Inspiration

A few bits of Inspiration from the past weeks...

:: Mama-made pajamas... I'm imagining making several of these tops next fall/winter for baby girl

:: Reasons Why I Hate School... why our homeschool doesn't really look much like real school....

:: An easy to make scrub for that winter skin...

 

:: Ginny's art post provided me with inspiration for our baby girl's room

and a potential source for art prints.

:: Practical ways to establish prayer in your Home

:: A great art supply list (and a giveaway if you get in on it today!)

:: Homemade playdough - I'm planning this for a fun first project in the new house next month.

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny again this week}

I think I'm out of my reading rut now and I have Legend by Marie Lu to thank for it. It has been a really fun read! I'm not done with it quite yet, but it did inspire a few more titles to read after I'm done so I'm well stocked.


Yes, that stripey thing you see is another sock. If you're keeping count with me this is the THIRD one this year and I'm already 1/3 of the way through the foot. It's my "knit a row here and there" project that hangs out in my purse and goes everywhere.


And the lavender? That's the Pearl Shrug that I started around Christmas. It has been in timeout for a few weeks for refusing to cast on properly when it came time for the left side. Now that we've worked out our differences it's back to happy knitting.


Please tell me I'm not the only one to give my knitting time-outs! Sometimes I just need to take a break so I can regain some perspective before tackling a problem. I usually have about three attempts in me before I lock a project away for awhile. A lot of times I can then come back and actually solve the issue (and often wonder why I had that weird problem in the first place...)

Do you give your knitting time-outs?

Finishing

We're packing for real now that the move is getting truly close and I worked last night on packing up my backup stash.

Yeah, you read that right.

Backup stash.

When we picked up and moved within two days in the fall I quickly set myself up with possibilities- three projects that were on the needles but "resting", 2 different lace weights, about 5 fingering weight choices- two sweaters worth of worsted weight yarn... plus all my needles so that I could do whatever I wanted. Plus I acquired baby project yarn once I found out we were having a girl since most of my yarn runs to the red/green/blue range for my boys.

It's quite hefty for not being my main stash, especially with me being the project knitter that I am. I just don't buy yarn if I'm not sure how I'm going to use it, and all of this yarn has a purpose... but the other yarn... the REAL stash is hanging out in the back of my mind, mocking me.

I packed it up in a tote, ready to go when we move, but easy to break into should I run into an urgent knitting need. I'm choosing to see this as an opportunity- an opportunity to get moving on a few projects that have been resting for longer than they should, some for good reasons, others... not so much. I want to get to work on my knitting goals and on all that stash busting/UFO finishing we're doing this year.

Like this cute little thing...

I began knitting it for my niece in April of 2010, for her birthday in September. And then I realized that my guessed-at gauge for a one-year-old was totally not working out and I abandoned it and re-knit the pattern with different yarn so that she still got that lovely sweater.

All that little pink cardi needs is a sleeve and then our sweet baby girl will have her first cardi. Maybe it's a great thing that I abandoned it to re-knit for my niece?

There's an almost done vest that I really love, and a grey pullover that is half a sleeve shy of completion, a few baby hats that just need a little bit of seaming, buttons for a cardigan, a little bit of weaving in ends on this and that.

I have 8 (EIGHT!) projects with needles actually in the project, and at least 4 that just need a bit of finishing. Think that will keep me busy until we move next month? (Besides all the packing, of course!)