Expanding Stash

Fall Sale! OK, I'm a wimp. I've hit two sales recently that did not help with reduction of the stash. A local shop greatly (like 75%) reduced the price on discontinued yarns that were still sitting around. Another just needed to clear out bits and pieces.

Knit One Crochet Two Italian Ice - 840 meters

Lily Chin Gramercy --- scored 15 balls. That's about 1900 yards. Whippie!!! And the grey shade is perfect for anyone. Lots of possibilities with this one.

Heirloom Breeze. I have no idea what it will become - but cotton/wool blends work really well here in southern California.

Berroco Touche - 16 skeins. This most likely will get split up and used in several projects.

Not Exactly Slacking Off

The only slacking off of late has been on the blogging. In the last four days:

1. the DH's plain vanilla blue socks came off the needles. Complete and of equal size! Yeah. No photo - not enough time.
2. the Diamond Inset kinda Rusted Root increased by an additional 6 inches. Practically ready to move the sleeves to waste yarn. No photo - not enough time.
3. the Collinette throw reached a solid 50% completion and remains snuggly, gorgeous, and a tactile dream. No photo - not enough time.
4. a new dress hit the needles! No, I'm not that ambitious. This is a Beary Good Dress that will clothe a Precious Pal for the guild's group donation next October. As in October 2009. No photo - not enough time.

And today I'm off to 3 days of meetings. National Board meeting, thinking, planning, deciding and all around brain function for hours at a stretch. It is mentally exhausting so the little bear dress will travel with me.

Daddy taught me that when exhaustion hits, it is often exhaustion for the current task at hand. Switch gears and go do something totally different and the "AHA!" moment is that you are not in a state of exhaustion for the new task. Thus, Daddy could return from a full day of work, change clothes and head outside to mow the grass. Different task - no exhaustion. Time for a photo.



Well, maybe there is time to offer this.....
It is a Berry Good Dress. If you are interested in the pattern PM me on Ravelry - I'm Stewlf.

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Inset

Still plugging along on the final ribbing for the DH plain socks. I got a bit sidetracked because of a new project just for me. Stash diving revealed that the long sleeved Rusted Root I planned to make for this fall never did start itself. What was it doing all this time in the bottom of the closet? One would think it knit itself by now. This is Cestari Cotton Blend (75 cotton/25 wool) in heather green.

Any way - all of my notes were right there on the label telling me what to do with the stuff. Whenever I make a purchase with something specific in mind, I write notes on the label so that I don't forget why I bought it. Clearly, this was purchased to become a Rusted Root. (Bad, bad fuzzy image. Someone should spend a moment to edit these photos)

But why did I swatch it using 8's? Oh, well. A quick turn of the label revealed that somewhere back in time I did swatch size 6 needles which just confirms the planned pattern.

This one won't have the lace insert. I've decided to inset diamonds down the front. And, since the sleeves will be long, perhaps diamonds around the bottom of the sleeves. The diamonds are made using elsebeth lavold Bambouclé in plain white.

There is something so mindless about knitting a raglan. Keep increasing until it fits. My kind of pattern.

Mitered Madness

A good time was had by all! Isn't that the right saying? The Patchwork knitting workshop with Joyce Renee Wyatt was wonderful.

Joyce claims to be Los Angeles born. Well, maybe so. But that accent is pure south. At one point during the day, Joyce was holding forth on how she translates knit into crochet - and vice versa. She is bi-yarn you know. In talking about how to deal with the crochet slip stitch and picking up for the next mitered piece, she was so specific on which loop to work so that there was a line on the right side of the fabric.

Oh Wow! Exactly as my mama taught me over 40 years ago. I just had to open my mouth and tell Joyce that her crochet style was exactly like I learned in Louisiana and I questioned her belief that she is Los Angeles pure. Turns out that her mother was raised in Bunkie, Louisiana! Bunkie is only about 40 miles north of my beloved hometown of Eunice, La. We are practically related, in that way that only true southerners understand.

"Where yo' mama from?"

But don't go thinking this makes Joyce Renee Wyatt to be a Cajun. Everyone knows that if you come from north of Turkey Creek, you are bordering on being Red Neck. Which brings me to Joyce's hillarious story of rooming with Lily on "the cruise" and discovering that everyone - no matter your heritage nor your skin shade - must use sun block all over. Let's just say that Joyce had to wonder why her mother never told her that sunburn happens!

Oh. And we knit. We looked at the sweater that is featured in Great Garter Stitch. Not the blanket on the cover, but the triangle sweater inside. Joyce talked about how she creates via the fudge and smudge method but then has to get real exact when writing for publication.

Got a hole when you picked up for the next mitered piece? No problem - add a stitch and decrease it out on the next row. Fudge and smudge. I bet her mama taught her to think like that. It's a southern thing.

So this piece on the right is not going to have anything circular. That's just the needles making it look that way. The black part will be another 'L' shaped piece once it is finished. I only got this far before we started talking crochet . . . .and fiddling with hook sizes to get drape in fabric . . . . and looking at samples . . . . .and playing . . . . .and learning.

Yep, a good time was had by all.

Homework is Due

Today is the day. My homework is due. I'm off to a 6 hour workshop taught by Joyce Wyatt. We are doing patchwork knitting.

The homework instructions call for worsted on size 10. Well, what a shock when I could not find my 10s. Found 10 1/2 circulars and the 9s are currently busy. The 8 circulars were available. So it was decision time. Go up just a bit or way down. HMM. Tough call.

So I did both. You can compare the swatches for your self. I thought there would be a bit more difference in the two given that there are two needle sizes between the swatches.

I'm thinking that for the class the looser patch will be best. Much easier to pick up stitches along the side. As you would expect the patch done on the 10 1/2 is floppier. Well, as floppy as possible when you are made of worsted weight and only 3.25 inches along the side. (as always, click the photos to enlarge)

But I like the results of the 8's better. Stitches are more uniform right off the needles and it just looks better to me.

The real question - - - What will Joyce think?


Oh, managed to get a little laundry done this week.