Knitterly Faff

I have finally (fingers crossed for good luck) made some serious headway on my recipe binder.  I had to go through and weed some of the recipes out already, to make sure that there aren't any major references to tomatoes, onions, honey, etc (the whole fructose malabsorption and FODMAP-intolerance thing).  I have a feeling there will be a rotating series of recipes flowing through it at any given time, but it's been a real godsend, so far.

I also stole/borrowed some ideas left here in the comments and on Rav about getting a binder to store knitting patterns in.  Not sure why it took me so long to do that, but there it is.  I think it's because when I was growing up, we didn't really get new school supplies.  I always seemed to have recycled binders from my mom's office as school notebooks.  I feel guilty about buying new notebooks and binders.  It seems wasteful, even though I have no source for recycled binders, now.

Is the fact that I feel guilty about that weird?  Probably.

Anyway, in doing the Spring Cleaning of my knitting, I found a slew (how many units of something constitutes a slew, btw?) of old patterns I no longer really like, some that I tried and didn't enjoy, some that weren't really patterns, but articles on technique.  Everything got filed or recycled.  It felt fantastic!

Then I moved on to organizing my Ravelry stuff.  Found a bunch of knitting stuff I never told you about or never followed up on.  So, here's a little list:

 1.  Fingerless Mitts for my sister's birthday.  I used this pattern.  It was wonderful (first time using a picot edge and I must say, it's quite pretty).

2.  The yarn I bought from Knit Picks to make into socks for yours truly.  It's sport weight, so they'll be a little bulkier, which is fine by me and my slightly-too-big Doc Martens.

3.  I don't think I told you, but I've added Caller Herrin to my Rav queue.  I can't afford the Alice Starmore yarns that Kate recommends, so I got some from Knit Picks. I tried to match the colours up, but also bought a few extras that seemed as though they might look good.  I'm still playing with the combinations, but I'm getting excited.  First colour work of this type for me.  Eeeek!

4.  Can I just tell you how inspiring I find Kate to be?  She makes me want to go outside right now, find a mountain, and climb it.  Also, I want to steal that camper van of hers and go joyriding.  I won't do it because that's just bad karma, but still.

5.  At the risk of appearing like a Kate groupie, I also want to point out that her pattern for Deco is ready.  As an architecture/design geek, this makes my heart pitter patter.  I want to make one out of Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes in "Ash": 

swoon

6.  Let's just for a moment contemplate that yarn choice.  I will need just upwards of 1000 yds to knit that sweater.  Each ball contains 137 yards.  Let's say I decide to buy 9 balls, which gives me ample overflow in case something goes wrong.  Dudes.  That's $18 worth of yarn.  And the pattern will cost me somewhere in the neighbourhood of $10.  $28 for a sweater.  A wool sweater.  A beautiful, custom-made wool sweater.  Knit Picks, I love you.

7.  I discovered a few new designers the other day.  Can I share them with you?  

Rose Beck and her blog

Fallmasche

Olga and her blog

8.  Did you see that the spring 2011 Twist Collective is up?

Oh, and I finally saw The King's Speech.  Wonderful.  I loved just about everybody in that film.  Now I'm just impatiently waiting for True Grit to make its way to my local video shop (aka the gas station in our village).  I missed out when it was in theatres and I'm getting antsy.