Yarn Stash – Yarn, Books & Roses

The Saturday Update: Week 33

Here I am with a late post following an hectic, nonproductive week. Well, it was actually productive, but not in the ways that I wanted it to be. It is very hot here, very dry, and our wildfires are worse than they were last week. There is so much smoke in the air now that I’m trapped in the house from the air alerts: tonight I wore a mask when I watered the lawn and that helped. Good thing I have some masks laying around, right?

So, what is going on, you ask? I’m knitting, and cooking, and cleaning house. I bought stuff on Amazon to fix things up. That sounds good, right? Well… I’m doing the Sharon Show MKAL and I really, really want to print out the pattern. I ordered ink, but it doesn’t fit my printer. I found an old printer from my classroom in the garage, hooked it up, and tried to get it going. Nope. I dug through office drawers and my old school supplies hunting for ink cartridges and cords. I learned how to activate wireless printing. Three hours later I had cleaned parts of the office and garage while fussing with the printers and I had gotten no where. I gave up and ordered more ink for both machines. Sigh. I need a print out of the pattern to get through the next round of clues… Hey, I’m chronically ill. After all of that I couldn’t knit anyway. Nap time!!

Round 2 of the quintessential summer game.

Last night a moth got into the house and flapped its way into the tall torch floor lamp by my knitting chair. Hannah immediately went airborne, tore right up the lamp to get her moth, and the whole thing came down in slow motion with me trying to get untangled from my knitting fast enough to grab the lamp while Hannah scrambled to get out of the way. Disaster in slow motion!. It took a bad bounce off the chair and hit the floor: the glass shade and a light exploded into shards. Standing at the perimeter of the debris field Hannah and I could see the stunned moth at ground zero; undaunted by events, Hannah just tip-toed in and took her moth away. Instead of playing with the moth I collected glass and vacuumed the downstairs for the second time in one day. Hey, I’m chronically ill and that was the end of the knitting for the night. Bed time!

The pill organizer that my sister sent me to help me keep track of my meds for the week.

Today I carefully set up my pill keeper for the week making sure that Hannah was safely occupied and unlikely to get involved. I was being sooo careful with the pills. I just needed to get this new bottle of one medicine from the drawer to finish up… and I bumped the phone cord, the phone hit the pill case, and the pill case with all of the little doors open tipped over and hit the ground. I threw Hannah out of the room and carefully picked up all the pills, counted them and returned them to the little compartments with little Hannah paws flashing under the door all the while. All good, except that there was one pill missing… I searched for that pill for 2 hours as I moved furniture, books, and then vacuumed the room again. I ended up cleaning the bathroom and laundering the bedding while I was on the search, but I never found that pill. I am sure that it is not where she can easily get it, and that will have to do for now. Hey, I’m chronically ill and I didn’t get any knitting done until late this evening because… nap!!

So, with all of the disasters, cleaning, naps and everything else, I just didn’t get that much done this week. I’m staying out of the garden because of the smoke, and outdoor pictures are really poor now, too. I’m not reading this week either because the smoke affects my eyes. I do have some knitting to show off!

Knitting

I have mixed feeling about this shawl with the light interior and the darker lace, but that’s the way the stash worked out. I already have plans for another version with a darker interior and a very light lace border. This is a nice calm knit for stressful times and I may be making a few more to gift at the holidays.

I was going to be good and not show off any pictures from the Sharon Show MKAL, but it is on Facebook now and I’m going to show off some of my efforts. If you don’t want to see any of these pictures, just stop reading my blog right now! Three… two… one. For anyone who is left, I just have to say that I am having so much fun with this!! The pattern is just a riot to read and I love the snarky cat voice of Sharon. The shawl contains many little sections showing off the colors, patterns and some texture, and the names are just a riot!

This little section is called “Scratch Marks on the New Velvet Chair”.

This section which features thorn stitch is called “Secret Spy Place”. All cats have secret spy places and this stitch also evokes the very floofy tail that Sharon flaunts.

See Hannah in her Secret Spy Place in the yarn stash?

Here is Hannah napping on the finished Clue 1 of the shawl. I am so happy with all the action going on as I knit.

This is a great, fun project and I am hanging out with people on a Facebook group as we all knit. I am thrilled with the size, and as I wear a lot of grey and black in the winter this shawl is going to work out great for me. That is, if Hannah is going to let me wear it… Today is her 5th month birthday and she is kind of wanting the shawl all for herself!!

After the whole moth/kitten/lamp adventure that’s MY shawl, Hannah!

Let’s hope that the printer ink from Amazon comes in another day or so as I am at the point where I really, really need a paper pattern to work off of.

Sharon, please don’t write me a citation for being bad and showing off the shawl in progress. I did warn people, I did!!

Have a great week, everyone!!

Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.

The Yarn Destash Resolution: 3 Month Report

Right at the start of this year I cleaned out my yarn stash and made myself face a brutal truth: there is a lot of yarn in there. Maybe more than I can use in my lifetime. Maybe I should start to make a conscious effort to decrease the size of my stash…

Thus a New Year’s resolution was born: get at least 50 skeins of yarn out of the stash!! I made some basic rules, started a spreadsheet to track my progress, cast on some projects and got into action.

After 3 months I am happy to report that I have made some significant progress. Really, I’ve done a pretty good job of cleaning yarn out of the bins above. I’ve actually emptied two bins!!

Details of the mitt. — I’ve made two pairs of mitts, these fabulous mitts above for a Knitworthy niece and a pair of thrummed mitts. Okay, these projects really were fussy and slowed me down. They were a lot of time and work, but will be prized possessions for years to come. **Total skeins used: 2**

Cowl on wooden bear. — In the gloomy days of winter I whipped out two different cowls, a Clinkerbell cowl and this Dissent Cowl. **Total skeins used: 3**

Finished sweater on the Mother of Cats. — The big workhorses in stash depletion were two sweaters that took time to knit, but really ate up the yarn mileage. This Sturgill sweater and the Daelyn were both knit from the top down and were fast knitting once I hit the stockinette-in-the-round portions of the sweaters. **Total skeins used: 12**

Have you been keeping count? The above projects used up a whopping 17 skeins of yarn and there were some other small projects that used up 4 more skeins over the last three months; 2 shawls and a pair of socks.

Did you do the math? So far this year I have knitted my way through 21 skeins of yarn!! I am well on the pace to finish off 50 skeins before the end of the year.

Through all of this knitting my trusty feline sidekick (and taskmaster) has been at my side and on my knitting, kneading the fabric into shape (with his now cut off claws!) and chomping on my yarn.

Cat sleeping in shawl. — Seriously. Every project I knit has pictures of him as close as he can get to the action. This is a shot of him on my Color Study shawl.

Cat and toy mouse. — So of course I made a little mouse using yarn from the Daelyn sweater.

So there it is. Three months. 21 skeins of yarn used up. Things are going well and I’m feeling pretty good about getting at least 50 skeins cleared from the stash.

It was with this cocky and self-assured “I-am-a-knitting-machine” attitude that I went to the Interweave Yarn Fest last week and hit the marketplace with my BKB Deb. Oops. You might say that I fell off the “buy no yarn” wagon.

But that is another post.

Yarn Stash Resolution

So, there is a thing about my stash that you should know… it is bigger than some yarn stores I have been in. Seriously, there is a lot of yarn in there.

The big mess built up this fall as I knitted like crazy from multiple projects organized into separate bins; the leftovers of the projects and new purchases of yarn just began to pile up in bins on the floor of the stash closet. Yarn stored on the shelves became mixed up and some bins were only half full.

I’m not going to be too defensive here, but it is hard to sort this much yarn into meaningful groupings. I like to sort the yarn by weight, and then into some system based on color or other attribute. MacKenzie and I spent a couple of hours getting the bins sorted again and labeled, and then back onto the shelves they went.

This is a lot of yarn, but I have to be honest here: four of the bins are filled with the leftovers of previous projects. You know, yarn scraps. The yarn for scrappy blankets, socks, and multicolored works. I want to make arm warmers that match some of my larger (faded) shawl projects. I’m thinking a big Stephen West marled sweater project is in the future. I just can’t let any of those scraps go… What if I need to repair a project from 10 years ago or knit a new finger onto a pair of loved, but damaged, gloves (true story!)? I’m pretty sure I could weave some nice, funky fabric for pillows…

The rest is new yarn. Bins of yarn. What is in the bins, you ask? Well… here are some of the titles:

All the Greys
Blacks and Brights
Yarns that are Loved Beyond All Reason
Autumn Yarns
Western Sky Knits
Chasing Rabbits
Blue/Green Yarns
Zauberballs and Gradients
Lace Yarn (Lots of Mohair)

Then there are the bins that are just known as “Worsted” or “Fingering” or “Mitts”. Three of the bins are holding the yarn for single sweater projects. Two bins have yarn for Christmas projects. I need all of this yarn. Really, I do.

Which brings me to reflection and resolutions. I love all of this yarn, but it is time to think about reducing the size of the stash. Some of it has been given away, and some of it has already been organized into new projects that I will knit this coming year. I thought of limiting myself to only stash knitting, but that is beyond hope; sometimes you just need that additional perfect skein to make a sweater work. Endless socks will be arriving as I knit my way through all of the Chasing Rabbits bin. Charity knitting is in my future. Still, how to measure progress?

2018 Knitting Projects — It was a busy year! Shawls, socks, gnomes, and sweaters galore!

Last year I completed 39 projects. Some of them were little (mitts and gnomes), and others were large like the What the Fade?! shawl and the sweaters. I guess I could just decide to complete a number of projects like I did last year, but the problem is the stash; I should focus on the stash!

I have decided to try to knit at least 50 skeins of yarn out of the stash this year. I have been going crazy working out the rules for this… do I measure skeins or grams of yarn. Do I make adjustments for different weights of yarn? Ugh. This is where I am:

A skein is a skein. I won’t consider the weight of the yarn.
If I buy new yarn that is added to the stash, I need to deduct that number of skeins from my total.
Yarn that is bought for a project using stash yarn is neutral as it was consumed in that project. I will just deduct the yarn removed from the stash, not the new yarn.
If only half of the skein is used, it counts as only one half! More than half is counted as a skein.
I’m going to make a spreadsheet to track the yarn. I can do this!

Last night I cast on a sweater using worsted weight yarn that was lurking in the stash. Hey. It will go fast. I’ll use up a bunch of skeins. I won’t have to buy any more yarn. It’s a plan.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sweater Troubles

This is all the fault of Ravelry designer Caitlin Hunter. I’m busy knitting away on her Tegna sweater (for the second time… I made one of these last month and I discovered that I needed another) and I have gotten above the lace section at the bottom and am now cruising through the plain knitting section.

Lace detail on knitting. — See. Cruising through the simple stockinette rounds. Easy-peasy, but kind of boring…

I have really picked up speed now that I am above the lace. Woohoo! I may have this done in another week depending on how much I wander off to knit other things like socks because, well, it is just a tad boring… my mind wanders. I start to dream of other projects and about things that I want to do. I think about books I want to read. I think about mowing the lawn. I think about what I want to cook for dinner. I start to plan the next sweater and then I go on a mental wander of yarn stash. Hmm… what is in there? What should I knit next?

I take knitting breaks to drag out yarn in the colors and weights that I think might work for my next project. I go back to knitting, and then on the next break I head back to the stash to pull out another couple skeins that I just remembered. I have literally woken up in the morning thinking of another possible yarn/color combination. The yarn, stored in plastic lock-top bins, starts to stack up next to my knitting chair. My mind wanders more…

Today I dragged out 4 skeins of wild fuchsia painted yarn that my BKB Deb convinced me to buy a few months ago out to the back deck to look at it in the sun with different contrasting yarn combinations. I’m thinking of colorwork here…

I fussed and worried about my choice, kept looking at how the yarns played with each other, and finally decided on choice #2 as it calmed down the wild colors a little and blended better with the dark undertones in the main color fuchsia yarn. So, what will this be? You are looking at my next project, a Sipila (by Caitlin Hunter) long sleeved sweater that should be done just in time for late summer/early fall.

Kitted up sweater waiting to be knit. — Here is the sweater all packed up and ready to be taken out later when I start knitting.

But wait… I also found this fabulous Uncommon Thread yarn in the colorway Brasselthwaite lurking in the back of the stash.

At first I though that this yarn wanted to be a Zweig (by Caitlin Hunter) sweater and I matched it up with a yummy gold cashmere blend yarn that I bought from Western Sky Knits to make the lace yoke for the sweater.

Here’s the problem… I have all of this yarn that I’ve dragged down to the knitting arena to go through during knitting breaks. I keep finding colors that I really liked. I kept thinking of different combinations of colors. I had my heart set on some colorwork. Gee, Caitlin Hunter has some really nice colorwork sweaters…

If I knitted a Sunset Highway I could use the Uncommon Thread for the body and the other three colors would make the colorwork yoke. I really like these colors… I really liked the idea of making the Zweig… I have a lot of skeins of grey yarns with little flecks of color… can I maybe fade them together to make the Zweig, but if I do that , what will I use for the lace section? Hmm… I wonder what is in the stash?

I am knitting like the wind now on the Tegna, and as I stitch I mull over my sweater options. So many sweaters, so much yarn. My goal is to use as much yarn as I can from the stash without heading off to the LYS to buy more. I’m trying. Really, I am. I am determined to have a stash that has shrunk by the end of summer.

So, I have gone down the Caitlin Hunter sweater rabbit hole. Just a little bit…

I am having sweater troubles for sure. May you all have the same. 🙂

Seven Happy Shawls

Okay, July was a month that I am glad to see go out the door. I did have some great moments in the month; my sister and niece came to visit, I worked at the summer camp at Alta Vida Alpacas, and I spun my friend Deb’s beloved Jake dog into yarn. Good highlights!

Collage of July — Highlights of July. In the group photo of my family we are (clockwise from the top left) me, my cousin Ruth Ann, my sister Selma, and my niece Melissa.

On the flip side, I lost a war with an invasive weed in one of my gardens and my autoimmune conditions went into high gear. For the first time ever I was unable to sleep due to pain (what is up with my joints and muscles?!), gastritis returned after being good for two years, my Sjogren’s flared (!!) and my lips turned blue. Ugh. I blame the heat and the sun.

Now it is August, I’m on oxygen full time, meds have been changed, and I’m in need of a little cheer. Shawls, I need shawls!! The way things are going right now I want to be wrapped in color. Shawls will give me color, texture, lots of mindless knitting, and defiance in the face of medical adversity. I hit the stash, printed patterns from Ravelry, made my shopping list and when I went on the knitting road trip with my peeps last week I scored everything I needed. May I present to you, Seven Happy Shawls…

Shawls and Yarn — Shawl patterns matched with my yarn. Top row: Antkarkis Shawl (photo credit to Janina Kallio) Middle row: Rainbow Warrior (photo credit to Casapinka) Bottom Row: A Random Act of Color (photo credit to Mina Phillip)

How is this for cheerful defiance! I was really torn about which one to start on, but I’m leaning towards Antarktis.

More defiance. This should keep me going in good cheer until the end of the year. I’m torn about the order to knit them; they are all just too yummy for words.

Shawl Kits — Here they are: seven shawls all kitted up waiting to go. I put the pattern into the box with each yarn, and I’ve already wound the yarn for the top three shawl contenders.

All right August, I am ready for you. Let’s go!!

Notes:

My Ravelry queue can be located here if you would like more information about these patterns and the yarns that I have selected.
I downloaded Fotor for Windows to make some photo collages instead of posting a million pictures. What do you think? I think that you can also make stuff online. It was free, free, free!!