I can hardly believe that after 3.5 years, I have finished my Lizard Ridge Afghan!!

I am pretty sure that I bought the yarn in January 2007, on sale at Woolwinders in MD.  I remember Bill helping me pick out the yarn.  I worked on the squares off and on, but when I came to California for Christmas 2008, I made major progress and finished knitting the squares in February 2009.

Then it sat.  Mostly because I wasn’t sure about seaming it all together.  It seemed daunting.  I had also seen some pictures of some where you could see the seams, which I didn’t like, and I just wasn’t sure what I was doing.  So it sat.  My new LYS, Green Planet Yarn, offers a class in seaming and weaving in ends.  I knew that I could teach myself, but I thought the class would be fun and since it is personalized to each person’s project, I would learn the best technique for the afghan.  It was exactly what I needed and I was able to seam it together in two nights.

And then there was the crocheted edge.  The only thing I know about crochet is how to make a chain.  So I took at class at Green Planet Yarn.  Again, it was something I could teach myself, but it’s more fun to be shown.  And it gets me out of the house and socializing with other people.  It was a nice class and taught me everything I needed to know to do the edging as well as how to make granny squares which is something else I want to do.  After a marathon crochet session last night, I did the edging.  I’m really happy with the edging.

Actually, I’m happy with the whole thing.  It took awhile, but I got her done!

I hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend.  I had a fabulous weekend.  Bill worked from home on Thursday and took me to my allergy shot and out to lunch.  Then he was home on Friday for a vacation day, and the rest of the weekend.  It was a nice change of pace to have company during the day.  We did lots of relaxing, watching tennis and baseball, and working on projects.  Bill did a couple of things around the house, and I’ve been working on my focus on finishing.

As of Day 7, I have completed eight projects total, five more projects since my last update.

I finished these baby booties (rav link), which I started about two weeks ago and then put down.  They were simple enough, but a little bit of a weird construction.  They are knit flat and then sewn up.  If I were to make them again, I would try and modify the pattern to knit them in the round.  The botties needed some blocking so I gave them a bath and stuffed them with saran wrap so they would keep their shape.  These are going to be a gift for a pregnant friend.

My next completed project was cotton tawashi (rav details here and here).  Tawashi is a traditional Japanese scrubbing brush, or sponge.  I had some cotton in my stash, and I started knitting these in September of 2009.  They were easy enough, though boring.  I’m curious to see how they hold up.

I was on a roll on Sunday night and I finished these coasters. The patchwork had been completed, they just needed to be stuffed with batting and quilted.  The quilting was easy enough, but I challenged myself on one set and practiced my free motion skills. The free motion skills needed some work, but I’m happy with the result. Not sure what I’m going to do with the top two sets, but the bottom set is for my living room.

Next up with a pair of Chevron Love Mittens (rav link).  This was actually the first pair of these mittens that I started.  They were about 90% complete when I realized that I was knitting very tightly.  These were my first attempt at colorwork and I was also doing something funky with the yarn on the inside, twisting it. The kit comes with a generous amount of yarn so I started new gloves and left these to sit.  All that needed to be finished was the top decrease section and the thumbs.  And weaving in the gajillion ends.  I also had some drama where I ran out of one of the pinks for the thumb (short by about 20 inches).  I gathered up all my scraps and used a felted join to put them together.  What a pain!  And it added about an extra hour of work while I tried to figure out what to do.  Once I finished knitting and joining and weaving, I gave them a bath and stretched them out a tiny bit before I laid them flat to dry.  They look better and aren’t quite so small so I’m happy.

Last up is CJ’s bed.  I had this large piece of green foam sitting in my craft room for over a year.  I had no good place to store the foam so it’s been getting in the way and annoying up like you would not believe.  I had the cream canvas/duck cloth in my stash and the side is done with Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden fabric, also from my stash.  The dog bed is for my living room, and I have the same Pop Garden fabric as my window treatments, but in a different colorway.  I think I did a pretty good job on the bed. I put in a zipper, though I’m hoping I don’t have to wash this much because it’s still a pain to get on.  The cover is also a really good fit, so that means I measured well and sewed accurate seam allowances.  I also finished the edges on the inside which you can’t see, but trust me it looks good.  Bill wasn’t sure CJ would know what to do with it, but my girl hopped right on it and made me happy.

I’ve been working on a couple of other projects, seaming my lizard ridge afghan.  I also had to frog some of my cocktail capelet because I saw a pretty obvious mistake, but I’m back to where I was pre-frogging.

Believe it or not, I’ve also had some time to read.  I finished Sense and Sensibility and am now 25% through The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Today was a lovely day in the South Bay.  Bill and I had originally planned to go to the beach, but we slept in and were off to a late start.  Instead, we stayed home and relaxed.  We bought a kiddie pool early in the season so that we could cool off on those hot Cali afternoons.  Today, we opened it up and took advantage.  It was perfect.  We sat out there and read, ate the picnic lunch we had prepared for the beach, and read some more. Very relaxing and just what Bill needed to recharge his batteries.

Later in the afternoon, I came in and started working on some projects.  It is Day 3 of my Focus on Finishing and I have already finished three projects!

First to be finished was my Whippoorwill Shawl (rav link).  I was able to finish this beauty in eight days.  It was a pleasure to knit, though a little tedious at the end.  Top down shawls tend to be that was as you start with 5 stitches and end up with hundreds, in this case almost 500.  But the pattern was fantastic and I am already contemplating at least two more.  One a gray with navy accents and another a gold with slightly golder accents.  I knit up the medium size in DK weight and it is a generous medium.  It might actually be a large if I were to take the measurements.  I’m loving the yarn, purchased from A Good Yarn, and it’s a colorway unique to their store.  They ship, in case you were wondering.  Anyway, I think this was a great pattern for the yarn, and love the results!

My second completed project is the Misty Garden Scarf from Scarf Style.  I started this in October 2008 and finished it on September 1, 2010.  I probably finished knitting this in 2008, but it has taken me until now to weave in the ends, all two of them, and give it a bath.  I didn’t give it a heavy duty blocking, but enough to smooth it out.  I originally intended this to be a fall/spring scarf for myself, but I have so many scarves and shawls.  It’s pretty so I’m sure it will find a home.

Yesterday, I pulled out this pair of pajama bottoms.  All they needed were the elastic and to be hemmed.  They are mid-calf length pajama bottoms, for me, in a Christmas flannel.  I started them last November or December, but must have gotten caught up with getting gifts done that I never finished these.  Well, now they are ready for Christmas 2010.

After our relaxing day in the “pool”, I have been working on my tawashi (Japanese term for kitchen scrubbies) and my Brilliantly Bold Chevron Love mittens.  Hopefully I get one of those projects finished tonight.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend, either relaxing or productive or both!

I was talking with a friend a week or two ago, and she mentioned how she wasn’t going to take any more classes or start any new projects until she finished some of the quilt tops she had already started. I knew the sentiment but didn’t really think anything of it. Somewhere in the dark and cobwebby section of my brain, an idea started to percolate.

How many projects, both knitting and sewing and otherwise, do I have in different baskets, bags, and drawers that I started but never finished?

I spent one afternoon pulling out all those projects.  The grand total came to 34 projects.  Some were started a week ago, some were started four years ago.  Some need only an hour to be finished, some probably three weeks.  I can’t say why some of these projects were set aside.  Perhaps my adult onset ADHD, maybe boredom, most likely something shiny (or more interesting) caught my eye.

How many of these projects could be completed if I spent a month focusing on finishing these projects?

I’m going to try and find out.  I’m calling this September my Focus on Finishing.  I’m really excited about getting some of these projects completed.  It’s an opportunity to clean up my craft room, get some stuff done, and clear the decks before Christmas crafting starts.  I’m not going to put any of these projects away until they are either done or the month is over.  If I’m lucky, one of these projects might end up being a Christmas gift.

Bill asked me this morning if I had a plan of attack.  There’s definitely some low hanging fruit that I’m going to start with to build up some momentum.  And I already know that there’s at least one project I am not going to work on, an afghan I’m knitting that’s only about 20% complete.  It’s more of a November – December thing anyway, when it’s cooler outside and you want something warm on your lap.  There’s a couple of larger projects that I’m going to try and work on every week so that I make progress, but still leave time for other things.  My goal is to try and finish at least 25 projects.

Here’s a list of all the projects (from left to right):

1. halloween knee socks     (Row 1)
2. whippoorwill shawl
3. craft room curtains
4. baby booties
5. cabled capelet
6. my design tote bag     (Row 2)
7. satin lingerie set
8. cotton skirt
9. bill’s pj bottoms #1
10. green chevron love mittens
11. nappy (gym) bag     (Row 3)
12. amy’s quilt
13. lizard ridge afghan
14. feather & fan scarf
15. cotton voile top
16. blue basketweave cotton top     (Row 4)
17. elephant pin cushions
18. fuschia satin top
19. gathered scarf
20. coasters     (Row 5)
21. bill’s pj bottoms #2
22. bb chevron love mittens
23. fabric boxes
24. happy forest sagano shawl
25. basketweave afghan     (Row 6)
26. christmas pjs
27. dog bed
28. black and white tunic
29. concetta cardi
30. green table     (Row 7)
31. jersey knit top
32. tawashi
33. green and white cotton top
34. sweetheart cuff down socks

I’ll keep you updated on my progress and if you’re interested, feel free to join me this month as I Focus on Finishing.

Mosaic created using fd’s Flickr Toys.

There’s nothing like an impending houseguest to force you to get your shit together.  My brother-in-law was arriving for a visit last Sunday so I finally got off my butt and got the house picked up and cleaned.  Bill helped of course, but I had made headway before he got home.  The finishing touch was flowers from the farmers market.  I love fresh flowers in the house.

We had a nice visit with Steve.  It was a short trip, but nice to catch up.  We chatted and ate and watched a movie.  Steve slept. I think he got some good rest while he was here.  He brought his iPad with so I got to play.  It’s beautiful and shiny and fun, and I want one, but I’m not sure how I would use it.  I keep telling Bill that if we had one, I would figure out uses for it, but he’s not really going for it.  It’s on the heavier side so I can’t see holding it for long periods for reading or game playing.  A stand is a must.

Unfortunately for Steve, we had a heat wave.  95 plus degrees for three days.  It really zaps your energy.  That might account for all the sleeping Steve did.  The house stayed relatively cool except for one day.  I turned the air on, but it was too hot for it to really make a difference.  Bad hostess.  Steve was a good sport though and didn’t complain.

Now things are relatively back to normal at Casa Napier.  The housekeeper has been found, the laundress is laundering.  The grocery shopper needs to shop, but I’m making the grocery list.

In the midst of all of this, I started a new project with some fabulous yarn!  It was shipped from A Good Yarn in Sarasota, FL.  It’s a colorway unique to the store.  You can read about it here.  Anyway, I am knitting it up into a Whippoorwill shawl (rav link) and I think it’s lovely.

And the strange thing is, she doesn’t have any demands that need to be met before she agrees to return to work.  She just would rather play with soft, luscious yarn instead of dirty, smelly clothes.

She would rather work on an alpaca scarf (rav link) that she doesn’t need in mid-August.

Or she would rather work on a little pixie hat (rav link) for a friend who’s expecting a little girl next month.

Or she’d rather work on a new comfy cardi (rav link) for those cool California evenings.

She could “demand” more yarn, but the husband of the house would quickly agree and then our laundress would have to return to the stinky clothes.  There is lots of yarn to request.  Like some Sweet Georgia merino/silk dk, or some Classic Elite Ariosa for another yummy scarf (rav link).  Not that she’s been looking because just last month she said, “no more yarn!”  What to do, what to do…

I have a feeling that our laundress will return to work in the near future.  Like when she realizes she has no clean workout clothes for tomorrow.

The daughter of a college friend loves Shrek.  She’s five and while her parents are slightly perplexed about it, she just really loves Shrek.  I searched on ravelry and found a pattern for an ogre hat (rav link).  It was easy and cute, and I was able to modify it for a five year old.  I added an i-cord tie to the back in case the hat was too big.  I have no idea how large (or small) the head of a five year old would be, and my friend said her daughter’s head was on the larger size.  If the tie isn’t needed, it is easily pulled out.

Then the question was whether or not to knit a hat for her brother. On the one hand, I believe that kids should get used to the fact that it’s okay for one sibling to get a gift when the other one doesn’t.  But on the other hand, it’s not like this is a birthday gift and he’s a cute kid too.  I didn’t want to knit another Shrek hat, so I decided to try my hand at a donkey hat.  There weren’t any patterns on ravelry for donkey hats.

The hat itself was easy enough.  It was the ears that were a super big challenge.  The first set I knit looked like bunny ears.  I cut them off and tried again, making them wider (I think they are 11 stitches across) and less pointy at the top.  I knit the front and the back and then stitched them closed.  There’s a little bit of stuffing in them so they aren’t so floppy.  Then I used some black yarn to make the little tuft of hair between donkey’s ears.  And I also did a tie in the back because the head of a two year old is just as perplexing to me as the head of a five year old.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the result of the donkey hat.  I’m not sure you would look at it and automatically say, that’s a donkey hat, but hopefully it will be amusing enough to the kids.  It was a fun, and surprisingly challenging, project.

This is pretty much how we’ve been spending time lately.  Bill was home sick last Friday and slept almost all day.  On Thursday night, he thought he would be able to help me with a paint project I had on the to-do list for Friday.  I managed to do it by myself while he napped (for four hours).  The project was not exciting and easy enough.  I was repainting some trim on the patio.  It’s the set up and the taping that takes time but does make things easier.  The project was completed and I managed to do it without spilling that much paint this time.

The rest of the weekend was spent laying around and relaxing.  I finished reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which I enjoyed.  We also watched lots of baseball and bike racing.  I would have finished knitting my Sagano Shawl (rav link) except that I ran out of yarn on my bind off row.  I am about 6 yards short.  I’m contacting people on ravelry to see if anyone has scraps they would be willing to part with.  This running out of yarn thing is getting quite frustrating.  It’s the second time it has happened in the last two months.  I’m weighing my yarn compulsively, reading other people’s experiences on ravelry.  By all accounts, I really should have had enough yarn for the shawl.   Yarn issues notwithstanding, it was a very pleasant knit and I enjoyed the daisy stitch.

On Sunday night, I started to feel under the weather.  I really thought I was in the clear as far as Bill’s cold was concerned, but yesterday and today I have been feeling quite crapsy.  Bill is doing better so hopefully I will be on the upswing tomorrow.  I did feel well enough to make some more zucchini bread.  Our zucchini plant is doing pretty well.  This is our third batch of bread, and we’ve used other zucchini in pasta, and we probably have enough left for a fourth batch of bread.  I have made some healthy substitutions in the recipe, using applesauce for half the oil and egg beaters for half the eggs, and 1 cup of whole wheat flour for regular flour.  Those are changes that, to me, don’t change the flavor or texture of the bread.  I tried to cut some of the sugar, but that was noticeable and not so good.  I am thinking of substituting some honey for some of the sugar, but that will require some experimentation and I wasn’t quite up to it on Sunday.

I hope that you enjoyed your weekend, and that you aren’t dealing with a cold.  It’s not fun.

Oy! I see the writing and it says No More Yarn! I don’t know what compelled me to start updating my yarn stash on my ravelry page, but that’s what I spent my morning doing. I felt like I was pulling yarn out of everywhere! And the yarn in the photo isn’t all the yarn I put into my stash. I only pulled out one skein of each yarn. It’s actually quite scary. But also fun to see the beautiful yarn I have and think about what it will be knit up into. That line of thinking prompted me to update my rav queue. There’s a lot of things I want to make. And sadly, it doesn’t use up that much of my stash.

Anyhoo, I MUST go on a yarn diet for the rest of the year. And probably next year and the year after. But realistically, let me start with the rest of this year.

I wonder how much of this yarn I can knit up between now and the end of the year? Any guesses?

I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going on in the Casa Napier these days.  Well, it’s a little of this and a little of that.

I’m making progress on my twin size quilt.  I need a name for it, other than twin size quilt.  I’m sure something will come to me.  I finished cutting all my white squares and have made a very good dent on the patterned squares.  I took this picture Thursday afternoon and I think I’ve doubled the number of cut squares since then.  I don’t really have a plan for this quilt, other than I will alternate white squares and patterned squares.  I’m just cutting a ton of squares and hoping that they will somehow all come together.  My focus is on yellow and white, with bits of other colors thrown in.  Doesn’t look like there’s much yellow in that pile, but that has changed.

I started a new knitting project, the meandering vines shawl (rav link here).  I’m knitting it in Sweet Georgia Cashsilk Lace which is Divine.    Yes, with a capital D!  I love how it feels moving through my fingers.  It is 45% cashmere and 55% silk.  Soooo soft.  The color is a beautiful, vivid  aquamarine, with bits of green throughout.  I’m also enjoying the pattern, thanks in large part to my stitch markers.  The pattern is easy to memorize and ends up looking a lot more complicated than it is.

And of course, there’s been time to relax outside.