Hand over the Wool!

Last Ditch Stash Enhancement

Wendy and L-B have a great idea, and I'm always up for tagging along with great ideas. Knit from your Stash '07 sounds like a great way to knit through my collection of yarn.

It's my way or else! (But I snagged these from The Crafty Otter , hee, hee!)

***note: Her rules have been tweaked a bit for my needs***

1. My Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run for the whole year. I have no reason to stop partway through, and plenty stash.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
2.a. Sock yarn does *so* count. It doesn't in the original rules, but it will in mine. I have enough sock yarn to knit for a small army. (me too)
2.b. I may buy yarn to knit specific gifts for specific people, as long as that person is not me!
2.b.i. I may purchase yarn to be given as a gift, as long as the recipient is not me!

2.b.ii. I may purchase yarn for specific projects for Baby. (I need to acquire some baby yarn for the soon-to-arrive Critter, and you wouldn't want the poor dear to not have any cute booties or hats knit by her loving mama, now would you? I thought you'd see it my way.) 
2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.
2.d. I get two "Get Out of Jail Free" cards - the original challengers/challengees only have one each - I am running this for a whole year, after all, and would hate to go to Shepherd's Harvest or any other fiber festival with zero purchasing power. (very good idea, Ms. Otter)
2.e. I will start learning to weave this year, as I did buy a rigid heddle loom in November. I can buy yarn for a specific weaving project, as required, immediately before that project is due to start. I will most definitely *not* build a stash of weaving yarn!

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt, but I will try not to increase the size of my stash in this time.

Of course, that means I have mere days to shop. What? There's nothing in the rules that says I can't increase the stash before Jan 1.

This December I've been amassing yarn as if it was on the endangered species list. There's Malabrigo kettled dyed pure Merino wool in purple, red and green skeins. There's 4 skeins of Noro -Silk Garden for a wrap, a skein of regular Noro for a hat, a skein of Grignasco Merino-Silk lace-weight, maybe for a baptismal shawl or dress for our baby girl (only 4 months to go). I also picked up a skein of Opal sock yarn and a skein of hand-dyed Great Adirondack sock yarn (70%superwash merino/20% silk/10% nylon) and 2 skeins of Schaefer "Helene" (50/50 silk/wool) in the Clara Barton color. I also picked up a set of Brittnay DPNs. I've never worked with them, but I figured I really should give them a try.

And then I received a nice coupon in the mail for Gruber's Quilt Shop, which is also where I buy most of my yarn. I picked up more than enough yarn (the pretty heathered blue Cascade 220) to knit a sweater out of Alice Starmore's Fisherman Sweaters book and of course more sock yarn, Schaefer Yarns "Anne" (60% superwash merino, 25% mohair, 15% nylon).

The Day After...

Remember how I planned to have the sweater, the socks and the shawl done for Christmas? Ha! Un-huh.

So here's what happened. I tried, really I did. Last Tuesday I finished and bound off the front to the aran sweater. As I prepped to cast on for the first of the 2 sleeves, the pattern was no where to be found. Yep. I lost the pattern to the sweater I have been working on off and on for the last 9 months. It's enough to make me scream. I'm sure it's around here somewhere....

So, on to the socks for the 5 yr old nephew. The knitting was done before we arrived at my parent's house Christmas Day, and I finished the weaving in the ends under the cover of the Present Opening Event. Woo- Hoo! Finished socks! When it was time to try the socks on the kiddo, I found that the gusset wasn't deep enough for his ankles, this kid has the biggest heels I've seen. So the socks are finished, but basically need to rip them back to the pre-gusset area and rebuild them with deeper gussets/heels.

As for the shawl, I didn't get a chance at it until last night. So far I've completed 3 more repeats, thanks to my super fast new KnitPicks Options Needles Santa brought me for Christmas. Love these needles. I was previously in love with my Clover bamboo circulars for lace knitting, as the grabbiness was nice to have when I'm knitting with mohair and fuzzy lace weight. The tips were starting to bug, as it was getting hard to pick up the stitches. So I broke out the Options pack, and wow, they really have made a difference. The slippery barrels make it a little harder to keep track of the yarn on the needle, but the super pointy tips really make picking up stitches very easy. So far I've only tried out the US 9 with Crystal Palace Kid Merino yarn, and I like it.

Santa also brought me some really beautiful yarn from Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. There's a skein of superfine alpaca (8 oz, 2400yds) and a skein of her custom mill spun "Real Vermonter" fingering weight sock yarn (6.3 oz, 440 yds). Don't you just love the colors? I can't wait until I can cast these yarns on and play.

Yarn and Critters

So I'm knitting along on the sweater yesterday, just cruising along, right? Then I remember the arm holes. Hee, hee. I had knit 2 inches past the arm hole decreases. What do you think? Just block it as a fix, or rip out 2 inches, or block and seam as usual and then machine sew and cut off the extra. Hmmmm...

Here's what happens in my house when I set down the sweater:

Do you see how her little arms and paws moved? She was snuggling into the sweater like it was for her. I think I'll need to knit a kitty bed after Christmas.

Here's how the dog helps me knit socks for the nephew:

Most of my Christmas shopping is done, but I have 3 knitted gifts to finish before the big holiday weekend. One is the aran sweater for DH which I've been working on in spurts since March. I'm almost halfway done with the front, the back is done already. If my calculations are correct, it takes me about 1 day to finish a repeat of 20 rows, and I need to do another 3 repeats before the front is done. Then I figure there's about 5 days worth of sleeve knitting, and another couple days to seam and do the neck. So that's about 9 days of knitting just for the aran for DH. Here's what it looks like now.

The second gift, which has just been started is a pair of socks for my 5 year old nephew. He has instructed me that they should be all green. No stripes, no fancy patterns, just green. Thankfully he's just a kid still and whipping up a pair of socks in plain stockinette should be something I can do during those times when I'm waiting in line at the bank and the grocery store. I can always finish them up on the way from the in-laws to my parents on Christmas morning. Here's a picture of the first half of sock #1, I'm using Knitpicks Essential Sock yarn in the Grass color. Notice there's only one ball of yarn. The other is on its way and should be here this week.

And now for gift No. 3- the Beartracks Shawl, under construction since June. The yarn is Kid Merino from Crystal Palace and the pattern is from Lorna's Laces. When it gets finished, this shawl will be destined to warm my mom's shoulders, and I'd like to have it done for Christmas.

The Christmas Tree

Ok, the Christmas Tree won. Furniture was moved, extra surge protectors were plugged in, and Minerva was folded in half. Don't worry, she's supposed to be able to do that. See?

The Tree was brought upstairs one section at a time, assembled and plugged in. I spend almost an hour fluffing the branches, trying to make the center pole/trunk of the Tree disappear behind the greenery. The cinnamon scented pine cones from the craft store were placed in the branches filling the house with a nice cozy scent.

I also set up my Elf Skating Rink, complete with flashing lights and sound and little elves skating around in figure 8s. It's my first Christmas village-type display and I love it. The music is nice and you can hear the little guys saying "Weee!" and "Woo-Hoo!" as they skate around and around. There's even a volume control, can you tell that I love this thing?

Check out Guinifer's display, isn't it beautiful? I love little villages, if only I had the space. By the way, there has been knitting, planning and yarn acquisition during the last week. When I get it organized, then you'll get to see what I've been up to.