New Knitting Beginnings

I've been MIA on this blog for a while.  My apologies.  It's been a very chaotic couple of months.  Long story short, the husband got a new job out of state, we had endless moving tasks to deal with, and it's taken a while to get fully settled.  We are still in the great Midwest, but now a bit further north in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  We are now finally completely put together, and I can get back to doing what I love most - knitting, and sharing that with others!

Rather than go totally in-depth and tell you everything I've been working on during my online absence, I'll do a quick glimpse today, and follow up with some shorter posts soon.  If I did it all in one post, you would be reading for hours!  Today I'll give you a quick look at my new crafting area, take a peek at my main works in progress, and show off my current knitting tools construction project.

Today's main events.  Knitting and caffeinating.  And prepping the caffeine.  Cold brew coffee can be a bit time consuming to filter!

My main goal with moving into our new home has been organization.  I've always been a fairly organized person, but we are now on Organization Overdrive.  I stocked up on tons of storage bins and baskets, and have fully utilized all of them.  Especially with this apartment's lack of closet space, other means of stashing things has been an absolute must.  My knitting zone was no exception to this cleaning spree.  I have three small bookshelves dedicated to all things craft related, most of that being yarn related.  Everything has its home.  And I love it.  I've included some pics of the crafting zone, and if you really want to see the rest of the abode, here's the pictures and a video walkthrough.

The whole setup!  I love how neat and tidy it is.  Even the drawers are organized.  And I've got a couple baskets on top for "inspiration sock yarns" and the sock yarn squares blanket I'm working on.

I have many projects in progress, and several I've finished without showing the finished product on here, or that aren't even mentioned.  I'll get to those in the near future.  I have several short blog posts planned.  For now, I'll just show off my main current projects, in various stages of done-ness.  If you absolutely must see every single item, head on over to my Ravelry Project Page.

The works in progress basket is full and bountiful.  With everything in project bags, for minimal cat hair collection.

The first item is the Red Shawl  I'm making for my mom with the Dinner in the Eiffel Tower pattern.  I love that this shawl is easily modified, since I have extra yarn and am adding extra sections and repeats to make it bigger.  I'm making it out of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, a DK Alpaca/Wool blend in the Garnet Mix color.  My mom loves the color red, and helped choose both the yarn and the pattern.  I need to hurry and finish this shawl!  It was supposed to be a birthday gift... but that was in February.  I'm going to aim to have it done by Mother's Day, and it can be a combo gift along with some tasty chocolates or other treats.  I was slowed down a bit by a newly discovered nickel sensitivity.  The knitting needles I was using were nickel, and making my hands itchy and break out in rashes.  No good.  I've now swapped them out for a set of Knitter's Pride Dreamz wooden needles, and I'm knitting through it quite quickly.  I'm pretty confident I can meet the deadline of May 15th, when she will be coming Northward for a visit.

My wool projects are basically cat magnets.  As soon as it's within reach, they must investigate, and they must sit on it.  

Many of my other projects have been put into hibernation, but I do have three pairs of socks that have been getting rotating attention.  I'm making a pair of Business Casual cabled socks, a pair of Atlantic Current slipped stitch socks, and a super basic but blindingly bright pair of Fluormania Socks.  They're all in progress, but I think the neon ones will be finished first.  I'm going to have such cozy feet!  Just in time for summer... The only other thing I need to mention is that I've heard talk from podcasters that the Regia Fluormania yarn is prone to bleeding and fading.  I'll be trying out the Knitmore Girls' Citric Acid Fix to help set the dye.

Socks, socks, and more socks!  Hopefully I can power through these soon and get to my other WIP's!

The last thing I wanted to mention is my handmade knitting tools improvements.  As many knitters know, the cords on the Boye Interchangeable Needles leave much to be desired.  They are stiff, short, and are simply not pleasant to work with.  But since I am sensitive to nickel, my choices of metal needles have been drastically reduced.  In order to make these needles a joy to work with, I am making my own cords!  I found a couple tutorials that have been extremely helpful.  One is from a Craftster forum, while the other is from the Expattery Blog.  Between these two posts, I've become an expert at using nylon tubing, weed whacker line, small screw studs and super glue to craft lovely flexible cords with a perfect join to the needles, all in custom lengths.  The total cost for materials was about $25 and will provide enough materials to make a lifetime of cords for both myself and knitting friends and family that desire custom cords.

The finished cables, in custom lengths!  I made 24", 32", and 40" cords to roughly match the Knitter's Pride/Knit Picks lengths I have for other needles, but will definitely be making other cords in a variety of sizes as I put more projects back onto the Boye aluminum needles.  I'd like some short ones for hats and cowls, and it will be nice to make custom length ones for sweaters eventually.

That's all I'll cover for now, but stay tuned for upcoming posts about other recent projects and knitting adventures!

Apollo and Linus have made themselves right at home!  The IKEA doll/cat bed was the best $15 purchase ever for Apollo... meanwhile Linus is perfectly happy commandeering a box.  And I included pics of a couple of the creatures that kept me company while I stayed in the Old Town while the Husband moved to the Twin Cities ahead of me.  Clyde is my parents' charismatic cat, who is perched on the TV begging for treats.  Ava is the little chiweenie that stalked me through my parents-in-law's house every night.