The Thrifty Knitter

Whee! Spring 2008 Registration is officially open! Yee Haw!

(Whew! I had a little WordPress meltdown, but it looks like we’re all sorted now, hurrah!)

I’ve realized my fiber stash is just too crazy to tally. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s not in discrete, compact, easily weighed and tallied parcels like yarn. There are a million sundry bags, balls, batts, containers, bumps, locks, odds and ends–and all too bulky to easily weight on my little food scale. So instead I’m going to just make up a random number to commit to destashing and just track my progress that way. So what’s the number?

How about 100# eliminated outright, and another 10# spun into yarn. Considering Yarn School, that should be an easy goal. Not that the bulk of my stash is suited to the main Yarn School supply closet (we do a ton of dyeing, so the lion’s share of what we need is undyed top), but anything white I haven’t dyed yet can go into that kitty, and I can put plenty more in the goodie bags & of course the bins for blending into batts.

Speaking of Yarn School, Spring 2008 registration opens Monday! Yay!

I’m taking a class on Business Math. I’m not exactly a natural at math, so my compulsion to procrastinate has really been fueled. I’ve also got ants in my pants to finish a sweater a la my uberlist, and with my 2 in progress being question marks, I started a third. But afterwards, I realized that was imprudent. I have too much on the needles to be starting new stuff, and we’ve still got 10 more January days to receive either my needles for the striped sweater or the yarn for my Skinny Cat Sweater. But my common sense didn’t kick in until I was fairly far along.

It’s 1 ball of Mermaid Hair from Spincycle Yarns, my favorite hand-spinnery (and which will be my very first purchase when I’ve destashed my quota), which is a divine merino/kid mohair conconction, very soft, & 4 balls Carioca, a light single aplaca/wool/acrylic blend. It’s another Faux Fair Isle from Spin to Knit, this one made fairly small, but not tailored, and with garter edging. The sleeve took a little less than one ball, and torso so far took a ball, so I’m hoping that with the extra ball and the little leftovers from both sleeves, I’ll get a suitable length. If not, I’ll steek it and make a cardigan, which I might do anyway. I prefer the look of cardigans, but practically, I’m more of a pullover gal.

It’s working up FAST on 9s. I added one extra stitch for every 7 when I switched back to the Carioca, to compensate for the fatter gauge from the thick parts of the thick and thin. Hm. I think I should try it on and make sure it fits before I continue. Usually I try it on before splitting the sleeves, but for some reason, I only held it up. (Some reason? Like it’s a mystery. Laziness is the reason.)

After this, seriously, nothing new until I finish 3 WIP.

I’m playing the waiting game to see which sweater will win the January title. When I learned Vera had more yarn for me, I went ahead and knitted out the rest of the yarn I had on the body, so right now, Skinny Cat is ahead by half sleeves. But I’m waiting on confirmation/shipping to pay, which means the yarn I need to finish it isn’t on the way yet. And I’m waiting on some 16″ US8 circulars to start the sleeves on the stripey. Those may or may not yet be on the way. I got an email from Knit Picks a few days ago, saying my order had shipped, but listing the date of shipment as 1/18 (Friday), and I couldn’t get a definitive answer from customer service. I’m slow on dpns & magic loop, and I don’t want to continue the body until the sleeves are done and I know just how much yarn I’ve got. I only  have 3 of my 8 balls left, and I’m hoping each sleeve will only take a ball, but I’m not taking any chances.

Either way, finishing a sweater for February will be a snap.

So my biggest knitting project this year is making a scarf long enough to wrap around the whole building. I haven’t measured, but I’m guesstimating that’s about 500 600 feet or so, which means an average of 16.5 (gulp) 20 inches a day.

It will be continuously handknit in one piece (no seaming), but other people can help, as long as they’re knitting on it directly. I used a provisional cast-on in hopes of getting a little double-ended relay knitting going during Yarn School to up my averages.

So far, I’ve knit about 14.5 feet. I’ve actually knit about 3 more feet than that, but I frogged it early on, because I decided I wanted to alternate between two strands (2 rows of of each color at a time) instead of making consecutive solid blocks to make the color & gauge transitions softer. I decided not to worry about variations in width caused by gauge variations. I’m trying to keep at a chunky gauge, but the work pulls in and spreads out as the yarn changes. In the first week, I increased and decreased to adjust, but it became a little ridiculous, so I abandoned that plan when I frogged and started over. The fibers so far have been mostly wool, and all ends are spliced (spit for wool, Russian for other fibers), so when it’s done, it will be done.

I’m going to photograph the progress every couple weeks. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

Just got a sample from Vera & it looks like the right yarn! Yay! I’m getting 5 more ounces. If I had known, I might’ve made the sweater a little looser. I think I’ll try it on again and decide. I keep clinging to this delusion I’m going to take the extra weight off so tight sweaters will look good on me again.

Sigh.

I did start going to Weight Watchers again, but somehow the going to the meetings thing hasn’t transitioned into the eating better thing. Well, I’m eating a little better, but only a little. I need to get my fat ass exercising. It’s easier to eat well when  you’re feeling all peppy and fit.

Sigh.

Back to work.

P.S. Cuckoo for Cuckoobatts Club selections will ship Thursday. There’s a meeting here tonight, so I can’t finish up my batch of batts until tomorrow.  I’m also going to take my official 2008 fiber tally. I have to spin/sell 30% of my fiber stash before I can get more fiber. Oh! And I need to open registration for Spring Yarn School! Hopefully that will happen tomorrow, too.

Starting yarn weight, as of 1/1/2008 (I included UFO started this year): 102 kilos of yarn.

I think I’ve counted every last little bit, including the many massive cones I bought at Webs’ cone sale last year, and handspun on the bobbins. The only place I didn’t venture was my really packed bedroom closet, which may have a few random balls.

To destash 40%, I’ll need to eliminate 41 kilos of yarn, which equals 820 regular balls of yarn, before I get any more. Holy shit. It looks like I have a lot of dyeing, selling, and machine knitting ahead of me.The only exception I get is more Vera V. yarn to finish my Skinny Cat sweater. And of course, I can spin new yarn. That’s the only real loophole. I’ll be tallying my fiber stash next week and we’ll see how numbing that will be. I’ll be tallying my progress here, and I’m set to join the Stashalong again in February.

Good gravy. That is so much yarn.Well, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

It seems I have a problem.

Anyone interested in joining our little spinning club out in the country, please RSVP. We’ll be meeting at The Harveyville Project (aka my home) from 1 – 6 for spinning fun! (about 2 hrs from KC, 1 hr from Lawrence)

If you want to bring 4oz of something colorful, we can divvy it up and make matching layered batts for everyone & see what different spinning results we get.

Bring a snack or drink to share if you like. I’ll make coffee and a little something & if Cathy comes, there’s sure to be way too much chocolate.

Both wheels and spindles are welcome. And we do have extra wheels (nothing fancy) if you don’t want to drag yours along.

Last week, I finally finished & shipped Shannon the item I designed for her upcoming alt fiber book. Here’s a shot of it before washing & blocking. I doubt I’m allowed to show real pictures of it (and besides, I forgot to photograph the FO before shipping), but it’s awfully cute!

Knitting linen kind of sucks, but the fabric it makes is really nice & only improves with washing/wear.

The finished garment was different than I originally envisioned, but I think this version is actually a lot more flexible. I know I’d get more use out of it how it turned out, which is important, because it was such a bitch to knit. I might rework the pattern more like my original sketch, but I won’t be showing it until after the book comes out. And I probably won’t do that version in linen, because it’s so much work. Except that linen really suits the design. But then, I don’t have any linen on hand, and I’m only stash knitting. I do have the brown/black marled cotton I used for Kelly Sue’s nursing shawl, but who knows how many strands of that I’d need to get worsted (though this seemed more dk than worsted to me).

Anyway, it’s a moot question, because I’ve got other fish to fry.

Here’s one of them. Unless the yarn Vera just made is the right stuff (in which case, I’ll finish my Skinny Cat sweater instead & leave this for February), this will be my January sweater:

I wanted a hoodie, but I just don’t think I’ve got the yarn for it. This is 4 balls so far. I figure I’ll need at least one more for the torso, and the sleeves will eat up at least one apiece, maybe more. And even if I could keep them to just one, I think I hood would require more than just one ball. Maybe I should start the sleeves and if it looks like I might get close, I could do the sleeve cuffs and bottom hem in another yarn, which might leave me enough for a hood. I thought about doing the hood & cuffs in a different yarn, but I decided that would look weird with all the stripes (though it would be cute with solids…). But if it’s just edging in a different yarn, that might be fine. I have a few heathery gray wools that would probably work.

Or maybe I should skip it and make the next one a hoodie. It’s just the stripes are so sporty, I thought a hoodie would be nice.

The other question mark is the sleeves. I’ve been using all the balls in the same direction and joining at corresponding colors, but so far the patterning has been different.

I’d buy more and do it right, but I’m not allowed yet. And, honestly, I don’t want to. My stash is a clusterfuck. I feel like it’s mocking me.

So the sweater-a-month thing is from my uberlist. In other uberlist news, I’ve frogged one old UFO in which I’ve lost interest. Yay! I need to make the master list of all of them & make that my next January craft priority. Oh! Maybe that will be my reward for a productive week, frogging/photographing/cataloging all my UFOs. What kind of craftnerd am I that makes that task a reward? Sheesh.