a tale of two yarns

i heard so much about the beauty and magic of mmmmmalabrigo, and it wasn't until last year that i discovered how much i love this yarn.


in hummingbird...

in stonechat...

and i just had to have ravelry red.

this is a sample of the mal i own.  i hoarded it until i wanted to knit faraway, so close and my first pair of mittens...and was delighted to find that i had all i needed in my stash.  i love stash!

my mal is all worsted weight.  someday i would love to try fingering weight mal.  if my shawl feels wonderful, can you imagine a pair of socks knit in mal?  scrumptious.


but for each yarn i adore, there's a yarn out there i can't stand.  hello, mohair!!!



i tried.  i really did.  i tried to knit belinda.  i remember how carefully i picked the yarns for the shawl (discovering they were the same colors used by the mason dixon ladies!).  i remember how i marked off the pattern with stitch markers so i could easily track my stitch count.  perhaps it was the pattern and not the yarn.  but i loathed using this yarn.  it was sticky and fussy and it was an absolute bitch to rip out.  not to mention, its fuzziness made my nose itchy and i sneezed a lot.

after languishing in my knit basket for almost a year, i took a breath, sighed, and frogged belinda.  i probably lost a couple yards of yarn, but i somehow managed to salvage the yarn.

i don't know what to do with it.  i suppose i could use it with another yarn as an embellishment or edging.  i think i'll probably put it on the destash list, for someone else dreaming of belinda or another equally airy shawl.  

primetime knitting

i'm discovering, with twins and a big kid, that my knitting time is at a precious premium.

long gone are the times when i used to knit while the boy played with his thomas cars, listening to blue's clues.  my weekly monday night knit nights at the library are sadly becoming few and far between.  with two very active kiddos, i'm lucky if i pick up my sticks at all.

i try to carve out time in the evenings, while watching my favorite shows.  quite often i'm asking hubby what's going on with the story becos i focus on my knitting.  i enjoy knitting while they nap;  unfortunately their naps are shrinking and more often than not, i'm catching up on chores, reading, and, what i like most, napping myself.  very rarely do i knit when the kiddos are awake.  if i do, i'm knitting on something that is mindless like a simple hat or sock.  but i quickly learned that it's best to not knit when they're awake, since i'm forever chasing the kiddos away from drawers, gates and other attractions, and nothing is more frustrating than losing my spot (and concentration) in my knitting.

hubby reminds me to bide my time - eventually the kiddos will grow up.  too soon, they will be playing by themselves and needing me less.  next year the kiddos will be in preschool, and i'll gain an extra 2 hours of prime knit time (and quiet in the house!)  in three years, they will be in school all day, and i'll be all by my lonesome.  with my yarn.  if i'm not back to work by then.

for now, i simply snitch knit time from here and there.  i work on a sock while waiting at the doctor's.  i work a row or two before choir practice.  and i relish prime drive time, when hubby's driving and i'm riding shotgun with my needles.  my precious few minutes of knitting is so much better than no time to knit all all.  

where are they now?

this is what happens after a 3 month old yarn bombing:



the jil eaton and the valley yarns faded a bit...





apparently snow, rain, sun and cold have no affect on fun fur or bobble yarn.

un*chart*ered waters

i joined a KAL in one of my ravelry groups.  a woman in the group designed a shawlette in memory of her daughter, whom she lost early in pregnancy.  the shawlette was designed in conjunction of glimpse, 3IG's limited edition colorway.


clara has a charted pattern on its edge.  outside of my february PSOTMC charted heart socks, i've never followed a charted lace pattern.  i'm pretty excited about it - i'm also scared too!  it's time i learned to follow a chart.  especially if i want to knit lace.


i'm knitting with dream in color smooshy in pansy golightly.  so far i worked about half of the garter stitch portion:





once i finish knitting for my cousin, who's expecting a baby late spring, i will devote more time to clara. hopefully by then the kiddos won't be as needy.  

the day the knitting died

after much consideration, i've decided to quit knitting.

after looking at our finances, and knowing that i am responsible for much of the debt (my rich taste in yarns and needles and the dozens of books that i don't even use) i've decided to liquidate my entire stash, books and needle supply.  

i will try to be fair with my pricing.  i wind my yarn into cakes but will match up labels from my yarn books, so all information is available.  i take good care of my things, and since our home is smoke/pet free, it is clean as well.  my needles are fair game (prefer to sell my signature DPNs and KP harmony interchangeables as whole sets, see me about pricing), as are my gadgets, books and bags (except my swift bag.  i plan to use that for when we travel.  it'll hold lots of diapers and sippy cups.)

i also have a couple of UFOs that i will sell super cheap.  maybe they will give you more inspiration than they did to me, or you can recycle the yarn and use it as you will.  

what doesn't sell, i will donate to my local senior's center.

as for my blog, i probably will quit that as well.  since this was primarily a knitting blog, why bother?

you can view my stash at my rav stash page - if interested, please contact me either through ravelry or by leaving a comment here.  

i love knitting, but i love my family more.  we really need the money.  thanks for following me on my knitting journey.  it's been a blast!

btw...HAPPY FOOL'S DAY!!!!!!!!

relishin' the embellishin'

i'm pretty simple when it comes to my knitting.  i prefer the colorway of the yarn or the pattern to speak for the knit.  i occasionally like to add a bit of zip to my knits - it's that little somethin' somethin' that makes a knit super special.



i duplicate stitched this snowflake on the backs of my kick ass red mitties...





and i bought several packs of buttons before settling on these for my pinch hat...nothing but the best for my knits!

i have loads of buttons, just waiting for their day to shine on one of my knits...
cool glass buttons:

i got these buttons becos i was dreaming of baby knits...guess they'll have to be for someone else's baby, becos i mine grew up too quickly...

other than the scarab and the pearl,  these and the above buttons i got at rosie's yarn cellar...


i got these pearls at knitters underground many years ago...still don't know what to do with them...



i got these beads at ellacinders.  i'm going to use them as "buttons" for a pair of french press knitted slippers.


i got these buttons at a little shop in jim thorpe:


and that's not including jars of buttons in my craft room.

it's fun adding an embellishment - it makes an already special knit extra extra special!

lowering standards

i used to be anal retentive about organizing my knitting.  i learned over the winter how my standards have dropped.  and oh, have they ever.  


much of my stash is still mostly organized.  i have my large hamper full of sweater bags of yarn sorted by color.  





a few months ago i tidied up the boxes and bags that contain my sock yarn.  







my picnic bins could be desired, tho.  they seem to be the depository for recent acquisitions, as has the wire bins by my craft desk.  those yarns are actually sorted by event (KDO, xmas, PSOTMC, etc.).  





i used to log my new yarns in my yarn journals (i started my second moleskine 2 years ago).  a few weeks back i spent a half hour taping yarn labels and noting when and where i purchased the yarn.  some of the yarns dated before the kiddos were born (we're talking over 2 years).  i didn't add my usual snip of a sample of yarn, so i pray when i go to use the yarns, i'll know what it is.  i'm also discovering that instead of pasting the label in the book, that i stick the label inside the cake after i wind it.  that's not a bad thing, becos then i know what the yarn is instead of digging through my book.


speaking of which, i rarely wind my yarn into cakes anymore.  never mind that i got a new swift for xmas!  i guess i thought hanks took up less room in the sweater bags than cakes, and more often than not, i'm not using the yarn right away anyway.  so you'll find many of my yarns from KDO and christkindl market still wound in hanks.


i try to keep up with my new yarns and projects on ravelry.  isn't that a great tool for organization?!  but i've gotten behind on that too.  i miss the days when i could photograph my progress on a WIP on a regular basis.  


as usual, being busy with my children is the reason why i haven't been as anal retentive about my stash and WIPs.  but kids grow up, and when that happens, i'll have more time to devote to my stash.

there's always something new to learn

i recently celebrated my fifth anniversary of knitting.  even tho i've been knitting for a while, i'm always looking for a new skill to learn.  last year i conquered a few knitting fears:  lace shawls, mittens and a sweater.

i knitted two shawls last year:  multnomah (aka it takes balls to be a butterfly):







and faraway, so close:




i started my third shawl, clara.  clara is currently in the testing stages - she was designed by a member of HAPL in memory of her daughter.  proceeds from the sale of clara will be donated to the march of dimes.  clara is the first shawl i'm knitting that uses a chart.  i've gotten a lot of encouragement from other knitters to try charts.




i'm still working on the garter portion of the shawl - i've been busy cranking on my log cabin baby blanket and march socks - but i'm okay with that.  clara's still has a few bugs, so i'm banking on by the time i'm ready for the charts, the bugs will be ironed out.

clara is also my first dip into the testing pool.  well, others are deeper in the pool than i am.  but it's still pretty exciting!



last year i also knitted mittens.  for a long time, i was afraid to knit mittens becos the thumb gusset intimidated me.  i got over that fear pretty quickly and for a while i cranked out the mitties.  this pair kicked off my new obsession:




my mmmmalabrigo mitties:




the kick ass red mitties that went to the boy's teacher:




my kick ass red mitties:




this mitten got frogged:



in a few days you'll find out why this mitten got frogged!


lastly, i got over my sweater fear and knitted a baby sweater for my cousin:




not only did i knit a sweater, but also sewed a zipper into it.  w00t!  i want to knit two more sweaters for the kiddos, becos they are quickly outgrowing the ones they have now.  where to find the time to do it...


there's still a lot for me to learn.  in a few months the KDO catalog will be out and i'll pick classes for new skills to learn (rumor has it there will be a drop spindle class - that's probably my biggest goal of all, to learn to spin...)


no matter how long a knitter knits, there's always something new to learn...

I found the mittens!

a while back i blogged about these the fabu knits  that ally wore on a few episodes of ally mcbeal.  blue christmas and out in the cold reran this week, so i was able to get shots of the white embroidered mittens that intrigued me.

first off, i think the mittens are actually felted.  either that, or they are knitted with a chunky yarn at a tighter gauge.  my bet is that they were knitted with a chunky yarn and then felted.  there appears to be some stitch definition, which makes sense becos it's hard to felt white and cream yarns.

secondly, the mittens aren't embroidered like i first thought.  i think they are crewelwork.

a decent close up of the ally's mittens.  i've never done crewelwork, so i guess i'll have to learn:

another view:

the thumb of ally's mitten.  i totally missed this the first time around! (plus a slice of her garter oatmeal scarf):




this shows a close up of the cuff.  i think the cuff has one row of red, not a couple rows like i thought.  and i had no idear there was a flower embroidered on it i tried to get a shot of the mitten cuff, and there's red on the edge, either a row of red knitting or else it's whipstitch.  so pretty:





not a knit, but i liked elaine's furball scarf:




upon seeing my mittens again, i promptly frogged the mitten i started a couple months ago.  the alpaca yarn will be used for something else.  i have tons of cream colored yarn to play around with, or perhaps i'll see if i can find a cream colored wool sweater at goodwill or salval to felt and cut out mittens.  at any rate, it'll give me a good project to experiment with!

the weather is getting warmer.  my mitten mojo is winding down.  until next fall...

as always, my apologizes for such fuzzy pictures.  it's hard to get shots on "live" tv and when i paused scenes, naturally the pause bar was in front of what i wanted to photograph!  also, the show wasn't taped in HD, lending more fuzziness to the picture.