Cold Sheeping: The Halfway Point

Look at me blogging THREE times in one year.  Oh how times have changed.  I'm more on Rav and Instagram these days but I will keep my blog going.

I'm loving cold sheeping.  It's a challenge sometimes but overall I'm enjoying the challenge. 

Must admit that a friend gifted me some yarn during a stash cleanse. This included some super spiff yarn.  I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to knit with this fabu yarn.

Other then a few patterns I've spent very little on knitting so far this year.  My stash has provided yarn, entertainment and an opportunity to use what I have.

I plan on continuing the cold sheep until further notice.

Stuff I want to Knit

Look at me blogging!

Spent some quality time with my Ravelry Queue a few days ago. Trimmed it up a bit and reorganized the order. I'm down to 46 possible projects that I'd like to knit at some point.

I took a few notes while I was working on my queue. This is a little early for a New Year knitting resolution list, it's more of a "What I'd like to work on next" open ended type list.

Mosaic Knitting. It looks so cool and complex but you use only one color at a time. Barbra Walker is calling.

I'm following the Walker Treasury Project blog. Now to get the books for my knitting library.

Illusion Knitting. I hear it's simple but I have not tried it yet. It looks fun. The Dalek Dishcloth and the Harry Potter banner are calling to me.

I'd like to keep knitting more socks. Really enjoying the socks. I have a (gasp) decent amount of sock yarn at the moment.

I'd like to try out some new to me yarn. The Cedar Leaf Shawlette is an excellent excuse to buy some Koiju.

Kidsilk Haze is calling. I actually like mohair and would like to work with it at some point.

More lace, I have a decent stash of lace yarn. More shawls please.

Shawl pin. Now to find a cool shawl pin.

Have not knitted a Hedgie in some time. I'm thinking it's Hedgie time soon. Time to try felting in the new front loader.

Allison and I are going to see Lady Gaga in March. I'm thinking I need to knit Louisa to wear for the concert. Or maybe Jordan.

Did I mention Malabrigo? There will be some more Malabrigo in there somewhere.

Otherwise I have a decent little stash. I'm going to keep knitting from stash as much as possible. In the meantime I'm plugging away at Dave's Petrol vest. It's not exciting, but I'm enjoying the knit. I've split for the armholes and am currently working on the back section. I'm thinking lace next. Something a bit more focused. Maybe it's time to go to two projects at a time. One focused and one simple. Hmmm.

I mentioned Malabrigo right? Elysium looks so darn yummy. Wait I did not mention Noro, more Noro.... :-)

Olympic Knitting and Whatnot.

My Noro Shoulder Holder that I started two days before the Olympics started. I was hoping to finish it right before the Olympics but did not quite make it, but had so much fun with this. I had 6 skeins to work with to get the stripes working. The stripes were a mix of luck, knots and yarn wrangling.

Knitting Olympics Cast On Party!!!!!!! Kim was a lovely and gracious hostess for our fab cast on party.

The Baby Yoda Hat for Baby E. I knit this the first weekend of the Knitting Olympics. The shower was the following Saturday and I had to take time out to knit this. The Dad to Be is a HUGE Star Wars fan, he has the Tauntaun sleeping bag. So fun. I hear the hat was a huge hit at the shower. I have one more to knit up for another Star Wars happy Dad to Be. Love the baby wave.

Olympic knitting the first of two Winter Twilight Mitts. I'm learning two color weaving mostly from help from Kim and from this video. It's a bit snug but I'm learning a new technique. I'm to the increases on the second mitt.

Check out my stash. This is it. Brooklyn Tweed's recent post on stash inspired me to post a current picture. I have a mix of LOVE yarn, nice yarn and I'll work through it yarn. I love my stash.

Toss the Stash

I tossed my stash over the weekend. I even got out the Grandma J. stash, nearly all of it, there is one unphotographed box of wool.

Top left and working to the right we have a bag of random acrylic that eventually went into the big bag of random acrylic. A bag of Patons Grace that was for Reid that crashed and burned, twice. I'm now thinking a top down raglan for E with an 'E' on the front, but done top down to measurements. Random Sock yarn bits that I'm saving for a random sock yarn pit project. I love this little bag of sock yarn. Opal HP sock yarn in Tonks, I love this skein of yarn, it will be cool socks someday. Top row right, Noro, oh yeah, leggings for E and a little sweater for her or a bolero for me, not sure.

Middle section on the left, the big a** bag of random acrylic. I'm thinking acrylic Lizard Ridge this year. Grey, blue and pink for the EPIC FAIL K-9 project. I found a knitter on Rav who has knitted a small scale K-9 that would be so cool. So the yarn waits. Directly below K-9 yarn is the bag of random fun fur bits. I totally want to do a Rainbow Pride Hedgie of All Colors for All peoples at some point, so I save my fun fur. The next bit over from top to bottom a skein of Knit Picks Gossamer, for a shawl, the Purple Malabrigo Sock yarn that makes me so incredibly happy and will be a kick a** pair of socks. A random bag of incredibly random scraps that I can't bring myself to throw out. Some random mohair/acrylic fuzzy stuff, A ball of mohair mix that I got for Grandma J and she did not use in her scarf. A bag of random bits of my super yummy yarn, aka the Yarn Snob bag, with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia, some Manos, Malabrigo, Rowan Calmer and some Lamb's Pride bulky. On the right in the middle two bags of Knit Picks quarry and some other fuzzy yarn. I'm thinking either art piece or slippers or something.

Bottom row from the left the random cotton, cotton ease bag. Lots of cotton. Followed by the 'Red' Bag of yarn. Lots of red yarn, some feltable some novelty some just random. Not sure how I amassed so much red. Next is a bag of feltable wool. This stash section is too small. I need wool for Hedgies. Finally a bag of random non feltable yarn, mostly leftovers from Unoriginal hats for last Christmas.

Mostly Grandma J stash. There was more random bits that are not pictured that I combined with the other random bit bag. Top left lots of green mohair and acrylic. We are talking probably 20+ year old yarn. Top right some very fun summer tweed. I remember Grandma J making a sweater out of this, it was a wrap of some sort. Bottom left more random mystery acrylic/mohair that I wound in multiple strands for some now unknown reason and will have to be knitted like this because unwinding it would not be fun. A bag of Tiffany wool, it's nobbly and fun and I want to knit something cool. Finally a bag of random Wool Ease in multiple colors from Ruth's yarn stash.

This is an unfinished Grandma J throw that's been sitting in my stash for at least 10 to 15 years. The colors are super dated, but it's Classic Janette blanket knitting. She would pick out yarn and just sort of go, the pattern would evolve and repeat as she knitted. It was organic and textural and just so cool. There is no way I could continue the pattern even with the yarn. I'm thinking of binding off as is and tucking in the ends. It's a lovely little square as it is. It's super soft and just makes me happy.

That's pretty much the state of the stash. There are also two sets of two Swish worsted for Dad Hats. I have a few other projects in mind that would require buying some more wool, but we shall see. I have some good stuff to work with. Part of the fun is figuring out what to do with what you have.

Stash Enhancement

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Did a bit of stash enhancement today. E had a birthday party this evening at the local Glow Putt, oh it was dark and a bit trippy. We both had fun. We went to Michael's to get a gift before the party. The Paton's Stretch Socks and Kroy Stripes were on sale. Score.

This sock yarn reminds me that I did not mention the Opal HP sock yarn I bought from a fellow Knit Kniter. It's beautiful yarn, I'm so excited. The ball bands are in German. So fun.

Dave and I went to his work Holiday party last night. It was fun, Grandma and Aunt Sandy came to visit and watch the kids, thank you! It was nice to get out of the house by ourselves without the kids.

Yarn Cake?

Unlike the cake in Portal, which is all a LIE, we had not one but two kinds of cake today.

Huzzah I have a Swift and Ball Winder! (Karen does swift and ball winder happy dance.) I've been wanting a set for ages. Dad gave me a bit of $ for Christmas so I went ahead and ordered a set.

It's so fun to wind yarn cakes. E wound two today and H was fascinated, kept holding his hand up near the ball winder.

Alas I've been fighting a monster headache all day today. Ick. Grumpy. Only 6 yarn cakes were wound today. I keep thinking about what to wind next. Suddenly my stash is a no longer just a stash but a stash of potential yarn cakes.

The desire to wind burns.

No major knitting to report. Must get to bed early to help fight this headache.

The Needle Stash

I've been meaning to post a few pictures of my Grandma Janette enhanced needle stash. I inherited a large number of straight needles from Grandma J and my Mother. I'm not a big fan of straight needles so they serve more as form then function. As you can see in the picture above I like Inox circs. Most were purchased for hats. I'd like to try out the giant plastic 1970's plastic needles, maybe with some fun thick and thin handspun art yarn.


Grandma J also gave me a number of circs. She seemed to prefer plastic and metal circs.


Lest you think my stash is all neat and tidy I give you a glimpse in to the knitting tool box of doom. It's filled with Mom's, Grandma J's and my various knitting and crochet things that don't really get used all that often but I can't bear to part with at this time.

I think I see my old latch hook tool over on the right. Oh that brings back memories.

I suppose if I were really motivated I would catalog each and every needle. I could create a needle database and storage system. That would be cool but I don't see that happening right now.

In the meantime I started a Charmed Knits House Hat for Allison last night. She does not know about this, it's a surprise. It's a delightful little knit, even if I'm working in Red Heart.