i hang my head in shame

a few weeks ago i started hearing voices in my bedroom. i realized the voices were coming from the bag i had hid stuffed all my new fiber purchases from stitches west. when i opened the bag-i was amazed to witness what looked like several skeins of yarn sighing with deep relief. "bout time you opened the bag........choruses of "use me first, no! use me! ...we know you want to start a new project, go for it, we won't tell!"

now, i had been really itching to start my stephen west- blue whale shawl ever since i returned from stitches but i had made a deal with myself- i needed to finish some old projects first before diving into "my precious" new scores from stitches west.

while avoiding some chore that needed doing, i decided to go thru my closet fiber studio and find all my UFO's (unfinished objects)that where lost in some old knitting bag or box. now, not wanting to make too big a mess i didn't go thru everything- i just touched the tip of the iceberg you might say, but what i found made me hang my head in shame. MOG! to the max. i sat on the bed in silence feeling a bit queasy...finally realizing-yes, i do have problem. a serious one. why can't i finish anything? i mean -i'm always knitting but never have much to show for it. guess i get bored of a project, toss it in the closet studio with good intentions of finishing it later. but there are so many cool things to knit out there(thanks ravelry) and so many awesome yarns that my ADD/addicted self just takes over and i can't control myself. i could literally start ten new projects a day and still not be satisfied. what i found was such a wake up call. i actually took photos. this really made the shame taunt me. here's what i found:

my icelandic star sweater. almost ready for sleeves.

my some cloudy day legwarmers. a very cute pattern from tiny owl knits. knitting these out of berroco alpaca. unfortunately-the other skein of yarn was not to be found with the project...and i have no clue where it could be. damn.

this is the valeria shawl knitted from rowan scottish tweed. at the point of starting the lace section. the fun part-what was i thinking???

a mystery shawl i never finished but want to so badly!!! i dyed this yarn years ago. damn- i don't even remember the name of the pattern!!!!

a top down mock turtle neck for Liam. gee it may still fit if i keep working on it.

alas, my lovely fairwind sweater that was a knit along with my fiber trash girls. just sitting there in the dark, crammed into a brown paper bag. how could i be so cruel? i know the photo sucks, my camera takes lousy pictures when the battery gets low-it really is beautiful in real life. a honey wheat color. i love you fairwind! i haven't forgotten you! forgive me.

this will someday be an awesome lace capelet. (wiping the tears now)

a baby sweater so old i don't even remember who it was for. crap on me!

oh, and these beauties-look how effin close to being done i am- this yarn i dyed (gads!) too many years ago to even count...they are all naturally dyed yarns too. my first and last try at indigo. turned out great, but was too fussy for me- having deal with ph levels all that...sheesh. i am not a precise dyer.


this fingerless mitt is made from my handspun-the fiber was from cottage creations-love that stuff! can't remember what needle size i used. dang does that mean i'll have to swatch for the second one!


another pair of fingerless mitts. the pattern is called prickly. the yarn is from hazel knits- love that yarn!!!

remember my catamount sweater? no? i guess i forgot about it too. this is one sleeve and the problem is.....i can't find the body-gasp!-horror of horrors!!!!!

here's my tappen zee bartlett sweater -the color is really the color of a barlett pear. it's fabulous. perfect spring sweater....need to wear this soon!!!! hey aren't there little people somewhere that hide during the day and come out at night and finish your projects for you?? where are you????

this is a test knit for plum dandy-rain boot liners.... my head hangs further in shame!!! need to finish these ASAP!!!

my hand dyed, handspun socks....another project so close to completion!

an icelandic vest. started recently, put down because of the rippling seed stitch ribbing.

these are my uva ursi bog socks....knit from sanguine gryphon traveller yarn-the best!!! do i have second sock syndrome????? i see a pattern here.

okay, -now that was painful. all these photos really made me take a deep hard look at myself. the worst part of it? there is still more. yes, there are still more UFO's lurking in my closet studio. i'm ready to turn over a new leaf!

oh, since posting all these photos, the voices have stopped and i've almost completed my uva ursi bog socks........and guess what????????


i started my blue whale shawl. guess some things will never change(wink!)


.....and you thought your startitus was bad!

late post

i started this blog post BEFORE i went to stitches but didn't get a chance to post it. the post is just a bit of eye candy from our trip to monterey at the beginning of february. hubby has an annual conference there every year. i love the monterey/pacific grove area. the whole historic area of the canneries speaks to me-despite all the modernization-i can still see and feel the old Steinbeckian "cannery row." i enjoy walking the streets of cannery row letting steinbeck's stories and memories flood back to me.

once a working cannery the monterey canning company now houses shops and the local starbucks.

liam and i had a great time cruising around town on our bikes. wow-no hills!!!

i'm a big ed ricketts(steinbecks buddy) fan- i love him. if you want to know more about ed i encourage you to read "about ed ricketts" by john steinbeck. it can be found at the front of steinbeck's "the log from the sea of cortez" book.

a memorial statue stands at the site of ed's deadly car wreak back in 1948. the statue is always adorned with fresh flowers. you can check out my old post about ed ricketts here.

lover's point-a great place for thought.

we were fortunate to watch 3 sea otters play and feed. diminishing numbers of otters make this a special occasion!!!!

being a lover of color and a dyer of fiber-i am always seeing things with a "dyers" eye. wanting to recreate things i have seen-such as these sea anemones in a tide pool.

while the boys were out on a bike ride- i walked along the beach. it was a beautiful late afternoon- full moon in a tide pool.

tranquility

monterey has the best thrift stores.

new altar boy shoes!!! a skirt for st. paddy's day, a skein of handspun yarn for a dollar,
and 4 awesome tops. score score score!!!!

pacific grove is a cute little town next to monterey. i love the little houses. this particular house had some awesome recycled garbage art adorning it. check out the jelly fish.

and the soda can flowers!

on our last day we went to the carmel mission. the california missions have a beauty all their own.

raised as a catholic the imagery and art work was beautiful to me.

there was a small museum but this piece really freaked me out- the confessional. something i always dreaded as child.

scary huh?

there was a flock of scottish blackfaced sheep at the historic ranch next to the mission.-the fiber looked divine. unfortunately they didn't sell it-or maybe that was a good thing:)

stitches west 2012

EFFIN MOG! not much more i can say than that- i'm home from stitches and still floating on yarn fumes!!! i'm sooooooooo inspired to get busy. spin, knit, dye, spin, knit, dye, spin, knit and dye-it's all i wanna do!

rhodi and i left thursday morning-yes, she decided to come after all-yeeha!

all ready with back brace and my born to knit t-shirt!!! WOOT! stopped in davis for a trader joe's run(you don't think we'd waste valuable fiber money eating at the $$$ hyatt restaurants do you?) and i turned in my rolled coins for paper money!

the wind was treacherous and my arms got a good workout trying to keep the car on the road! when we finally reached the santa clara convention center- we had a wonderful surprise- the fiber trash girls had joining rooms at the hyatt!! let the party begin!!!
barbara sue- brought quilts to make the sterile hyatt more like home.


barbara sue with wine for the fashion show in canning jars! (note the blue fiber trash cooler in the hyatt! we shoulda brought a few hens for fresh eggs!)

Yes, we are the fiber trash girls- "if yarn were meth we'd have no teeth. we get high on fiber, chase down breakfast with corn whiskey, drink from canning jars and believe in outhouses. we love sittin' on the porch in our aprons, spinnin' fuzz into strang & knittin' it up while talkin' & livin' fiber trash."

there was some nail polish happenings-soxy brought some boom boom pow-24 ct. gold-hey, us fiber trash girls have class!

thursday nite market was a blast! shop shop shop!!!! visited old favorites like "verb."

got me a new project bag from slipped stitch studios! that booth rocked.


so much better than my tacky plastic grocery outlet bags-dontcha think? and best of all it's corduroy!!!

mannequins rocked!


there's soxy sue ready to spin the wheel of fiber!

nice hand knit skirt soxy!!!

knitting's not just for grannies anymore. here i am with tess(we all know tess-don't we?!!!!!!!) she is adorning her new "knitting is sexy" t-shirts!! love this photo!

check out her fabulous footwear!

i'd injure myself trying to walk in those! love the diversity in us knitters! you should see my feminine footwear!!!

Yes, i did get to meet rock star ysolda teague! she was very sweet and helped me a bit with my pixie hood frustration. i am sooooo bummed, i had a picture of us together in her booth both wearing her pixie hoods and somehow i deleted it. so sad:( must admit- i'm crushing on ysolda! but i did get a great shot of rhodi with ysolda and adrienne of "verb" though!

gonna make me a pixie hood! ysolda's in the middle. adrienne is on the left with her hood that was dyed with mushrooms!!!!! i bought Ysolda's book-little red in the city. it's awesome. she signed it! ***sigh****

knitted wit was a new booth this year that i really enjoyed. bought some merino/silk yarn to make the 198 yds. of heaven shawl.

the woman in the photo is NOT lorajean the proprietor. tried to get a photo of her but it was a blurred mess. Lorajean was the sweetest and she brought her fiber goodies from oregon.

my new most favorite booth this year at stitches were the fabulous girls from montana-western sky knits. didn't i say i love everything from montana?

i just love indie dyers!

okay- you ready for some stash enhancing shots? i am so thrilled with my score.


couldn't resist a skein of malabrio rios-the colorful one on the bottom. i bought the malabrigo book 3 i have been wanting forever! the green knitted thing is a small shawl i started at the show with some alpaca i got from lisa souza. here's a few close ups.

this corriedale rovingis from judy's novelty yarns- it's going be a sweater someday.


last year i got a roving from "girl on the rocks" and was so pleased with how it spun up that i got another one this year-couldn't resist!

sorry for the dark photo-this is what i got from western sky-the 2 skeins on the left. the color is called barnwood-going to make the breakwater sweater with it. the skein on the right is from becoming art-another favorite of mine. it's in the driftwood colorway and i'm going to make stephen west's blue whale shawl with it! the colorways go perfectly together! can't wait to get started.

thanks to all my fiber trash girls for such a wonderful wonderful time- i soooo needed the laughter:)