I just found a really cool group on Ravelry called "Stash Knit Down 2009". The group is centered around the idea of using up as much of your stash as possible in 2009. One fabulous idea is to create a personal sock club where you bag up your sock yarns along with patterns and treats (just like a real sock club) and pick a bag up every...whatever frequency you want.
After reading this great idea, i decided to organize my stash by weight of yarn to figure out how much of everything i had. As i went through my bags and boxes and baskets and watched (aghast) the pile of sock yarn rise higher ...and higher...and higher and then i thought about the yarn i have ordered with Karen that hasn't even arrived yet...well, "i'm freaking out" does even begin to describe my feelings. Clearly the personal sock club is the thing for me. I promised myself the Rockin' Sock Club membership a while ago so i am still definitely getting this whenever it opens up but i'm thinking that in addition to this club membership (and the Sunshine yarns Harry Potter club that i already have) i'll do the personal sock club.
When i went to the NYC knitting group, i met a girl who punches out 1 pair of socks a week. A WEEK! this is my goal! well...first baby step is 1 pair a month. I'm trying very hard to finish those Diamond Lace socks and i'm almost done. I'm a few inches into the leg (finally!) so when the balls of yarn are just a little bit smaller (i'm thinking just a couple more repeats of the diamond pattern) i'll start the ribbing and finally be done with them. After that, i'm not going to start a pair of socks until December and my goal will be to finish the next pair of socks (which will probably be the Baudelaire socks from Cookie A) in December. This is also a chart sock pattern so i'm not sure if i'll be carrying these around.
So, goal for 2009: Finish 1 pair of socks per month.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Overdue Update
I am so used to just updating Ravelry that i forget to add updates here.
I finished my Cable sweater which came out really nice but is a little...form-fitting. :) I guess its just incentive to keep losing weight (am doing really well with that, btw). Here is a of the cable sweater:
Next i started on a sweater from Knitscene Fall 2008 - also a hoodie sweater but i think i'm going to modify the hood into a long hanging collar. I started working on this and knit up 4 balls of yarn when i realized that the sweater was 4 inchs too wide! I was devastated but i had to pull all that knitting out. The one good thing is now i get to modify the hem a little so it doesn't curl up anymore like it was before. Here is a pic of it after about 2 balls of knitting - you can see the curling is pretty bad:
So i recast on and did a couple of rows but i put it down again. I was a little frustrated with it. I haven't touched it for a couple of weeks now. But i've had something else occupying my mind - RHINEBECK!!!
Last weekend was the NY Sheep and Wool festival at Rhinebeck, NY. It was full of yarn, fiber, yarn, sheep, llamas, yarn, food and YARN! I spent so much money (though when i counted later on, i realized that i didn't end up spending much more than my birthday money. I bought many many yarns and also lots of spinning fiber. That's right, I've got a new fiber addiction - spinning. I had tried to learn spinning a few months ago with that crappy, cheap spindle that was a complete deterrent to my learning process so i did some research on it and found out that spinning really should be learned on a good, well-balanced spindle. I invested in 2 Golding Spindles at Rhinebeck:
I started spinning with these and absolutely loved it! It was so much easier spinning with these - i didn't feel like i was in a battle with the fiber! LOL. I even made a baby skein of yarn which I still have to take pictures of and will post soon.
As i said, i bought lots of yarn and fiber at the festival. All of it is posted on Ravelry so i wont' repost here but some of my more "exotic" purchases included cashmere and llama yarns. I've already started knitting the Abby cowl from knitty.com with the cashmere. I haven't decided yet what i'm going to do with the llama.
Lastly, here are a few pics from Rhinebeck:
I finished my Cable sweater which came out really nice but is a little...form-fitting. :) I guess its just incentive to keep losing weight (am doing really well with that, btw). Here is a of the cable sweater:
Next i started on a sweater from Knitscene Fall 2008 - also a hoodie sweater but i think i'm going to modify the hood into a long hanging collar. I started working on this and knit up 4 balls of yarn when i realized that the sweater was 4 inchs too wide! I was devastated but i had to pull all that knitting out. The one good thing is now i get to modify the hem a little so it doesn't curl up anymore like it was before. Here is a pic of it after about 2 balls of knitting - you can see the curling is pretty bad:
So i recast on and did a couple of rows but i put it down again. I was a little frustrated with it. I haven't touched it for a couple of weeks now. But i've had something else occupying my mind - RHINEBECK!!!
Last weekend was the NY Sheep and Wool festival at Rhinebeck, NY. It was full of yarn, fiber, yarn, sheep, llamas, yarn, food and YARN! I spent so much money (though when i counted later on, i realized that i didn't end up spending much more than my birthday money. I bought many many yarns and also lots of spinning fiber. That's right, I've got a new fiber addiction - spinning. I had tried to learn spinning a few months ago with that crappy, cheap spindle that was a complete deterrent to my learning process so i did some research on it and found out that spinning really should be learned on a good, well-balanced spindle. I invested in 2 Golding Spindles at Rhinebeck:
I started spinning with these and absolutely loved it! It was so much easier spinning with these - i didn't feel like i was in a battle with the fiber! LOL. I even made a baby skein of yarn which I still have to take pictures of and will post soon.
As i said, i bought lots of yarn and fiber at the festival. All of it is posted on Ravelry so i wont' repost here but some of my more "exotic" purchases included cashmere and llama yarns. I've already started knitting the Abby cowl from knitty.com with the cashmere. I haven't decided yet what i'm going to do with the llama.
Lastly, here are a few pics from Rhinebeck:
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Spinning Yarn
Okay, so I ordered a roving from Etsy and its just been sitting there. I think after I finish my first sweater I'll once again try my hand at spinning. This roving is so beautiful, I'm afraid to touch it. I just want to order more and more practice roving before I get anywhere near this thing with my spindle.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
OTN Update
I haven't had any FOs recently except for the Absorba Bathmat from Mason-Dixon Knitting but it didn't come out to great. I think putting the mat away half done for a few weeks was a bad idea because my tension was completely different when I picked it up again so it looks discombobulated.
I'm working on the Hedera socks from Knitty which are knitting up very fast. I'm using 1 size larger needles and its only 60 stitches so it is going much faster than the Siren socks. I've already turned the heel and picked up the gusset.
The Simply Gorgeous Pi Shawl is also coming along though looks like a crumpled mess at the moment. I'm still on the first ball of yarn but i think i've used up about two-thirds. I'm thinking i might use one of Meg Swanson's lace edgings to finish this shawl so that will probably be about a half of the second ball of yarn.
I also started two new projects - a scarf for charity and the shawl i'd been planning for my mom. I was going to use the Feather and Fan pattern for the shawl but i found that the yarn didn't really show the pattern too well and looks just as beautiful with simple garter stitch. So I decided to use the Feather and Fan pattern for the charity scarf instead. The charity this scarf is for is OFA Red Scarf Project.
Lastly, i've decided to learn how to spin yarn. I keep seeing these gorgeous rovings and i just couldn't resist. I ordered a starter kit that has a drop spindle and some practice roving. I over-twisted the first piece i tried but i'm working on it.
I'm working on the Hedera socks from Knitty which are knitting up very fast. I'm using 1 size larger needles and its only 60 stitches so it is going much faster than the Siren socks. I've already turned the heel and picked up the gusset.
The Simply Gorgeous Pi Shawl is also coming along though looks like a crumpled mess at the moment. I'm still on the first ball of yarn but i think i've used up about two-thirds. I'm thinking i might use one of Meg Swanson's lace edgings to finish this shawl so that will probably be about a half of the second ball of yarn.
I also started two new projects - a scarf for charity and the shawl i'd been planning for my mom. I was going to use the Feather and Fan pattern for the shawl but i found that the yarn didn't really show the pattern too well and looks just as beautiful with simple garter stitch. So I decided to use the Feather and Fan pattern for the charity scarf instead. The charity this scarf is for is OFA Red Scarf Project.
Lastly, i've decided to learn how to spin yarn. I keep seeing these gorgeous rovings and i just couldn't resist. I ordered a starter kit that has a drop spindle and some practice roving. I over-twisted the first piece i tried but i'm working on it.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
First Socks!!
My first pair of socks are done! I am so happy with them. If anyone questions the reasons for knitting a pair of socks, let me just tell you - listen to the knitting gurus because they are right! Once you've donned a pair of hand knit socks, you will never want store bought socks again!
The heels and everything came out perfect. I make the leg part a little short because I always scrunch my socks down to the ankles anyway. So I have more scrap yarn left over than anticipated. Also, since I hadn't bothered to practice Kitchener's stitch on a swatch, I did create a couple of holes but those were easy enough to fix. I was planning on knitting the next pair of socks for my dad and the pair after for my mom...but they are probably going to end up being for me. LOL. I do love the fabric from size 0 needles and don't mind spending the extra amount of time on the small needles for myself but maybe if I decide to knit for others, I'll do it on size 2 because they are faster to knit.
The heels and everything came out perfect. I make the leg part a little short because I always scrunch my socks down to the ankles anyway. So I have more scrap yarn left over than anticipated. Also, since I hadn't bothered to practice Kitchener's stitch on a swatch, I did create a couple of holes but those were easy enough to fix. I was planning on knitting the next pair of socks for my dad and the pair after for my mom...but they are probably going to end up being for me. LOL. I do love the fabric from size 0 needles and don't mind spending the extra amount of time on the small needles for myself but maybe if I decide to knit for others, I'll do it on size 2 because they are faster to knit.
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