Back on the horse!

Whew! Sick of my own whining and ready to quit wringing my hands and get back to work!

I have a busy day today (hence the procrastination blogging) because tomorrow morning, we’re heading of the the Missouri Fiber Retreat, yippee! I am incredibly excited about all my classes! I’m taking:

Indigo Dyeing–We’re dyeing samples of various fibers, but we also get to dye another 4 ounces of whatever we bring. I don’t know what to dye! Maybe I’ll bring a few different options and wait to see how the samples come out.

Entralac Knitting–I’m hoping this will be a nice stash eater for blankets. I don’t really approve of it in clothing (too fussy/bulky), but I love it in blankets. As a knitter, you really have to guard against letting fun techniques impair your judgment. If you let yourself knit whatever is the most fun, if you wander into clothing, you can come out looking like the wacky spinster aunt all the time (this is not my actual aunt, but the imaginary wacky spinster aunt you always see on TV and in movies–eccentric clothing, lots of feathers, an “artistic” nature, lecherous comments about younger men, sort of a horny Madwoman of Chaillot type). It’s a constant struggle. Of course, there’s always mittens. Mittens are a safe haven for fussy techniques. Yay, mittens!

Soap Making–Although my vow against new hobbies this year means I won’t continue the soapmaking at home, I’m really eager to see how it’s done for future reference. It sounds like a science experiment, and it will be nice to learn it without investing in supplies and worrying about another mess to clean up.

Felt Boots!–This is the one that thrills me the most! I’m hoping this means valenki, but even if they’re just floppy slipper things, I’ll be pleased.

Marta & grasshopper Jen are coming too, though they’re taking totally different classes. Whirled Jen was supposed to be coming, but her husband’s down with the flu. She’s so much fun, so I’m disappointed/hopeful he’ll have a speedy recovery & she’ll be able to join us later. But either way, it will be a blast! We’re all in the same cabin, too!

Now I just have to figure out what WIP to bring.

WIP

I don’t have the yarn for the rest of my upcoming craftzine pattern, so that’s out (sadly, because it’s both fun and easy to knit).

Destash Cardi

My stash cardigan is kind of a pain in the ass for traveling, what with the 5 different balls at once in play, so that’s out.

Drops 110-2 in Silk Garden Lite & Fisherman's Wool

I also have a year-old WIP I could bring, my Drops cardigan. But first I need to track down my annotated version of the pattern, because I changed the gauge/math. Eek. I hope that’s not lost to the ages. I guess I could always start counting stitches.

Oh! What about my crochet potholders for the swap?! That’s what I was working on last year at the retreat, too.

Now that I’m feeling a bit less mopey, I’m evaluating my crafty Überlist goals from last month. (But before I do, can I just mention that my Überlist list year is CLEARLY too ambitious and runs completely contrary to the spirit of the Überlist; that is, to chose super-easy goals that make you feel like a genius instead of super-hard resolutions that make you feel like a loser. I’m already firmly in the second category.)

The funny thing is, yesterday, I thought I’d done a terrible job for February. But when I actually tallied it up, it’s quite impressive! The only think I failed on was the building scarf, my little woolly albatross.

8. *FIX: Mend or eliminate an item of clothing every week. Fixed a dress and some vintage PJs, sewed a button back on Ron’s coat, and hemmed 2 pairs of his jeans.

50. *MAKE: Photograph and document each foot of building scarf and make a giant scrolling panorama page for it. I got this photographed and spliced into a giant image file, but have yet to make a page.

56. *MAKE: Sock a month. (Mitten = sock.)  Spinsters Club mittens.

57. *MAKE: Sweater a month. I was counting this in the fail column, then I remembered my Critter Sweaters!

58. *MAKE: Spin a pound a month. Check.

63. *ORDER: Destash NET 100 balls and 10 pounds of fiber I’m down another 20-odd balls between destash and knitting.

60. *MAKE: Write, photo, make a pdf and publish a new free pattern every other month. (Free!) Two free hat patterns.

104. *TCB: Write, photograph, make a nice pdf and publish one pattern for sale each month. I did write and photograph a couple new patterns, but I didn’t seal the deal with a new pdf in my ravelry store, so no countsies there, either. Refined & PDFed Thrifty Critter pattern, along with a bunch of new clothes for him.

And on this I fell behind again:

47. *MAKE: Knit 2 feet a week on the building scarf I think I got about 5 or 6 feet done.

Man. I should have reviewed that yesterday, when I was feeling shitty! I got a lot done in February!

And here are my crafty Überlist plans for March:

1. Finish Craftzine sweater (#57)

2. Spin 8oz Funky Carolina BFL, Christmas 2007 present from my mom, and 8oz Hello Yarn BFL, Mitten School 2010 (#58).

March pound to spin

3. Spiral Bedsocks from Melinda‘s awesome Harveyville handspun. (#56)

Harveyville Yarn!

3 Replies to “Back on the horse!”

  1. Ooo, please tell how the Felt Boots class goes. I hope it’s valenki too — my daughter (born in snowy Kazakhstan) so wanted a pair for Christmas a few years ago, but even though they were trendy I couldn’t find a pair in her size. I saw a photo of a pre-felted one in Russia, and it was as tall as the man holding it!!

  2. Who hasn’t been keeping up on their RSS feeds? That would be me! I can’t tell you how excited I am that you have plans for the handspun Harveyville yarn! :) I suppose I need to find a pattern for my handspun Harveyville and get it knit up before Spring Yarn School. Then, we can take pictures together or something. Hehe! We’ll see if I can crank something out in time. Off to search for a pattern….

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