Knit From Your Stash 2007

I'm hopping on the bandwagon! I'm joining the ranks of the "Knit from Your Stash" group -- rules noted at Wendy's blog. My yarn fills two large (66 quart) plastic storage containers, plus a smaller one, plus two baskets in the living room, plus WIP's.

And, since I am buying a house next week (eek!), it would not hurt to exercise some financial restraint in yarn related matters. Since my stash is suitably large -- and not everything I own is featured on my stash site yet!! -- it will not kill me to stop purchasing yarn for some time.

So, I'm stealing Wendy's guidelines, and editing them a bit --

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.
2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
   
   • Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?
   • If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.
   • If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.
   • We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.
3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.
4. Trading yarn with others is OK.
   

So, wish me luck in this noble endeavor...

growl

The Christmas spirit has yet to descend upon me. I am tired, grumpy, and not the least bit festive.

I have been knitting, but not taking pictures. What's a blog entry without a photo?

I hope I snap out of this funk soon. All I want to do is crawl under the covers and nap. Grrr.

(Every time I mention feeling tired or cranky, I get questions. No, I'm not pregnant. I don't suffer from SAD. I just need to average more than 6 1/2 hours of sleep per night. Here's hoping for an early-to-bed evening...)

housewarming pillows

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the Mafia, Ms. 1890, Wifey, and Little Man, so that I could bring some of these home for my own impending move.

I also dropped off a housewarming gift -- some pillows for lounging around on. Now that they resides Chez Mafia, I can show some photos ...

I was determined to use stash for this gift, and I did! The front pillow is made from some a sample swatch of home-dec fabric that I picked up at the Edith and Edna craft basement this summer.


The colors in this fabric inspired the stripey pillow, which was knit almost entirely from a selection of wooly bits that came from the MDK Hefty Bag.


There are 9 colors in the pillow, and I used a stripe sequence of 6-3-5-2-4 (inspired by the stripes in the Harlot's Tiptoe pattern). So, a random looking stripe sequence that still feels well-balanced.

I still can't believe how well the colors in the lot of wooly bits matched the pattern in the fabric. Since the yarns seemed to range from DK to heavy worsted, I knit the whole thing at about 20 sts/4 in. To keep the pillow form from showing through the looser gauges, I backed the knit panel with the same fabric as I used for the backs of the pillows, a mossy green microsuede. (Purchased at my local fabric store, from the remnant table, on sale. Score!)

The pillows are 18" x 18", which should be useful for anything from napping to pillow-fort-building. They are very comfy -- I tested! I am definitely going to have to make some of these for myself when we move to our new house.

overheard from Boss Lady

We've had a dusting of snow a few times already this winter. Including some paper snowflakes on my office window. (What, me, procrastinate?)


When Boss Lady passed through the hallway yesterday afternoon, the following conversation ensued.

Boss Lady: Oh, those snowflakes are lovely! Did you make them yourself?

Me: Um, yes ... (waiting to be chastised about cutting snowflakes on company time...)

Boss Lady: They are beautiful! Did you take a class to learn how to make them?

Me: Yes ... it was called kindergarten. (now waiting to be chastised for excessive snarkiness)

Boss Lady: Can you do anything else, like horses?

Me: [Inner voice: Horses??? WTF?] No, just snowflakes.

Boss Lady: Oh, I see ... [wanders away...]

This is why Boss Lady is getting a pair of bed socks for Christmas. Well, and because she encourages me to attend knit-blog events on company time.

where was I?

Umm, I've been a lazy blogger recently. Lazy in other areas too -- I finished Grandma's brown paper bag poncho, including all eleventy-gazillion stitches of i-cord bind off. I just have to weave ends and block it, but I have been atrociously lazy about it. Maybe this weekend!

However, I did start on the Nantucket Jacket.


As of last night, the sweater is on hold. One of the design features that made me want to knit this sweater are the triangular seed stitch gussets shown in the magazine photo.

Of course, I am not quite the waifish build of the cover model, and I am making a larger size than pictured. In the larger size, the pattern gets its extra width in the seed stitch areas ... instead of decreasing to triangle points topped with a column of eyelets, the decreases lead to a wide column of seed stitch with an eyelet pattern down the middle. It's ok looking, but it loses the design element that made me want to knit this in the first place!

Now I need to rewrite the pattern, probably with triangular gussets like in the photo, but some added cabling/ribbing in between and on the outside edge to add the width I need.

In the meantime, I started a sock instead. It's the second sock of a simple pair of garter rib socks. No pic, as it's only an inch long. If you want to know what it looks like, check out its mate, completed back in May!