My head is cold, my hair is pink

I think I'll make a hat.

It's time to play "Name that Knit!"

Or rather, name that handspun crocheted...thing. Since I'm sticking with the theme of getting rid of things (which I have decided to call micro-messes), I have taken one of the hundreds of projects that are laying around my upstairs waiting to be frogged or finished. True, I could find a new home for the mess, but the only real way of getting rid of the mess is to just finish it. So here is my thing....one micro-mess in the process of vanishing.

So the real question is...what is it? Is it a wine bottle cozy?

Is it a very poofy sleeve?
Is it a new style of hat? Perhaps a tube for transporting unframed prints and photographs?

Guess correctly, and you'll get one of your own! (I'll even let you pick the color!)

In attempts to live Simply

One day last week a rather nasty thought occurred to me: I have so much clutter. In efforts to simplify, I have decided to eliminate 1 piece of clutter every day until the end of September, when I will make a giant trip to Goodwill. I'm starting small- like dumping an air freshener that dried up months ago but I keep around because it's pretty, but I'd eventually like to work up to something bigger, like taking a few purses or pairs of shoes to Goodwill. Finishing a project also counts as de-cluttering, providing that I don't start 3 more immediately. It all started with that darn Hogwarts Exploding Snap thing- I just am taking it a little further. So firstly I would like to make an offering to my dear readers.

1. I am destashing this giant pile of eyelash yarn. I don't need paid for it, I would only like it to go away. If you're in the Indianapolis area (or don't mind paying shipping) and would like lots of black, white, red and pink eyelash yarn, please let me know. It's yours. ***If you're violently allergic to kitties, this is probably not a good yarn for you. I think Madeline had a nap in the pile after I took it's picture. (If this eyelash yarn gets claimed, you're likely to see loads more of yarns in need of a new home. Just an FYI. )

2. I need to get rid of many Swedish Ivy starts. They are wonderful plants that grow very quickly when given lots of light and are watered frequently. Every once in a while they get little white flowers. I have tons and probably always will, so if you're interested in a start, please let me know and we will work something out to get the plant to you.

Okay...back to selfish knitting.

After finishing the baby blanket, super-secret-knitting, and frogging a shawl, I had a weak moment and casted on a Citron. You know- instant gratification knitting. Except that anyone who has ever made a citron will tell you that there's nothing instantly gratifying about it. I wish I had read the part about the rows with over 500 stitches before I casted on. I did at least use stashed yarn, so after the project is eliminated, the yarn will be too. And that's got to count for something, right? Needless to say, I'm not very far in and it will be quite a while before I can count this as my daily elimination. Garden Frog is shocked at how bright the yarn is.

I am still chugging along on my green lace shawl that I started (and then stopped) during TNNA. When I decided to SNAP it out of my clutter for August, I had 15/40 repeats done. After watching Schindler's List this morning with my kitting (and crying in to it) I counted 31 repeats done. It's not very long and I have more yarn than than I need, so I'll probably go to 44 repeats because I'm nuts like that. And I like shawls that are really long so I can wrap myself up and pretend I'm a burrito. It's somewhat of a guilty pleasure :p

The Influence of Exploding Snaps

One of wonderful groups to which I belong on Ravelry is the Harry Potter House Cup group, where I am a proud member of Team Slytherin. If you have no idea what I just said, that's really probably best. So anyhoo, I saw the sign-ups for something called Exploding Snaps and without really thinking it through (this was only a day or twoafter my surgery so there were still loooots of painkillers involved) jumped in to the competition. Actually it's not really even a competition, it's just a Hogwarts-wide attempt to WIP-bust throughout the month of August. So I promised to:

Frog the green silk shawl. I've just ordered a TON of beads so this is an excuse to start over and add beads to it this time. And any excuse for beads is a good enough excuse for me.

Finish a super-secret-up-for-publication project. I didn't really have a choice on this one. It needed to be done and at the magazine's offices by today. I finished it at 4 am on Thursday morning and had it blocked and in the mail by 10.

Finish the pink baby blanket of doom. Not really of doom, but of fluffy pink acrylic, which is basically doom.

Finish my new red bamboo/merino handspun. It's from Frog Tree Fibers and it's lovely, but I'm just having a hard time with it. The bamboo makes it very slippery and I have to hold on tight or it breaks and gets itself all tangled up. Oh well....it should get done this month.

And my big project that I want to Snap out of the picture by the end of August is the Sweet Honeysuckle Wrap in Baby Twist. That way I can get it to count for my 10 Shawls in 2010 too. It's technically lace but it's a strange pattern that I've never been able to get really imbedded in my brain, which slows things down dramatically. That and every time I work on it, this happens:

Lets see....other news.

I have decided to abandon my finish-4-start-1 rule because it's just not working. Instead, I plan to have an exploding snap project for myself every month. So quite simply, take one project out of hibernation per month and try to finish it. This applies to all crafts, including sewing, cross-stitching, rug-hooking, spinning, and crocheting as well as the obvious knitting. This month has to be a knitting/crocheting/spinning month though since it's a ravelry thing.

I'm going to be designing a pair of socks soon. The design will be available for free to all of the members of the True Blood group on Ravelry (and anyone else who asks nicely). This is a pair

of socks for Sookie and will have optional beads. Since it's just a self-publishing thing, I'm not going to worry about keeping it super-secret.

I won a few ribbons at the fair! Woohoo! The Seascape stole placed second in Knitted Lace, any item, and I also placed 4th in Handspun: Llama or Alpaca with 4.2 ounces of fingering weight llama that I got from PegAlex while she was stashbusting. The best stash is free stash! I also got Honorable mention for Handspun: Novelty for some yarn that looks like an acid trip that I spun a while ago. I'm pretty proud of myself for this even though the handspun that I was sure would do well didn't even place. Oh well- can't win them all!

In other news, my cat likes salad.

Happy Knitting and have a great day!