More for Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! It's going to be a long week and I can feel it already, so I plan on making this a very quick post!

I mentioned some spinning yesterday, and there was a lot done while I was off for spring break!

The first thing to dive onto the wheel was some buffalo I pulled out of my Ohio Fiber Stash

 

Approximately 200 yards of buffalo blend in a heavy worsted/bulky 2ply yarn. LOVE this fiber!

Approximately 420 yards of a sock weight/fingering 2 ply from an unknown breed of sheep. Not the softest but hopefully it will soften up when washed.

I haven't washed these yet, but I am sooo enjoying spinning lately.

Of course with all these finished objects I have a bunch of yarn that has left the stash and some that has joined the stash. As much as I had to fight with photos tonight on blogger I think I'll have to save the new stash for a future post.

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  4352 g (8716 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  2648 g

Yards Spun:  3248 y

The Alpaca that Ended!

Remembe that alpaca that I was spinning like crazy? I actually managed to finish it before the end of March! Only problem was I had to wash it four times and it spent almost three days drying. I'm sure it could still be cleaner, but its a lot bette than it was when I got it! In total I got 712 yards from 306 grams. That is the total yardage after washing. I did lose some of the weight during washing... That dirt and dust must have beem heavy!

I'm meeting up with the friend who sent it to me tonight at Starbucks and I can't wait!

Luscious Lace!

I love Lace.  Lately since Spring has sprung and Summer is just around the corner I have been working away on a shawl that has been languishing in my WIPs for far far to long.

Well I mentioned last night I had something new off the bobbin and it took me ages to ply and wind it into a skein.  I was actually surprised at just how long I spent skeining this yarn!  The only good thing about it taking so long, is that it must mean I had a ton of yardage right?

The answers is yes.  This has to be one of my largest skeins I've spun to date!  588 yards of two-ply yarn and it only weighs 3.5 ounces (100 grams).  It's some serious yarn love.  What will I make?  That is yet to be determined, but I have a lot of yards to play with that's for sure!

Yarn Out:  3954 g (7589 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  2648 g

Yards Spun:  2495 y

Just Keep Spinning...

The end of the alpaca is in sight!  After what feels like ages I am down to less than 3 ounces of fiber left.  At the start of March I set a goal hoping to have it done by the end of the month.  It definitely looks like I'll be able to finish it and have plenty of time to wash it before hauling it off with me to Ohio.

I'm spinning up the singles on my Ashford Joy and then plying on the Majacraft Suzie Pro.  It's so nice that two Ashford bobbins will fit onto one Majacraft bobbin.  Makes plying soooo easy.

Speaking of plying, I've finished up the merino and nylon blend that I was spinning up on the Majacraft.  It's so thin I lost count a few times while trying to add up my yardage.  I have a ton of work to do yet tonight for my job so I'll be counting that again tomorrow when I get a chance to take photos.

It definitely looks like it will be between a lace and fingering weight so I'm hoping for a ton of yardage.  Whether I'll knit it up, or sell the handspun I've yet to decide, but it would make a gorgeous triangle shawl.

Since it's a new quarter at school I am on another goal setting mission in hopes of making the fourth quarter even better than the third.  I've also been on a mission to organize life at home in a bit of a spring cleaning effort.  Well this has rolled over into my fiber hobbies as well.  Although before I've been setting monthly goals, since I'm blogging a few times a week I decided to set a few weekly goals as well.  Ready to see what I'm hoping to finish this week?

Goals for the Week:

• Finish the Alpaca
• Knit a Hat
• Complete one repeat of the Shawl
• Finish the Monster!

I love goals. :)

Loving Retail Therapy

Yes... It was a fairly rough weekend, but instead of resorting to drinking and wasting my money away on alcohol I decided that Yarn was a better purchase.

Friday I placed an online order with Knit Picks.  There was a kit that I had wanted ages ago and I decided my bad day was reason enough to make the purchase.  While waiting for this to arrive, something else showed up at my door.

It's the 2012 Into the Whirled Fiber club for the month of March.  After seeing the photos of all of the Into the Whirled club shipments I was dying to get my hands on the club fiber.  I am so glad that I decided to join because this is absolutely delicious!  It's 85% Polwarth, 15% Silk and is sooo soo soft, not to mention stunning.  I love the colors she used to dye this!

Then today, I got a text message after work.  "Hey, do you want to meet me at AC Moore?"  Yes, my yarn friend invited me to meet her at a big box craft store and help her 'pick out yarn.'  It all started out so well!  And then my friend went to the restroom.  While she was gone I managed to find about 9 skeins of yarn that I "needed."  Oh well!  I do love some retail therapy and I bought yarn to make some gifts for my family back home.  With Mothers and Fathers day just around the corner I need to get started now.  Right after that will come the holidays and my goal is to knit all my gifts this holiday season.  Aside from that, I will be getting married some time in all of this holiday mess so best to start out early!

Ready to see the photos of today's haul?

Something for Dad

Something for Erin

A present for Mom

Another unknown gift set.

I haven't planned out these gifts exactly yet, but I'm kicking around a few ideas with my spare time.  Since I only have a few projects on the needles at the moment I'm hoping to get them started soon!

Oh, and remember last Monday when I said I would be trying to spin 2 oz a week in order to have the raw alpaca finished before I went home for Easter?

This past weekend I plied up another 3.5 oz skein of alpaca!  That's 1.5 ounces MORE than I had planned on spinning last week!  If I can spin another 2 ounces this week I will be ahead of the game.  Whether or not that will happen I do not know, the allergies are working overtime right now and I have no desire to play with the raw fiber right now!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far.  Since I've been getting so much done lately you may see a few more blog posts out of me in the future. ;)


A lot more in this week!

Yarn Out:  3954 g (7589 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  1548 g

Yards Spun:  1907 y

The Ups and Downs of Life

Well, it happened again.  Just when I thought everything was looking up and that life was turning around I found myself crashing back down and falling to pieces in the process.  There are parts of my job that I love, and there are other parts that are so toxic I block them from my mind whenever I am there.  My boss informed me on Friday that I had "not made the gains they had needed" and thus "I would not be recommended for a contract next year."  For the third year in a row I will be unemployed again at the start of summer.  The first time this happened I felt finding a new job teaching would be hopeless, but family and friends encouraged me to continue with my passion.  My coworkers were shocked that I was let go, so I must have been good enough for them to be surprised that I was "let go."  The second year I was dismissed due to budget cuts within the state and county which was based on my contract level for that year.  I was ready to go back to school and find a new career, surely two years in a row was saying something!  Again, coworkers from the new school encouraged me not to give up.  They felt I had a talent and I needed to be there, especially since they felt I was so good at what I did.  I was rehired at the same school that "let me go" last year and was having what I felt was a great year.  I could see my improvements.  I could see how I was growing within my profession and really having an impact on my students.  Unfortunately the administration did not agree and I have just under three months until I will begin searching again.  Although I knew this could happen, and with the toxic environment at my place of employment I considered quitting on my own, it still crushed me to be told I wasn't good enough for their standards.  I'm looking at the bright side, I'm focusing on things that make me happy and I promise not to babble on and on about my job hunt in the upcoming months.  If anyone has any suggestions for switching careers please do let me know!

Now for what you really came for... the yarn!

I finished something.  Can you guess what it is?

Pattern:  Wingspan
Yarn:  Handspun - Superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farms
Comments:  I had 700 yards of this handspun and only used up approximately 401 yards to make this scarf/shawlette.  138 grams of yarn.

I LOVE this project!  I have some plans to make more scarves/shawlettes in handspun yarn because I do enjoy it so much!

Since I had so much yarn left, and Knitabulls is doing a Monster Madness March KAL I decided to cast on for a Dot the Dress Up Box Monster by Rebecca Danger.

May I present to you:  A Monster Butt.

Since taking this photo I have finished the main body of my monster and have come to a horrible stopping point.  I have no idea what to do for the contrast color that is needed for the eye patch and the ears.  I want to use handspun and would prefer to keep with Superwash Merino since that is what I have for the main body.  I do have a variety of CMF Superwash up in my stash so I may do some stash diving over the next few days and get your opinions.

Things like this make me wonder if people actually do read my blog.  I started this blog with the intention to help store and track my personal information for my own use.  I assumed that very few people actually read it; however, while watching The Knitting Game Podcast yesterday I thought to myself: "I love this podcast!  I really should remember to join their group!"  Not one minute after this thought occurred the lovely podcastor began going down her list of new members and mentioned my name.  Oh!  I did join!  Awesome!  Shortly after she began talking about how much she enjoyed my blog.  I died of shock.  Here I was convinced no one read my blog. ;)

Oh I have a yarn update too:

Yarn Out:  3954 g (7589 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  1013 g

Yards Spun:  1907 y

 

The finished scarf is added to my list as well as some "new" fiber that came to live with me yesterday.  I'll post some photos of the new fiber some point this week.

Just Plugging Away.

Work has been very busy as always and unfortunately I haven't been feeling well here myself.  Back in December they stopped making the medication I had been on for over 8 years, and it took three months before I realized the "new" medication just wasn't working at all.  After a miserable night last night I finally realized what the problem was and headed to the doctors this afternoon.  Hopefully she'll be able to find me something to substitute because I don't know how long I'll be able to deal with this!

Oh well, on to yarn talk!

My friend Dori came over on Saturday and we played with yarn.

281 yards, 100 grams of a two ply yarn, dyed by Dori and spun by me!  This took just a few hours to spin up and is sooo soft and squishy.  This was the second braid out of the fiber we dyed up the other weekend.

I'm really enjoying spinning up the stuff we dyed and I'm in LOVE with the new wheel.

I've been plugging away on a few larger projects lately, just trying to make a little dent in them.  One of them was the 12 ounces of alpaca fleece a friend sent me to spin up.  There is one skein all wound up that weighs about 3.5 ounces and my math tells me that if I can spin approximately 2 ounces each week I should be able to have this done before I go home to visit!

Finishing it before I head home means that I can deliver it back to it's owner in person.  Saves me about 6 bucks in shipping, but hey, I'll be spending a few hundred on gas just to get to and from home.  Plus I haven't seen this friend in over 2 years so it's a great excuse to meet up with her again.

Also in the past week I've been working my way through the wingspan shawl/scarf thingy.

I LOVE this handspun.  I've just started the second ball of handspun right around the start of the 6th triangle.  The second skein is a bit thicker than the first, so I think for future projects I'll be making a better effort to check my gauge more often to get a more consistent yarn.

I do love working with handspun!

Yarn Out:  3553 g (7452 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1907 y

 

Had some more yarn destashed too!  Dori used up the rest of the Lincoln I purchased years ago at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival.  Not bad fiber, just not fiber for me.  Also since the blue handspun is being gifted to her (since she dyed it) I have another 100 grams that disappeared from my stash!  It feels so good to declutter!

It's March!

Wow, this year is flying by FAST and I'm still plowing away with my knitting and spinning so far this year!

I meant to update on the 1st of March to wrap up February and discuss my knitting goals for March; however, real life got in the way and I put my post off until the weekend.  Well, today is Monday so obviously I'm a little behind again!

Oh well!

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012  Done!
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006 So Close!
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl  Done!
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl  Haven't touched this!
• Buy NO yarn/fiber! Oops!

I was hoping to finish the afghan but alas, it did not happen last month.  I will say though that last Saturday I completed the last row and tied the stitch off!  Now I just have to weave in all 10000000 ends! *Insert Groan Here*

Since I last updated... I bought a wheel.  Yup, bought a wheel.  Well, technically I purchased it prior to my last post, but it finally arrived last Wednesday!  I put on some of the fiber I dyed with my friend D from work and ended up with approximately 341 yards.

This was Peruvian Wool Roving from KnitPicks.  Dyed with McCormick Food Dyes in the Crockpot and spun up on my new Majacraft Suzie Pro.  I ended up with 3.5oz of yarn which is approximately 341 yards.  It's a fingering weight and will make a lovely scarf or even some hard wearing socks!  This is NOT superwash! (I need to put this here or I will never remember!)

Also for March I signed up to participate in the Knitting Blooms March KAL.  For their KAL, the podcastor picked a yarn from our stash for us to knit up this month.  The majority of my SC yarn stash is handspun, sock yarn, and of course the occasional handspun sock yarn.  We'll she picked out approximately 700 yards of Crown Mountain Farms sock weight that has been in my stash for ages now.

After some careful deliberation and a run through my queue and other ravelry pattern searches I settled on Wingspan.  So far, I'm in love.  I never really appreciated knitting with handspun until recently and I don't know that I'll ever stop knitting with handspun.

I'm so in love with these colors!  I apologize for the bad photos.  Unfortunately I haven't made it home to get some good photos during daylight hours, so I'm stuck trying to get good photos at night.  These photos are very accurate as far as colors are concerned!

March Goals:

• Weave in all those ends!
• Finish Wingspan
• Finish the March Hat
• Make progress on Candle Flame Shawl
• Finish Spinning the Raw Alpaca!

I have lofty goals, but if I don't set goals I won't complete anything!

Yarn Out:  1073 g (2925 y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1626 y

The Year of Berets?

I think this might become the year of Berets!  I said last Monday I hadn't even begun to think about my 12 Hats in 2012 hat for the month of February, but Thursday night I pulled some handspun out of the stash, and today I cast off on my newest hat!  Technically I guess this is the first hat I've ever finished for myself.

Pattern:  Spring Beret
Yarn:  Handspun from DragonFibers in Peachsicle
Comments:  Great Pattern, loved being able to use my handspun!  I knit the extra slouchy version and it was more of a "slouchy" hat.  Probably because my yarn wasn't the worlds most even worsted.  The yarn was about 8-9 wpi and is sooo smooshy.  It's a 80% Merino/20% Tussah blend and was a dream to spin!

I've been plugging away on the afgahn as well.  About 3 full days left in February and I may be able to finish my goals but it will definitely be close!  With work (and a now sick cat) I'm not sure the blanket will get finished but I sure am trying!

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  1073g (2925y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913g

Yards Spun:  1285y

Finally some Photos

The first project was finished at the end of January; however, I didn't get around to blocking and taking photos until this past weekend.

Pattern:  198 yds. of Heaven
Yarn:  Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Swimming Pool
Comments:  This was a great pattern, I used up some washcloth cotton I had in the stash and did an extra repeat of the body to use up more yarn and make it a little bigger. I may make more of these in other colors.  It would be great for handspun!

Also I showed you the Llama fiber I had been spinning up.  It's done! There is 8oz of handspun, 576 yards total.  Of course some of that yardage may disappear during washing, or maybe I'll get lucky and the yarn will grow during washing?

I love the colors of this and Llama is SO soft!  It will probably be a shawl or scarf, something that doesn't need to fit and will drape nicely.

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  817g (2058y)

Yarn In:  0g (0y)

Yards Spun:  841y

The shawls yardage had already been added in since it was bound off for my last update, but the handspun is new!  Another 576 yards added to my handspun stash!  Lately when looking at my stash it feels as if it is shrinking quickly.  Part of me is sad to see the yarn disappearing fast, but another part of me is happy to see these things finally being knit with!  I have big plans for when my stash is gone, but you'll have to wait to see what happens. :)

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl
• Buy NO yarn/fiber!

Arrow Hat

I never used to knit hats, but for some reason they seem to be one of the things I'm enjoying knitting most right now.

In Ravelry for 2012 I decided to take the 12 hats in 2012 challenge and make 12 hats this year.  It seemed like an easy challenge for me since I can knit a hat in 1 day if I have absolutely nothing to do.  So far, we're doing well for 2012.  I cast off late last night, and wove in the ends today.  I would have finished earlier last night; however, I ran out of yarn during the last few rows and had to rip and rework it a little.  Overall I am very happy with it.  This was made as a stash busting effort and will be tossed into the gift box for the upcoming year.  At the rate I'm going I may be done with holiday gifts by May. ;)

Pattern:  Arrow
Yarn:  Handspun - 97 grams and approximately 312 yards.
Comments:  I couldn't find a gauge for this pattern; however, I just knitted away happily.  It was a little on the large side, but it fits nice and it's comfy as well.  This was the first handspun I had ever made on my spinning wheel and I did hold it double to get the worsted/aran thickness.  I did run out of yarn a little towards the end, but was able to rip the two rows prior to the decreases in order to get the yarn needed to decrease at the top.

New Yarn Totals for 2012!

Yarn Out:  411g (1067y)

Yarn In:  0g (0y)

Yards Spun:  265y

 

I'm making progress!

Scarves, Yarn and Hats Oh My!

It's been about 3 days since I've last posted and believe it or not I've gotten quite a bit done in that time!

I think I'm surprising myself at how much I'm getting done this year as far as my fiber goals are concerned.  In fact I'm so motivated by how much I'm getting accomplished that I'm actually refocusing on my weight loss goals.  I am getting married in December of this year so I would like to be able to really drop some pounds before then.

First up.  Mom's birthday scarf is done!

Pattern:  Beginners Reversible Scarf
Yarn:  Handspun Romney (I think)
Comments:  I LOOOOOVE this pattern.  I have made the complicated lace, and the intricate colorwork, but for some reason lately I'm all about the basic patterns.  Maybe because they're quick and mindless and let me unwind after a hard day.  This is the first handspun I ever spun on my wheel so I had some different thicknesses in my yarn.  I did have to hold some of the strands together to get the right thickness when I realized my skeins were all a different weight.  It worked!  Scarf is done and next weekend I will mail it out to my mother.

I still had quite a bit of yarn left so I took the leftovers and cast on for my first hat of 2012!  I found TONS of hat patterns on Ravelry that I want to make this year, and I decided to join the 12 Hats in 2012 group to help me with some of my New Year's Goals.  Now that my mom's birthday gift is done I decided to get moving on my hats!  They make great gifts, and they're quick knits.  I plan on making several hats and tossing them in bags until birthdays and holidays come up later on.

Little O decided that my new Arrow hat makes a great bed, and wouldn't get up so that I could take a proper picture.  Never fear!  As it progresses I will get more photos. :)

Oh, and to give my hands a break from knitting I decided to get some roving out last night and spin a little.  Now this yarn has a bit of a back story.  I have never liked "art yarns" because I had no idea what to do with them.  Some I saw as functional, but they just were never something I had much of a desire to spin or knit.  Well... I was given this in a Secret Pal swap a few years ago.

She told me it was an art yarn batt... I could tell!  I tossed it immediately into my stash and was too afraid of it to actually turn it into something.  Well with my coming back to knitting and spinning I am on a mission now to use up that stuff I have, especially the stuff that has been lingering in my stash for so long.

The resulting yarn is actually kinda nice.  It's a funky green yarn with a lot of pinks and oranges throughout and a bunch of bright green ribbon yarn, and some other novelty yarns throughout.

The first skein has a lot more ribbons in it.  I planned it this way hoping I could have one skein of "ribbony" yarn, and then a skein of matching plain old worsted that I would be able to use for a cuff of a hat, or possibly decreases and seaming.  It worked out fairly well since the majority of my "fluff" is in the first skein.  This one was 55 yards and weighed in at 63 grams.

The second skein has very little ribbon and it's all at the beginning of the skein.  So I can easily start from the plain side of the yarn, and when this runs out I can start filling in with yarn from the other skein.  This skein clocks in at 60 yards with only 51 grams.

A total of 115 yards, I should definitely be able to get a basic hat from it.  Definitely won't need a fancy pattern since this hat will be all about the yarn.

With the finished objects and the new handspun this updates my yarn stats for the year:

Yarn Out:  314g (755y)

Yarn In:  0g (0y)

Yards Spun:  265y

Another Cloth for 2012

Well my holiday break from work is coming to and end.  Tomorrow will be back with all of the usual chaos and pandemonium that happens on a daily basis.  My goal is to get things done, and enjoy life with as little stress as possible.  Hopefully the new year will mean a better situation in work and home life.

Of course, back to work will also mean less knitting time for me, so posts may slow down a bit as my knitting slows down.  Hopefully I will still have time for my craft, but we'll have to see.

Early yesterday after finishing my blog post, I finished yet another washcloth that has been added to my "gift box."  I'm on a roll with the cotton washcloths lately.  They're quick, fun, and help with my stash numbers!

 

Pattern:  The Windmill Dishcloth
Yarn:  Peaches & Creme in Pink Lemonade
Comments:  Love this pattern.  It was very easy to follow and made a cute little cloth.  I still have a ton of yarn left on this cone so you will see lots of Pink Lemonade colored washcloths in my future. 

I'm really enjoying the variety of patterns I'm finding on Ravelry.  It's been fun to go through and queue about 10-15 washcloths at a time then work my way through them.  The nice thing about having a lot of one color yarn is that I get the chance to try out patterns, without running out of my "favorite color."  Once I find a few set patterns I like I'll be able to whip even more cloths out and use up all that cotton that seems to be lingering in my stash.  I bought this stuff ages ago with intentions to knit washcloths and it looks like I'm finally getting around to doing it!

The only bad thing about knitting washcloths is that after awhile my hands start to hurt from the cotton.  I am using a size 8 needle when I knit, so it's not a horribly tight stitch; however, I am a tight knitter and I've been knitting non-stop for the past few days.  I decided to give my hands a little break, and pulled out some BFL to spin that has been in the stash since 2008.

I started spinning after dinner last night and was done plying before I went to bed.  I did aim for a worsted and got pretty close.  I am amazed sometimes at how two skeins of handspun appear to be the same weight, yet one is 300 yards and the other is 150.  I really like a tightly spun and tightly plied squooshy kinda yarn and that does eat up the fiber when spinning.

This was 4oz - 150 yards of BFL handspun in the color Thermograph from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club.  I really enjoyed spinning it up, and I'm thinking I'll make a hat from it after the twist has been set.  One of my goals for 2012 was to knit 12 hats during 2012, so I have a need for some nice quality worsted weight yarn.  What better than my own handspun?

Finished items means a new count for 2012!  Yay progress!

Yarn Out:  86g

Yarn In:  0g

Yards Spun:  150y

Peachsicle Handspun

After the stash organizing project I had settled down to knit for the evening and work on some of my projects that I had begun back in 2006 and 2007.  I didn't want to knit.  Not.  At.  All.  So I took a field trip up to my fiber closet and pulled out some roving to spin.  I divided the roving in half, spun up my singles on Friday night and then this morning woke up and plied the singles together.

I ended up with this:

Approximately 208 yards that clocks in at 113 grams.  I do enjoy a worsted weight yarn and will probably be using this for a scarf or hat this coming year.  It's a 80/20 Merino/Tussah silk that was dyed by DragonFibers over on etsy.  I bought this years ago when she first opened her shop, and after spinning it last night decided to look her back up.  Unfortunately it seems like she may not be dyeing fiber anymore. :(  Sad because she had such a talent for colors.


I do have a few fiber goals for the upcoming year and I hope to stick to all of them this year.

• Knit from Stash! - I have a lot of fiber and yarn as you saw from yesterday's post.  I would love to say that I'm not allowed to buy any yarn, but I know that goal is unreasonable so instead I will say that I can only bring in half of what I use up.  If I knit up 1 pound of yarn, I can bring in 1/2 a pound of yarn to replace it.  This way, if I want to make any gift knits I can as long as I've used up some of my own personal yarn first.
• Finish all of those UFOs. - I have a shawl from 2006, an afgahn from 2006 and a pair of socks from 2007 that have been lingering for far too long.  I also have a scarf on the loom that I plan on finishing this year.  (I want to finish at least 2 of these 4 projects currently cast-on.)
• Knit Gifts Year Round. - I plan on knitting little items that I can gift, whether for birthdays or holidays and keeping them with my fiber stash so that when those deadlines roll around I'll be done long before.  This will also help me use up my yarn stash and hopefully some of those odds and ends that I have hanging around.

I did join a KAL on Ravelry to knit 12 hats in 2012 which should help with my gift box collection and use up my stash in the process. :)

I'm ready for 2012, are you?

Yarn Stash Revisited

It's December, and since New Years is just around the corner I decided to reorganize my stash and plan out my knitting goals for 2012.  I hit a bumpy start when I pulled out my yarn basket and as I began to organize it I ran into a few bugs.  Literally, evidence of carpet beetles.  Although I have been fortunate never to have any wool moths invade my stash, I have had carpet beetles.  Luckily the first time I found a few carpet beetles, they hadn't done any real damage to my yarn.  One little bit of roving was tossed and the rest of the stash was fine.  This time unfortunately there were a few casualties.  Two 50g skeins of knit picks memories that I had purchased years ago (it's no longer sold) had several holes chewed in them.  They immediately went into the trash along with some leftover Lisa Souza yarn that I had used when knitting a pair of socks years ago.  Overall it wasn't a huge loss, and I do still have tons of yarn left in my stash.  Although, taking photos of my yarn and roving today I realized I'm still missing a lot of fiber and yarn.  Things I know I haven't knit with, but have no idea where they are.  They aren't in my current house, so I'm assuming they're still back in my bedroom somewhere in Ohio.  Next trip home I'll dig through my stash and hopefully bring the rest of my supply home.  I miss my yarn.

This is the yarn stash currently living in my house with me.  Organizing it really made me realize just how much of my yarn I do not have.  Yes I have a lot, but there is quite a bit that is missing from this pile.  Sock yarn on the left, some cottons in the middle, and then on the right side there are some current works in progress and some leftover yarn from old projects that I plan on using in a fun scarf or something else.

My Roving stash is quite large too now that I take the time to go through it.  In the back left I have quite a bit of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino that I plan on making some sock-hop yarn out of.  Once upon a time I used to spin sock hop for CMF so I do know how it is spun and I did horde it back when I used to spin for them.  There are my two Sheep2Shoe kits in the back, some louet fiber in the front which is just delicious, and several 8oz balls on the right side.  Of course, I have quite a bit of silk in the stash as well that I'll need to find something to do with.

Since I have quite a bit of roving I also have quite a bit of handspun in my stash as well.  It's kind of sad actually, I had forgotten I had the majority of this handspun.  I have a few ideas of projects I'm dying to make for myself, and my sister really likes some of the handspun I don't like, so she may get a scarf or shawl for herself.

Xmas Knitting 2011!

I wasn't planning on knitting anything for Christmas this year, and I was dead set against knitting Christmas gifts especially since I had already purchased gifts for all of the family members this year.  Well on the 20th I managed to finish the handspun scarf I had been working on for as a little thank you gift to our real estate agent.

As much as I really don't care for the color blue, I love the way this scarf turned out.  There are darker bits, lighter bits and of course all of the ones in the middle.  I did a basic, reversible, no curling kind of pattern in order to show off the yarn.  Believe it or not the mindless knitting was insanely addicting to do.

Pattern:  Beginners Reversible Scarf
Yarn:  Handspun  100% Merino
Comments:  I loved the pattern and I loved the yarn.  I did block it out, and it is incredible soft.  I was a bad spinner and didn't bother to set the twist prior to knitting (shame on me!) but it turned out just fine.

I am definitely keeping this pattern for future reference.  It was so much fun to knit and got me into a huge knitting high which made me want to knit other people gifts.  Yes, I who wasn't going to knit any gifts this holiday season decided on the 21st of December (after blocking the handspun scarf) that I wanted to knit my future sister-in-law and sister both little gifts for Christmas.

Insanity?  I think so.  First thing is first, I picked up the phone and called my sister to see what her favorite colors were, and had my fiance call his sister to see what colors she liked.  She said blues and purples, my sister chose greens.  Then I went into the stash and dumped all of my yarn onto the floor pulling out all of the blues, purples and greens I could possibly find.  I have a lot of purple.  A LOT of purple.  Blues I had a few of, most that were purchased with the intention of knitting gifts ages ago.  Green, is something fairly scarce in my stash.  I have some green, but again it was not green that I myself had purchased with intentions of knitting.  Then with my new collection of yarn I wanted to use, I rushed back to Ravelry to search for projects that would match their personalities and the stash yarn I had found.

For L my future sister-in-law I selected a skein of noro kureyon sock yarn that had been lingering in my stash for about 3 years.  Of course the original plan was to make me a pair of handknit socks but honestly living in South the chances of me wearing wool socks is pretty slim now.  When I lived in Ohio, it happened quite often during the winter or when just relaxing around the house.  So I took the sock yarn, and cast on for a Clapotis Scarf.  This was the first Clapotis I ever attempted, and now I understand exactly why the pattern is so popular.  Man was it addicting.  I started it on the 21st and finished it the afternoon of the 27th.

Pattern:  Clapotis
Yarn:  Noro Kureyon Sock - Color 188
Comments:  I did have one knot in the skein.  I HATE when there are knots especially with Noro since it throws off all of my color repeats.  I did remove the yarn after the knot in order to line up the color repeat, then used some of that removed yarn at the end to make the scarf a little longer.  In all I used 84 grams of yarn and got a decent length scarf!  I have definite plans to knit more of these in the future, they were easy carry along projects and were my travel knitting for a few days.

When I finished this, I immediately turned to the beret I wanted to make for my little sister.  She loves handknits and has always been one of my biggest supporters as far as my hobbies goes.  I have made her countless scarves, hats and socks over the years and she wears them until they fall apart.  I can't count the pairs of socks I've had to repair or scarves that have ripped due to her continuous wear.  (She will put a pair of socks on, and wear them non-stop until they have holes in the bottom.)  This of course means it is very easy to knit for my sister.

I found a little bit of green yarn in my stash.  Unfortunately this picture does not do the color of the yarn justice.

This yarn is a bright emerald green!  And when I say bright, I mean bright.  Once upon a time I found myself completely addicted to my craft, and it seems I've re-discovered my love of not only yarn, but knitting as well.  I don't know if it's the easy patterns, or the finished objects but I'm finding myself itching to crawl back into my yarn closet and pull out some fibery goodness.  This beret was a piece of cake.  The pattern was well written, easy to follow and was knit on BIG needles (10s and 11s) which made it a very quick knit!  I cast on late on the 27th, and cast off early on the 29th.  I think in total it took me only 5 hours to knit the entire thing from start to finish.

Pattern:  Star Crossed Slouchy Beret
Yarn:  Berella Muskoka in Green Clover
Comments:  This yarn was gifted to me years ago in a sock swap that was happening online.  Nice yarn, I wasn't crazy about the color and I had no idea what I was going to do with it since it's definitely NOT me.  Thankfully, it is my sister's color.  Only used about 70 grams of yarn (about 140 yards) so it was a quick knit and would be a great project for handspun!

Christmas Comes Early

Yes, it's that time of year again and this year I got my Christmas present a little early from the man in my life.  I jumped up and down, clapped my hands, and then did a little happy dance with the box.  I know, I'm way too easily excited.

Since I've recently got back into my fiber arts hobbies when he asked me what I wanted this year, my first response was "roving."  Of course, he isn't much of a yarn/fiber guy, so I did help him navigate through my favorite websites so that he knew what would be good to get.  Of course he got to pick out the colors, and ooooh he did so good this year.

Not one... but TWO Sheep 2 Shoe kits from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  I've never gotten one of these before, so I was excited at the thought he may get me a kit for Christmas, I never actually thought he would get me two of them!  The color on the left is called Cattywampus and on the right is Dragon Dance.  My goal is to spin these with the directions included in the kit, a 3 ply yarn.  Only problem is my typical yarn I spin is 2 ply, one reason being because all my extra bobbins still live in Ohio.  Luckily for me, my mother is coming down to visit next week and bringing the rest of my roving stash down with her, and hopefully my other spinning heel (and lazy kate) with her!  So, I have two options, either spin it as a 2-ply or wait until she brings the lazy kate so that I can do a 3 ply for this stunning roving.  I do have plenty of other yarn and fiber to keep me entertained until next week.

Of course, I also have my 2 other Works in Progress laying around the house should I finish the  handspun scarf and need something to work on.

Speaking of the handspun scarf, I've made some progress over the last week or so since I've posted.  I've spent a lot of time lately listening to podcasts, and nothing better than mindless knitting while listening to podcasts or chatting with friends online.  Life is definitely good.



I'm definitely past the halfway point as far as yarn is concerned.  I plan on knitting until I run out of handspun, and then blocking it out.  Hopefully I'll finish with it tonight assuming my new kitty will let me knit.

On Saturday we went down to the local SPCA and I brought home one little bundle of love.  Nothing better than a cat that wants to be in your lap or at your side 24/7.  Even when I'm sleeping at night he feels the need to be either on top of me, right next to me, or under the covers with me.  It really is adorable.  My older cat is definitely not this snuggly, so I'm enjoying the little guy being around.

I think I'll leave you with a picture of the little guy before I get back to work on the scarf. ;)

Actual Knitting

I told myself when I made this blog I would update a few times a week.  There would be works in progress, finished items, lovely photos of handspun yarn, but then real life got in the way, and I remembered just how horrible I am at taking photos of yarn.

Well, for my first project I thought I would pull out something I rarely knit with, my own handspun.  I got this roving ages ago from a knitter friend I met online years before.  It's blue.  Now blue isn't one of my favorite colors, but I love variety in the things I make, and there are always friends and family members of mine who will gladly take some blue handmade items from me.

Allow me to present, the yarn:

I do love this yarn.  It's a 100% merino wool in a lovely blue color.  Just a little over 300 yards and exactly 4oz in weight but I figured it would be a good bit for a scarf.

So last Friday night I went in search of the *perfect* pattern.  It was handspun yarn, so I wanted a pattern that was interesting, yet simple enough that it would focus more on the yarn instead of the pattern.  I ended up finding this lovely scarf over on Ravelry: Beginners Reversible Scarf

It was the ideal pattern.  A basic knit and purl pattern that won't curl even if my non-knitter recipients do not block it out after washing.  Most importantly, it is knit on large needles, a 10.5 US and really shows off the yarn.

Of course, I cast on a week ago, which means by now this ball of yarn is looking quite different.  It's about a foot and a half in just a week and I haven't picked it up in a few days.  The best part about size 10.5 US needles is that it goes so quickly.

I have the ideal person I want to gift this too, but in order to give it to her I would have to finish it very soon.  If I start now, and knit constantly, I probably could finish it by tomorrow night.  Wish me luck. ;)