Stash Bustin' Scarf and Bad Kitties

I guess it isn't all their fault, I did leave the yarn around for them to get to. It could have been so much worse, I walked into the living room today to find my two scoundrels playing with a small ball of black yarn.

I've seen at least three girls in one day wearing cute, super long, thin, vertically striped, machine knit scarves at work. I think they look pretty cool. I was checking one out and realized first that it was machine knit and then that it was knit side to side with lots of color changes. Been there done that, definitely not doing it again. So I decided to make my own and knit it longwise. I picked these colors because I think they go nice together. I may have to toss in some WOTA natural to give it a little bit of a color break. I'll decide as I go.

I have 80 grams of the green, just under 50 grams of the bright blue (blue bonnet WOTA from KnitPicks-left over clog stash), 40 grams of the dusty blue (the label is gone but it's probably rain) and lots of black.

Here's my formula. On a previous project (same yarn, same needles and I liked the fabric) I was getting 4 stitches to the inch. I would like my scarf to be at least 7ft long. 7*12 = 84". 84" x 4" = 336 number of stitches to cast on.

Then I figured for every foot of the long tail I left I could cast on 16 stitches 350 (I rounded 336 up to nice round number) /16 = 21 feet or 7 yards. I used the old hand to shoulder measuring method and added an extra yard for security.

I had a little over a yard of the tail left when I had cast on 350 stitches so I added 50 more for total cast on of 400.

The only way 400 will be a problem is if I run out of yarn before I finish and when I go to cast off. I bet I'm going to hate casting off.

I'm going to starting knitting tonight. A mindless or mindnumbing garter stitch. I plan to weigh the black ball before I start the first row and then again when I'm done to see how much yarn a row chews up. I have other colors I can add in if I need to. There's plenty of stash to go around.

I was knitting this scarf in my dreams last night so I have to get started on it.

Leftovers = Stash

I'm part of a yarn destash along and they have ruled that yarn leftover from a project (which you finished, but over bought for) is stash. I tried to call it leftovers, but they said that's like saying broken cookies don't have any calories. OK, when you put it that way.

Looks like I have more stash to confess.

Zephyr Peacock 50% wool/50% silk leftover from my Mom's peacock shawl. I have no idea how much there is. I wish I'd weighed the cone before I knit off it. Now the weight of the cardboard core throws it off. I'm open to suggestions to help me determine what's left.

Leftovers from three pairs of socks. I have just over 50grams of the pink (it's wool and feltable). 40 grams of the green (autumn flashes, I dyed KP superwash) and 80 grams of the blue and white (some sock yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby - it's superwash.)

I guess the green really is stash because I don't think I ever did anything with it. It's a Knitpicks yarn. There are just over 50 grams of it.

The white is also a Knitpicks lace yarn. I have just under 50 grams. Its the yarn I used if for my swallowtail shawl.

This is the yarn I hand-dyed to add to my SIL's clogs then it didn't go so I made fingerless mittens. I cannot locate it right this minute to weigh it, but I think I have about half the skein left which would be 50 grams. It's KP WOTA Natural. I'm considering an overall dyewash to change the color and then a second pair of fingerless mittens, but we'll see.

I have this leftover. I'm going to frog the finderless mittens because they are too big so technically it's back in the stash pile again. It's Silky Wool which I love. I'm waiting for it to talk to me again. I obviously misunderstood when it said it wanted to fingerless mittens.

With all the rain and ice and overall nasty weather, I got a closet cleaned out and started on the second clog of the green pair.

I also felted my green purse the one from Knit It Mag. I hate it and I'm going to stop felting. Once the felting is done there's no salvaging the yarn, it's just lost. I guess you could cut it up and make potholders, but I didn't work on it that long to make a stupid pot holder. Maybe I'll take pictures today and write more about this later.

I Want to Make this Scarf

Cast on 90 sts
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Knit into front and back of every stitch
Row 7: Knit
Bind off

I used less than two skeins of Trendsetter Dune with #13 needles. Apparently using larger needles and a thinner yarn helps the spirals. Glad you like it!

Isn't it cute?

To get a longer scarf I may cast on more stitches.

Confession - I Found More Stash

Well, I didn't find the yarn, but I found this picture that reminds me the yarn is somewhere. I actually listed the blue, but forgot about the white. I think the white skeins might be two different brands of yarn. In a previous blog entry I say it's wildfoote superwash. I wonder if I'm right?

I've decided I want to hand dye it. I found this picture digging through my own blog. I'm so glad I made notes.

I like this colorway. It's very pisces. I have several skeins of blue sock yarn, but not like this.

I didn't get much knitting done this last week. I just wasn't in the mood. I did finish one clog and one sole for a second clog. I knit a few rounds on the felted purse. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but that never ending stockinette is about to drive me crazy. I used to love to go round and round. Now it's boring. I'll take it to knitting on Tuesday. At least I can talk and do it at the same time. I probably have two more inches to go - yawn.

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.

The Yarn Has Spoken

This is one skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in color #24. It is a deep barn red.

I'm a big fan of wool and silk mixes (hence my love for Zephyr.) That's what drew me to this yarn at the Shabby Sheep in Dallas TX. What I don't know is why the heck I only bought one skein. It's 185 yards, what can you do with 185 yards of fingering weight yarn?

The yarn has spoken many months later and it wants to be fingerless mittens. http://www.3gcs.com/adcock/free%20patterns/fingerless_mittens.htm

I may have to make them a tad shorter, but that's OK. The friend I want to make them for is petite so it should work out perfectly. One of the SOWs (Sisters of the Wool - my knitting group) made a pair with medium weight Socks that Rock yarn and they are fabulous. She made her's really long because she could. I'm going to have to wing it.

I know Susan cast on 60 for her sock weight yarn. I will probably go 60 as well since this yarn is fingering weight.

In the meantime, my sister's Christmas gift is progressing. I'm 3/4 of the way there. But that intarsia is for the birds.

19 FO's - Wow!

I decided to count up the projects I've finished this year and came up with 19 finished objects. I had no idea. I'm glad I started blogging because I might have forgotten some of them. The size of the projects range from a hat to a full on lace shawl that took six months to create.

1. Peacock Shawl - it took six months to create
2. Swallowtail shawl - it took 2 months to create
3. Robyn’s felted clogs
4. John’s felted clogs
5. Felted cat bed
6. Tabitha’s baby kimono - Mason-Dixon Knitting
7. Nate’s baby kimono - Mason-Dixon Knitting
8. Ballband Warshrag - Mason-Dixon Knitting
9. Juana’s felted clogs
10. Josey’s felted clogs
11. Denim hat
12. Pink cotton candy hat
13. Yellow hat
14. Yellow variegated hat
15. 2^nd yellow variegated hat
16. cream hat
17. Knitty Branching out - my first lace project
18. Autumn Flashes socks
19. green sweater

Without a doubt, the Peacock shawl is my crowning achievement. As a general rule, close enough is good enough for me. I'm like my Aunt Peggy in that way. But when it came to the Peacock shawl and the Swallowtail shawl, if it wasn't right, I frogged it. I'm sure there are mistakes, but I did not leave them behind intentionally.

Now the clogs on the other hand, if I was a stitch off, well, it will come out in the wash.

2007 is going to be "The Year of the Socks" or maybe it will be "The Year of the Stash". Flashing back over my blog, I realize I have a lot of sock yarn stash (at least 4 pairs). If I don't buy any yarn for 6 months, I have plenty of projects to work on, but that's another blog entry.

I currently have one project on the needles. That means I will finish the year with at least 20 finished objects - wahoo.

I need to start a pair of socks and leave them in the car. Yesterday I had a flat tire, fortunately I was in the Wal-mart parking lot, but I was done shopping when I realized it so I just sat and waited and waited and waited. I could have been a ways along if only I'd had a pair of socks with me. Note to self, even if they were on double points (I'm a magic loop convert) it would have beat the heck out of sitting there.

The Swallowtail Shawl is Finished!

And I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I blocked it this morning and I just cannot say enough about how much blocking changes the look of lace. I wish I had taken a picture before blocking.

I decided to substitute beads for nupps (I hate the nupps) and I'm really happy with the results. It may not look exactly like the lily of valley, but the beads glisten.

Earlier I had mentioned I might have liked it better if the beads were matte, but now I'm glad they aren't. Since I was going nuppless, I'm glad I went all the way the opposite direction.

I just like this picture so I'm adding it.

I used Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Sunlight. It took less then one skein. In fact, I have 10 grams leftover, so it wasn't even close. I didn't add any extra repeats and it finished at 50" wide by 25" long.

I like the size, it's not too big. It's about the size of a large scarf. Fairly easy to wear and it does keep my shoulders warm. I plan to wear it to our Christmas party.

I have nothing on the needles at this very minute although I have plenty to knit. So I'll be casting on a new project tonight and maybe another tomorrow for some variety.

Brown Felted Bag

It's Saturday morning, too early to tackle any knitting, but I feel like doing something - so I'll blog. Since I don't have anything new with my current stuff, I went into the archives and found pictures of my brown felted bag. This was my first felted project and my first project knitted in the round - the date on the pictures is 4/23/2005.

There are things I really like about the bag and a few things I learned. The kitty gives perspective of the size in the picture above. Jaspers is a pretty big cat and this is a deep bag. Unfortunately since it happened so long ago, I don't remember how much yarn I used. But I know it's cascade 220. And I still today love the mottled color of brown.

The furry stuff I bought at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. It not only has the fur, but various brown and tan nubbies. I guess because of the location on the bag, and the felting power of the Cascade, there are no problems with the furry area not felting.

And man is that thing thick. The wall of the bag measures somewhere between 3/8" and 1/2" thick. Now, the strap is probably the one thing I don't like. Over the last year and a half it's gone from 36" long to - oh - 48" -50". It's a garter stitch strap that stretches like crazy. There's been talk of adding a leather strap that goes under the bottom of the bag and comes up the sides to give the bottom some stability and to alleviate the stretchy strap syndrome. I think if I was going to carry it as a purse I would do that. As a project bag, it's OK as it is.

Wow, the flashback was kind of fun, I've come a long way baby.

My knitting friends will remember that as a new knitter (who didn't really have any knitting friends when I started) I didn't know about winding skeins of yarn with a ballwinder (and store owner didn't offer). I was knitting this bag from the middle and the end of an unwound skein and it was the biggest mess you have every seen. I survived, though, and am now a better knitter for it.

What Does This Want to Be?

OK, that's a trick question, because I already have plans for this motley collection of yarn. And I'm not stressed about how things will turn out because I know the recipient of this gift is adventuresome when it comes to trying new things. Regardless of the end result, she will appreciate the effort. But I have a feeling it's going to turn out great.

The swallowtail is still hovering. I did a row last night only to discover I'd dropped a stitch (I've never done that and not caught it at that moment. Not because I'm a great knitter, but because I'm petrified of this happening.) and now I have to figure out how to fix it. I have days when I'm in the mood for that kind of heavy lifting and then there are days when I have to just put it down. Last night I just put it down.

Robyn's Clogs Finished

Yup, I got'em done. Finished them up watching the Cowboy game on Sunday. It was very, very close (the knitting not the game) on some colors and on one I didn't make it.

I was casting off the cuff of the second clog using dark pink and less than half way around (note the number of stitches left on the needle) I realized I wasn't going to make it. So I finished with the light pink. I figure with the felting it will all come out in the wash.

Since I didn't have any of the dark pink left, when I knitted the bottom sole on I had to use the light pink so there is a rim of light pink. I'm going to call it decorative edging. On the upside, I'd left enough from my long tail cast-on of the dark pink to sew up the center of the sole without getting decorative.

The bottom sole is solid dark pink. Because I only had one skein of the dark pink, I mixed pinks for the inside soles. You can see that in the picture below. It's light and medium pink for the first 5 rows and medium and dark pink for the last 2 rows. I'm really curious to see how that turns out.

You can also see in this picture the unfelted medium women's clog is 16" long. And 9" across.

I really like the colors. Very girly. And what girl doesn't want to feel girly?

I finally found my clogs. It got cold enough I had to dig through a couple of boxes. I found them in the oddest place, but found them just the same. When the boys came home from hunting last weekend, I greeted them wearing my fuzzy clogs. DS#2 said, "Did you make those shoes?" And I proudly answered, "Yes, I did." He's thirteen in 2 days so when I say he gave me that look you'll know what I mean. I bet if I made him a pair he would wear them though.

Not this year. I have one more pair. And they are going to be the funnest of all.

Robyn's Clogs

I'm still working on the swallowtail shawl and making great progress, but I feel a little guilty about not working on birthday and Christmas projects. So I worked on my SIL's birthday clogs last night.

This is the yarn I have set a side. The light and medium pink are Cascade 220. The dark pink is Patons Merino. The cream is Knitpicks dye-your-own.

I like the dark pink for the soles, but I only have one skein of 220 yards. According to the instructions it should take 400 yarns. So I thought I would kool-dye a skein of the knitpicks to use on the innersole.

Unfortunately the kool-aid pink is more salmon and not as cool a pink as the pinks I already have. On one hand, I plan to mix the dyed yarn with either the dark pink or the medium pink so it might look fine once it's felted and it's going on the inside sole. On the other hand, once it's felted there's no taking it back.

I'm not sure what I'll do now. I have enough of the light pink to mix on the inside. I could save the salmon for another project. I like out it turned out, just not for this project.

I'm actually very interested to see how the kool-aid dyed yarn looks when it's knit up and when it's felted.

Here's picture of my hand after the dyeing process. It still looks like that today. Looks like I need to buy some gloves.

Here's the hand-dyed skein hanging to dry. Again, I like it, just not for this particular project.

A quick review on the Paton's yarn. It felts wonderfully. I did test swatch of the Cascade and the Paton's together and the Paton's turned out much nicer than the Cascade.

Now I'm Cooking with Gas

It's really hard to see. I've taken several, several pictures and it just isn't coming through, but for what it's worth here it is. This is the swallowtail shawl from the Fall Interweave Knits. I spent a couple of weeks messing with the nupps. I hate the nupps. I was not enjoying knitting the shawl so it sat a lot. Finally I decided I had to frog back to the beginning of the nupp section and start over. Thank goodness for lifelines. There are five in the picture above, overkill to some, but I knit lace with no trepidation.

I really wasn't looking forward to frogging because it had taken me so long to get to the point where I was. Little did I know it was the nupps. When I frogged, I was on row 9 of lily of the valley chart one. That was Saturday evening, as of last night (Wednesday) I was on row eleven of chart two lily of the valley and not looking back. I'm cooking with gas baby.

I'm using clear beads for the nupps and I like it just fine. I kind of wish the beads were matte rather than shiny, but I'm knitting from stash so it's OK.

As some of my knit group members were finishing their first swallowtail they were talking about knitting another, and I've read of several people online wanting to do a second. When I was working on the nupps I couldn't image wanting to do another, but now I have to agree. The shawl really goes pretty fast and I would consider another. I think it would make a great gift.

Several people in my knitting group have done the swallowtail using a heavier yarn. For example Jeri used Knitpicks Gloss which is 70% merino and 30% silk. Their website lists it as a fingering weight. More details of how much yarn she used and how she adjusted the pattern are available on her blog. See Sept. 30th for yarn details and October 5th for a picture of the beautiful, blocked shawl. She wears it to knit night and it looks fabulous. If I do another, I would consider using this yarn as well.

http://soapquiltknit.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_soapquiltknit_archive.html

Angela knit hers using 3 skeins of silky wool. She also added extra repeats to the pattern. She doesn't have a blog so there are no pictures. But it is beautiful.

That's all for now. Let lacevember begin.