Happy New Year!

Is anyone else having trouble with Ravelry?  I notice that there are some new features, but things such as searches, adding favorites, project progress, adding needles/store info to a project, organizing sets/tags, and my inbox are not working properly.  It's a little frustrating.  I have come to rely on Ravelry a great deal.
 ETA: It seems that i needed to clear my cache.  That is what their help/faq advised and it worked.

I didn't knit as much in 2011 as the two previous years.  I tried knitting my last semester in college for stress relief but it didn't work out past the first couple of weeks of classes.  There were many projects that i was dreaming of but didn't have the money to buy the yarn for.  Now those dreams have changed a little.

What has been an improvement of sorts is that i am now teaching knitting.  The first semester was craziness with the younger kids (who were mostly too young, so i am going to teach an Intro to Needlearts class now with more crafty objectives) and all of my classes shrank before the end of the semester.  I have high hopes for the semester starting in a couple of weeks however!

State of Knitting 2011
new projects
Sky Slippers (still incomplete)
Cloudy Giselle (for my sister using Giselle pattern again...about halfway finished)
Autumn Leaves (frogged)
Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret (frogged)
Braidy (probably soon to be frogged)

older UFOs (that i hope to return to soon)
Starfish Snood
Funky Grunge Cap
Slip-Stitch Baby Cardigan
Mom's Sampler Afghan
and the Liberty Cap

Oh, btw, i do still intend to write an update about my hammock.  I lost my camera's battery and only recently found it again (which was such a relief, let me tell you!).  I also have plans to blog more often this year.  My goal is to finish old projects and learn how to spin this year.  Here's hoping...

so frustrated

So i decided to look up Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk on Ravelry to make sure that it is something i really want to invest in.  The colors are so lovely that i want to use several of them, not just the Pacific but the Olive and Copper if nothing else.  Alas, but this yarn is also getting bad reviews.  Splitting yarn is not ideal but the real deal breaker for me is that in a sweater it wears out quickly.  I would like to knit a shawl someday but that is not what i intend for my next project.  If in fact i can even manage another project.  I am so busy right now with work that the only day of the week i seem to manage knitting on is Tuesdays, and that only for a couple of hours.  My hands and arms are always tired from working nine hours the day before and taking Sign Language the hour before.

I want to be able to knit more...but of course i rarely get what i want.

Baby it's cold outside...

Well...it's not as cold as it could be, but it is getting to be that time of year.  Right now i have a hoodie with a broken zipper, a wrap sweater that is starting to show its age, a green sweater that is very warm, and a brown vest with sleeves about 2/3 complete.  I really feel like i need another sweater...if not two.  The question is...how much money do i want to spend on yarn?  How much can i afford to?  Would it be more cost effective to knit my own sweater, or would it be better to buy one (/shudder perish the thought!).

For months now i have really wanted to knit up Pangea but have been daunted by the price of the recommended yarn (not to mention the fact that it's grafted in the back...what's up with that?).  Fortunately i looked it up on Ravelry and have discovered that i really don't want to spend money on this pattern.  Suffice it to say that only a few people have attempted to knit Pangea, and apparently everyone except the designer has frogged it.

Here's my issue.  I want a wrap cardigan that looks similar to Donna's in End of Time.

I thought that Pangea looked similar enough for me as shown on the Webs site...only i intended to knit it in Pacific rather than Olive (the color which is modeled below).

I love this sort of lacy look, particularly since my own Tangy Giselle is about the right weight when i knitted it with larger needles than this pattern calls for.  So i was willing to compromise thickness for this beautiful yarn rather than trying to find something in a DK or Sport weight.  Then i saw the designer's version of Pangea and was more than a little surprised.

It's so thick compared to the Webs version!  She claims that it's because she didn't block the sweater but i am skeptical.  If i used the same size needles as she did, this would actually be very close to the weight of Donna's sweater.  But i am still put off by the fact that everyone frogs this pattern without fail.  I think that i am going to try to find another pattern that is similar and use this yarn, as when one looks at it objectively it isn't that expensive considering the fact that it's Alpaca/Silk.  Some people have complained about variations in tension but i experienced that while knitting with the Crystal Palace Kid Merino as well.

I also want to make a longer version of the Bergen Street Cardigan (probably in Pumpkin and Oatmeal?  maybe in Pumpkin and an Indigo/Navy) but am daunted by the fact that the cheapest yarn that i can find which is probably of a good quality will cost me upwards of $80.  I don't know if i need to knit this with worsted and adapt it, but i definitely don't want to use Fisherman's Wool yet again (which would probably be the cheapest option, actually, but i want something nicer than what i'm seeing in my brown wrap...it's already getting fuzzies and i've not worn it much).  Of course fuzzies seem to be a pretty common theme even when i pay more for yarn.  I'm starting to wonder if shopping at Webs is even worth it as everything is pricy and i'm not seeing the quality that i'd like to.