OMG Holy Yarn Error

Ooooooooooook. So I updated my yarn stash spreadsheet last weekend. *woot* *woot* I got all excited, added up and put my new numbers for the start for the year on the widget… then today while scanning through my spreadsheet, I realized it was wrong. YARN. WAS. MISSING. Panic of course soon followed, but the correct spreadsheet has been found! The good news, I have LESS yarn than I thought I did! 😀

I love the instant number changes.

As for what I’ve been working on this week, the crocheted blanket has been my main focus. The ideal length is about 6 feet and I’m maybe around 2 feet right now.

One thing I do want to show you all. Back in December I needed a rag for cleaning, and being the horrible person I am, I decided I needed to make one rather than purchase one. It was Christmas, I didn’t want to fight the mob at Walmart, and I’ve got enough cotton in my SC Stash to build a house with. Soooo whipped out a cute little crocheted cloth in a few hours and I was a happy camper. 🙂

I used the swimming pool color of cotton from Bernat. This was one of those giant 1lb balls that I bought way back when and am still working through. I looooooove washcloths.

The pattern was a freebie on Ravelry, just a single crochet and chain pattern. Got to love the easy knits. Of course all the crazy details can be found on Ravelry. I think I can easily say I’ve found my knitting mojo again. Hopefully this means more finished projects and more blogging to follow.

Since I’m on a mission to finish this afghan, I think I may actually try to track my progress. So today, I’m going to take a piece of scrap yarn and add it to my current spot, and we’ll see how far I get by next week. 😀

Goooodbye January…

Okay, so I said back on the 4th that my goal was to update every week!  Obviously I’m not sticking to that goal very well.  haha.

So if you take a look to your right, you will see that I’ve updated my “yarn stats.”  Lost some oz when I made a washcloth, and gained it back when I put some  new yarn into the stash.  Of course I bought this new yarn back in November, yet I never showed you all the pictures!

So lets take a look now shall we?

This… is luxe.  And it, is beaaaaaaaaautiful.  Got this from Unique Sheep which has some stunning stuff.  It’s 25% tussah silk/75% Superwash Merino, and the color is Summer Rose.  It’s about a sock weight.  100g and 400yds.  Of course the skein was marked 10g by accident, hehe, but I knooooooooow it’s not 10g. 😉

And this… is my favorite.  I bought this from the 15 step gradience colors.    I wanted the 6 skeins for a shawl, but I couldn’t decide on a gradience color, so I went with the 15 step.  So I picked 6 colors (#9 through #14) and I loooooooove them.  Each skein is 50g and about 184 yds.  So of course that was a big chunk added to my stash.

So the bad news, I got a bunch of yarn added to the stash, but the good news is that I started over my stash counts since we have a new year!  YAY!  I swear, a new year is like cheating.  haha.  So I started off with a big jump up from last year; however, I am determined to use up yarn this year.  I’m currently focusing on two projects.  The first is the one I work on all the time when I’m at home, my pink ripple.

Well I have been working away on the ripple.  If you remember correctly I started this back in Winter of 2006, and it’s still not progressing very far.  But I’m working on it. 😉

Also I found a new knitting group!  So I joined them last week and took a pair of socks on that I started about 2 years ago. 😉  Two old WIPs that I’m trying to push out of my stash.  *woot*

Another New Year

OMG.  Who kidnapped 2009?  I want it back!!

What’s new and exciting in my life?  Not much.  I moved to South Carolina, but I’m pretty sure I’ve said that before?  I’m still working… and it’s the typical chaos of adjusting to a whole new life.

As far as knitting and crochet go, I haven’t really gotten much done.  On a spur of crazy I decided to crochet myself a rag for cleaning instead of actually buying one.  heh.  My family got a good laugh. 😛  They just don’t understand me. 😉

Spinning and weaving?  My wheel and loom still live in Ohio so those haven’t been happening.

I have been knitting a bit on a sock, and crocheting a bit on my afgahn.  Hopefully I’ll be getting some pictures up soon.  I set a New Years goal of trying to organize my life a little better.  I’m trying to keep my apartment clean and organized!  hahhaha. Yup, start laughing now.  Trying to kick some of my procrastination habit.  Really, it’s the procrastination I’m working on… I put off cleaning… procrastination.  I become unorganized… I’ll do it later.  I’m always putting something off, be it going to bed, getting out of bed in the morning, or blogging.  It’s just what I do. 😉  And as much as I looooove procrastinating…  the chaos is driving me crazy.

So those are my goals. 😉  Of course I’m still on a mission to lower the stash count.  My numbers over on the side there are off though.. I have bought more yarn (hehe) and I haven’t really finished much of anything.  I’ll try to get those numbers updated this week and maybe kick off a fresh start for the 2010  year.

I’m baaaaaaaaaack.

I know… I’ve been MIA for what almost 3 months now?  Gasp!  Knitting has been uneventful for blogging purposes.  I’ve been knitting like crazy yes, but they were all test knits.  And OMG I love the yarn Unique Sheep sells.  So if you ever need to go binge, I highly recommend.  If you google The Unique Sheep you should find them.  I’m too lazy to toss a link up right now. 😉

What else is new?  Well I did get a job, and it was in SC, so I packed up all my junk and moved down.  Well, not all my junk, just enough to get by for a year.  Currently staying with my aunt down here, so really didn’t have the room to bring the entire stash.  For that reason a good chunk of it was left at home in Ohio.  So, when next summer rolls around and I have some free time, I’ll probably head back home and pack up the rest of the stuff I *need* to survive. 😉
School starts next week, so life is very very busy.  The current test knit needs to be done by the end of the month, and it’s fair isle so I’m really pushing myself. hehe.  Shouldn’t take too long, just so busy with life and all.  Once that’s done I think I’ll be taking a break from test knitting that way I can focus on school and knit my own stuff for a bit. 😉

I promise to write sooner rather than later!  If you ever need anything just toss an e-mail or I’m on AOL Instant Messenger, so send me an e-mail if you want me to add you on AIM. 🙂

Oh! And although I’m still in the red as far as yarn stash is concerned it is down 47g!  About 33 of that was from a washcloth I never photographed when finishing, and the other 14 came from tossing a small minuscule amount of dishcloth yarn when I was cleaning in my room. 😉  There was so little there, it wasn’t even worth keeping.  Yay for de-cluttering a bit!

198yds forward… and 70yds back…

Ooops.

So I went on vacation, applied for some jobs while I was down there, and of course did some knitting as well.  I finished one of the washcloths I was working on and worked a lot on one of my UFOs.

So first, lets talk about the stuff I finished!

Finished up the garterlac washcloth.  Still haven’t entered this into Ravelry.  lol.  Life has just been so  busy with the never ending job applications and stating back wit work.

Then shortly after I returned home I finished this scarf, so there’s one of my UFOs that is now an FO.  So now I’ve got 5 more UFOs that I want to get finished before May 1st of 2010.  We’re making progress, even if it’s slow progress!  haha.  Speaking of the UFO list, here it is if you’ve forgotten.  Of couse the Charity Scarf is now complete.  Next up is the Widdershins socks.  I’m not even sure if I’ve ever blogged about these babies, although I probably have at some point.  Right now I’m at the heel flap/gusset part, so in a few weeks to a month they should be done! yay!

1. Charity Scarf  (December 2008)
2. Widdershins  (December 2007)
3. Essential Stripe Sweater  (December 2007)
4. Popcorn Ripple Afghan  (December 2006)
5. Baby Blanket  (October 2006)
6. Candle Flame Shawl  (July 2006)

So after finishing both of these, the stash was at an all time low of 198g for the year!  So then of course, the Great Lakes Fiber Show is this weekend, so I ran down with my boyfriend and stumbled across the Creatively Dyed booth.  In all honesty, it was one of two booths at the show that really caught my attention.  So I grabbed two skeins, of sock yarn and figured oh, only two skeins, I’ll just be over a little.  Haha… wrong.  What I didn’t realize was the new skeins I bought are 184 grams each.  Oops.  lol.  The good thing about it, is that I can probably get 2 pairs of socks out of each skein so I’m definitely getting my money’s worth.  😉  Part of me is temped to make a scarf even from the extras.

Of course, ths mean I’m now back in the red as far as stash is concened.  Oops.  Good news is that it’s only 70 grams into the red, so it’ll be easy enough to fix, but it does set me back as far as goals go.  haha.

MORE Washcloths!

Well, I guess technically the one on the right was the one I blogged about last time, but the other is new. Same pattern as before, the lovely 4-Corners Dishcloth. If you google “4-Corners Dishcloth, I believe the first link that pops up is the pdf of the pattern. Love these things! The color for the one on the left is Rosewood, in case I hadn’t mentioned it before. And the yarn for the one on the right is Over the Rainbow. Both are made from Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton.

As much as I love them, I have moved on to other wash cloth patterns. I printed off a Garterlac Pattern which I think I may be falling in love with. Although I could easily finish it in not time, I am only working on washcloths when I’m not at home. The reason? Part of my yarn diet goals. Yup, I’m making crazy yarn diet goals again in honor of summer. 😉

So we all know I cannot buy yarn unless i use up what I’ve got. So far I’ve used 148g for the year. Woot! I really want to buy some cones of cotton so that I can make Christmas gifts for friends and family this year. I would like to buy at least 4, so I have some variety in colors, and each cone weighs a pound. This of course means I would have to use up at least 4 pounds of stash. Which means, this summer I will attempt to stash bust 4lbs of yarn. If I count the months of April, May, June and July in this “summer” that means I should be using up approximately one pound each month. So far this month I am down 148g, which means I would need to use up another 306g. It probably could happen. Really, the 1lb a month is an average. Another goal, is to finish up a lot of the UFOs that have been lurking in my stash. I shall give you all a list of UFOs:

1. Charity Scarf  (December 2008)
2. Widdershins  (December 2007)
3. Essential Stripe Sweater  (December 2007)
4. Popcorn Ripple Afghan  (December 2006)
5. Baby Blanket  (October 2006)
6. Candle Flame Shawl  (July 2006)

I also have a washcloth cast on, and a scarf warped on the loom.  I’m not counting the washcloth or scarf as UFOs cause I’m pretty actively working on them.  Part of me wants to be completely monogomous with my knitting until all the UFOs are gone, but many of my UFOs aren’t very portable, which is probably why they’re UFOs to begin with.   So here are my rules:

• Washcloths as my travel project.  If I need to cast a new one on for travel reasons, that is completely acceptable.
• Washcloths cannot be knitted when not traveling.  (this way I can’t cheat and cast on tons of “travel projects”)
• Scarves on the loom can also be started.  Weaving will give my hands a break from all the knitting/crocheting.
• I will pick one UFO at a time, and work through it till it is finished.
• The next UFO will be selected when the previous is finished.  There is no special order in which I will finish UFOs.
• A UFO can only be thrown back into hibernation due to it being uncomfortable to knit in that particular season.  Aka, I may not knit a wool sweater in August if I chose not to do so.
• NO NEW PROJECTS TILL UFOS are GONE!

Yay for having goals.  So the short term goal is to have 4lbs out of the stash by the beginning of August, so that I can buy some yarn to make scarves for gifts.  A long term goal, is to get all these UFOs done.  I’m really not sure how long I should give myself to finish them.  The knitted scarf should only take 2 weeks at most.  I think I’ll give myself a month for Widdershins and a month for the baby blanket.  Two months for the sweater perhaps?  You know, scratch that, I’ll give myself a year.

By May 1st 2010, I will have the above listed UFOs FINISHED!  And I’ll try not to have another 10 UFOs started. 😉  I do like having multiple projects, but the current ones I’ve started have been on the needles for way too long.  I think in the future I’ll aim for 4 projects at a time.  That way I can have a weaving one, a spinning one, a knitting and a crochet.  Of course, I’ll just have to make sure one of those is a travel project.  Or perhaps I’ll only let myself have two projects, a travel and a stay at home?  We’ll see.  Right now I have way to many projects that are “stay at home” projects… and there are multiple knitting ones.

Yay Dishcloth!

I heart dishcloths. Love the things.

Finished another 4 Corner dish cloth, the pattern is on Ravelry for all those interested.

Of course this used up another 40g from the stash which means I’ve used up 110g for the year. Woot!

I think my ultimate goal is to try to use up as much as possible so I can get some yarn to make scarves on the loom for x-mas this year.

I’ve been eying the pound cones that webs sells, and of course if I buy 4, I qualify for the 20% discount. But, I could also buy 7 and qualify for the 25% discount. 😉 But of course, I’d have to use up that amount in yarn in order to buy cones. So the goal is to use up as much as physically possible this summer so that I can get some stuff to weave with. We’ll see how it goes. The current goal is to use up 1lb of stash stuff a month. If I can push closer to 2lbs a month, it would be even better. The more I use up, the more cones I can get.

BIG update…. and no, I’m not addicted to weaving. ;)

I swear… I’m totally not addicted to weaving. I’m denying everything! I can stop whenever I want to.

I realized that way back when I finished a scarf, but never took a picture and posted it, so first off, here’s that crocheted scarf. Crochet was quick, and the yarn was some of the stuff BF added to my stash without my permission. I was very glad to see it go.

The next picture, is the three scarves I have finished thus far. Obviously they look a lot alike. The one on top is the first one I finished. Of course I tried to get fancy with color on my first one. Then I realized that the pink and white were too close so it really didn’t stand out much. The bottom left was the second one that I finished. Definitely better than the first, and the third is the best by far. My edges are much nicer on that one, and my warp was nice and even. I realized that my biggest issues with the scarf getting all wavy was due to my warp and my laziness in actually putting paper between ALL the layers. For some reason at the end of warping, I just give up and don’t bother with paper for that last round or two. *stupidity*

Of course, I thought I could get away with the lack of paper for those last two or three wraps on the warp, but it definitely made the right side of this scarf curve quite a bit. This of course angered me and I spent many minutes cursing. I was so annoyed that I was *finally* using nice yarn (and not crappy acrylic BF dumped into the stash) and it was looking not so nice. Of course, after getting the first bit done, the tension evened itself out. But one funky end isn’t going to be horribly noticeable. 😉

Of course, I am knitting as well. Although the loom is fairly portable, it isn’t easy to drag around. I’ve been hauling around lots of cotton in my purse cause I’ve just been in the mood for dishcloths. More 4-corner dishcloths. I made one before and loved it, so I thought I’d whip out a few more.

Oh, and if you didn’t notice the stash total for the year is -70g! I’m down 70g for the year! Of course, it’s not enough to let me buy anything yet. I’ve been drooling over the giant cones of cotton from webs, so I’m thinking I’ll try to use up at least 4lbs of stash so that I can order 4 – 1 pound cones from webs. It would qualify me for a discount too, so of course I’ll need to buy 4. 😉

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

It came!!!! *woot*

Of course it was set up immediately, warped, and weaving soon followed. Finished the first scarf (yes first) last night. Warped the loom again at 11pm, and finished the second scarf this morning. The warps were a bit off, which makes the scarves a little wonky. That’s my own fault though, because I thought I could disregard part of the directions. Of course, only I would assume I could ignore those important things.

Oh, and my edges aren’t the nicest yet. It’s defintiely getting better as I weave, but hey, that’s why I’m practicing on acrylic. 😉 I’m not horribly attached to the yarn, so there’s no heartbreak over it looking funky. I still have more of the same acrylic that was used for the first two scarves, so I will try to get another scarf out of it. Then maybe, I’ll start exploring my fancy yarns.

I have pictures, of woven stuff and the loom to post, but flickr is not behaving, so pictures shall come later. Hopefully. 😉

ETA!: Pictures!

Ta DA! picture on the bed. haha. As you can see, I don’t make my bed. I’m such a bad person. 😉

Also with the loom, are the first two scarves I wove on it. They both used the random white and pink acrylic the boyfriend brought for me earlier this year. Also, this evening I’ve gotten weaving tips for fixing my edges, so I can’t wait to try a third scarf. The third scarf will also rid me of the remainder of this acrylic. If all goes well, I’m whipping out the sock yarn! WOOT! I’m almost done warping the loom for the 3rd scarf, so I’ll ttyl. 😉

Belated x-mas gift. ;)

Yup, finally finished those socks I started for my sister for LAST x-mas.

Started them the first week of December when I finished with finals, and finished them tonight. I’m not in the mood for a long bloggy post. The yarn was noro kureyon number 182. I used 61 of the 100g in the skein, which means I’ve got 39g left. tons left.

My sister, loves them. Of course. They’re bright and obnoxious! haha.

So of course, this was another 61 g outta the stash. Not much, but it’s an improvement. 😉 I’m still up 306g for the year, but I’m hoping that will drop quickly once the loom shows up. Of course, the loom still hasn’t shown up. I’m trying very very hard to be patient. 😉