Stashbusting Update

This week, I finished another fun fur hat and completed one sleeve on the grey sweater. I also finished the body of the mystery birthday gift. This week's goals: Complete other sleeve of the grey sweater, finish another fun fur hat, and finish the arms of the mystery gift. (I'll post this when the birthday has past.) I want extra points for each ball of sweater yarn--each ball seems to last forever. The sleeve was less than one ball! Well we'll see...More pictures later this week.

First Fun Fur hats

I am knitting these for Boston Children's Hospital. They're really quick and a great way to use the fun fur that found its way into my stash. I have to say, the hats are cute and I hope they bring smiles, but I have no idea what I was thinking of using this for when I bought it! If all goes well, I'll complete 5 more before the end of February.

The Sweater

I am making this sweater for me. It has been hanging around as an unfinished object for a couple of years. Since the Project Spectrum colors for February and March are grey, white and blue, I thought finishing it would fit in nicely. The pattern is from "Knitters Almanac" by Elizabeth Zimmerman. The wool is a local wool that was hand spun. It is undyed. I like the color variations it makes. My goal this week: to get one sleeve ready to join onto the body.

Creating!

This is the second ball of Deco Ribbon. I plan to make a bag of the two balls I have for Project Spectrum in April and May.


The plain yarn here is the Cash Iroha that I got with my gift certificate. The other yarn is HipHop by Berrocco and, well, all I can say is that I was at SCRAP on an artist date and it was only $1 and I left a whole bunch of charcoal grey Lamb's Pride behind! I also found beads, buttons, handmade gift bags, and perle cotton for embroidering. I came home and decided to find some yarn to give my friend's daughter, who is 10 and quite impressive with yarn and needles. So, I destashed 15 balls! Can I have the Hip-Hop now? I promise to stay away from SCRAP until next month even though there is beautiful yarn there right now...

On my needles.....

I've been inspired to use up a bunch of novelty yarn by knitting caps for kids at the Boston Children's Hospital. (You can check it out on the yarn diet along I've linked to on this page. Look in the sidebar under charity knitting) It's the perfect solution for those odd balls of Fun Fur I found at Big Lots for a dollar apiece and just HAD to bring home. They've been sitting here for ages with me thinking, "Now what in the WORLD am I going to do with this!" Hopefully it'll cheer someone up. I've got one done and another on the needles. I'll show pictures when N and Mark get back from their weekend in Yosemite.

The other thing I've pulled out is a sweater I started a couple of years ago from a local homespun yarn. Again, I'll post pictures next week. I hope to get it worked up to the armpits and make good progress on a sleeve this weekend. I am enjoying stashbusting!

I did use my gift certificate to Noe Knits. Got 1 ball of Cash Iroha to go with some Silk Garden I already had for a hat project, as well as one ball of Deco Ribbon to go with the lone ball I had. Two should be enough to make something with!

Hurry Up Spring Handwarmers Done!

I finished the armwarmers and used 2 balls and a some scraps to do it. I actually wasn't sure if I'd have enough to finish the fourth one, but I made it. I had to take a 1/2 inch off the top of the match and bind off again in order to make the partner match as I did not have enough yarn to go another 1/2 inch and do the thumbs! Efficiency! That said, I liked how they turned out. I think I'll keep the brownish rosy pair and give away the purple/greenish pair. Hailey and I enjoyed modeling and photo shooting in the yard this afternoon. The photos turn out better in daylight than with the flash. I have now earned the right to purchase 1 ball of yarn! I think my next project may be finishing a sweater I started long ago with some handspun local yarn I purchased through a friend. I'll try to post some in-process pictures soon. A sweater intimidates me, but it will use lots of stash and give me a huge sense of accomplishment.

I also have a project that I forgot to count in my grand count--it is for a gift that I'll need soon. I'll need to be hush-hush in case a certain someone reads my blog. Those pictures will have to wait, but I will need to add 6 balls to my total.

So, here are the four pairs of felted mittens ready to be sent to Minnesota to stave off the wet and cold! The lone pair is my favorite of the three. They are all knit from stash yarns! Fun and quick to knit, but I'm happy to be doing something else now.

The last picture is supposed to be a pair of handwarmers all knit from one ball, but look at the color difference. I wasn't sure I'd want to wear them together, so I am trying to get matching sets out of the remaining ball. One for me and one for my gift stash. So, 1 ball down so far....Love the yarn though. It is Noro Silk Garden that I had found at the thrift store. I have to say, I think I might break my rules if I happened to find Noro at the thrift store again! It is such beautiful yarn that it was quite an accomplishment for me to actually knit it. I tend to hang on to this kind of stuff forever, waiting for the "perfect" project.

I'll show you the matching pairs, too, when I finish. Not sure if you can see the cable up the back. Hopefully I'll get better at photographs as we go along here.

Last Mitten Completed!

Yeah! I am finished with the last mitten. I will post a photo of the mitten quartet when they are all felted with their cuffs sewn in. This means that I am down 2 balls. I have some left, but I don't think that it can be called a ball, so it will go into the ziploc bag that has small scraps in it which I use for stripes or tiny projects and experiments. I think that's legal, don't you?

My knitting travelled with me to the Exploratorium today. The kids met friends there while we take advantage of this last week before we get back to our regular homeschool schedule. I often find the Exploratorium overstimulating after a while, so I can often be found with a ball of yarn in my pocket, connected to whatever project is flowing from my needles. Anyone else do this?

So, now I can seriously think about what I want to do next.....Hmmmm....it will be something purely fun. I'll announce it here in the next few days.

Last picture

Evidently blogger was so overwhelmed by my amazing stash that it couldn't take anymore pictures in that last post. Here's the last bit of evidence. Oh, I also gave three balls of yarn to a young friend for her knitting club at school. 3 more down.

Stash totals complete and, yes, I am a yarnaholic!

So, I think that I unearthed all of my yarn and I am afraid that I have enough to knit for a very long time! Here's the evidence. 160 more balls for a total of 304 balls of yarn! As you will notice, I have subtracted a few balls from the total for the balls knit up in my recently finished items (I counted those balls in the total, too). Wow! What shall I knit first. I have to finish one more mitten and then I will knit something that I want to knit just because I feel like knitting it....I'm pondering what that will be....

Works in Progress

Okay! I'm really coming clean here! It will probably take all week to unearth everything. So the first picture is a scarf made of cashmere yarn picked up at the thrift store. The lace goes slowly for me and this project has been around forever! Picture number two is some leftover Homespun by Lion. I think that it started as a hat made by Hailey. I wonder if we should continue it or just get rid of it! (Whatever that means...) Picture number three is actually the beginning of a pair of mittens. The last pair in a set of four for the kids of some dear friends in Minnesota. They'll be a belated Christmas gift. I'll show them all when they're done!

Recently finished items

So here are a few things that I have finished recently. I'll put the balls used into the total count. These were for Christmas gifts. I am trying to become better at documenting my work. The first photo is made of recycled sari silk (2 balls) and was made for my friend Maria (hope she likes it : ). The second is a felted bowl and a washcloth (1 ball). The felted bowl was wet felted with part of a fleece Mark brought back to me from the Orkney Islands in 2005. The third photo is a knitted and felted box. The pattern is from Mason Dixon Knitting and just used up some odds and ends I had around. Satisfying to use things up!

Stash reduction in 2007

So, here is about half of my yarn stash--138 balls. Makes me wonder when I decided to collect so much of it! So, this year my goal is to reduce my stash considerably. To that end, I will do the following: 1. Join a stashalong--T.B.A. 2. Refrain from purchasing new yarn with these exceptions: a. One free day per month is allowed. b. for each 10 balls used, I may purchase 1 ball of yarn. c. yarn may be purchased to finish a project on a free day. 3. Happily knit or give away the yarn that I have! Wish me luck. I will post my progress and the rest of my stash here.