Stash Update 2009-01

Stash Update 2009 #1!

Well I guess with the new year, and the new stash resolutions, I guess I’ve changed the yarn diet a bit. I said back in August that I wouldn’t buy any yarn till I graduated; however, I did buy some with the LYS gift certificate I got for my Birthday back in November. A goal of buying “no” y arn is ridiculous, and I’m glad I’ve changed it to something a little more sensible.

So now I can buy yarn iff (that’s if and only if for all you non mathy people) I use up stash, and I can only buy up to the amount I’ve used.

AKA. whatever I buy when added to the stash means the stash has to be less than or equal to what it was when the year started.   (I currently have 23,758g in the yarn stash and 334.7oz in the fiber stash.)  Of course I’m going by total stash, so if I decrease the yarn stash a bunch I can increase the fiber stash if I want.

Of course my original diet of not buying anything till I graduate will probably hold, because 1 month after graduation is the Great Lakes Fiber Fest and I *plan* on buying something when I’m there.  The more I use up now, the more I can buy then.

Oh, and can I mention how nice it was to change my stats on the yarn diet in the side pannel so now I’m technically out of the red?  hehe.

Resolutions.

Of course with a new year, comes New Year’s Resolutions! I have resolutions! lol.

1. Don’t let the stash grow! – I’m a busy person, so I don’t care if it really shrinks, but I can’t let it get any bigger. I’ll let myself buy yarn as long as I’ve used yarn.
2. Lose Weight – It’s definitely a common resolution, but one that I definitely need to do. The goal is 21 lbs. I’m hoping to lose more of course, but I think 21 is something fairly realistic for a year.
3. SKATE. – So back in September I lost all remaining sanity and decided I wanted to play a sport, roller derby to be more exact. Obviously it’s been a struggle because I wasn’t in the most fabulous shape to begin with, but I have improved. Honestly, I didn’t realize how much I improved until we went on Christmas break and I didn’t go near my skates for two weeks. When I got back on my skates for practice last night, I put all my gear on, stood up and promptly fell down, twice. Apparently my feet forgot what skates were like. The big thing with skating is that I want to keep a positive attitude. I know attitude will get me going and keep me going.
4. Be Happy! – I’m going to try not to stress and enjoy life. Sounds hard huh? lol. I need to stop procrastinating and just live life to the fullest. I want to be happy and comfortable in my skin.

So how about you? Any of you make any good resolutions?

Where did 2008 go?

It’s been forever since I’ve blogged consistently, and honestly, I miss it.  It just seems like I haven’t been able to find the time to update like I want.  After finals week last semester I had big plans to blog more and actually had 2 or 3 posts already planned out in my head.  I was going to post projects I was knitting for Christmas but then… we got a puppy.

Yes, a puppy. A bout 3 weeks ago my mom went shopping with my grandma, and as they drove past a cute little dog boutique they stopped.  The store had a sign saying they had puppies and so my mom wanted to just go “look.”  This of course was the beginning of the end.

The puppies, were Dachshunds, a favorite breed of our family.  Of course.  There were two 8 week old puppies.  One was a short-haired runt of the litter, black with brown on his paws, eyebrows, stomach and mouth.  The other was a long-haired with lots of different colors.  He of course was much bigger than his little brother.

So my mom called me up to ask if I’d house-break him for her while I was home for Christmas Break.  Honestly, did she think I’d say no?  I’d been begging for a dog for a few years now and the only thing stopping me had been my parents.

Of course she bought the runt, mostly because he really likes to cuddle.  He loves to sit on your shoulder and snuggle up against your neck.  So of course, when he sleeps I can get online, but it isn’t easy to type with a dog on your shoulder.  And when he’s awake, we have to watch him constantly, mostly because he isn’t house broken yet.

We’ve been working on the crate training thing, but it’s definitely difficult to do at night.  He doesn’t seem to mind the crate so much if we’re not home, but when we’re there, he wants to be with us.  Also, he’s apparently decided I’m his favorite person in the world, probably because his first 3 weeks with us were spent with me all day because I was home from school.  Now, if I’m in the living room with the family, he will not rest unless he’s on my lap.  So I’m now trying to stay more to my room when I can, to spend time with my kitty.  Poor kitty went to the vet’s about a week ago for more shots and has been tearing his fur out ever since.  He’s reacted before to shots, so we think it started because of the shot, but I have a feeling it’s continuing because he’s angry at my lack of time with him, or boredom.  He can’t hate the puppy that much since he sat next to me on the couch today while the puppy napped in my lap.  Who knows…

Today, class started back up.  Well, sorta.  I’m student teaching this semester, so it’s definitely different from the norm.  My first full week is observing the class, so today I had a blast watching 4 out of 6 classes take a test, and tomorrow, I get to do the same thing!  Then, on Wednesday and Thursday, the other 2 classes will be taking a different test!  lol.  It’s funny, but I enjoy it.  It’s so hard to believe that I’m almost done with school, but I’m excited.  I can’t wait to graduate so I can be a real adult.  For some reason I feel that graduating and making more than $100 a month will make me a real adult.  haha.

Of course, it’s January, and I’ve made some resoultions.  I think I’ll save that for another post since I’ve babbled enough for today.

B-day Stash Enhancement

I mentioned that I got some extra yarn in the last post for my Birthday and I figured it was time to post some pictures and acknowledge it’s existence in my stash. 

I had been drooling over the Harry Potter Opal since I knew it was coming out, and when I got the gift certificate I knew exactly what the money was going to be spent on.   I’m on a yarn diet of course, but I figured the gift cert definitely could be used on yarn without breaking said diet, since it wasn’t really my money being spent.

The skein on the left is Tonks.  It’s my favorite.  Bright, pink, yellow… mmm.  The one on the right is Harry.  In all honesty after picking Tonks I had no idea what others I really wanted, but I figured since it was Harry Potter themed yarn I must get the color Harry.  Heck, I would have bought all of them if I had unlimited cash.  My LYS rocks.  She still had all 8 colors in stock so I got my pick of colors.   I love the LYS so much.  haha.

December Stash Update!

Guess who’s 10 days late in doing her stash update for December? hehe.

Yarn: 23658g (+1441 g)

Fiber: 334.7 oz (+137.4 oz)

The fiber stash is down from 343.2 to 334.7! A whole 8.5oz. Obviously from the Crown Mountain Farms I spun up.
The yarn stash…. is up. From 23647 to 23658. So it’s up 11g this month. Which if you didn’t know is not even half an ounce, so really it isn’t a big deal. The reason for the raise? I had a birthday. For my birthday I received a lovely gift cert to the LYS and some cash. Of course the gift cert had to be spent and I spent a little of my own money as to not have money left over on the gift cert. So I got two skeins of something…

I’ll post with pics tomorrow.

I’ve been missing blogging a lot. School does that to me, but I’m done for the semester. So I’m going to try to get back into it.

I’ve got posts planned for the next two days. Hope you’re all thrilled. lol.

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.

November Stash Update

23647 grams of yarn currently in the stash (+1430 grams this year)

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

October was definitely a good month in the stash busting department.  The yarn stash is down a whole 188g!  The fiber stash isn’t down at all, but that’s just fine by me.  lol.  Obviously I’ve finished a decent bit this month, a scarf for charity, the socks, and the candy corn wash cloth.  Also, last night I made another wash cloth which knocked another 40g or so out of my stash.  If I keep going at the rate I’m going, it’s going to be another year or so until those numbers are down to where they were when this year started.  *oops*  What did I learn from this?  I really buy a LOT more than I can knit.  Looking towards next years resolutions, I might try the same thing I did this year: try to have less at the end of the year than when the year started.  It’ll be like a fresh slate.  I’ll be allowed to buy things, as long as I’m using up things.  And of course this will go for fiber festivals too, so I’m going to bust as much stash as possible right now so that I can buy more when May comes.

I was going to post pics of some yarn that I’m working on spinning, but I’m not sure where my battery charger is for my camera… I have a feeling the sister borrowed it and hasn’t given it back.  So I do plan on posting some pics this week, maybe it will even be Handspun FO pics!

Another FO.

Last week when I photographed the scarf and the washcloth, I also took a picture of my current progress on the socks I’ve been working on for the past month.  Well, I didn’t post it because I figured I’d save the photo for in the middle of the week when I did the next blog entry.  And of course, the week got crazy, so that entry didn’t happen.  But here’s the picture I would have shown:

I was getting so close to the heel! Just a few rows from it. Then this week happened. I knit a little during school, went to knit night on Thursday at starbucks, knit a little Friday night while hanging out with the boyfriend, then finished them up last night at gaming night. I forgot scissors, but hey, nail clippers worked surprisingly well for cutting the yarn. I’ll have to remember that. So here’s how they’re looking now:

It’s amazing how different they can look with no flash. But these socks were just a random mix and match type pattern from a class I took. The cuff was a 2×2 rib, with a random bowtie pattern on the cuff and top of the foot, and the heel was a band heel. Honestly, this band heel thing is amazing. I really liked the way it turned out. And it fits my foot REALLY well. I think I might have to do those on some of my socks from now on.

The yarn I used was Lisa Souza’s Sport Weight Sock yarn. In the color Mars Quake. I bought this yarn about 2 years ago, so I’m not sure if her base has changed any, but it was AMAZING yarn. If I wasn’t on a yarn diet, I would have been placing a BIG order right now. But I’m being good. I had plenty of yarn left too, about 33g. So I really could have made the cuffs longer if I wanted. The socks were knit on size 2 needles, and I think I said everything important? If not, it’s over on my ravelry page so you can always check it out there, or just send me an e-mail. I miss blogging. I think I definitely need to do it more often. And hey, the fact that it’s only been a week is pretty good for me!

A small FO.

I actually finished something!  Actually, it was two somethings!  WOOT!  Hehe.  The first thing off the needles was another scarf for charity.

Used up some acrylic I bought for a scarf a few years back. Of course I still have more left so I’ve started yet another scarf from the same yarn. I’m determined to get some of this acrylic out of my stash. So I rushed off to remove the yarn from my spreadsheet, because yes, I am crazy, and noticed the yarn ball was only 30g less than the number on my spreadsheet. How can that possibly be. A scarf out of 30g of yarn? Nope. Weighed the scarf and it weighs 60g. The only thing I can think is that when I originally weighed the yarn it was January, so pretty much the dead of winter. And we all know that yarn tends to suck in some humidity which can affect the weight. So I guess that’s what must have happened. Either way, when the yarn is gone, it’s gone and completely out of the stash. I just have to get it to that gone part.

The next project was started AND finished this past Saturday. I started the washcloth to donate to a basket that some for a silent auction that one of my groups I’m in is doing. I’m thinking of making a few more. If they aren’t needed in the basket, then I’ll keep them!

The Top View:

The Front View:

I *love* illusion knitting. If the pattern looks familiar its probably because I made the same one about two years ago. I love this pattern so much. This time when I made it, I used about 37g of yarn total. So it wasn’t much of a stash buster. However, the good part is that I have enough left for several more wash cloths! If you’re interested, I used about 5-7 g of each of the colors, and about 20g of the black. Of course those numbers aren’t horribly accurate, but it’ll give you a rough idea if you plan to make one for yourself from some scraps you have hanging around. The are more details on my ravelry page about it, such as yarn/needle size and all that type of stuff. So if you want the crazy specific details, check there, or feel free to send me an e-mail.

But hey! The good news is that my yarn is down from last month! So that’s a good thing! If I finish the pair of socks I’m working on by the end of the month, we’ll be in even better shape!

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.