Pushed over the edge

I'm trying to knit from stash as much as possible this year.  I wouldn't call it Cold Sheeping exactly.  Maybe Tepid Sheeping?  Anyway, as anyone who has developed a, um... healthy interest in knitting can attest, refraining from buying yarn can be... challenging.  The colours, the fibers, the sales... it can be hard to resist. 

Enter the yarn club.  Pay your money up front at the beginning of the year, then receive shiny new yarn at regular intervals throughout the year.  I'm not saying it CURES a knitter of her itch to buy yarn, but knowing you've got a shipment coming in a few weeks definitely takes the edge off, which can be pretty handy in a pinch.

Way back in February (you know... 'round about the last time I wrote a blog post?  Ahem), I received the first shipment of the Cookie A Sock Club.  It was a lovely skein of Indigodragonfly MCN sock, in the colourway E Pluribus Nom Nom Nom.

Lovely, isn't it? What a pretty thing.  And as soft and squooshy as frolicking kittens on a Spring morning.  Just perfect.

Only, well... there was a snag.  Turns out I had remarkably similar yarn in the stash already.  A few skeins of it.  And here's the kicker: I was embarrassed that I had "So Much Yarn" in this colour in my stash. Really.  I've been squirreling yarn away for YEARS, it's invaded practically every nook and cranny in my home, but THIS skein was pushing me out of my comfort zone.

There was only one thing to do, of course.  I had to get that yarn out of the stash ASAP!  Denial  balance had to be restored at all costs!

The club yarn has been knit up into one of the 2 patterns for that shipment, the Ernie Socks, and they're now safely tucked away into the Gift Box.

The green Hazel Knits (top right) is being knit up into a lovely shawl by Corrina Ferguson, Evadine.  And the Springtree Road yarn (bottom left) will most likely be cast on with next.

Me?  Too much yarn?  Pshaw.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

But is it TOO perfect?

Well, it finally happened.  I hopped on Ye Olde Bandwagon and cast on for a Color Affection shawl of my very own.  (Truth be told, I bought my ticket for that fun train months ago when my friend Marie-Michele and I spent about an hour debating colour combinations of Grinning Gargoyle Seda Sock at Rhinebeck, but I only jumped on 10 days ago.)

Anyway, it's charming.  Utterly charming.  Cushy and comforting.  Like oatmeal on a cold winter morning.  The soothing garter stitch is predictable, familiar, yet kept from being monotonous by the novelty of the colour changes.  And it's flying off the needles!  A friend remarked that it's a good thing I'm knitting with aluminum needles, because I'd be fixin' to set my knitting on FIRE I'm rubbing these here pointy sticks together so fast.  All in all, I'd say it's perfect, perfect knitting.

Then last night, as I rolled my knitting into a ball and left it on the couch lovingly tucked my knitting away for the evening, I wondered at how swimmingly everything was going, and that's when it happened.  A shadow of doubt.  A wrinkle.  A question... maybe this was going too well?  Maybe it was too perfect?  Maybe I'd done something wrong?

The instructions had seemed fairly straightforward, but what if I had made a mistake?  The third section of the shawl has you knitting 3 stitches past a previously wrapped stitch.  Had I been picking up too many stitches all along? Had I been over-thinking the directions and taken the instructions too literally?  Had I inadvertently turned my perfect, winter comfort knitting into a pile of absolute drivel that I would need to rip back in quiet shame?

All night, it bothered me.   I barely slept a wink.  This morning, once I was caffeinated and the kids were safely off to school, I knew what I had to do.

Math.

Good news: it's going to be fine.  My bad!

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Call me Mrs McMatchyPants

A few weeks ago I had dinner with a good friend of mine, who also happens to be a knitter.  Knowing that she would appreciate them, I took special care when selecting my winter woolens.  I had just completed the Neon Ski Bonnet, which I showed you a few posts ago,  so naturally I grabbed that first.  I paired the hat with my (yet-to-be-documented) Different Lines shawl, and my (also yet-to-be-documented) Wood Hollow Mittens.   The shawl is knit out of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in a rich pink and black combo, and the mittens are in a pinkish/blueish/greyish wool.  And, in case you missed it, my Neon Ski Bonnet is, well... cranberry. Bright red.

Being a knitter, my friend honed in on my new hat right away, and dutifully oohed and aaahed.  Being a fashionable knitter, she also remarked, albeit affectionately, that my accessories were somewhat lacking in the coordination department.

It was true.  Despite my best intentions, I had fallen into the knitters' trap.  There I was, proudly showing off each individual piece as testaments to my knitterly skill and general awesomeness, but I had completely forgotten the fact that they were no longer knitting projects but articles of clothing.  If I had gone to work in an outfit as uncoordinated as that, I might have been mistaken for a patient in the psychiatric ward.  Just sayin'.

I really did love that hat though.  And I still had about 250 yards left of that never-ending Shelridge.  So I set about knitting up some matching accessories.

 Clockwise, from top left: Neon Ski Bonnet, Wood Hollow Mittens, and Ziyal Cowl.

I had knit the mittens before, and I figured the cables and twisted stitch border pattern would be a good match for the headband of the hat.  I was wondering what I was going to do for a cowl when I happened upon the Ziyal cowl, by Allison Goldthorpe, a free pattern on Ravelry.  It uses the same smocked stitch pattern as the ski bonnet.  Score!

Matching, coordinated winter accessories, using leftover yarn that's been marinating in the stash since 2008.  I am living the dream, people.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Leftovers

Thanks for the kudos on my knitting goals, friends!  I tell ya, there's nothing like hearing back from your peers to make you realize that you might maybe be serving yourself a nice big slice of crazy-pie, heh.  15,000 yards!  15 pairs of socks!!  12 shawls!!!  Ooh, boy, this is going to be good!

One thing having a yardage goal has made me aware of is my leftovers.  This is the first time I've kept track of the amount of yarn that actually gets knit up chez Dear.  Before this, I tended to think of my output in terms of FOs rather than quantity of stash yarn actually USED. 

Up until now, when a project was done, well... as far as I was concerned, so was the yarn.  I didn't throw it out, of course, because it was still yarn after all.  I don't think you can develop the kind of relationship we as Knitters have with yarn and just THROW IT OUT (unless we're talking about acrylic.  But that's a debate for another day).  No, I just put it in a bag and sort of, just... forgot about it.  The project was finished, the yarn was done.  Out of sight, out of mind, and definitely out of the stash.

Here's the thing though.  That bag?  Where yarn leftovers go to die?  Turns out there's, um... a lot of yarn in there.  Like, A LOT, a lot.

Does this count as stash?!?  I'm already finding it challenging to find projects for the yarn in the stash, should I be trying to find projects for the leftovers as well? 

What do you do with your leftovers?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Resolutions

A couple of years ago I started this "Running for Rhinebeck" thing to save money for my annual pilgrimage trip to the New York Sheep and Wool festival.  The idea was that, for every kilometer I ran, I would put a dollar into my Rhinebeck Fund.  So I created a little "Running for Rhinebeck" widget thingamabob and smacked it on the sidebar of the blog to keep track of my progress.  Whenever I run, I boot up the blog, click on the widget to log onto Ticker Factory, and enter in my distance (and cash).  Simple!  I figured it would a) encourage me to keep up with my training, and b) give me a fair whack of guilt-free yarn money by the end of the year.  Bingo, double-whammy.

Yeah... for the past month and a bit, logging the progress has been... shall we say... difficult?  Embarrassing?  Not because I haven't been running (I have.  Not as much as I probably should, but I have).  No, the problem is that I have to face The Blog to do it.  The Blog.  This space that I haven't contributed to for months.  MONTHS. The SHAME.  Ugh.

Here's the thing.  My evenings are short and my ME time is precious.  When faced with the choice between knitting and writing about knitting, I'm going to go with knitting, you know?  Hence, no blogging.

But every now and again, I catch myself thinking about a project or a pattern, or hatching some crazy scheme, and I think "this would make a good blog post".  So I guess I haven't really gotten this whole blogging thing out of my system after all. 

I'll try to fit it in.  Somehow.  

So what have I been up to lately, you may ask?  Well, I've been knitting.  And thinking about knitting.  And thinking about what I want to DO with my knitting this year. 

I love setting myself up to fail goals for myself.  They give me a real sense of momentum, of moving forward.  Work is hectic (stupid money... grumble grumble), kids (God love 'em) are demanding, and time is in short supply.  But making lists makes me feel like I'm doing the things I want to be doing, even if I never ultimately get around to it all.

So!  Here are my goals for 2013:

• Knit up (drum roll please) 15,000 yards in total.  Yup.  Just over 13km worth of yarn.  I can totally do it.  Right?
• Knit 12 shawls.  To this effect, I've joined the 12 Shawls Forever group on Ravelry.  'Cause, you know... Peers are good :)

Shawl the First: Wendell Holmes, by Corrina Ferguson.

• Try to use some of the vintage stash.  Also in the "Peers are Good" category, I'm participating in Stash and Burn's Use It or Lose It project.  

 Neon Ski Bonnet, by Lacey Volk.  Knit with some Shelridge Farm W4 Soft Touch I purchased at Rhinebeck. In 2008!

• Knit all the shipments from the Cookie A Sock Club (oh yeah.. I signed up for the Cookie A sock club!)
• Knit an additional 9 pairs of socks, for a total of 15 pairs in the year. 

I also have a few stash enhancement goals, but they're more "guidelines" than strict rules.  Basically, I want to make sure that more yarn makes its way OUT of the stash than in, heh.  'Cause, yeah... I've got a lot of yarn.  Ahem.

What are YOUR goals?  How are you doing so far?

Happy Knitting, my friends!

It's coming

I don't mean to alarm you, but... have you noticed anything particular in the past few weeks?  Something's in the air, something is AFOOT, people.  Something BIG.

At first it was subtle and - come to think of it - rather charming.  Quaint, even.  Something in the light, a welcome change of colours after an entire season of cheap fabrics and bright neons.

Then it was more... insistent.  Whatever it was, it wasn't going away, and I had to actually, you know... DO stuff.  Like, for instance, get next year's garlic planted.

And THEN.  Then, well... even at the grocery store, the truth was staring me in the face, and I couldn't deny it any longer.  There was no espace.

Christmas is coming, my fellow knitters.  It's only 50 days away.  For realz.


Luckily, I've been a good knitter and have been squirreling away gifts all year long.  Victory will be MINE!  Booyah!

Happy Knitting, Everyone.

Journey

I just got back from Rhinebeck, and I want to tell you about how awesome it was.  I mean, of course it was awesome because - duh - it's the freakin' New York Sheep and Wool Festival, but I think that the fact that it has inspired me to decloak and actually write something really says something about what a fabulous time I had this year, don't you think?

I mean... first of all, there was the weather.  The sun was shining, the trees were decked out in their finest colours... What can I say?  It was absolutely magnificent. 

Then there was the excellent company.  Sadly, my fabulous peep Kate the Enabler wasn't able to attend this year, but my good friend Marie-Michele graciously stepped in and - it has to be said - as a Rhibeneck newbie she did amazingly well.  It probably had something to do with my finely tuned mentoring skills (hah!).  The fact that she got stopped approximately every 11 minutes by someone who wanted to ogle her Color Affection probably didn't hurt either.  Sheesh.

Of course, it is the SHEEP and wool festival, so one musn't forget the animals.

 (I don't think this gent was enjoying his haircut too much!)

Especially when they make such yummy fiber.

This was the first time I went to the fleece sale.  Not to buy a fleece of course, since I'm pretty sure turning fiber into yarn is easier when one knows how to spin.  But just to have a look at the different breeds and see/feel what different fibers they produce was pretty cool.

The rarest breed of all, of course, is the elusive knitwear designer.  They're a famously shy breed, but with the right mix of patience and audacity, one can usually manage a sighting. 

(Yours truly and the fabulously stylish, friendly and gracious Stephen West.)

And then, well... I can't quite explain this one.  Let's just say it involved a scarf, a Robert Frost Poem, and a pretty kickass blogger.  Um... you had to be there?

Of course there was yarn, lots and lots of yarn.  Some of it even came home with me.  But ultimately, Rhibeneck wasn't really about the yarn for me at all.  This year, it was all about the journey.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!