Do you Sashiko?

I found a new craft to obsess over.  Sashiko.

Do you Sashiko?  Okay, I'm not sure if the proper way of writing it is 'sashiko' or 'Sashiko.'  Whatever.  It's a Japanese form of stitching and honestly, I haven't done much research on its history.  Facebook kept telling me I should join a Sashiko group and there was an interesting photo of someone's work and well, the rest is history.  I'm hooked and totally obsessed. 

Sashiko is basically a running stitch and the purists in the Facebook group get a little bent if you don't use the historically correct thread and fabric type, but there are plenty of folks in the group doing it their own way.  Can you guess which group I'm in?

Yep!  I'm a non-conformist Sashikoer.  

I only discovered Sashiko in October or November and I've already finished 3 pieces.  The first was a totebag kit I got from Amazon.  It was fun to stitch and went quickly.  The second project was much bigger.  Tumbling Blocks from KimonoMomo is partially pictured above.  I had SO much fun stitching it and both the fabric and thread were SO much nicer to work with than the Amazon kit.  KimonoMomo also had fantastic customer service.  And no, I'm not affiliated with KimonoMomo other than being a very happy customer.  So happy I ordered more pieces to stitch.  ... And have about 6 more in my shopping cart.

I may enjoy Sashikoing even more than knitting!

But let's focus on Tumbling Blocks. That's only a tiny portion of the piece in the photo.  I plan to turn it into a table runner and I've bought the fabric backing... from Michaels because I had a coupon.  Of course, the fabric person at Michaels had no sewing knowledge and well, neither do I.  I had planned to put a layer of felt/batting/something between the front and back so that it's not just floppy fabric laying on the table but the sales clerk suggested I not do that, specially since the inner piece/lining/whatever you want to call it won't be quilted.  It will only be attached on the outside seams.  So, assuming some of you are sew-ers (not sewers ha ha)/quilters, what would you reccomend?  

I can't wait to have Tumbling Blocks finished and on the table.

Happy stitching!

I'm back???

I'm back!  I think.  Maybe.  I don't know.  I don't want to pin myself down to feeling like I have to post X number of times a week but I have missed talking to myself about yarn.  It's been almost a full year since I last posted.  Hard to believe!

I hope you've been well.  I'm ashamed to say I haven't kept up with anyone else's blog or even any form of social media. When I stopped blogging, I pretty much stopped internetting altogether.

So what have I been doing with my time?  I'm still working at the grocery store.  We are still living in my in-laws' house but it should be our house next week.  Fingers crossed.  They've been saying we'll close on the morgtage "next week" since two weeks before Christmas.  We moved all the in-laws' stuff we didn't want to keep out and we moved all our stuff in from storage.  Boy, was it nice to see my stuff again!  Our stuff had been in storage for four years!  Hayden, my granddaughter, is in pre-school and loving it.  And of course, I've been crafting.  I bought a loom and plan to be comfortable using it by the end of 2024.  I've been doing a lot of diamond painting.  It's delightfully tacky.  Ha ha.  Diamond painted things tend to be sparkley and I'm not really into sparkely artwork but I find the act of doing it to be very meditative and a little sparkle in my life won't kill me.  And of course, I've been knitting.  In 2023, I completed:

5 hats, 

4 sweaters,
2 pair of mittens, 
2 shawls, 
8 pairs of socks,
5 blankets and
2 Christmas ornaments.

The sad thing about all that knitting is that it didn't even make a dent in my stash pile. 

One of my 2023 goals was to go 90 days without buying any new yarn.  I didn't succeed with that goal.  But, I made my last yarn purchase on October 7th and today marks 105 days without buying yarn!  I am SO proud of myself!  I've been feeling overwhelmed by the stash pile for quite a while. Years, really.  

I finally cleaned out my closet (which is really a mini attic) the other day (on day 87) and tossed the old projects I  had no intention of finishing and organized all the remaining yarn.  All the bins won't even fit in the photo.  I have 16 of them.  And that's not counting the large cedar chest full that I can't even access because the chest has so much junk piled up on it.  Actually, I'd forgotten about the cedar chest yarn until just now.

Anyway, to make a long story a little longer, my plan is to go 120 days without buying yarn.  And then 150 days, then 180 days, and so on until I go a year without buying yarn.  Unless of course I run out first, but the likelihood of that happening is about the same as me winning the lottery.  The Big lottery.

Another goal for 2024 is to finish all the WIPs I have.  The 'rule' is I have to finish one WIP then I can knit anyting I want, then finish a WIP, and knit what I want.... rinse and repeat untill all the WIPs are finished.  They may not all get finished in 2024 but there's hope.  I was pretty ruthless when I was frogging/tossing old projects I knew I didn't like anymore.

Currently, I'm knitting a simple triangular shawl from the WIP pile.  I'm using Obsidian City Tweed from Knit Picks and a US 8 needle.  I'm currently at that stage where the shawl is eating up yarn but not growing.  Or at least it feels like it's not growing.  I only have a few skeins left so it will soon go from WIP to FO status.  Yay!

And now, I'm going to go curl back up under my blanket and knit some more.  Until next time, stay warm!