Project Overload

I started writing a post yesterday about feeling overwhelmed about how many knitting projects I have going on and how I had surpassed my personal comfort level for number of projects. I think most knitters have a general number of projects that they are comfortable with, but it can be very different from knitter to knitter. I haven't ever really been a monogamous knitter, but my number hangs out on average between 3-7 projects on the needles, but more than 5ish makes me feel a little overwhelmed unless we're talking about tiny projects.


I've been feeling overwhelmed, but when I looked back over the past week and realized that I have been knitting with pretty good production over the past 10 days or so despite all the goings on of life, I decided I should list projects and make some decisions. There's absolutely no reason to feel beholden to my projects in a way that makes me dread working on them!


It amounts to 5 knitting projects (1 baby cardigan, 1 cardigan for me, 2 scarves and a pair of socks), 1 spinning project, and MANY sewing projects.

And I thought this whole overwhelmed feeling was because of knitting...

I bought Ellie some coordinating fabric several weeks ago. She has a decent start on a fall/winter wardrobe thanks to friends and family and deals I've picked up over the past year for her, but I wanted to get some more handmades in there and also a few things that I could really mix and match. I bought 3 yards of knits to make some leggings and diaper covers, and 5 coordinating fabrics for tops. I've done really well with cutting out material for the leggings and diaper covers, but I need to get back down to my machine. I made a test pair of leggings 2 weeks ago to get a good fit on her and it took about an hour because so much of it just needs to be serged. Now that I've cut several pair and can just go down the line following each step, I think it might go even faster. Same for the diaper covers too- but I've got to get back to the machine and get to work!


I also have a pajamas for each of the boys just waiting for hems and waistbands. Ender has asked me about those pajamas about 100 times so I should probably finish those soon too. Any moment now he's going to tell me he's just going to finish them himself if I take much longer.

sock + coffee

{Yarning Along with Ginny}

I started a new sock for in the mornings. This new routine of sock + coffee before everyone is up is really working out for me. I sometimes even get to catch up on podcasts if I'm up early enough and the whole day just seems to move a bit smoother somehow.

That colorway is called Blue Box Exploding from Nerd Girl Yarns. I couldn't pass up this particular Doctor Who reference to one of my very favorite episodes. Admittedly, her whole nerdy shop is a dangerous one for my budget.

The pattern is for Leyburn Socks and I'm knitting two at a time on DPNs again, one section at a time. I learned a toe-up cast on for this pattern, and feel pretty pleased with myself for that small success. I've attempted the toe-up thing before (bleh) but this time used a figure 8 cast on with very clear directions from a past Knitty.com article with great success. I'm still not sure I like to work toe-up, but that's a decision to make after I've knit a few socks with this method.

Reading just a little the past few days: listening to Trumpet of the Swan on CD with the boys, tripped through another chapter of Gone Girl before putting it aside for good, and picked up Ender's Game again.

Catching Up

I'd like to say that I sailed into this first week of the full studio schedule fully prepared and rocking the working mom routine again, but last week pretty much kicked me in the tail.


1. We ran out of milk and I didn't realize til 10 p.m. Monday night after I was essentially in bed for the night. I'm so thankful that I had a single serving (like a juice box, but 8 oz. of milk instead) stashed in the door of the fridge from when the boys had to pack a lunch a week or two ago so that the baby didn't starve at breakfast Tuesday morning.


2. We skipped school Tuesday morning to get to the store because we were not just out of milk, but out of dish soap, laundry detergent, trash bags and diapers. DIAPERS. Again, thankful that I keep a few diapers in the car in case I forget the diaper bag somewhere so that the poor baby didn't have to hang out in a super soggy mess until we made it to the store.


3. Baby girl decided I didn't need to sleep between the hours of 3:30-5:30 for half of last week. Averaging 5 hours of sleep a night wasn't awesome.


4. The laundry and kitchen suffered the worst at my return to work. I caught up with the kitchen by mid-week, but ended up with a gigantic pile of laundry by the weekend, and then we were busy during the weekend and I only got through 2 loads. Today is laundry day until I start working this evening.


5. To make things even more interesting, Brian had jury duty last Tuesday and was selected for a trial that lasted the rest of the week. I'm so thankful my parents were able to help us out with getting the boys to their evening activities and bring them home later than usual while Brian was serving at the courthouse.

6. I did knit, but not very much. A little bit of sleeves, a little bit of a toe for a new sock.

7. Did I mention my phone died? I have a new one now that I'm trying to figure out, but I'm on instagram now because of it. If you'd like to follow:  I'm looking for folks to follow also. So far it's ALL knitting, and I have to say that I really don't mind. :) So many beautiful projects going for everyone!