skein

A very special day

Yesterday I went to IKL's I Knit Day 2008 - it was wonderful.  Not just the knitting people, old and new friends, but the marvellous atmosphere.  And the opportunity to buy more yarn, of course.  The weather today is dismal, overcast and drizzly,  not the best day to take photos! As there's a few photos, I've made them smaller, but they're clickable!

Namaste bag from Purlescence.
 

Lexie Barnes circular needle holder from Loop.

Laceweight and self striping sock yarn from Fyberspates

Sushi Sock rolls from Easyknits

Alpaca socks and 4ply merino from Coldharbour Mill.

Cashmere lace and cashmere/silk from Knitwitches

Alpaca,cashmere and silk sock yarn from The Natural Dye Studio

 

Sheepy cups, badges and keyrings from Herdy

 

and finally, a silent auction on the Knitting & Crochet Guild stand.

But another special and more exciting thing happened yesterday.  I am  now a great aunt!

Baby E, taken from a mobile phone!
And here she is with the new grandad (my brother) and one of her new uncles.

Ahhhh!
She's the first of the next generation - everyone's shifted up a level!  My parents are now great grandparents and my siblings are now great aunt and great uncle. I can't believe my brother is a grandad now. It seems like just yesterday when his daughter was born.  In fact, every time I think of her I'm seeing her newborn face, with a punk rocker hairstyle. Must dig out her photos to compare!

Stash figures for March.

Please only read this if you're not easily shocked, or want to gloat over how well you're doing with your own stash mountain.  I'm not opening a yarn shop, honest!

NOT a pretty sight!

Details	Yardage	Weight g
Stash in
clubs / kals	1356	275
adding to a project	163	50
rule breakers	21230	8435
	22749	8760
Stash out
knitted	5753	2620
sold/given away	0	0
	5753	2620

Yikes, a massive minus figure of 16996 yards and 6141g! 
My acquisitions (rule breakers!) for the month were broken down as follows:
Elann 7640yds/3175g - seta lana,  highland sportweight in two colours, superwash bamboo in two colours and some debbie bliss cashmere at a knockdown price.
Peter Jones 4130yds/1650g for 3 projects:
Belair from Rowan 43 (bolero, but I'd have to change that armhole from a drop shoulder!)
Tulip from Rowan 41, a possibility.
Compote from RYC Summer Delight (red, short sleeved cardigan second left)
Olympia craft show last week 8260yds/3150g - blame Black Sheep!
Stash  1200yds/460g (Dream in Color, Classy and Smooshy)

For the year, it's an increase of 17084yds/5636g.  Oops again.

Stash figures for February

As you know, my knitting mojo disappeared for nearly half of February, so my stash out was going to be depleted.  Fortunately I remembered this morning that I'd sold/given away a few packs of yarn! Not quite as successful as January, but not as bad as it could be.  I knitted most of my dad's waistcoat in February, but my rules are that garments are included when they are finished.
FEBRUARY STASH FIGURES

                                                           

Details	Yardage	Weight g
Stash in
clubs / kals	1752	530
adding to a project	490	250
rule breakers	3912	1800
	6154	2580
Stash out
knitted	1400	435
sold/given away	3736	1500
	5136	1935

So I've increased the stash by 1018yds and 645g.  Oops!

Yearly totals are increase of 88yds and decrease of 505g!

I have a few Elann orders which should arrive in March so it's not looking too good!  I will have to get a move on with the knitting!  This even might mean ... getting the knitting machine out!

Stash organisation

is very much on my mind at the moment. 

There's the new season books, new yarns, new shades, all tempting. 

But I'm also trying to keep the stash under control:

* knit from the stash
* two in-one out rule
* only buy for current project or if I'm casting on immediately
* clubs don't count (I'm in four, including the Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket club).

We went over to see Sheelagh at the Yarn House in Caterham on Saturday.  I bought some Rowan Tape and Rowan Denim, all for current projects.  My downfall was this - isn't it luscious?

And just look how they arrive, all sheafed together!

I spent Sunday trying to sort out some of the stash.  I have a horrible habit of bringing home purchases which are piled up in bags all over the bedroom. 

This isn't all new stuff, I swapped over some of my bins, so that the warmer weather yarns are more accessible. This was taken when I started sorting, believe me it got a lot worse!

This is the year when I log my stash. I've put a lot on flickr, but have loads more to do.   I'd love to  know the total number of skeins, total weight, total yardage. I'm always amazed when people know how many miles of yarn they have!

I've two more Mystery Blanket squares to knit, and seven more Picnic squares before the end of the month. NOT counting the waistcoat, Autumn Cardigan, pair of socks and something new!

January Stash Figures

This year I'm keeping a total of stash in and stash out.  I'm trying to diminish the stash.

I have a few simple rules:
Club subscriptions are exempt. I'm in a couple of sock clubs, a glove club and now a mystery blanket club.
I can buy if I'm going to cast on immediately.
Gifts/swaps are exempt.
Major yarn store expeditions are exempt.

I'm not really on a yarn diet, but I'm trying to resist purchasing yarn just because it's on sale!

January Stash Summary

                                                                             

Details	Ydage	Wt g
Stash In
swaps and gifts	1880	200
clubs / kals	3640	1205
cast on now	1116	600
adding to a project	500	230
rule breakers!	2000	730
	9136	2965
Stash Out
swaps and gifts	7646	2950
knitted	2420.5	1165
	10066.5	4115

I've managed to decrease the stash and have knitted over a mile for January.
The clubs/kals stash in is rather large this month as I've had two sock clubs, a glove club and two lots of the Mystery Blanket club.  Mind you, I gave away a lot this month too which has been the saving grace.  As my garment knitting overlaps the months, I'm only going to include garments when they are FOs, when I'll weigh them and include them in that month's stash figures.

So my stash movement this year is  -930.50 yards  and  -1150g.   A grand start to the year.

More stash

except this doesn't break the yarn diet, as it's all from clubs.

I'm currently in three Yarn Yard clubs:  merino, sock and Nat's new club, a glove club.

Today two parcels landed on my desk at work, this month's sock club and the new glove club.

Unusually this time, the sock yarn doesn't have a smaller skein of complimentary yarn, but contrasting yarn; it'll be interesting to see how the socks turn out (when I get around to knitting them). The glove yarn is intended for this knitalong - I'm not sure if there's enough for the gloves (must read the YY blog to find out) but I can handle the fingerless gloves, thank you. There's a lovely knitalong (and the patterns are downloadable) too.

I must keep up - I found these under a cushion on the sofa.

More sock yarn, and a couple of skeins of the merino club yarn.

I'm happily knitting away on Eve, for my ISE5 pal. Just another five pattern repeats to go and it's finished.   This means that I can get on with Secret of the Stole (last clue on Friday) and hopefully I'll be seeing out November with either my much neglected Bee Fields shawl, or my even more neglected Autumn Leaves cardigan (or is that Persian Poppies?  So far it's 76.7% to Autumn Leaves in the poll.)

If this post is a little disjointed, it's because England are on tv, and it's crucial that we win or draw (unless Russia lose, unlikely).  They have just equalised. We've had to crack open a bottle of wine, it's so stressful!

ETA:  We lost!  How abysmal is that!

 

Ally Pally stash enhancement

A mega stash enhancement at that!  I concentrated on sock and lace yarns this time, though this was more by chance than design.

The haul (lots of photos!). Now I missed out loads of stands, intending to go back later on - and didn't manage it. I never made it to one hall at all!

From Get Knitted

Opal Rainforest, Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Envy and Parfait (the last two skeins, so I thought I ought to buy it), and some Handmaiden Lace Silk in Periwinkle.
     

From Woolly Workshop (who had Cherry Tree Hill yarns)

some Orenburg Lace, Pot Luck Supersock in earth shades, Solid Supersock in burgundy, Sock-it-to-me sock yarn in Spanish Moss.

 

     

Shilasdair cashmere handspun (gorgeously soft!)

Hipknits laceweight cashmere (do you see a theme here?)

Mobair Kid Mohair and Silk Lace. Yvonne gave me a skein of her alpaca silk last year and I loved it so much I thought I'd try some more of her stuff.  No website, unfortunately, but she does a lot of the shows.
I bought some lovely buttons and a couple of ... woggles as well. (Chris tells me this is what they're called in the Cubs and Scouts - for fastening scarves).

Knit 'n' Caboodle

This is a new to me company selling sock yarns. They also stock some patterns - Heartstrings, Cookie A sock patterns and Bees Knees childrens patterns (using sock yarn).

Admiral R Druck sock yarn (this feels similar to the other German sock yarns out there, she had a deal, 3 balls for £12.50) - 3 balls, and 2 balls of Opal Uni (and patterns, not photographed)
 

I succumbed to some Sanquhar glove patterns from Euro japan Trading Co and also bought some cream and black laceweight yarn (J&S yarn)

Another new to me company was Socktopus, selling sock yarn and various other paraphernalia  (needles, knitting bags, a few books - more at their site)

Dream in color Smooshy,Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra, and Chameleon Colorworks Evolution, a stretched merino sport weight wool (feels wonderful).

 

And finally, my last port of call was Knitwitches. Fabulously friendly women, and great yarns (which is why I bought rather a lot!)

Let's start with the sock yarn.

70% blue faced leicester, 30% nylon

3 skeins - Plums, Purple Light and Storm Foam.

Gossamer Dreams Kid Mohair 800m/50g

2 skeins, Ripe Cherries and Jade Seas

More cashmere laceweight - 900m/100g in Deeply Turquoise

Some silk, a laceweight in colour Irene, and a dk weight in colour Blackcurrant Sundae.

That's it!  Well apart from some magazines and buttons. I didn't have time to see at least half a dozen other stalls which I wanted to see.  I bought a few kits (not knitting) for gifts as well which I can't blog about.

Time to update flickr and ravelry now!

 

More acquisitions

I've not managed much knitting since my last post, so there's no knitting progress here today, just a few links and photos of more books I've received.  We were out last night having a chuckle at Spamalot.  I'm not a huge Monty Python fan, but know enough about the Holy Grail to enjoy the jokes (and the extra bits). A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

I intend to wrap up Ali tonight. Only the sleeve cap to knit, then the sewing of seams and ends. Hopefully it's just an evening's work (or am I being very optimistic?).  Because I've had an email today from Kim Hargreaves to say that her Spring Collection, Shades of Pale, is to be launched tomorrow!  Better get a move on with her kits!  I have a kid silk haze beaded, ruffled scarf, a denim cardigan and a baby cardigan still to knit!

My Fyberspates sock club yarn has arrived.  It's 90% merino / 10% nylon sock yarn, in shades of reds, pinks and purples. As usual, this shot doesn't capture the true colour.

Must catch up with the sock knitting!

I've also put my name down for the fourth round of the International Scarf Exchange (ISE for short).  This will be my third time and I've enjoyed it so much. Plenty of time to knit the scarf (over two months) and it's a one-off exchange, my favourite sort, no long term commitments, just one box to despatch. Places are limited, so hop over to sign up now if you're interested.

Last, but certainly not least, I've been book buying again. These ones are special, they've come from Japan - my first time ordering from Amazon in Japan.  These are stitch dictionaries and are super.  They are completely charted, so there's no need to know any Japanese.  At first glance the symbols uses seem pretty self explanatory and are explained, in diagram form, at the back of each book. 

 

 

I had a despatch email (well it was in Japanese but I think that's what it was) on Saturday, and it was here on Monday - fast service!  You can opt for the slower mail service too, which I suppose is the usual 3-6 weeks surface. The book on the left (in the central photo) is one which I've seen on a few blogs, but the one on the right was an impulse buy and I'm pleased with it.

Edited to add:  I have Snap preview on the blog now - see that little icon next to each link? You can hover your mouse over the icon and the page pops up, all being well and Snap up to date. 

 

Get Knitted

At least four other knitting bloggers will be reporting on our trip, and as I didn't take too many photos, it's good to see them on other blogs (and Get Knitted Flickr!).

The Get Knitted shop is fantastic,  everything online is available in this HUGE shop. Amelia has some great photos of the stock. There's some sofas, tea and coffee facilities, and a play area, so if you've a long way to go at least you can sit down and have a cup of coffee.

Here's Mary, Polly, Jacinta, Amelia and Jill outside the new Get Knitted shop.

Sue working hard (check out the size of this shop!)

Polly perusing the bargain area - that's the area behind her, not the sock table (one of three!)

In my New Year Resolutions, I'd allowed for three major stash purchasing occasions: my birthday (when I bought a few things at Stash), one Get Knitted trip, and Ally Pally. I think I may have another GK trip in store later on in the year now.  Especially now that I know you can buy cheap singles (from £10 London-Bristol) as long as you book early and travel on a designated train. A good day out for everyone, and we managed to do a little knitting there and back. 

Ally Pally haul

This year I was a little restricted in what I could buy as I was off to visit the family straight after Ally Pally for a few days, and didn't want to struggle with lots of bags and an overnight bag as well.  Apart from jamiesons, I stuck to sock yarn and the odd bit of lace yarn.  I didn't do Ally Pally justice this year, missed loads of stands, including House of Hemp and the Possum stand! 
Jamiesons was my first port of call, for the Simply Shetland 3 book and a kit for the Sandia Caped Coat (it's top right in the photos).
A close up of the yarn

Then onto Cherry Tree Hill yarns for some sock yarn and some suri alpaca laceweight yarn. 

From Get Knitted

More lorna's laces, some Handmaiden silk and Fleece Artist. The Koigu is bought specifically for the Traveller's stockings in Knitting on the Road.  I started these yesterday, but I'm using short bamboo dpns, and there's too much manipulation of the stitches for bamboo needles, so these have been put aside until I transfer them onto metal dpns (and get the right left slant decrease sorted out - I've been knitting them incorrectly and have to frog).  Not to worry, I have two pairs of socks OTN at the moment to keep me going. 

From Touch I bought two lace scarf kits, very handy for exchanges.

From Habu, some silk mohair and some bamboo

Also a sheep pin, some sheep soap and a scarf kit from Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop, probably for gifts (though that scarf kit looks a bit tempting!). No photos, by this time my stamina was flagging.

I wanted to visit lots more stalls, but time and tired feet got the better of me. I missed out on the Possum and Hemp yarns! 

I very nearly bought a knitting machine!  Fortunately some of my fellow knitters passed by at the crucial time and distracted me!

Coming later this week - the Lorna's laces socks are finished at last, as is the scarf for my scarf exchange pal. Just need to get organised and sort out photos.