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?

Self Portrait Monday: August 1, 2011

Holy flying time! I can't believe it's August. Only one short month until our Icelandic vacation!!!
But, between now and then, there is still much time.
Twenty-two dishcloths! That's how many I've made recently. I've tied in all the ends, now I just have to trim them.
About half of them are spoken for (between my Mom and Sarah) and the others will be for sale. I am still unsure about putting them in the Etsy shop. There are so many sellers that have them available, it will probably just a waste of a listing fee. I think I may just put them on the Facebook page, and they will be available for people local to me to purchase.
Since the last update, I have finished two dishcloths. One of them is the purple and white here, and the other is for my mom. That one finished up another skein. The purple is getting pretty low. One more cloth will finish it off, for sure.
I have also finished a few hats for LeeLee Hats. I think two more of those. I did finish one skein of brown with those. When I finally get to another knit club meeting, I will be donating even more yarn.
I am starting to realize how much yarn I have that I won't ever use, for whatever reason. I will donate it to this group so it can be used.

Slow and Steady Wins The Race (or something like that)

There is some progress being made on the stash! I have been working on dishcloths for a while, and I think it's time to show them.
I made the blue ones for Rick's friend, Sarah. She asked for blue, and gave no other specifications, and this is what I came up with. Not sure if she wanted solids, but I can always make more, if she does! She asked for 3, but I made 4 because I still had some of the lighter blue left. This finished off one small skein of cotton.
I still have to weave in the ends, but other than that, they are done, and I am very happy with them.
The pair of neutral coloured cloths is for my Mom. Just one more cloth to go, and all of hers will be finished. This finished off another skein! I've made a whole bunch of cloths for her, and I will be giving them to her this weekend. I hope she likes them.
I have also finished quite a few hats for LeeLee Hats in the past couple days. They use up yarn that I otherwise wouldn't be using. Three made so far, with another on the needles. I still have to sew them up, as I am knitting them flat, but they are looking super cute!
With these knits, I am adding 9 finished objects, and 2 finished skeins. With the next post, I should be adding at least 2 more finished skeins!

Self Portrait Monday: July 11, 2011

Hello Monday!! It's been a loooong weekend. I worked a food festival with Rino's Kitchen, and that just about knocked me out. I ate till I almost burst... On Friday, Saturday AND Sunday.
Saturday was my anniversary with Rick. He was at his parents because I was working all weekend, so we didn't do anything until today.
I've also finished knitting a couple dishcloths. Two more cloths added, and one skein finished. I m now up to 15 items made, and +2 as far as skein count goes. Soon, I will catch up!
I haven't been knitting all that much the last few days. Between work, the gym and the weather, I haven't really felt like doing much.
I did, however, go to the LeeLee hats knit club on Saturday. I finished half a hat, and left it there so I could continue it next time, or someone else can work on it.
I should get back to knitting. I have an order for some blue dishcloths from a friend, and I want to get them made!

Self Portrait Monday: July 4, 2011

Happy Fourth of July to my American readers, and happy Monday to everyone!
I have three more dishcloths made! The white striped cloth and the middle seed stitch one finished of another skein of cotton. I am up to 13 items made, and a net change of plus three for my number of skeins of yarn. Just one more skein of cotton to use up and I will consider myself even. The other two that I added will be used in a few weeks. They will be my plane knitting for Iceland.
I am just a few rows away from having the baby blanket complete. That's a pretty large ball of yarn, so I am happy about that.
After these are done, I will probably make some baby hats. I have quite a few skeins that I have earmarked for some charity knitting, and a lot of them are on the small side. Instant gratification!

I am getting so excited for Iceland. There are about 60 days left until then, and still so much stuff to do. I am going to try to sell some of my knitwear and earrings between now and then to have some extra spending money. I will hopefully be listing some stuff in the next week or so in my downtime. I've been working extra shifts because of our new extended hours, so my free time has almost disappeared!

Dishcloth Progress and a Crazy Awesome Announcement!

Despite my minor set-back earlier this week, I am making some progress on the stash.
Five more dishcloths made, and one skein eliminated.
The top two cloths are for my mom The rainbow is one of the CoolSpun Cotton balls she bought me. the other three are just other cloths I've made.
I am working on a few more cloths for her, as well as the baby blanket. I did a few rows yesterday, but it was so hot in the apartment that I just couldn't do any more!
I think I might post a few dishcloths in the Etsy shop. There are a lot of knitters who have cloths for sale, but they are mostly the regular "grandma's favourite" style with the yarn overs at the edges. Most of the cloths I've been doing are striped or patterned in some other way.
Anyone want to weigh in on this? Should I bother listing some cloths? Should I do packs of multiple cloths?

Ok, onto the amazing news. My boyfriend, Richard, has wanted to go to an amazing, far away land for ages. He got an email recently saying the plane tickets were close to half off. So, come mid-September, I will be doing a lot of firsts: first time on a plane, first time outside of North America, first time I'll use my passport (which I still have yet to acquire) and the final, and most important first...
My first time in Iceland.
We have the tickets, and we're getting our travel arrangements... arranged. We have a few must see things to do, and the rest of the time, we're sort of going to fly by the seat of our pants.
Rick and I are both planning on getting a lopapeysa, trying Iceland's world famous hot dogs (which are made with local meat, and therefore perfect for my food eating lifestyle), eating skyr, and hopefully, seeing some sheep.
If any of you have suggestions of things to do in Iceland, please let me know!!

Progress!

As I said this morning, here is the first update of what I hope to be many in this quest.

Two dishcloths from a skein of cotton. I think I knit one more out of this skein before these two, but I can't remember.
That little bit of yarn on top is about 2 yards. Probably enough to make a little flower to put on one of the hats for LeeLee hats. Most of my leftovers will be going to that group. They are doing amazing work for the babies being born at Hutzel.

The cloths are actually sitting on a stack of library books I took out last week.
The top one is CowlGirls by Cathy Carron. There are some BEAUTIFUL cowls and other neckwear in there. I am taking bits from several patterns, and I plan on making a few pieces for the fall for my Etsy shop.

I am already starting on another pile of cloths. After I crank out a few more, I will probably work on the baby blanket I started a while back, but never got around to finishing.

Self Portrait Monday: May 16, 2011

It's Monday, and it's cold. My neck and back are still very sore. I spent a few hours in the emergency room on Saturday, several of them in a neck brace, some time in a wheel chair being transported to and from the x-ray clinic, and then released sans brace. The doctor said everything looked okay, all things considered. This meant nothing broken, nothing too severe. I am to ice my neck often, take ibuprofen as needed, and try to take it easy. If things do not improve, I am to head back to the hospital in an ambulance. The front and sides of my neck are still tender to the touch, but it doesn't hurt as much to just be sitting there, supporting the weight of my head.
The cold, damp weather isn't helping much when it comes to feeling better.
I haven't been doing much in the way of knitting or Etsy-ing lately. I need to photograph some things for the shop, which I have been meaning to do for a while now, but I have no batteries for my camera. I need to find some, and get some new items posted!!! No more excuses!!!
I am off to mail some dishcloths to my friend Paul in Ottawa.
Hope all is well with you!

Self portrait Monday: April 18, 2011

Happy Monday! It is past the middle of April, and it is SNOWING! I couldn't believe it this morning when I checked Twitter, and then took Winston outside. He loves it! It's not that cold out, so it's not all that bad.
I've been working on lots of dishcloths lately. Most of them have some sort of textured stripes, but some are just plain.
I finally went to the city library last week and got myself a library card. I took out seven(!!!) books, and have flipped through most of them already. I am reading Dogfight, A Love Story, by Matt Burgess right now. I also have a hold on Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I am looking forward to that one, as well.
I ordered some buttons from Wicked Wool Gathering on Etsy. Her prices are awesome, and I can't wait till I get them. She doesn't just sell buttons, either! She has all sorts of other things, too. I definitely encourage you to check her out.
I am going to be holding a contest here on my blog very soon. I need to list some more items first. And, well, make them too! I have plenty of knitted items, but no back stock of button earrings. I also need to photograph some of my smaller knitted items. Gah, I've been so lazy!

How have all of you been?

Self Portrait Monday: December 20, 2010

As you may have noticed, my Very Good Things posts have become sporadic at best. I work every Sunday, and I don't always get on my computer then. Yesterday, for example, I worked 10-4 at the restaurant, and then 5-10 at the other job. By the time I got home, I just wanted to relax.
To remedy not having these posts, and to get myself used to not looking like a total doofus in front of a camera, I am going to do Self Portrait Monday posts, and include some of the Very Good Things that happened that past week.

Total doofus look going on here. With added bed head. But, I am knitting a dishcloth for a custom order (this one is cloth number 1 of 5) which is great. Another good thing this week? I sent Rick to his parents house with the scarves for his sister in law. I finished them all up last night, and I am very happy with them. I did forget to take pictures, though. I also have most of my Christmas shopping done, which is awesome!

Something Very Bad did happen this past week. I wasn't going to mention anything about it, but I feel like I should. My parents went grocery shopping in Michigan last week. This is a common occurrence for people in the Windsor area, and my family is no exception. I don't know all the details, but they were rear-ended by a Jeep in my mom's Equinox. My mom spent some time in the emergency room in a neck brace, on a back board. I'm not sure how my dad did, or how he is feeling now. He's been in a bad accident in Michigan once in his life already (A few years back, he was rear ended by a semi truck, and pushed into the back of another semi truck. Thankfully, he was driving a large pickup truck at the time)

I'm glad they're ok. And I really hope the idiot in the Jeep (who was more concerned about the damage to his vehicle) has insurance and a good lawyer.

How have all of you been?

And then all was right in the world

You probably remember in my last post that I was having issues with my neck thing.
Well, all the problems were quickly resolved! I managed to undo the knitting back the 12 or 14 rows and pick up all the stitches once again. it took about an hour and a half to redo all the knitting I lost.
I have now set it aside, and picked up a few other projects. I started another hair bow, a dishcloth, started and finished a neck warmer, and I've been messing around with ideas for more warmers.
I am going to work on cleaning out my yarn closet very very soon.

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?

Starting my new Mission 101

Back in January, I started a Mission 101 list. This mission is where one creates 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. I gave up because most of the goals were very time consuming and I didn't see progress on any of them.
Today is the day I am starting my new list.
Many of them are craft/knitting related. This is something I want to focus on more and more.
14. Make 200 things
15. Do 1 craft show
16. Start an Etsy shop
17. Knit 2 things for myself
18. Knit 1 large blanket (finishing the one I have going now counts)
19. Knit 2 things from patterns in my books
20. Knit 2 things from patterns online
21. Use up all my cotton yarn
22. Make a set of felted nesting bowls
23. Make the denim quilt
24. Knit 1 000 000 stitches
25. Give 10 hand made Christmas/birthday gifts
26. Make 5 moss jars
27. Do a 365 project with iphone camera and knitting and post on the 365 blog
28. Organize my yarn stash
29. Put up 50 yarn bombs
30. Make plantable paper
31. Make soap
32. Learn to crochet
33. Crochet something
34. Spin yarn
35. Make something from my spun yarn
36. Post on the knitting blog 100 times43. Have a craft night at my house
77. Purchase 10 items from Etsy

I am quite excited about this list. I feel like everything is something that can be accomplished. This post is counting for one of the knitting blog updates. I am also just starting on a new dishcloth. Which uses up cotton yarn, and, when completed, will be 2066 stitches towards my million stitch goal.

Are any of you/Have any of you done this mission?

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.

Blue and Yellow dishcloths

The stripey cloth I started ages ago is finally finished. It is a nice size at around 8 inches square. It isn't anything fancy like I said before, but I think the colours are quite nice.
As you can see, I have also started another cloth on the diagonal in the same colours. I am not sure where I am going with the groups of cloths in the same colour, but perhaps sets are the place to go. I think three cloths in similar colours bundled together would be nice. Once blue and yellow striped, one plain blue and one plain yellow, for example. Or maybe two diagonal and one horizontal? Suggestions?
I have no idea what colours to use, though. I don't have a whole lot of solid coloured cotton left, but if these go over well, I may purchase some more. What colours are your kitchens and bathrooms (in case you wanted to use them as face/wash cloths)? Or what colours would you love to see paired together?
I am always up for suggestions for this sort of thing!
I think I may give dishcloths for birthday gifts this year. My mom can always use more, many of my friends live on their own, and my relatives always seem to love anything I make.

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?

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.

More ordered dishcloths!

I was at my parents house the other day before work, knitting a dishcloth, as I usually do while waiting for things. My aunt came over and saw what I was knitting, and asked if I had any with me she could buy from me. I had just brought in all the cloths I'd finished into Made In Windsor, so I offered to knit her others. She had no requests for colours, and I should just pick which ones to use. I think I may just make a bunch, all in different colours so she can choose.
I really enjoy knitting dishcloths. I will never get rich knitting them, because of the time involved compared to the price I sell them for. They are very relaxing, and very meditative. I can completely zone out while knitting them, which allows me to do other things.
I have three cloths done now, and I hope to finish an other one today while working at Made In Windsor.