A Cozy Nest

Do you have a knitting nest?  In my house we just call it "my spot" - as in no one sits in mom's spot, lest they get The Look and summarily booted.  

It's me.  I am the mess in my living room.

You can tell it's my spot by the way it's completely surrounded by tools, projects, yarn, and the detritus of making.   I took a couple of candid photos this morning so I could share what my spot looks like in it's natural state.

Note first the projects on the couch.  If I were a better person I would put my toys away when I was done playing with them, but when I went to bed last night I knew I'd be back and working on them again today, so enh.  Why bother?

That's my current sock, the Odyssey Shawl, and Exploration Station all in a pile.

To my left is the side table that I've utterly taken over.  There's a blue cube tucked into the table that holds spare needles, bits and bobs of yarn, the odd notion, and whatever else I shove in there when I'm trying to clean up in a hurry.  Don't lie, you do it too.

Note the emergency chocolate.  It's been a week.

On the table itself is a big wooden bowl full of minis from Row One and advent calendars.  They go into various blankets, gnomes, earbud cozies and the like, but mostly they just live there because I think they're pretty and they make me happy.

Also, I told you I didn't clean up before I took these pictures.

Also pictured are my Captain America coaster, blocks from one of my blankets, a notions tin, kleenex, because I'm not a barbarian, a yarn bowl, the charger for my fitbit, and a little plate I keep extra darning needles and stitch markers on.

The plate belonged to my dad - it's from Copenhagen, and I believe that his parents brought it back from a trip?  That part of the family lore is lost now, so I might be making that up.  Our family is from Denmark originally (at least that side of the family) so it's really special to me.  I kept it hidden away for years, because I was afraid it would get broken.   Now that the kids are mostly breaking their own stuff instead of mine, I decided that the best way to honor this family treasure is to use it and have it where I can enjoy it every day.

And present pictures not withstanding, it does help keep the table a little tidier.

What's around your knitting nest?  Do you have a "spot" or are you nomadic with your making?

Not Really Knitting

I have been amazingly cranky lately, and I couldn't figure out why. But then it occurred to me -- I haven't been knitting.

Like, at all.

I have a pair of socks that is less than hour from being finished -- and they've been that way for nearly a month. I have three sweaters (two adult, one baby) on tap, and two shawls. And we mustn't forget the ubiquitous clap. There's another pair of socks that I'm a solid 25% into, and a Dr. Who scarf. Surely I don't need to point out that I'm likely forgetting three or four projects.

Anyway, saving the socks and the Dr. Who scarf, none of these projects are at a place where I can just pick them up and start knitting. I need to sit down with pretty much every single one, figure out where I was, and what the frack to do next. And frankly, I just haven't had two brain cells to rub together lately to accomplish this.

I realized that the problem was serious last night when the Knitting Purchase Pushers Association (KPPA)* was placing an order with Knitpicks and I'm all, "Meh. Yarn. I don't need more yarn. I have yarn."

People. This is clearly even more critical than I thought.

I clearly require some sort of intervention, or some cashmere or really fancy hand-dyed sock yarn.


* KPPA, or the Knitting Purchase Pushers Association is also known as "my friends, Gretta, Jess and Koren."

2008 Knitting Goals

In January, I like to spend more time than is strictly wise fantasizing about the great feats of knitting prowess that I plan to execute in the coming year.

Come on, admit it. You do it too.

This will be the year that you knit THAT shawl (you know the one. The one that gives you palpitations when you look at the pattern). Or maybe you'll tackle complicated colorwork, or Gods help you, an Alice Starmore pattern (any of them).

So, anyway, January is when I do a lot of my virtual fantasy knitting. Once the heady rush of imaginary accomplishment leaves me, I then take stock of my time, my budget, and my skills — and then I start setting some goals.

This year I am going to knit:

• A sweater for Morgan
• The rest of that sweater for me
• Lots and Lots of Socks
• I'm going to finish a bunch of things I've got on needles. Or frog them. Or whatever.
• I want to knit Knitty's Juno Regina out of this great Anne Schaefer I got that looks like peacock feathers... unless it ends up looking weird because it isn't a solid colorway. Lace can look weird in painted yarn. I'll need to swatch.
  
• Socks for my husband. He has big feet. I'm just sayin'.
• I'm going to finish the Mystic Waters Shawl, because I like it, and frog the MS3 Stole, because I don't
• Other things I haven't thought of yet

So there you have it... a random and ill thought out list of knitterly goals.

This year my REAL goal is to continue to improve my skills, and to start designing my own patterns.

The rest is just gravy.