The Great Yarn Bake

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I may have mentioned that I am moving to Brussels this summer for a year. (And if I haven’t mentioned it to you, you haven’t been paying attention).  This means that everything we own has to be either stored, gotten rid of or shipped overseas (for a year).

The time has come for me to decide about the yarn.  What do I store, what do I get rid of, what comes with me. One of the advantages of starting knitting later in life, and being a slow knitter is that I realized that I could go for quality over quantity. Which means my stash isn’t particularly large, at least by the standard of my friends (my husband may argue otherwise), but it is particularly yummy.  Most is hand dyed. Some is not and is the lovely chocolate brown of the sheep it came from, or the creamy white. So visiting my stash is a fun experience.

But I must put it away for a year and half and I REALLY don’t want it eaten in the meanwhile. So I am baking it and sealing it into ziplock bags.  The old bags are being repurposed and I got all new bags. I know I could freeze it but I’m not 100% certain my freezer gets cold enough (It is a deep freeze, but the door opens out). And winter is over (I hope) and so popping it outside isn’t an option.  Anyways baking is faster.

I’m lucky my oven goes down to 170F so I don’t have to worry about melting any materials. (I don’t have a lot of synthetics but MCN does have nylon). I heat the oven, lay everything in single layer on my cookie sheet and into my 12″ cast iron pan (I need more cookie sheets) and pop it into the oven for an hour or so while I scrub the house for sale (or write blog posts). Then I deal with it.

I have two friends using sock weight ends in various projects (one of whom is Keri at “When did I become a Knitter” So sock ends are easy.  They leave to a loving home. Note just the ends. Full skeins are MINE, MINE, MINE.

As for the rest: the problem with rummaging my stash is I want to knit all of it. NOW! Consider the rich red of this lambs wool my friend brought back from New Zealand:

red lambs wool from New Zealand

So pretty. It wants to be knit. NOW

Or what about this Merino Cashmere Silk (sock weight) that was in the Indigodragonfly gift-a-palooza a couple of years ago.

blue-purple-green soft loveliness

One! One Partridge in a Pear Tree! AH-AH-AH-AH!

I think these will make the short short list. The one that I either ship to Brussels or knit up in the next 3 months. Not really sure what either wants to be yet. Besides fondled.

Now what to do with rest of it. I guess store it lovingly away while we go have our adventure. I won’t run out of yarn. I’m fairly sure there are yarn stores in Europe… plus I have friends who are willing to ship but I still want to knit All of It. NOW

 

Things I did while I was away – Part 2

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As I said yesterday, I was sitting in the sun at one of the local coffee shops with my friend when she suggested I conquer my fair isle issues by making her baby a sweater. I agreed that this sounded like a good plan (I’m from Newfoundland, the sun tends to addle my brain.) so went on Ravelry and browsed baby fair isle sweaters. I was looking for a basic pull over with a fair isle yoke. But then I thought babies and pullovers don’t always mix…maybe a cardigan is in order. And anyways all the ones I was looking at didn’t inspire me.

Then I saw Baby Tyra. And all my sense flew out the window. (Agreeing to this project already establishes that there wasn’t much sense to fly out the window to start with).  I was smitten… I ordered the yarn.

When the yarn arrived I realized what I thought was black ended up being a deep purple. But that just happens to be my friend’s favourite colour, it will look like I meant it. Oh and I didn’t get enough of the dark blue. Closer examination revealed that I didn’t need much of the light blue…so if I alternate dark blue with light blue sections it will look planned. And all the colours did go nicely together.

Blue, purple, ivory sleeve in progress

Sleeve in Progress

Also since fair isle goes easier if you knit everything, it is knit in the round and then steeked.  I’ve never steeked before. But figured others have succeeded… I will too.  The knitting went fairly well, and as a side effect I now often knit continental. And when I got to the end, I sewed up the steek lines and then…cut my knitting! And nothing happened.

Baby O in h is new Sweater

Baby O in h is new Sweater

One thing I really like about this pattern is there are no unenclosed seams.  You  knit little flaps that you then stitch down over the seams to make a very neat finished object. Since many of the seams are cut this is much cleaner and I suspect more durable than leaving them raw.

Overall I loved the project. So very fun to knit. (Also  my friend is the one who taught me to knit… I would never do this for just anyone.)

Things I did while I was away – Part 1

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Haven’t been blogging.

Sorry.

Will try again. Things are a bit hectic here because we will be moving to Brussels this summer for a year! Yay! but it does mean packing and cleaning and house selling and the stash will need to be stored for the year.  I also have the “horrible” problem of figuring out what I will knit between now and when we go, and what I will take with me. Ok not so horrible.

So why blog now.  Well I’m avoiding programming. I’m working on a knitting project and I figured I’d take a break for lunch and to wash the car, and to prep the living room for selling.  (Obviously my focusing issues haven’t resolved yet).

Back to what I have been knitting. Well about a year ago I was trying to knit a sock a month (totally doable but I think I got distracted by something) and my oldest told me he wanted pirate socks. He really liked the ones by Heather Dixon. (Ravelry Link) Which I was lucky enough to have in my local library.  Actually I winged it from the photo.  I’m lazy. So I created my son’s Pirate Socks. (Public Ravelry link) using Karabouts’ skull and crossbones pattern for the cuff and added a checkerboard pattern to make up the rest of the stitches needed.

 

picture of pirate sock, red, black and white

Pirate Socks

 

One day I was knitting the colourwork cuff and despite having completed my FiddleHead mittens I was struggling with the fair isle.  My friend, pregnant at the time, suggested that a fair isle baby sweater would fix any problems I having. For some reason I agreed. We were both thinking fair isle yoke on plain baby pullover. But pullovers are not always convenient for babies and … well I’ll describe that project tomorrow.  It got a little out of hand but did turn out beautiful.

YOP January Sock done!

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Checks date. Ummm… I seem to be behind. But the January sock is finished! I am pleased. I did mess up the Kitchener stitch at the toe a bit, so I will have to redo it. (I am afraid a hole will develop where the goof is.) But here it is for now:

My sock

January Sock!

This past weekend was the annual Haliburton retreat. A bunch of us drive to Haliburton (an experience of it’s own in February) and we sit and knit and eat and drink and roll in yarn. Some people snowshoe across the lake but I had a strict no activity policy (which was thrown out the window when we had to push cars out the long, slippery, uphill driveway).

Just the same, you’d think with all the knitting done I’d have gotten further with my projects.  I have about 2″ of February sock done:

February sock

See how much I have done!

And about 3″ of the Susie Hoodie completed:

Susie Hoodie edge

It is long though

But much fun was had. Yarn was acquired. Much food was consumed.  And the nice thing with going with 10 other women… everyone does a bit so it seems that the food just appears and the cleaning just happens. We ended up being delayed (due to being stuck at the bottom of a long slippery uphill driveway), and so we all cleaned the place in 5 minutes.  11 women * 5 is almost an hours work. Magic.

 

YOP – I’m back

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I’ve been sick. Both physically and overwhelmed with depression. The cough/cold/flu thing has mostly gone and I am trying to fight the depression with various degrees of success (depending on day, week, hour). But I have kept knitting. The hem of the Susie Hoodie is almost finished so I get to switch to my signature needles soon.

And I am almost finished January’s sock. Checks calendar, hmmm…. there may be a problem. On the bright side I am going away next weekend for a knitting retreat. Knitting, eating, drinking and, in theory, snow shoeing and running. Hopefully I’ll make a dent in my socks and Susie.

January sock (oops)

Meanwhile, my two washcloths for January and February are finished, so I haven’t been a complete Zombie. Yes I know washcloths are pretty much instant gratification but they are done and the boys love them!

Dishcloths!

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Alright so I said I’d do 12 socks in 2012 and 12 washcloths. This might be a bit of a surprise but the washcloths are coming along better than the socks.  I have finished the gusset decreases on January’s sock and it is past the middle of February! On the bright side I have small feet, so this means the sock is almost done. Still not the best start.

But the washcloths. Yes, they are doing better. I’ve got two of those done. January and February! Granted a washcloth is pretty close to instant gratification. But hey! I’m making some progress.

January!

February!

Sorry

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Sorry to all my readers.  (Both of you ;)  ) I haven’t been writing lately.  I have been sick.  As I have mentioned I have been battling depression for the last while and it flared up badly.  Besides that, or maybe as a cause of that, I have come down with a very bad cold/flu/cough thingy that will not go away.  I wake up in the middle of the night coughing and cannot get back to sleep.  Lack of sleep does not help depression, or help you  heal.

And there are now >1000 spam messages waiting for me.  Well it now down to 836… but when I logged in it was >1000.  Nothing like motivating me to get back at it.

On the bright side, the knitting has progressed.  Somewhat.  I am almost finished the gusset of my January sock.  At least I have small feet so that does mean it is almost done.  I’ve also almost finished the hem of my Susie hoodie.  And I’ve knit two washcloths.

Anyways I’m feeling better… but still break into horrific coughing fits on occasion.  I will start writing regularly again.

YOP – Slow progress

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YOP

I’ve finished the first sleeve of the Susie Hoodie. And I’ve started the body. At 235 stitches a row it is rather slow going.  So in the interest of finishing something this lifetime I have started the washcloth for January.  I have chosen Gulls and Garter Washcloth. I am using the yarn my boys picked out some time ago. F is loving the result with all the colours.

January Washcloth

 

 

WIP Wednesday… Still cold

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More WIP's here

Okay technically it isn’t nearly as cold as it has been, or as it is inclined to be this time of year. Instead of sunny and -20C it is drizzling and about freezing. If you aren’t used to this weather be very thankful.  It sucks the heat right out of your bones. It makes you want to curl up on the couch, watch bad TV, and drink hot chocolate (I suggest the Cook’s Illustrated Hot Chocolate, it has extra cream and chocolate). Or maybe that is the cold I am brewing.

Either way, I REALLY want a finished Susie Hoodie to wear. I have one sleeve.  It is a whole sleeve… but it is one sleeve.  The rest of me is still quite chilled. (Well the parts of me that aren’t also covered by 3yr old boy as I try to type. Actually he is quite warm…I think I’ll keep him. Nope he wandered off.)

Warm arm.

So far it has been a fun knit.  But I have to say, the write up says that the cable is complex looking but easy to knit.  Now most cables are easy, and I can cable without a cable needle, but this is the most difficult to knit cable I have encountered.  All wrong side rows are straight purl back so no patterning there, but some of the right side rows have almost every stitch cabled! And every right side row is patterned. Still the cable is lovely and really sets off the sweater perfectly.  It is well worth doing.  And cabling in general is quite easy so I do not hesitate to recommend this sweater. I just found that comment amusing.

Off to continue knitting, or chase the kids or whatever.  Maybe wrap myself in a blanket and frantically knit Susie so I can have a warm sweater jacket to wear.

The perfect yarn

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My Mom has requested that I knit my sister a long jacket. After correcting her time frame and pointing out to Mom exactly what she had requested, we settled into choosing the finer details.  We decided to riff off of Cordoba. Since there is no way my sister could wear the requested yarn we went looking for other options.

My sister is sensitive to wool. And I just happened to have the recommended Ultra Alpaca in my stash.  We all agreed it was far to scratchy for her. So I rummaged my stash and found my Polworth Silk from Indigodragonfly. Now this yarn is not at all scratchy (and I can feel scratchy really well – it just doesn’t bother me like it does my sister.) But it is 75% wool (and 25% silky yumminess). If she has a real wool allergy then she won’t be able to wear it. But I strongly suspect she does not have an allergy but a sensitivity to the scratchiness.  As I said this yarn is NOT scratchy.  So I figure I will knit her a little swatch, and have her put it in her bra for a day.  At the end of that we will know for sure.

And as I said, I have this yarn in my stash, just not enough, or in either of the desired colours (a whole other issue.) So I can knit it up immediately.  Right after I wind the hank. All 750yds of it.  For a 2X2″ swatch.

Jar for scale... it is a big skein

For some reason I am procrastinating.