The sum total of knitting done this weekend?
That's just over an inch of garment, and a few rows of new sock. All from Sunday afternoon!
Saturday I had a late start, stayed in bed reading till 9.30am. Up, showered, breakfasted, pottered till 11am. Then I thought it would be a good idea to venture into the stash. I needed to cast on the third garment for IntSweMoDo and had no idea which one to do next.
Should I go for a thick winter yarn? This past week has been mild, and until Friday I toyed with the idea of starting summer knitting. Friday was a bit cooler, and I very nearly took home the Lopi which lives in the office. I didn't, decided that possibly an early Spring garment might be better - after all, I'll probably finish it at the end of March, when the weather ought to be warmer.
My stash is 'sort of' organised. I have culled so much of it in the past three years (at least five large black binbags have been sold, swapped or gone to the charity shop) and I've been in several kals involving lots of shawls and garments.
I have boxes and vacuum packs and toy bins.
Box 1 - german sock yarns (those that are mw and usually can be dried) for gifts, mainly.
Box 2 - Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock and Fleece Artist sock yarn
Box 3 - Those skeins of sock yarns without nylon. I now use this for hands, head and shoulders. Not feet, it wears out too quickly.
Box 4 - Laceweight yarns
Box 5 - Non laceweight yarns suitable for lace or shawl knitting - these are the yarns which are not sold as sock yarns, usually very luxurious fibres and possibly sparkly. From 4ply to aran weight.
Box 6 - Marion Foale 3ply merino (Yvonne, what did you do with yours???), Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and some chickadee.
Box 7 - a large box, full of miscellaneous 4ply odd balls, quite a lot of shetland and 21st century yarns. All great for mitten knitting.
Bin 1 - winter wool packs for garments - chunchy (a few!) and aran
Bin 2 - winter oddballs in heavier weights with the a few Jamieson's thick jumper kits which iddn't fit into bin 1
Bin 3 - wool packs in dk, sport and 4ply.
Bin 4 - lighter weight odd balls for transeasonal accessories. And about four cones of Kauni!
As well as these I have vacuum or packmate bags - one has my sock yarns with nylon (but not German), others are for Wollmeise, Koigu, baby (that's oddballs suitable for babies, nice colours, m/w), more aran weight oddballs for winter accessories, Felted Tweed.
There's a suicase on the top of the wardrobe full of thick yarns - though it's been a few years since I opened it! I kow there's some unpsun Icelandic in there, not sure what else!
Summer stash (cottons and very summery type yarns) are vacuum packed and stored away until the Spring.
Work stash is much diminished, it's now contained in one pack, much of it is Lopi and some Magpie.
Anyway this stash diving on Saturday lasted from 11am to 6pm! I started sorting out some of the bins, as I tend to dump yarns in one of them instead of putting it away in its box. No rush, I love a good rummage in the stash!
I had a shortlist for the next garment.
Debbie Bliss Rialto dk
Jaeger EFM dk
Elann Peruvian Highland Sport in red or aubergine.
After shortlisting, I went onto ravelry for inspiration. This took me from 6-11pm (with an interlude to cook and eat!) I wanted to knit from both yarn and pattern stash.
I finally settled ont he Rialto, and Monday Morning. Swatched. Just before bed I had a look at the pack of Rialto as I had a sneaking suspicion the two extra balls had gone AWOL. And yes, they are AWOL! I cannot knit a garment from 10 balls. Until I find the extra yarn it's down to one of my two other yarns.
I've setted for the Elann sportweight in aubergine. And Deco. Coincidentally the slipped stitch pattern is the same as on the Monday Morning cardigan, just with less sts inbetween the slipped ones.
So far so good, though I'm a bit concerned that it might be on the snug side. I can't tell at the moment, and trying to measure such a narrow strip is difficult, it's a bit stretchy! The swatch was fine ... bt my swatches sometimes lie! This isn't going to be a fast project on 3mm needles, either!
Fingers crossed that I am now set for IntSweMoDo2012, garment #3. Oh, and the other new project is just a pair of plain socks for my brother.
My stash tally for February was -2510 yards! I didn't buy one single yard of yarn. Not that I'm going on a yarn diet or anything so drastic; just trying to use up some stash.
I think there is a good chance that you won't actually run out of yarn before Easter.....love the new colour, must have a look at the pattern.
Posted by: Jill Richards | March 05, 2012 at 11:55 PM