WIP - Baby Belle Update

I was soooo wanting to have this done by the end of the year and I totally think I could have. Only I didn't. By mid month TheBoy was getting out of school for holiday break and was the unfortunate recipient of a cold. Colds spread. Especially when you kiss little children good night before bed. So got sick and so did my husband. My lovely husband however managed to keep it together as well as the house. (I am so thankful to have such an awesome partner in life!)

What does all that have to do with my current unfinished object... a baby sweater... you say? Everything because I was so sick I couldnt think straight, which lingered through Christmas. Then by the time I was feeling better we tried to visit my parents and the car water pump exploded. No time for serious thinking and I wanted serious thought put into my first knit sweater. Plus, after being sick I totally lost my motivation for like... well... everything. So now I am getting it back.


I would say I am about a quarter of the way through the Baby Belle sweater but having never completed one its hard to guess percentages. My new goal is to complete it in the next two weeks. Okay, three weeks. I agreed to do career day at my son's school this Friday and I have to prepare so I don't embarrass my son and myself both.

Repurposing Old Handspun

I have been working on this project for a few months now. This isn't a time constraint issue as I am unemployed at the moment. The issue was that due to the number of stitches my hand was falling asleep or going numb before I could get through just one row. Since I had the corrective surgery I picked up this project and suffered none of the same aliments. Yea for progress.
Okay, to be honest, I haven't progressed that far since the surgery but I am looking forwards to getting finished with this project. I love red and I believe this will make an awesome scarf. I'm not sure how long it will end up because of I am knitting it lengthwise to create long rows.

I started out with these handspun yarns:




This is actually just three yarns since I split the 2 ply and blended yarn to go on either side of the solid red. All of the yarns were made from commercial merino wool dyed, you guessed it, red. The blended yarn is made up of the wool plus tussah silk plus some soy silk (I believe, its been a little while) that was hand carded prior to spinning.

Here is the scarf so far:



Here is close up:


I'm going to have to give myself a deadline if I want to get this done. I'm convinced that without a job I have lost a lot of structure in my life. This is sad though because you shouldn't have to rely on outside factors to provide your daily structure. Certainly, if they impose limits on you then you have to take that into consideration but when those factors are not there you should still have a sense of structure. Or so I would think. So, its June 7th. I think I can safely say that I can have this finished by July 1st. Cool, now I have set a deadline... call me on it July 2nd! ;P

UFO's vs WIP (Part 2 UFO's : It's a funny thing really)

So, I'm back! I'm sure many of the two people who read this blog figured that I wrote a half funny post with promises of more only to fail. Well, you would be partially right. So, lets get right to it.

Unfinished objects are the inspiration of our lives and the bane of our existence. Whenever I have a UFO, it usually starts out as this wonderful idea but turns into a grueling battle of mind over matter. What was supposed to be a simple v-stitch crochet blanket sits at the bottom of my personal yarn hell. What, oh what went wrong. It had lovely colors, a rough draft in my head and the motivation to start hooking away. Or even that simple garter knit scarf (from 2 winters ago that I promised my son.... ) that's sitting in a storage tote STILL on the needles. Really, I don't have that many pairs of needles I cant have them permanently occupied.

So I'm not really sure what happened. BUT... If I pick that scarf back up and knit a row before I go to bed... does that make it a WIP? Seriously, I think I can do that every six months or so. What about if a previous UFO suddenly becomes useful in the state that it is in. Take this blanket to the left. I started this back in 2004 or 2005. I started to run out of a color and I was no longer sure where my symmetry lie. (Yes, I'm huge on symmetry. It's a terrible habit that I have to break.) I didn't know what to do because my plan was wrecked. So I did what any sane crocheter would do. I took a step back, took a deep breath and walked away for a while. Well, at least I thought it would only be a while. Fast forward three to four years and the blanket/rug or whatever it was going to be is still connected to a ball of yarn. The only difference is instead of being at the top of my finish soon list its on the "oh, I should really finish this project ... at some point in time" list.

Your probably wondering what that blanket has to do with my statement about UFO's being useful suddenly. Well, currently, that pretty purple crocheted rug blanket is used whenever I spin on the Louet S51. Since the house has hardwood floors I noticed a subtle rocking whenever I spin. (Did I mention the floors are ever so slightly uneven?) Also, the slickness of the floor allows for my treadling motion to slowly push the week backwards. However I was able to remedy this situation very easily. I simple grabbed some scissors and .... get ready.... I ... cut... the ball of yarn loose. So this left me with a few loose strings and a blanket rug just wide enough to sit under the wheel. Trust me, this comes in handy for those outdoor on the sidewalk events. No one wants to scratch up a spinning wheel.

For another metamorphosis example.... 3-4 years ago I was crocheting this huge 2 strand crochet blanket. I started out just crocheting but then stretched into the belief that I wanted a bed size crocheted blanket. This my friends, was the beginning of the end. I ran out of yarn and was destined to buy more from my dreaded local Walmart. I found my color, purchased another 2 skeins of Red Heart and retreated back to the luxury of my abode. Then I finished up the previous skeins and started in on my join. To my horror these colors were nothing alike. I was so naive, so young and reckless and it ruined another good project. This was tragic and so the blanket was "put away" until I could find a subtle color to border the blanket. As of last week, this blanket is sitting on my son's full sized bed. I had made him one when he was younger but he outgrew it. My husband figures it will keep him warm and be a mommy reminder when he lays down for bed.

So is my wheel rug any less a finished product just because I didn't weave in the joined yarns? No, its being put to use. Any time something is being put to use and not sitting in a basket of unfinished objects they become finished objects. Sure I can pretty it up if I want... or pick it up later and re-envision the project all together. These are just examples to show how subjective it really is to say something is unfinished. I know that the blanket on my son's bed has a few loose strings but that doesn't make him love it any less.

In the end, that's the real funny thing about an "unfinished" object. They become finished objects when you decide they are.

UFO's versus WIP (Part 1)

So a question came to mind and I decided that I wanted to explore the difference between Unfinished Objects (UFO's) and Works in Progress (WIP.) Sorry my alien geek friends, this is totally a crafting post.

So the first thing I did was Google "UFO versus WIP" which had a surprising amount of entries.... only five of which were not omitted due to repetition. Also because I used quotes, none of them had anything to do with an Unidentified Flying Object. Though I often think that is what my UFO's will become as I fling them across the room instead of working on them. So I was thinking before giving my very objective and yet incredibly subjective opinion on this I would go with the technical aspect first. (This is for our none knitting friends, its like having the IT guy explain the inside of a computer.)

First is the WIP. WIP stands for Work in Progress. I have no knowledge of a predetermined definition for this so I will make one up. A Work in Progress (WIP, must remember our acronyms they come in handy later) is a project that is being worked on at a steady pace during the current point in time. I didn't want to exclude other artists or crafters so that is the general description.
For knitters (and crocheters) a work in progress is that arm wrist, sweater, pajama pants, baby blanket or tunic vest that is currently on the needles/hooks. Yes there can be, and most often are more than one WIP. For the multitasker in all of us that's not usually a problem. (Unless your me and be happy your not.)

However, there is a very important part missing that makes this a Work IN PROGRESS. That project on the needles has to be making a forward motion toward completion at a steady pace and during the current point in time. Simply put, next week that vest or sweater or hat really should be a bit more complete then it was at this exact moment. Even if its only a row, its a little more done and closer to making you or someone else extremely happy. That is current point in time. Now when you have made another row by the week after next, then you are setting a steady pace.

But wait, I am not unreasonable. I know that sometimes a yarn just calls out and you have to put aside that project that you were working on. The project is so great and so gratifying that you find that you have completed the whole thing without working on your lonely ol' hat. Perhaps you knit or crochet for a living and your suddenly bombarded with a rush of orders for Warm Fuzzy Christmas gifts and its several weeks (3-4 not 52) before you have a chance to even look in the direction of that lonely ol' project... hat... blanket... whatever. Does that suddenly mean that the project has slipped into the despair of an unfinished object?

Of course not, we're flexible people and this is subjective. Remember?

Speaking of WIP.. this post is about to become a two parter so I can work on a certain baby blanket. So tomorrow, or later on tonight "Part 2: UFO's - It's a funny thing really." Oh, and to break up the post a bit I included some pictures of some old WIP's or in progress shots.
So, come back okay?

Dear Knitter Friend(s)....

I need help. I desperately need help. I have spent almost all of my crafting time over the last week working to complete my sock. (Granted with a full time job and family that's not much time but I racked up some hours over the weekend.) I was having a problem understanding the post-it note pattern my knitter friend from the local LYS gave me so I emailed her. (Yes, I was originally given the instructions step by step on post it notes throughout last year. What can I say, its a learning process.) She wrote back with the pattern thoroughly written out in a text document. I was so excited and had made so much progress in the last day or so that I didn't email to thank her. I swear this was because I was going finish that night and send her a picture of the finished sock. That did not happen. I'm a bad knitter friend. I'm sorry.
So what did I do wrong? Please help knitter friends.
These are the bad stitches. (The center is in focus and the rest is blurry because of the camera. Of course that excuse will get old and people will hate my blog posts since at least once a month I have a blurry picture....) I have no idea what I did wrong. This specific portion of the sock was all kinds of confusing since it was during/after turning the heel and connecting the gussett.
These are the good stitches that look like normal stockinette. After I got back down to 20 stitches on the bottom needles my knitting went back to normal. The top of the sock looks like this as well. It's just the in between that worries me.
Here is the current progress of my sock. To the right is the bottom of the heel and to the left is the portion I am working on now. I have put the socks on to see how much more there is to knit and the weird stitches are much more open and hole-y. I have lots of mistakes in this sock. Plenty of missed knits and holes but I am not going back. I just want to know how to fix my mistake for my next pair. (Yes, you heard that right I'm already planning a next pair and this one won't take me 18 months. After that is a handspun sweater.... I'm real ambitious.=P)
By the way, I plan to surprise my local LYS knitter friend with the finished sock at the next spinning group two Sundays from now. I'm not completely heartless you know. (Well, I may still need help with the Kitchener stitch.)

Knitting is like watching paint dry

***Edited to add pictures on 2/20/08*****

Or more aptly, watching a skein of handspun and/or handdyed yarn dry. Today, at work I took the time to get in my allowed breaks. During this time I stayed off the office internet and picked up my knitting needles. Yes, I am still working on the same second sock that I started last November. Don't worry though, its not second sock syndrome. It's I don't have time to do anything let alone knit a sock syndrome! Well, that's probably not very true. I do have time but can often be found loafing around on the internet doing "something."
So, I was working on my sock and thought, for all the progress I felt like I was making, I sure didnt get anywhere. How sad is that.
Anyway, I'm off to grab a shower before bed and watch some paint dry knit. Sorry I don't have any pictures today. Tommorrow, for sure! (Including the 1/2 inch I will knit before bed tonight.)