Time for a Yarn Diet

I went into the craft closet to look for a possible sweater pattern and yarn combo for a Dulaan sweater. And as I started to pull out tote after tote of yarn, it occured to me that maybe it's time to downsize:






Each tote is layered with yarn, two skeins deep. And that doesn't include the box of yarn for the Dulaan hats. The sad part is the yarn bought for baby gifts for Cynthia's baby... who's now, like, walking.

Sigh... I'm not sure what's harder - losing fiber weight or real weight...

One down... AKA actual knitting content

I finished my first Dulaan hat (actually weeks ago) but I have been procrastinating on taking the pictures.

So here is an honest-to-God FO:



Pattern: Double Thick, Super Warm Dulaan Hat Pattern from Now Norma Knits
Yarn: Lion Wool Prints - Flower Garden
Needles: US 13 circs
Recipient: Project Dulaan
Notes: The pattern calls for threading the yarn through the the stitches at each end of the tube and pulling tight, making the flower-like gather at top, and then tacking the two ends of the tube together inside. I had the beginning end turned inside of the end still on the needles, trying to gauge if it was long enough, and I thought "hey why not just pick up those stitches and go from there? So I did, and I think I like the results - here is a picture of the inside of the hat, and you can see where the stitches are gathered together (the purl row). It's invisible from the outside but I think it made the top a little less bulky.



It took about 6 hours - I am sooo slow, and just less than two skeins (it's knit with the yarn doubled) so I can do at least two more with the stash I have right now, and possibly three if the left over yarn from each skein adds up to enough.

I'm casting on for hat 2 tonight.

Oh mommy, it hurts

My husband enlisted me this weekend to help with the landscaping and hardscaping of our front yard. Now I should point out - as a disclaimer - that he has put in about 8 kajillion hours by himself forming concrete molds, mixing, enlaying with stone, finishing, etc. And I also want to point out that I WAS SICK THIS WEEKEND AND WANTED TO SLEEP.

That said, I spent the weekend loading 20 bags of topsoil and 50 sheets of sod into a rental truck (because the nimrod at HD disappeared and left only his little brother to help me load the truck), then unloading it while said hubby started positioning the sod i so manfully unloaded. then returning said truck. then moving the pile of sod to a better place for a pile of sod, (brief stop for sleep) then unloading 10 more bags of topsoil from my car (which now REEKS of manure), (brief stop for helping with a science project and going to AYSO sign-ups) then spreading the aforementioned 30 cumulative bags of topsoil, then relocating a cement mixer, then moving two 3oo lb. things which used to cap of the columns at either side of our yard entry, then relocating the sod because it was in the middle of the yard it needed to be laid into, then laying the sod, then moving the sod again because we bought too much which involved loading it into a wheelbarrow (twice after it tipped over on the sidewalk) then forcing it up a grassy slope, then having to carry it from the back gate into the yard because it weighed too much to get it over the walkway into the yard, then loading and moving 630 lbs. of cement BY MYSELF, two bags at a time because i couldn't push the wheel barrow with anymore than that in it, then building a little fort of bags of cement so we could drape plastic over it because it's raining today, and finally, when all is said and done, discovering that the undiagnosed allergy that had me sneezing through this whole thing was an allergy to grass because my arm broke out in a RED, PUSTULENT HIVES where the grass had been draped over my arm as I carted it to and fro.

Did I mention I have no muscles, only flab and it HUUUUUUURRRRRRTTTTTTSSSSSSSSS?

In other knitting news, I finished my first Dulaan hat and cast on for the second and resurrected the baby blanket yarn for a second try, this time as a feather and fan pattern.

(oh and I evidently rubbed my face with grassy hands because someone said to me - when i showed them my arm - "Oh is that what happened on your face?")