Wednesday, August 17, 2011

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.
Adrienne Vittadini
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.
Jitterbug Fruit

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


Tuesday, August 09, 2011

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
3IG Fingering Cashmere Bryn

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

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

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!




Saturday, August 06, 2011

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?