2007 - Year of the Stash

A couple of definitions for stash.

stash
noun
1.	a secret store of valuables or money [syn: hoard]
verb
1.	save up as for future use [syn: hoard]

I like that "a secret store of valuables or money" or to "save up as for future use."

Well to me there is no time like the present. I realize my stash is not nearly as large as some, but at times it can be overwhelming to me. Like now. I look at all my yarn and I don't know where to start. Do I knit socks, do I work on my aunt's scarf, do I finish the boys FT clogs (no I do not, I'm sick of clogs) do I make a felted purse. I start to think about all this and ultimately I don't want to do any of it. It kind of takes the fun out of it.

As a result, I'm going to take inventory and get started wiping it out. I'm going to get it back under control. For a while I was into scrapbooking. I collected lots of stickers and paper. Until it go to the point, where I had so much stuff I couldn't keep it all organized. To get it all out to work on scrapbooks was too much. I hoarded stickers (see above "stash") until they lost their sticky. That's crazy. I don't scrapbook anymore because the "stuff" got overwhelming. I don't want my knitting stash to go the way of my scrapbook hoarding.

Here's my inventory - well most of it - that I plan to work through in 2007.

This is 4 skeins of Patons Wool. It's going to be the purse you see in the picture. It's from Knit It! magazine. I actually bought this yarn with this specific purpose. I think this will go fast, so I'm going to work on it first. It will most likely be the first finished project of 2007.

This may look familiar. I took a similar pictures when I was working on my sister's felted clogs. These are going to be the accents on my felted purse. See above.

My first Koigu. And probably the first socks for 2007. I'm actually excited to get working on these.

This is some fantastic yarn I bought at the Shabby Sheep in Dallas, TX. It's going to be a pretty beaded scarf for my Aunt Peggy. Her birthday is in February. So I have a goal.

Several more pairs of sock yarn. They will make good traveling projects. I plan to stick one set in my car - in case of emergencies.

Not pictured is the yarn for my Shetland Tea shawl. That one will take a while. It's going to continue to brew. Tomorrow or the next day I will talk about yarn that is not stash in my book, but leftovers. Now what am I going to do with that?

Going to the Frog Pond

Alternate titles might be

Rip It! Rip It! Rip It! or

I Like to Knit, but I'm Not a Big Fan of Re-Knitting

I ended up giving the kool-aid dyed pink fingerless mittens to Connie. They turned out a more manageable size then the red ones. She liked them.

As for the red ones, I wore them this morning. They stretched to the point where they are going to have to be frogged. They are just too big. I'll salvage the yarn and then knit them again. Maybe with a different stitch pattern this time. And I'll definitely cast on fewer stitches.

I don't have any fun new pictures. But my goal next week while I'm off is to take stock of my stash and begin a period of stash reduction. It looks like I may have to travel in Jan and Feb, so I'll likely get a pair of socks done - maybe two.

FO 21-1/2

This is the first mitten of a set of fingerless mittens for me. I followed the same pattern I used for Connie's Fingerless mittens, but used worsted weight wool I dyed myself with kool-aid.

This is the skein while it was drying. I want a pair of fingerless mittens (although it's supposed to be in the 70's here today) and I was anxious to see how this yarn would knit up, so my mittens moved to the top of the to-do list. I really like how the colorway turned out. In hindsight, I wish it was a couple of different colors. And if there is yarn left when I'm done I may try add some other colors, but overall I'm very pleased.

My Other Knitting Blog

My actual knitting blog is at www.xanga.com/txknitter.

Doin' The Happy Dance

I'm doin' the happy dance for several reasons.

1. I just noticed that today is my one year anniversary for this blog. I think that's cool.

2. I have 2 more finished projects so I'm up to 21 for the year.

• My sisters clogs - currently a private message so she can't peek.
• Connie's Wristwarmers.

3. I made really cute Christmas gifts for the SOWs (my sisters of the wool knitting group).

There are twelve of us, give or take a couple, so I wanted to do something not too expensive. But I wanted it to be useful. I've been pondering this since August (at least). It's sick I know. I like the knitpicks sock bag thing that you can string around your beltloop and knit on the go. But it's $18 - not cheap. So I started thinking about making my own.

I knew I wanted it to have the loops on the inside to guide the yarn and keep it from getting tangled. In fact, I wanted two loops for knitting two socks at a time if so desired. And I decided it needed to be lined.

Initially, I tried to make it so it could be tied on a beltloop, but it wasn't working for me. So I asked myself, How many of the SOWs would actually knit in the grocery line anyway? I determined it wasn't a deal killer so I opted for pretty ribbon handles.

A few years ago I went through a fabric collecting phase. As you can tell from the picture there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it. Most pieces were remnants from the Waverly outlet remnant bin. I just bought pretty pieces that caught my eye. In some cases, I could make three bags from a piece of fabric, in others I got one. So I went through the stash pairing up fabrics for the lining and the outer. Each one I put together, I liked better than the last.

I had so much fun doing this. Although I'm not much of a seamstress, I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

I'm just giving blogger a try.

Connie's Fingerless Gloves

These fingerless gloves went very quickly. I finished the pair in about a week. Of course I didn't knit on anything else, but that's how I like to do it. You actually can't tell much by this picture. The thumb is on the other side, but I wanted a nice shot of the ribbing.

http://www.3gcs.com/adcock/free%20patterns/fingerless_mittens.htm This is the pattern I followed - basically. Since I've started knitting lace, my gauge has gone to pot, so my 1x1 rib is worthless. As a result, I just skip it when it comes to socks and now fingerless mittens. I just started in on the main twin rib pattern. I cast on 48 because I'm using a lighter weight yarn than is called for in the pattern, but for my gauge I think a 42 (what the pattern specifies) would have been fine.

I decreased one stitch after finishing the thumb increase. I don't know if it made that much difference, but it made me feel better. I did it on the third K1,P1 row after putting the thumb stitches on the spare yarn.

In the end, I did 16 rows to get the palm length I wanted. And I did it in the twin rib pattern instead of in the 1x1 ribbing.

They fit me pretty good and I'm happy with them. I just have to weave in a few ends and they are good to go. I am actually surprised at how well they keep my hand warm even when I'm just trying them on for size. I guess it's the wool and silk. This is Elsebeth Lavold silky wool. It was a 50gr skein and I still have about 20 grams left. I feel a mini-sweater ornament for the tree coming on.

My Sister's Felted Clogs

Jeannie, if you don't want to see your Christmas present before Christmas - stop reading now.

My sister is open to trying new things. She's the one who got me started knitting almost 2 years ago. While we like to knit different types of things, we each appreciate the other's art.

This is my art for her. Felted clogs. I gave intarsia a try. It's tough. Lots of strings hanging all over the place. And when knitting these Fiber Trends clogs it's even more of a challenge with wrapping and turning and backing and forthing. The yarn getting tangled. But it was fun to give it a try.

This is what they looked like when I thought I was finished. A little plain. Maybe a tad like clown or hobo shoes. That could have been the result of the size and the shape in their unfelted state. But they needed something, so I decided to try another technique.

I think the flowers are a nice touch. They were fun and easy to add. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to them when they felted. I guess I could have swatched - naah.

I had some problems with holes where the intarsia pieces met. I don't know that I would do that again on clogs or anything felted for that matter. But I liked adding the flowers after the knitting was finished. I did notice everything is more subtle once it's felted. So go strong on the color and know that it be cut back some.