A.D.D. craft-a-holic
I improvised a bit with these mitts. Nothing really appealed to me on my Ravelry searches, and I ended up wasting more time looking for a pattern instead of just getting started knitting. I flipped through a few of my magazine stash and ran across the Hitch pullover and the cable pattern was interesting, thus the “hitch mitts” were born.
Yarn is Patons Kroy FX sock yarn I picked up on clearance at Joanns (or possibly Hobby Lobby, but most likely Joanns).
Because all new babies need a little sweet friend. Pattern is Elephant Boy, yarn is some misc acrylic I had around the house left over from other projects. Modified the sweater to have a garter stitch panel across the body and sleeves because it was faster and easier to keep track of than all those knits and purls to create the textured version in the original.
My friend Dawn brought in her very first sock in progress to show me. I officially have a new sock knitter in my friends group! Convert ALL the knitters!
I’ve put myself on what is known as “cold sheep” for 2016, which in knitting land means a yarn diet. Since I have more than enough yarn to keep my occupied for at LEAST a year (probably two with the way my life is right now), the goal is to not buy any more yarn.
There are, of course, exceptions. If yarn is needed to finish a project, for example. Gift knits might be allowed provided I try super hard to knit them from the stash first, but I won’t even consider that until September or October when I really begin thinking about gift knitting for the holidays.
Here’s my tentative plan for what I’d like to accomplish this year from my stash:
I really think I can knit more this year than just those, especially if I’m organized and don’t get bored and decide to cast on a few other things. But at the very least these 6 things are on the “must accomplish” list mostly because I have yarn for Declan’s sweaters and if I wait too long he’ll be too big for the amount of yarn I purchased!
Dear well meaning gift giver,
Hello! Can we chat for a second?
I’m a borderline hoarder. I’ve been pretty open about my struggles with getting rid of things so allow me to continue that here. It’s worse when I’m depressed – MUCH worse – but I have to make a daily conscious effort to examine the things that surround me and decide whether there’s something I truly need to keep. I could name off the list of stupid things I’ve held onto for far too long, but there’s some that’s really just too embarrassing right now for me to share and the list would be too long. So just trust me when I say that I have problems and it’s a daily struggle.
So imagine, if you can, how hard it is to get rid of gifts. Each holiday season comes and I bring things into my house that, ultimately, sit there for far longer than I’d like to admit. Because 9 times out of 10, I really didn’t need that adorable photo frame or that baking dish set. True story: I have that photo frame sitting in a basket in my “library” area with newspapers and books piled on it, and that baking dish set sat in the box in a corner of my kitchen floor for almost a year before I could force myself to take it to the Goodwill.
The thing with gifts that make them so difficult is this: gifts are… well, gifts. They’re something that I assume you lovingly shopped for specifically for me. I also assume that you put thought into it – you bought those baking dishes because you know I love to bake, and that photo frame so I could display the sweet photos I take of my kid. And I completely and totally appreciate that you took the time, the effort, and the money to try to get me something thoughtful. But THAT is the exact same reason why it’s so hard for me to get rid of things – because you took the time, the effort, and the money to get me something you thought I’d like. Getting rid of it despite not being able to use it makes me feel awful because I feel like I’m wasting your money.
It’s why, when asked what I want for Christmas (or birthdays), I have a hard time coming up with anything. I have more than enough and there’s rarely anything that I need (well, we need a new dishwasher to replace our broken one but I’d never expect anyone to buy that for me). So when I say gift cards for groceries or restaurants, or candles, or whatever else I come up with, I’m saying those things because those are what I know I’ll use. They won’t sit around and clutter up my house, and there won’t be any guilt on my part about using them or getting rid of them. And you won’t be wasting your money, either, buying me something that will collect dust in my house for a while until I finally manage to force myself to take it to the Goodwill.
So please, for the both of us, embrace giving me consumables: booze, food, gift cards… things that I can use and then, when it’s empty, be done with.
Your friend/relative,
Candice the borderline hoarder
My friend Liz likes to tell me to lower my expectations. It’s something I need to hear more than I like to admit, I’m afraid.
Every holiday season starts out the same – I get excited, the house starts looking like a Christmas factory exploded, the holiday obligations start, I try to do everything, and before I know it I’m pissed and hateful toward the holidays and can’t wait for them to be over.
In an effort to lower my expectations when it comes to the holidays, here’s a list of what I’m giving up this year.
Perhaps this really is my sign that I should not rely on the internet to make my living anymore. Maybe it’s the red flag in my face that I really should seriously consider a life off-grid with limited internet access. Or, perhaps, I’m just being a hormonal mess today and every little thing is pissing me off.
I know this isn’t a new problem. But it’s wearing on me. Look at that graphic – look at how many “picked for you” pins there are?? The fact is that any time I look at my feed 50% of what I see is this “picked for you” crap that I DO NOT WANT.
Websites need to make money to stay “alive.” I get it. I get promoted pins. I don’t even actually mind those at all. But having a large portion of my feed taken up with things I don’t actually want to see is ridiculous. KNOCK IT OFF PINTEREST.
A lot of people know that I spin my own yarn from time to time. I have this really lovely, old Ashford Traditional that I picked up from someone on Ravelry. It’s been a great wheel for me, and I’ve even splurged and purchased the lace flyer (for those not in the know, the lace flyer is a piece of equipment that you change out and it makes the twist go into the fiber faster, allowing you to spin thinner yarn. More twist generally = more strength in the yarn so you can get it thinner without it breaking).
The problem with a wheel, though, is that it isn’t exactly portable. They do, in fact, make “travel” wheels that are built smaller and some even fold up into a bag for taking with you. This wheel is not one of those. So when I go on trips much like this last weekend’s knitting retreat I’m left wishing I could spin but not being able to.
My friend Jen dyes yarn and fiber and started making the coolest blend of tech and hobby ever: a 3d printed spindle. I’ve had my eye on one since she started prototyping them, but I finally broke down this week and ordered one. I’ve never been great at spindle spinning – as soon as I used a wheel I was hooked on that and ended up getting rid of the spindle I owned. But I’m now several years in on this hobby and I’ve learned a thing or two and I’m now aware that my first spindle was too heavy for the yarn I wanted to make. Enter this little mini Turkish spindle: It’s such a cute little thing and it’s light weight enough to produce the yarn I want without the weight of it causing problems. And, of course, it’s small and therefore easy to take with me to spin outside of the house.
I toyed around with it last night and this morning and the spindle itself is balanced well and spins well. The problems are, frankly, user error and a bit of needing to get the hang of a spindle again after years and years of using a wheel. Stay tuned for updates on if I manage to get the hang of it!
So much for test dyeing ahead of time. Things don’t always go right, but being able to go with the flow makes life 100x less disappointing, yes? My fiber isn’t as vibrant as I had hoped it would be but it’s perfectly mellow and autumn woods-like and, therefore, a wonderfully perfect souvenir for our weekend away together. And I came home to find my new drop spindle arrived in them mail while I was gone (a 3D printed mini from my friend Jen of TurtleMade – I’ll show you later this week!) so I’m excited to play with it and this fiber and see what pretty thing the finished yarn turns out to be! That blue is a sock blank, and I folded it in half and dip-dyed it with some royal blue Wilton icing coloring. So pretty!