Welcome to Tiaga Ranch

The new home of news about Andrea and Bill and their adventures in the Pacific Northwest.

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A timeline of events to bring you up to speed...

September 2008: Bill is offered a job in Seattle.

October 2008: Bill, Toby and Teri move to Seattle and live in a small, awkward apartment with no furniture. Andrea and Zeke move in with Mom and Dad.

December 2008: Andrea and Zeke move to Seattle. The awkward apartment is even more awkward with all the furniture and another cat. Seattle experiences the worst snowstorm in 50 years. Downtown is dead in the week leading up to Christmas. Andrea accepts responsibility.

February 2009: 17 days in a row with no rain. We thought it rained here....

March 2009: Andrea finally gets a job! The awkward apartment becomes unbearable.

April 2009: New house, with a view...



Hope you enjoy the ride!

Solution

The solution to blocking fear and stalled knitting?

Garter stitch!!!

(Imagine "arty" photo necessary to preserve project anonymity. )

Stalled

Have you ever been afraid to block something?

My Bias Shell (ravelry link) has been causing problems. The first time I started it, I screwed up the directions. The second time, I went up a needle size, thinking it would be better, but it wound up big enough for a baby orca. The third time is the charm, right? Well, I have the front finished, but I am afraid to block it because I don't want to find out it is wrong. And I don't want to start the back until I know the front is the correct size. And I'm using my Christmas yarn, so it has to be perfect.

The net result? My knitting languishes. All of it. Guilt and worry over one project has completely stalled everything. Which is not good, seeing as I have a nephew to knit for. Maybe some garter stitch....?

The Funk

I have been in a knitting funk for the last week. Its kinda like every other funk where you just don't feel like doing anything. I'm on day 8 of a 10 day house sitting gig with two rather easy golden retrievers to care for. I brought 5 knitting projects and was sure at least 3 of them would be completed. I was wrong. The green scarf/bonnet is just a scarf. The baby gift still needs a bind off and ends woven in. The socks were ripped (pre-planned), restarted on larger needles and languish at 1.5 inches. The other baby gift was looked at, then shoved in the bottom of the bag and the red vest is still in time out after its last gauge snafu.

I simply cannot summon the mental energy required to fix issues or knit lace. Maybe I should lay off the Sudoku...

Modern Minimalism: Interlude

The cardigan is finished.
With yarn to spare.
Pictures to follow after my photographer arrives.

Modern Minimalism: Part 2

Last June I cast on this. And in August I mentioned it. When I moved in October, it was one of the projects that stayed with me. And was promptly shoved in a drawer in favor of Christmas knitting, a baby sweater, socks and necessary accessories. Recently, it was resurrected because two unfinished sweaters seem silly in my PNW environment and with only one income, yarn acquisitions have come to a standstill. Time to knit from the stash.

So... when the sweater was last seen, I had one sleeve completed (balls #1 & #2), one ball's worth of the other sleeve (ball #3) and the back completed up to the armhole shaping (balls #4 & #5) for a total of 5 balls used (I only had 10 to start with and yardage/math issues.)

I have since completed the back (ball #6) and the left front (ball #7 & 1/2 of #8). I'm working on the right front now. I hope to finish it with the rest of ball #8, leaving me all of #10 to finish the second sleeve. If not, I do have 2 small balls left that equal 1/4 of a ball, which should be enough to top off the sleeve. If it comes down to it, I will frog my swatch for seaming.

Let's get to it, shall we?

ETA: Thanks to the sharp eye of 5elementknitr, it was brough to my attention that the location of ball #9 was omitted. It is located in the right front section. I was knitting with it and forgot to include it in the count. Thanks, Ruth!!

It's that time of year...

Baby Season....

When it hit me last year, I ended up knitting 7 or 8 sweaters, 4 pairs of booties and 3 bonnets. This year I will be knitting a little closer to home. My older sister will be welcoming her first child in August, one of my best friends from high school is due in June and my younger sister just requested a pair of sweaters for her boyfriend's sisters-in-law. And at some point I'd like to finish a few sweaters fir myself. Good thing I have lots of time on my hands....