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*

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.

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.

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.

Look! I spun stuff!

Shocking isn’t it?  I have actually found time in my schedule to play with my spinning wheel.  YAY!

And a close up picture! Mmmm..

This yarn is a buffalo blend. Not 100% buffalo, cause I’m cheap, but it does have other exotic type fibers in it like alpaca, etc. Lovely stuff to spin up. Feels really, really nice. I bought this 3 summers ago at the Great Lakes Fiber Show? Not sure, but I do think it was 3 summers ago. Finally got around to spinning it up. And just last summer they were still selling this stuff, so if anyone local is interested, I say you check it out. yummy stuff.

One skein is 58 grams and 83 yards, the other is 46 grams and 70 yards. So of course this knocked some weight from my fiber stash and added it onto my yarn stash. Somewhere in there 100g of yarn disappeared. Not sure how, but I think I might have had the total weight on the roving wrong. But still, I’m definitely in the red for the year, so no new stuff for me until more yarn goes bye bye. Shouldn’t be too long though. The scarf I started with the yarn brought back by the BF is almost done. That will knock out a good chunk. I’ve definitely caught the knitting bug. A few more inches of a sock and even more will come out of the stash, and I’m DYING to cast on a washcloth cause i’m in the mood for something bright and fun. I will get the stash down so I can go to Great Lakes Fiber Show in May and actually BUY stuff.

Oh, for some newer puppy pics! Puppy is 5 months old now so obviously he grew.

We dressed him up for St. Patricks day, obviously he loves it. haha.

That St. Patricks day pic HAS to be my favorite. He just looks so dashing. lol.

A pic of the big boy. Looking cute as hell.

There are a few more on my flickr account. Clicking on any of the photos above should take you there. Gotta love the puppy pictures.

We Are the Champions Handspun

I had a feeling by the time I got around to charging my camera batteries it would be finished and it is!

This is 3 skeins of Crown Mountain Farms Roving spun into a sock weight yarn.  Their superwash merino is fabulous in case you’ve never tried it.  It’s definitely worth the price!  This is some of the stuff I got this past summer when it was on sale for $16 for 8.5 oz!  How could I resist at that price?

So I ended up with 3 skeins total.  The first skein is 85g and 235yds, the second is 75g and 231yds, and the third is 83g and 233yds.  Total yardage is 699 for approximately 8.5oz of yarn.

So I’ve got a total of 8.5 oz out of the roving stash and into the yarn stash!  YAY!
But in more good news I sold some handspun on etsy today so I took that yarn out of the stash today too.  I decided after the last post to keep a running total of the yarn stash on the sidebar in attempts to keep myself motivated in this whole “knit your stash” thing.

October Stash Update!

Yay for a stash update!  hehe.

23835 grams of yarn currently in the stash (+1618 grams this year)

343.2 oz of stuff in my fiber stash.  (+145.9 oz this year)

As you can see, my fiber stash is down 4 whole ounces this month!  YAY for a decrease somewhere.  lol.  My yarn stash is up 126 grams which is 4.4 oz.  So 4 of those ounces was yarn that moved from the fiber stash to the yarn stash when I finished up the spunky eclectic handspun.  I also finished the Muscari socks which lowered the yarn stash, but I did win some sock yarn which did mean that extra .4oz or so.  All in all, not too bad!

So I’ve been promising pics of the new yarn I *won* and I’ve finally got them uploaded. 

I’m thinking I’ll be doing some sort of garter/bias scarf thing on big-ish needles so that it’s sorta light and airy. The yarn really is soft and I love the colors, even if the fiber contents suck a bit. I’m not a huge acrylic/nylon fan when it comes to sock yarns, but that’s just me.

Remember the socks I started last weekend that I said were flying off the needles? I’m almost to the toe of the first one after just a few hours of knitting on them this week! I’m hoping to finish them in October and have some more yarn outta the stash.

Yet another took forever, update. :)

I’m such a blogging failure.  haha.  I finished my Muscari socks!  Yup, finished them almost two weeks ago, and I’m FINALLY getting around to blogging about it.  Yes, pathetic.  Blogging is something I really need to work on cause I enjoy doing it, I just don’t…

I *love* these socks. As you might remember they are the Muscari pattern from the Summer 2008 version of Knitty. They were definitely a fabulous pattern to knit. I did find something that I felt was a mistake in the pattern, but it wasn’t anything huge. When I e-mailed the designer about it she explained why there was a mistake, but it hasn’t been fixed on the knitty’s website so who knows. Really, if you’re not paying close attention to the pattern, you’ll probably knit it correctly anyways.

I’m also in serious love with the yarn I used. It was Trekking XXL #145 and it is gorgeous. I have #146 and 147 on my yarny wish list as well, but I’m being good so I’m sure purchases won’t be happening in the near future. Oh! There are also more pictures of the socks in my flickr account if anyone is interested.

I also finished my Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club for the month of July. It was a romney roving and I *really* enjoyed spinning it. I think the big trick is that you just can’t spin a real thin yarn and expect it to still be soft if you’re using a courser fiber such as romney. I think they same applies to my lovely coopworth fleece.

Now I’ve only got 1 Spunky Club Fiber shipment left in the stash. I decided, shortly after posting my “yarn diet” rules, that I had waaaaaaaay to much and the Spunky Fiber Club wasn’t necessary. It was hard, but I did cancel it in order to help shrink the stash numbers. I’m doing okay though.

Lately I’ve been trying to finish up some of my WIPs that I’ve started and left in many stages of finished. The Muscari socks were done for a KAL, and that KAL decided to take September and October off to finish up previous things. I’m definitely going to take advantage of this time to get some x-mas gifts done and some of the other WIPs that have been just hanging out. Lately the two projects that have gotten the most of my free time are a maroon scarf for charity, and a baby blanket that I cast on almost two years ago. Both made out of acrylic, in attempts to shrink the acrylic stash. hehe. Even though I’m working on finishing things up, I did cast on a new pair of socks today.

I went to a class this morning that our knitting guild did. I chose socks because i knew I had plenty of yarn in my stash and I wouldn’t have to go buy any. I took two different weights of yarn with me, some Lisa Souza that I bought almost 2 years ago, and some Knit Picks that’s probably 3 years old. EEK. I didn’t realize how long some of these have been in my stash. After getting there I decided I was sick of socks that were 10 stitches to the inch and wanted something *bigger*, so I went with the Lisa Souza that was a Sport weight… OMG. Where has this yarn been all my life? Honestly, it’s so soft, and the colors are just stunning. And, because it’s a sport weight it’s knitting up very quickly. I’m already 3.5 inches or so into the first cuff, so I’m hoping to get them done quickly and get some yarn outta the stash. Also at the knitting class today, there were door prizes. There were enough for everybody, so the trick was just figuring out what you would be lucky enough to pick out of the bag. I selected a bag marked socks, because you know, I love socks. The yarn inside was the Berocco Comfort Sock. This yarn is REALLY soft, but it’s also 50% Acrylic and 50% Nylon which concerns me quite a bit. I’ve made acrylic socks before and those things didn’t hold up at all to wear. They just lost all memory. Because of that I’m thinking it may become a scarf. It is a fabulous color, maybe a multi-directional scarf? Something nice that won’t curl so that I won’t have to worry about blocking it. We’ll see. I was planning on showing you pictures of the sock I started today and the new yarn I got, but it’ll have to wait until I have a chance to take some photos. Hopefully that will come tomorrow.

September Stash Update!

You know… these updates were intended to keep me movtivated in this whole “shrink the stash” deal… but all I seem to be doing is increasing the stash.  If you remember, I set a goal back in January of having less yarn at the end of the year than I did at the beginning.  At the current rate I’m going, it’s not looking good…  hehe.

But I’m going to keep on going!  This week I did something horrific; I canceled my member ship to the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club!  EEK!  I know… one of my two exceptions for the yarn diet that will last the entire school year, and I got rid of it.  As much as I love the club, I have plenty in my stash to hold me over till I graduate.  Heck, I probably have enough to last the next 10 years.  Would I go 10 years without buying yarn?  Never, but I totally could. 

So, on with the whole “update” thing.

23709 grams of yarn currently in the stash (+1492 grams this year)

347.2 oz of stuff in my fiber stash.  (+149.9 oz this year)

Of course the numbers are up for the year!  They’re always up!  lol.  As of now my stash is over 12.5 bigger than it was in January!  EEK!  That really is terrifying.  I’m working on it though.  I only have 1/3 of the year left, just a little under 4 months.  It may be impossible to shrink it down to meet my original goals, but it will aim to see just how low I can make it.  I want to set goals to get things finished and actually finish them!

Sock Update!

Just wanted to do a quick post with some current pictures of my Muscari Socks I’ve been working on.  LOVE LOVE LOVE the pattern still.  I’m not a huge fan of the heel, but I think that’s only because short rows just don’t feel comfortable to me on DPNS.  I don’t mind the right side rows, but the wrong side ones do annoy me.  That’s probably just a character flaw though.    Here are some pics!  I am halfway done with the heel on the second sock.

And here’s a close up:

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this yarn?  I found myself looking for more of it online last night, and it’s definitely not a hard one to find.  This is Trekking XXL in color 145.  Colors 146 and 147 are just as pretty and I want those too.  lol.  Of course, I’m on a yarn diet so none shall be purchased.  Did I mention my new yarn diet?  I think not.

My NEW Yarn Diet:

Back on the first day of school, August 25th, I decided I needed to stop buying yarn.  More so because I need to save money, and I have plenty already.  So the goal:  I shall not buy any yarn until AFTER I graduate.  This means from August 25, 2008 through April 26, 2009 I will be good and try not to buy everything yarn/fiber related in sight.  I do have some exceptions.  (Of course, what did you expect.  )  As you probably know, I’m currently doing the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club, and I don’t plan on quitting that.  It’s reasonably priced and it’ll give me something to look forward to each month.  Also, since I never get more than 4oz in the club, it’s not like it’s going to be a huge addition to the fiber stash anyways.  It will also keep me sane, and make it a little easier not to buy any *extra* fiber or yarn.  Exception #2:  Should I run out of yarn purchased from the LYS that I go to for my knitting group, I can buy something else to start a new project.  I don’t know about you guys, but when I go to the LYS to knit, I like to work on something I purchased there.  I highly doubt I’m going to run out of LYS yarn, but just in case, I can buy a skein of something that way I don’t feel guilty going to knitting group.

I totally think I can do this yarn diet.  Well, today’s the 1st so I should have a stash update; however, my laptop is in the other room and it’s on the laptop where the stash spreadsheet lives.  I’ve got some homework to do, so I’ve procrastinated enough.  I’ll either post the update when I’m done with the homework, or I’ll do it sometime this week.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!