SSS is underway!

Oh My Goodness! It's been 2 years since I was here!

Anyways!  Things have been normally crazy in all that time.

Super Sock Scarefest is in full swing over on Ravelry.  We don't officially start until October 1st since Yarn Yenta is out of the country at the moment.  We are doing September Scare to keep us occupied until then.  I am providing pattern pieces, once a week through September, you put the pieces together the way you want and add your favorite heels and toes and cast ons or bind offs.  There is a cuff down version and a toe up version.  So far we have bats, a spider and millipedes.....yucky, creepy crawly stuff.  Post every finished pair of socks, containing at least 2 pattern pieces I provided, in the SepScare FO thread and in mid October I will draw one winner by either random number generator or I will put all of the post numbers in a hat and let my daughters draw a winner.  I'm not sure I completely trust the Random Number Generators, but the jury is still out on that one.

I have been working on designs for SSS's September Scare.  I have 2 shawls in the design process along with a couple of pairs of socks. I just sent a shawl pattern out to a couple of people for testing.  That is a very new thing for me and it is very exciting!  If anyone wants to test knit a 2 skein fingering weight shawl, shoot me a comment here or a pm on Ravelry where I am SapphireRuby.  I have been spinning a little here and there.  I've also caught the dye bug but at the moment I don't have anything to dye. LOL  I do think about it A.L.O.T..  I also have my normal pile of WIPs. Some of those babies have been waiting a couple of years. yikes! Oh well, they'll be there tomorrow.

I also really want to get out my sewing machine and make up some Halloween bags out of this really cool Owl fabric I purchased over the summer.  Ooh.....I have coffee cup fabric too and song birds and roosters and......  Needless to say I have lots I want to do. :)

The kids went back to school on Tuesday so I am trying to find myself a routine in the way things need to be done so I can try to open up more space for the things I want to do.  Is anyone else thinking Halloween and Christmas are right around the corner and there is so much to do.  I still have to start hauling wood before it gets to cold.  I don't even want to think about snow flying yet.

Well I am off to do the dishes.  I hope this finds all of you well and in good spirits.
Knit lots, spin some more and laugh often!

Shannen
maybe it won't be another 2 years.......

WIPs...I haz them!

Wow!  It's been almost 2 years!  How the heck did that happen?!

      Anyway, recently I have been plagued by my WIP pile. You know the pile that screams your name at night while you try to sleep. The one that says "hey you!  Did you forget about me?"  The one that lives in all of the really cute holiday themed project bags that only get used a month or two out of the year. Of course you shuffle them when the seasons change so you can use those bags. But you do just that.....shuffle them to another out of season bag. The one that haunts you when you try to buy new shiny yarn and makes it nearly impossible. So in return you just buy yarn in colors you don't have or in colors the kids or your sister would like. Ok, so maybe that crosses over into the overflowing, takes up room in your bedroom that you really can't spare, but oh my goodness it's beautiful, stash.
      Test knitting doesn't help the WIP pile either. Especially when it's socks. You only have to knit 1. So you knit 1. Then the next test knit pattern comes up and you knit 1. Never mind what you stopped knitting in order to test those patterns. WIPs.....I haz them!
      I am not just talking about socks and and test knitting!  I also am a great _AL-onger.  KALs,SALs,RALs and CALs I love them all.  Then I get over whelmed or sidetracked or bored for what ever reason and then I end up moving onto the next thing or the yarn I just bought.  Anyone else have this problem?  Anyone else understand where I am coming from?
      I have four kids and at different parts of the year I have to have WIPs in different levels.  There are ones that need no brainspace and no looking necessary for softball or sometimes kids' homework time, I can do this but have to look and pay a little attention for watching TV or sitting in the car waiting for a kid or two, and I really want to do this but it has to be while the kids are in school or the husband is out of town because every line of this 3000(exageration) row chart is differnent and I have to count....LOTS!
      At the moment, lets see if I can remember them all and I'm sure I'll forget some, I have on the needles:

Raspberry Dream Stole
Color Affection
Revontuli
Vernal Equinox
1 Laura Nelkin shawl
1 Galina Khmeleva Shawl
A shawl I am designing (but the rows are really long now)
1 secret test knit shawl
2 socks from The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet Vol's I and II
5 Heatherly Walker sock patterns
4 Knitter's Brewing Company sock patterns
1 sock pattern that I designed and only knit 1 (and this I don't get because it is my pattern!!!!!)
4 other misc sock patterns by different designers
1 tank top
1 Woodstove Season sweater
2 pair of fingerless gloves with flip tops
1 crochet size 10 thread, 96 squares needed, king size bed spread
1 lace weight crochet shawl
1 fingering weight crochet shawl I am designing
1 crocheted tea set for my little girls

OK......the brain is fried!  I really think there is more but they are not coming to me at the moment.

This week I have cast on 2 hats and finished them.  I also finished one pair of super secret, can't tell you about them or I'd have to kill you, socks that have been on the needles since.....um.....Halloween....I think.

I really need to get some of this stuff off of the needles.  Anyone else have this problem? Anyone else understand where I am coming from? I doubt I am alone on this.  I'm not quite at the point of storing the WIPs or the yarn in my freezer....yet...  I am however always eager to go buy more needles so I don't have to take them out of something else.  I also love to buy more Holiday themed bags to hide projects in use for every holiday.  I have even started making bags and stitch markers.  Stitch markers like to hide in all of those WIP bags.

I am determined to knit down the WIPs.  I don't tend to be very consistent with things....so maybe this will help me stay more focused and on task.

Please feel free to let me know I am not alone.  Feel free to tell me about your WIP pile. I will do my best to add pictures along the way.  I CANNOT show you pictures of secret stuff but I'll show you what I can.

On top of all of this.....Super Sock Scarefest is starting up on Ravelry.  I also moderate the Dozen Shawls in 2013 group on Ravelry.  I have a feeling this may be a never ending battle.  How does a monogamous knitter stay monogamous?!

Thanks for reading the rambling.
Shannen

OMGoodness!!!!!!  That's 32 WIPs!!!!  Yes.....I HAZ THEM!!!!!!

Life is so CRAZY!!!

I promise....something is coming to this page.  I am racking up a list.  There has been lots of knitting, spinning, painting, sewing and baking.  It is really coming.  I am currently trying to get my daughters's Halloween costume finished and then pics and a post.  I really will.

Knit Lots!

It's coming! Really it is!

I just dropped by to say a new post really is coming.  We've been to Delaware, I've been making jam, and we are packing right this minute to go camping.  I will be back soon with details and pics and some yarn that I plied last night.  It has just been wickedly busy around here lately.

Backwards.....usually....

So I have a habit of doing things backwards or the hard way.  I have this idea in my head, for a triangular shawl.  I have hexagonal motifs that I want to start at the point on the back and go up the sides to lay gracefully over the shoulders.  It is a beautiful motif.  I think most people would start with the triangle "in the middle" and then add the motifs to the outside edge.  Not this girl.  I have to start with the motifs and then figure out how to connect them to each other and then how to knit back and forth between them.  So far.....This is what I have....

This is the Sea Star motif from the Vogue Knitting Stitionary Volume 5: Lace.  It is knit on US size 7 needles with Schaefer Yarns Anne in colorway Clara Barton.  It is hard to tell from the pic but the subtle color changes in the red are just beautiful.  I have another skein of this on order from the Yarn Cupboard in Jamesville so I can keep the current skein for the motifs and make them as I need them and knit the center with the other skein.  Well....this is if I can wait long enough to actually get the new skein.  Progress pics as it moves along.  I will be writing it down as I go so I can transform it into a pattern.

I just finished crocheting Corsica for the Yarn Cupboard. 

I will be delivering it in the next hour.  I love the vintage button Susan and I decided to add.  It is crocheted with Rowan Siena cotton yarn on a F5 hook.  It is a size medium so I can't wear it.  Sorry for the flat table pic but I guess it is better then nothing.

So in normal life....I still have absolutely everything still on the needles plus this new shawl thing.  On Saturday we had a large tree in our driveway cut down before another storm went through.  We lost a large limb with the last storm and thank goodness it wasn't on the cars when it fell.  The weekend and most of this week have been and will be consumed with clearing wood and adding it to the wood room to burn this winter.  Yes, I have a wood stove. 

My son has to go to summer school after a rough year this year so our summer should be interesting to say the least.  Planning on going camping soon with dear friends of ours at Bowman Lake and can't wait.  I will have to remember the camera and maybe I can squeeze in some knitting.  I usually can.

Talk to you all again soon!  Happy Knitting!  Drop me a line.

Shannen

Brand New Blog...

Been gonna do this for awhile and here I am.  LOL 

Bridge of Roses Socks by Wendy Gaal is one of the many, many things on my needles at the moment.  I also have two pairs of socks that I am designing and a multitude of others.  My sister's birthday was Tuesday and I still don't have her scarf finished.  I went to a fiber festival on Saturday and bought some lovely fiber that I can't spin till I get the Colinette off of my wheel.  I also still have some seeds that need to get in the ground or they'll never have enough time to produce.  Seems like I am always running behind in this crazy life I have created for me that I LOVE so much.  Did I mention I have 4 kids that keep me running all the time.  So here enters another chapter in my life and away we go.