Back in the Groove

My knitting progress seems to ebb and flow...I'm not sure why although I suspect it's related to how much pressure I'm under at work. I think one of my New Year's resolutions needs to be to channel the energy and anxiety more productively--whether it's knitting, writing or another craft. I had signed up for the NaNoWrite November novel writing challenge. The goal was to write about 1700 words per day so you end up with a full length work at the end of the month. Well, here it is, November 18 and I've written 87 words in total. My TMJ is raging these days; I've seen a new dentist referred me to an oral surgeon who uses Botox to help relax the jaw muscles. Worth a try, I imagine.

I also bought the special stop-snoring pillow from Brookstone since I've been recently diagnosed with sleep apnea. I'm hoping this helps improve my level of fatigue, especially because I don't want to repeat the sleep study using the CPAP machine (this is a whole OTHER story).

The good news is that I'm rev'ving up and have made some headway on a couple of key items. This project will be a sweater for me. It's baby alpaca knit in a K6 P2 pattern. I'm actually designing the sweater based on the lessons I learned from Sally Melville and Lorna Misner at Stitches East. And, to tell the truth, I'm designing it around the buttons--I got the buttons at Stitches Midwest back in August. The yarn has been in my stash for a year or so--it was originally intended to be part of an afghan but I had so many different gauges going on, I divided up the yarns for other projects. Hopefully I'll have enough for sleeves too, otherwise this will be a nice vest. I'm using a modified set in sleeve from Lorna's class which should make seaming a whole lot easier and the lines smoother.

My parents visited today. My mom had been joking that she wasn't going to buy any new yarn until we worked through my stash. She had made a cardigan for my niece but the sleeves were too short. She said she was going to use bulky yarn and I happened to have pink chunky baby alpaca in the stash. I'm not sure what she'll do with it because she thinks it's too dear for a child's sweater. It was with very little regret that I deleted the photo of the yarn from my stash folder. She's also going to try the Christmas stocking hat pattern I picked up at my LYS "The Skein Attraction." I'm generally a loose knitter, but have been increasing sizes and still can't get gauge. Hopefully she'll have more luck.

I've found two new patterns for which I may need additional yarn. So far I've been very good about NOT ordering more--I still have more stash organizing to do and hope to uncover some suitable candidates. Although I'm making an entrelac scarf with Noro Silk Garden and I love it......

One funny story. The Professional Organizer I'm working with suggested that I finish one project before starting a new. I laughed and said "You're not a knnitter, are you?"