Stash-Diving Decision-Making

A very kind podcast listener sent me the Quicksilver pattern as a gift on Ravelry over the weekend. I've been knitting again on my Song of the Sea over the last few days but I've also been itching to start something new. And not another sweater!

I had also been contemplating my stash this weekend and thinking, as most knitters do, "I have got to do something with all this sock yarn." With that thought in mind I feel that my Quicksilver must be knit from yarn I already own. I did a little sifting this morning and came up with two color combinations.



For this I'm thinking of using the grey/black with the blue/green (bottom right) for the stripe and the bright teal (it's SUPER bright in person) for the mesh lace.



For this combo I feel it could go any way. Right two color stripes with bright, light blue for the mesh. Or the two brightest blues striped and the bottom right for the mesh. Or the bottom right with the lighter blue for stripes...you see what I mean.

I'm leaning toward the more subdued top combination. Any opinions?

Good Sign?

I think this is a sign of a good trip. I'm home from Fort Worden and just spent the last hour or so adding all my new yarn into my Ravelry stash. I have THIRTY-FOUR new entries. THIRTY. FOUR. That's two yarns I bought at the Artful Ewe and 32 I got in the stash sale. Most are just one-two skeins, or even partial skeins, but I shouldn't even be typing this right. I have to keep knitting!

Mad Hatter

Since the Great Stashening I've had a bee in my bonnet about using up all my odds and ends. I want to knit them all! Now! I began with a helix hat (same basic recipe as always).

This one is Noro Cash Laine, Lamb's Pride Worsted, Classic Elite Kumara, Rowan Kid Classic, Julia and who knows what else.

Then I cast on and knit the ribbing on a plain hat in Naturally Harmony 10 Ply that I have had in my stash and planned to knit into a hat since I got the yarn as a freebie at Madrona in 2006. I took it to see Batman last night and finished it this afternoon.

Oh, I also made a really ugly hodgepodge hat yesterday with some leftover bulky scraps.

Then I started an Aviatrix which I haven't completed yet with some Rowanspun DK.

Then in about 20 minutes or so this afternoon I knit a hat with some Dale Ara that has been lying around since 2004. 2004! I bought it make a fricking poncho for Pete's sake! The poncho never happened and I've used it bit by bit over the last eight years.

Nope, that's not a pickle. It's a hat. Honest.

This is almost the last of it. There was a tiny nub left and I'm using it to make another hat!

Done in One (Late) Night

It doesn't look like much but it took me until 1:30 last night to get this done. I pulled out my entire stash and went through every bit of it.

I put together a bag of yarn to sell or give away.

I reorganized my stash as you can see above. Sweater quantities, sock yarn, lace yarns (or yarns I plan to use for lace knitting), yarns I plan to use for colorwork, random oddballs and yarns that I have 3-4 skeins of and don't know yet how I'll use them.

I also created a bag (on the left) for single or partial skeins of yarn that I've paired with projects in my queue on Ravelry. I even went through my queue and tagged them all "oneskein." The bag on the right has a few two-three skein projects plus all my worsted scraps for making helix hats.

And that's it. Done.

Okay, Erin, I'll Play Along

My podcast-mate, Erin, has been on a bit of an organizing kick lately. Yesterday she blogged about reorganizing her entire stash. My office has been disheveled and over-stuffed for too long. I keep saying I will clear it out and reorganize...but you know how that goes. Our knitting group is planning a stash sale/yarn donation in two weeks. So no more time to stall. I began with Step One. I took out all my stash.

I'm now fighting a strong urge to just stuff it all back in there and forget about it for another year or so.

Another Obesession Comes to a Close

I finished! I finished spinning and plying the filthy alpaca. I've washed it several times and I still think it's fairly dirty but it's improving.



That's 660 yards of sport-ish weight alpaca.

I also now seemed to be obsessed with sweaters. I've started Idylwylde with the Seattle Knitters Guild Hazel Knits colorway in Artisan Sock.



I'm chugging along on Lavaliere for the Purlygirls' Cecily Glowik MacDonald knitalong.*



I'm using Road to China Light and it is delicious. You know how you shop for yarn for a project and you find yourself thinking, "I could save $20 if I used this nice but fairly nondescript yarn." Well, I say, at least every once in a while, don't! This yarn is heavenly. It's soft, silky, fuzzy and lovely and the color is amazing. Treat yourself. You will be happy.

I snapped up a few yarns at the Fiber Gallery's annual sale before they were discontinued and gone forever.

This is Noro Retro in two shades of grey. I have a plan for a stripey, top-down sweater.



This is O-Wool Classic. It's still being made but this is the old put-up from Vermont Organics. It was a bargain and I've always wanted a sweater in it. And, you know, it's green.



*We do this a lot. We did a casual KAL for Aidez. We've done them for sock patterns. It's a lot of fun to see what everyone does.

Get Some

Hazel Knits is having a trunk show at the Fiber Gallery all weekend. Lovely, lovely stuff.

See For Yourself

Polworth from Lisa Souza



Shetland/Merino blend from Sporfarm



BFL Sport in Portsmouth also from Lisa Souza

These are my spoils from OFFF.

That's Some Pretty Good Stashbusting

Of course, it wasn't all from stash. And I think that's about how much I added to my stash this year. Oops.

Slipped Away

I went away for five days and didn't even tell you. I headed to Port Townsend for my annual knitting retreat. As always there are no classes or any set activities. Just hanging out knitting or spinning or sleeping or shopping or reading or walking or doing whatever you feel like doing. Last year was definitely a spinning year. This year was a knitting year.

I knit a Koolhaas hat in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran.



I knit up all the yarn I had for Damson. I'm going to continue it in another colorway of the same yarn. It wont' match. I don't care at this point. It still turns my hands very blue.



I cranked on my hexagon blanket. I haven't worked on it since last November but this weekend I finished the main rectangle and have started to pick up for the border. I need to pick out a solid color to mix in tomorrow when I'm at work.

I bought some really primo stash. Someone was selling the exact yarn in the exact colorway I wanted for the Mondo Cable Cardi for less than I could get it with my discount at work. Yoink! I also got a sweater's worth of O-Wool Balance, a few skeins of Satakeili, many magazines and books and a small cone of shetland-type wool that shades from light to dark blue. I love it all!

Boiling Over

Gah! My life and my knitting have gotten totally out of control. I realize I never even finished my Sock Summit recapping and when I went to take some more photos I realized I never photographed things I brought home from camp! In addition to that I've lost my mind and am knitting on a bazillion projects at once right now. Or so it feels. I keep trying to remind myself of that FLYlady slogan , "You are not behind – you are just getting started." Am I ever!



Buttons from Jennie the Potter. They match my Miss Babs Sport perfectly!



Kimmet Croft Fairy Hare purchased at camp. It's 40% angora. Can you see the dreamy fuzziness? I think this might become a Featherweight Cardigan.

There was a free skein of Fat Fairy Hare with purchase!



Sensing a color trend yet?

Kim was destashing this beautiful Silky Merino Aran from Sundara in Green Tea. Current thought, February Lady Sweater. (She's posted some of her photos from camp. Man, we were silly this year.)



Did I mention that I finally steeked one sleeve for the GLMC while at camp?



Sadly, it hasn't been touched since.

I knit this one baby hat on the way to camp.



I started a second on my way home and--this part is going to start sounding familiar--I haven't touched it since.

I've been knitting a lot on Coraline.



The Cascade Pure Alpaca is dreammmmmy. But the sleeves on my sweater are giving me fits. The first go had to be ripped because it was crazy-huge. My gauge on double-points was so loose and floppy. I ripped it out and switched to magic loop on a smaller size needle and the sleeves still seem kind of huge to me. Do I rip again? I'm thinking maybe I'll cut off the bottom of the sleeve and work it into a slimmer fit.

And did you see Damson? Ysolda is releasing Whimsical Little Knits 2 one pattern at a time. The first is a dainty little shawl. I couldn't resist and cast on immediately with some sock yarn I got from Butternut Woolens a year or so ago at Madrona. It's indigo-dyed and gorgeous. It also bleeds like you wouldn't believe and turns my hands completely blue!



One last thing, since I have a photo. This is my sample swatch from my sock design class at Sock Summit. The yarn is Socks That Rock in a Rare Gems colorway. I was having a very difficult time finding a stitch that worked with this yarn. Lace didn't show, texture didn't show. Then I found this pattern in a stitch guide shown to me by Ellen and it was perfect!



I better go get some knitting done.

Oddballs

All knitters have that annoying collection of single skeins of yarn, leftovers from projects, friends' cast offs, skeins we bought with no idea of what to do with them. Once you start to work in the yarn business you get even more. At every event companies press skeins of yarn into your hands.

My sock yarn scrap blanket has been my movie theater knitting project for years now. But it is too big to take with me anymore. It's just unwieldy and I have have nearly run out of yarn for the project. It will have to wait until I knit more socks. In the meantime I need projects to knit in the dark.

It's time to knit up all these oddballs into hats for charity. The only trick is getting the bottom ribbing done before the lights go down. I tried to get a few ready on the needles.

This is Louet Riverstone. I made it generously-sized. I think it will make a great warm hat for a man.



I won this skein of SWS at a knitting fundraiser earlier this year. I hope it will keep a child warm this winter.



These were just the first few stray skeins I found. There are probably enough to knit dozens of hats.

A Moment in the Sun

The sun it out! And I'm home! I can finally take some pictures!


This is my Tulip Cardigan. The pattern is from Dream in Color and the yarn is some of my handspun from class samples from Madrona last year.


My progress on the Noro shawl. I got the pattern written up and we had our first class today. I have two weeks until the next class to get it done.


I got this skein of Rare Gems Socks That Rock at Madrona. I was trying to pick a Raven colorway and couldn't decide. They were all so dark I couldn't picture knitting with them. This one of a kind skein caught my eye instead.


These indigo-dyed skeins of sock yarn are from Butternut Woolens. Incredibly pretty, rich color.


A hand-painted skein from Heidi at The Artful Ewe. So my colors.


A pile of beautiful spinning fiber from Judith's classes. This is yak/merino and Shetland.

And now it's raining. With hail??

Forward Movement

I took Delf's advice. Using a random number generator, the 9th sock in my queue was selected. Laila's socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia. I pulled out some dark chocolate Koigu and an "oops" skein of Socks That Rock. I thought they went nicely together with good contrast.



I was wrong.



I'm not discouraged at all. I'm taking the brown to work to see if I can find a better contrast color. If all else fails I have some undyed Louet Gems fingering-weight that will do just fine.

Since the sun is out today (but cold!) I finally was able to take some photos.

I've been working on and off on Tailored Scallops from the cover of Lace Style. This is my Cormo/silk that I dyed a few months ago.



And I shot my yarn from the retreat.






On a bit of a green and chocolate kick, I guess.

And then there is my door prize.



Hmm, what's inside that pretty bag?

Why it's 493 yards of ridiculously gorgeous sock yarn! The colorway is "Birches in Norway." Thanks to the Twisted Ewe and Curious Creek Fibers for donating it.