Flash Your Stash!

Look at all that gorgeous yarn… notice the distinct lack of yellow yarn?? Totally weird. I guess I should look into more of that color. And clearly I don’t need any more blue or pink. Ever. I think there’s enough there to last me for years…

I also took a non artsy-fartsy one with it all splayed out for cataloging purposes. I’m slowly adding notes to FLickr for it all. Lots of work. A lot of the neutrals didn’t make it into the color wheel because the Knit Picks Bare yarn took up a lot of space… Maybe I’ll dye it yellow ^.^

Spinning Nation

I’ve been spinning a fair amount lately so rather than finishing sweaters and things I’ve been making yarn. Look at this! I bought this cheap practice wool to play with and I never thought it would turn out so lovely! I’ve got the itch to spin more than one ounce now because I have no idea what to do with 47 yards of handspun wool. And as gorgeous as it is its itchy as hell, so I don’t know that I’ll do much more than drool over it.

I also recently had an interesting dyeing incident… I dyed this yarn about six months ago. It sat in my stash for months while I pined over other things. I finally decided to bust it out and do something with it last week.

It’s gorgeous right? Yeah I’m tooting my own horn, but its totally cool yarn! So I popped it onto my swift (did I mention I got one for Christmas? And a ball winder?) and spun it into a pretty ball. There was only one problem… when I started to knit it up it started to look like clown vomit. No I did not take a picture of said clown vomit. It was that bad!! So I wound it back into a hank and dyed it. Black.

I used dilluted black so it turned my clown vomit into (drum roll) goth clown vomit!

Its still a little overwhelming so I’m not sure its destined to become anything yet. I’ve got some other things to keep me busy until I try this one again. >.<

Noro!

I finished my fabulous Noro scarf last night!! I used one skein of each color so its a bit shorter than I usually like, but it works fine at keeping my neck warm! The colors turned out gorgeous! I want to make more of them!

The Great Sweater!

I’ve gotten past about half the ribbing I need for the rest of the body. Isn’t it super cute?! I don’t know how much ribbing I’ll add to the neckline because I like where it is right now. Still debating on the sleeve length… Its a full length sleeve in the pattern but I like it short too. Then I thought maybe 3/4… but I don’t know how that will look since the sleeves are mostly knit in ribbing.

The goal of this pattern is to make a whole sweater with no messy shaping, hence all the ribbing. So far I love it but I’m tempted to change the sleeves so I don’t have to do them in so much ribbing. We’ll see when I get there!

A non-knitting contest

There’s information on my other blog about a contest to win a free Green Bottle. It’s a stainless steel water bottle. Uber cool.

Swatch to Sweater

In less than a week, I went from that….

To this…

It’s the Cozy V-Neck Sweater from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel.

This sweater is even easier than her One Skein Wonder pattern (of which I have made several, several shrugs.) The increases are insanely easy and I’m surprised I’ve gotten this far into it without getting bored. The ribbing might be a little more daunting, but I’m prepared to plow through that.

I only wish I had picked a different yarn, the Wool of the Andes is light worsted, regardless of what Knit Picks may claim. I’m tinkering with the thought of making a second one in Paton’s Classic Wool. But I’ll need to do a proper swatch first.

And on the note of swatches… I’m notoriously terrible about swatching for things. I knit pretty ‘regular’ and when I use the called for needles and weight of yarn I get gauge about 90% of the time. Its my cocky attitude towards gauge that has lef to such disasters as The Suck Sock, The Hedera Catastrophe and other horrifying gauge disasters.I’m a bad swatcher.

However, I actually swatched for this project. Three times!! First on size 7 because I missed the bit about two sizes of needles for the project. Second on plastic 9s only out of sheer desperation and then lastly on the size 9 Addi’s I bought specifically for the project. I’m so glad I splurged on the Addi’s, I would have been fighting the plastic junk the whole time. Not too surprisingly I had perfect gauge on size 9s. But I would have been very, very sad if I knit a whole sweater that didn’t fit.

That’s really all I’ve been putzing with these last few days, however, I did pick up some cotton to make a tiny zombie army for Somber. It would have been a surprise but I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut! Look for loads of pictures when they are all completed.

Cowls, Scarves and Sweaters

• Look, my third MKL Cowl. There’s just something about this cowl that I adore. Its deceptively simple, it drapes wonderfully and cowls aren’t fussy like scarves. Plus its cotton, which makes it oh so soft. I intend to make more of these. Lots more.

• Oh  Noros, why did you both have to go green at the same time?! I’m maybe 1/3 into this scarf and already I have to colors lining up with one another. It still looks alright, I’m just trying not to be anal about it. I hope I have enough yarn, that’s my only concern. I only bought two skeins but my scarf is considerably more narrow than others I’ve seen, so here’s to hoping!

• A little preview of my sweater yarn. Just a swatch, but look at how delicious this blue is… I am 100% in love with it. And very glad I chose a heather yarn. I’ve switched from the intended Mariah pattern to something a little more tame, the Cozy V-Neck Pullover from Fitted Knits. I swatched in 7s not thinking about the other size needles… which I now need to acquire. But so far it looks and feels great. I’m starting tonight with a few friends so hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll have new pictures of my progress. That is, if I don’t frog it 8 times tonight.

Hardware malfunction

My main computer sort of died earlier this week, which makes it hard to edit photos and stuff. In any case, the new parts arrived today so I should be up and running tonight and back to blogging!

Where have I been?!

Yesterday my friend Vee and I went trooping through the blizzard to hit up Barnes & Nobles and Ewe-Nique Knits in downtown Royal Oak. (Whose idea was that anyway??) (It was mine.)

I was originally only looking for Noro to start a scarf… but I saw that hot pink cotton yarn up there and it just sort of ended up at the register. Its Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton… mmm…

Whilst looking at the Noro I spotted some roving and told Vee to avert her eyes. Of course she didn’t listen and we found that about half the shop was devoted to roving and spinning. After picking the shop owners brain for what must have been an hour we walked away with over 10 collective ounces of roving. It seems like nothing in weight but its really alot. But of course, not enough. Ever.

After spending buttloads at the yarn and roving shop we came back here and Vee showed me how to drop spindle. OH MY GODS. I’m obsessed with yet another fiber art. I have about an ounce left of greyish brown practice roving to plow through tonight and then I’m onto some dark blue Brown Sheep roving. I also have… a bunch of hot pink silky stuff and pink and blue wool that my friend Inoxia gave to me for Christmas. She’s also the one who gave me the drop spindle that started the fire.

Oh how I loooove spinning. I also won a whole huge ball of roving at a knitting event over the summer. I passed it to a friend who said she’d spin it for me but I’m hoping she hasn’t started and I can snag it back from her. Pictures will follow when I have something to show!

In the crochet basket…

Mostly my time has been focusing on this afghan I started…

Its uh… intense. Its the same row over and over and over again, so I have it memorized after only five rows… I forsee is being finished by next Winter!

I’ve also churned out a few more One Skein scarves from Stitch-N-Bitch Crochet.

2009 Goal #1

Rather than set numerous goals all at once this year, I’m going to set them in increments. As I finish goal #1, I’ll post goal #2. This way at the end of the year I won’t feel like such a slacker!

My first goal for 2009 is to knit a sweater. That’s right… I have yet to make one and I’ve been knitting for over 6 years. Ok, maybe that seems slightly worse in my head…

Anyway, last year was socks, this year I tackle a sweater! I bet the number of stitches will be about the same (I did many socks last year). 

I’ll be knitting Mariah in Knit Picks’ Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather

Cheers to my first sweater in ‘09!