Big ol summer bag.

The other thing I got done this past week were all the squares for my big ol summer bag that I want to take to the beach at the end of august. I needed 16 crocheted squares. Here they are.
I just need to sew them together and find someone to sew me a liner for it. I also have not decided what kind of strap I'm going to use. More info. to come later.

Lessons from Mama

I've been on Ravelry a lot lately and I must say that somehow it is motivating me to get my projects done. It may be a couple of things egging me on.

First off I've queued almost 150 projects that I want to knit.

Second, I have the yarn in my stash for several of the projects that I've queued.

Third, I have the book or pattern or pdf for a lot of the patterns I have in my queue with awaiting yarn.

Fourth, with all the other ridiculous stats I see since I've been on Rav. I've only got 16 projects done….and not all of them are DONE. I have a couple hibernating. I have a couple still in progress. That reminds me. The hat isn't done. I ran out of yarn-i have some more in my stash but it's currently in storage waiting for shipment. I'll finish the brim when I can get to my stash but that will only take a minute.

Also, Joy is enjoying her Special K's.

Ok, so anyway, ultimately, the stats don't lie and when I log on and see how out of proportion things are it kinda checks me. I may be itching to cast on a new project but I won't let myself until I see at least one of those WIP's are done first. I might want to buy some more yarn but not until I bust some stash first because honestly, this is ridiculous. (At this point there will be no new yarn buying unless I'm vacation). I don't want to be a SABLE chick. I want to have a small stash. Right now I feel so wasteful. When I was young my mother would say, "There are children in Africa that would kill for…." insert whatever you like in that space- food, toys, clothes. I know ya'll have been there before, sitting at the dinner table for hours pushing around food that you don't like wishing you could reach the Kool-Aid drink that has been sat in the middle of the table out of reach so you don't fill up on drink and not eat.

Wow, sorry forgive me, flashbacks. I digress-- what I’m trying to say is my mom was right. I need to appreciate what I have and not be wasteful. I’m sure there are knitters in Africa who would kill to have my stash—right? (Puh-leez, lets face it, there’s knitters in a America that would stomp a foot in my… ) Anyway, I’m going to use up a large part of this stash---I will! I can!

You guys and Ravelry will help me right.

Special K's done

I can tell you right now, the second legwarmer looks tons better than the first legwarmer. I think it has to do with confidence. I spent much of the 1st legwarmer figuring out the pattern, wondering about the gauge, trying it on constantly…the 2nd one? The second one I just cast on and knit and got it done. All the stitches are a lot neater, it took me less time and I barely tried it on at.
So anyway, I’m not ripping legwarmer number one out so, here they go. Of course I haven’t blocked them yet. These were extra quick to knit so that was cool.
I had planned on making myself some in brown using the same pattern but the other day when I was looking at records at the salvation army I ran across this:
Those legwarmers are hot! Jane even had the hole cut out on the heel. Looks like 1x1 rib for like two inches on either side and then all stockinette. I wonder if I could figure out how to do magic loop for these. Hmmmmm.
You know, I was wondering how effective stash busting really is if you have to buy additional yarn in order to bust the yarn in your stash? This seems to happen to me often actually. I have the brown wool I wanted to knit the original legwarmers out of but I don’t have any mohair/fuzzy yarn and I want my warmers to be a little hazy. And if I decide to knit the Jane Fonda legwarmers I’m going to need a lot more yarn. Dilemma.
Even still, legwarmers aside, sometimes I have to buy an extra skein or some more complimentary yarn when it comes to using yarn in my stash and I can’t help but to chuckle at the irony of buying more yarn to have less yarn.
Anyway, I will cast on for my pair soon but first I want to finish this…

It’s Mellow Moods from the 1st Get Your Crochet On! Crochet is so freaking quick.

Special K legwarmers

A couple of weeks ago I watched breakin’ with some family. It was a nice throw back. Me and my brother were pretty excited to share because we loved the breakin’ movies when we were growing up.
I mean I was all but gonna marry Turbo and Ozone. Anyway, the week after that we watched Beatstreet. My brothers girlfriend is taking breakdancing classes and the movies have been a sort of home work for her. Anyway, what really matters is that special K was layering the legwarmers on like nobody’s business. I was convinced immediately that I needed to make us both at least a pair. So I started hers' the other day from some yarn I had in my stash (STASHBUSTING!!!). Thus far I’ve got like one and a quarter done. They are quick knits…

It’s 1x1 ribbing of Lion Brand Wool-ease yarn held together with some wanna be mohair yarn that my sister gave me. I’m using size 9 double pointed needles. I just kinda ripped the pattern off from looking at legwarmers on ravelry (sorry). Nevertheless, they’re coming out pretty dope…if I don’t say so myself.
On a side note Ozone was wearing a couple of leather vests with zippers and chinese letters on the back. They were pretty dope. I definitely wish chinese letters would come back in style...I'd rock that in a minute without hesitation--heck if I could find them I'd start my own trend regardless...
I'm getting ridiculous w/ the youtube but you gotta check out Jean Claude Van Damme gettin' down in the crowd in breakin'. Yep, that's him in the black spandex unitard. Toooooo funny.

Step 1. Admitting there's a problem

I don't know if you've noticed. I don't know if I've told you all. I don't know if it's been obvious or not.

I have been so out of my element this last….geez forever. I've been out of it for forever at this point…let's not put a time frame on it ok? But really the worse has been these last eight months while my husband has been away in Afghanistan. It's been touch and go ya'll and you could never imagine how much yarn I have acquired in the last eight-ish months alone. It's kind of embarrassing actually. I need to get myself under control. I need accountability. I need to admit I have a problem. I'll start ponying up the goods slowly but you guys have to promise not to judge. I swear it's like I black out and suddenly when I come to, elann or kpixie or knit picks is knocking at my door thanking me for my purchase. Boy does it feel good to get those packages in the mail…

Fiery Phiaro Done

It's been a week or so and I still haven't blocked it and I must admit I wore it out to the new Wegman's because I had on these cute shorts and sandals and the weather was just right and I was feeling it and it didn't look incredibly wrinkled, just cute and sophisticated and I had a little Grace Jones"strange' girl" (pronounced straun*jay) in my strut and....although I can't say that Grace was very cute or sophisticated in that movie but she was working it from the old school "fierce" factory...
Anyway, I love this scarf. It was a pain in the neck to knit toward the end because it was so freaking boring and then you gotta braid all the fringe but it was so worth it when I got to "work it" in my handmade scarf at the grocery store (oh, don't hate). You can check the specifics on Ravelry but I did use 2 and a little bit of the third skein to finish this. I also bound off 10 stitches between every drop 5 group instead of doing and even ratio like the pattern calls for. I like it this way. Surely I'll block it this week

Ebay bay, ebay bay, e bay bay

found some Calmer style yarn – ebay bay

Had a little sale going on- ebay bay

Put it in my stash so I can Hike- ebay bay

Ohhh, you know that price was really right- ebay bay

Eh, e-bay that's my yarn… snap it up!

OHHHHhhhhhhh Snap! That's hot! Let me find out I'm bout to grab a record deal up in here. LOL, sorry, some of that southern rap (here's a singalong-lol) for ya. Feel freet to link to that foolywag material which is the music video if you want. Somebody tell me why Hurricane Chris has those Venus/Serena beads in his hair still? He needs to be pulled over and ticketed.

Anyway, I found some Calmer on ebay (get it-hehe) for cheap the other day-it was a total freak event. I snapped it up and it goes directly in my stash so I can finally knit Hike. Don't know when I'll ever start this top but at least I've got the yarn for it. I actually got it a while back but never posted.

I finished Ay baybays (AKA PeteyPab) summer bag too. As you can figure old gal is about the souff....

I used stash dishcloth cottons and the everlasting bagstopper pattern on Knitty. You can check out specifics on Ravelry. I'm Ninabeena on there. We should be friends.