Riding the Crazy Train

My cast on crazy train took a little detour because I went to Louisiana over the weekend.  I brought a few of my projects with me but ran into a few problems - mostly needle problems!  I got to the decreases on my Sockhead Hat & had to put it away.  I must admit that when I started this madness it never occurred to me that I might actually FINISH something this month.  There I was though, on decreases with no shorter needles or DPNs.  I almost broke down and went to the new yarn shop in Hammond, LA (which looks adorable & I can't wait to visit) or to Hobby Lobby or something, but I could hear Patrick cackling in the back of my head telling me that he KNEW I'd have to buy needles.  I fought off the urge knowing that I had the dang needles at home and it was only a few more days, seriously!  I worked on some of the other projects I brought and I am trying to accept that the most adorable Fiesta Frock baby sweater is just not going to work out.  It is entirely too wide and despite adding a little bit of length, the proportions are definitely off.  If I frog something & cast it back on using smaller needles, does that count as a new cast on for the day?  I have to think so.  Here are the other things I started before I left Thursday and since I got back.

Heel Head Scarf  using this Adrienne Vittadini Trina that has been in my stash for what seems like a million years.

I bought it 50% off at the Woolie Ewe way back when I realized that there was a clearance section.  I have a weird amount of it - which is exactly why it was in the sale bin.  I had a project picked out for it all this time but when I grabbed all of my stuff together to cast on for it, I realized I didn't have enough yardage.  Go figure!  This scarf with a hood has been in my queue forever, so I paired them up & cast on - isn't that the point of this exercise??

When I got back I immediately finished the Sockhead Hat (with needles that I already own, thankyouverymuch).  My nieces saw the nearly finished hat & both of them threw a fit & wanted it.  Right after I finished the first one I cast on for another in this Colinette Jitterbug Fruit that again, I've had forever!  Great old stash busting that I've got going on over here.


Camp Loopy Project #3 started on Monday so I cast on for The Aspen Wrap in Amy Butler Belle DK.

This was my Monday AND Tuesday cast on project since I started on size 9 needles & I didn't like the way it looked. I have to finish before September 15th to finish up the 3 months of camp challenges and that WILL happen.  It's been fun.

Since I'm trying to finish up the Camp Loopy Aspen Wrap in a month, I'm debating casting on more projects in August.  There are so many things I want to cast on though, and it seems to be working....stay tuned.  I'll let you know what happens!

Still Casting on

Yes, I'm still casting on.  Since I last checked in I have cast on 3 new project.

The 19th Century Honeycomb Stitch Scarf in this Three Irish Girls Bryn


A Girlfriend Market Bag in this very old stashed Sugar n Cream


And tonight I'm casting on the Knit Gridded Towel in this yarn (also vintage stash!)


It is a fun exercise & I highly recommend it.  I've gotten a surprising amount of knitting done on these projects. Casting on with wild abandon is really a lot of fun & very freeing.  I have had to stop myself from casting on more than one project each day - how is that possible?

I have also have some comments about needles.  Sigh.  I do have a lot of needles.  So far I have had the sizes of all the needles I have needed, but I'm waiting for the day that I don't have what I need & have to pull from another project or (gasp!) buy more.  That was Patrick's very first comment when I mentioned the challenge, so I'm trying to keep my word that I'll have what I need to move forward on a daily basis.  I really don't see a need to buy more needles, but we'll just have to see.

Join the fun or plan your own month of casting on craziness!

Cast On Mania August 2011

I have some craziness going on right now.  I heard about a challenge where you are supposed to cast on a new project every day of the month for a whole month.  My immediate reaction was "That is the most insane thing I have ever heard in my life".  After contemplating the idea of about 24 hours, I had a plan of action.  The more I thought about it the more it actually makes sense to me.  Half the time the problem with me putting off a project I really want to knit is simply gathering the needles, finding & winding the yarn, finding & printing the pattern and getting it all together in one place.  After it is cast on I can just grab something and work on it - no real thought required. I made a list of about 45 things that have been in queue for years - these projects range from baby items to socks to hat to sweaters - all levels of time involved.

There is no universe that I believe I will actually finish any of these projects in one day (or maybe even in the month!), but at the end of the month I  can reassess the new projects on the needles and frog the ones that I don't want to continue with.  I don't know that I will cast on something new every single day, but for the past 2 days I have & it's fun to think about what to do tomorrow.

Here's what I've done so far:
Fiesta Frock  - CO 8/6

Sockhead Hat - CO 8/5 - This is perfect movie / brainless knitting.

What about you?  Do you think this is a genius idea or it is just crazypants?