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!

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!

First

Yesterday, January 29th, I finally got around to creating a Finished Objects set for the year in Flickr. That means it took me almost an entire month to have a finished object. Considering how profuse some knitters are, not to mention how I used to be, I've got to say... it bugged me a little bit. I kept thinking "Seriously? Here we are, almost February, and this is all I've got? One pair of socks?".

At least these aren't your run of the mill socks though...

Pattern: Aphrodite, by Jeannie Cartmel
Yarn: Springtree Road Emeline Sock (50% Merino, 50% Silk)
Colour: Chartreux
Needles: 2.5 mm
Technique: knit on 2 circulars
Cast on date: January 12, 2012
Cast off date: January 28, 2012

I knit these beauties as part of the Solid Socks monthly Mystery Sock KAL on Ravelry. I got a wee bit confused and thought I could partake of both the Mystery Sock AND the Color of the Month KAL (which was Black/White/Grey for January), but apparently I can't do that... No matter though. These socks are made of total frickin' awesome, in my humble opinion.


Oh yeah... that's the stuff right there. Just look at those stitches! Ooh baby...

*Ahem*

Next month's colour of the month is "Spring". In February. Since I doubt the group's organizers mean us to knit with dirty white, icy grey or dull brown (such is the colour of February in Montreal), I pulled the following candidate skeins out of the stash:

Anyone have any favourites?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Where's Ringo?

I was thinking about how it had been (gulp) 2 weeks since I last posted this morning, when one of my favourite lines* from Boogie Nights popped into my head. It's from the scene when Dirk is practicing his lines in front of the mirror at the end of the movie. There he is, in all his cheesy-eighties-porn-star glory, and he scrounges up every ounce of his acting ability to ask "Where the f**k is Ringo?".

I'm here, friends. I'm here.

Adaptation to the new schedule continues, however, and I confess I'm having a little trouble finding the will time to do anything beyond taking care of the family unit lately. The good news is that I'm knitting up a storm, however, and I've even put in a few evenings on the sewing machine as well, so I won't lack for blog fodder. We'll get there.

In the meantime, how 'bout we take a peak at my Rhinebeck purchases?

Miss Babs Northumbia Hand-Painted 4 ply BFL Yarn (437 yds). Colour: Squash Blossom.

Foxhill Farm Cormo Cross, 100% wool (410 yds). Two skeins.

Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! (412 yds). Two skeins: Robberfly and Rhinocerous Beetle colourways.

Miss Babs Northumbia Naked 4 ply BFL (240 yds). Colour: Luna Granite (2 skeins), Moss (1 skein)

Spirit Train Fiberworks "Sunna" (350 yds). Colour: Aquitaine (2 skeins)

Miss Babs Yowza Whatta Skein 100% Superwash Merino (560 yds). Colour Lady Bug (2 skeins)

The Sincere Sheep Keen 100% BFL Superwash (465 yds). Colour: Milpa.

The only question is what will I cast on with first? Any suggestions? :)

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

* Sure, most people remember what comes AFTER that line (that'd be when he finally reveals his... um... assets. Ahem.)

Good mail

A few weeks ago, I received a letter in the mail. I'm not talking about a bill or a card or a note... I mean an actual, honest-to-goodness letter.


A friend of mine had decided it was time to step back from all this "convenience" and decided to take the time to physically set pen to paper and write me a letter.

I couldn't believe it. As I read her letter I had vivid flashbacks of a dozen childhood pen pals, of blue inked letters hurriedly written on ripped note paper... It was a simple, howdeedo? kind of letter, but the fact that my friend took the time to write it out by hand and send it to me by post - because she could have sent the very same message by email - infused it with an additional level of thoughtfulness and sincerity of feeling that moved me.

I can tell you that that feeling has led to some pretty deep, introspecty stuff at Casa de Dear. I've been pondering all this "convenience" which we've come to expect in our daily lives, and wondering what we've given up in the name of instant gratification... Honestly though? It's Sunday night. I'm beat. I think I'd rather sleep and live to rant another day, you know? :)

In the meantime, I'd invite you to pull out the old stationary and write someone a letter. It'll make their day, trust me.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

p.s. : snail mail isn't the only thing my mail carrier has been bringing to my door this week!

Good Mail

Fellow Canadian Crafteristas^TM, do not despair, for I bring you proof that , despite the Canada Post strike, it is indeed still possible to have one's spirits entirely lifted by a Really Good Mail Day.

Quince & Co. Tern, aka my Congrats-on-running-the-half-marathon! yarn.

Assorted fabric bundles, to be used in the We can do it! Skill Builder Sampler I'm starting next week.

I'm still waiting on a coupla goodies, but still, that was a pretty yum mail day. Am I right?

With no active projects on the needles (What's that about a green scarf? What??? You're breaking up, I can't hear you!!!), I was free to swatch and cast on with the Tern pretty much as soon as I opened the package. I'm (finally) going to be making the Akoya cardigan. Insert happy sigh :: here ::


When I'm not busy sewing, of course...


Have a great weekend, everyone!

Insert FO Picture Here

Here we are, Monday again. How was everyone's weekend? Did you get to knit/sew/craft to your little heart's content?

Sadly, my recent knitting has been on secret projects that I can't blog about yet. Three of my friends (including Robyn and Caroline) have either had their babies or are about to pop any minute now, and I've only recently gotten my act together to knit them something. I know... it's not like babies arrive into the world via spontaneous combustion or anything. I've known about these little dudes for months! But for some reason, I just didn't put "Baby" with "Knitted Gift Knit By Yours Truly" together until last week. *Sigh*


So far one of the intended recipients has received her gift, and I'll be getting started on the gifts for the other 2 mamacitas just as soon as I whip up a pair of socks for Émilie. (I've run out of yarn not once but TWICE while making her socks. I think she's due for a complete pair of her very own, don't you?)

So yeah, secret knitting. But! I also had the privilege of taking a feather from Kate's cap and acting as enabler to a newbie knitter by facilitating her very first visit to her LYS, Espace Tricot. She's been knitting with crap-yarn while teaching herself to knit via YouTube tutorials, but her progress has plateaued lately, and I figured a trip to the yarn store would be just the thing.

(OK that's a lie. I've been itching to go to that store for months and shamelessly used her as an excuse to scope it out. I regret nothing.)

Knowing how I tend to fall down hard when faced with large quantities of yarn, I gave myself some strictish guidelines as to stash enhancement: I would limit myself to yarn for one small project, and could only pay with cash.


OK fine, so I didn't exactly hold entirely true to my guidelines (was there ever any doubt in your mind?), I figure since only ONE of these is technically going to the stash (Émilie requested I make a pair of socks with the Zauberball as soon as I took it out of the bag), I didn't do too badly.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Complex Woman

You know, for someone who felt that knitting was self-indulgent a few weeks ago, there has certainly been a fair amount of self-congratulatory stash enhancement over the past month!

Naturally, there was some pre-Christmas "to me, from me, with love" yarn pron. I totally splurged and bought myself... Wait. Can you guess what it is?


Yup, it's a sweater's worth of SHELTER (Mmmmm, Jared Floooooood). I prefer to call it my Kerrera in the act of becoming, though :) Can't WAIT to knit this up.


I also had a small yarn accident at the LYS when I found out that Mission Falls was closing up shop for good. The idea that I would never be able to buy any Mission Falls EVER AGAIN sort of got to me, and before you could say "yarn diet" I had snapped up their entire selection of 136 Merino in colours I liked.

9 balls of this neutral grey (colourway 003)

5 balls of Forest Green (colourway 016)

5 balls of this lovely Wine Red (colourway 029)

So that's 19 balls of Mission Falls... Like I said, I had a wee accident. Total investment stashage though, and I regret nothing (ask me again when my credit card bill makes a dent in my mailbox).

But that's not all! I mentioned yesterday that Kate-the-Enabler, Émilie and I went on a little shopping expedition this week. It's a trip that's been in the works for quite some time, and we finally got our acts together yesterday. It was glorious, magnificent, great fun, and I think I may have discovered my new happy place. No, I'm not talking about a new LYS or a cashmere warehouse, I'm talking about... the fabric store.

We bought everything I'll need to make my first ever sewing project (the quilted lunch bag you see in the photo above), and I'm totally stoked to get started. Totally. Stoked. I was quite determined to be responsible (what?) and only buy what I'd need for this one project, but... well... everything was just so PRITTY!!!

Yup. I haven't even begun to sew yet, and I've already got a fabric stash.... *Sigh*

Happy Knitting (and sewing!), Everyone!

Um....

Wow, this daily blogging thing is going to be harder than I thought! I've been trying to come up with an angle, a story, a tale of knitterly humour to keep you entertained, but I'm coming up with diddly squat (of course, that may have something to do with the fact that while I'm trying to write this, Phil's watching that most intellectual and multi-leveled of films, Piranha 3D... Aaaargh! It's sucking my will to live!!!).

Thank the Knitting Fates a picture is worth a thousand words, eh? (that's a little Canadian-speak for you).

Yes friends, the mail carrier has been good to me lately, and I've got some really lovely yarn waiting to be cast on.

A beautiful skein of No Two Snowflakes Sport Weight yarn in a merino, silk and cashmere blend, colourway Honeycomb Perfection (I've got a thing for yellow lately). I've been carrying this skein around with me for about 3 weeks now, taking it out of my knitting bag and smelling petting admiring it every now and again. I think I'm going to use this for one of my Mystery Hats (the first clues came out yesterday!).

And this is the September installment of the Year of Lace Club (a little late, but oh well). The colour is really spectacular, very fitting for autumn (or would have been had it arrived in September!), and I quite like the pattern as well. If it weren't for the whole "Christmas approacheth" thing, I'd be very tempted to cast on ASAP.

And what does the stash have to say about these latest additions to my growing yarn-family?

"Get in Line, Newbies!"

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Beyond pr0n

I'm often somewhat bemused by the fact that I rarely have any actual knitting or knit-related content to share with you on this blog. I mean - when you spend as much time as I do thinking about knitting, yarn, patterns, etc.... you'd think there'd be more knitting content, you know? And then every once in a while, the planets align, the Fates converge, and I've got a veritable cornucopia of knitty goodness to share with you.

Today's one of those days, my friends. We're going to move beyond pr0n today and into straight, x-rated yarn PORN. So sit back, enjoy, and smoke 'em if you got 'em.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I fell off the yarn diet wagon last week.... Pffff, who am I kidding? I didn't "fall off the wagon", I dove off that sucker head first, with nothing but my credit card to shield my fall.

Viola's fancy sock in the Moonlit Heather colourway. 437 yards of alpaca, cashmere and silk. I'm thinking Juneberry right now (you know, when I can stop petting it and actually form coherent thought).

Viola's merino fingering, North Sea colourway (the top of the photo is closer to the actual colour). I bought this thinking it would be a good fit for Celeano, but Phil has zoomed in on it like a buzzard over a dying animal in the desert, so it might turn into man-socks... (which would only mean I'd have to buy more for the shawl! Hmmmmmmm).

I also had a lovely lunch with Robyn this week and was surprised by a birthday gift that she'd been holding onto for 3 months. I can never get over this woman's generosity and thoughtfulness!

2 skeins of Flock of Feathers sock, in a lovely pale pink shade that Émilie has already called dibs on.
A skein of Magenta Colinette Jitterbug. I've owned a few skeins of this yarn but always ended up gifting or trading it, so this one's MINE!

A ball of Louisa Harding Mulberry (DK, 100% silk) in a lovely shade of purple that apparently had my name on it.

And last but definitely not least, 2 sets of lovely handmade buttons as well as some great safety-pin stitch markers (I didn't think you'd need a picture of those, heh).

Thanks so much for such a lovely gift, Robyn!

Whew! I was going to share some recent FOs as well, but I think I'm going to save it for another post. I don't want to spoil you, after all...

(OK that's a lie. I've already been working on this post for an hour, and I want to get my knit on, heh.)

Happy Knitting Everyone!

More family fun (and some knitty stuff too)

Well crap. I've been prepping tonight's post for over an hour, sorting through a week's worth of pictures, trying to figure out what'll be most appealing to my hordes of adoring fans (GRIN), and now that I'm finally able to sit down with my trusty laptop, I can't seem to figure out a clever, sassy way to make it all flow together. So how 'bout we let the pictures do the talking, shall we?

This week the kids and I visited my Dad and stepmum Margot in their new (temporary) home in lovely Perth, Ontario. After about 3 years of talking about moving closer to Montreal, they finally quit dilly-dallying, sold their house in record time (so record that their new house has, um, yet to be built) and are now a mere 3 hour drive away (as opposed to 9). Yay!

We had lots of fun with Nanny and Bumpy. We did all the stuff you're supposed to do with the grandparents, we ate too much candy, watched TV in bed, and loaded up on hugs, kisses, and bilingual "I love you's". Perth being a scant 45 minute-ish drive from Ottawa, while there we visited the Canadian Museum of Nature, and even though it was a close call towards the end of the visit as to whether the Museum would be acquiring 2 stuffed children for their permanent exhibit ('cause Mommy was going to strangle them!), we had fun.

We also visited the "beach", that is a private beach with a small, cordoned-off area perfect for kids to swim in and explore and just be silly in.

And of course, we visited the local yarn store :)


Set in a charming old stone house along the Rideau canal (well, near as I can tell anyway. I ain't no geographer!), Janie H. Knits is just a perfect place to spend a lovely morning and indulge. It's quaint, they carry a lovely variety of yarn, books and knitting accoutrement, and the people are incredibly friendly. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by!

Now, I'm just going to cut to the chase and confess that while I was in there the whole notion of the "2010 for 2010" challenge went right out the friggin' window. I really didn't INTEND to buy quite so much yarn, but - DARNIT - they just had so much good stuff that I can't really find here! And as they said, it was really just a SMALL bag... *Sigh*

The first three are 2 skeins of Bijou Spun by Bijou Basin Ranch. The dark skein is a 50-50 yak/cormo blend, and the cream-coloured is a 75-25 yak/merino blend. The last is an Alpaca/Merino blend from Silent Valley Alpaca, a local-ish ranch.

As a matter of fact, I think that one deserves a close-up, don't you?

Ah, that's better.

I also bought 2 skeins (about 230 yards worth) of THE softest, lushest, most awesomest handspun EVAH. It's a blend of 10% merino and 90% bison (BISON!!!!!), and I've had a hard time NOT petting it since I took it home. Sadly, I couldn't find a website despite my mad Innernets skillz, but the label says it's from Prairie Fiber Mill, in Saskatchewan.

I capped it all off with EZ's Knitter's Almanach (my first Zimmerman book!) and some Addi circs for the border of my shawl-in-progress.

All in all, a great trip. Happy Knitting Everyone!