Too Many Scarves

Aaaaaaand scene.

So here we go. I'm officially shutting this blog down. I've mentioned doing this numerous times in the past year or so but the time has come. I mean, really. I've posted about 3 times in the past 6 months or so. Yet I have paid to keep this up and running should the mood strike.

The thing is, I haven't felt particularly verbose these days. Times are tough and if I am feeling the need to talk, it's to bitch about everything that has been going on and I didn't want this blog to turn into "that blog", you know? 

I started this blog back in the fall of 2004 when I moved to San Francisco from Southern California. It was a very exciting time, I had dreamed of living in SF for years and it was finally happening. I go back and read all those early posts and smile thinking about those memories. Ok, and sometimes I cringe. My writing has never been particularly good but I am so glad I have those posts to look back at and remember those moments. 

I have met so many incredible people through the blog world and have had the pleasure of meeting some of you in person, which just blows my mind. The internet is such an amazing thing that I, a super shy girl who would probably never speak a word to you in person,  am truly grateful for. I'm still around on the internets, be it on Ravelry or Flickr and a still unofficial Wordpress (free) blog. (If you're interested in that address, let me know, should I ever post anything there. I just don't want to link to it from here. )

So for now, TooManyScarves is closing it's doors. It's been a pleasure. Thank you and good night  ;)

XO,

Stacey

Just signed into Typepad to shut down the blog *officially* and look who's all fancy now? Now I can easily add videos and see recent activity...*sigh*

What a conundrum....

Ok...wow.

I've been gone for almost two months. Wow. So don't ask what possessed me to pop back in now, especially when I've been giving so much thought to shutting this down.

I'll bet it's because tomorrow morning we leave to go camping for the week and there will be no tv, cell phones, computer, Flickr, etc. While I am looking forward to it (so. freaking. much.) there is a bit of "Oh my god! What am I going to do?!" I am sooo addicted to technology. I hate that I am so "connected"...but I love it too. Oh, the conundrum.

And I can't leave this picture-less so here you go:

Springtime Bandit, completed in one week. Loved working on it and I am totally making another soon. Thought about bringing the goodies for it along on the trip but I don't want it to smell like campfire smoke.

Which reminds me...I still haven't decided what knitting to bring with me! The long drive up there, the nights next to the campfire...so much knitting time.  Time to go choose.

See ya!

Sewing...

For those of you that follow my Flickr 365, this will be repetitive, but oh well.

I have a few items of clothing that I never wear and have sat in my closet forever. I can't seem to part with them for one reason or another. Enter this sweater:

I love how I look less than enthused in this pic. It wasn't intentional, but it really does capture the "blah-ness" of this sweater. I love the color, the buttons and the tight knit but never wore it since it was so boring. (Funny thing, Tracey bought this same sweater without knowing I had. She already got rid of hers but now wishes she had kept it so I could do the same with hers. At least, I think that's what she said. I could be totally making that up.)

Ta da!

I finally threw it in the wash last night and was seriously afraid that is was going to fall apart. Ha. The "flowers" frayed a bit, but I expected that since I didn't do anything to prevent that. Still looks super cute though.

I also whipped up a skirt.

I used an old skirt that I made as a guide and just winged it. That's also why the waistband is covered. It's not pretty, friends. It's not finished very well, but I wanted to wear it to work that night. Hee. I am so impatient.

Seeing all these sewing projects (and seeing Carrie's) is making me want to get out my sewing machine STAT. Too bad it's already packed up.

Moving...catching up...again...

So we are moving. In 3 days. And there is, of course, still so much to be done. We're only moving about 15 minutes away and not across the state like last time, but still. It's overwhelming to think that everything in this place has to be put in boxes and put in a truck, just to be unpacked at another place.

I am horrible at packing because I always think, "Wait, I shouldn't put that in a box yet, I might need that in the next few days." And it's probably something that hasn't been touched in at least 6 months.

A few nights ago while packing some of my knitting stuff up I was suddenly inspired to cast on for something else. I would have a new little cardigan on the needles right now if it wasn't for me forgetting I had already packed the yarn up. It's definitely better that way.  I mentioned in the last post that I had about 6 knitting projects going on and it was driving me nuts. I now have only 2, I think.

Still working on the lace stockings. *sigh* I'd really love to already be wearing these things but I want them to be as close to perfect as possible. So I am taking my time and trying my darndest to not "f" them up like the first time around.

My toe up socks are in progress. Still.  (I am so not a sock knitter. Clearly.)

It's actually been so long since I've picked these things up that I am afraid I don't remember the mods I made to them. And nope, I didn't write them down. Considering they probably won't match and I am not thrilled with how the first one turned out I am thinking about ripping. What say you?

Oh crap. I just remembered I have a third project on the needles. The cowl that will not die.

This thing is also taking me forever. I think Ravelry says I started it back in March. My god. It's so easy to forget about something if there isn't a deadline for finishing, but it stresses me out to have too much going on. Must finish that within the next few weeks. Seriously. Maybe I'll try to start getting to work 15 minutes or so early and just knit for a bit. (Maybe I should just work on getting there early anyway...I've been running late a lot these days. I hate being that person.)

Other non-knitting projects going on will have to wait for the next post. I don't want to overwhelm you. Ha. 

Wow...

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've written. Seriously. A month? Where did the time go?!

Well, there was the birthday which was all kinds of fun. Tracey, Kevin, Randy and I went to Disneyland:

And here I am being totally cheap and taking a picture of the Splash Mountain picture because I wanted to remember the moment but couldn't afford to buy it:

I totally wanted to sit in front....forgetting I had a white t-shirt on. I had to hold my bag in front of me.  I actually didn't get that wet though, everyone else behind me did.

Then there was dinner for the four of us plus Nicole, my dad and brother at The Old Ship, which I frickin love. Fish and chips and cider. Mmmmm.  Then roller skating.

I forgot that it hasn't been mentioned over here since I haven't blogged in the past month, but rollerskating is now my new obsession. OhmygodIloveit.  We've gone nearly every week since discovering the rink in Fountain Valley that has adult night. It's such a fun way to get a workout, and man, is it a workout. And I know that I am running the risk of repeating myself for those of you that follow my Flickr 365, but the rink also rocks big time because it has.... a photo booth.

Yay!

Shoot. What else can I say? I've been doing a bit of crafting although almost all the projects have been big losers not worth showing. I also have about 6 different knitting projects going on which is driving me nuts. I really need to finish some of them before I have a giant anxiety attack. Maybe I can make some progress at knit night tonight.

What else? I've been working a lot. For a bit there I was averaging 12 hours a week at work...that's it. But in the past month or so I have been averaging 30 hours. Woo! I'd love to be able to go spend all that "extra" money on you know, clothes, yarn, fabric and whatnot, but nope. We are moving. Money will be needed for a U-haul and the like.

Upside to moving? An extra bedroom that will be known as the "office/craft room".

Wooooooo!!!

Hmmmph...

Well, my birthday is in 19 minutes. And I am just finishing up the first stocking. Guess they won't be getting worn to dinner tomorrow night. No worries though, I've been doing some other things that have been getting wear.

I made a skirt.

I have no picture on my computer here.

But I can link to my flickr for ya, if you are interested. Here you go: skirt.

Lots of crafting around here, still.

That's about it for now...

Happy Birthday to me in 10 minutes now!  Wooo!

The bad...

Lest you think that all here is fine and dandy in the creativity department, I'll show you the latest big loser.  I had high hopes for the Garter Yoke Cardigan, but it was not meant to be.

Looks ok, just sitting on the floor, right? (Well, despite the blurriness. I'm telling you, this 365 project has done nothing to help me in the photography department thus far.)

Let's get a close up for those of you who may not have noticed the area that sticks out like a sore thumb to me:

Whoops. I worked on this sleeve one night in the dark and grabbed one of the many balls of this yarn I had sitting around. Unfortunately, it was only one I shouldn't have grabbed. It was the remainder from the yoke, which is a different dye lot.

(Short back story for those who care: I originally used this yarn for a different project, ran out before I finished and Cathi was nice enough to send some my way. Different dye lot, but I decided I'd take the chance. You couldn't tell in most lighting, but I never ended up wearing the project. I frogged it. Decided that it could work with the Garter Yoke Cardigan, as long as I used the different dye lot for the yoke, hoping the different stitch would help camouflage it.) 

I wish that were the only problem with this sweater, but alas, it was not.  It was very poor fitting. I know it isn't a form fitting cardigan, but it was just plain silly looking on me. I don't even have any picks to prove it. It is already up in the big yarn pile in the sky. Buttons salvaged for a future project, of course.

I'd like to say that I am going to give it another shot, with different yarn and with some mods, but I kind of doubt it. I imagine I will be distracted by something else shiny and forget all about it.

Here's my latest distraction:

The beginnings of Bettie's Lace Stockings from the Spring '09 IK.  This was one of those projects that I thought I would never make, but for whatever reason I saw them and had to have them NOW.  After a few false starts I am off and running...or so I think.  I have this crazy idea that I can finish these and wear them to my birthday dinner in a few weeks.

Crossing my fingers...

Checklist for today...

1. Sleep in.  Check.

2. Make coffee. Check.

3. Put on the Blind Pilot cd to listen to for the 100th time.  Check.

4. Make the third loaf of bread in less than 24 hours. Check.

5. Get on the computer to catch up on blogs, Flickr, email and pay some bills. Check.

6. Take inspiration from looking at Flickr and blogs and do something with it.....maybe tomorrow.

Even more...

I finally added the finishing touch to the cupcake apron. Don't know why it took me so long to get around to doing it...it took me maybe a 1/2 hour once I just sat down and put my mind to it.

All I did was add a little pocket. It's purely for decoration, as not even my tiny hand can fit in there.

This was my first foray into designing my own apron and it turned out ok...but there are plenty of mistakes with it. I just consider it a learning experience, and hey, it only cost me $3 for the fat quarter. I had all the other supplies.

And here's what I whipped up last night:

In an effort to not put any more holes in our apartment walls ( I'm sure all you renters out there understand) I put up corkboards. Which are held up by two pushpins, but, whatever.

I'm going to be using them for pics that give me inspiration and the like. Yay.

In other news...I am almost done with the Garter Yoke Cardigan. Almost. I feel like this has been taking me forever, but really, it's only been a little over two weeks. I suppose it's been because I have been distracted by all sorts of other projects.  I checked my Ravelry projects the other day and I am up to 5 WIP's. That literally makes me a little sick to my stomach. Yes, literally. (I hate when people use that word improperly.)  Time to finish up a few things to put my mind at ease.