I’ve been knitting for roughly seven years now, and over those years, I’ve not only acquired quite a yarn stash–I’ve acquired many pairs of needles as well. I love my Knit Picks Options sets, but I also have many fixed circular needles. Until now, I’ve kept them all shoved into a tote bag, like this:

That’s all well and good, but it’s not very helpful. I tend to have several projects going at once, so it’s difficult to know which needles are available and which have a WIP on them. I have to dig around in my bag, which can be slightly annoying. It gets even worse when you take all the needles out of their packages…behold:

That’s a lot of needles. And a big mess, too. I’ve seen circular needle organizers, like the kind that you can sew yourself and thread the needles through the loops and hang the whole thing on a door, but I just can’t be bothered to sew something like that right now! (read: I am lazy.) Actually, I don’t like the look of those–the cords are various lengths, so everything looks really flippy-floppity and kind of messy, in my opinion. I figured there had to be a more streamlined solution.

It occurred to me that binders are not just for holding paper I’m rather fond of sheet protectors, especially for holding knitting patterns so that they don’t get all dog-eared. But they can also hold other things–like knitting needles!

Like so! I found this pretty binder at Office Depot, and bought a 25-pack of sheet protectors. The needles slip right into the sheets–no more mess, no more digging in a tote bag to find the size I need.

I already had a Dymo labelmaker, so I got it out and started making labels to correspond with the needle sizes and lengths. I know this is probably a very OCD thing to do, but that’s kind of my personality anyway. Even though it took a while to go through all the sizes and lengths, it was worth it!

Now I can flip through and easily find the size and length I need.

Everything even fit into one binder! This is a 1.5″ binder–I had bought an extra one just in case, but I didn’t need it. Everything fits in here.

It helps if you have a labelmaker, but obviously it’s not necessary–you could easily put in index dividers with tabs and hand-write the sizes, or just write them directly on the sheet protectors. But I like the look of labels.

After I had my brilliant idea, I googled it to see if anyone else had done this–and found that others have. So I can’t really take credit for inventing the idea–but I figured I’d pass it along anyway, since it’s such a great way to get organized.

Holy crap, two posts in one day? *is ded*

Lest my blog become solely a book review blog–not that there’s anything wrong with that, but once upon a time [before Twitter], I actually blogged several times a week!–here are a couple things I’ve knit and crocheted recently I’m sooo bad about taking pics and updating Flickr, but I’m trying to get better about that!

Genie the Ghost [Chicken] @ Ravelry
ok, Halloween is over, but I made this before Halloween–I wanted to make something cute, and I saw this Lion Brand pattern called Genie the Ghost, and thought it would be perfect. But after I crocheted and stuffed it, it ended up looking like this.

That’s supposed to be a ghost, not a chicken! I seriously think it looks like a chicken…I think it’s the arms, which maybe I overstuffed, so that they look more like wings, in my opinion. Also, the pointy head looks very chicken-like to me. I don’t know, but I still think it’s kind of cute, so I don’t want to frog him. I am, however, referring to him as Genie the Ghost / Ghost Chicken / Michelin Man, because he’s so awesome that he can’t be confined to just one name. That, and my amigurumi stuffing skills are questionable.

Also, it’s probably just me, but embroidering the eyes was a pain in the butt. I didn’t have any safety eyes, so I had to embroider them with yarn, and it took me way longer than it should have. I have since bought some safety eyes from Etsy, so future amigurumi should look better. Their eyes will, anyway.

Amanda Hat @ Ravelry
Here come the hats! I really love making them because they’re so small and provide instant gratification…they’re not long-term projects [that never get finished, ha] like lace shawls. This is the Amanda Hat, which I had made previously in Manos del Uruguay wool. However, my gauge was way off and the hat turned out huge, which is a rarity for me because I have a really, really large head. I still haven’t frogged the first attempt, but I figured I’d give the pattern another try, this time in Malabrigo Worsted. Success! It fits and it’s so soft and cozy. I went down a needle size (the pattern calls for US 9, I believe) in order to compensate for my gauge issues with this stitch pattern. I really like how this turned out.

Flyflap Cap @ Ravelry
This is the first earflap hat I’ve made for myself. It’s crochet, and therefore works up quickly–I think I made this is less than a day. My search for a pattern was prompted by M, who was watching Project Runway with me one day and saw one of the male designers (I can’t remember who) wearing a camouflage earflap hat. He asked if I could make him one, which I did (but still need to get a pic of). Then I made this for myself. I looked in my stash, and decided to use Plymouth Boku. It striped up nicely and has a rustic look and feel. The only modification I had to make was on the earflaps–originally, they were too close to the back of my head, so I eliminated one set of decreases and that fixed it. I have one ball left in stash, so I might make some matching mitts or something.

Pretty Puffs Slouchy Hat @ Ravelry
Another crochet item, I made one of these for kc’s birthday in September. I also made this one for me. It’s meant to be worn high on the head, but I think I might pull mine down and wear it as a normal hat. Either way, it’s a very cute pattern.

I actually used the same yarn called for in the pattern, Lion Brand Cashmere Blend. I’d had that yarn in my stash for years (since New Mexico), and I still have two balls left, so I’ll probably make a matching cowl or mitts. I really love this yarn–it’s so soft and smooth to work with. I wouldn’t mind making this again–I used a different yarn for kc’s (Berroco Pure Merino), and the pattern looks great in both yarns.

Lucy in the Sky Cardigan @ Ravelry
meh…this cardigan. I went into detail on my Ravelry page, but if a project is a hit or a miss, I think this one is a hit on looks but a miss on design and comfort. It fits me–and looks pretty nice–but it’s not very comfortable after I’ve worn it for a while. The yoke just sits weird on my shoulders, like it’s about to fall off. I like the sleeves, but I wish I had made the body longer. And I really hated that it was knit from the bottom up. I like top-down raglans way better after having knit this. What really frustrated me, though, was the way the pattern was written. At one point toward the end when I was on the yoke, the instructions made no sense to me and I had to search for threads on Ravelry for clarification. I found what I needed, but I think the pattern should have been easier to understand. I’m not a master knitter, but I’m not a beginner either, and the pattern had me so frustrated, I wanted to kick it. Anyway, I won’t be knitting this again and I don’t really enjoy wearing it, sadly. When I do wear it, it’s really warm, so that’s something nice about it, at least.

I’ve got more projects on the needles/hooks at the moment, as well as a few more FOs that I haven’t taken pics of yet. I’ll post those soon!

Today is rainy and kind of gloomy, but my Lace Ribbon Scarf WIP is bright and happy.

I’d been planning on this for a while, and this morning/afternoon, I finally did it! I dug around in my WIP bins (Rubbermaid containers–yes, I had that many works in progress) and sorted them. I set aside a few for later–I think I might actually finish those. But I pulled these out–11 projects total that I knew I wouldn’t finish. Or, I want to restart them sometime in the future. You can see all the projects I frogged here, but here’s why I chose to frog the following:

Cashmere Arm Cosy. It’s really not fair to call it that, since it’s Lion Brand Cashmere, which is like 10% cashmere or whatever. (ok, I just checked, it’s 13%, close enough…but I digress.) This was a really pretty knit, but A) the pattern was written to knit it flat, which I did, so B) there was seaming at the end and I remember doing such a wacky seaming job, it always bothered me. But more importantly, C) the cosy went from my knuckles all the way up to my bicep, which is just impractical. Because, really, why would I need a glove that covers my entire arm? Would I find myself wearing a tank top in the winter, or something? So, I frogged it. I think I can find a nicer pattern for this yarn. I’ve got 4 balls of the stuff, so I think they are destined to be a pretty cabled hat or something. Also: this cosy was finished back in 2007. 2007! When I was living in New Mexico! It followed me here to Virginia, but alas, it was never meant to have a mate.

Liesl. There’s hope for this one–I love Ysolda’s patterns and I love, love Malabrigo. But I think I might have had some gauge and/or sizing issues, so rather than let this sit on the needles indefinitely, I decided to go ahead and pull it off. In fact, I might restart her in a different yarn because as much as I love the mmmmalabrigo, I have a feeling it might turn into a pilly mess as a sweater.

Peaks & Valleys Socks. I was going to ramble on about how the pattern (which I paid for) is fraught with errors, but I think that’s pointless since this yarn will probably become a scarf on the next go-round. It’s Claudia Handpainted Fingering, which I really like. But this colorway kind of annoyed me because, while both skeins were from the same dyelot, one is quite darker than the other and it was bugging me while working with the second skein. I think I might do something where the dyelot differences won’t be as noticeable–maybe a Chevron Scarf, so the skeins will alternate.

Secret of the Stole. I really didn’t have any heartache frogging this, maybe because I only got to Clue 3 before stalling completely. Also, while the finished pattern (Guinevere) is lovely, I think I’ve decided that I don’t really like stoles in laceweight. I think this yarn (Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is so soft and beautiful) deserves to be a nice triangular shawl. And since I’m so smitten with shawls of late, I’m just not sad because I know the yarn will be used for something else eventually, something I will be more likely to wear.

A very cool thing about frogging so many projects is all the needles, stitch markers, and row counters I’ve reclaimed as a result. The WIP bins: where all my DPNs and row counters go to hide.

At the end of the day, I absorbed a bunch of yarn back into my stash. I feel so much better! All of those unfinished things were just sitting in my closet…lurking…and going to waste, really. I already have specific patterns in mind for some of these yarns. The whole frogging process was kind of therapeutic, even though it took basically all day to rip, wind by hand, and then rewind everything with the ball winder. Luckily, I didn’t have too many problems with knots or tangling, which is good because if I had, I think most of the balls would have been tossed across the room, rather than placed lovingly in a neat pile like this. And I hadn’t realized how many WIPs there were until just now, when I was moving these from “hibernating” to “frogged” status on Ravelry. I might have cut my WIPs down by half.

I think there’s also something metaphorical about unfinished business, and just chucking something that’s not working, and starting over from scratch. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Today I received my Dragonfly in Amber swap package, hooray! Inside were:
- a skein of LoneSome Stone Mountain Feat in colorway Shimmering Desert, super squishy soft
- drawstring project bag made with a thistle print, perfect for sock knitting–this is my first bag of this kind and I love it!
- dragonfly stitch marker, also my first!
- stitch markers that spell out all the titles in the Outlander series, so clever!
- Scotch shortbread with recipe, yum
- two bars of chocolate
- two boxes of tea
- handmade card with lovely mountains, Scottish highlands mayhap?

Swaps are so much fun–I tend to receive things that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself, but things that are really lovely! Now off to Ravelry to find a pattern for my new yarn… Thank you so much, Leslie!

I haven’t updated in weeks, eek! Bad blogger. Most of what I have to say lately gets posted to my Twitter, and work has been…um…different, so I can’t really post about that, either. I’m still working on 52 in 52, but my progress has slowed, as I am currently slogging through still reading Goblet of Fire, which has become interesting now that they’re back at Hogwarts. Also, my reading time has diminished somewhat because I’ve been crocheting and knitting like a machine! The crochet, I cannot show you yet because, while the project is finished, it’s for someone who I want to be surprised when she receives it in the mail! But here’s the knitting (with bonus plant!):

@ Ravelry

Look, I made socks! I just checked my Ravelry FOs, and it looks like I hadn’t finished a pair of socks since February 2008?! Is that right? It must be…anyway, leave it to Cookie A to get me out of my non-sock knitting rut. The pattern is Wanida from her book Sock Innovation, which is awesome and full of cabley goodness. I think my next socks will be one of her more complicated patterns–I’m up to the challenge! I think.

I’ve also jumped on the Ishbel bandwagon. I haven’t taken a pic yet, but I’m doing mine in Malabrigo Sock in Stonechat. It’s sooo soft and the colors are knitting up really pretty. I love it so far! And of course the weather is really nice and warm today–around 74 F, I think–so when I’m going to wear my Ishbel once I finish it, I have no idea, but it will be really pretty either way.

I realized that the majority of my posts have been about reading, so here’s a knitting and crochet update. I recently finished Bella’s Mittens:

@ Ravelry

Of course I didn’t plan my timing of this project very well, and spring quickly arrived not long after I finished these. But at least I got to wear them a couple times when it was still cold out. Yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Pewter, knit on size US 8 dpns.

I only used about 1.5 skeins of yarn, so after I finished these, I made a Bella’s Hat to match:

@ Ravelry

It fits pretty snugly–not too tight but tighter than I normally make my hats. The cables pull in quite a bit. Also I have a rather large head. These are pretty cool because I now have a matching hat/gloves set.

I also started crocheting again after kc sent me a link to Attic24, which has some really fantastic crochet/granny square/hexagon tutorials. I started a granny square blanket using the Summer Garden Granny Square pattern:

I’m using Plymouth Encore worsted in red, green, blue, and light purple. I also have a skein of black, which I might use at the end as a border around the whole thing.