Maybe I should stick to bigger yarn...

Isn't it weird how some projects feel like they take forever and others are gone in an instant?
I wonder if it's a satisfaction thing. 

I think I forgot how to decrease on socks after the heel because mine are all wonky and it's kind of bugging me but I don't feel like ripping back... 

Nothing to Note

I feel like when I don't even bother to take a picture it's just kind of mundane knitting.
That or I'm losing some of my knitting fever.
I suppose you could say I'm in a slump.  I made these amazing socks. Hand dyed 100% Bamboo. And I think I used up all my knitting mojo on them. One was slightly too short and neither of them want to stay up without the assistance of Scotch tape. I wore them on St. Patty's and spent most of February making them, as the yarn was a Valentine's gift. They helped me through some really cold days at work, even if I needed tape garters. Other than that... I tried to make another pair of socks, but they failed and now have a gaping hole in them.

They didn't look that great either.
I made a couple bulky hats, and a bulky scarf, but somehow I feel it doesn't count.
The other thing I'm atleast semi proud of was a derp cotton scarf I made. Had braided cables and a dude bought it from me at school for his daughter for $60!! I know that's actually reasonable for handknits, but wow it was nice to get cash for something I made for once. Instead of waiting weeks for my day job's checks to come in. 

Anyway maybe I'll update more often.

Other than that a group I was in had something called a hat marathon, I love making hats so I joined, then my sister stole my circulars. So I didn't get very far.
I guess I had a more productive 3 months than I thought...

And it made me kind of happy that I gave away those bulky burgandy hats, and that blue one with the stars. Two to coworkers on a very cold day(outside job). I wish I could be that silly hat lady more often. Knit coworkers crap, and just give them away on a whim.
Too bad it's spring now.

Maybe the reason I haven't been updating is because it was Spring Break and that was a trying time. It's our busiest time of year so my hand was too sore to be knitting.
Either way I've just been kind of discouraged lately.

Like nothing I make turns out right. I could blame it on never using patterns, but then again I don't feel like I should need them.
From the last time I posted I've had 7 FOs, so I suppose that's good progress.
I really want to knit my stash down to something manageable for college.

I gave up yarn for Lent so lately it feels like I'm knitting because I'm supposed to not because I want to.
Maybe it has something to do with catching up with Supernatural.
Now that I don't have something to watch while knitting I don't wanna knit?
I still have things to watch though so maybe I'm just actually being productive.
I half cleaned my room yesterday after all.

I've been channeling yarn buying into pony buying.

Except this is a stash I can't knit down.

Types of Yarn

I recently made a thread about display yarn, and I realized yarn kind of has different categories besides weight.
There's the crappy acrylic that your friend gave to you because you knit, or are too frugal to pass up, the bad color combos that you can never pair with anything, usually also gifts or sales.

The normal mundane stash that you've seen a million times and probably have plans for but you haven't gotten around for and is the sort of cereal part of your marshmallow cereal.It's nice, probably acrylic or other reasonably priced things.

The Practically FOs, yarn that's been paired up to a pattern and needles and are screaming KNIT ME NEXT PLEASEEEE OMG. But you can't knit fast enough to keep up with it. These are usually pretty exciting, new and maybe recent stock from your LYS.

Then there's display yarn. Display yarn is yarn from the stash deemed "too good" to ever knit. Maybe it's exotic and you don't know how you'll ever find musk ox down again, maybe it was handspun that was really expensive and you don't want to waste it on a bad project.
Or maybe it's sentimental, or was your first handspun yarn, and it seems like an FO all on it's own.
Or it literally looks better as yarn than it ever will as a scarf or sock.

Emerging from Hibernation

Christmas, dead uncles, winter.
Sigh.
Anyway, spring sem has started and work is starting up too. 

I found out I like headbands. My friend brought me a teeny bit of yarn that broke off when winding for me to sample and I quite enjoyed it. Manos Del Uruguay I believe, very squishy 70% Merino, 30% Silk mmm.
I didn't have that much though of course she gave me a tiny ball, so I needed something for a scrap amount and just knit till I ran out then supplemented with an icord and made up a flower. Matched the scarf she gave me.

That was early Jan, then this past week I finished up a hat I cast on in October, then made a cute hat for my sister who really likes mice and rats. I'm pretty happy with all of these projects.  The green hat is Foliage Hat and is nice for people like me who are afraid of lace and have a good handle on cables. Not too lacy so it still makes sense as you're knitting it and will know if you mess up.

The rat hat was improvised and influenced by my whimsical 17 year old sister. I designed it but based on her criteria. Pink nose, black whiskers, pink ears etc.

Looking to the future I'm probably going to participate in Ravelympics this year, as well as a Hat Marathon where I try to make 13 hats in February. What will I do with 13 hats? Keep them maybe? Probably keep them in the birthday pile, or give them to coworkers who hit high sales this season as a reward.

Therapy

My dad said if I get over emotional and need to retain my composure to calculate the Fibonacci numbers in my head. Which is when you add the last two numbers together to get the next number.
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 and so on.
The trouble is, this doesn't work on me at all. Why? When I mentally get to 13 + 21 my brain has to try harder than the past few numbers. He said that's a good thing because the thought distraction should help you not be emotional.
But no that's not what happens. My brain goes, oh that's too much work, and tries anything it can do to escape trying to calculate it, looking for what ever else is going on. Which is the emotions my dad told me to ignore.
So then I start crying anyway.

Why am I mentioning this?

My uncle died December 27th. Two days after Christmas. Two days after I saw him in the hospital. Survived by his parents, children and siblings.
Today was the viewing and I couldn't keep it together. 4-7 was the viewing then the Rosary, which I was staying for the whole time.
I kept it together for all of 10 seconds when I got in there then wandered the halls of the funeral home for awhile, went back, started to cry again, walked around the chapel, rinse(with my tears) and repeat.
I decided the more I saw the casket the more I cried so I stared at my feet.
No one else was crying so I didn't blend in, however it's a bit acceptable at a funeral. His son, my cousin even gave me a really long hug when he saw I was crying. It made me feel better that my tears probably showed that I cared about his dad.

I couldn't take my mind off it. But I brought appropriately black knitting. Bulky. An unfinished  Christmas gift for my dad who just lost a brother. I was angry at my father yesterday for stealing my phone, and opening my mail, so I hadn't worked on it then. Now seemed appropriate.
I needed to take my mind off things. And look down. Not at that casket.
Stitching away my sister remarked that I was smart for bringing my knitting.  I agreed, because yeah it was smart that I had something to distract me from crying. Then I realized she meant that she was bored and had wished she brought something to pass the time.

Still. I know what people mean when they say knitting is therapy. Whether it's helping you get your mind off finals, or a foreboding dead body a few yards away from you, it can help give your hands something to do, give your brain something to do. And give your eyes a break from the world.
I don't always zen out with knitting but then was a good time to.

That's a bow

In real life depth perception makes this bow much more obvious, I swear.
Me thinks I'll be having some buttons in my hair in 2014.

Giftmas

I never got the whole Christmas knitting thing. Personally I never saw my wonky, half-woven in finished objects as giftable in general. And my mom doesn't like hand knit things, and it never gets very cold in Texas so I guess I never thought of it as an option.
Till this Christmas.
My dad apparently was out in the cold with my mom downtown and mentioned needing a masculine hat. Something black. And actually requested something from me. Which is weird because my family never shows much interest in my knitting period. Either way I was excited. However as I wound my pima cotton I had gotten on sale at Tuesday Morning I realized there really wasn't that much. I reminded myself that most hats I make never take the whole skein, so a small skein must just mean I'll actually just run out instead of having a ton extra.
Maybe herringbone might use a bit more than just purls on a cabled hat? I wanted it to be fancier than a normal hat I mean it was for my dad!
I got distracted with... other gifts however. I made two other hats before I had the needles free for his. And then of course Christmas cleaning.
I was about 3 inches in when the loose centerpull got tangled.
I also realized it may not have been enough to finish it anyway.
Deciding to wait till after Christmas when I got some larger circulars back from a friend loan, I tossed it aside and had a nice Christmas. Atleast my dad understood.

The results for not dad gifts though:

 

Sister hats! Not for my sisters but family friends I've known since I was 3, the pink one for the one my age and then the teal for her older sister. Their mom is a knitter so I figured if anyone was knit worthy it'd be someone who lives in New York and someone who's mom made her fingerless mitts this year.