Silly, but ambitious, Icarus

Well, as promised, here is another FO post. This one has been a long time in the making! I have completed my Icarus Shawl, just in time for the New Year!




Now for the specs:

Started: April 13th, 2008

Completed: December 28th, 2009 (Over a year in the making! Damn, that feels good!)

Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool in Dark Green (I have a ton of this yarn left. I have no idea what I will do with it!)

Modifications: I did fewer repeats of the first chart. At least I think I did. In all honesty, I was just too lazy to count my repeats as I went along and also too lazy to count the stitches.

Verdict: I love it. The yarn is really light and airy. I like that it isn't a fuzzy yarn, so you can really see the details of the lace. I might have wanted it a bit bigger, but let's be honest here. I have no patience. Once I start to feel like I'm forcing myself to work on something, it's time to finish it! Fortunately, lace shawls sort of lend themselves to size modifications. The final word is that I love it!

To shift gears, since it is New Year's Eve after all, I think it is necessary to make the ubiquitous resolutions blog post. I don't think these are going to be too terribly difficult, but we shall see.

2010 RESOLUTIONS

Before the baby arrives:

• Finish Max's Argyle vest (This is the only resolution that should be ridiculously challenging. I don't know why I hate working on it. I think there is some kind of mental block there. It's easy knitting...and I'm excited to learn to steek, which is something I worked into this project)

• Go through stuff in basement. This is really urgent. We need the storage space cleared out before the baby comes and I know that half of the stuff in there is only there because we have been too lazy to throw it out/take it to Salvation Army. Some of the stuff is just junky crap from when I was in grade school that I kept for no good reason. Garbage. Out with it.

Throughout the year:

• Get WIPS down to only 4-5 at a time

• Spin a sweater's worth of yarn (and possibly dye it, see item 4)
  

• Knit a sweater from my handspun
  

• After the baby is born, get back to dyeing yarn (with natural dyes!!)

• Gym once a week (I'll have to lose the baby weight, after all)

• Take a prenatal yoga course

• Write something (Too vague? Here's an explanation from my "other" blog)

• If I don't like it, frog it. (This isn't just about the knitting, folks!)

In other news, I might be considering a destash in the new year. I have way more yarn right now that I will ever knit and I'm going to have to say "bye bye" to the craft room once the baby takes it over. We are planning to keep the baby in our room with us for a while to make feeding (and bonding time!) easier, but "it" will still need a place for clothes, a changing table, stuffed animals, and other silly things we and others will be spoiling the tiny womb monster with. So, just be prepared for that. ::wink, wink, nudge, nudge::

And come back in a few days for ANOTHER FO!!!! I know!!! Crazy, right? It's nothing too exciting or impressive, just another quick knit baby item! Squee!

Obligatory Post part III

So, here I am again, posting once more without much of an idea as to what I am going to say. I have not been knitting much. I just haven't felt like it. I have been lurking in forums, thinking about crafting, practicing down dogs, and writing as much as my stubborn mind will let me. I feel good about the fact that I'm writing more lately, but I think there should be room for writing and knitting. I have been feeling the urge to knit more and more in the past few days, but I haven't acted on it and I think it is because I always end up in a great deal of pain afterwards. I am not very diligent about sitting up straight as I knit which is a recipe for disaster!

Anyone have any neck pain/posture tips/exercises? I've been doing what I can in terms of exercise, but any advice would really be helpful. :)

I have done a little bit of spinning, but not in the past week or so. I've started spinning up a nice turquoisey blue merino and tencel blend. Right now, as a singles, i think it is at laceweight...which is sort of a bummer because I wanted to ply it INTO a laceweight. I may or may not decide to use it as a singles (I'm afraid of it biasing and I tend to prefer stockinette lace over garter lace, which would help balance out the slanting effect of the singles).



It's really soft and silky. Yay!

I made asparagus and shallots to go with some lentil shmush for dinner tonight:



The lentils don't look appetizing, but really they were delish!

Another note: I am feeling a little less cranky, but I'm not completely over it yet. I've been trying to focus on good things and slowing down.