Marsbarn Designs...

This is what sanity looks like on the train to nowhere

While I was sitting for 3 hours and 45 minutes waiting for our train to get a new engine, I crocheted this lovely, soft piece of sanity. I've known how to crochet since 3rd grade, but I don't really do much with it unless Kalurah asks for pattern testers. (I figured, if I could follow a pattern, anyone could...) This neckwarmer is one of her wonderful patterns. There's something quite wonderful about making up a pattern made by a real person whom you can chat with about any questions that might come up along the way. Gotta love this crazy internet thing. Oh, and the really wild thing? I made this for me, and I'm keeping it!

(Oh, and yes, I put this in my knitting category, and yes I know it is a cardinal sin to combine the two.. but.. well.. I'm naughty that way.)

Yarn? What yarn? Where did THAT come from?

I bought yarn.
It called its siren song to me, and I succumbed. The purchase had the feeling of being a mad spree, a bit of a fling, a wild fit of naughty something.

For a while Big E had what I called his "Forbidden Army of Super Secret Guys" in the basement.
He would come back from the gaming store with a bag, scuttle into the basement, and then emerge flushed and stealthy. "Oh, I didn't find what I was looking for..." he'd mutter to me on his way past me. Now it wasn't that he wasn't supposed to buy these Secret models, or that he was being reckless with money. I think it was the feeling of doing something secret or forbidden, like eating sweets before dinner or sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar, that made him do it.

I think we all crave a bit of naughtiness now and then, after all we really are quite good so much of the time...

Yearning for Yarn, yet why?

I want to buy yarn. I yearn to acquire fiber. I feel the pull of the LYS (Local Yarn Shop), more dangerously I keep surfing on-line yarn sources. But I am slowed by an uncharacteristic need for a project BEFORE I plunk down my moolah. I know, I know, this reticence on my part is a violation of my crafting ethos. (Which reads: "Follow desire; collect and store; inspiration will follow.") (Or alternatively, "Buying when you see it, is better than whining when it's gone.")

I knit and I crochet. I knitted my first two pairs of socks last year. Okay, truthfully, I completed one sock, and have three opened toed socks waiting for me to try kitcheners stitch again. ("Lame!" you cry, yes I know.) I bought a new book on making socks which has been taunting me with its approachableness (not a word, I know) but the deed of actually casting on and beginning is just not happening. I also started to fiddle with crocheting some granny squares for an afghan... but then apathy struck... and yet, I covet yarn. Pretty, pretty yarn.. so soft.. so lovely... so addicting..

Ah temptation

Sometimes it is the small things that keep us from complete ruin. My favorite on-line yarn maven has updated her shop with yarn that tempts me in unspeakable ways (unspeakable because Big E does not want to hear me sigh and yatter about yarn). ( I particularly like "Monkey Flower" and "Arrr".) Yet, all financial security is not lost, because it takes me such a tremendously long time to knit socks, and all the yarn I yearn for is sock yarn. I still have an untouched skein of Yarn Chef yarn from 5 months ago, and until I work my way through my stash, I am not buying (sock) yarn. My yarn cache will not get away from me as my fabric, paper, button, ribbon, thread, and embellishment collections have. No! I will maintain control! Look, my sticker cache from the 80's.. almost completely gone. I only have an envelope or three left to go through. Yep, I am winning the war in that one. Now if I ever manage to cut my sock making time to a week or even a couple of months, I would be in real trouble... but what's the likelihood of that?

Extreme Knitting in the Wild

One of the other mom's at Camporee was making this gorgeous sock, when she reached the heel and realized she had forgotten her 5th double point needle at home. Did she give up? No! In true Extreme Knitting prowess she improvised a 5th needle from the quill of a found bird feather to hold her heel stitches! How cool is this?! There must be a Try-it or Patch for Improvised Knitting in Girl Scout lore.

The need for knitting speed

For 2 1/2 weeks, I was separated from my sewing machine. And if I had had my sewing machine, I might never have left the beach. One of my grandmothers actually had her husband build a sewing machine into the glove compartment of her car. She would sew as he drove. (I swear this is true.) But, being separated from my addiction gave me time to knit.
At home, I normally only knit when I watch TV. And I just don't watch that much TV anymore. So I did some serious knitting while I was on this trip. (Drum roll please) I finished my sock. I completed it in California. And my husband's reaction?
"Great you can wear them now."
"Um no, I finished my 'sock', singular. Now I have to do the other one."
"How long did it take you to make that sock?!"
"Ah.. 3 months..." He was not impressed! Can you imagine? (Humph!) I immediately cast on the second sock. And I finished it (well, except for closing the last 8 stitches) at the beach house.
Sock one: 3 months. Sock two: 1 week. And then I started my second pair of socks. (Which will sit, unloved, until my next trip away from my sewing machine, or until Ugly Betty starts up again.)

Projects update

I finished my felted bag tonight! Which really means that I finally sewed on the buttons and handles. I have wrapped and packaged it. Tomorrow I will mail it! (Honestly, I will.) It might even get around the world on time! Yay for a finished project!

My knitted sock has hit a roadblock. I apparently hit some sort of zen knitting trance and reduced about 10 more stitches than I needed to (which translates into 10 additional rows, sigh). So, I am unknitting currently.

I am washing the sashing fabric for the elephant quilt. So, by the end of the week I am hoping to have finished the quilt top.

I am itching to start something new. I put away some ribbon I purchased and ended up reorganizing my notions. Oh my! So many fun things... It was hard not to start playing. But, I need to finish the quilt top before I risk distraction.

Obedience continued

My husband harangued me about not actually writing anything in my post yesterday. He said he was very disappointed. I said I had been doing chores instead. He rolled his eyes at me!

SO! Here I am, posting instead of doing dishes... I am so virtuous! I actually listened, and obeyed. (There is a first time for everything.)

My sock has a heel, and I have finished reducing after the gusset. So now, I just have to figure out how long to knit the body of the sock and then tackle the toe!

I decided to give the 'phants eyes. But, they are simple little embroidered additions. They just give a hint of definition, without being distracting. I have four done; only twenty more to go. I am going to try and get as many done as I can tonight. Of course, those dirty dishes are still calling my name. (Sigh) It is so hard to be good!

what a heel

Well, I started to turn the heel of my sock last night. And today I will rip out what I've done, and start the heel again. I made several mistakes, and the result would be a heel that bent to the left pretty drastically. I do think I understand the process better this time.. I think..

I am going to start making elephants this morning while little E is at preschool, and I hoping to have some to post tonight!