I think I’ve (finally!) matured as a quilter. that or I just care enough about the FO to behave myself.

Tonight I finally started my BOTM quilt that’s going on my bed (eventually). (it’s the gold one mentioned about halfway through this post here.) the first block was in September, which I bought in late Oct/early Nov. It’s a bitch measuring things constantly, but so far my square in a square in a square (which will be the center of the quilt) looks pretty darn nice.

(I’ll post pics when I finish the square.)

in knitting news, I went to my friend Kim’s yesterday and we had a Harry Potter movie marathon in anticipation of the new movie coming out this week. since the last time we tried this we only made it through the first two movies, Emilea and I decided to start with the third movie. and as is usual for me, I fell asleep during the fifth one. anywho, I took the intarsia bag (started back in March ‘05) and managed to figure out where I left off (row 5 of the chart) and managed to get through the chart and beyond. I stopped at the part where I have to miter the bottom of the bag cuz I started overthinking things.

I’ve been trying to focus on the WIPs. I keep sort of joining ‘focus on the WIPs’ type groups on ravelry, but my knitting enthusiasm has been kind of low lately. at any rate, I’m sort of participating in the WIP Wrestling group - the intarsia bag has had good progress, and I’ve also been working on the Harry Potter book scarf this month. and I really want to get all the things that just need the ends woven in finished. we’ll see how I do.

in spinning news, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece - the goal being to spin every day with the Tour de France. I started out good, but haven’t really done much spinning since last weekend. so much for spinning a little every day. and the grand plans I came up with for the month. ah, well. at least I’m being crafty.

in other news, Kashka’s been sick the last week and a half or so. I took her in to the vet, and it’s either a tumor or just some really badly infected teeth. she’s been on antibiotics, and she seems to have improved a little bit. (the greatest evidence being her enthusiasm at chasing and pouncing at a moth that she and Wolfie found in the apartment. she’s been pretty lethargic since she’s been sick.) at any rate, she’ll be going in to have surgery soon to either figure out if it’s a tumor (I hope not) and, if not, have her teeth sorted out (cleaning, removal, etc). so if you’re so inclined, healthy kitty thoughts would be appreciated.

I’ve been working on the stashbusting baby blanket on and off for a while now. nothing too exciting - just a big pink rectangle of stockinette. was figuring I’d end up finding a baby to give it to (my cousin’s due in November - so if she has another girl, I’d have a gift at the ready). It’s been on my desk (I worked on it the other night while listening to the first chapter of Twilight.), but I tossed it onto the floor while trying to clean my desk off earlier.

hmmm… maybe I’ll be keeping it:

that was earlier.

this is now.

(and if my sister’s reading this, the blue up in the corner is the hat he pulled out so he could sleep on the other hat.)

so, you may recall I’m attempting to make the stash smaller (as evidenced by the StashDown counter over there in the sidebar). I’ve been trying to keep it close, but I know there’ll be some inaccuracies.

So I downloaded my stash from Ravelry and totaled it up. apparently I currently have 19.12 kg of stash. I’ve destashed quite a bit, but I didn’t think I had acquired that much new yarn. No idea what my actual destash total is, but according to Ravelry, I’ve acquired 3.9 kg. Granted, the other part of StashDown is actually USING the stash (knitting from stash. huh. fancy that.) - and it looks like I have 4.7 kg wrapped up in WIPs. well, I suppose with some luck, I’ll end up with a smaller (albeit barely) stash.

Note that as I was not spinning at the start of the year, the fiber & handspun stash are not included. (nor are we discussing that until next year)

as for the other half of the goal (reduce WIPs): yeah, that needs some serious help. I will need to become a knitting machine between now and the New Year if I want to get anywhere near close to that goal.

ps. Thursday will be my 4 year blogiversary.

DSCF6378, originally uploaded by criosa.

The second half of the Duo.

I started this Sunday during spinning at The Fiber Studio and finished it up tonight.

While I’m not usually a red/pink fan, I absolutely love how this spun up.

I’ve joined the Tour de Fleece (and on Rav, on Flickr).

I’ve joined the Rookie & Stashbusting teams.

The Tour starts today. First things - to finish spinning the stuff in progress (previously seen here and here). After that, I haven’t decided yet. Possibly the bunny blend from Shepherd’s Harvest.