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.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Can you hear it? It's the sound of the clock, tick-tocking away the seconds until I go see the Yarn Harlot in Charlotte!!! I am so incredibly psyched!!

Remember that mass of wool that I promised would be a bag someday? Well, that day is today!! Well, I actually felted it a couple days ago, but that's not important.
I was a little worried it would turn out really wide and shallow, but It's pretty darn near perfect. I threw it in the wash and hopped on Ravelry, intending to go check on it in about 5 minutes, but you know the hypnotic time-sucking powers of Ravelry, and I completely forgot about it until the end of the wash cycle.
A closeup of the stripes at the botton. Note to self: no more 2-row stripes for felted things.

I finished the waffle rib sock I was working on at Steeplechase, and I'm quite pleased with it.
The waffle rib is incredibly simple; all you do is alternate 2 rows of stockinette and 2 rows of 2x2 rib.
I haven't started the other one yet, it's going to come with me to Charlotte.

After a brief hiatus, I picked up the Forest Path Stole again and finished the lower border and all 5 lower triangles. I found stockinette entrelac quite easy, but seed stitch entrelac can be rather tricky.
I did a lot of spinning this weekend, too (no, that up there is not what I consider "a lot." I've got a whole other single sitting on my swift). This merino is a little tougher to spin than my brown Romney, since it's so slippery. My single keeps breaking, though part of that is the weight of the spindle. I think for yarn this fine and fiber this slippery, I really need a smaller, lighter spindle. Or a wheel, but I'm not getting one of those any time soon.

I am once again forced to face the fact that I live in South Carolina, where it is not uncommon to reach 100 degrees Farenheight in the summer (though on those days, instead of putting on socks, I think I might just lay naked on the floor praying for a lightning strike). I only have one or two pairs of socks with less than 50% wool in them, but this yarn that my mom got me is only 40%. It's Marks & Kattens Clown, 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. The colorway is #1908, and I'm just tickled with the way it's striping and speckling. Sorta rough in the skein, but I reckon it'll soften in the wash.
I threw in a 4-stitch cable on either side of the foot, to make it take longer to knit than my usual stockinette. That's one method of stretching a yarn budget: knit slowly.

I added a couple of squares to the Blankie, but nothing worth taking a picture of.

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

Well we have survived the crazy weather we've had down here in SC and GA this weekend. Saturday night there was a huge storm and a bunch of tornados touched down and did a lot of damage. Our house had zero damage, while many not far from us had trees through their roofs. It's amazing how powerful and how precise wind can be. Gail had a small tornado touch down right next to her house and tore down part of the fence, but didn't even loosen the vinyl siding on the outside walls.

But that's over and done with, moving on to wooly things!

All but one of my awaited packages have arrived, and I've already gotten started on them.
Behold, the wonder that is pure undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. A whole pound of it (with my average-sized spindle thrown in for reference). I actually spread it out on the floor and layed down on it. Well, I was mostly letting it air out, but I really wanted to lay on it.

I started spinning some up for Urchin, a hat from Knitty.com, but I've stalled on that since it turns out that spinning a lumpy yarn on purpose (at least for me) is harder than you'd think. Also, most of my practice yarns have been on the thin side, and I'm not used to letting a lot of fiber in at once. Oh well. Need more practice.

I also got 5 skeins from KnitPicks! The 2 on the right are undyed sock yarn, and the 2 on the left are undyed laceweight.

There's another skein of laceweight that I've already wound up and cast on for the Forest Path Stole. 10 rows of seed stitch take kind of a long time in laceweight.
Last week, Tita and I went to our LYS to cash in our store credit, and I used mine on 7 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine` for Blissful, a halter top from Stitch n Bitch Crochet.

While I was waiting for my packages, I didn't have a whole lot of knitting to do, but one thing I did do was a lot of swatching and experimenting. I decided to knit up the little bit of yarn I spun from the surprise Christmas fiber. I'm really digging the brown/grey/yellow portion, it reminds me of birds. I think I would name a colorway like that "Falcon."

Gail's computer was dead when I went over there today, so I didnt' get my fix of blogs and podcasts. Off to remedy that now!

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!

Los Calcetines Son Finitos

Happy Cinco de Mayo, folks! Here are the cable sox, snuggly warm, very red, and completely finished. They were a very quick knit and put an interesting and fun (if you'll pardon the pun) twist on the basic sock recipe.
As expected, there was still a good deal of red left, so I grabbed the black yarn leftover from My First Sweater and whipped up a pair of birthday socks for my friend Amanda. I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped them, so just imagine some simple socks in red and black stripes.

A lot like these red and black stripes. These are fingerless gloves for another friend who is one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world and, conveniently, has expressed the opinion that fingerless gloves bring her much joy. Horray for Anna and her really awesome gloves! (But don't mention it to her. It's not her birthday yet) Another horray for me for completely winging it and ending up with a neat little mitt recipe, and for discovering that I have some yarn in the perfect color combination to make a pair for myself!
This is a scarfy-wrappy thing for my homeroom teacher, Mrs. M. She had done so much for us and taught us so much beyond schooling that I felt she should be honored with a yarny treat(and a true treat it will be. It's sooooo soft, I think I might need one for myself.

A couple of days ago, I commited an act that many of you may find unspeakably horrific. I threw away yarn. Don't lament so, for it dealt the world no great loss. It was some garish purple acrylic I've had since I learned to knit when I was around 8(that was before they made nice acrylic)

I pulled it out of my big orange hangy thing and stood there for a minute racking my brain for a way to put it to good use. I got nothing. I briefly considered putting it back and waiting for inspiration, but I quickly discarded the idea and chucked the sorry excuse for yarn in the trash. (About an hour later, I was reading blogs and it dawned on me that I could use it to make some squares for a charity blanket, but then decided against it on the grounds that I have plenty of other scrap yarn to knit for charity with, all of which would be easier on the eyes(and hands) of the recepient.) Scorn me if you will, I have no regrets.