Free Up the Needles

So far, the "project in every direction" spaz out is under control...but barely. The bear, and her dress and shoes and last minute bonnet are finished. My worry over the reception of a hand-knitted doll was not only silly, but completely unfounded. It was a hit. It was a BIG hit. It was raved over, and ooh-ed and ahh-ed over. It was named after me, and passed around, and predicted to be the doll their little girl carries around for years to come. It was received exactly as I was hoping it would be, and it was very fulfilling.

As for Lady (now Amanda)-Bear's clothing construction: The dress didn't take up as much yarn as I feared it would, the skirt was most of it, and other than a few pattern flaws (there are far more of those in that book than I expected) that I side stepped with minimal inconvenience, it knit up just fine. It was my favorite part of the project. It knit up quickly, easily, but not boring. It got progressively more lovely as it came closer to completion. The shoes on the other hand. The shoe pattern I was planning on using did not translate well to the bulkier yarn I was using. On top of it, the crochet instructions in this book are even more lacking than the knitting instructions (although there was only the one knitting instruction mistake I found). There's something about crochet that has always confused me just a little. When you slip into the first stitch of the last round and chain one, does that count as a stitch (if not specified) or not, or when counting your total stitches, do you count the stitch that your loop is coming out of currently as the last stitch, or do you slip into the beginning of the round and count THAT stitch, created by previous loop, as the last stitch? I can fudge my way through these things but it's taken me years to catch up little by little, one small mystery solved at a time, and it seemed like whoever wrote the crochet instructions in this book was confused in much the same manner. But, it could just be me. Crochet works better for me as my free-form medium. And, speaking of; lastly, the bonnet. Which I started and finished the night before the shower. It didn't turn out EXACTLY as I hoped, but much closer than I thought it would. I just free formed, trying it on the doll as I went. Everything turned out just right even though as I was finishing each stage I thought it was a stretch.

Now that the deadline is finished, the big question is: What equally fulfilling project will I embark upon now? I just found out that I'm having a girl, so I should knit something for her right? Something NOT pink for goodness sakes, since everyone else is supplying the pink even against my wishes. But then I have that sweater, that has been so close to completion for so long, that I dug out of my still packed bags the other day, which I knit oversized enough that I can probably wear it while pregnant. And then I have this intense urge to knit some very delicate and perfect lace, only digging out the thinnest yarn I've ever purchased once again just wields the same results: I'm all thumbs with something that delicate. I'm concentrating so hard on not dropping a stitch, because there's no way I could pick up stitches that small, that I can't follow a complicated lace pattern. The i-cord hat I started the i-cord for is easy to work on while on the phone or watching a show I actually want to watch, but then so is the legwarmer that I should really just finish, even if I can't ever imagine wanting to show my legs again, especially with something that makes them even more bulky than they already are. And then there's the mesh bag that I like the idea of, but as I'm knitting it I just want it to be finished. And I already had to frog practically the whole thing once because it was big enough to crawl into by the time I started on the straps, but I really want to make the same mesh bag with multiple different techniques, just to juxtapose them.

My mother wants me to start on another bear for my little girl, so of course I suppose that's what I must do next, if she deems it so. And I suppose that would be fun, but probably burn me out on them. Only now I really want to make a bear out of the variegated yarn I almost used for Lady/Amanda-Bear. But maybe my soon-to-be Ella will want her bear to match soon-to-be Maya's Lady/Amanda-Bear.

I've been alternating between all of them, five minutes on one, a couple hours on another. Right now I'm going to make meatballs and mashed potatoes with this great gravy from Ikea, and work on the last half of the sweater sleeve while I wait for it to cook. Hopefully it will be fulfilling, because I really need to feel fulfilled right now. Knitting myself a sweater when there are so many other people to knit for seems a bit selfish, but I need to free up the needles...yeah, that's it.

One at a time

So I've finished the bear from Clare Garland's Knitted Bears. I used a larger cotton yarn instead of mohair and the bear seems a little more sturdy than the ragdollish ones in the book, but I'm fine with that. If it's going to be a baby gift it's got to be sturdy. Unless the baby never likes it and it's just packed away for years and years before it's finally sold in a garage sale or given to Goodwill in a fitful spring cleaning.

Alright, that was just me worrying that my homemade doll will not be seen as a heirloom labor of love but as a floppy-legged, pointy nosed, beady eyed attempt at making a REAL stuffed animal. I'm sure it will be loved and I'm getting overly worked up. It's hard for me to give run of the mill gifts. I always want to give a gift that says it's 'definitely from Amanda, but just what I needed'. And sometimes that turns into something way over the top that is just weird.

Back to the knitting aspects of Bear. It took way longer than I expected. When I used one of the patterns out of Knitted Babes by the same author, it knit up almost overnight. This toy has more substantial body parts, but it still took much longer than I'd thought it would. ESPECIALLY the assembly. I spent almost as much time seaming as I did knitting the pieces in the first place. But I think once the entire thing is done it will have some of the charm I was hoping for.

Her dress is coming along rather quickly, but it's WAY bigger than I thought it would be. I mean it'll fit the doll and everything, but I never thought it would have such long rows or take up so much yarn for a doll dress. I'm probably going to have to pick up another skein, because I think the dress will take more yarn than the doll itself. Either way, it's coming along rather well without any hitches (knock on wood).

I have put the legwarmer by the wayside. But only because I have a deadline for the bear (the shower is this weekend). I still plan on finishing it when I'm done. Hopefully it will be a quick finish though because I'm getting really ambitious at this point. I started the sari silk i-cord to make the rag rug style sun hat to wear with a gypsy theme to the Ren Faire this summer. I crocheted a few bulky yarn cylinders to hold needles and hooks while I was waiting for materials for the bear. And lots of other projects that I make plans in my head to start. I will have to force myself to take one at a time. And I supposed that is my goal for the time being.

Who cares WHAT you're knitting?

The knitting has gone on hiatus for so long now. It's really hard to get interested in anything when things are so off kilter on all other fronts, even things that you're usually the most interested in. But I've been back in Michigan and feel at least a little rejuvinated. Then again, maybe it's just the snow making me feel all cozy inside and knitting is one of my coziest activities. And maybe it's because I'm going to be a mother for the first time this June and I've just got to knit 500 of the cutest outfits for my child to grow out of in less time than it took me to make them. Either way, I picked up the needles (the random ones that were hastily packed and brought with me) and have been working on a very simple pair of leg warmers I started a while ago.

Now, I'm not knitting the leg warmers because I need something easy, as is usually the case with me. I've been poring over patterns, and drooling all over them, but as I said, my knitting supplies were hastily and only partially packed and I find myself lacking the supplies I need to start a new project at a moments notice, as I've been able to for so long. On top of it, every time I mean to go to the yarn store, something comes up. Today it is snow. And I've just found out that the town's budget was cut and it takes them all day to get the roads plowed now. Although, we do have a four-wheel drive car. The bear I plan on making for my also-pregnant friend's baby shower might be worth the trip.

I do have to note that I made it to a Jo-Ann's the other day, the two-story one in Novi no less. I couldn't find a single skien that would work for me, even though I had 3 projects I was looking for. I couldn't even find the needles for one of them, and they were fairly common needles. Being hormonally drivin in just about everything these days, I almost had a meltdown, but narrowly avoided it. Which I'm rather proud of. Even if everyone else thinks I should be able to overlook the emotions and think rationally, they either have never been pregnant, or forgot what it was like.....or are just much better people than I am.

So I guess it's back to the oh-so-stimulating K1 P1 of the leg warmers. Actually, leg warmer, since I don't have another ball of the bulky green yarn that I'm using, and it's too late to divide the skein over two smaller leg warmers. I plan getting another skein though, even if the color is a little off, because in this new beginning to knitting I'm having, I plan to actually finish projects.