Strings & Yarn

I woke up the other morning with the revelation that I was finally ready to get rid of the acrylic yarn that I had in the closet.  I had some projects in mind.  A beach bag here, possibly a baby sweater there.  But then I decided I would much rather use other yarn, and knew it was time to clear some out.

To give you an idea, my stash closet has four cube shelves (you know the shelves you had in your college dorm) and two of these were full of acrylic yarn.  I kept the yarn to finish a half finished crochet blanket for my mom and that’s it.  However, this didn’t really create more space in the shelves.  So much yarn was spilling out of the shelves that I was able to fill the two cubes pretty quickly.

I still have crap yarn.  I’m sure I’ll get rid of it someday, but these are small steps.  I used to do major fundraising with this stuff, so it feels weird getting rid of it all.  The things left are mainly softer nicer acrylics that are much easier to make charity knits out of.

I used Eugene FreeCycle or Lane County Pay it Forward to get rid of this yarn.  If you haven’t searched already, see if there is a similar group in your area.  It turns out the person I gave it to was ecstatic to receive so many colors to start with.  Definitely worth clearing up some space.

I finished my December socks!

I got to use my own Strings and Yarn sock yarn for these. This particular skein expired on etsy so I kept it for myself. It was great to knit with, and now I can say I’ve really worked with some of my own yarn.

I also spent a lot of time on the internet yesterday and today. Anthony and I are starting a new web project together. More on that as it gets ready to be used. I also spent a lot of time breaking my blog and fixing it. Updating wordpress never seems to go smoothly for me. At least it’s up and running and I can post to it now.

I have also started a new pair of socks.

I have been wanting to do these for a while. I’m positive now that I have knit argyle in a past life. It just feels very natural. Click over to the flicker page for more pictures.

It’s finished! According to the archives, I dyed the wool sometime in February, got some of the first spun yarn off the bobbins in May, started knitting it in September, and finished it in December.

That photo is courtesy of TheBon.  She took the photo during our egg-roll party which was a smashing hit!  Anthony’s birthday is Dec 24th, we wanted to do something special for it this year.  Since people are usually busy and with their families during that time, we decided to wait until things had calmed down a bit and people were available again.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that we should have an egg-roll party, and the two things became one.  We provided the wrappers, oil, and dipping sauces.  Everyone else brought the fillings.  We had apple pie egg-rolls and brussel sprout and pancheta egg-rolls.  It was so good!  Bonnie also has a great post about the party here if you are interested.

Back to knitting.  Even though this is being posted mid-January, this was actually the last FO of 2007.  I had several things that were very close to finished, so I pushed through and finished this up the last week of December.  I have worn it and received many compliments on it.  Plus I get to show off that I dyed, spun and knit this beauty and watch the muggles jaws drop.

I was intending for this to be worthy of entry for competition at the Black Sheep Festival.  Unfortunately, I have a section where I did half a row, and turned back.  I could claim it was a short row shaping for my shoulder, but I don’t think they’ll believe me.  It means that I probably won’t have anything large to enter this year unless I get to spinning and knitting quickly.  I do plan on entering some spun yarn and maybe a smaller project.

I loved making the Lady Eleanor, and while there are many people who have made it already, if you haven’t it’s beautiful and fun to make.  Plus, if you spin, I made this out of merino (so squishy soft) for about $30.  Can’t beat that!

I’ve recently found my love for sewing again. First, you have to understand that I love fabric. I have a fabric stash that almost rivals my yarn stash. However, I don’t sew nearly as much as I knit. This is for a few reasons; a) sewing isn’t portable unless you are hand sewing, b) I don’t have an area set up where my machine can stay out, c) my machine is slowly dying.

The thing I’m not mentioning is there are also several projects that didn’t turn out so well. They all seem to center around Anthony too! first I tried to make a pair of pajama pants without any butt or crotch space (I couldn’t be cramping my man!) then I made another pair, but accidentally made a children’s medium instead of adult medium. Then I made a robe that ended up way to large.

I ended up fixing the pants, and the robe is waiting patiently for the day I feel confident enough to pick it up again. That day should be soon, because Bend-the-Rules Sewing has changed my sewing mentality. I checked out from the library around Halloween, promptly devoured every word on each page as much as possible and quickly schemed ways to make several of the projects.

In one weekend I made the coasters, a lined zip pouch and the pleated bag. I’ve been using the bag as my purse ever since and the zip pouch now holds all of my knitting accessories. This book quickly went on my holiday gift list. Plus if you want to see some super cute photos of other projects, check out the flickr group.
While I don’t have pictures of any of the projects I just listed, I do have something to show you.

This is the simple tote and is about to become my new lunch bag. (I know, the one in the book has apples too, but I loved the original so much!)

I’m so happy with how all of these projects has turned out, and it’s inspired me to actually start thinking about arranging my studio so my machine can be out and I can teach violin. However, the end process will involve painting and much furniture moving, so it probably won’t be for another few weeks.

The inside of the bag has a little pocket. Now all I need is a matching napkin to take along!

On a totally different note, I forgot to tell you that I did catch up on all the blogs! Bloglines has been officially decreased to zero posts! Now that reading blogs is much more manageable, I will be trying to comment more often on posts. Before, reading 13, 16, or 20 posts on one blog was so overwhelming that I could think of anything worthwhile to say. I feel really good about this, and have a small sense of being on top of the world. (Is that weird?)

Also, I just did a huge update of my shop. I did get some dyeing done over the break, so I’ve now updated with some of my stuff. As I’ve said before, dyeing during the school year is sporadic at best, but I am going to try to continue as regularly as possible.

Now that the Christmas knitting is finished I am working on a few new things. I do have one more FO for 2007 to show you, but it’ll have to wait until I can get a proper photo shoot done. It’s not a Christmas knit, just something for me. But that will have to wait for a later date. Now it’s time for a new sweater.

This is the ribbing to my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I’m sure you already know this, but it’s in the Fall ‘07 IK. I started mine in December and I’m now done with the body and a little over half way with the first sleeve.

I have to say that I am thrilled with the seamless construction. I love, love, love the fact that I’m not going to have to seam anything once I’m done, and that the sweater is flying off my needles.

I’m using Knitpicks Telemark in Flame Heather for this and I love the color. Sometimes it’s more red, sometimes, orange, and sometimes brown.

My gauge wasn’t exactly the same as the pattern so I had to knit a size smaller than the smallest size. Measurement-wise this will be somewhere between an X-Sm and Sm. Perfect for me.

Now, I have one other project I started, but since I never know who is reading I’ll have to put it under a cut. If your name is Erica B. don’t continue reading.

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I have so many FO’s and not enough time to blog them!  First with a Christmas FO I never got to share.  Blog, meet Branching Out, Branching out, meet blog.

Pattern: Branching Out from Knitty Spring ‘05

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Lime Blue

Needles: Size 5 Susan Bates

I knit this for a Christmas present for my Mom.  After doing the Mystery Stole I was completely addicted to doing beads in my lace.  After I blocked it, I almost immediately went to the bead store to find the perfect match for this scarf.

I ended up using less than half the skein, so I could do another lace scarf with what I have left, which is about 29 grams.

I really enjoyed making this pattern, and overall it went fairly quickly.  It would have been even quicker without the beads, but not nearly as interesting.  The yarn is very soft, and was beautiful to knit with.

I still need a few people to sign up for the pay it forward so don’t be shy.

Thanks for all of the great comments about Anthony and my engagement.  It has been a very exciting holiday season.  I’ll try not to only blog about boring wedding stuff from now on. 

And I’ve almost caught up on reading blogs.  Only about 150 posts left, and still growing.  Will I make it before Monday?