big hole

I haven't posted in ages. I haven't really done much to warrant posting, I suppose. My hand-knit goods last Christmas did not go over so well I guess--I never saw anyone wearing any of the things I made, so I think that put me off knitting for a while. Looking at my finished projects, I noticed the only things I've made for myself in 2 years included an acrylic-wool blend sweater, and a mop head. Gee, thanks to me!

In addition to that, it has been a really bad year. I won't go into detail, but let's just leave it at "one of the worst years of my life." I tried to keep myself busy: this year I took two figure drawing classes, a painting class, a metalsmithing class, and a bellydancing class. I didn't really do much artistically or creatively outside the classroom, though. I was too down to do much at all.

I am now back to knitting, finally, and I am knitting for myself. Well, mostly. I decided to use up a bunch of yarn someone gave me. Almost all of it was mismatched half-skeins, consisting of scratchy old acrylic. There wasn't a substantial amount of any one color to make anything significant--and it isn't suitable for clothing. I had been promising my cats a project, so I used about 3 of those half-skeins and made this catbed for my two cats. The pattern was super easy, but I do think it was a bit on the small side. If I do it again, I'd either use bigger needles or heavier yarn, and add a few stitches to the diameter.

I suppose if I use anymore of that yarn, it'll end up being transformed in to another cat bed and/or a bunch of cat toys.

Back to me, I'd enrolled into a few sock yarn clubs over the last year, along with purchasing a few skeins of inexpensive wool fingering yarn on ebay last winter, but I never got around to making anything with it. I don't want to be one of those people who stockpile yarn for no purpose. I have enough clutter as it is!

I have started a pair of fingerless gloves. My hands are always cold-to-the-point-of-numbness, since my cublicle at work is always freezing, and my computer at home is next to a drafty window. Figures that once I start knitting these, the temperature skyrockets to 70 degrees F in DECEMBER! Well, no doubt it will get freezing cold again, so these will definitely come in handy.

The pattern is easy, but tiny knitting takes a lot more time than doing it with big, fat needles. I am knitting them both at the same time on two circulars. That is probably why it seems to be taking longer than it should, but it guarantees me that I make them the same length and start everything in the exact same row on each glove. The cables are slowing me down a bit too, but they are not crazy-difficult. I will have to frog back a few rows, unfortunately. I tried to mirror the cable pattern on the left glove, but I don't know enough about cable construction, and messed it up royally. Good thing it's only a few rows. I'd cry if it were more.

For these, I am using some sock-weight yarn that I got on ebay for cheap (800 yards for $9 or so). It's probably not machine-washable, but I don't think gloves would a) get washed all that often, or b) be a pain to hand-wash.

My next project will most likely to be socks--to use up the vast amounts of sock yarn I've accumulated in the last year. But first, I finish these. No more UFOs.