FO Friday 11/16: Ascending the Everest of Stash

Steampunk Tarot

                                                                     


            
   So. 

You know how it is, you get an idea, and it gets stuck in your head and you must do something about it RIGHTNOWTHISVERYSECOND even though it is cold and dark and late ?

You don't ? Sanity must be a wonderful thing.

Well, Wednesday night I had an urge to make a particular pattern, for which I wanted to use a wool/alpaca blend yarn for the 'hairiness'. I was sure I would have something at least sort-of appropriate, and a quick search of my stash listed on Ravelry confirmed it.

I thought it was in the armario, but not exactly where - what shelf, near what, bagged, unbagged ... nope, no idea.

This was the result as seen the next morning in daylight:

This meant I spent a couple or three hours with the delightful job of tidying, sorting out and organizing my stash.

Nope, not one shred of sarcasm there at all. Now it looks like this:

I only had two tubs, so all the 4ply/fingering weight is in a huge bag; all my oddments are in baskets, in color groups; my two longterm WIPs and their yarn are in the big wicker basket, my short-term WIP basket is - GASP OF HORROR - empty right now. The 4 large shoeboxes (Titch takes a size 12 or 13) are full of fat quarters. There was no room for any other fabrics, the cushion forms or all the embroidery gubbins - I have several hoops (some had been my paternal Grandmother's) and a floor frame that I need to find room for somewhere ... the pouffe is already full of Chunky and random bits:

All in all, a very satisfying afternoon - me and the dog singing along to the loud radio pottering through yarn. We are totally not discussing that I now realize I have 19 sweaters'-worth of yarn. As in, 19 separate bags/packs which each contain enough of an individual yarn to make a sweater. We are definitely not telling Titch.

What did I need that Drops yarn for ?

Oh yes - this:

Cornish Dormouse Tea Cosy, pattern by Debi Birkin

FO Friday 10/16: Stash Mountain

Legacy of the Divine Tarot

I do actually have a FO for this FO Friday ... but I know you would much rather I shared with you my recent stash acquisition.

Well, no, not all of this year's, even though the year is still quite new - I'm not prepared for Titch to quite find out the extent. I am, however, beginning to have trouble getting the doors on my armario shut ...it's a good thing yarn is squishy.

Firstly, Titch owed me about 3 trips to a LYS, accumulated over birthdays, anniversaries, doghouse events etc last year ... so on my birthday this year we went to Colchester and I went wild in the aisles of Franklins, who stock not only upscale yarns, but a great selection of various brands, the latest yarn 'releases', and my own personal favorite, the Bargains ... not the tidiest or organized of places, one could trip and suffocate in piles and packs of yarn if one did it right.

I do indeed have a Plan in mind for all of it. Those are going to make an afghan and some cushions for our sofa. Don't be scared of the colors, I promise it will look ... fine. The fun fur stuff is for just in case. Just in case of what, I'm not sure ...

And then at Christmas, my BIL the Cornishman gave me vouchers for the Wool Warehouse. I have become so adult I didn't spend them until this week, and then when it arrived, I waited a whole day to open the box.

Why yes, yes, I am able to eat only one chocolate from a box and put the lid back on, how did you guess ?

And that is the ingredients for two more afghans, you will admit, a far more random combination of colors.

And since I am hosting Mini Diva's birthday sleepover tonight ....yes indeed, now she turns 13 not so much of the Mini I guess, I need to go and move the fragile things. But given that they are all sleeping downstairs along with the dog who is over-generous in sharing the pungent repercussions of his dinner of tripe mix  ....

FO Friday: Stash Enhancement Tally

Fairytale Tarot (Hunt)

 ''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of too much yarn, must be in want of more''. (with apologies to Jane Austen)


It IS a sad fact that one's stash is always in need of enhancement. Never mind that you have already achieved SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, ie. you will never live long enough to knit/crochet all the yarn you own) - although I myself am innocent of this crime, I know others who are not. One of them might be Eviller.

This year I had decided that as much as possible I was going to knit from my stash, buying new yarn only when unavoidable, for example, my Big 6 Project (more about this another time) or for a specific project for someone's birthday, say. That kinda thing.

However.

 What can you do when someone (Belo) gives you good folding cashmoney for your birthday and says, ''spend it on yourself'' ? It would have just been rude not to pop into Jenny Wren's, seeing as how she's lovely and her shop is full of yummy squishiness just as she had a sale on and buy a me-sized sweater's worth of this gorgeous peachy-coral Lanas Stop Baby Wool, wouldn't it ?

The pretty KnitPro crochet hooks kinda fell into my basket at the same time. Plus, they're tools, so don't count as stash at all.

And then my friend Dianne sent me 800m or so of lovely undyed silk and some Muga silk, towards my Big 6 Project:

So of course they don't count as they were an unsolicited gift. And the birthday vouchers my Good Twin gave me enabled the addition of the following, but they are also earmarked for the Big 6 Project:

I try not to look at the destashes on Ravelry when I'm trying to avoid temptation, but this happened to catch my eye, and it was just so vibrant I had to have it. Yes, had to, I tell you, it was meant to be mine, especially at the knockdown price it was:

And as if that wasn't enough - you're right, there is no such thing - I won a giveaway on JenACKnitwear's blog, a lovely kit of a stole pattern and 800m or so of Frog Tree Brushed Suri fingering weight to make it with:

Yes, you may gnash your teeth all you like while I lounge here cossetting all these piles of luscious yarn ...

FO Friday 148: Colorful Chores

Spiral Tarot

School was finally out for summer on Tuesday. I spent Wednesday blitzing the house and laundry; the kids did an excellent job of mucking out their rooms (I am not ashamed to admit that bribery was key in getting this done). Thursday I spent in the sauna created by lots of steam ironing, rewarded by a trip to the library, and Friday involved a treat trip to Morrisons' bakery department - I have a thing about their 'secret centre' muffins, especially the lemon variety. It is hot and sunny, we have stayed up late and got up late. I love it.

And with all the ooky chores about done (in spite of the couple of thunderstorms, the ground is still too hard and dry to weed, don't you think ? Yes, I thought so too), today I have a job that I am looking forward to:

This is my stash of fat quarters. I was just going to put them into tidier piles and put them back into the shoe  storage boxes. However, Mini Diva has informed me that I have no taste whatsoever, and that she will be in charge of putting them into some kind of color family order, and some may simply have to go, as what was I thinking even buying that color ?!

Speaking of what was I thinking (answer: nothing, of course) I was privately gloating recently over a score of Malabrigo Lace at a superb price from someone's destash. On my monitor, it looked blue, and the colorway is called 'Sky' - so I snapped it up, knowing what fabulously soft and amazing yarn Malabrigo is, after making this shawl in the 'Jewel' colorway a couple of years ago:

Waves of Leaves Shawl, 2011

This is what arrived:

The colorway name 'Sky' must have been referring to an overcast winter sky. In remotest Scotland. On the coldest day of the year, just before a nasty freezing sleet starts to soak you from above. Gray is simply one of those colors that is too subtle and classy for me to fully appreciate as it no doubt deserves.

So wasn't it lucky that in the same destash I also obtained this ?

 

I can totally see why these yarns were in a destash ! For the same but different/opposing color reasons, if you see what I mean.

Perhaps Mini Diva may have a point about my taste ..... so go and see some lovely examples over at Tami's Amis.

FO Friday 146: Not a Lot

Housewives Tarot

Well, this is an appropriate card for today: not only have I spent much of my time this week cleaning, I have also done a fair bit of organizing.

But that was after I gazed with enjoyment on the blooms of Sweet Magic and Sweet Dream: two lovely scented patio roses which are doing really well this year:

Follow my example and ignore the dandelion leaves. The white flowers in between the roses above is some form of clove pink or carnation, I forget which; also scented, they seem to be thriving too. Roses are both Destructo Boy's and my favorite flowers.

My newest rose is 'Absent Friends' a double peach floribunda - or whatever it is they call floribundas these days that I have of course forgotten; this too is sweetly scented - what's the point in growing a rose without a rose smell ? - as is the white true valerian ie. Valeriana officinalis not Centranthus ruber, that is lying down on the job in the middle of the bush.

I know, it looks more yellow than peach right now, but I did actually check the label: let's see how it turns over time. I think it's interesting that valerian root, a natural sedative, has a somewhat unpleasant musky dry smell, but that the flowers are so attractively and strongly fragrant.

Yes, there was a kind of actual FO this week: Wah- Lah !

The above picture shows my tidied, re-organized and sorted stash in my corner. I have invested heavily in wicker and scented drawer sachets. I have shifted my knitting needles to the glass vase the kids gave me for my birthday (or was it Mother's Day ?) as nobody ever gives me cut flowers. Yes, that was a piteous violin in the background. In fact, just for fun you can have some romantic violin played with passion in the foreground too:






I know, I surprise myself too sometimes.


See what else is finished this week over at Tami's Amis.

4KCBWDAY4: Imagination

Golden Tarot

                        4KCBWDAY4




What are your favourite colours for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colours you seem to favour when yarn shopping and crafting.

Only after writing this part of your post should you then actually look to see what colours you have used in your projects. Make a quick tally of what colours you have used in your projects over the past year and compare it to the colours you have written about. Compare this, in turn, to the colours that are most dominant in your yarn stash – do they correlate?

Now think back to your house animal - do the colours you have chosen relate to your animal in anyway - if you are in the house of peacock, for example, are your projects often multicoloured and bright?




Well, that whole Infographic thing from yesterday ? A monster has been unleashed - you may wish to start running now.

The simplest way for me to blog about today's topic was with a graph ! You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this scientific geek approach, it has true novelty value for me. Plus, purty colors.

Color Mix: Theory vs. Reality | Create infographics

I was definitely surprised - my estimate of the percentages of color families of my FOs and stash didn't really have a close connection to reality. I was badly out on the greens, reds, pinks and neutrals in FOs; and in my stash (not all of which  is on Ravelry, so I ignored those ones) I was wrong by miles on nearly every color grouping.

This was an interesting exercise, as it dispels one's own assumptions ....

 Even though I got it so wrong, I don't know that there is any real reflection of my own taste in yarn colors, as most of my projects are for other people and so I choose colors I think they will like, rather than what I like. The 70s Horror Cushion was a great example of that:

  

Having generously shared that pain and suffering with you - there's no need to thank me so effusively - I think we should go soothe ourselves by plugging KCBWDAY4 into Google, to see what everyone else  has said, while listening to this:

 

Spring Spree

Housewives Tarot

 Oh my, how time flies !

We made it to the end of term - just. And an odd weekend it was, too - with both snow falling at the coldest Easter for 50 years, the clocks changing to British Summer Time and DH home for all four days  ....

In addition, Belo had the kids on Saturday, for their requested sleepover, and took them to Auntie Fashion's on Sunday in order to OD on Easter chocolate, so we luxuriated in most unusual child-free silence and too many hours of sleep.

But that was after our little foray to Franklins in Colchester; and we had a little venture out to Twist in Woodbridge a couple of weeks ago for their sale: all totally justified as one trip was my Xmas present, and one was for my birthday. You'd think I'd be replete with yarn. But .... no. I am confident we can convert the Mushroom Incident into yarn too ....

My secret birthday present to myself, I bought 800m of this most amazing merino/tencel laceweight in the colorway 'Pumpkin Spice' from the lovely Kirsty at Wharfedale Woolworks; great yarns, great colors, great service. No, it wasn't the first time I've bought from her ....

 

  From our trip to Woodbridge, I managed to snaffle a NDS Dazzling 4ply (55% Blue-Faced Leicester wool, 45% silk) in the colorway 'Apple' from Karen's sale bin; unfortunately the photo on this sunny sunny day does not do it justice - it is a far more lively limey/yellow green.

And oops, look what else accidentally fell into my stash (color chosen by DH) - Schoeller&Stahl Shadow Fortissima Color:

And Franklins in Colchester had Sirdar Softspun DK on sale, so I bought approx 600m of these two colorways, having in mind some kind of end-of-term gift for the kids' teachers:

Faded Jade

Duskie

This was not in the sale, but Mini Diva has requested a shawl in something softer than the Cygnet 4ply I used; so Wendy Happy is a blend of bamboo and acrylic, and was chosen by DH in a blind fondle test as the softest, beating two merino blends:

I am so sorry, I have no more time to sit and chat, there is serious fondling and gloating to be done  ....

Gloating Along

Looking forward to a respite after the daily blogging of 2KCBW ? Expecting me to be burnt out having said all I have to say ? Ha ! I bite my thumb in your general direction - you don't get off that lightly. I always have something to say, as DH knows to his cost ...

Firstly, I want to say thank you to the fabulous Eskimimi for all the stuff she did: concept, organizing, buttons, banners, topics etc for Blog Week. I thoroughly enjoyed it - I have have a good nosy snouty poke round lots of blogs that were new to me, and have added loads to my Google Reader.

I even scored most satisfactorily in a concrete way, which I was not expecting; I 'spect you can hear me gloating all the way from here. On Day 1, Janine was saying on her blog Where The Nodding Violets Grow, that she really disliked the Stylecraft Sirocco yarn in the colorway 'Pineapple' she had; I offered to re-home it ... 2 days later it was on my doorstep:


And to make it fairer, I sent Janine some of my handmade soaps.

And then Susie over at Useless Beauty mentioned as how she didn't like the Malabrigo Lace that she had; I offered to trade for it, as I've never seen it and it's reputation is quite mythical. She didn't quite bite my hand off, but here it is:

It is incredibly soft; the colorway is 'Jewel'.

So I want to thank these two generous ladies for increasing my stash so nicely. Which is not involved in my current project ... it is a Seekret Projekt so here is a Seekret Foto:


The completed section of the Seekret Projeckt:

But looking at it ? It needs ribbons. Trailing thin ones. Attached somewhere, somehow.

Don't forget, you have til midnight Friday to enter my April Fool's contest ....