“My name is Lora and I’m addicted to making”.

I’ve been feeling a little distracted of late and in a bid to do something about it, I’ve started to sort my house out.  Anyone that knows me, knows I’m one of those people that keeps anything and everything because ‘it will come in handy one day’.  Whether it’s the pile of t-shirts that I have, that fitted me a couple of years ago, the shoes that I know my feet will never let me wear again,  or the boxes of craft material and piles of books, I’m drowning in stuff.

Stop right there!

Did I just make it sound like I’m going to be getting rid of some of it?  Let’s not go that far, there’s no need for that.  Instead, I’ve opted for a good sort out and reorganisation, which may or may not result in items leaving the house.

In a bid to kick things off properly, I thought I’d tackle Dina’s bedroom.  I still call it Dina’s bedroom because it means I don’t have to deal with the self-inflicted guilt of moving a sofa bed in there and then filling every inch of remaining space with my crafty, woolly bits 🙄

As is always the case with tidying up, things were going really well for a couple of hours and then I hit that stage where the mess was ten times worse than it was when I started and I wanted to close the door and give up.  It is finally tidy now and whilst I did take a photo, I’m not completely sure I’m prepared to put it up on here for the world to see how bad my addiction is.  I showed it to a couple of friends whose reaction was very telling and they’ve known me for years.

What I can share with you and this is almost as embarrassing, if not worse, is the number of current wip’s I have.

Before I do so, I feel I should offer some form of defence prior to my revelation…….

The needles in the photo at the top of this post, represent the projects that I decided to rip back.  In total, I think they probably amounted to about 900 metres of yarn, possibly more, but when you know you’re not going to continue with a project, you know.

The projects that got the red card were an adult cardigan, a shawl and two pairs of socks, including this pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks.  I carried on knitting it despite the very obvious mistake, which eventually bothered me too much, so I stopped knitting.  I handed the yarn and sock to my son for him to rip out while we were driving to get him something and look just how tight he wound it?

At least the kinks will come out of it I guess.

I haven’t quite got up the nerve to rip this one back yet.

It’s a cardigan I started for Dina earlier this year and in my rush to get it on the needles I didn’t knit a tension square (I know, believe me, I do).  So tension wise, the stitches aren’t that far off, but the rows are way off which of course I only realised when I was just about to begin the arm shapings on one of the fronts??????

Technically, I only really need to rip the back down to the start of the armholes and just distribute the decreases further apart – easy.  Then I’ll have to rejig the numbers to make the sleeves fit – pretty easy, but not one of my favourite jobs.  So let’s face it, I’m probably not going to do it.  I might have a look at one of those apps like The Knitting Toolkit, that rejigs the numbers for you and see how far off my tension I am.

So in the spirit of honesty and in the hope of DISCOVERing a new found passion for clearing my needles.  (Discover is my word for 2018)

20!!!!!

How the f*%£ did that happen?

Twenty is beyond embarrassing, forget the stash and the desire to hoard anything and everything, having twenty works in progress is enough to distract anyone.

Except…….

When I sat down and reflected, I realised there were more because I’d forgotten to actually add the wip’s I’m currently working on, the two blankets I’ve got on the go and my Lady Marple Cardy that still needs the ends sewing in and buttons attaching.

While I’m typing, I’ve also remembered there are washcloths with ends that need sorting as does my Strokkur.

So technically it’s 32ish?

Oh and there’s my knitted diary, so 33ish?

(looks away, squirms and wrings hands)

Ok, ok, so the list doesn’t include the laundry bag full of really old wip’s, my toothbrush rug, the rag rug wall hanging, the patchwork quilt (there could be two of them actually) and a couple of tapestries that are lurking on looms either.

Look isn’t it pretty?

(Not that I’m easily distracted)

It’s my first attempt at eco printing, which I’m playing with in order to lead a workshop on it at the Handweavers Guild of Cork’s dyeing day.

I’ve a little more experimenting to try before the day, but on the face of it, it seems to have worked.  I haven’t rinsed this one yet or ironed it (obviously), but I’m pretty confident that most of the plant stuff I used will be fast.

I’ll keep you posted.

Before I wrap things up, it’s a big day here in Ireland today as the vote to Repeal the 8th Amendment takes place.  Sadly, I’m unable to vote because I’m not an Irish citizen, but I think it’s pretty obvious which way I’d be voting if I could.  Here’s hoping that tomorrow when I turn on the radio, women here will finally have the control over their bodies that they always should have had.  If not, well, that’s a whole different conversation and one I hope never happens.

I’m off to get the house cleaned so i can spend a little time prepping for my visit to Woollinn, Dublin’s first yarn festival, tomorrow.  Something akin to giving a chocoholic the keys to the Cadbury’s warehouse me thinks.

Happy Making

♥ Follow me on Bloglovin Here ♥