State of the Fiber address

now is my chance to get it all open. I am starting this fiber specific blog for the primary purpose of managing my crafts. i'm not especially humorous. or prolific in my crafts. But i have lots of things going on, and lots of thoughts. I also regularly read many other blogs and have wanted to keep track of my own things this way. I've never been good at keeping any kind of journal. so we'll see how this goes.

Due to the overwhelming number of half-finished projects i've got, i think i'll tackle this one craft per day.

Today's topic: Knitting
i haven't been doing a lot of this lately. too busy, just not in the mood, whatever. Mostly i knit gifts for other people. I'm overly picky when making things for myself. (i will return to this topic re: the grover sweater, the lopi sweater, and the kureyon sweater some other day!)

My current goal is to actually complete some sweaters for myself. I have yet to keep or regularly wear a single sweater for myself. To that goal, i have 2 projects.
1) the blue/green aran.

I love this yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods. This pattern is from Sirdar's "The Denim Book of Aran Knits". I've completed the front and back, but then completely lost steam on the project, and that was over a year ago! I don't know why. Probably a combination of the tedious seed stitch, hard to follow pattern, and my short attention span. I do think that once finished it will be a great sweater, so i really want to get inspired and finish it.

2) Wootown SnB Ribby Cardy Knit-along.
The wonderful gals that i knit with on a semi-regular basis have all decided to have a little group knit-along. some have yet to tackle a sweater and need the moral support in construction. Some of us have (ok, i think just me!) chronic startitis and need the moral support for actually finishing the thing. So we've decided to all do the same sweater and help each other out. Pattern is purchased, yarn is ordered. we'll start in a few weeks. I am trying to use up stash yarn, and am having a hard time deciding on colors. I have 3 bags, purchased on discontinued sale from Webs. I'm having a hard time choosing between "charcoal gray / red" combo or "charcoal gray / Misty Lilac Heather" (a light gray with purple tone). i'm leaning towards the gray on gray because the red/gray reminds me too much of my high school letterman's jackets.

3) Bridgette's basketweave cardigan.
I started this sweater about 3 years ago. I took a friend of mine to a yarn store and asked her to point out a color she liked. I was astounded when she picked out a very bright purple color... i don't think i'd ever seen her wear purple in as long as i'd known her! Shortly after i bought a sale bag of cascade 220 and started a basketweave cardigan for her. Now the back and two fronts are done, but i doubt i will ever give it to her. She moved to Louisiana and i rarely see her, so i'm doubting the choice i made. I can't finish it for myself because its too small. I can either take it out and reuse the yarn, or finish it for another skinny, purple loving friend of mine. i'm leaning towards the latter. This project is lowest on my list of major knitting projects

That's about all for today. Another day we'll tackle the "Million Other Smaller Knitting Projects" currently taking up space in my craft area.