Project Updates and Stash Enhancement

Some of the yarn I got for Christmas. This is alpaca sock yarn. How yum is that!?!

Knitpick Essential (soon to not be named Essential anymore so now it's a collector's item!) that Jason got me for Christmas. I looove the color. I think it's destined to be Monkey's.




The four above are all Manos del Uraguay The bright teal and the orangey one are their bulky wool, and the wine and the grey tones ones are the wool/silk blend. All four are sooo delicious to touch. Got these at a huge discount in Brevard at Charlotte's Fibers for her pre-Superbowl sale.


Also purchased at Charlotte's Fibers at the same sale, these are both JoJoLand Melody, and will made wonderful socks that do not have to match. Hooray!

Marie has made several of these really awesome ribbed vests that while they seem like endless knitting would be awesome for keeping warm. So I bought this Fibranatura Mermaid in a luscious red color to make one for me.

This seemingly tangled mess is destined to be a Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Throw, when I get the nerve to wind all that yarn and get started with miles of feather and fan.


The above are the fourth and fifth installments of the Seven Deadly S(p)ins club, Pride and Greed. Both of these I plan to finish, though at the rate I knit, who knows when I'll get to them.

My Malabrigo hat. I love the colors .. I think I could have made the hat a little bigger, though. but the thought of ripping out to make it bigger is so daunting. I know I should but .. ugh!

There actually has been a great deal of progress on the Wrapigan. I'm to the second armhole now .. just started the second ball of the yummy alpaca I'm using, and though I'm dreading binding off and casting on all those stitches, because then it's just another mile of stockinette before I can bind off and be done, it'll be so worth it to have this to throw on when I'm chilled.

One thing I'm sad about is that the end of the shaping part meas the end of using my cute little bee stitch marker. Jason got me these for Christmas. Six bees, plus a single rose. So cute!

This is a project I started just to use up some stash. It's Brooks Farm Duet in a deep foresty-green. I'm making one of those really simple triangle shawls .. for as long as the yarn will hold out. I have no idea if I have enough to make this any substantial size, but we'll see. If not .. well, I can always frog and try something else.

The sixth installment of the Seven Deadly S(p)ins club was Envy .. not Lust as I suspected it might be with Valentine's Day coming up. It's beautiful, though. Handwarmers. I can't wait to get these started!

I made this to be the cover for a rice-bag I haven't yet made. It'll be perfect for my stiff and sore neck though.

I have recently spent a lot of time photographing and adding stash and projects to my Ravelry. There was a ton that I hadn't entered .. there likely still is a bunch I need to deal with .. the cotton, for example, I just dread doing because I have a ton of 1s and 2s of things, and that's just a lot of photos to take. I'll get it done. plus there's stuff I still need to enter .. random stuff I've picked up in swaps, etc. pretty stuff, but I just need to account for it. I try to keep myself accountable for the yarn I have.

Some of the prettier stuff I'm showing off here, mainly because I can.







I've been working on a lot of things .. handwarmers, hats for charity (once I can find the needles I need), still slogging away at the wrapigan. The sweater's on hold, mostly because I've been working on other things. Marie taught me how to weave my ends in as I knit, and how to do the Turkish Cast On, which is the coolest thing ever, so I might be cranking out some holiday gifts here soon.

Yummy

First of all, I have all but finished the Peacock bag I was working on. I just need to figure out just what I'm going to do about handles. I might just make the ones the pattern calls for .. but I also kinda wanna create a drawstring to close it, so I dunno.

Let me tell you .. seed stitch in the round? Easy peasy. but oh my gods did I mess it up about a billion times. At least I never got but a few stitches before I'd realize, and tink back.

This picture doesn't show the stitch definition as well, and is closer to the actual colors, at least on my monitor. I have just loved knitting with this ribbon, and have a skein left .. before making the handles at least. I'll probably still have a skein, or most of one, once I do the handles. Could have made the bag longer but .. why?

Details, as always, on Ravelry.

I also have done a little stash enhancing. We went to the Yarn Shop in Pineville ... I think I went in looking for needles, and Jason wanted something to make a cute dishcloth he found. Well, as usual, there was something I just couldn't pass up. This time it was three somethings.

I have wanted to try the corn-fiber yarn for as long as I've known about it, and they had a bunch of it on clearance. Now, I know that means it didn't sell well and all. But c'mon. It's corn fiber. That's cool! So I bought this little grab bag which also has a funky ribbon yarn in it along with two balls of the variegated purple. Jason and I were talking as we picked up our lunch, and decided to go back to see if they had anymore. And we got there in the nick of time! THey were just closing. In fact, Hattie had already closed the register down. But they let me pick out all the A-maize-ing and put it aside for me. I went and picked it up yesterday. Quite a bit of yarn, let me tell you. but I think I'm going to use it to make bags similar to the Peacock, only smaller.

I love Araucania's yarns. I dunno what it is about them .. and I haven't actually knitted up any that I have. But I love them just the same. So when I saw this little beauty in with the cottons, I had to have it. I'm probably going to use it to make something for the 'Wrath' project from Seven Deadly S(p)ins, since the projects we were sent aren't exactly Wrath-ful. Not that I mind. I absolutely love the project we were shipped, and really need to get started on it.

It's got this almost-boucle texture though, so I don't think I can make the Sheepie cloth with it. The soap sack though, for certain.

Last but certainly not least is this cotton. It is Araucania's Nature Cotton, and it is heavenly. Very very splitty, sad to say, and Jason's ball, which is much darker colors, gave us fits trying to wind it out of the skein. But it's lovely and soft and I almost want to never use it. Almost. I think it's going to make a beautiful dishcloth. Probably a washcloth, actually. I can't see using something this soft and luscious on my grubby dishes.

Knitting Knews .. or Gnus. Or News.

Or it could be a noose. The old saying is 'give them enough rope', right?


Anyway .. I finished my socks! I love them. I think I might have liked them a little higher up on the leg, maybe, and perhaps a teensy bit more snug. But I dunno. They're not falling down or anything, so I really can't complain there. And they don't feel loose around the ankle or anything.



I do think that for my first pair of socks they are definitely a huge success. I learned a lot... including not to be afraid of knitting socks. I think I will always have a pair on needles. Now it's time to tackle the whole knitting two socks at a time on one circular thing. I haven't exactly decided which yarn I'm going to use, or if I'm going to try a pattern. But I have plenty of yarn to play with.


That's all of them I could find. I may have a few more tucked somewhere, but that's the bulk of it. There's some Sea Wool, thanks to my darling honey. There's some Cherry Tree Hill in Cherry Blossom. I also have a CTH boucle in the same colorway. Love! THere's some Regia 4-ply, and two different kinds from Yarnsmiths I got at SAFF 2007. And some Tofutsies. Underneath I have more CTH, and some Lorna's Laces, and some Opal. Oh, I have a little more. Some Koigu too is hiding in my office I just found.

I'm so very pleased that I finished my socks, because I just got the package for the second installment of the Seven Deadly S(p)ins yarn club. This month is Wrath .. but instead of doing wrath they did peace. And while there's been some grumbling about it in the Ravelry forum, I think it's great. I utterly -love- the yarn. Peruvian cotton! Oh my goddess it's so soft. It's going to make a lovely facecloth and soap sack.


And the goodies! A candle, and soap, and bath salts .. and a little sheepy stitch marker and some chocolate! I still haven't eaten my jellybeans from Gluttony either. I might have to keep all the yummies and celebrate with them when it's all over.

I also have -another- WIP. I started working on a bag from this pattern for Trio, though I'm using my Trendsetter Segue in Tahitian Twist instead. And it looks gorgeous. It's going to be, more than likely, a knitting tote for me, but I'm totally okay with that. Who can't use more knitting bags!?


I'm actually a little further along now, but that's the last picture I took. And it shows the colors beautifully. It's like a peacock!

Ravelry Details - Gluttony Sock
Ravelry Details - Wrath
Ravelry Details - Peacock Bag

There is progress, I swear!

So I'm a very, very bad blogger. But I'm not a very, very bad knitter! (At least I hope I'm not!)

I took the plunge recently and started my very first sock. Well, -technically- it's my second, because I finished the mini sock for the mini sock-blocker keychain. But as far as socks that would fit a human of any size, it's my first sock. And though I've been a mite concerned about the stitch numbers, it's looking good now, so I'm pretty sure I've done alright thus far.


I absolutely love this pattern. Just some slipped stitches and pur rows to give it substance. No complicated lace or anything. This gives me confidence that I actually can knit socks.



See how lovely the pattern is! I just adore it. I made the cuff a wee bit smaller than the pattern called for, because I'm not a fan of cuffs. We'll see how that works out in the end, I suppose.


I knit a heel flap! And I (successfully?) turned a heel!


I picked up (probably a few too many) stitches for the gusset, and have remembered to knit the even rows as well as the decrease ones!

I suspect I'll be done with this sock this weekend, and will immediately cast on the second one, lest I get caught in the 'one sock' trap I hear so much about.

As with everything now, project details on Ravelry.

Elann.com Wishlist

Sonata Print - Sea Shell & Rose Garden
Sonata Solids - Pecan & Burgundy Rose
Seta Lana

SAFF 2007 Pictures