Introducing Jesse the Wonder Knitter and her Amazing Expanding Stash!

I have been hopping all over the country lately, and doing a lot of knitting. I've also been listening to a lot of podcasts, and knitting while doing that. The Blankie of Wonder and Magic had become my official zoning-out-watching-tv-or-listening-to-limenviolet project, and it shows!
I had to stand on a deck chair to get the whole width in the frame. It's quite wide. I was a little worried back when I first joined up the base row of squares and saw how much it stretched, but I've gotten over that. I want this to be about as large as a twin bed blanket.

I took the Forest Path Stole on both of my big trips, and got a lot of work done on it.
Last time you saw it all I had was the bottom triangles! I must confess that I didn't make all of this progress on my trips, but still the majority of it. I'm going to the beach next week and that would be a wonderful opportunity for some more progress, but I already have my projects planned out. One of those projects is this,
the Seascape Stole from the spring Knitty. The pattern calls for laceweight yarn, but you know how I like to buck the system. I'm using sport weight, Louet Gems in colorway Carribean Blue to be exact. It's perfect for my mom. She loves all things beachy.

I didn't buy any yarn on my Vermont trip, but I did buy this roving. It's 4 oz. of Louet Gems merino/silk, and the color is even more gorgeous in person. I'm going to be spinning this up and selling it on Etsy, because as much as I would love to have this yarn, I want a spinning wheel more.

It is kinda hard being spindle-dependent, but I can make some pretty neat things:

Roving from http://shunklies.etsy.com, colorway Monsters Inc., with some hot pink from another batch of her roving, Raspberry Soda.

The absolute most awesome thing I did in Vermont was to have a private spinning lesson from a friend of a friend who sells her handspun at a local market. I already knew most of the process in theory, so it was just a matter of getting my hands and feet to work together to make it happen. The spinning wheel I used is the exact kind I'm saving for, an Ashford Traveller. It was everything I'd hoped for, though I've decided to get a double-treadle instead of single, which was rather hard to get going and keep going.

Behold, aroundabout 25 yards of 2-ply, shetland/mohair goodness! I'm so happy with this yarn.

I'm really sensetive to fibers on my neck. Even a baby alpaca which feel soft to the hand will prickle and itch a bit on my neck. The only fiber I've found that never does that is angora, which happens to be quite expensive. Mohair sometimes works, but it's really a crapshoot. This yarn? A cloud. Not a single itch. Not one. Sooo happy.

What we have here is a skein of handpainted sock yarn that Tita brought me from Alaska, where she and Mom went while me and the Small Ones went to Washington with our dad.

It's really soft and though I'm not much of a pastel girl, I really like this yarn.

Compared to most knitters, I have a tiny stash. And not by choice, it's just that I have very little money to work with. I make pretty good money at my job, but 90% of that is going into my life savings. The other 10% is going into my spinning wheel fund. That leaves only my $10 per week allowance for all my personal stuff that my mom won't buy. In truth almost all of what I buy is yarn, but still.

I am pleased to say that I am finally starting to acquire a nice little stash, which is divided into 5 main categories:

1: Handspun. Very fulfilling but a rather slow means of stash enhancement.

2: Sock yarn. Doesn't take as long to get but I use this up much faster.

3: Sock yarn leftovers. These are all going to the Blankie of Wonder and Magic.

4: Crap. Stuff that I bought before I developed some taste, that I know I'm never going to use but just never get around to throwing away.

5: Other stuff. Non-sock leftovers, a few balls with a project already attatched, and 6 skeins of undyed wool.

I don't think I'll run out of yarn any time soon, but still, it's nice to have a backup plan.

Things Do Pile Up

How much stuff does a family of five need to survive for a week in a rented house?
This much.
And this much. That there's 2 suitcases with all our clothes and all the rest is food and beach chairs and stuff. Can you find the knitting in this picture? No? Good. The knitting is behind the seat. I see come crochet, though.
And how much lovebug guttage does one SUV acquire after 7 hours of driving through the American Southeast?
A whole lot. This was the front of the car AFTER I scraped off the worst of it.(Just imagine how bad it would have been if we had driven the whole 11 hours without scraping.)
The beach was worth it, however. These were the clouds on the first evening. I thought they looked kind of menacing, but still cool.

The sunsets along made up for most of the bug guts.
We were virtually alone on the beach the whole week. The only people we could see were way down the beach and not many people walked by. That's just the way I like my beaches.
That's my feet and my crude drawing of a flipflop.
My foot and a monster foot.

This is the drip towel on the floor of the bathroom. I just had to take a picture of it because I think the design would look great as fair isle around the edge of a square skirt and I knew I would never remember it otherwise.

Contrary to popular belief, I have been knitting. I just haven't been able to post about it. So I now present: A List of Stuff I've Been Knitting in a More or Less Chronological Order According to Cast-On Date
A stocking cap knit from the leftovers from my Log Cabin Blanket. I did all of this on my school trip.
A halter top of my own design(translation: making it up as I go). I don't have a lot to say about this except that it's a lot bigger than it looks. I'm having some mixed feelings about it and I'm not sure I'm going to continue.
"Dashing" from Knitty.com. I had fun with these. They were very quick to knit, really cool looking, and will keep me snuggly warm when the cold comes back.(Did I mention that I'm kind of in denial? I continue to knit wintery stuff, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I live in South Carolina and it's the beginning of June. Anybody know a good summery knit?)

"Kate" from Knitty, just finished half an hour ago. It's the power of the blog! I was about to post, but I just couldn't post when I had a project that just needed sewing up. Thing 1 loves her.
Unfinished "Cozy Wrap" again from Knitty. I love this wrap so much! I can't wait to finish it. Yeah, summer, I know. But it's lace(MY FIRST LACE!) so it (hopefully) won't be sweltering. And there's always chilly restaurants and evenings and such.
This is a shawl/scarf(more scarf really) that I whipped up from some fuzzy laceweight and a US 15 circular needle. I'm not sure if this is wintery of not, but I refuse to feel bad about it. I love it.
This is a hat for Thing 2 made from the rest of the scraps. Yeah, I know it's kinda pointy. He doesn't care.

I changed my blog settings so that anybody can comment, blogger or not. If that's why you haven't been commenting, don't hold back. I really appreciate your input. Peace out!