February 2005 Archives

I worked on Mariah last night, and since I'm making it in a cotton acrylic, I started thinking about other warmer weather knitting.

I peeked at Knit n Tyme and saw the Phildar Tendances 05 is out! A couple of the designs really popped out at me.

design 16 i love the collar	design 20 the neckline is great. the seed stich is not

I also want to do a Kate from last year's Phildar (the version with sleeves). And I've been eyeing some of the Rebecca designs. And now that I found my perfectly-fitting storebought tank I want to try a handknit one again (made to the storebought measurements).

What do you all have in mind for spring?

A bunch of you have asked how I went about organizing my stash. I don't think I did anything particularly noteworthy, but since you asked, here ya go!

I started by pulling out the bins that I had already started filling with my stash over the summer. They were partially full.

Then, I gathered up yarn I had stored elsewhere throughout the house. Mostly they were in bags or boxes. I stacked them up all around me, keeping them in some sort of order (e.g., sock weight, full sweaters, yarn for felting, cottons and summer-weight yarn all in separate heaps).

Then I created a spreadsheet with columns entitled Name, Yardage (this is per skein yardage), Fiber content, Color (I listed both color number and a descriptive name if it was helpful), Number of balls (I went down to half balls if appropriate), Notes (e.g., gift from so-and-so, bought for Mom's scarf but she didn't like it, etc.), and Total Yardage (this column is calculated based on yardage and number of balls). If I were to do this again I would add another column -- bin number. This way I wouldn't have to hunt around to find the yarn I now know I have!

Here's a copy of the spreadsheet template I used. I've left 4 entries in there so you can see how I used it.

I then started with one of the bins and took all the yarn out. As I gathered the yarn together I input what I had one-by-one and put them on the other side of the room. I didn't put the yarn back in the bins until I had quite a bit of the yarn catalogued. This allowed me to see how to best group the yarn to fit well into the bins.

About halfway through this process I had to go out to Target and buy 4 more bins. Yes, that's double the number I thought I would need. Oh -- my bins are clear and I find it really helpful so I can see what's in them.

After a couple of weeks I decided I wanted to use this to keep a running inventory of my stash as well. So I added columns in the spreadsheet to keep track of each month's usage. The way it works is you type the number of balls you've used into the month name column (e.g., February) and the spreadsheet automatically calculates the new totals. It's been fun to see the numbers going down (albeit slowly). I also anticipate using it when I have a new project in mind to see what I have in my stash that's appropriate.

That's pretty much it. Was this helpful? Feel free to download the spreadsheet and use it to your liking. If you have other suggestions or come up with better ways I'd love to hear about them.

Christy hit the nail on the head when she said that I'm a ponderer. I've gone through 2 yarns and 5 patterns in order to settle on my sockapalooza sock.

I decided to go with Regia Cotton Surf in a bright stripe of yellow, orange, and dark pink.

Cotton Surf comes in big 100 g skeins (enough for a pair). I like the idea of only needing one skein, but I always feel cheated because I never know quite how much to use. After reading Sara's great post last week about a scale being your third most important yarn tool I decided to finally buy myself a postal scale. What fun! I weighed the ball (98 grams*), and wound off 48 grams (slightly less than half) onto my winder.

  

I've started the sock with the half I wound, knowing that even if my weights are off slightly I should definitely have a little less on the wound half than the half left in the skein.

Here's my progress as of last night.

I had a few false starts with this sock. I started with US 3's and had to go down to US 2's to get a good fabric. Now that I"m on the 2's I love the way the yarn feels! I picked the cotton since warm weather is on its way and I thought my pal would be able to use them more often in the cotton. The Cotton Surf is a superwash so they're easy care.

* Curious why the skein only weighed 98 grams instead of 100? Yarn weights can vary depending on atmospheric conditions. Yarn retains water, so if it's dry out (like now in the middle of winter with the heat blasting) the yarn will probably weigh a little less than say, August when it's 80% humid. To account for this you'll sometimes see "under standard conditions" listed on the ball band.

ps - If you haven't already done so, go see Vicki's amazing St. Brigid. It's gorgeous!

I've been really busy lately, but very little of it has been knitting-related. Care to see where I've been spending most of my time? Here ya go. I re-started remodeling work last week and that's taken up the bulk of my free time.

The rooms do look better than what you see in the pic. There are now studs between the two rooms, the insulation is done, and the electricity is complete (yes -- that means I finally got over my fear of installing a circuit breaker!). We've even started the sheetrock. And lemme tell ya -- if your relationship can withstand moving 1,500 pounds (you read that right -- FIFTEEN HUNDRED POUNDS) of sheetrock and installing it on a ceiling together then you can handle anything. By Sunday night just about everything on our bodies hurt. Hell, I even had a black and blue toe.

But there is a silver lining. The smaller of the 2 rooms is destined to be my knitting room. My very own knitting room! I have dreams of hanging gorgeous hanks of yarn from pegs...pinning swatches to the corkboard for inspiration...setting up my blocking board and closing the door so little paws can't knead at it. And most importantly -- an unending supply of diet coke from the mini-fridge I still need to buy.

So while all this house work is getting done, I feel my to do list growing like mad:

1. Clean up my stash tracking spreadsheet and write a post about how I organized my stash (because so many of you have asked).
2. Document how to create a slide show like the one I did a couple days ago. The idea's hardly unique but I know some of you are struggling with the HTML.
3. Create a Socks 101 post. I started this last night but I don't like the way the toe came out. So a rip-rip-rip I go.
4. Start my sockapalooza sock.* Do you realize there's less than a month left before the swap? How did I let this happen?
5. Re-dye my scarf so I can show you all the final product.

I hope to start the Sockapalooza sock, document Socks 101, publish the spreadsheet and dye the scarf by end of the weekend.

OK, so I started the sock last night (for Socks 101), and a few nights ago too. But I keep ripping. Knitting for other people can really make you crazy! But I've finally settled on a pattern and now I just need to perfect the toe.

After organizing my stash I realized I had 3 skeins of DB Cashmerino Superchunky in cream. I've been wanting another scarf so I thought I'd whip one up quickly.

Once done, I felt it needed a little more oomph, so I decided to try my hand at Kool Aid Dyeing it.

Since the DB has some microfiber in it I wasn't even sure if the dye would take. I mixed up a water bath and gave it a go. It was pretty easy and the kitchen smelled like Jello. Wanna see the step-by-step process? I took a few pics for you!

The dye took, but the variations just aren't strong enough, so I'm going to have to make another pass at it. My plan is to just dye the darkest third this go around and see what happens.

That's the magic number. And even though there were over 100 entries, no one guessed that exact number.

The most popular guesses (at 3 each) were 189, 198, 243 and 437 (pretty close!) .

In the end, the person who got the closest without going over was Stacey. Pretty fitting since her blog's subtitle is "from my stash to yours". Stacey gets 3 skeins of Silk Garden color 74.

The closest guess (albeit over) was from Nolee at 455. So Nolee, you've won second prize! It's 300 yards of handdyed worsted weight (4spi) wool in purples.

And for third prize, I decided to pick a number at random just so everyone had a chance of winning. I picked number 7 which was Jackie! Her guess was 420. I'll be sending Jackie a hank of burgandy Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb and a skein of gold Lamb's Pride. The colors go well together and the yarn would make up nicely into a felted bag.

Congrats, Ladies!

Now, many of you left comments saying how lucky I was and how great it was to have such a stash. I've really put some thought into how I feel about it. And here's where I've ended up. I'm grateful to be able to go out and buy yarn on a whim when a new project strikes my fancy, but it really doesn't do much past that initial instant gratification. I've learned that all too often when an idea strikes I want to buy yarn for it RIGHT NOW and I end up making purchases that are less than ideal for the project. So, I've gotta stop that.

Also, I just love shopping for yarn when I'm in the planning stages of a project, and with a big stash I now feel guilty doing that.

So, here's what I'm doing about it. I'll be faithfully tracking all my stash yarn in my spreadsheet that I setup last week. This way I can make sure that I'm continuing the utilize stash yarn. This will let me know that I'm making progress even when it's not very obvious. I'm also going to try my darndest not to buy any more yarn until Maryland Sheep & Wool. And I will probably have more contests here on the blog. I think it's a great way to share the extra skein or two leftover at the end of a project with someone who might have just the right inspiration for it. Plus it gives me a way to say thanks to all my readers out there who so generously give me advice and encouragement whenever I need it!

I've gotten a lot of entries for the Guess the Stash contest, but none have been the exact number. Guesses have ranged from the low 100's all the way up to almost 2000!

I'm extending the contest to end of day today so there's still time to enter. Just leave me a comment here and I'll make sure you're in the running.

Also, I've decided to sweeten the pot and do a First, Second, and Third prize -- so you have 3 chances of winning.

Winners to be announced over the weekend!

I organized my stash this weekend. About 5 months ago I went to Target (that's Tar-zhay) and bought 4 big plastic bins to hold my stash. I took most of the bags and boxes and neatly placed them in the bins. I even had room left in a couple of them.

I knew I had more yarn but I was procrastinating pulling it all together. Bags were piled in a corner in the living room (somewhat out of sight) and on the sunporch and in the huge coffee table that comes chock full of stash hiding opportunities storage.

I've been meaning to get around to it, and when I wrote that post on Thursday I had this organization project on my mind. After getting the WONDERFUL comments from you all I knew I could take a few days off and get my stash in order once and for all.

Stella came over Friday night. As she knit I pulled out ALL MY STASH.

I catalogued everything in Excel and I now know everything I have. I feel freer. Lighter in fact. Hmm...sorta.

I now know that I have 448 Gallons of yarn. That's EIGHT bins of yarn. EIGHT. I cannot believe I have amassed this much yarn. I truly had no idea.

So this is where the contest comes in. Guess how many balls/skeins/hanks/cones of yarn I have in those bins. The person who most closely guesses the number without going over will win something wonderful from the stash. I'm not sure what yet, but really there's nothing bad in there.

Added Later

I've gotten several questions asking what might be in store for the winner. While I still don't know for sure, here are some ideas: a few skeins of Silk Garden, some Koigu, a felting kit in a variety of colors, sportweight Baby Alpaca, a couple hanks of Hand-dyed 4spi wool or some sock yarn. Whatever it might be it will be lovely and be all/predominately a natural fiber.

A couple of hints:

• Two of the bins have some room left in them
• I have one bin dedicated to sock and laceweight yarn
• I have one bin dedicated to cones
• I've counted each pound of yarn on the cone as 1 ball. So, if I have a 2.5 pound cone of yarn, it counts as 2.5 balls.
• Excluding the sock yarn, most of my yarn is 4.5-5.5 spi. I do have some bulky, but it doesn't even fill half of a bin.

Email your guess to savannahchik AT yahoo by Thursday afternoon. I will announce the winner by Sunday. Remember -- you need to be the closest one without going over.

I've been blogging for a little over a year now. Throughout this period my blog has taken on different voices (at least, to me it has) as I've learned what to write, what's helpful and interesting to people, and what I want my blog to be.

I'm always amazed at the number of readers I have. It's not a lot compared to some of the popular knitting blogs out there (oh, you know the ones!) but still I think I've developed a decent-sized core readership and I love it.

I know that if I post questions I'll get meaningful responses. I know that when I share something I'm proud of I'll get a few pats on the back. And I know when I need a little tough love I'll get that too.

Given this, I feel a need to write thoughtful posts -- with good content, hopefully some tips or helpful comments, and interesting progress to show.

After some real thought I just don't think I can do that if I continue to write posts every weekday. Some weeks I have TONS to share, and other weeks, life happens -- commitments at work, lots of time spent out, work on the house, whatever.

I've noticed that when I go through one of those "life happens" periods I feel guilty for not posting. None of you have made me feel that way -- it's just me. And then I feel pressured to make up for it by knitting a lot to show you what I did while I was away, and well, there's no fun in that, right?

So, I'm changing around my blogging "rules" a bit. I'll post when I have something to share. I suspect that in general I'll still be posting at least 3 times a week, and I also think I'll be doing more weekend posts. It's easier to put together a post on a lazy Sunday morning for me.

I'm also going to finally get around to posting some of those tidbits I keep saying I'll post someday -- like the slideshow for 1x1 tubular cast on. Since I won't feel so "obligated" to show progress on my knitting, I think I'll feel more relaxed about taking the time to shoot the pics and write the post.

In the end I think that will make a better blog for you to read, and a less stressful blog for me to write!

One final note: I don't feel continually stressed every day because of the blog. Truthfully, I love it! I love writing for it. I love learning how to take good pictures for it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting comments from you all. But if you have or have had a blog in the past, I suspect you've felt this way from time-to-time as well. Knitting is my passion, and blogging is my way to share it. Tinkering with the frequency of my posts is just my way of rebalancing the passion and the writing.

The socks are done!

Specs

Pattern: No real pattern. Tubular cast on, an inch of 1x1 rib, 5 inches of 2x2 rib, plain stockinette for an inch, Japanese short-row heel and a basic toe with the last few decreases done every row.
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Gauge: 5.5 spi -- much tighter than what's specified. This makes a nice dense sock that's still cushy and warm.
Needles: 2 Addi Turbo 4 mm (US #6) Circulars

They're warm. I'm a happy knitter!

Mariah

The official kickoff for the KAL was yesterday. I've done about 4 inches on the sleeve but something is bothering me. The pattern specifies keeping the selvedge stitches in garter. I don't usually do this but I thought I'd give it a try. I don't like the look though.

Then I realized this may actually make mattress stitching much more difficult -- right? So, I'm considered frogging this bit of progress and just doing a regular selvedge. If anyone has a better idea or a comment on the garter edge please let me know.

Blocking Wires

So I'm defintiely obsessed with lace now, and it's no longer a question of when I'll start another lace project but rather which one. I don't think I'll last past this weekend!

Since I had trouble finding a large enough spot for the Hanging Vines scarf I was considering blocking wires. But the longest wire I could find is 36 inches. Do you overlap them when the item is longer? I've searched around the major lace knitting sites I knew of -- Heartstrings and Fiddlesticks for example -- as well as checking out A Gathering of Lace. I can't find any example of blocking larger scale pieces with the wires. Is there a better way?

The preview is up at English Yarns!

I love the cami on the front page and can see making it up in black and wearing a bright tank underneath it in shades of fuschia and orange. Another tank -- Hobo -- has some really pretty edging detail.

They also have a new yarn line -- Rowan Cotton Rope -- and a new pattern line called RYC. Cotton Rope is a 55% cotton 45% acrylic yarn knit on 6mm (US #10). Here's a color card. Interestingly, the sherbet colors so popular last year still show through, although a bit darker than last year's varieties.

You'll also find 2 new pattern books from Jaeger. Interestingly, one of the patterns looks identical to Birch (at least by the pic I see online).

Regarding trends, the preppy pink and green is still there, as well as some brighter summer colors. And of course, the classic Rowan neutrals have a strong presence, too.

I posted my goals at the start of the new year and I plan to review them on the first day of each month. Here's my progress so far:

1. Clapotis i'm about 20% done
2. A pair of gloves
3. St. Brigid
4. Mariah
5. 4 other sweaters for me. Given my pile of half-completed sweaters this isn't as lofty as it might seem. need one sleeve and the finishing on the snowflake sweater
6. A tank/sleeveless top that fits well. This is probably the hardest goal!
7. An aran sampler throw blanket for my Mom. (I think this will be for her birthday in September)
8. 6 pairs of socks. finished 2 single socks
9. Some lavender-filled lace sachets for my Mom and Aunt Mary.
10. 65 other small items (hats, scarves, mitts, etc.) natalya
11. Something nice in lace. hanging vines scarf
12. No 2004 UFOs remaining at the end of 2005
13. At the end of 2005 I will have a smaller stash than I started with. i've purchased 2 hanks of Schaefer Anne in 2005 and used one of them for the hanging vines shawl. not bad but not perfect either.