My stash runneth over...

Do you ever go through those periods when you just feel like you are failing at everything?  That is how I have been feeling lately.  I can't seem to finish up a project at work, I am not losing weight despite starting an exercise program and watching my diet, and my yarn stash is still completely out of control.

Two weeks ago I had my first dinner party in my new house.  Now, I say new as I have only lived here for a little over 2 years.  Yes, that is right--it has taken me 2 years to get my house in order enough to have people over.  That and to find friends to have over, but that is another topic entirely.

I bring this up because that means 2 weeks ago my house was company ready.  And part of the company cleaning was hiding away all those little items that become every day clutter.  I left only 2 small baskets of yarn out on my shelves because like most fiber hoarders, I find it kind of decorative.  And do you know what my guests said?  Every last one commented "Gee, you sure have a lot of yarn!"  And they saw only the tip of the iceberg. 

Saturday I was hunting for a particular color of yarn, thinking I surely must have it in my stash.  So I started piling all my sock yarn on the floor.  Then I decided it would be good to get reorganized and re-inspired at the same time, so I went into all the nooks and crannies where I had stashed my yarn pre-company.  Folks, the result is not pretty:

Yes, my gluttonous ways are still Way. Out. Of. Control.

I am starting to feel overwhelmed.  The pressure and guilt of this many unfinished projects is starting to get to me. Am I in danger of being the subject of a future episode of "Hoarders"?  Of course, yarn seems a much more pleasant thing to be buried in than old newspapers or junk.

Now the upside is I am engaging in some true stash-busting.  Hiding in the bottom of one of my yarn baskets was four lovely skeins of J. Knits superwash merino DK in a beautiful purple/lavendar colorway called New Jersey.  I remembered buying this yarn on closeout and buying it specifically to make a Helena sweater for my friend who was pregnant at the time.  I do believe that child is a toddler now.  I am happy to say Helena is close to 2/3 completed, missing only the sleeves and edgings after a day and a half of pretty intense knitting.  Sadly, my hands are cramping and I am feeling some burning in the tendons, which means I will have to give then a rest for a day or two lest I overdo, but I am excited to have Helena on the way out the door.  Even though I did the 2 years olds size, I will only use up 3 skeins, and will be left with a little orphan skein.  At least it is one more thing out of the stash, though.  Right?  And I must say, the JKnits yarn is fabulous.

I also discovered a whole lot of Hempathy.  2 batches of 10 skeins each, to be exact.  How long have I had this?  The price tag says $5.00, if that tells you anything.  I have white and aqua blue.  I think I may have to make a Strafford Tee this month as well, if my hands don't give out on me.  And 2 batches of four skeins each of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  I think there was a butterfuly dress in mind at one point.  It would look awful on me, but it is a cool pattern and looks fun to knit, so I was going to do it anyway.  You see, this is why I have a stash :)

May and June catch-up

When I started this blog, I was so anxious to post I had to limit myself to twice a week.  Now I am lucky to get in one per month.  I don't know if it is just that summer is my busy time of year with work, particularly May and June, or if I have the lazy bug these days, but here is my catch-up post for May and June projects.

I started May strong with a quick pair of socks.  One of my dear friends gifted me with a skein of Tofutsies yarn.  I have never knit with this before, and I had it stashed in my computer bag when I found myself on an airplane with no project.  I remembered a simple lace pattern and started knitting away.  When I looked through my books later, the pattern is close enough to "Dead Simple Lace Socks" by Wendy Johnson, that I will credit that pattern even though I do them top-down with a slip-stitch gussetted heel.

I also had a very fun visit to Maryland the first weekend in May to celebrate my birthday with old friends and also to visit the MD Sheep and Wool festival!  I am a sucker for festivals, and this is one of my favorites for many years now.  My former roommate lives a mere 7 miles from the Howard County Fairgrounds, so every year I find an excuse to spend my birthday with my good friend and enjoy the festival at the same time.  This friend actually introduced me to the festival.  We were babysitting a neighbor's children for the weekend, and she mentioned there was this sheep festival down the road she thought the kids would enjoy.  When we got there, I said kids?  There is YARN here!  So now I go every year sans children, because it is much more fun that way :)

Of course I again overspent, stocking up on Tess's designer yarns, STR, and I splurged on enough Sunna for a new sweater for me.  So my yarn basket still runneth over, but I am feeling good about the number of projects out the door.

My other big project for May was a baby blanket for a dear friend who is becoming a first time father in July.  I made a second version of the Cot Blanket using 6 skeins from stash, but had to buy another 3 skeins to finish a border.  Since the bulk did come from stash, and the stash portion was completed in May (border yarn arrived first week of June, and was finished shortly thereafter), I am hoping it is not fudging to count this.  Here is the product in progress (top) and finished up (center, bottom).

The original blanket has three of the six squares containing some sort of heart motif.  I eliminated two of the heart squares and the plain square, and designed a sailboat, car, and argyle square in their place.  This was my first time actually sitting down with graph paper and mapping out the pattern (pathetic, I know. I make up a lot of stuff, but I usually wing it and play with it in my head until I get it to work out without writing it down).  I was surpised how long it took.  I spent a couple of hours just graphing and re-graphing the designs until they looked right.  In the end, I was really happy I did, though, so I won't have to go through the painful process of trying to re-create what I did from memory or photos.

In June, my baby theme continued.  I had a beautiful skein of STR I picked up in MD in May in a colorway called "Dreidel" (pictured above sitting on the completed squares).  As I arranged the squares for my Cot Blanket, I could not help but notice the colors of the yellow, dark and light blue, and even the olive green were a perfect match for Dreidel.  So I decided baby needed a sweater to match his blanket.

I got my inspiration from a new issue of Filati Infanti for a cute collared jacket.  I followed a pattern (mostly) for a ribbed jacket, but I changed a lot of things.  I knit as a one-piece raglan and added some length to the body and sleeves since I was using heavier yarn that called for in the pattern.  I added a ribbed button band after the body was knitted, and lined it with some groisgrain ribbon before adding some very cute airplane buttons.  I actually had some very cute sailboat buttons I used as the inspiration for the Cot Blanket squares, and they are nave blue and a perfect match for the sweater.  Unfortunately, I only had three, and could not find three more in a similar blue to match, so I had to find some new buttons.

My modifications also meant I ran out of yarn just after joining the sleeves.  Blue Moon only makes Dreidel over the holidays ('cause blue and yellow are sooooo Christmas-y??) so I jumped on ravelry and searched until I found a kind soul who had some in stash that they were willing to sell me.  Thank you KimS!!  The good news it, this counts as two skeins consumed :)

 

I also did a quick baby sweater for my new niece, Isabelle.  I met her for the first time in June, and she is sure a cutie!  I had this awesome skein of green/pink in stash, and my sister loved it, so I made a Maile sweater.  The bright colors reminded me of the tropics, and Isabelle's mom lived in Hawaii for a while, so Maile seemed a perfect match.  I will post a photo as soon as I sew the buttons on.  The yarn was an impulse purchase last spring during a work trip to Cape Cod (an awesome work trip, I might add).  It is called YaRn Studios, and was hand-dyed by the nice girl who helped me in the yarn store in Falmouth, MA.  It is also 100% superwash merino, so that should be soft for baby and easy to care for. 

My last baby project of the month was another simple raglan for another co-worker (2 co-workers, actually) who just had a baby boy.  This one out of Zitron Unisono, which I have decided is my new favorite yarn!  I will post photos of these last two shortly. 

March

I needed an easy project to get things going in March since I was such a slacker in February.  Plus with MD S&W looming, I needed an excuse to use up my stash so I could shop unrestricted :)

The first project was an easy pair of STR socks.  Started on the plane ride to Frankfurt, and finished on the train from Frankfurt to Bremen (yes, the train theme continues).  I bought this originally thinking the colors were perfect for a baby project, but it patterned so beautifully once I knit a swatch, I had to finish it as socks to keep the striping pattern.

I am calling them my rose garden socks, because the colors with the pinks/purples alternating with greens/browns remind me so much of the beautiful rose bushes in my yard in MD.  It sat in my herb garden, and the lavendar was close by, and the mingling of colors was beautiful.

I have these in mind as a gift for my friend's wife.  I made the foot a little shorter than I normally would since she wears a size six shoe, but I am not sure I can part with them.

I started Jared Flood's Willoughby on the first of March as well, and had these two projects going on in tandem.  I have wanted to knit Willoughby since the first time I saw the pattern, and I am completely in love with how the lace presents in this piece.  Jared has such a beautiful eye for lace, and I find his patterns very mathmatical. I think that is why they appeal to me so much.

For Willoughby, I chose a beautiful green cashmere from my stash (Cashmeres by Kate, purchased at the 2008 NHSW).  At 200 yds per 4 oz skein, I am counting this as "sock yarn" even though I would never make socks out of 100% cashmere.  Cashmere/merino/nylon blend maybe, but not pure cashmere.  I increased the number of repeats to 25 per side, since 20 looked a little short to me.  I am very happy with the final length pre-blocking.  In my opinion, scarves cannot be too long in the cold New England winter.

In the end, just short of four skeins consumed, so I get to count this as 2 100 gse.  Even though there was a lot of overlap between February and March with the whole diagonal-rib sock debaucle, I am counting this as goal completed for March.  Here is Willoughby in blocking, and some pics of the finished product (above).

Feb continued...

So, here is how the rest of my February went. 

Let's start with my STR project.  A while back I mentioned a beautiful skein of orange-red-purple STR that I had set for my next Feb. project.  Well, I finally found the perfect pattern for this yarn--Ann Budd's Diagonal Rib socks.  Simple enough to show off the yarn, but enough of a pattern to keep things interesting.  So I started and I loved the striping, but as I got to the heel, something just did not look right.  You see, I started these as I got onto an airplane so I took a quick glance at the stitch pattern and took off.  But in my haste, I only read the first two lines of the pattern stitch and figured I got the hang of it.  You should know, I am a lazy knitter when it comes to socks. 

On a long train ride from NYC to Boston, I realized my diagonal ribs were not so much...diagonal.  And the pattern was taking me a really long time to knit.  Sure enough, the lights came on and I realized ('duh!) the twisted stitch should alternate every other row.  I tried a few rows to see how noticable it was, and the answer is very.  Did I mention I had a good 9 inches of cuff plus a heel finished?  So, I put them on hold while I worked up the strength to rip them back.



Hamburg harbor, March 2011.

 I found my motivation a few weeks later on another train.  This time, it was a short ride from Bremen to Hamburg in northern Germany.  I ripped and ripped, and started anew.  Took much less time the second time around and by the end of March, they were finally finished.  Not coincidentally, I finished then up during yet another train ride, this time from Bremen to Frankfurt. 

Frankfurt am Main

Here they are.

I must admit, I love how this yarn looks in the pattern.  I made the usual modifications--top-down, alternating slip-stitch heel (my fave for STR) and gusset, with a few extra stitches picked up in the gusset increase to make up for the fact that this is a dense fabric with not as much stretch as, say, a 2x2 rib.  I also intentionally went down a couple of needle sizes to make it a more dense fabric.

At the end of the month, due to my laziness-induced error, I essentially made these twice: once in Feb and once in March.  I will count them as a March project, which of course means I am not one, but two projects short in Feb.  So yeah, I gotta give away some yarn...

April already

I have been a bad, bad blogger.

2 months since my last post, and though I have started to post many times, something always seems to get in the way of finishing.  Of course, then, like with work, the farther behind I get the more insurmountable catching up seems to be.  So time goes on and on, and my poor little blog sits here, neglected in cyberspace.

More importantly, I am starting to lose track of what project happened when, and where I am with this whole thing.  One of these days I am going to figure out how to keep a running list in the sidebar of the blog.  In the meantime, I have to refer to the old list, so here goes.

I think I posted in January the toddler sweater with lace panel.  Frankly, I am still trying to decide if this "works."  The original concept was a raglan sweater with a large stripe on the body region for interest, with smaller motifs mirrored on the edging and sleeves.  Rather than use a block of color for the stripe, I went with a block of lace in a fairly open pattern.  I worry that there is not enough contrast to make the lace really pop--though it is much better after blocking. I think it is growing on me.

Now, as for February, I started out really strong.  I quickly whipped out a pair of socks in STR that was a true stash buster.  Yes, I worked up one of the skeins I purchased at MDSW 2 years ago.  This was notable because MDSW of 2009 was my introduction to The Fold and STR.  I am ashamed to admit my first purchase was actually based on peer pressure.  You see, the line was so long I figured everyone else must know what they were talking about and it must be great stuff.  Then it was so tight in the booth I was afraid to put anything down for fear it would disappear if I took my hand off it.  So I ended up with six skeins, and I have added to it every time I see The Fold at a festival.

Unfortuantely, after my strong start, Feb. slowed way down for me.  Actually it sped way up, and between travel, a bad cold, and some great indecision regarding a certain skein of purple and red STR, I am afraid I lagged on the project front.

Now, this called for some decisive knitting, and as the last week of Feb began, I did manage to pull out a "hail Mary" project, if you will.  Using my other festival fav, Tess' Super Sock and Baby in a lovely pale pink, I finsihed the Maile sweater in just a day and a half.  It is helpful that this particular day and a half included a flight from Boston to California, so much knitting time ensued.  On the flight back, I added a pair of matching socks, using the floral motif from the sweater.  I started with a crochet picot cast on, then did three repeats of the motif around the cuff below an inch of ribbing, then carried one repeat of the Maile floral motif down the center top of the foot.  I am quite happy with how they came out.  Now the best part of the story is that I found out later my friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on the very same day that the mood struck me to make this sweater.  So I assumed it was meant for her--I love it when that happens--and it was blocked and gifted in under a week.  That is a record for me.  No, not the knitting--the gifting.  I am a notoriously slow gifter.  I have a lot of procrastination issues with going to the post office.

This is getting long, and for fear of procrastinating yet another post, I will end here.  Stay tuned for the rest of my Feb. adventures and the update on March.

Three scary numbers

I spent last weekend going over my finances from the previous year in preparation of tax season, and I found three numbers that shook me to the core.  Here they are:

26.10
2500.00
7x

The first number is the amount of interest I earned on my savings account in the past year.  The second number is the amount of credit card interest I paid over the course of the year.  The third number indicates my savings to debt ratio.  That's right, folks.  For every $1000 I owe to my credit card, I have $7,000 in the bank, yet I paid 100 times more in interest than I earned from having money in savings.  Does anyone else find this completely outrageous?

Now before you pass judgement wondering what kind of feeble-minded individual carries a balance when they have a savings account that exceeds the card balance, let me explain.  I travel a lot for work.  I incur the charges on my card, then get reimbursed.  This means at any given time I have a balance, but it is paid off fully as soon as a reimbursement comes in (every two weeks if I do my expense reports regularly).  The problem is overlapping trips, and, I just learned thanks to those jaw-dropping numbers, my interest rate had erroneously been set outrageously high!  So shame on me for not catching it, and double shame for not finding a way to stop the oozing money.  I think I am a little ill...

TGIF

That stands for Thank Goodness It's February!

I don't know about you, but for me January is the longest month, followed closely by March.  In New England, where winters truly are "wicked" and we are currently buried in snow that I am guessing won't melt until sometime this July, I need to mark time to help see me through.  And trips to warm places don't hurt.

So hurrah February!  Here are my upcoming Feb. highlights:

--2 business trips to CA.  This is a double hurrah as it means warm weather plus lots of airplane knitting time.

--1 business trip to the midwest, where I will get to visit my best friend for a weekend since I will only be an hour away from her.

--1 business trip to NYC, right smack in the middle of Times Square.

I guess I should also summarize my January:

3.5 1-gse consumed (that is my shorthand, for 100-gram skein equivalents, the units in which I measure my stash :)

Completed 1 baby sweater, size 18mos (2 skeins)

Completed my Dumbledore socks (1 skein)

Halfway finished with my Carla cashmere scarf, (1 50-g skein completed, 1 to go)

I also completed four weeks of yeast-free eating, which is no small feat.  Let's hope I can keep up the healthy eating through all the February travel.