I Know ... Right?

I don't get to spend as much time on Ravelry as I would like, but whenever I get the chance I go on to see what my favorite podcasters are talking about and what projects they're working on.  Sometimes I'm interested, sometimes not.  And then I make my way to their forums and I'm sucked in.

Having a KAL (knit along)?  I'm in!  Having a SAL (spin along)?  I'm in!  Everybody's making what?!  I'm in!  

Next thing I know, I'm committed and while I'm not going to fully commit to being competitive, but once in it's very hard for me not to follow through.

Case in point:  Single Handed Knits (Mel) is hosting a buddy-knit.  Pick a buddy and you both knit either the same thing, or use the same yarn, or the same color.  I committed to making the My Cup of Tea socks with my buddy, Jellybean who lives all the way in Australia.  The first sock went fine and we were in sync.  The second sock I slogged through for a week.  I got it done though:

These socks were made with Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Wool, US #2 needle and they took forever to make.  The pattern is so easy and the socks are so cute, it's hard to believe that there was a lag of about four days of no knitting at all on the second sock.

During those four days, I was looking for yarn to make something (I don't remember what), and I came across some old, raggedy yarn that was gifted to me: Confetti Yarns Temptation in a who knows what colorway.  It's cotton wrapped in rayon.  I'd just watched The Knit Girllls podcast and Leslie made the Willow Cowl and a light bulb went off.

So, in between sock #1 and sock #2, I made the Willow Cowl:

This cowl took about 2 days to make, and the only modifications I made were made because I ran out of yarn!  What?!  Yes.  The pattern calls for sock weight, but this yarn is DK weight and I miscalculated my yardage, but didn't care because I wanted to use up this yarn.  I bound off and started looking for another pattern to make.  Then I felt guilty about letting my buddy down, so instead I finished sock #2.

Then the nice ladies at Must Stash Podcast (Steph and Staci) were having a handspun KAL and I couldn't resist.  After all, I have some handspun yarn and I never look for projects to make with handspun.  Here was a perfect opportunity.

I pulled out the Masham I spun up during the tour and found the Eleanor Cowl to be small and cute.  I'm sure I have more than enough yarn to make the cowl.  Here's how far I got:

The pattern offers the option to knit flat or in the round.  I'm a pretty good knitter and when I read instructions, if I don't completely understand, I usually get the concept.  I tried four times to knit this cowl in the round and failed miserably because the chart is written to knit the cowl flat.  My brain, which barely grasps even simple math, couldn't translate the flat chart with the round cowl.

Knitting this back and forth, it's the easiest pattern ever!  Of course, there is a little 'issue' with the ssk and k2tog instructions, I may have gotten them backwards, but then again, maybe not.  For the first five rows of the pattern this cowl looked a hot mess, but I kept going.  The yarn is softer in the skein than it is in the cowl, but it'll be over clothes and under a coat so it (hopefully) won't matter.

Now, if all of that isn't scary enough, I signed up for a Halloween themed KAL and I'm making another Willow Cowl to wear to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival.  It's so that the whole knitting group is wearing one and I don't care for the one I have.  It's going somewhere.

As if all of that isn't enough to keep me busy, I have a new sweater on the needles which I'm not ready to show yet, there's still a Loop batt on the wheel to be spun up and I signed up to participate in a 'new to me' fiber to spin with Yarnraising Podcast.  That fiber will be the either the Teeswater or the Cormo I didn't get to during the Tour de Fleece.

Lastly, Spinzilla is a one week event in October where the team leaders (in this case, The Knit Girllls) enlist 25 spinners to spin the as much as they can in one week and the team leaders with the highest yardage get a prize.  The individual spinners don't get prizes, but it's another opportunity to spin and I couldn't pass that up.

Tired of me yet? Tired for me?  I've got to fill up my days with more than laundry, dishes and the occasional grocery shopping and this is it.  Crazy, right?  I know!