FO: Cupido Cowl

 Last month I went to a yarn garage sale where several women were de-stashing yarn and fabric. I picked up several great yarns (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted!) including a ziploc bag with several skeins of Rowan Kid Classic. It just so happened that the previous evening I was looking up this particular yarn on Ravelry to knit the Cupido Cowl so I snapped up the bag of yarn for...ahem, two whole dollars, and brought it home.

Pattern: Cupido Cowl by Hiroko Fikatsu

Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic (approx. 1 1/2 balls)

Needles: US #8 Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I cast on 132 stitches since I had extra yarn in my cast on tail (the pattern is a 4 stitch repeat) and knit until I was just about out of yarn. This yarn is one of the nicer mohair blends that I've knit with and it has good stitch definition while still looking fluffy  and soft.

FO: Zombie Socks

My zombie socks have been finished for about a month but I finally dug out my camera and took pictures. These are the first socks I've knit that are self-striping from an indie dyer and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. My only issue is that the red bled a bit into the lighter "zombie flesh" stripes and turned them slightly pink in places. It's my own fault for not adding a bit of vinegar, or a color keeper, to the wash since I was pretty sure that bleeding would occur in the wash. I still love them and am waiting for it to cool down enough in Seattle to warrant cashmere blend socks, these things are toasty!

Pattern: improvised

Yarn: Out of Step Dyeworks Self-Striping MCN

Needle: Addi turbo US #1 1/2 32" circular

Update

Hi! I'm still alive and knitting. I've got a ton of finished objects to photograph and share; mostly because my Ravelry page keeps staring blankly back at me every time I log on. I've been using Single Skein September to power through some holiday gifts before, you know, it's actually the holidays. Every time I finish a knit and lay it aside I feel better about my next, and last (for a while), quarter of school and the frenzy of Christmas activity that attends finals week and the two weeks following. And you know what? I'm actually enjoying  knitting these things ahead of time since it means that I won't have to squeeze in gift shopping between studying for finals and writing term papers. Photographic proof will be provided shortly, knit on.

Motivation

I've been posting a bit this Summer about organization. While I've shared some things with you (my stash) there have been other things that I've done and habits I've established that haven't made it to the blog yet. I thought I'd do a round up of things I've read about, tried, and been inspired by in regards to organization. Without further ado:

UFyH.  The operator of UFyH has a no-nonsense, motivational, supportive, and humorous approach to "unfucking your habitat". You can follow via tumblr, facebook, or twitter and I've found it to be exactly my cup of tea. The idea is that something is better than nothing and even if all you do in a day is make your bed, it's an achievement. She doesn't advocate cleaning marathons but rather 20/10s (clean/rest) that eventually move your home toward a manageable state of cleanliness and organization. By the look of her followers' before and after shots it's working great for a lot of people. She even has an app available for iphone and ipad that provides random challenges, motivation, and a customizable list function (I own it, and it's awesome). Did I mention that she curses?

FlyLady. Similar but different to UFyH. Her method is "baby steps" toward organizing and maintaining a clean home. FlyLady is definitely geared toward the stay at home crowd but she does have modifications for working people/students. While I know her method works for some, I was turned off by the religious undertones and too-structured cleaning schedule. If you prefer more structure and email digests of stuff to do this may be your ticket to clean.

Apartment Therapy. This is a beautiful website full of inspiration for everything to do with your home. Small spaces, organization, green living, DIY, and more. They've got tons of guest articles, videos, and great advertisers that illicit lots of oohing and aahing.

How to Clean Anything. This website does exactly what it says, gives information on how to clean anything. If you've got kids, pets, a propensity for spilling coffee on yourself (me) then you can get information on how to clean just about anything and everything.

Ravelry. For the fiber enthusiast. The best tool I can think of in regards to my obsessive knitting habit. It indexes, categorizes, you know...organizes all of my knitting stuff. I've met a ton of great people and stayed in touch with a whole virtual community with this one tool.

 I am, by nature, an organized person and somewhat neat freak (thanks, mom) and I generally am an efficient manager of my time so I rarely feel too overwhelmed by either my home, work, or school life. However, clutter has a tendency to creep into my home and things get left "to do later" and I suddenly get tired of moving that bag for the ten billionth time and that's when I visit the above websites for inspiration and motivation to get things going again.

Have you tried any of these? Success? Failure?

Undone

Last week I felt a little bored with my knitting project so I went in search of something knitting related to do that wasn't knitting. There is a stack of sweaters sitting in my room that have problems. Rather, I have problems with my knitting execution in choosing either size or length or yarn or what have you. Not being in the mood to unpick stitches and reknit sections of sleeves or button bands I pulled a sweater out of the stack and got to frogging. This yummy yarn came from the Hollyhock sweater that I knit at the beginning of last year. All of the issues that I had with this particular sweater came from my own modifications. The yarn, Columbia by Imperial Stock Ranch, is a lovely lovely thing to work with and blooms amazingly when washed and unfortunately it was just a plain old bad choice for this sweater. This yarn definitely tends toward the heavier side of worsted, if not Aran, and when knit up at the close-to-correct gauge for Hollyhock it became armor-like. Due to my choice of yarn I had to modify the stitch count and yoke depth and neither worked out quite right. I prefer a fitted yoke and sleeve with little to no extra fabric at the underarm and this sweater just, well, it was not flattering. I think I wore it once or twice and then shoved it toward the back of my closet as the wearability issues forced me to acknowledge my knitting fail. I'm excited to knit it again in something that works with the yarn rather than against it.

On & Off

Lately it feels like no matter how much time I put into projects they just aren't getting done. Every knitting, sewing, or home project feels prematurely doomed to failure. I could blame the weather but I think I'm just....bleh. Part of this feeling stems from running out of both yarns on my Westknits Mystery Shawl very close to the end of the project and part of it is my inability to focus brought on by stress. I've managed to get something off and something on the needles in the past few weeks.

Pattern: Colorblock Hand Warmers by Purl Soho

Yarn: Brown Paper Packages Silk & Ivory (emerald, margarita, honeydew)

Needles: US #2 & US #3

Mods: I cast on 48 stitches so that the mitts are snug around my palm and arm. I also worked these from the tips to the wrist so I could use all of my yardage (the yarn comes in 28.8 yard hanks) and knit the thumb in one go instead of going back and picking up stitches.

I also cast on a plain stockinette sock in my self-striping Zombie Apocalypse yarn from Out of Step Dyeworks. This one practically knit itself and I've got the second sock cast on and ready to knit tonight.

Zombies + Yarn

 I've been feeling a bit stressed out lately and I'm not quite sure why. Passing the one year anniversary at my temp (yeah, right) job and getting my ducks in a row for my last quarter of school seems to have drained some of my energy. Guess what that means? Yep. Yarn. This isn't just any yarn folks, this is zombie yarn.

I found this etsy shop, Out of Step Dyeworks, via Erin of the Anatomy of Knitting videocast and scooted over there to poke around. Poke around means buying two skeins because I just couldn't help myself. Both skeins are an MCN (merino/cashmere/nylon) blend and enough for a pair of socks. That crazy bright one up top is called Atomic Zombie and it's BLACKLIGHT REACTIVE! I'm excited to knit up some socks and track down someone with a blacklight so I can take creepy zombie sock photos. 

 Below is a skein of self-striping sock yarn with the lovely name of Zombie Apocalypse Stripe, it will make 8 row stripes of red followed by 8 row stripes of red-flecked gray/green.

 Both yarns dovetail nicely with my reading of late which is Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. I finished the first book last night and requested the second from my local library - hopefully I'll get that before school starts again and I'm stuck doing assigned reading. In the meantime I'll be rewatching some Romero films and knitting away on my new yarn.