects I found that I have to miss out on going to fiber fairs, knitting shops, knitting retreats and classes.  This leaves me sometimes feeling like I'm missing out, but I know myself too well that I can't just view.  If I view, I want, and if I want, I buy.  Then I feel the push to knit faster and faster in order to get through all that yarn.  It's time to stop the madness.

Some Knitting

 

     Hey there.  I thought I'd pop back in for another entry to tell you how things are going.  Basically, it's better, not great yet, but waaaayyyy better than where I was in early Spring.  I believe we found the right mix of medication and certainly having a wave of beautiful sunny days which had me walking my dog around the neighborhood is helping too.  Getting out and moving my body has been really wonderful after our long snowy winter when people just gave up shoveling their sidewalks as we continued to have snow until the end of April. 

     The question then is - is my creativity coming back along with my better mood?  Well, yes albeit much slower.  I did purchase this lovely skein of naturally dyed yarn to tempt me into knitting, hoping to turn it into a lightweight summer scarf with this pattern, but it is not what's calling me back to knit.  What is speaking to me, oddly enough, is my bag of sock yarn scraps.  The rather clean slate I accomplished by selling off most of my stash was not enough for me.  So, I decided to knit up my sock yarn scraps, leaving only a small bag of bits and bobs for sock darning, to shrink my stash even more.

     Over the years I've started and stopped a lot of scrappy knitting projects.  Do you remember when "hexipuffs" were all the rage as well as the mitered square blanket?  In the past I've started both of those patterns, but lost interest and drive along the way.  They were basically too epic.  Having a penchant for scarves, I decided to try this very simple linen stitch scarf as the way to use up all my sock yarn.  The means with which the slipped stitches blend all the colors really appealed to me.  There was the hurtle though, of the humongous amount, 500 in total, of cast on stitches (this scarf is knit lengthwise instead of the usual widthwise.) It took me a few days to complete casting on all those stitches, as well as a kind husband to check on my counting skills.  Finally, I got to the fun part of trying to blend the yarns in some aesthetically pleasing manner.  In my first attempt, I switched yarn every two rows picking a contrasting colorway each time.  This method turned out a bit muddy looking.  So, I switched over to grouping the yarns in like colors i.e. there might be 10 rows of blue, then 8 rows of yellow etc., this method made the colors stand out and shine much better.

     I'm knitting a bit each day, but only for short stretches.  There is no hurry.  After all, it's now Spring and the weather is warm.  I might not even keep this scarf for myself as I have enough cozy scarves for Winter already.  Luckily, my local knitting guild takes donations for charities each year so it will find a home with someone who needs it.

     This brings up an interesting topic which I think about often:  how do creatives create with out amassing huge amounts of knitting, clothing or whatever your end product my be?  Now, I believe creating is vastly important.  For me, it's an actual need and I feel a hole when I go long stretches without making something.  But, when does it become too much?  Have a bit of a think on this and I'll talk about it more in my next post.