Monday Update: March 18, 2013

Happy post St Patrick's Day! I hope you're not feeling too ill this morning, as I know some are. All that green beer and food is making some of my friends look a little green this morning. I didn't partake in any festivities this weekend, I didn't even drink a beer. That's a little out of character for me; I usually have at least one beer on the weekends. This whole weight loss thing is always at the back of my mind, so every time I think I'm going to eat/drink something that's not the healthiest, I ask myself what's more important: happiness right now, or long term happiness in the future? This isn't me saying I never allow myself to eat stuff that isn't good for me, in fact, we had McDonalds for dinner last night. But, I try to think about what I'm putting in my body. That being said, I will probably be having a beer after work tonight. It will likely be an apple cider beer, so I can pretend it's kind of healthy.
Anyway, onto what I've been knitting this week! I don't have pictures of everything, but I do have quite a few. I have been working on making loads of head bands so I can be well stocked for the fall shows. I have almost a dozen waiting to be sewn up in my WIP basket. There are a few other almost finished objects in there as well. Since I got this basket, I've been keeping all my stuff in there until the ends are woven in, and I tag them. Then they move to my craft show bin. It helps me keep track of where everything is, and I like to do things production line style, so this facilitates that. Sew everything. Trim all the ends. Tag everything. I feel more efficient that way.
Onto what I've been knitting!
This head band is a custom order for one of my friends. She asked for it a little while back, and I just hadn't gotten around to making it. The head band was easy, it just took some time to figure out how I was going to make the flower. Most of the flowers I see on this style of head band are crocheted, which is something I just can't do. Once I figured it out, it was super quick to make. I'll definitely be making more. Actually, I have another headband just like this ordered, so it will be sooner rather than later.
I got back on the hexipuff train last week. I knew I needed to crank out a bunch if I want to be finished this thing in any reasonable amount of time, so I was just going to make a couple and hopefully feel a little better about it. I ended up making eight of them in just a couple days. I'm nowhere near caught up, but I had a lot of fun making them. The first one that started me down the rabbit hole was the red and aqua striped one here. It looks awesome, this is a favourite colour combination of mine, but it was a pain in the ass to actually knit. Doing stripes in the round on DPNs is something I didn't really enjoy doing. I don't know if I'll be doing many striped ones, that aren't self striping.
These are the first five puffs I cranked out. The top grey one is actually sparkly, and I love it. It's KnitPicks Stroll Glimmer yarn in the Chrome colourway. I think I have two skeins of it. My parents got it for me in my Christmas yarn package. The two blue ones are yarn from Evermore Studios. The rainbow and blue is yarn I got from a destash on Etsy. I'm loving the way these puffs are working up!
I laid out all the puffs I had made, and I have 21 at last count. (This doesn't include the puffs later on in this post) Together, they're not even large enough for a seat cover, so I still have quite a ways to go. I am having fun knitting them, which is the most important part.
I tweeted that I wanted to make the hitchhiker shawl, but didn't have the money in my PayPal account to purchase the pattern. I wasn't looking for a handout, just lamenting my broke-ness. One of my knitting friends from a gazillion miles away gifted me the pattern on Ravelry, and it brought a tear to my eye. I feel so lucky when things like this happen to me. I will definitely pass on the gesture when I can afford to do so. I pulled a skein of Lanitium ex Machina's yarn out, and got to work.
The colours are working up beautifully, with no pooling in sight. I'm up to twelve points. I would be a little farther along if I didn't goof up in the middle of a row and have a really wonky stitch. I had to rip back about 3 points to fix it. Totally worth it, because I know that if I didn't, I would notice that mistake forever. I'm slowly but surely building my personal accessory collection. This is going to be shawl number four (I'm pretty sure anyway) that I've knit for myself. I can't wait to finish it, but in the mean time, I am enjoying the knitting process.
I finished up the last few rows on a loosely knit orange neck warmer. I've had this on the needles for a few weeks, but haven't really been actively knitting on it. I had only about 3 rows to go before it was done, so I cranked them out and bound off. It's a 5x5 rib with an unknown yarn on size 11 needles. The yarn is from a bag of mill ends at Zellers, so I have no idea what it actually is. That's one thing I'm really going to miss when Zellers is gone for good. Just a couple more weeks to go. With the yarn that is left in the skein from this, I am doing a summery scarf on the same size needles, and I'll also be making a head band or two later on.
I made a few more puffs with the Evermore Studios yarn. The blue one at the top finished off a mini skein which brings my number down one. But! I had to get a skein of black Red Heart Super Saver to knit up the head band I mentioned at the beginning of this post. So no change for the week. I will be going through some of my stash this week or next and getting more yarn ready to donate. I'm starting to realize how overwhelmingly huge my stash is, and I know I need to start paring it down, or there will be problems.
What have you fine folks been up to this week? Any fun knitting you're working on?