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Day two of fall break was today! I spent the late afternoon playing in the Rappahannok river with Sarah (unfortunately, I did not take any pictures).
I spent the morning sorting and photographing all of my yarn stash. I spent much of the evening loading it all in the Ravelry (and watching Dollhouse). It’s all in there now, so I’ll be able to see what I have without going to dig through it all. Before I put all the yarn back in the bins (sorted by weight), I spread it all out on the floor and took a picture:
The bottom half is all worsted weight and the top half is lace/fingering/sport weights. The middle (and the very top row) is mostly yarns I’ve frogged from sweaters. Right above that off to the left side is sock yarn. I counted, and I have enough sock yarn for 25 pairs of socks (including one from my scraps, in the plastic bag there).
There are a couple of things missing from the picture, like the yarn for my Halloween cape and bonus sock yarn I got in the mail the other day. It also (obviously) doesn’t include my spinning fiber, though that’s all loaded on Ravelry. I also don’t have pictures of my acrylic yarn stash and it’s not in Ravelry since I don’t have brand names and such for it. It’s mostly assorted band-less balls a friend bought me at an estate sale. Useful for blankets and amigurumi as well as for swap partners that won’t handwash wool and don’t mind acrylic.
I like seeing it all laid out in the picture here. Maybe I will indeed have enough to knit next year when I’m a poor, starving college grad.
So I volunteered to do another WWFY swap. I’m knitting a Liesl in 100purewool merino singles, which are lovely and soft and amazing. Currently, the sweater looks like this:
I’ve restarted this sweater like five times because the cast on edge didn’t seem long enough, but I think I’m going to trust the pattern and see what happens. It should relax during blocking anyway.
In return for knitting a whole sweater, I received 250g of sock yarn:
Two skeins of Premiere Serenity Sock, a skein of Lang Jawoll sock yarn (for ankle or possibly colorwork socks) and a skein of Ms. Gusset, which is lovely and beautiful and I’m so pleased I now own.
So yes. I’m gonna knock out this Liesl (which will go pretty quickly since I’m using 6.5 mm needles), then try to dye up the yarn and knit my cape so I can get my sock knitting on for Socktoberfest.
So that’s the plan. : )
First thing’s first: The winner of the fish earrings!
Congratulations to comment number one: Siobhan! I’ll be emailing you for your address!
Now for some thrift scoring. I went to the Goodwill Outlet this morning with my mother and for a grand total on NINE DOLLARS, I scored all of the following sweaters:
Three are lamb’s wool, one’s wool and angora, one’s cotton and linen and one (the green one) is cotton and silk. The cotton ones will probably become tank tops of some sort, though I’ll probably over dye the yarn. The green one with blue to get teal because although it’s a lovely color, my Green Leaves tank is in almost the exact same shade of green. The wool ones I may dye and either sell or have another giveaway on the blog because while I do love yarn (especially cheap yarn), I am running out of room to store it.
Seeing as I don’t have anything finished to show you (yet), I thought I’d show everything I’m working on. There are several things, none of which are particularly close to being finished, unfortunately.
First, there’s a cross stitch project:
I’m working on filling the background with a million little black x’s, and they’re taking forever.
Next, there’s a knitting project:
That would be a beautiful turned hem (god, I love turned hems) for a pair of Lakeside socks for a trade on Ravelry. They’re knit in Fleece Artist Nyoni and in return I received:
a skein of DIC Knitsophy (bottom) and a skein of STR Silkie (top).
Last is an embroidery project. Just a little teaser of this one:
It’s for a Battlestar Galactica swap I’m doing over on Craftster. I’m really pleased with how it’s coming so far, and I can’t wait to show you all when it’s finished.
Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I’ll have pictures of a finished sewing project to show you. Also, don’t forget to enter the giveaway!!
Mich, of Mich L in LA is currently having a challenge/contest. She, like Heather of Dollar Store Crafts filled some envelopes with random supplies, had a drawing for names and addresses, and mailed off her packages of doom, challenging recipients to make three gifts from the contents.
As you can see, I’ve got an interesting bunch of stuff here. A bunch of beads, some weird pink things that look like mustaches, and some jewelry findings. I’ve got some immediate ideas, like earrings or a necklace, and I’m definitely going to do something with that notebook as well as the drawstring bag. Stay tuned over the next couple of days to see what I come up with! I’ve already finished one item (but I still need pictures of it, which is why it’s not included today). And don’t forget to stop by Mich’s blog!
Today, the boyfriend and I journeyed to Alexandria to visit Fibre Space:
The shop is lovely and bright and full of pretty, pretty yarns. Mostly stuff that’s a bit out of my price range, but I was pleased to be able to fondle things like Malabrigo and Blue Sky Cotton and MadTosh, which I hadn’t previously seen in person (they’re all lovely). The staff was wonderful and my non-knitting boyfriend even managed to strike up a conversation with another woman in the shop about knitting styles (I knit continental and noticed when the woman (who was throwing) was knitting differently than I do).
Anyway, I came away with a couple of things (and sorry about the flash photo, but the colors are basically accurate:
That’s a skein of Cascade Fixation (I love me my Cascade) in a lovely teal, which will become socks, two skeins of Malabrigo lace in black, which will most likely become another Featherweight (provided I have the patience), and a 4 oz. braid of BFL in “Ledroit Park” from Neighborhood Yarn Company, which is based in DC. Pretty pretty.
I’m in DC until Thursday (which is earlier than I intended, but the reason for my early return is partially my sister is graduating and partially very long and sordid, so we won’t get into it), and after that, I’ll have some big news about the blog (don’t worry; nothing bad).
So I recently did some dyeing. With Kool Aid. Cause I had some yarn from some sweaters I frogged but I didn’t like the colors. First this, which was originally pastel pink (yuck):
This is a wool-acrylic blend (50/50 I think) from a cardigan I frogged. I’m still not thrilled with the color, but I figure with the high acrylic content, this is as good as it gets. And anyway, the dye took much better than I thought it would. I used… several packets of grape, I think.
I have a sweater quantity here (as it came from a sweater), but I think I’ll use about half of it in a striped pullover with some grey woool. It’ll tone down the pink, and I have a random craving to knit/have a striped pullover.
Next, there was this ugly yellow color that came from a zipper hoodie:
Again, a sweater quantity. Probably a light sport weight. This is 100% merino wool, so it took dye much better:
I wasted a bunch of blue Kool Aid before I figured out it wasn’t going to take up more dye without heat and then I got the hang of it. I dyed the base red and did some grape variation. Not sure what this will become (probably a sweater). I’ll let it marinate in the stash. I’m not complaining–the sweater was probably under two dollars (the thrift store where I bought is 1.59/pound for clothes) and the Kool-aid was probably about two bucks. making the total cost of a sweater quantity of yarn in a color I like about four dollars. Win.
While I have in fact been doing some knitting and spinning for me (sort of–the spinning may eventually turn into a gift), I have also been knitting for other people. Sort of. Like the mittens I made, I am working on socks for Will Work for Yarn trades. The first is a pair of Skew socks in Regia Nation Color. I finished one sock:
and started the other. In return for knitting them, I received three skeins of Aslan Trends Santa Fe (two in Jungle and one in World’s Ocean):
It’s pretty pretty–squishy and wonderful. : ) It’s a two-ply so I might have to do contrast heels and toes, but it does have nylon in it.
Once I finish the Skew socks, I have another pair lined up. I received these two skeins
of True Love Fiber hand dye in Further Under the Sea (for the trade socks) and Happy Lipstick (for me).
I’m not really sure what socks I’m going to knit for this trade because of the variegation in the yarn and because the person I’m trading with didn’t have a specific pattern in mind. It’ll be a couple days because I get to them because I have to finish the Skew socks first, so I have some time to think about it.
Yeah. Ahem. Anyway, I occasionally knit for money. Or yarn, as the case may be. Ahem. Look! Knits!
Pattern: Sort of Paton’s Monkey Around Sock Monkey, but I also just made things up as I went.
Yarn: Acrylic stuff from my acrylic stash. The blue came from a learn-to-knit kit, I think.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm dpns
Mods: Many, since I just looked at the basic shapes and knit as I pleased.
Inn’t he cute? I knit him for a woman I know at school. Her daughter is pregnant and loves sock monkeys, so she commissioned me to make one for her! It was tons of fun to make and it came out super cuddly and wonderful and I briefly considered knitting one for me. Only to be stopped when I remembered I have no need or space for stuffed animals. He’s cute though.
(modeled by my sister)
Pattern: My Dinosaur mittens
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers and Berroco Ultra Alpaca
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm dpns
Mods: None! Cause they’re my mittens!
I’m pleased I was “hired” to make these cause I’ve been wanting to try out the smallest size of my pattern but had no kids to knit for. I think they came out cute. : )
I also sent along this card:
The picture is cut out from a little picture book of dinos I got at a library book sale. It’s highly unscientific (it’s from like, the 80s I think, but there are nice pictures. I think I’ll make a similar one and send it to Joe. : )
The arrangement for these mittens was set up through the Ravelry group Will Work for Yarn. As such, I was paid in yarn: One lovely, wonderful skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway “Punky Fuchsia”. It will become socks. With contrast heels and toes because the yarn is 100% superwash merino, and I will wear through that shit in a hot second. I need some nylon in my socks. So I’ll just add some with leftovers of another sock yarn.
Now that we have returned to our regular schedule of me showing off awesome things, it is Mail Call day! I received some swap things and some other things that I will talk about as I get to them.
First: I received an OWS claim of supplies from hngoodlett, who COMPLETELY SPOILED ME:
That’s a ton of zippers, stamps, ink pads, sewing thread, glue gun sticks (I’ll have to steal my mother’s glue gun, probably), yarn, kool-aid for dyeing, and some plastic sheets that I’m not sure what are. Also: candy! Yum.
Here’s a close up of the stamps:
I also received an OWS package from Lucinda879:
It has a hummingbird quilted in! I didn’t even know you could do that with quilting! I love this thing. It’s so pretty and squishy and wonderful. : )
Next, I received some things from Knit Picks:
PIC
I have a screwy cord in my interchangeable set, so I wrote to customer service, and they sent me a new one! I love Knit Picks–they have such great service! The yarn I got on sale, and I wanted a metal US 8/5 mm 16″ circ to replace the bamboo one I currently have.
Next, I got a skein of Plymouth Colornep, a lovely pink tweed that I don’t have pictures of from a Ravelry destash. It was up for free as half a skein and a mitt, so I claimed it! I’m highly pleased. It will probably became a hat or something for my gift stash I keep meaning to start.
Last but not at all least, I received from MissDolly for my Yarnie/Sewer swap, and she totally spoiled me:
A nice purse (I have to shorten the strap though), a drawstring bag for my spinning, a cool zippered wristlet, a little wallet, a skirt, (*deep breath*) a tank top, and velcro bags for snacks.
Plus a whole load of extras!
Candy and a bracelet and magnet hearts, and cute little ice cube trays.
I would much rather have stayed at school than come home for summer (the reasons are long and somewhat personal), but coming home to like six packages did make it better. : )
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 