Little Oak in progress. I’m making surprising progress this weekend with chasing my kid around, trying to keep him from killing himself by standing on the rocking chair, etc. But little sweaters for little munchkins are always a faster knit given their small proportions.

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…

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…

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. I’m not looking at the internet for holiday ideas. That means no…

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…

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!…