Friday, September 28, 2007

Pimping my Wares

Two notes of interest on this lovely Friday morning.

First, I entered a pair of my socks in a contest & I'm currently getting my booty handed to me. Go vote - vote for the ones you like best, but personally, I think the best are mine - Lacy Mock Cable Socks by Tasha. Hee hee.

Exercise your right to vote!

Yarn Ahoy contest

Honestly, I loved working with this yarn & she has some insanely gorgeous colorways. If you haven't gotten any, go take a look: Yarn Ahoy

Lastly, if you are in the DFW area, come by & see us on Saturday. The Knit Out Crochet Too is a free event & we have gotten some fabulous prizes for our Purse Contest & as door prizes. It should be a crazy day!
DFW Knit Out Crochet Too

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Love the One You're With

I have a yarn problem right now. I lost my mojo & have been working a lot, ie, more hours = more money. Instead of saving extra for my house like I should be I've been doing A LOT of stash enhancement. I find it ironic that this increase in yarn buying coincides with my return to Weight Watchers meetings. I can't eat guilt free so I'm using yarn buying as a substitute for food? Well, there is my Psych 101 contemplation for the day! (Down about 8 pounds if you care)

Disclaimer: Patrick, stop reading right now. Seriously. And if you chose to read on, I want you to figure out how big of an army you could arm & have ammo for should the zombies / aliens / etc come. Seriously, stop reading.

Ravelry had made me face the truth. I have a lot of yarn. For whatever reason the many 33 gallon drums full of yarn didn't have the same effect as actually photographing & logging stash yarn. Are you ready? Here is what I figured out. I have enough yarn for
11 Sweaters
69 pairs of socks
15 shawls
29 scarves
23 Various other items
I mean, that's all a rough estimate. This isn't bragging in any way - I am horrified to admit the truth, but hey, I have to tell somebody. (you could say that's not so bad Lise, you really could, I've seen your stash!) How long do you think it would take me to knit all of that? 5 or 6 years maybe? I'm thinking yes. So WHY do I keep buying yarn? I really don't get it. I refuse to put myself on a yarn diet because, well, I've talked about this already & I don't think that works either. I said I'd only buy yarn that I love & I've been doing that too! And it has to be functional but it is! I have to also say that I have some very lovely friends & I have been gifted lots of cool stuff over the years.

Now I'm going to make a concentrated effort to knit from my stash (thus the title of this entry). I have some really really gorgeous yarn. I have new projects planned out & I'm going to do it - but don't be surprised if you see me with a bag with SOME yarn in it. Lately I've been doing pretty good using stuff in my stash. We are supposed to be going skiing after the first of the year & I'm on a scarf kick. When I started knitting I made scarves exclusively for about 6 months. I kind of slip back into scarves every now & then but I've been staying away for quite some time. Now that I've started back I figured out that I can crank out a scarf in like 3 nights watching TV. I've been having fun with it.
Opera Scarf
made with Noro Cashmere Island. Like everyone else I love the color changes in Noro but I find the yarn pretty scratchy. This cashmere blend, while not as soft as I expect a cashmere blend, it's the softness that I want normal Noro to have - and it wasn't expensive, plus I got it 30% off. Love it. Obviously my gauge was off compared to the pattern - I used light worsted yarn & size 9 needles but I liked the look & kept it going. I have enough yarn for a hat or something. Love


Ok, so I love this cheap yarn. I bought this at Walmart for less than $1 a skein to make my 7 year old niece a scarf. When I saw it I immediately thought of her because she loves all things pink & sparkly. Well, apple doesn't fall far from the Aunt Tasha because...well, me too. I had enough left over to make one for me - I made this pattern. It's pink & squishy & I love it. Proof that you don't need expensive yarn - this cost me less than $4.


And in other news - Guess what? My socks are semi-famous. I sent the girls / ladies at Cider Moon a picture of my socks & they posted them on their blog. Isn't that so cool? Yeah, I know. They are the pink ones in case you are insane & didn't know better.....