Stash down progress

One of my goals for 2012 was to knit down some of my accumulated stash.  Why you ask?  So I can buy more yarn silly!  Like I have been dying to try Bugga! by The Verdant Gryphon, something from Quince & Co., and something from The Plucky Knitter, among other endless choices.  Since my stash boxes wouldn't close before the new year I definitely needed to use up some of the collected yarn before I could set about gathering more.

I am currently working on four different items using up stash: a Dark & Stormy cardigan with my 14 skeins of Knit Picks City Tweed, the January Mystery KAL by Susanna IC using up a skein of Araucania Ranco, a Dew Drop Cowl using 2 skeins of Serenity, and Gordes Socks from Silk Road Socks using my gorgeous skein of Madelinetosh tosh sock yarn (I don't know why, but it is so pretty I just want to eat it, I know it won't taste good at all, but...).  The extra bonus is that the cowl is intended to be a gift for Christmas, so I am also working toward the goal of knitting for the holidays all year long!

I have already finished up a Stacked Eyelet Cowl with 2 skeins of Serenity sock yarn (another holiday present bonus!) and a Springtime in Philadelphia hat using the last of my Valley Yarns Charlemont.  See, I am knitting so fast I haven't even had a chance to blog about projects before finishing them up!

I am feeling pretty good about getting enough skeins out of my sock yarn box that I can now close it, and my worsted weight box now has some breathing room for the yarn currently residing there.  I still need to clear out more yarn before I can buy anything but progress is being made, yeah me!

Potty Training, mark 2

Good God, I have to do this again!  I don't know who was unhappier with it last time, me or Lil' Miss?!  Neither one of us like it and I gave up for a bit before starting again and letting her take the lead, that worked much better.  Now it is time for Destructo Boy to give up the diapers.  I hope we both survive!

Yes, I do realize I am starting this WAY later than most people would, but I didn't want to turn it into a huge fight and he just didn't seem ready.  I say this because he is already 3 and I know many people think I am way late on starting this.  In my defense he was a late talker and had no interest whatsoever in the potty.  Now he is very interested and I am hopeful the whole process will go quickly and smoothly!

We just started this week but he seems to like the potty chart so far, there is just something about kids and stickers.  For our potty chart Lil' Miss and I decorated a half sheet of poster board with diecuts made with my handy dandy Slice leaving a space in the center for an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper where we will actually keep track of the pottying.  For the 8.5 x 11 paper I just used an Excel spreadsheet to create columns for the days of the week and a marked starting line at the bottom of the page.  Every time he sits he gets to put a sticker on that day regardless of whether anything came out or not (right now we are encouraging the habit of sitting on the toilet, I don't care if it is successful or not).  And yes, I did just tape it to the back of the bathroom door with packing tape, I am so uncreative with my hanging of the actual chart!

Next we need to go to the store to get the inspirational potty training underpants, I am not talking about Pull- Ups, I hate those things (glorified diapers that are impossible to get off without making a huge mess!), but rather about the cloth ones most often sold by Gerber.  It seems like the Pull-Ups style pants are just too much like diapers and keep the kids too dry but regular undies are so thin that if when an accident happens everything gets wet.  The nice thick cloth ones are  a nice happy medium for our family, now just to find the blasted things!  They do seem to be nearly impossible to locate in local stores, which I kind of wanted to do for Destructo to get to carry them to the checkout and be able to understand what a big boy he is.  Maybe we'll get lucky at our next Target trip!

New obsession; fingerless mittens!

I made myself a pair a few months ago and loved them so much I promptly made some for, well, just about everyone for Christmas.  They were pretty well received, one friend even sent me an email to let me know it made driving much more comfortable for her since she suffers from neuropathy.  Now that the holidays and knitting for them (at least for thwe moment!) are over I can get into some truly selfish knitting.

I finally made another pair of fingerless mitts for myself, Straightforward Mitts out of Valley Yarns Charlemont in dusk to match my Polaris shawl.  I never would have found the pattern myself, it was this month's KAL for the Fingerless Glove Fanatics group over on Ravelry.  It was actually a very straightforward (heh, see what I did there!) pattern, very easy to memorize what to do once you got into the rhythm.  It took a whopping 3 days for me to complete them form casting on the weaving in the ends.  Unfortunately it is rather warm here right now, a little summer in January, so I haven't had the chance to wear them yet but once winter reasserts itself I will definitely be sporting them with my scarf.

I even had a chance to make Lil' Miss a pair of fingerless mittens that match her Uptown Girl hat I made a few months back.  I used the Maine Morning Mitts pattern again for hers that I had already used once and resulted in a really nice pair of mitts that were gifted to Wobbly Head, my BIL.  Hers took even less time than mine, one day start to finish to make them both.  I think they may have ended up a bit on the tight side but I told her I would make her new ones next year if these ones don't fit anymore.

I think I'll make the BonBons mitts next with some KP Gloss lace doubled to wear with my Advent Calendar scarf.  I am a little short on yardage, but nothing ventured, nothing gained!