Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Fear-ful Knitting

Not too long ago, Sandi Wiseheart (don't you just love her last name?) of Knitting Daily sent around a newsletter about being afraid of knitting. Like, afraid of failure, or wasting your time, or learning a new technique.

My biggest fear about knitting is running out of yarn. It's a well-founded fear because it almost always happens. Right now, I've vowed to work through at least three-quarters of my stash before buying new yarn, but my biggest obstacle is not having enough of something for a project I would actually want to do.

*minimalist cardi? Not enough yarn*

The two largest amounts of yarn I have right now are 8 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight and 8 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy.

*so pretty, so not enough*

The alpaca was bought to make a pleated skirt. I was delusional to think that would be a good, wearable item to make.

The Hempathy was supposed to be a sub yarn for Raspy, but, again, I don't really have enough.

Too much yarn for a smaller project, to little for something large.

About the only thing I have an appropriate amount of is sock yarn, because it comes that way. Even still, I tend to knit the legs of my socks too short, "just in case" I don't have enough to finish the other one.

Any suggestions? Ravelry has helped a bit, but I'm still kind of stuck on yardage. What is your knitting fear?

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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

All the Lazy Days are Gone

After a month of sleeping in and watching bad daytime TV, I re-enter the working world tomorrow. I'm really excited about this new opportunity. The only thing I'm worried about is turning into a frump at the early age of 25.5. Or at any age, for that matter.

I need clothes that are comfortable, professional and affordable. But I also need clothes that aren't boring.

I've fallen into a jeans/t-shirt/sneakers rut (the Austin uniform of choice) and it's time to get out of that. For the past couple of years, I have been dressing how I people want me to dress, rather than how I want to dress, a sure sign that I could easily slip into frump-dom.

I've found this great fashion blog, The Sartorialist, to inspire me. I love how he captures not only great clothes, but the personality of the person who made that wardrobe decision that day. These are real people (well, mostly) wearing clothes that work of their lives.

My goal is to be able to find that mix of personal style and practicality. I think it's time to haul the red pants, sexy shoes and other gems out of the back of the closet.

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