So back in January, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee blogged about her self-imposed sock club, bundling together yarn from her stash with patterns and setting up 12 grab-and-go bags. I thought it was a nifty idea, and then I forgot about it. After my frog-or-finish decisions, though, I started thinking about it again, because it was time for me to look at my stash and start thinking about what to keep and what to donate/gift/sell. I have a bin for yarnstorming supplies (mostly odds and ends of various yarns, vintage acrylic) and I set up a box of yarns for Mom (kitchen cotton, she likes making dishcloths), and then I stalled.
Well. Would you want to give this up?
At that point, I went through my Ravelry stash (that helped me figure out how long some yarns had been in my stash) and my favorites, and did some pattern suggestion searches. With that, I started a Ravelry queue and have been bagging yarns together with notecards that have the pattern name and hook/needle size written on them. No printed patterns, because 1) I don’t own a printer, and 2) I have been using my Kindle for patterns and really liking it.
This is the first bag, which I now have in my portable project bag. I’ve started the Wham Bam Thank You Lamb cowl by Susan Chang, and it’s at just the right speed for winding down from the holidays – garter stitch and quick progress, resulting in a cowl that is very gift-able (that is to say, Muggles will like it). I’m over halfway through after one car ride, and if I knit during the drive back home tonight (I’m not going to be the one driving!), I’ll be done and ready to cast on for the Cabled Button Toque by Amy Swenson, which I think could coordinate well with the cowl without being too matchy-matchy.
For yarns that I don’t have a project in mind for, it’s time for my trade/sell list on Ravelry. I don’t need any more yarn right now, so it’s all sell (unless you have some marvelous handspun yarn to trade). Because I need to move these yarns out of my stash, I’m asking for 10 – 20% below average retail price for untouched skeins that have been sealed in plastic bags away from light and odors, in a pet-free home. As I continue to sort through my stash, more yarns are likely to be added.
It’s not perfect, but it’s done. I’m reminding myself that I can knit another one, and having this gift checked off my list is more important right now! Weaving in all the ends and washing this tonight, then getting it wrapped up for Mom.
Ravelry Project: Holiday Hot Water Bottle
Pattern: Rachael’s ISBN Hot Water Bottle Cozy by Rachael Herron, modified to use stranded colorwork instead of the cable panel and with a shorter neck. The heart band at the bottom is from the chart in the Hearty-stripy sock pattern by Patty McEldowney.
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn, Galway, color 16 (red) and color 127 (light green)
More crochet lace rock doilies:
…and what the undersides look like:
These are fun and a good, healthy way for me to relieve stress. These are all freehanded – I don’t work from a pattern, just improvise motifs and then close the doily around the rocks with crocheted loops and decreases, using triple crochet, double crochet, and single crochet stitches. Margaret Oomen’s crochet covered sea stones have been a huge inspiration for these; you can find a free pattern for Little Urchin Crochet Covered Sea Stones on the Purl Bee blog and photos of Margaret’s work on her blog, Resurrection Fern. She also sells some through her Etsy shop (knitalatte, scheduled to re-open in early 2012).
I also have some plans to sell pieces from the Kokua Market Yarnstorming and other similar pieces (rock doilies and crochet jellyfish, primarily) to help raise funds for future yarnstorms. Now that I’ve told you, I should get on that!
Years of experience have taught me to get started on holiday gift making early. The year Mom got a pair of felted slippers that were still soaking wet, for example. This year I’m knitting a hot water bottle cozy for her, and so far, I have managed one band of colorwork that made my right hand hurt for two days, and I’m going to rip it out. (The colorwork, not my hand.)
My hand hurt because I usually knit Combined, with the yarn in my left hand, and it suits me just fine. For working more than one color per row/round, though, it can be slow going. I’ve tried carrying two colors in my left, with wonky results. I’ve knit with one color at a time, and that works for some colorwork. Figuring it’s a skill I want to acquire anyway, I’ve been knitting this cozy with one color in my left hand and one color in my right. It feels awkward and my tension is still a little uneven, but nothing that wouldn’t even out a bit with a good blocking and which really doesn’t matter too much (it’s a hot water bottle cozy, after all, it just needs to keep the bottle insulated and keep it from burning Mom). The lack of contrast in the colors is just not working for me, though. Can you tell that the colorwork strip is a band of hearts? I can’t, and I knit it. I wound off half the skein of the darker pink and put it in dyebath of red and pink food coloring last night, and I’m also going by YarnStory this afternoon, where I may just go ahead and buy more yarn. Hopefully this will get done on time!
Ravelry project: Hot Water Bottle Cozy
Pattern: ISBN Hot Water Bottle Cozy by Rachael Herron, modified to use the colorwork chart for Hearty-Stripy Socks by Polly McEldowney.
The Stockinette blog has a post on how she knit her Beatnik in the round, with seamless set-in sleeves. It looks fabulous on her! It also looks like this sweater doesn’t really need seams for structure. So I decided to start a sleeve in the round to see how it compared.
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So that bag of Berroco Remix I bought along with Wendy Bernard’s book Custom Knits, to knit the Ingenue pullover sweater with, after multiple swatches and much Ravelry research, is now being knit into the Beatnik pullover sweater. All of my swatching was suggesting that this wasn’t the yarn for an Ingenue; getting to gauge would have made a very stiff fabric and I didn’t want to have to redesign the sweater to suit my gauge instead. Just going ahead and designing a sweater for myself gripped me for long enough to sit down with Sweater 101 and take notes, and then Beatnik popped up in Friends Favorites on Ravelry and I was smitten. Although I know swatches lie, my swatches suggest I knit this one size smaller (the 40″ instead of the 44″), so that’s what I’m doing…even though the sweater is knit flat, in pieces, so trying it on as I go won’t be an easy option. I’m also using 4.5 mm needles to knit the twisted rib hems, because I couldn’t find 4.25 mm needles. So far, those are the only changes I have made to the pattern; once I get to the armscyes and sleeves it may be a different story, as I have broad shoulders and big upper arms.
I will note that knitting twisted rib in a non-stretchy yarn is not the most fun thing, especially when the needles are heavy enough to slide right out of the stitches if I’m not careful. Added bonus for me preferring to knit “combination” style, which means that the standard instructions for how to knit a twisted rib does not result in a twisted rib when I do it. It’s been a little slower for me because I had to pay attention to the stitches and make sure I was twisting them.
Pattern: Beatnik by Norah Gaughan, published in Knitty Deep Fall 2010
Yarn: Berroco Remix
Lava Flow Cowl #3, blocking.
The Lana Grossa Alta Moda Cashmere was a good choice. It’s pretty airy for a bulky yarn, it’s next-to-the-skin soft, and it’s got a little bit of halo that you can see close up:
…and great stitch definition when you stand back:
Now I just have to graft the ends.
Pattern: Lava Flow Cowl by Dixie Norton, available free at the Dixie Stix blog.
Yarn: Lana Grossa Alta Moda Cashmere, 80% merino, 20% cashmere. Bulky/12-ply chainette. (YarnDex link)
Lava Flow Cowl #1 is still in progress. I misread the instructions and cabled more frequently than the pattern called for – letting it marinate while I think about working that into the pattern or just starting over.
Lava Flow Cowl #2 – frogged, as posted earlier.
Lava Flow Cowl #3 has knit up quickly; what I need to do now is weave in the ends, wash it, block it, and see if it’s the right length. This time I’m using Lana Grossa Alta Moda Cashmere on US #13 needles, and it is knitting up to be rather light and fluffy for something so bulky.
Lava Flow Cowl, free pattern from the DixieStix blog. I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky and a pair of US 10.5 knitting needles that I was okay with losing if airport security decided to confiscate them, so I took this on a very long airplane ride and it was great! Until I ran out of yarn.
It’s not long enough to make a comfortable cowl, and this yarn has been discontinued, so I’m going to frog it and make something else. I’m okay with that; I cast on another one in a different yarn and this time I made sure I have enough!
Although I’m still knitting away at the Matilda & Tillie pattern revision samples, I do have a swatch going. It’s nice to have something I can just pick up and knit away at without thinking too much! The yarn is Berroco Remix, which Mom used for a baby sweater (pattern: Arshile, color: Smoke - kits available through WEBS). I’m swatching for an Ingenue sweater (from Wendy Bernard‘s Custom Knits book). In the spirit of practicing what I preach, I bought the book from the same yarn shop I bought the yarn from (Webs – yarn.com), and while I went into the transaction willing to pay full price, I saved $5.50 off the MSRP because the Webs discount system now includes books! I would have purchased it from a bookstore here, but none had it in stock.
Remix is a worsted/10 ply yarn made of 100% recycled fibers, a mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic, and silk (you can read more about it on Berroco’s info page for Remix). It is soft and pleasantly nubby and I’m enjoying knitting with it.
