Finished Monkey Socks

Well, I finished the monkey socks! Technically I finished them earlier this week, but it took me awhile to get around to blogging.

The cool thing, I actually have enough left that I could probably get a second pair of socks out of it. I haven’t decided if I want to knit it up myself yet, or if I feel like selling/giving/trading it. I did list is as for sale/trade on ravelry, we’ll see what happens. If any of you are interested, maybe we can work something out, just send me an e-mail or a message on ravelry.

July Stash Update!

Current yarn in the stash: 23950 grams (+1592 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 305.2 ounces (+107.9 ounces for the year)

Well I’m still in the Positives for the year (oops) but hey, at least the numbers have gone down!  This month I’ve used up almost 200 grams of yarn!  I also used up 35 ounces of roving.  :)  So hey, it’s progress!  Hopefully there will be much more improvements during July.

I also got my June Spunky Club Shipment.  I think everyone pretty much got theirs before me but just in case I’ll leave some space so I don’t ruin it for anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in love with these colors.  It’s called Flowering Weeds, and it weighs 3oz.  It’s a 70/30 Merino/Mohair blend and I can’t wait to spin it.  I’m thinking either socks or scarves.  I’m still waiting to see.

Lately…

Well it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated my blog. The truth, I’ve been over on plurk, omg I’m in LOVEEEEEEEE! It really is a blast so I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants another method that will suck up all their free time.

Other than that I’ve been working on the Monkey socks for my sister’s b-day gift. The first sock has been finished and I’ve started on the second.

I’ve also been working on some knitting for charity lately too. I’ve made 3 more 8 by 8 squares for an afghan that will be sewn together eventually. (hopefully). Lately I’ve been making lots of red squares, but when I didn’t have enough yarn for another red square I went off in search of something else to knit from my stash. What I found, some Red Heart Bulky stuff that my sister bought a few years ago before deciding she didn’t want it. Amazing how things end up in my stash.

It’s nice though, cast on 12 stitches and less than 4 hours later you have a scarf! Since I’ve got 2 more skeins in the stash, those will also become scarves. Machine wash and dry, can’t beat that for charity knitting.

MAJOR BIG SCARY UPDATE.

Yes… I think the title is quite fitting of all the pictures I plan on cramming into this tiny post.

See, my boyfriend got me hooked on some TV show so I’ve spent the past week glued to my computer catching up on all the back episodes.  Well, I’ve finally caught up and I can now have my life back.  hehe.  Last week I had gotten quite a bit acomplished, and took lots of photos thinking I’d do one post a day for each project.  However, because I was too busy watching TV to actually write a post, all those pics I took last week were totally outdated by quite a bit.

First let’s begin with the stuff I got at Great Lakes Fiber Show:

 

Picture #1:  The fleece drying.  Not all the fleece of course, but some of it.  I’ve been washing it in small batches and I’m still not done because so much laundry was done in this house last week I wasn’t able to use the dryer whenever I wanted, so I put off washing the rest.  I have finished a big chunk of it though and I hope to finish the rest this week.  Also note the big gap in the middle of the table where there’s no fleece.  Apparently my beloved cat Oreo things its fun to sleep surrounded by sheepyness.

 

Picture #2:  Creatively Dyed Handspun Yarn.  It’s merino (NOT superwash).  Total Yardage:  565 yds  Total Weight:  228g (about 8oz)  It’s a thicker weight sock yarn, nice and sqooshy.  It soon shall become Monkey socks.  Hopefully very soon because my sis is currently out of town so this is the perfect time to work on them (and hide them) since they will be a birthday present.

Next up!  Stuff I didn’t get at Great Lakes Fiber Show.

I took that picture shortly after getting the yarn to show you all the reason my yarn stash jumped so much in the month of May. So that was the photo from the very end of May, probably about the 30th or so.

Here is the blanket now:

As you can see, it’s come a long long way. I finished the background and am now working on all the little pieces that I will eventually have to sew onto the blanket. According to the directions, I should sew them on as I go, but I prefer to wait till the end so I can make sure everything is arranged the exact way I want it.

I’ve posted pics of this project many times. It’s my first sweater. If you’re awake and still reading this post you may notice that it appears to have shrunk considerably since the last time I blogged about it. I was about an inch from the ribbing along the bottom and didn’t like the way it looked when I tried it on. I got the big girl knits book lately, and after reading that I couldn’t let the sweater slide. It needs to be a size smaller, and it needs shaping. So I shall start it again!

I have accomplished some other things on the spinning front this past week.  Last Wednesday I sat down to spin up some singles and ply them.  I wanted to practice more with the woolee winder.  I’m actually quite happy with my woolee winder which is a big improvment over the hatred I used to have for it.  Apparently I’ve finally gotten the tension almost perfect so that I can use it to it’s fullest.

So I finished the handspun that was sitting on those bobbins.

 

This is some of the lincoln wool I bought back in January of 2007 when I went to the Pittsburgh knit and crochet thingy.  One skein is 205yds and 143g (over 5oz), and the other is 155yds and 120g (over 4oz).  Those are some pretty big skeins.

The last bit of handspun.  This was spun up on wednesday as well and I began plying that night.  Finished up the last bit of plying in the morning.  This was stuff I bought off dragonfibers.etsy.com last summer.  Oh and by the way she just updated today maybe?  She has some STUNNING sock yarn she just started doing… and I mean I’m so tempted to buy it.  And of course she put up more sock batts in colors that I’m currently finding very hard to resist.  It’s merino/tussah silk and I’m completely in love with it.  Yardage on the large skein is 220yds and the weight is 94g.  The oz on the little extra skein is 41yds and weighs 15g.  I’m having serious issues with this yarn.  I love is so much, but I’m still unsure if I want to put it up on etsy or not.  I probably will, because honestly it’d make a great pair of socks.  It’s about a sport weight too so it would knit up sooooooo quickly.  Although I’m in love with these colors and don’t want to see them go (and honestly, it’s self striping which is making it EVEN harder) if this yarn goes, it means I can justify more yarn purchases… lol.

I’ll decide later.  Both the lincoln and the merino/silk still need to be washed to set the twist.  In fact, I think I’ll go do that when I finish writing this post.

 

Last but not least, my evil SP8 buddy strikes again.  I swear, she’s trying to ruin my stash diet… she even said so in the letter!  (I love you Valerie.) 

 

SP8 ended like 2 years ago and I still get random things from her.  Totally makes up for my SP10 pal who fell off the face of the planet after the first package was sent.  This is handdyed merino roving from theyoyo.etsy.com.  Very, very pretty.  And of course, because it was a gift it will be kept forever hopefully spun up very soon.  I have some work spinning stuff that I’m currently working on, but after that, this may be the next thing on the wheel.

 

That’s it… the end.  If you got this far, I’m truely shocked. 

Oh, and if you were wondering Valerie really didn’t kill my stash diet, I did that when I signed up for the Spunky Eclectic Monthly Fiber Club like 2 days before this gorgeousness showed up.  ;)  But I figured since I spun up that merino/silk in less than 24 hours I could surely use up club roving in a day or two.  This is me justifying yarn purchases…haha.

Yarn Update!

Well, it’s the first of June so I think it’s tie to take a look at that whole “decrease” the stash goal and see how things are going.

Current yarn in the stash: 24148 grams (+1790 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 340.9 ounces (+143.6 ounces for the year)

If you add those up, the yarn stash is 4lbs higher than what it was in January, and the fibers stash is up almost 9lbs.  And to think, last month I was excited that the yarn stash was actually DOWN for the year!  Oops??

So… think I can get the stash back down?  Really, it *might* be possible.  The giant yarn increase is due mostly to yarn I bought for a baby blanket.  I’ve already started that blanket and have already used up 1 of those skeins.  So a big chuck of that will drop off when the blanket is finished.  The fiber stash had such a big jump mostly cause of the fleece that was purchased at the GLFS.  Even washing the fleece will probably drop it’s numbers since the lanolin seems to weigh so much.  We’ll see if I can do it.

No more yarn buying for me for the rest of the year, unless I can get this stash back to where it *should* be.

Loom Knitting FO

Eons ago I started a scarf for charity on the Purple Knifty Knitter Loom. Today I finished it. You may have noticed lately that I’ve been doing a lot of charity knitting. Truth is, I used to do a lot more, but when school got busy, the charity stuff fell through the floor. This year though I’m going to try to do a lot more. Since it’s summer I’ve been trying to do an hour a day on some sort of charity project. That’s why the Prayer Shawl seemed to get done pretty quickly lately, and why this scarf followed so quickly after it.

Ta da!  My sister was gracious enough to model it for me.  Shortly after she informed me that she felt like keeping it, so if it disappeared, I’d know who stole it.  I told her she couldn’t have it, and then she was offering to buy it.  Lately she’s been wanting to make a scarf with some of the yarn she bought back when she was doing an art project a month ago, but had never started it.  So I took out the small blue KK Loom, showed her how it worked, and handed it off to her.  We’ll see how long it takes her to finish it.  She’s hoping she’ll be done before the weekend is over.

Just in case you forgot, this Saturday and Sunday is the Great Lakes Fiber Show!!!  I’m thrilled.  The BF will be going with me tomorrow morning and I’m super excited.  It’s kinda sad, my yarn/fiber stash has actually shrunk this year, and I’ll blow that shrinkage outta the water tomorrow!  Well… technically I blew it outta the water today.  I found the world’s cutest baby blanket pattern and after procuring it last nigh from a friend at SNB I purchased the yarn this morning.
None of my local stores carried it, so off I went to the internets.  I bought 14 skeins total… the exact yarn called for in the pattern.  I wanted it, I needed it, and really it only cost me like $40 total for the baby blanket which isn’t bad at all if you ask me!  Especially since $10 of that $40 is the cost of shipping.  I can’t wait till that yarn comes so I can begin… although I may be less thrilled after I stock up on awesomeness tomorrow.

FO! Charity Prayer Shawl

I finished the Prayer Shawl I had been working on for charity!

Overall I’m very happy with it. The yarn for the main body was Red Heart in Burgundy, and the yarn for the border was Red Heart in Mexico. The pattern is this one: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-triangular-stash-shawl. Yes it is a link to Ravelry, so if you don’t have ravelry let me know and I can give you a link directly to the PDF on her website.

In other excitingness: Great Lakes Fiber Show is in 3 days! Well sorta, 3 more full days without fiber fun until I get to blow lots of money! And finishing this up, just justifies more purchases.

*almost* an FO.

I thought I’d have an FO today… but it’s not going to happen.  See how much of the border was left?  Not much at all!  But I knew that yarn supply was running low, yet I didn’t let it stop me.  I HAD HOPE.  Well the yarn did run out.  So now I’m trying to decide what to use for the border.  What do you think… Red?  Black?  or should I just rip out a few rows of the main shawl to use in the border?

Handspun Galore!

Well I did finish all the handspun up, and listed it in etsy last Thursday. The link is www.kraftie.etsy.com for any of you who might be interested. In other news: I’ve been knitting! And CROCHETING!

I know exciting!

This is obviously something that doesn’t photograph well. The yarn is busy, the pattern is busy, and it looks good in person, but pictures, NO WAY.

Yet another busy picture. But if you click it, it’s a little easier to see the pattern in the larger picture. I bought this yarn about two years ago because I loved the color and they were discontinuing it. So of course it was on sale for $1.50 a skein! I couldn’t resist. I have 5 skeins in this dyelot and I figured it would make a great baby blanket. So I grabbed a Sampler Afghan book, picked a square that appealed to me, and started knitting away. I plan on doing it in panels which I’ll sew up later. I’ll probably add a border too at the end, depending on how it goes.

And now for a long overdue Stash Update! I was apparently busy and never did one for April. oops.

Current yarn in the stash: 22967 grams (+605 grams for the year)
Current fiber in the stash: 173.3 ounces (-24 ounces for the year)

The reason the yarn stash numbers went up is because of all the recently finished handspun. Since it is now part of the yarn stash, it’s counted as yarn. But, because I finished the fiber off, I removed the fiber from the fiber stash. That explains the decrease in the fiber stash. Also, if you look. 24 ounces is approximately 680 grams. That means that I’ve used up 75 grams of yarn this year! YAY! My stash is getting smaller! If not by much. And if the yarn that I currently have listed in etsy sells, that number will drop even more.
Of course, the fiber festival is coming up soon, which means more fiber will be brought back into the stash. Although I will be buying fiber, I’m trying not to go overboard. The current shopping list for fiber is something superwash to make socks for my sister, dad and boyfriend. I also want to get something for me, as a reward for passing yet another semester at school. I got my grades back and although they weren’t quite what I was hoping for, I’m happy with them. I’m really hoping to find some nice handdyed superwash at the fiber festival. Because it’s a fairly small show I’m somewhat worried I won’t, but I’ve already seen the perfect colors for all the gifts I want to make online so getting fiber won’t be an issue.

March yarn update!

Well it’s the first of the month!  Or well… past the first of the month but I’ve been busy so I’m just finally getting around to giving you my current yarn stash update!

22461 g currently in the yarn stash!  (+103 grams this year which is down 2 grams from last month!)

197.3 oz of fiber in the fiber stash.  (Hasn’t changed yet this year)

Last month I said the increase in yarn stash was from the fact that I had spun some stuff from my fiber stash but didn’t take it outta the fiber stash since there’s so much left it’s just hard to measure.  Well this past month… the was a yarn purchase.

TA DAAAAAAAAAA! I’ve been searching for this yarn for awhile, but well, they stopped making it. Bummer right? The stuff is gorgeous, I’m not sure what they were thinking when they discontinued it. Well, to make a long story short, someone on ravelry put it up for sale, and a friend of mine who knows I was searching for it contacted her telling her that I might be interested. So yea. I bought it. Because although I didn’t *need* it, it’s something they’re not making anymore. So that added 100g to my yarn stash this month.

However, 102g was removed when I finished the criss cross scarf! So far then I’ve used up a total of 2g from my stash! Pathetic eh? hehe.

This was made with a pattern from one of my books The Encyclopedia of Knitting. I did change the pattern a bit. Basically I changed it so that it was garter and I didn’t have to mess with stockinette. Wasn’t much of a change.

The yarn used was Sassy Stripes by Moda Dea in the color Crush. If it looks familiar it’s because I have made many, many things out of this same color of Moda Dea. The scarf is for one of the girls I tutor and I think she’s trying to make an entire ensamble out of it.

Here’s a close up of the stitch pattern for ya.