More Stash Down Progress!

It's only been a couple days since my last update, but I've made even more Stash Down progress! I've been knitting like a madwoman, and eliminating yarn left and right. Still working on the dishcloths, and I am enjoying them. I might miss them once all my cotton is gone.
The top two cloths are some of my favourites. I love adding textures and small sections of stripes to the cloths. They make them way more fun. The blue finished off one ball, and the yellow was finished with the green in the second picture. More on the pink later!
The green and yellow cloth is pretty neat, too. It finished off the yellow and green in one swoop. It's actually like 4 garter ridges too short for a full size cloth, so I threw it in the drawer in the kitchen here. I wouldn't feel right selling a too small cloth to someone, even if I discounted it.
The last two pink ones, in addition to the pink one in the first picture, finished off one of the bigger balls of cotton I had. I still have quite a bit of the light pink left, which I'm working with right now.
This is FOUR balls of yarn finished since Monday! Not half bad, if I say so myself! This brings my count to +64. I always check the average I need to eliminate after I count a chunk. I went from 5.5 skeins per week for the rest of the year, to 5.18. If I can get that number down to 4 or less, I am sure I will get to my goal without having to give yarn away!
I'm taking a short break from the cloths, and working on a striped scarf on 8mm needles that I am loving. I hope to get it done in the next couple days, and share it with all of you.

Stash Down 2013: It's Not Over Yet

One of my goals for 2013 was the have a net change to my stash of -50 balls of yarn. If you've been following my Stash Down progress, you'll know that I acquired 150 balls of yarn a little while ago, and I was incredibly discouraged. Well, my knitting mojo is back in full force, and I've been knitting like crazy. Seriously, crazy amounts of knitting have been going on. Mom and I went grocery shopping last week, and I walked around behind her, knitting on a cloth. Between these six cloths, and a couple other partial cloths I have on the go, I've eliminated three balls of cotton. Sure, not a whole lot, but that's three less than I had before! Plus, it's yarn I no longer have a real need for, so I'm opening up a drawer in the storage area for yarn I really love. I've decided to leave dishcloth knitting to others so I can focus on things I truly enjoy making.
I calculated the other day that I need to eliminate 5.5 skeins of yarn a week until the end of the year, and not acquire any, in order to meet my goal. I'm intimidated, but I really believe I can do it. Summer is going to be difficult, but as soon as my hours at work drop down again, I'll be kicking ass and taking names.
What are you knitting on this week?

Knit Bracelets are in the Shop!

I just listed three cotton bracelets in the shop! They have their own little section, even.
I am using a different, less fancy camera for my items now, and I wanted to test it out to see how well it would perform. I grabbed three bracelets and did whatever I could do. I was really surprised when I uploaded them for the edits. I didn't have to do too much to make them look good. I brightened up the pictures, and fixed up the background a bit, and called it a day.
I figured since I took the photos, I might as well add them to the shop.
We'll see how these do, and hopefully once the weather clears up, I'll take some more photos and add more!
Keep an eye out for a giveaway and some coupons!

Finished baby booties!

I literally just cast off the second bootie and sewed it up in the last hour. I am super happy with how this project worked out.

I am trying to use Ravelry a bit more, so I will start linking to the patterns and such on there.
I used the Eco Baby Booties pattern, as I mentioned before, and some blue Bernat Handicrafter cotton. It was one of the tiny skeins (the one dishcloth size) and I still have about 4 or 5 yards left. I'll probably use that as trim on another pair.
I knit the pattern as indicated, but went to 4.25mm needles, because I didn't have the correct size.
I will definitely be making more of these, and probably tweaking the pattern to make larger sizes (this one says 0-6 months, but I'd love to do some up to 12 months)
Overall, I'd say these are a great project for someone like me who wants to get out of the habit of knitting rectangles, or a beginner who is looking for a small challenge.

I never thought I'd see the day when I knit something that is a pair

I really didn't. I've been knitting for something like 10 years (although, a couple years in the beginning, I wasn't knitting at all) and I've never made something that is one of two. Dishcloths, scarves, hats, neck warmers and blankets. That's about it.
Today, I cast on Eco Baby Booties (non-Rav link) in blue cotton.

I've been having a bit of trouble with them, which is 100% my fault, not the pattern at all. Because I am knitting with cotton on the same needles as I do the dishcloths, I keep trying to knit in the cloth pattern. I have had to un-knit and re-knit at least 5 different rows. Some of them I had to do twice. In the end though, I got it done.
I am very close to casting off, and I will start on the other one right away. They should both be done some time tomorrow, and I will post about them again.
This could be a whole new knitting obsession. I could develop my own baby bootie pattern (many seem to be based off the same basic idea, I could probably combine them) and then make a whole bunch of them.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Nicole.
They are REALLY cute!

A Computer-less Vacation

The past few days I've spent more or less without a computer. I spent some time with Rick and his family, spent a few days at my parents house because of my work schedule, and I've been working quite a bit, too.
I haven't gotten a whole lot of knitting done, though.
I started a "Baby Bib O' Love" (Rav link) last night, to use up some of my cotton. I think I am going to add some stockinette rows at the bottom for some interest. I will also have to find some cute buttons.

I'll probably whip up a few of these. It seems people I know are on another baby-having spree.

Ten cloths down!

I am ten (and a half) cloths into my custom order for Made In Windsor, and I'm still not tired of the rainbow yarn. I made it quite a bit farther than I thought I would. I have been working on a few other small projects in between, so maybe that helped.
Last night was craft night, and there was an awesome turn out. Mostly yarn artists, and a couple writers. Next month, hopefully there will be the same number of people, or more.
I have quite a few shifts coming up at Made In Windsor. I really enjoy working there and just being surrounded by the items that were made by the other consignors.

A custom dishcloth order!

I love custom orders. I was recently asked to make some rainbow dishcloths for a friend of mine. I bought a large skein of cotton yarn on Sunday, and I am halfway through the second cloth. The deadline for these isn't for a while, but I am working on them pretty much exclusively.
Yesterday, I organized part of my yarn stash, and in the process, counted 45 skeins of cotton of various sizes. Some are the small ones that are just enough for a dishcloth, and others are the giant 12 ounce ones. And others are in between. I definitely want to knit all of this during my 101 project.
I am trying to figure out other things I could make with cotton, but I am currently stuck on cloths.
Suggestions?

One more dishcloth, just for good measure!

I have finished yet an other cloth. This one is in the same Celadon colour I used for the scrubby cloth a little while ago. I paired it with white to match my kitchen, and it looks awesome! So spring-y and fresh. I think it's the bright white that does it.
That may be what my next grouping of cloths is. Any random, bright colour paired with white. I would need to get a rather large skein of white to work through the amount of the solids I have right now.
I am still working away on hats. I am trying to keep enough ready to bring into Made In Windsor on a regular basis. I have about four at home waiting to have their ends tied in and be priced. I think I may raise the price on them by a couple dollars. The cost of yarn seems to be creeping steadily upward and I don't want to lose money on any of them.

A New Face Cloth, and Giving Up On Some Goals

I am on a bit of a cotton kick lately. I think this could be an understatement. I hadn't really knit much other than dishcloths for a while, due to some requests for them, and enjoying the switch from knitting scarves and such. I started a new one yesterday, and I am going to work on it later today. It's different, once again, from what I have made in the past because it is striped. Sure, it's nothing fancy, but I love stripes. Light blue and yellow, 35 stitches, on size 6 needles. It's doubled in size now, and looking pretty nice. I am taking a short break from working on it to work on the purple hat I have commissioned.
In other, unrelated news, I have temporarily given up on my mission 101. My goals were mostly long term ones, or had too many parts or something else that was just keeping me unmotivated. I will restart with a brand new list ASAP. Many of the goals will carry over, but
I am going to make sure I have goals that are more easily completed. I am going to continue with some of my knitting related goals (knit myself a blanket, use all of my cotton yarn, organize my whole stash) but give up some others (not buy yarn for 6 months, put my entire stash on Ravelry, knit 101 scarves/neck warmers).
Hopefully everything goes well with starting the new goal.
Perhaps I will start on the first day of Spring?

New face cloth in the works!

I made this cloth AGES ago. I photographed it in April of 2008. It is sitting on the coffee table just to the right of my laptop as inspiration for my current knitting project. I use this cloth to clean up spills in my living room, which seem seem to happen all to often. Whether it be food or drink related, or spills from the watering can while watering my plants, it's an almost daily occurrence. Regardless, it does a wonderful job.
I am using a skein of Bernat Handicrafter in the "Celadon" colour (a really nice pale green) to make a nearly identical cloth. This one, however, is destined to be a face cloth. Yes, something with which to wash ones face, or other parts of the body. It's wonderful in the way that one side is nubby and scrubby, and the other is fairly smooth. I am hoping this translates to a light exfoliation side, and then a non exfoliation side. It's being knit on size 6 needles, 41 43 stitches. I think the next time I will go down to 39, or maybe even 37 stitches. It's a very quick knit, being only k1p1, and knitting rows, alternating. I am hoping to get several of these done for Made In Windsor fairly quickly. I think they will each use up one of the small Handicrafter skeins, but I won't be sure until I reach the end of this one. As soon as I find my pink skein of Bernat Cotton Tots, I will be making one of these for myself.
I have been quite productive lately. I finished a hat the other day (still need to blog about that!) and started on an other. I want to get 5 more things to the store by the next time I go there.

An other custom knitted item, and more cotton yarn.

I have the cloths all done for my aunt. Two tan, three yellow/orange and one blue/green are what I ended up with. I hope she is happy with the colour choices. If not, I can always make more for her.
I had my backpack in my department at work today. It's way too big to put in our tiny locker, and I feel safer with it near me. I was getting something out of it, and took out a hat I made a while ago that I was planning on frogging. It's a really nice purple Homespun yarn, but I used the HUGE Knifty Knitter loom, and it's really way too big. One of the girls at work really liked the colour, so I offered to sell her the remake as soon as I have it finished. I will start working on it as soon as the hat I have on the right sized loom is done. We work together on Wednesday, so it would be great to have it done for then.
 I bought some new to me yarn the other day. Three bags of Bernat Handicrafter, bought at Value Village for $3.99 a bag. They're all the smallest skeins of this type of yarn. Not sure how many I have, but I will photograph them in a few days (I'm at my parents right now)
I am progressing on getting a lot of my yarn used up. It's going slowly, but I am definitely starting to notice a decline in selection for my yarn bombs, and for pairing with other yarns for hats and scarves. The thought of eliminating large parts of my stash is completely mind boggling. I am so used to having a ton of yarn at my fingertips, it's going to be quite a change.

Lazyness, Finished projects, Mission 101 and Other Things

I have a confession to make. It is hard to say, but it is very, very true. I don't promise to work on it, it is just the way I am... I have been very lazy lately: not doing dishes, not doing laundry, staying in my pyjamas all day, and not updating the blog regularly. Among other things. I know Rick would have some things to say about my laziness, but this is my blog, and he has no say here.
I am very sorry, dear readers, for leaving you update-less for so long. As for sitting in my pyjamas and being lazy? If I don't have to work or leave the house in general, I'm staying comfy in my jammies, and usually knitting, all day.

I have been pretty productive with my knitting as of late. I finished a couple of cowls over the past week. There is a picture of those later on in the post.
I also think I finished a few dishcloths, but I honestly can't remember how many. I have a stack of nearly finished cloths sitting on my end table, waiting to have their ends woven in and to be sent off to Made In Windsor to find a new home. Part of the reason for this is that I am trying to use up ALL of my cotton as one of the goals on my Mission 101. I am also trying to use half of my silly novelty yarn. I have a lot of fun fur, eyelash and other "fluffy" yarns that I bought a while ago, and I want to get rid of it. I would like to have that room freed up in my storage area for other, more useful yarns. I know some yarn bombs will be fluffy, and tacky and plastic, but those ones are the most fun.
If you haven't seen my 101 list, please check it out! I have been making slow progress on some of the goals. I haven't started most of them, but I will get through this. I'm having fun so far.

These are my two newest neck warmers. The one on the right is my usual Thick and Quick yarn cowl. It was made in a 1x1 rib, and is 54 stitches. The colour is a little bit off, but not by much. It's a bit brighter in person. I made it a little bit longer than I usually make this type of scarf so as to use up the rest of the skein, and not leave a tiny ball of yarn, with no where to go. It can be worn with the top folded down, as shown, or with the bottom folded up. To visualize that one, either stand on your head, or turn your computer over.
No, really! Please don't! I don't want you to hurt yourself. Ah, ok, good, now, back to yarn.
The one on the left is really neat. I made it with two strands of black sport weight (I think that's what it was. A little thinner than regular worsted) and one strand of BRIGHT! blue knitting machine yarn. I have a giant cone of it, that I got back at the beginning of December. Most of the colours are kind of "blah" but this blue is fantastic. Click the picture to see it a bit larger. As soon as it fell out of the bag, I knew I had to make something with it. This warmer is in seed stitch. That is something I usually stay away from, but the yarns needed a pattern a little different than ribbing to make the pop a little bit.
I just noticed an other warmer I made recently that I forgot to include in the photograph. It is similar to the butter yellow one I made a couple weeks back, but slightly smaller
I have started on yet an other cowl/neck warmer. This one is made from yarn I got back in 2006 from my then-boyfriend's mother, after she finished knitting an afghan. I am very close to the bind off for this one. I will probably have it done before I go to bed tonight, and blog about it when I think about it.

I am a terrible knit-blogger in this sense. So many blogs I follow have in progress pictures of all their wonderful knit items. I, on the other hand, take a less beautiful approach. I photograph an item, if I remember, once I have finished it. Rarely at any other time. I think the reason for this is that they are knitting huge! intricate! items! from patterns! And my items are usually made up as they are being knit: "Oh, I might run out of yarn a little soon, let's k2tog in this round" or "Wait, I thought this was supposed to be ribbing? Well, it looks cool in seed stitch, too, I guess." I would take more photographs of my items in progress if I was not so absorbed in the actual knitting itself.
I am going to cast on my blanket after the cowl is done. I would like to have at least half of it done before it gets too warm in the house to knit it. And then next winter, I would finish it, ideally. This will be photographed in the next few days, as long as everything works out right.

In other news, I recently purchased an iPhone. I usually get myself a birthday gift, and this year, a new phone was it! My contract with my previous carrier was very close to being up, and I knew I needed to change. I have downloaded a few apps, but I've yet to look for any that are knitting related. Is this a pointless search? Or am I missing out on some wonderful way to facilitate my knitting endeavors? I prefer free apps, but if it is essential, I don't have any issues with shelling out a dollar or two (and 99 cents, of course!)

(This post is 1005 words, and counts towards one of my goals!)

More cotton yarn

I bought more cotton yarn a couple days ago. Like I said a couple days ago, I knit dishcloths all the time. I got two 340 gram skeins of Bernat Handicrafter from Zellers. The first is Lazy Daisy, and the second is Summer Splash (Actually quite a bit lighter, and more yellow, in person)

I've already made a couple cloths out of the Summer Splash. I'm planning on having at least three done to bring into Made In Windsor, at some point this week.
Between working two jobs (I got a second job a couple weeks ago. I know I should have shared sooner!) a social life, boyfriend and taking care of my apartment, I don't have a ton of knitting time. I have been trying to knit more while on the internet, and on the bus, but sometimes, I just want to sit still for a while.
Do you ever get that? Where you just don't WANT to knit? (or crochet? or sew? or do any other craft?)