Checking In

After a wicked bout of the flu -- you know you're sick when you're too sick to knit and too sick to read -- I'm starting to get my sea legs back under me. However, I have completely lost confidence in my ability to control my own life. I hope to regain my balance. I'm taking steps toward regaining my balance. Whether said balance is ever regained--well, let's just say this little tightrop walker would like us to leave the crash mats in place for a while.

I set some knitting goals in early January. Here's the update:

1. Get life back in balance so knitting is a part of the routine again. Working out, too, which leads to --
HA! I made it to ZERO SnB meetings in January. I made it to one open knit at Nana's in January, coming in just under the wire on the last day of the month. And that was it. Being sick for a few weeks has a way of undermining one's ability to socialize and relax. (pout)

2. Get back on the skinny-4-stash plan. Holidays + stress + change in meds = weight gain. This is not the result I want.
Well, the good news is that my insanely bad virus stripped off the weight gain from the holidays. Hello, cloud? Is that a silver lining?

3. Finish the clapotis. I'm probably two repeats from the decreases, so the end is near.
Done! Hot diggity damn! Not only done, but presented to the giftee who declared it "very nice" because it won't make her too hot.


4. Finish one pair of socks. I have three pairs currently OTN. Two is plenty -- one pair to sit on my desk, and one to carry along.
Done! Well, sort of. I finished the blue and green striped cashmere socks, which I would gladly show you if my camera and my new computer would ever learn to shake hands. However, in cleaning out a storage nook at work, I found three mystery skeins of yarn wound into cakes, no labels. All three are clearly sock yarn and one probably has some mohair. Naturally, I grabbed a convenient pair of spare sock needles (what? you don't all keep extra needles at the office?) and cast on for a pair of monkey. So I finished a pair of socks, but I still have three pairs OTN.


5. Frog the Butterfly.
Done! The yarn has even been rewound and is ready to knit again.

6. Make some progress on Fulmar.
Haven't touched it. I've finished the stranded border and knit about two balls on Catherine Parr since the last update, though, so there is progress on the Starmore set. I'm maybe four or five inches from the armoles on the body (knitting in the round). I have a hope of finishing Catherine Parr in the foreseeable future even at my snail's pace, and right now, that's a lot better for my ego than Fulmar.


7. Dye Lady Eleanor and her matching hat so that they actually do match.
Um. Right. I think I know where I put Lady Eleanor during the last cleaning binge. And the dye--the dye's gotta be around here somewhere too.

Actually, I did go online to read up on dying techniques, and I don't think my plan is going to work. I think I have to dye the whole thing flat black and forget about trying for anything else.


Februaary Made Me Shiver...

I have set knitting goals for February and I'm even making a little progress already. Small goals for a small month. Plus, I have to dig out of the work hole from the combined triple wallop of staff changes, holidays, and illness. So there will be much work and some knitting.

1. Finish pink socks.
I just picked up the gusset stitches for the second sock last night, so this is definitely in reach. This is a slow project -- Lorna's Laces sherbet peach and pink melty stripes, just beautiful, knit at 9.5 stitches to the inch. But it should be done before the end of the month. Which is good, because I promised myself I won't buy any sock yarn until I finish a pair. (Storage issues -- sock yarn turns into stash when you can't fit it all in the closet anymore!) And Nana's got some lovely new sock yarn, so I'm motivated to finish the incredibly dense LL pink socks.

2. Two balls on Catherine Parr.
I've already knit one, so we're halfway there.

3. Finish orange felted clogs.
This was a project I intend to give to my grandmother. I thought Christmas at first, but then life happened, and now she'll just get them when she gets them. I've only knit a couple rows, so there's a ways to go on these.

And that's it. Three wee goals. I'd also like to MAKE my camera and computer work together so I can post pictures again. But, you know, I dwell in the real world these days.