Yarn Along

I'm back with the yarn along this week. You can join us here. I've still been doing some knitting and some reading but renovations and that thing called work have really been crimping my style recently! The bedroom is almost complete. All the trim is back up and the major work is done- now it is all those fussy last details that are holding us up. I need to finish (uhem start) the window treatments and Frank is busy putting together the closet organizers that we bought. So I am saving pictures of that until it is completely finished and we can have a real reveal!

Reading-wise I am still working my way through Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee's series Yarn Harlot. I am almost done with Free-Range Knitter and I still think these books are hilarious. Maybe you have to be a knitter to truly appreciate them but I think it would suffice to even know someone who is a knitter so that you could see the humor. Part of the reason I am rolling laughing most of the time is because I see myself in so much of what she writes about. Recently I was reading the section where she talks about not being able to afford good yarn and how most people look at her like she is nuts when she spends $25 on a skein of sock yarn. I can totally appreciate this (well not the sock yarn part so much... that is more my mother's thing) seeing as I fondly refer to myself as a yarn snob. I made a few things with some acrylic red heart and I will never do that again (except...b/c of course there is always and exception... toys.... maybe...but really I'd prefer some superwash). I just love the feel and texture of wool. It is so nice and stretchy- even cotton doesn't give you the same ease. And maybe since I am fairly new to this knitting thing I like it because it is forgiving.

She also talks about people's motivations for knitting and how many women learn to knit when they are pregnant. I'd like to pretend that isn't me and in a way it isn't. My mother tried to teach me to knit for years and as a teenager I think I maybe finished one scarf- I'm not even sure I finished it! But I found my knitting nitch after my first son was born and we used cloth diapers. He was such a super pee-erand I wanted to try wool covers but I just couldn't afford them. I could, however, afford some yarn and figuring that I was a pretty crafty person (I made all his cloth diapers didn't I....) I was going to knit him some soakers. And I did. And a new obsession was born. In part it is because knitted baby things are totally adorable but I also discovered that i could take my knitting with me anywhere- something I couldn't do with my sewing. If we go to the beach or are playing outside or the kids are even just playing in the house I can have my knitting with me wherever we are. The same can't be said of my sewing. And as I get faster with the knitting and projects come off the needles more quickly I find myself getting sucked in even more! I even have more than one project on the needles at a time now- shocking I know but I just can't seem to help myself.

That being said the major project right now is a hobby horse for James. Xander finally decided he liked his and doesn't really want to share it. I knew even when I made the first one I'd be required at some point to make one for James and that time has arrived. I'm using Cascade 220 again for this one because I loved how it felted up. James' horse is going to be orange so there will be no mistaking whose is whose. This one is working up more quickly than the first- the nice thing about repeating a pattern- although I made the same mistake along the neckline with this one as I did on Xander's so at least they will match! I am going to felt the ears separately this time though and sew them on after everything is felted- that way I can make sure the positioning is right and that they don't flop. I may also felt this one a little harder so it is a little smaller. I just don't want to lose all stitch definition. Xander's is a pretty massive horse for such a little guy. More details here. James' birthday is in 3 weeks so I am on a deadline! Can believe my little guy is going to be 2???? How did that happen?

PS- my garden has turned into a jungle of squash. 1500 sq feet of waist high squash plants- even the beans have been overrun so if you need some squash let me know!