A Whole lot of Nothing

I have a confession to make: I’ve hardly done any knitting this week.  Not because of being too busy or anything, just because of forgetfulness.  I keep forgetting about my knitting.  Last week, I was on vacation and did manage to get an okay amount of knitting done.  I used up another skein of Cascade 220 on my cardigan (no picture because it looks exactly the same).


And I finished the heels on both socks and got them set back up for two at a time knitting

But that was maybe 3 hours worth of knitting.  Maybe.  Sure, I was on vacation and I was spending most of my day going around and visiting people and going out to eat a whatnot, but I still feel like I should have found more time to knit.  And I’m not one of those super confident knitters who can take their projects out with them to dinner or things like that.  The patterns that I’m knitting also wouldn’t have lent themselves well to knitting while trying to visit with friends.  The cardigan is all Stockinette stitch, but it is a bit large.  And my socks, while they aren’t a complicated lace pattern, do still take some concentration.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take what I can get, and I’m glad I got past the heels on those socks but I haven’t touched them since. 

Now, this bad habit of ‘forgetting’ my knitting is something that I’ve been battling since I began knitting.  In fact, it is one of the reasons why I stopped knitting originally.  I just kept forgetting to pick it up and in the end, other projects took over my interest.  It isn’t that I don’t like knitting, it is just that I get home from work and every time I’d go to sit down, I get sidetracked and before I know it, it is time for bed and another day has gone by without knitting a single stitch.  I have come up with a few ways to help me fight this bad habit and remember to pick up my knitting.

Normally I have a few projects in bags but at least one out on my desk at home at all times.  Having something laying out that I can see immediately makes it really hard to ignore.  When I have projects out, I’m more likely to pick them up, even if I know I can only knit a row or two on my socks.  That’s a row or two more than I would have knit otherwise.  This is especially powerful when it gets close to the end of a project.  It is extremely hard to resist finishing a toe on a sock when you can see how close you are to finishing every time you walk past the desk.  I may have put off laundry multiple times for an extra hour just so I could finally finish a project. 

Discovering knitting podcasts was what got me back into knitting and they help keep me knitting.  Nothing motivates me quite like watching someone else knit.  Next thing I know, my hands are itching to get some yarn in them. Only thing is, I need to watch those podcasts in order for me to feel motivated.  And (as the next blog post will explain), that’s been a bit tricky this week. 

I did get back to the spinning wheel this week, which is great.  I spun maybe 2 oz of this dark grey Gotland fiber that I purchased from woolery.com.  It is spinning up quite nicely but I’m still getting used to the new flyer on my wheel so it is a bit thick and thin.  It is getting better as I go, so I’m hoping by the time I’m done with the full 8oz that I’ll have enough confidence to move on to some of the more luxury fibers I have in my stash. 

I also have just a bit of stash enhancements for this week.  I know I wrote at the beginning of the year that I was going to try to use up my stash before buying new yarns.  And that has helped slow down the purchasing (which my bank account is happy about), but it hasn’t stopped it altogether.  These purchases were made over the course of the past two months, so it really isn’t too bad if you put it in perspective.

My first stash enhancement was an experimental colorway from Voolenvine Yarns.  The base colorway for this yarn is her Moondrop, but Kristen added black speckles to it.  Just lovely.  There were a few skeins of this colorway and mine is in her Narwhal base . 




Next, I purchased some other experimental colorways from Gynx Yarns







Next, I purchased some new fiber from Hobbledehoy Fibers





Plus, she was generous enough to add in another little sample 



Finally, I received my first skein in the Voolenvine Yarns Gorey Yarn Club 




You will be happy to know that I have been picking out patterns to use up my stash yarns, but I need to start getting things off the needles in a timely fashion.  I have the house to myself Friday night, so hopefully I can make up for some lost time.

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