The Stash

I have been having a blast lately organizing my stash.  There is a lot of nice stuff in there!  I’ve located the “new” yarn, or that which is not leftover of other projects, and it is all not in my Ikea bins where it is nice and accessible for patting, staring at etc. 

That is indeed the view from the couch, where I can comfortably sit for quite awhile and listen to podcasts, happily knitting away.  I have two bins for tools, one bin of (a big one!) of sock yarn, one of lace, one of sweater, one of “next on the list” one of chunky, and one of “stuff”.  The bins are stuffed to the brim at the moment, but the goal is to only have what can fit in the bins, and gradually bring them down a bit.  The wicker basket is full of the “leftover” yarn from other projects that I can dive into to make one skein projects.  All my knitting books and magazines now fit onto one set of shelves, for easy accessibility as well. 

Over the last week I entered (most) of my stash onto Ravelvry for one reason: in order to export it to the Excel spreadsheet.  Once I did that I could add up how many yards of yarn I have, and now I can also create quarterly reports and see how things are doing.  Can you see the possibilities?  Charting out how much yarn is used each month, how much goes in, how much goes out.  Pie charts, bar graphs, its going to be so much fun.  The next step is to calculate how much yarn I knit up this year, how much I still have, and then calculate the life of my stash.  As in: if this is my retirement stash, how long is this going to last?  ‘Cause I intend to retire early, and live a long time! 

I have so many nice things in my stash, so many projects I can’t wait to get to.  Other than buying some things I need to make some specific Christmas gifts next month, I really don’t need to buy any more yarn.  Plus with going to Stitches, I think I’ll avoid the Boxing Day sales this year, and wait until then to buy a few things.  Then I hope to have a bit of room in the bins for some lovely new stash!

Still Life with Yarn

If I could paint, I think this would be an excellent Still Life subject, except that my camera didn’t quite catch the light exactly.  The mood in the cafe last Tuesday was a bit more nostalgic, and the beautiful green colour of ShiBui showed to perfection.  Mrs R. plans a scarf with her three skeins.  Her ice cream sundae with fruit made up for the untangling work of the yarn ball she was doing.  The yarn is not an easy green to describe, and is kettle  dyed to make some pretty variations.  Not lettuce, not cedar, not too yellowy, not pea green, more edaname if anything.

Knit a Sweater in November

Or “KnSWInNO” or whatever, I was never very good with things like that.  Numbers, I can remember numbers instantly and forever, but not so good with names.  As I’m very keen to use up my sweater yarn, and get the sweaters to wear before, say March, like normal, I’ve got some high goals for the coming month.  I’d like to finish the Snowflake sweater of course, but I’d also like to knit an entire sweater!  We’ll see how I do!  I’ve swatched, cast on, frogged back, and started again a Garter Yoke Cardigan from Fall ‘08 Knit 1.  I’m currently on row 20, or halfway through the garter stitch yoke!  (I know highly  exciting). This is a pattern that in my opinion looks good on almost all the people who have made it.  Some other great variations I’ve admired are using handspun at the yoke in any bright colour, then something nice and neutral for the body. 

This is using the Selkirk I bought at Ramswool in Winnipeg in September.  So far I’m very impressed with this stuff, it feels almost exactly like when you stick your fingers into a sheeps fleece on a live sheep, it has that sproingy, crimped hair feel to it.  I guess if you’ve ever done that you will kinda know what I mean.  My swatch using the recommended needles came out perfectly on gauge, and I’m roaring away.  I really love the look of striped garter stitch, therefore the plan is to have the green/black stripes on the yoke, then at the hem and the bottom of the sleeves.  This is knit top down in an almost seamless construction, even the button band is knit as you go.  I was worried about how the two sets of short rows at the back of the neck would look in the striping, but so far its not bad.  I don’t think anyone would notice it unless they are looking for it, and its not like I’m always staring at the back of my neck.  This should turn out to be a lovely warm, hopefully go with most of my weekend outfits (jeans, cords, pj’s).  Cardigans are key for me to wear around the house as Piper does insist on “softening” my gut by kneading on it every time she sits down.  I can move the hand knit out of the way for her, then move it back once she is “done” and its okay to settle down for a nap.  I’ve got high plans to start a Tempest if I get this done before the end of the month, but well, we’ll see how it goes.  I’m still in the initial “wow, this is going so fast, and I’m doing so well”, and haven’t hit the doldrums yet.

WIP Wednesday: Slogging Along

SnowFlake Sweater:

 This is getting very, very close!  I finished the sleeves and have 3 more cable repeats on the right front before I get to the highly exciting snowflake portion.  I should probably get this finished up this week as the snowflake seems to zip along, then I need to start the sewing in and blocking portion of sweater making.  Then seaming, collar and front band knitting….

Ene’s Shawl:

 It may not look like its any bigger than the last photo, but I’m now under 265 stitches!  I’m on my second repeat of Chart #3, and I’ll probably have that done this week, onto another repeat!  Mr. J is getting good at saying “Wow, you’ve made so much progress” when really its only grown by 1-2 mm.  Then I hold it against his face and make him acknowledge how soft the alpaca lace is!  I’m hoping this is done before our first serious temperature drop!  Any day now….

Bettie Stockings:

The first sock is almost cast off!  I need to get this finished, and the second toe cast on before Saturday.  The provisional toe cast on is new to me, and I need to do it again with peace and quiet, not in public. 

Out the window:

The sun trying to break through the Chinook arch.

A New Hat and an Old One

This weekend we headed out to enjoy the nice weather with a stroll through the local coulee.  I took advantage of the nice light to try and get a better photo of the Stubborn Maiden hat:

If I do intend to give this away as a Christmas gift I had better stop wearing it!  The colours of the Manos are pretty, and it goes down to cover my ears and so far is super warm. 

I also whipped up a Wavy Feathers cap with (almost) the rest of the buffalo/silk blend:

Its a pretty pattern, and warm due to the fibre content of the yarn.  My poor little ears are sticking out however, which means this hat only gets a -5 oC rating.  I’m not so sure its going to cut it for the morning walk to the bus stop anymore!  Its getting a bit nippy in the morning before the sun comes up.  The texture shows up well in the yarn, and there is a bit of a fuzzy halo which I like. 

However, last weekend I did not knit any hats!  I know, how strange was that!  I’m diligently working on my ruinous blues projects, and have added a few new things like a charity project, and a new sweater to knit in November.  More on that later!

The Scary, Zombie Laden Weekend, Plus a Black Cat

This is the second year I’ve gotten to enjoy Hallowe’en in my house and this neighbourhood that is full of kids.  Its a lot of fun to see all the kids running around in their costumes, so, so excited.  One little butterfly, it appeared to be her first Hallowe’en and didn’t have the hang of it yet, stepped right into the house when we opened the door.  Her mafioso father with his giant machine gun had to pull her back out and explain that you just stood there and got candy.  This year we bought a pumpkin to carve, and since we’re all about zombies, picked out a good gnarled out.  It looked good during the day, but better at night!

We added extra green marker for effect, and I tried to leave some stringy “brains” in behind.  I really, really, wanted to make a califlower garden out front, because they look like brains and that way we could catch some real zombies (A La Pride Predjudice and Zombies) but then Mr. J pointed out that was a waste of califlowers.

Instead we decorated the front window with our usual black cat:

And his sidekick “Chubby Tabby”.  They love looking at all the people running around, I think its Jack’s favorite day of the year.  All the little kids love it when they spot Jack. 

Well, I’ve gone and done it now, I cashed in some reward miles that I haven’t used in forever and I’m going to Stitches West in February.  This seems like an extremely good idea to me, as the best thing to do in February in Calgary is to get out of Calgary.  California seems like a great way to go.  My plan is to just go to the Marketplace on Saturday, and try and soak up some of the non -40 oC weather for a bit of a break.  As you can tell, I’m kinda of excited about the prospect as I’ve been catching up on the Stash and Burn podcasts and this event is a big thing in the lives of Jenni and Nicole.  Now I get to go and see it for my own eyes!

What Happens when you Retire

Do you think about retiring, about what you will do?  Do you see it as an endless bore, with nothing to do now that lovely, lovely work, the meaning of your life has been taken away?  Don’t laugh, I’ve met a few people that have told me that when they are forced to retire they will drink themselves to death as quickly as possible in order to end the boredom.  I personally can’t wait to retire, I see it as a time in life where I have the means to live a relatively comfortable life, and not have to make more money unless I really want to.  You see, I have the example of my parents, now retired for almost 15 (!) years.  Is it a bad thing that my parents are having more fun partying than I am? 

Dad is the hot blonde with the pink body suit, Mum is the hot chick with silver locks.  I know, if I didn’t tell you which was the woman and which was the man you could be confused!  Wednesdays are big nights on the island as it is karaokee night.  Dad’s signature song apparantly is “You make me feel like a woman” and Mum’s is “Ride a Cowboy, Save a Horse”.  Now that photo isn’t too bad you say, I don’t understand what the big deal is you say.  Well, how about this:

I know, Dad isn’t wearing any shoes with his lime green mesh pants.  Apparantly he broke them from boogieing too much earlier in the evening, but he’ll get some new pumps in Florida later in the year. 

Now I bet you can’t wait to retire!!

Charting out the Process

This week I have made a graphical representation of my works in progress, which also depicts how quickly or slowly I feel the particular project is going.  I spent a good amount of time this weekend on Ene’s shawl, which is worked from the bottom to the top, or from 375 stitches down to around 20 stitches. 

On the x axis I have “Progress from 0-100%” and on the y axis I have “Time Required” which is rather relative scale.  At the bottom would be 0, and at the top would be a perceived or real time required.  At the beginning of this shawl, it seems to take forever to make a tiny bit of progress.  Cast on 375 stitches, knit one pattern row.  Purl back.  Elapsed time, 3 hours!  Or so it seems.  It took a long time to get through the edging chart (Chart 1).  However once I got onto Chart 2, progress seemed to speed up, and the time required was less.  Now I’m on Chart 3, and the decreases have really started!!  Woohoo for decrease rows!  That means that knit 1 pattern row, purl back, takes less and less time as I keep going.  Its all downhill, nothing can stop me now.  I’ve marked my where location with a red star, definitely going downhill! 

My sweater, or any other large project, time line seems to always go like this:

On the x axis I have “Time Spent” from beginning to when the project is completely done.  On the y axis I have “Progress”.  When I first cast on, and am really excited about the new project I spent a lot of my time on it, and get tons done.  Then the shiny newness wears off a bit, and I may cast on for another small project just for “interest”.  I spend less time on the sweater, and don’t make as much progress.  But slowly the light at the end of the tunnel comes, and I get excited to finish it.  I’m all about goals, and finishing something means marking it off my list with a shiny red pen, and having a new sweater to wear.  Or is it the other way around?  Probably not, I do love my shiny red pen.  I start to spend more time on the sweater, and hurry to get it done.  Again, I’ve marked my current estimated position on the chart with a red star (red!!).  The end is in sight!  Almost at the decreases of the 2nd sleeve, and the front to finish.  (Then a collar, putting it together, sewing in a zipper etc. etc.)

And in case you were wondering, I am a big geek nerd engineer, and I love to graph things AND make spreadsheets!  Woohoo, life can be so much fun!

Many Great Canadians in One Video

A link for those who haven’t already seen this, and to spread some of that Canadian culture around.  This video has not only my favorite Rick Mercer, but my absolutely super favorite Kurt Browning who is his charming self!  Listen closely to Rick’s Newfoundland accent, can’t beat it for being easy on your ear!!  I think he asked Tuffy for a date after this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-h5JYvgOVo

Enjoy!  I think it has become my new make a cloudy day sunny video!

Pondering Gauge

Over the past year I’ve been working on a theory of gauge, specifically mine and how it relates to the rest of the knitters out there.  This theory is becoming useful to me, as it is helping me pick the right needles for specific yarn right off the bat, without going through numerous iterations of needle sizes or yarn for particular projects.  As always, what I’m about to hypothesize only pertains to my knitting, and is not a detriment to other peoples knitting styles.  Everyone knits their own way, in their own time, and exactly how they want to, and each and every one of them is right, okee dokee?

I begin by saying that I knit english style, and am a thrower.  Adding to that I don’t wrap the yarn around any fingers, I kinda hold it loosely between the thumb and forefinger of my right hand.  I knit this way simply because that’s the way my Mum taught me, and even if I’m a bit slower I do have nice even tension.  My theory has to do with knitters who knit with their left hand, continental style, or wrap the yarn tightly around their finger in order to maintain tension. 

Theory 1: As a result of putting the tension on the yarn from wrapping the yarn, larger needles are needed in order to achieve proper gauge, whilst I need smaller needles.  I’ve been noticing a trend that in certain patterns, and with certain designers now, I go down 1-2 mm in needle size and achieve the same tension. 

Theory 2: I don’t have a problem with the Noro sock yarns breaking on me, or really any yarns breaking on me, because I’m not  pre-tensioning the yarn as I knit it, just holding it.  I still love my Noro socks, a year after I made them.  (I also still need to sew some elastic in the tops, but that’s a whole other problem). 

Back to theory 1.  I first noticed this when I wanted to knit some Brooklyntweed patterns, and could not get over how big the needle sizes were.  Why did I need such small needles I wondered?  But now that I’ve noticed the trend I can mentally substitute the smaller needle and start my gauge swatch.  Also with the Ann Budd socks I recently completed, the interlocking cables.  The pattern calls for 3 mm needles, I instead cast on with my trusty size 1 needles (2.25 mm I believe) and went to town.  And by town I mean sock town. 

I would like to conclude this presentation of random theories on gauge with a shout out to Nancy Bush.  Mrs. Bush is also a thrower, and with every single pattern of hers I have ever attempted ( and by now that is a few) the needle size is right on for the gauge that I get.  Yet another reason to love her patterns!