stash, knit, repeat

(Of the hand-knitted gifts kind. No New Year’s resolutions for me, this time around. I’m just happy 2007 is over.)

It was a fantastic trip, there was much knitting, and now I’m crashing back to reality here in CA. It is my sincere hope not to spend too many more holiday seasons frantically trying to see everyone, do everything, while living out of a suitcase. We’ll see.

I wound up finishing everything I really wanted to get done. Koolhaas for Adam:

(This shot is cuter than the FO. Just imagine it without the yarn strand, there.)

Shedir for my grandmother Grace:

Log cabin slippers for Nancy:

Silk Rhapsody scarf for Beth:

Bev’s hat and mitt set:

And last but certainly not least, the HoJo sweater for Jessica. As you all predicted, she loved it.

(And the fit is just great, if I do say so myself.)

It feels like I have a lot of catching up to do, with all of you. And there’s some blog housekeeping–FO post on HoJo, updates to my 2007 FO album, sharing pictures of a tiny bit of new yarn, the scoop on my current WIPs…

…but all of that can come some other day. May you all have a wonderful 2008, full of shining laughter and scrumptious hand knits.

Knitting time has been pretty damn scarce these past two weeks. At least that’s my excuse for taking that long to knit a pair of bulky-weight slipper socks.

As I was knitting them, I started to worry that there wouldn’t be enough shrinkage room for some slight fulling (I’m planning on stealing the lovely Ashley’s idea and giving them some sole). Now that they’re blocking, though, I think I have plenty of stretch. So, into a hot washer they’ll soon go!

Now that I’m safely ensconced in the babysitting-rich state of Maine, knitting is picking back up again.

..and given that it looks like this outside:

…I don’t think it will slow down any time soon.

To, uh, bake and knit, apparently.

(Clockwise from bottom: Finished lace hat and wine and roses mitts, finished HoJo, Almond-apricot cookie sandwiches, chocolate checkerboard cookies, mint brownies, ginger cookies, chocolate rugelach. We’ve had a busy day.)

The log cabin socks are started, but there’s very little chance I’ll finish them before hitting the road on Monday. I’m told there’s a lot of snow back east, and I just can’t wait to spend some time stomping around in it. Snowmen! Sledding! Snowshoeing! Knitting! Hot cocoa!

The possibilities are endless.

I do hope to blog while I’m back there, although I probably won’t be able to keep up on others’ blogs as obsessive-compulsivelyclosely as I do now. I have such big knitting plans! We’ll see if any come to fruition.

I’m going to save FO posts for all of the holiday knitting until I have proper modeled shots, but HoJo is done and I just have to say I’m in love with this sweater. My teeny-tiny friend Catherine offered to model the sweater for you all, since it won’t fit on my mannequin:

I hope Jessica likes it!

It’s so interesting to read what everyone else has to say about their stash! I admire people who are happy without a stash at all. I know it’s never going to be me–I’m not a collector by nature, but I do like to have some amount of inspiration around the house. So I display my stash–in a basket here, a hand-carved wooden bowl there. I love seeing my current favorite yarn while I work, play with Jacob, or cook. I like touching it as I go by, changing my mind about what the yarn will turn into dozens of times. It keeps my knitting juices flowing when I’m embarking on yet another small-gauge stockinette project.

I think the folks who commented that organization helps them feel less overwhelmed are really on to something–right now, the stash is in huge ziploc bags on the floor of my crafting closet, where I dumped it the day we moved in. Sadly organization will have to wait, since in a little under two weeks we’re headed back east for a month (hey, Boston and Providence and Maine knitters-give a shout and we’ll get together!) and things are a little hectic before we leave. While I have probably half a dozen small projects I want to complete by Christmas, I’m not worried about those. I do want to complete log cabin slippers and a hat/fingerless gloves combo by the time we leave, so they’ll be wrapped up when we arrive at the intended recipients’ house. I’m not sure that’s going to happen, although the hat that looked like this on Wednesday:

…is already finished, soaking in Soak as I type. I also cast on for Jacob’s alligator scarf, got through the head, realized what a pita the body is going to be, and promptly decided it can wait until after the mitts and slippers.

It sure is cute, though, isn’t it?

Whew!

I expect I’ll only have a few yards left over of the blue yarn after I’m done with the collar, but all main pieces of the HoJo are blocking away. Thank goodness! Also, hubby’s side of the family decided to do a secret santa-type thing this year, so I’ve only got the HoJo to do instead of two sweaters.

Which, of course, has led me to the obvious choice of knitting a bunch of small things for the holidays instead of another big sweater. So once HoJo was blocking, there was nothing else to do but cast on for a couple of new projects. A lace-edged woman’s hat out of some Boise from the stash, which I’ve already had to rip because I didn’t like the fabric on US 6 needles, and Jacob’s baby alligator scarf. I like the idea of these small projects–they’re going to be stashbusters, all. Which is nice, given the way I’ve been feeling lately about my stash…

Now, you’ll never find me advocating a small stash across the board. I love my stash, and I’ll never apologize to anyone about its size, nor do I think anyone else should feel badly about the size of their stash, as long as they’re enjoying it. But lately, the sheer amount of yarn I have that I want to knit RIGHT NOW has been getting me down, a little. How am I ever going to find the time to knit all of it? I get kind of sad when I scroll through my Ravelry stash page. And that’s not a good relationship to have with my yarn.

On top of that, certain life goals will be much easier if we can take the next six months and really buckle down, financially. So, aside from a trade that I hope will score me some Cork for gift log cabin slippers, I think I’m going to try avoiding any new yarn for at least a few months, maybe more. We’ll see how it goes. Have any of you felt overwhelmed by your yarn before? What did you do, if so? Do you love your stash?

He brought me two especially nice things today.

Did you know Kim Hargreaves just came out with a book?! That jumped into my shopping cart before I even had time to take a breath. And I got the yarn book on the lovely Claudia’s recommendation. Kim’s patterns are gorgeous, as usual, and I can’t wait to dive into the yarn book.

The yarn pictured is nothing much, really–a couple of balls of 4ply soft for endpaper mitts after seeing Julia’s gorgeous version, and some cashmerino for another indoor cap for hubby. Both projects will wait until after the remaining holiday knitting–which may not be so long, since HoJo is just zipping off the needles.

The fair isle looks good, when I stretch the ribbing out a bit, but I’m also anxious to see what a good soak does for it. I find that color work almost always improves dramatically with some water. The back should be easy-peasy, I think. But let me get your opinion, just for good measure:

The pattern calls for an identical fair isle stripe across the back, and no color work on the sleeves. This strikes me as something that will look totally bizarre (there’s no back view in the magazine), so I was planning on just continuing the ribbing up since I have extra yarn. What do you think?

One of the many, many reasons I love this community is that sometimes others will have realizations I’d never think of, and then share. Today, it was Ms. Monster Yarn. You know, folks? She’s totally, totally right. Holiday knitting is just craziness. There is just no need to drive myself insane knitting 6 different fantastically complicated things for a deadline, when the same people would love the gifts just as much on their birthdays. And those birthdays are spread so nicely throughout the year. Same number of knitted gifts per year (or more), zero stress.

So I hereby declare: I will not try to knit 3 adult sweaters, 2 kid sweaters, 1 shawl, and an assortment of hats and socks this year. My holiday knitting this year, in fact, will not exceed 2 adult sweaters.

So there.

One of them has already come quite far, despite a major frog-fest on Friday. You want to see the back? Oh, all right.

I still love the Pure Merino, although the sweater itself looks like total crap unblocked. It might even look crappy blocked and seamed, if not on a person. It’s all of that ribbing. The other sweater I’d like to get done this year is the Chinese Sweater from a back issue of Interweave, for my other SIL on hubby’s side. I meant to do both of these last year but didn’t have time, and I just don’t want to miss another holiday for these two special ladies.

But after those are done, damnit, I’m knitting what I want to knit, for me and for Jacob. Because that second sock isn’t going anywhere, lately.

And I may have ordered the yarn for Thermal, and I keep eyeing the Mermaid kit and the baby alligator scarf kit. And the fantastical new sock book I bought. And… well… you know how it is.

Thank you all so much for your comments about the sweater. I feel like I’m floating today. I don’t think I missed anyone but if I did, thank you! Thank you thank you thank you. You guys ROCK.

Sadly, there’s no rest for the wicked. My impulse knit of tangled yoke put me pretty far behind on my crazy-as-usual holiday schedule. So I’ve started work on a sweater for Jessica, the wonderful woman I hope someday to call my sister-in-law, if hubby’s brother Adam ever gets off his butt and asks her to marry him. She’s getting the HoJo pullover from the Fall 2002 Interweave Knits.

It just screams Jessica to me. Retro but very, very hip. I may change the neck to a regular crew–I don’t remember ever seeing her in a turtleneck before, and people tend to feel pretty strongly about them–but so far, it’s going very quickly.

I’m knitting it out of Berroco’s Pure Merino, since the specified yarn is discontinued, and keeping the same Howard Johnson’s color scheme. I’m in love with this yarn. Seriously. It’s as soft as bamboo, as springy as any wool you’ll ever meet, and MACHINE WASHABLE. It doesn’t get better than this.

Of course, I’m a selfish one, so I’m also knitting a sock on the side. The mate to Stacey’s lovely Victorian Lace sock, to be exact. This house is the chilliest I’ve ever lived in, and I’m finding a serious need for hand-knit socks.

So I’m knitting a few rows on it here, a few there. You know, whenever Jacob stops trying to stab the carpet with the dpns.

And just because I’ve been accused of being stingy with the Jacob photos (*smiles*), here’s one of him trying to teach the sock how to play the recorder.

Think the sock will tell him to blow on the other end?

Three guesses what’s finished, and the first two don’t count.

Pattern: The Shoalwater Shawl by the infinitely talented Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Andrea by the equally-talented folks at Schaefer Yarn
Time Elapsed: Just under a month?
Thoughts and Modifications: First of all, if you have any variegated yarn in your stash, I highly recommend this pattern. It’s one of the few shawl patterns I’ve seen where the color changes are an integral part of the shawl, instead of detracting from the lace.

That said… I’m really not sure I’d knit with this yarn again. It tangled whenever it could–even with my ball and swift, it took over an hour to wind it up. The colors are lovely, though, and it produced an amazing shawl.

The yardage is a little on the slight side–1093 yards; the pattern called for “about 1200″. I didn’t check my gauge, but I’m sure I would have used up at least 1300 knitting the shawl as written. I eliminated the last 20 rows and an applied i-cord border to the top of the shawl, and had maybe 3 yards of yarn leftover.

I don’t think the removed length and i-cord detract from the shawl, though. It’s still a nice generous size and could probably fly on its own, so gossamer is the fabric.

As usual, more rambling and pictures on the shawl’s FO page.

*****

I still have the Phyllo-Yoked Pullover on the needles, and the stockinette part goes so quickly (and the Calmer is so luscious) that I’m sure I can finish it in time. I cast on for Friday Harbor out of Regia Silk to have something tiny for our upcoming travel, and those might wind up being a gift for my mother-in-law.

So the holiday madness will likely stand at: Afghan out of Ultra Alpaca, HP Scarf out of Cascade 220, Fir Cone Lace Cardigan out of Silky Wool, Shoalwater Shawl out of Andrea, Phyllo-Yoked Pullover out of Calmer, and Friday Harbor socks out of Regia Silk. Not what I’d hoped, but not too shabby!

*****

We’re headed East for a few weeks. In case I can’t blog from the road, Happy Holidays to all who celebrate!

I am triumphant today, for two good reasons.

I finally have an FO entry for you on the Fir Cone Lace Cardigan.

Pattern: Fir Cone Lace Cardigan from Vermont Fiber Designs. Knit in the Large size for my grandmother.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool, I believe color 21. Used just over 6 hanks.
Time Elapsed: Just over three weeks, I think?
Thoughts: This was a very easy and enjoyable cardigan to knit. The lace patterns are extremely easy to memorize, and produce a very pleasing design.

Be warned that there is zero waist shaping in this pattern, and the lace isn’t going to pull in like a rib does. Now, my grandmother (bless her) went through almost a dozen pregnancies, and I think the square fit and slightly dropped shoulders are going to do good things for her figure. But for someone like me, with 8″ of difference between bust and waist, it bags kind of unattractively.

Further, the construction doesn’t really provide an easy way to add waist shaping, since it’s knit in one loooooooooong row to the armhole. I’m not sure how you’d decrease attractively.

Even so, it’s extremely comfortable and classic in look. The heathery quality to the Silky Wool marries well with the lace, and I love how airy and light (yet very warm!) the fabric is.

Merry Christmas, Grammie! I’ll share a photo of her wearing it after the holidays. More information and photos and rambling, as usual, in the FO pages listed in the sidebar.

***

I’m so glad to have that FO shoot done for two reasons. One, it’s extremely frustrating to try to get good shots of a sweater made for someone who doesn’t have your measurements. :) Two, I finished the Shoalwater Shawl today. It’s blocking right now, so I only have a wrinkled pruney unblocked lace photo for you. And “picot” is another synonym for “hell”, and yes of course I ran out of yarn, and it’s 20 rows short, and I had to hunt all over the house for the few yards of sample I had just to finish binding off the damn thing, but…

…even with all that, I think it looks damn fine.