StashDash part 2: For Tiny Toes

The other week, I hit two birds with one stone by finishing a baby item that I'd wanted to make for so long that it got painful even thinking about the pattern for a while, and a stash-buster.

Little tiny Chuck Taylors!

This is a great pattern, but you definitely have to think your way through it. Most people on Ravelry have made modifications. I suggest reading through some pattern notes first if you decide to make a pair.

I made these from partial skeins of organic cotton. I am thinking that with this girl's parents (that is, us) both being kin to Marshwiggles, they'll likely fit in about 3 months or so.

And, can you believe I made something pink for her? I think this particular pink has enough rock and roll to it when used in this pattern to make that all right.

We're off to see Hunger Games this morning (yessssss), so I have to cut this short - but in other life updates, one of my favorite belly-related comments so far came from a very lovely LYS owner here in town: "Oh my gosh, you look like a basketball. I just want to dribble you!"

StashDash part 1: the Norgas… um.

With a new human being apparently arriving soon in our household, I have to clean out what has been my office/crafting studio, to combine spaces with Mr. MGY. Yeah, it's awesome. What are you gonna do: we only have so much room.

That means a massive rush to get as much stash knit up as possible, with the insane conviction reasonable theory that I will somehow be able to find a place for the yarn which is not the attic.

By the way: I'm really tired lately. Some nights, I'm lucky to get a few rows in.

Shut up. It could happen.

As part of this effort to move through as much yarn as possible, I whipped out another Noro Striped Scarf, this time in pastel shades. I love what the off-white colorway does here:

And I've coined a term for what happens when you're working with a ball of Noro that you really only bought for one small part of the colorway. You go for it, you're working, it's nice but not as nice as it will be when you get to that beautiful peachy-rose-pink color… You're almost there -- almost there -- almost there -- yes, yes -- you can just feel it -- and --

May I present, the Nor-gasm.

Thankyouverymuch.

Never Enough Fishens

A family member is expecting soon. I pulled out my usual trick: my baby mittens that look like little fish. This is the third time I've made these, and every time they're fun and quick to make. Mothers have so far told me that the comic effect from when the kid shoves the fish in his or her mouth is worth a million bucks.

I used bright colors this time.

As for me, I'm fine. I am not getting anywhere near enough knitting done, seeing as I somehow have to empty out the closet of my knitting room/office, which is set to become a baby room. This is a terribly stressful proposal: I've never in my life been good at clearing out things. In fact, I hate doing it. And I married a guy who really, really likes doing it.

The stash has to find another home in a house with little storage. Mr. MGY knows better than to suggest the attic, but we might not have many other options if I don't start tearing through some of this yarn pretty soon here.

What's that? Sell some of it off?

Shut up.

One Year Later

There's been some falling off the earth. Exactly how much of the story I'll tell here is limited by the fact that employers have in the past found this blog without me mentioning it. And employers tend to go all ooky if you say words like "vagina." (That just impacted my search results in curious ways. Turn back, pervs. It's not that sort of blog.)

We just had a year of IVF attempts. Outlook was very depressing. Somehow, it worked after multiple tries. I'm knitting a Tulips cardigan now.

So about that knitting.

If all goes well, the kid shows up in January, which means an opportunity for newborn wool sweaters if you're not saddened by the idea of her outgrowing it after 3 minutes, cotton/bamboo/linen/hemp for much of the year, and then hitting the wool cycle again for the 1-year size.

 As for the future of this blog? I imagine I'll drop in here once in a while. These few months are my time to recover my sanity before losing it again. I'm packing the days with knitting, reading (Graham Greene's The Quiet American, currently - fascinating novel), seeing friends, cooking, going to movies, seeing new places. It's sort of astonishing to go for walks in the evening and look at the grass or the sidewalks and feel something besides despair.

 Thanks, friends. Hope you're well in the yarnworld, wherever you are.

Tulips, with Knit Picks Swish Worsted:

Prairie Bliss on the Stands!

It's not the hat pattern. That's coming. Really.

I do have another new design, however!

Limestone Landscape is a simple stole, knit from Rowan Panama. It's worked on the bias, and it features a fun fringe which might feel familiar to the weavers out there. Bonus: Rowan Panama is Rayon/cotton/linen, meaning it really is cool enough for Texas.

The stole appears in the collection Prairie Bliss from Hill Country Weavers. The collection also includes a re-release of my sweater design Rockabilly Soft.

Take a look, and check out the beautiful designs from the other ladies involved in this collection, too!

Summer Update

This blog has resided in a corner of my mind patiently for some months now, occasionally clearing its throat and wondering if I would ever return to continue our conversation. Then, a thoughtful reader contacted me on Ravelry to ask if my blog had moved or what.

Turns out, in the intervening months between my last post and, well, now, there was "suspicious activity" on my account, which resulted in a shutdown of this blog.

Oops.

No idea what the suspicious activity was, but my password has been updated and hopefully that takes care of that.

As to my extended absence... It is a challenging time in the life of Mr. MGY and myself. "Sandblasted" is perhaps the best way to describe how I have been feeling in recent months.

For fear of alarming anybody, please know that our marriage is solid, and neither of us is in any danger. However, and I hate to be coy, but this blog is not the place to talk in detail about what's happening. We have family, friends, and coworkers who read my posts on occasion, and in each case we'll need to choose if, when, and how we reveal our personal information to them.

I hope someday that I can use this space to share the whole story. But first, we need to see how it ends.

In the meantime, I do hope to post a bit more here. I have a hat pattern that's been test-knitted and everything by a lovely friend halfway around the world. I have only to incorporate her feedback and post the pattern here, for free. You are welcome to bug me on Ravelry (I'm "MightyGoodYarn") if I don't do that in the near future, yes?

Thanks for reading.

Happy Valentine's!

Stuffed with leftover yarn scraps and dried lavender from my garden, which worked great. A great gift for my Valentine's swap buddy at work.

The pattern is from Mochimochi. Only a few mods.